The Cursed Tree

Christmas Trees

Pastor Wes Aarum - December 15, 2019

Community Group Study Notes

  1. Have someone in your group provide a brief, 2-minute summary of Sunday’s message.
  2. Read Galatians 3:13; Romans 5:8; Isaiah 53:5-6.  What stands out to you in these verses and why?  
  3. Read Revelation 20:11-15. How does the truth in this passage give perspective to the reality of the gospel – of all that Jesus did on the cross?
  4. What one thing did God speak to you about – either through the message or through your discussion? What does God want you to do about it and how will you do it?

Abide


Sermon Transcript

Good morning, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Wes and I have the privilege of sharing God's truth with you today. I want to encourage you to grab ahold of the handout that you got when you came in here today. We hand this out on all of our campuses because we want to take some notes. We want to record some things so we can press into them later and remember what God is talking to us about. Then on the flip side, you notice it is community groups study notes. You'll fill this out and then you take it to your community groups so that you can press it in a little, bit stronger and you encourage one another and run after Jesus together. It's our hope and prayer that everyone who calls The Chapel their home, that you'd be connected in a community group. If you're not yet, you can go to The Chapel.com/community okay and check out what's available to you.

Because we want you to get involved because we believe that some great things happen in our community groups. Also, if you are a community group leader or host want to remind you and encourage you to please make sure you sign up. Register for our training cafe that's coming in January 11th at 8:30 in the morning till 11 on this campus, so we need to make sure that we have you down and prepare for that. Please make sure you do that day, that will be honest, awesome. Now listen, if you're here and this is your first time, you are really a big deal to us. Jon talked about it earlier, but you really are, and we're so grateful that you're here personally, I have a friend that I've invited that he's here today. I'm super excited that he's here and whether you're here for the first time or you're here for, you've been coming here for forever.

Man, we believe on the authority of God's word that he orchestrates the details of our lives to put us right where he wants us to be so, that we can reach out to him and connect with him. Which means I believe that God put you here right now, today, that he puts you in front of that screen for all of our friends watching online, that God did that so that you can connect with him. The words of Jesus recorded in the gospel of John chapter six says this, "I am the bread of life. Jesus says, whoever comes to me will never go hungry, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." In that one verse, Jesus puts his finger right on a common need of every single human being. Jesus said, "I know that you have inside hungers, soul hungers, soul thirsts. And Jesus said, I can satisfy those and I want to." The only question is, will we come to him. This relationship with Jesus stuff, this believe in him, it's for real. He says, "I want you to come to me."

I've been praying like crazy that we, all of us would come to Christ with open hearts today. That we would listen to what the God of the universe who made us and created us. Who knows what's coming down the road for us, who knows this better than we know ourselves. That we will listen to what he says to us. Don't listen to me, my words, I've got nothing to offer you. Only the God who made you, he has something great to offer you. I want us to pray again together, I want you to pray, I want you to ask God to speak to you. Would you please bow your heads and close your eyes just for a moment and I beg you to do this just silently. You may have never done anything like this before, give it a shot, just silently, just say, "God, if you got something to say to me, I'm listening and I'll respond."

Heavenly father, we bow before you acknowledging that you are the ones that has a word of life. It's a word that we need, thank you so much for the privilege of being here together in this place. God, thank you for the truth we're going to hear today and I pray that we would hear it from you and not from me. Lord I pray that you would surprise some people today, so often we just come to this place and we just do church and it becomes a rote thing. God, I pray that you would shatter that today, that you would surprise us a fresh and for those that need to hear word of encouragement today, that God that be strong for you and for those that need to know you. That would be a reality for them as well. Lord, thank you. Thank you for what you're going to do and you get all the praise and all the glory because you alone are worth for it's in your name we pray these things Christ, amen.

All right, please open your Bibles to the book of Galatians. The Bible that you brought or the Bible that's in front of you and your seat back. Or if you're in the East worship center, it's on a table or in your electronic device you can get it on your phone, on your app. There's a lot of great Bible apps out there, the one I love, I go to Bible Gateway.com and that's a good one. Galatians chapter three, that's our main text today, it's not going to be on the screen. I want us to have it in front of us because we're going to walk through it and we're going to reference it throughout the message. I'll want to make sure that you have it in front of you and if you're like, "I'm new to this whole thing. I don't know what to do." Hey, that's totally cool, just lean over and look at someone else and say, Hey man, can I borrow your word, they'd be happy to do that. They'd love to do that.

