Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Divine Direction, Part 3: Trust the Process

Episode Date: February 26, 2017

You haven’t finished your life story. What will you do with the blank pages? The choices you make today will lead you one way or another—but when you know who to trust, you'll always be headed in the Divine Direction. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to the help of Church online. If you ever have any questions or you'd like to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.church. Or we'd love for you to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app available wherever you download your apps from. You know, coming up today, we continue in a message series that goes hand in hand with Craig Rochell's latest book, Divine Direction.

decisions that will change your life. It's available wherever books are sold today, as well as divine directionbook.com. You know, for so many of us, trusting God, even whenever he doesn't reveal his will the way we want them to, is really hard. But we have to trust the process. And that's much easier said than done. But today, our senior pastor Craig Rochelle, I believe, has a message that will help us gain confidence in trusting the God that knows all and has our best interest in mind. in part three of Divine Direction. Hey, it's fantastic to have all of you with us at all of our life churches, our open network churches, our family all over the world at Church Online.

I'm curious who's ready for a little bit of Divine Direction. Give me some noise, all of our churches. We are in part three of a message series called Divine Direction. Next week is the final week, and in my opinion, it's actually the most important of all four weeks. I am excited. We did recently launch a book called Divine Direction, Seven Decisions that will change your life.

We still have a few available at different life churches. If we're sold out at your location, you can go to divineddirectionbook.com. It will point you to Amazon, to Barnes & Noble, to Mardell, wherever books are sold. And what's really meaningful to me is so, it takes so much time to write a book and you kind of pour your heart into it,

to hear the way it's impact. I just thank God for it. I think it's resonating with people because, honestly, as a pastor, the most commonly asked question I get is, how do I know what God wants? How do I know the direction that he wants me to take? And in the past few weeks, as we've been looking at divine direction, I've shared with you some of the reasons why it's becoming increasingly difficult

for people to make decisions. In fact, researchers are citing that the emerging generation is more important. indecisive than previous generations. And we know some of the reasons why, because there are so many more options. We talked last week about the illusion of perfection. We see glimpses into people's apparently perfect lives on social media. We think our life is really horrible when we see their perfect life. And then we talk about even as Christians, God's perfect will. I don't want to miss his perfect will. So when we fear making an imperfect decision, many people don't make decisions at all. Another thing that I haven't talked about that's a little bit interesting to me and forgive me if I get into this stuff, I love to know the why behind the what.

Another reason why researchers say that we're battling with decisiveness today is because the younger generation has been over programmed. Think about it. If you're about my age, what does your parents tell you to do a lot of times? If you were bored, they would say what? They say, go outside and play, right? What do they do now? device and then you never see the kid again right that's kind of what it is and and and then you know we're so programmed when I was a kid you had to go outside find a little sand he'll get on top of it

push your friend down and call it fun you had to decide what to do now we have kids so busy go here go here go here play on your phone that they're saying that we've told them what to do but haven't given them freedom to decide and so they're not exercising their decision muscles and it's more difficult to make decisions. I was talking to a younger staff member that in my assessment was overly indecisive. He was trying to make a decision about which move to make, and so I just asked him, kind of, you know, father figure,

I said, you know, do you think you battle with being indecisive? True story, not exaggerating bit. He looked at me, he said, well, yes and no. And then he went over about five minutes to explain why he wasn't sure if he was indecisive. or not. And this challenge is really overflowing into deciding what to do with your life. In fact, I've read several articles recently on a newer term called career paralysis. I read one this week in Forbes magazine. Career paralysis. I can't decide what I want to do. And again, the research

behind this to me is fascinating. When I grew up, my parents were children of those who were in the Depression. So my parents had a very simple message. If you're a my generation, you know what it was, get a good education so you can get a good job. How many grew up like that? Right? That was it. If you could go to college, you did. If you couldn't, you were disappointed.

Go to college, get a good education so you can get a good job. Now there's all sorts of options. You can go to college. You can have a super senior year or a gap year. You can, you know, do online. You can travel the world and set up a GoFundMe account so people can pay for your mission vacation, your mission trip. Sorry, I just slipped.

