Good evening, friends. Welcome again to "Amazing Adventure." We're glad that you've joined us once more. This is "The Only Lifeboat." That's the topic that Pastor Doug will be covering this evening. How many of you have been filling out the lessons night by night after the program? Oh, I see a lot of hands. I hope those of you who are watching are also doing that, filling out the lessons.
Are you enjoying the lessons? They're great. We've gotten all kinds of wonderful e-mails of people saying how much they've enjoyed their lessons. So, be sure to use this night after night to remind you of the things that you've heard here at the seminar. Well, I think it's time for us to start with our theme song. We want to welcome the "Amazing Adventure" singers.
Thank you for leading us. Let's stand together as we sing. [Music] life is an adventure, following The King. Every day with Jesus makes us want to sing. Walking in the Spirit, he will lead the way.
With His Word to guide us, glowing deep inside us. Nothing can divide us following The King. Life is an adventure following The King. Every day with Jesus makes us want to sing. Conquering with kindness everywhere we go.
Voices we are raising, Jesus we are praising, life is so amazing following The King. Life is so amazing following The King. Please remain standing as we're going to have our Scripture reading and prayer at this time. Judith will be bringing our Scripture reading. What is the verse that you're reading? Acts 4:12, "nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
" Alright, thank you very much. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Dear Jesus, thank for this nice day and please bless this program and help it to go well. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Thank you very much. You can all be seated at this time. I'm going to invite Pastor Doug to come forward for Bible questions this evening. We've got some video Bible questions that have come in.
So, let's start with that, Pastor Doug. Amen. I'm excited to hear what we've got. Hi, my name is Isaac and I'm 8 years old. Why didn't satan die in the flood? Isaac's wondering why didn't satan die in the flood? Well, I don't think he knows how to scuba dive.
The idea is that satan is not flesh and blood. You can read in the book of Ephesians chapter 6 that when we wrestle against the devil, I mean sometimes we wish that we could just box with the devil and deal with him like that 'cause we understand those kind of things. But we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. The devil is a spirit. And there're spiritual battles, and that's why we put on spiritual armor.
So a flood that might drown some mammals and a lot of people, it didn't drown the devil. But I believe the world during the flood was in such turmoil that even satan feared for his existence. Well Pastor Doug, we've got a question here that's come all the way from zimbabwe. Melunga is asking: "why do we have so many religions?" Ooh, that's a good question. Now, if you wanted to hide a diamond, you know a good place to hide a diamond would be in a pile of broken glass.
When I grew up in New York city, they used to have these telephone booths. And one day, one of the windows of the telephone booths broke and you ever seen what happens to a car window when it breaks? It shatters into all these little pieces like jewels. And my friend and I scooped 'em up and we thought, "boy, they look like diamonds." If you had dropped a diamond into that pile of broken glass, it would've been hard to find. The devil is trying to hide the diamond of truth in all the broken glass of these different religions. So, all of the religions of the world have different elements of truth.
And there's some good things, maybe, in many religions. But there's only one truth. And the devil is trying to hide it; and so he gets people to fight and they divide and they form all these different religions and denominations to create confusion in the world. The only way to know where the real diamond of truth is, is through the Bible. It must be tested by the word.
Alright well, we have another video question for this evening. Alright. I'm andrew, and I'm 9 years old. My question is: how can we resist temptation? Ooh. Let me ask a question: how many of you are sometimes tempted? Let me see your hand.
Ah, we already knew that. I just wanted to know if you knew it. Everybody's tempted. You know what? Was Jesus tempted too? Even Jesus was tempted. Is it a sin to be tempted? No, the devil tempts everybody.
And if you are trying to do God's will and you're swimming upstream, the devil's going to try and cause problems for you. How can you resist temptation? Well, there's a lot of things you can do and I don't have time to go through the whole list. But first of all, "thy word I have hidden in my heart," the Bible says in Psalms, "that I might not sin." So, store up the promises of God. How did Jesus fight the temptations of the devil? When the devil tempted him, Jesus said, "it is written, it is written, it is written." He quoted the Bible 'cause the principles of the Bible were guiding him in his life. Another way you can avoid temptation, not to be tempted, is stay away from things that are tempting to you.
If a person has a problem with alcohol, they shouldn't go shopping in a liquor store, right? You want to stay away from the things that are a temptation for you. If you've got some friends that are a bad influence, you want to avoid those friends that could cause problems for you. And so, there's a lot of things you can do to help resist temptation: pray that God'll give you strength, keep your eyes on Jesus as your example, ask him to fill you with his spirit and say, "lord, every morning--" you know what the Lord's prayer says? "Lead us not into temptation." Say, "lord, lead me away from temptation" and he will. He'll help you every day. Well, I could talk more about that, but we've got a big program tonight.
So, I think we better keep moving. Well Pastor Doug, do we have time for one quick question? Alright, let's see. Alright, here it is. This is alexandria. She's sending this question in from California.