If you're a single guy or a single girl and there's somebody single next you that your prayers just got answer. We're here to help, all right. Hey, I want to start out by reading this story to you, it says this, "A mother enters her daughter's bedroom and sees the letter over the bed with the worst premonition. She reads it with trembling hands and this is what it says it is with great regret and sorrow that I'm telling you that I eloped with my new boyfriend, I found real passion and he is so nice with all his piercing and tattoos and his big motorcycle. But it's not only that mom, I'm pregnant and Bubba said that we would be very happy in his trailer in the woods. He wants to have many more children with me and that's one of my dreams.

I've learned that marijuana doesn't hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and for his friends who are providing us with all the cocaine and ecstasy we may want. In the meantime, we'll pray for the science to find the age cure for Bubba to get better, he deserves it. Don't worry, mom, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I'll visit for you to know your grandchildren. Love your daughter, Judith. PS, mom, none of this is true, I'm at the neighbor's house. I just wanted to show you that there are worse things in life than the school's report card that's in my desk right now."

I know, I did this tonight and some are like, is he serious about this, is this real, this is awful. Why is he reading this with a smile? I know, if you're this girl's mom, on the one hand you're like so relieved and on the other side you're like, I'm going to send you to Jesus right now. You're going to meet him right this moment, say my name. It's common. Here's the thing, here's what this girl was trying to do for her mom, trying to give her perspective. Perspective is a powerful thing, it gives us focus, it gives us clarity, helps us to see things the way they really truly are. That's what I hope to do today for all of us, myself included, is that we would get a truer perspective of the gospel. The gospel means the good news of all that God has done for us through Jesus Christ, that we don't have to earn or work our way to God.

Jesus has already done it for us. That's one of the things that separates Christianity from every other world religion. Every other world religion in some form is a work oriented religion, if you do this, if you jump through this hoop, if you go down this path then somehow you'll earn your way to God. In Christianity God's word, he says, "That's not how it works. He says, you don't have to earn your way to God. Jesus has already done it before." But in order to see the good news, clearly we've got to take an honest look at the bad news. Now we're in this series, Christmas trees and we started out with the garden tree, it was pastor Jonathan last week pastor Jerry the family tree. Today we're going to look at the cursed tree, I know you're like, I'm so glad I came today, The Cursed Tree.

Here's why this is so important and you're going to be so glad we did because the cursed tree really gives us a perspective and helps us understand how bad the bad news really is. One of the verses that lays that out for us in a, succinct manner is in Galatians chapter three verse 13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written. Curseth is everyone who is hung on a tree." Now, you notice that last statement, "Curseth is everyone who is hung on the tree." It's in quotes, that means it comes from somewhere, it comes from Jewish history. We go to the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the beginning of the Bible says this, "If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body's exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day because anyone who's hung on a pole is under God's curse."

Now, when we talk about curse in this a framework, we're not talking about something from Harry Potter like it is curse. That's not what this is. A curse was a divine judgment that brought about the sentence of condemnation. In ancient Judaism, for example, when a criminal was executed, typically by stoning, his body would then be hung on a pole, that's what Deuteronomy was referencing. His body would be hung on a pole or a post, a tree, if you will, until sunset because it was a physical, visible display of God's condemnation, of judgment it was a curse. That is a picture of what Jesus did for us on the cross. He on the cross became a curse by taking the weight of sin on himself.

Now, again, you'll look at verse 13, it says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law." The curse of the law refers to being under the judgment of God because God's law has been broken by sin and God has attached consequences to such violations. God is the great law giver and he is just, and because he is just, true justice must always prevail. Always, God cannot look down on us and say, "I see you ruining your life. I see you ruining one another, but that's okay. I'll just look the other way." He can't do that, why? Because, he's just. We understand this even in our own legal system, that when a crime has been committed, in order for justice to be real and true, there has to be equal payment to that crime.

