How Can People Find God

Tom Shrader presents the culmination of his four-part series on salvation, addressing how people can know God personally. He emphasizes that Christ's resurrection validates His claim to be God and demonstrates His victory over sin and death. Shrader stresses that salvation comes entirely through God's grace, not human works, and that believing in Christ's resurrection is essential for eternal life.

“God saves sinners - if we diagram that sentence, God is the subject actor, saves is the action verb, sinners is the direct object, so if I ever get to be in a sentence, I want to be the direct object because you don't have any responsibility.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Know

Recorded: April 26, 2007

Duration: 43 min

Themes: salvation, grace, resurrection, forgiveness, sin, faith, hope, love, seeking God, new believer, questioning faith, first time visitor, struggling with sin, needing forgiveness, young adult, searching for meaning

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:20-22, Acts 2, Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:36, John 5:24, Romans 5:1, Romans 10:9, 1 John 5:13, Titus 3:5, Romans 8:38-39, John 14:6, Acts 4:12

Theological Themes: soteriology, justification, redemption, atonement, regeneration, biblical salvation, grace alone, faith alone

Handout Link

Full Transcript

You have outlines in front of you. If you are with us today for the first time, special welcome to you. I want to make sure you get this part right here, because you could easily miss it and the significance of it.

Though I am prone periodically to hyperbole, this isn't it. Years ago, I was reading something in a book that somebody gave me, and it was about the Civil War. It said that the Civil War is the most important event in the history of the United States. Within the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg is the most important battle in the most important war. Within Gettysburg, the most important event is Pickett's Charge. So this fellow had written a book on Pickett's Charge and wanted me to buy it and read it.

This series that we're doing is the most important series we could ever possibly do in the history of Priority Living. Within this series, this singular lesson - this lesson right here, right now - is the most important lesson we will ever do. If you do not get this right, none of the rest of this stuff matters.

Why You're Here Today

If you are here for the first time, somebody invited you, and you are their guest. If they knew what the topic was, let me tell you why they invited you. They invited you because they love you, and they want you to hear this. This is important to them and to you. If you miss this, your entire life is ruined. That just popped into my head, but it's true.

So when we are done, we are going to ask you to respond to this message. That response is either going to be "no, thank you," or you are, in your mind and heart, going to beat the path to God's door.

The Four-Week Journey

This is a culmination of a four-week series. We talked the first week about what's the matter with people. The matter with people is sin. All of us have sinned. We said what we want to get in this series is an understanding of who God is. When I understand who God is, I begin to understand who I am.

It's the Isaiah 6 pattern. Isaiah sees God. He says, "Woe to me, for I'm undone. I'm ruined. What can I do?" The answer is nothing. God forgives him. Now God says - I'm going to paraphrase - "We've got a whole bunch of work to do. Whom are we going to use?" Isaiah says, "I'm ready now. Put me in coach. Now it's time."

We try to paint a picture this way. When we deal with sin, extremes are important. No human has utterly depraved actions. By that, I mean even Hitler didn't kill his mother. But all of us are equally guilty before God. If you take the person who committed those atrocities at Virginia Tech, and you take you and stand before God, it does not take more grace to save him than it takes to save you. That's how much God hates sin. This is a huge deal.

The second week, we talked about what's so special about Jesus. Here it is: He said, "I'm God." We talked about miracles and all the things that supported that. Then last week, what's behind the death of Jesus? The fact is He died in your place.

The Umbrella Term: Substitutionary Atonement

We gave you an umbrella term last week: substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary - He was in your place. He atoned for your sins. That process includes, remember last week, propitiation. He satisfies the wrath of God.

I was at a church this Sunday, and I made that point. It was interesting. It was obvious to me that some people had either not heard that point before or it hadn't really sunk in. I'm saved by God. This is really cool: I'm saved by God from God. That's propitiation. We talked about propitiation, redemption, and justification last week.

Here's what we're going to talk about this week. We're going to try to bring all of this together. We'll take all that we've talked about, tie it together, close the loop, so there'll be a sense of repetition here as we cover the three weeks. We say to you, you need to respond.

The Ultimate Question: How Can You Know God?

The question that we ask this week is: How can people know God? Lest that be too broad, let's narrow it down. How can you know God? Twelve questions.

