Sharing the Gospel at a Local College | Ep. 5

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe this woman right here? Yeah, yeah, I have. Is that your girlfriend?

Yeah, that's my girlfriend, yeah. Okay, cool, cool. Okay, so, um, now, you've told me, and I'm not judging you, but Elijah, you told me that you're a lying, blasphemous adulterer at heart.

Now, we didn't go through all ten commandments, but just those three, we went through three out of the four, before you admitted to breaking three of them.

Now, if God were to judge you based on that, his moral law, would you be innocent or guilty?

All right, my name is Tim, and we're going to be sharing and preaching the gospel,

Ray Comfort style, at RCBC, Rowan at Arlington County College.

So, we will talk to whoever is willing to talk, and whoever the Lord leads us to.

But, hey, why don't we start with a word of prayer. Father God, thank you so much for this opportunity to preach your word that saved us.

We pray that the soil is good, and that we can plant some seeds today, and people would repent, turn away from sin, and believe in your

Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, what's up, guys? You guys busy right now, or?

Not really, just real quick. Okay, so we're going around asking some people some questions. This may or may not be on YouTube.

Would you guys be okay with that? Yeah, no problem. My name is Tim, and I'm here with? Giuseppe.

Giuseppe, and? Matt. Matt, okay. So, the first question I want to ask you guys is, what do you guys think of the afterlife?

I'll go to Matt first. I believe the afterlife could be many different things, but I believe that there's a higher power, such as a

God, and I think that we all will go somewhere strong after this life.

How about you, Giuseppe? I think that there is an afterlife. I'm not, I don't have my mindset on what that might be, but like you said,

I do believe there's a higher power, like a God, and I do that. I do believe there is something after death, not just darkness and the abyss.

But, yeah, I do think there is something. So do you guys think maybe like a heaven or hell? I would go with that, maybe.

And I also believe, I want to believe reincarnation is real, because I think it'd be cool to, like, you know, turn into something else or live another life after this.

Okay. Giuseppe? I think heaven and hell is probably real. Okay. So, who do you think, if, say there's a heaven or hell, who do you think would go to heaven, who would go to hell?

We'll go back to Giuseppe. So, well, so I always grew up on Christianity and the

Bible and all that, so obviously if you're saved and you take the lead on Jesus Christ as your

Savior, no matter what sin you commit, you're going to heaven. Okay.

So I'll go back to Matt. What do you think about, do you think... I truly believe that if you're a good citizen and you do everything right, and,

I mean, I believe that murderers and people that do commit serious crimes don't deserve to go to heaven, that's on my end.

Okay. So, heaven or hell, let me ask you guys, do you guys think you are good people?

Do you think you're a good person that might go? Yes, I think I'm a great person. Okay. So let me ask Matt. Matt, how many lies do you think you've ever told in your life?

Um, probably a lot. Probably a lot? Okay. Matt, let me ask you another question. Have you ever stolen anything?

No. No? Okay. Have you ever looked at a woman with lust in your eyes, or in your heart?

What's lust mean? I'm sorry. Like strong sexual desire. You see an attractive woman walk by, you look at her?

No. No? Really? Okay. Okay. Wow. How about you, Matt? Have you done that? Um, probably, yeah.

Yeah, it's okay, to be honest. I'm guilty of it, too. How about, um, have you ever used the

Lord's name in vain? Yes, I have. Yes? Okay. Have you ever used the Lord's name in vain? Yeah. Have you ever told a lie before?

No. Okay. How about, have you ever hated your brother? Yeah. Not hated, but, you know.

How about hated another person? Sure. Okay. Have you ever hated someone? I mean, hate is a strong word.

Yeah, it's a strong word. I'm not sure. Okay, well, so Jesus, he says that if you have hate in your heart for your brother, you've already committed the deeper meaning of murder.

Which you already said, murder is punishable, maybe even hell worthy. So, I asked you guys some of the

Ten Commandments, um, in the Bible. And, if God were to judge us based on the

Ten Commandments, if he were to judge Matt, would you be innocent or guilty on the Ten Commandments? I'd be guilty.

Guilty, okay. So, if you're guilty, would that mean heaven or hell? It would mean hell.

Oh, yeah, it would mean hell. So, do you agree? Yeah. Yeah, so, but, Giuseppe over here might understand what

God did for guilty sinners like us. So, the law, the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, you look at it and it's actually a mirror.

You look at it and you see, you know, you look in a mirror, you know, you have something in your face, you fix it, right?

You look at a mirror against the Ten Commandments, God's law, you look at it and you see how messed up you are on the inside.

So, you realize you're a guilty sinner that needs a savior. So, what God did is that he sent his son,

Jesus Christ. Have you ever heard of him before? Yeah. He was born of what? A woman named...

Mary? Mary, who was a virgin, right? And he lived a perfect life. You know, we've all sinned, we've told lies before, we've sinned against God.

But Jesus, he was different from us. He was innocent. Completely innocent, never did a sin like us.

And he lived a perfect life and became the perfect sacrifice on the cross. Have you ever heard of him dying on the cross?

Yes. Do you know what him dying on the cross means for us? He died for our sins. He died for our sins.