There has to be, I use this example often when I'm talking to students or young adults. I want you to imagine that you have a friend and you found out that that friend was brutalized and they caught the guy who did it and now you're sitting in the courtroom next to your friend who is brutalized. You've got your arm around them supporting them, and there's that guy standing before the judge and the judge says, "Guilty, and then the judge says this, listen, I'm just going to let you go. Just promise me you won't do it anymore." How would you respond? You'd be up on your feet, you'd be screaming, that's not justice and you'd be right, because it's not justice. Because in order for justice to be real, there has to be equal payment for the crime, we understand this. That's why there has to be justice, there has to be punishment, there has to be for our sin. Why? Because our sin is an eternal hate crime against an eternal God, it requires an eternal punishment.

Every single one of us deserves that judgment because every single one of us, me, you, every one of us has violated God's law because every one of us is a sinner. The Bible tells us, listen, God gives it to us straight in his word. He says, "I'm going to tell you the truth because I am the truth and I want you to know the truth." He levels the playing field, nobody's better than anybody else. Listen to what God says in the book of Romans, through the apostle Paul he says, "For all." See that word all say it with me.

(All.)

Come on, like you're going to win something.

(All.)

There you go, for all that means everybody. That was good, that's a great job. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." All of us are guilty look at the next one, next Romans, "For the wages of sin, the payment, the consequences result of sin is death." You know, one of those two verses alone, and there's a lot more in the Bible that speaks to the human condition. Those two verses along lead us and land us, in one inescapable conclusion. It's the first line on your notes and it says, "Every one of us deserves judgment because every one of us is guilty of sin." That's the first thing we've got to understand, but there's a second. Sin is far more serious than we understand. We live in a culture where sin is not only belittled, it is celebrated. That is a grave, grave error.

Follow this illustration two using our own legal system. When, somebody gets handed down a hundred dollar fine, we understand their crime was probably not that serious, but when somebody gets handed down three consecutive life sentences as punishment. We understand, the nature of that crime must have been horrific. Why? Because of this, the severity of the punishment reveals the seriousness of the crime. We get that the severity of the punishment reveals a seriousness of the crime. Follow me along here, so using that same standard, how serious is our sin? Well, how severe is the punishment? It doesn't get any more severe. In a word, it's hell.

Scriptures to look at. This is judgment day, "Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the day of devil and his angels." Notice what it says prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell was never prepared for us, but the same thing that sends Satan is and his demons there. Same thing that sends us there, our sin, our rebellion against God. Look at this next scripture. "This is how it will be, at the end of the aides, angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." These next scripture is from the final book in the Bible revelation.

"This is yet to come and this is what is coming for any of us who don't know Jesus. This is the reality of what's coming for any of us who don't know Jesus. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it, the earth and the heavens fled from his presence and there was no place for them and I saw the dead great and small, famous, not so famous from our planet standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was open, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done is recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of fire. The Lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown in the Lake of fire."

Do you know who talked more about hell than he did about heaven in the new Testament? Jesus. Why would he do that? Only one reason, because it's true. God wants us to know, listen, death is not the end when you and I die. We're more than an animal that talks. We're going to spend an eternity somewhere forever, we transition locations. That's what death is, transitioned to a new location, only one or two places, heaven or hell. God wants us to know about that. Listen, God's wrath and judgment are guaranteed for sin because God is just, they have to be. These chilling words recorded for us, in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10 says, "This is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but and this is where it starts to get flat out amazing. It is against this backdrop of true divine justice and judgment that the picture starts to get clear. For it is this reality of hell that helps us understand a true perspective of how absolutely stunning and jaw dropping the gospel of Jesus Christ really is, all the Jesus has done for us."

According to Galatians three 13 he became a curse for us. Jesus became a curse for us. This speaks to what we know as the Christian doctrine of substitution, which in theological terms substitutional atonement. Basically in a nutshell what that says is God is Holy and just therefore he must judge sin and because we are sinners, he must judge sin in us. But because God is massive in grace, in love, he did the unthinkable, he sent his son Jesus to be born of a Virgin Christmas. To live a perfect life, a sinless life. He had to.

A drowning guy can't save another drowning man. A sinner can't save another sinner. You need someone who is sinless, you need a rescue or you need a savior. Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life and then he died on the cross, took our punishment on himself. He took our place, he became our substitute. Look, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, speaking about the future Messiah about Jesus Christ, this is what he says, "But he, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities." Read that my inequities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, "And by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray." Every single one of us, all of us, nobody's exempt, each of us has turned to our own way. We want to run the show, we want to be our own God and the Lord has laid on him, on Jesus, the iniquity of us all.

