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Today we're going to be studying from 2 Corinthians chapter number five in verse 17,

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and we're going to have a great time in the word of God together.

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Don't worry if you didn't bring a Bible today, that's okay.

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Most of our scriptures are going to be right on the screen behind me,

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so you'll be able to follow along. No problem.

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It's a sermon entitled The Rescue Story because that is our theme for the entire Easter weekend.

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But before we do that, I want to begin by telling you we're doing something a little different today.

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I asked if we could start the service a little different because today I want to find out something from you.

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There's a card in the seat in front of you. Go ahead and take that card out right there.

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Every single person go ahead and reach forward, grab that card if you're on the front row.

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You can reach to the one behind you and grab it there.

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And go ahead and grab that card. Everybody should have one, and here's why.

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It says, let's stay connected, but on the back in the middle,

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there's a specific question that I really want to hear from you.

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Now, for those who don't know, I'm the preacher, and the preacher gets to tell everybody what to do.

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But don't you wish that sometimes you could tell the preacher what to do? Amen.

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Don't you wish you could turn the tables and be like, let me tell you. Wait, you got it.

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Well, this is your chance. See, right there on the middle of the card, it says,

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I want the pastor, or I want Pastor Josh to talk about, fill in the blank.

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You see, one of my goals as a pastor in this community is to actually address the issues that you're facing.

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Questions that you have.

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So maybe you see stuff going on in the world, and you think, does the Bible say anything about this?

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If you're interested in that, would you let me know so I can see what the community wants to hear about?

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Or maybe you say, what does the Bible say about this issue or that issue?

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Or what's going on as it relates to the Bible's perspective on this?

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Whatever that might be, could you place that there? Because I want to, in my best way possible,

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teach the Word of God in a way that is relevant to your life, and that'll be a great help to me.

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Now, you can put your name, your email address, your phone number there,

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and you can fill out the rest of the card where it says, how did you hear about us?

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We'd be fascinated to know if you found out through social media, event bride, a billboard, a friend invited you, some other way.

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Let us know. That tells us how we're reaching the community.

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And then maybe you want more information about family resources or serving in the community,

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or financial classes, whatever. Put those in there, and that way our team will see that,

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and they're going to email you specifically about whatever you're interested in.

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That last part, you're not supposed to mark yet. We're going to wait until the end of the sermon.

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So take that card, finish filling out, and place it beside you.

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And at the end of the sermon, we're going to come back to this card.

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How many of you are ready to study the Bible today? If you are, say amen.

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Amen. Amen. I am ready to study the Bible too.

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Look at what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17.

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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

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I declare to you today that because of the resurrection, you are new.

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Amen. Let's pray.

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Father, I need help to help my friends. Today, we have the word of God, and that's what's most

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important to share with the people of God. But I need the Holy Spirit of God to do what only he can do,

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because I am just a man. And as a man, I fail in the opportunity to do what you need me to do in

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this moment, and that is teach your people. So I pray just as you have filled this place with

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your holy people, you would fill this place with your holy spirit, and you would fill my mouth with

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your holy word to accomplish what you want today. I pray that every person that hears this sermon

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today would be benefited by it to understand you and themselves in a better way, and that if there's

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a soul who has never been saved, that today they would see their need for a Savior, and they would

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receive you as that Savior. This I pray in the name of Jesus, my Savior. Amen.

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Amen. Angelo was a rookie cop. He had just graduated from the academy and was thrilled to have a job

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in the first place. So walking around on his beat for the very first time was a thrill,

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and he stayed in that position for months. And he had already seen a lot in his short career,

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things that had caused problems, dark moments in the community, some things that he didn't tell

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even his wife about. But when the APB went out for the abducted little girl, his heart sank.

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It was the entire city of Philadelphia that was in a frenzy over this lost child that many knew

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had been taken. For hours they searched, he, along with hundreds of other police officers going from

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community to community, neighborhood to neighborhood, and in some cases door to door. Angelo

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found himself in an apartment complex. And as Angelo went door to door, his mind couldn't help but go

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to some dark places. He looked across the room at me and said, Josh, I had already seen so many

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dark things. I knew what could happen to this little girl.

