Are You Ready to Meet God?

The title of the message is, are you ready to meet God? Start off your New Year's thinking with a very light subject. Got to get us woken up here a little bit as you're suffering through your Christmas coma and all the food you shouldn't have eaten and the sugar is still circulating in your body. My family and I were recently in New York, and we saw some amazing sites. Buildings so tall that they literally disappeared in the clouds. A Christmas tree with over 50,000 light bulbs; that's over five miles of Christmas lights. So men, you can put more on the tree. Many amazing rooftop views; much taller than anything nearby here. I saw 150 people in line, 150 people in line, for pizza, in the rain, on a Thursday night. That would be a very unusual sight in Purcellville.

Something else that was amazing to me, was that as we were walking around these outdoor shopping plazas and skating rinks in the park – Bryant Park and Central Park, all these places. They were playing legit Christmas songs, singing about the birth of Jesus Christ. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is playing in New York and there's Christmas decorations everywhere. They were honoring Jesus in their music. Now they are also the capital of marketing. So, take it for however you like. But it was amazing to listen to those beautiful words in unexpected places. We saw things we had never seen before either. (And don't worry, there is a sermon coming.) For instance, I now know it's possible to fit a thousand people on about five feet of sidewalk. I did not know that was possible before, and still be able to move. There was beautiful architecture. I love seeing architectural buildings and marvels. Buildings of steel and glass, ornate design. Modern buildings that sloped like a hillside. Buildings with sharp edges and buildings with no edges. They were all round.

There was one building though that surpassed them all. By far. It was St. Patrick's Cathedral. Here I saw many things for the first time. I heard my first, I guess you'd call it a sermon or homily, by a monk. He was talking about Jesus from John chapter one. We heard nuns and monks singing beautiful songs. The ornate architecture from 1878 was stunning to say the least. The building spire rose over 300 feet. And this church, this building, takes up an entire city block there. It's very, very hard to miss. Inside, it's open to the public. They had many stations every 15 feet or so. So, about the size of two windows over here. Maybe eight feet deep. It’s just ornate with ivory, and icons, and statues that you could pray to.

In the back was a sign behind this place. It's about 300 feet long too. So, in the in the back. There was a sign encouraging people to pray for the dead bishops who were buried in the crypt there. And you look past the sign and there's a stairway leading down to where the archbishops are. On one side was a confessional and there were just random people there in line to go, and I guess, confess their sins to the priest. But the most surprising thing was the modern methods of accepting offerings. I guess it might have given me a few ideas. They have QR codes everywhere. Plastered about every three feet on the back of their beautiful benches, and pews, are QR codes. There’s a big sticker with five of them. And one is to learn about the history of the church. And another is to get the daily reading. That is some serious amount of updating going on. And another one is to, of course, tithe. And they accept Apple Pay, and all forms of major credit cards there as well. I think we're falling a little behind on that. But it was very interesting, very modern, in a sense from this building.

There were other things that I had never seen before in a church. There were coin vending machines. So, you could get what they call metals for $4. Again, you could just swipe your card, and you could get an imprint of Mary on a coin, and take it with you. You could also buy a candle (about that big) for $3 and light it and put it in a prayer offering. You could also give cash, those were all over the place. It was just confusing to be in there. As someone preached and as someone talked about Jesus and sung about Jesus, and then the glowing QR code machines, and coin machines, and money candles. The building was paid off in 1910, by the way. So, you might think, wow, they have a lot of expenses. I'm sure property taxes alone are outrageous. Everything in New York is outrageous, right? But it was this veneer of religiosity.

And while it would take months to study the design, and to even comprehend the amount of effort that was put in, to just have one service. Now thousands of people shuffling through, and some in the pews listening, and some praying, and in all kinds of stuff going on. You could go through the stages of the cross and be encouraged to pray to different saints who are dead and that sort of thing. It was just a veneer, you know, a thin layer. But the layer took a lot of effort. You could not discount them for the effort that they put into things. You could not discount them and say, “Wow, they really made this place on the cheap.” You can look up the kings who donated silver to make this place happen. It's incredible. Their dedication is not surpassed by most of us. Right? They live there. That's what they do all the time. Not just a pastor who comes and studies, and preaches, and shepherds, and meets with people. Like they are there, all the time. You couldn't discount the time that they put in. Their building, you couldn't discount what they spent to make it appropriate for worship, as they defined it. But it was a false system of religiosity. And it was as striking as the building they were in.