Here's the first one: How did Jesus demonstrate His victory over sin? The answer is He rose from the dead. First Corinthians 15, verse 20: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep." Verse 22: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. The sting of death is sin. The power of sin is in the law. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Peter says it this way in Acts chapter 2, that powerful sermon - the first sermon we have recorded there - that God raised Jesus from the dead and put an end, this is his phrase, to the agony of death.

The Agony of Death

What does that mean? I remember the first time I was really involved with a person in our church who was dying. It was a lady who was dying of cancer, and it was a horrific death. She had cancer. They were trying to treat her. They had concluded not only was it not curable, it was beyond that. You were going to die in a relatively short period of time. They asked her to be part of this experimental program they were doing.

So she had to go to Tucson. Not only do you have to die, you have to go to Tucson. That's probably how you feel when you get to Tucson anyway. She's in the med center. The first time that I visit her, she's dressed pretty well and has on a wig. She's lost her hair and all this. Then a couple weeks later, she has on a bandana. By the third week, she doesn't really care anymore.

Her skin is beet red. She is suffering. I want to touch her, to hold her. I know I can't hug her, but I want to hold her hand. I found myself afraid to even touch her. At that point, am I supposed to say, "Let me talk to you about this"? Her name was Connie. I said, "Connie, let me talk to you about this. Jesus came to put an end to the agony of death."

Well, not physical agony. The agony of death is the unknown.

The story that I told you a couple weeks ago of Susan sitting in the waiting room on chemo day. She's in the waiting room. There are two men, old, looking very, very sick. They're in there as patients as well. And the one says to the other, "What do you think happens when you die?" There's the agony of death—the fear of the unknown. Christ rose from the dead, which demonstrates His victory over sin.

I have been with people who don't know Christ when they die and as they die. And it is amazing to me how bitter and stubborn they become. You would think that at that moment when you're seeing your body winding down that you might be vulnerable, coachable, open and receptive. And I find people get more and more ingrained in bitterness often.

I've on the other side been with people, I think one guy in particular, who's just a wonderful man. And he's a hardcore guy. He'd been about my dad's age. And so that would make him, you know, today, 81, 23. And you know, that's just—they're just tough guys. And he was a great guy. And I was in the room, the doctor had just left.

The Doctor's Pronouncement

And here's what the doctor said. I don't know how they know this stuff, but the doctor said, "When you go to sleep this time, you will not wake up. This is it." And so I happened to be in there with he and his wife. And I had never in my life seen a person beaming with joy. And he said, "You know, I love you," speaking to his wife, "and I love the kids and the grandkids and I'll miss that. But if this doctor's right, when I close my eyes, the next person I see will be Jesus." And sure enough, he went to sleep and died. I don't know how they know that's gonna happen, but they did.

But there is a certainty there. And what I want you to see, and hopefully we'll convince you this with the Holy Spirit will, over the next 35 minutes, is that isn't just wishful thinking. That's the reality based on the promise of God.

Jesus' Claim and His Sign

What did Jesus say would be a sign that would validate His claim? Well, first, what was His claim? His claim was not that He was a messenger of God or a prophet from God, but that He was God. "I and the Father are one." That was His claim that He makes over and over recorded in the Gospels.

And He said, "Here's what's gonna validate that claim—just like Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so I will be in the earth three days and three nights, and then I will rise from the dead." Every year, and that really leads us into questions three and four. How important is the resurrection to Christianity? How important is the resurrection to you?

The Same Message Every Year

Every year at Easter, I always find it—we had a guy who was not a church guy. He would come to our church at Christmas and at Easter. And I ran into him one time and he said, "I don't think I'd be good in your church." And I said, "Why?" And he said, "Because every time I come, you talk about the same thing." And I said, "Well, Easter tends to be about the resurrection and Christmas tends to be about the birth." That was the year that the Easter message was about the birth of Christ and the Christmas message was about the resurrection.

But every year at Easter, I will say the same thing. Jesus rose from the dead and this is really a big deal. This is a big deal. Because His rising from the dead is the validation that He's who He said He was. This ought to get your attention.

The Essential Nature of the Resurrection

So when we go to question three, how important is the resurrection to Christianity? It's essential, it's vital. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity. Paul writes this, 1 Corinthians 15: "If there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ rose from the dead. And if Christ didn't rise from the dead, then our preaching is in vain." The word "vain" there means worthless or useless. "Our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain."

