The Kingdom of Heaven | Matthew 13 | Gary Hamrick

[Music] so let's take our bibles please and go to matthew chapter 13. if you're new to cornerstone that's what we do here we teach straight through the bible from cover to cover and we find ourselves in the gospel of matthew right now on sunday mornings we're going to be looking together at chapter 13. so if you'll turn there with me in your bibles to matthew chapter 13. and let me pray and then we'll dive right into our study today father it's good to be in your house it is good to gather together either here in person or those who are watching online together we just want to lift up our hearts to you we just pray lord that you would use this time in your word to speak to us to strengthen us to draw us closer to you lord and for those who don't know you in a personal way may today be a day when they surrender their lives to your lordship we love you lord and we thank you that you first loved us and sent your son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins bless this time in your word now we pray in jesus name and everybody said amen matthew chapter 13 in matthew chapter 13 there are seven parables that jesus teaches the last six of which are about the kingdom of heaven specifically about the kingdom of heaven because each of those six parables that round out the chapter 13 of matthew each of those six parables begins with the phrase the kingdom of heaven is like and then jesus makes a comparison now my eighth grade grammar teacher mrs whitcover if she were still alive today would be happy to know that after all these years i have remembered that when making a comparison using the words like or as it is a simile not a metaphor and jesus makes six simile statements the first of which are all identical the kingdom of heaven is like the kingdom of heaven is like but then within these six parables are six different comparisons to help us understand exactly what the kingdom of heaven is like and he uses a teaching tool that is common to the ministry of jesus known as a parable now if you've been around church very long you understand what a parable is if you haven't been around church very long let's first define what a parable is and let's also define what the phrase means kingdom of heaven before we take a look at these six different parables so first thing first when we talk about a parable it is from the greek word parabolo the greek is the original language of the new testament and parabolo means to throw alongside of something so it's the idea of something that comes alongside of something else and in this case it's the idea of a comparison so a parable is the use of an illustration often taken from everyday life thrown alongside a lesson to express a moral truth and so jesus uses parables to supplement a point he is trying to make the word parabolo in the original language appears 48 times in the gospels but only in matthew mark and luke john makes no mention of any parables in his gospel so that's the idea of a parable it's just it's an illustration thrown alongside a lesson to drive home a moral truth to express a a greater point often parables are kind of veiled terminology to get the the listener to think what is actually the meaning behind this so it's a great teaching tool that jesus often used in communicating and teaching what does he mean by the kingdom of heaven well matthew of the four gospel writers matthew mark luke and john matthew is the only one who uses the phrase kingdom of heaven and matthew uses it more than 30 times in his gospel the other guys mark luke and john instead of using the phrase kingdom of heaven they use the phrase kingdom of god and so when you look at the difference between kingdom of heaven and kingdom of god there's not much uh both of them express the idea of rulership it's the idea of a kingdom whether it's kingdom of heaven or kingdom of god the idea here is that it's about a kingdom a kingdom that is ruled by god and when it comes to the idea of the kingdom of heaven this kingdom is both physical in that heaven is a real place and it is also spiritual in that the kingdom of heaven speaks about god ruling not just in a place heaven but also ruling in a person meaning us in other words in a broad sense the kingdom of heaven is about god's rule in the hearts and lives of people and thus people who have surrendered their hearts and lives to jesus as king make up we make up the kingdom of heaven and jesus enthusiastically calls welcomes and invites people to be a part of that kingdom to submit our lives to him as king and to enjoy all the many benefits as citizens of the kingdom of heaven and it has been said and it is true the retirement plan is literally out of this world and so that's the idea of the kingdom of heaven you know look we have to admit somebody is ruling your life somebody is ruling your life either you are king of your life which means that you decide what to do when to do and how to do it you were in charge of your life you were the captain of your ship or god is king of your life which means that when god is king of your life you surrender to his lead and you don't just live to please yourself you live to please god but there cannot be two kings in this kingdom it is impossible for you to be both king and god to be king it is one or the other this is not a co-regency it's not like god slides over and allows you to run your life some of the time and he'll run your life part of the time this is either you belong to him and he is king of your life or you are king of your life and you rule your own life and so jesus is going to use six parables here to basically say here's what it looks like to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven where god is king of your life so we're gonna look through these six pretty quickly and the first one for you notetakers the comparison that he makes here the simile that he uses is the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field if