One of the things I love to do most is to tell people about how I met the risen Lord. I was a senior in high school. I was just about to graduate. And my English teacher gave us one final assignment. He put a bowl on the table filled with slips of paper. He said, "Each slip of paper has a value on it. And whatever you pull out, you have to write about why that value is important." One kid pulled out equality. So he wrote a paper on equality. One kid pulled out kindness. So he wrote a paper on kindness. I pulled out salvation.
And I wasn’t a Christian at the time, so I didn’t want salvation. I tried to trade with someone else. But no one else wanted salvation, either.
So I wrote my paper. And basically I said that the reason why salvation was important was because it gave you the security of knowing that you were going to heaven when you died.
God must have really liked that paper. Because after that, he kept sending Christians into my life I graduated from high school, and I met a Christian at my summer job. She said "You need God in your life. I said "Why? I’m 18 years old I’ve got my whole life in front of me Everything is going well Why do I need God now?"
And she said, "That’s when I thank God the most, because He’s the One who makes things go well."
And I remember thinking, "Boy, that’s a good answer." And so that summer, I started reading the Bible.
In the fall, I went to Ohio University. I met a guy named Dave who was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. And he said, "You need Christ in your life. He died for you on the cross. He rose again on Easter Sunday. And if you put your faith in Him, he’ll forgive all your sins, and you’ll get to go to heaven.”
I went back to my dorm room, and I thought about what he said. Something in my heart told me it was true About a week later, I got down on my knees and I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. And immediately, I felt like 100 pounds of burdens and stresses were taken from my shoulders. I felt clean before God, cleaner than I have ever felt in my whole life.
If you do the same thing that I did, you can make this the best Easter you ever had You can walk out of here with all your sins forgiven You can leave here with the assurance of knowing that no matter what happens to you in this world, you’re going to be with God in the next world I invite you to accept Jesus as your Messiah. Let’s pray.