Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - 20 Years and Counting, Part 1: 20 Years and Counting

Episode Date: January 9, 2016

From beginnings in a two-car garage to thousands worshipping together each week, Life.Church looks different than we did two decades ago. But one thing has always been the same: the reason we do what we do. Come see how you're the most important p... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello to everyone at Life Church. Hey, it's Mark and Roma. We love you guys. We're so grateful for our association with Life Church. And we love being part of your community. And I am blown away. Our community in Seattle and now extended to other cities and other countries has been so dramatically impacted

by the ingenuity, the innovation, the creativity of Life Church. You are pioneers. When they write the history of the church in America, when they talk about the spread of the Word of God in the modern age, when they talk about multi-site church, when they talk about reaching people others weren't reaching,

they'll have to start the article with Life Church and Pastor Craig and Amy Groshell. Hey Craig, congratulations on 20 years of amazing ministry at Life Church. As you know, when Catalyst came to me and ask me, who would you like to travel around and teach pastors with, teach leadership with? There was only one person on the list.

In fact, it wasn't even a list. I said, I want to spend time doing this with Craig Groshell. incredible years of building what is now one of the great churches around the globe. Your inspiration, the innovation that have come from your church, ultimately out from your life, and just the incredible model you've been to so many pastors with multi-campus church. And of course, all that's happened through the U version and all the other things that you're involved in. What a blessing.

I just want to thank you on behalf of all the people whose lives you've spoken into and given them so much hope and inspiration for life. Happy anniversary and God bless you bro. We love you, we esteem you, we value you, we thank God for you, and your best 20 are still ahead of you and not behind you. It is a tremendous honor to once again share God's word with you and thank God for 20 years of faithfulness. I've got to warn you, just to be real honest, I'm like a basket case of emotions. I couldn't even watch as the numbers of people giving their lives to Christ scrolled up because I did that yesterday. and I ugly cried and did not recover.

And so I am overwhelmed gratitude for all of our churches. I love every single one of you. Amy and I are blown away with gratitude. For your faithfulness, our network churches, we couldn't be more thrilled to partner with you. People all over the world at church online right now with us in an online community, we care about you so much and pray you really feel the love of God.

And what I want to do today is, if you'll just kind of tolerate it. Next week we're going to launch into a brand new message series called Dangerous Prayers. What I want to do today is I want to look back just a little bit, and then I want to look forward. I'll start by looking back, and it's kind of emotional to us that 20 years ago,

this week we started on a snowy Sunday in a little bit of garage. And I just turned 28 at the time, and the most common question that people asked me then when we were starting the church, because where I live is kind of in the Bible belt, people said, why another church? Why another church? Their church is everywhere where you live. Why another church?

And I want to just bring some context and explain that I grew up going to church, but I was not a follower of Jesus. And some people wouldn't understand that, but I simply went to church out of duty, but I didn't understand who Jesus was. And it was when I got into college and got into a lot of trouble, I actually started reading the Bible. And what I saw in the Bible was really exciting to me, and it was so exciting that what happened in church paled in comparison to what happened in the Bible. When I read about Jesus, I was blown away about this guy they called the Son of God who hung out with people like me, really bad, sinful people, and he loved them.

And he touched lepers, those that everyone else ran from. And he befriended prostitutes, and he ticked off Pharisees. And I'll be honest, I kind of liked that part a little bit, you know. And there was this grace and love and power. And then church was like, to me, was dead and boring and ritualistic, and I didn't get it. And so our goal was very simple. 20 years ago, Amy and I made it in three statements. We wanted to start a church where everyone was welcome, where everyone was needed, where everyone was changed.

No matter what your past was, if you had a lot of money, no money, the color of your skin, if you looked pretty ugly, if you had ear tattoos, nose tears, booby rings. We didn't care. You know, everybody was welcome because Jesus was a friend of sinners. And we wanted to see a place where everyone was needed that you all have spiritual gifts and they were to be used in the church for the glory of God. And because Jesus changed me, I knew Jesus could change anyone. And so we wanted a church where everyone was welcome, everyone was needed, and everyone was changed.

