Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Dangerous Prayers, Part 3: Send Me

Episode Date: January 30, 2016

Believe your big risks will be rewarded. Believe what you ask for is possible. If you’re ready to see a spark in your life, pray boldly. Pray daringly. Pray with fire. And remember God's listening to your Dangerous Prayers. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

God, I've been comfortable for way too long. Please, forgive me. I know you want to use me to show your love in this world. Give me eyes to see needs of others and a heart that dares to get involved where you are working. God, my life is yours. Whatever you want, wherever you need. Here I am, Lord. Send me.

Well, it's awesome to have everybody with us at all of our life churches. We love every single one of you. network churches. It's a great honor to partner with you on the other side of computer screens and TV screens at church online. Welcome to date to the third week of a series that's actually stirring our church up in a pretty good way. What we are doing in this message series is we're learning to pray some different types of prayers. The prayers that we are praying, they are not predictable, they are not benign, they are not safe. What we're doing is we're learning to pray some dangerous prayers. In fact, I've been really blessed by just what I'm hearing from people who are

taking a step of faith to pray some daring prayers. Week one, we learned to pray, search me, God, know my heart, test me, and know my anxious thoughts, see if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting. Last week we talked about a very dangerous prayer where we prayed together, break me, God. Break me of anything that keeps me from being intimate with you. Today, we're going to pray what may be my favorite of the three dangerous prayers. We're going to pray a prayer of availability. Because here's what I've noticed, and this is just based on observation, every week many of you will turn in prayer requests.

And we love it when you do. We've got a team full of people who love to pray over your prayer request. But here's what I've noticed quite honestly, and this is just from observation, that most of the time what people apparently want prayers for are things that directly impact. them or those that they love. It's God, would you do this for me? God, would you heal my grandma? Would you help me get into this school? God, would you help me find a job? Would you bless me as I do such and such? And absolutely and completely, we should continue to pray those prayers. But instead of just praying, God, would you do this for me? A dangerous

way to pray is, God, what can I do for you? Not just God, hey, do this, bless me, keep me safe, but God, I am your servant, and I want to be available for whatever you might call me to do. I call it a prayer of availability. And like I said, the last couple of weeks, for some of you, this will become what I call an anchor message. What is that? Over your lifetime, I believe that if you're a follower of Jesus, there will be certain messages that when you hear them, you encounter God in such a way that it literally changes the trajectory. of your life. You'll say, before that moment, I was such and such. And when I heard that message and God spoke to me, life was never, ever the same again. The prayer of availability as we pray

a very, very dangerous prayer. Let me tell you, when you pray this prayer, God could direct you in a lot of different ways. He may lead you to go to a different city. He may reveal a calling in your life that you never, ever expected before. He may lead you to stay somewhere when you just knew you are supposed to go somewhere else. He may move you to break up with somebody and he gives you an upgrade. Everybody could say I'm excited about that. He might lead you to a different job. He might call you to serve somewhere. He might move you from being a cat person to a dog person. I don't know what it would be. But when you make yourself available to God, it's an incredibly dangerous prayer we're going to learn to pray today. Now, all throughout scripture, if you read from the Old

Testament through the new, you're going to see. that God calls people. What does that mean? It doesn't mean your phone rings, but what he does. It means that he speaks to people, he prompts them, he moves them, he leads them to say something, to do something, to go somewhere, to encourage someone, to speak truth. God will call those who know him to do something that he wants done. There are different responses to God's call. And I want to talk about those three responses that will lead us to our dangerous prayer. Three responses to God's call. The first one, if you're taking notes, is this. It was Jonah. And Jonah responded to God's call this way. He said, here I am, I'm not going. Okay. Some of you can relate. Here I am, God, I'm not going.

Jonah chapter one versus one through three. God spoke and said, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. But what did Jonah do? Jonah ran away from the Lord. He said, here I am, God. I'm not going. And I wonder how many of you have had a similar experience. You felt prompted to do something. Hey, I'm supposed to reach out. I'm supposed to say something. I'm supposed to help this person. But here I am God, not today. I'm not going. In fact, to me, I am still haunted by a time that I felt prompted to do something. It wasn't a big thing, but it was a significant miss, I believe, on my part. I was simply driving home, and I drove to get to my house, you have to go through places

where there's like a couple of miles with no houses. They're just nothing. And there was a lady that must have been 75, 78 years of age, standing on the side of the road, no vehicle, just standing there. And so I thought I'm supposed to stop. I don't know if that was God prompted me to stop. I don't know if it was just human decency or whatever, but I just thought I'm supposed to stop.