There's all sorts of different options, you know, of what to do, and so we can't decide what to do. So my generation, who went to college, got a job, didn't necessarily love the job. And so they said to my children, well, what do you love? What are you passionate about? No one ever told my generation to do something you love. They just say, get a job.

Now it's, what do you love? What are you passionate about? And so the emerging generation, which is so amazing, is now under the illusion that you can be 23, have a job you love that also makes a difference and makes a lot of money. And when you can't find that, a lot of people feel like, well, I don't want to do something

that's less than that. And so we become really indecisive and move back home with mom and dad. And so that's kind of where a lot of people live today. And what I want to do is help us move beyond this. And I know I'm kind of meddling, and I don't want to be offensive, but sometimes you have to do something you don't like to do.

Can I say it again? Anybody can say amen anytime they want to. It doesn't offend me if you work with me. Sometimes you have to do something you don't love. Doesn't make the biggest difference. Doesn't make you rich. Sometimes you have to do something you don't love for a while before you do something better than you could even imagine later on.

Don't be afraid to make a decision that doesn't line up with everything you've ever wanted now. That's why I want to lead into the message. I call it trust God's process. And I want to look at a text from Acts chapter 20 that quite honestly leads to my favorite single verse in the Bible. If you say, Craig, what's your one life verse? We're going to get to it today. And we're going to look at the Apostle Paul who loved where he was. Give you the context.

He was in Ephesus and he was happy as he could be there. He was involved in the church that he helped start. He was love the people. And then God stirred in him to leave the place. that he loved, to leave where he was making a difference, to go somewhere new, and he called all the elders in and had this very emotional farewell with them. And essentially, this is what he explained. And I want to show you four steps in this little speech that will be a process that you will have over and over and over again if you're faithfully following Jesus step by step.

This is what he says. Verse 22, Acts chapter 20. Paul says, and now, compelled by the spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. I love it where I am, but God's God is calling me somewhere new, and there are four steps in this process you will experience

over and over again as you seek God's divine direction. The first one, if you're taking notice, is this. I call it the spirit's prompting. The spirit's prompting. This is what Paul says. He says, and now compelled by the spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem. This isn't something I was looking for. It wasn't something I was hoping for.

it's just something God is kind of doing in me. I'm compelled by the spirit. There are Greek words translated as compelled by the spirit. It's the words, deo honuma. Deo honuma. Deo means wrapped up. It literally means like you're bound. You're bound like with cords.

Numa means wind of the spirit. It means current or breeze. Paul is saying, I'm kind of wrapped up. I'm being drawn. I'm being led, I'm being pulled by the spirit. I like it here. I wasn't looking for this, but God is obviously doing something in me.

I'm being pulled by the spirit. It's a little bit like what happened to me yesterday. I don't eat junk food. I can't eat junk food. I don't have like one or two bites. I eat the whole thing. And so I'm extreme like that. So, yeah, I just don't.

Well, Amy, my wife, who I love and is almost perfect with the exception of this, brought home two monster fresh, steaming hot, deliciously, satanically attracted cinnamon rolls. She brought them into the house. I tried to walk by them. I'm walking by them, and I'm Deo Honumann. I'm telling you what, the cords of power are pulling me toward this. I'm trying to walk this way.

I'm being pulled back this way. I'm trying to walk down the hall, and the voice of my mind says, just one bite. So I had just one bite. Later on, she said, where are the cinnamon rolls? I'm in the corner with a sugar high. It's icing all over my face, denying I ever knew we had cinnamon rolls. Deo homauma, every now and then, you just, you're going along with life and you feel prompted by God. If you're not a Jesus follower, you may not know what I'm talking about, but some of you, if you do, kind of nod with me.

I'm supposed to do this. I'm prompted to do it. And it may be something that's big in life-altering, or it may be something seemingly small and insignificant, but you never, ever ignore the Deo Honuma moments. One big one for us was when I was happily serving my pastor in First United Methodist Church and loved it there, and would have loved to stay for our entire lives.

