Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Calm My Anxious Mind
Episode Date: March 7, 2021Our thoughts are powerful. They change our perspective, impact our decisions, and influence our habits. But what do we do when we become trapped by our thoughts, unable to escape negative and unhealth...y thinking? Let’s learn what it means to take our thoughts captive and win the war in our minds.Learn more about Winning the War in Your Mind: https://www.life.church/media/winning-the-war-in-your-mind/Start the Winning the War in Your Mind Bible Plan: www.go2.lc/warWE’RE OPENTo ensure safety at all of our Life.Church locations, our weekend services have been redesigned to create a sanitary, touchless environment that allows for physical distancing. Learn more about everything we're doing to keep you safe and how you can help by using hand sanitizer, washing your hands often, and more: https://www.life.church/updatesFind a time and attend a service with us: http://www.life.church/locationsNEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIdiIO-Y20hRW9niR0CA8AFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
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Well, I'm incredibly honored to be talking about the message from my newest book,
Winning the War in Your Mind, Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life.
And I sincerely thank my God that this message is impacting lives.
And so many people are saying it's transforming the way they think.
What do we know about winning the war in our mind?
We know that most of life's battles are won or lost in the mind.
We know it's almost impossible to have a positive life when you have a negative mind.
And that can be a problem when your mind races with negative thoughts and irrational worries like mine often does.
I wonder how many of you can relate to irrational thoughts and runaway fears that often just consume your mind.
I don't know what it would be for you, but maybe you worry about something, something that seems normal.
You're a student and you're worried about making a bad grade on a test because you know if you make a bad grade,
then you're worried you won't get in the right college, and then you won't have the right job.
And if you don't have the right job, you won't marry the right person.
And if you marry the wrong person, you'll have the wrong kids.
And because they're the wrong kids, they're going to need braces, and braces are expensive.
And you'll put braces on them, but then you can't afford to send them to college.
because you're still paying for your own college.
And so your kids won't have the education
and they'll resort to a life of crime.
And they'll go to prison, which gives you a headache.
And speaking of a headache, you might have a brain tumor.
And your mind races in the wrong direction.
I'm exaggerating, but not by a whole lot, right?
And we're just joking about maybe getting a bad grade,
but you watch what's on the news,
or you hear what happens to the life of someone that you love,
or you're fighting for a good marriage and you're wondering,
is it going to ever work?
You've got more bills than you know how to pay.
You're trying to make some kind of decision about the future.
And it's so easy for your mind to race
and to be overwhelmed with very real feelings of anxiety and fear.
And that's why I want to start today's message with the Word of God.
And if you don't mind and you're able at all of our churches,
would you just stand to your feet in honor of the reading,
of his word. We'll be reading again today from Philippians chapter four and the context is
that the Apostle Paul was writing from a Roman prison in house arrest awaiting potential execution.
And he said these powerful words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he said,
do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and what else?
Let's say it aloud and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.
If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.
Think about such thing.
Think about such things.
And the peace of God, the God of peace, will be with you.
The title of today's message is, calm my anxious mind.
And, Father, we ask that you would do just that,
that we would take whatever is heavy on our minds
and heavy on our hearts and bring it before you,
casting our cares upon you, God, because you care for us.
And God, as we seek you, renew our minds with truth.
God, we cast all of our burdens on you, believing.
You care for us.
Give us peace of heart and peace of mind,
even beyond what the world would understand.
We pray this in the name of our name of our people.
your son Jesus. And everybody said, amen. Hey, why don't you look at the person next to you and just say,
peace be with you? Peace be. We just say that. Type it in the chat if you want. Just type it in chat,
peace be with you. If that's too formal as you're being seated, you can just say, get you some
peace. Somebody say, get you some peace. Come on. Type that in the chat right now. Get you some peace,
all right? What I want to do is on this, let's talk about worry, let's talk about anxiety. Let's talk about anxiety.
and let's talk about the mind.
If you remember a key thought from our book and truth is this,
that your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts,
which is really good news if your thoughts are good and helpful and positive,
but it's incredibly bad news if your thoughts are negative.
What do we know about the mind?
We've been talking about both scripture and science.
God is the God of science,
And in our mind, we know there is this little almond-shaped portion of the mind known as the amygdala.