Like their current Pope Francis who says that atheists are saved. That's a quote, who also says, “There's no Hell.” Who also says, “Muslims are going to heaven.” There is a form of religion but no substance. You cannot get to heaven, through a form of religion, through a dedication to a system, through a veneer of religiosity, through many prayers offered daily, through confessions of sin. None of those things get you to heaven. Judas confessed what he did was wrong.

As impressive as it was, it was false. You see, we want to make sure that we're ready to meet God. That we don't just show up with all of our truckload of trinkets and things that we've done. We want to know that we are ready, we want to know that we are going to be welcomed before Almighty God. When we stand before him and when we look into the eyes of our Lord who was crucified. We want to know; will he welcome us? Or will he say, “Depart from me, I have never known you.” You see, the thin coating of religiosity will melt away before the fire of God. He will test our works to see if they are pure. He will know our heart as he knows it now. And the true nature of our heart will be revealed as we stand before God and I want to ask you, are you ready to meet God? Are you 100% sure you are ready to meet God?

Well, Ephesians 2:1-10 is the passage in the New Testament to answer the question: “Are we ready to meet God?” It brings reality to many, in a negative way. And it brings great comfort to others who know their Savior. Today, you will know if you are right with God based on his Word. Open your Bibles, if you would, to Ephesians 2:1-10. This is Paul writing from prison to the churches in Ephesus around AD 62. And it was probably circulated to all of the small congregations. as we would call them, gatherings of God's people in the great city of Ephesus. And this is the part of Ephesians, the first three chapters, are “The Call of the Church.” Which sets up chapters four, five, and six, which is “The Conduct of the Church.” So we're in chapter two, “The Call of the Church.” Follow along as I read,

Ephesians 2:1–10
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

This is a summation of the gospel, and it is the Word of God. The first point that we need to consider as we think about, “Are we ready to meet God?” is that all people are considered dead in their sin. Dead in their sin. Not born a good person. Not born mostly good, or my good outweighs my bad, or whatnot. But dead in sin, that's Ephesians 2:1-3. You know, in Florida, where I was born, people have all kinds of exotic animals: rare birds, snakes, lizards, chameleons. People's homes are alive with pets. They're all over. In fact, they let some of them loose many years ago and now they invade the Everglades.

Now, think of the types of pets you wouldn't want at home. Right? Not the little fish. But what kind of pets wouldn't you want at home? Florida is known for those as well. Tigers – they’ve made shows about people who have those. Lions and cheetahs and alligators and king cobras – unless you're crazy in love with snakes, I guess. 99% of the people who do have these as pets, you know, might end up on the front page of the newspaper, you know, pet eats owner kind of thing. They're just some pets you don't want to have at home. No one's surprised by a headline like that, though. I mean, we actually watch those shows just wondering: is today their day? When the guy who raises the cute cuddly little bear, that's now like 900 pounds – which you can stab with a long knife and you just make it mad. You just wonder, is today going to be the day that the owner is lunch?

We understand this because we understand the nature of animals, especially the ones designed to eat meat. Right? They're designed to do what they do. When someone falls in the gorilla cage at the zoo, or some of them jump in there. I mean, some people just don't live long. But when they fall in there, you’re kind of like, “oh, no, are they still alive?” And it's this weird thing like, “I don't want to look but I do want to look.” Are they still down in the water? And what's the 800-pound Silverback doing with this little mushy thing made of bones and flesh. We understand what someone's nature is. When you look at an animal, it has a certain nature and it acts according to that nature. You would be very surprised if you fell in, or some people jump in, to the lions cage and the lion comes over and retracts the claws and just sits there and strokes the head of the 12 year old right? That would be against the lion’s nature. What you would be doing is hoping that someone has a rifle around.