It was home, family, comfortable, and it was perfect. And then we had a Deo-Honuma, a compelled, by the spirit of drawing a sense of destiny, pulling us out, knowing we had to start a new and different kind of church. It was big and significant. This week, there was something seemingly small and insignificant, but no deo honuma moment ever is. I was going to text a friend that was hurting, and I felt prompted by God, no, don't text. Call, call. And so I called, and the call turned into a lot of tears, a meaningful prayer, and it was obvious that was a Deo Honuma moment. Do not ignore those times when you're prompted by God. You want some divine direction? Understand,

we serve a God who speaks. His spirit prompts us. Now compelled by the spirit. Some of you, you're going to be compelled to be a part of a life group. We've talked about it for a long time, and you're going to sense, I need deep spiritual roots planted in the context. of a broader Christian community. Some of you, you're going to be prompted to serve. Some of you, you're going to be prompted to start some type of a ministry. Someone here is going to be prompted to start a business. Someone here's going to be prompted to reach out and call someone instead of text someone.

You're going to be prompted to write a book. There may be a sweet girl and you're dating the guy that's not so sweet. And God's going to prompt you to position yourself for a spiritual upgrade. And then three seats down from you, there's a single guy who's looking at you right now. He is the upgrade. And if that is you, oh man of God, do not hasten reach out today. Ask her to a Bible study something spiritual. It works so much better in church than saying, can we get coffee?

And then, if you do get married, name your kid Craig. Why? Because God used me to get you some spiritual loving. And besides that, if someone doesn't name their kid Craig, the name's going to die. Anybody know anyone under 10 named Craig? No. What's happening? It's like Leonard and Craig.

Someone help the name, Craig. Ladasha, we got Ladashas. Help me, Deohanuma. Deohanuma. Trust God's process. And now, compelled by the spirit. I wasn't looking for this. I wasn't planning on it, but I've been prompted by God.

When you want divine direction to understand, God will speak to you, he'll move you, who'll call you out of your comfort zone to take a step of faith. Deo Honeuma, a spirit's prompting. The second part of God's process if you're taking notes is what I call certain uncertainty.

Certain uncertainty. God prompts you and that's about it. You want details but there are none. Paul says this, he says, now compelled by the spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know God's calling me, but I don't know what's going to happen. And this is what will happen to you sometimes.

You want divine direction. God prompts you, and you're like, okay, God, I'll do that. Would you give me some details? Give me some details. It's a little bit like that old movie, A Few Good Men. There's a line Jack Nicholson says, you know, someone says, give me the truth. Like, you can't handle the truth. Sometimes you say to God, give me details.

And God says, God doesn't say it like that. God says it like this. You, my child. That's how God says it. Cannot handle the details. He's much more loving about it. God, give me details, and God says, no, I'm going to lead you step by step because if I showed you everything, then you probably wouldn't take the first step.

And if I can be just dead level honest with you, whenever there was the Dale Honuma moment, start the church, we were able to follow that. I wanted details. There were no details. If God had shown Amy and me the details, what I can promise you is, there is no way I would have taken the first step. Okay? The pain, the hurt, the sacrifices, the private cost, we never would have done it.

Now, 21 years in, when we see the impact, there is no way we ever, ever would have denied or not taken that first step. Why? God gave us the grace step by step. You want details? Yeah, ready for the details. God's got to do more in you so later on he can do more. through you, you're not ready for the details yet. In fact, I love the image in Psalm 119 versus 105 that talks about God's word, and God's word is a lamp to guide our feet. It's a light for our

path. I love this. His word is a lamp to our feet. It's not a spotlight to our future, but it's a guide to our path. What does he do? He guides a step by step. Here's what we want. Okay, God, you prompted me. I want to know steps four or five. and six. And God says, no, you can't handle four, five, and six. You need to take one, two, and three before I ever show you what four, five, and six is. It's a light unto our path. We plan our course, but God determines our steps. Spirit's prompting. Well, I want some certainty. I want some certainty. You want some certainty? Here's certainty. God will never leave you. He'll never forsake you. There's certainty. He'll always be with you. There's certainty. He'll work in all

things to bring about good, their certainty, but I need a little more certainty. Listen, if you're never living with a little uncertainty, you are not living by faith. And without faith, it's impossible to please God. That's why you have to embrace it. Trust the process. He will prompt you, and then he will guide you. He won't give you the details. He'll show you the next step. And now, going to Jerusalem, spirit's prompting. I'm compelled by the spirit, not. knowing what will happen to me when I am there. Spirits prompting certain uncertainty. The third thought if you're taking notes is this.

