TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, April 10, 2022 | Meaningful Faith Series | This is How Billy Graham Got Saved

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So we've been in a series entitled Meaningful Faith. Most likely close that series out today. Throughout 2022 we've been talking a lot about finding meaning and making sure that we're a part of things that are actually meaningful and no greater place to experience that. Perhaps than in our life and in our faith. And so the first week of the series, we talked about building our faith and looked at the life of Sam and Peter Last week we talked about sharing our faith and again looked at the life of Simon Peters somewhat.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Today I'm again going to kind of go into that vein of sharing faith. And the purpose of that is really to try to bring us all to the understanding that your faith will never be more meaningful than when you choose to share it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The problem with that is that so few of us actually choose to share our faith. It's almost like we have some kind of PTSD surrounding times when we have attempted to share our faith and didn't go as we expected. Or maybe someone shared their faith with us. And it certainly didn't go as we would have hoped or expected.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I heard a true story from one man he told about when he was in youth ministry he was a teenager and he was in his youth group. And the youth group came up with the idea that all these teenagers should be more effective at sharing their faith. And so they gave all of the teenagers a gospel tract, and they were assigned that before they came back to the next youth meeting.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They were to give that track to somebody. Well, this young man thought about, well, who can I give this gospel track to? And the guy that came to mind was his best friend, Steve. And Steve was a guy that he walked home from school with every day. But but Steve did not profess to be a follower of Jesus.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so each day as they're on this walk, he's got this gospel track with him. And it happens to be in the summertime. And this gospel track is not only getting kind of crinkled up and folded up with every day that passes, but it's also getting kind of sweaty and almost got a nasty appeal to it. And he's thinking, I've got to give this to Steve, or he keeps it all the way to the last day before he has to go back to youth group.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And when he gets to the end of the walk for him and Steve are supposed to part ways. He reaches into his back pocket, pulls out this old sweaty gospel track that he throws it at Steve and he says, you don't have to read it. You don't even have to acknowledge it. But they told me, I can't go back to church unless I give it to you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Unfortunately, some of us are probably been on the other side of that at some point or another. Maybe we've been the one that was tossing the track at somebody. I hope not. But maybe it does seem to me like that there's just a lot of confusion about sharing faith, a lot of timidity and intimidation about sharing faith. And the sad reality of that is that when we choose to not share our faith, we limit God's ability to grow His kingdom in the earth.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And here's the thing. For every empty seat that is represented in a church building across the world today, it is not God's fault. It's right Luke chapter 14, verse 23, Jesus said, Go into the highways and the hedges and compel the lost to come in that the house of the Lord may be sealed. Now, what that tells us is that when we choose to share our faith in a meaning full way, the result is going to be that the houses of the Lord will be sealed and the worship gatherings will not be wanting for people, but they will be filled to over flowing.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In the New Testament, you actually see. And even as the early church was getting started, that there was a theology of growth. It started out with 120 people first gathering before that gathering had finished. They had already added 3000 people to the church. Six verses later they share. They are adding to the church daily By the time you get to Acts chapter six, verse seven, it says that the church is being multiplied on a daily basis through a great exponential increase.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

By the time you get to the end of First Corinthians Chapter 15, the only way that Paul's knows how to describe it is that it is all ways abounding. I love this verse, the next chapter six, verse five. In fact, I think he could serve as an anchor text for us today. It says it this way. So the church is we're strengthened in the faith and the increased in number daily.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want to read it again for the sake of emphasis. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in number daily. It sounds to me like that they had a meaningful faith that was a strong faith. And the reason it was meaningful and strong is because they were perpetually sharing their faith to the point that the church wasn't just growing on Sunday.

