Hi. Okay. I'm well, my name's Tony. I'm Titi, nice to meet you. Hi, Titi? Yes, I'm taking it that... That's what my granddaughter calls my daughter, her aunt. Yeah, my real name's Tequisha, but I go by Titi. Okay. So, I'm trying to restore my faith. This is my sign, I'll always see you here. Okay. So, what does that mean, Titi, to restore your faith? What does that mean? I lost my faith. I'm going through a lot. I've been going through a lot. I just kind of feel like God maybe forgot about me and don't love me. So I kind of... I guess I've been speaking blasphemy and maybe I don't need to do that. I'm starting not to believe in them. I'm trying to restore my faith. That's everything I keep going through in life. It's like one thing after another, like, you know, not having family to be supportive, you know, being a single mom. Yeah. It's just life, you know? And people like, the strong get tired sometimes too, like, you know, we get weak too, so. Well, and we are, you know, the Bible says that when we are weak, then we are strong. That's what the Bible says. Because when we're weak, if we're not trying to dress it up as our own strength and pride, when we're weak, and we turn to the Lord, that's where our strength actually comes from. Because when we try to be strong in ourselves, we're actually our weakest. We're actually at our weakest when we try to be strong in ourselves. And I feel very weak. I feel like I'm just overwhelmed. I feel truly defeated. So I'm working on it. I learn to talk to him even when I'm mad or sad. And I tell him, I don't feel like you love me. Maybe you forgot about me. That's what you say to God? I'm trying. Yeah, I talk to him. I do talk. I was told even, you know, if you talk and still consider praying to him, so I'm working on it. So let me ask you a tough question. I can see that you're struggling right now. Okay. But let me ask you a tough question, okay? Sure. If you were to die today, and I don't want that, Titi, that's why I'm out here, right? Sure. Right. If you were to die today, and you were to stand before God, and God asked, Titi, why should I allow you into heaven? I would not have an answer. Okay. Honestly, I wouldn't have an answer. Do you know that there is an answer? TT, you can actually have an answer. Now, so let's say you were out here passing out Bibles, and I walked up to you, and there are tears streaming down my cheeks the way they are yours right now, and I'm struggling, and you were to ask me. I'm not, I'm a listener. I probably would just give you a hug because. Well, that's okay. Hugs are good too. Yeah. But if you were to ask me that question, Tony, why should God allow you into heaven, if God were to ask you? Why should I allow you into heaven? Tony, what would you say? This is what I would say. And this is based on 35 years of walking with Christ and reading that book almost every day of my life. If God would ask me that question, T-Team, the first thing I would say is, God, you shouldn't. because I'm unworthy of it. I've broken your law every day of my life. I've sinned against you with my mouth. I've sinned against you in my mind. I've sinned against you with my actions. And God, if you give me what I deserve for the way I've treated you and the way that I've, because all of my sin, if I were to do something wrong to Titi, ultimately I've sinned against God because all sin is against him. So God, because I've sinned against you, You shouldn't let me in. You should give me what I deserve. You should send me to hell for all eternity. But God, I know you're going to let me in. No, not just because he is a forgiving God, but let me put it this way. Have you ever been in a courtroom before? Yeah. Okay. All right. Me too. All right. So let's say, I'll put it on me. Let's say I got a, instead of being out here trying to help people and talk to people about Christ, I decide to go over and rob the shell station. Right? And I'm no good at it. I get, I get caught. I get caught and I feel remorseful and, and I, I write out my own confession. The cops don't promise me anything. The DA doesn't make me any false promises he's not going to keep. Just on my own I say you know what I've done it. I'm gonna own up to it, and I write out my confession You know TT. I was actually a police officer for 20 years and What I wanted more than anything was the bad guys confession because that was the best piece of evidence I had better than a witness who might be lying to me or telling me the truth yeah, so so I go to trial right and Understandably, I'm found guilty and the judge And this is the day of sentencing, and the judge asks, Tony, what do you have to say for yourself? And I said, well, your honor, I'm wrong. I broke the law. I even admitted to it. And I think you're a forgiving judge, so I think you ought to just let me go. That's not going to