Are you truly converted?

In this message, Josue Reimundo speaks of the true nature of conversion. He says that conversion is a transformation done by God, not a transaction by man

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Josue Raimundo with the following message entitled, What is True Conversion? Considering faith. The topic I'm supposed to talk today is what is true conversion? And making an emphasis on what faith is all about in conversion. I found out that as many other issues like even in theology, we can get one aspect of things and so highly put it up that we forget the others.

So what I'm going to do to be safe, to avoid that, is to preach a sermon I just preached last Sunday in my church. And hopefully that'll help you. It's about conversion. We are going through the book of John the Gospel of John and we are now stopped in chapter 17 chapter 17 Jesus starts by saying that it's a prayer and Jesus starts by asking the Father to glorify him by taking him to the cross, but also to glorify him, in verse five, with the same glory I had with you before the foundation of the world. Then in verse nine, he makes this statement as he prays, Father, I do not pray for them.

I only pray for them. I do not pray for the world. And we have been stuck in that text for the last three weeks and we're going to be there for maybe four more weeks, I don't know. But when it comes to conversion, In evangelism, we need to always look at the whole picture. We may see faith.

Faith is required, so therefore I'm going to go and talk about faith. And sometimes we leave that alone and exalt faith, the exercise of faith in conversion. Other times we exalt the exercise of preaching in conversion, but all come together. So I am going to talk about two things when we consider conversion. Evangelism is, it is first thing is that the divine work of transformation, the divine work of transformation, and second, God's provision for that transformation, God's provision for that transformation.

And Just to start, let me say that we have an error, a mistake that many people make when we think about evangelism, and we see conversion and evangelism as a transaction between God and man. As a transaction between God and man. Like a business transaction. I see Hillary out there, she offers a product, and I have money to buy her product, and let's say you sell shampoo. Okay, so I sit down with you, and you explain to me the great benefits of your shampoo and I decide if I want to pay the price for that shampoo.

Christ gives you peace. Christ gives you glory. Christ gives you peace with men, peace with God. Christ will fix your marriage. All you have to do is to exercise faith, belief.

And it is not as simple as that. And I hope that we will see conversion as a whole today. And at the end, I have a surprise for you homeschoolers. So I hope that you'll stick around until the end. So first point, the divine work of transformation.

Conversion is a divine work of transformation. And if God does not act, if God does not do the work, the whole work, then it's not going to take place. It's not going to take place. This is what some theologians call monergism. Monergism means that God acts on his own, by himself, when it comes to save you.

Synergism is that we all cooperate and make a nice product because we are nice to each other. The idea that it is a divine work is clearly seen in Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 26 and 27. Ezekiel is a prophet in the Old Testament. The book of Ezekiel comes right, comes after the Psalms, as you know.

Nobody reacted, that's good. That means that we are in need of coffee or we ate too much. So that's cool, no problem. But Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 26 and 27 talks about this great promise, this great covenant that God is going to make with his people. And I want you to listen to these words.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away this tony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Conversion is a transformation done, worked out by God Himself. I will take away the stony heart from you. I will put a heart of flesh. And the divine work of transformation is that he takes away that heart of stone, replaces it with a heart of flesh, and then in that heart of flesh, he provides certain things that then you can be saved.

And why does he need to do that? Why does he need to transform us because a heart of stone cannot receive anything from God? A heart of stone is dead. Now, how many of you like to read like commentaries and that kind of stuff, like theologians and let me see what John Calvin said about this or that, you know, those geeky guys. What does dead mean in the original language?

Do you know? Yeah, you do know. All of you know, dead means dead. And see, Dead means dead. We are dead.

It's like a stone. You cannot pinch a stone and expect to say, ouch. God has to take out your heart of stone, dead, and give you a new one, and give you a new one. Romans chapter 8, one of the most glorious, all of them are glorious but you know what I mean, One of the glorious passages in scriptures regarding our condition, our position in Christ, the truth, the reality of our hearts before him. In that text, verses seven and eight, Look at what Paul says.