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Pastor Eric Gilbert

It was growing on every day of the week. They weren't just waiting on a preacher to get up and preach a message and give an altar invitation, but they were actually as believers out in the highways and the hedges, sharing meaningful faith to the point that the church was being added on to daily. It seems to me that their lives were about Jesus, all about Jesus and always about Jesus.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They would appear as though they had taken God at His Word. In fact, chapter one verse eight, when Jesus said to them, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere They held an understanding that the Holy Spirit doesn't just come into your life to manifest gifts, or the Holy Spirit doesn't just come into your life to make you spiritually fruitful.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

The number one reason that the Holy Spirit wants to come into your life is to make you a more effective witness for Jesus Christ, or that you will be wise in sharing about Jesus and you will be bold in sharing about Jesus, and that you would do it everywhere about Jesus, all about Jesus, always about Jesus. The thing that Paul even explained in one passage is that we are to do the work of an evangelist that that we're living a compelling lifestyle, that we have meaningful faith, and we're sharing that faith, which is only making our faith strong.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

We're doing the work of an evangelist. Now, here's the way the passage read. Second, Timothy 45. But you need to be watchful in all things. You need to endure afflictions and need to do the work of an evangelist. Now, the problem for most of us in understanding that this was written to a church through a pastoral voice is we don't know what an evangelist is in biblical terms.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So so we think that an evangelist is some silver tongued orator that shows up at a church for a series of nightly services and gives enthralling altar invitations and a bunch of people get saved. Well, now, that could be one manifestation of an evangelist but the purest definition of the word evangelist is simply to share the good news, or one who shares the good news.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You don't have to have a Bible in one hand and a microphone in the other in order to share the good news. You just got to have good news to share. And that's how you do the work. In fact, if you were to read that verse, we just read in full context and in a more direct translation, this is how it reads.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Second Timothy chapter four verse three for the time is coming. When people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching, they will follow their own desires, and they will look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear. They will reject the truth and they will chase myths. But you should keep a clear mind in every situation.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Don't be afraid of suffering. Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry that God has given you. Here's the thing. The Holy Spirit wants to give you the power to tell people about the good news of Jesus. He'll gift you And there's no escape from that calling. We are all called to share our faith the good news of Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit in a meaningful way.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So why is it that we struggle so much with it? Why is it that we fear so much about how it will be received? Like you start thinking about sharing your faith in questions, start coming into your mind. Well, what would I even say? Well, how would I even start the conversation? Well, isn't that just what preachers do?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

For other people, it's an anxiety. It's this sense of overwhelm. Forming negative emotion associated with the thought of sharing their faith. Again, it's that that feeling of almost like PTSD with sharing faith. But in surveys, the responses are quite intriguing because for people who are considered, like, enthusiastic conversationalists, people who like to talk 75% of them say that when they share their faith in a meaningful way, they feel an overwhelming sense of peace.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

For people who are more reluctant in conversation, 65% of them say they feel that same peace. 40% of non-Christians say when someone shares faith with them in a meaningful way, they also feel peace. That's uncommon 70% of enthusiastic conversationalist. So they start to feel supernatural joy when they share their faith. 50% of the reluctant conversationalists say that they feel joy.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And 20% of non-Christians say when somebody shares faith with them, they start to sense like a greater level of joy. But this one may be the one that is the most intriguing Over 75% of non-Christians say they are in no way annoyed when someone shares faith with them in a meaningful way. Instead, they are intrigued and grateful for the opportunity to inquire.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So here's the thing. If you share your faith in a meaningful way, with a non-Christian, you have a far greater statistical opportunity to introduce them to peace and to joy than you do to even annoy them. So why is it that we are so hesitant to share our faith we heard the story of a young man that went to the Army.