So, when God punished Jesus on the cross, he took our sin away. It should have been me on the cross,

I'm guilty. But Jesus stepped in and paid my debt on the cross. And God punished him, his own son.

But, I'm sure you know what happened. He was buried and then three days later... Um, I'm sorry.

Yeah, he came back. This guy knows, he rose from the dead. Yeah, he rose from the dead. And anyone who's in Christ, believing in Christ, him coming, living a perfect life, dying on the cross and rising from the dead is in Christ.

And those of us in Christ, death will not hold us either. So, Jesus conquered something that all of us humans have a problem with.

I don't know if you've noticed, 10 out of 10 people, 100 out of 100 people, 1 ,000 out of 1 ,000 people out there will die.

So, Jesus came and he conquered death and rose from the dead. So, the same spirit that's in Jesus is now in those of us who believe the gospel message.

Those of us who repent. Do you know what repent means, Matt? No, I do not. Okay, repent means...

So, repent means turning away from sin, changing your mind, and trusting in Jesus Christ.

Because, the work that we do obviously isn't good enough. We've all lied, we've all done bad things. If God were to punish us, we're guilty.

You know, if God were to judge us, we're guilty and deserve punishment. But, those of us who put our faith in Christ, Jesus says,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So, he's the only way, putting our faith in Jesus, the only good one.

He gives us his righteous life, his perfect life. It's like the switcheroo, the ultimate switch of him taking my sins and him giving me his perfect life.

So, anyone who repents and turns away from sin and trusts in Christ, their life changes.

The old has passed away, the new has come. So, what do you think? Do you believe this? Yeah, I do. What about you,

Matt? What do you believe? Yeah, I believe it. So, when are you going to repent and trust in Jesus? When do you think that's a good time?

Um, I trust in Jesus and I think it would be a good time to start soon. Start right now, right?

Yeah. Would you mind if I prayed with you? Sure. Yeah. Father God, thank you for Giuseppe and Matt here.

We pray that we know that you are good enough and you died on the cross. And, we know that we're not good enough and we sinned against you and we're sorry for our sins.

But, we accept Jesus as the God of this universe who came and took on flesh. Who is the fully

God and fully man who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. We believe that in our heart. And, I pray that we would repent and turn away from sins and trust in you.

So, we thank you for salvation. We thank you for saving us, Jesus. We ask that you would save us, save Matt, my friend here.

And, that we would experience eternal life and that you would rescue us from the fire of hell. And, the judgment that is to come.

So, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright. Any questions or comments before we go?

Not for me. Not for you, Matt? Nope. I just appreciate it. Alright. Thanks, man. Yeah. Thanks for coming on.

Thank you. Matt. Tim. So, do you guys have a Bible or anything? I do in my house.

You do? Have you guys ever read the Gospel of John before? No, I haven't. Alright.

I want to give you, Matt, a Gospel of John. Thank you. You grew up in the church. Do you still want a Gospel of John? Sure. Okay.

Sure. Yeah. I read this book and it changed my life, the Gospel of John. So, I pray you guys read it and you'll find

Jesus to be the perfect Savior. And, you'll start living your life for Him.

That's what I did. And, I don't regret it. I put my faith in Him when I was 22. I'm 29 now.

And, He hasn't let me down. And, even though hard things come in life, I always have Him to fall back on.

And, I know that He has a plan for my life. So, it's very comforting. And, you know, Jesus loved me more than anyone's ever loved me.

He gave His life for me. So, my allegiance is with Him. And, not with the world.

So, I pray, you know, it seems like you might have already been saved. But, I pray that, you know, maybe this conversation could be life -changing for you, brother.

Thank you. You're welcome. Alright, guys. Thanks. Have a good one. See you later. Yeah, you too. Howdy, sir.

How are you? Good. Would you like to be on our YouTube podcast? Yeah. Yeah? Okay.

We're asking people. It's not for a class. But, we're asking people about what they believe happens to you after you die.

I believe in heaven and hell. Okay. Do you have five minutes to talk about it, or you got to get going? Five minutes.

Okay. Do you mind if we go in the sun? Sure. What's your name?

John. John. Nice to meet you. I'm Joe. And, that's Tim. Nice to meet you.

Alright. You can sit down if you want, John. Alright. Alright, I'm Tim.

I'm here with John. We asked him what he thinks about the afterlife, and he told me that he believes in heaven or hell.

So, my question for John is, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, John? Well, according to the

Bible, because I'm a Christian. Okay. The righteous go to heaven and the unrighteous go to hell.

That's right. Depending on, you know, not deeds, but more of your relationship with God, and what you did while you were here that made you righteous, can ultimately be the deciding factor.

Alright, I like what John said. Let me ask him a few more questions. John, have you ever told a lie before?

Yes, I have. How many lies do you think you've told? Over a million, probably. John, have you ever stolen anything?

You can be honest. I have. Have you ever looked at a woman with lust?

Yeah, I have. Okay. Have you ever used the Lord's name in vain, John? I have, but I'm trying to stop that.

Okay. And John, I'm not judging you, but based on what you told me, you told me that you're a lying, blasphemous, adulterous at heart thief.

