Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Father’s Day-The Father’s wisdom

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

A Sermon for the Fathers

Good to see you this Father’s Day. How many dads we got here? Just wave if you’re a dad. All right. Good to see you, dads. You know, Father’s Day is a funny day because—dads are funny. No, I’m just kidding. A lot of people are conflicted about Father’s Day. Some people are conflicted about Mother’s Day. I’ve often over the years heard complaints about these days. Some people don’t like either day or both days. And a lot of it’s rooted, of course, in their own experience. Unfortunately, many of us have had not-so-good father experiences, you know what I’m saying? Some of us could tell horror stories about the way we were raised. And so, for some, the term father is a troubling term, but we have a good Father in our God. And we see this all throughout Scripture, but we see it in some of the examples He gives us of men in the Word who are really fathers who model themselves after the heavenly Father.

Now today I’m going to do something different I’ve never done before. No, I’m not going to dance for you. You’re like, oh man, Jake’s like, darn it. Usually on Father’s Day, what do you get? You get a sermon to fathers, right? To them, telling them, advising them, instructing them on being a biblical father. Or you get a sermon about fatherhood. Right? So, to fathers or about fathers. But today, I’m going to give a sermon for the fathers. Not to the fathers, but for the fathers. In other words, I’m going to give a sermon that the fathers would like to give to you. And I’m going to say some things, especially to the young people, but what I’m going to share today really applies to all of us. But I’m speaking as a father would speak to his son. And in Scripture, what we see is that God speaks to us in this way, right? As a matter of fact, it’s striking if you look at the book of Proverbs, and we’re going to spend a lot of time in Proverbs this morning. In that book, it’s really a book of a father’s instruction to his son. And over and over it says, “My son, give me your heart. My son, listen to my instruction, my son.” It is a father speaking to his son. So, what I’m going to say today is a father speaking to his children.

David’s Prayer and Solomon’s Request

[audio unclear] that I’ve found over the years, I’ll counsel people and then someone will come to me and say, “Man, I’ve been telling them that for years and they wouldn’t listen. But as soon as you said it, they listened.” Why that is, I don’t know, right? Talk to your spouse for 20 years about something, they don’t listen. Pastor says it: “Oh, I better do that.” Right? So maybe I’ll say something that you will hear today, but I want you to hear it from the heart of God, your Father.

We’re going to start in Chronicles. Go to 1 Chronicles 28. As I said, we’re going to end up primarily though in the book of Proverbs. In 1 Chronicles 28, we have a prayer of David, specifically regarding his son Solomon. And this is at the end of David’s life, and David foresees that his cherished hope of building a temple for God was not going to come to pass in his life, but that his son would finish what he had begun. And so in 1 Chronicles 28, there’s a long prayer, it’s beautiful, but we’re just going to read a couple of verses.

It says in verse 9, David had assembled all Israel together. And he says in verse 9, “And as for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intents of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you.” [audio unclear]

And in verse 19 of chapter 29: “And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep your commandments and your testimonies and your statutes, to do all these, to build the temple for which I have made provision.”

So here [audio unclear] 2 Chronicles, chapter one. It says, on that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask, what shall I give you?” Now just stop there. Stop. Don’t look at your Bible. Look at me. God appears to you, right? And he says, “Ask, what do you want?” Think about it. What would you ask? I might want a new car. Maybe a new back. I’m not going to give a lot of things that we care about, you know what I’m saying, that we would ask. But God’s basically saying to Solomon, here’s a blank check, Solomon, fill it in. What do you want? And what if Solomon asked? Verse 8: “And Solomon said to God, You have shown great mercy to David, my father,” [audio unclear] “and have made me king.” And the thing that he asked for is wisdom, for wisdom.

The Supreme Importance of Wisdom

So this morning, I think I’ll call this sermon a Father’s Exhortation, and it’s an exhortation to seek wisdom, seek wisdom. My first point is the supreme importance of wisdom in the Scripture itself. Go to the book of Proverbs, and I wish we could just spend hours in there because it’s just amazing, all of the exhortations. But we’re only going to read a few, but I want you to understand the great stress that is laid in the Bible on wisdom. It says here in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7, “The fear of the Lord, or the reverence of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This could be translated, “The reverence of the Lord is the foundation of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Chapter 3 of the same book, verse 7, it says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.” Chapter 5, there’s so many, I mean there’s many, many, many. It says, “My son”—here’s the father’s voice—“my son, pay attention to my wisdom. Lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge.”