For the mind, Romans 8, seven and eight, for you who is taken note as cool man. All right. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law indeed it cannot those who are in the flesh cannot please God. In chapter 2 verse 1 of Ephesians, Paul says that God gave you life when you were dead in your trespasses and sins. So first point here is that conversion is a divine work done in you.

There's nothing you can do to be saved. There's nothing that you do. There's nothing you bring to the table. You bring a stony heart filled with sin dead under the wrath of God. That's what you bring.

That work of replacing the heart of stone with the heart of flesh is what we know as regeneration. The doctrine of regeneration Sounds big, but that's what it means. God makes you to be born again by replacing the heart of stone with a heart of flesh. This is what Jesus tells Nicodemus in his conversation in John chapter 3 verse 3. He says the following, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And this regeneration is accomplished by the gospel, by the preaching of the gospel. The apostle James writing in the first chapter of his letter, that means James chapter 1, verse 18, he says the following, of His own will, God's own will, he brought us forth, made us be born. The idea here is that when a baby, how many of you have three or more siblings? Isn't that cool? I come from seven.

I'm the fourth, so I'm the balance between them. And if you get to know me, you'll realize how unbalanced they are, but that's another story. But the idea here, bring forth, it means when a baby is being born is being pushed out when that time comes no matter how much you kicked around to be to remain inside you came out you were bring brought forth That's the idea here. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be kind of first fruits of his creatures. We did not make ourselves to be born.

We did not make the decision to be born again. He made us be born by the word of truth. And this is important Because the fact that God made us be born by His Word, it is the main argument to say that the preaching of the Word is necessary for people to be converted. The accusation, the false claim, you reform people who believe that God chose before the foundation of the world, so therefore we don't need to preach anymore, is false because God chose who is going to be saved, but also he chose how they're going to be saved, and they're going to be saved through the preaching of the word. So salvation is divine work in the heart of man.

And you can spend your life in church listening to many sermons and this is for you, home schoolers, good Christian people who go to good churches. Who dress and walk and talk very nicely, who are very respectful and we appreciate that. But You can spend your life in church. You can spend your life being a good boy and a good girl. You can spend your life listening to many sermons.

And nothing happens in your heart. It is very easy to be conformed from the outside. Conversion is from the inside. God does an inside job. He changes you from the inside.

Well when He does this work, this divine work of transformation by which he takes your heart of stone, put a heart of flesh, and then puts a new spirit, a new inclination in your heart. But not only that, he also put His Spirit in you that you made from the inside, from your heart, move and obey and do the things of God gladly, joyfully, because that's what your heart loves. God loves. When He does that, let me tell you, it's not enough for you to be saved. Even that regeneration does not bring full salvation.

God has to then put in your heart certain things. And That's what I call second point, or B if you started with A. And it is God's transformation brings God's gifts. God's transformation brings God's gifts. Now you may think, I don't know, I'm not talking here about the gifts of the Spirit as you will see very soon.

The transformation of the person is not enough. It is not enough to have a new heart, for there are several things that we need to complete the process of salvation. If God just gave us a perfect heart, What is the best state that we can attain? I'm asking you, the same one is going to be long. What do you think is the highest point we can attain if God just comes and gives us a new heart, a perfect heart.

Where the past can be forgiven as well? No, no, no, no, no. He gives you a new heart. Now you're new, You have a new heart. The highest point that we will attain, that is if we are fully safe, converted.

But if God leaves us at this point with just a new heart, That's it, new heart. Exactly. We attain to the high point of Adam and Eve. That's all. And we are going to fall again.

God has to give us, on top of that, a surgery he performs, circumcision of the heart, that he does, he gives us some things that we need in order to walk in units of life. And those are God's gifts to us. In order for us to kind of have a better understanding of this, Let's take a look at the condition of a person without Christ. At the condition of a person without Christ. What is the condition of a person without Christ?

Let me ask you a question. What is the problem of mankind? For many, I know what you thought, I'm almost sure that you in your mind came up with sin. How many of you thought sin? Yeah, Sin is not the big problem of man.

