today on from his heart pastor Jeff Shareef continues his practical new series called it's not easy being me with a revealing lesson that Pierce deeply into the innermost parts of our hearts and minds to help us fight the battle within [Music] [Music] a great time of worship have your Bible please turn to Romans chapter 8 we've been in a series the last several weeks entitled it's not easy being me and we've been talking about some of the struggles that we have with ourselves and today we want to talk about the battle within was reading this week testimony of a man who was just a rotten guy he was just a terrible guy he he hated Christianity and he hated Christians and he was violent and he was angry but the Lord was working in this guy's heart as the testimony goes and and this guy had an experience that totally changed everything for him and he put his faith in trust in Jesus Christ he realized that Jesus really was the one he said he was he really did die on the cross and rise again from the dead and this man put his faith and trust in Christ and everything changed it was as if he was singing that song I saw the light I saw the light no more darkness no more night now I'm so happy no sorrow in sight praise the Lord I saw the light that was kind of his testimony and he was so euphoric in his salvation and many of you know what I'm talking about because you know becoming a Christian is kind of like getting married there has to come a point in time where you say I do and when you say I do then comes the honeymoon and you're so excited about the honeymoon but then after the honeymoon after the wedding after the honeymoon comes real life and some of the euphoria starts to settle down and you can't live off of feelings you have to live off of commitment well this guy in his relationship with the Lord the euphoria kind of settled down and he started to realize that hey I'm still struggling here in my Christian life I I still have a struggle with with sin and and he didn't really understand it and he was saying you know I I really want to do good things but man I find myself not doing the good things that I want to do and I don't want to do bad things I don't want to displease God but man I find myself doing those things that I don't want to do this man's name was Paul the great apostle and in Romans chapter 6 he lays out the fact that he's been crucified his old self his old nature has been crucified with Christ and he has a new life in Jesus Christ he died with him he was buried with him but he was raised to walk in newness of life and and that is true and sin is no longer his master but then he says in Romans chapter 7 but I'm still struggling I have this struggle with the the call to my old way of life and he ends up by saying wretched man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death can anyone relate to the Apostle Paul anybody in here say hey I've had that experience where I want to do good but I end up not doing good and I don't want to fall into sin but I end up falling into sin and I just feel so wretched so miserable and it's like what is happening well that's what we want to talk about today the battle with in I am convinced that unless we as Christians understand about the battle within and understand how it works and understand how we have victory will just continue to live in Romans chapter 7 wanting to do good but failing and falling and saying wretched man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death and we'll never get into Romans chapter 8 which is the power of the Holy Spirit so I want to share with you two key truths today they're very simple but they're very profound and they're very foundational and listen if you are one whose testimony is just like Paul's in Romans chapter 7 you say man Jeff I'm trying but I keep failing I keep failing and I keep failing and it's the same sin over and over and over and over again and I do good for a few days or a few weeks but then I fall into the same sin same sin same sin I can't seem to rise above if that describes you then this message is definitely for you two key truth truth number one every Christian battles with the flesh every single blood bought child of God is going to battle with the flesh Romans chapter eight verse 12 Paul says so then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you are living according to the flesh you must die in Romans chapter eight the first thirteen verses Paul uses the term flesh thirteen times the Greek word for flesh is Sark's Sark's and it can refer to your skin and your bone your hide in your hair it can refer to you Sherman body but most of the time when the Bible uses the word flesh it's it's speaking to your human nature your human fallenness that that part of you that wants to disobey God John MacArthur defined the flesh this way the flesh is that I think we have it on the screens the flesh is that ugly complex of sinful desire motive affection principle and purpose that exists in your humaneness and to live after the flesh sure to walk according to the flesh is to be ruled and motivated and guided by that complex of sinful desires motives affections principles and purposes my pastor in Houston Daman shook he described to me one time the flesh and I have never forgotten it he said if you think about the word flesh fles H he said take off the H and spell it backwards and you have the word s e LF what is the flesh it's self itself wanting to do what self wants to do it's selfish interests and selfish desires and all about me that's the flesh and the Bible says that we battle with the flesh now I want you to notice some things about the flesh because you every Christian has this this flesh inside not that not the skin and bone but this flesh this this nature that wants to do evil and some say well you don't really have a fallen nature anymore you