Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Different, Part 3: Different Calling in a Dark World

Episode Date: August 20, 2017

In this world, you’ll have struggles. You’ll face opposition. You’ll be challenged. And there’s a reason for that: this world is not your home. So answer hate with love, find joy in the midst of trials, and rely on a strength beyond yourself. You’... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at Church online. If you ever have any questions or you want to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out anytime online simply by going to life.org church. And we'd love for you to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from. You know, coming out this week, we continue our study through the book of First Peter

as our senior pastor Craig Rochelle helps us understand how our calling to be a light stands in contrast to this very dark world and he'll help us understand how to live out that calling in part three of different.

Hey, I've been praying a lot about this week's message because I really believe it has the potential to spark something significant in the lives of so many people in our church family. If you're just now joining us,

we're actually in part three of a message series called different. And what we're doing is we're looking at the book of First Peter and pulling out some of the high points in First Peter. If I ask you today, how many of you would be excited, overwhelmed with anticipation if you realize that God was calling you to do something specifically? I wonder how many would say I'm completely in. I want to know what God is calling me to do. I want to talk about that today about how God is going to call you, set you apart to do something that is different. I'll give you a little insight as to how I studied for this message series.

Normally, I would go first to commentaries. If you don't know what a commentary is, it's different books that scholars and students of the Bible actually write, and they help preachers like me to learn stuff that I may not have known. Instead of doing that, this time, what I did is I started just by reading through the book of First Peter over and over and over and over and over and over again, too many times to count. And what I did is I looked for common themes that would emerge over and over again on my own. Instead of studying what somebody else discovered,

I want to discover it on my own. One of the things that I noticed is that Peter uses the same type of word so many times it was stunning. If you read through the book of First Peter, you're going to see that he uses the word call, calling, or called over and over and over. again. Whenever you recognize that you've been chosen or called to do something, it builds

anticipation, it emboldens you, it empowers you, kind of like when I was like in the first or the second grade, and I was chosen, called, and set apart to be the captain of the safety patrol. That's right. Not just a member of the safety patrol, but the captain of the safety patrol. And not only was I the captain, but I had my own little badge that would signify to anybody that was looking on that I was indeed the captain of the safety patrol. In fact, I've got a couple of pictures just when I was a kid, there I am, with my little sister wearing my captain of the safety patrol badge. I've also got kissing a seal, and there I am, anywhere, any time.

If you were wondering who the captain of the safety patrol was, I had my badge to let you know that if you are walking too fast in the hallway and might create a potential disruption, I would call you down, set you straight, encourage you, exhorts you, command you to walk to keep things safe. If there was a fire drill at the school

and it might have been real, because you never know if it's a drill or if it's a real thing. I would sweep the classrooms check for any straggling students underneath the desk, trapped in the bathroom, I would turn off the light, shut the door, proving that room had been secured and the whole school was completely safe

because there was a call, equipped, anointed and appointed, captain of the safety patrol. There's something about being assigned to do something that just kind of creates a sense of anticipation. It emboldens you. I want to show you today that you are called to something different.

When we talk about calling, a lot of times people kind of wonder, you know, what am I called to do? What does God want me to do? And I want to show you three different types of calling, and we're going to talk very specifically today about the third type. First of all, if you're taking notes, there's what I call an eternal call to Christ. An eternal call to Christ. In fact, the Holy Spirit is doing a work today all over.

over the world, winning people, wooing people, drawing people, creating a spiritual hunger for spiritual things, because it's God's will that no one should perish. God wants everyone to say yes to the extended invitation of grace through Jesus. And when Peter writes about calling, he knew what it was like to be called by Jesus, because if you know the story in Luke 5, Peter was fishing one day, wasn't catching anything. A rabbi walks up and says, throw the nets on the other side. side, and Peter's probably thinking, I'm a fisherman, you teach, I fish, but he did it anyway, and he had caught such a miraculous catch of fish that he recognized this was no ordinary man, this was a holy man, and Peter fell down to his knees before Jesus and said, get away from me,