And so we were scared to death, totally terrified, and yet, full of faith and said, let's start a church. What are we going to name the church? We ask ourselves, and we remember, Jesus did not come to condemn, but he came that we might have life. And therefore, 20 years ago, we met for the first time to start life church. And whoever finds God finds life. 20 years later, I want to preach today on the exact same text that I preached on 20 years ago this week. Acts chapter 2, verse 42 through 47, the title of my message back then was very creative. On the cutting edge of creativity, I called the message, what kind of church will we be? And so to honor my awesome sermon title, I'm going to call this one the very same thing, 20 years in,

what kind of church will we be from the very same text? Only my Bible has changed. Acts chapter 2, verse 42 through 47, this is the Word of God. The early believers, the text says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. What kind of church will we be? I want to give you what I call three we will statements that are very close to the exact same things I said 20 years ago. The first thing I hope that you will embrace and enjoy is this, that we will be an intensely devoted church.

We will be intensely devoted to our Savior Jesus. In fact, I love the word in Acts 2, verse 42 that said, they did what? All of our churches, let's say it aloud. These early first century believers, they did what? They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to breaking of breath. and to prayer, what I want you to notice is this wasn't casual, comfortable, cultural Christianity, right? This was all in, full-on, fully devoted followers of Christ.

This is Jesus died for us. Our only reasonable response is to live full on for him. This isn't church-ianity. This is full commitment to our Savior, Jesus. Verse 43 says, everyone. Everybody say everyone? Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. We will be an intensely devoted church.

And on that first weekend of the church, there were a few people gathered in this little garage. And I told them, we're going to be devoted, we're going to be devoted, we're going to be devoted. And there was one guy in particular who caught this vision. He had just come to Christ. I had an impact. It helped him to come to Christ. His name was Jerome. and Jerome was, he came out of a drug dealing background.

He had never done anything but a drug dealer. In fact, he had a finger shot off in a drug deal that went bad. I gave Jerome a job, and he was the overhead projector transparency flipper. Now, for those of you that don't know what an overhead projector is, because you were born after 1980, it was cutting out technology at the time. It was a machine that plugged into the wall, and it had a light that reflected off a mirror that would beam the words off of the transparency where you wrote with your hands

onto the garage door because we could not afford a screen. And Jerome was so in love with God that he would be worshipping God and forget to flip the transparency. We're like, Jerome, do your job, you know? And the problem is, because he had four fingers, he would be doing the transparency like this

and people would be trying to worship, but they'd be really distracting them. One, two, three, four. In fact, I've got a picture of Jerome's finger there just to prove on top of the transparency see his fingers. Well, Jerome was a drug dealer who came to Christ, and so I said, Jerome, you need to get a job. And he said, okay, well, how do I get a job? So let's build you a resume. Tell me what you've done. And he had never done anything legal before. He said, that's a problem. So I'm like,

tell me about your skills. And so I remember helping him write a resume. I said, you know, he's got good people skills. He's good in sales. He's got administrative skills. He drives a car really fast when being chased by a police. I don't know. You know. And we actually helped him land a legal job. And then Jerome met Shanna. And I'm telling you all this with permission. Shanna was actually a stripper who ended up. I know that's a better technical charm for that, right?

Politically correct. I'm always like, she was a clothing challenge jazz dancer. I don't know. I don't know. She was a stripper. Okay. And she liked polls. Anyway, somebody stopped me.

She came to. Everybody's welcome, right? Bring it on. Everybody's welcome. And she came to faith in Christ and they started dating. Well, Jerome had never had a relationship last more than three weeks. And, you know, she's just getting over drugs. She's like, how's this going to work?

This is going to be a great one, right? And they fall in love. And Jerome becomes fully devoted to Jesus. Okay. Fast forward to today, Jerome and Shan have been married 17 years. They have six children, which all godly people have six children, or at least some. and three of them are biological. Three of them are actually adopted.

