The Word of Assurance

And that is one of the songs by the way that's available for free download at our website TLC.org/crosswords because last weekend we started a brand new series Crosswords. We are looking at the words that Jesus spoke on the cross and in doing this we are joining millions of Christians all around the globe who use these few weeks before Easter to think about the words that Jesus said on the cross before he died. There's seven final sayings on the cross and we're looking at them during this season of Lent.

To help make this sort of an immersive experience for you, we're providing you with all kinds of free resources. For example, you can pick up this book of 49 daily meditations that our staff wrote. Every single day there's a prayer, and there's scripture to read, and there's something to meditate on. This will really help you focus on those seven final sayings outside of the sermons here in church. You can pick these up for free at the table in the lobby whether you're watching here in the auditorium or you're over in the venue service. If you're watching online, you can also get these online for free at TLC.org/crosswords.

We also have free small group questions you can use in your home with your family too. Additionally, we have those downloads; every single week we're going to add another song that's available as a free download that our worship team has either written or arranged and then recorded. It's very exciting! Why are we doing all this? Well, there is just something that happens to you when you really soak in, ruminate on, and meditate on the words of Christ from the cross.

So let's ask our Savior to bless this time as we focus on the second saying from the cross. Would you bow your heads with me? Lord, we just ask you to speak to each one of us today as you spoke from the cross. Those who had ears to hear heard you say profound, world-changing things. So God, wherever we are at today, I pray that we would have ears to hear your voice. Amen.

So I opened up the paper yesterday and I see this headline: "Life Lessons from Death 101." This is in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, and it talks about college courses that are being offered that discuss how to die well. These courses talk about when you die—which you will, hate to break it to you—but when you die, what kind of a will do you want to leave? What kind of last words do you want to say to your family and your friends? These are offered to college students, and when they were first offered, maybe this trend started three or four years ago, according to the article, people thought, well, nobody's gonna want to go to a class about how to die well. But these classes are always filled to capacity. It talks about one university where there is a three-year waiting list for a class about how to die well.

Well, I want to talk to you today about the most important thing that you have to prepare in order to die well. If you missed anything else in one of these classes, do not miss what I'm gonna talk about this morning. It all came to light for me when I got a phone call here at the church. I actually heard it on my answering machine: an old raspy voice saying, "Pastor, I want you to come to my house, please. I'm dying. Please come." I recognized the voice; it was an elderly man who had served here as an usher for many years. He'd also taught Sunday school here for many years, was a faithful attender, and I knew that he was on death's door. He was actually under hospice care, and so I was eager to come and see him.

I'll never forget knocking on his door. He had a beautiful home right on the cliffs on East Cliff Drive, and he welcomed me in. When I walked into the house, it was humid, it was warm, it was clear he jacked up the thermostat to try to ward off the chill of death. But then as I walked into his living room, it was clear that even that wasn't successful because he was huddled in an old recliner under two or three layers of blankets, still just shivering. As I came into the room, he dismissed his hospice worker, asked her to leave, and dismissed his wife, asked her to leave the room. He said, "I just want to talk to René." So I thought, all right, I wonder what he's gonna say.

He beckoned me with one hand, and when I walked up to him, he grabbed my forearm like this, and with the other hand, he put it behind my neck and pulled me closer and closer. As I came closer, I could see his eyes just got really wide and fearful. He pulled my ear next to his mouth and he said, "How do I really know? How do I really know?" I said, "Well, how do you really know what?" He said, "How do I really know that God is going to let me into heaven?" He said, "I've done so much. I tried so hard. I was an usher here, and I volunteered in Sunday school, and I gave and I served." But he said, "Now there's nothing more I can do, Pastor. Now I'm done, and I just want to know: was it enough? Was it enough?"