happen, is it? No. No. Why? Because if it's a good judge, he's going to follow the law. So in my case, TT, he says, Tony, not only do I find you guilty, not only can I not let you go, but I sentence you to death for your crime. It's amazing how often that happens while I'm talking to people. That ambulances drive by. So so the judge sentences me to death and unlike our system today where I would have 10 or 20 years to appeal the decision Instead they're gonna take me into the next room. They're gonna strap me to a gurney with my name on it They're gonna drive a needle into my arm with my name on it and they're gonna put me to sleep like a stray dog but before that happens The judge who pronounced sentence on me, the judge who had the authority to sentence me to death, stands up from behind his bench, he takes off his robes of authority, he steps down and he walks over to me and he says, Tony, you are guilty and you do deserve to die and I'm going to take your place. And the judge walks into the next room, even though I'm guilty, the judge walks into the next room, he allows himself to be strapped to a gurney with my name on it. He allows a needle to be driven into his arm with my name on it, and he dies the death that I'm supposed to die. And I'm set free not because I'm innocent. but because of the love of the judge who decided to pay the punishment for me. So now, TT, the courtroom is going nuts. They've never seen anything like this before. The DA's pounding his fist, going, no, no, no, no, no. Tony's the one who's supposed to die. What? Tony's supposed to die. I'm prosecuting Tony. My attorney's just shaking his head. He's never seen anything like it. The victims, they're livid. They can't believe that I'm going to go free after robbing the Shell station. But your honesty got you worthy of another chance? No, that wasn't it, Titi. My honesty only showed my guilt. My confession didn't show my innocence. My confession showed my guilt. It was like a poster saying, yeah, I did it. That's all my confession got me? And so now, this is Davenport, it's not Chicago, right? This is like the story. I walk out of the courtroom, a free man, and the press is lined up, there are cameras, people shoving microphones in my face. Tony, what happened? What do you have to say? And I said, well, I can't believe the judge did that. I don't know why the judge did that. After all, I confessed. And my confession should have earned me the judge's forgiveness. He should have just let me go. That's what I say. That's what you would say. Titi, that's absolutely the wrong thing to say. Exactly. It's almost like a lot of things, though. Okay, right. And because we are all sinful by nature, our logic would say, the judge shouldn't do that. He should have just accepted my confession and let me go. And so that he took my punishment on himself doesn't make any sense. Well, T.T., that's exactly what God did. 2,000 years ago, God the Father sent his Son to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, truly God, truly man, without sin. He lived a life of perfection for some 33 years that neither TT nor Tony can live for 33 seconds. Yet even though he knew no sin, 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 people like you and me rightly deserve. for our sins against God. Many forever defeated sin and death when he rose from the grave. But yet, Titi, what so many people do, and maybe this is what you've been doing, in spite of that sacrifice, Titi's saying, I'm gonna get it right on my own. I'm trying. I'm trying. Titi trying won't save you. Let's say, I'm sure you're young enough to be my daughter, if not my granddaughter, okay? Let's say you are my neighbor, right? We're not related. We're just neighbors. And the snow starts to fall and you come knocking on my door and you say, Hey Tony, I'm going to shovel your snow so that I could be your daughter. I'm going to look just like that. And I'm going to say a couple of things. I'm going to say TT, I think it's sweet that you want to do my shoveling for me. I'm not gonna let a girl shovel for me, but I think it's really sweet that you would be so kind as to do that. And I'm truly touched that you would want to be my daughter. But then I would say, Titi, shoveling my snow is not gonna make you my daughter. So let's change it a little. So I come home after standing here on the corner for a while. And my daughter, you're now my daughter, my daughter, Titi, is out there shoveling the snow. I didn't tell her to do it. Right? And so I'm skeptical. Why is Titi shoveling the snow? Does she have a bomb to drop on me? Does she want the keys to my car? Does she want my wall? Right. And then you see me and you come running up and you say, Dad, I know, I know what it looks like, but Dad, I don't want anything from you. Dad, I'm shoveling the snow because I love you and