Jesus took all of our sin on himself, he paid for our sin. That's the first point under Christian doctrine of substitution, it's this Jesus paid for all the sin you committed. He died one time for all sin, sin, past, present, future. Look at this scripture in second Corinthians it says, "God made him Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us." Do you understand what that means? There was a moment on the cross when Jesus hung on the cross, he had been scourged, that means he had been fileted, he didn't even look like a member of the human race. He was so marred and beaten and tortured. He was just destroyed. He's hanging on that cross and there was a moment in time on that cross when God took every single sin that would ever be committed. Your sin, my sin, any sin, every sin rolled up, all our individual hells the judgment we deserve and put them on Jesus. He poured out his wrath on his own son and Jesus screamed, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Why? Because, of you because, of me. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. He became a curse in order to redeem, to set you free, to bring you into the most amazing relationship that you'll ever know. Relationship with God, that's what eternal life is, it's a relationship with God. Look at how Peter says, first Peter, "For Christ also suffered, one time for all sins. The righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God, that's the end game. To bring you to God, that's the end game of Christmas. Everything God does, all of his activity in your life is not to push away. It's to bring you to him, to rescue you, to redeem you, to bring you to God because he loves you, he made you. Wants to rescue you. Let me ask you something, honestly, if you're here and you're a believer, does that move you anymore? Does that grip you, does that grab a hold of you. Does that motivate you?

Let's say, if you've been saved for a long time, if you've been a believer for a long time, following Christ for a long time, it can become ordinary can't it. I know that, I understand that, most of you guys you know my testimony. You know my story. I don't have one of these big blazing testimonies where I can stand up here and go, "I was involved in sex and drugs and stealing cars and then I got saved at the age of four." I didn't, I grew up in a Christian home. I learned early on what it meant to be a believer so I gave my life to Jesus and I started following him. You know what, I've heard it all my life, Jesus loves me, he died for me and if I'm not careful, it can become ordinary and that is a tragedy. By the way, it's exactly what the enemy of your soul wants because when that becomes ordinary, it's a small step to start questioning God's goodness.

Small stuff and I pray for myself and I pray for you. You pray for me. I pray for you that we never let ourselves get used to that. We cry, "Oh God awaken my soul to the reality of the curse that Jesus suffered for me so that I could be free." It's amazing, that's what God wants for you. If you're here and you don't know Christ, it's what he wants for you. If you're going, you do know Christ, it's what he wants for you. But there's a second thing, you might be here today and it looks good on the outside, but on the inside, your life's in chaos. You are sitting here in your seat right now and inside you are covered with the hurt and the shame of sin that has been committed against you. You are weighed down by the chains of stuff that has been committed and done to you, against you, and it's smothering you.

The enemy is all only too happy to be whispering in you the whole time. "You're worthless. You're broken, you're damaged, and it's your fault. You deserve it. You'll never escape what's been done to you. It's who you are and it's you'll always be forever." Listen, if that's you, I got some incredible news for you because you know what the Christian doctrine of substitution means. When, Jesus took our sin on himself on the cross, one time, all sin. He not only paid for all the sin you committed, he also paid for all the sin ever committed against you. He paid for all the sin ever committed against you, you know what that means? He paid for that sin, he owns it, it doesn't own you anymore, you can go free. You can actually go free because that is not the reality of your life any more.

Look at this verse second Corinthians, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. Rest of the verses says this, so that in him in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God." When you come to Christ, when you put your faith in Jesus, "Amen. I'm a sinner. I need a savior. Jesus come and forgive me, rescue me, give me a relationship with you." When you do that, Jesus takes all the sin off of you that you've committed in ever and all of a sin that has been committed against you. All that stuff, it's just been owning you, he takes that on himself and he gives you in it's place his righteousness. What does that mean? His righteousness means a right standing with God, that means the stain and the shame of sin on you, it's now on him. It's now on him and you are clean and pure before God totally accepted, totally delighted and totally loved and totally free. God will never change his mind about you. Why? Because, you're covered with Jesus. He will never change his mind about Jesus.