you have your bibles open there to chapter 13 look at verse 24. i'll read verse 24 down to verse 30. another parable he put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares at his weeds among the wheat and went his way but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop then the tares also appeared so the servants of the owner came and said to him sir did you not sow good seed in your field how then does it have tares he said to them an enemy has done this the servant said to him do you want us then to go and gather them up but he said no lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them let both grow together until the harvest and at the time of harvest i will say to the reapers first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn so this is a parable that jesus uses here he um again draws on everyday life this is a agricultural parable here and this is one of the rare parables which jesus interprets a lot of times he would teach a parable and people would walk away wondering i wonder what all that means because the parable would use terms that required the listener to really try to unpack that and understand what's kind of the veiled meaning behind some of these things this is one of the rare times that jesus interprets his own parable so if you'll jump further down into chapter 13 verse 36 we'll see the interpretation here verse 36 it says then jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house and his disciples came to him saying explain to us the parable of the tares of the field now this this cracks me up because you know listen the disciples were not the sharpest knives in the drawer i mean let's just be real um but but they serve as a good example for all of us because jesus chose very ordinary people to do his extraordinary work meaning he can use any of us as well so they're good examples for us these guys were not always you know the brightest bulb and so when they're alone in a room they ask jesus to interpret it so this is how i picture it sometimes jesus is teaching the parable to the multitude and the disciples are standing around nodding their heads that's right preach on yeah we get this yeah and then they get quietly in a room and they're like jesus could you explain that parable to us we really don't get it so that's what's happening here in verse 37 he answered and he said to them and here he interprets the whole thing he who sows the good seed is the son of man that's that's jesus the field is the world the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom but the tares are the sons of the wicked one the enemy who sowed them is the devil the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire so it will be at the end of this age the son of man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth and then the righteous will shine forth as the son and the kingdom of their father he who has ears to hear let him hear and so basically when jesus interprets his parable what he's telling us is it's the it's a story that he's using to communicate a spiritual truth a moral truth and he talks about how there are two farmers or two planters two sowers and he explains to us in the story he says one of the sowers is me is jesus and the other sower is the enemy the devil and he says basically i'm going throughout the world because the field represents the whole world jesus is saying i'm going throughout the world i'm sowing good seed which will sprout up to be wheat he says but be warned there's the enemy the devil who's also going around throughout the world sowing bad seed that's the tares or the weeds and there's the difference between the sons and daughters of the kingdom that's represented by wheat who belonged to jesus and the sons and daughters the offspring of satan represented in the story by the weeds and jesus says at the end of the age he says i'm going to dispatch my angels they're going to separate the wheat from the weeds the the the weeds are going to be bound up and thrown into the fiery furnace and where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth it's a picture of hell it's a picture of judgment and he says but the wheat however the righteous ones who belong to me as part of the kingdom of heaven will enter into their eternal reward he said they're in verse 43 he says then the righteous will shine forth as the son and the kingdom of their father he who has ears to hear let him hear he says so he's talking here about the ultimate reward for the righteous who know christ as lord and savior they're gonna enjoy their ultimate reward in heaven whereas the unrighteous those who have rejected christ will face judgment it'll be a time of terrible agony for them so he's expressing the whole concept here of the kingdom of heaven and he uses this terminology of the wheat and the weeds or the tares now in israel and it's common here in the united states there is a weed that springs up among wheat and that weed is called darnell grass it looks very similar to wheat in fact you cannot tell the difference in the early stages of what wheat is and what darnell grass is until they reach maturity and when they reach maturity and they form the ear on the top or the top of the stalk the kernels then you can tell the difference that's why in the parable jesus says you're gonna have to let them both grow at the same time until they reach maturity until it's time to harvest because only then can you distinguish the wheat from the tares and if you try to go about uprooting the weeds before you can distinguish the two you will inadvertently uproot the wheat and you don't want to do that so he says let them both grow together now here is a picture of darnell grass and wheat and they look very similar the darnell grass on the left the wheat on the right and it is only when they form the head or the ears of the grain that you can tell the difference but you still have to look carefully but it's the idea they have to reach maturity the good seed and