Resurrection Gives You Wings | The Seven Deadly Sins | Sloth | Pastor Levi Lusko

I was on a run. It was Valentine's Day and because we had such a weird winter, I did not have to have any spikes on. Normally winter runs, you're aware of ice, you're aware of snow. But dry January in Montana bled into dry February in Montana. And so the pavement was clear and I was pretty happy.

The sun was out. There was no frost. And to just to run with normal running shoes was a strange sensation. And yet it felt great. I even had shorts on. And about 3 and 1/2 miles into the run is when it happened, I made the the strategic mistake of cutting across some grass where I should have gone on the sidewalk.

And when I hit that grass, before I knew it, I was on the ground. I mean, it just it was like it happened so quickly. There was some moisture on the grass and it was the the one spot that I that I shouldn't have stood running full full steam ahead uh taking a turn. and I snapped this photo of what was happening as I dripped my way home.

It was a it was a nice red Valentine's Day uh for for me on that day. Uh the Bible is clear that there are different slippery places in this world. And throughout church history, there have been uh theological minds that have sort of pointed or or or warned us about the spots that we need to watch out for.

If you if you put your foot here, uh, kudado is what they say in in Spanish. Slippery caution, right? I mean, this is this is the the the the the time proven, you know, people over and over again have slipped when they've stepped right where uh you're about to step.

And they're they're known as the seven deadly sins. we've been for these past weeks in this series that we've called killing you softly talking about what it's like to step on wrath to step on uh gluttony to to you to watch out for envy. These are you go back thousands of years.

People are are on the ground bleeding. It's probably because of one of these. There's so much road rash and carnage and pain that has entered the world as a result of these. And today we come to perhaps the sneakiest and without a doubt the most underrated because I think if you if you're honest as you look at the list, you're almost like if you're if you're like me, you're like, "One of these things just doesn't belong here."

You know what I'm saying? And it's the sin of sloth. That's right. You came to an Easter sermon. There's still time. You want to find a regular church, but we're going to talk today about the sin of sloth this Easter. Luke 24, starting in verse 13. Here's what we read.

Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmas, which was 7 miles from Jerusalem. And they talked as they walked together of all these things which had happened. So it was while they conversed and reasoned that, look at this, Jesus himself. It's Easter afternoon.

Jesus is just taking a walk, just taking a stroll. He did his laundry. He folded up his linens. He's he's cruising. Now he's looking for some cardio. Apparently Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. And he said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?"

My family and I took a mission trip this past year, 2025. It was May. We went to Bolivia. We've been supporting and sponsoring some compassion children for many many years. And we had the the great privilege of of going to meet these children whose photographs have been on our refrigerators for I mean almost what six, seven years.

We've had these children grow up on our refrigerators written back and forth to them. And so to get to go and meet them and to get to go and hug them and and Compassion even arranged for us to get to uh take one of them to the zoo.

It was her birthday that day and to have a cake for her and and we were it was just it was such a a beautiful beautiful surreal uh thing and and one of the the most noteworthy things was for the first time in my life ever getting to see a sloth in person.

Uh we they were pointing out all these different animals and in this one exhibit they said, "Well, there's a sloth." And I was like, "I can't see the sloth." And so they said, "Right there." So I just took a picture in faith hoping that later on I could zoom in and and here's the photo.

Yeah, it's hard to see. Do you see the sloth? Let's punch in here a moment. Come in a little closer. There's a sloth. You can see his long right arm holding on to the branch. There he is. You know why it's hard to see a sloth? Well, part partly it's because they move so slow.

Of course, there is camouflage, but but a big reason it's difficult to find them is normally when you're looking for a critter or a creature, the movement gives them away. But sloths, when they do move, they move so slowly it's hard to see them. So what you're looking for is not normally uh the lack of motion, the lack of movement.

This is negative activity. So it is when it comes to the sin of sloth in our lives. What we're looking for when we look for lust, what we look for when we look for wrath, what we look for is uh the negative action. Right? It's what you call theologically a sin of commission.

You commit a lustful thought. You commit a lustful action. You commit. These are these are the presence of negative things. But it's not so with sloth, which is why it's so sneaky. Why it's so underrated in its ability to tear flesh off your knee when you fall. Because what we're looking for is something that's not there that should be there.

What are we what are we saying? This is a sin of omission. You can sin by what you do, but scripturally you can also sin by what you fail to do. James 4:1 17, therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

And so it is here on the first Easter with these two men, Cleopus and another who are disciples of Jesus who are not where they are supposed to be and failing to do what they have been told by Jesus to do. They are walking slowly and sadly that's a sloth joke away from Easter.