Here's the question: "how did Jesus climb up the mountain of olives?" I think alexandria thought--the Bible speaks about the mount of olives, and maybe she thought it was a mountain of olives. Have you ever tried to climb on a mountain of olives? That'd be slippery, huh? A lot of olive oil. And so, it wasn't a mountain of olives, it was the "mount olivet," is what it was called. And so, that was the name of the mountain. But he walked.
It's not a very steep mountain like everest. Jesus just walked up it. It's more like a big hill. I've been there before. Good questions.
And keep your questions coming, friends. If you've got a question or if you want to send us a picture of your group that's gathered, we'll be putting some of them up on the screen. Go to amazingfactskids.org and we'll look forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much, Pastor Doug. We have a very special treat this evening.
We've got the Texas international choristers who are here with us tonight, and they will be bringing us a special song, "we believe." So, we invite them to come forward. [Music] I believe in Jesus born in Bethlehem. I believe in Jesus Christ who is the great I am. I believe in Jesus man of Galilee when He proved His love for us upon mount calvary. I believe that Jesus made the blind to see.
I believe that Jesus calmed the troubled seas. I believe that Jesus cares for you and me. I believe, I believe. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus brought to us new life.
Yes, we believe in Jesus Christ our lord and Savior. And he'll give his love if you'll receive. We believe he came to die. On the cross, he gave himself a sacrifice so all the world could know the joy of true salvation. He's our lord of lords.
We believe. We believe that Jesus came to earth to save us. We believe that on the cross new life he gave us. And he's standing at the door wanting so to give you more if you believe, if you believe. We believe in Jesus Christ.
We believe that Jesus brought to us new life. Yes, we believe in Jesus Christ our lord and Savior. And he'll give his love if you'll receive. We believe he came to die. On the cross, he gave himself a sacrifice so all the world could know the joy of true salvation.
He's our lord of lords. We believe. We believe. [Applauding] Now, I've been asked to invite Pastor Doug to come forward for something this evening. Pastor Doug, do you know how to play the harmonica? A little bit.
Alright, we're going to invite Pastor Doug to come forward. Something special this evening, this is the spanish harmonica band and they're going to be playing for us here. And we're asking Pastor Doug to come and join them for this. [Music] Why don't we ask everybody to sing along? Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong; they are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so. Good job. [Applauding] Amen. Yeah, I appreciate that. That kind of surprised me.
They gave me a harmonica a few minutes ago, and I haven't played in a while. But I don't think I threw 'em off that much. Oh, it's so good to see each of you here tonight. How many of you have not missed a night? Oh, good job! And I'm hoping there's some of you who are watching from all across the country and around the world and you haven't missed a night yet. We're only halfway through this adventure, but this adventure is really the launching pad for the biggest adventure in life, which is following Jesus, being a Christian and giving yourself to him.
Our study tonight, and I hope you're doing your lessons, is "The Only Lifeboat," "The Only Lifeboat." Now, I have been in lifeboats before. My father was in the airplane industry and I remember going out in the Florida keys and playing in one of these aircraft lifeboats before, and it's got all this survival gear in it. And I've heard stories of people who have been months out in the ocean in lifeboats, sometimes with friends, sometimes by themselves, heard fantastic stories. You know, a number of years ago, back in, I think it was 1912, April 14, there was a big, beautiful luxury liner called the "titanic." And everybody thought that the boat was unsinkable 'cause it had all these water-tight compartments, 16 of them. But they hit an iceberg on their maiden voyage, and you know what happened? The "titanic" went down.
The sad thing was, they had not prepared enough lifeboats for everybody. And even some of the lifeboats were pushed off half full 'cause people thought, "the ship's never gonna sink." But it did sink and out of over 2,000 people that were on the ship, over 1,500 died because they didn't have enough lifeboats. You know, the Bible tells a story of a terrible storm that came to the world one time. And there was only one lifeboat to save everybody. Who knows what that boat was? Noah and the ark.
God said, "I'm going to destroy the world with a flood because man's hearts were only evil continually." And for 120 years, Noah preached and tried to warn people, "get ready and get on the lifeboat." But people said, "not now, later. It's not that important." And they put it off. And finally, all the animals got onboard. Noah stood in the door of the ark and he plead with the people, "this is the only way. There's no other way.
If you don't get on this boat, you'll perish." But they didn't listen to Noah, and then God shut the door of the ark. Seven more days, everything looked normal. People bought and sold and they made fun of Noah because his family was all locked up in the ark. But then the clouds grew dark, and the lightening began to flash and the earth began to shake and water started coming down from up above and water started coming from below and shooting up out of the ground. And it was a tremendous flood, much more than hurricane ike we had a few days ago.
This was a catastrophic flood that covered the world. And all of the world, you can see the evidence of that. And the people that did not get on the ark did not make it. Well, do you know that Jesus says that there is another storm coming? How many of you know? The Bible tells us that. And there's another ark.