the bad seed are allowed to grow up together until they reach maturity and at the time of the harvest then you can tell the difference now here's the take away the righteous and the unrighteous grow up together in the same world in the same field we all live together believers and non-believers we'll live together work together play sports together do life together but there's a big difference there's a big difference between the two that will be realized at harvest time when we come to full maturity so the idea is you're gonna stand before god at some point either when you come to full maturity and you die and you have a day of reckoning with god or in the larger picture what he's talking about here is the end of the age when god is going to dispatch his angels to separate the righteous from the unrighteous the wheat from the tares and the tares the weeds the unrighteous will be judged and there will be eternal punishment and the righteous will likewise inherit their eternal reward because of their relationship with jesus and and so this is important for us to understand just because life presently seems similar now where the righteous and the unrighteous grow up together in the same world work together play together do life together it seems sometimes like the unrighteous are getting away with stuff but the fact of the matter is don't forget that there is a day of reckoning for every single one of us when the wheat will be separated from the weeds the righteous will be eternally rewarded and the unrighteous will be eternally judged right now we are growing up together in the same field but harvest day is coming stay strong and faithful that's the idea parable number two he compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed well we read the interpretation of the first parable so you got to backtrack go up to verse 31. go back to verse 31 and 32. it's only two verses long here's the second parable we're looking at verse 31 another parable he put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field which indeed is the least of all the seeds but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches now some if not most theologians regard this parable as a beautiful description of the ultimate expansion of the church and the great growth and the far reach of the kingdom of heaven however in light of the parable itself and its context the parable that it follows and the parable that it proceeds jesus is not giving a healthy description of the church but a warning of the possible corruption in the church that we have to be aware of how do we know that that's the better interpretation of this because for two reasons number one a mustard seed grows normally into a large bush never into a tree so the first thing that is an anomaly here within this parable is jesus talks about a mustard seed is planted and he says here it grows greater than the herbs and becomes verse 32 a tree a tree so what he's describing here is something that has become an abnormal unnatural monstrosity something that it wasn't intended to become and the other important thing that to note in the story here is that birds are perched in the branches of this tree now in bible college there's a thing that they teach you called hermeneutics hermeneutics just means how to study the bible and one of the tools of how to study the bible is something called expositional constancy what does that mean what it means is when you look at a term or a word or a phrase in the bible that is consistently meaning one thing it doesn't suddenly change and means something different that there's expositional constancy through a passage and and so you you can um rely on the meaning of something as not changing because of the consistent nature of how it's being interpreted and so when it comes here to expositional constancy birds in the bible are never reflective of something good they are always symbolic of something evil so for people to say that this parable means you know beautiful birds perch in the branches of this tree birds never mean something pleasant they always mean something evil and a mustard seed does not grow to become a tree so jesus is speaking of some unnatural monstrosity that happens and something evil is perched within the branches here there are evil corrupt things that have found shelter in the tree and he's warning us about it now let me point out this expositional constancy go back further in chapter 13 same chapter go back earlier in the chapter to verse three and i want to just show you what i'm talking about here so you understand the consistency of interpretation in chapter 13 what we didn't read verses three and four says this and then he spoke many things to them in parables saying behold a sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell by the wayside and the birds notice the birds came and devoured them all right now he interprets this also go to verse 18 and he tells us what the birds are a picture of in verse 18. he says therefore hear the parable of the sower when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart this is he who received seed by the wayside so in verse 3 he talks about birds come and snatch the seed which is the gospel and then in verse 18 he says oh the birds were a picture of the wicked one the enemy who comes and snatches the seed before it takes root in somebody's heart so by the time you get further on into this parable back down to verses 31 and 32 and he's talking about a mustard seed growing into this monstrosity of a tree and birds perched in it birds don't suddenly mean something pretty it still is consistent with the passage he's speaking of something evil here you know in in the bible when you hear uh stories about a dove now a dove is always a picture of what peace the dove is always consistently throughout scripture picture peace a dove doesn't suddenly become a picture of death it's just always consistently a picture of peace you know i think it was alfred hitchcock who