If Christ did not rise from the dead, then we ought to just stick a "for sale by owner" sign out in front of this church and every other church. They have no point or no purpose. Christianity is empty without Christ. That's why, like remember six months ago when they found the thing and it's got, "this may have the bones of Jesus in it." And I said, "Well, there's no way it has the bones of Jesus." "Well, have you read the article?" "No." "Have you listened to the guy?" "No." "Have you watched the movie?" "No, I know that Jesus rose from the dead, there's no bones." This guy didn't find a bone. Do you see how fast that kind of just trickled away? Just some guy with a scam making some dough. It's a scam, why? The tomb's empty.

Resources for Studying the Resurrection

I don't have time and this isn't really the place for me to go through this. But let me give you a website or just recommend this. Go to Google and Google in "resurrection facts." And the first two sites that you see are really helpful. And the first site is from Josh McDowell. This morning, this morning was just weird. I'm mentioning a book that's out of print called The Resurrection Factor. And as I mention it, I've said the best way to find it is on eBay. And as I say it, there's a lady in the front that says, "I have this book." I said, "Where did you get it?" She said, "I got it on eBay." And I said, "Wow, this is cool."

But The Resurrection Factor is a book by Josh McDowell. It's really a helpful book. It's out of print. You might try Central Christian in the used book section and find it down there. And always on eBay, you can find stuff like this. Or you can get Evidence That Demands a Verdict—that book by Josh McDowell has a section of that. Then there's also a book that was written called Who Rolled Away the Stone or Who Took the Stone by a guy by the name of Morris, something like that. Those are really helpful.

God's Safeguards for the Resurrection

Here's the deal. God put in place all sorts of safeguards so that we can sit here 2,000 years later and know that Jesus rose from the dead. So you had Roman soldiers who were standing guard. They would work in teams of 16. Four were on duty at all times. The other 12 would rest and sleep in a semicircle around

The seal of Rome was placed on the front of the tomb, and anyone who disturbed that seal faced death. Roman soldiers guarded the tomb under the same threat of death if anything happened to it. There was also a 2,000-pound stone blocking the entrance.

Then there are the eyewitnesses to the risen Christ and the empty tomb. My favorite responses are all the theories people create to explain it away, like the swoon theory. The swoon theory claims that Jesus didn't actually die but went into a coma. Then they buried Him, He came to, shook Himself loose, healed Himself, got up, and moved a 2,000-pound stone. My response would be: if He did that, you ought to believe in Him! If that's better than the story I have, I like that one better.

Attacking Christianity at Its Core

Here's the reality, and we would never do this in any other area of life. I read an article about a guy with an interesting job. Companies would hire him to analyze their competition and identify where competitors were vulnerable so they could focus their marketing attacks there. That's smart business strategy.

You would never see a quarterback come to the line and say, "All right, there he is. Ready, set. We're going to run right over here. Hey, you guys on defense, we're running right there because this has been too hard for you up to this point." You don't reveal your strategy to the opposition.

But I want to do exactly that. If you're here and you want to attack the Christian faith, I'm telling you where to attack: the resurrection. The rest of this stuff is just messing around on the edges. If you want to knock Christianity down, disprove the resurrection. You can't do it.

The Crucial Nature of the Resurrection

How important are Christianity and the resurrection? They're crucial. How important is the resurrection to you? Well, if Christ didn't rise from the dead, then you won't rise from the dead either.

You are saved, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. Let's hang on that word a minute. When we say "saved," here's what he means. Some synonyms or other ways this is expressed in Scripture are delivered and rescued. Saved from what? The Bible says that we've sinned, and the wage of our sin is death—separation from God. God has to punish sin. He will either punish the sinner directly, or in this case, Christ died in that place. If you believe in Him, Christ takes on the punishment for your sin. The resurrection is what proves that His sacrifice is valid.

The Necessity of Bad News Before Good News

When we covered this a couple of weeks ago in the first week on "What's the matter with people?" several of you said that was kind of a downer, kind of bad news. You said I didn't make you feel good about yourself. To which I would say, I don't know why you'd expect that. What is it you have to feel good about? You figure that out on your own. But you shouldn't feel good about your sin.

God comes with the good news, which is the good news of Jesus Christ. But I have to get the bad news first. Of the last 10 times I've been invited to an outreach breakfast or lunch—you know what I mean, where they bring in typically a famous person or successful businessman or athlete with a testimony to tell you that you need to be saved—nine of them never mentioned sin. Everything in me, though I try to be gracious, wanted to interrupt and ask, "Pardon me, saved from what?" Because I need to hear the bad news first, and then the good news becomes so sweet to my ears.