Chapter 7, verse 4. We’ll start in verse 1 of chapter 7: “My son, keep my words and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, ’You are my sister,’ and call understanding your nearest kin.”

What we see is that the Bible lays great stress on the importance and the value of wisdom. In 4:7 of the same book it says, “Wisdom is the principal thing.” In all thy getting, it says in the King James, “in all thy getting, get wisdom.” So in all of your pursuits, what a father says to his children, in all of your pursuits, in all that you do in the future, the goal should be wisdom. Not mere skill, not competence, not recognition, not promotion, not honors, not money. Because all of these other things can become idols of the heart. Now more than any of these things, wisdom is the most important thing. It should be something that we esteem, something that we admire, something that we love. Because wisdom is a beautiful mistress to be courted and wooed and won. C.S. Lewis, when he said of virtue, it applies equally to wisdom, and it was this: virtue is lovely, not merely obligatory. A celestial mistress, not a categorical imperative. And it’s true also of wisdom. It’s lovely, it’s admirable, and we should seek it and woo it and win it.

[audio unclear] “Wisdom is a tree of life to those who lay hold upon her. Keep her, for she is thy life.” She is thy life.

How We Acquire Wisdom

Now, if wisdom is so important, you ought to be asking yourself a simple question. How do I get it? How do I get that that’s really important? Okay, how do I get it? Well, that’s my second point. Let’s talk, how do we on a practical level acquire wisdom? I’ll mention three things briefly.

First, we do so by devotion. By devotion. What I mean is prayer and meditation. James 1, James says, if anyone asks God for wisdom, God will grant it, right? Because God gives it liberally. Well, asking God is just a phrase for prayer. We must spend time in prayer, we must spend time in meditation, be in the Word, and we must be diligent in these things if we would gain wisdom. The reverence of the Lord is a phrase which means not only respect for God in general, but a respect for all of God’s ordinances. I think one of the best examples of the fear of the Lord is simply Psalm 119. And when you read Psalm 119, you see this love and this passion for God, His laws, His judgments, His Word, His wisdom, right? And that this reverence for God is a high esteem of everything that comes from God. And so to fear the Lord is to have a love and esteem for His Word, for His worship, for His people, for His church, for all the things related to God. But it’s all rooted in His Word, His revelation of His will and of Himself. So we gain wisdom from praying and meditating upon His Word. No one will be wise who is not a student of the Scripture.

Secondly, the second thing we must do to be wise, we must be obedient. The thing we have to understand is that wisdom is not just the mind. You see, the key to gaining more wisdom is to respond to the light that we already have. To respond to the light that we have. If we’re not responding to the light God has given us, He doesn’t give us more light. He’s given us sufficient light. And if we’re not obeying the light that we have, He doesn’t give us more light. He gives us light and then we respond to that light, and as we respond in obedience [audio unclear] the path of the righteous. As they walk in the light, it’s brighter and brighter and brighter. So, knowledge is one thing. Wisdom, of course being the application of knowledge, means that we walk out the knowledge that we have. And as we walk it out, we receive more and more wisdom.

Thirdly, reverence. The fear of the Lord is the principal part, or the foundation of wisdom. The reverence of the Lord. That means to put the Lord first in our thoughts, in our heart, and in our affections. And if we do so, it means we will seek the Lord, amen? Those who seek God find wisdom. For He is wisdom Himself. He is wisdom Himself. Some seek wisdom and never find it because they do not seek it in the Lord. You may seek wisdom and find neither wisdom nor the Lord, because He’s the principal part. He’s the foundation of that wisdom. If we find Christ, then we will find wisdom.