That's incredible and that is what is true. Let me try to illustrate it this way. See this as well, because this illustration helps me. A black rope, this represents your sin. Sin, you've committed sin committed against you. This is who you were before Jesus, this owned you, it covered you, you couldn't get off of it. You couldn't cover it with something else, this is who you are, this is your reality and this is your destiny. It has the stench of death on it. But when you come to Jesus, he takes this because he's the only one who can, he takes this off of you. This is what the Bible tells us. He takes this off of you, puts it on himself and in it's place he gives you his robe of righteousness, his robe of son ship, this is no longer who you are, this doesn't define you anymore. This does not have authority in your life. This does, Jesus does, he covers you with himself, you are now who God says you are his beloved.

You say, "Well Wes, gosh, I don't know. If God knew what he was getting into when he got me. Hey, he's God, he knew what he was getting into. He knew everything about you. When he saved me, he knew all the mess ups that I would have, he says, "Guess what? I'm going to work with you Wes, because you're my child and I love you. You are my beloved, this is who you are. This is not who you are. Listen to me, if you're here and you are a believer, if God has set you free, stop living like you're a slave.

(Amen.)

Listen, I got more. Listen, this is good stuff. There's more here. Listen, if God has forgiven you, stop living like you're still condemned and if he's declared that you are his child then stop living like you're an orphan, that no one cares about. This is not true, this is not who you are. This is who you are and this by the way shows you how far God would go to reach you. This shows you how serious he is about forgiving him and he does this not because he needs you. I'm so tired of people who go, "Well, my good will outweigh my bad." As if you can negotiate with God, as if he owes you is if he needs you. Are you kidding me? Just think of the universe from one edge to the other, scientists estimate 92 billion light years across. That means it would take a beam of light traveling at 168, 186,000 miles per second. It would take that beam like 92 billion years to get across the universe.

We can't even begin to fathom how massive that is and God spoke that into existence, one word. One word spoken into existence. You mean to tell me that you're going to stand on this planet, this little dust speck planet earth that is in one galaxy, in over a hundred billion galaxies in this massive universal, which God sends over. You're going to stand here and you're going to look at God and you're going to go, you owe me you, need me.

Punch yourself in the face right now. Come on, right, that's the craziest thing I've heard. I know some of you are like, "Wow, you're violent Wes. Where's pastor Jerry?" He's over there. He'll be back. Okay, relax. Because, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard? Actually, it's not. There's one thing that's crazier and it's this, that this God, that this God would look at me with all of my baggage and all my sin. All I had to bring to the table was my hostility towards him, my hatred towards him. That's all I had to offer and that he would look at me and would say, "Wes, I want you in my life." That's what he says about you. He doesn't say Wes, he calls you by your name, he knows your name. That's what he says about you, I want you in my life, I want you to have this.

One final thing. You might be here and your believer, you say, "Wes, I hear you, and can I tell you something, my life's in chaos and I've been crying out to God and I've been praying. I've been trying to live for him, and I tell you, it's like he's not even there. He's not listening. I'm like, God, where are you and I see nothing changing. I feel nothing changing, I'm like, God, what are you doing?" Listen, if that is you, and we all have times like that. Listen to me. God is good to every single promise he's made, every single one. He is faithful to it. When he says, to you, "I will never leave you or forsake you, you can count on that. When he says, I will be with you when it's dark, when it's light, when it's easy, when it's hard, I will not forsake you. I am with you. I'm working all things for your good. I am, I've got you in the Palm of my hand. I'm never letting you go. I believe in you. I love you. I am here and I'm never giving up on you."

When he promises those things to us as believers, we can count on every single one. You know why? Because he's already kept the one promise that cost him the most. He's already kept the one promise that cost him his son. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, will not perish will have everlasting life." Jesus became a curse for you, for me. Why? To redeem us, to rescue us, to put us into a relationship with God, to give you this, to cover you with his robe of righteousness, to say you're my son. Let me ask you, what are you going to do with that?

You're hearing your believer, what are you going to do with this? How does God want this truth to reshape and reframe and reset your life? This should impact everything about us. How we spend our time, how we spend our money, how we negotiate relationships, how we handle our marriage. It's how we see purpose in life. How we do our jobs. This should reset every thing, if you're hearing and you're a believer, you're free. So stop living like a slave. You're forgiven, stop living condemned, you belong to God. Stop living like that's true because it's not. This is what's true of you and stop playing around over here with sin. Stop thinking this is where life is. There's no life here, we know that.