Would you agree with that? Based on what I said, yes. Alright. So, if God were to judge you based on the

Ten Commandments, and you just broke four of them of what you told me, do you think you would be innocent or guilty?

I mean, six out of ten, that's not really a good fraction, so, nah,

I don't think so. So you would be guilty, right? So would it be heaven or hell? For me right now, it would be hell, which kind of hurts, but that's the sad truth.

Right. So do you know, yeah, that you're looking at the law, right, and we're told in the

Bible that the law is like a mirror. When we look at the law, it's supposed to expose on who we are on the inside.

You know, look, you look at a regular mirror at home, you know, you brush your teeth, you know, do your hair, whatever it is, you can see something wrong and you change it.

You know, the law of God, we look at that and it's supposed to change us on the inside and show us who we really are, which is actually not good, right?

We're bad people, we're sinners. By nature. So do you know what God did for guilty sinners like us?

Um, Jesus died on the cross, I know that. That's right, God sent

His Son, Jesus Christ, to come and He wasn't like us, right? He was perfect, and you and I, we sin, we break

God's law, but He kept it perfectly and was innocent, but do you know what

His main reason was to come? And I think you said it was to come and die.

Right. I don't know if you noticed, 10 out of 10 people out here in this world are going to die, right? So Jesus came to die, and He was buried, and three days later, you probably know what happened.

He rose, right? He rose. Now do you know why Jesus had to die on the cross, what the purpose was?

Um, for our sins. Yeah. And people like to pay for it. That's right,

Jesus, yeah, John is right. He died on the cross to pay for the sins of the world, the sins like for me.

It should be me on the cross, God should be punishing a sinner like me, a sinner like you. But Jesus loved us so much that He Himself laid down His life for us, and God punished

His only Son on the cross in place of us. So, what Jesus does is He gives us

His righteous, perfect life, and He takes all of our sin, and God looked at Him, and really, the way

He should have looked at us, and punished His own Son. But, death could not hold Jesus, Jesus rose from the dead, and any of us who believe the

Gospel message that He did die on the cross and rise from the dead, do have the Spirit of God, and the same

Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead will raise us from the dead, so death will not hold us, and that we could receive eternal life, and forgiveness of sins, and make it into that afterlife called

Heaven, to be with Jesus forever. You believe that's all true? Yes, sir. Alright, do you, have you personally repented of your sin, turning away from sin, and trust in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, trust in God's Son, Jesus?

I trust in Him, but, repent for me means, like, be forgiven and try not to do the same sins again, and you know, it's really hard,

I'm going to be honest, you know, so, I'm like halfway in terms of repenting.

Yeah, so when you think, so, if someone repents, turns away from sin, it means they change their mind, they start living a different lifestyle, the old has passed away, the new has come, do you, have you ever heard the term born again?

Right, right, right, that's when you get baptized. Yeah, so born again is when you get baptized by the

Holy Spirit, by believing in Jesus Christ and Him dying on the cross, God gives us

His Spirit, and we're, the old has gone away, the new has come, we're new creation, so, the

Bible tells us that we're spiritually dead, and if we remain spiritually dead, we're going to see the second death, which is the lake of fire, have you ever heard of the lake of fire before,

John? Yeah, sure. So, instead of receiving the second death, we can receive the second birth of, for believers.

Have you received the second birth, you think? Second birth meaning baptism, or?

Second birth meaning that the old has passed away, you believe that Jesus did die on the cross, you believe that He rose from the dead, and that you changed, you were changed by that message, that you did repent and you trust in Christ.

Um, I have, yeah. Okay, alright, say it loud and clear, right? Because if you're a born again

Christian, you can't be ashamed of Christ, right? Right, right, right. We have to be, you know, for me,

John, my allegiance is with Jesus Christ, because Jesus loved me more than anyone in this world could possibly love me and has loved me,

He gave His life for me, so, my allegiance is with Him, and He says, He who loved me will keep my commandments, and He gives a new commandment of love, love the

Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, love others as yourself. So, as Christians, it's tough to do that, right?

We all fall short, but by believing in Christ's work, Jesus still accepts us, and Jesus is even a mediator between us, between God and man right now.

So, repenting is a one -time thing, but also we have to repent every day, turn away from sin, and take up our cross daily and follow

Christ. Do you agree with all that? Yes, sir. Alright, so do you think, if someone asked you, are you a born again

Christian, what would you say? I'd say yeah. Yes, yes. Because it's not up to us or our work, but it's up to whose work?

God, Jesus' work. Yeah, Jesus Christ. Say it loud, John. Jesus Christ's work. Amen. Alright, John, well, thanks for talking.

No problem. Do you have a Bible at home? I do, yeah. Do you think it's important to read the Word? Of course. That's how you grow a relationship with God, by reading the

Word. You know, Him revealing stuff to you, things that you're going through, it's all in there.

Does this conversation that we had kind of make you want to go pick up your Bible again and start reading the Word and following after Him? Yeah, I do now, but this just kind of reinforces it.

Alright, thanks for talking with us, John. No problem. Oh, what you got to eat, sir?

Grilled cheese. Oh, man. You want to let us interview you? You can sit and eat your grilled cheese over here. You want to be on our podcast?

It's a video podcast. I could try. Alright. I'm going to eat inside because it's a little bit too cold here.