There's one more lifeboat that you can get on, "The Only Lifeboat." We're going to talk about that tonight in our lesson. It's the boat of salvation, and I want to make sure that everybody here and everybody there who's watching, that you all get onboard because it's the only way to survive and have eternal life. Let's go to our lesson. Question number one in our lesson: what has God done to make a lifeboat for us? The answers are all in the Bible. I brought my Bible up here with me because I might think of some Scriptures that aren't on the screen but I've got most of the Scriptures on the screen.
Most of you know this one. As a matter of fact, why don't you say it with me? John 3:16, "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." Very good, you know that and some of you weren't even reading it off the screen. God so loved us that he gave his son. You know, when I hear about that, when I hear that love, when I hear about that word "he so loved us," it warms my heart. It makes me want to love him back.
I don't think any of us really realize how much God gave when he gave his son. Back in 1937, there was a man named "John griffith." And he was a bridge operator and he operated a drawbridge that went across the mississippi river, and he would lift the bridge up and the boats would go by underneath. And then he'd hear a whistle from the train, he'd lower the bridge and then the train would go across and then he'd lift the bridge back up. And one day, John brought his young son with him to work. And he showed him the big machine and the gears and the cables that lifted up the bridge, and his son watched the bridge go down and the bridge go up.
And he thought that was really neat. He wanted to go to work with dad and see what he did. So, they had some lunch and while they were sitting there eating lunch by the edge of the bridge, The Father heard the buzzer ring up in his booth and that meant there was a message; a train was coming. So, he ran up into the booth and he got on the line and they said that they have, "'the memphis express' is coming. We've got 400 passengers.
Do we need to slow down or will you have the bridge down?" He said, "I'll have the bridge down." He gave them the green light, and they opened up the train and started going real fast. And the man began to do some stuff to lower the bridge. And he looked down from his booth and he saw that his son, greg, had tumbled off into the machine where the cables and the gears where. And he was stuck on--a piece of cable was catching his clothing. And The Father looked.
The train had already passed the switch. It couldn't stop now. He couldn't signal them. The bridge was up. If he didn't lower the bridge, all those people on the train would plunge off into the mississippi and hundreds would die.
If he did lower the bridge, his son would die. And he knew what he had to do. And with trembling hands and a broken heart, John griffith moved the switch. He covered his eyes and he closed his ears so he would not hear his son crying, and the bridge went down. Soon, the train went roaring across and some of the people in the train waved at the man in the booth and they didn't know how much he had just paid to save their lives.
You know, that's the way it is in this world today. People go on their merry way, and they don't appreciate how much Jesus has given, how much he's paid. God The Father gave his son. He loved us so much. Don't you think we could trust and love and serve a God that loves us that much? The only way to be saved is to put our lives in Jesus' hands.
Don't you want to do that, friends? More Scripture, Jude 1:1, the Bible says--you know what a life preserver is? If someone's out in the water 'cause you have a man overboard, someone fell off a ship, they used to throw a ring to them to help them float until the boat could turn around. And it was called a "life preserver." The Bible says here in Jude, we are "preserved in Jesus Christ." He's not only our lifeboat, he's our lifesaver. He's our life preserver. Any of you ever eat those little round candies. They call them "life savers" because they were named after those round rings called "life preservers.
" And if you look at the old life savers, they've even got the little lines in 'em where the ropes used to be. They won't save your life, they'll just give you cavities. But Jesus is a real lifesaver. He is a real life preserver. Question number two: how could Jesus love us that much? Does he really love me? Yes, he really loves you.
As a matter of fact, you can read in Romans 5:8, "God demonstrated," he showed, "his own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." See the Lord didn't say, "if you be good, I'll love you and I'll forgive your sins." the Lord loves us, and he's willing to forgive us if we come to him just like we are. Let me ask you a question: have you ever been out playing before and you got dirty? And your mother tells you before you come to dinner, she says, "look, I want you to take a bath but you need to clean up before you take a bath." Would your mom and dad ever say, "clean up so you can take a bath?" Or do you take a bath so you can clean up? But do you know some people don't come to church? They say, "I'm not good enough to go to church. I can't accept Jesus now 'cause I'm not good enough to accept Jesus." That's backwards. That's like your parents telling you, "will you please clean up so you can take a bath?" No, you'll never be good enough unless you come to Jesus just like you are. And then he cleans you up.
So, the idea that you're going to clean yourself up and you're going to change your ways and then you're going to come to Jesus, that's backwards. You come to him and give him your heart no matter where you are, no matter what your problems and temptations are and he can change your heart and cleanse you and he'll accept you. He's desperate to save you. As a matter of fact, Isaiah 43:4, I like this verse. It says, "you were precious in my sight.
" You're very precious to Jesus. He loves you with an everlasting love, the Bible tells us. There's nothing that you can do that would make God stop loving you. You know, there's nothing you could do to make God love you more. And there's nothing you can do to make God love you less because God loves you 100%.
And is there anything more than 100%? One-hundred percent is as much as you can have. Of course, if you're in government, you can spend more than 100%. But you'll learn about that later. Romans 8:38-39, it says there is "no created thing that shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord." the Lord loves you desperately, and there's nothing that can separate you from that love. You know how we know he loves us? What's the greatest proof that he loves us? What is it? He gave the most he could give.