Sin is the cause of the big problem of man. But the big problem of man is found in Romans 1, 18. Romans Chapter 1 verse 18, and you all know it, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. The problem of man is that God, when man took upon himself to rebel against God, God did not stay sitting looking at them like many parents do. Oh, how cute.

He's trashing the house. What a nice boy. See, he's going to be a man. No. God did not do that.

God only has one perfect reaction to sin and that is perfect wrath as a matter of fact the perfection of God's wrath is as high as the perfection of God's love and when he goes after you he goes after you. That's the problem of men. God and only God deserve to be worshiped by all, but that truth is resisted by all men. Therefore they are all under the wrath of God, and God will never allow the guilty to go unpunished. Never.

Look at verse 5. Well Psalms chapter 5 verses 4 and 5. That Psalm I love Because it starts very nicely. Early in the morning I will wake up and I will present myself before you and I will pray and I will give you. You will know my request.

You will know my heart, my petitions. And then in verse 4, this soft, nice, worshipable prayer goes this way. A God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.

You hate all evildoers. Let me tell you this. Your brother and sister who has not been transformed by God's grace is one of this. It's an evil doer. And God despises him or her.

Yeah, your cousin. Yeah, that little cousin of yours that you go riding bikes with and you do all this nice stuff and then Christmas you get together that doesn't mean you are to hate them that doesn't mean you are to despise them but God does It is the natural reaction of God to rebellion. It is ingrained in His character. Man cannot do anything unless God transforms him and gives him this following gift. And let me tell you, man cannot do anything, nothing to escape.

To escape. But God in His grace comes and takes that stony heart, that dead heart, puts a heart of flesh, gets His Spirit and puts it in there. Then he gives his word and gives you the spirits that you can walk in it and then in that heart of flesh he gives a lot of gifts I will just mention three. Three gifts. So you put number three gifts.

Okay, good. Three gifts that he gives to those in whom He does a divine transformation. And these three gifts are first, oh let me ask you a question, what is the need of man? I know you said forgiveness. Probably love of God.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's a bigger need. The first thing men need is righteousness. They are not righteous. They will never stand before God on their own.

They need righteousness. That's the first gift. God in that new heart, He gives Righteousness. The problem is the wrath of God. The cause is sin.

The need is righteousness. And that is a gift of God. Look at what Romans 16 and 17 say. You all know these things by heart. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Or better said, the righteous by faith shall live. And then verse 18 comes, the wrath of God is there. What is Paul saying? That there's a group of people to whom the gospel comes and does its work of transformation and that gospel provides right, God gives to that gospel righteousness to that soul so that when the wrath of God comes they will not be touched by it.

Man does not have the divine righteousness to see To get close to God and we all are under the curse of Adam and there is nothing in us That would be appealing to God. Let me repeat that guys. There's nothing in you that can be attractive to God. Accept if Christ is in you, then you become attractive to Him because you're now part of His family. Then you can glorify God.

You can please God because God is in you. Forget everything I say, just remember this, only God can please God. Only God can please God. And only God in you can please God. There's no righteousness in us.

There's no desire in us. Unless God gives us that righteousness, there will be no desire in us to please Him, to love Him, to pursue Him. How does God give us righteousness? The righteousness of Christ is given to us in the gospel. Christ's righteousness is imputed unto us, put into our account.

Again, let's take Hillary again in the business of the shampoo that she had before. Now, Hillary has become a multi-millionaire. She has a lot of money in her account. I don't have a penny. So what happens is that Hillary says, um, Josue, I want you to get this and this and this and this.

And I say, I don't have the money. And then you know what she does? She imputes her account to my account. Let me tell you how it works spiritually. Your account is filled with rebellion, is filled with hate, is filled with sin.

The record of your sins, the record of your account is very high. And you come before Christ. Well you don't come. He brings you. He brings you before you and say let's exchange our accounts.