Peace as a Byproduct, Not the Main Point

So often that person's testimony would be something like this: "I was really successful. I had everything the world would say would make me successful, but I was empty. I had turmoil. I didn't have peace. Now I have Jesus and I have peace." That's true, but that peace is a byproduct of this transaction. That whole idea of peace is not about the absence of turmoil—it's the reality of a presence with God.

I was watching a guy on Christian TV last night. To watch Christian TV is painful, especially at certain times. This guy was talking about how God had given him all this money, and he wanted to buy this piano. The seller wanted $13,000, and he said, "I'll give you $6,000, and that includes the bench." This is the same guy I heard say, "When God got ahold of me, He got a really good deal."

Here's the problem with that: God may want you sick, and He may want you struggling financially. Because oftentimes, you're more coachable then. Once you reach your early twenties, which describes pretty much everyone in this room, God tends to reach you through crisis—broken relationships, divorce, sickness, or the crisis of success and the emptiness of success. A relationship with God is not about the absence of turmoil; it's about the presence of Him in your life in the midst of that.

What Does It Take to Embrace Christ?

Here's the fifth thing: What does it take to embrace the message of Christ? Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith." What saves me? Grace. What's grace? Unmerited favor. So by its very definition, there's nothing I can do to earn salvation. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves."

yourself your faith. It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one should boast. We are saved - we were rescued - not by anything that we can do. That's what religion is. Religion is all about, "Okay, I understand. I got an issue. What do I do?"

Grace is all about throwing myself on God's mercy. So you may have this experience: You sit down with two people who would say, "I don't believe what you believe," and you begin to share your faith with them. One guy responds and the other guy doesn't. I have all sorts of theories about that, but one of the questions that's most intriguing to me is: why did this guy respond? Why didn't this guy? This guy's smarter than this guy? No. Didn't they both hear the same words? What's happening? Well, God's working in this guy's life, not in this guy's life.

Salvation is Entirely God's Work

I'm saved by grace - unmerited favor. Salvation is utterly, completely, entirely a work of God. You've heard me do this before - it's a simple three-word sentence: "God saves sinners." If we diagram that sentence (and I don't know that they diagram sentences anymore - they should, but they don't), God is the subject, the actor. "Saves" is the action verb. "Sinners" is the direct object.

If I ever get to be in a sentence, I want to be the direct object because you don't have any responsibility. You're just hanging around, and whatever these other guys do, you get it. God is the actor. "Saves" is the action. Now let's personalize it and put your name in there. If you are a Christian today - truly converted (and that's a huge question) - truly a child of God, then it's completely a work of God. He did it all.

I'm saved by grace through faith. And then He says - oh, He just sticks a spear in the heart of religion - "It's not a result of works, so that no one will boast." What would be my boast? Well, my boast - and I was this guy for years - I believed that I had faith, and I didn't do much, but I had the mustard seed of faith. So I was pretty stinking proud of that mustard seed. And then I realized I couldn't even put together a mustard seed of faith - that faith is a gift of God.

How do I know that God has extended to me saving grace? Faith is the evidence of that salvation.

What Happens When We Trust Christ

So what happens to us when we place our trust, our faith and trust, in Christ? "He who believes" - and that word "believes" and "faith" and "trust" and "repent," those are all the same idea. He who believes - not just mental assent (I don't know that I like the phrase, but it does kind of communicate it) - it's somebody who puts their money where their mouth is. It says, "Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. I'm trusting Him and Him alone."

So if somebody says to you, "Are you going to heaven?" "Yes." "Why?" "Because of what Christ did, not because of what I've done."

Jesus says this in John 3:36: "He who believes in the Son of Man has" - present tense - "has eternal life." John 5:24: "Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has eternal life." Romans 5:1, similar idea: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God."

The Present Reality of Eternal Life

We have eternal life. We have it now. It's a present condition. As certain as heaven is to the saints that are there, I can be no more certain of heaven than I am at this moment. If at this moment, right now, in this place and time, if you are a follower of Christ, if you're a Christian, heaven is guaranteed to be your home. It's your future, and you live in that present reality of that. Eternal life begins today.

Therefore, having been justified, we have peace with God. And because this is so important - and this isn't just a little play on words - because I have peace with God, I now have the peace of God.