She's there. Why in the world would a woman be standing on the side of the road? And so I just drove up to her thinking, I need to stop, I need to stop, I need to stop. And I'm embarrassed to say, I just kept on driving by. I thought I need to stop and I didn't even do it. And I just drove all the way home and didn't even stop to say, hey, can I help you, what's going on?

And to this day, I feel bad about that. I felt prompted to do something and I didn't do it. I can guarantee you that all of you who are followers of Jesus, there are those times when God prompted you to do something and you think, I need to, I'm going to, I should. Here I am, though, not today. I'm not going to do this. Jonah, here I am. Say it with me.

I'm not going. The second one is Moses, and this is what Moses said. He said, here I am, send someone else. Here I am, send my brother. This isn't my perfect calling. verse 10 of Exodus chapter 3, God spoke and said, so now go. I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Now, this is something Moses would have agreed needed to happen, but instead of saying,

sure, God, I'll go. Moses said to God, who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Who am I? I'm not good enough. I'm not talented enough. Someone else would be better at this than I am. Here I am, God. Send someone else. I'm not the right person. And it's so easy for us to do this. You know, oh, I'm not going to give. They should give. They've got more money to give.

I'm not going to go. I don't have as much time. I mean, she's a stay-at-home mom. She's got more time than I do. And all the stay-at-home moms came out with a knife with no makeup on their hair messed up. You have no idea. But that's what we all. You know, she can do it. He can do it. They're better equipped. I don't have time for this. Here I am, God. Send someone else. Jonah says, here I am, I'm not going. Moses says, here I am, send somebody else. Isaiah, though, prays a very dangerous prayer.

And this is the prayer that I want us to pray today. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8, says this. Isaiah says, then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And notice what Isaiah said in a prayer response back to God. Before I read it, I want to notice what he did not say. Notice he didn't say, where are you sending me? Is the climate nice?

What's the cost of living there? What is the pay range? Are there benefits? And how much vacation do I get? Right? He didn't ask for any of that. What he simply did essentially is signed a contract that was blank and said to God, here I am, somebody say it aloud, send me.

Here I am, God, send me. And this is, I don't need to tell you, a really dangerous prayer. And I want to encourage you this week, and this may become a daily part of your prayer life, when you wake up, I pray my own version of this prayer every day. God, I give you my mind, I give you my eyes, I give you my mouth, may I speak what you want me to say. May I hear only your truth today and have the wisdom to reject that which is not true. Here are my hands, may they use to build your kingdom. Here are my feet.

God, lead me where you want me to go, help me to do what you want me to do. Essentially, God, here I am, send me. I want to challenge you, dare you, motivate you to pray a similar prayer. Here I am, God. I'm available. here I am, God, you have permission to interrupt me. God, if you want me to go somewhere, I'll go. If you want me to stay, I'll stay.

If you want me to say something to somebody, I'll speak. If you want me simply to be quiet and pray, I will pray. If you want me to give something away, if you want me to use my time, whatever you need me to do, wherever it is, God, here I am. I am completely available to you. God, I am your servant. here I am, God, send me. Incredibly dangerous prayer, because when you start praying that, I guarantee you. God's going to interrupt you.

God will prompt you. God will move upon you. And suddenly, you'll recognize God has a lot for you to do when you pray, here I am, send me. So how do we get there? How do we get to that kind of attitude before God? How do we fully surrender our lives to God? And I want to try to answer that.

We looked at Isaiah 6.8. I want to look at the verses that lead up to that surrendered prayer from the prophet Isaiah. What do you need to fully surrender to God? Three things if you're taking notes. I hope you'll write these things down. Number one, you need a genuine experience with the presence of God. You need a genuine experience with the presence of God. Verse one says this, in the year that King Uzziah died, he said, I what, let's all say it aloud?