The Test of Wisdom Is Life Itself

Now with knowledge as distinct from wisdom we have a fairly simple mechanism of measurement. You know what it’s called? It’s called a test. It’s called an exam. You can all boo, all you students. Boo. Yes. Right? That’s how we grade knowledge. Do you know something? Well, let’s take a test and see if you know it. But with wisdom, it’s different. You can’t take an exam to see if somebody is wise. So how do we know? What is the mechanism of measurement for wisdom versus knowledge? Well, the test for wisdom is life itself. In other words, the test for wisdom is how we actually live, not what we say.

Now I have a favorite saying of mine. I probably didn’t make it up, but I say it all the time. Want to hear it? Here we go. Life is easy in theory. It’s true, I’m a great parent in theory. I’m a great preacher in theory. I’m a great husband in theory. I’m just awesome in theory. I know what to do. A lot of times I even know how to do it. I can tell all of you how to run your life, in theory. But life’s a lot harder than theory. You get what I’m saying?

I received an email from someone the other day who was discouraged, depressed, and I’m always reluctant to respond to emails like that because, you know, you don’t want to be what’s called Job’s comforter, you know. Oh, here’s a Bible verse. Give a pious platitude when people really want sympathy and understanding, right? They want to know you care more than they’re looking for advice. This is a common mistake in marriage. The wife’s down about something, and the husband, like, “Well, here’s the fix.” That’s not really what she wants, right? She wants you to listen, take the time, slow down, maybe put your arm around her, just, you know, it’s going to—we’re going to get through it, don’t worry. Men are notorious for giving advice that nobody wants. Right? And life is easy in theory. I got the answer for everything. I can run the country, I can run the NFL football team, I can, if I was coaching the Blues they would have won the Stanley Cup. I mean, that’s the way it is, right? That’s the way it is. And every man here knows they’re the same way. Life is easy in theory. But theory is not the test of wisdom. That’s not the test. The wise man in the Bible isn’t the guy who passed the exam. The wise man in the Bible is the man who lives in a certain way.

Let’s look at James 3 and we’ll see this. And this is what’s so important about understanding the nature of wisdom in Scripture versus a common confusion about wisdom being basically more knowledge. James 3, it says in verse 13, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” Is it the guy with all the degrees? Listen, I knew a guy, if you walked up to him and you quoted the beginning of any psalm, he could quote you the whole psalm. Amazing mind. He just never lived any of it. His life was basically one train wreck after another because he didn’t apply what he knew. So who’s the wise person? The guy who can quote a lot of Bible, the guy who’s read all the books, the guy who can talk a good talk. Who is the wise and understanding man among you? Well, James tells us, “Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.” We know the wise man by how he lives, not by what he says. We’re all good talkers, but we’re not always such good walkers, right?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in meetings, at men’s meetings, and we’re just, you know, we’ll have men’s meetings, we’ll talk about the importance of family and marriage and, you know, nurturing your wife and raising your kids, and I’ve heard men, you know, puff up their chests and say, “Well, my kid, if he ever did that, I’d lay down the law.” Life is easy in theory. “Well, my kid will never do that. Not my kid.” Well, then life comes. The train arrives. And then you find out that all that huffin’ and puffin’ was just smoke. Because the test isn’t what you say in a Bible study, right? The test is what do you do confronted with a real-life situation with your wife, with your children, with your work, whatever the situation. Real life in the moment. What does the wise man do?

James goes on to say this in verse 17, and he gives us a beautiful description of wisdom. He says, “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable.” How many people that think that they’re wise are argumentative? You hear me? I mean, we have a million denominations in America because people argue too much. I’m serious. Every denomination has a hundred minor denominations because they think this ought to be this way and this ought to be this way and they have to argue ad infinitum about it because they’re just all so wise. Peaceable. Gentle. Willing to yield. Oh my gosh. Willing to yield. You mean I don’t have to have my way all the time? It’s not my way or the highway? “Full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Man, that’s a beautiful text to just meditate on, isn’t it? Man, you could just soak in that one for weeks. This is the wise man, right there.

Choose Wisely, and Come to Christ

So I want to say to the young people, you have your life before you, you’re heading into adulthood. Maybe some of you—I know that when you’re like 16, you think you’re an adult, and you think your parents are idiots. I was 16 once. My parents were idiots. I’m kidding. I’m joking. I’m joking. But I thought they were. And I thought I knew everything about life. I thought I was an expert on everything. And I wouldn’t listen to anybody. And it led to disaster.