I had something happen yesterday, and I know you care appropriately, but I just had two or three things yesterday - just crummy things that anyone had to deal with. One of them really bothered me a lot, and I woke up at 12:23 and at 3:03 today thinking about it. When I woke up this morning, it was the first thing on my mind. I'm thinking, "I gotta figure out how to deal with this. I really don't know what to do. I need to talk to a couple of people. It's not a big thing, but it could be a big thing, and I need to handle it."

Now I'm driving in, and on my drive-in today - I leave the house about 5:40 to get to this morning study, and I like to go to AJ's. I've fallen in love with AJ's. It's 6 in the morning. I can get into AJ's first thing in the morning. There's something cool - I feel like I'm really cool if I'm the only guy in AJ's. I don't know why that is. I don't like grocery stores and stuff, but I'm in AJ's this morning, and the girl screwed up my drink order, but that didn't even matter. Doesn't taste that bad.

I'm in AJ's, and I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking about some other things, and I'm driving down the street. I get to the study and I get set up. I can't get this iPod thing to work, and I go outside, and I'm feeling kind of sad. I'm a little bit sorry for myself.

The Peace of God in Life's Difficulties

I'm outside, and I just started laughing, and I'm saying, "You know what? I know I felt this way last year about something, but I don't even remember what it was. So I'm gonna guess these things are gonna go away too." I've got way bigger issues than iPods and people.

But because I have peace with God, I can experience the peace of God, which means in the middle of life - I mean, it's okay to just acknowledge that there are times when life - and Susan has forbidden me to use this word, and since she's not here, let's stick it to her right now - but there are times when life sucks. It's just a very utilitarian word. Doesn't it feel good to say that? Let's say it here. Let's count to three: one, two, three. Susan thinks very little of all of you. She thinks that word has some sort of negative connotation to it, and I think it does.

But sometimes that's what life is, and it does. What do I do with that? That's life, and God ordained the part that sucks too. Do you ever think about that? He ordained the virus that comes. He ordained the—

cancer he ordained all for His purpose. And you know what? I don't have to use brain cells trying to figure out what all this stuff is. He just is in control. If He didn't cause it or allow it, then He's not God. I really don't want to worship a God who isn't in control.

What happens when we place our trust in Christ? We have eternal life. What else do you do to receive salvation from God? The answer is absolutely nothing. He saved us. Titus 3:5 says: "not on the basis of deeds, which we've done in righteousness, but according to His mercy." God saves us.

The Distinction Between Christianity and Religion

That's the distinction between biblical Christianity and all religion. The book of Christianity says here's what He did. All religion says here's what I need to do. Anything other than salvation by grace apart from works—this is not to say that works aren't important, but works have nothing to do, zero to do, with my salvation. They are the result of my salvation, but everything else is religion.

So if you're coming along and saying, "Yeah, here's what Jesus did, some stuff, but I got to do my part too," then that's not biblical Christianity. Nor is it salvation, because you bring nothing to this party. You bring nothing to salvation.

How do we express our desire to God to receive salvation from Him? "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Do you believe? Now what that tells me is that the bodily resurrection of Christ is essential to my belief in order for me to be saved. Read it again: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you'll be saved." So if you don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, you know what? You're not saved.

When Did You Get Saved?

The question I get frequently from people, usually with a little level of distress, is "I don't know the day and the time." I know only people that know the day and the time when God saved them. I happen to be one—that was March 6th for me, about 8:10 in the morning. I was sitting at McCormick Ranch. There's an office building right there by the lake that was under construction, and I was in the process of leasing part of that building and meeting a tenant. It was there that God saved me. I can go back to that space.

Well, you know what? It does not matter whether you can go to a place in time. The issue is: are you His kid now? Billy Graham would say, "I can go to a place in time." Ruth Graham, his wife, would say, "I don't know. I just know that I am." That's the issue.

Have you expressed to God your desire to be saved? Have you confessed to Him that Jesus is who He said He was? Have you acknowledged that truth?

The Guarantee of Eternal Life

What guarantees do we receive when we open our life to Jesus? Here's the guarantee we receive: that we have eternal life. First John 5:13—these things, and he's talking about salvation. He said, "Here you go, let me lead up to it. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, that he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. And these things I've written to you, believe in the name of the Son of God, so you may know that you have eternal life." It's a certainty.