And the amygdala is an interesting little part of the brain that's shaped kind of like this little almond.
And it's the part of the brain wired for survival.
If you ever find yourself in a moment where you feel like, I need to fight or I need to flight,
that's because your amygdala is actively engaged.
anytime you're in danger.
This God-given little portion of the brain, the amygdala, it kicks in, and what it does
is it sends your body strong doses of adrenaline.
And it says, be on guard, be aware, be alert, run if you have to.
If you see a poisonous snake, or if you're like me, any kind of snake will do.
The amygdala says, snake, be careful, run, run.
If you're driving, and like what happened to me recently, a driver evidently must have been texting and they weren't paying attention, and they started swerving over into my lane, your amygdala kicks in and says, be aware, be alert, be careful, you're in danger.
if you have an alarm system in your home and it goes off in the middle of the night like mine did
not too long ago your amygdala kicks in and you panic and even to this day I have no idea what in the
world caused it and I can I can feel the adrenaline rush even now as the amygdala says be careful be careful
be careful God gave us that portion of our brain for our protection the problem is that the amygdala is not
objective. It's simply hardwired to protect and it's very easily triggered. I'll give you an example
about how the mind works. When I was a little kid, my family once a month or so would go to our
favorite hamburger restaurant. And I remember it so fondly, we're driving back from the restaurant
and evidently my dad did something in his driving that displeased another driver. And so this guy started following
us home all the way to our house. We got out of the car. My dad didn't know what he did to offend the guy.
And the guy got out of his blue van and charged my dad for a fight. Well, ah, he picked the wrong guy.
My dad can hold his own with anybody. And the guy started waylaying on my dad. And so my dad just
very, in a God-honoring way, laid hands on him in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, all in self-defense.
but quickly the guy realized he was outclassed and he ran back to his van sending a one-figure
salute to my dad and saying very dishonoring things about his mother.
I went in that night and my mom set me down and my little sister down and said,
there's a guy out there who hates us and he knows where we live and he's obviously irrational.
He's probably really dangerous.
And so anytime you see a blue van, in fact, the blue van looked very similar to this.
Anytime you see a blue van, you need to come inside and lock the doors.
And so I was probably 17 or 18 years of age, years later, and if I'd see a blue van, I'd run
inside, lock the doors to hide under the bed.
Not really, but to this day, if I see a blue van, if I see a red van, because it could
blue and a guy painted it red.
There's something in me that's triggered
that causes me to pause and hesitate
because the amygdala that God gave me
is hardwired to protect.
And that's why our amygdala, it needs a little help
from another thing that God gave,
it's called the prefrontal cortex.
This is the logical part of the brain
that tends to think logically.
So if there's a noise at night in the house,
the amygdala screams, you're gonna die!
And the prefrontal cortex steps in and says, no,
it's probably the cat.
You're not gonna die.
There's very likely a logical explanation.
The amygdala is all panic.
The prefrontal cortex is all logic.
The problem with the amygdala
is it always responds according to the pre-programming.
In other words, if you had my experiences,
you will tend to believe blue vans are dangerous.
dangerous. And I don't know what it would be in your life, but because of some hurt or some fear
or some trauma or even perhaps a misunderstanding of something that happened to you. My guess is
that there are certain people or places or events or some type of news that triggers you
with feelings of anxiety and fear and tension. And without even knowing,
knowing it, your mind can race and run to a worst-case scenario where you find yourself sometimes
short of breath and panicking and wondering and trying to control things that you can't control
completely overwhelmed by a runaway mind. And that's why Paul said this from a Roman prison.
He said, and I want to read it again. He said, don't be anxious about anything. Don't be anxious about
anything. That could be your big test. That could be your job interview. That could be your
health situation. That could be a decision about the future. That could be a financial burden.
He said, don't be anxious about anything, but in every single situation. In other words,
if it's on your mind, it's on God's heart. He cares about you more than you can imagine.
In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, what do you do?
You present your requests to God.
And when you give your burdens to God, Scripture says, the peace of God, which transcends all of our understanding.
I want you to say it again, will guard your hearts and what?
And your minds.
Somebody type that in a chat.
His peace will guard my mind.
His peace.
the peace of God will guard my mind.
It's so crazy to me, though,
how often even Christians undervalue and discount the power of prayer.
You see it all the time.