They are walking away from Jerusalem. They are headed towards Emmas. It's the greatest day that has ever been in the history of the world >> and they're depressed and they're mopey. The first thing Jesus says to them when he bumps into them is, "What the heck, bro?" Right?

He says, "Why the long faces? Why are you so sad?" He's calling them out on the sin of sloth. Now, when we think about sloth, the reason we're so and and you you probably notice as the series has been unfolding, greed's not what you think it would be. >> Gluttony is not quite what you think it would be, right?

And I was dreading sloth coming because it's probably the one set I'm like, well, I know I'm not guilty of that one, right? And uh I I that's because we sort of build these categories that conveniently don't include the aspects of that sin that we're guilty of so that we don't have to include ourselves in the in the conviction. >> And the the sin of sloth, we would say it's just what?

Being lazy. >> The sin of sloth is lazy. And if I'm not lazy, I can't be guilty of this sin. But in truth, the definition of sloth is what? Spiritual sluggishness. Sluggishness or disengagement. >> Spiritual sluggishness or pulling away. Disengagement where you're supposed to engage. The word itself literally means without care.

It means your care goes down, your zeal goes down, your passion, your enthusiasm. You're supposed to be on fire doing something that eroding, that decaying, that is sloth. And this can happen through having no work ethic, right? No drive that the the Christians at Thessalonica were supposed to be working.

They were sitting on a hill waiting for Jesus to come back, right? The disciples after Jesus ascended to heaven, just sitting there gazing and the angel be like, "Hey guys, remember the great commission? let's go do that thing that you were supposed to do. That was the only thing Jesus told you to do until he comes back.

And they're like, ah, you know, just trying to figure out when he's going to come back. So, that can be sloth, but guess what? It it's not just not having a work ethic. It can be having a hyperactive one. Sloth can be having what my dad taught me to have, and that was a Protestant work ethic.

So, the picture of sloth is not just somebody on a couch vaping, playing video games, but it also, weirdly enough, can be the workaholic trying to distract himself with his chronic busyness while neglecting the most important things in life, which are not projects. They are people and is God.

So, what is sloth? Sloth is apathy. Sloth is amnesia. Sloth is anesthesia. Sloth is aimlessness. Not having the true north properly functioning in your life. Not caring about or caring like you're supposed to care. Dulling yourself with trinkets and and and trivial things relatively speaking when the most important stuff is going undone.

And that's why these two, like Simon Peter, who by the way is is about to say, "I'm going fishing." Jesus called him away from being a commercial fisherman as an identity, not as a pastime. By the way, there's nothing wrong with sinning as a with fishing as a as a pastime.

He was a commercial fisher called to walk away from that old life, to follow Jesus with his whole heart. So when he said after he denied Jesus and seemingly failed Jesus, "I'm going fishing," he was saying, "Well, that was a good run. I guess I'll just go back to this old way of life.

That's that's sloth in Peter's life. These two heading away from Jerusalem where they were meant to be waiting for him is sloth as well. They're not where they're supposed to be. Sloth can be overt in the Bible. Like in Proverbs 24 when it says, "Hey, let me show you the the house of the slothful person.

It's overgrown with weeds. It's not been mowed. The the bricks are crumbling. It's not been well preserved. That's the sluggish or the lazy man. But listen to me. Sloth can also be Martha who's worried about many things. Making sure everything in the house is perfect. Distracting herself from what is truly significant by what she thinks is going to give her identity.

And that is being the perfect host of the party. Jesus said, "You're guilty of sloth. You are troubled by many things and you should serve me." And he's saying, "But one thing is needed. And your sister, who's sitting at my feet listening to me so she can be filled with my spirit and my word as she rises up to serve, she's chosen the better part.

It will not be taken from her." Or like our friend Josiah Queen puts it, "Sloth is having dust on your Bibles and a brand new iPhone and then wondering why do you feel this way? You're distracted. You're anestized. You're you're you're aimless. you're just sort of not focused like you're meant to be.

Sloth is the demonic resistance to the things your soul actually craves. Sloth is spiritual self- sabotage, which is why it's so hard to change, but why entropy is so easy. Why getting healthy, losing weight is so hard. But man, if you fall off that wagon for a couple days, it's so easy to jump right back where you used to be.