I am a sinful person. And Jesus said to Peter, hey, from now on, you'll no longer just fish for fish, now you'll be a fisher of men. Come and follow me. Jesus called Peter out of where he was to become follower of Jesus and Peter knew clearly that we are called to leave our own desires and to devote our lives to follow Jesus. There is an eternal call to follow Christ. The second type of call is what a lot of people get excited about and this is deemed as a temporary call to an assignment. This is a temporary call to an assignment. I was called to be the captain of the safety patrol. You might feel called to a particular role. You feel called to study something in college. You feel called to be a nurse. You feel called to be a teacher. You feel called to be a witness wherever you are. You feel called to go on a

mission trip. You feel called to a certain part of the world to make a difference. This is a temporary call to an assignment. You feel called to ask out the cute girl on the third row because you love the way she's worshiping God and there is no ring on that ring finger and you feel called to do it today. And if you're obedient to God, who knows how he might open up windows of blessing for your spiritual life. Praise be the name of the Father's Son and Holy Spirit. It's a temporary call to an assignment. And what I want to talk about today, though, is this. And this is what many people will overlook, but this is something our God is calling you to in your life if you're a follower of Christ. And that is a daily call to a different standard. Our God is calling you daily.

to live a different standard. When we think of calling, we tend to think of the do. What am I called to do? But God starts with the who before he gets to the do. Do you understand this? Our God is more concerned with who you are before he's concerned with what you do because of the who's not right, the do will never be right. God's concerned about motives and heart and integrity. He's concerned with the who. The who leads to the do. I like to say it this way. When you know who you are, you'll know what to do. When you know who you are, you'll know what to do. Just like years ago, when a fist fight broke out outside my pastoral office, there were kids just tearing each other up, other teenagers videoing it, and I forgot who I was. I ran through the office like a 17-year-old boy yelling,

fight, fight, fight! And another pastor, Robert Wall came with me going, fight, fight, fight, and we came outside, and we were just watching these kids, and pa, pa, pa, right, you, yeah. And about 15 seconds later, we're like, oh, whoa, yeah. We look to each other, we're adults. And we're Christians. And we're pastors. We're not supposed to cheer when boys bloody each other up. We're supposed to break it up.

When you know who you are, you'll know what to do. Peter was writing to a group of first century believers that would have been tempted to forget who they were. they'd be tempted to forget who they were because they were so hated if you think that Christians are hated in our part of the world today it is nothing compared to the persecution that these first century believers were under we talked a little bit about that first week we'll talk even more about that next week but one of the things that society they just had no idea who Jesus followers really were and their misunderstandings were almost

comical to us today. In fact, a very common idea that the skeptical world had about Jesus followers is that they were superstitious, that they were incestuous, and that they were cannibals. True story. That they were superstitious, incestuous cannibals. Superstitious because they're all these miracles, and so they must be magicians, and Jesus was the chief magician. They actually thought that Christians were incestuous because they had these things called love feasts. Come to my agape feast, my love feast, and who do you think came to the love feast, but they're brothers and sisters in Christ. That's how weird it was. Oh, you're inviting your brothers and sisters to love feast. You guys are really, really weird. This is how misunderstood they were.

Then they thought there were cannibals because of the famous line that their Savior said, take and eat my body, which is broken for you. So here we have a world that hates Jesus followers, wants them dead, completely misunderstands them. Before Peter tells them what they're called to do, he's going to remind them of who they actually are. If you want to know what you're called to do, first start with an understanding of who you are, and I want you to understand that you are exactly who Peter describes to these first century believers. Who are you, First Peter nine? Peter says, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests.

You are a holy nation. Who are you? You are God's very own possession. For those of you who are followers of Christ, what I want you to understand is you've been chosen by God to be in his family. You're a royal priest. This would have meant so much to these first century Christians

because they had tremendous respect for the priesthood. And now they're going to be called the priesthood of believers, meaning they're actually ministers of God, even though they haven't been formally trained. They're filled with the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. So they're called to make a difference in this world. But they're not different alone. They're different together. They're part of a holy nation, the kingdom of God. This world is not their own, but they are part of something broader and something bigger. And they are a people belonging to God. their bodies are not their own, they've been purchased with the blood of Jesus, they belong to God, since they belong to God, they're under his care, under his goodness, and that is who they are. He goes on to say, as a result, because you're a priest, a nation, God's very own possession, as a result, you can show others the goodness of God. When you know who you are, you'll know what to do. What did God do?

For God called you. Everybody say, he called me. for God called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. We've been called, we've been chosen, we've been invited, we're no longer in the darkness, now we're in the light. Our lives have been transformed. We are not what we were. We're a new creation.

