Hello, I'm Eric Garloff, your
host for Walking With Jesus.
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Today's program is titled Our
Need Of Jesus, and I'm so happy
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you've joined us for
this important topic.
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Now whether or not you
personally feel a deep need
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for Jesus, this program promises
to be a blessing to you because
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anything that brings you
closer to God is a blessing.
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Let's get started, shall we?
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I've often heard it said
that the more money a person has
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the less he or she feels
the need for God in their life.
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Now I know that this is not
true of everyone, but the Bible
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has a passage which
supports this general idea.
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It's found in the book of
Revelation 3:17, 18 which says
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the following:
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And then Jesus says
this in verses 19 and 20:
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Now packed within these
four verses is quite a lot for a
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person to take
into consideration.
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So lets break it down and
take it one step at a time.
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This way we'll be able
to understand its meaning
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as it applies to
our need of Jesus.
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In their sinless state Adam
and Eve held joyful communion
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with God, but after their sin
they could no longer find joy
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in the presence of His holiness.
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Thus they sought to hide
from the presence of God.
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Such is still the condition
of the unrenewed heart today.
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And there is no lack of things,
or attractions, or appointments,
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or whatever the case may be to
keep our attention fixated upon.
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Now it may be true that
the more money a person has
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the more things he has to
draw his attention away with,
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but let me also say that someone
who doesn't even have two
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nickels to rub together can
just as easily turn away from
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knowing God as well.
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Thus no matter who we are
we need to understand why it is
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that having God in
our lives is so important.
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Paraphrased the passage that
we read in Revelation chapter 3
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stated that without Christ
in our lives we are wretched,
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and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked.
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Now we may not seem this way to
ourselves, or to our neighbors,
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or to our co-workers, but the
reality is that this is the way
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God sees us if we're
living without Jesus.
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This is why He says, I counsel
you to buy of me gold tried
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in the fire
that you may be rich.
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The gold tried in the
fire represents a loving,
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and a living faith which
has been tried and purified.
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True faith is a
symbol of spiritual riches.
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Our nakedness, mentioned in
this passage, is a symbol of
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not being prepared.
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You may well remember the
parable in the Bible where
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a man came to a wedding
feast, and he didn't have on
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the wedding robe.
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This man was then thrown out
because he didn't come prepared.
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The white raiment, or white
robe, that we are told to buy
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is a symbol of the robe
of Christ's righteousness.
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It's only by His righteousness
that we can be saved.
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Thus it's only by Christ's
righteousness that we can be
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prepared to meet God.
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Finally, the passage
also said we're blind.
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Well, if we're blind we can't
see where we're going, can we?
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This is a symbol of spiritual
blindness, and unless we apply
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the cure for our
blindness, we will remain in
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spiritual darkness.
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That cure is to obtain the eye
salve that God has mentioned.
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This eye salve opens our
eyes to our true condition.
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Opening our eyes is the
work of the Holy Spirit.
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The eye salve represents the
Holy Spirit, and only through
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His convicting work on the
heart can spiritual blindness
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be removed.
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So here it is in a nutshell.
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God wants us to ask Him to give
us the power of the Holy Spirit
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so we can see our true
condition, and to come to Him
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in faith, knowing that He will
answer that prayer and clothe us
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with the robe of
Christ's righteousness that we
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may be saved.
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That's absolutely
fantastic, isn't it?
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And it's all the
gift of God, Amen?
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Jesus said it was like Him
standing at the door knocking,
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and if anyone would hear His
voice and open the door to Him,
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He will come in.
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The door is a
symbol of our heart.
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So if we hear Jesus speaking
to our heart and invite Him in,
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He will come in
and live within us.
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The book Steps to Christ,
page 8, has this to say about
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our condition:
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If you're still not sure about
all of this, if you still think
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that you've lived a pretty
good life, and that you really
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haven't done anything bad, at
least nothing worthy of death,
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and that God will take you to
heaven anyway, then let me share
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this thought with you.
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Suppose you had a child, let's
say it was a boy, and for the
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past twelve years you've raised
this boy, you've poured out
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upon him all of the love,
nurturing, and caring that any
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parent could
possibly give their child.
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The bond between the two of you
is so great that it could never
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be broken.
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When he is hurt, you feel
his pain, and his suffering,
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and if there were anything
that you could do to relieve it,
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you would sell all
that you had to make it so.
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Over the years, as you
raise your son, you had seen him
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through good
times and through bad.
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When you reflect back on
his life you can recall the
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incidents that brought you the
most joy, and also those which
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caused you the most pain.
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It's the painful ones
which you wish you could undo,
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as if they never happened.
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One such occasion happened to
your son a number of years ago
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when another boy in the
neighborhood, who was an orphan,
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and lived right down the
street, was very mean and nasty
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to your son.