And then you put all your sins, all your rebellion, all your lies, all your immorality, all your and you know the list. And He says, I put that into My account and then I will give you My account. I will put My account into yours that you can go to the Father and pay. That's righteousness. Look at what Philippians chapter 3 verses 8 and 9 says.

Paul is talking about all the things he did before Christ to be found and to be known as blameless according to the law. And then he says this, Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, done, in order that I may gain Christ." And look at this now in verse 9, and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. You see where faith comes in?

Paul's righteousness was not enough. He needed the righteousness of Christ that comes through faith in Christ. The gospel is preached by the preaching of the word, you receive hearing. That doesn't mean that you hear the words of the preacher. It means that now you are given a listening, understanding ear, heart.

Ear there is a just representing your heart. And then you can understand what that word means to you and then when you understand it you open your eyes faith faith is a gift from God and that is gift number two. If you had one or two or A or B, you know now you are number two. I'm sorry, I always get somebody that I need to have fun with. The second gift is faith.

Righteousness is the first gift. Now you are able to really have an inclination from within to do the right thing because Christ's righteousness has been given to you. But that righteousness is received by faith. And that is the second gift that doesn't come from you. Faith.

A person then exercises faith to believe the gospel. But that faith is another gift. And of course, who knows Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9? You sort of do. Good, you should and me too but I'm gonna read it because of my key of the recording.

For by grace, you have been saved through faith. All the grace, the death of Christ, the predestination, the election, all the things before the foundation of the world, all the things in history, everything God did to save you, all of that is by grace. And you have been saved by grace through faith. Faith is that tool, if you will, that when you exercise it, you receive from God his gift of salvation. Look at this.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. But pastor I have to exercise my faith at least I have to do that right? Yeah but just a little thing it's not your faith it is God's faith that he gave you there's nothing you can come up in yourself to be saved. Nothing.

God gives us righteousness in Christ through the gospel, and He also gives us the faith to receive His righteousness when we believe. And many of us think that we have the faith and the object we choose determines if we are going to be saved or not. Well, if I believe in an orange tree, then I'll be saved and my skin will be orange. If I choose to have faith in, you know, whatever, The faith God gives you has no choice. God gives you faith to believe only one thing, Christ.

There's no other object of that faith. God gives you a faith from Him for you to believe in Christ. I have my room key and it seems to be that they told me later on that my problem was that I had my cell phone with my key and that really made a mess in my key. So last night about 1130 I go in and doesn't work. I took a hammer, broke the door, got in, and not really.

I just went up down there and they had to reset my key. My key was given the ability to open one door. I could not go with that key and say, what room do I want to go tonight? No, this key that was given to me only can open my door. Same thing with faith.

When God gives you faith, that faith can only be exercised on one thing. Christ is not your choice. You don't go and say, well God gave me faith, but I make the choice. No, you don't. There's a third gift that he gives us, And it's repentance.

How many of you repent of your sins? I hope you do, all of you. We need coffee. How many of you drink coffee? Okay, you want me to dance here or do something?

How many of you repent of your sins? I hope that you all do. Maybe some of you don't sin, that's another story. But You need to repent on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, let me inform you something.

It's true that we are saved once and for all, but we need to be evangelized every day. We need the gospel to rule our hearts every day. These three gifts, righteousness, faith, repentance, must be exercised every day. So God gives us righteousness, God gives us faith, and then he adds repentance. When we repent, we change course, we change direction, We do a U-turn.

And from pursuing our desires and plans and everything, we now start to be inclined to God's will, to his word. We start to think of his kingdom. When the high priest reminded Peter in chapter 5 of the book of Acts, Peter in chapter 4 was put to jail and they let him go. In chapter 5, that Peter was a stubborn, you know, disobedient to the law guy. I mean that guy was really rebellious against the law.

Anyway, they let him go and they said to Peter, Peter, we're going to let you go, but we don't want to see you here again. Well, in chapter five, it's interesting to read the Bible, you know, because sometimes you read the Bible, chapter four and chapter five together, and you think that all that happened in 30 seconds. Now, it takes days and that kind of stuff. But anyway, Peter goes back to the same people. And the high priest tells him, Peter, didn't we tell you last time not to preach in that name?