What would you have told him? How would you know if you were in that situation? How do you know for sure where you are going to go when you die? You talk about preparing for death; I mean, that is the most basic question you can ask, right? Well, today I want to show you the two passages of scripture that I went to with this man. The first one is one of the final sayings of Jesus Christ from the cross. It's what's called the word of assurance, and it's in Luke's account in Luke 23. If you have your message notes, you can pull those out. If you have your Bibles, open them to Luke 23 because this passage that we're gonna look at this morning is one of the most important texts that you could ever study. This text of the Bible talks about the assurance that you can have about where you are going to go when you die.

This text talks about how you can be certain, and as your pastor, as your friend, I really, really want you to know what the Bible has to say about this because I never want to see that look of fear in the face of anyone again who is a regular attender here at Twin Lakes Church. I mean, this man had been coming here for years, and I know from this pulpit he heard the words I'm going to tell you before; he probably heard them many times. But he'd been an usher, he taught Sunday school, he'd been a regular attender, he was a Christian, and yet he had zero assurance. I don't want that to happen to you, so I want you to listen today as if your life depends on it because in many ways, it does.

So first, I want to look at the setting for this because it's fascinating. The scene is this: Mark set it up last weekend when he kicked off the crossword series with a look at all the mockery, all the torture, all the horrors that Jesus Christ went through when he was being crucified. Then, how in spite of all of that, as Mark said last weekend, he says in the first saying from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," while they are in the process of doing the worst thing that has ever been done to anyone ever. You wonder how could the people around him not be moved by that, right? Well, someone was, and it was the least likely person there.

The Bible says that crucified with Jesus were two other guys, two criminals. Mark puts it this way: Mark 15:27, "They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left." By the way, you usually hear people talking about the two thieves, right? That's a phrase all used because it's a phrase that most of us Christians are familiar with. But "rebels" used here in the New International Translation is probably a better translation. The Greek words are even stronger. Greek scholars tell us that Matthew and Mark use a word which means armed robbers, and Luke calls them "kakur guy," which means those who do evil works. In other words, these guys aren't pickpockets; these guys weren't little petty thieves that the Romans, in their horrible sadism, crucified. These were violent men; they were merciless men; they were murderers. In those days, we would call them murderous gang members because there was a big problem in the first-century Judean area. There were these roving bands of thieves who would rob people, beat them up, and often kill them for their possessions, and that's probably who these guys were.

And guess what they do? It says those crucified with him also heaped insults at him. That's how evil these guys were. They're hanging to the right and the left of Jesus Christ, and they're going, "You beeping bleep jerks," cursing, mocking him while they're being crucified. That's how bad they were; that's how dark their hearts were; that's how contagious the hatred was that Mark talked about last weekend. Everybody's just heaping scorn; it's a mob mentality. But all of a sudden, one of them grows silent; one of them gets clarity. Although Matthew, Mark, and Luke all talk about the three crosses, only Luke records the dialogue that I'm gonna give you next, and I think there's a reason.

Traditionally, Matthew and Mark's source for what happened at the cross was Peter. Scholars tell us that Mark's source was Peter; Mark was a disciple of Peter's, and so Peter's describing what he saw. Remember, he had run away, so if Peter's seeing this as an eyewitness, he's seeing this from a great distance, right? All Peter hears is that the two thieves are just heaping scorn on Jesus Christ. He can't hear exactly what they're saying, but he can see it from a distance. Matthew uses Mark as his source, so there's this description. But Luke says at the beginning of his gospel that he interviewed eyewitnesses, and one of his eyewitnesses that he interviewed was apparently Mary, the mother of Jesus, because he knows details about Jesus' birth that only Mary would have known. He knows details here about what happened at the cross that Mary would have known because Mary, remember, is there at the foot of the cross. She's not just hearing it from a distance; she's hearing the conversation.

