Transcript:
Those who are able please stand for the reading of today's scripture. We are going to touch on 2 pieces of scripture, Genesis 1:26-27 and James 4:8

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

And in the first part of James 4:8 God says, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Please be seated.

Dear Lord, please empower me through your Holy Spirit to be able to bring forth this message you have given me, because I cannot do this without you. Also Lord, I pray that you will open the hearts of all who are listening so that they may hear your words through me and that they will learn and understand what it is that you desire for them to know. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Every human being, whether they are a believer in Jesus Christ or not, has been created in the image of God. However, the image of God that we have been created in, is not really evident at times as we will see through my brief testimony that I'm going to share, even after we come to Christ, at least in the early stages of the new life we've received. We will also see through this message what being created in His image and likeness really is and how drawing near to Him will start the process of restoring us into what He created us to be. And we will see the method God has put into place to restore our relationship with Him and the image He created us to reflect.

Today's message is titled "The Destruction and Restoration of God's image within us.

I did not come from a very religious family. I remember going to Sunday school and learning about Jesus but over the years of early childhood we drifted from going to church regularly for various reasons and we ended up going more just on holidays, weddings and funerals.

I remember somewhere between the ages of 10 to 12 being in the backyard with a friend of mine named Rich, but the strange thing I remember is that the only conversation I had with him was him telling me about the need to go to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

I don't have any other remembrance of him as far as doing anything together as friends or school, where he lived or even his last name. But, I believe now, he was more an angel sent from God, than just a friend.

Anyway, time and life continued on, and as I have come to know and realize now, I was a horrible wicked person. That may sound harsh to say about myself, but when God opens your eyes to your sinfulness, you then realize you're not what you thought you were. I thought I was pretty good and that I wasn't that bad, but I found that based on God's standard of perfection, I was worse than I thought.

I was totally self-centered and extremely selfish. I angered easily, used extensive profanity, I dealt with bouts of drunkeness, addictions to nicotine, I committed sexual lusts, acts of deception, lies, theft, hatred, idolatry and so much more. I broke every one of the Ten Commandments and all that is a part of them. I WAS A MESS...a Sinner in the Eyes of a Holy God.

I've been divorced twice, married 3 times. During my first marriage, my wife Helena and I gave our hearts to the Lord, but we failed to draw near to Him and to live our lives for Him. Our marriage finally fell apart and we ended up in divorce.

In 1999, I went through a second divorce and it wiped me out financially and I moved in with my son and his family. I started looking for all kinds of ways to make money and I was introduced to the internet and became addicted to it and the computer and they became an idol to me and for many years I tried to find ways to make that almighty dollar.

In 2001 I lost my job as an independent operator for Fed/Ex and I was at rock bottom for the next several years. I moved from New Jersey to Florida to start over by helping my sister and brother-in-law with their business, but still could not make ends meet and I eventually lost my car through repossession.

During this time period 1999 to 2001 I learned how to set up and design a basic website and I put together my own adult sites that I tried to sell all kinds of stuff to make money because the number one thing that people were looking for online was how to satisfy the human urges of sexual lust. I was actually serving the devil by leading people into sin through sexual immorality and lusts of the flesh.

The adult sites were not a good money maker so I went to the second most popular item people were going online for and that was online gambling. I got in touch with an online gambling company and they embeded a piece of software with my affiliate ID and I set up a gaming website to lure people into entering the online casino through my website so they could gamble online. I was trying to satisfy my own fleshly desire to make it big financially because the more they lost, the more I got paid in commissions. I was cashing in on their financial losses and the financial pain they would suffer in.

During all of this time, I was not drawing near to God and I certainly was not reflecting the image God had created me in.

It was also during this same time when all this was happening that I met someone online and we started talking. She had struggles as well, which ended in divorce. Little did I know then, that this woman would play a special part in my life and that we would eventually end up getting married. (I Love You, Nancy).

In July 2004, I started to have a problem with swollen glands in the side of my neck, and I could feel what felt like a lump in my throat.

I went to the local clinic and they ran several tests and they all came back negative for what they were testing for, but the doctor finally told me it MIGHT be throat cancer. They gave me a 14 day prescription of antibiotics and told me to come back in 14 days. As I left the office I was horrified and scared to death. I did not know what I was going to do if I really did have throat cancer.