People will be in a situation and we might be talking and someone say,
well, oh my gosh, all we can do now is pray.
Oh, all we can do now is pray.
I can almost imagine God, like going on,
and you think that's nothing?
You know, the God who can move mountains,
the God who can raise the dead,
the God who can heal the sick and open blind eyes
and all you can do.
No, prayer is powerful.
And as followers of Jesus,
we have to recognize that prayer is never our last line of defense.
It's always our first line of offense.
The author to the Hebrew said,
let us come boldly before the throne of grace.
We can come in prayer boldly with confidence.
Why?
To find help.
in time of our need. James said this, he said, you do not have, why? Because you do not ask,
because you haven't prayed. Prayer is always powerful. Not only does prayer move the heart
of God, but prayer also changes the chemistry in your brain. I want to say it again. Not only does
prayer touch and move the heart of God, but prayer also changes the chemistry.
in your brain, which is fascinating to me because for decades, neurologists believed that your brain
didn't change after adolescence. How many of you are glad that your brain changed after adolescence?
I don't know about you, but I thank God in heaven my brain didn't freeze when I was 15 years old,
okay? Our brain continues to evolve and it continues to change and it continues to rewire itself.
We talked about the neural pathways when you think a thought is easier to think that thought again.
And our brains are continually changing.
In fact, the term is called neuroplasticity.
And that means it is constantly evolving and rewiring itself.
Now, I love the study of something called neurotheology.
It's the study of the mind and of God.
It's also known as spiritual neuroscience.
And what neuro theology does,
fascinating, it studies the relationship between the brain and a belief in God. And here's what
research shows. Research shows that prayer actually changes your brain. In fact, a book that I would
recommend to you and author is Dr. Carolyn Leif. In fact, her book Switch on Your Brain is a fascinating
book. And she said a powerful quote about the brain and
prayer. She said that it's been found that 12 minutes of daily focused prayer over an eight-week
period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan.
Not only does prayer touch the heart of God, but prayer changes the brain. And just as toxic and negative thoughts
harm your brain? Prayer heals your brain. It transforms your brain. It literally renews your mind.
So why do we worry? Why do we find ourselves so anxious? If we're followers of Jesus and we should
completely trust in God, why is it that our minds often race in an irrational way? Well, science would tell us that in many
cases we're experiencing an amygdala hijack. Our little amygdala that's wired to protect says,
you're in trouble. You better take control. You better work harder. You better stay up at two in the
morning and worry about this because if you don't, it's only going to get worse. So science would say we're
experiencing an amygdala hijack. Scripture would say that our mind is dominated by sinful thinking.
In fact, what is a definition of worry?
A simple definition of worry would be this,
that worry is the sin of distrusting the promises and the power of God.
Worry is essentially saying,
God, I don't trust you.
I don't believe in your goodness in this situation.
I don't believe you care about what I care about.
I don't believe you're going to come through for me.
I've got to worry about this because ultimately, I don't trust you.
And so instead of letting my sinful nature control my mind, which is what can so easily happen,
what I want to do as a follower of Jesus is I want to choose to let my spirit direct my thinking.
Instead of letting my sinful nature run my mind in all sorts of fearful ways,
I'm going to choose to let the Holy Spirit, which dwells within me, direct my thinking.
I'm going to let the logical part of my brain choose that which is spiritual.
I'm going to take my prefrontal cortex and say,
you think on what's true, you think on what's excellent,
you think on what's praiseworthy,
I'm putting my trust completely in you.
In fact, here's how scripture says it in Romans chapter 8,
verses 5 and 6, again the Apostle Paul.
He says that those that are dominated by the sinful nature,
what happens?
You think about sinful things.
When your mind is dominated by your sinfulness,
your mind drifts toward things that are dishonoring to God.
You think about sinful things.
But those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit,
think about things that please the Spirit.
So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.
But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life.
and peace. And that's why we're going to take every thought captive and we're going to make it
obedient to Christ from a scientific standpoint. We're going to let our prefrontal cortex grab the
amygdala by the tail and say, you quit being irrational, we're choosing to be spiritual. We're giving
this to God. I'm choosing God by faith to trust in you, to believe in you, to give you my burdens.
my irrational fear start to run wild. I stop. I grab that thought. I take it captive. I make it
obedience. I'm not going to let my sinful, fearful, dishonoring nature run my mind in the wrong
direction. I'm choosing intentionally to let the Holy Spirit direct my thoughts. In fact, I'll give you a
visual example, and perhaps this is an illustration that you could use in your own life.