The old is gone. Everything new has come. We've been transformed by the love of Jesus, and we've been set apart and called. What I hope you'll understand today is when you know who you are, you will recognize what you're called to do. And the good news is that the skeptical world today that doesn't like Christians typically doesn't call us superstitious, incestuous cannibals, right? That's a pretty rare interpretation.

But the bad news is there is a skeptical world today that looks at followers of Christ and calls us self-righteous, judgmental, intolerant bigots. And that is the world that we live in and what we have to wrestle with today. And tragically, there are some so-called Christians who have rightly earned those titles, right? I mean, you could just look at current events and see, I would argue, demon-possessed people,

spewing hate and bigotry in the name of God and affront to God, something is unacceptable to the church and a sin against God. And you see this done all the time. And this is the image that we have to be up against. And Peter's going to say the same thing to those first century Christians, the same thing to us. This is your different daily calling to represent Jesus to a skeptical world.

Here it is. If you want to know what you're called to do, we'll look at a few verses. You'll know who you are and you'll see what you're called to do. Peter says, dear friends, I warn you as temporary residents and foreigners. Remember, here we see it again. This world is not your own.

You are not from here, therefore you follow a different standard. I warn you to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior. and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. What do you do? Live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Notice Peter doesn't say right here,

hey, first you have to convince them to believe like you believe. What he says is we're going to show them what we believe by how we behave. We're going to live honorably, and I believe with all my heart that in today's culture, there are times that we need to start by professing the name of Jesus, but so often we have to earn credibility by treating people with love, treating people with respect, treating people with grace before we even earn the right to be heard. We need to show people what we believe by how we behave,

and that builds a bridge across a skeptical people so that we can share with them the love of Jesus. In other words, before I tell you what I believe first, I want to show you love and how that I live. And I believe as Christians, this is so important, especially today, Peter essentially has this real confidence. It's confidence. Just live righteously, live boldly. Notice he isn't saying you have to just always be defensive. And of course there's a time to defend the gospel. But I had a football coach back in college.

Some of you probably had a coach that said the same thing, that the best defense is what? A good offense, right? sometimes the best defense is actually a good offense to show the goodness of God in the way that we actually live. For example, how many of you think that I ever get any criticism? Anybody think I ever get criticized? You think anybody ever makes fun of our church at all? How often do you see me get defensive? Have you ever heard me say, oh, please, please, we're not a cult. I promise you, we're not a cult. I'm really a nice guy. If you got to know me, you'd like me.

Have you ever seen me in a social media battle? Defending, defending, defending, defending. You're not going to see me do that. Why? Why? Because I believe that the best defense is generally speaking, a good offense. What I'm going to do as a leader of the church is instead of defending, defending, defending the critics, what I'm going to do is just continue to say this is who we are.

This is our mission and this is what we're called to do. Rather than defending the accusations, instead, we're just going to lead the way with irrational generosity, because we truly believe it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. What we're going to do is recognize we are not spiritual consumers. We are spiritual contributors. The church doesn't exist for us. We are the church and we exist for the world. We're not going to be known as Jesus followers for what we're against. We're going to know for who we're for and what we stand for. And this will be the best defense, which is actually have really, really strong offense.

Peter says, live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then in verse 15, I love this. He says, it's God's will. What is God's will for your life? Here's God's will. It's God's will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. It's the way you live.

It's not just what you post on social media. it's the way you live that silences the talk of people who simply don't know better. What's our strategy? Confidently, boldly, share the love of Jesus. Love irrationally, give, extravagantly, serve people faithfully and do it again and again. And we will not reach everyone, but over time with consistency and integrity, we will reach some. if we live uprightly in a way that truly gets attention of this world. In fact, one of my favorite stories, just in the history of the church, of this exact example,

was a reporter years ago did a really harsh article against the church and mostly against me. I was probably 29 or 30 years at the time. I wasn't really used to it. And so it kind of got in my heart, and I was like, we need to stand up and we need to. And Amy just said, no, we're just going to. and be who we are, and that was our strategy. And so, honestly, years went by, and I forgot about it. And then a decade and a half later or so, I got a letter from that very guy, and he said,

you may not remember me. I was like, oh, I recognize that name. Oh, yes, sir, I do remember you. And he said, I wrote an article, something about how, you know, it was pretty critical of you, and he said, what I didn't tell you is that my family members went to your church, and I hated that. and I watched your church from a distance with skepticism. He said, what really shocked me,

he told about a time whenever our church went in and refurbished his granddaughter's school. It was shocked like a church would come in and spend all that money on a school that was in trouble. Then he said, your wife visited one of my family members in the hospital, and she wasn't even a member of your church because honestly, that's what Amy does. She just, anytime she can do, she did.