There's what I call predictable resistance. Predictable resistance. You are on the divine direction pathway. Expect spiritual opposition. This is what verse 23 says. Let me lead up to it. Paul says, all I know is I'm compelled by the spirit. I'm going to Jerusalem.

I don't know what's going to happen to me there. I only know. that in every city, the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. Can we pause there for a moment? Prison and hardships. A lot of times we get upset when someone makes fun of us behind our back. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. We're talking about prison.

Imagine if you just shared your faith at work until you were put in jail locked up for, you know, two years or whatever. That's what he's saying. I only know, God's calling me, and it's going to be harder in heck at times, prison and hardship. You step forward in obedience to God, there will be opposition. And you need to mark this down. If you're not ready to face spiritual opposition for your obedience to God, you are not ready to be used by God. Predictable resistance.

When you step out on faith, you have a spiritual enemy who will resist you. In fact, when I look at anything and everything significant that we've done over the last, many years. It was always met with spiritual opposition. I told the story one million times, but understand, embrace it. I was rejected for ordination the first time I went through. Rejected. We're not sure you're called by God. Why was that? Possibly because I was immature and arrogant, yes, but also because I would guess there is an enemy who did not want me pursuing the call that was on my life. Rejected for ordination. But we went to start the church, man, you wouldn't believe the Christians who said, why another church? You're too young. This is stupid. There's

enough churches around. When we went to video teaching, oh my gosh, I've been called a heretic more times than you can count as heresy. That doesn't work. It'll never work. That's stupid. And now, whenever you all fly in from some other state to see me live, you always tell me two things. Number one, we like you better on video. And number two, you're much smaller in person than we expected. Neither of which are nice. Be nice to your pastor when you meet your pastor. Spiritual opposition, you know, I mean, down to having six kids, you wouldn't believe the people that criticize that. You know, six kids, I kind of thought children were a blessing from God. I just happened to want to be more blessed than some other people. Well, do you know what causes that? Well, yes,

we do. And we're unwilling to give it up. And all God's people said, amen, amen. Besides, we grew up long before there was Netflix. We were young love and nothing to do. We home educate our kids. Criticism. They're going to be weird. Darn straight. We hope they're weird. We've seen normal. We want something different. Spiritual opposite. If you are not ready to face opposition for your obedience to God, you are not ready to be used by God. Here's one of the challenges I see so often today. We tend to want things easy. When things get difficult, a lot of people think, well, maybe God's not in on this. There's opposition. Anytime you have spiritual opposition that is not guaranteed sign that God's not in on it.

Oftentimes, it's an indication that God is in on what you're doing. Never expect to do something for the glory of God without having your enemy show up and to attack back. What do we see? We see the spirit's prompting. We see certain uncertainty. We see predictable resistance. Trust God's process. Now, before we look at the fourth and final stage in the process that you will experience

over and over again on the path to divine direction. Let's talk for a moment about the Apostle Paul. Some of you maybe didn't grow up around church, or you may not know, but before Paul was like this massive, world-changing legend of a Jesus follower, he was actually a Jesus hater. He was a Jesus hater. This guy, before he met the risen Christ, he persecuted Christians, and he ordered their executions. So for those of you that, like, if you're here and you say, I hate Christians. You would have loved this guy before he was a Christian. No one hated them more. Well, one day, Paul had an encounter with the risen Christ and it completely, like, in a moment, changed everything. There are those of you today. There are those of you at church online.