After I got home that day, I went on the computer and I looked up the symptoms for throat cancer and it seemed that I had them all.

Every day since I went to the clinic, on a daily basis, I was trying to smoke less. Each night I would take the cigarettes I had left and tore them in half and threw them in the garbage and I would tell myself I was done smoking.

Then, each day I would make it to about lunch time then the urge and cravings got to me and I would go out and buy another pack and I would tell myself just smoke one to relieve the urge and anxiety. I ended up smoking about 6 to 8 during the course of the day and then at night before going to bed I did the same thing. Tore them up, threw them out and said I'm done.

Over the years before this happened, I tried numerous ways to quit. I tried the gum, hypnosis several times, the fake cigarettes etc., but nothing worked. Finally in my desperation to quit and because of my failures of trying to do it on my own, I turned to God. I started praying daily, more than once a day, for Jesus to help me to finally become a non-smoker and to prevent me from having throat cancer.

After 14 days there were no changes in my condition so I went to the emergency room and asked them to find out what was wrong. They set me up to see an ear, nose and throat specialist and it was another week and a half before I could get the appointment.

When I went in to see the specialist, he looked deep down into my throat with a big bright light. He finally sat down on his chair with wheels and rolled himself against the wall on the other side of the room.

He then proceeded to write on his pad, for probably 2 - 3 minutes, but it felt like an hour, and this was making me very nervous because he wasn't saying anything, just doing a lot of writing.

He then looked up at me and said, "You DO NOT have throat cancer".

Thank you Lord, I felt greatly relieved. He told me, my throat was raw and burned and that the swelling of the glands on the side of my throat was a reaction to the rawness in my throat, but we never found the actual cause.

He then said the following, he said, "However if you DO NOT QUIT smoking NOW, you WILL HAVE throat cancer". I look back on that now and I believe God used him to say that to me as a way of saying, it's time to make a decision and I had a lot of decisions to make.

He did not prescribe any medication for my symptoms or anything else, that was it. I left his office and I had about 6 cigarettes in my pocket. I took them out, tore them up and said God I need you now, I don't want these things and I threw them out. That was on 8/14/2004.

In fact, I went to Walmart after leaving his office and had a sickening sensation come over me as I approached the store and had to walk past people outside who were smoking. I had to hold my breath till I got past them because the smell was nauseating. From that day forward, no more cravings, no more symptoms of withdrawal or desires to smoke. Praise God, because for the first time, I was experiencing within me a peace and calmness over something I could not control before. I now have no desire within me to smoke again and it was as if I had never smoked in my life.

Jesus did for me what I could not do myself. He took away the demonic stronghold that we call an addiction and He did it in a nano-second.

With all that I had been through and in seeing what Jesus had done for me I wanted to know Him more. As this desire was growing stronger over the next few years and since my living in Florida was putting a strain on my relationships, I felt it was time to make another decision and I decided that I would move from Florida to either New Hampshire or New Jersey because I was tired of my old life and I wanted to start a new life.

So, I made the move and that's how I ended up here. Nancy and I started going to church on a regular basis, we got married, Nancy and my son John David had been sharing scripture with each other and I was feeling left out so to speak. Nancy said I should order my own Bible so I could get into God's word more often as well and not just on Sundays.

As I got into God's word more, this desire to know Him more, as I mentioned before, really started to kick in and eventually the Lord led us to this church.

One day after we had become members of this church, I believe that God used my wife Nancy by inspiring her to ask me if I wanted to attend a prayer meeting at the church. I had no idea what it was about, but I said why not.

I thought we were just going to listen to others talk about prayer, but when we got here I noticed 8 to 10 seats in front of the altar forming a half circle.

I was invited to take one of the seats, so I took the last one. As the members started praying I noticed that each person would pray and then the next one and so on and it was getting closer to me and I thought great, am I to pray also? Lord, I have no idea what to pray for and I've never prayed in the open in front of other people. But I prayed and it has been a life changing event.

Nancy and I are now members of the Prayer Team, the "School of the Holy Spirit", which meets once a week and we pray for our Apostle, Pastors, our Church ministries, our Congregation and community, for anyone who has a prayer request or is in need of prayer along with praying for any special needs we may have ourselves.

