Luke 6:43

I received a text on Saturday saying, "Hey, I'm not going to be able to make it tomorrow. I'm sick." I was prepared because I knew on Thursday that he was starting. I told him, "I got you covered, man." That's just what's great about our church; we have each other's backs for sure.

It's wonderful having Emily up here worshiping, and as I mentioned, please be praying for both of them. If any of you are sick, we're praying for you as well. It's no fun being sick, that's for sure.

This morning is a little different, and we are actually going to be in a different book. If you have your Bibles with you, you're going to need them. We are a church that teaches through the Bible, and that's our foundation here. If you don't have a Bible this morning and you don't have it on your phone or tablet, you can just raise your hand. Our usher team has Bibles for you if you'd like to borrow one. If you don't have a Bible that you call your own, you're welcome to take that Bible home with you. Write your name in it and mark it all up today.

We will be in the book of Luke, starting in verse 43, which is a little detour from First Timothy. If you're opening your Bible, it will be in the last third of your Bible in the Gospels, the New Testament, right at the beginning there: Matthew, Mark, Luke. If you're bookmarked in Timothy, just flip left, and you'll find it pretty soon.

Let's read here. Luke chapter six, starting in verse 43. Would you follow along with me this morning?

"For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood arose and the stream beat vehemently against that house, it could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.

But he who heard and did nothing is like the man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell."

And the ruin of that house was great. Would you guys pray with me?

Lord, over the past few weeks, you've been instructing us and teaching us through Paul's charge to young Pastor Timothy in the book of 1 Timothy. I pray that as we've been learning about being a good minister and a good example of you, you would speak to us this morning. Would you speak through me? We have all come into this room to hear from you, God, and to draw near to you. I pray that your Spirit would therefore be poured out upon us this morning as we study and teach through what your Son, Jesus, has said.

As the psalmist says in Psalm 143:10, "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing." Lord, I pray that over our church this morning. Would you teach us to do your will, for you are our God? May your gracious Spirit lead us forward on a firm footing. I pray these things in Jesus' name. And the church said, Amen. You guys may be seated.

If you're visiting with us this morning, I am not the usual teaching pastor. Pastor Myles is our senior teaching pastor, and he is also my senior pastor. I've learned a lot from him over the last four and a half years that I've been part of the staff team. Myles has been teaching through the book of 1 Timothy, and if you've been with us, you'll be able to easily follow along. If not, I will fill you in just a little bit.

My heart this morning is not to take us on a complete detour in Scripture, but to build upon what Myles has been teaching and what we've been learning as a church. Ultimately, in 1 Timothy, Paul is charging this young pastor, Timothy, to follow his example. He is not only charging him to follow his example in doctrine, but also in exhortation and in reading. He charges young Timothy to meditate on these things, and he charges us to meditate on these things as well.

When you dive into meditating on the Word of God like this, you have to realize that when you submerge and then come up, you will be a different person. Change will happen in your life. As I was meditating on these things, it brought me to this passage in Luke 43, because it fits so well and came to mind: this tree is known by its fruit.

And these concepts that Jesus is teaching on require us to first look at where He was starting. A little bit of background in Luke chapter 6, verse 43: if you ever read the full chapter, it really explains a lot of the underlying foundational beliefs that our culture holds today. I will explain why in a little bit. Luke was recording this Gospel of Jesus Christ and His earthly ministry. Right before the passage we are reading today, Jesus was talking about judging others.

He uses a pretty funny analogy, actually. The verbal picture He presents is of a man with a beam in his eye trying to help his friend, who has a speck in his eye, get that speck out. It’s supposed to be a humorous image. I laugh thinking about it; you can’t help someone if you have this big beam in your eye while claiming, "I can help you get that speck out." Jesus' whole point was that we have to look at ourselves first, church. We must start with us. We need to pull out the beam in our own eye in order to see clearly and be a benefit to someone else, enabling us to help them. Amen.

So, we are starting here in Luke 6:43. If you follow along with me, we are going to study this a little bit today. "For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush."