Then he said something about when his son couldn't pay the bill, the church paid the rent for his son, and he said, I was so shocked that I had to come and see for myself and remember all the things I hated about your church. And so he said, I came to church, and he described what's happened since day number one for 21 years, that when the offering came by, the pastor said, if you have need, you can take back out of the offering. And he said, that just, I didn't even know what to do with that. I hated you and I hated your church, and I saw this good coming out of it. So he described how he kept coming just to prove that it was corrupt and it was wrong.

And he described eventually the whole thing won me over. He said, I want you to know I got baptized last April, and I'm honored to be a part of Life Church and becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ. What I love about this is he was convinced over time with consistency and not defensiveness. It wasn't like I wrote a letter back. It wasn't like I did battle with the comments

or what people are saying, and whatever. It wasn't like Amy said, oh, if I go to the hospital and visit this person, then maybe by chance it'll be, he'll be related to, you know, whatever. It's just, this is what we do as Jesus followers. This is how we serve. And Peter just says, hey, if you live honorable lives over time, you may just silence those people who make foolish accusations against you.

He goes on to say in verse 21, do you want to know what you're called to do? Here's what you're called to do. For God called you to do good. That's your call. to do good, even if it means suffering just as Christ suffered for you. Here's what I hope you'll understand. There will be times when you do good and you suffer.

The Christians that Peter is writing to, they would suffer in ways that go beyond our understanding in the western part of the world. You may not get the promotion because you're living boldly for Jesus. You may not get invited to the party because you're living boldly for Jesus. The other students in your school might make fun of you because you're living boldly for Jesus, but you continue to live with the love of Jesus

because it's the right thing to do and you continue to do good. He goes on to say that Jesus is your example and you must follow in his steps. What was Jesus? He was loving, he was gentle, he was kind, he was full of grace. What was he not?

He was never arrogant. He was never condescending. He was never ever rude. He was never ever proud. He was never defensive. He was never ever hateful. Who was Jesus? the sinless son of God who love the unlovable,

he showed grace to those who were offensive. And this is how Peter described him. Feel the weight of these words as Peter describes his Savior and our Savior. He says of Jesus that he never sinned nor ever deceived anyone. He didn't retaliate when he was insulted nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross that we could be dead to sin and live for what is right.

This is our Savior. This is our Lord. This is the son of God. This is the king of kings. This is the Lord of Lord. This is Jesus, the one who never ever sinned and never retaliated when someone ever wronged him. Then Peter goes on and shows. shows how we're called to be different, and we're called to be different in a way that you cannot

imagine. Let's be honest. People who are not followers of Jesus, they can do good things every single day, and they do. I mean, I've met some people that don't like church, don't believe in God, that do amazing good things and hats off to them more power to them. What Peter's about to say, though, takes faithfulness, obedience to a whole another level of different. Because what's normal is, normal you may do something good to somebody you like. But when someone hurts you, normal is to hurt them back. When someone hates you, normal is to hate them back. When someone wrongs you, normal is to want to wrong them back. When someone is critical of you, normal is to want to be critical back. When someone says, peel the banana when you're driving in your car, normal is to want to

take that life church bumper sticker off your car so they don't know who you are. Run them down and lay holy hands on them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. That's normal, right? Y'all are so holy, you don't know what I'm talking about. That's why I don't have a life church bumper sticker on my car. And I always carry a hat. This is what people. This is what people, Peter says your call to do. You don't just have an eternal call to follow Christ. You don't just have a temporary call to an assignment. But listen to me, you have a daily call to live different. When you know who you are, you will know what to do. And there's somebody here, I don't know who I'm talking to, but you've been wronged, you've been hurt, you've been offended, and you're about

to see an opportunity that you have called by God to respond in a different way. This is what Peter says, 1 Peter 3.9. What are you called to do? This is it. He says, don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, what do Jesus followers do? We pay them back with a blessing. Do not miss this. Let it soak in. What do we call to do? We don't repay evil for evil. We don't retaliate with insults when people insult us. Instead, we pay that back with a blessing. This is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing. What do we call to do? When someone asks us to go a mile, Jesus says we go too.