You will have an encounter, a spiritual moment that will change everything. And he was completely different. And now I am ready to preach the gospel. So most people tend to think, and that's That's exactly what he did. It's not what happened. It's a little fuzzy. We don't know all the details, but here's basically what we know. He spent about three years in Arabia,

most people thinking, kind of studying and learning and wanting to preach. So imagine, it's the first month, hey, I think I'm ready, I think I'm ready, can I preach? Not yet. Second month. Hey, I'm ready, I'm ready, I want to preach. Not yet.

Third month. I'm ready, I'm ready, can I preach? Not yet. Second year. I'm ready, I'm ready, can I preach? Not yet. But I want to make a difference. But this is my passion.

And I want to make some serious change while I'm at it. Not yet. Sometimes you have to do what you don't want to do to prepare you for the things you're called to do. Hear it. Feel it. Sometimes you have to do some things you don't want to do to prepare you for the things you're called to do.

Three years goes by. Three years. Finally, he preaches in Damascus. Guess how good his first sermon was? They tried to kill him after that, and he ran for his life. life. That's not good it was, okay? And he had to run for his life, and he's on the run. And we don't know a whole lot of the details. Somewhere about three years than eight years later,

people still don't want him to preach. Think about it. He killed Christians. Hey, can I come to your church and be a guest speaker? No! No, we're not going to let you up there. You tried to kill us. Finally, years and years go by. And Barnabas vouches for him. Barnabas is trusted. He's got integrity. He says, I've seen this guy, I've been with him. We've done life together. He has totally incompleted, converted, and then God opens up the doors, and years and years and into it, he starts doing what he's called to do. How do he pay the bills all this time? Well, he just don't want to do. He wanted to preach, but he also had to make tense. He wanted to preach, but he had to make tense. Some of you are something you want to do, but you're going to have to do

something you don't want to do while God does something in you to prepare you to do one day, maybe even more than what you have in your heart to do. Spirit's prompting. Certain uncertainty. Predictable resistance. And the fourth thing if you're taking notes is what I call uncommon confidence. Uncommon confidence.

Acts 20 and verse 24, this is what I would consider to be my life first. Paul says this. Let me give you the lead up again. He says, and now compelled by the spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem. I don't know what the heck's going to happen to me. I only know they're going to beat me,

put me in prison, and things like that. He says, however, and this is so powerful, I consider my life worth nothing to me. It's not about me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. if only I can tell people about the love and the grace of Jesus. Think about Paul.

Think about Paul. Think about Paul. What did he do? What did he do? Well, he ended up writing the biggest portion of the New Testament. He planted churches all over Asia Minor and Europe. Here we are 2,000 years later, and the biggest portion of what we read in the New Testament

was a result of the Holy Spirit being inspired through him. He completely transformed his. history. Paul's goal was not to transform history. Paul did not have a plan. If you're with us the last couple of weeks, Paul was just kind of trying to follow step by step. And here's the big thing that I hope you'll understand. People ask me now, and my philosophy as a leader has really, really changed. I say, Craig, what's your plan for the future? What's your plan for the future? I am making fewer and fewer plans for the future. The majority of my plans are not for the future. The majority of my plans are to obey Jesus today, period. That's it. That's it. Well, what are we going to do at the church?

What is what about the future? Listen, I can't see into the future, but the word is a lamp into my next step. And my biggest goal is not to plan the future, but to plan to obey today. Paul did not mastermind all of this impact in the future. His only goal was to serve Jesus faithfully this day. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. Think about this. If I'm preaching, I'm preaching about Christ. If they're beating me, I'm taking the beating for the glory of Christ. If they put me in prison, I'm witnessing to the guy I'm chained to, and I'm writing a letter to the church in Philippi telling them to consider this joy.

Wherever I am, I'm serving Christ. Here's what he didn't say. Here's what he didn't say. I have to be in the perfect place. I have to do everything that I love. I have to fulfill my passion. I have to make a certain salary package or I'm not doing it.

What he said was, wherever I am, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. I consider my life worth nothing to me. And the reason this is my life verse is not because it's always true of me. it's because I want it to be true of me.