What tends to happen?
All of us at some point in some way
has something that we're worried about.
The good news is we're not on our own.
We serve a good and a faithful God.
And so what do you typically do
if you're a follower of Jesus
and you're worried about something?
Well, you take your worry, your concern, your burden,
and you give it to God.
You say, God, I pray about this.
God, I'm giving this to you.
And God, I trust you.
with my worry and you give it to God.
And then you wait and you get freaked out
and it's been five minutes and nothing's happened
so you take it back from God
and you say God I don't really trust you with that.
Symbolically whenever we worry,
that's essentially what we're doing.
We're saying God I'm gonna pray about this
but because I don't see what I wanna see
and because I'm still worried,
we're essentially taking back
the very thing that we gave to God.
Why do we do this?
The reason is, is that your God is too small,
and your worries are too big,
and somebody needs a bigger God
and a little smaller worry.
And what you're going to do at that point is
you're going to take whatever it is that's weighing on you,
and whatever it is that's dominating your mind.
And Scripture says, we cast our kids,
upon God. With prayer and petition, we take everything and we give it to God. And what I would
encourage you to do, perhaps, even at your apartment or your house, is to get your own God box.
It doesn't have to be as cool as mine. It could be a shoebox. And you may even symbolically
just put on their God. And what I want you to do is anytime you find your mind racing,
And anytime you find yourself worried about something,
I want you just to take it to God
and then write down that worry on a piece of paper.
It might be your teenager.
You're worried about your teenager.
It might be your marriage.
It might be your future.
It might be your health.
It might be your job.
It might be whatever, anything you have.
And you're going to cast your cares upon God
because he cares for you.
And then you give it to God.
And you trust it.
with it. Then what I want you to do is go on with your life trusting God. And any time you want to
choose to worry about it, symbolically what you have to do is walk over to your God box and take that
what you've already given to God out of your God box to symbolically remind you that you're choosing
at this moment not to put your trust in God. If you ask me, what is it that,
worries me. I've got all sorts of different worries that burden my heart. It's a little bit
embarrassing to tell you sometimes what I worry about, but I love Amy so, so, so much. And sometimes
when she is running late, which respectfully happens regularly, sometimes my mind starts to wander.
And I worry, is she okay? Does something happen to her?
and my mind can go in the most ridiculous direction to where if she was heard or killed in a car wreck,
I would not be able to function.
I couldn't continue leading the church, and I wouldn't want my life to go on.
The same is true with my children.
Sometimes I'll send them out in a car.
You know how it is when you send a 16-year-old son or a daughter out and they're just learning to drive?
And this irrational thought comes over my mind, what if?
And I have to choose to say, God, you love them.
even more than I do, I'm trusting them with you.
Another thing that weighs on me
is just the spiritual responsibility of leading the church.
And it's so easy in our culture today
to accidentally or even unintentionally say something
or do something that can create all sorts of controversy.
And I'm always aware that I'm representing God
and that what I do matters.
And a lot of times I just, I worry,
I don't wanna let God down
I don't want to ever hurt the name of Jesus.
And it's heavy on me.
It's heavy on me.
And these are my worries.
What do I need to do?
Instead of just giving my worries to God,
what I want to do even more is I want to give my life to God
so that I'm hidden with God in Christ Jesus.
My whole life belongs to Him.
My whole life.
I trust him, I believe in him, he's good, he's always faithful.
And some are you're going to say, well, that's irresponsible.
You're just living in denial.
You've got to be more responsible than that.
Now, here's my philosophy, and you may adopt this into your own life.
Three big thoughts.
First of all, is this.
I want to do what I can do.
Would you say that aloud?
I'm going to do what I can do.
You can type that in the chat, those of you online, come on, Team LC all over the world.
Type it in the chat.
I'm going to do what I can do what I can do.
In other words, if you've got an exam coming up,
you're not just trusting God for your exam.
What are you doing?
You're studying.
You're studying.
If you want to get in better shape,
you're not just praying about your health.
You're going to eat right.
You're going to exercise.
You're going to get good advice.