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Angelo is now 87 years old. And right now, as we sit here in the church, he's over at St.

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Rose Hospital on St. Rose Parkway in Eastern. And he's there preparing for some surgeries

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that are coming up on Tuesday. I told him, tell me more of the story. What happened? He said,

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Pastor, as I went from door to door, I had no idea that I would be the one who would rescue that

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little girl. I'll never forget opening the door, walking into the room and seeing that young child

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alone in the apartment, dirty, cold, afraid, terrified, shivering in the corner of the room by

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herself. And as I approached slowly, I reached out my arms. And she reached out and came to me.

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He said he carried her out of the apartment, out of the apartment complex. And he said, I've rarely

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had a moment in my life that was more important than the moment I gave that child back to her parents.

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That's a rescue story. It's very similar to the rescue story we're talking about today.

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Easter is the story of a rescue, though you may not realize it. Sometimes, as people who see the

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story of Jesus for the first time think to themselves, why didn't somebody go rescue him? And the

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answer is Jesus was dying on the cross. He didn't need to be rescued. He was the one doing the

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rescuing. When Jesus died upon the cross, he did so to rescue humanity. You see, mankind had already

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screwed up their own existence so badly that we were destroying ourselves. And it was the death

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of Jesus Christ that saved us from sin. I'll explain more about that in a moment. And not only did

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his death secure our salvation, his resurrection demonstrated he had the power to save us in

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the first place. Easter is about the rescue story. But Easter is not just about the rescue story.

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My wife, when I first got married, she told me Easter was also about Easter baskets.

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I didn't, we didn't, we didn't do Easter baskets growing up. We gave gifts at Christmas and birthdays,

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but Heather's family gave gifts at every single holiday. You should see what she gives me for

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Arbor Day. It's weird. It's, I mean, every holiday is a thing for her and our family. So every Easter,

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the kids growing up would get an Easter basket filled with all sorts of candy and all sorts of fun

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and Easter eggs. And I know she's a heathen. I know some of you hate this, but it's my, what do I do?

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You know, this is what she does. And then I wasn't on board until she started giving me an Easter basket

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filled with Reese's cups. You know what I mean? Hallelujah. I'm in, you know, I'm ready to go.

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But then she would put peeps in there. How many of you like peeps? How many of you like peeps? Yeah?

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Okay. How many of you have good taste? Raise your hand. How many of you, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.

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They're gross. They're really bad. They're disgusting. But God bless some of you.

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So maybe you didn't get an Easter gift this Easter. Okay. So I'm going to give you one.

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My gift to you that I feel that God wants me to give you on this Easter is a proper understanding

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of what the resurrection actually means. What Easter is all about. And I do this because there are so

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many new believers at Southern Hills Church. Now, if you're new to the church, you may not know this.

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Our church is filled with new believers. In fact, over the last six months, God has been doing something

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really unique and special. People getting saved and baptized. People showing up at our church in

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massive numbers like we've never seen. People that are hearing the gospel, repenting of sin, crying

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and receiving Jesus as Savior and then following the Lord in baptism. How many of you, by the way,

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were here last week when we had almost 30 people baptized on one Sunday, last Sunday? How many

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were here for that? It was amazing. Like genuinely, it was deeply moving. You say, wow, that's a great

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church. You're a great pastor. All this. No, no, like genuinely, there's something very special

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happening in our church right now. I think it's revival. So with that taking place, I'm taking

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this Easter. And what I'm doing is I'm taking an opportunity to simply explain what happened to you

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through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if you're a Christian, you've been saved for a thousand

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years, nothing that I'm saying today is going to be like, oh my goodness, I was most in my,

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you've heard all this before. Today, I'm going to share three words that describe

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the reality of your new life in Jesus Christ. Why? Because of the resurrection, you are new.