Towards the end of one of our Prayer Sessions as I was Praying for help with some financial concerns that we were having because my employment was going through some new ownership issues and hours where being cut, that 2 of the Prayer Team Members came and stood behind me and laid their hands on my shoulders and back as we prayed.

As we were praying, I heard a small voice telling me to place my left hand on the member's hand who had placed his hand on my right shoulder. As I did this, I felt a Physical Sensation move into my right shoulder and I could actually feel it slowly moving down from my right shoulder into the right side of my chest. It was a warm, tingling, vibrating feeling, sort of like a mild electrical current that I could physically feel, it continued to move into the center of my chest area and once it was there, I felt a warming sensation like warm water flowing within me.

As I was feeling the Presence of the Holy Spirit, I started saying things in prayer that were coming out of my mouth faster than my mind could think or express them. The Holy Spirit had taken over and was revealing Himself to me and others that were there.

Shortly after this, God answered our prayers, my hours did not get cut and we were financially blessed.

On November 1 2018, I had to have a colonoscopy. I'm not going to go into all the details prior to it but, on the day that it was to be done, Nancy and I were in the prep room waiting for me to go in for the procedure and she asked me several times if I was nervous and I would tell her not really. But in a way I was, I just did not want to confess or acknowledge it.

I had been praying for the procedure to go well and for God to help me not to become frightened or overwhelmed with it since I had never had an operation before where I had to be put to sleep, so this was all new to me and it was unsettling.

When they took me into the room to get things ready, the anesthesiologist began to put the needles into my arm and he proceeded to explain what he was doing and what would be happening as I would drift off into sleep. I kind of blocked out what he was saying and started to pray in my mind.

Lord Jesus, I have never been put to sleep like this before and I don't know what the outcome will be, but I know you know. Your word tells us in Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: but we don't know that time, so if this is the time that has been appointed to me, I want to be right with you and I confess my sins.

I know I confessed before and you have forgiven me and I am forgiven of all my sins but I just want to make sure nothing has slipped through the cracks so to speak. I want to be right with you in your eyes because there are so many sins that I am guilty of including sins that I have committed that I am not even aware of yet, along with sins for things I should have done and haven't. So I just want to come clean with you now and confess of my continued sinfulness and to thank you for forgiving me, and as I was doing this I drifted off.

Nancy was in the waiting room looking at the lights on the wall that would tell you the stages of the operation you were in and she was getting concerned herself since the lights for quite a while had not changed showing that I was out of surgery and in recovery, instead a nurse shows up telling her they were having a hard time waking me up and she asked if she would come and help thinking that if I heard her voice that would help to wake me up.

I was finally woken up by Nancy being by the bedside calling my name quite loudly and when I finally opened my eyes and saw Nancy looking at me I had this extreme sense of peace and comfort come over me and this overwhelming feeling of excitement.

During the operation, I was aware of being in a dark setting, seeing nothing around me sort of like when you are in a dream state where you can see yourself consciously and I could see and feel myself walking and as I was walking I could see clear as day on my right side in my peripheral vision another person walking along side of me in arms length.

He was very close to the point I could have reached out and touched Him, but what made it strikingly different was that I did not see this person in the flesh. Instead, He shone like the noonday sun from the tip of His head to the soles of His feet, His entire body shown like that, but I could distinctly make out the shape of a head, neck, body, arms moving from side to side and legs and feet moving as we walked together side by side.

Nancy said when I finally opened my eyes that my face had a glow to it and all I could say was, WOW, you won't believe what just happened to me. I was walking with Jesus, and that's why they could not wake me up, I was spending time with the Lord.

God wants each of us to know Him personally, as well. He wants you and me to understand that He loves us more than we can ever imagine and that He is more involved in our lives than we ever thought. He is a personal God who desires a personal relationship with His creation, whom He created in His image.

To bring things up to date, Jesus has set me free from my addiction to smoking, from sexual lust, from the love of money and so much more. I still work part-time online, but not to make money or in serving the devil and the powers of darkness as I had been doing before, but to serve the Lord. He inspired me to put together a website for Him to spread His word worldwide in the hope of bringing people to the knowledge of God and the gift of eternal life He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus has shown me through my life the destruction of his image, and now He is in the process of restoring His image within me. I'm not perfect, at least not yet, not until He brings me home through death or the rapture. I'm a work in progress, because I still sin, but He continues to forgive me and He continues to transform me through His Holy Spirit into who He created me to be.