I want it to be true. I want to be one who can say, wherever the spirit prompts me, I will go. And if I don't know what's going to happen to me, that's just called faith. And if someone resists me, that's part of being a Jesus follower. Listen, I don't worry when people persecute me.

If you're following Jesus, people will persecute you. I worry when no one's persecuting me. It's time for the church to grow up a little bit. Put on your big boy panties, quit throwing a pity party, and be bold. If someone resist it, that's a part of it. And then you get to the place where you're like, it's not about me.

I consider my life worth nothing. You want divine direction? That's when we start trying to manipulate everything in the direction that we want to go. And we say, Jesus, this may be what I want, but my life is yours. wherever I am, I will serve you there. Whatever it is, I will do it with my best and excellence to glorify you. I consider my life worth nothing. And notice the change in Paul.

Imagine the change if this would happen in all of us. First of all, it was all about him. And that's where many of us are. What is our culture about today? Let's make a name for ourselves. Right? Call it what it is. That's what it is.

Let's make a name for ourselves. It's about me. then something happens and you say, no, let's not make a name, let's make a difference. It's not about me. Now it has to be about we because we can't do it on our own. Let's make a name, let's make a difference. One day you wake up and realize not only did you not make a name for yourself, not only were you making a difference, but you're actually making history.

And Paul never realized he was making history, but he was making history when it wasn't about me. It wasn't even about we, but it was all about Jesus, all about Jesus, all about Jesus. Jesus. And listen to me, listen to me. There are those of you, when you get to that point, you won't know it, but you will make history because your family will be different. Your children will not end up divorced like your parents did. The next generation will not be broke like the generation before was. The pornography addiction that your dad had that you have is broken by you will not be passed down to your children. The fear of the anxiety,

that's just how we are. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power, love, and of a sound mind. And if it's down just in your family, you can make history by changing a legacy. When? It's not about me. It's not about me.

Sometimes you have to do some things you don't want to do to prepare you for everything God's going to call you to do. So what do we do? do? What do we do? Do we have a plan? Do we have a plan? We may have some dreams and we may have maybe set some goals, but ultimately our highest calling is to obey. Spirit's prompting. Craig, did you plan all this at church? Did you foresee life church being like this? Certainly you saw it. It was all in your master buying. Are you smoking the funny weed? I didn't see any of this stuff, right? I didn't see any of this stuff. What happened? What was it? Spirit's prompting. Certain uncertainty.

Predictable resistance. Uncommon confidence. Spirit's prompting. Certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, uncommon confidence. Spirit's prompting, certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, uncommon confidence. And as you die to yourself and are filled with Christ,

one day you say, all I know is I'm being led by God, compelled by the spirit. Not knowing what will happen to me there. knowing is not always going to be easy because following Jesus never is. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. If only I may declare the love and grace of Jesus wherever I am, I can make an eternal difference because of what he did.

Divine direction. Spirit's prompting, certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, uncommon clarity. Trust God's process. Father, we ask today that we would be a people surrender to you, not just always making plans about the future, but planning to be obedient to what you show us today. God, may we hear your voice as you guide us in your divine direction. All of our churches today, those of you who are Jesus followers and say, I would love to be sensitive to the Dale Honuma moments. God, make me aware of when you're prompting me by your spirit.

Would you lift up your hands? I want to pray for you. Lift up your hands. All of our churches lift them up right now. Father, I thank you for a church full of people that are sensitive to the voice of your spirit. And God, I thank you that there are those who will not walk away from their computer today or walk out of a building without being prompted by you to reach out to someone.

To pray for them, to give them a word of encouragement, to bless them, to invite them to a meal. God, I thank you that you'll be speaking even now. prompt us, God, prompt us to be tithers, prompt us to be servers. God, prompt us to love and give you permission to interrupt our plans. God, I pray at work this week, we would be sensitive to those Deo Honuma moments. God, give us the big ones where you guide us on life in a life-altering direction. God, give us the simple moments when you prompt us to dial the phone rather than send the text. We're available to you. God, we thank you. You are speaking, God. God, that you speak through your word by your spirit through circumstances, through people, you are speaking God. May we have ears to hear you,

God. Lead us in your divine direction. God, our plan isn't just for the future. Our plan is to obey what you prompt us to do today, knowing that we will not understand the details, knowing that will be resistance. But on the other side, there's an uncommon confidence that wherever we are, if our decision was perfect or imperfect in that moment and at that place, we will represent your love and share the goodness, Jesus, of who you are. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, there are those of you, you're going to take a step, and this will become the step that changes the direction of your life. You're going one way, and you're going to step in the other direction.