You and I have our nature described in Ephesians 2:1-3. It's described like this, you can look at the end of verse three. We are “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” No one gets out of this assessment. No one. “By nature children of wrath,” that's how we act. It's part of who we are. We don't act contrary to it because we can't act contrary to it. So, the first thing we need to figure out in knowing are we ready to meet God? Is understanding the nature of our sinful self. Here's what is described. We were first of all, walking in sin. Look at verse two, “in which you once walked.” What did we walk in? Our “trespasses and sins.” That's what we did. We understood, or if we're not saved, we understand what we're doing is against God. We actively participated in the sinful thoughts and actions and desires of our nature because that's who we are. And we carried them out.

And it goes on and it says who we were following. We were not designed and good little people following Jesus just making bad decisions. It says that we were following the course of this world. This is still true of unbelievers today, following the course of this world. Who was leading the world? “The prince of the power of the air,” in verse two, “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Who is that? That's everyone. Everyone. Satan is still at work in those who are dead in sin. There’s only two options: following Satan or following Jesus. That's what the Scriptures portray. That is reality. And how then did we live? It says this, “we…lived in the passions of our flesh,” verse three, “among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.” Romans 8:8 says, “Those who are in the flesh [i.e. the sinful flesh] cannot please God.” Think about that. There is no way to please God as an unbeliever. Not one single way.

We carried out the desires of the body and the mind. Not just a time or two, our whole being was involved. That's what that's trying to say. That our entire faculty, everything that we are, everything that we think, our hearts desires, our motivations. We carry those out purposefully. And we were by nature children of wrath.

You are not just known as someone who wasn’t perfect. You can say, “Well, nobody's perfect.” It's maybe one of the only true phrases the world comes up with. That is true. But the guilty and the unrepentant are the ones who normally say that. It's a way to get off the hook. “We're just like everybody else.” And what they're doing is they're squarely placing themselves in Ephesians 2:1-3, that's where they're jumping into this category, saying, “Well, nobody's perfect.” And you're right, no one is perfect. But the entire nature was sinful. Now, some may sin more than others, some are really good at it. They design their entire lives around it. They hide here and hide there or think this and think that. And there's this outer shell, this veneer, that protects them from people understanding who they really are, and what's really in their hearts.

But God's description of everyone is that we are “children of wrath.” Now do you think that's kind to say that? Is that kind of God to describe every single person he's ever created as a child of wrath? “Like the rest of mankind,” just in case we think, “Well, I’m not as bad as that person.” No, you're a child of wrath too. But friends, this is important to understand our need for salvation. Our need for salvation. Remember, the pet tiger. It just does what it's designed to do. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Everyone. There's only one who has never sinned. In fact, what that actually means is there's only one who knows the true force of resisting sin their entire life. Sin builds, the pressure builds. And as you give into it, now the pressure is gone for a while. Like, “Ah, that was that was great.” But Jesus constantly rejected sin, he constantly got his heart directed towards God. Always and ever. Colossians 2:13, talks about people being “dead in [their] trespasses” and sins as well. It's not just Ephesians, it's not just Romans, it's also in Colossians. It's other places as well. But this is how Scripture describes all people.

He could have just stopped with “and you are dead in your trespasses.” Dead people don't do much. The bishops in the crypt, they're just dead. There they are, their bodies are there, their souls are not. But dead people don't move. You can't ask them to go get you a drink of water. The only thing they do is decay. That is how we are pictured in sin. And if you miss that point, you're going to not understand salvation. There's no way to understand salvation if you don't understand the nature of sin. Because you're going to think as a dead person in sin that you can, on your own, go to God; or you can, on your own, be right before God. But that's impossible.

So, the first step in being ready to meet God is being real with ourselves. People know you, they know me. They know if we're fake and just mailing it in. But even if we've got people fooled, God knows. And he doesn't just say, “Well, I really like you. So come on in.” No! No! We are indeed sinful and can't do anything about it. That's the whole point of Ephesians 2:1-3.

Now Ephesians 2:4-8 is where the good news starts. They are some of my favorite verses in all of Scripture. So far, we've seen our complete inability to do anything that pleases God. And next we'll see how God has made us alive because of his mercy, and his love, and his grace, and his kindness. Point number two is that “We are Made Alive in Christ.” And this is Ephesians 2:4-7. And a little note for you Bible theology nerds out there, verses one through seven is one sentence in the Greek. Okay, so you can't get out of any of it. It's all packed together in one gigantic, what would look like a run on sentence in English. Let me read Ephesians 2:4 again, “But God,” notice the contrast. We are in verses one through three, “But God” starts in verse four. [Ephesians 2:4-5] “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,” there it is again, “made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.” God made us alive! He made us alive.