Oh, you're going inside? Yeah. Oh, go inside then. I don't want your food to get cold. We're going to ask you about where you think people go after they die.

Heaven, obviously. I mean, I don't know if it's true or not because, you know, I never died before, but I think it's heaven.

Alright. Well, I've got to ask you. Depending what the actions done or what they did in their life. It depends.

You think it's based on their good works? Um, not necessarily good works.

I would just say, like, what have they done wrong? Because I know God really doesn't really choose on you good acts.

He chooses, like, you know, you did this. Uh -huh. Explain that. Explain that. Like, he judged you based off that and what your intentions behind it.

So how good do you have to be to get in? Look, you don't have to be pure.

Like, pure of heart. No? I mean, as long as you don't, like, commit any... So you're okay with being on the...

I'm already taking a lot of video. I didn't get your permission to be on YouTube. No, it's fine. You're fine? Or any other media? Like, if you're not, like, any...

What is this? Any... We're interviewing people for a podcast. Uh -huh. Murder.

Okay. About what? So, like, on a scale of 0 to 10, like, 0 being totally depraved, like,

Adolf Hitler, or, you know, 10 being, like, Mother Teresa, where do you got to be on that scale in order to get into heaven?

At least a 6. You got to be a 6? At least a 6. Okay, okay. A 6 is like, uh...

Who's a 6? Man, I'd hate to be a 5 .9. That would really be rough. I know, right? If it's a five -point system, then you're off by a bit.

Yeah, but... Oh! I'm trying to think of, like, who's great but not good.

Yeah. Like... This is hard. This is hard. I would say

Biden. He's not great. He's not great, but I know he's good at heart. Yeah. Where do you think you are on a scale of...

I'm probably, like, at least a 6. You're just a 6? At least a 6. At least.

I have not done anything wrong. So you're, like, skating on your backside, like...

But I'm not afraid to admit that I did some... not crazy stuff, but stuff that's like, okay, you did this, but...

Are you a 6 .1? I'm, like, at least a 6 .9. So does that make you nervous that you might fall down to 5 .9?

5 .8? As long as I'm not crazy enough to, like, kill somebody or rape somebody, like, nah, I'm good.

I'm good. I'm chilling. Would you be surprised if I told you none of us are good? According to the Bible, no one is good, not even one.

That's Romans 3 .10, I think. Really? Yeah. No one. Then you go back to the Bible. We're all zeroes.

I mean, if God's criteria was, like, you've got to go to church every day... That's his criteria. Well, not going to church.

Don't hear what I'm not saying. I didn't say that. But none of us are good enough to get to heaven because we've all fallen short of the standard because the

Bible says that the standard is perfection. Oh! Yeah! How about that? Nobody's perfect.

Your 6 ain't going to work now, is it? My 6 ain't work. I guess I need an 11 out of 10. Well, let's see if you really are 6.

Are you familiar with the thing called the Ten Commandments? A little bit.

A little bit. I know sin, greed, all that. So the first commandment is, do you love

God with all your heart, mind, and soul? Do you do that all the time? That's a no.

So number two is graven images. Are idols... Do you lift up anything in your life more than God?

Are there things that are more important to you than God in your life? My mother. Your mother? Yes. So you broke that one, too.

I'm at 8 right now. Yeah, yeah. So there's this little thing. Well, you are supposed to honor your mother and father.

So that's good. You do that. Do you do it perfectly, though? To a point, yeah. I mean, she asks me for anything,

I do it. Some of the big ones are, you know, some of the Pharisees and Sadducees in the

Bible, they thought they did all the Ten Commandments. We do them all. Right? But what happened was, he said, well, if, you know, if they said, well,

I've never murdered anybody, right? Did you ever murder anybody? No, no. I wouldn't be here. Jesus says, if you've ever been angry with your brother, that's murder in your heart.

Did you ever do that? Did you ever do that? The only child. What? I'm the only child. Well, brother being a neighbor's friend.

Oh, neighbor? No, not really. Well, friends, yeah. That's when you hated? Well, not hated. I mean, they wouldn't be my friends.

I mean, I'm just like spiteful, like spiteful. How about lust in your heart?

I don't love anybody right now. Did you ever lust after a woman? Did you ever look at a woman with lust? Sorry, someone that wasn't yours that you're not married to?

Probably, yeah. Yeah, yeah, okay. We all did. I did that. So, yeah. Yeah, we've pretty much broken all the commandments. So, we're not really perfect.

We're not perfect. We're not even good. That's what the Bible says. Not even good. Not one of us.

None of us really long for God. None of us desire God. But he did all these wonderful things for us. He created this wonderful place for us to live and we have all these blessings, right?

Mm -hmm. You think we should be different? Look, mankind changes every day. Like, we have different types of generation.

You know, I don't think it's getting better, but. Well, why do you think it's so bad? Oh, look.

The world we're in right now compared to the world I was in, I ran in 2005. I was a kid.

Yeah. But, you know, kids' stages are different from adult stages right now. Yeah. But I can, from that perspective,

I can already see there's a major difference in this world. Yeah. And all that. It's getting darker and darker, right? We get, well, we got wars starting for no reason because, oh, they want war territory.