What Mary sees and hears is this: at one point, it's only one of the thieves anymore who's heaping abuse. One of the criminals hanging beside Jesus hurled insults at him: "If you are the Messiah, prove it by saving yourself and us" in Luke 23:39. Now stop there for just a second, and in your notes or in your Bibles or something, circle the words "if you are" and "prove it." He's saying, "Yeah, I believe in you. Stop my pain, and I'll believe in you." I just have to say so many people keep doing this to God: "If you're real, prove it. Save me in the way I want you to save me. Fulfill my immediate need right now. If you are real, stop the pain. Give me back my boyfriend or my girlfriend. Cure my cancer. Do what I want you to do, and then I'll believe." Then we say, "I don't believe in God." Why not? He didn't come through for me.

But think of it: when I demand God do what I want him to do, what I'm asking for is an omnipotent God, an all-powerful God who doesn't know any better than I do. We're asking for a super powerful being with a little tiny head who cannot see any further than I can see over the horizon about what's good for me. Of course, that being doesn't exist. If there is a God, he's not only a lot more powerful than you; he knows a lot more than you do about what's ahead for you and what's best for you.

Now the second criminal's attitude is totally different, and let's see how this story unfolds. There on page two of your notes, he's watching all of this happen: the torture, the mockery, that first saying, "Father, forgive them," and he does a complete 180 right there. Moments before he's about to die, his story reminds me honestly of my own grandmother. She was Swiss; she was an intellectual, probably the most creative person I've ever known in my life, and an atheist. She absolutely mocked my mother's newfound Christianity. When we would go back over to Switzerland and visit, we would stay there for the whole summer for three months—my little sister and I and my widowed mom, the three of us would be praying at dinner and would be talking to my grandmother about Jesus, and she would mock us literally. I mean, like with swear words: "Don't tell me about your bleeping Jesus Christ" in Swiss German. That's a bunch of bleep. I mean, most kids learn those kinds of swear words from their junior high friends; I learned them from my grandmother. Seriously, she never wanted to hear about it.

Well, in her 80s, she had a series of mild strokes, but one after another ended up robbing her of more and more capability to speak until at the end she could not speak more than one word at a time. We didn't know what she was thinking because she couldn't speak more than one word. My mom went over there to take care of her, and one day she sat down on the bed next to my grandmother and she said, "Mom, I know that you've made it clear over the years that you don't want to hear anything about Jesus, but I just have to ask you if you'd like to receive Christ into your life. I know you can't speak, but just pray this prayer in your heart with me." And she prays a brief prayer: "Dear Jesus, I know I've pushed you away my whole life, but I receive you into my heart now. Amen." She looks up, and my grandmother is rocking back and forth, tears of joy streaming down her face, and she's saying, "Yes, yes, yes! Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!" This woman who literally for like 85 years of her life has mocked Jesus in one instant just becomes a lover of Jesus.

You see that exact thing happening here with this second criminal. He's no theologian; he doesn't know a whole lot. He's lived an entire life of crime. He has literally just been not mocking Jesus like 60 seconds before, but now five things dawn on him, and these five things make an eternal difference at the very last minute of his life. Jot these down:

Number one, he knows, "I'll face God." I'm gonna face God when I die. He turns to his friend and says, "Don't you fear God?" In other words, how can you treat God so casually even when you're dying? He knew he'd face God that day. "I've been running from him my whole life, and that's about to stop." Now you might look at this and think that doesn't apply to me, but you know, I just checked the most recent statistics last night: in North America, it's still true that the mortality rate is 100%. You are going to die. I don't like to talk about it, but you are. And listen, like this article said, only a fool would go through life unprepared for something he knows is inevitable. The reason a lot of people treat God so casually is like the first criminal; they don't really think about this: "I'll face God. I'm gonna be accountable for everything else I've done in my whole life."

