In this sermon entitled "The Inescapable Question" by Skipp Heitzig, the speaker begins by discussing the importance of biblical literacy and understanding the truth of the Bible. He emphasizes the need for personal discovery and not relying on the voices of others. The sermon then shifts to the message conveyed by a billboard depicting Jesus on the cross with the words "Now it's your move." The speaker highlights the significance of Jesus' claims and presents three options: that he was either a lunatic, a liar, or the Son of God. The sermon concludes with the challenge for individuals to confront the claims of Christ and make a decision about who he truly is.

This tape is entitled the inescapable question and is given by Skip Heitzik. Let's open up with the word of prayer Father we thank you that You are our special guest in this service this evening And we invite you Lord to open up your word and show us wondrous things out of it cause our minds and hearts to understand what we read and Motivate us Lord to apply it in an obedient lifestyle For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen There's a term that some of us use called biblical literacy It is understanding what the Bible says and it comes through being exposed to the truth of it But there was a guy one time and I brought the story about him who stood before a church council and they were actually Candidating him to see if he should become a member of the church and they wanted to test his knowledge of the Bible his accuracy of the scripture and so they turned to him and they said well Tell us what your favorite Book in the Bible is he said well, it's in the New Testament. It's the book of parables And they said hmm Why don't you tell us one of the stories? from this book of parables and so this uncertain candidate stood in front of these men and said well once upon a time a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves and the thorns grew up and choked that man and he went on and the Queen of Sheba saw him and she gave that man sir a thousand talents of gold and silver and a hundred changes of raiment and he got in his chariot and drove furiously and When he was driving along under a big tree his hair got caught in a limb and left him hanging there And he hung there many days and nights and the Ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink And one night while he was hanging there asleep his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair and he dropped and fell on the stony ground and it began to rain and it rained and rained for 40 days and 40 nights and He hid himself in a cave and he went out and he met a man that said come and take supper with me But he said I cannot come for I have married a wife and the man went out into the highways and byways and compelled him to come in and He went on and came to Jerusalem and saw Queen Jezebel sitting high up in a window And when she saw him she laughed and he said throw her down and he said throw her down from there again, and they threw her down 70 times 7 and Of the fragments they picked up 12 baskets full Haha Now whose wife will she be in the Day of Judgment Quite sketchy in his Bible knowledge Of course, there is one certain person in certain Biblical theme that no one can ever make a mistake about and that is who Jesus is you can make a mistake about a lot of things in the scripture oftentimes. We misquote it But if there's one thing you can never make a mistake about that's the person of Jesus And I think you will agree there has been no person in history who has influenced the world like Jesus Christ has Our whole method of dating revolves around Jesus being born. We have BC and we have a D No check is valid. No document is legal unless it bears reference to the birth of Jesus Christ. It has to be dated Socrates taught for 40 years Plato taught for 50 years Aristotle taught for 40 years Jesus only taught for three years and yet he had more influence on all of the world than all of these men put together Jesus never was a painter. He never drew a picture and you think of all the paintings that have him as the subject He never wrote a song but Bach Mendelssohn and some of the greatest songwriters use Jesus as the center and the theme of their music well in chapter 16 Jesus is still training his disciples They are in a process of discovering who Jesus is and chapter 16 is the final examination it's the test and there's only two questions on this test and One of these questions is the ultimate question that every human being must face in life In fact, this one question is the hinge that opens the door of eternity for every single person and that is who is Jesus Christ personally to you and It's a question that everyone must face non-christian and Christian or we read in verse 13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples Saying who do men say that I the Son of Man am? And so they said some say John the Baptist and some Elijah others Jeremiah or one of the prophets and he said to them, but who do you say that I am and Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ or Messiah the Son of the Living God Jesus answered and said to him blessed are you Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you but my father who is in heaven and You are Peter and upon this rock. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth Shall be loosed in heaven Now Peter got it, right Who is Jesus? You will never be settled Until that question is settled and once that question is settled in your life You can be settled and have rest. It was a W Tozer who said these words we do not preach Christ with a comma after his name as though waiting for something else or Christ with a dash after his name as though leading to something else, but we preach Christ Period Now in this section of Scripture Jesus has withdrawn from the crowds and he's gotten alone with his disciples The people were trying to force him to become a king as we read this morning the leaders were out to get rid of him and to kill him and so Jesus with withdraws from the disciples gets alone to an area up north and He's preparing them with this question this test. Now what we're going to do tonight is examine three things You could slice this message up into three sections First who do people say Jesus is or what is the popular opinion poll of who this Jesus character is and then who does Jesus say he is and Finally the question that Jesus brings to Peter, but who do you say that I am? now first of all the crowd or First of all that the the popular opinion it says in verse 13 when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi He popped this question Which means that Jesus and his disciples took a walk a long walk by the way 25 miles from Galilee to the northeast is an area called Caesarea Philippi first of all it was a welcome relief from Galilee, which is 700 feet below sea level quite hot in the summertime and Walking up 25 miles is the Golan Heights. It's a beautiful area right at the foot of Mount Hermon It was a very important place to the Jewish nation Because it was there at Caesarea Philippi That the River Jordan began and gave life to all of Israel But it also was important to many religions in fact it was said that at one time there were as many as 14 pagan temples at Caesarea Philippi at One time there was the temple to Baal who was worshipped in the Old Testament he was called the God of fertility whom people worshipped by sexual prostitution and by taking their newborn babies and Sacrificing them killing them to Baal Later on there was a temple to the Greek God Panaeus there was a mythological legend that said that this God was born in a cave at the mouth of the Jordan River then A few years after that it was Herod the Great who built a temple to worship Caesar Augustus by the way Caesar Augustus literally means Caesar of the gods because he was worshipped as a deity It was as if Jesus deliberately took his disciples to this place that was famous for its religious background and with this religious backdrop Deliberately Contrasts himself and his claims to all of the other religions that were popular throughout history It was there at this backdrop that he said who do men say that I am Now for anyone else to ask that question it would be arrogant If one of your friends walked up to you and said now who do men say that I am You'd probably say who cares who they say you are you're not that important and For anyone else to ask that would seem prideful, but it's essential that Jesus asked that because a correct Assessment of who Jesus is is critical to salvation I'll refresh your memory with what Paul said in Romans that If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved Now when Jesus asked this question Who do men say that I am He was not Gleaning information from them. He already knew the answer to the question He knew what people thought about who he was, but Jesus Deliberately asked the question I believe to let the disciples ponder Think through the popular perception of who Jesus was During that time who do men say that I am? It was as if Jesus was saying now, let's see the result of my ministry After all of the things I've said after all of the miracles I perform. What is the result of my ministry? What do people think about me? What did do the disciples know? About what other people feel that I really am to them And so he asked this kind of a test question. Who do men say that I am? Now as you can read the opinions varied didn't they? You know what the opinions today still vary as to who Jesus Christ is Jesus is still today the most controversial person on the face of the earth people have more kooky ideas as to who Jesus is than anyone else and People have very different ideas and opinions about who he is, you know, it's real funny Though people know that there was something extraordinary about him something even divine He said the most incredible thing and though they will rank him with some of the greatest people who ever lived Oftentimes the opinions and assessments of Jesus are shallow of being accurate Well, let's look at what they said about him First of all, some said you're John the Baptist Now how on earth did they get the idea that Jesus was John the Baptist? Well, remember Herod the Great? Herod who put John in prison and eventually killed him. Well, he heard the reports of this Jesus walking around the Israel area He heard the reports and he was scared. He said it's John the Baptist. He's risen from the dead he's gonna haunt me for what I did to him and This rumor circulated and people believed it. It is funny that people were so quick to believe that he was Reincarnated John the Baptist rather than believe that he was the Messiah but they believed that he was John the Baptist and I think that there were certain similarities between Jesus ministry and John John the Baptist was quite fiery He was uncompromising. He was a black and white preacher. You could not misunderstand him And Jesus was also quite fiery many times did not compromise the truth but preached it with great fervency and you either loved John the Baptist or you hated him and The way Jesus preached you either loved him or you hated him Even Jesus said you're either for me or against me and there was such a similarity In the way, they presented their ministries that they thought you know that reminds me of John the Baptist And perhaps it was the zeal with with Jesus preached and lived that reminded them of John the Baptist or Perhaps it was the emphasis That John the Baptist had in his ministry that reminded them when they saw Jesus Remember John the Baptist emphasized doing good and not just saying the right thing People came to him to be baptized in the Jordan River and they said John what should we do? And he said bring forth fruit Befitting repentance if you have two cloaks and you see someone who has none give them one do something rather than just say something if you're a tax collector don't rip people off be fair