have something inside of you that wants to do sin the the workings of the of the old nature are still present and now an unbeliever somebody who's never put his faith in trust in Christ all he's got is his fallen human nature because the Spirit of God doesn't live inside of him and so we're talking today to Christians Christians who struggle with the flesh and so I wanted you to notice three things about the flesh here first of all the flesh is a formidable foe very formidable the flesh you think the flesh is no big deal the flesh is a huge deal self is a huge deal in your life and in my life and you can't blow off the flesh the pull to do evil is real the pull to lie and the pull to lust and the the longing to gossip and to get revenge and to satisfy the desires of your physical body that that's real to be lazy to be lustful - to commit sexual immorality those things are all real they're out there and the flesh is a formidable foe the Bible says in Galatians chapter 5 but I say walk by the spirit pulses and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh they they battle like this the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please and he goes on to say let me tell you what the deeds of the flesh are and I have this verse there on the screen in the easy-to-read version Larry Sims favorite version the easy-to-read version it says this the wrong things the sinful self does are clear committing sexual sin being morally bad doing all kinds of shameful things worshipping false gods taking part in witchcraft hating people causing trouble being jealous angry or selfish causing people to argue in to divide into separate groups being filled with envy getting drunk having wild parties and doing other things like this those are the deeds of the flesh he mentions 15 things then he adds 16 as a catch-all and other things like this you might be reading say to all don't do that I don't do that I don't do that well other things like this well I do that I mean all of us with that that just describes what the flesh is and the deeds of the flesh and their evidence and we see them in our world today and hey we don't even have to look very far you see them in yourself the deeds of the flesh are evidence the flesh is a formidable foe the flesh is a destructive foe very destructive if you let loosen to think things of the flesh you're gonna have serious serious problems in your life serious serious problems in your relationship with God you're gonna live life even as a Christian you're gonna wonder and doubt if you're even a Christian because when you're overrun by the flesh those are in the flesh cannot please God scripture says in Romans chapter eight you're gonna have a very difficult time you know the things the thing about the flesh and the the deeds of the flesh there's pleasure in participating in the deeds of the flesh there's pleasure in an outburst of anger there's pleasure in revenge there's pleasure in lust there's pleasure in lying about something so you get off the hook and you don't suffer the consequences you're like man I got out of that one it's like the little boy that was going with his mother to the to get a ticket for the airplane and this is back in the day that you just kind of got your tickets upfront and so he was getting a ticket and the mother said now hey there was a sign that says now you have to be you know if you're six years old or under you get to fly free and so the little boy was seven and so the mother said to the little boy now okay now you tell him you're six years old if they ask you you tell him you're six years old and so they walked up to the front and the mother said yeah you know I need one for me and then my son and he's free and the man behind the desk the ticket counter said son how old are you he said six years old he said son you know what happens to little boys who lie he said yep we get to fly free we think like that it's not like that we it's instant pleasure but it's lasting pain you know who is the poster child in the scripture for the destruction of the flesh and what the flesh will do to someone who goes in the way of the flesh it's Old Testament characters names lot Abraham's nephew lot you know they had a problem between lot and Abraham a problem between the Cowboys of law and the Cowboys of Abraham they both had lots of flocks and herds and they started having an arranged Ward because there was an arranged war because there wasn't enough grass for for their flocks and herds to coexist and so Abraham said this is bad we're fighting amongst ourselves said lot we need to separate you go left I'll go right you go north I'll go south let's just separate and I'll give you the first choice and the Bible said lot lifted up his eyes and he looked to the east and he saw the well-watered Plains and he said man if I choose over there I can have cattle and flocks and herds that just do great and he made a choice and the Bible said that he pitched his tent toward Sodom the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord and this law man lot made a choice based on self based on greed based on gold not based on God he wasn't thinking about God and he moved in the direction of Sodom and he said well you know no doubt said to himself you know I would never live in Sodom cause Sodom is a terrible place I'll just live on the outskirts of Sodom I'll just live around the suburbs of the city of sin but then when we read about lot again we find out that he is living in Sodom he's some kind of councilman in Sodom some kind of elder statesman in Sodom and when the destruction came on the city of Sodom lot lost everything everything lost his wife lost his his flocks and his herds and his money in his bank account the only thing he took out of Sodom were two polluted daughters who had been trained in the ways of Sodom and when lot went up to