God has put it on my heart to do this message about His image and drawing near to Him because as I would go about my work, watching my co-workers and just seeing people in general in other places such as in the stores, etc., I would think and pray for them and say Lord, if they only knew who You are, and what You've done and that they have been created by you in your image, because so many of them have no idea of who you are and what truly lies ahead for them.

As we read through the old testament, we see that satan had gained control over the earth again after he deceived Adam and Eve in the garden because satan is mentioned several times in scripture as the ruler of this world in John 12:31, John 14:30 and John 16:11 and we also see throughout scripture where satan was trying all kinds of ways to stop the seed, also known as offspring, from coming forth.

We also read where God said in Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. As we continue to read through the old testament, we see satan trying to stop the seed, offspring from bringing forth the one God said would bruise his head. Another word would take away his rule and authority over the earth which was given back to him by Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God in the garden.

So satan influences others to kill those who he believes would be in the lineage of the one God said would bruise his head. Cain kills Abel, Pharaoh kills all the Isreali male boys, but God stepped in and saved Moses, Herod killing all the children 2 years and younger to try to stop the one he heard had been born King of the Jews through the wise men, as soon on and so on.

It seems that now that Jesus has finally come and died at the cross and rose again, defeating death and conquering sin, now satan can't stop Him from coming through destroying the seed so now he is destroying the very image of God, to prevent us from coming to Christ for salvation and once we do and are saved, he continues to work on stopping us from getting to know Christ in order to have a personal relationship with Him and growing into our callings in order for us to fulfill our role in advancing the Kingdom of God.

satan is trying to stop the promises of God from being fulfilled. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

If satan can stop the fulfillment of God's promises, in building His church and the future fulfillment of the prayer He gave us that says, "thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven", then he can prove God to be a liar and thus defeat God claiming victory over God.

In Isaiah 14:13-14 we can read about the 5 "I will" statements of satan showing how he wanted to be like God and the part that satan wanted most, was independence. He wanted to be self-sustaining and self reliant on himself as God is. And that is what he deceives us with through the issue of pride, to be self-sufficient and independent within ourselves to the point that we believe we can do it all on our own and we don't need God for anything, we can find reference to this in 2 Timothy 3:1-4.

All we have to do is to look at the news or to things going on around us and we can see the fulfillment of what God said in his word. We are seeing the destruction of His image. But to understand the destruction of His image within us, we need to know what His image and likeness is, that we have been created in.

When we look into a mirror, we see an image of ourselves, at least physically. But there is much more to us than what we see physically. It is our very soul itself. It's the unseen part of ourselves, it's what makes us who we are. Our character, emotions, thoughts, consciousness.

John 4:24 states that God is Spirit and He exists without a body, but Adam was created in flesh and blood. Since God is spirit and Adam was flesh and blood, where is the resemblance and likeness?

Genesis 2:7 says that God formed Adam from the dust and gave him life by sharing His own breath.

Since God breathed His breath of life into mankind it shows He is sharing His life with us. We were created to reflect back to God, His character traits morally, mentally, socially and relationally.

We did not evolve from other lower forms of life. That is a lie taught to us and it is being taught to our children in school.

We have been created to live forever with an eternal soul by an Eternal Being, God, who created all things through His Son Jesus. Every human being was created by Jesus Christ and created for Jesus Christ as referenced in Colossians 1:16.

Adam was created to mirror the life of God in the sense that He was created in perfect health and not to die, but death in many forms came to Adam and the whole human race because of the curse due to the fall.

Another part of our likeness to God that sets us apart from the rest of His creation is that He gave us dominion over His Creation mentioned in Genesis 1:28 and the ability to communicate with Him, our creator.

Mentally, we are created with the ability to reason and choose. We were given freedom and ability to make choices and decisions. This can be found in Genesis 2:19 where God brought the animals He created to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

Morally, we were created to conform to a standard of right behavior. God created Adam and therefore all mankind in righteousness and perfect innocence, which is a reflection of God's holiness. You can find reference to this in Genesis 1:31.

