Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - A Way Out, Part 3: Living By The Spirit

Episode Date: August 22, 2015

Temptation is the seductive little voice that twists what you want into what you need. It distorts your thoughts until you’re trapped—and when you’re trapped by temptation, it’s not the time to listen to yourself. Put your trust in someone who kno... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is a great day to have all of you at all of our churches gather together to worship and to share in God's word. If you're just now joining us, we're actually in part three, the four-part message series, where we're talking about how do we overcome temptation that all of us always face. In fact, there are many of you right now. There may be kind of a reoccurring temptation that just seems to plague you. No matter what you do, you can't seem to stop doing something. Sometimes we'll say things like, well, I just had to, or I just can't stop, or I've already prayed about it and nothing happened.

I tried everything, and I just cannot quit doing such and such. I want to remind you of our key verse taken from 1st Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13, when the apostle Paul said this. He said, and God is what? Somebody helped me out. He said, and God is faithful. The good news is our God will not let you be tempted. beyond what you can bear.

When you are tempted, he will also provide, here is the title of our series, What Will God Give Us? He will also give us a way out so you can endure it. And I pray that you are encouraged by this truth today, that no matter what you're facing, there is always a way out. You may be tempted to always complain. There's a way out. You may be tempted to compare.

You're dissatisfied. You're envying others. You're jealous. always a way out. You may be tempted to overspend. There is a way out. You may be tempted to worry. There may be a real addiction. You're addicted to social media. You're addicted to gambling. You're addicted to gaming. You just can't stop playing games. You're addicted to smoking something, drinking something, looking at something inappropriate, whatever it is. Our God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. He will always give us, help me again,

and he will always give us a way out so you can endure it. The challenge is so often when we think, okay, I don't want to do this anymore. A lot of times what we do is we think, well, I need to stop thinking about this. I need to not do the wrong thing. I need to not focus on the wrong thing. Scripture actually teaches us that is one plan of attack, but it's also good not just to not think about, the wrong thing, but instead to think about the good thing, because when we're focused on not

just thinking about the wrong thing, sometimes we think about the wrong thing. Who knows what I'm talking about, right? But try and experiment all of our churches, just for fun, just try this. Work with me. Close your eyes for a minute. Everybody close your eyes? Close your eyes. Okay.

Video campuses, don't try to mess with me. Okay. Close your eyes. Close your eyes. Now, work with me. Don't think of a pink elephant. Don't think of a pink elephant. Open your eyes.

And what do you see? Cheesy, I know. But when you don't think of something, you end up thinking of something. Don't think of chocolate, cake, and ice cream. Don't think of a girl in a bikini. Oh, my gosh, she's riding a pink elephant, eating cake and ice cream. How about it? I don't know.

Don't think of the negative thing. And then your mind tends to go to that thing. And we're going to learn in Scripture that even a better plan of trying not to think about the wrong thing is to actually do the right thing. And today, I want to go a little bit deeper. And so if you can put on your thinking hats with me, we're going to look at some powerful scriptures. And this is what Paul said in Galatians 5. He said, so I say to do what? Let's all say it aloud. Paul said, so I say, walk by the spirit. What does that mean? We'll talk more about this. He says, do the right thing. Stay close to God. Walk by the spirit.

and what's going to happen? And you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Now, what are the desires of the flesh? It's not like your flesh is going, I want son, you know, or whatever. It's not that. The flesh is a picture of our sinful nature. And if you're a follower of Jesus, you'll recognize there's a war going on between what God's spirit wants you to do and what your sinful nature wants you to do.

He says, if you walk by the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. If you walk by the spirit, you're not going to be as tempted to do the wrong thing. In verse 17, he says, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want. So some of you, you can very much relate to this. you are like the Apostle Paul in Romans 7. Paul said this, he said, I don't get it.

The things I want to do, I don't do. The things that I don't want to do, I end up doing. How many of you would relate to that at some point? You want to do what's right and you don't. Okay, I want to read my Bible every day, and you do it for three days in a row, and then you stop. I want to stop overspending, but the shoes were on sale, and I had to save some money. I want to get up and jog in the morning, but there's a 10% chance of rain, and I don't want to get my new shoes wet, so I might as well do it later on. I want to do the right things, and then I don't want to do the wrong things.