Yeah. We got a president that don't know what he's doing. Right. We got another former president that's technically, well, they say, a criminal that's running for president.

Uh -huh. We got a whole bunch of stuff that's going on. Like. Yeah. This really wasn't happening, like, really 20 years ago.

God keeps blessing us with more and more greater things in the world. I feel like. Food and stuff. He is. We just don't love him, don't we?

Yeah. God blesses other people, but there's other people that's trying to take advantage of that. Sure. Yeah.

Selfishness. Greed. Yeah. So, that's really another thing. That's selfishness. That's actually, it was actually pride that got us kicked out of the

Garden of Eden. Who? According to the Bible, right? So. That's, you ever heard of a thing called original sin? No.

So, Adam and Eve, when they were in the, when God placed them in the garden, everything was perfect. Life was perfect.

Uh -huh. Jesus. And they walked with God in the garden. And your food's getting cold. I feel really bad. You're good.

Yeah. But, but what happened was, they were, they desired to be like God, and Satan was able to tempt them to sin.

And when that little bit of sin came into the world, it spread. Like a virus. Like a disease. And today, like you said, it's getting worse and worse.

It is. It is. It is. So, but God wants to restore that relationship, right? Do you know that he wants to restore a relationship with you?

What he did, he sent his son. He literally, it's, it's, there's, there's one

God, but there's three people in this, in the Trinity. There's God's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He sent his son, so he kind of sent himself to come down here, pay the debt that you and I owe because of all our sin.

Because you can't keep the Ten Commandments, I can't keep the Ten Commandments, right? Yeah. But here's, here's the thing.

You can't get into heaven by being good, because you're never going to keep the Ten Commandments. You kind of see that now, right? Yeah, I kind of see that.

I got to be perfect. Yeah, yeah. Well, the only way you're perfect is, you get, here's, here's, here's the trick.

You got a LinkedIn page? Or a resume? Um, no. Just Indeed. Okay, you got a resume? Oh, an

Indeed page? Yeah. So, it talks about all your history, all the good things you've done, jobs you worked. Yeah, I have a,

I have a couple of communities. So, if you accept what Christ did on the cross, dying for you, he paid your sin debt, we call that propitiation.

That's a big Bible word. Just means, like, you had a literal debt. Like, a debt you couldn't pay. That's why you're going to hell. We're all going to hell.

Okay. Every stinking one of us is going to hell, because none of us are good. Not one. But, because of what

Jesus did on the cross, because of that payment of that sin debt, you can take his free gift.

You get to wear his resume, his Indeed page. Okay. It says, died on the cross for all mankind.

Okay. Do you want that? I would definitely want that. You want that? Yeah. Alright. So, you, do you, are you willing to do anything for it?

Um. You don't have to do anything. I don't have to do anything? No, you've got to. All I've got to do is jump off?

Here's what you've got to do. You've got to accept what Christ did, because the Bible says you can't earn your salvation.

You can't be good enough. How can you be good enough if you've got to do something? But, you have to repent from your sin, say,

Lord, I don't want to be a sinner anymore. I don't want to violate your plans. Admit to your actions and stuff like that.

Yeah, yeah. And turn away from them. Not perfectly, but ask Christ to help you. Say, Lord, help me to stop sinning.

Help me to do the things that you want to do. But, first, you've got to learn what those are. You've got to study the Bible. Yeah. But, I mean, if God wanted to talk to you, wouldn't you want to know what he said?

Definitely. Well, he's got a Bible. Yeah. He's got a Bible. He wrote that over 1 ,500 years. There are 66 books, and it's all information he wants you to have so that you're not driving around like, you know, like driving a car without a car manual.

You know what I mean? That's... Yeah. Yeah, I think about that. Well, you've got to come out to our church or another church.

We can place you somewhere else, depending on where you live. What church? We go to Cornerstone. It's in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. CornerstoneSJ .org.

And that's where the video's going to be on that, on our YouTube page. Oh, okay. The video that we're taking right now. Is it on the website?

On the RCBC? Yeah. We'll probably post it. No, not on RCBC, but CornerstoneSJ .org. We'll give you cards.

Okay. And do you have a Bible? No, I don't. My grandmother does. I'm going to give you a Gospel of John.

Okay. That is one of the four Gospels that talks about Jesus' life and what he did on the cross.

And it's really... We call that the... It's the Gospel that talks mostly about his divinity.

Right? The other ones have different purposes. But they're all witnesses to a testament of what he did for us.

So you can have salvation. You can have salvation right now and just say, Lord, I'm going to accept what you did on the cross.

Yeah. But now you've got to live it out. We've got to see what fruit comes out. Oh, okay. Right? But you know what?

Dude, I'm telling you. Some of those sins are causing you pain. Pain you don't even know about that's going to happen down the road. Yeah, I'll probably believe that, yeah.

I'll tell you. I had a lot of sin in my life, and it caused me pain. But God pulled me out of it, man.

It's great. Go eat your lunch. Thank you. My hands are getting cold.

Thank you so much. Enjoy your week, all right? Hey, hey, let's give you that Gospel of John now. There you go, brother. Thanks for talking with us.