Then the second thing this man suddenly sees with clarity is, "And I'm a sinner." I'm a sinner. In verse 41, he says, "We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve." This is called confession, and this is the path to healing. He says, "What I deserve is punishment." The point is this is true of every single one of us. We are all lawbreakers when it comes to God's law. You might say, "Well, I'm offended at that. Not me." Hey, listen, it only takes one crime to be a criminal, right? It only takes one broken law to be a lawbreaker. It only takes one committed sin to be a sinner, right? You and I just need to own up to that: we have not kept God's law perfectly, and what we deserve is judgment for that.

Now here's the thing: that usher who called me to his house, I know he definitely believed these first two points. I mean, he had these first two points down, and he was scared to death. If I just ended the sermon here, that would be one horrible sermon, right? Good morning, welcome to church, you're gonna face God when you die, and you all are sinners. The end. Right? That would be terrible. Unfortunately, I hear that's about the length of some sermons in a lot of places. But that's not where the Bible ends. There's three more things this man realizes, and here comes the hope. He realizes, "I'm a sinner, but Jesus is different." Jesus is different. He says, "But this man has done nothing wrong." Question: have you ever met anybody in your life that you can say this about? Can you think of anybody you've ever met ever about whom you can say, "This person, this man, this woman has done nothing wrong?"

No, you can't, because we're on a broken planet, and we're all imperfect except this man. I believe he's really not just saying he's not worthy; Jesus didn't do anything deserving crucifixion. I believe he's saying he's done nothing wrong because remember, Jesus was famous. Jesus was what we would call today a celebrity at the time. Scholars believe that there were millions of people who came into Jerusalem for the Passover at the festival every single year. The Bible says that the people who came in for the Passover were all waving palm branches a week before this when Jesus came into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry. So millions of people in Judea and the surrounding areas know Jesus; they know his reputation; they know about his miracles. Now he's hanging on the cross, and this man is saying, "Listen, Jesus Christ is a perfect 100%, 10 when it comes to sinlessness." Something dawns on him there: if I'm going to die right now, that is the man I want on my side. It's him.

And that's the fourth thing he realizes: "Jesus can save me." Jesus can save me if I just ask. Remember, this man saw what the crowd was doing to him, and he hears Jesus say, "Father, forgive them." "Man, I want to be in on that!" Then he says, "Jesus, remember me." Now what's all that about? "Jesus, remember me?" Is he saying, "Don't forget my face. Don't forget my name?" Though I don't know if you remember, there was an atheist blogger who was coming through Santa Cruz, and he was a good writer. He was blogging about his visits, his weekly visits to different churches a few years ago, and he visited Twin Lakes Church. I'm happy to say he gave us a good review, so that was very good. But one of the things that confused him about our church services was we sang a song that day that said, "Remember your people, remember your children, remember us, Oh God." He said, "That makes no sense because if you believe in God, you believe that he knows everything. So why would these people be afraid that God's gonna forget them? Why would they sing, 'God, remember them?'"

Well, in the Old Testament, whenever people say, "Remember me," they're not saying, "God, remember my face or my name." They're saying, "God, help me. God, save me. Come through for me." "Remember me" is an expression that means, "God, I'm throwing myself on your mercy. I cannot do this. Save me." Samson prays this when he's being tortured: "God, remember me. Give me back my strength." Hannah prays this when she wants a baby: "God, remember me. Give me a son." The psalmist prays this when he wants to be forgiven of his sins: "God, remember me." So this is a little two-word prayer of salvation because this guy knows he can't do anything to save himself. I mean, literally, he can't do anything. His hands and feet are nailed to a board; he can't come down off the cross in atone for his sin. He can't come down off the cross and do a bunch of good charitable works to make up for all the bad he's done. He has no hope at all. There is nothing he can do. Like that fearful usher, he's done. So he simply says, "Jesus, remember me," because he knows it's all by grace.