We know that there's nothing... We think sometimes, because we listened to the enemy and we listen to our feelings that he conjures up. Then we're like, "Yeah, I can handle sin. I can handle the consequences of sin. I can negotiate with God. It's not that big of a deal." It's not true, it's a huge deal and it's now who you are and there's nothing here for you. Listen to the prodigal son. One of my favorite stores, this dude, he hated his... He said, dad, I wish you were dead. Took his money, blew all of it on sex, drugs, rock and roll. He became a starving, emaciated. He was feeding pigs, which was the lowest job for a Jewish guy. He came to his senses, says, "I'm going to go home. I'm hoping my dad and the community won't kill me, but I'm going to take a shot."

As he's walking home, stumbling home, wearing the clothes that reek of pig dung his dad sees him, he runs down the driveway. He tackles him, he smothers him with hugs and kisses and tears and he gets him up and he says, "Quick, bring my best robe." He covers his son with his robe of righteousness, covers his son with his robe, covers his shame says, "You're my son and I love you." Do you think that that dude went into his home and took his robe that was smelling and stinking like pig dung. Do you think he took this and go, "Hey, I think I'll just hang this closet. I might want to wear that later. He says, no way. I'm done." Listen, as believers we can do that too and we need to do that too. We need to see it for what it is, this is who I am.

If you're here and you don't know Jesus, this is what's waiting for you. This is what's waiting for you is knowing Jesus, it's real. It's real and let me ask you honestly, what would keep you from giving your life to Christ? Death is not the end, it's a transition to the next life, to the next location. I can just tell you, if you don't know Christ, the reason he brought you here today, the reason he put you in front of that screen is because he loves you and he wants you to know him. But he leaves the choice with you, he's not going to twist your arm. He respects your free will, he's given it to you. He says, "Look at the cross. Look at what my son did for you, because I want you to have this. This is what God says. This is the truth. What we do with it is up to us."

Let's pray together. First of all, with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, thank you so much for your kindness, for your grace, your attention, and I'm super grateful. Now this is the pivotal moment. What did God talk to you about and what does he want you to do with it? What did God speak to you about what does he want you to do with it? If you're here and you're Christian, you're Christ following, you know Jesus. You know you're going to have and you know you have that relationship with Christ and what has God said to you and what will you do about it? What does God want you to grab a hold of and reframe and reset and live out? Truth is meant to be lived. Take a moment and respond to your heavenly father who's passionate about you. The reason we know that is because he tells us, he shows us, he's displayed it in the cross.

Final question. If you're here and you don't know Jesus, but you want to, I get it, because that was me one day. Let me ask you an honest question. If you died tonight, do you know you go to heaven? Say Wes, I'm not sure or I know I wouldn't, but I want to. I want to know this Jesus you're talking about, and if that's you, his requirements are pretty simple, demand nothing and surrender everything. Because you don't just need a spiritual bandage, you need new life because you to give you life to Jesus. If that's you, just tell him, tell him that's what you want. Just suddenly right where you are, just tell him it's what you want. In fact, if you're not sure how to pray, let me help you. Somebody loved me enough to give me words one day. Let me give you some words, just pray something like this.

Not out loud in your heart. Words aren't magic, just mean then as your own. Just say, "Dear Jesus, I'm a sinner, I get it, I need a savior. I know I can't save myself, but I believe you died for me that you have life to give me and I want that. I want you so I turned from my sin, I repent. I see what I can do with my life, now I want to see what you can do with my life. Jesus come into my life I'm all yours."


More From This Series

The Garden Tree

Pastor Jonathan Drake Part 1 - Dec 1, 2019

The Family Tree

Pastor Jerry Gillis Part 2 - Dec 8, 2019
Watching Now

The Cursed Tree

Pastor Wes Aarum Part 3 - Dec 15, 2019

The Healing Tree

Pastor Deone Drake Part 4 - Dec 22, 2019

Share This Message

Share This With A Friend

Subject: The Cursed Tree

Sharing URL: http://thechapel.com/messages/christmas-trees/cursed-tree/

Send Email