Israel, Iran, and End Times | Max Lucado | Palm Sunday Service | Oak Hills Church

44:14 We're so grateful. May the Lord be blessed. As we enter into this important time and reflecting much on the gift of Christ, special services will be here Friday night to celebrate Good Friday. and then of course Sunday Easter services is starting at 7 a.m., 9, then 11, and 1 p.m. Please consider coming to the 7 a.m. service. That's where the true Christians will be and we want you to,

44:48 your presence at that sunrise service would be a great blessing. It frees up space later in the day. A couple of weeks ago, a friend told me that she cannot bear to watch the news. The conflict in the Mideast has her on edge, anxious, worried about her world, worried about the world in which her children will grow up. She's not alone. Iranian missiles striking Israel, Israeli missiles striking Iran, Iranian missiles aimed at a U.S. military base. Nervous nations, dropping markets, rising prices. It's enough to make you want to turn away. Got a better idea? Turn to your Bible.

45:43 Scripture speaks with uncanny clarity about the geopolitical conflicts that we are witnessing unfold in this very generation. We are wise to view this conflict, not just through the lens of Fox, CNN, ABC, NBC, or CBS, but we are well served to ponder these events through the lens of Scripture, to what God says will happen. That's our intent today. According to our schedule, today was going to be lesson five of a five-part series based on Peter's first epistle. Travis and I both felt a conviction, however, that given the events of our day, it would be wise to call an audible and go a different direction.

46:38 And so our message today is Israel, Iran, and end times. Is that okay with you? If not, we're in a lot of trouble because we've already started. Gracious Father, speak to our hearts now. Bring clarity through your Scripture. Forgive the speaker. His sins are many. Please bring mercy and peace to innocent bystanders caught in a global conflict. We beg you this in Jesus' name. Amen. Our outline today looks like this. Let's get the outline first. There it is. God's promise to Israel, Satan's persecution of Israel, and then we're going to conclude with God's future proclamation through Israel. Yes, Israel is key to this because Israel is key to God's story.

47:40 Now, before we start talking about Israel, let's take just a couple of minutes and zoom out and be reminded of God's timeline. God has told us what is about to happen, never to scare us, just the opposite, to prepare us. and to the person whose heart is anxious in these days, I would say take a good long look at what God says has happened and will happen. God's timeline, best I can tell, looks something like this. We start with creation, understanding that our God never changes his mind and what he wants in the end he described and achieved in the beginning and what happened in creation is a picture of what will happen in the end. a perfect garden, perfect harmony, perfect relationships, and perfected bodies. This is highlighted by covenants. We're going to look at one in particular this morning made by God to Abraham. There's a timeline that includes Daniel as a prophet who revealed the timeline to us.

48:50 By the way, the prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled on Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and that prophecy was fulfilled down to the precise day. Other prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, but a variety of prophets. And then, of course, the arrival of Jesus, God entering the world in the form of Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, raised in Israel, a Jewish man in a Jewish family. He lived among us. He loved us. He taught us. He instructed us. He died for us. He was buried. He rose from the dead. and he's going to return. Fifty days after his resurrection, we entered what we can call the church age. This is just a term. It's not in the Bible, but it's just a common term used to describe the dispensation or the era in which we find ourselves.

49:45 Unique to the church age is God is using Gentiles in addition to Jews to accomplish his work. We have been grafted in to the family tree. at the end of the church age, there will be the next major event on God's prophetic calendar. This is the rapture of the church. We are now looking into the future. We have not been raptured, at least I hope we haven't because you and I are still here. The rapture of the church, this is the intervention, the supernatural. God does this. God intervenes in human history in miraculous fashions. And the next major event is called the rapture. At a certain point, it could be today. The angel will blow the trumpet. Jesus will descend from the skies. Dead believers, the bodies of dead believers, will vacate wherever they are, grave, catacomb, whatever they are, and they will be reconstituted and reunited with the Spirit in a perfected or glorified body taken then into paradise.