No problem. All right. How was that? That was pretty good. Not bad. That was good.

Not bad. That was good, man. I just pray that he comes out to our church or some other church so that we can help him get sanctified because if we don't help people...

Get discipled. Get discipled. We've got to make disciples. Who make other disciples that make other disciples that make other disciples.

Not friends, not acquaintances. We need disciples. What's a disciple? It's a student. Someone who studies

God's Word and wants to know and learn about what God has to say to us. That's what I'm... So much.

Preach! Yo, you guys busy?

Fine. So we've got a little podcast. If you guys have five minutes, we invite you to go on it if you want.

What's the podcast about? It's called Tearing Down High Places, but today we're just interviewing people and asking their opinion on what they think about the afterlife.

The afterlife. Oh, you can say something. Is that interesting to you? Yeah. Where would you want us to go here?

Anywhere you want. This is fine right here. Maybe we should sit right here? If you want. Yeah, that's cool.

Okay. Cool. So my name is Tim and I'm here with... Elijah. Nice to meet you. Elijah and...

Sherlyn. Sherlyn? Yeah, Sherlyn. Okay, Sherlyn. All right. So the first question I have is what do you guys think about the afterlife?

I believe the afterlife is real. I definitely believe this is not a coincidence. We're here for a reason and there's definitely an afterlife.

And I feel like what you do on this earth, how you live on this earth affects your afterlife. And it's an important topic to me.

All right. I like the answer. All right. Well, I used to think of re -coordination, actually, but he put me in that mindset that there is an afterlife and whatever we do on this earth is a purpose.

And honestly, we're always with Mr. Elijah. He actually put me into the afterlife mindset because I really thought we were just on this earth just to roam.

But now I feel like after a whole conversation with you, it was more of like, no, we do have a purpose on earth and it's not just a waste.

All right. So what do you guys think the afterlife might be? Maybe like a heaven or hell? Yeah. Yeah.

I'm a Christian, so I believe there's heaven and hell. I feel like it might not be exactly how people think or like majority of people think or maybe exactly how the

Bible states it, because I know it's changed a lot over time. But I feel like the overall idea of it,

I feel like that's what I believe in. OK. Well, I said I believe in reincarnation, but now

I know for sure there's a heaven and hell. OK. Yeah. So who do you think goes to heaven?

Who do you think goes to hell? Who goes to heaven? Who goes to hell? Like, what do you think?

Like, what kind of people do you think you're going to heaven or hell? Well, I say I'm going to heaven, obviously, but I think it aligns with morals, honestly, because like if you are as a person, like if you like treat the people like you are like, like, like terribly,

I shouldn't curse, terribly, right? And obviously, I feel like that comes like an after pain later on in life.

Like you will get treated like terribly. Reap what you sow. Reap what you sow.

OK. So do you think like maybe good people and things that they do good, maybe you go to heaven and then maybe if you do bad things, you'll go to hell type thing?

Yeah, I feel like it is. It is like that. But also, it's not as like it's not as black and white as that.

Like there is a lot of gray area. Like, like there's things that can affect your perception of like morals, like, like your environment that you grew up in, people around you growing up.

Like just how you how you view things in life. I feel like that, yeah, that can affect whether like because one person, if they have a very good upbringing that could like what could get them into heaven might be different from somebody who came from the absolute bottom.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. OK. So let me ask you some more questions. Elijah, have you ever told a lie before?

Yeah. How about you? Yeah, I have. OK. That's the truth though.

Yeah. Yeah. It's good to tell the truth. We can be honest here. Now, have you ever stolen anything? No. How about you?

No. OK. Have you ever used the Lord's name in vain?

Yeah, I have. Yes. Yes. OK. Yes, I have. I definitely want to break like saying you swear to God.

Oh my God, like things like that. Now, Elijah, have you ever looked at a woman with lust? Maybe this woman right here.

Yeah, I have. Is that your girlfriend? Yeah, that's my girlfriend. OK. Cool. OK. So now you've told me, and I'm not judging you, but Elijah, you told me that you're a lying, blasphemous adulterer at heart.

Now, we didn't go through all ten commandments, but just those three, we went through three out of the four, you admitted to breaking three of them.

Now, if God were to judge you based on that, his moral law, would you be innocent or guilty?

I'm definitely guilty. I feel like 99 .99 % of people in the world are guilty.

And I feel like your actions will never be what gets you into heaven.

It's always going to come down to God's mercy. And yeah,

I feel like it all comes down to you putting your best effort towards it. But we're not perfect at the end of the day.

Now, have you ever noticed that ten out of ten people die? And what do you think is the reason why people die?

The reason why people die? Well, I'll tell you. So it's because they're infected with something called sin, right? We're all sinners.

But God did something for guilty sinners like us. And Elijah may know, I'm not sure.

Maybe you guys have heard before. Do you know what that might be, what God did to save sinners? He died on the cross.

That's right. So God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to come and live a perfect life.

Obviously, we didn't live a perfect life. We didn't live anything close to it. But Jesus was innocent, never sinned, but came on a mission to die on the cross.

So they crucified him on a cross, but Jesus laid down his life willingly. He was God Almighty.

When he was here, he was performing miracles. People that couldn't see, he was healing them.

