Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Divine Direction, Part 4: Faith to Start

Episode Date: March 5, 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. Today we conclude our message series that goes hand in hand with Pastor Craig Groshell's latest book, Divine Direction, seven decisions that will change.

your life. It's available wherever books are sold or at divineddirectionbook.com. You know, for so many of us failing to start is the main reason we never finish. We tend to get overwhelmed with the big picture and never take that first small step. Well, today our senior pastor Craig Rochelle will use a powerful message from the Bible to help all of us find the faith to start in the final part of divine direction. It's great to have you with us today, all of our churches. I'm in the mood to preach. I'm wondering if anybody's in the mood to hear a message from God's word today. All of our churches, I'm going to tell you, some of you,

some of you, this will be a message that will start you in a direction, that years later you'll look back and say, wow, I had no idea what God would do. We are finishing up our message series called Divine Direction. A few weeks ago, we did release this brand new book called Divine Direction, seven decisions that will change your life. I think that we are out of them at all of our life churches, but you can go to divine direction, book.com.

It'll send you to Amazon, to Barnes and Nobles, to Mardell. If you don't have a copy of this book, the good news is I'm really thankful that we're hearing about it impacting so many lives. I do want to tell you that next week we're going to start a new two-part message series called Through the Eyes of a Lion. And here's my promise to you, and this is just as serious as I can be. if you know someone that's going through a difficult time, someone that's hurting, someone that has faith questions, if you are next week, the next two weeks, you will encounter the presence of God through the teaching of His Word in a way that will significantly impact lives. And next week you'll say, oh my gosh, you told me so. I'll say yes, I told you so.

I promise you that. Promise you that. Promise you that. Today what I want to do is I want to wrap up divine direction. and it is my prayer that God is going to stir some of you into a divine direction to take a step of faith away from where you are in the direction that God wants you to go. I've said this many times, but to step toward your destiny, you often have to step away from your security, right? To step toward something new, you have to step away from something old. And I believe that as we're seeking God for divine direction, many of you, God is going to call you to start something new, to start in a new direction.

It might be to start school. It might be to start over in a relationship that you lost trust. And it might be to start rehab because you've tried to overcome your addiction for a long time and you cannot. It might be to start a new job, start a ministry, start tithing, start a small group, start some type of business. I don't know what it's going to be. but to step toward your destiny, you often have to step away from your security and start something new.

I'm going to say a couple of things that seem obvious, but I want to say them because it's so true. The challenge is for so many people, it's often the start that stops them, right? We see today the before and after pictures, like, you know, she weighed 212 pounds, now she weighs 106 and is a size 2, and we love her and we hate her,

and we don't know how she did it. And so we want to do this, that, but we don't know how to get there, and so we don't start. It's the start that stops us. And again, this seems obvious, but it's so important, you will never, ever, ever finish something that you don't start. Say it again. You'll never finish something that you don't start. And so for the final week of divine direction, I'm praying that God will give some of you the faith to start in a direction that will alter the course of your life. To do it, we're going to look at Nehemiah in the Old Testament. And I want to give you a little bit of the back story.

I know a lot of people maybe didn't grow up in church. And even church people, you may not know this. The backstory of Nehomai is that God basically told his people, I want you to obey and I want you to worship me. And unfortunately, they didn't obey and they didn't worship God. And so God allowed the Babylonians to come in and to destroy and demolish everything that mattered to the people. The Babylonians wiped out the temple, destroyed the wall,

burned most of the city and took God's people into captivity. 140 years later, if you can imagine how long that's, I mean, we're talking 140 years later, a remnant goes back to their homeland to say, we need to try to rebuild this. They're discouraged, they're embarrassed, they're humiliated, and things aren't going anywhere. And suddenly, God gives one man, a man named Nehemiah,

what I'm going to call a divine burden. He looks on, even from another city, and just says, you know what, this is not okay with me. This is God's place. We are God's people. We're not going to allow this anymore. And as long as I'm alive, I'm not going to stand for this. And I love the phrase divine burden.