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And 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17 tells us that. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 17 says,

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therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,

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all things are become new. And so I want to describe the new you with three simple words.

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What are those words? Death, alive, rescued. Save them with me. Death, alive, rescued. Say it again.

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Say it again. Death, alive, rescued. That's the whole sermon today. Three words, death, alive,

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rescued. The first one that we want to talk about today is the word death.

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Now when I say death, if you are a longtime Christian, you're thinking, well, of course,

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the death of Jesus, and maybe you're for a deep theologian, the death to myself, got it.

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But think about this word from an outsider's perspective, like if you're not a Christian.

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If you're not a Christian and you hear about like death and Jesus and from an outsider's perspective,

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you understand our religion. I know we call it a relationship, but from their perspective,

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our religion's a little weird. Like we're always talking about death. And our hero is Jesus,

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and he's got a bloody crown of thorns and blood's coming down, and his nails pierced hands and blood

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and his feet, and they whip him and they whip him and we post things on Facebook. And I'm not

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saying any of that's wrong. I'm saying from an outsider's perspective, like we really glorify

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this bloodied, beaten God, don't we? And so if you do come from that perspective, you may not

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understand. Why do you talk about death so much and the blood of Jesus? And you like you worship

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this guy who died and he came back from the grave, like that's just, it's disturbing, it's morbid

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to some, but here's what you need to understand about death. Death, it had to happen. The death

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of Jesus Christ was necessary because the sin of mankind was so grievous it was going to destroy

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mankind collectively and damn your soul individually. And so our sin debt was getting so out of

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control, somebody had to pay for the sins of mankind. And either mankind would pay for its own

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sins or God himself would step in and pay for the sins of mankind. That's what the book of

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Corinthians says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse three and four. It says that Christ died for our sins

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according to the scripture and that he was buried in three days later. He rose from the grave

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according to the scripture. But what I want you to focus on in this verse is that Christ died

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for our sins. He died to pay for the sin debt of all of us. What does that look like?

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How many of you know what tapas are? You know what tapas are? Tapas is, tapas was,

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tapas, how many of you know what tapas is, was, are? How many of you know tapas? Raise your hand,

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you know tapas? How many of you don't know what tapas are? Raise your hand. How many of you,

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okay, so let me tell you, I didn't know. Tapas are a Spanish type of a restaurant,

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a Spanish restaurant. My wife said to me, hey, Josh, you want to go to the new Spanish,

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the tapas? I said, what's tapas? Sounds like tacos. I'm in. Let's go, tapas. She said it's

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called Firefly, Firefly, Firefly. How many of you know which one I'm talking about? I'm like,

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I don't like bugs, but we can try it. You know, I don't, she tries all sorts of weird stuff and

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well, all right, let's go. We'll go to Firefly and try some tapas. And we went there, beautiful,

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nice little restaurant. We sat down and the first thing I noticed when they brought us the menu is

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there was like 150 items on the menu. I like in and out where there's like two things, you know

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what I mean? Two things. That's it. But there are tapas. There's like 150 options. The second thing

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I noticed is how cheap they were. Like $4, $4.50, $5 for tapas. And I looked around my children and

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I'm like, order up kids. This is a daddy like this restaurant. Amen. It is cheap. It's cheap.

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I'm going to get out of here with no problem. And so we did, we started ordering. The first thing,

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I said, what do you suggest? And she said, you have to try the bacon wrapped dates.

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Friend, if you've never tried these, let me be very clear. There is a God and he loves us.

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And he demonstrated that through bacon wrapped dates.

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And she brought them out there and they were like four bucks. And she brought it out. And the first

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thing I noticed when she brought them out is that it was a tapas are a tiny little plate

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with a tiny little piece of food on it. That's what tapas means.

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Tapas is Spanish for you got tricked or something. I think it's a direct translation.

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So she brought it out and there was like four little dates with a little bacon around each.

