Guest Speaker: Jase Robertson

trying to leave my family in heaven I think Jesus is coming back and I'm not I don't want my kids to look around and say, "Well, why didn't you try to get me to come with you?" Thessalonians 5:4 is very clear that there are two types of people here when Jesus returns, those who will be surprised and those who will be surprised. who is ready, you find out which camp you are in and make the necessary adjustments if Jesus Christ returns in the next five minutes and you are surprised, guess what, you are not ready. He was on a plane in the cabin of the private plane.

I said no, you're listening to all this. We have an emergency landing. Oh.someone is having an emergency landing I look over there it's the pilot of my plane he said what was the emergency landing we go straight down let's say emergency on the way you know what I liked guys ready ready I was much smarter than him. What do you do, we got the car because the plane, you know, we could survive, we got in the car and we had to drive five hours home, no, boy. I'm preparing five hours to explain to this guy why he was ready.

Guess what? He is ready now, talk to your children, the hardest people to reach in our society or to our children, especially those who come to church, do not develop their own faith and trust in Jesus Christ and look at you and see your flaws and some . Some of you will have to get over yourself like me and you will find Jesus despite the way you were raised, your parents might have done a lousy job but guess what, no matter how good a job they did, they make mistakes so the child stop blaming. Your parents, if you will be surprised when Jesus returns, that excuse won't work, so I'll tell you a short story.

I noticed a change in attitude in my daughter, she is 15 years old. This was in the last few weeks. I thought what is happening. in I told him to get on because I gave my first two children the cell phone and I told them: look, I'm going to check this cell phone and if there is something strange here you won't have a cell phone, so guess what happened 24 hours. Later I checked the cell phone. There's something weird here. There is no cell phone. My next son did the same thing, so I told him to go get her cell phone.

I told him, "There's something I'm going to find here that God wouldn't be proud of," he said. No, it's all good. I said, you know, I worked with Hollywood, right? I have people who have their eyes close together and stare at computer screens all day and if you've deleted something, I can find it perfectly fine. I thought, well, okay, about a minute. then I look and say hmm, these are not good Snapchats where well, but the sound of that should tell you something right now, hey look, I'm going to be honest with your parents, you wouldn't give your kids a gun and tell them, hey, I thought.

Out of everything, I'm fine, that's dangerous, you don't think a phone is dangerous, read John chapter 2 first, there are three things the phone can be used for many positive things, but I know three things happen there that are really easy to tap into the sinful man's cravings, the lust of the eyes and the bragging about what he hasn't done on social media and his kids are trying to be accepted and they want friends and they want to be cool and that's why they go places like Snapchat, so I don't I don't want this story to drag on so for two days after I hooked her up but for lying to me I have a rule: you lied to me, you get your boat right.

I said you're too old for me to spank you, but you lied well. in my face you don't leave me any other option you can discipline yourself however you want I said lean over that chair over there and I'm going to give you three little pops it was more the idea you know why tell me the truth and we'll face it because we live in the light, it's not that Jesus doesn't want to forgive you, so I pretended to be her for a couple of days. I got to know his friends really well through Snapchat and then started a texting group with his friends.

Because I got to see her eight best friends on Snapchat and I thought, this is me as a dad, things have changed, if you want to be friends with my daughter, you'll bring your parents to my house and we'll talk if you want. Make better decisions, we'll move on, so six of the eight did in the last few weeks. We have shared many tears. God, some of these people are not Christians. You know, it's been amazing, so I'll tell you. I say this is not about surveillance but we present Jesus we all have mistakes some of these girls who were the worst some of their friends my daughter has been surprised that they are the most open to following Jesus look life is messy it is difficult but no go to separate rooms with separate phones and waste your life and then look up and your daughter takes her life or becomes addicted to drugs you know what happened we are in a war phase in chapter six he has a whole armor there for you to wear every day, but I wanted to introduce you to Jesus because look in the end it's not about us, it's about showing Jesus to your daughter, your son, your co-worker, your family .

