 There are two kinds of people who are listening to this message right now. Christians and those who are not Christians. Now, if you're a believer, I want you to share this message with as many people as possible. And if you're not a Christian and you're hearing this message right now, it's because somebody who really loves you, who really cares for you, and who really, really, really wants you to hear this message sent to you. I want to talk to you about your soul, where you're going to spend eternity, and salvation that can only be found through Jesus Christ. This is what the Bible says, Romans chapter 3 verse 23, For everyone has sinned. We all fall short of God's glorious standard. What the Scripture is telling us here is twofold. Number one, the Bible is telling us that God has a standard that he expects us to live up to. And the sad reality is that none of us have lived up to that standard. All of us have sinned. All of us have done something that violates God's holy standard. He created us to live a certain way. He created us with a certain purpose in mind. And every single one of us at some point has gone away from that path. First, John 1.10 says, If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. In other words, the Bible is saying all of us, yes, certainly have sinned. And if we claim otherwise, if we claim that we're perfect, if we claim that we've never done anything wrong, then clearly we're not understanding what God's standard actually is. Now, when you hear this, it's easy to imagine that God is some celestial dictator who never wants you to have anything that's filled with joy or anything that's filled with pleasure. And that's simply not the case. Imagine this. Imagine someone comes up to you and gives to you a brand new sports car, maybe a Ferrari Lamborghini, whatever your preference is. And they say, I'll pay the insurance. I'll pay all of the fuel costs and I'll pay the car off cash for you. I only ask that you don't drive it off road. You don't drive it into the ocean and that you keep it properly maintained. Who would look at that person and say, how dare you try to control my life? How dare you try to take away my fun? How dare you tell me to not drive it off road? What if I want to drive it off road? How dare you tell me not to drive it into the ocean? What if that's where I want to take it? And how dare you tell me to maintain it properly? Anyone who would say that in that specific situation would be ungrateful. Well, in the same way God has given you life and breath and animation. He's given you everything that you have that is good. He simply asks that we keep his standard. Now, here is the bad news. None of us can keep that standard. God is just too holy. None of us have kept that standard. We are all sinful. And the Bible says this in Matthew 25, 46, and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life. Hebrews 9, 27, and just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment. Because God is a good God, because God is a just God, he must punish sin. It's amazing to me that whenever we see news articles on Facebook or on social media about a murderer or a rapist, we immediately respond in the affirmative when we find that they were punished. We know deep in our hearts when justice is done. And I'll read the comments sometimes on articles like that. Nice to see people commenting. Yes, give them what they deserve. That's what they earn. I'm glad they got justice. Good for the family who got justice. It's amazing to me that when it comes to the sins of others, we demand justice. When it comes to our own sins, we cry out for mercy, for understanding, for grace. There is a punishment for sin, but not because God is cruel or evil. There is a punishment for sin because God is just. There is a heaven and there is a hell. And the only difference between the two is salvation through Christ Jesus. Now, anyone who's offended at that doesn't understand the weight of sin. If you're offended by the idea of punishment in hell, then you're not offended enough by the sin in your life. Sin is that wicked. Sin is that evil that it must be punished. And so God, because he is just, because he is good, must punish sin. But he's also merciful. So what is the way out? Because all of us have sinned, none of us have kept God's standard and there's punishment for sin. What then do we do? Do we say, okay, I'll live a good life from this point on? Well, think about the case of a murderer. If they murdered someone and said, well, from this day on I won't kill anybody again and I'll do my best to be a good member of society, would we no longer require that they be punished for that murder? No. Why? Because justice must be satisfied. And by the way, even if we went on living perfect sinless lives from this moment on, it wouldn't matter because sin has already been committed. So we can't save ourselves. You can go to church all you want. It won't save you. You can read the Bible all you want. It won't save you. You can pray all you want. It won't save you. None of our actions can save us. We can't save ourselves. That's the whole point of why Jesus came. Now, Jesus alone is the one who saves. It is not our actions. It is not our work. It's not by our own efforts. It's simply a free gift. The Bible says this in Romans 3, 21 through 22. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes no matter who we are. John 3, 16 through 19 says, for this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him, but anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only son. And the judgment is based on this fact, God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light for their actions were evil. You see, when Jesus came to the earth to die on the cross, he came to die in your place. When you look at the crucifixion of Jesus, how he was whipped, how he was bruised, how he was beaten, how they drove nails through his hands and through his feet. What you're looking at is punishment for sin. What you're looking at is the wrath of God. What you're looking at is the result of disobedience. And Jesus took your place. He died on the cross in your place. In this way, God was able to satisfy justice while at the same time showing you grace. Only Jesus lived the perfect life. And therefore, only Jesus could make the perfect sacrifice his life laid down for yours. And the gospel is that simple. Jesus will give you eternal life in exchange for your temporary one. Jesus will give you his righteousness in exchange for your sin. And this is why so many people have trouble believing this good news because it sounds too good to be true. Now, of course, anyone who truly believes in Jesus will be transformed. Anyone who truly believes in Christ Jesus will turn from their sin, will walk in holiness, will pursue righteousness. But here's the truth. The reason people reject Jesus is simply because they don't want to humble themselves before him. We can make up all of our excuses. Oh, I don't believe in God. You can say that, but your conscience bears the truth against you. You could say, well, I've been too sinful. God can't forgive me. But the blood of Jesus can wash away all sin, no matter what it is. You may say, well, I don't know if I can truly live the Christian life, or if that's for me. God will help you live whatever life he has called you to live. All you have to do is surrender. If you ever went in for an operation, you know that you weren't the one that performed the operation on yourself. They had to put you to sleep before they could perform the operation. But you had to surrender and get on the operating table. You see, when we surrender to God, it's not that we're saving ourselves. It's not that we're working for our salvation. There's nothing we could do to save ourselves. Rather, what we're doing is we're putting ourselves on that table and saying, okay, God, you operate. It's simply surrendering to him. It's saying to him, Lord, I agree with you. Sinful living is wrong. The way I'm living my life is not according to your will. And I can't save myself. I'm helpless without you. Even if I lived a perfect life for the rest of my life, it still wouldn't be good enough for your standard. And so we're left with only one option. That is to humble ourselves before Jesus. To say to him, I agree. I'm sinful. I shouldn't be doing this. And I don't know how to stop. But I want to turn to you. I want to live right. I want to live righteously. I want to live holy. I want to live that life filled with peace, joy, and love that you truly created me for. If that's you, then you have to first humble yourself. You have to acknowledge that you've sinned. You have to acknowledge that you've not been living right. You come to him humbly and you say, I can't save myself. Jesus, I need you to save me. There's nothing I can do in my power to rescue my own soul. I need you to rescue my soul. And it's in that surrender. It's in putting your faith in what he did that you find salvation. It's to say, Lord, I can't save myself, but I'll take you up on that offer. I'll put my trust in what you did. I will surrender my life and give it to you and you do with it whatever you want. And in doing that, you find salvation. I'm not promising you, and nor is Jesus promising you that if you follow him, that everything is going to be perfect. I'm not saying that if you follow Jesus, your bank account is going to go up. Your marriage is going to be perfect. Your relationship with your children is going to be healed. I'm not saying that everything in your life is going to be made right and that all your troubles will go away. No, that's not what Jesus said. What I can promise you is this, he can forgive your sins. And when you do face trouble, you can know that he's with you. When you do face the turmoil of life, no matter what you're facing, you can have peace in your heart, joy in your heart, love in your heart. You can know your purpose. You can know your destination. You can connect with God, your Creator. It's through Jesus. So you have a choice to make right now. Right now you have a choice. You know you've sinned. You know the punishment for sin is eternity. You know that there's no way to save yourself, that the only way is to trust on the finished work of the