50:53 Their spirits are already in paradise. They'll be reunited. Living believers, I hope to be one of those, will be raptured or snatched away into heaven, and we will meet the Lord in the air. We'll be changed in a moment, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. This nature, this decaying body will become a glorified body. Amen. Won't that be good? All the aches and the pains will be gone. that will happen in an instant. We will be taken into paradise, and in paradise we will be rewarded by Christ. We will hear our well-done, good and faithful servant, and we will participate in the great wedding feast. And that is to say the church, the bride of Christ, will be wedded to Christ forever. Meanwhile, what happens on earth when a generation of God-fearing, tax-paying, decent people are extracted from earth? Everything spins into chaos. This is called the tribulation. It will last for seven years. Even though on the timeline it looks like it begins immediately after the rapture, we just don't know. We don't know. But there will come, it seems like it would come soon. And in this time of moral chaos, there will be a world leader who will step into the vacuum. He'll be kind of a Hitler of sorts, magnetic, very charismatic in his personality.

52:21 He will present himself as a great statesman and negotiate kind of a global peace agreement. And then midway through this peace agreement, he will break the agreement and he will set himself up to be worshiped in the temple. Yes, the third version of the temple will be constructed on the holy mount, and he will demand to be worshiped. In the Bible, he's called by many names. The most common name is the Antichrist, the Antichrist, and that will continue for about seven years, but at the end of those years, this tribulation, you do not want to be on earth during the tribulation.

53:03 You do not. but at the end of those seven years, Christ will return, and if you are in Christ, having been raptured and been taken to paradise, you will descend with Christ out of the heavens, and you will reign with Christ during the thousand-year reign called the millennium, and during this time, much of the plan of the garden will be realized. The earth will be perfected. God will have his children. Jesus will reign from Jerusalem and we will reign with him. At the end of those thousand years, unbelievers, regardless of when they were born, will appear before Christ in the great white throne judgment. No, they will not be in the millennium. Yes, many will be in the tribulation. They will die during the tribulation, but they will still be buried during the millennium. They They will not participate, but then they will be raised, and they then will be judged.

54:04 Spend your life telling God to leave you alone, and ultimately he will do just that. The great white throne judgment is when those names who are, those people whose names are not found in the book of life will be separated from God for eternity. I pray with all my heart that your name is written in the book of life. If such is the case, then you don't worry about the great white throne judgment. You won't be there. you will be at the millennium and you will witness the birth of the eternal state. Some will go to eternal death. If you're in Christ, you won't. You'll go to eternal life. That will be the new heaven and the new earth. That's a lot of material, isn't it? That's an overview. If you would like to go deeper in any of those topics, about three years ago, we took that timeline and turned it into a sermon series. and it's available on our website.

54:59 You can listen to each one of those stopping points, those milestones as a message in and of itself. Also, my wife's husband. wrote a book called What Happens Next? Following that timeline. If you'd rather have a book or if you'd rather have an audio book or on Kindle, it's all available. But where are we on this timeline? Here's where we are. We are coming to the end of the church age. We are coming to the very end of the church age. That's why we say the rapture could happen any moment. Why do we believe, or why do I believe, we're at the end of the church age? Because of what happened in 1948, when Israel was given their land again. Many of these prophecies made by Ezekiel, by Daniel, by Isaiah, could not be fulfilled because Israel did not have land.

55:55 But in what has to be one of the most extraordinary miracles of modern history, President Truman signed the agreement, and the United Nations gave Israel land in 1948. And this regathering, this return to Israel has continued. And so we're right at the very end. Now that Israel has its land, we can see other prophecies. And folks, it's kind of like a mother-to-be in labor pains. They're just happening faster and faster and faster, and we're witnessing it right now. So how are we to understand this? Well, Israel is essential to this story, so let's begin with this. God's promise to Israel. God promised to bless the seed of Abraham. He was called Abram at the time, and he promised to bless the world through Abram's seed. Here it is, Genesis chapter 12.

56:54 When you see words in bold, please read them out loud with me. The Lord has said to Abram, go from your country, your people, and your father's house to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. Read this, please. I will bless those who bless you. Whoever curses you, I will curse. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Please take note. This is a unilateral covenant. This is from God to Israel. God did not tell Abram, in exchange, you do this. It is a covenant, unilateral, from God to Israel. God does not change his mind. He made a covenant with Israel. Now, exactly how would God bless the world through Israel?