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Pastor Eric Gilbert

He loved Jesus. He made a habit of reading his Bible every night and following his Bible reading. He was a little bit old fashioned. He would get down beside his bed and pray about what he just read. When he went into Army and Scholars first night there, he looks around. There's some rough guys and he thinks, Well, maybe it's not the night to read the Bible.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You know, maybe tonight I just curl up and go to sleep. The more he thought about it, the more he thought, No, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And he decided that right there in those barracks, he was going to open his Bible and he was going to begin to just read. That's a conclusion of his reading.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He got down beside his bed. He didn't cause a scene. He didn't draw any unnecessary attention to himself. He just whispered his prayer was he got down on his knees and began to pray. They say the barracks came to a holy hush. The people started looking at this young man who was down on his knees the next night when he went to the bed and he got out the Bible he looked up and eight other soldiers also had their Bible out.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And when he bowed to pray, they joined to pray as well as the weeks went on. It turned out there were more soldiers with Bibles and prayer than there were without. You might be surprised what could transpire if you would just choose to be bold with your faith. And nobody saying you got to go stand on a street corner with a megaphone and yell at everybody.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Nobody's saying that you've got to become self-righteously egotistical, pointing out the sins of everyone else. Sometimes it's just making a decision that you're going to live a God first, live in a way that exemplifies that you are serving him with your whole heart. You know, several years ago I read a book and I think the name of it was Contagious Christianity and in it goes through the Bible and it talks about like different styles of sharing your faith that are seen in Scripture.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It had a number of them three or four stuck out to me. One of them is the testimonial style, and that's based out of John, Chapter nine. John, Chapter nine, there's a blind man, and he has a connection with Jesus, at which point he is healed. He leaves that moment and he starts telling everybody, You need to know Jesus.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I just experienced Jesus. You need to experience Jesus. So people start questioning me, they start mocking me. They start really drilling down into all these questions about Jesus. And finally He just looks at them. And John and he says, This is all I know to tell you. I was blind, but now I can see. And that settles it.

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's hard to argue with a man with an experience. When's the last time you told your testimony? When's the last time you articulated your testimony? Was the last time that you weren't worried about the debate and you weren't worried about the argument because you could testify? I can tell you this ain't who I used to be. Now I'll give you I ain't everything I want to be. But by the grace of God, I'm not who I used to be. And that settles it in Jesus name.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I tell people that I have personal patience with trying to mentor, trying to decide. I tell them all the time, like, get your testimony down to two and a half minutes, maybe even 90 seconds. Like, I understand you can't fit it all in. You can't tell every part of it, but learn to articulate your story in the time it would take to write an elevator, because you never know when God's going to set you up with the divine appointment in the kingdom connection.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And somebody needs to know your testimony that I was blind, but now I see another style of sharing faith in a meaningful way in Scripture. It's what's called the relational style It's exemplified by Matthew in the Book of Luke Chapter five. Matthew became a disciple of Jesus. He got connected to Jesus. He became a follower of Jesus. He was a tax collector.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I love what Luke chapter five, verse 29, says. It says, He threw a feast and he invited all his friends. He brought them all over for a party to explain. Now, y'all knew me as one fella, but I'm a new man, and I need to let you know there's going to be some changes. And the reason these changes are happening in my life is because of Jesus Christ.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I'd like to introduce you to him. He literally threw a party to celebrate that he had developed a relationship with Jesus. Man, that's my kind of party. It's the best thing about the Holy Ghost Party is the Holy Ghost Party. Don't stop, Mark. I just went way back in time right there, Curt. Sorry. Parenthetical insertion, but somebody he understand the power of a table inviting somebody into relationship and helping them to know and understand what it is that Jesus is doing in you and three another style in scriptures.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Called The Invitational Style, a place you see it in scriptures multiple times. But one place really sticks out to me. John Chapter four Jesus meets this Jesus meets this woman. And and she's kind of an unsavory character. She's kind of frowned upon in her society. And Jesus, while he's drawing water from the whale, lets her know if she wants the real kind of water.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