What happened to you? We were nice to you. Social services came and gave you training. What happened? Did you take communication?

You did not. Oh, Peter. Look at what Peter says in the book of Acts, chapter 5, verses 30 and 31. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as prince and Savior.

Now listen, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. You cannot repent unless God gives you repentance. How many of you can say I forgave myself of sins? Nobody. It is a gift of God.

Same thing with repentance. Paul is instructing Timothy, his disciple, his son in the faith, and well, disciple, and he says to Timothy, Timothy, now you're a pastor. You're a great guy. You are qualified, the whole thing. But I want to tell you, give you some instructions about how to deal with non-Christian people.

2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 24 through 26. In there, in that text, we see the instruction Paul gives to Timothy. And Paul says to Timothy, And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to every one, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. Listen now. God may perhaps, not that He will, perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

And they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will." The idea here is this. You preach, you be nice to them, be gentle, instruct them. Maybe God will be merciful unto them and grant them repentance. So God gives us a new heart, God gives us a new spirit, God gives us His spirit, God gives us righteousness, God gives us faith, God gives us repentance. God gives us repentance.

All I want to communicate in this time is that your conversion was an internal thing of which you don't know anything when it was happening God does a work in you and then you say I believe I believe the mango from the mango tree How many of you have had mangoes? You haven't had mangoes if you have not been to the Dominican Republic, but that's another story. A mango tree grows, it's big. When you eat that mango, there's a lot of things that have taken place that you don't know about. When you say, I believe, when You see in your heart a disposition to do God's will, a disposition to serve in the church out of the love of your heart for God.

Not because Mom and Dad go to church and I have to be there all the time. When you have that, it's because God, you didn't give me 30, so you have to go back, it's because God didn't work in you that you did not know. You didn't even feel it. You woke up to the realization that you were now changed. The result of divine transformation, the result of these gifts.

Oh, that's point C. I said only two, but it's three points because a sermon without three points is not a sermon. You have to know that. C, the result of divine transformation and his gifts. And I'm just going to mention three of them.

First, peace with God. Peace with God. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember before the wrath of God was on us? Now His love is on us.

Number two, Free from condemnation. Romans chapter 8 verse 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Your condemnation was eternal death under the wrath of God forever. Now that thing has been removed.

Why have that thing been removed? That condemnation? Because according to Paul in Colossians chapter 3 verses 13 and 14, you copy? Good. Says this, And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a life together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us." And the idea is that in the prison of the time, you had in your door, your jail door, the charges against you while you were there.

And the idea is that We are in jail under the wrath of God with all these charges against us and Christ comes and takes that certificate and nails it on the cross. We are free. Free indeed. Last night, you know how Doug Phillips is, he offers you five points, only can complete three and at the end he's running, but he said something very nice last night. God will always be with you even though he may kill you in the mission field he will be with you.

That's profound. It's no longer about our state, our well-being. The third benefit, The third result is that we are children of God. We are children of God. John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13, but to all who did receive Him, who Believed in his name, and now we know that they believed in the name because God gave them faith for them to believe in the name, and God, in order for them to believe in the name, he gave them faith, and in order to give them faith, he gave them a new heart, and in order to give them a new heart, he took the heart of stone out.

Now we know that. I mean, you knew that, but I have to say now you know it. Who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God. Look at how Paul puts it in Romans chapter 8 verses 14 through 17. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him." Can you become a child of God on your own? Can you decide to be a child of God? Can you move toward God on your own? Of course not. God gives you salvation.

True conversion is the work of God. By way of application, let me say a couple of things. Salvation is not a decision to believe, but it is an internal transformation that God performs in us, changing us from idolaters to worshippers. Let me ask you a question and this I want you to answer. Are you a sinner because you sin or you sin because you're a sinner?

The first one is you're a sinner because you sin. The second one is You sin because you're a sinner. Which one of the two? Both? No, I don't like people standing on the fence.