57:49 Well, ideally, they would model a way of living that reflected the glory and the goodness of God. Did they do this? Sometimes yes, many times no. Second, they would provide a lineage through which Jesus Christ, the greatest global blessing, could be born. Now, why Israel? Why Abraham and his children? Not because of anything Israel had to offer. In fact, Moses told them God wasn't attracted to you and didn't choose you because you were big and important. The fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors. Excuse me. God chose Israel for the same reason he chose you and me, and that is grace. Sheer, sovereign grace.

58:44 and God said, I will make you into a great nation. Has God not done exactly that? It's been three and a half millennia since God gave this promise to Abraham. Look at us still talking about Israel. we can't travel to the nation of the Babylonians or of the Medes. The Roman Empire's gone. The Greek Empire's gone. But my passport has a bunch of stamps from the nation of Israel. You can go to Israel. God has blessed the seed of Abraham. And has God not blessed the world through the seed of Abraham? if you love your Bible, you should thank the Lord for the seed of Abraham. It came through the Jews.

59:39 If you love the church, you should thank the Lord for the seed of Abraham. It was born out of a Jewish people. Most of all, through the Jewish people, God gave us a Messiah, a Savior, Jesus Christ, and we have the blessed hope of his return. Israel, I'm so sorry. Israel is special to God by covenant. He has made a covenant. I do not believe God changes his mind when he makes a covenant. Boy, if he changes his mind, I'm in trouble because I'm dependent upon a covenant from God. The fact that Israel exists today, however, is nothing short of a miracle. Guys, mute my mic for just a second. I didn't want you all to hear that. I'm still inhaling stuff from outside and I don't know what it is.

1:00:39 The fact that Israel exists is nothing short of a miracle. Now let's look at Satan's persecution of Israel. How many people groups have sought to eradicate the globe of the children of Abraham? How many different groups? Whether it be Pharaoh in the days of Moses or Hitler, in the days of my parents, there have been groups of people, political leaders, who have sought to purge the world of Jews. We see it today. Anti-Semitism or this spirit of Hebrew hatred, it's alive and well in the most unlikely places. on what we call elite university campuses.

1:01:31 Listen to podcasts. People who seem to have common sense have this inexplicable bias against the Jews. Synagogues are attacked. Jewish people are threatened. And friends, there is no ideological reason. Press somebody for an answer. They have no explanation. There is a spiritual reason, however, and that is Satan knows God's plan to use the Jewish people. He wants to destroy them and thereby destroy God's plan. So to understand the volcanic bias and bitterness in the world toward the Jews, we need to zoom out and trace anti-Semitism back to its roots. And doing so leads us to a tribe of people who lived in the 13th century B.C. called, can you say this with me, Amalekites. Amalekites, not cellulites, not termites.

1:02:34 Amalekites, these are the earliest recorded enemies of Israel. They were ancient enemies of the Hebrews. The children of Israel were hardly out of Egyptian bondage when, look at this, Amalek, Amalekites, the Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Why would they do this? Why would they turn their wrath against some ex-slaves? Moses and the ex-slaves from Egyptian bondage, they didn't own any land. I don't know what they had done to offend Amalek. They possessed no territory.

1:03:20 Why this warfare? Why this guerrilla warfare on these Hebrew people? And why such cruelty? Moses would recall their barbarism when he urged the Israelites, remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey, and they attacked all who were lagging behind. Those chickens, they didn't attack from the front. They began to snipe off those who were lagging from in the rear, the elderly, the disabled, the weak, the weary. That's how Satan works. Again, Lucifer knew of God's promise to Abraham. He knows that the Israelites are special to God by covenant. So just as he would eventually prompt Herod to kill babies in Bethlehem, hoping to kill the baby Jesus, so he now prompts the Amalekites to snipe off and destroy the children of Abraham.

1:04:31 he wants to cut down the family tree before it could bear fruit god was not fooled he empowered moses and the hebrews even though they're ex-slaves he empowered them to win and god said i will erase the memory of amalek amalek from under heaven moses said they have raised their fist against the lord's throne so now the lord will be at war with amalek generation after generation you're about to see how prophetic that last phrase was. Fast forward two centuries. Go from 13th century until the 11th century from the 1200s to about 1000. And there you'll find King Saul being instructed. Remember who King Saul was? He was the first king of Israel. And he was commanded by God to destroy the Amalekites.