I will stop right there. I was fortunate enough to grow up on a 10-acre avocado farm. Many of us in California love avocados, and I love them myself. I grew up enjoying them. We didn’t just have avocados, though; we also had oranges, limes, lemons, and sometimes peaches, as well as some apples. Growing up, I became really good at telling which kind of tree was which. Do you know how? It’s by tasting the fruit—shocker, right? By tasting the fruit, I learned to identify the trees.

I also became adept at recognizing which trees were thriving, producing a lot of good fruit, and which trees were dying and needed attention. It’s kind of funny because yesterday, my Saturdays are usually my day off throughout the week. I work Sunday through Friday, and Saturdays I typically work around the property. This last Saturday, I was actually out on the property cutting down avocado trees. I was chainsawing down trees while thinking about this passage that I am about to teach on, and I found it amusing.

It fits pretty well that when a tree is dead, it's not producing fruit. We have to cut it down. It's good for nothing but firewood at that point. It doesn't do anything; it just sits there. It's dead. So, Jesus has a point to make here with us. In fact, there is a point for this picture behind me even. This is called a banyan tree. Yes, that's what it is. I actually just learned this last service, so you guys are lucky; you're getting the full story here.

This is actually a tree that produces figs. I saw this tree when I was in Maui, or one of these trees. I didn't take the picture, so I can't take any credit for that. But it serves as a good picture for us this morning as Jesus is talking about a tree and its fruit. Jesus loves to use these analogies with us to describe ourselves, and He uses a couple of other ones too. I'm just thankful that this time we're not sheep. Jesus loves to relate us to sheep, and I'm like, man, that hurts. We're like a sheep without a shepherd. They're kind of pitiful animals, if you will. Is that what we're like to You, Jesus? Yet this time, we're a tree. I'm okay being a tree this time.

You can tell the type of fruit by how it tastes. You can tell if it's good or bad by whether it tastes good and is enjoyable or if it's not. This wasn't a new concept to these people to be related to a tree. If you turn to Psalm 1, verses 1 through 3, it says this: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight

Something completely else. What do we call them? A hypocrite, right? They aren't doing what they say they are doing. They're one thing on the outside, but on the inside, they're completely different. This morning, we're going to dive pretty deep into something that's invisible in our lives: our hearts. We're going to take a dive into that this morning, and it might hurt. It might actually make you think that we need to change. I think that's good because, just as a tree is identified by its fruit, we can identify people by their actions.

We have to inspect the fruit of our lives, Church. We have to inspect the fruit of our hearts. What is our heart producing? We have to ask this, and it can be kind of hard to look inside and really identify what kind of fruit we are producing. What is coming out of our lives? What kind of fruit are we bearing? Are we bearing fruit even? If not, why? You have to have a changed heart to have changed behavior, Church. Ultimately, God is at work molding our hearts to match our character to our calling. That's just what He does. He loves this, and we have to change.

Now, why do we have to change? Why should we strive to change? I would say this: because we have to grow. We have to grow. We have to change ourselves. We have to become better because we see that the way we are today is not the person we want to be tomorrow or the next day or the next day. Therefore, we have to change something today. We have to look inside and see that there has to be change. There has to be some kind of change.

Why? Just this picture I can give you is like nobody wants to look at an infant and seriously say, "I hope you never grow up," because nobody wants to be around a big grown-up baby, right? The same thing applies to us, Church. As Christians, we are always growing. If you haven't given your life to Christ yet, this morning might be a good morning for you because you're going to be able to consider quite a few things in your life. It's going to get pretty practical.

In fact, as I've been teaching through, I actually got to teach the 18 to 25-year-olds here, the young adults, as I call them. I've noticed there's a significant theme and development that happens in this age range, and I think it even starts in high schoolers. They start seeing and getting experience in life beyond just school. They start working and get a taste of this world, if you will, and they don't like what they taste. They don't like what they see. So, they have this innate desire in our being, built into every one of us, that at one point in our lives, we want to change the world.

Desire to change the world and to make it a better place is a God-given desire. Why? Because we are designed and created in the image of God. That means we will have some of His characteristics. I think that's a good desire. Unfortunately, a lot of people have this desire, but they don't have Christ. They still have this gaping hole, even after they try to change the world. They try to change things, yet they will still have this emptiness in their hearts.