I'm thankful that you're my dad. That would make most grown men cry. Many people believe, Titi, that they're going to stand before God and say, hey, let me into heaven. I've shoveled your snow. But Titi, if you will humble yourself and come to the end of yourself, and put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, He will forgive your sin. He will remove it as far as the east is from the west. He'll remember it no more. You'll be reconciled to Him forever, and He will love you as an adopted child, never to let you go. And then, T.T., if He does that work in you, You're going to want to live a life pleasing to Him, not to earn His love, not because you're afraid of losing His love, but because you're so thankful for the love that He gave you. You're putting the cart before the horse, my friend. You're trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You're trying to clean up your act. You're trying to pray more. You're trying to do a lot of things. And you are so weak because you're relying on your own strength. Turn to Christ, Titi. Put your faith and your hope and your trust not in you, not in me, not in anyone else. Put your trust in Christ. He will forgive you. He will adopt you. He will love you like no father could ever love you. And then when life feels like it's hitting you over the head with a hammer, because God doesn't promise that all the pain is just gonna go away. Because the promises of God are a future hope, they're an eternal hope. They're the assurance of heaven no matter what this life throws at us. No matter how your son or your daughter turns out, Christ is there. No matter what the doctor says, Christ is there. No matter how hard life gets, Christ is there. And your hope is not in your circumstances. Your hope is in the one who died for your sin. And so you can experience joy even in the midst of the most difficult times because you know this is no longer your home. You see, when God saves someone through faith in Jesus Christ, he gives them a new name, he gives them new clothes, and he gives them a new home. Now, the preachers on television will say, oh yeah, yeah, you're gonna get a house, and you're gonna get a full bank account, and just give me some of your money, and God's gonna, yeah, that's all a lie. Here's what God does. He changes your name, T.T. You're no longer called sinner. You're no longer called condemned. You're no longer called forsaken. You're now called a saint, one set apart by God himself. You're now called redeemed. You're now called forgiven. He gives you new clothes. No longer does God see you clothed in the filthy garments of your sin. Instead, he'll see you clothed in the righteousness of your son, of his son, of his son. And he gives you a new home. Your home is no longer here. Your destination's no longer hell. Your home now and forever is heaven. But you have to come to God on His terms. Just like the judge wouldn't negotiate with me, a guilty criminal, God doesn't negotiate with sinners. He's given one way, Titi, for all of us to be reconciled to Him. Just one way. And that is through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Turn to Christ and live, Titi. Turn to Christ and live. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you. So all the information for our church is in there. And if you haven't read the Bible in a while, the Gospel of John, that is a great place to start. And this is every way you can contact me. No salesman's coming to your door. Don't be surprised. Seriously, don't be surprised. TT, you said you're a single mom? I am. How many kids do you have? I have four. You have four? How old are they? 13, 12, 11, and 9. I would love TT. And look, all I know is your TT. You've got all my contact. I don't, right. Okay. But TT, I would love for you and your kids to come over to my house with me and my wife and my youngest daughter, who's 29. She's still at home. And I'm 30. I'll be 31. Yeah, I have two daughters older than you. So we would love for you to come over, have dinner with us, have fellowship with us, and just let us minister to you. I will. It's entirely up to you. I can't tell you when, but I promise I will. And I will text you as soon as I get in the car so you'll have my number. The invitation is always open. And as you read that, if questions come up, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I've read this book a lot. I'll help. I'd gladly help. And my kids will too. Good. Thank you. God bless you, Titi. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I needed this. I needed... And you'll see me, I promise. I hope so. I'll keep my word. I hope so. I promise. Okay. Thank you. God bless you, Titi. You have a good day. Thank you. You've made my day, Titi. Well, you made mine. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Thank you. You have a great day. Bye-bye.