When someone asks for our shirts, we give them our jacket too. Whenever someone curses us, we bless them back. Whenever someone hates us, we pray for them and we show love. Because we're called to something different. We're called. When you know who you are, you'll know what to do. Here's what I hope you'll understand. You're on call.

You're on call. At our church, we have something that we call a pastor on call. 27 different locations, there are emergencies, and there are needs that happen in times when our pastor may not be available. So we have a pastor everywhere on call. Dial a number. He'll hear about it. She'll hear about it.

They'll respond to you and try to meet your need. Why? Because there is a pastor on call. What I hope you'll understand is if you're a pastor, a follower of Christ and you know who you are, you are chosen by God. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are a people belonging to God. Therefore, you are on call to love when someone is in need. You are on call to give when someone has need. You're called to show love to someone who feels lonely. You're on call. What I loved about being the captain of the safety

is that I had already been vetted by the teacher. I'd already had my FBI background check. I checked out, and therefore, any time there was an errand to be run, who do you think got picked to run the errand in the middle of class? You guessed it the captain of the safety patrol. So my teacher would take a little piece of paper and write on it, Craig Rochelle,

permission to go wherever, and put it on something that we call a hall pass. I would walk out of class, walk by my other loser friend's classrooms, you know, that have those little windows. I'd walk by, stop, look back into a window, and walk on down the hall with my hall pass. I'd put it in my back pocket right by my comb that would stick out about that far because this was in the early 70s. And if any teacher would say, hey, young man, what are you doing out of class? What are you doing that class? Whip out a hall pass.

I'm on an assignment. I've been called. I've got permission. I'm going somewhere. I'm doing something important. What I hope you'll understand is you've got a hall pass. It's called the living word of God. It tells you who you are.

It tells you what you're called to do. It's tell you where you're called to go. Anytime the devil tells you you can't and you're not important and you're not good enough, you say, no, no, no, no, no. It says right here I've been chosen by God. It says right here I'm a royal priest. It says right here I'm a holy nation. I'm a people belonging to God.

And God put me on an assignment. I don't just have an assignment that is this temporary calling. I have a daily assignment to live different. I daily let the light of Jesus shine. I daily show the love of God. If someone, an older lady on the street that she can't get her yard mowed, guess what? I might have a mowing ministry.

Boom. I'm on call in the mowing ministry. If I'm in a grocery store and somebody's a little short in front of me to pay for their groceries and I've got an extra 20 bucks. Guess what? I just entered the grocery ministry because I'm on call to meet a need. If there is someone who's being bullied, if there's a group of people being left out, guess what? I'm on call, pastoral care to be available. Touch somebody and say, I'm on call. I'm on call. Come on touch somebody to say, I'm on call. Feel it. I'm on call. I'm on call. You may not be able to get out of the building that you're in today without stopping to pray for somebody.

You may not be able to go to your next meal without finding somebody who's in need. Why? Because you're on call. You're on call. God, give us eyes to see the needs of people in this world. Give us a heart to care for those who are hurting. God, give us ears even to hear those who need your love.

We're on call. When you know who you are, you'll know what to do. When you know who you are, you will know what to do. Who are you? You're chosen by God. You're a royal priest. You're a holy nation. You are a people belonging to God.

And our God has called you to a different daily standard. What do we do? By the way we live, we show up for work on time. We do a good job. We pay all of our bills. We pay things back. We're a blessing to people. We're a voice of encouragement.

We're a positive presence in the office. We're not messengers of gossip. We're messengers of hope. We build people up. Our best defense is a good offense. We just show love. When they laugh, we continue to show love. When they criticize, we continue to show love.

When they get in a war on social media, we're above that. We just continue to show love. Why? Because Jesus, the sinless son of God, did not retaliate. He is our example. He bore our sins in his body that we could have eternal life. And God says we've been called out of darkness into the light. and the light shines bright into a dark world.

We're never afraid of the dark. We just shine into it. The darker it is, the brighter the light shines, and that's who you are. That's what you are. When you know who you are, you'll know what to do. So, Father, today, we ask that you would empower your church to shine brightly into this world.