and So in saying that Jesus was John the Baptist they were saying, you know, Jesus is a good man he emphasizes what is right and what is good and You know, there are many people who say the same thing today about Jesus they will recognize Jesus as a good man Not the Messiah Not the Son of God Not God in human flesh But they'll at least give him the idea that well, he's good You know, I get that all the time, don't you? Oh, I don't believe Jesus is God like you Christians do but he was a good man And then somebody said well, he's Elijah or one of the prophets Yeah What they get the idea that he was Elijah He's been dead 900 years at this point Well, remember there's that strange scripture in the Old Testament book of Malachi that promised before the Messiah comes God said I will send Elijah the prophet Jews today still at Passover Will keep a plate on the table and an empty chair in case Elijah pops in during the feast and wants to have a meal They're awaiting Elijah who will precede the Messiah because if Elijah comes the Messiah is not far away But what was it that reminded the people of Elijah when they saw Jesus? Well, what do you think of when you think of Elijah? Power Powerful man Elijah was the greatest prophet to the Jews in the Old Testament Remember on Mount Carmel Elijah said bring 450 prophets of Baal and I'll stand up to all of them alone and He called fire down from heaven and he crispy crittered him right there on the spot Toasted him. You don't want to mess with Elijah There were more miracles at the hand of this one prophet than all of the other prophets in the Old Testament Well, Jesus too was a man of miracles Jesus to heal people like Elijah Jesus raised people from the dead like Elijah and they saw this man of miraculous power and they thought he's a prophet and you know Today people have the same idea of who Jesus is. They'll say oh, he's a good man, and he's even a prophet one of many prophets in the lineup of prophets like Moses Elijah Buddha Muhammad Confucius On down the list Jesus was a good person. He was even a powerful mighty prophet And then they said he was Jeremiah Now you might wonder why would people think he's Jeremiah Well, there was a Jewish story that was circulating around that time and some of the Jews believed that before the Messiah comes that Jeremiah will appear to the Jewish nation and restore proper worship for the altar and for the ark in the temple Also, there was an earmark of Jeremiah's ministry that reminded them When they saw Jesus of Jeremiah and that is he was a compassionate prophet Jeremiah wept over the sins of his people There's a book in the Old Testament called Lamentations where Jeremiah is literally weeping as he sees the city being destroyed By her enemy. He was not a callous man. He was a very compassionate man. And so was Jesus It says that when Jesus saw the crowd of people he had compassion on them because they were like sheep having no shepherd And you know many people today have the same view of Jesus like they did back then They'll say oh, he's a good man like John the Baptist. He's a miraculous powerful man like Elijah or He's so loving and so compassionate not the Messiah not the Son of God Not God in human flesh just a good guy a prophet a loving compassionate person Who do men say that I am and all of their answers are very reflective of what people say today now as you can see the opinions varied and Every single opinion was contradictory Because you couldn't be John the Baptist and Elijah at the same time and All of these opinions were wrong Because Jesus wasn't Elijah. Jesus wasn't John the Baptist Jesus wasn't Jeremiah or just one of the prophets He was Jesus the Messiah the Son of the Living God Though they had many opinions of who he was like people do today. All of them were dead wrong and So then comes the next question who do men or who do you say that I am? You know, I found something interesting about people It seems that those who are the most ignorant about a subject are often the most opinionated about it They won't take the time to research the study and to examine all of the facts But they're very opinionated about a certain subject and I find this in concerning Jesus quite often They'll have long stories and ideas of who Jesus is and they'll live their life based on those ideas But they never take the time to check it out for themselves They will live off the opinions of someone else or their formulate their own They know nothing about the subject, but they're very opinionated and folks. That's why you shouldn't be influenced by the opinions of the crowd Because they so different from one another and they're so contradictory and they're so wrong Just because most people believe something so what at one time most of the world thought that the earth was flat It was part of the science textbook Well, you know most people believe it's true. It's got to be true Well, it's not true, is it? And I could go for evolution. I could go for who Jesus is or a number of subjects The crowd should not be the gauge as to what you believe Now since the time of Jesus many many people have stated who they believe Jesus Christ is and They've said some very wonderful exonerating honorable things But many of them are inaccurate. They're not quite right Let me quote a few of them first Napoleon Bonaparte who said Alexander Caesar and Charlemagne and myself have found a great Empire But Jesus alone founded his empire upon love I know men and Jesus Christ is more than a man. That sounds wonderful, but it's not totally accurate Let's go on Josephus Jewish historian and Pharisee at one time said There was at this time a man named Jesus a wise man if it's lawful to call him a man But he was a doer of wonderful works Traveling on through history man by the name of Strauss a German rationalist said Jesus is the highest model of religion very nice complimentary thing to say But he's inaccurate Then there was the Frenchman Renan who was an atheist who said Jesus is