Some of you, you have one, and you didn't even maybe know it. But there's something in your life when you look on, you think, I'm not okay with that. because I'm a Jesus follower and because of the heart of God, I can't sit by and let some injustice prevail. There may be something in your life where you look on and say,

somebody's got to do something about this and at some point you think, well, it might as well be me. I've seen it over and over again. It happened to my wife Amy. She has such a heart to help women who are in transition. And ladies getting out of prison

that find it so hard to get back into society coming off meth, off out of human trafficking. And so she just looked on and said, you know what? I've got influenced. Someone's got to do something about this. It might as well be me. I don't really know how, but we're going to try.

And so we worked around and she started a little home and then ended up getting a bigger home and now has an amazing organization, a home, 10 rooms full of women who are being transitioned. What happened? It was born out of a divine burden. Your divine burden often reveals your divine direction. Your divine burden, that which you, which, which, which, your heart, heart aches on behalf of God, often reveals something that God wants you to do. And I don't know what it might be for you. Maybe you're a man that struggled with pornography addiction for so long,

and you're embarrassed and ashamed of it, and you didn't want to talk about it. And one day you opened up and you got some help and you battled through it. Now you have freedom. And you think, you know what? There's so many others who are trapped in this bondage. Someone needs to do something. I'm going to get some men together and we're going to help get free. It might be that you look on and think, it's a tragedy that in our state, there are children that are not in a good home. Somebody's got to do something about this. I can't foster all of them, but we can foster one. And this divine burden reveals a divine direction. And this is what happened to Nehemiah. He kind of had a Popeye moment. You know Popeye? You know the line? He says, that's all I can stands.

Maybe you don't know Popeye. I don't know. I can't stand no more. And he eats his and he whoops the bad guy. You know, some of you, you're going to have that moment. You can eat your spinach and say, I cannot take it anymore. Somebody needs to do something about this. It might as well be me. Divine burden reveals divine direction. So what do you do when you have this kind of burden?

What was interesting is when you look at Nehemiah, he was the least likely guy to be able to build a wall. If you don't know, his job was he was a cup bearer. And what I want you to understand is a cup bearer is not so. someone who is in construction. He was not a general contractor. He, he, cupbearer, their job, if you don't know, was basically to taste the wine before giving it to the king, which you think, well, that's kind of like a nice job to test

the quality of the wine. No, it was actually to see if it was poisoned. And so if the cupbearer's dead, it's a good indication to the king that you should probably pass on that glass of wine. That was his job. And so here's a guy that doesn't seem to be prepared at all, has this burden wondering who am I to do something about this, which is exactly what God may call you to do. Who am I? I don't seem to be that prepared, but God gives you a burden and he gives it to you because he

trusts you to do something about it. What do you do? What do you do when God starts to use a burden to take you in a new direction? The first thing that Nehemiah did was he took it to God. He took it to God. He got down on his knees and he prayed this powerful prayer. And what I want to do is I want to just kind of summarize it for you. You can read it in Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 5. I want to give you the high points, and this is so moving to me. He says this. He says, Lord God of heaven, great and awesome God, let your ear be attentive to the cries of my heart. I confess our sins, including my own, God, we've acted wickedly towards you. Remember the promises you gave your people, God, and grant your servant success as I go before the king today. I love this.

What's the first thing you do when your burden starts moving you in a direction? You take it before God in prayer. And he says, God, give me favor before the king. And he goes before the king and says, I know this sounds crazy, but would you bless me to leave where I am, Susa, travel 850 miles to Jerusalem, a cup bearer, and try to start a project that would rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and redeem the reputation of our God amongst the nations. Would you give me this favor?

the king is moved by the heart of God and says, yes. It brings us to the question, how do you, as a Jesus follower, with a divine burden, how do you start something big? How do you start something big? And let me qualify big because something big might be starting a woman's home. Something big might be starting a women's life group, right? Something big might be starting a business. Something big might be paying off your student loan debt.