The Bible says no greater love has someone than to lay down their life. What's the most valuable thing you've got in your house? Is it a toy? Is it a piano? Is it a home? The most valuable thing you've got is your life. As a matter of fact, there's one thing more valuable than my life. You know what I've got that's more valuable than my life? Is the life of my family, my children. And so when someone gives something even more--when The Father gave his son, that would've--that hurt him even more than giving his own life.
Years ago, there was a man in scotland. His job was taking care of this lighthouse there by the ocean. And he had a beautiful view. He could see the ocean on one side and the green fields on another side. And it was his job during the day, he'd keep the windows clean and--so that the light would shine.
And one day, he was walking around the outside of the top of the lighthouse cleaning the windows and there was a metal railing that kind of protected him. And he leaned against the railing, but he didn't know that the salt air had been rusting the iron railing and it broke. And he fell 150 feet down on the ground. Well, pretty soon, he opened his eyes. He looked up and he saw the blue sky and he thought, "did I die?" And then he saw clouds going by and he thought, "am I in heaven?" And then he noticed that his back really hurt.
He said, "if I'm in heaven, why does my back hurt?" And pretty soon, he got his senses and he kind of looked around and he had fallen 150 feet. It would've killed anybody, except you know what happened? He landed on a sheep that was grazing there below him. I know that sounds funny, but it's a true story. You know what happened? The man lived, but what do you think happened to the sheep? The sheep, you know, a great, big, fluffy sheep, it died. It gave his life so he could live.
The Bible tells us that Jesus is our lamb. John chapter 1, when Jesus came to John the baptist, it says, "the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him, and he said, 'behold! The lamb of,'" who is that? "The lamb of God," and what does he do? "He takes away the sin of the world!" When Jesus died on the cross, he did not just die to take away the sin of one person or two people. His sacrifice was so powerful that he provided enough forgiveness to save everybody in the world from sin and that would include you. Now sometimes, we think, "well, I don't have any sin, do i?" We've all sinned, remember? We've all fallen short of the glory of God. And you know what we need is we need to see ourselves sometimes through God's eyes.
Let me tell you a story. When I was about 4 years old, that's younger than most of you, my father had a shoeshine machine in the house he used for shining his shoes. And every day before he went to work, he'd take his shoes while they were still on his feet, he wore 'em just like me. I've ended up just like my father. He would take his shoes, and he wore black shoes, he'd step on the button on top of this machine and it would spin real fast and go "zzz.
" And there was a black, furry brush on one side and there was a red, furry brush--i don't know why he had a red brush on one side 'cause he had no red shoes, but that's what it was. And a red brush on the other side, and he'd take his shoes and he's buff his shoes and then he'd step on the button and he'd go to work. One morning, it was a Sunday, I woke up before everyone else. Dad was sleeping in with the family. And I got bored.
Everyone was asleep, and I wanted to play and I was awake. So, I went out in the hall and I played with the shoeshine machine. I liked to play with it. I'd sit there and I'd press a button and go "click-click" and it'd go "zzz." It'd spin, and I'd try and stop the brushes. But they were so powerful, I couldn't stop 'em.
Any of you ever seen the kind of machine I'm talking about? I saw one in a hotel not too long ago. They still make 'em. Well, I got bored playing with it. I turned it on, I turned it off, turned it on, turned it off. And then I thought, "I'm going to shine dad's shoes.
" So, I tiptoed in his bedroom and I grabbed his shoes. And I came back out and I closed the door. And I thought, "I want to get 'em real shiny, so I'm going to use some shoe polish." But the only shoe polish I knew about was under the bathroom sink. And so, I got the black shoe polish and I went out and I stared at it for a minute. I wasn't sure exactly how it worked.
I was only 4 years old. So, it was liquid shoe polish. I poured a generous amount of black shoe polish on the black brush. I knew the black shoe polish didn't go on the red brush. And then, I turned on the machine.
Something terrible happened. First, the machine began to bounce because all of the polish had weighted one side of it and it was off balance. It started bouncing. Then, it picked up speed "b-rrr zing!" And it went "zzz!" And it sprayed a black rainbow of shoe polish up the white wall across the ceiling, down the other side. And I quickly turned off the machine, but it was too late.
And I looked at that and I thought, "I better go back to bed." So, I went back in my bedroom and I laid in my bed and I kind of covered myself up and I thought, "nobody saw me, nobody will know, I'll just pretend it never happened." Pretty soon, I heard my dad get up and he fumbled around. And pretty soon he opened the hall door and he walked out and I heard him, "ah! Whoa! What?" He came over and he opened up our bedroom door, and I had my brother and a stepbrother in the house and yet he knew right away. He said, "dougie!" That's what he called me." And I said--i pretended I was sleeping. He said, "dougie." I opened my eyes. He said, "get in here.