the greatest among the sons of men Now in modern times people say Jesus is a superstar all of these compliments fall short of identifying who he really is And you know, this is the funny part while people will talk about who they think Jesus is and you know God to me is a concept Why don't you ask Jesus who he is Before you formulate an opinion let the man speak Who do men say that I am And before we get into that question, who do you say that I am who did Jesus say he was you see Jesus made some astonishing Unique claims that no one has ever made and either those claims are right or they're wrong He made claims that set him apart from everyone else Who founded any religion or any system or any person that people worship up to this point? You know, isn't it interesting that when you discuss Jesus people will become angry And you can discuss Muhammad Buddha Confucius Any one of the leaders Any religion but in a crowded room talk about Jesus and people get a little scared And you also notice when people want to swear that they take the name of Jesus they don't say Oh Buddha hurt my thumb They don't stub their toe and say I'm Mohammed You know why? because Jesus made claims that Buddha Mohammed and all of these other jokers never made and The claims that he made when a person is confronted with them scares them frankly a little bit They get a little bit itchy. They don't want to face the facts Jesus said I am the way the truth the life No one comes to the father except through me Quite a claim. No one ever else has made that claim One of his disciples Philip said Jesus Would you just show us the father and we'll be happy Well, of course you would who wouldn't But Jesus said Philip don't you know who I am if you've seen me you've seen the father Quite a claim. No one's ever made that claim Jesus was the one that promised to quench universal thirst for everyone To the woman at the well, he said drink from this water and you'll thirst again But if a person drinks from the water that I give him he will never ever thirst Then there was the night that Jesus was having dinner at the home of an elite Pharisee and many famous religious elite Religious leaders were there and as they were having the meal a harlot came in and Started crying all over Jesus feet and taking his hair and started wiping him down And the Pharisees were thinking, you know, if this guy were a prophet he would know who this woman is Then Jesus said something that just blew him away he turned to the woman and he said woman your sins are forgiven And the Pharisees No one except God can forgive sin, right Now you're catching on You see he made some incredible claim That we must deal with and If these claims are true, then he's not just a prophet He's not just a nice guy. Not just a good teacher. Not just a miracle worker He's who he claimed to be Let me read a couple scriptures don't have to turn to them Let me just read a few of these claims a little further on and John chapter 5 goes like this For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath Jesus answered them. My father has been working until now and I have been working. He put himself on par with God's activity Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath But he said that God was his father making himself equal with God John 10 the Jews surrounded him and said to him How long do you keep us in doubt if you are the Messiah then tell us plainly and Jesus answered. I told you And you don't believe I and my father are one Means one in essence One in unity The Jews took up stones to stone him and Jesus said many good works have I done for which of them do you stone me? And Jesus answered saying not for a good work. Do we stone you but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God See, they definitely understood his claim And then the icing on the cake is John chapter 8 Where the enemies of Jesus are around him and Jesus said your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it He was glad the Jews said to him. You're not even 50 years old yet You said you've seen Abraham Jesus said to them most assuredly I say to you before Abraham was I am and He used a Greek construction Ego me Which is the same as in the Old Testament when Moses said who shall I say sent me and God said I am that I am Before Abraham was I am did the Jews to stand and go. Okay, great No scripture tells us this Then they took up stones to stone at him Why because they knew who he claimed to be that he claimed to be God in human flesh Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin a few years later and The high priest looked at him and said are you the Son of God which is the title for deity? Jesus said right on let's paraphrase You're accurate I am and it says the high priest tore his robe Now high priest was forbidden by law to tear his garment unless someone committed blasphemy He tore his robe Because Jesus claimed to be God. Oh Who do men say that I am? Well, wait a minute Jesus. Who do you say that? You are the Son of God God in human flesh Not a good teacher like John the Baptist Not just a prophet like Elijah Not just a compassionate wonderful person like Jeremiah the Son of God God in human flesh That's who Jesus Christ claimed to be and he accepted worship as God for you remember after the resurrection He said Thomas Take your hand and touch these wounds and see that it is I and Thomas fell down and you remember what he said He said my lord and my God Now that's accurate Who Jesus claimed he was folks. Let's be very honest here. If Jesus was not God he deserves an Academy Award Because he played it to the hilt and he made such claim There was a man in the 1800s early 1900s by the name of CS Lewis a brilliant educator from Cambridge England He was an atheist He Didn't like Christians, but he converted to Christianity and later on. He wrote a book called mere Christianity and he wrote these words. I Am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him Which is I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God