When Jesus called out to Lazarus and Lazarus walked out of the tomb. Was everybody looking at Lazarus going, “Wow, you're amazing. You got out of the cave. I've got some people I need you to talk to. I've got some people who have passed away I want you to teach them how to come out of the cave too”? No, everyone was looking at Jesus like, “Who is this that just speaks and dead people come to life?” But God made us alive! God made us alive! That's the main thrust of this entire section of Scripture: that it's all about God and his work in our lives. You may be used to listening to preachers online or famous preachers who just kind of go on and on and they're just all hype. They're all veneer. Beautiful oration, lovely messages, they would never call a sermon, would never focus on verses one through three, but would focus on your faith and your love for God – that somehow must have magically come to you as a dead person. And they would spin wonderful phrases. Maybe you're used to that, but I want you to feast on what God's Word actually says. This is what transforms anyone who is a Christian. This is what makes them alive in Christ. The emphasis here is on God and his actions.

Notice, we haven't talked about our faith yet. But we're already alive. Ephesians 2:4 talks about God's mercy, “rich in mercy”. We need his mercy. Amen? We need his grace. We need something from him that we don't have within ourselves. And I want you to just remind yourself of that. Remind yourself of the mercy that God has. He is rich in it, you cannot sin too much. Maybe you've met someone who says, “Oh, God wouldn't want me. You have no idea what I've done.” Well, God already knows what you've done. And he will provide the mercy you need and the grace you need to be saved. He can provide the complete forgiveness for anything you've ever done, thought, or said, or will do. But if you don't understand the depth of what we call your depravity, you will simply focus on your own understanding. Maybe a prayer you made as a child? Maybe reading a verse as a child? Some children gets saved early. But if asked later, “Why are you saved?” And they talk about praying some words, and not the grace of God, then I would doubt they are saved.

Notice here, the focus is on God's love. What does it say in verse four? What is the motivation of God saving us? It's given to us in verse four. You can't find yourself there. Right? We were in verses one through three, [verse 4] “But God being rich in mercy because of…” what? Because of his “great love.” That's the motivation for him saving you: his love. Not your decision. Not your raising the hand, although some people might have gotten saved that way. Not the veneer, not the diligence, not the dedication, not the amount of money you give or don't give, not the amount of time you spend or don't spend. Not how prideful we are or how humble we are. Because of the great love with which He loves us. [this could be a good clip option]

When did that happen? Verse five, what does it say in verse five, “even when,” what? “even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive.” This is the very definition of grace. The unmerited favor of God when we deserve nothing. When you stand before God, you can be confident in him if you have placed your faith and your trust in Christ for salvation. But if you place your faith and your trust in that you're a good person, or you just come to church, or maybe you serve sometimes, or… Then you're trusting in yourself, you should be scared, very scared. Let me ask you a question: How does God, who hates sin and unrighteousness, have a great love for people who have turned their back on him? If you're dead in sin, you're facing this way and God is over here. We are children of wrath. We are following, who? God? No, following the course of this world, not the Lord Jesus Christ. How can God place his love on someone like that, who was following the plan of Satan? Because of his love, because of HIS love, to reach over to where you are, and bring you to himself.

This is not a new idea in the church. This is not a new idea in the New Testament writings. The Old Testament is replete with this kind of language. I want to read to you a few verses out of Psalm 5, written a thousand years before our passage in Ephesians. Okay, this is a Psalm written by King David. And I want you to listen: How does David think he is going to be close to God? Psalm 5:4-6, “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness.” Listen to this, “evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD [that's Yahweh],” Yahweh, “abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.”