Help us recognize, God, that we have a different daily calling. Instead of looking for that big something out there, God, help us realize there is a big something right in front of, of us, an opportunity to be different to show your love and grace in this world. All of our church is today, as you reflect in prayer, those of you who say, I am a follower of Christ, and I want his power to be different every single day. Would you lift up your hands right now, just all over the place? Lift up your hands. Father, I ask that you would help your church to see themselves on call anywhere all the time, 24 hours a day. Your force, God,

your priests, your pastors on this earth, available, ready, willing, taking what we have, recognizing it is not ours, it belongs to you. God, may we be ministers of love, but may we be carriers of grace. God, may we be voices of hope everywhere that we go. And I pray God, we know we can't reach everybody. We know there will always be skeptics, but God, help empower us to live right today and tomorrow and the next day. And over time, we believe that the love of Jesus shown through your church will reach people far from you and bring them into your family that they could know the grace of your son, Jesus. Call us God. Call us God. We're set apart. We're ready. We're on call for whatever you equip us to do. As you keep praying today at all of our

different churches. There are those of you, you're going to experience a spiritual call, a call to Christ. We talked about it earlier. What is that? If you look back through your life at different times, there might have been a hunger for God. There might have been questions. There might have been something that was like pulling you in the direction of God. What was that? That is the Holy Spirit of God, who every single day is revealing the goodness of God. You may have seen it in the sunset. You may have seen it in the birth of a child. You may have seen it when you sensed that God was maybe with you, it's God's love reaching out to you. You're called, you're called. Peter, when he realized that Jesus was different, he was holy. He fell to his knees and he said, get away from me, I'm sinful.

The moment you recognize that the God of the universe is inviting you, you become intimately aware of your own shortcomings. Guess what? You may feel I'm not good enough. I've done so many bad things. How could God love me? The truth is, you are not good enough, and neither am I. We've all done. bad things. Those bad things are not called mistakes. They're called sin. We've sinned against a holy God. But the good news is God does still love you. And he loves you so much that he became one of you in the person of Jesus. It was God in the flesh. Jesus loved those that religion rejected. Jesus bore our sins. He became sin for us on the cross. He died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. And on the third day, when the stone was rolled away, Jesus was not there.

He was risen from the dead. Why? So that anyone, and this includes you, doesn't matter how you feel about yourself, doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter where you are right now. Anyone who calls on the name of Jesus would be saved. There are those of you in all of our churches. You are here today, not by accident, but by the divine providence of a good God. And you can sense it. You're being called to step away from your sin. Step toward Jesus and say, Jesus, take my life. All of our churches, those who say, I need his grace. I need his salvation. When you call on him, he'll forgive every sin you've ever committed. You'll never be the same. You belong to him. You're chosen by God to be here. You're about to become a royal priest, a part of a holy nation. You're going to be a person

belonging to God because you said yes to the eternal call of Jesus. All of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his grace. Today, I turn toward Jesus. I give him my life. That's your prayer. Lift your hand high right now. All of our churches lift them high right there. God bless you here in this middle section right back over here. Others today way back here in the back saying yes, right back over here, both of you guys together. Praise God for you. Over here in the back here. Church online, you click right down here. Others today who say yes, Jesus, I surrender completely to you. Would all of you join your voices together praying aloud, can you believe we get to be a part of such a movement of our

our good God, pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Save me and forgive me from all my sins. Make me brand new. I believe Jesus died for me. And he rose again so I could live for you. Put me on call. I am yours to do your will. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. in Jesus name I pray. Life Church worship big and worship loud. We are not praying for revival. Church, we're living in the middle of one. You know, as a church, it's our honor to play,

even a small part in all the ways that God is working in your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.com church slash next. And I'll let you know an easy next step for many of you may be getting connected to the local church in the form of serving. There are so many ways that God can use you in the local church to be alike to so many people. And one of those people is Carly Ramsey. She serves at Life Church, Yukon, in our children's ministry,

and she has a great heart to serve families. Check it out in our Leader Spotlight. Here we go. This is Leader Spotlight. Okay, I serve in Life's Kids. Having served for over four years, Carly has a heart to partner with parents to help lead kids to a relationship with Christ. Watching these kids grow with their ridiculous faith. I wish that I had the faith for the kid each and every day. Why do I do it? Because the kids are amazing.

We have so much fun and it's just changed my life. I just want to watch them learn and grow in the relationship with God. That's the best part. Thank you so much to all of you who are connected to Life Church, who live out our mission of leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. God truly is using you in a very big way to help people around the world. Find God and find life.