I don't want to get mad at my husband, but I just threw a shoe at him. How'd that happen? I don't know why. I don't want to sleep with my boyfriend again. You know, oh, it just happened again. I don't want to do these things, but I end up doing these things, and the right things I want to do. I end up not doing. Why is this such a struggle?

Here's a key thought, if you're taking notes, I'd love for you to write this down. We need to understand that what you feed grows. What you feed grows and what you starve dies. This is practical, right? Whatever you feed grows stronger and bigger. Whatever you starve grows weaker and eventually dies. For example, if you feed, if you feed, you feed it grows stronger and bigger, and eventually dies. For example, if you feed you feed it.

You feed yourself a lot, what's going to happen? You're going to grow, okay? If you starve yourself, work with me. What are you going to do? You're going to die. If you feed your plant at home, what your plant's going to do, live and grow. If you starve your plant, it's going to die unless you bring your plant to our house, and then whatever we do to it, it will die.

It's just kind of how it works. If you feed your fleshly nature, what happens? your desires to sin grow. If you starve your fleshly nature, it starts to die. If you feed your spirit, your spirit grows stronger, your intimacy with God increases and its power in you to overcome the desires of the flesh increase as well. What you feed grows and what you starve dies. So instead of just thinking, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I also want to feel. feed my spirit, which we're going to talk next week specifically, how we do that, so that I can starve my flesh and my spirit wins the war between the spirit and the flesh. If that makes

sense, say it makes sense. Everybody, good, okay, work with me. Okay, here's what I want to talk about. How do we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, how do we overcome those wrong desires of the flesh? I don't want to do this, but yet I do this anyway. How do we? How do we overcome those wrong desires of the flesh? I don't want to do this anyway, how can we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to get free from those sinful desires that we end up giving into? And I want to give you two thoughts. That's all we're going to talk about today, about allowing the Holy Spirit to help us overcome the temptations that we often give into. The first thing, if you're taking notes, is this. We're going to learn to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. We're going to learn to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. We're going to learn to depend on the

power of the Holy Spirit. Now let me stop here for a moment because a lot of people in church are like, okay, I get that there's a Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. I understand the whole God thing. I understand the Jesus thing. I saw pictures of him on the kids' Bible. The Holy Spirit thing, this is confusing to me. And when we think about it, you know, conceptually it might be, but the Holy Spirit is actually one of the greatest gifts that we will ever have. Jesus said before he went away, he said, I'm going to send you something better. I'm going to go away, and I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit,

which this is basically God dwelling within you. If you're a Jesus follower, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells within you. Now, what does this Holy Spirit do? Well, the Holy Spirit, Scripture, teaches, does a lot. One thing the Holy Spirit does is he convicts us of our sin. You do something wrong. Oh, I shouldn't have done that. You're about to do something wrong.

There's like this warning, warning, warning, warning, that is the Holy Spirit convicting us. The Holy Spirit also comforts you when you're hurting. Have you ever been in one of those places where you're just upset and you're praying? And suddenly there's like this, oh, this peace that surpasses your human ability to understand. That's just not goosebumps or whatever. That is the Holy Spirit comforting you. The Holy Spirit also counsels you. He's called a counselor.

He will guide you into all truth. The Holy Spirit will guide you and say, this is the way you should go. The Holy Spirit prompts you or nudges you to move in the direction that would please God. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is a he. It's God in spirit form that dwells within you. So when you're battling temptation, you don't have to do it. but on your own.

You have a heavenly power that dwells within you. And with the help of God in spirit form, you can overcome the desires of your flesh. We're going to learn to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. And Paul says again in Romans 8, verses 12 and the beginning of 13, he says this, you have what? Let's all say this aloud. I love it.

He said, you have no. I love this. You are not obligated whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. You're single, you got your girlfriend, and you got the urge to merge. You have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. There is no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. I've got to. No, there is no obligation. obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

For if you live by its dictates, what's going to happen? You're going to what? Die. Whoa, it's a little dramatic there, Apostle Paul. What are you going to be? Die. How dramatic are you going to be? Okay?

I'm not going to die. How many of you would agree that sin can be fun for a little while? Sin's fun? Raise your hands? About a third of you. Okay? So the rest of you, either you're lying. or you didn't do it right.