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He would lie and wait for him
after school and beat him up.
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He would play dirty tricks
on him, and make fun of him
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every day, even though you
spoke to the orphanage about his
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behavior, and did everything
that you could to stop this
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from happening.
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The boy just didn't
stop beating up your son.
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Then one day the boy moved to
another orphanage across town,
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and everything was
back to normal again.
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Your heart was relieved that
your son no longer had to put up
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with that abuse.
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A few months later your
son comes to you and tells you
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that the boy had gotten sick,
and that nothing short of a
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heart transplant
could save his life.
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Now here's the difficult part
to imagine because the medical
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community today would
not allow this to happen.
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But your son finds out that his
heart is a perfect match to save
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the life of the one who
bullied him and beat him up.
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So your son comes to you
and tells you that he loves you
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so much, and that he wants to
show the bully the same kind of
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love that the two of you share
with each other because he has
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never known that
kind of love himself.
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This news breaks your heart
because you know your son is
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asking to give up his life
to give the bully his own heart
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that he could live.
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You just don't know
how to react to this.
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You don't know if you can
bare such a thing because just
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thinking about it
your heart is breaking.
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It's like tearing your own
heart right out of your chest.
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You hunt and search for another
way to save the boy's life,
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but you realize the only way for
the bully to live, and to know
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true love is to allow your
son to go through with his plan.
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Then after the operation
is over, and your son gave
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everything he had to save the
life of the bully, you find it
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within yourself
to love the bully.
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You adopt him, and
you give him your name.
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You give him all of the
love that you had given to
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your own son.
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Gradually the boy realizes
what it's like to be loved,
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what it's like to have someone
care for him, and protect him.
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The boy realizes the
infinite sacrifice that was made
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on his behalf, and he grows up
with the upmost love and respect
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for the boy who gave
his life that he might live.
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Friend, that's what God
the Father, and Jesus His Son,
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have done for you and for me.
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The Bible says that they
did this because of our sin.
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If there had been any other
way to save us, God the Father
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would have found it.
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The very fact that Jesus had
to die, so that we could live,
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is the strongest
testimony of God's love for us.
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If we don't accept the sacrifice
of Jesus, we are refusing the
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life which he
died to give to us.
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Our great need of Jesus
exists because we have sinned,
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and because we have
sinned, we need a savior.
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The Bible says in Romans 3:23
that, All have sinned and come
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short of the glory of God.
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Two verses before
this, in 1 John 1:8 we read:
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So you see, my friend,
we are all doomed to die
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with a bad heart for we have
all sinned and all come short
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of God's standard.
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Because we come short of it we
cannot expect to have salvation
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without accepting the
death of Jesus on our behalf.
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It's only by acknowledging
our own sinfulness,
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through the power of the Holy
Spirit, which God will give us,
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if we ask Him for it, and by
accepting the sacrifice of Jesus
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that we can be clothed with the
robe of Christ's righteousness,
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making us
righteous in the eyes of God.
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He then takes us into His
family, and loves us with the
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same love that
He has for His Son.
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God has loved us from the very
beginning, but He cannot bring
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us into heaven to live
with Him unless we have received
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a new heart.
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Friends, God is
truthful, honest, and just.
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He is the only one in the
universe in which you can place
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your total trust.
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He has promised us life through
His Son Jesus, and if we accept
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Jesus, God will
fulfill His promise to us.
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Once again, Jesus
says in Revelation 3:20,
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And in the very next
verse, verse 21, Jesus says:
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Yes, friend, our need of Jesus
is so great that we won't get
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to heaven without Him.
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Ephesians 2:8-9 says:
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As we close now, I would like
to say a prayer, and if you feel
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the need of Jesus in your
life, you can repeat this prayer
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in your heart, and
make it your own prayer.
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Father, I come to You,
the Creator of the universe,
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and I realize that there's
no hope for me outside of Jesus
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Your Son.
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Father God, please give me
Your Holy Spirit that I may see
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my true condition.
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Please forgive me of
my sins and cleanse me.
00:13:22.32\00:13:25.16
Place the robe of
Jesus' righteousness upon me
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because without it I
won't be able to live with You.
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Lord, by faith I believe that
You have heard this, my prayer,
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and have forgiven
me, and cleansed me,
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and in the name of
Jesus I thank You, Father.
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Now help me to live
my life accordingly.
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In Jesus name, Amen.
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May God be with you.
00:13:45.30\00:13:46.76
Our faith grows
when we walk with Jesus.
00:13:49.32\00:13:52.67
His love, mercy, and compassion
will guide us along the path
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of life, and we pray you
desire a close walk with Him.
00:13:58.11\00:14:02.92
Join us for our next
exciting program as we discuss
00:14:02.95\00:14:07.32
the subject of repentance.
00:14:07.35\00:14:09.21