" So, I came in the hall and he pointed to this black rainbow. Did I tell you that it went right through the middle of a spanish soldier? There was a picture of a spanish soldier on the wall. It went right--it's like he had a vertical moustache. It went right through him. And he pointed at the picture.
He said, "do you know anything about this?" I said--nobody saw me-- I said, "no." He said, "I'm going to ask you again." You know, your parents almost always know even when you don't think they know. He said, "I'm going to ask you again. Do you know anything about this?" And once you start lying, it gets easier to keep lying. I said, "no." He said, "okay, I'm going to spank you 'til you tell the truth." So right there in the hall, he sat on a bench and he began to paddle my posterior. Y'all know where your posterior is? Your derriere.
And he's spanking me and I'm going, "I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it. I did it, I did it." Because pretty soon you get tortured, you'll confess, right? Then my father sat me down and he said, "now dougie," he says, "I'm not spanking you because you made a mistake. I'm spanking you because you lied." He said, "get in the bathroom and wash your face." So, I went whimpering off into the bathroom. I had to stand on a little stool to look into the mirror. And I stood on the stool and I looked at my face.
I had black spots all over my face from the shoe polish. And so here I was looking at my dad with black spots all over my face and he said, "do you know anything about this?" I'm going, "no, not me." It's like when you tell your parents, "I didn't eat any chocolate chips." And there they are all around the sides of your mouth, right? So, the Lord knows what your sins are. You can be honest with him. He already knows everything. Sometime you might be able to temporarily fool your parents, but God knows.
So, don't be afraid to tell him. He's your friend. And you don't get in trouble because you make a mistake. But you don't want to lie to God. Number three: what did Jesus come to do for me? Why did Jesus come? 1 John 4:9-10, your answers are on the screen, "God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him.
" He wants us to do what? Live. Not just this short life. He wants you to live forever. If we don't have his forgiveness, what is the penalty for sin? And I want to finish reading this, "in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and he sent his son to be the propitiation," that's a big word for "the sacrifice," "the atoning sacrifice for our sins." Jesus came to take our place. He trades places with us because he loves us.
Romans 6:23, "the wages of sin," a wage is something you earn, what is the wages of sin? "Death." Nobody wants to die. And the wages for sin is not just the first death, it's the second death. And that's pretty serious. We're going to talk about that another night. "But the gift of God is," what? Everlasting, it's "eternal life.
Jesus is offering you eternal life, and you want to make that decision now. Now, does he have a right to ask us to give our lives to him? There's two reasons. One reason is: who made you? Jesus. Secondarily, Jesus bought you. He made you, he created you, and he redeemed you with his own life.
Alright, I need--i have to have a boy tonight. Who has not had a chance yet? A boy, sorry, I don't want to be specific, but I've got a story. You want to come up, jonathan? You haven't had a chance yet? Want to look in the chest? Okay. Alright, see what you find in there that looks something-- it's something red. Go up, you can open it up.
There's a camera in there. Wave to the camera. See that camera? Say hi. There we go. Okay, now stand right here and hold that for me.
I'm going to tell a story, okay? Very carefully. There was a boy named rodney. And rodney spent weeks building, he actually spent months, building this very exquisite model sailboat. And that model sailboat was his pride and joy, and he'd take it out into the river and he had a string on it. And he'd let the string loose and it would sail out and he'd pull it back in and he'd let it out.
It would sail, and he loved his sailboat. And he used to baby it and dry it off, and put it up on the shelf when he was done sailing it. One day, he took it out on the river and he was sailing it. It was really windy, and the sails were working great and he left a lot of it go out. And the string broke.
And it came loose from the boat. And his sailboat sailed beautifully down the river and out of sight. And he just cried because he couldn't catch it and the river was too deep, and he went home just brokenhearted. About a week later, he was in town and he walked by a store window and guess what he saw in the store window? His sailboat for $50. And he went in and he told the man, he said, "that's my sailboat.
" And the man said, "well, I'm sorry, young man." He said, "you know, I bought this and I spent $20 buying it so that I could sell it. It is a very nice boat, but tell you what I'll do." He said, "I'll sell it back to you but you're going to have to pay me what I paid for it. I paid $20 for it." He said, "but I don't have $20." He said, "well, I'll hold it for you for a few weeks if you want me to and so you can get the money." So, rodney went out and he mowed lawns. And back then, he got 50 cents for mowing a lawn. How many lawns would he have to mow to get $20? Forty lawns.
That wasn't much back then. You didn't get much. But $20 was a lot of money. So, he worked and worked and a lot of hot days out in the sun mowing in the grass. And he came and he gave the $20 and the man handed him his sailboat.
And rodney took his sailboat and he said, "I'm so glad to have you back, sailboat. You're mine. You're mine because I made you and you're mine because I bought you. You're mine twice." You know, that's how you belong to Jesus. Isn't that right? Thank you very much, jonathan.
Let's put that over here. [Applauding] so, Jesus has redeemed us. That means he created us. He owns us. But when the devil kidnapped the world, Jesus bought us back with his own life.