Now I want you to get this because this is extremely important. There are some people, some well-meaning Christians, who will tell you that there are certain words you have to say to be saved. There's a certain formula prayer you have to say; there's a certain ritual that you have to recite; there's certain phrases that you have to get in there, and if they're not in your prayer, it doesn't count, and you're not getting into heaven. I just want to tell you they're wrong because this guy just says, "Remember me." He's no theologian; he does not understand a lot of what's going on there at the cross. He doesn't say the word atonement; he doesn't say the word justification; he doesn't say the word propitiation, for that matter. He doesn't say the words, "I accept," "I receive," "I believe." He doesn't even say, "I repent." He just says, "Remember me." The point being this: what counts is not the words you say; what counts is your heart. What's the direction of your heart? That's what matters.

Rick Warren tells the story of a Wycliffe Bible translator who worked for eight years in a village in Central America, a Native American group there that did not have any written language. So he worked for eight years to decipher their language and to get it written down, and then he translated two of the gospels. Every day, as he was using people in the villages to help him translate his words and to learn the grammar, he was sharing his faith with these people. They'd ask him why he was doing this, and he'd tell them why about Jesus and what he came to do. You know how after eight years, you know how many people had become Christians in that village? Zero. None. So the guy feels like a failure; his work is done now, and after eight years, he's going back to Texas where Wycliffe headquarters is to get reassigned. Right before he leaves, he hears that one of his workers there, a man named Juan, had had a heart attack, and it's pretty bad. He's been airlifted to a field hospital; they've got him on oxygen. So he decides, "I'm gonna go visit Juan."

He goes to visit him, and much like my mom with my grandma, he sits down on the bed next to Juan and he says, "Juan, I don't even know if you can hear me, but do you remember how I told you about Jesus and how God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross and to rise again? Do you remember that story?" Juan, under oxygen, heavy sedation, says, "See, see." So the missionary says, "Juan, would you like to receive Jesus Christ into your heart right now?" "See." So he prays a prayer and says, "Amen." When he looks up, Juan's completely dozed off again; he doesn't know how much got through. So he goes back home, comes back about three years later to the village to say hello to some of his friends, and he sees this thriving church in the village. Everybody's headed to church; it's Sunday morning; they're all excited about it. So he asks them, "Well, what missionary came to share the word with you? This is very exciting!" And they go, "No missionary came."

Well, how who started this church? "Well, it was Juan. He got better." He says, "What?" He says, "Yeah, he got better, and he talked about the fact that he received Jesus Christ that day when you visited him in the hospital. He grabbed the gospels that you guys translated together, and he started this church, and now most of the village is Christian." So here's a question for you: how many words does it take to become a Christian? See, that's about it because that's what it is. It's saying yes to God. That's all it is. It's saying yes: I know I'm gonna face you and be responsible for everything I've done. Yes, I know I'm not perfect; I'm a sinner, and I've done some bad things. Yes, I know Jesus is different; Jesus is unique, the one and only. Yes, and I know Jesus can save me. Yes, it's giving as much of yourself as you understand to as much of God as you understand. Hey, for the rest of your life, you're gonna be learning more about this, right? So necessarily, logically, you're just giving yourself to as much of him as you understand at that point.

Hey, you know, when I became a Christian, I was four, and my father had just died. I prayed a prayer of salvation because I wanted to go to heaven when I died too. Now did I understand why Jesus died on the cross and so on? Of course not. But that prayer saved me because as much as I understood, I was saying yes. I didn't understand hardly; I didn't understand atonement; I didn't understand the virgin birth; I didn't know what a virgin was; I didn't know what the virgin birth was. But God, in his grace, saved me at that point, and he'll save you. He saved this thief on the cross: just say yes to Jesus.

And then for sure he knew Jesus could save him ultimately because he knew that Jesus is king. This is interesting: he says, "When you come into your kingdom." How does he come to this conclusion? My guess is the criminal looks up at the charge written above Jesus' head: "King of the Jews." He sees how this man, Jesus, is reacting to everything around him, and he goes, "You know what? I see more nobility and more regal authority in this bruised and battered man than I do in any of the authorities who are poking him with spears and cursing him." If anybody—I've been rebelling; I've been a rebel my whole life—but if anybody's gonna be my king, that's my king right there: Jesus, you're my king. He makes this change.