That is one thing We must not say for any man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he's a poached egg Or else he would be the devil of hell You must make the choice either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse Now if you were to boil it down just logically you'd say that there's two options To the claims of Jesus and that is either his claims were accurate or his claims were false Those are the only two options you have he made claims. He was either right or wrong Okay, let's suppose just for a minute. He was wrong. He made all of his wonderful claims, but he was wrong well, you only again have two alternatives a When he spoke the claims he knew he was wrong or be when he spoke the claims He really believed in them, but he was wrong and he didn't know it Well, let's explore the first option. Let's say Jesus claimed. I'm the way the truth of life. I'm God. I'm the Son of God and He knew that his claims were false, what does that make him a liar Not a good prophet a nice teacher Makes him a liar if he said something and deliberately misrepresented the truth. He lied and he was a hypocrite Because he told people to tell the truth at all costs while he himself didn't do it and It would also make him a fool wouldn't it because it was those very claims that nailed him to a cross Well, let's explore the second option let's say he was wrong and he really believed in his claims Really thought he was all those things, but he was just wrong. I mean many people have said things and they're just mistaken What does that make him? It makes him a crazy person any person who would make those sort of claim and Really believed they were true, but they weren't makes him a megalomaniac is the psychological term delusions of grandeur What would you think if President Bush stood on national television? State of the Union message all the cameras are focused in on him all of America's watching him closely and he says now read my lips I'm the way the truth of life. No one comes to God unless he comes through me. I'm the resurrection in the life Before Abraham was I existed They toss him into the brink. They put him in a white coat. He's a crazy man you don't make these sort of claims and Believe that they're true when they're false unless you're nuts And then again that doesn't make him a moral teacher Just a prophet a loving compassionate person there's a third option and that is his claims were accurate and He is the Son of God And he is the way the truth of life He is God in human flesh. You must be born again and the claims of Christ confront you like they confront everyone else Jesus Christ either was who he said he was or he's a lunatic or a liar Again it was CS Lewis who wrote these words. You can shut him up for a fool You can spit at him and you can kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher He has not left that option open to us and he did not intend to Now when the disciples told Jesus the popular opinions of the crowds Jesus knew and the disciples knew that that wasn't accurate. And so now Jesus asks the second ultimate question on the test He says, okay now that I know what people think about me, who do you say that I am? I'm sure that there was a little bit of silence for a few minutes Because now we're not talking about other people Jesus zeroes the sermon home to them Well, they answered him. Let's read the verses together verse 17 or verse 16 Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ the Son of the Living God Jesus said blessed are you Simon Barjona in other words bingo Right on you got it, right? You passed the test Her flesh and blood has not revealed this to you But my father who is in heaven you didn't get this information from listening to the crowd. In fact What you are saying is contradictory to what they are saying But my father has revealed this to you and you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it What Peter believed and what Peter said was against what people were saying in his day Dwight L. Moody a famous preacher in Chicago once said that those Christians who move the world are those Christians who? Refuse to let the world move them They stay right where they're at You know one thing's for sure folks. You can never make a decision about who Jesus is by listening to other people And isn't it funny how so many people will take what other people say? For all of their education and knowledge about the gospel, they will listen to opinions rather than check it out You can't discover who Jesus is by asking people there's another thing for sure and That is the evidence for Jesus being the Son of God is there The evidence for him being God and human flesh is there For you to reject that evidence Means you are stubborn or you want to stay in a state of immorality and rebellion against God because the facts are there and There are many people who say you know I Just can't believe in God Josh McDowell was giving a series of lectures one time and he said To one person who was in the crowd. He spoke about who Jesus wasn't very intellectual professor. He said You know Josh it was a great study and all but I just can't believe That Jesus is the Son of God. I just can't I'd like to but I can't Josh said let me ask you something If I could prove to you that he was would you give your life to him the man said no Josh said then don't tell me you can't tell me you won't You don't have a problem with your will or with your ability, but with your will You should say I refuse I won't believe in him Now that question is still an inescapable question Who do you say that Jesus is now some of you would automatically say he's the Son of God But there's some others you might say well. I don't know I've always believed. He was a good person. He was a prophet he said wonderful things he did wonderful things and My friends and my parents say this about him well, you know right now. It doesn't really matter That's not the issue what other people say about