a cave with his daughters they've got him drunk and they both had sex with their dad and they had two sons each of them had a son from an incestuous relationship with lot what did what a devastating life he lost it all hey the flesh is a destructive foe you go in the direction of the flesh and you will lose you know the Bible says Jesus said of concerning the thief he comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy and the flesh is right in line with that you follow after the flesh and the flesh will steal kill and destroy you wreck and ruin your life but here's the good news the flesh is a defeated foe it's a formidable foe it's a destructive foe but it's a defeated foe Jesus defeated the flesh when he died upon the cross Romans chapter 6 verses 6 and 7 says this we know that our old life was put to death on the cross with Christ this happened so that our sinful selves would have no power over us then we would not be slaves to sin anyone who has died is made free from sins control now when Jesus died on the cross he not only took my sins to the cross and your sins to the cross and all the sins of all the world he took them to the cross but when I put my faith and trust in Christ he also took me to the cross and I have been crucified with Christ and there's no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me so the old Jefferey in January of 1980 the old Jeff Shrieve was placed back into Christ and crucified with Christ I read this week about w.a Criswell going to the Holy Land for the very first time he went to gordon's calvary the place where many many people believe that jesus was crucified and he was there and the tour guide was asking the question has any never been here before and w-a Criswell said I was here 2000 years ago and I was crucified with Christ hey that's that's a truism that happened to you and to me Galatians chapter 5 verse 24 it says that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires so the flesh has been crucified the old man is crucified it is rendered powerless in our lives but here's the thing about the flesh although it's crucified it's not gone and although it's been rendered powerless it still has a voice in your life and in my life it can still speak to you and to me it can still bark out orders do this do that do the other lust over here lie over here be selfish over here blow up at your spouse over here the the flesh does all that stuff and barks out those orders the only difference is now as a believer I don't have to obey unbeliever has no choice but to obey because they are in the flesh they've never been set free so what does the scripture say every Christian battles with the flesh truth number two every Christian can have victory as he yields to the spirit we battle with the flesh but we can have victory as we yield to the spirit in Romans chapter eight the first 13 vs. 13 times the word flesh is used Sark's is used in the first fourteen verses the word spirit is used 13 times spirit is used 21 times in the whole book of are in the chapter Romans chapter eight so two key parts of Romans chapter eight the spirit and the flesh and those are the things that are fighting inside every Christians heart they are in opposition to one another and you can have victory as you yield to the holy look at verse 12 he says so then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you are living according to the flesh you must die but if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live for all who are being led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God the Holy Spirit's job what is his job in the life of a Christian how important is the holy spirit to the Christian life you can't have a Christian life without the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is hugely important to the Christian life you know very very interesting Jesus his whole ministry everything that he did even his conception it was all by the Holy Spirit Jesus lived although he is eternally God he lived as a man depending upon the Holy Spirit now all the miracles he did were from the Holy Spirit everything he spoke from the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit was hugely important he couldn't have done it without the Holy Spirit because he did not come to this world to live life as God why because he's our example and you're not God and I'm not God and if Jesus came to this world and lived life on earth as God you could say well I can't do that I'm not God so he said you know what I'm gonna live it as a man depending upon God the Holy Spirit every second of every day and that's how he lived in victory the Holy Spirit is hugely important to your Christian life and my Christian life so what do we need to know about the Holy Spirit well the Holy Spirit is the one who gives life and power life and power to the Christian life and the Christian experience look at verse 11 of chapter 8 but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who indwells you the spirit gives life to your mortal body you don't have a life apart from the Holy Spirit because he comes in to your life the moment that you put your faith and trust in Jesus fusions chapter one says in him you also after listening to the message of truth the gospel of your salvation having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise we received the Holy Spirit the moment we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ he comes in and gives us life and he gives us power jesus said in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses power from the Holy Spirit of life from the Holy Spirit have you ever had an experience of going to a church where they just go through the motions of worship I mean it is deader than a hammer at those places what's going on at a place like that it in the spiritual realm it could be called Ichabod Baptist