Right? Let me ask you again. How many say it can be fun for a little while? Yeah, thank you for your honesty. God's not going to strike you with lightning for lying in church, okay? It can be fun for a little while, but then it will mess you up, okay?

Somebody said this. Somebody said sin thrills and then it kills. Someone said sin fascinates and then it assassinations. I've always said sin is like a sneeze. It feels good coming out. and then there's snot everywhere. That's my take on it. And that's the reality.

It can be fun for a little while. And then when you live in it too long, it actually kills you. In fact, at one of our churches, there's a guy who was doing an appraisal that took pictures of a house and sent it to the pastor who sent them to me. I want to show you some of these pictures for just a moment of this house. You look in, it's kind of in bad shape. This last picture shows a note. Dear Lord, it all came home today.

Funny thing is, the only thing I can do is thank you for loving me this much. I am at a complete loss as to why it's so hard. You know I love my family more than dope. Please help me. Amen. I don't know about you, but just those images and that note, it really grabs me. Because I can almost hear the story. I don't know if there's a guy or girl to say some guy one day says,

hey I want to smoke some weed. Okay? Not a big deal. I'm going to smoke some weed. And then smokes it again and again. And before long, what's he doing? He's feeding his flesh. The desires grow.

The addiction gets out of control. I don't know what happened. He lost his job. He couldn't hold down. He couldn't hold down a relationship. Something happens. And suddenly, you see visual evidence of what sin does over time. Sin grows while left in the dark.

And here's, I mean, here's the same. a guy who evidently loves Jesus, is trapped by something, really wants to love his family more, but there's evidence that he's not able to overcome this. What happens? Sin thrills and then it kills. Well, it's not that big of a deal. Well, it may not be when it starts, but sin grows when we don't confess it. And eventually, it totally does, and forgive me for sound dramatic, it kills marriages, it kills intimacy with your children, it kills intimacy with God, It kills your testimony. It kills your finances.

It kills your ability to have credibility. Sin kills. If you live by the sinful nature's dictates, Paul said, you will die. Let's look at the whole verse again, just to internalize this. He said this. He said, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But here's the good news.

If through what? Everybody, all of our churches, let's say it. I want you to get this. If through the power of the spirit, notice, this isn't of your own, I'm so strong, but through the power of the spirit, through God's divine, powerful spirit that resides within every born again believer. Through the power of the spirit, if through the power of the spirit you put to death, what does that mean, you're starving it, you're staying away, what you starve dies. if through the power of the spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. There are those here today that are going to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit of God,

and not by your own strength, but by the strength of God's spirit, you're going to put to death and starve that which has been slowly killing you. And I want to read to you a prayer, which I think is so powerful. My dad is involved in Alcoholics Anonymous and helps people all over to get free from alcohol as he was enabled by God to get free after years and years. And in AA, they have a really cool prayer that they pray. I like this a lot. Basically, they say this.

They say, we admit we are powerless over alcohol, that our lives have become unmanageable. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore our sanity. Now, who is that power greater than ourselves? For a Jesus follower, we believe, is the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. And what I'm going to say right now, I believe, is very true. At all of our different churches, there are a few of you that are about to have a breakthrough. This is the beginning of your healing. When you admit that you are powerless over something, and you need a power greater than you have,

the power of the Holy Spirit to help you be whole and to help you be healed. So here's my version of the prayer. I admit that I'm powerless over blank. I believe that the power of the spirit of God will heal me and make me whole. Are you ready? Some of you? This is it. I mean, this is really, really it.

What goes in the blank? I admit I am powerless over food. I admit that I'm powerless over materialism. I keep buying, buying, buying, wanting, wanting. I admit I'm powerless over worry. I'm obsessed with worrying about my kids, the economy, my mayor, whatever it is. I am powerless over worry. Some of you, I am powerless over a sexual addiction.