So, he owns us because he created us and he owns us because he redeemed us. Number four, question number four: how do I accept Jesus and truly show that I believe in him? What do we do? Now, let me ask you a question: do you really know what you need to do to be saved? Do you know? You need to accept him with your mind and believe in him. There's several things. The first thing to do--how many of you want to live forever and be on that lifeboat? Those who are watching. You want to live forever and have that eternal life? Let me tell you what to do.
The first thing you do is you ask him. Jesus said, "ask and it will be given you." You've got to begin by saying, "lord, I want eternal life. I want my sins to be forgiven." God'll do things for you when you ask. If you don't ask, he won't do it. You've got to pray and ask him.
The next thing, acts 16:31, believe. It says here, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." You know, you have to have faith. If you trust God, Jesus says, "if you have faith, you can move mountains." Wonderful things happen when you have faith. We saw a miracle this week. You know what happened? God moved something bigger than a mountain.
We had a hurricane making a beeline for this meeting that was going to take it off the air and cause all kinds of problems. And we had people all over the country praying, and that storm was going straight for richardson, Texas. And it was turned. And I kept praying and believing that God brought us here to do this meeting, that he was going to answer those prayers. And God blessed the faith of all these people.
God does wonderful things when you believe. Believe he wants to save you. Sometimes you think, "oh, I'm not a very good boy. I'm not a very good girl. I'm not very strong or smart or pretty.
God doesn't really care about me." Oh yes he does! Don't think like that. That's the devil talking to you. He wants to save you. He loves you desperately 'cause he paid so much. 1 John 4:19, "we love him because he first loved us.
" You see, he showed us how much he loves us and it makes us love him back. He demonstrates his love for us and his goodness leads us to repentance, which is our next verse, Romans 2:4, "the goodness of God leads you to repentance." Who knows what repentance is? Alright, what's repentance? When you ask him to forgive your sins, well that's something you do when you're repenting. But repentance is--you know what repentance is? I'll repeat your answer. What does it mean? What? It means to be "you're sorry," to tell God you're sorry, that you want to change. Let me give you an idea.
You ever see a sign that says "no u-turn." God allows u-turns. A u-turn is when a car is going this way and says, "oh, I'm going the wrong way" and you turn around. You go back the other way, u-turn. God allows u-turns. And that means you turn.
You're going towards the devil and when you pray, you say, "oh lord, I'm sorry, I'm going the wrong way. I'm following the world, I'm doing all the wicked things the world's doing. I want to go to heaven." When I went to military school, I learned how to do "about face" like this. And that's a u-turn. Now, you change directions.
Repentance means that you tell God you're sorry. Now, different amounts of offense require different amounts of repentance. I could use a girl to help me with this illustration. Who hasn't come up? Young lady right here, come quickly. Okay.
Alright, what's your name? Grace. Okay, now if you're walking out of the church here--go ahead and step on my foot--and you accidentally step on my foot, what would you say? I'm sorry. "I'm sorry." There you go. And then, I'd say, "that's okay" and you could keep on going, right? Right. Right.
But if you were running out of the church and I was carrying my Bible and a bunch of books and you knocked me down on the ground, would you just say you're sorry and keep going? No. Or would you help me back up? Yeah. You'd do a little more 'cause you knocked me down. You didn't just step on my foot, right? Right. The more you do to offend somebody, the deeper the repentance.
Thank you very much. [Applauding] so if I'm walking out of the church and I step on your toe or I bump you or I hurt you a little bit, if I casually touch you, I'd say, "I'm sorry." And you'd say, "it's okay." But if I knock you down and break your leg and I say, "excuse me" and I keep going, is that right? No. You don't just say, "excuse me" when you break someone's arm or leg. Do you know one time I was riding my bicycle when I was about your age and a man hit me while I was riding my bicycle? Knocked me down in miami, florida, miami beach. And he was in a convertible, I remember, and I looked up and he said, "are you alright?" And I said, "yeah.
" Well, I didn't know what else to say. I was alive. And he took off. He didn't even help me up. He didn't stop or get out of his car.
I think he was afraid that I was going to sue him or his insurance was going to go up. And I thought, "well, that wasn't very nice." Fortunately, I didn't break any bones or anything but it did hurt my bike. The degree that you offend someone requires that degree of apology. The more you hurt someone, the more you apologize. How much have we hurt the Lord? So, the idea of just saying, "oops, sorry God.
" No, real repentance means you get on your knees--and next verse, 1 John 1:9, it says, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He will cleanse us, but we must tell him. Do any of you remember every sin you've committed? No, you don't remember every sin you've committed. What I mean by that is you can't remember every detail. I won't ask you to show your hands, but I bet some of you sometimes said something that wasn't true. Or maybe you've taken something that wasn't yours.
But you tell the Lord the categories. You say, "lord, I have not been honest." That's one of the commandments. "Please forgive me for dishonesty or lying. Please forgive me for being disrespectful to my parents." Confess your sins to God and what will God do? He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins. And then it says that he receives you and we receive him.