Church the glory of the Lord has departed everything done there is done in the flesh listen those who are in the flesh cannot please God God hates the flesh so the the singers come out and they sing and it's a performance it's not worship and they're performing in the flesh and the Lord says this makes me sick and it's just dead and dry and dull it's religion when Jesus came to this earth what had happened to Judaism it had just become religion and the Pharisees were trying so hard to clean up the outside of the cup that they didn't do anything to the inside of the cup jesus said you guys are whitewashed tombs you're working so hard to look good on the outside but inside you're full of rottenness and dead men's bones and that's the way many many churches are and people say well you know I went to church well where'd you go did you go where there's life did you go where there's power or did you go through the motions at some dead church that just operates in the flesh you hold to a form of godliness but the scripture says from those folks turn away don't hang out there hey when you go to a place where the Holy Spirit of God is filling the the pew and the name of Jesus is lifted up there is power and there's life and where the Spirit of the Lord is there's Liberty and that's the place you want to go he gives us life and power and he enables us now watch this he enables us to put sin to death in our lives now here is such a paradox this is hard for us sometimes to understand because it says in Romans 6 our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with and forcibly should no longer be servants of sin Bible says for you have died Colossians 3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God the Bible says that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires well if the flesh is crucified and the flesh is taken out of the way then how come I still have this pull to do the things of the flesh why does that still have an attraction to me why do I struggle so much with greed why do I struggle so much with lust why do I struggle so much with forgiving people why do I struggle so much with resentment and bitterness and anger and all those deeds of the flesh that we talked about that I thought I was crucified to that you are you are on paper you have to put it into practice in your life see there is positional truth and there's experiential truths when the Lord says this has happened to you now work it out it's the same thing that Jesus said to Joshua and Joshua chapter 1 you know they Moses had died and Joshua was taking over and which was a boy that was some kind of an assignment to take over for Moses but that was Joshua's assignment and the Lord said to him see Moses didn't get to go into the Promised Land Joshua's was going to lead them into the Promised Land the wilderness experience is a Christian life lived in the flesh it's lived with a wretched man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death the promised land is the spirit filled life it's the life of victory and the Lord said to Joshua he said every foot or every piece of land that your foot your sole of your foot treads I have already given it to you it's yours now go get it it's given to you but you have to fight and you have to go get it the the promise landed in a vacant piece of property that you just come on oh there's nobody here let's just take over no they're giants in that land you got to fight in that land you got to fight for that land but it's already given to you hey I'm dead to sin and I'm alive to God but I don't feel like that Colossians 3:3 for you have died in your life is hidden with Christ in God Colossians 3:5 therefore consider the members of your earthly body has dead to immorality impurity passion evil desire and grief I am I am dead but I have to consider myself dead I have to consider the members of my earthly body as dead because they sure don't feel dead they feel very much alive but the truth of the matter is I've been crucified and I don't have to listen to that old flesh the Holy Spirit enables us to put sin to death well you say Jeff how do I really do it because I've been hearing this stuff for a long time I've been in church a long time and I seem to fall into the same sins over and over and over and I want to have victory I want to please God but man I just I feel like I'm trying to fly with a with a 500-pound weight on my back I just can't seem to get a bhavantu to get that going in my life and it's just the same old you know back again I'm just kind of on a treadmill in my Christian life I'm not making any progress people say what do I need to do I guess I need to pray more I mean that's my problem I just need to pray more hey you do need to pray more and I need to pray more but many of us pray and pray and pray and pray and we're still struggling with the same sins whether it's drug alcohol addiction well there's pornography addiction whether it's sexual immorality we still struggle with all those same things we still struggle with a bitter heart we still struggle with all this jealousy we still struggle with all this insecurity well maybe I just need to go to church more hey it's important to go to church it's important to get involved in church not just to come to church but to get plugged into church to find a class and find a small group and really grow and really serve that's important is some say well I guess I just need to read the Bible more I'm not reading the Bible enough hey it's critical to read the Bible the Bible is food for your soul it's milk and bread and meat we have to read the Bible but many of us are praying and coming to church and reading the Bible and still struggling struggling struggling struggling failing failing failing failing wretched man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death why is this so hard