Sloth is loafing instead of longing for God. It's veging instead of serving. It's lounging instead of leading. And don't let the emoji fool you. Sloth is not cute. I know it actually is really cute. Like maybe the cutest thing that Apple's ever produced. But but but in in real life, IRL, it is it is not cute at all.

It is cancerous and it's contagious. it will spread. You know, uh, my wife told me, her and Lennox have been reading these Jack Hannah books, and one of the things they read about was the sloth. And they told me that they move so slow, it's one of the only animals in the world that algae can grow in its fur.

That's how slow it moves. And the sloth doesn't even mind. It just snacks on it. It It's so disgusting. Our problem is we think of sins of commission, the ones that explode, and we forget about the sins of omission, the ones that corrode, >> the slow decay. But not all sins are the sizzle of an affair or a murder.

Some are the slow leak that just leave you meh. And the Bible says, "One of the signs of the times before Christ returns will be that the love of many will grow cold." I mean, I even just think about how in many of our lifetimes, what was normal, going to church multiple times a week, it was not even a a question.

It was a given. Now, it's like to even get to church a couple times a month feels like an enormous herculean feat because we're just so busy like Martha with so many things. But we have to ask ourselves, are they the most important things? >> It's not that sloth makes you unfaithful or hateful, just eventually flat and dull.

Sloth will not ruin your life overnight. It will just get you to waste your life away slowly, frittering it away into things that don't matter, one small step at a time until you wake up in your beds many years from now. And you will long to come back to the beginning and tell the devil he can take your life, but he will not.

Okay, sorry, different movie. My family last fall discovered some mouse droppings in our back patio. Just a couple. And I said, "There's a mouse out here." So, I got to Ace Hardware and I bought mouse traps and I bought minty bags that apparently mice don't like mint, right?

What a demonic creature. Who doesn't like mint? And it's refreshing. It's wonderful. And I bought these little things you can plug into outlets that emit a frequency that apparently mice don't like. I don't know how they figured that out. They interviewed a couple mice like, "Hey, do you like that?"

And they're like, "I hate it." They're like, "Okay, we'll go with that frequency." And I just declared war on on mice because that back patio area for me is my special spot to meet with God and special spot to read. And and so I just I couldn't have the inner sanctum defiled.

And uh I I I just you know, just a couple mice droppings was enough for me to go go berserk. and and um I failed in my quest because this spring as we began to prepare to to do the things that would open up regular life outside for the summer.

Well, here's here's what happened. I basically have mouth Sodom and Gomorrah. And I don't know what's going to happen when I pull this >> out. >> Oh, they made a nest. We found um some serious nest that they seems to have been spending the winter here. They ate the thing they're not supposed to like. >> Yeah, >> they're not supposed to like that. >> But what? >> They shredded our pillows and blankets and created a home. >> Yeah, they made a mansion for mice. >> Oh, the wickedness of Sodom has risen before the Lord.

The fire needs to fall on this place. >> Lord, help. >> Jesus. >> Yeah. Um the exterminator that I called told me that um they liked the frequency I bought and um they decided to winter at our home. It was like um it was like the south of France for them.

They created a multilevel environment in the foldout couch and they had they had their swanky in I don't know what went on in the champagne room down below, but I don't want to know anything about it. He said they they just just g justation period is only like 21 days and they breed four to six every litter. and he says it's possible.

We had hundreds of mice living in our uh backyard all summer long. Um and that listen to me is the vision we need to have of what sloth can become >> cuz listen it just started with two mice. >> It was just a couple mice back there and they just kept breeding and they just kept breeding.

And in church history, what you find about from a vagrius who first made the list to to Gregory uh to Thomas Aquin, everyone who every major theologian and thinker who's who's put pen to paper on this subject basically says the problem with these sins isn't that they're any more deadly than any other sin.

They're just more capable of attracting and producing. They're more capable of spawning than other sins. Not all sins are created equal and that some disproportionately can create a sin nest in your life where they can be habituated for cranking out more and more and more and more and so it is with sloth.

So now back to the road to Emmas where we have two sad disciples, walking aimless, anesthetized by their their their expectations of what they thought was going to happen and not and now disengaging from the spiritual life that at one point was the most important. They're not going to get 666 tattoos, guys.

They're just kind of going to resign to quietly quit, to just sort of shuffle off and leave it behind them. And Jesus says, "Why so sad?" He calls them on it. "Why would you be so sad? Why the long faces? Why are you walking this way?" And they they say, "Are you the only person in Israel who doesn't know what's happened?"