John 1:12, "but as many as received him, to them he gives the right to become the children of God." He gives us power to be his children. And he gives you new life, new heart. Question number five: will my life change when I give it to Jesus and join his family? And what does Jesus do to help me? 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a," what? "A new creature." Isn't it amazing how that caterpillar you see there on your screen can turn into that butterfly? What a metamorphous, what a transformation. God'll do that for you. Where you're crawling around eatin' leaves, you'll be flyin', drinkin' nectar.
If God can do that with a bug, he can do it for you. It's--you become a new creature. Jesus says you show your love to him by being willing to follow him, "if you love me keep my commandments." He's given you a new heart because he loves you, you love him back. And then you have a new birth. The Bible says, "you must be born again.
" You know, something amazing happened just I think it was a couple weeks ago. There was a little baby named macie hope mccartney. Her parents were chad and carrie mccartney. And this little girl was born twice. She was born again.
And we're not talking about religion. The doctors, when mommy was 6 months pregnant, found out that the baby had a dangerous tumor growing on her back. And if they didn't operate, she wasn't going to live. So 6 months into the pregnancy, they took the baby out of mommy's tummy, far enough where they could do the little surgery and take the tumor off and put her back in, 2 months later she was born again and everything was fine. So, I don't know what her birthday is 'cause she was born twice.
You need to be born twice. How many here were born once so far? Let me see. At least once. Everyone born once? Just checking to see if you're paying attention. Everybody's been born that time, right? But you need to be born again.
That's the new birth by giving your heart to Jesus. He gives you a new mind, a new life. You know, it tells us in Jeremiah 1:15, "before I formed you in the womb I knew you." God has known us through all eternity. He has a plan for you. A thousand years ago, God knew about you and he has a great plan for your life but he won't force you; you must choose.
What will happen when you choose the Lord? John 15:11, "these things I have spoken to you that your joy might be full." Do you want joy? That's happiness. And again, Habakkuk 3:18, let's all say, "Habakkuk." Habakkuk, that's a hard book to say. "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Christians should be happy. And again, Psalms 40:8, "I delight to do your will, o my God, and your law is in my heart." God puts his law in our hearts, and it's a delight to serve him. Jesus came to give us an abundant life.
He wants us to have a full life, an abundant life. That's why it's so important that now, while you're young, you give your life to Jesus. Alright, I need two volunteers. I'll tell you what, let's have some of our visiting choir 'cause they may not be back. You can come, okay? You can come up.
I don't know your names. You don't have tags on. Come on up. Look in the mystery chest there and see if you see something that you can maybe set on fire. Look in the chest.
Go ahead. You got it there? Alright, there should be two in there. Okay, you can close the chest. Let me help you. There you go.
Good job. Let's set them here on top. And alright, how many candles we got here? Can everyone see? We've got two candles here. Do you know how to use one of these? You press this thing down and you pull the trigger. Do you want to try and light that? You've got to press that button on top and then pull the trigger.
Hold the button. It's probably not a good thing to teach kids to play with matches in church. Let me help you with that. For the illustration purpose, that's alright. There we go.
Alright, that was hard. No wonder you were having a challenge there. Alright, that's one, that's two. Two candles. Are these candles the same? No.
Well, they're the same color, same stand, same wax. What's the one difference? One's tall. One's short. Which candle is going to burn the longest? Which one's going to burn the longest? Tall one! Of course, the tallest one with the same wax is gonna--which one's gonna give the most light? The taller one will burn longer. It will give more light.
Isn't that right? Here's the point: what's worth more, 10 plus 70, or 70 plus 10? Oh, I know it sounds like 10 plus 70 is the same as 70 plus 10 mathematically. But with your life, what's better? Give your heart to Jesus when you're 70 and serve him for 10 years or give your heart to Jesus when you're 10 and serve him for 70 years? Isn't it worth more to give your heart to Jesus when you're 10 and serve him for 70 years? It's good for everybody to give their heart to Jesus. But what's the best time to give your heart to Jesus so you can get the most light out into the world? It's when you've got your life before you. Alright you girls, each of you want to blow out a candle. There we go.
Thank you very much. Okay, let's give them a hand. [Applauding] A father was sailing through the warm caribbean waters with his two teenage boys. And The Father knew that they were going through some shark-infested waters so he told his boys, "do not play near the edge of the boat for the next few days because we don't want you falling in. There's a lot of sharks in these waters, and these sharks they do attack people.
" Well, the boys weren't listening 'cause they'd never seen any sharks for weeks. And they were running around the ship chasing each other. And one of them began to slip and he grabbed his brother's t-shirt and the two of them fell off into the warm water. Well, The Father heard the splash. The boys were good swimmers.
And as the sailboat started to sail away from where the boys fell in. They are calling and they're shouting. The Father came up from below the deck of the sailboat and he saw his boys, and he lowered the sail down so the boat would stop floating away. And he told the boys, "come on back to the boat." Well, they were out there dunking each other and arguing and fighting as teenage boys do. And The Father then looked and the water was very clear.