Jerome has a computer programming consulting business. He gives massive amounts of his income to ministries. They are missionaries, part-time, business owners part-time in Sierra Leone, funding and helping support an orphanage. And you take a step back from that and say, how do you get from being a drug dealing, stripping, you know, all that kind of stuff, to being an amazing contributing kingdom powerhouse. And let me tell you how it happened. I challenged our church when I was preaching through the book of James. Hey, who would memorize the book of James with me, the whole book of James?

And Jerome and I might have been the only two people who did it, but we memorized the whole book of James together. Jerome got so fired up about memorizing the Bible that he memorized the book of Romans too. Romans is bigger than James. I don't have Romans close to memorized. He memorized Titus in 1st Peter and 2 Peter. Jerome memorized 53 chapters of the Bible. You can clap for that if you want to because most of you don't know 53 words in the Bible, okay?

53 chapters. Okay, here's what happened. There's a difference between partially devoted to Christ and fully devoted to Christ. And when you are devoted to the Apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship, and to prayer, everyone is filled with awe. and you cannot look on at this family's life without being filled with awe at the goodness of God in Christ. You need to understand that Jesus did not come to make us better. Jesus came to make us new. And Jesus, anyone who is in Christ, is a new creation.

The old is gone. And because of that, we will be fully devoted, full of passion, all in, fully devoted. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, the breaking bread, and to prayer. And I declared on that week number one that we will be an intensely devoted church. And for those of you who have devoted your lives to Christ, you have seen the harvest, a faithfulness of the goodness of God in your life when you serve Jesus. I told the little church, we're not going to go to church. Listen to me, we're going to be the church. We don't go to church.

We're going to be the church. And where I live people, I can't find a church that meets my needs. I can't find a church that meets my needs. Listen, that's spiritual consumerism. And we are not spiritual consumers. We are spiritual contributors because the church does not exist for us, but we are the church and we exist for the world. Mark it down, take it to the bank.

What kind of church are we going to be? We're going to be an intensely devoted church. The second thing that I hope you'll understand is this, that we will be an irrationally generous church. On that first weekend, Acts 2, verse 44 and 45, I read this verse. all the believers were together, and they had everything in common. And this is crazy. This is crazy, crazy talk in our self-centered world today.

What do they do? They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Wow! That's devoted. That's generous. That's saying we're so in love with God. We want to meet the needs of people that whatever we have doesn't really belong to us. It's God's, and if he can use it to meet some needs, then so be it.

I also read verse from two chapters over in Acts chapter four that said this. He said that God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. Let me tell you what was happening. People just would sell their possessions. They'd take the money and they say to the leaders, hey, if you find a need, you can go meet it. Just go meet a need. And because of this, there were no need. persons among them. Notice it was not the government meeting the needs of the people,

but it were believers meeting the needs of people, and everybody looked on in all, wow, can you believe what God is doing through these people? I preached that text with emotion because I liked it, but I was not living that. Can I just say it that way? I liked it, I admired it, but I wasn't living it. And I had something happened to me at that first little service in the garage. I was reading this and I looked out and there was a guy. I'd never seen him before and I never saw him again, but he looked like he probably was homeless. I don't know how he got there. It was a snowy day. He didn't have gloves on, didn't have a hat on, didn't have a coat on. And we were just sitting in this little garage. We had nothing at all. Everything was borrowed.