He said, I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. What happened? Isaiah saw the presence of God. He saw him in all of his majesty and all of his glory. The text goes on to talk about these angelic beings. named seraphim. And all of these angelic beings were worshiping and praising the living God, crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And when Isaiah saw the presence of God, when he experienced the glory of God, it completely transformed who he was. Why is it that you might not be very available to God? Perhaps as a

because you have not recently experienced the presence of God. Let me say that again. Why is it that you may not find yourself being available? God, here I am, use me. Perhaps it's because you have not recently experienced the presence of God. In fact, I'll tell you a story that was incredibly meaningful to me and maybe it'll motivate you to seek God in your own way. People have asked me sometimes they say, Craig, have you ever thought about quitting the ministry? Have you ever about quitting life church? And the answer is, no way, never have I ever thought about quitting? But there were a couple of times when I thought, maybe I wouldn't survive it, okay? Maybe I'm not going to make it. And thank you for laughing at my pain, okay? God bless you all, okay?

And I'm serious about that. The pressure was so real. And I don't want to be like, wow, wow, my life's tough because you all have crazy lives. And over a span of 10 or 20 years, a lot of times we get to those places where can I keep going at whatever we're doing? And that's, I was in one of those seasons. And so I just preached all weekend. I told Amy, he said, I'm going to go out and just spend some time with God. Well, our neighbors have a lot of land and I'm allowed to go on it. So I went deep into the woods where, you know, you couldn't hear anything or anybody

and just decided to spend time with God. It was early in the afternoon. And I just started talking to God, God, and just talking to Him. Well, before long, I was actually crying to God, how desperate. needing him. And I started to really sense his presence. And then I started crying out to God. And I'm not a like feely, feely guy at all. But I'm telling you right now, the presence of God was so real. The only thing I could think is I need to text Amy and tell her I'm not coming back for a while, so she didn't worry. And I did that. And I stayed for hours, literally hours, three o'clock, four,

like five o'clock, six o'clock. I didn't want to leave. And as empty as I was, it was like every time I would breathe in, I could just sense the very real presence of a holy God filling me, renewing me, strengthening me, comforting me, loving me, equipping me. And it was so real. It's like, it's as real as I am right now. And it got totally dark. And that was before our mobile devices had flashlights. And then I was out in the middle of the woods, totally dark. It's like, oh, I'm glad you're with me, God, because I'm scared out here. I mean, there's bobcats and mountain lions. And you know how what I've said about cats before, you know. And so I'm going back in and I heard something in the woods and it was probably a squirrel,

but it sounded like a mountain lion. And I ran all the way back in just praying to God like, I never prayed before. I fast as I could. And I came in. I scratched it on my face. I mean, like, that must have been some time with God. You have no idea. I close to God.

I feel right now. Anyway, the presence of God brought me to a deeper place of real submission. God, I've just been with you and I am your servant, anything you want of me. Some of you may say, well, that's really never happened to me before. And I want to tell you right now, it absolutely can, and God wants to reveal himself to you. In fact, scripture teaches that when you draw near to God, he will draw near to you. And you don't have to go in the middle of the woods for this to happen. It can literally be when you're driving down in a car with a worship song on, and suddenly you can just sense God is with me.

He's comforting me. He's present. It can be when you're praying a good night prayer with your four-year-old. And you just suddenly realize God is with us in this room. room. When you draw near to God, he will draw near to you. Why is it that maybe you're not as available to God as you should be? Maybe it's because you haven't sought after him in a while, because when you experience his presence, you will be transformed. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His glory was everywhere. What do you need to fully surrender to God? Well,

you need a genuine experience with the presence of God. The second thing you need is a genuine awareness of your sinfulness. A genuine awareness of your sinfulness. In fact, I'm going to argue that one of the biggest cultural lies that people believe today is this. Well, I'm a good person. You're a good person. She's a good person.

We're a good people. I'm a good person. Let me tell you this. Without Christ, you are a good person. not a good person. You are a horrible, pathetic, evil sinner in the eyes of God. Welcome to Life Church, where I'm here to make you feel better about yourself. You are. You're wicked. I'm wicked. We're evil. We're sinners. We're despicable in the eyes of God. And it was when Isaiah saw the goodness of God, he realized the badness of him. And I recognize that's not

the right way to say it, but that's why I wanted to say it, because it felt right when it was coming out, okay? He saw how holy God was, and at that moment, he recognized his own unrighteousness. It was a genuine awareness of his sinfulness. In verse five, he cries out, woe to me, he cried, I'm ruined. Another verse says, I'm undone, I'm nothing, I'm pathetic, I'm a sinner, I have nothing to offer. He's holy, I'm not, he's righteous, I'm unrighteous, he's full of glory, I'm full of sin. Wo to me, I'm ruined. I'm ruined. I'm for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. What does it take to get to a place where you're fully surrendered?