Um, he's the only person on earth who actually knows what really just happened. They say to him in effect, "Where have you been?" He's like, "How long you got?" I've been to hell and back. I've been I've been all I've been everywhere, man. I have been through the corridors of heaven and hell.

I I was there to greet the thief on the cross who showed up. I was there to rub the devil's face in his failure. I I I I I greeted my father and celebrated the success of the mission. Oh, and now I'm here to get you stragglers back on track.

That's what That's where I've been. But he doesn't say any of that. When they say, "Do you not know about Jesus?" He goes, "Do I not know what about Jesus?" It literally is the greatest Jesus story in the Bible. They go, "Don't you know what things have happened?"

He goes, "What stuff? What things? I have no idea what you've been talking about. What cross?" >> And they say, "You don't know about Jesus?" And then and then they start to tell Jesus about Jesus. Except it's terrible evangelism because in their version of the story, Jesus is dead.

Still, they're telling Jesus he's supposed to be in the grave. Wow. >> How often are we giving God lectures that are totally wrong about what he's doing and who he is in our lives, where he was, he's like, I was right there. Where were you? They say to Jesus, "He was the mightiest prophet.

We thought he was going to redeem Israel, but now he's dead." And then here's the kicker. Look at verse 21. But we were past tense. We were hoping, but their hope has died. They're spiritually disengaged. We were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel.

Oh well, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. And then they went on to tell Jesus. And it's weirdest thing actually now that you bring it up. A bunch of the women who follow him too, they went to the tomb, said he wasn't there, but they missed some angels.

And then then we sent Simon and John and they ran and well John got there faster and and and they said he wasn't there either, but the clothes were. It's the strangest thing. And and you're just thinking to yourself, how much more do you need to believe? You've been given everything you need to have faith.

But this demonic power of sloth is trying to breed. It's it's pulling it's the spiritual resistance pulling you away from what what's most important. It's always going to be easy to do what is the least consequential. You hear me? It is always going to be easy to be sucked into what matters the least.

The doom scrolling scrolling and the and the dream scrolling and the binge watching. It's always going to be easier to be pulled to gossip than it is to speak faith and to speak. It's always going to be easier to criticize than it is to pray and to roll up your sleeves.

You see what I'm saying? It's easy for them to just be magnetically any old fish can float downstream that's dead. >> It takes fight and life to reverse course and go the correct direction. >> But they're telling Jesus, "Our hope's over." Cuz listen to me, sloth will leave you distracted, discouraged, depleted, and deceived.

You might have more sloth breeding in your life than you know. If today you just feel an inordinate sense of fatigue and discouragement, feeling depleted, deceit, or listen, if at any point in your Christian life you've had more fire in your tank, more more fire for God in your belly, more brightness in your Was there ever a point when you were more ready to trust God and walk with him into the wildly yonder than you are today?

If so, you've succumbed to sloth that always is the most pronounced at the middle. When we first walk with God, we're just so happy to not be going to hell, right? We don't need everything to be just right in church and the right things over here and everything to kind of but but then we walk with God long enough and we start to think, you know, we've been God kind of owes us a little bit cuz I've been walking with I've been I've been I could be out getting drunk.

I could be out getting late. I could be out but no, I've been following God. And then, you know, it's like, where was he? And we forget about what he went through for us on the cross. And we start to think, well, I haven't had a miracle in a while.

I haven't had a goosebump in worship in a while. Where is God? Maybe I'll just deconstruct a little bit. Maybe, you know, I'll I'll just Maybe there's been a little bit of of push back and a little bit of flack and and so now we're just going to pull we're not going to quit.

We're not going full JW, you know, we're going to convert to Mormonism or anything. We're but we're going to just pull the flag down a little bit. You see what I'm saying? We're just we're just not going to tell. We're not When was the last time we invited someone to church?

When was the last time we shared our faith with someone? When was the last time we prayed for or or offered to pray for a stranger and didn't care if we were ridiculed or rejected? >> Galatians 6:9 says, "Let us not be weary in welloing." That's sloth. Do you see that?

Growing weary in welloing. Because you started out a hero at the beginning, all the might going to go tackle the world and then you can get weary, become a little aimless, become a little inesticized, get a little spiritual amnesia. Forget about all the good things God has done.

If you don't forget though, in due season, you will reap if you faint not. But the fainting not is the hard part. The sloth wants you to faint. The sloth wants you out of the promised land, wandering laps in the wilderness. That's what the children of Israel did.