Now, I'm going to explain why. Jesus continues here; He doesn't just stop with a tree. He says, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil." Now, why is this important? For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. Here, Jesus is saying that there is a lot more going on in our being, in our soul, than we can see or comprehend. He gives us this picture so we can at least grasp it because God has given us the ability to understand things and to work out things that we don't understand in our lives.

All the time, we are working out things that we don't understand, and this is one of those things that I think all of us are still, at some point, in some way, working out. What does this look like? Our heart is essentially a treasury, as Jesus says. There is stuff stored up in our hearts, and what is stored up will ultimately come out in our actions and in our words. You can see what is going on deeply in someone's life by the way they act and respond to things.

Maybe you're not happy with how you've been reacting and responding. Miles talked about this last week while he was teaching through First Timothy. He said that we should be pure, which means unmixed. We should strive to be pure; our hearts should be pure and unmixed. What does that mean? Unmixed from sin, unmixed from the world.

The truth is, and I thank God that He writes this in His Scriptures, it is not what comes into us that defiles us, church; it is what comes out. Jesus teaches that it is not what enters into us that defiles us, but what comes out. Ultimately, in this world, there is a lot of sin, and we are affected by sin every single day, or by the consequences of sin every single day. No matter what you are doing, what job you have, or what friends you have, you are affected by sin and its consequences every single day. It saturates your life; it saturates your being. We are kind of like sponges. I know I've talked about this before while I've been up here, but it's just such a good analogy.

We are like sponges; we soak up what’s around us—the people, the things. We have to be careful about what we keep inside us, though, because the thing with a sponge is that you can get everything that’s soaked up out of it. That’s why God sends His helper, the Holy Spirit, into our lives. When we put our trust in Him, we can become like a tree planted by streams of living water that bears fruit. We can do things such as remove this sin nature from our hearts and our lives, allowing us to live righteously and holy lives, just like Jesus did. It’s possible with the Spirit because He sees all the bad that’s coming in and says, “Okay, we’re not going to store this in your treasury today. We’re going to build a wall around it.”

If we look around our society, we see a lot of issues—hurt, pain, and suffering. This is evident, especially recently with the school shootings. It’s a tragedy, but I have to say it’s not an issue with law enforcement or politics. The ultimate issue in our society is with the heart, church. It’s with our hearts. I think we’ve neglected, as a culture and as a Western society, to care for our hearts. We’ve neglected to put up safety walls in our hearts that protect us against bad doctrine and bad teaching, as well as immoral behavior. We have become desensitized to these things. If we become desensitized, it means we can be surrounded by negativity without even noticing it.

That’s why Jesus paints this beautiful verbal picture for us. If negativity is in us, we will see it reflected in the fruit of our lives. If something is going on in your life and your reaction isn’t what you want it to be, then there’s something deeper happening. We have to dive in, look at that, and invite the Holy Spirit to change it, to pull it out, and to say, “I don’t want that in the treasury of my heart.”

Some of us need to seriously consider this morning what we have treasured up in our hearts in order to bear good fruit. Our hearts need to be radically changed by Jesus. This is the only way we are capable of following Him. The calling He puts on our lives isn’t an easy one. It doesn’t mean we will avoid suffering and all the challenges of life, but it does mean that we will have Him as our substance. He is our shelter. I will elaborate on this as we continue, because Jesus doesn’t just stop here with the idea that we can see what we are like by our fruit. If we have been affected...

And changed by Jesus, you're going to see it in your life. It's going to come out in your life. He doesn't stop with this tree analogy. He says, "But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?"

So, I'm going to stop right there. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things which I say? That means there could be people sitting in church every single Sunday, who have come every single Sunday for their hour of religious service. They call out, "Lord, Lord," and worship, but then throughout the week, they don't do what He says. That could be all of us, actually. I think we've all fallen short, right? That's actually what the Bible says. We've all fallen short. Thank God for His grace. Thank God for His grace that He's constantly growing us.