As you look at your future, much of it lies ahead of you. And your future is filled with important choices. What college to attend, what you’re going to study, what career to pursue, whether to marry and if so, whom, what church to attend, what ministry to pursue. Many of these things lie ahead of you. For me, they’re behind me. I picked the greatest wife in the world. Got a great ministry. God has blessed me in many ways, but for you younger people, it’s all before you. And I mentioned these choices before you, because life itself—this is the thing I want you, if you get nothing else, get this, okay?—life itself, which is the test of wisdom, is really just a series of choices. That’s what your life is. And they’re choices that are big and choices that are small. Some of the big choices I just mentioned, college, career, marriage, church, these are big choices, important choices. But we have little choices that we make, and we make these all of the time. But I’m not sure we realize we’re making choices. For example, will I be lazy or industrious? Will I choose to be kind or mean? Will I be submissive or defiant? Will I be responsible or careless? Will I build up or tear down? Will I praise or will I murmur? Will I be honest or will I lie? Will I be chaste or will I be carnal? The choices go on and on and on and on. What will I read? What will I watch? How will I dress? What music will I listen to? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Life is a series of choices. And in all of the choices that we make, big or small, we are demonstrating whether we are wise or unwise.

And the only way to pass the wisdom test is to live. You don’t pass in theory. As I said, I got an A-plus in theory. But it’s real life that matters. Every day the rest of your life, you’ll have to make choices. And true wisdom lies in knowing this simple but profound fact. Ready? Actions have consequences. You see, it is the great folly of youth to believe that you were exempt from the law of cause and effect. To believe that the moral law of the universe applies to everyone but you. That in the Bible is folly. Now I don’t say that to insult anyone. That is, I was young once, and I demonstrated this principle in my life because my youth was full of folly. For example, one night I was so drunk I got on a friend’s motorcycle without even a helmet on and drove on a one-way bridge doing 90 miles an hour. It’s a miracle I’m alive, right? That’s just one example of the crazy things that I did. There were times that I would wake up at three or four in the morning and I didn’t even know where I was. I might be in somebody’s house. One time I woke up in my car and my car was in a field. I had no idea how I got there. One time I woke up, you know, my empty wine bottle was laying there. Next thing, I’m in the middle of a parking lot. It’s just the asphalt and the sky. How’d I get here? Who knows? I mean, I could go through example after example after example of believing that somehow the law of the universe didn’t apply to me. That I could somehow sow sin and reap blessings.

But Scripture says this: “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. As a man sows, so shall he reap.” Now when we hear this, a lot of people are like, ew, that sounds harsh. It’s really just common sense. Ask anybody that farms. I mean some of you are working on gardens right now. I mean, if you put a little rose bush down, you’re going to get a bigger rose bush, right? You plant apple seeds, you get an apple tree. I mean, to think anything else is going to happen is kind of like folly, right? I mean, it’s so logical when you think about it. The problem is life is easy in theory, right? We know this, we know if you sow something, that’s what you reap. And Paul is saying it’s true in the moral life, it’s true in the spiritual life. And not just in the physical plane, but through all the universe, a very simple principle that as we sow, so we reap. And it’s foolishness—and I demonstrated it in my life many times—to think that we can sow one thing and reap another.