You're going to do what you can do.
The second thing is we're going to give God what we can't do.
Somebody say that.
I'm going to give God what I can't do.
If I can't do something, I'm going to trust it to God.
I'm giving God what I can't do.
First, I'm gonna do what I can do.
I'm gonna give God what I can't do.
And finally, I'm gonna trust God no matter what.
Because of who he is.
Because of his character.
Because of his nature.
God, I'm gonna do what I can do.
And God, I'm gonna trust you, casting my cares upon you
and give you what I can't do.
And no matter what, because of you,
of your goodness, your promises, your faithfulness,
I'm gonna trust you no matter what.
And what I want you to do for a moment
is I want you to imagine a heart of peace.
I want you to imagine a life filled with unending joy.
I want you to imagine peace of mind, trusting God.
And I wanna tell you,
it's possible and it's also a choice.
It's a choice dominated by sinful nature
or dominated by the spirit?
Can we review our four weeks of study?
If your life is moving in the direction
of your strongest thoughts,
do you like the direction your thoughts are taking you?
Because I didn't.
For so long, my thoughts were dominated by,
by negative self-devening thoughts,
you're pathetic, you're not good enough,
you're never gonna measure up, you don't have what it takes.
I can't keep up, I'm always overwhelmed.
Well, if you don't control what you think,
you'll never control what you do.
So what are we doing?
We're identifying the stronghold.
Whatever is the lie that we've been believing,
the dominant lie where our spiritual enemy
is talking us out of the truth of God.
And when we identify that lie,
We then replace it with a truth, not just a practical truth,
but a spiritual truth from God.
And then what do we do with that truth?
Well, we do this, we write it, and then what else do we do?
We think it, and then what else do we do?
We confess it until you believe it.
Say it with me somebody, we write it, think it,
confess it until you believe it.
Again, we write it, think it, confess it until you believe it.
I need some help online.
Type it in the chat.
What do we do?
We write it.
We need to be.
Over and over and over again.
We write it.
We think it.
We confess it until we believe it.
So what do I declare in my life?
Where does my mind need to be renewed?
Let me tell you.
Jesus is first in my life.
I exist to serve and glorify him.
I am disciplined.
Christ in me is strong.
in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me.
Write it, think it, confess it, believe it.
I am growing closer to Jesus every day.
Because of Christ, my family is closer.
My body is stronger.
My faith is deeper and my leadership is sharper.
I am creative, innovative, driven, focused,
and blessed beyond measure.
Because the Holy Spirit of God dwells within me.
Declare what's true about you.
Write it.
Think it.
Confess it until you believe it.
write it, think it, confess it until you believe it.
We're renewing our minds with truth.
What is true about you?
If you don't know what's true about you,
let me declare it.
You are not hostage to your unhealthy thoughts
because the weapons you fight with
are not the weapons of this world.
Your spiritual weapons have divine power
to demolish strongholds.
And what do you do?
By the power and authority of God,
you demolish every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.
Worry,
is not your master. Why? Because you trust in God. His peace guards your hearts, guards your mind,
and guards your soul in Christ Jesus. You are not a slave to your habits. You are not a prisoner
to your addiction. You're an overcomer by the blood of the lamb and by the words of your testimony.
Come on, somebody. You have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of life.
Renew our minds.
Renew our minds.
Renew our minds.
We also know that you can't control what happens to you,
but you can control how you frame it.
You can look at life from a negative perspective
and say this is bad, this is hard.
Or you can look at it from a different perspective
and say, God, you are good.
You're faithful and you're true.
And what's so powerful as followers of Jesus is this.
We're not interpreting God through our circumstances.
God, where are you?
You're not good because life is bad.
No, what we're doing is we're interpreting our circumstances through the goodness of God.
And then, as followers of Jesus, we cover everything we do in prayer.
And we're not going to be anxious about anything.
but in everything, with prayer and petition,
we take our request to God.
And the peace of God, the peace of God.
Not the peace of this world, the world can't give it
and the world can't take it away.
It's the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.
We'll guard your hearts and what else?
Come on, and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So as followers of Jesus,
we're going to let God empower you
to win the war in your mind.
And when you know the truth, the truth will set you free.
We are stepping out of the lives of our spiritual enemy.
And we're stepping into the truth of God.