We can see in Genesis 3:8 and Genesis 2:18 that we were created to be social and to have a relationship with the rest of God's creation, having fellowship with Him and each other. In the garden of Eden, Adam who represents mankind had a relationship with God.

John 1:1-2 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God and in Luke 3:22 it says And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." Here we have all 3, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, together at the same time. One God operating in the 3 different character relational aspects of the one God.

This is a reflection of God's triune nature, relationship with Himself, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and we were created to reflect that same relational aspect that He has with Himself, we are to reflect that back to Him and with each other.

We too have been created with a body, soul and spirit. 3 Relational Character aspects in one. But always remember, that does not make us God, for we are created beings and God is not.

We have been Fearfully and Wonderfully created by the hand of God Himself as found in Psalm 139:14

We have been created as a masterpiece because we are His workmanship mentioned in Ephesians 2:10.

And Ephesians 1:4 it mentions that He chose us before the foundation of the world and in 2 Corinthians 6:18 we find that through the act of adoption we become His sons and daughters and he becomes our Father.

We are not an afterthought. We are not mutants. We are not a mistake. We are not worthless. We are intelligent, emotional, and creative beings crafted with purpose and dignity because He created us in His image. However, even though we still bear the image of God, we also bear the scars of sin, mentally, morally, socially, and eventually, physically.

Our sin separates us from God and what He created us to be. Mentally, we can't get along with ourselves, socially we can't get along with others, morally we continue to do wrong things, and eventually our souls will be separated from our physical bodies.

We all face various forms of death in these areas that I just mentioned because the first part of Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But death is not the ending or stopping of life, it is a separation. It's through these various forms of death, (separation in our lives), that we can see and experience the destruction of God's image and likeness that we were originally created to reflect.

And after all this, we will all face physical death, where our souls will leave our bodies and enter into one of 2 eternal destinations. One that is either with God for eternity or without God for eternity and God has given us this short time that each of us are living in now to come to the decision as to whether we want to be with Him or not.

In order to reverse the damage to His image and to restore the relationship He wants with us, not just in the time that we are living and experiencing now, but for eternity, God has to get rid of sin, because it is our sin, (our wrongdoings etc.), that seperate us from a holy and perfect God.

So where are we going with all this?

God wants His Image Restored. But it's not just His image that He wants to restore, it's also the relationship that was lost through the curse because of the fall in the garden, that He longs to restore and to have with us.

God has put a plan of redemption into place to restore the relationship He wants to have with us and to restore His image in us and in those who don't know Him, and that plan of redemption is through the salvation process that He offers through His Son Jesus, in the forgiveness of sins and the implanting of the Holy Spirit within us.

So what is this plan of redemption?

It's called being BORN AGAIN... John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, (that's Nicodemus), "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Once we are Born Again, it is through the process of us drawing near to God, inviting Him into our lives and all that we do on a daily basis and through the daily reading of His word, (the Bible), and studying His word that the Holy Spirit works within us, restoring us into the image He created us in and bringing us back into relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ.

That's why it is so important to read God's word found in the Bible so we can learn the truth of who God is and what He's done for us, and how we are to really live life. The Bible is God's instruction manual to living life as God the creator intended. BIBLE - Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.

All throughout our lives we receive instruction manuals on how to do things through our school years, employee instruction manuals from work, instruction manuals on how to build, make and operate the things we use and we have no problem using them. So it's a shame that we don't use the instruction manual that our Creator has given us to find out how to live life. We often complain about how rough and how bad life is, well it's no wonder, because we haven't gotten into the instruction manual that shows us how to live life.

Instead we struggle daily through our flesh that works against us, through the lies and deception that the powers of darkness use to keep us from completely surrendering to Him and tries to keep us and those who do not know him yet, ignorant of His word and from having a meaningful relationship with our creator.

When tribulations and hardships or problems in life occur, how do we respond and react to them and to those around us? Do we respond by representing the image of satan, by responding in anger, frustration, foul language, hatred, a lack of grace and mercy? Or do we respond in the image of God that we were created in by showing love, compassion, patience, understanding, grace and mercy.

In John 1:14 it says And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. When Jesus walked and lived on this earth, He revealed to us the image of God that we are supposed to be like and He did it by showing us through the Fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is explained in Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

We all fall short in these areas including myself and so much more because of our sins which separate us from God.