This also goes back to my point: we need to be growing. A tree always needs to be growing, and if it's done growing, then it needs to be producing some fruit. Jesus continues this, and if both the hypocrites and us, the believers, are supposed to call out to Him, "Lord, Lord," we need to do what He says.

Whoever comes to me, and He gives us this next picture, which I love, hears my sayings and does them. The one who listens, who's obedient, I will show you what his life is like. He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and it could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.

But he who heard and did nothing is like the man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell. The ruin of that house was great.

Point number two on your outlines is this: the hidden foundation of your life will always be revealed in the storm. Why do I say that? Because the foundation of our life—have you ever seen a foundation? If you've seen a foundation, it's because they're building on it. It's not visible for very long.

In fact, I can remember riding my scooter through the foundation of my parents' house up in Ramona. It was incredible. They spent a lot of time making sure this foundation was very stable, very steady, and they dug deep to make sure they poured a lot of concrete to ensure that thing was not going anywhere. There's a lot of work that's poured into that foundation. It's a pretty relevant point.

Jesus isn't bringing up a new idea again here to these people or to us. He's reminding us because Proverbs, all the way back in the Proverbs, which these people had at that time, says in Proverbs 10:25, "When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation."

That's cool. That's so true. In Proverbs 10, the whole chapter is just great. There's a lot in this passage that relates to our lives, so you can definitely read it throughout the week if you have a chance. Those who lay up for themselves this good foundation, this solid foundation, put in hard work.

Last week, Myles talked about working out our salvation. What does that look like? It means we have to dig deep. The first man who built his foundation on the rock had to dig to reach it. I think we have to dig into our own lives to hit that foundation sometimes. We need to examine our lives to really see what's going on, to get rid of all the sand and debris that will wash away, and to reach that solid foundation of Christ so we can lay that foundation deep within us. They dug deep and put in the work.

I've spent a lot of time digging while living on 10 acres. I've had to dig irrigation trenches, and I used to dig a bunch of bike jumps. But man, it's hard work! I love jumping bikes, but I haven't done that in a while. Digging is tough; you get blisters, your back hurts, and you get sweaty. It's usually not fun or enjoyable until you're done. Let's be honest, but it's a worthwhile effort.

Why? Because those who work hard and dig to that foundation, laying it on the rock of Christ, are the ones who are ready for the worst. They are prepared for the chaos that the world can throw at them. They will stand firm through it because they've laid a foundation for eternity. This is the only foundation we can lay that will actually last forever.

The foundation we lay in our hearts, the rock of Christ, is not going anywhere. All the foundations we see, even the one we stand on here at Cross Next Door, will eventually go away. They are temporary. Those who lay that foundation keep their integrity when they are tempted and persecuted because they have the rock. They maintain their comfort, peace, and joy in the midst of great troubles.

Some of you are going through significant challenges right now. Things are not working out the way you hoped or envisioned. It's difficult.

It's tough. But if you have that foundation of Christ, you've realized that the world hasn't really moved you that much. You've been stable through it. That's why we have the church around us, the rock. The storms of this life will not move those people. They are the ones whose welfare is secured in death and judgment. They are saved because they are obedient and held by Christ. They've been obedient to Him, and they are being held by Him. It's two different things.

Eventually, we're all going to wither away in this world. One day or another, we're all going to die, unfortunately. That's not the end. We get to go before the great judgment throne of Christ, and He is going to say, "This man, this woman, they've done a good job. They've laid the foundation of Me in their life. They've followed My teachings. They've leaned upon My grace." We don't always follow His teachings perfectly, right? Amen, church? But we have His grace, and we're always striving to do better. We are never going to be sinless, but we will eventually sin less as we dive into these teachings and allow the Holy Spirit to change our lives.

Here's another thing for you to consider. Both of these houses, both of these men that built houses that Jesus talks about, looked the same on the outside. So let me just tell you, if you're one of those people who has built a foundation on something else—a relationship, your money, your job, your circumstances, or your plans—none of that is going to work. It's going to get washed away when the right storm comes. It will come toppling down. Maybe you're here this morning, and that's where you're at. Your whole life has toppled in on itself because you built a foundation on something else that wasn't Christ.