God uses us despite our flaws and if there is a way to live forever there is a way to dodge the gun in heaven Jesus Jesus is the way and if I don't see you again I will see you in heaven thank you for listening stay standing everyone stay standing, I ask that no one move please, and could you bow your head and close your eyes if you are here this morning and you don't know Jesus the way Jase described him? I want to fight you to give your heart and your life to him, right? now today and if that's you you say pastor I'm ready I'm ready to take that step I'm ready to I'm ready to surrender I recognize it I need Jesus in my life and I want to invite you to begin your journey of following Jesus with a prayer of surrender could you pray this way with me and with anyone who would like to pray with him?

Just pray dear God, thank you for Jesus, he is the way, the truth and the life. I give everything in my life to Jesus. I confess that Jesus is Lord, he died and rose again and from this day forward I follow you Holy Spirit, could you help me serve Jesus with all my heart and the name of Jesus? I pray, amen, amen, that someone will praise God for each person, please pray that prayer, come on, you can't make cupcakes because it's the biggest decision anyone can make. Amen, now I want you to do it. I want you to hold your ground because okay, you say what my next step is.

Well, the next step is what Jesus described: baptism, water baptism and two. In a few weeks we will be baptizing people in water, so I want everyone to take this connection card in their hands. Everyone has already filled it out and there is a place at the bottom where they would like to be baptized in water. They would like to know more. about that or if you make the decision to follow Jesus today, could you check that box that says, "I'm committing or recommitting my life to Jesus" and just check that we won't harass you, we won't persecute you, you know? we're going to do we're going to pray for you we're going to help you we want to give you resources in fact if you begin your relationship with God today we would like to talk to you in that reading information tent.

I would like to give you a Bible if you don't have one so you can start reading it, start in the book of John like Jay said and just start this journey of following Jesus and you'll be glad she did and we welcome you. on the path of following Jesus, am I in the right Church here today? Amen, amen, okay again, if you would stand firm, our ushers will come right now and we will receive our tithes and offerings, and if you are giving a bond with the Lord thank you if you would like to contribute an offering for our

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, you can do that too If you are a

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here this morning, you are under no obligation to give today, this is something we ask of everyone. those who are regulars here at Grace to contribute to what God is doing, aren't you glad that we can be a part of this Sunday today?

How wonderful that you say pastor, how did that happen? Good because you gave and because you are faithful. and giving we can be part of days like today now this is your place to deliver this connection card with information and if you would like to be in the drawing for Jace's book good call I just read the subtitle reflections on the family of faith and lack , okay, make sure you write down your information and we'll text you here in the next few minutes during the winter and you can pick up that book on the way out, so let's pray and then we'll give today, Lord.

Thank you for everything we have received, everything you have given us through this service and, above all, God, thank you for Jesus and for God, we pray today as we take the next step of following you, we pray Lord. God, you give us courage to do it and help us, so God, in the name of Jesus. Amen. I mean, hold firm while we receive the offering, if you don't mind, let me just give you a couple words of instructions on the way out if this is your first time. time here we're going to say goodbye here in a moment and then you'll leave when you leave you'll leave along the south edge of the parking lot and we'll ask everyone to go to the second turn around at 31 okay everyone says second second turn around now there is a small cut through this very small one that you will be tempted to cut, please don't do that because you will go backwards, trace the traffic, kind of like the deal. freedom festival last night we don't want to be a part of that and it could actually get dangerous so go to that runoff, everyone say second, okay and that will help you understand if you are, if you are going north, if you are going south or that way, God bless you, continue and we thank you for that, so we really appreciate it.

Let me encourage you if you are not part of a church, we would love to have you here. Grace, we are on this journey of following Jesus together and there is a reason why our church name is grace because that is our story, that is our testimony and we would love for you to be a part of that so thank you so much for doing so. , thank you. for those of you who gave today, how many are glad you came to church today so that the Lord may bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you and have mercy on you, may God lift up his face upon you and give them. peace we bless you in the name of Jesus Christ go with God thank you for coming have a wonderful day