They'd come out of Egypt. That's a picture of sin and death and hell. They had crossed the Red Sea. It's baptism into faith. That's what the Bible says. But the border into the promised land is the Jordan River. Do you know how many Christians have come out of Egypt, but have not entered into the promised land. >> And they're languishing in the demonic affliction with sloth. in the wilderness.

But he didn't bring you out to leave you in the wilderness. He brought you out so you could go in. Come on. He wants some milk and honey for you. He wants you to go take some fortified cities. He wants you to pick a fight with a giant.

He wants you to fight for your generation to be a mighty man or woman of renown. There's some more room in Hebrews 11 for some people of God who want to put their lives out there and be counted for the name that's above every name. But Hebrews warns this won't happen if you become sluggish.

But you need to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit promises. A lot of people just die and drop dead in the wilderness. They're they don't go to hell, but they don't do anything to accomplish anything great for heaven. And that's what the devil has for you.

That's why he's trying to get you guilty of the sin of sloth. >> That's the bad news this Easter. Fortunately, there's good news. I am happy to report the cure for sloth this Easter and it is Easter. That's literally the cure or remedy, the only known thing that can actually help you if you're guilty of the sin of sloth.

It's Easter according to Jesus who turned to these two on the road to Amaze and said what? Oh foolish ones, slow of heart. What what what is a sloth? Slow in heart. They lost their heart. Their heart got slow. Their heart wasn't fast like it was meant to be.

Slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? The very thing they were arguing is the reason why they couldn't be on fire for God is the very reason he's saying they should be.

Two people can look at the very same situation and draw completely different conclusions. Some of you are saying I would be but. But there is someone else in the world who's saying I am because >> I'm not in Jerusalem because Christ died. He says you should be in Jerusalem because I did and that was always the plan.

Didn't you know I'd work it for good? What are you objecting to even as I preach this sermon? What is the silent little attorney inside your heart saying as a hypothetical exception as to why you should still be, you know, okay with what you're doing, justifying, rationalizing, and is not Jesus saying, "Don't you think I have a plan to work in that dark situation? >> Don't you think I knew when you were born into the family you were born into?

Do you think it surprised me or caught me off guard your socioeconomic position on the on the left? Don't you don't did you didn't you you you think I didn't know that divorce was going to happen? You think the only solution is just to quiet quit and just waste your life and just languish in the wilderness?

You think you should let your heart be lost because I let this happen? Listen to me. I always knew and I have a plan and I'm constantly good and I'm right there with you and I've never left you alone and I never will. You are not an orphan.

I am a good father. I am a faithful friend. I am a guide until the end. I am right. He's speaking to you today in your pain. He's walking on the thing you're terrified of. >> You're scared of the storm. And he just comes strolling through on it. >> They're they're they're giving up because of the very thing he's just like walking down the road without a care in the world.

Why would he have a care? He already conquered sin, death, and the grave. >> What is there to be afraid of when those have fallen? >> Oh, I don't know. The economy. Oh, yeah. That's a real big problem compared to hell. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone farther. But they constrained him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is spent, far spent." And he went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them that he took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them.

And their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. Sneaky Jesus. And they said to one another, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us?" If your heart is cold today, beloved, the answer is to let Jesus come alive to you a new through the scriptures.

That very hour, that very hour when they saw him, and we don't know what it was. Was it the way he broke the bread, a unique way he always did it, you know, the classic way he did it? Or was it the fact that when he broke the bread, his wrists showed?

And while he walked, perhaps his hands were in his pockets of his tunic. But now they saw the scars and they saw him in the breaking of the bread and they got up. Listen, it's already late. They said, "You can't keep walking. It's so late. It's so dark.

It's so dangerous. And we don't have headlamps. We have to stay in Emmas tonight." But now what was an objection and an impossibility before is the this smallest trivial detail. They got up and ran 7 miles in the dark back to Jerusalem because that's what can happen when your heart is warm.

That's what happens. That's what happens when you're on fire for God. That's what happens. You can outrun a troop. You can jump over a wall if a thousand can fall to your left side and 10,000 at your right side, but you can't be bothered. That's what can happen when you're on fire for God.

That very hour they got up and they they did in a moment what they said couldn't be done. They had been walking but now ignited by the resurrection they ran. They ran. They do you realize how much running is in the Easter story? Peter and John running. Martha be running.