The only thing that was ours was the ficus tree that we took from our living room. And dear God, we shouldn't have had that ugly fikas tree. The fake one anyway. And so we're in there and I'm about to call for the offering. And if I can just be real honest, it was like I was, I was gone, I hope these people give, you know, significantly because we're starting up and we had nothing. And I'm sitting there asking people to give, thinking about that text, and looking at this guy the whole time, and I'm having this battle in my mind. And the words just came out. I said, okay, give generously today. We're going to believe, we're going to be a generous church, blah, blah, blah. And then I just, I just had to say it. I said, and if there's anybody here

who just happens to be in need, and I'm not looking at him, I don't want to feel weird, so I'm, you know, looking way. If anyone here happens to be, you know, I'm going to be. in need, a food, clothing or shelter. When the bucket comes back by, if there's cash in it, you can just take that back out. And let God meet your need that way. And I just said it, because that just seemed like what Jesus would have us do. And Amy sang an offeratory song. If you don't know what that is, Google it, and Google won't know what it is either. It's the song during the offering. And she sang, come just as you are. And I sat down there on my little seat, and I tried to watch down the aisle to see what this guy did, and sure enough,

the bucket came in, and he seemed to have a motion, he reached in, he pulled down a $20 bill, and it went on by. And I just decided, that's it, that's who we are. That's who we're going to be. We are going to be in a rationally generous church, because that's the kind of church that Jesus would have us be. And I'd love to say that at that moment, like, you know, we never lax for anything, but the truth is we struggled financially for years and years as a church. there were times when we took out a home equity loan to make payroll. You know, it was like, we were like, you know, all that kind of stuff. And 10 years into it, we had this crazy moment.

People started to want to buy our resources because, you know, you can sell DVDs, or back then it was VCR and cassette tapes and such, and everybody wanted to buy them. Can we buy them? Can we buy them? Other churches wanted to buy them. And Bobby Greenwald came in and he said, hey, you know that thing about generosity? What if we just gave all of our resources away? And I remember saying, hey, that's an idea. What if we don't? What if we sell them and make some money, you know?

And the moment he said it, I was like, crap, that's what we got to do. That's just, that's what we got to do. That's, that's who we need to be. And so it was really a controversial decision in the world I live in to give our resources away. And I never could have imagined that 185,000 churches would have downloaded free resources in the last year. You can clap for that any time you want to.

185,000 churches would download free resources. And then who would have ever believed that God would trust us, trust our church to steward the Bible app? The last great innovation to the Bible is probably the Gutenberg Printing Press. And let's just let's look at history. And then there was the Bible app. Over 200 million downloaded for free all over the world. And let me tell you what happened.

when we did that is we just announced to our church, you know, I don't even know if we can afford to give these resources away, but we're going to give this away. And some of you will remember it because a few of you were there. There was this massive sense of explosion and there was this corporate buy-in. This is who we are. We are irrationally generous. And then you all just came to the table with massive generosity.

And we had struggled financially year over, year over, year-over, year-over-year-over-year. And at that moment, you bought in with this crazy generosity. And suddenly, we were more and more blessed. into the 20 year mark with 24 campuses in seven states, we are 100% debt-free to the glory of God, owe nothing to anyone because we will lead the way with irrational generosity, because we truly and believe and embrace the words of Jesus

that it is far more blessed than it is to give than it is to receive. We will be an intensely devoted to Jesus, church. We will be irrationally generous. And the third thing I told that little group of people is that we will unapologetically share the love of Jesus. We will unapologetically preach Jesus and share him over and over again. And that's what verse 47 shows. It says they broke bread and ate together and joined the favor of all the people. Then it says, the Lord added to their number, how often? Would you say it aloud? The Lord added to their number daily, those who are being saved.

daily, daily, daily, I just read that. And the emotion hit me the very first time. And I said, daily, do you realize how many people that would be? That would be seven people a week? I said, can you imagine being a part of a church where seven people a week came to Christ? I said, how many people would that be in a year? What's seven times 52? Somebody do the math now, quickly.

Do the math. And somebody said, that's 365. It's like, duh, I'm just testing you. I'm that stupid. I know I am. I'm sorry. And I said, could you imagine being a part of a church where 365 people came to Christ a I believe that that could happen one day we could be a part of such a church.

And so at the end of the message, I wasn't planning to do an invitation to follow Christ because the room was so small. And I thought, surely, who comes to the first time meeting in a garage? Surely they're all Christians. And I went ahead and just felt moved by God. Just do it. Just invite people to follow Christ. And on that day, seven people raised their hand, day number one, to follow Christ.