This would kill the ratings of a lot of the popular preachers. Now listen to how David thinks he will be near to God: [Psalm 5:7] “But I, through the abundance of [what?] your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.” David knows the only way he can approach a holy God is through God's love for him. Notice in verse five, most people have never heard that before. I just heard this from a group of Christian men who, they're all over 60, they're all agreeing “that God hates the sin but loves the sinner.” I'm sorry, but that's the most unbiblical phrase that you've ever heard, it's not in Scripture. It's not there. So, if your preacher says that, show him Psalm 5:5, “you hate all evildoers.” Sin is not this abstract, being devoid of people, sin is something we do. Sin is a description of how we think or live. There is no sin without a person committing the sins. You can't just go, “Oh that's just sin, that's not the person.” No, the sin is the person in action, in thought, in deed, and in word, and that's how they live and that's who they are. Christ didn't die for an idea to go away, he died for sinful people. You all should have been saying, “Amen!” at that one.

It's God's love who saves sinners. Dead sinners, dead in their sin. His love is magnificent. It's transformative. It is not sterile. It is not impotent. It is active. You remember that phrase: the Word is active, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to divide bone and marrow, able to see the thoughts and intentions of the heart? This is what God's grace does. When you recognize yourself in Ephesians 2:1-3, all we can do is look to God and say, “But God, I bring nothing but my sin. What do you got?” And he brings his love and forgiveness. Being saved by grace is like being saved by someone driving you out of a forest on fire. Your faith is the car. God's in the driver's seat and you're just riding along. When you get out of the forest fire and you're unscathed. Do you look at the car and say, “thanks!”? No, you look at the one who drove the car and you say, “Thanks! I was just here, I was just sitting in this vehicle, and someone took it and took me where I didn't want to go. And they led me where I didn't want to go and they took me to this place. Because I've been transformed by God's grace and His love.” Who made you alive? A car can do nothing on its own.

Once you have understood this first sentence, in Ephesians 2:1-7, only then can you understand Ephesians 2:8-10. We know that we were dead in sin and we know that we were made alive through Christ. And now we can understand this gift of grace. Look in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Faith is the way you receive the gift of grace. Faith is the way you receive the gift of grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” that's the way you receive grace. And what comes after this, when it says you've been “saved through faith,” what's the very next sentence? And this is what? “not your own doing.” Not your own doing. Many a pulpit would be shut down by just parking on that phrase. This is not your own doing. Another way of saying that is found at the end of verse eight: It's the gift of God. It's a gift, you don't earn gifts. You simply receive them. We can't earn something that is grace-oriented. You can be paid for what you've done. But you don't want that. You don't want to receive what's coming to you. See what we deserve, if you really want justice, if you've broken one law, you're guilty of all. Do you want the penalty for breaking all? That's justice. See, we don't want justice, we want grace.

You say, “Is my faith a work, even? Maybe, you know, the works-based salvation? Maybe the guy on the cross, maybe his faith was his work?” “Not a result of works,” verse nine. Put that to rest. There is no way to earn your salvation. There's no way to earn what Catholicism calls “merited favor.” There is no way to do that, it's not a result of works. That would make salvation not a gift, that would make it not something of grace, that would make it something you have earned. If you've earned it, what is Jesus necessary for? If you earned your salvation through your decision, then when you stand before God, you're going to say, “God, look what I did.” And he's going to say, “No, you should have looked at what my Son did.” You see, you can't have it both ways. You can't have it that you're right with God because of what you've done. You can only have it that you're right with God because of the Son, what he's done. We must understand that we receive all we need in Christ. Everything!

Let me put it another way, you have no need to walk around feeling guilty about trying to earn your salvation because we all fall short. And when you sin, you simply need to consider the rich mercy of God, the abundant grace of God. Say, “Lord God, I've sinned again, I need to confess my sin to you, not to some priest, to you.” The Lord Jesus is the one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, that's, that's the Mediator. The Holy Spirit helps me to pray in ways I can't even understand. And when Jesus is there at the right hand of the Father, he is our Advocate, praying for us as our Advocate. Which means he knows we're sinful and still in need of someone to plead on our behalf. He's there at the right hand of God, accepted by the Father.