Here I am, God. I'm yours. Send me. It takes a genuine experience with the presence of God. It takes a genuine awareness of your sinfulness. And number three, it takes a genuine understanding of God's grace. when you understand just how amazing his grace is, it brings you to a point of full surrender.

Verse six says this. Isaiah said, then one of the seraphim, that's one of those angelic beings, flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken from the tongs from the altar. When he touched it to my mouth and said, see, this has touched your lips. And then read aloud what he said.

He said, this is amazing news, and this is the grace. He said, you are giving you. guilt is taken away and your sins atoned for. What happened? He saw the presence of God. He recognized, I am ruined, I am a man of unclean lips. And with one touch from the goodness of God, his sins were forgiven and completely atoned for. You can only imagine this.

Your lying lips, forgiven. Your lustful attitudes, forgiven. Your self-centered thoughts, forgiven. your angers outbursts forgiven. Every secret sin you've never told anybody before, but God knows them all forgiven, as if they never, ever happened. God separates your sins as far as the east is from the west.

He does not remember your sins anymore. When you confess your sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteous. Somebody may get a little excited. I'm not sure when. But when you understand the grace of God, it transforms everything. And the same way that cold, that touched his lips, removed his guilt, the blood of Jesus

covers our sins. And when we recognize that we don't bring anything, but Jesus brings everything. Let me say it again. We don't bring anything. And Jesus brings everything. When we sense God's presence, when we're aware of our own sinfulness, and then we experience the unmatched, undeserved grace of God through Jesus Christ, our only reasonable response, everything. Here I am, God. Send me. It's not my life. It's not my desires. One of the most dangerous. prayers you can pray. God, I'm all yours. Anywhere? Any time. Anything. And this isn't some kind of

like a, oh gosh, I got to pray this prayer because that Jesus died from my sins thing. Shoot, you know. This is, I get to do this. This is, I get to serve him. This is, I get to wake up. I have a day that God has made. He's given me gifts. He put me at this moment in history, because at this time, I can best bring glory to him. He's going to bring people across my path today that need encouragement, and I have encouragement from the Lord inside of me. He's going to have people that have needs, and he's given me exactly what they need,

and if I'll just have the courage to release it and trust God to use it, he can use me to meet some needs. This isn't a, oh, I got to serve God. This is, I get to serve God. Because he's served and loved me through Jesus, I get to give everything, that I had to him. And here's the cool thing. This isn't a one-time decision. This isn't like, yeah, in 2002, I prayed that prayer and I surrendered it all to him on that day and ever since then.

No, it's not that it's a one-time decision. It's a daily decision. It's a daily decision. And the reason this daily is because if you have been born into God's family, in other words, if you called on Jesus and been transformed, here's what happened, your spirit came to life. Okay. And from that moment on, there is a war going on inside of you. There's a war because there is a flesh side of you, is what the Bible calls, it's not your skin. It means your own selfish desires. And there is a spirit side of you,

and your flesh is at war with your spirit. Your flesh wants to do what you want to do. Here I am, I'm not going. Here I am, sin somebody else. Your spirit wants to do what God wants to do. Here I am, God, sin me. So how do we learn to daily choose to die to our flesh, so our spirit would live. Well, it's simple. What we feed grows and what we starve dies.

It's that simple. If we feed our flesh, give me, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, it's all about me, me, me, me, me, I'm not going to do that. My life is too important. I'm too valuable. I don't have time to make a difference. Somebody else can do that. I mean, I love Jesus and everything, and I'm going to heaven, but I'm not going to do anything about it. Okay? That's feeding the flesh. Instead, if you deny your flesh and feed your spirit, I'm in the presence of God. I'm seeking God. I'm I'm in his word, I'm growing spiritually. I'm in a life group where I'm connecting with others in biblical community.

We're sharpening one another. I'm using my spiritual gifts. I'm in the church. I am the church in the world. I'm showing love. Then your spirit is growing and your flesh is dying and you're closer to God and you're recognizing. I'm available and because I'm available,

God's asked me to do more, whoever is faithful with a little, God will trust with much. Why is he trusting some people with much? Because they were faithful with a little and he gave them more. And that's why the Apostle Paul said this. He said, I die daily. Now, what does that mean? Like, oh, pah! You know, I die day. No, it doesn't mean that. It means that I am dying to myself every single day so that Christ will live through me.