So this passage in Galatians, which says, whatever you sow, you reap—it’s a warning, but here’s the good news. It’s a promise too. Because it’s an exhortation. Sow good things and guess what you’re going to get? You’re going to get good things. It’s not just a warning, it is that, but it’s also a promise. And being a promise, it’s really an exhortation to perseverance. Because when you sow something, a lot of times it doesn’t come up. You don’t get the crop right away, right? I remember one of my kids years ago wanted to plant something in the backyard, and I forget which kid it was because, you know, I’m old. And so we went out there, and, you know, I’m like, forget me doing anything like in the yard. But you know, dads do what they got to do. Okay, we’ll go out there and plant these things. And so we plant them, and I’m not kidding, the next day at the crack of dawn, they’re out there. “Where is it?” Well, you know, it doesn’t work that way, does it? Things take time to grow. Takes time to grow. You need patience, you need perseverance. And so when we think about our lives, what we need to realize is we’re planting things, and sometimes we don’t realize what we’re planting because we’re not seeing the crop right away. Right? You know what I’m saying? So if you’re sowing bad things, it’s like, oh, I can keep on sowing this because I’m not getting a bad crop. And you get seduced into thinking you can keep on doing bad stuff and not having any repercussions. But eventually the crop will show up. If you’re sowing good things, the danger is that you get discouraged. “I sowed that yesterday. I gave at church yesterday. How come I didn’t get a bunch of money this week from God? Why didn’t it fall from heaven? What happened? I actually tithed one Sunday. What’s going on, God?” It takes time. It takes patience, perseverance.

So I want to just close with a three-fold exhortation regarding choices that we all make, but especially for the younger people. And the first choice is you need to choose the right friends and companions. There’s an old saying that if you want to know what a person’s really like, look at their friends. Right? And when we look at the book of Proverbs, we see numerous exhortations from a father to a son to choose the right friends. Because why? Iron sharpens iron. A man’s friends shape him. And he shapes them, for good or for bad. It’s really striking to me, go back to Proverbs for a minute, go back to the very first chapter. This has always kind of struck me. In Proverbs, the first seven verses are like an introduction, like the foreword of a book, if you will. This is why I’m writing, this is what this book’s really about, and he talks about wisdom and knowledge and understanding. And in verse 8, he exhorts him to hear his instruction. But in verse 10—now, when you read Proverbs, so many things are addressed. I mean, you can break down the book of Proverbs by wisdom, money, the tongue, relationships, all these different categories. The very first thing he says: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.” The very first thing he addresses is what we call today peer pressure. There are two voices that speak to us at all times, the voice of God and the voice of our surroundings. Okay? And our surroundings press in on us at all times. And it really does make a difference the kind of friends you choose. It makes a difference the kind of church you worship in. Because iron sharpens iron. The Bible tells us that a man can be ruined by the companionship of others. As Paul says in Corinthians, “Evil company corrupts good morals.” Evil company corrupts good morals. There’s one thing I’ve seen over the years. I’ve seen more young kids that were doing well seduced to the dark side by choosing the wrong friends. It is a powerful influence, and one of the wisest choices you will ever make is the choice of your friends. Consider well who you spend your time with and consider well whose counsel you listen to.

Second exhortation. Choose, after choosing your friends, choose to listen to instruction. I wish we had time to see how often in Proverbs we are exhorted: listen to instruction. Listen to counsel. He who heeds counsel is wise, right? A wise son heeds instruction, but a scoffer does not listen. Over and over and over in Proverbs, we are told the wise man listens when he is instructed or when he is counseled or even when he is rebuked. Listen when your parents instruct you, when your friends, when your church leaders—they are doing so because they care about you. They care about you.

Third choice, choose the Lord God and Jesus Christ above all else. In Proverbs 8, we’re going to close with this. This is what wisdom says, and it’s clear from chapter 8 that wisdom here is more than just abstract knowledge. Wisdom is now speaking in the first person. And I believe the wisdom here is the Lord Jesus Himself. But in verse 32 he says this of Proverbs 8: “Now therefore listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. And all those who hate me love death.” A sober warning. Amen.

We’re told in Colossians by Paul that in Jesus Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Jesus Christ. In some ways, this is the New Testament version of the Old Testament exhortation, that the fear of the Lord, the reverence of the Lord, is the foundation, the principal part of wisdom. If we have not Jesus, who is wisdom personified—He is the Word, the Logos of God, the wisdom of God—then we’ll never have real wisdom. So the question then becomes, how do we get Jesus? Where do we find Jesus? Well, let me give you the short version. Seek Him and you’ll find Him. It’s really that simple. We see in Proverbs that wisdom says, I stand at the doors, I cry out. I’m at the intersection of the highways and the byways. I’m crying out. I’m crying out. Well, why is wisdom crying out? Because people aren’t listening.