There's no boasting about salvation. Ephesians 2:9, “so that no one may boast.” If someone asks you, “Why are you saved?” And you start with word “I.” “I did this, I did that.” You're in trouble, real trouble. But if someone says, “Why are you saved?” And you say, “Only by the grace of God. I have turned from my sin, by the grace of God. I have trusted in Jesus, by the grace of God. And I am only saved, by the grace of God.” You have cause for rejoicing. You have cause for great rejoicing. Many people struggle with their assurance of salvation. Scripture is clear that those who love God obey him. And those who struggle with their salvation focus mostly on their own lives, and their own thoughts, and their own deeds. And while Scripture does say, “you will know them by their fruits.” And Jesus to his disciples said, “that you are to love one another and so prove you are my disciples.” You will be able to see fruit in someone's life. We need look no further than the cross of Christ for our assurance. Just ask God, “Was there enough room on that cross for my sin? Was there enough room on that cross for all the things I've ever thought and done? Was there enough room for that? That is true rejoicing. To know that Jesus has paid it all. Not most of it. Not started it. Not giving you a burning in the bosom. Like are friendly door knockers.

He's paid it all. He's loved you that much. You say, “Now that I'm saved. Now what?” That's verse 10. Notice this comes after salvation, not before. And it doesn't get you to be saved. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God [already] prepared…” You don't have to even drum it up in your mind. God's prepared these things for you. He has created and crafted you. The word means you are his craftsmanship. You are created just the way God wants you to be so that you can live for Jesus. And everyone who is saved, does live for Jesus. Those who are saved, see these verses and they find great comfort. They go, “God, how could you use anyone like me to do anything for your glory?” And they look at verse 10 and they say, “Well, you've created me like this, for good works. Therefore, I will bring you glory in all of my life. All of my thoughts, all of my deeds.” They recognize God's life and live it out. It is these people who are ready to meet God.

In conclusion, as you consider how to live in 2024. The first thing you need to answer is: Are you ready to meet God? Because there's a lot of people that didn't make it to 2024. And they're wishing they would have put that on their priority list. Exercise, eat better, by all means. But if you aren’t ready to meet God, it doesn't matter what shape you're in. It doesn't matter how much money you make. It doesn't matter where you live, what you do, who likes you, who follows you, who anything. You just need to be right with God. That's the first step. And if you're not 100% sure you're saved by grace, that little prayer as an eight year old child keeps coming to your mind to firm up that you’re saved, you need to get saved. You need to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and trust in him alone for your salvation.

For those who are already God's children, I want you to consider this in 2024, I want you to consider sharing Jesus Christ with others. The folks at our church, this has been on their mind for a while, and so they made these little tract cards. On the front, it just says, “Who is Jesus?” and there's a little QR code. So, we're catching up a little bit. There's a QR code there, that they can get answers to their questions, it takes them to our website, which has this information on it. On the back, it answers the question, “Who is Jesus?” and it walks them through the Gospel. And there are Scripture verses there for you. If you need to remind yourself of the Gospel, and to walk yourself through it. But I would encourage you, don't take 100, just take five. Just take five, or take two, and hand them out before the end of January. Make some spiritual progress that you are going to walk in the good works that Jesus has already predestined. If you want to see God working, ask him. Say, “Lord, show me an unbeliever that I can witness to, I just want to find one person that is not saved. Help me to find one, Lord.”

God will answer that prayer. Very quickly. And then: “Lord, give me the courage to let the Word do its work in their lives, to share the gospel with them, to tell them enough that they can go from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. To tell them that they need to confess their sins to Jesus Christ and be saved. That salvation only comes through God's grace.” And then they can rejoice knowing that one day they will meet God. And they will stand before him being seen with the perfect righteousness of Christ. As though they were holy and perfect. And God will change us and complete us. And we will live with him forever. And rejoice with all those who have done the same.

So, consider talking to your family, or your neighbors, or a coworker, someone who doesn't know Jesus. And offer them the greatest gift they could ever receive. And tell them that you love them. And you will pray for them, that they would be ready to meet God. Let's pray.

Father God, I pray that everyone here would know exactly where they stand with you. To know that we will give an account of every deed and every careless word whether we're saved or not. And Lord, I just pray that no one walks out of here unsaved. That we don't play the games of ornate religiosity but that we fully trust in you for our salvation and live transformed lives. Father, what a joy and a privilege it is to preach the Word, to hear these wonderful truths.

And now let's just take a moment and pray to God and make sure you're ready to meet him.

Lord God, out of your great love you have loved us and sent your Son, Jesus Christ, that we might know you. Father, I pray that is true of everyone here. In your precious, holy Name. Amen.