him Not even the issue right now what he says about himself. That's a given But what do you personally individually say about Jesus who is Jesus to you tonight? You know what it's impossible to be neutral isn't it? Wasn't it Jesus who said you are either for me, or you're against me You either help gather or you scatter I? Don't give you that option of neutrality you say skip Why are you making such a big issue about the person of Jesus that he's the Son of God that he's God in human flesh I? Mean why is that the big deal well? let me tell you why it's the big deal because John closes out his gospel by saying these things and Truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God And that believing you may have life in his name That's why we're making such a big deal out of it Because Jesus said and did certain things and by believing in them you may have life in his name your decision determines your destiny I Remember I read to you what Napoleon said about Jesus well Did you know that later on in life Napoleon wrote something else about him listen to this? He said if Socrates would enter the room we should rise and do him honor But if Jesus Christ came into the room we should fall down on our knees and worship him And that's right. We should worship him Now I don't need to tell you you already know, but there are many voices out in that world Telling you what you ought to do telling you how you ought to live telling you what their idea about God is or religion or? Eternity there's the New Age. There's this cult. There's that religion many voices Well who do you say that he is I Heard about a guy in England he had trouble hearing even at a hearing aid And he went to his doctor and had him self-checked And it says as soon as the doctor pulled the hearing aid out of his ear immediately his hearing improved and They discovered that this man wore the hearing aid in the wrong ear for 20 years What a bummer 20 years He had the thing in the wrong ear listening to the wrong voices Did you notice something that? Peter made a personal discovery He didn't listen to everybody else's voice after watching Jesus Perform his miracles after hearing what Jesus was saying he made his own personal discovery of Who he was He made his own personal step If you do much traveling and you take a car and drive on I-10 and end up down in, Louisiana Just as you're driving up over the bridge to go over the Mississippi River. There's a billboard it towers above the city You can't miss it as you're going up over the bridge There's a picture of Jesus dying on the cross blood coming out of his hands and his feet and in bold letters It simply says now it's your move a Great message now, it's your move Tonight I'm not asking you who people say that he is. I already know what they say he is Tonight I am NOT asking what Jesus says about himself We already know who he is what he claimed to be but who do you personally say he is now? You know what that is a question that frankly many people Hear and put off for years. I was raised in a religious home I thought because I went to church and was religious that I answered that question and I didn't I Was resting upon what my parents told me but I haven't made it ever up to that point a personal decision and commitment to Jesus and Many people grow up like that. They're drug to church They're very religious they're very upright, but they've never settled the question of who Jesus is to them personally and Until you've come to him and said my lord and my god that question isn't settled. Let's pray right now Our Heavenly Father You sent Jesus into this world to die for sinners And that by dying he might save them or for so many of us We have already answered the question We believe you're the Messiah the Son of God By believing we have life in that name and there are others Lord precious ones whom you love Who've not yet made a step all they believe In their head, I guess they know But they've never surrendered to you they've never fallen down on their knees and said my lord and my god I commit myself to you Lord I pray right now, would you do in this room a mighty work of tenderly drawing those to that place of saying I Say that you are the Messiah the Son of the Living God and tonight I commit my life to you tonight. I surrender to you Lord then would you invade their life and change them? And let them know Your goodness and your mercy As you are continuing to pray The time of great reverence I'd ask no one to leave the auditorium right now. I am going to give an invitation and I'm going to ask I'm going to plead with you That if you have never surrendered to this Unique individual Jesus who alone can give you purpose and meaning in life that you do it tonight That you won't wait another day that you won't say. Oh, I'll think about it You do it now You won't go out and ask your friends if it's okay, you won't go home and ask your parents if it's okay You will make a commitment to Jesus tonight If you desire to have the forgiveness of your sins and get a clean start a clean slate If you desire to experience the love and the forgiveness of Jesus I want you to surrender your life to Jesus tonight And if that is your desire, I want you to take the first step as God tonight would ask you the same question Who do you say that Jesus is? While listening to this tape perhaps God's Spirit has been talking to your heart If you felt the need to draw closer to your Creator, why not start today? God has provided a way for man to enter into relationship with him forever through his son Jesus Christ Jesus said I'm the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father, but by me The Bible says that as many as receive him to them give he power to become the children of God You too can receive him right now by asking him to forgive you of your sin And asking him to come into your life and to be Lord and Savior of your life If you'd like to receive Jesus Christ in your life today, you can do so through a simple little prayer