He said, he said, I am crucified with Christ, but nevertheless, I live. He said, but it's no longer I who lives now is Christ who lives in me. And that's the point to which we grow whenever we experience the presence of God, when we're aware of our own sinfulness, and when we experience the glory of a God who forgives us, and we didn't deserve it, and then our response is, yes, I'm in. Please use me. I want to be your hands and I want to be your feet. I want to show the same love that you've shown to me all over the world. Here I am, God. Send me. Now, why is it that more Jesus followers don't pray this prayer? Well, could be because they haven't thought of it, maybe.

I'm thinking it's probably because they're afraid. Because it really is a dangerous prayer. Break me, dangerous. Search me, dangerous. Send me, dangerous. And my theory is, I can't prove this, but just from talking to people, I think many people are afraid that God is going to make you sell everything and go be a missionary in Africa. And what you need to know is that may happen.

He may call you to be a missionary in Africa. It's more likely, though, he's going to call you to be a missionary where you work. Because that's holy too. It's more likely that he's going to call you to serve the people that are in front of you to be faithful with what he's already given you. See, a lot of times people think, well, God's going to call me to all the big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big. A lot of times, God calls you to stop and listen to someone who's hurting. God, a lot of times will call you to just reach out and give something to someone who's in need. God may call you to buy lunch for $8 for a single mom with four kids, and you may say, that wasn't a really big thing.

And she would say, no, that really was a big thing. And God would say that was a big thing because you are faithful and obedient to me. And when you do enough little things and you're faithful to God, you may wake up one day and realize that the little things were actually the big things. Because you've been faithful to God day after day, day after day, day after day. And when you've been faithful in the small things, he trusts you with even more big things. And one day you're excited. God, I'll go wherever you want me to go. He may prompt you to serve somewhere in the church.

He may prompt you to serve in the two-year-old room. He may call you to lead a life group. He may prompt you to foster. He may prompt you to give above your tithe. I don't know what he's going to prompt you to do. But when you truly start saying yes to Jesus, you're going to recognize he's calling you to do more and more and more because you are his hands and you are his feet in the world.

Here I am. Send me. Here I am. Send me. Here I am, God. I'm yours. Anywhere, anytime. I'm going to close out with this story, and then you get to pray a dangerous prayer. At some churches, this probably still happens, at the churches I grew up in,

they had like one door, everybody would come in the door and they'd go out the door, and it was really cool if you're the pastor because at the end of the church service, you would stand by the door. Who remembers this? And everybody have to walk by and shake your hand and say, good sermon, good sermon, good sermon, good sermon, good sermon. I wish we had one door and all of you could come by and say, That was amazing.

I loved your sermon. Oh, thank you. It was amazing. God bless you. Thank you. Anyway, a pastor stood at the door one day, and this guy walked by in the line and said, great sermon pastor.

And he was very emotionally. He said, Pastor, what do you understand is my life has been transformed? The answer is yes. Now what's the question? Pastor like, thank you. And God bless you. And next and he went on that. I'd be like, that was odd.

That was weird. Well, the next week, pastor preached again. And the same guy comes up and it's kind of normal. He walks up to him and says, Pastor, Pastor, oh my gosh, God is so good. God is amazing. And I just want you to know, the answer is yes. Now, what's the question? The pastor's like, I don't know. I'll get back to you on that. Thank you. Have a great week. Well, third week comes by. The same old guy gets up there and he's all emotionally like, oh my gosh, I just can't believe I get to be here? Pastor, the answer is yes. Now, what's the question? The line's long and the pastor.

I'll tell you what, can we get together for coffee this week? We'll talk about the question. And he was curious. So they're over coffee, and the pastor sitting down and go, What's this whole question, yes answer thing? And the guy just got really emotional. So, Pastor, what you need to understand is that I was really, really messed up. He went through the whole list. He was addicted. He was neglecting his wife.

His kids were in really, really bad shape. He said, I came to church one week, and he said, you preached on this message. And when you did, it's like, God just opened up my eyes. I saw it. I called on Jesus. He said, I am a new person. Everything's different. Everything's different.

Nothing's the same. Ask my wife, she'll tell you. Ask my children they'll tell you. everybody, I am a different person because of Jesus. And he said, so, pastor, what I need you to understand is this. The answer is yes. Whatever you need, 2 a.m., mow the yard, go visit somebody, pray for something, give the word whatever. Pastor, God is so transformed my life, I am all in. The answer is yes. Now what's the question? Completely available, anywhere. and all the time.