Maybe this morning you realize that you need this foundation; you need this stability in your life. I am going to give you an opportunity later today to have that stability. Both of these men had the same-looking house. One stood, and the other didn't because one was built on Him, and the other wasn't. One had the dwelling of Jesus in it; the other one didn't.

No matter how beautiful a house we build on the outside, church, we can come to church every single day and act great, but if we don't have the foundation of Christ in our lives, we are going to get washed away in this world. What I've realized is that the chaos and the effect of sin on our lives is ordinary for us. It's a normal occurrence. If you're going through a time of suffering, pain, and chaos, it's not unusual.

It's common, actually, because we live in a fallen world. That's why we need this foundation in our lives; only then can we be unshakable. Point number three on our outline is this: it's not enough for us to just hear the sayings of Christ; we must do them. First John, chapter two, verses five through six, says this: "But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did."

I love how the Bible really builds upon itself everywhere you look, especially here in First John. We must live as Jesus did. Jesus knew the Father; he knew the commands of the Father, he knew the heart of his Father, and he was driven to do the will of his Father. Does that describe your life today? Does that describe our lives today? We know the Father, we know his heart and his will, and we are striving to do it. Does that describe our life or our aim?

Miles talked about, as we were going through First Timothy, that we are aiming at being holy because God is holy, right? We're aiming at being holy. If we're aiming at being holy, that's a good thing. But something I've learned about our aim is this: you can only see what you aim at. I've shot rifles my whole life, and I've looked through different kinds of binoculars at the stars. Anytime you look through something like that, when you're aiming at something to see it, you narrow your vision down to focus on it and magnify it in your life.

You can only see, though, what you aim at. This is a kind of tunnel vision, and I think this is totally true for us spiritually. If we aim at the world, we're only going to see the world. If we aim at Christ, we're going to see some of his characteristics in our life. You can only see what you aim at.

James, chapter three, verse 13, says this: "If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with humility that comes from wisdom." That's a tough one to grasp because it just says James, and James is just great, man. It's a challenge. James, chapter three, verse 13, and that one I did put in your service guide. I have it in my notes, so you can go back to that. James, chapter three, verse 13: if you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it. James isn't afraid to call out the church, and this morning, church, I'm going to call...

Prove it. I want to see it. We want to see it as Cross Connection Church. We want to see it as your pastors. We want to prove to you that our lives are exemplifying Christ in us. That's why we strive every day to live holy as He is holy, to live righteously in every action and reaction we have to things that happen in our lives. We try our best to follow God's example, to follow the example of Christ. Just like Paul said to Timothy, "Follow my example." We learned that last week, and Paul ultimately is this example of Christ to us as well.

We can see that we need to follow and live as Jesus did, but we need to prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. Yet, I find pretty often, church, that we have this tendency. The theme of this morning is about changing the world. This tendency we have is to shake our fist at God and say, "God, why don't You do something?" We would rather have Him just do something to change what's broken in our world.

I think, very honestly, He would look at us and say, "Well, didn't I create you?" Can one person really have a significant impact in the world? If they have this foundation, if they are this tree planted by the river in living water that produces fruit, whose leaves never wither, that kind of person can change the world. A clear marker that one is doing the work and word of God is love in their life. Jesus had a lot of love in His life.

If love is this example or this marker, then we have to look at love for a minute. Real, pure, godly, biblical love always involves sacrifice. Sacrifice is uncomfortable, just like change is uncomfortable, right? Sacrifice means that we're going to give up something, not knowing the outcome or what we're going to have at the end or who we're going to be at the end. It might change us a little bit when we give up something, when we sacrifice ourselves for others, for God.

We have to be willing to take that risk, though, because our reward isn't an earthly reward, church. Our reward isn't health, wealth, prosperity, or happiness, but it's an eternal one found at the cross. If we look at the cross of Christ, it's kind of this intersection, this point of intersection between the finite and the infinite, if you will, between us who are mortal and God who is immortal, between sinners and the righteous, between the just and the unjust or the holy.