And guess what he saw circling? He said, "boys, those aren't dolphins. I see sharks." He said, "swim quickly back to the boat. Do it calmly so you don't stir up the water. And swim back to the boat." And the boys thought, "oh, we've got lots of time. Dad's just trying to scare us.
There's no shark. We haven't seen sharks. He's trying to teach us a lesson." So, they said, "let's show him we're not afraid." They began to dunk each other and to play. And The Father said, "hurry back to the boat." He saw the sharks were closing their circle. A shark can smell one drop of blood in hundreds and thousands of gallons of water.
And The Father knew that if something didn't happen, those sharks were going to go in and take the first bite. And they'd smell blood and go into a frenzy and his boys would be killed. And so in a desperate effort to save his boys, The Father went below deck. He got a knife. He cut his wrists.
He dove in the water, and he swam away from the boat in a different direction. And then the boys saw the water began to churn and turn red. Now, here's the question: if those children stay in the water, is there anymore their father can do for them after he's given his life? If we decide to stay in the world or to stay in sin after God has come to save us, what more can he do than giving his life? There is only one lifeboat. You know what the lifeboat is? Jesus. You remember there was a storm on the sea.
And Jesus calmed the storm. The disciples survived the storm because they were in the boat with Jesus. Nothing in the world could sink that boat. That boat was unsinkable. The only unsinkable ship is the boat with Jesus in it.
Don't you want to get on that lifeboat? I'd like to invite you to take your cards. I think we've got some cards here in our groups. Now, we did this a couple of nights ago but we know we have some new children every night. And tonight, we're talking about salvation. I want to ask you again if you'd like to make a decision to accept Jesus as your Savior.
Please take the cards that we're passing out. There's some simple questions here. Write your name and your address on it. Some of you, if you'd like to make a decision for Jesus and you're maybe at home, you can contact us at "Amazing Facts kids" and we'll try and put you in touch with a Bible teaching, preaching church. If you make a decision tonight for the Lord, kids, make sure and talk to your parents about this.
Talk to your pastor, your youth pastor, your group leader. But I want to have prayer with you again that you will know that you've got Jesus in your heart. There's three questions on the card, simple questions: yes, I want to give my heart to Jesus and follow the teachings in the Bible. The second question, check yes there: I'd like to be baptized and have all of my sins washed away. Check that box if you're interested in baptism.
Make sure and talk to your parents too about that and your pastor, and they can help you plan for that and the angels will sing. Question three: you'd like to meet with a pastor and talk to them about baptism. Please write your name on your card. This is a way you can begin the first step of getting in that lifeboat and knowing that you've got eternal life. And again, I want to encourage all of our friends who are watching.
If you would like to make this decision, hopefully your groups have the decision cards, or you can just go to amazingfactskids.org. Let us know. We'll try and contact you and encourage you in your decision. Now, we're going to need to have prayer and then here at our local group, you can finish filling out your cards after we have prayer. So, let's just stop our pencils for just a second and let's all pray together with our friends who are watching on TV, okay? Father in Heaven, we are so thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus, for your loving us so much that you gave your son.
You gave your life that we might be saved. We know The Only Lifeboat that's going to survive the storm is the one with Jesus in it. We want to be in that boat, lord. We're accepting him. We're asking him.
We're believing. We're sorry for our sins and we want that new life. Thank you lord. We're praying in Jesus' name. Amen.
God bless you, friends. Don't forget tomorrow night's lesson. We'll be meeting again. It's called "a day with The King." We look forward to seeing each of you then. Bring your friends.
If you've been encouraged by today's message and would like to know more of what God's word says to you today, "Amazing Facts" invites you to visit our educational website at www.Bibleuniverse.com. At "Bible universe," you'll discover exciting truths that will fill you with peace and purpose. The mysteries of the Bible will unfold for you at your own pace. Visit www.Bibleuniverse.com today. Expand your universe.
In a world surrounded by darkness, there is a voice that whispers to every young heart urging them to find the treasure of truth. Those who follow the path will discover eternal riches beyond their wildest dreams. Pastor Doug Batchelor leads your kids on a powerful, soul-winning Bible study experience just for them. The 10-part series is filled with incredible Bible stories, exciting spiritual discoveries and heart-warming music, all designed to help your kids stand with Christ for eternity. The most valuable thing that God ever gave to this world was His Word.
Join us for an "Amazing Adventure, a journey for life with Jesus." Order yours now. Take the journey. Thank you for joining us for this broadcast. If you've missed any of our "Amazing Facts" programs, visit our website at amazingfacts.org. There, you'll find an archive of all our television and radio programs including "Amazing Facts presents," "central study hour," "everlasting gospel," "Bible answers live" and "wonders in the word.
" You'll also find a storehouse of biblical resources geared towards answering some of your most difficult questions and our online Bible school is just a click away. One location, so many possibilities, amazingfacts.org. Bring your friends. [Music]