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And I'm like, where is this like a sampler? And she's like, no, that's the thing. And I'm like,

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that's the thing. And she's like, try it. And I tried it. And oh my goodness, I'm telling you,

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it was incredible. I mean, absolutely amazing. So media, I'm like, four more for every just

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and let's do it. And then and then the salads. And so we ordered little salads and they all come out

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in little dishes too. And you know, one for everybody. And then it was appetizer time. And

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then it was on court time on court. No, that's something else on tray time. I'm so sophisticated.

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And so we it was in every dish almost almost I want to lie. Every dish almost was amazing.

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And I'm like, this is so good. And we're ordering left and right in this piece of cake,

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because it's only like $4 a dish. And then she brought this the bill at the end.

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Now you know better than I where this story is going. Have you ever been brought the bill and

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you were genuinely upset and shocked at the same time, but you tried to act cool, you know?

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You're like, thank you so much. You're like,

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and I'm like, I think you brought the wrong bill. She said, what do you mean? It's like $400.

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These are like $4 a piece. She's like, you ordered 100 things or something like that.

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Like you got to be kidding me. Here's what's happening with you as a human. And you may not

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realize it. Sin costs, but the sins that we allow in our lives are little sins, right? A little bit

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of lying, a little bit of lust, a little bit of greed. They're just small, like little tapas. It's

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not that big of a deal. And we're so used to it even since our childhood, we've developed an appetite

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for these little sins. Here's the problem. Your sins are building a debt. And someday you're going

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to have to stand before the King of Kings, the judge. And he's going to be like, okay, let's see.

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Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're like, I know, I do a little sin and then I try to

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make up with it with a little good works. Here's the problem. You think you're paying for your own

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sins. The problem is you sin far more than you realize. And you do far less good works than

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you realize. And in fact, God says that your good works in comparison to your sins are like

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filthy rags. They don't compare. So now you've got this big sin debt and you're like,

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what am I going to do? The answer is you're going to stand before God and answer for your sin debt.

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That's what's going to happen to you and it's going to happen to me. All of us, everyone, it's a

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pointed on demand, wants to die, then the judgment. That's what the Bible says.

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So as I'm sitting there at Toppus, you know, contemplating my bill, she takes it away and then

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comes back and she says, pastor, I said, yeah. She said, pastor, somebody from over there at the bar

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just paid your bill. And I looked over and I'm like, what? And they waved at me. And I'm like,

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that part of the story did not happen. Kind of wish it did. Just throwing it out there.

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I'm just kidding. Relax. Some of you are doing like, I'm never coming back. All right.

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But could you imagine if it did?

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Like how amazing would it be to rack up a debt and then be like, I don't can't pay for this.

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And then to have somebody swoop in, rescue you and pay for your sin debt.

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See, this is what the Bible says God did. God loves the world so much that he gave his only

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begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish and pay for their own sin debt,

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but have everlasting life. You say, why would he do that? I don't, I've done this my whole life.

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I've studied, I don't fully grasp why he did it, but for some reason he likes you and he loves you.

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And for some reason he likes me and he loves me and he doesn't want you to pay for your own sin debt.

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Say, what if I don't want him to pay for my sin debt? That's fine. You have the choice of paying for

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yourself. You can reject Jesus Christ and his offer and you can say, I'm good, I don't need that.

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I've got a whole system going here that I'm going to figure out myself.

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And hopefully when you stand before God, you've done enough good things and did enough religious

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stuff to take care of your debt. But it's one of two choices. For me, I choose Jesus. Can I get an

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amen? That's why I want it. That's why he died upon the cross. And the reason why I say death, it

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had to happen, is because without the death of Jesus Christ, I would have to die for my own sins,

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die and go to hell. And so would you. So the first thing that helps us understand the rescue story

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is the word death. The second word, does anybody remember the second word that I was going to use?

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What was the second word? Alive. Death, number one, alive, number two, because after the crucifixion

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comes the resurrection, amen. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not only literal, it also

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symbolizes the fact that you and I will one day resurrect. It's all about new life in eternity

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and a new heart that you've been given. Part of what happened in the rescue story is not only that

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Jesus paid for your sin debt, he also gave you a new heart. See, I don't think I need a new heart.