People who couldn't walk, he was healing them so that they could walk. Some people were even dead.

He raised them from the dead. And Jesus died on the cross because he was paying a debt that someone like me could not pay.

So Jesus paid my debt on the cross. So God punished his own son in the place of me.

And maybe in the place of Elijah. Anyone who believes in him, believe that God sent him to die on the cross.

And he was buried. And it was all prophesied about in the Old Testament. And he comes, he fulfills the law, and dies, is buried.

And I'm sure you know what happened three days later. Yep, he arose. He rose from the dead.

So anyone who is in Christ, who believes in the gospel, the message that he died on the cross and rose from the dead.

Anyone who believes that will repent and trust in Jesus for salvation. Have faith. Yeah, have faith in Christ by hearing the word of God.

Knowing that our work can't save us if we're judged by God. Even if we say we're a good person.

Yeah, if we're perfect to ourselves. Even if we view ourselves as perfect. That's through our perception.

We can't even comprehend how God might perceive us or view us.

Right, it's like even if you go into it. We're viewing things through sin. We have sinful minds.

So we can't say something that's good to us could be completely wrong to God.

That's right. And I think that we're all prone to having wrong thinking. I hope I don't offend you.

But by believing in reincarnation, that's just something that humans have made up. And kind of hoping that might make sense.

Where you die, you might become a better person. You might become an ant. You might become a gazelle.

To give you hope that you'll once be back on this earth. Or maybe to give you hope that you won't go to hell.

Yeah, but the Bible, because I might have an opinion. You might have an opinion. Average Joe over there might have an opinion.

But it doesn't matter if God really spoke through his word. And he says, this is the truth.

My son is the only way to heaven. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Meaning he is the only way. No matter what you think, there is no different truth out there.

2 plus 2 equals 4. You can't make a world up where it makes 5, makes 6, makes 7.

And be correct. They both can't be correct. By reading the

Bible, it helps us. It changes our own thinking. We look at the moral law, and you looked at it correctly.

You saw that you weren't good. The moral law is like a mirror. When you wake up in the morning, you look in the mirror.

You fix your face. You see what's wrong on the outside, and you fix it. The moral law, like God's 10 commandments.

We look at that, and we see, wow, I'm messed up on the inside. I need to fix what's on the inside.

The cure is Jesus Christ. His blood shed on the cross for people who he loves.

For me, I believe this message of the cross because I believe the Bible. I believe the Bible proves the

Bible. I believe that Jesus did die on the cross, and he rose from the dead.

I think what he's given me is eternal life and forgiven all my sins. My allegiance is with Jesus Christ.

He's loved me more than anyone else has loved me. That's the least you can do. That's the least you can do. What do you think?

Have you been born again, Elijah? What do you mean by that? Born again. Jesus, he talks to a

Pharisee in John 3. He says, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.

You must be born again. Some people, I don't know if you've noticed that. In the

Bible, it says that everyone is spiritually dead. Everyone's dead in their sins. They're dead. Dead people can't do anything on their own.

They're completely dead. But if they remain dead, the Bible says that they're going to face the second death, which is the lake of fire.

If you've ever heard, it's kind of like hell, but worse. Anyone who rejects the son and doesn't experience the second birth.

You get the second birth or the second death. The second birth is being born again.

You're born into sin, but then you're born into the kingdom of God, becoming a child of God and the righteousness.

That happens when you believe that Jesus died on the cross and that he rose from the dead, that you believe

God, and then God counts it as righteousness because he gives you the righteousness in his son.

Jesus takes my sin away, but he gives us his righteousness by believing in him.

God did this for a guilty sinner. What do you think? Do you believe this message? Yeah, 100%. It's funny.

We were just— Literally, not even— Yesterday, as a matter of fact.

Yesterday, we were having a whole conversation about this. It's crazy. Literally, I was saying,

God works in mysterious ways, and he'll reveal himself to you. I feel like this right here, this is all the proof you need.

We were just— No, we were having a long— It's crazy. Some people look at this, and they say it's a coincidence.

I was literally saying, it's not a coincidence. Nothing is a coincidence. That's God's work.

What do you think? Do you believe this message of Jesus and God sending his son? Yes. Maybe you want to repent of wrong thinking and of reincarnation and wrong beliefs that maybe you learned in school.

Maybe you learned from other people, but believing the word of God. I believe God. Let God be true in every man and liar.

What do you think? Do you believe this message? Yes, absolutely. To be saved, you need to repent and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.

When do you think is a good time to do that? Repeat that again, sorry. Repent, turning away from a lifestyle of sin, changing your mind, and then turning towards Christ, believing in Jesus that God calls us to believe in his son to be saved.

When do you think is a good time to do that? I've already started my path already, honestly. We already talked about this.

I already said what my whole beliefs were and everything. I started praying.

I started reading the Bible a little bit more. Would you say you're a believer in Jesus Christ now? Yes, I am.

You would say you're a child of God? Yes. You think your boyfriend, Elijah, here helped you do that?

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. A thousand percent. Do you think this conversation that we had maybe was confirmation for you?

Oh, yeah. We could have just kept walking. I don't know.