You have to call it what it is. You are only as strong as you are honest. Admit it, admit it. I'm powerless over the life. lusts that I have. Some of you, it's dope. It's pot. It's alcohol. It's meth. It's dip. It's pain medication that may not be legal until the way you get it. And I am powerless over what. And I want to give you a moment just to think about it. And you may not want to write it down because someone's looking, but you do want to confess it because sin grows best in the dark.

and we come together with other people in Christian community and we confess our sins to one another and pray for each other, that's where we find healing. So let me give you a chance to really think about it, to really get ready to be honest and to let the healing begin. I admit that I am powerless over, admit it. I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit of God

will heal me and make me whole. I'll tell you my story. And this is not something I'm proud of. In college, sin caught up with me. Right? Who was there? Not with me, but there. I was there.

You know what I'm talking about. He caught up with me. And I started seeking God. God, are you real? Jesus, what does this mean? And I was being drawn, and this is where some of you are right now. I was being drawn to Jesus. I want to give my whole life to him.

But I don't want to give up this. Some of you, I'm talking right to you. at this very moment. I'm being drawn to Jesus, but I don't want to give up, whatever. And for me, I'm not proud of this, but I don't want to give up doing things with girls, okay? I don't want to stop this. And so I submitted to Jesus, and the fraternity brothers, they're like, how long is it going to be before Groschell does, whatever? And they were literally placing $100 bets back 28, whatever years ago, went $100 with a lot of money and still a lot of money, but a lot, a lot of money to a college guy. Like, it won't be long, okay? And so I have,

had to admit, I am powerless over this sinful desire. And here's what happened. The Holy Spirit led me to do something that started the healing process. The Holy Spirit led me to stop dating. And so for about a two-year period, I stayed away from girls. And what happened is that gave God time to renew my mind. And women were no longer an object to be used, but a beauty to be treasured. And God transformed my mind. And God started to heal me and to give me desires for purity. And it took time. I want to tell you right now, the relationship that I have with my best friend, Amy, the intimacy we have, the blessed marriage we have, I'm absolutely 100% completely convinced would have never happened had I not depended on the Holy Spirit to bring healing so that I could love her

the way that she deserves to be loved, cherished, and honored. I admit, I'm powerless over, and I need the Holy Spirit, because I don't have the strength to help bring healing and to make me whole. And I don't want to be here too long, but there's some of you, this is a moment of truth. You admit it, or you move on covering it up, and what remains. covered will not heal. I admit, I need the help of the Spirit of God. And so we learn to depend on the Spirit who strengthens us, comforts us, convicts us, encourages us, counsels us, and guides us

into all truth. God, help me to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. Depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. And the second thing, if you're taking notes, and this sounds challenging, but it's really simple, is we're going to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We're going to depend on the power, and we're going to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Paul, again, Galatians 5, 24 and 25. He says, those who belong to Christ Jesus, what have they done? Say it aloud. They have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

What are they doing? They're starving it again. They're putting it to death. They're staying away so the power becomes weaker. They're crucifying these sinful desires. Since we do what? Since we, say it, everybody, since we live by the Spirit, say it again, since we live by the Spirit, let us do what? Let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Go back to our first verse. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of our flesh. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. What does this mean? I explain it this way and give you a visual. Years ago, my beautiful bride wanted to learn to ballroom dance with moi. I didn't particularly want a ballroom dance, but it's amazing what a man who's in love with a woman will do for that woman.

So this was back in the Blockbuster days. Who remembers Blockbuster? Blockbuster. I went to Blockbuster and rented a VHS. Okay? That's how long ago it was. Put the VHS and the VCR and watched a ballroom dancing video for dummies. Okay?

And we were dummies. So we tried to do all these things. There's this dance and this dance, this dance. The only thing we could remember together was how to get out of a corner. Okay? And I will demonstrate this for you. Imagine this is a corner. Okay.

I've got Amy. You go into the corner, one foot out, to the side, and you're out of the corner. The problem was we didn't know what else to do. So when we went ballroom dancing, we just pretended that we were in a small square. And the whole time, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, we just kept getting out of the corner, okay? Now, this only worked for a little while. Amy said, we need to do better. Is this true?

Totally true, right? Okay, so I've got a witness. Okay. Now, she wanted to learn more, and I could not watch that stupid tape. So we just started experimenting. And what I would do is I would literally kind of start to just kind of squeeze her hand and nudge with this hand, like going this way. And so she would go that way.

