Become a Christian

God did not send his Son into this world to make bad men good. Let me repeat that. God did not send his Son into this world to make bad men good. He sent his Son into the world to make dead men alive. There's a difference. We try to be our own gods when we try to determine what will get us to heaven... Jesus didn't die to make good men moral. He came to make dead men alive.

Now here's what actually happened on that cross, because "gospel" is just an old word for good news, and this is the news:

You know, one of the last things Jesus said on the cross, right before he gave up his spirit, he said, "It is finished." He finished his job on the cross. Now, what does that mean when he finished the job? It is finished. What he was talking about is he paid the penalty for all of our sins. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He did everything for us. And now that's why we are saved by grace through faith, not by what we can do. See, the law was always the hands of what man does. The law was basically a checklist. Well, if you want to get to heaven on your own, here's your checklist. And if you mess up one time, you go back to the beginning. But Jesus fulfilled the law. He ran that full race without ever going back to the beginning, the only one who ever did, and when he got through it, he brought us with him, for those that believe in him. There's no going back to the beginning anymore. What we cannot do or obtain on our own, Jesus does for us. That is the good news. So whenever Jesus says, it is finished, that is whenever the curtain was torn in two, that now we have complete access to God through Jesus Christ. Every work that has ever been done was done on that cross for me and you.

Before a man can understand what he's being saved from, somebody has to tell him the truth about sin. Most folks never got the truth. They got scared with it instead. Here's the plain version.

Too often we go through life giving ourselves the same old speech: "Well, you know, I know I'm not supposed to do that. But I'm not really ready to give it up, so I'm just going to keep trucking on. Nobody's perfect." We're all sinners. But folks, if you know you're not supposed to do it, that's the definition of sin. Anytime you do something that you know you're not supposed to do.

So what does that sin actually do to you?

Sin makes it hard to hear God, know Him, receive wisdom from him, and it can even make you forget about God.

Make no mistake about it, sin doesn't send you to hell, sin breaks your fellowship with God. You can't find him anymore. You wonder, "Where's he at?" You can't ride with God while you're carrying all that sin with you. And all you got to do is just go up, ask for forgiveness, confess it. "God, this is what I've been doing. I own up to it. I ain't making excuses for it anymore. I want to ride with you. I've made my choice." He will forgive you if you confess your sin, he will cleanse you.

There's a whole pile of things folks will tell you becoming a Christian means. Most of it's wrong, and the wrong version has kept more good men away from God than sin ever did. Let's clear the trail.

You want to know the scariest words I've ever heard supposed Christians say? "Well, I'm a good person, so I know I'm going to heaven." That scares the fire out of me because that's not true at all... We try to be our own gods when we try to determine what will get us to heaven. "Well, I ain't never killed nobody, so I must be a pretty good fella. I mean, I've made mistakes like everybody else, but overall I'm a pretty good guy. I helped a guy change a tire one time, so I'm going to get into heaven." You're probably not, to be honest with you.

It's not being good enough. And it's not religion either:

God doesn't want you to do things for him. That's religion. Religion is doing things for God. Authentic Christianity is doing things with God, night and day difference. God doesn't want you to do things for him. He wants you to do things with him. God doesn't want you to do things for him. He wants you to do things with him.

That's the dirt road shortcut. See, religion will take you down that smooth path that will give you all these rules where you can't do this. You can't do that. You gotta be at church on Sunday, you gotta read your Bible every single night, fourteen chapters, and you can't go to the bar, you can't have a beer, you can't do this, you can't do that, oh come on! You have to believe that God exists, and you have to believe that he will reward you when you earnestly seek a relationship with him, when you ride with him.

No dancing around it today. You asked how a man becomes a Christian. Here's the how.

Here's the bare bones fact: there is only one way to eternal life, and that's Jesus. Accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and living and riding for him. That's it. I've asked a lot of Christians how a man gets to heaven, and 99 of them get it right. Then I ask them how you get to hell, and they say, "Well, if you kill somebody. Or if you didn't ask forgiveness for all your sins. Or if you did this, or didn't do that." No. Absolutely not. There's only one way into heaven: believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you'll go. Guaranteed. No ifs, no ands, no buts. And there's only one way into hell: not believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That's the only qualification for both.

In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Jesus is the way. There is no other trail to heaven. You won't stumble onto it, and you won't get lucky and wander across it. There is no other way than Jesus.

I'm not going to try to talk you into believing in God. It is a choice God gave you, and he has written this truth on your heart. I can't make you believe. And I promise you, no feeling is coming that will do it for you, so don't sit around waiting on one. It's a choice. You either believe in God or you don't. And I'm not talking about halfway believing that there might be a God out there somewhere. I'm talking about a life changing belief.

In Romans 10:9, Paul writes, "If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." There's no exceptions after that. There's no what-ifs after that. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Then Paul goes on in the very next verse: "For it is by believing with your heart that you are made right with God and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved."

I told you I'd tell you my story. Here it is.

I was saved as a teenager. That's when I gave God my heart. But I gave him my life much, much later. Maybe you've done the same thing: you've always believed in God with your heart, but you've never given him your life. The night I gave him mine, I was on my knees on the bedroom floor of a double-wide trailer in Coyanosa, Texas. My wife was on her knees in front of me, and I was holding her hands. And I said, "God, I don't know what you could do with a sorry cowboy like me, but if you'll have me, I'll go where you want me to go. I'll do what you want me to do. I'll be who you want me to be and I'll say what you want me to say." And he called me on it.

Maybe you're thinking your account's too far in the red for that. I knew a cowboy who thought the same thing.

And I'll tell you what it's like on the other side of that moment, because I've been there and I've held men while they went through it:

Whenever someone says, "Yes, I'm a Christian" I want to hug them around the neck and just hold them for a second...because I know what they've been through... It means that you were brave enough to stare down the barrel of your own sin, pride, ego, and all the things that reveal that you really are weakness personified and you are afraid. It means that you have come to the stark raving reality that you are nothing and need saving. It means you have fallen on your knees and cried out for forgiveness while dripping spit and snot on the floor. It means that you know what it feels like to be broken, truly broken... But out of the ashes of our demise, God reaches down and gathers all the pieces, having been, and continuing to be purified by the fire of his love, He starts to reassemble them into something beautiful and strong.

I got doctored. Jesus threw a perfect loop and even caught a front leg so I wouldn't choke down. He laid me down and gave me a huge dose of forgiveness, grace, and mercy, more than I deserved to be truthful. But that's how God is. When you're a part of his herd, you get more than you deserve for eternity. It changed my life so much that now I get to help gather the lost, bring back those who've strayed away, bandage those that are injured, and strengthen those that are sick (Ezekiel 34:16)... I still need a doctor and always will. I need Christ every day of my life... Listen, you need to know this. If you don't ride for him, you're missing out on an extraordinary life. It can be yours. In absolute surrender you find absolute strength, hope, and love... I know you throw your head up and run off for the brush anytime someone tries to talk to you about God. But if you'll ask him to, Jesus is ready to lay you down and doctor you. Wouldn't it be great to not be scared anymore? If you'll listen close, you can hear his rope whistling.

So here's the gate, wide open, and here's how a man walks through it. Not a building. Not a ritual. You believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for your sins and that God raised him from the dead. And you say it out loud. If you don't know what to say, say what I said on that trailer-house floor:

If you just prayed that and meant it, you're not who you were five minutes ago:

You are not a sinner saved by grace. You were, for one moment. But if you have called on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are not a sinner anymore. The Bible no longer calls you a sinner. It calls you a child of God, a co-heir with Christ. Paul calls you a new creation, created in Christ Jesus.