1:05:26 Well, guess what? Saul disobeyed. He disobeyed. And he decided to let the king live and keep some of the livestock for himself. He blatantly disobeyed. You want to know the name of that Amalekite king? His name was Agag. Agag. That matters. That name matters. Because we're going to fast forward from 1200 B.C. and Moses, 1000 B.C. and Saul, to the story of Esther in or about 460 B.C. Esther, queen who married King Xerxes, queen who was a Jewess. No one knew that, or very few people knew that when she became queen. The right-hand man to King Xerxes was a man by the name of Haman. Not Hangman, sounds like it, but it's Haman.

1:06:26 And his full name reads like this. Haman, son of Hamadatha, the Agagite. Who was the king that Saul was supposed to destroy? Agag. So Haman, the son of Hamadathah, was descended from Agag. Agag was an Amalekite, a Hebrew hater. Does anybody remember what Haman is known for in the book of Esther? He wanted to exterminate the world of Jews. He didn't know Esther was Jewish, but he set out a plan and got approval from the king to wipe out the nation of the Jews, the world of the Jews. It was the first attempted Holocaust.

1:07:18 So look what we're seeing here. Agag continues the Hebrew hatred. Eventually, in his bloodline, there's a king by the name of Haman who attempts to destroy the Jews. Haman and Esther live in Persia, and Persia is now called Iran. Iran. So there is this hostility toward the Jews that hovers over ancient Persia and modern Iran like a cloud. Daniel spoke about this. Okay, I've gone back 100 years. I'm not driving you crazy, folks. I've gone back 100 years. Daniel lived before Esther about 100 years. He was one of those taken into captivity and marched from Jerusalem into Persia.

1:08:17 Yeah, the same country. And after 70 years, because he knew the prophecy said the Israelites would be in captivity for 70 years. At the end of 70 years, he prayed for the people to be free. Part of that prayer is the answer of an angel to Daniel. I show you the prayer because look what the angel said. the prince of the Persian kingdom, that's a satanic force. That's a principality. That's someone in the hierarchy of the devil. The prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days. Then Michael, that's one of God's angels, one of the chief princes came to me to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia. In other words, ask Daniel. Daniel will tell you that the devil has a principality, a presence over the ancient region of Persia.

1:09:15 And that purpose of that principality is to persecute and oppress the Jewish people. Some of the dots are being connected. The big idea is the thorny vine of Iranian anti-Semitism is not unique to our day. It has deep, ancient roots found in Scripture. It was created by and is curated by Satan, all with the idea of destroying God's plan to use Israel. What about the future? Will Iran be a part of end times? Does the Bible say anything about the role of Iran in the last days? Well, the prophet Ezekiel certainly does. He forecasts a list of nations that will attack Israel at some point during the tribulation. Again, by God's grace, I believe we'll not be there, but Scripture tells us what it's going to look like.

1:10:15 There will be a group of warring nations, a coalition, coalesce and come against Israel. One of those nations is Persia. Still around at the end of days. Ethiopia and Libya with all their weapons. although God says they're not going to get very far because God says to them, I am your enemy. I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws to lead you out with your whole army. Friends, the big idea is this. Hostility against Jews is nothing new. It's nothing new. And it will continue. It will continue. It's not ideological in nature. It's spiritual in nature. it's not necessarily political, geographical. There appears to be something to do with nuclear weapons or ancient oppression, but truth is, folks, it's a battle between good and evil, between God and the devil.

1:11:18 And whether it be the Amalekites against Moses or the Persians against Esther or Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in Gaza or the modern Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran, these enemies of God just keep showing up. Now, I want to be very quick to say something. The Iranian people are not satanic. That's not what I'm saying. The Iranian people are wonderful people. Beautiful culture. Rich and ancient culture. Terrific food.