Then what I would do is I say, we're going back. It's kind of like, beep, beep, you know, I pull back, and we're going back. And then I touch to take this hand, and we're going this way, and then we're going back, going back, going. And what happened is over time, she actually kind of learned to follow my very abnormal promptings. Now, technically, we stink. We will never be on dancing with the stars. But we have this way, we could go out and they're like, you guys kind of know how to dance. No, we don't.

I just know where I'm going next, and I'm telling her, and she's following me. Now, how did we get there? She had to be close, which I like a lot, physical proximity. We had to spend time doing this, and she had to learn my signals and follow. The more she learned my signals, the more she followed my signals, the more confident she got in what my signals actually meant. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. If you walk with the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of your sinful nature.

So how do we learn to keep in step with the Spirit of God? Well, we spend time with him. We get to know him through his word. We listen to him. And then over time, we actually recognize he's prompting me, he's leading me, he's guiding me. And the more you mature, the more you recognize, he's telling me to go this way, he's leading me to say this. He's prompting me not to do this.

He's telling me to take my mind off of this. He just gave me this verse. He's leading me to help this person. He's telling me to pray for this. And literally, you're keeping in step with the spirit. And when you're so close to the spirit of God, here's what happens. You will not gratify the desires of your flesh. Why?

Because you are so full of what matters, you are not tempted by the emptiness of what does not matter. You are so full of the presence of God. And let me just tell you this right now. And don't for a minute hear me say, I don't sin. And don't for a minute hear me say, I'm not. tempted to sin. But I will tell you, at this season of my life, the intimacy with God is greater than it ever has been before. And the temptations are less than they have been before. Why? Because I'm learning over time, years and years of years, to keep in step with the spirit. When I'm walking in the

spirit of God, I will not be tempted to gratify the desires of the flesh. Now, some of you say, okay, great, Pastor Craig, okay, Mr. Walk in the Spirit, Pastor Craig, okay, Mr. Seminary degree, memorized stupid Bible stuff, I got a real life and a real job outside of the church, Pastor Craig, okay? Doesn't work like that for me. And so what I want to do is this. I want to say, if you are a Jesus follower, okay, if you're a Jesus follower, what I want to encourage you to do is just keep track and document and write down every time you feel like the Spirit prompts you. In your notes, and I just put it there this way, is take note of every time you sense the Holy Spirit prompting you. And here's what's going to happen. Just take note.

I don't know how you're going to do it. Maybe on your phone, maybe a piece of paper, whatever, email yourself, whatever. Take note of every time you believe the Holy Spirit is prompting you. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to be driving to work and listening to Chris and radio and you're going to hear a song. Oh, that just ministered to me. Bing, ding, ding, ding. God was prompting me. You're going to be reading in your daily U-Version Bible plan, and a verse is going to come alive to you to go, oh, wow, God just spoke to me. You're going to be going into your office and there's that annoying person who's talking and you're like trying to walk on by, and you think, no, I'm going to stop and listen. Wait a minute, why? Because the Holy Spirit just prompted me

to listen. If nothing works for you, just do this sometime. Just say, God, I'm going to give you 15 minutes and pray for people, show me someone to pray for. And watch what happens. Boom, boom, boom. Name missiles come out of heaven into your brain. And suddenly you're praying for people for 15 minutes and it passes by like that. You'll be walking with the spirit. And suddenly the spirit says, don't go into that place. Don't think about this. Go do this instead. And when you're keeping in step with the spirit, when you're walking according to the spirit, you will not gratify the sinful desires of your flesh. Here's a good news.

You have no obligation to sin. You have no obligation. You have no obligation to obey the desires of your flesh. You have no obligation to stay addicted to that which is in a bottle. You have no obligation to continue to depend on something that you smoke in order to get through the day. You have no obligation to continue eating to medicate yourself because there is a power that dwells within you that is greater than that desire for sugar. You have no obligation to continue

to worry when the prince of peace can renew your mind and give you a peace that goes beyond your ability to understand. You have no obligation to do what the sinful nature urges you to do. Why? Because our God is faithful and he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, what will our God do? He will always, always, every time give you a way out. So how do you get out? Now, just don't think bad, don't think bad, don't think bad, think good. Holy Spirit, lead me.