How do you get to the place we have the courage to pray the dangerous prayer? God, I don't need to know the details. All I need to know is that you're calling me. And if you're calling me, the answer is yes. How do you get there? You truly experience the presence of God. You truly recognize your own sinfulness. You truly experience the grace and the forgiveness of our Savior Jesus.

And when that happens, you don't just try to. You get to give your whole life to God. Some people will say, God, here I am. I'm not going. Some people will say, here I am since somebody else. But you are going to be different because you're going to experience him. And when you do, you can't help but say, here I am, God. Send me. Father, we pray today that for many people, this would be an anchor message. God, that they would

truly, honestly, experience you in such a way that their lives are different. And God, just like you were real to me in the woods that day, I pray that you would be real to some people even right now. And God, I pray in a way that only you can do that we would become aware of our sinful. but not feel shame and guilt because of it, but let it drive us to your son Jesus, that we could experience your love and your grace through Him. And God, when we've been changed like that, I pray that we would have the courage to pray the same type of dangerous prayer. Here I am, God, send me.

At all of our churches today, again, I'm going to ask if you'll be willing to pray this prayer. And just like the other weeks, what I want to encourage you to do is not to lie. Don't feel pressure. Don't feel manipulated because, quite honestly, some of you are not yet ready to pray this prayer. And if that's where you are, I'd rather you be honest about it than to say something that you don't mean. And all of our churches, those who say, you know what, I really am not as engaged with God as I could be? I want to be even more so. Would you have the courage to make a part of your prayer life for the next seven days?

and maybe even beyond that, a prayer of availability, however you want to pray it, God, because of your goodness and your grace, I am completely available to you. Anywhere, anytime? The answer is yes, God. Now, what's the question? Here I am. Send me. If you'll pray that this week at all of our churches, would you just take a moment, raise up your hands,

just say, yes, I will pray this prayer of availability. Oh, my goodness, there are a lot of you. Get ready. Father, I thank you in advance. for all the ways that you're going to speak. And I pray, God, that when you tell us to stop and help someone on the side of the road, that we will be obedient to you, that we will be faithful in the small things, and God that you will trust us in the big things.

Here we are, God, your church, ready to love this world, ready to serve in the church as the church to show the love of Jesus. Here we are, God. Send us. as you keep praying today at all of our churches, nobody looking around. There are some of you right now, and this is just kind of how it happens. You're going to become aware right now that you've done some things wrong before God. How do we even know that?

Because I believe God put a conscious within us. God created this void where we cannot fill it with anything else. It drives us to him. We know we need forgiveness. We know we can't be good enough on our own. And this is the amazing thing about the grace of God is that God loved us so much that he became one of us in the person of Jesus who was without sin, lived the perfect life, died the most brutal death for our forgiveness. Why? So that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name, would be saved, transformed, and forgiven. And even right now, as we are in the presence of God, some of you recognize,

I need forgiveness. I have sinned. I need forgiveness. I remember for years feeling the weight of my sin. Could God ever love me? Could God ever forgive me? I had no idea how vast and available his forgiveness was through Jesus. And when I called on him, I became a new person. The old was gone. The new was there. And my only reasonable response was, here I am. Send me. And all of our churches today, there are those of you that God has brought here specifically for this moment. You recognize. You need him. You need His grace. You need His forgiveness. You need Jesus. And all of our churches, those who say, yes, that's me.

Today, by faith, I turn from my sins. And I say, take my life. Here I am. I give it to you. Save me from my sins and be the Lord of my life. Here I am, Jesus. I give my life to you. That's your prayer today.

And all of our churches, would you lift your hands high right now and say, yes. Jesus, I surrender to you. Lift up your hands and say, yes, I completely surrender to you. at church online, if that's your prayer, just click right below me. And at all of our churches, as people are coming to Christ today, would you join your hearts praying with those around you? Pray Heavenly Father, forgive me of all my sins, make me brand new. Jesus, I believe. You loved me. You died for me. You rose again so I could live for you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I follow you every day of my life. I believe you have forgiven me. So here I am. Send me. I belong to you.

My life is yours. Use my life to bring you glory. In Jesus name I pray, all of our churches. Would you worship loud, worship big welcome those born into God's family.