What's intriguing to me is that both of these criminals saw the same exact evidence, right? They both saw the same exact thing. One guy, not convinced; other guy accepts Christ. Same thing today: we all have access to the same evidence. Some people say, "If you really was God, why doesn't he prove it to me right now?" Other people see the same evidence and say, "I need you, Lord Jesus." In fact, the same kind of conversion from criminal to Christian still happens today. We have a lot of examples right here at Twin Lakes Church. I was talking with a guy a few weeks back, Danny Contreras, who comes to church here, and this is Danny's story. I asked him to share it on video, just a little bit of it. Watch the screen.

Hi, my name is Danny Contreras. So as a teenager, I was involved in gangs, drugs, violence, and everything else you can think of. I got kicked out of school. On my 17th birthday, I got arrested for first-degree murder, gang enhancements, and I thought my life was over. On my 18th birthday, I got arraigned for the murder. I came back to the juvenile hall, and they had a group of brothers that came in called Many Broken Vessels. They were kind of like Victory Outreach and all them into jail and prison. They changed their lives, and I never really seen nobody like that, how they wanted to—you know, I was like, "Man, these guys are kind of like me." They had some young kid; he was like 26, and he shared his testimony of gangs and drugs and how his mom prayed for him, and he got saved. They asked us, "You know, you want to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?" And I was like, "God, you know what? They're gonna give me life in prison, and I'm never ever gonna see the streets again. I didn't do this, so I don't know how to get out of this. If you can get me out of this, then I'll do whatever you want me to do, and you're gonna have to change me because I want to do evil things, though I still want to go run the streets. I still want to beat a few people up or get some revenge or whatever, women and everything, but you're gonna have to change me." And from that day on, the guy next to me got saved too. From that day on, everything's totally changed. I mean, it happened overnight. You know, it was a process; it was like God opened my eyes. I started reading the Bible, and the scriptures just started totally changing all my beliefs, like blowing my mind, making me look at the whole world in a whole different set of view, you know? I started having to learn about forgiveness and all the hatred and anger that I had inside. I had to learn how to forgive, and if God could forgive me for all the things I've done, then like, who am I to not forgive somebody else? And so I had to start doing that, and it was a real hard thing.

So I got charged for the murder; I ended up getting sentenced for 14 years for a murder I didn't do. While in prison, I continued to read the Bible. I mean, the first couple of years were probably the hardest because it was about accepting that I had to be there, you know? And if I'm ever gonna make it out, so I mean, I read the Bible; I read every Christian book that I could get my hands on, testimonies, everything. From that, I gained hope and strength that somehow God's gonna see me through this. I started running another program called We Care where they bring the kids in, and we talked to them. I was able to share my testimony with those kids when they came in so they wouldn't continue down the path to drugs and gangs. They would bring kids from Salinas and Watson, little different areas. When I was released on June 26, 2011, I've been blessed. You know, when I first went to jail, I said to man, "I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in here. I ain't never gonna have no kids; I ain't never gonna get married. I'm gonna lose all my family because I'm gonna be in here for so long." I got blessed with a beautiful wife, you know, and I just had my first baby on November 19th. So that's a beautiful thing, you know? I told her things that I thought I would never be able to have.

When you get saved, there's evidence that you're saved. You have this conviction inside that you know when you do things wrong; the Holy Spirit convicts you, and that's something that never happened before. You could feel it. It doesn't matter what you've done; God can save you, and he can change your life and give you a whole new path that you never even dreamed of.

What a great story! Isn't God good? God is so good. Man, it's real. Danny's story and the story of this criminal on the cross show you it doesn't matter what you've done; it doesn't matter how many times you've done it; it doesn't matter who you've done it with; it doesn't matter if you think it's too late for you. This story shows you if you're still breathing, it's not too late.