Now, I don’t know some of you, and I don’t know your background. I don’t know if you know the Lord Jesus or not. But I know this, that He has been crying out to you. He has been calling you. He has been seeking you. He has been prodding you in different ways at different times. As I look back on my life, before I was a Christian, after I became a Christian, I realized different things in my life were clearly the Lord talking to me. He was calling me, but I wasn’t listening. The gospel is so simple any child here can understand it, and many children here have understood it and have received the Lord Jesus themselves. But let me give it to you in a nutshell before we close.

The Bible says that we have all sinned. I shared with you some of my sins earlier, the follies of my youth. I still commit folly. I’m a fallen person. I’m a broken person. Thankfully, by God’s grace, I’m not as foolish as I used to be. Well, maybe I am. So we’re fallen, we’re broken people, and our sin keeps us out of our relationship with God. I think the best analogy is, our hearts are like little Wi-Fi receivers. Your heart’s like a smartphone, except your heart might not be smart. No, your heart’s like a phone, and you’re trying to get a Wi-Fi signal, right? But you can’t find one. So the human heart’s looking—it’s kind of looking out there. Friends, riches, sex, drugs, honors. God’s sending a signal but we’re not picking it up. Well, when you truly turn your heart to God, you’ll get the connection. But see, the problem is our sin has distorted the firmware, if you will. And there needs to be a repair. There needs to be a repair in your heart and in my heart. The Bible calls that repair the new birth. God actually gives you a new heart. It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? I mean, He gives you a new heart. I got my new heart when I was 20. Amazing. And I knew I got a new heart because I was a different person.

God is calling you to come to Him to receive Jesus, to acknowledge that you’ve sinned. This isn’t complicated. We’ve all messed up. Our sin separates us from God, but God provides a solution so that we can come back into a relationship with Him. We can come back into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus—you probably heard Jesus died on the cross, right? Everybody hear that? Let me tell you a quick story. I know I’m going long. When I first got saved, you know how it is when you first get saved, [audio unclear]. I’m thinking China, communism. He’s never heard of Jesus. I got to show the gospel to this guy, right? They don’t have Jesus over there. And I’m just praying a little, okay, Lord, how, you know, trying to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. And so I help him to take his luggage to his room, and his luggage is falling over on me. And he goes, “Oh, Jesus Christ!” I’m like, they’ve heard of Jesus. Paul says the gospel is on your lips. It’s on their lips. It’s that close. On their lips. He heard the name of Jesus. You’ve heard the name of Jesus. You know this basic story. He died. A couple days later He arose from the dead. That’s the story you’ve heard. But what is it really about? It’s about you and I, the fact that through what He did on the cross, our sins were removed. Any barrier between you and God has been removed by the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus, and His resurrection proves that He conquered sin, He conquered death. So that we can come to God. Even though we don’t deserve it—an unholy person doesn’t deserve a relationship with the holy God—my unholiness, if you will, my sin, that barrier that it creates, that’s been removed. I can come to God freely because of the work of Jesus Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ll be saved. That means you’ll be forgiven, you’ll be accepted, you’ll receive new life, you’ll be set free, you’ll get a new heart. I could go on and on about what happens when you actually accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. But it’s all wonderful. It’s all good. Amen. It’s all good.

I remember when I came to Christ, I was a little skittish about it because I didn’t want to be like those weird Christians. You know what I mean? I said, I prayed one of those sinner’s prayers like, “Lord, okay, I’m going to go. I’m going to do it now. I’m going to make the leap of faith here. I’m going to trust You, but don’t make me like Jerry Falwell. Don’t make me like all those weird Christians.” You know, you come to Jesus and you have always said, “Well, what if He—what if, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if.” Listen, my friend. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Jesus is not going to give you a bunch of religion, a bunch of guilt, a bunch of responsibilities, and a bunch of junk, which has now been associated with Christianity. His yoke is easy, His burden is light. He wants to give you forgiveness, He wants to give you freedom, He wants to give you hope, He wants to give you love, joy, peace, all the things that the human heart seeks, He wants to give you. But they’re found in Him. Let’s stand and pray.