God loves us more than we realize. He showed us just how much He loves us and wants us to be with Him in a personal relationship now and for eternity by sacrificing His own Son Jesus Christ for us, because it would be through this sacrifice and the shedding of His Blood at the cross that we as sinful creations would be reconciled back into a relationship with the one who created us.

We know this because we can find this in John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

God the Father has made us all savable and He did it by offering us a gift. Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Since it is a gift, God has to give it away. We can't earn it, or work for it. It is a gift that has already been paid for. If someone buys you a gift, you have to accept the gift in order to receive the benefits of that gift. If you don't accept the gift, you don't get the benefits that the gift offers you.

How does this all work? How does this gift that God is offering us bring about the process of being born again, receiving salvation and having God restore within us the image He created us in and the relationship He wants to have with us? It works through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We read earlier that all 3 were present in Luke 3:22. It is the Holy Spirit's job to conform us to the image of Christ, making us more like Him and it is through the Holy Spirit that our spirit is connected, (reconciled), back to God, because of what Jesus Christ has already done for us at the cross. We are to be more like Christ because Christ is the image of God Himself mentioned in Colossians 1:15.

Most, if not all of us in this room and listening online are in the process of drawing near to God through His Son Jesus and we have been experiencing Jesus in our lives through answered prayers, blessings, various miracles and so much more. But getting to really know Him personally is so important not only for ourselves, but because we all have family members we love, co-workers, friends who do not know the love of God and the grace and mercy that He offers.

The closer we all get in our relationship to Him and the more we see and feel His presence in our lives the more we should be encouraged to share Him with others in the things He is doing for us so that they too can hopefully see how great and amazing our God is, how much He loves them and wants to be in their lives as well, because without Him they will be lost and without Him for all eternity.

I mentioned earlier the personal experiences that I have had with Jesus, but there is so much that He has done for me. He's not only forgiven me of my sins and has given me eternal life with Him, He has blessed me and Nancy with numerous blessings, answered prayers and so much more.

Jesus also saved me from serious injury that would have put an end to my life. For example, He saved me from being decapitated in a car accident I had. He healed my eyes giving me 20/20 vision, which the doctors said I would not have when I had to have cataract surgery. He saved me from losing my left arm at the elbow in another accident while I was sitting at a red light and a tractor trailer side swiped the vehicle I was driving and the list goes on and on.

My wife, Nancy, reminded me about the time I got hung up in a tree when I fell while climbing it and got hung up by a honeysuckle rope vine around my neck and pinned my back against the tree. It hung me about a foot off the ground and I couldn't reach the branches behind me. I'm thankful for my friend Butch who was there and had a pocket knife and cut the vine. As I dropped to the ground it scraped my neck sort of like when you scrape your knee, so it was bloody to some extent but not too bad. It could have been worse.

I thank and praise God for blessing me with one of His precious daughters, my beautiful wife, Nancy. When God said in Genesis 2:18 that man should not be alone and He would make him a helper comparable to him, He did just that with my wife. She is exactly everything I need and she is a true blessing from God to me and I Love her very much.

It's just mind boggling to see the hand of God the creator, doing these things and touching us in ways that we know that these things happened or were provided by God Himself because there was no other way possible for these things to occur.

Feeling God's personal touch and seeing God's personal involvement in my life now and coming to the revelation through His words found in the Bible that there is much more to come to enjoy and experience for the rest of eternity just blows my mind.

He has given all that He has and loves to provide the way for us to have a personal relationship with Him now, that will continue on into eternity. God not only wants to pour out His love, blessings and all that is good on us, but also on our loved ones and friends who don't know Him yet, as well, and He wants us to let them know about Him.

He wants us to let them know He wants a personal relationship with them so much that He took their sins and our sins upon himself in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, He took the judgment and wrath that is the penalty for our sins upon Himself, so that we wouldn't have to face it ourselves. He experienced death itself by being separated from God the Father when He was on the cross, He did that for us and them so we would not have to experience death itself which is being separated from the presence and goodness of God.

The opposite of Eternal Life (with God in Heaven) is Eternal Death (without God in Hell). Hell is the final eternal destination of being without God that every human being is heading toward because of sin, because WE have ALL been Born into Sin and Fall Short of the Glory of God mentioned in Romans 3:23 and it is Worse than you can ever Imagine.