She better take a drink from heaven. She gets connected to Jesus. She she becomes a follower of Jesus in Scripture, says she goes back into her region and she starts telling everybody, I've met a man, and it's changed everything. And Scripture says that when these people come to see Jesus at her invitation, they actually make the statement we had heard about him through you.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But now we have seen and experienced him on our own as a result of your invitation. Listen, your invitation to Easter Sunday, Good Friday could do that for somebody as they get to meet the Jesus that you've already met, like never undressed to make the power of sharing your faith in a meaningful way. Another example in Scripture is what would be called serving simple enough, but a place that we see.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It's an act. Chapter nine. There's a woman in Tabitha, and she actually is like serving to the point that her whole community becomes impacted by the way that she serves and something bad happens in her life. And God actually performs a miracle in her life because her faith is so meaningful and people come from all over the community to see and have a kind of a ringside seat for this miracle.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And the Bible talks about the fact that basically the whole community believed simply because this woman had served RVD and made room for the miraculous in her life. So so when's the last time that that you facilitated the relationship with sharing your faith in mind, the last time that you told your story with sharing your faith in mind, the last time that you invited somebody into your faith There's a couple options for you I had one buddy, and his whole perspective on sharing his faith was that he would go to a food court at the local mall. He would jump up on a table and he would yell, I'm in love with a man. And he had their attention. Not sure how well it works, but he had fun. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Maybe you're like the barber. There's a barber. He really did love the Lord, and he really did want to become more and more effective at sharing his faith. In fact, he got quite convicted about it. And so one night before he went to bed, he's just praying. He's like, Lord, I want to share my faith more effectively. And Lord, I want to share my faith through my business. Next morning, he gets up and he just makes a pledge to Lord, Lord, today is the day I'm going to share my faith through my business. He gets to the barbershop, he's open and everything up, and he's Lord the first person that comes through that door and sits down in that seat, I'm going to share my faith Person walks in and takes the seat and he just gets paralyzed. And so he turns around and walks in the back room. Lord, I just believe you're going to give me wisdom and you're going to give me boldness, and he will be able to share my faith and he walks back out there. He's got a Bible in one hand, a straight razor and the other, and he says, Sir, are you ready to die?
 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So I don't know how you're going to share your faith, but I have confidence the Lord is going to give you a plan this Lord has a way of helping us in those moments. There's something I've noticed a mechanic. He goes to buy a car and that car salesman will start pointing out all the technical stuff, the horsepower, the tow and package, and the warranty but a mom shows up to try and buy that same car, and the salesman starts pointing out all the space it's got in the trunk, how easy it is to get in and out of it, how super easy it is to clean the seats.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

College kids shows up, try to buy the same car, and the salesman starts pointing out how affordable it is and what great gas mileage it gets. The point is, you have to know your audience, and you could never bring the gospel down to the level of selling a car. But you can understand that this book is full of thousands of promises, and the Holy Spirit can point out to you the promise that that person needs to hear. That's going to resonate with them. That's going to speak volumes to them.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

That's going to open them up to hearing the true good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as as Lord and Savior. And so this week, I had someone articulate it for me, something that I've been doing for a long time, but I just really never put words around it.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I never even thought about the necessity of sharing it but I discovered over and over again throughout every day when I'm interacting with people, sometimes it's a business transaction, sometimes it's a casual conversation, sometimes it's just rubbing shoulders with them in the community. I find myself asking, Lord, is this the one Lord? Is this the one? Because Scripture says that Jesus would leave the 99 to find the one?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Scripture says that the whole reason that Jesus came to the Earth is to seek and save the lost, and He intends for you to be a part of that plan, to share your faith in a meaningful way that compels the lost to come in to not only a house of God, but a relationship personally with Jesus Christ in over and over again throughout the years, like I've just discovered sometimes the good news, not even at the forefront of my mind, but is is this is this this is the one I've had it happen.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Buying cars I just find find myself in a in a situation where you're just trying to get the best deal you possibly can buy and all of a sudden the Lord just pricks you. This is the one who wants it happen with a young man.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I just said, man, there's something in this kid's life. He's disconnected from God.