why can't I have victory let me tell you two things that are critical first of all if you want to put to death sin in the body sin must become utterly sinful Paul talks about that in Romans 7 verse 13 he says that through the commandment sin became utterly sinful for many of us sin is not utterly sinful sin is not completely sinful what does that mean utterly sinful it means that sin is repulsive that sin is abominable that you say I don't want to do that that is disgusting to me Bible says that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogance in the evil way in the perverted mouth I hate proverbs chapter 8 Bible says hate evil you who love the Lord many of us say well Lord I want to hate evil but I love these certain things with evil as one lady told me she said I know gossip is wrong but it's fun I just like to do it Beth Moore in her book get out of that pit talked about a lady who was dealing with alcohol addiction and she would do good for a while and then she'd fall and do good for a while and then she'd fall and somebody asked her on this last fall they said why did you fall back into that pit she said because I wanted to because I wanted to there's pleasure in sin but it's for a short period of time it's a passing pleasure and then comes lasting pain my wife Debbie when we first began to date I still remember a date that we had we went I think we went to the movies and then we went to the marble slab and we got raspberry ice cream with heath bar on a Heath cone and man it was good we each got one we were young back then we could handle it you know I was a friend of mine said my waistline can take it he doesn't say that anymore he's like the equator he's huge but I back in the day you know I was in my early 20s I could take it and she could take it and then you know then we started sharing one well something happened to her in our marriage we had ice cream together one day in about an hour later she started feeling terrible I mean she felt like she had eaten a boat anchor I mean she was just like oh this is I just heard and this is awful and didn't really know what it was and then we had ice cream again sometime later the same thing happened I think it happened to her two or three times when she figured out you know what I'm lactose intolerant ice creams not a good thing for me but Debbie that an ice cream tastes good yeah it tastes so good but it's not that good because after I eat the ice cream I'm gonna get very very sick and Debbie will never eat ice cream because she knows there's a price to pay to eat ice cream and the price is wait hi for the little bit of pleasure the price tag is huge that is sin becoming utterly sinful an illustration of that it's you look at that and you say yeah that would be fun but I'm gonna displease God with that that's gonna open up Pandora's box of evil in my life that's not a little thing see many people I talked to a friend of mine who's an instructor in high school and he said you know kids today they don't think anything of watching pornography on their phone oh it's just a little thing yeah kind of like lots little thing of pitching his tent towards Sodom that's what it is it's injecting poison into your mind and into your heart you you you eat that and allow that to come into your mind and in your heart and eventually you're gonna get very very very sick and you need to remember Hebrews 13 verse 4 let the marriage bed be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge and the man who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart we live in a world today generation today people come to church come to church come to church and that's great but they're living in open sin and there's absolutely no kind of conviction in it sin is not utterly sinful if sin is not utterly sinful you're gonna keep doing it and you're gonna end up like a lot and you're gonna lose it all because those are in the flesh cannot please God and God hates the flesh sin must become utterly sinful and sin cannot be managed it must be mortified you can't manage sin you have to mortify sin you have to put it to death I heard this when Debbie and I were in Little Rock a few weeks ago my friend Bob Lapine from family life we went to his church and he was preaching and he quoted Crawford larette's who's a great black pastor and speaks with family life is involved with family life ministries he said that's the problem in the church today Christians are trying to manage and they're refusing to mortify sin they don't want to put it to death they want to keep sin as a little pet thinking that you can control sin thinking that you can have it as a little pet I was reading today about a man in Bronx New York in 1996 he went to the exotic pet store he bought a 13 foot Burmese python python for $300 he took it home to his apartment and he was getting close to his little snake big snake not a little snake how did he get close to a snake you know honey I did is he wag when you come I don't know what happens with a snake but he has this is my pet three months later the Burmese python got out of the cage wrapped around his torso and his neck and squeezed him to death that's sin that's a picture of sin you and I think we can play around with sin you can't I can't no one can you play around with sin and you think you can keep it managing in cage it's not gonna stay manage it in the cage it's gonna get out and it's gonna kill you listen you either put sin to death or sin will put you to death it's not your friend it's not going to it's not going to be compassionate with you you will eat your lunch sin cannot be managed must be mortified and so what does it say we're under obligation not under obligation to the flesh to do what the flesh is telling us to do we're under obligation we have a duty to the spirits to put to death the deeds of the body it says