And we never saw a week less than that. And on that moment, I just, I'm just. made an internal promise to God that every week, every service, every time for 20 years and for 20 years to come, we will invite people to follow Jesus. We'll be unapologetic that Jesus is the way to God. He is the way, the truth, and the life, he didn't come to make us better. He came to make us new. And so we devoted, kind of, we adopted a saying and this, we say it all the time and we believe it. We'll do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ. And to reach people no one's reaching, we're going to have to do things no one's doing.

So we will do some things that are a little weird, okay? If you get upset, Jesus offended Pharisees too. Don't mean to call you a Pharisee, but if the shoe fits, okay? And so we started church online, very controversial, you know, reaching communities around the world. And we saw hundreds of people gathering at church online, and we thought it could be bigger. And so we went and bought Google AdWords, and we'll do anything short of sin. So if someone's typing in church online, a Google AdWord would pop up that say, searching for church online. Why not try church online? That was good. The problem is no one's

searching for church online. And so we'll do anything short of sin. We were in a meeting and we said, what are people searching for? And someone said, well, they're searching for naked ladies. So yes they are. So we bought Google AdWords. Don't try this. Take my word for it. Don't try this. But if you type in during a service, naked ladies, an ad pops up, searching for naked. ladies, why not try church online? And the click-through rate is stunning. You can only imagine naked ladies, boobies, whatever, you know. Searching, try church on. People come into church on all the time saying, where's the porn? Where's the naked ladies? We never imagined that through that little innovative idea, we would see this week and every week, 125 to 150,000 unique computers

logged into church online. People reaching people outside of the United States, you know, the most popular cities that we impact? Pakistan, Indonesia, and India. Evidently, there's a lot of people in that part of the world searching for naked ladies and finding church online. We will do anything short of sin to reach people that do not know Christ. So people will ask now, at the 20-year mark, okay, Craig, so what now? What are you going to do now? What are you going to do now? You've got a large, successful church, what are you going to do now? What I want you to understand is that we do not see ourselves as a large and successful church that does not enter our minds. In fact, when we look at the need of the people that are outside the family of God, okay, when you look at the need of

those people who have yet to experience the grace of Jesus, what we are doing is not large and successful. It's insignificantly small. Do you understand that? We tell our staff all the time, We're not large. Large is big, fat, slow content. There's nothing content inside of us. There's nothing slow. There's passion inside of us. We are absolutely and completely just getting started.

In fact, we wholeheartedly reject the label megachurch. We are not a megachurch. We're a microchurch with a mega vision. We are not a large church. We are a collection of churches and communities around the world. Impacting local communities, sharing the love of Jesus. We are fast. We're a startup church.

In fact, if you're with us now, you're in on the, ground floor. I'm telling you, you're in on the ground floor. This is only the beginning, and we believe that God has so much more. So what do we do? Going forward, I'll give you four quick thoughts, and then we'll pray and see people come to know Jesus, because that's what happens in the presence of God. Moving forward, four thoughts. Number one, we will remain radically devoted to Jesus and to one another. What you have to understand is that we will grow bigger and we will grow smaller at the same time. We will grow an influence, but we're going to be all about relationships, relationships, relationships, relationships. We are radically devoted to one

another. And what I want to see in life groups, which is the purest form of the church, I want to see, as we do see, the purest form of biblical community where you just love one another, where someone has a need and you're there, where someone is hurting and you're there. The world looks on and may say, well, I don't really believe what they believe, but they love each other in such a way. I want what they have. And as a church community, I hope you understand that everyone is still welcome. In a world that's getting darker and darker and darker, there are a lot of people that behave in ways that are different than what the Bible teaches. And what you need to understand is they are absolutely and completely welcome in our church. We will give people a place to belong before they believe what we believe and behave like Scripture teaches.