I have in my back pocket a calling card, a couple of them, as a matter of fact. I found this one last night, and when I found it, I went, "Uh-oh," because I promised this guy that I would call him last Monday. So I found it Wednesday night, and it's now one o'clock on Thursday, and I haven't called him yet. But I promised him when he gave me the card. I said, "I promise you I'll call you on Monday." And I didn't. I had every intention of calling him. It just didn't get done. It wasn't like I was ignoring it or trying to abuse it. If I'd have found that card on Monday, I would have called him. It totally slipped my mind.

My point here is: you can make all the promises in the world, but the promises are only as good as the one who's making them.

Limited Lifetime Warranties vs. God's Promise

Last night they changed around some more channels on my cable. I don't know what they're doing. I have a lot of issues, and I call them to ask them, but I don't want to be on hold for an hour and a half, so I'll just live with it. But they messed around with some of my Spanish stations, and then they moved some others. I don't know what they're doing. But I've lost another infomercial station, which is a problem for me.

My favorite term in the infomercials—because I like all of them, I'm into a couple of them, and I'm always intrigued—there's one right now that really looks like it would work, and I'm really intrigued by it. I'd like to get one of you to buy it, but I think you got to be a girl to use it. I think it works better on a girl than a guy, but I don't know that. It's an exercise thing. But it looks really good, and I love the ad. There's a wonderful little phrase that they use in this infomercial: "This product comes with a limited lifetime warranty."

By lifetime warranty, I understand. And limited, I understand. But I don't understand limited lifetime warranty. Here's what I know: whatever's not working is the part that's not covered. That's the limited part right here. "Hey, I'm calling about my..." "Oh yeah, no, no, that's not covered."

This promise is from God. "I've said these things to you so that you might know." This is the promise that God makes: if you believe in Me, you'll have eternal life.

Can God Change His Mind About You?

Is there anything that can cause God to change His mind about you? Here's a cool deal I was thinking about. I have people who love me, I think. I mean, I do. Susan loves me, and my kids love me. My son-in-laws say they do.

put them in this can, but I don't know. Brayden doesn't know yet.

And I think I have people. I think there's people in this room that love me. They really do genuinely love me. But here's the deal: I kind of in the back of my mind wonder if they really love me, if they really knew me. Because I got a whole bunch of things that I've said and thought and done that they're not aware of. They're aware of a lot of the things that I've done, and some of you have said, "Man, that's incredible," and then we'll trade stories, and we try to one-up each other on how lost we are, and how bad it was. And we're kind of telling you really we're bad. But I'm always saying, "But what you don't really know is all these great plans I had for really good sin, but I never did." Those were really good ones.

God's Love Despite Complete Knowledge

Here's the deal with God. And this, to me, this is big. And you may really need to hear this right now. God knows everything you ever thought, or said, or did. He knows what you're thinking, saying, doing, and He knows everything you ever will say, do, or think, and He loves you anyway.

There's never a moment—you gotta hear this. I'm reading some stuff on how to raise young men. And raising young men is different than raising girls, but I think there's this commonality in boys and girls. They need to know that their daddy loves them. They need to hear it, and they need to see it.

There's never a point, and some of you really need to feel this, hear this, understand it, believe it. There's never a point at which God's going to say, "Darn, I wouldn't have picked him if I'd have known that." It's never going to happen. He's never going to hear that. He knows it, and He loves you.

Here's the way Paul says it, maybe a little more eloquently than me: "For I'm convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing is able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus." Man, that's you.

And rather than being, "Well, you know what? God loves me, I can do whatever I want"—this isn't a license to sin. All of a sudden, I'm going, "Oh my gosh, He loves me. Christ died for me." My response to that is, I want to do what He wants me to do. My joy is in making Him pleased with me. And it breaks my heart when I break His heart.

Is There Any Other Way to God?

Two more questions in three minutes. Is there any other way to God? No.

I had a really interesting thing a few years ago. This guy said, "I want you to meet with my girlfriend." And I said, "Oh, okay, why is that?" "She doesn't buy your deal." I said, "Okay." So she comes to meet me at the appointed time, and I really liked her. I mean, I'm somewhat superficial, so looks matter. And so I said, she looks nice. So I thought I'll have a commonality here. I said, "What do you do?" She said, "Well, I'm a physician." I said, "Wow." And I said, "What kind of doctor?" She said, "I'm an internist." I said, "Well, that's interesting, an internist." I said, "Where's your office?" And she gave me the street. I said, "Well, my doctor's on that street." And I said, "What's the address of your office?" And she gave me the address. I said, "That's the address of my doctor." And she said, "Who's your doctor?" And I gave her the name, and she smiled. And she said, "He retired. I bought his practice. I'm your doctor." And I said, "I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think I've got people laughing at me in the course of a medical examination that I really don't need." So I ain't going to handle it.