And it's the truth of God, a renewed mind,
which will set you.
So, Father, do it. We pray.
Do it, we pray.
God, I know there are so many in our church family,
so many watching online that are overwhelmed with runaway thoughts, fear and anxiety.
God help us to cast those cares upon you.
At all of our churches today, those of you who have a real burden, a fear, something
that makes you indescribably anxious.
What we're going to do today is kind of symbolically put it in our God box.
You want to give it to God today.
At all of our churches, there's something weighing on you.
It might keep you awake at night.
It's kind of almost always there, just ever present,
a burden that you want to give to God.
By faith today, if this, you would you just lift up your hand,
just all of our churches, lift up your hand.
Someone in the chat, you can just type in the chat,
I'm giving my burden to God right now, whatever it is.
You can even give it a name if you want to.
I'm trusting God with whatever.
Just fill in the blank.
Type it in the chat.
I'm giving this to God.
I'm trusting you, God with this.
Now, Father, symbolically, we just release this to you.
The relationship, the health issue, the fear, the financial burden, the indecision, whatever it is.
God, we just, we release it to you.
We trust you to be good, that you're always faithful.
And God, just give us the wisdom to do what we can do.
If there's something we can do about it, God, give us the wisdom and the courage to just do it,
to do what we can do.
And God, we're going to trust you with all the things that we can do.
cannot control. And no matter what, God, no matter what, we're going to trust in you with all of our
hearts and lean not on our own understanding, but in all of our ways, God, our mind acknowledges
you believing that you, oh God, will make our path straight. We release these burdens. God,
I pray by faith for someone right now, there's a release right now, right now, God, I'm trusting
you. I'm trusting you right now in this moment, God.
we're trusting you, we're trusting you.
As you keep praying today, I can only imagine
how many of you feel like I did for so much of my life
when I had this heavy burden and this weight
and this fear of where I stood with God.
I remember too many times to count
just like making deals with God.
If you're there, you know, help me, forgive me, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I always had this heaviness thinking,
I haven't been good enough for God.
I didn't know where I stood with God.
And that may be some of you right now.
I've got really, really good news
that can bring peace of mind beyond measure.
And that is this, that God loves you.
I want you to hear this, he loves you so much.
And the reality is whenever you feel like you're not good enough for God,
that is true.
None of us are good enough for God.
We have all sinned.
We've all broken God's commands.
And that separates us from God.
But here's a really good news.
Because of God's goodness, he became one of us
in the person of Jesus, his son.
Jesus was sinless.
He never sinned.
He was the perfect sacrifice.
He died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins.
And in the goodness of the power of God,
Jesus didn't stay dead.
But our God raised him from the dead so that anyone,
and this includes you,
it doesn't matter how dark your life feels,
it doesn't matter how much you've done wrong,
it doesn't matter how heavy the way it is,
anyone who calls on the name of Jesus,
your sins will be forgiven,
and you will be brand new.
Peace of mind, peace of heart,
peace of soul because you're new.
The old is gone and the new has come online
or at a physical location.
Those who say, I need his grace.
I want his forgiveness.
We're just going to step away from our old life.
We're going to step toward him.
Our minds are not dominated by our sinful nature,
but by the spirit of God and we find peace with him.
All of our churches and online,
those who say, I need his grace, I need his forgiveness.
Today, Jesus, I turn from my sin.
I turn toward you today.
I give you my life, that's your prayer.
Lift your hands high now, all over the place
and say, yes, that's my prayer.
As we have hands going up at all of our churches today,
we thank God for you in the chat right now.
Just type it in there.
I'm giving my life to Jesus.
Just type that in the chat right now.
I'm giving my life to Jesus.
And as we have people all over the world,
heaven is rejoicing in this moment.
And so are we.
We're going to pray together.
Nobody pray alone.
Would you just pray aloud?
Pray Heavenly Father.
forgive my sins.
Jesus changed me.
Make me brand new.
Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you,
live for you, think on what's true,
and represent you in all that I do.
I'll do what I can do.
I'll trust you with what I can't do.
And God, I'm going to trust you no matter what.
Thank you for a new life.
I give you all of mine.
I give you all my burdens.
And I thank you for all your peace.
In Jesus' name, I pray.
Can somebody celebrate big.
Welcome those born into God's family.