Because my goal is not to change people, but to introduce them to the Jesus who changes them. Everyone is welcome, everyone is needed, and everyone is changed. You just kind of come as you are, baggage and all, and let Jesus. Jesus change you, and then you give your lives to him, loving one another, so the rest of the world looks on and says, I want that kind of whatever they have. I want to be a part of that. What are we? We are the family of God.

We are the church, the local church, which is the hope of the world as God's spirit works through it. Number two, we will continue to launch new churches in cities across the nation and beyond, in addition to funding ten church plants a year, which we do. 10 non-life churches. We fund and I train the pastors. In addition to that, we will continue to launch brand new life churches and partner with network churches all over the world.

In fact, even right now, we are working on six new building and campus launches. And I would tell you where they are, but I can't because I often would announce it before they were signed off and sealed and I get in trouble by the people that say you cannot do that. So as soon as I can, you will know where they are. six and then 10 and then 20 and then 30 as long as we have the ability we will continue to launch churches because we believe that God works in his church through his church to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. Number three, we will always leverage and redeem technology to spread the gospel.

We see about 150,000 unique computers at church online every single week. The reason I say unique computers is because on the other side of them, Sometimes there's a village of people, honestly, a village of people. And so we see many more people. I have a goal to see over a million every single week. We've given away, we've been blessed by God to give away 200 million Uversion Bible apps. I believe in my lifetime we will celebrate as a church giving away over 1 billion free Uversion Bible apps. And we will think bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.

We are big thinking. Bet the farm risk takers. We will never insult God. with small thinking or safe living. And before I tell you, the fourth one, I just want to say this. 20 years ago, people say, how long are you going to do this? We started out and they said,

when are you going to go to a bigger church? You know, when are you going to go to a bigger, they always say, when are you going to go to a bigger, when are you going to get hired away, all that kind of stuff? Now people say, when are you going to go off and do something different, you know, what are you going to do, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay? Please don't insult me.

when you recognize what Jesus has done in our lives and how much we believe in the power is worked through the local church, I was so messed up, so lost, so broken, so full of sin. And on a little softball field in college, I called Alan Jesus. I was one person, one moment, and by the grace of God, I was another person the next moment. Amy, too, beautiful, pure, yeah, yeah.

Listen, the girl could throw down at a party before she knew Jesus, okay? I'm just saying, she could throw down at a party. I'm just saying, nobody believes it. I wasn't there, but I've seen a picture of her with a beer can and a really bad look on her face. She can also lose her temper at me, but that's a whole other story. And Jesus totally and completely changed us. And on that weekend, 20 years ago, we stood before the church and said, this is our life calling.

This is what God has called us to do. And 20 years later, I say it again, this is our life. calling. This is what God called us to do. And so as long as we have breath, number four, we will lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. That's who we are. That's what we do. And we give God all the credit and all the glory and all the honor. What I hope that you'll understand is that you are a part of God's family. If you're outside of God's family, you are welcome, you are welcome, you are loved. And with one prayer, everything can change. Everything can change. Because at this place, everyone is welcome, everyone is needed,

and when you encounter Jesus, everyone is changed. Father, we give you the praise for every life that you've impacted over the past 20 years. We thank you for every single life. And God, we thank you for every single life that you're going to impact even at this moment and as we move forward as a church. As you're praying today at all of our churches, nobody looking around. I started off talking about devotion, and let me just kind of be, you know, put it on the table. There are a lot of you that are fully devoted, all in, that being a Christian isn't a title, but it's, it's, you are a Jesus follower.

You are committed to serving him. There are a lot of you, you believe in Jesus, you prayed some prayers, maybe you've been baptized, done the church thing, whatever, and you kind of like coming to church. But to be quite honest, you're just coming to church. And I believe with all my heart that Jesus did not call us to come to church, to go to church. He called us to be his church, to be the light of the world. If you're kind of just coming, you're missing out on the best of what God has. everyone is welcome, but listen, everyone is needed.