And I just ask him. I said, do you you go to church, you live two and a half hours from here. Not I don't do the church thing. Why not, man? I, I ain't got much use for God. What, what's what's the deal with God?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

What's going on? My daddy was a Baptist preacher, and he was baptizing somebody because I was pulling that guy back up out of the water. He died of my dad, died of a heart attack. He said, I don't want no part of a God that would do something like that.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I said, I don't believe that. I think you're hurt. I think you wounded. I think you've searched this nation and this world far and wide. Trying to find something to fill the hole that's on the inside of you. And I believe even right now, you feel some tugging on you. You don't even know how to explain it. And it's the God that you've ignored for a really long time.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I gave him the story about Papa Pond. You can see the first you can't hear the fish, but being talking on your line I said, young man, I believe right now if you pray you'll get things right with God, you're going to see everything that's went wrong in your life over the course of time. He's going to order your steps and it's going to come back into alignment young man prayed right then right there, gave his life to Jesus a the craziest thing was I said, What is it? If you could do anything, what would you do?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He said, I used to be a roughneck out in the Gulf. I lost that job due to drugs. He said, I would really love to just be restored to that occupation. The boy was sitting there and we were finishing that deal. His phone dinged and he looked down. He picked up the phone. He said, You're not going to believe this.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He couldn't even read it. He threw the phone. He slid it from across the table to me. And it was an email from an oil company in the Gulf of Mexico informing him that they had a job for him, and he could start that coming week if he could just get there and I watched I've watched that roughneck of a boy cry his eyes out at the goodness of the grace of God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

It might be time to ask, is this the one I remember when this church we couldn't even find a worship leader. We were so small and we were struggling. Who's going to sing? Who's going to leave us in worship? And we were talking about trying to hire one out of this church or trying to hire one out of that church or trying to.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And the Lord spoke to me in prayer and he said, everything you needs in the harvest and so I went to Lindsey Wilson College and I started walking around the students and I said, Is there anybody around here that can sing this boy, big 06 foot eight basketball player who I who would become somebody I would mentor for years.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

He looked at me and he said, I don't know, man, but my neighbor, he's got pipes so he introduced me to his neighbor. We met at a cafe. I sat down with him and I started talking to him. I said, Tell me your story. He was from overseas. He was from Europe. He said, So what do you know about church He said, I've never been in a church except for a wedding or a funeral.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I said, You're exactly who I'm looking for. I started meet with that boy. Over the course of three to four meetings. I led him to Lord over coffee and sandwiches, and I watched him grow exponentially in the Lord. And I can tell you that over the course of about six months, we figured out he had pipes. And to this day, he's still serves the Lord and has a family and is serving as a coach.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And you just that's one of the my biggest frustrations with modern church is we look for everything everywhere except the harvest, everything you need is in the harvest.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Now, I'm going to he's going to just go come play music and I'm going to get out of your way. And I'll give you one final thing I have. I just I want to ask you if you have you ever heard of a man by the name of Edward Kimball? You've heard that name I said it in the first service, and three or four people said he makes pianos.  I said, no wrong. Sorry. Edward Kimball. You know who he was? He was a kid's church worker, and he served young men, and he would follow them not only do kids search, but even in the youth ministry. And he really wanted to make sure that they had meaningful faith. I mean, something turned over in his heart that he wanted to make sure these boys had the goods.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