If I walk according to the Spirit, I will not gratify the desires of my flesh. Therefore, I will depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. God, I acknowledge that I am powerless over this, and I need the Holy Spirit to make me whole and well. and I will follow the promptings of the spirit all day long documenting, documenting. At the end of the day, look at all the times God led me, prompted me. Oh, wow, he is a God who speaks. Therefore, tomorrow I'm going to pay even better attention,

and I'll keep in step with the spirit, and sin will not hold its grip on me. Oh, our God is faithful. He will never let you be tempted, beyond what you can bear, wherever you feel trapped. my God will give you a way out. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would give us hope, give us faith. God, for those who may be stuck, I pray that today would be a day of breakthrough,

that we are powerless over this. And we thank you that your Holy Spirit is more powerful than the darkest sin that holds us back. All of our churches today, those of you who would say, all right, game on, let's do this thing. It's war. There's a war. Flesh against spirit. I have the power of the spirit, and I believe God is going to give me victory. There is something that for whatever reason I continue to go back to, it holds me, haunts me, I can't seem to whatever, and I need the

Holy Spirit's help. I want to depend on the power of the Spirit, and I want His Spirit to prompt me, and I will follow him. All of our churches, that's you today, there is something that goes in that blank and you want the Holy Spirit to help bring healing and set you free. Would you lift up your hands all of our churches? Be honest right now. You're only as strong as you are honest. Put your hands back down. I'm going to ask one more time, those of you that should have and didn't raise your hands, let's do it right now. Break through time by the power of the spirit. If you didn't raise your hands, you say I do need help. Lift them up right now. All of our churches, fantastic. Praise God for your honesty. God, I thank you today that there is a power greater than our own strength.

your Holy Spirit. God, teach us to depend on your spirit, to admit that we are powerless in our own ability to overcome this. But, God, we thank you that by the power of your Holy Spirit, that when we are weak, your strength is made perfect. God, help us to depend on and follow the promptings of the Spirit. God, I pray that there are people that their faith will be revolutionized with you this week just because they're noting, oh, that was God, oh, that was the Holy Spirit, oh, there again. Oh, wow, that happened again. Oh, my goodness.

I'm keeping in step with the Spirit. And because I'm walking in the Spirit, I'm so full of the goodness of God. I'm not nearly as tempted by the emptiness of sin. God, we depend on you. We depend on you. I thank you, God, that today, for many people, the freedom and the healing is beginning by the power of your Son, Jesus, through your God. your Holy Spirit. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, I talked earlier about the time in

my life when I was really being drawn to the things of God, but there was this one thing I didn't want to give up. The reality is there are many of you right now like that. There's just, I got to fix this first. I got to stop this first. I got to do this first. And the reality is this. God wants you to come to him exactly as you are. This is the beauty of God's love in the gospel, that God loves you so much exactly as you are, that he sent Jesus, who was without sin, to die on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. When he was raised from the dead, Scripture teaches us that anyone, and this includes you, no matter what you've done, no matter where you're trapped, no matter how dark the darkness is, no matter how afraid you are. Anyone who calls on his name would be saved. There are those of you, you want to surrender your whole life, but there's the this. Listen, you come to him with the this and he will forgive you and he will give you the power to let go of the viz.

You don't get rid of it first. You come to him as you are because he loves you and wants you to say yes to him in all of our churches. There are those of you. You recognize this is a turning point. I need his grace. I need his forgiveness. I need him in my life. I am powerless to be good enough.

I trust in his grace. Scripture says that you will be saved by the grace of Jesus, never by your works. And that's why you're here at all of our churches. Those who say, yes, I need him. I need a relationship with God. I simply turn from my sin. I trust Jesus to be enough. Today, even with this, I surrender my whole life and give it completely to you.

That's your prayer. All of our churches, lift your hands high right now and say, yes, God, I surrender to you. Lift up your hands and say, yes, Jesus, I surrendered right up here, close to me, right back over here. God bless you guys over here. Man, fantastic. All three of you right here together, blessings upon blessings. Others of you today say yes, right back over here on this side, over here as well. God bless you.

Church online, you just click right below me. We're going to pray with everybody. Join your faith with those around you. Nobody prays alone. Pray Heavenly Father, today I give my life completely to you. Jesus saved me from my sins. Make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit.

So I have the power to serve you. you, to follow you, and to know you. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Would you worship big as you welcome those today born into the family of God?