The word of God warns about hell describing it with images of darkness, gnashing of teeth, never ending fire, mentioned in Isaiah 66:24 and it mentions in Revelation 20:15 the lake of fire which is the final destination of all non-believers.

So coming to God through His Son, Jesus Christ is so much more than just being able to live this present life that we are living in now as we were created by God to live it. It has eternal repercussions as well, and it is sin that separates us and society from God's presence, love, and other blessings.

However, in 1 John 1:9 it is written... If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Jesus is patiently waiting for each of us to make a choice. Do we want a personal relationship with the one who created us now, that will continue on throughout eternity or not?

A large part of Society has abandoned God and His word and we can see the results of this emptiness and abandonment in people resulting in the destruction we see all around us. Our children and grandchildren are going into this chaotic world system that is lacking so much in knowing God and the love He offers.

It is so important, more now than ever before, for each and every one of us to continue drawing near to God as we have been, and as He draws near to us and reveals more to us, we should be more motivated to share what He is doing in our lives with our loved ones and others as well.

The feeling of being loved by someone is so precious to each and everyone of us, and the love that we all seek is freely given to us just waiting for us to accept it, and we need to share this with a lost and dying society. This great love that God has for each and every person is free, but it comes at a great expense to the one who has given it. It cost Him His life.

When Jesus was crucified on the cross, He was hung between 2 criminals. It is here in Luke 23:39-43 that God shows us the basics for receiving salvation, the gift of eternal life and a personal relationship with Him. In reading this part of God's word we will see how one of the criminals was saved, forgiven of his sins and would be spending the rest of eternity with Jesus, which means in a relationship with Him, right there on the cross next to Jesus.

Luke 23:39-43 it says, Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong."

Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." Here we see he went and turned to Jesus (he drew near to God), and having confessed of his sinfulness he now believes that He (Jesus) is the Lord.

Next we see Jesus drawing near to him, for it says, And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." In a matter of seconds the criminal is forgiven of his sins (all wrongdoings) and has been given Eternal Life with Jesus in Heaven and by being with Him means in relationship with Him.

The only solution for sin and the restoration of God's image within us, and the restoration of our relationship with the one who created us, is the Cross of Christ.

As this message comes to a close, I would like to lead us all in a prayer. This is a prayer for those who are here and for anyone listening online, who have not yet come to Christ for the salvation that He offers and to have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the gift of eternal life, to be able to do so. It is also a prayer for those of us who have come to Christ to help us to draw nearer to Him and to strengthen our relationship with Him.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus offers Hope if you're feeling Helpless, Rest if you are Weary, Love if you are Suffering from a Broken Heart, and there is Grace and Forgiveness, Mercy and Healing, for all who Cry Out to Jesus!

He knows what's in our hearts and for those who feel lead to do so, as we close our eyes and pray this together, let us reach up our arms and hands to God showing Him that we desire to draw near to Him, casting all our burdens, fears, troubles, anxieties, stress and all that we desire to be set free from upon Him, because he loves us so much that He gave His life so we could be set free and live for all eternity through a personal relationship with Him in total inexpressible joy, unlimited peace, pure love and beauty beyond description and imagination.

Repeat these words after me.

Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I confess to You that I am a sinner, and I deserve the consequences of my sin.

You offered me the free gift of Eternal Life in exchange for my sin. Right now I place my sins at the Cross of Christ and I'm placing my trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior, because I cannot save myself. Please forgive me of my sins that I have committed against You.

Lord Jesus, I want to see you and I'm inviting you through your Holy Spirit to work within me in transforming and changing me into the image you created me in, and to restore the relationship with you that you desire to have with me because I want it too.

Thank you for loving me, thank you for creating me, thank you for living for me, thank you for dying for me, thank you for forgiving me, thank you for rising in newness of life for me, thank you for ascending back into heaven and continuing to intercede for me, thank you for accepting me and giving me Eternal Life.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

Now according to what is written in Hebrews 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

If you have previously come to Jesus for your salvation or if you did it today, please keep this in mind. No matter what anyone may say about you or what you may feel about yourself, you need to know and understand who you are now.

You are a Blood bought, totally forgiven, completely redeemed, fully accepted, absolutely loved child of the Living God.