There was one young man that he had watched for a number of years. He just started to notice, like this kid, he's interested in God, but he just he's missing something. And one morning, Mr. Campbell got up and he felt impressed to the Lord to go to the local shoe store where this teenager had gotten a job. He goes in and he starts inquiring about buying a pair of shoes and talking to his Sunday school student finds out this young man's got a lot of questions about God and the Holy Spirit.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Help Mr. Kimball to answer those questions. And before he left that shoe store that day, that young man bowed and prayed and invited Jesus into his heart. That young man was D.L. Moody, that name may not mean anything to you, but he would go on to touch two continents, build Bible colleges, and ministries that still stand to this day.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Years and years later, one of the greatest Christian leaders in the modern era of Christianity, the Moody in one of his preaching moments, there was another young man that would be present, and he would give his life to Jesus. That day, his name was Wilbur Chapman. Wilbur Chapman would also go on to win thousands of people to Jesus.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And while he was preaching one day a pro baseball player was present and that young man would get saved. His name was Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday would quit baseball, start preaching full time when tens of thousands of people to Jesus, one of which was a man by the name of Mordechai Ham. Mordecai Ham would start having crusades all over the United States, one of which would take him to Charlotte, North Carolina. And one evening, while he was given an altar invitation, a tall lanky farm boy would make his way down the aisle and profess Jesus as Lord and savior. That young man's name was Billy Graham. He would go on to preach to over 2.5 billion people. Billy Graham got saved because of a soul winner named Mordecai Ham. Mordecai Ham got saved because of a soul winner named Billy Sunday.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Billy Sunday got saved because of a soul winner named Wilbur Chapman. Wilbur Chapman got saved because was so winter named D.L. Moody. And D.L. Moody got saved because Mr. Kimble decided to go buy a pair of shoes one day. All right. You never know who you're talking to. I thank God you can count the apples on a tree You can't count the apples in the seed I dare you to sow your seed to share your faith and watch God be God.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

My dad came out of Carol's broken turkey To my knowledge, there was never a regular church attendee in the history of his family. My dad my mom and she brought him out of the sticks to the metroplex of Russell Springs.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

They they bought a little brick house on Shepherd Drive and there was a pastor of a little church with less than 50 people decided that young boy from the river needed Jesus And so he started walking over to their house, and he would just knock on the door and invite them to church.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And his persistence was enough that one day that rugged old farm boy wound up in a little country church called out on the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior, in the family tree got reversed. And I've wondered where would I be today?

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

If my father wasn't saved?

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Pastor Eric Gilbert

What would I be doing? His brother Smith, hadn't kept knocking on the door of a little house on Shepherd Drive Share your faith.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Somebody's family tree depends on it. 

Father, I ask you for the help of the Holy Spirit.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Lord, to help people under the sound of my voice that need Jesus because I pray the faith would be shared in such a way. The good news shared in such a way that they would call on you as Lord and Savior God, if they need to give their life to you for the very first time, if they need to rededicate their life.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

God only, you know. But may they cry aloud and spare not. May they call out to you Jesus, recognizing that your cross took the wrath that was due for every one of us. Your blood your grace paid the price for us to escape hell and gain heaven. Lord, if we need to call on you, if we need to surrender our life to you, give us the courage to do that right here, right now.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Got somebody saying they don't know how to pray. Lord, tell them that's the lie of the devil. Convince them that all they got to do is talk to you like their very best friend. Somebody else. God, the enemies. Tell them they got to get this worked out, and they got to get that worked out. And they got to fix this.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And they got to fix that. God convince them with the work of your Holy Spirit that they don't get good. They get you. They get you to get good. Bring the goodness of Your Grace to our lives. God we confess our sins. We repent of our failures, and we thank you for the blood. We thank you for the cross. And we receive Your Grace. Lord, that we will leave this place testifying. I was blind, but now I see thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Thank you, Jesus. The Bible says the angels in heaven rejoice when somebody gives their life to Jesus. And I believe that there have been multiple people today that have professed Jesus as Lord and Savior. And I want to ask you to help me join with the angels of Heaven for just a minute on Palm Sunday, the day when the cities decree Hosanna.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I want you to give God praise for the fact that somebody was dead, but now they're alive. Give God praise that somebody has got a brand new birth date they're born again, a new creature in Christ Jesus. All things pass in the way, Lord. We bless you. God, we praise him. We thank you, Lord.