There is a very simple word in the Bible. The word is called repent, and that means to turn and go in the way. the other direction. You've been heading one way. Repent means to turn back. Pint is that which is high. We're going to turn from the lower things. We're going to turn to that which is higher. Why do we repent? The reason we repent is because we have all sinned every single one of us. If we sat down across from each other and we're having a conversation and we got open, I'd tell you some of the horrible things I've done and you would have a list maybe close to as long and we would recognize we have all sinned against a holy God. Why did Paul,

Why was he changed from a guy who hated Jesus to one who would give his life for Jesus? Because he recognized who Jesus was and what Jesus did. Jesus was perfect in every way. He died for our sins. The tomb did not remain empty. He was risen from the dead. Paul met and experienced the risen Christ. By faith, you can meet the very real presence of the risen Christ.

When you call on him, he hears your prayer. He forgives your sins. They are separated as far from you as the east is from the west. There are those of you, you can sense it. There's a little Dale Honuma moment right now. You're feeling prompted to step toward Jesus, to step away from your sin, and to say, I give you my whole life.

It's no longer about me. It's all about you. Jesus, save me, Jesus, forgive me. Today, by faith, I give my life to you. And all of our churches, those who say, I need his grace, I need his mercy, I surrender to Jesus. your prayer, lift your hands high right now, all over the place and say yes, both hands up over there.

God bless you. Here in the middle section right there, sir. God bless you here in this section way back over here. Man, I hope you'll cheer a little louder than that because we're seeing lives transform right back over here. Call on him, call on him. Others of you today say, yes, Jesus, I surrender. I need your grace. Church online, you guys click right below me.

Together we all pray. We are family. Nobody prays alone. Pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father. I give it all to you. My whole life, I surrender to you. Jesus saved me from my sins.

Make me new. Fill me with your spirit and direct my steps. My life is not my own. I give it to you. Lead me, Jesus, to do your perfect will. Thank you for new life. now you have mine in Jesus name I pray

Life Church worship big worship loud we're not just praying for revival we're living in the middle of one give God praise for life You know here at Life Church it's our honor to play a small part in how God is working in and through 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 you know one of the best ways for us to find and take steps towards our divine direction is in a life group, surrounding ourselves with like-minded people who follow Jesus passionately.

And I had the chance to catch up with an incredible life group, a group of guys that come together each and every week to play flag football, but also build each other up in faith. It's a great story, and what I'm calling, Faith on the Field. Check it out. Being in church, it is awesome. But, you know, sometimes when you lead church, it's kind of hard. So when you're around great people, you know,

It just keeps you motivated for Christ, keep your blood pumping for Christ. We started this to get men out here. We needed a way to reach them, and this was the best way. Most guys, if they've never gone to church that are not involved in the church, they won't ever step foot in a church, but yet they will step foot on a football field. And this is a great place to get them connected with a bunch of Christian guys. We start every week with prayer and a devotional. If we want to teach these guys, you need to start your day with gospel.

scripture say, as surely as I live, says the Lord. It gives us a stage right here on this football field that we're able to minister to guys. Guys are being biblical community because without it, you're an individual. You always leave for love, you always leave for wanted, and knowing that you can come here anytime. The church is us. We're the church. And when we're out there together, you've got people that you can count on, you can lean on. If you're not in a life group, you are missing out on a community and a relationship that you can build with other.

Ready, one, two, three. Go on to make the fellowship. Thanks for hanging out with us today. You know, we say it every time our mission here is to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. We're so passionate about that mission because it drives everything we do, all because we know whoever finds God finds life. See you next time.