for if you are living according to the flesh you must die but if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body what do I do in the Christian life well I just say let go and let God know it's all God but listen you're involved in that you're the one that has to drag the sin out of the cage and say Lord I have this in my life and we need to put it to death if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live it's your responsibility before God it's your obligation before God Adrian Roger says what is Christian responsibility it's the right response to his ability that's what your responsibility is it's the right response to his ability it's to say Lord I can't have victory over this sin this this pet sin in the cage but I'm willing to open it up I'm willing to give it to you I'm willing to drag it on into the light and I need you by your grace and by your power to kill this sin in my life I imagine everyone in this room has had the experience of writing on a plane you know I was doing a little research about planes the largest plane that is in commercial air traffic today is a Boeing 777 - 9 I think we have a picture of that American Airlines other airlines have that plane that sucker is huge here are some of the statistics it's 250 feet long it has a 235 foot wingspan it weighs without any passengers or luggage in and it weighs 207 it'll hold 427 passengers when that thing takes off with a full load of people and their luggage it weighs about 250 tons now many of us are familiar with the law of gravity the law of gravity says things are going to be held down you know you get somebody that's real light they can maybe jump higher than somebody that's real heavy when you weigh 250 tons 500,000 pounds law of gravity says you ain't going nowhere pal I'm holding you down but did you know there's another law the at work on the airplane is called the law of aerodynamics and the law of aerodynamics says you put enough thrust on this 250 ton plane and you get it going down the runway and the way the wings are structured it can catch the air and it can be lifted off the ground and that 250 ton aircraft can fly 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 feet now the aircraft does not destroy the law of gravity it overcomes the law of gravity look at Romans chapter 8 verse 2 for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death hey you're bowing 7 7 7 in the Christian life is the Holy Spirit of God and if you will abide in the Lord you will soar there is still the law of sin and death you get out of the plane at 30,000 feet and you find out hey the law of gravity still at work here and I'm gonna go down like a rock but if you stay in the plane you abide in the plane the law of aerodynamics is greater than the law of gravity if I abide in the Lord and by the spirit put to death the deeds of the body I will experience victory and you will experience victory listen as we close out today I want to talk to two groups of people first groups a person and the people who have never trusted Christ let me just tell you something no matter what you do no matter how you try and clean yourself up you will never know never know never ever be acceptable to God ever the flesh cannot please God and the flesh cannot conquer the flesh and if you work on you flesh to try and just rich your teeth I'm gonna be better all you'll end up being is a Pharisee and you need to come today to receive Christ and to receive his love and just receive his life and to receive his power it all comes when you open up your heart to Christ I'm speaking to another group and that that's the group of Christians who are living in sin is not utterly sinful and you're not by the spirit putting to death the deeds of the body and you are living a life kind of like the Old Testament wandering in the wilderness it's time to quit wandering it's time to enter into the promised land it's time to truly surrender to the Lord and let Jesus Christ be Lord of all in you my friend thanks so much for watching today I trust that the message spoke to your heart and as we get ready to close today I want to ask you to really search within do you know for certain that you have a personal relationship with Jesus that is the most important thing of all that is what determines heaven or hell if you're not sure about that most important question today's the day to make sure to drive that stake in the ground and know for certain that you belong to Jesus this is what you have to do just pray a simple prayer from your heart Lord Jesus I need you I know that I'm a sinner and I'm lost and I can't save myself but Jesus I believe that you are God in the flesh I believe that you came down from heaven you were walked this earth that you lived that you died on the cross for my sins and you rose again from the dead and Lord right now I open my heart to you I surrender my all to you come into my life and forgive me of all my sins and be my Lord and my Savior and Jesus I promise to follow you all the days of my life my friend if you'll pray that kind of prayer and mean it the Lord will come in and your life will never be the same I would love to hear from you to know that you're watching to know that God is using this broadcast to make a difference in your life to know that you just prayed that prayer of salvation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord please take the time to call that toll-free number on your screen write me email me let me know what's going on and how we can pray for you you really are important to God and you're important to us we're here for you from his heart is the viewer supported broadcast ministry of dr. Jeff Shrieve who believes that no matter how badly you messed up in life God still loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life find out more at from his heart arrrg [Music]