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Look at what it says in Ezekiel 36 verse 26. It says, I will give you a new heart and put a new

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spirit within you. God says, you're having a hard time obeying the laws of God. That's okay. I will

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take your old stony heart out of you and I will put a new heart of flesh inside of you so that you

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used to desire from your heart to do the wrong thing. Now this new heart of Jesus is going to

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help you desire to do the good thing. It's new. Do you like new things? I do. I do like new things.

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Like one of the things, okay, one of the things I love about our current society,

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and I know a lot of people love to gripe, right? I don't like this about our current,

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I don't like this, I don't like that. There's a lot of things maybe not to like, but I like where

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I don't want to go back 100 years. Can I get an amen? I don't, like you can have it my friend. I

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like it here. And one of the things I like is like we have experiences that 50 years ago they

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didn't have like opening a new phone. That is a cool experience. That's a universal love, right?

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You get a new phone. It's all wrapped in solifane and they package it in such a way that's like,

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oh, so much fun. You pull off the, you know, it begins with a little tab and just...

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Pull off the... You pull it out. And then the cap, you know what I mean? Like the top of the box,

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you pull it up and you can hear that the air gets sucked inside you just...

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You know what I'm talking about? This guy knows. And you take the phone and they have that thin

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layer of plastic. You know what I mean? And you realize under this plate, nobody's ever it.

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And you take that plastic and it's that little tab and you pull it up and you can hear it.

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And right there, the most crystal clear, not a scratch, not a crack, not a piece of dust, no

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lint. It's new for two seconds. And then your toddler drops it in the Kool-Aid, right? New.

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What God says is this, I want to give you a new heart. You say, well, what's wrong with my old

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heart? Oh, okay. So let me explain. Your old heart is the same problem my old heart has. Your old

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heart desires dumb stuff. And the dumb stuff it desires gets you into all sorts of problems.

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Isn't it true that there are moments in your life where your heart wanted something and you went

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after the thing that your heart really desired? And then after you got the thing your heart desired,

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you're like, I wish I did not have the thing my heart desired. There's this message we give children,

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like, follow your heart. I don't know about you, but my heart's gotten me into some bad problems

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in my life. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah tells us this. It says that the heart of man is wicked

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and deceitful. It tricks you. It makes you think you want something, and then you go to get it,

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and then the thing that you wanted actually hurts you. For example, my heart wants to eat seven

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donuts every day. You say, no, no, no, that's your taste buds and your tummy. No, no, no. My taste

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buds and tummy are in on the deal, but my heart wants it. Like, I could wake up every day, have

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four cups of coffee and seven donuts, and I will be happy until I die of a heart attack. You know

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what I'm talking about? Because my heart desires it, just because my heart desires it, doesn't mean

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it's good for me. It's called sin. And today we classify it as the sin of gluttony. But there

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are other sins that our hearts desire that destroy us. For example, the sin of anger. Wrath, rage is

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the biblical word. When you allow your emotions, they hurt you, yes, they went after you, they did

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something, and it sparked anger, but that anger wasn't controlled, and now you've got rage that's

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roaring inside of you. And without a proper control of that rage, it actually takes over you,

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and it hurts you, and it binds up the people around you. Your heart desired the rage,

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and the rage ends up hurting you. It's true of anger, it's true of gluttony, it's true of lust.

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We want something that we're not supposed to have, and we're desire gets out of control,

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and it burns inside of us, and then we take that which God says, no, do not take. And then when

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we take it in lust, we find out that this lust actually conceives problems and poisoning and

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guilt and sin, and now it's hurting us from the inside out, and that which our heart desired sin

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ends up destroying us. It's true with pride. I have some pride in my life, but if you're not

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careful, the heart of pride has led you to self-destruction. We all know we're all in the

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same boat here, my friend, let's not try to fool ourselves. Our heart desires the wrong thing,

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so what God says is, how about I give you a new heart?