God has given you spiritual gifts to use to make a difference. And if you're not serving somewhere, if you're not contributing, if you're not a financial giver, if you're not praying, if you're not inviting people, if you're not in a community of people, listen, you're missing out the best of what God has because we don't come to consume, we come to give, to give the love of God. And all of our churches, there are many of you, you enjoy coming, but you recognize you're not contributing as you could. You're not all in, fully, fully using what God has given you to bring him glory through his church, and you recognize that. You say, you know what? I want to

take that step. I'm going to step toward him. Maybe it's through serving, maybe it's through giving, maybe it's selling out in your heart, whatever it is, at all of our churches, you say, yeah, I'm more on the outside, and I know God wants me more on the inside. Today, by faith, I ask him to help me take a step toward devotion. I want to use what he's. I want to use what He has given me to make a difference in my church as the church in this world. If that's you today, would you lift up your hands high right now? All of our churches, just lift them up. Let's put them back down for a second.

All of our churches, I just kind of feel there's more of you than that right now. I'm going to ask again, all of our churches. And listen, don't just think this is real. You're a follower of Jesus, but you're not contributing in the church the way you know God wants you to. Would you lift up your hands high right now, all of our churches? Fantastic. God, I thank you for people today that do know you. and want to bring you glory.

I pray God that your Holy Spirit would follow, pursue, and minister to them until they get to the place where they're saying, yes, I am all in. You've given me gifts, God, and I want to use them to reach people. I want to serve and glorify you, God, in your church as your church. God, I want to use what you've given me and contribute back to see more campuses built and more people come to Jesus. God, I want to be one who prays and reaches out and shares the love of Jesus. I pray, God, that you would cause us all to be really honest, to take a step forward and say,

what else do you want us to do, God? We'll be faithful to respond because Jesus gave his life for us. Our only reasonable response is to live completely for you, God. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, I know there are so many of you that maybe you were a little bit like me growing up. I was the church kid. Some of you weren't. Some of you weren't the church, whatever,

but I was the church kid that didn't understand the gospel. Didn't understand the gospel. I thought I had to try harder, work better. And the more the harder I tried, the more I'd fall short. And it wasn't until I recognized that I simply couldn't be good enough for God on my own. If I could be good enough for God on my own, there would be no need for God's son, Jesus, to come and shed his blood that I could be forgiven. The beauty of the gospel is this. Listen, everyone is welcome. Jesus was, he lived without sin. He died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. God had a sacrificial system. Jesus was the lamb of God. He was the perfect and complete sacrifice. He died for us and he rose again. So that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name, you would be saved, you would be forgiven, you would be made new.

didn't come to make you better. Jesus came to make you new. There are some of you, you've grown up around this, but you've never fully embraced it. There are others of you. You're not even a church person, but something's drawing you toward God right now. What is that? That is the love of God. That's His Holy Spirit drawing you because He loves you, and you are not here by accident.

You are here because God loves you. He cares for you. He sent Jesus for you. All of our churches, those of you who say, yes, I recognize my need for him. I am a sinner, and I need his forgiveness, and I need. I need a Savior. Today, by faith, I simply turn toward Jesus and say, take my life. My only reasonable response is to give all of me to you.

Jesus, forgive me, make me new. I give my life to you. That's your prayer today, and all of our churches, lift your hands and say, yes, I give my life to you. Lift them up and say, yes, that's my prayer. Right back over here and over here as well. Both of you right here, both of you guys right here. God bless you over here as well.

Both of you back here toward the back up here in this section. Praise God and praise him louder. here, God bless you and here as well. Praise God for you. And over here saying, yes, Jesus, I serve you, follow you. Others today who say, I surrender Jesus, be the Lord of my life. Church online, you click right below me. Everybody pray aloud. Heavenly Father, forgive me of all my sins. I surrender my life to you. Fill me with your spirit that I could know you, that I could serve you, that I could follow you. God, thank you for new life. Today I give you all of mine. I'm all in. I belong to you. In Jesus name, I pray.

Would you all worship God, honor him for 20 years of new life in Christ?