1:11:50 Amazing achievements. And even right now, we are picking up word of the spiritual revival in the name of Jesus Christ among the Iranian people. in miraculous fashion healings are happening people are coming to Christ who never even opened a Bible Jesus is appearing to them in dreams and speaking to them one among the other even though they have been by their government cut off from society Jesus is penetrating and I believe that what is intended for evil God will use for good and there will be a great revival in Iran. So it's not the people of Iran. It is the regime that Satan inspires. Let me also be quick to add, Israel's not always behaved like covenant people.

1:12:47 They have never, they have not always, I shouldn't say never. They had their good days, but boy, there's been a lot of bad days. They have not behaved like covenant people, not in Bible times, not in our time. I don't like the things they do. I don't get the things they do. And I'm not trying to defend the things they do. To be quite honest, I don't know what it's like to live in a nation the size of New Jersey and be surrounded by enemies on every border. I don't know. I'm not trying to defend them. I am simply saying that in God's plan, scripturally speaking, spiritually speaking, they are special to him by covenant. he has made a promise to bless the world through them and I want to close by showing you he's not finished he's not finished our final point is God's future proclamation to Israel through Israel so the next major event is the rapture of the church the prophetic clock is quickly ticking toward that moment that rapture will be followed by the tribulation, a time of moral decay and societal collapse. A world leader, a Hitler-like figure will emerge during that time and present himself as the great statesman. He will set himself up to be worshipped. We often call him the Antichrist. He has many names in the Bible, but midway through that treaty that he creates, he will break it and he will demand to be worshipped.

1:14:23 He will enter the temple. Yes, a third version of the temple will be constructed, and he will demand to be worshipped. In my opinion, the book of Revelation is best understood describing that tribulation. The book of tribulation can be intimidating to people, but if you understand it as a description of those years of tribulation, it does make sense. In that book, in Revelation, John, the author of the book, has a vision of a seven-sealed scroll and it's in the hand of God the Father. He saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll, but no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.

1:15:21 What in the world does that mean? Well, in the first century, any scroll that had seven seals was intended for the purpose of inheritance. If someone inherited something, they were given a scroll that had seven seals. So this is the inheritance. This is the inheritance. The first readers would have recognized this has something to do with who is worthy to receive this inheritance of heaven, to be the king of the universe. And then we stand up because we read this. Jesus went and took the scroll.

1:15:59 He took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. In other words, Jesus says, it's my universe. It's my eternal state. It's my heaven. It's mine. I receive it. He received his inheritance. And when people saw Jesus do this, I'm sorry, when the saints in heaven see Jesus do this, they erupt in worship. The angels worship. The 24 elders worship. The four living creatures worship. John hears the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000. Do the math on that. I've not done it. That's a lot of angels. And you know what they're all declaring? in a mighty chorus, they're saying, worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb. Jesus is the lamb.

1:16:51 They're saying he's worthy. He's worthy to have his universe. He's worthy to have his garden. He's worthy to have his king. We receive him as our king. But Satan does not. Satan in a final last gasp effort refuses to give up the earth. And consequently, there's this tension. The Christians have been removed. The church has been raptured. The world is populated by people who fear, do not fear God. It's a dark and evil time. And Christ responds to this with judgments. Economies fail. Wild weather patterns. And yet, before it all starts, John sees the most unlikely event. Look at this.

1:17:42 An angel says to those angels who are about to release the judgments, wait, don't harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants. So we're talking about the servants of God. Again, we're in the tribulation. You and I are in paradise. We're not there to witness this. But the angel says, wait, we've got to do something with the servants of God. Who are the servants of God? Well, he tells us, then I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the, what church? Tribes of what? Israel. So the church is gone. The evangelists, the preachers, the pastors, the people, all the Christians are in the presence of God.

1:18:39 It seems like there's only darkness on the earth, but God who always has his people, and God who made a promise to bless the world through the seed of Abraham, says, oh, no, no, I've got 144,000, and they're going to be sealed, and they're going to be from the nation of Israel. Do you not find this amazing? 144,000 that's 12 sets of 12,000 and they're going to be sealed later on we are told that they will have the very name of God tattooed on their forehead I do not know we're not told which name Jehovah Adonai but something so that everywhere they go somebody will say wait that's a servant of God. And they will be sealed. That is to say they will be insulated. They will be protected. They will be mighty in the presence of God. Folks, this is 144,000 Jewish evangelists that will go out in the darkness of the tribulation and they will declare the name of Jesus.

