Open Your Heart — Carter Conlon

I want to bring special greetings to everybody today and I thank God for you taking the time just to be with us and to listen to this brief devotional online. It's March 17th, Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day here in New York City and of course you know and I know that we're in the midst of the coronavirus scare which is starting to terrify people all over the world.

Opening Your Heart to God's Forgiveness

But as the people of God, God promises to you and I an inner strength that comes from Him and from Him alone. So I challenge you today and encourage you, if you don't have a living vibrant relationship with God through Jesus Christ His Son, why don't you right now just open your heart to His offer of forgiveness?

Admitting Sin and Recognizing Its Consequences

You say, well pastor how do I do that? Well it's really quite simple. Firstly, admit that you are a sinner. In other words, you live in a way and you do things you think in a way that's contrary to God's Word and His will for your life.

You know that you're not living right. You know that the things that you're saying or speaking or doing are not right according to the Word of God. And the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ's Sacrifice and Forgiveness

The Bible tells us clearly that sin separates from God. In the Old Testament it required a blood sacrifice to be brought back into right relationship with God. The Bible teaches that all of these blood sacrifices in the Old Testament from people who are trying to get right with God were pointing to one final lasting sacrifice that would be made by the Son of God on a cross, shedding His blood so that whoever comes to Him might be forgiven once and for all and forever.

It's an amazing thing to know that you're forgiven. It's an amazing thing to come to God and just say, Lord I'm a sinner. I live in sin because what my nature is. Only you can change me. And it's amazing to come and say, Lord just forgive me for the way I've lived, the way I've thought, what I've done, for being apart from you and from the kind of a person that you have designed me to be.

Becoming a New Creation Through Christ

I admit my failing and I believe that Jesus Christ died in my place to pay the penalty for the wrong I have done so that I can be set free from the penalty and the power of sin. The Bible tells us that if Christ is in you and you are in Christ, we become a new creation.

The old things in our lives lose their power. They pass away and by God's Holy Spirit inside of these earthen bodies, we become a new person. The person that actually God intended us to be. And the third thing that God asks us to do is to begin to confess with our mouth.

Publicly Confessing Jesus as Lord

So we admit that we're a sinner. We believe that Christ died in our place and then we confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is now our Lord and Savior. It means a public profession. It means this is not a secretive thing anymore.

I am now a follower of Jesus Christ and I've decided with all my heart to live for Him all of my days. It's time to get right with God. It's time to put away the old ways of living. It's the only way you can ever deal with the fear of the future is to know that your future is secure in God.

Praying for Salvation and Eternal Life

It's the only way you can do it. And so this very moment, I'm just going to ask you if you've never done it before, would you pray this simple prayer with me out loud? I'll say it first and you can repeat it.

Lord Jesus Christ, I am a sinner. I've lived apart from you and I deserve to be punished because of the way I've lived. But I'm so thankful today that you loved me enough that you came into this world as a man, Jesus Christ.

You went to a cross. You suffered a death to pay the price for the wrong I've done. Today, I open my heart to your offer of forgiveness. I ask you to come into my life to be my Lord and my Savior. I believe that I'm received by you and forgiven because I am sincere in this prayer.

You promised that you would forgive me and you promised that you would keep me and you promised that when I die, heaven where you dwell will be my eternal home. If you've just prayed that in your heart, whether or not you could follow all of my words, the Bible declares you to be born again by the Spirit of God, declares you to be forgiven, promises you that God's Holy Spirit will come and dwell inside your physical body, changing you from the inside out as evidence that you are now in right relationship with God.

God's Promise of Power Over Fear

The Bible tells us that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but a power and love and of a sound mind. When you know where you're going at the end of this life, suddenly it takes the fear out of the journey.

Congratulations today. Thank you for joining the family of God. I look forward to hearing from you. This is a good day for you. Thank you. God bless you.