made that movie on the birds okay evil birds he didn't make a movie on the doves that wouldn't fly well that no pun intended but he made a movie about the birds these evil birds attacking people and so this is the idea here when jesus speaks about birds perched they're evil they're corrupt things they're not of the tree they don't contribute to the tree they're simply there to pollute it there's a warning here about the kingdom of heaven that it will be fraught with corrupt influences and how we need to be wise and discerning about what has perched in the branches the liberal church today that has abandoned the word of god that has embraced and celebrated aberrant lifestyles that has substituted biblical justice for social justice is nothing more than an evil influence perched in the branches of an overgrown tree that looks nothing like what it's supposed to and this is what he's talking about and so it's a warning as well as a description here parable number three he likens the kingdom of heaven to leaven or yeast it's one verse look in your in your chapter there matthew 13 verse 33 another parable he spoke to them the kingdom of heaven is like leaven or yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened in other words so all been infiltrated by the yeast now again some if not most people interpret this parable as a wonderful thing about how the kingdom of heaven invades the earth like leaven or yeast invades dough the problem with that interpretation is that like the birds in the previous parable leaven or yeast is always a picture of sin in the bible so this is not a good thing that he's talking about here jesus is saying this is a bad thing about how corruption can seep into the kingdom community just like yeast or leaven starts to seep in to work its way into dough now whenever i read about leaven or yeast in the bible it always reminds me of this thing that happened in the hamrick household some like 30 years ago now and i've told this story probably a decade ago or so but how many of you are old enough to remember it was kind of a phenomenon that swept through uh communities in the late 80s and early 90s that there was this thing called friendship bread can i see your hands friendship brett so some of you know what i'm talking about for those of you who don't know what i'm talking about here's what it was a friend would give you a lump of dough like the size of a golf ball and it was a you know a nice gesture like here why don't you start this gift that keeps on giving and so you take this little dough the size of a golf ball and then there was instructions i mean you had to follow these meticulous instructions in order to make bread and so you would take the little golf ball and you would put it in the tupperware and you would add yeast at just the right times and a little bit of water at just the right times and then sometimes you'd have the lid sealed on the tupperware other times you had to burp it and keep the lid off you had to follow it very very carefully and then as it would grow you would separate it put it into another tupperware separate it put another tupperware and you'd go through all this careful instructions add the little east add a little water burp it don't burp it lid no lid all this kind of stuff right oh my goodness so it took about two weeks to get all of it just right so that then you could bake bread so you'd have all this wonderful bread in your house and before you baked the bread you would take a little pinch off of one of the dough balls a size of a golf ball and you'd hand it to one of your friends it was the gift that kept on giving all right so we had this whole thing going at our house the whole counter laid out with like six or seven tupperwares and the instructions there on the kitchen counter and we were faithful that a little east oh burp it now oh put the lid on oh it's so cute all right well my wife was pregnant terry was pregnant and she went into labor and so off to the hospital we went now this was back in the day when you would go to the hospital to have a baby and it took about three days we were there like three days now you have a baby like a drive-by shooting you know what i'm saying you drive by the hospital you shoot the baby out and on home you go i don't get it but anyway back in the day it took like three days so we're three days in the hospital i wasn't thinking about friendship bread we're having a baby totally forgot about friendship bread let me tell you something don't ever turn your back on friendship bread i got home after three days that friendship bread was wicked it was nasty it had an attitude i'm not kidding now listen i have the gift of exaggeration but i'm not exaggerating at all when i say to you it blew the lid off of all the tupperware containers that dough was on the ceiling on the walls on the floor everywhere all over our kitchen what do you think i did as a loving husband honey i know you just had a baby but can you get no i didn't no i didn't do that no i'm cleaning i'm cleaning it oh i'm cleaning it all and at the whole time i'm cleaning and i got i got to confess to you i mean i'm a christian and i'm a pastor at that but in my heart i was despising that friend who gave us that dough like this ain't no friendship bread this is demon dough i mean i was i was beside myself just what in the world just happened and then all of our friends didn't like us because the whole experiment exploded and so we didn't have any golf balls to give to anybody come to my house get it off the ceiling if you want you're my friend clean my kitchen floor have your own friendship bread scoop it up off the floor anyway nobody has to tell me that when you read about levitt in the bible it's a nasty thing nasty thing and that's what jesus means here when he's talking about leaven that works its way through the whole batch of dough here he's not talking about something nice he's talking about something that is that creeps throughout the whole