cross. You have a choice to make. Either you accept the gospel and receive salvation or you reject Jesus. You reject what's being spoken here. You're not rejecting me. You're not rejecting a sermon. You're not rejecting a religion. You're not rejecting a church. You reject the gospel. You're rejecting Jesus directly. Don't reject him. Don't hold your life back from him. You can trust him. So if you're ready to give your life to Jesus, I'm going to lead you in a prayer but I need you to know this. It is not your prayer that saves you. There are no magic words to pronounce that will cause you to be saved for all of eternity because then that would be you saving yourself. Rather, what you're doing is you're surrendering your life and I'm simply guiding you in surrendering. But if you're not truly surrendering, then you're not truly being saved. You have to come to him and say, Lord, forgive me. God, I'm sorry. I want to change. I want to turn from those old ways and I want to turn to you now. So I'm going to lead you in this prayer. But remember, please, please, please remember, it's not the prayer that saves you. It's turning to Jesus that saves you and away from sin. So say this after me, but be sincere about it and truly, truly, truly surrender your life. And if you truly surrender, he'll truly say, I want you to repeat after me, say, Dear Lord Jesus, I come to you now. I admit I have sinned. I admit I can't save myself. So Lord, today, right now, I humble myself and I turn to you. I turn away from sin. I turn away from this world. Jesus, say it out loud, say Jesus, forgive me. Forgive me of my sin. Wash me in your blood. Make me new. Today, I declare that you are my God, my King, my Lord and my Savior. I believe you are the Son of God. I believe you died on the cross for my sins. I believe you rose again from the dead. I trust you now. Change me, transform me and save me. And I declare by faith I am born again in Jesus' name. I want you to say this word, say amen. I mean, so be it. And I want you to know that if you gave your heart to Jesus, not if you said the prayer, but if you surrendered to Jesus and put your faith in him, then your sins are forgiven. Your home is in heaven. He's your God and your Savior now. And I want you to know that you've become new, brand new. The Bible says all things become new when I am in Christ. He just traded places with you. You take his reward, he'll take your punishment. You take his righteousness, he'll take your sin. When God looks at the cross, he sees your sin. And now when God looks at you, he sees the righteousness of Christ. In the comments section right now, I want you to do me a favor. In the comments section, if you just received Christ, I want you to write these two simple words. Write the two words born again in the comments section. And now here are your comments from a previous video titled Alpha and Omega, Acoustic Worship Cover by Steven Moctezuma. Sarah Jane Peña writes, Steve's songs are so pure and I can't help but worship when I hear his songs. Glory to God for the ETV worship team. Amazing Grace writes, thank you, such anointed worship, another song added to my playlist. Resurrection TV writes, Steven Moctezuma is my favorite worshipper. God bless the whole DHM team. The next commenter writes, I love this version of the song. Thank you, Steven and the team for this rendition. And Moline Mara writes, true worship, the spirit of the Lord is moving. I feel his love. He is so good. May God bless this worship team. I want to share a scripture with you. It's found in Proverbs chapter 11. It's verse number 25 that generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. That's a promise. I want to invite you to become a part of what we're doing as a ministry. I want to invite you to help us continue to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit through events and media. Help us continue to create the videos, to do the live streams, to do the events and to host the Holy Spirit School online. If you believe in what we're doing as a ministry, if you believe in reaching souls, if you believe in strengthening believers, if you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and if you believe that the power of the Holy Spirit needs to be spread all around the world, then join us now. Join our army of supporters by giving a one-time gift or becoming a monthly ministry partner. You can give a one-time gift by going to davidhernanismenestories.com slash donate. You can become a monthly supporter by going to davidhernanismenestories.com slash partner. I want to encourage all of our viewers to become a monthly supporter, get behind what we're doing, be consistent, be faithful, be generous in your support. I know this, that in our partnership together, we will see the world transformed. Again, davidhernanismenestories.com slash donate for the one-time gifts, davidhernanismenestories.com slash partner to become a monthly supporter and make sure to check out that partner page to see all of the latest benefits to becoming a monthly partner. Of course, the greatest benefit is knowing you're pleasing the Lord and winning souls.