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Instead of a heart of a man, how about I transplant your heart with the heart of Jesus Christ,

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who desires the right thing? Do you know what happens to somebody when they get saved?

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They get a heart transplant, the heart of Christ rather than the heart of man.

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When I first heard this story, I didn't even believe it, so I researched it. I looked it up on

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the internet, and because I found it on the internet, I knew for sure it was definitely true.

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But I did, I researched for like an hour and a half, two hours just to make sure,

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because I didn't want to tell you the story if it wasn't accurate, and it is true. Bill Wall is his

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name, and Bill Wall was 159 days in the UMC there in Tucson, Arizona. He was living on an

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artificial, temporary artificial heart, and he could not go home. And on day 159, he was told

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that a heart had come in to be transplanted into him. He came from Michael Brady. No, Michael Brady

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did not live in Tucson. He actually lived in Hollywood. He was a stunt man for Universal Studios.

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He'd been in a lot of movies, probably movies that many of us in this room have seen. And as a stunt

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man, he really loved his job, and he loved his family, and he loved his community, and he loved

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doing what he did. He took care of himself as much as he possibly could, and he became an organ donor.

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He was in Tucson, Arizona filming a specific scene for, I assume, a Western, because it was some kind

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of a train chase scene. And he was up on one of the train cars, and he was checking some cables

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and wires when suddenly he slipped, and in a moment of destiny, fell to his death. Dead. A media,

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on impact, was gone. They rushed him to the hospital just to make sure everything, there was no

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possibility of revival. The doctor said he's gone, but they harvested his organs because he was an

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organ donor, and they brought his heart up several floors to a man named Bill he would never meet

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in this life. And so the transplant went perfectly. Every aspect of it was exactly what the doctors

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would want, and Bill started recovering. Now Bill's recovery took quite a bit of time, and the reason

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was because Bill was not a healthy man. He was young, but he wasn't, he didn't take care of himself,

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according to his own story. And so it took a while for him to recover. After six months of recovery,

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of eating healthy, taking care of his body, beginning to exercise, he was starting to feel

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physically a lot better, but also beginning to fall back into his old destructive patterns.

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That's when he received a letter that changed his life forever. The letter was from Michael's

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father. He opened up the letter and it began by saying, I know this is strange, but I want to

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introduce myself to you. My son's name is Michael Brady, and his heart is beating inside of you.

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Let me tell you about him, and the story went on to tell about Michael's childhood, and Michael's

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academic history, and how he used to play sports, and how he really enjoyed fitness,

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and how he became a stuntman, and he loved the movies, and he was going to be an actor,

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but he really fell in love and stunts, and then one day he slipped and he fell, but he decided

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before he'd be an organ donor, and I just want you to know how much I love my son, and I'm thrilled

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that he lives on inside of you. Bill says he was in tears. He closed the letter, and he picked up

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the photographs that had slipped out of the paper, and he looked at the man who at one time had his

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own heart. He said he first noticed how good-looking he was, and how fit, and how much he had taken

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care of himself, and then he looked up into a mirror and thought, what am I doing?

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And according to Bill's own story, he said it was at that moment he decided that from that point

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forward, he would spend the rest of his life taking care of Michael's heart, because it was Michael's

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heart that saved his life. He became a cyclist. He remembered as a little boy, loving riding bicycles.

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He said, maybe that's what I can do, and so he started riding bicycles to physically care for

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himself. As a cyclist, he became well-known. In fact, he became a medal-award-winning cyclist,

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a triathlete, really, because he got into swimming and running as well, and many people in that world

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know of Bill Wall and the Bill Wall Foundation simply because at some point somebody said to him,

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hey, why don't you honor the heart of the one who gave you life that beats inside of you?

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Do I need to draw the line for you?

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God says to you, your old heart is not working anymore. I want to put a new heart inside of you,

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and I'm going to send my son, Jesus Christ, to die so that you could have new life.