Cleopus and his Cleopus and his friend are running. Everyone is running for Easter. There's something about Easter that can make you run. >> About as good of a time as any to tell you my title. Resurrection will give you wings. The resurrection, forget Red Bull. Resurrection will give you you want to do something great.

You want to do something. Resurrection will give you wings >> because you have something to run to. That's why I run. I always said I hated running. Had no reason to run. I could drive just fine. I had a bicycle. I could I could get there until my wife took up running.

Turns out I just needed to run after her. And running after her gave me a reason to run. She's worth running for. And I fell in love with running. Then she quit. So now I just run alone. Easter, listen to me, is the cure for sloth because it gives you a reason to run. >> You have a reason to run.

You have a reason to overcome apathy. You have a reason to overcome aimlessness. You have a reason to shake off the spiritual amnesia and remind yourself how good God's been. And if he never did another thing for you, we heard it when we talked about envy. Du, it's already enough.

You don't need to do You don't need to I'm not You are not auditioning for the position of God in my life every day like waking up like we'll see if you could still be my God. What What can you do for me today? You got any good gifts for me today?

Okay, good. You can still be my God. And then I like wait. Oh, he hasn't been good for me for a while. I think I might I'm gonna start like freezing him out a little bit, putting some spiritual. He hasn't been good to me lately when he already shed his blood, overcame the grave, defeated the powers of darkness, brought you into his family, gave you forever of heaven to look forward to.

He doesn't need to do a single other thing. And we should run the race with endurance always looking unto him. And if you run looking to Jesus and you continue to see the risen Lord, here's what will happen. You will have hearts that are ablaze. You will have eyes that perpetually shine.

You will have mouths ready to speak the good news. And you will have feet that will run swiftly, beautiful feet to run with the good news of the gospel of peace. If you want to receive that promise, would you close your eyes, bow your heads, open your hands in a posture of receiving, I speak over you the promise of Easter, the wings of Easter, the wings of resurrection, the wings of the morning.

Because the Bible says, even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men and women will utterly fall. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew your strength. They shall mount up. This is your promise today. With wings like eagles. Resurrection gives you wings. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. So, Father, I pray now for every believer who today is struggling with apathy. God, you've opened our eyes to see the ways that we are not engaged fully in what matters most. And I pray you'd give us strength and power to fight against that apathy, to shake it off, to keep running so that we are not lacking in zeal, but full of spiritual fervor as we serve the Lord.

You can you can you can put your hands down. I now want to invite anybody who's come into the doors of our church or you've joined us on YouTube or Facebook or church online and you've not trusted in Christ for salvation. As we continue to pray with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, just thinking about where we're at with God, I ask you this question today.

Are you in Christ? Are you headed to heaven? Do you have a saving relationship with Jesus? And you'd say, 'Yeah, Levi, I do because I I've gone to church my whole life or I'm an American or my mom was a Christian or my my dad was a deacon.

My great uncle was a missionary, whatever. And I would just say this, the tickets to heaven, admit one, it's great for your uncle and mom and sister and brother if they're a believer, but if you have not received Jesus Christ, you cannot be saved by proximity to another Christian.

Only by inviting Jesus into your heart. CS Lewis said, "The safest road to hell is the gradual one. The gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without any signposts. The easiest way to get to hell is to keep telling yourself, "I'll give my life to Christ later, next year, when I'm older, when I've had some fun."

But I believe God has brought you to this moment, to this day of salvation, so you could receive Christ and not die saying, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, one day, eventually, but that you could be saved today." And that promise is only good, listen to me, that promise is only good while it is called today.

Eventually, it won't be today. And there will no longer be the chance to trust Jesus. But right now, in this moment, you can. I'm going to pray a prayer. If you're ready to step into salvation, to step into the Jesus story, to see that he's alive and in front of you.

He's knocking at the door of your heart. He's pleading with you. But you have to invite him in like those two disciples did, inviting Jesus into their home. Invite him in today. He'll come into your life and save you, forgive you of your sins, give you the promise of heaven, and help you with the difficult middle.

Help you to avoid languishing. Help you to reignite and fan the flame and stay on fire for God for the long haul. Help you to continue to see him in his word to see the risen Jesus. In fact, to you, pray this prayer with me. Church, pray it with us.

Dear God, Dear God, >> I know that I'm a sinner. >> I can't fix myself. >> But you can. >> And I pray that you would. >> And I pray that you would. >> I believe that Jesus died for me. rose from the dead. So now come into my heart >> as my savior and lord.

Thank you for new life. >> I give you mine in Jesus name.