1:19:48 They are teachers of Christ. They will reveal Christ. They will not be destroyed even though Satan will attempt to destroy them. And this description of the 144,000 is followed by the appearance of this innumerable multitude. After this, I looked, and there before me, writes John, was a great multitude that no one could count. Can you say that? A multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. So maybe the greatest harvest of souls in history will take place in the darkest time of human history, during the tribulation. There will be a great gathering of the saints. And what God told Abraham when God said, your descendants will be a blessing to the world.

1:20:45 Friends, this event yet to take place was part of that promise. Yes, he blessed the world through the prophets. through the patriarchs, through the presence of Christ, through the preaching of the apostles, through the birth of the church. But do not think for a second that he has stopped and withdrawn his blessing from Israel. He still has one more job for them, and it will take place during the tribulation. And this enormous revival will happen as a result of 144,000 Jewish evangelists. Have I lost you? Jesus said I'm sorry God told Abraham all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and at the end of this blessing when these 144,000 and all these souls are saved this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations Jesus said and then the end will come then the end will come I think it's interesting that there are so many people saved during the tribulation that nobody could count them.

1:22:02 Again, this phrase, there was a multitude that no one could count. Folks, I've been around preachers, evangelists, and missionaries my entire adult life. One thing we know how to do is count. We know how to take attendance. We know how to count baptisms. We know how to count pregnant women twice. We know how to count. but a day is coming in which the harvest will be so great from every nation, every tribe, every language. It'll be so great. It'll be too great to count. And at that moment, God's promise to Israel will be honored. Satan's persecution of Israel will be thwarted and God's proclamation through Israel will result in a harvest of souls. so where does that leave us I believe it leaves us praying and watching praying and watching friends these are unusual times in which we live this could be the generation that witnesses the rapture of the church and I pray that it is we need to be praying people of prayer not people of panic but people of prayer and as we see these things unfold what we do is we say, well, God told us this was going to happen.

1:23:22 So we're praying. We're trusting the Almighty God. You know he's called the Almighty God seven, eight times, eight times in the book of Revelation. Almighty. Almighty. The word Almighty comes from a Greek word which means to hold all things. He's the God who holds all things. He's the Almighty God. So if you find yourself anxious, just turn to the Almighty God and say, God, you hold all this in your future. So we're praying. We're praying for Israel. We're praying for Iran. We're praying for all the Gulf states. We're praying for all the people, especially the innocent, the children, the weak, the sick, those who had nothing to do with this, just happened to be born in a certain part of the world. We're praying for them. We're praying for peace. for them.

1:24:17 And we're watching because we know Jesus could come at any moment. There was a tourist who visited a beautiful mansion in Switzerland. And the gardens were so beautiful that he wanted to meet the gardener. He asked the gardener, he said, these gardens are just immaculate. The owner must be so proud. He said, well, the owner doesn't live here. In fact, I've only seen him four times in 20 years. Really? He said, well, you take care of him like he's coming back tomorrow. And the gardener said, oh, no, I take care of him like he's coming back today. Father, let us live like you're coming back today. Let us live like you're coming back today. Are you ready when Christ comes? Friend, you don't want to be left behind. You don't. You just don't. You don't want to be in here during the tribulation. Have you said yes to Christ?

1:25:12 Have you? Have you allowed him to write your name in the book of life? If your answer is no or I don't know, let's take care of that today. If your answer is yes, praise the Lord. But if it's I don't know or no, we're going to offer a prayer of salvation. We're going to all say the prayer out loud, please. And at the end of the prayer, would you stand up if you're saying yes to Jesus for the first time? We'll applaud your decision and help you take your next steps. Let's pray. Jesus, I'm not perfect, for I have sinned, but I believe in you. Save me. Change me. Forgive me. I give you my life. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please stand up if you're saying yes to Christ today. Let us celebrate with you.

1:26:06 Stand up. We want to give you an ovation. Yes, ma'am. God bless you.