thing and and so the idea here is because leaven is always in the bible a picture of sin when leaven is allowed to multiply in the church instead of addressed as sin it corrupts the church it corrupts the kingdom g campbell morgan said the church pure is the church powerful the church loses its power and loses its influence when it becomes impure corrupted and that's the point of this parable then a transition occurs and i gotta race through the last three here but a transition occurs at this point the first three parables were warnings about a mixture of good and evil and the potential of corruption to seep into the church into the kingdom community if we're not careful the last three parables very different the last three parables are about the value that god places on each of us and how he relentlessly pursues us because he wants us to enjoy the kingdom of heaven and all of its wonderful benefits so parable number four he said the kingdom of heaven is like hidden treasure it's one verse verse 44. again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field earlier this year a treasure of nearly 70 000 iron age coins was discovered off the coast of france on one of the british isles called jersey and here's the headline and a picture with it massive iron age coin hoard worth 13 million dollars sets guinness world record happened earlier in this year the collection of 69 347 coins was found on the british isle of jersey off the coast of france by metal detector enthusiasts reg mead and richard miles it took them 30 years to find it and that is a picture and this parable is a picture of the way that god sees you and me underneath that dirt there's something valuable worth digging up this is a parable about you and me now some say this is a parable about our pursuit of god and that he is the treasure in the field but it's quite the opposite when it tells us when he when he teaches us this parable he said the man who found the treasure hid it and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field question what did you give up to get jesus no what did it cost you to purchase him no to the contrary jesus gave his life he gave his all to purchase you and me from sin and death revelation 5 9 says and with your blood talking about jesus and with your blood you purchased men for god from every tribe and language and people and nation god pursued you god purchased you you are that treasure in the field and he shed his blood to get you that's what this parable is about and it's important for us to understand the value that he places on us there's nothing intrinsically good about any of us only in so much as he has imputed his righteousness to us through faith in jesus but we were the ones worth pursuing and he loved us so much that he gave his very life to pursue us the next parable is very similar to this one the parable like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls that's what the kingdom of heaven is like it's verses 45 and 46. look again real quick in your bibles verse 45 again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it again this has the same meaning as the previous parable you are valuable to god and worth dying for romans 3 10 and 11 says this there is none righteous no not one there is none who understands there is none who seeks after god listen to that there is none who seeks after god wait a minute some of you who are already believers would say i sought god and i received him as my lord and savior no you responded to god he sought you god is always the initiator you and i are the responders he always goes after us he's the one who pursues us nobody seeks him i never sought after god i was dead in my transgressions and sins god sought me and he bought me with his precious blood that's the basis of the hymn that we sing sometimes victory in jesus oh victory in jesus my savior forever he sought me and he bought me with his redeeming blood he loved me air i knew him and all my love is due him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood you are that pearl of great price and jesus gave his all to get you that's his point here there's one person excited about that it's true in first corinthians 6 19 and 20 paul says do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit who is in you whom you have from god and you are not your own for you were bought at a price the price was the very life of jesus the last parable number six he compares the kingdom of heaven like a dragnet that was cast into the sea verses 47 to 50. again the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet like a fishing net that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind which when it was full they drew to shore and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels but threw the bat away so it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth separate the wicked from among the just and cast them into the furnace of fire there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth this last parable is similar to the first one that we studied this morning in that it talks about a day of reckoning and a day of separation the first parable we looked at was about separating the wheat from the weeds the righteous from the unrighteous this is also along that same vein but now it's the idea of separating good fish from bad fish the righteous from the unrighteous and it's a picture of the end of the age where there will be a separation of the righteous and the wicked the righteous to eternal life the wicked to eternal punishment and the same phrases are repeated in this parable as in the first one we studied the phrases like the furnace of fire and the wailing and gnashing of teeth for the wicked those are statements of punishment and torment and agony you don't want to go there no one has to perish the bible says god wants none to perish but all to come to repentance so he created a way for us to enjoy the benefits of the kingdom of heaven if we would be subject to the