Now still, you might be going, "But René, you still haven't answered the question: how do I know? How do I know I'm forgiven? Good for the thief. How do I know I'm forgiven? How do I know I'm going to heaven when I die?" Not my words, but God's words, God's promise. Look at Jesus' promise to this guy: "Jesus answered him, 'Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.'" This shows me God's salvation is first certain because he says, "Truly, I tell you." Truly, you will not maybe; I tell you, not you might be with me. It's certain, and it's immediate. He says, "Today." The moment you ask Jesus Christ to save you, bam, he does it right then. He doesn't say, "Let me think about it." He doesn't say, "You must earn it." It's immediate, and it's a relationship. This is huge: he says, "You will be with me." That's the point. The whole reason God created you is he wants a relationship with you.

You don't just go to heaven and see Jesus from a distance like the sunset or something; you're there. You get what your heart longs for: you're with him. It's also a place. He says, "You'll be with me in paradise." Now I love this. Watch this: the Greek word for paradise here is actually a borrowed word from the Persian. Persians used the word paradise to describe the king's garden. The royal gardens in Persian were something to see; they were world-famous. They had beautiful plants and rivers and waterfalls and menageries. When the Greeks, the Jewish scholars, were looking for a word in the Greek to represent Eden when they were translating the Septuagint, this is the word that they came up with. They decided to use the word paradise to describe Eden, the king's garden. I love this because the Bible says way back when, when humans first sinned, we left the garden; we left paradise. Ever since then, we've been trying to get ourselves back to the garden, as those great theologians Crosby, Stills, Nash sang at Woodstock.

What Jesus does on the cross is he opens the gate back to Eden, and he says, "Welcome back to paradise." Then the very last chapter of the Bible reflects the first chapter of the Bible. It says when God creates the new heaven and the new earth, it'll be like a garden, and it's all yours. All of this is yours. Your salvation is certain, immediate, a relationship, a place of paradise. But still, you might be going, "Good for the thief. What about me?" The second passage I took that usher to is a verse you need to know: Romans 10:13. I'd love for us all to read this out loud. Let me hear you: "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Whoever! This is a promise to you. Now you might say, "But I don't know much. I'm new to all this. I don't understand all the nuances of why Jesus had to die on the cross." How much did the second thief know? Not much, but he knew these five things, and it was saving faith.

If there's one thing this story tells us, it's that the bottom line saving faith is simple faith. So as your pastor, as your friend, can I just suggest that you settle this issue right now? Just settle it between you and God, whether you're watching in the auditorium, whether you're watching over in the venue service, whether you're watching online. Just settle it by talking to God in your heart right now. Would you bow your heads with me? With our heads bowed, I'll tell you what: I'm gonna pray a prayer right now, and I'm gonna use words because we have to use words to communicate. But again, the words are not a magic formula. I want to invite you to just listen to what I say, and like my grandma, like Juan, like the second criminal, you can just say, "Me too, Lord," in your heart. But what's really important is the attitude of your heart.

Lord, I know that when I die, I'm gonna have to give an account of my life directly to you, and I know I've sinned against you, and I know I don't deserve your forgiveness. So just like that thief on the cross, I humbly ask you to save me. Remember me, my king, and I believe that you will keep your promise. Now with our heads all still bowed, there's something about making a spiritual decision physically known that helps cement our commitment. So I want to ask you, with everybody's head still bowed, if you just prayed that prayer for the first time or maybe you recommitted yourself today and you said, "I want to settle the issue today." You prayed that prayer and you meant it; would you just slip up your hand? If this is your day to say yes, let me just see your hands up. Wonderful hands in the balcony, on the ground floor, even if you're in the venue, just slip up your hand if you prayed that prayer. Father, thank you for these people who just raised their hands. Thank you that your grace welcomes them into your family. In Jesus' name, Amen.