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And what this book is, it's a letter from the Heavenly Father saying to you, don't you understand

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you have the heart of my son beating inside of you? Would you take care of it?

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The sins that destroyed your former heart, would you avoid them?

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He's not only giving you a new heart so that you can be clean. He's giving you a new heart

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so that you can have complete fresh start. You see, my friend, your heart does not need to be

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cleaned. It needs to be exchanged. And your new heart leads to new desires. That's what salvation

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does. And so what we see first and foremost is the word death. It had to happen. The second word

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we saw today is the word alive, and you've been given a new heart. Does anybody remember the final

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word we're going to talk about today? Anybody remember what it was? If you do, say it out loud.

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Rescued. Rescued. Number three, you have a future. You have a future. You say, who is rescued? Well,

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look what the text says in 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

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he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

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Those who are in Christ, how many of you are a follower of Jesus? If you are, say amen.

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You have been rescued. You have a future. Your bill has been paid for. Your heart has been exchanged.

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Your future is bright. It's you. You have been rescued. And so now what you have is a fresh start

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at understanding your new identity and your new direction. Who you are is not who you once were.

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That's why I wrote an entire brand new sermon series that starts next week entitled You Are.

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It's a three week sermon series to explain to the new believers and those who have walked away

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from God for a little bit who you actually are in Christ. It's a study through Luke chapter 15

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that says you are seen. You are valued. You are loved. Live the way God sees you. Man, I want to

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see you for that service. It starts next Sunday and I believe it's going to be a great help to you

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in so many ways. So yesterday I was doing yard work in my backyard because it's spring. We just came

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out from six months of winter and now we're going into six months of summer. We have one week of spring.

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Enjoy it. It's half over, you know. And so I was outside doing some yard work and my friend called

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me. His name is Chris. He goes to our church. He said, hey, man, I'm like, hey, he said, hey, can you

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go visit my dad? No, I knew that his dad was in the hospital. And I said, yeah, how's he doing?

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Not good. I said, okay, yeah, no problem. I can go by. He says, it's pretty urgent. I said, sure,

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yeah, for sure, let's go. I'll go over there before the first service on Saturday. So yesterday,

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afternoon, I went over there and he told me on the way he said, Josh, remember, I don't know if my

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dad is saved. I don't know if he's ever been born again. Can you talk to him about Jesus and how

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to be saved? That God wants to save him, wants to rescue him? I said, yeah, yeah, for sure. So I went

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over and I walked into that hospital room yesterday and I looked at that 87-year-old hero from Philadelphia.

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Everybody else left the room and it was just him and I. And I said, tell me, man, tell me all about

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your life and career. And the whole time I was thinking, how am I going to change the conversation

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to how God wants to save him? How am I going to shift to the narrative that Jesus loves him and

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wants to save his soul? And the first thing he told me was, he said, oh, let me tell you about

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the time I rescued this little girl. He told me about walking out of that apartment complex

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with that little girl in his arms to our parents. And it was then that moment the Lord said to me,

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this is it. I looked at him and I said, Angelo, how did it make you feel to rescue that little girl?

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He said, Josh, it was euphoria to do something so important to help somebody like that.

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I said, Angelo, don't you understand? That's exactly what God wants to do for you. He wants to rescue you.

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He wants to rescue you from your shame, from your sin, from the things you've never told anybody.

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He wants to pay your sin debt. He wants to give you a new heart and a new life. And at 87 years old,

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it's not too late to be rescued by God. My message is the same to you today, friend.

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I don't know your story, but I can tell you this. I know his story and his story is that he wants to

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save you. My question is, do you see yourself as the little girl who needs to reach out and

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receive the Savior? Or you still think I've got this thing? I pray you'd be saved. Because if you are,

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what'll happen is the death of Jesus Christ will pay for your sin bill. That's what the Bible says.

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He'll transplant out of your heart a new heart, a heart that desires to do the right things,

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not the wrong things. And he'll rescue you in this life and in the next.