And the unholy. God creates this place, this perfect, beautiful place where we can actually meet Him and come to Him. There’s a reason Jesus says, "You must carry your cross and follow Me." It’s where you meet Me, is what He’s saying. You need to remember where you meet Me because it’s going to be a place of suffering a lot of times. But you can only handle the suffering of this world if you have this foundation in your life.

Like I say, some of us may not have that foundation. Maybe if you’re listening this morning and you’re thinking, "Man, I could really use that stability. I could really use that strong foundation." I want to meet Christ today so I can be that tree that actually produces good fruit.

How do we know if we’re producing good fruit, church? Well, it tastes good. It builds us up. It is actually enjoyable to us. If it’s bad fruit, it will make us sick. There’s a little analogy for you right there. If the fruit in your life is making other people sick, if your words and your actions are making other people sick of you or sick in general, that’s not good. But if you are enjoyable, if you are actually being a benefit to people, you are the good fruit. You know that what you’re doing is producing that good fruit.

Maybe you’re thinking, "Man, but I’ve done such a bad job for a long, long time." Thank God for His grace because He can say, "Whatever you’ve done in the past, whatever fruit you produced, if you’ve been a dead tree, I can make you alive. If you’ve been a tree that hasn’t produced fruit, I can make you produce fruit. You just have to put your trust and your hope in Me."

The truth is, when we look at this, Galatians 4:6 says, "Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?" It’s an interesting thing to think about. When we tell people the truth, we become their enemy. Why? Because some people don’t want to hear the truth. A lot of people don’t want to hear the truth; they want to hear what is good for them, what they want to hear.

It’s interesting that we live in this Western culture, and I’ve been reading a lot about this recently, that many are calling a post-fact world. If we live in a post-fact world, that’s why we have fake news. It’s really interesting to dive into that. You can see it specifically as I’ve been on high school and college campuses, where it’s starting at a very young age with kids. We live in this post-truth world. Jesus is true. He’s the absolute truth. He’s the only foundation that will get you through life, making you unshakable.

But when we want to tell the truth of Jesus, people may get offended, and we have to be willing to accept this.

We have to be willing to accept that we are often offended when people say we need to change. However, if we allow ourselves to go through that process with the Holy Spirit, we come out as better people. One person can make a difference in the world.

The reason I brought this tree in here is that this kind of tree, which you realize is really big, actually grows to this size because birds eat the little figs it produces. They then drop those seeds, which sprout up and create more and more trees. This tree grows exponentially; it's incredible. I have seen it in Maui before, a couple of years ago, and it is just an amazing sight. I want to be that tree, and I want you all to be that tree.

Have you ever dropped a rock in a pond? No matter how big the rock is, the ripples spread throughout the entire pond. Our influence in this world is much greater than we can see. Imagine you have ten friends, and you influence them. Those ten friends have ten friends, and those ten friends have ten friends, and it just keeps going. Do you understand what the influence of your life can be today on the world? It's a big deal.

I am going to invite the worship team forward. They will lead us through another song, but I want to ask you all: if you've been challenged this morning and you realize that your foundation hasn't been Christ, as the worship team is coming up, I want you to consider this. I will give you an opportunity to accept Him. If you want to invite Christ into your life, if you want to invest your life fully in Him, if you want to become that tree that produces good fruit, I want you to pray this prayer with me, and then we will worship.

Even if you are a believer this morning and have been challenged by this message, I want you to reflect and look inward. Let us examine what is stored up in the treasury of our hearts. If you want to accept the Lord today, just pray this prayer. It is as simple as putting our trust and hope in Christ, believing in Him for who He is, as the Bible says He is—the risen Son of God.

So let’s pray. Lord, we admit that we are sinners. We admit that we have built foundations that haven’t been on You. We admit that we have failed and produced bad fruit, or maybe we have just grown dry in our lives. Lord, You don’t want us to be that way. You want us to live a life that is good, refreshing, and full of You. We thank You so much for what You have done for us on the cross.

Lord, would you come into our lives this morning? Would you invade our inner treasure, our inner treasury, our heart? Would you store up in there, Lord, good works? Would you store up in there your word? I pray these things in Jesus' name. And we all said, Amen.