It's so far in the back of my head. Oh, yes, ma'am. Here you go, take your turn. Oh, yeah, of course. Yes, yes. Oh. She's very sick and nobody's paying attention to her. She's trusting Jesus. So I want you to talk with her a little bit. Oh, OK. All right. Where you on? I'm going right out here. OK, OK. I'm sorry, your name is? Vanita. Vanita with a V? So Kathleen tells me that you're trusting Jesus. What does that mean to you? He wakes me up every morning. Yeah. I have testimonies. Yeah. You wouldn't believe how he saved my life. Yeah. Right now, they put a bag in my gallbladder. They said, like, two weeks ago, two anesthesiologists had the gallbladder taken out, and it's just so much pain. Yeah. And won't nobody listen to me. The doctors, you're saying the doctors won't listen to you? Have they given you anything for the pain? Yeah, but it's like they don't listen. They always think you're a drug addict. You know, they don't like to hear you out. Well, they do have to be careful about that. Yeah, but you got something sticking out the side of your stomach. Yeah. So what, you had a tube? Yeah. Are they going to take that out soon, or have they? I don't know. They said I have two weeks to go under anesthesia. Yeah. So I'm just trying to limit the pain. But I thank God because he didn't have to wake me up when I was in the hospital. Yeah. So Vanita, right? Vanita? Vanita? So Vanita, if God didn't wake you up, I'd be with my mom and dad. You'd be with your mom and dad? Where would that be? In heaven. And, Vanita, if you were to stand before God and God asked, Vanita, why should I allow you into heaven? What would you say? I'm a loyal, faithful servant. You're a? Loyal. You're a loyal, faithful servant? Yes. So, how loyal and faithful do you think you have to be? Just to know who He is and to love Him. and do his work. But how much do you have to do all of those things before you can be sure that it's going to be enough for God to accept you? There's never enough. There's never enough. Just waking up and being kind to people. Waking up and doing something for him. Waking up and just... So, Vanita, Vanita, the problem with that is that there's no hope in that. Because if you wake up one day and you have no desire to serve him, you have no... No, I'm saying if. I'm not saying that's true now. But pain can be a very powerful thing in the heart and the mind of a person. If your hope is in how much you serve and how much you love and how much you do, When Jesus said you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect, it's very difficult to have hope because you can never know if you're doing enough. But I want to give you hope. I want to give you hope. But see, I know I'm not perfect. Well, good. I know that. None of us are. I know that. I used to be a usher. And they called me the on-point usher. because I understood what it meant, where the usher began, how it began, what it meant, what it means. It only takes a minute to give somebody a glass of water. Yeah, so Vanita, I used to think, I used to think a lot like you think. And I used to think that, I used to be a police officer. So I used to think that if I was the best possible police officer, God would like that. That if I was the best possible husband, God would accept that. That if I was the best possible father, I even sang in the choir in church and wore a robe. And I thought because of all of those different things I was doing, that those were going to be the reasons why god was going to let me in the habit okay why no yes uh... Okay, and so on and I agree with you. I believe that's true So on what on what basis Vinita does he decide? How do we know how God is going to this? Oh, that's not true Vinita That's why I want to give you hope because Vinita you can know Because Jesus said Jesus said that it's the truth that will set a person's free free the Apostle John said that he wrote the things that he wrote and so that the people he wrote them to could know that they have eternal life. So it's not true that you can't know. And Vanita, that is one of the reasons why so many people lack hope, is because they believe they can't know. But Vanita, you can know, and this is how you can know. And some of what I'm gonna say, maybe almost all of what I'm gonna say, you've probably heard before, but so just bear with me. This is how you can know. The Bible says it's appointed once for a person to die, and then the judgment. So we can know that judgment is coming. The Bible says, as you said, that God is going to separate the sheep from the goats. We know that because God said so. The Bible also has said, that God the Father sent His Son to the earth in the person of Jesus Christ, truly God, truly man, and without sin. Unlike us who sin every day of our lives, as God in the flesh, He never broke God's law. He was perfect in every way. He lived a life of perfection for some 33 years that the three of us can't live for 33 seconds. Yet even though He knew no sin, At a time appointed by his father, he voluntarily submitted himself to the torturous bloody death of a Roman cross. He died a death he did not deserve to take upon himself the punishment we rightly deserve for breaking his law. He died, he was buried, and then three days later he forever defeated sin and death when he rose from the grave. Forty days later he ascended back to heaven where he now sits at the right hand of power. And the Bible says, and we can know this is true, the Bible says that one day he's going to return. He's coming. And when he returns, he's not going to return as a baby in a manger. He's going to return as the lion of the tribe of Judah to judge both the living and the dead. He's on his way. And what we also know is that God in his word has commanded us to turn from our sin and to put our trust and our faith in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. And we can know that if God does that work in us, that if God, as Jesus said, causes us to be born again, we can know that our sins are forgiven. We can know that he'll remove them as far as the east is from the west and remember them no more. We can know that we will once and forever be reconciled to the God we offended by our sin. And we can know that we have eternal life. For Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. So, Vania, you can know and you can have hope if you will put your faith and your trust in Jesus alone for your salvation. You could have assurance. And if you were to die and stand before God and God said, Vanita, why should I allow you into heaven? If I were to die today standing on this corner and I stood before God and He said, Tony, why should I allow you into heaven? I would say, God, you shouldn't because I've broken your law every day of my life. But I know you're going to let me in because of what your word promised me and because of what your son did on the cross. because he died the death that I deserved, and he paid the penalty for my sin. And so, Father, and I can call you Father, I know you're my Father, not because I'm good, not because of what I've done, but in spite of what I've done. Not because of who I am, but in spite of who I am. I know you're my Father. I know Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior, and I know you're going to let me into heaven because of what Jesus did on behalf of a sinner like me. And Vanita, you can have that hope if you will but put your faith and your trust in Jesus alone. Alone, Vanita. Not Jesus plus ushering. Not Jesus plus serving. Not Jesus plus anything. Jesus alone. Don't look in the mirror for your hope. Look to the cross. I talk to my pastors every day. Every day. I know I haven't. But what we need to know, Vanita, What we need to know about who we are, what we need to know about who Christ is, what we need to know about the way of eternal life, what we need to know about how we can be reconciled to God and have our sins forgiven, what we need to know to have hope and joy and peace and assurance of salvation. God has made it as simple enough for a child to understand. Okay, do you have to go far? Can I pray for you real quickly? Would that be all right? Father, I thank you that Vanita stopped. I thank you that she received the Bible and a tract. I thank you, Father, that she's heard the gospel and my prayer for her, Father, in the midst of her pain.