So we're talking, and I said, "Why are you here?" And she said, "Well, my boyfriend is having this interest in your stuff, and I don't believe His stuff. I like you, but I don't buy this." And I said, "Well, what is it you believe?" And she said, "Well, I believe," and you've heard this, "I believe that there's like a wheel, and God's the hub, and there's all these spokes, and all these spokes are different religions, and all these religions all lead to the hub, which all leads to God. So there's all these different expressions that all lead to one true God." And she said, "What do you think of that?"

And I said, "Well, here's what I know. I know that you are like way smarter than I am, but that's really stupid. Because what you believe is that these contradictory things are going to lead to—this doesn't make any sense." And she said, "But it makes me feel good." And I said, "You're a physician. If I come in with a symptom, you may give me some morphine to take away the pain, but you still want to go in, and you want to go beyond the symptoms to the core of whatever it is that I'm sick with, and that feeling good is irrelevant in here. There's a sense in which you need to feel bad first."

So there's one way: Jesus. Jesus said that. "I am the way, the truth, the life." Not "a" way, not "a" truth, not "a" life. Here's how Peter says it: "There's salvation in no one else."

Have You Placed Your Trust in Christ?

So here's the last question. Have you placed your trust in Christ? What does that mean? That means that you aren't placing your trust in a church, because there's not a church around here that can save you. Not one. Some of them are just going to get in the way of you being saved. So a church can't save you.

There's not a work that can save you. There's not an action that you can do. You may be doing things that you think are good. You may be going—we tend to identify with church. You may be going to church or you may be flying to Africa as part of the AIDS deal. All those things are great. I'm not demeaning any of those. You may be working with junior high kids. I mean that's sacrificial. You may be giving money. All of those things are good. None of those things contribute to my salvation. They are irrelevant.

The boy downstairs plays baseball. What does that mean? I'm talking to this lady one day and she said, "The boy downstairs plays baseball." It had nothing to do with anything we were talking about, so I used that.

phrase to communicate that idea. So when you're talking about works, the boy downstairs plays baseball. It's got nothing to do with what we're talking about. It's about a relationship with Christ. What does it mean? It means to express to Him the desire of your heart is to have a relationship with Him. To understand that Christ died and when He died He paid the price for our sin and that singular action alone is what saves me. Nothing else.

No church. Are you anti-church? Some of them, but not generally. You need to be in church. We're not anti any of these things. We're saying none of those things save you. The Bible teaches you're not saved by them. Can He be any more clear? I'm saved by grace, unmerited favor, not as a result of anything that I could do.

The Stakes Could Not Be Higher

So that's the question. That's why we said this is the most important lesson. You miss this one? None of the rest of this stuff matters. Nothing else matters. You're going to get to the end of your life. I was talking to a man today. His wife is down at St. Joe's. He's asked Susan and me to come and visit her on Monday. We will. She's dying. She doesn't know Christ.

Only one thing matters—that that lady in these last few days places her faith and trust in Christ. She does, she has eternal life. If she doesn't, she spends eternity in hell. The stakes cannot get any higher. This is not about a seventh game elimination. Who cares? And I love all that stuff and dribble your brains out, hit the ball. I mean, I like all that stuff, but none of that stuff has any eternal value. It's not about a deal. It's about do you know Christ?

What They Wanted You to Hear

So that's our prayer. If somebody invited you today, that's what they wanted you to hear. Right there. That's what they wanted you to hear. Now you may be sitting there going, "I don't think I got it." Then here's what I'm asking you to do. Talk to the person who invited you and say, "What in the world was he talking about? What does that mean?"

Next week, I'm not sure what the series will be. I know this—it will be incredible. We'll get it next week.

Father, help us see this truth. What we do here is incredible because it is of You. We pray that all the things that I said today that are of me and have no eternal value are quickly forgotten. And the truth that flows from Your word would hit our hearts. I pray for those for whom today really is new stuff.