king and if we would yield and surrender our lives to him then we can joy enjoy all the many blessings and benefits of belonging to his kingdom but that becomes a choice that we have to make and this parable is another reminder to us that one day we have to face god and the righteous and the wicked will not be separated on the basis of their good deeds when he talks here about separating good fish from bad it's it's not on the basis of our good deeds it's on the basis of god's good deed when he offered his son jesus to die on a cross and thus his goodness is imputed to us by faith in jesus it's a relationship with him that makes us then good if you will in the eyes of god nothing in ourselves but only the goodness of god imputed to us through jesus now what i love about this parable is that when the net was dragged and i want you to miss this this is important to see look at verse 47 again verse 47 again the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea notice and gathered some of every kind i want you to miss that that's important in this parable gathered some of every kind today in the sea of galilee there are roughly 35 different species of fish nobody really knows how many species were in jesus day but the analogy is still the same he is making the analogy that the net is cast for every kind of fish in the sea jesus died for every kind of person that's again why revelation 5 9 says that jesus was slain and he has redeemed us to god he has purchased us for god by his blood listen out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation these are these are every kind of fish jesus died for now obviously not every person from every tribe tongue people and nation will be saved there are some good fish and some bad fish from every tribe and tongue and people and nation the good ones have accepted jesus the badmintons have rejected him but the point is that jesus died for all that all might be saved and so the dragnet goes after every single one no tribe language nation or people is left out jesus died for all in the hopes that all might be saved and please notice it is never our job to figure out who is saved and who isn't because he says here at the end of the age that he dispatches his angels they separate the wheat from the tares they separate the good fish from the bad ship we don't have the dexterity to do that neither should we be so judgmental as to presume who is saved and who isn't that's god's business we're just to cast the net and let god sort it all out the bottom line folks is this that the kingdom of heaven is open to all who would believe in jesus and receive him as lord and savior do you know him today do you know that you were a part of the kingdom of heaven you know sometimes i get emails from people who try to encourage me to stop leading people in what we commonly call the sinner's prayer because it just so they say gives people a false sense of salvation that you can just pray a prayer and then and then you're good to go but i will never stop offering that sinner's prayer and i will tell you why because every journey begins with a decision when you get married it begins with a decision and the saying of vows is that all that marriage requires just the saying of vows no of course not you have to live it out but it begins there when you get saved when you become part of the kingdom of heaven it begins with a decision and praying a prayer is that all that a relationship with christ entails just saying a prayer no you have to live it out but it begins there it's a starting point and for those of you who have never made the decision get out of the starting blocks and run the race i want to offer the opportunity right now today to acknowledge jesus as king instead of you and to become part of the kingdom of heaven and it begins with a decision so if you'd buy your heads with me let's pray father we come before you humble and thankful for the gift of salvation have you died on a cross for our sins the righteous jesus for the unrighteous us to bring us to you god there are some today who hear this bible study and they would admit that they're king of their lives and they've never surrendered to you as king so they're not really part of the kingdom of heaven but i pray right now and today that they would make a decision to trust you as lord and savior and to live their lives following after you running this race with perseverance lord i pray right now that you would stir the hearts of men and women and young people who need to make a decision today to trust you as lord and savior i'm going to pause in my prayer with your head still bowed those of you even watching online at home you can pray this prayer with me if you don't know christ as your savior if you would admit yeah i'm kind of king of my own life but it's time for me to surrender to jesus as king then i want to lead you in a word of prayer i want to give everybody just an opportunity right where you're seated to pray a simple prayer with me it begins with a decision every journey begins with a decision have you decided to make christ your lord and savior he has been pursuing you are you ready to respond to him if so pray this prayer with me just right where you're seated you can whisper this prayer i'll go slowly you can just pray this with me say lord i thank you that you love me so much that you would offer your son jesus on the cross for my sins forgive me of my sins lord i surrender to you i'm tired of being king of my own life i want you to be king lord so i surrender to you as king of my life that i might enter the kingdom of heaven by faith i receive you i believe that you died on a cross for my sins i surrender my life to you come into my heart lord jesus in your name i pray amen and amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 55,183

Rating: 4.8152609 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

Id: 7iJYvl-3w4w

Length: 43min 5sec (2585 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2020