Something just told me, yeah, maybe we'll just turn around. We spotted you guys walking in earlier, and I was like,

I want to talk to that couple. And then we saw you guys walking out, and Joe was like, go get them, go get them. We came over, and we're happy we talked with you guys.

It was encouraging to hear from you. Did you guys have any comments or questions you want to say before we go up? I just want to say

God works in mysterious ways, and this is all the proof. No, this is the proof.

No, this is it. So now let me ask you guys, do you guys go to church on Sunday?

I'm not going to lie, no. Not yet? Okay. Well, I'm actually a pastor at a church. I'm not the lead pastor, but I'm a youth pastor and associate pastor.

Joe goes to church, too. And we just want to invite you guys to our church. It's five minutes from here. I don't know.

Where are you guys from? Cherry Hill. We're not too far. Cherry Hill? Yeah, okay. So I'm going to give you guys some stuff here for being on the show with us.

This is a Gospel of John. You might have a Bible at home, but I read this book, and it changed my life.

So I think maybe it could be good for you guys. And let's see. Maybe this would be good for you, even though you seem like you're already convinced of the truth.

But this is Why Christianity. Okay, thank you. I got one more thing that I want to give.

Let me see if I can find it in my bag here. Let's see if I can pull this stuff out.

So this is what I want to give you right here. This is just an invite to our church.

It's Cornerstone Church at cornerstonesj .org. That's our website.

And then our address is 515 Mount Laurel Road. Okay. Mount Laurel, New Jersey. You know, we have services.

I think it says our services time on there. 9 o 'clock and 1045. And we just want to invite you guys because, you know, reading the word and getting connected to other believers is key for spiritual growth.

So God kind of calls us to be in church or start churches and speak to disciples. Surround yourself with people that share the same beliefs as you.

Yeah. In Hebrews, it says, do not neglect the gathering of the brethren as is the habit of some.

So some people, they might be born again, but they're not growing in Christ and they're not being sanctified because, you know, no one's helping them.

And on the flip side of that is, you know, churches need people like you to help other people and be part of a family.

So, yeah, we just want to invite you guys out. Thanks for talking with us. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.

Thanks, Elijah. Nice meeting you. Nice meeting you. What's your name, you guys? Joseph. Nice to meet you, Joseph. Nice to meet you.

All right. Thanks for being on the show. Thank you. Thank you. What's your YouTube? So our podcast that we do, we don't typically do this for our podcast, but it's called

Tearing Down High Places. OK. I want to show you probably. It's on the church website.

OK. The church website is CornerstoneSJ .org. OK. That's on that piece of paper there.

That is YouTube slash at CornerstoneSJ, I think.

Pretty sure. But there's links to it on the website for sure. So, yeah, we'll definitely have you guys on there so you can share your friends or your thing.

Now, don't not get tied into other believers. So if you come to our church and maybe you want a different church, get plugged in because guess what?

Becoming a Christian is not easy. Yeah. Right. It's a lot of discipline.

Well, there's going to be temptation. There's going to be doubts that are going to attack you.

Right. Because guess what? Satan's real. Yeah. When you get closer to God, there's also somebody else trying to get closer to you.

That's right. That's right. Oops. I'm sorry. So I'm still recording. But, yeah.

So, no, you've really got to get tied in and you need people to pray for you. Right.

And as you guys are, you guys need what we call spiritual milk.

So it's like a baby. And so you come to church. We'll plug you in. We're going to talk to you more and get you tied in to other believers.

The very last thing in the book of Matthew that Jesus said is, he said, I have all powers.

It has been given to me. Go out and make disciples. Do you know what a disciple is?

I'm familiar with the word. I'm not too sure exactly the meaning of it. I tell my daughter it's the same as Padawan in Star Wars.

It's a student, right? It's a student. It's a follower. It's got a little bit of a context of a follower, but more so a student that's going to learn.

There's so much to learn. And here's the great news. Here's some other good news. Besides going to heaven, which is wonderful and amazing.

The more you study God's word, the less you'll sin. The more power you'll have over your life.

And you'll be able to bless others, which is the greatest blessing. It's even better to give to others. You'll experience more joy and more peace when you start to invest in others.

But first you've got to get invested. We've got to invest in you and help you learn God's word. You've got to fill up your bucket first. That's right.

Exactly. Exactly. It's a biblical concept that Stephen Covey's talking about.

All right. See you, man. God bless you guys. Nice meeting you. See you, brother.

All right, man. So good. So good. That's God right there. It is, man. That's right. All day.

All right. Bye. See you, buddy. I think it was no coincidence. The people that we met, I think

God sends people and works in people's lives. Anyone who believes can see that it wasn't someone who didn't just wake up one day and want to believe in God.

God uses people and He works. He gets all the glory and credit because even the message we preach is from Him.

It's all the glory. All the glory. All the glory. That's all I can say. All the glory to God. Amen, brother.

All right. I think it was no coincidence.

The people that we met, I think God sends people and works in people's lives. Anyone who believes can see that it wasn't someone who didn't just wake up one day and want to believe in God.

God uses people and He works. He gets all the glory and credit because even the message we preach is from Him.

It's all the glory. All the glory. All the glory. That's all I can say. All the glory to God. Amen, brother.