You had to vote. Number two, exactly right. We are, We sin because we are sinners. But God changes us from idolaters, sinners, to worshipers, believers. He does that work.

Salvation is a change of nature, of disposition. It is conversion. We are converted from the mud of sin to the glory of grace. My gift to the homeschool crowd, I'm a homeschool person. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be 72 and I was born sick And my mom had to homeschool me because I couldn't go to school.

So I had a great chance that I went so far ahead of my peers. I went to university at 13 and got a degree and then got another degree in medicine and then got another degree and I was still going to be 72. And then and now. But really, all that, so I experienced homeschooling before probably all of you, and we are a homeschool family, but one of the things that my wife and I really concentrated from the beginning was that we were not going to get Jennifer and Josh, our kids, to believe that they were Christian as I believe that I was a Christian because… Sorry, I couldn't help it. I believe that I was a Christian because My dad was a great missionary.

And of course I'm a Christian. I'm not a Catholic. I'm a Christian. I live like a Christian. I obey.

I memorize scriptures. I do my homework. I'm a nice little boy. And there's a big warning here. We need to consider the state of the soul of our children from a biblical perspective.

Perhaps we think our children are Christians based on the fact that they don't yell at you, they obey you, they say, they say, yes sir. For me it's a great blessing to come to this conference because I see beautiful ladies, girls and ladies dressed modestly. It's a great blessing. But be careful if you think that they are Christians because they are modest. Be careful with believing that they are Christians because They all look the same.

They excel in their abilities, they have long hair, they play piano, all of them. Well, they can sing too. Well, they can sing too. Surface obedience is expected from any child. Christian or non-christian?

Hypocrites are really good at doing these things and they are well trained to do these things. We are not called to raise hypocrites. We are called to raise children who we know from the beginning they come filled with sin and under the wrath of God. And we are called to work the gospel in their minds and hearts that God, perhaps, in his mercy, take the heart of our children and throw it away, and build a new heart of flesh, and give them faith, righteousness, repentance. It has plagued our churches to see a lot of Pharisees going around, walking the halls, saying yes sir.

But their hearts have not been changed. I want to see if there is an inclination in that heart to serve God. I want to see if going to church is not part of my schedule, but it is a joy. I want to see Jen and Josh, my ones, my two kids, wanting to be in church, loving to be in church. It's not just what my family does.

It's what I do because I belong to the family of God because God has changed me. I want to see Josh coming to me and say, Dad, I'm reading the scripture and I don't agree with your sermon. What you said there was wrong. Can we sit down and talk? Because until the truth is not clear in my heart, I will not rest.

My son, are you trying to rebel against your father? Yes, Dad. We have to avoid that, guys. We are not cookie cutters. Whatever, you know what I mean.

Cookies that come from the same mold all the time. Does your child love to play the piano? Love to play the piano. I'm not saying nothing against that. I'm glad you guys do and I'm glad all do and I'm glad that we have a lot of musicians but that's not the point.

That's not the point. So we need to live with a clear conviction that we cannot live Christianity apart from Christ and His transforming work in us and His gifts to us. Once we have the transformation of our souls and the gifts of God to us, righteousness, faith, repentance, forgiveness of sin, sonship, then we say, wow, is there anything I wouldn't do to continually be in His presence, continually be in His kingdom expansion enterprise. I'm glad that you, a lot of you are thinking about entrepreneurship and all the stuff. But Be careful if your enterprise is not the expansion of the kingdom of God.

You can become a good business person. And a good musician and so beautiful and so cute look at those little kids and be lost forever let's check our hearts let's ask the Lord ask the Lord to look into our hearts in light of his word. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you with hearts that want to go under the microscope of your word and be examined. That we might make sure that we have been truly converted.

That our faith is from you and the object of it is Christ and Christ alone. Give wisdom to the parents to really examine the hearts of their children and guide them through the traumatic experience of knowing they are sinners and for them to see their need of righteousness, and for them to run to Christ, to be truly changed. That we might have generations upon generations of men and women who would expand your kingdom. For we ask for your glory. In Christ's name, Amen.

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