Starting something big might be doing a big men's ministry with dozens of men. Starting something big might be being a godly husband and a godly dad to your children. When I talk about big, I'm talking about what God calls you to do that is significant. How do you start something big? For so many people, it's the start that stops them and you never, ever finish something you don't start. Thought number one, if you're taking notes, is this. How do you do something big? Number one, you start small.

How do you do something big? You start small. And I love this imagery in Zechariah 410 when the text says, do not despise these small beginnings. For the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. Do not despise, don't be embarrassed by, don't be ashamed of starting something small,

because what does the Lord do? Watch this, what does the Lord do? The Lord rejoices to see the work begin. To me, the perfect analogy is, if you've ever had a kid and you watch your kid take his or her first steps, what do you do? You can be the most dignified,

respectable, appropriate parent of all time. You can be a stick in the mud, boring person. And the moment your kid does the drunk Frankenstein, you know what I'm talking about? The drunk Frankenstein. Then they do that. What do you do? I mean, you're a parent, you're like, you're like, right?

You know, oh, okay, gag, gah, what do you do? You go absolutely crazy. Why? Because your kid took a step. Your kid will always fall, and do you ever go, well, that was pathetic, you dumb, stupid kid? Who's, you know, no, you don't do that. What do you do? You go, get back up.

Take another step. Take another step. And that's what if, oh, okay. Why? Because you rejoice to see the first step taken. And this is what your God does whenever he gives you a burden that reveals a direction. And you don't understand the details. but suddenly you have the faith to do the drunk frankest.

And God says, ah, you took a step in the direction that I'm leading you. How do you do something big? You start small. In fact, when you think about Nehemiah, oftentimes you just hear the story, you think, okay, he had a burden, and they built the wall. They had a burden, they built the wall. But what's interesting, if you go to the very end and trace back the small steps, it's really pretty encouraging to me.

At the very end, we built the wall. If you have to go back a step, what do? They work their tails off. If you go back another step, what they do? The text actually says that they worked with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other hand to fight off the opposition. If you go back another step, they were working their tails off. If you go back another step, someone had to have the courage to put down the first stone.

If you go back another step before that, you'll see Nehemiah rallying the people who didn't believe it could be done. Fight for your brothers. Fight for your sisters. Fight for your children. Fight for your God. He motivates the people. If you go back a step before that,

you see him investigating by night, taking nose, what are we going to do? How is this going to work? If you go back a step before that, you actually see him waiting three days. If you go back a step before that, you see him traveling 850 miles, most likely on donkey,

850 miles. That's a long trip. That's why he waited. waited three days because he needed to wait, okay? If you go back before that, if you go back before that, what did he do? He had to pack his bags. He had to pack his bags. If you want to do something big, start small.

Pack your toothbrush and your retainer, if you still wear a retainer, and if you don't, you should, or your teeth will go crooked, okay? How do you, how do you, we're dealing with this at my house right now. If you want to do something big, what do you do? You start small. Have the faith to start small. This is what Nehemiah did. Chapter 2, verses 17 and 18.

He gathered all the chief officials around, the priest and the nobles, and he said to them, you see the trouble we're in? Jerusalem lies in ruins. This is his burden. He says, and its gates have been burned with fire. Now watch what he does.

He says, come, let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. and we will no longer be in disgrace. I told them all about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king said to me. And they replied, let's all say it aloud. What did they say? He said, they replied, let us start rebuilding so they begun this good work.

And what did God do? God said, he rejoiced to see the work begin. How do you do something big? How do you do something significant? You have the faith to start small. What's interesting is he didn't know the detail. He didn't know how it would play out. If you're here last week, spirit's prompting,

certain uncertainty, but here's a really important point. I don't want you to miss. You don't have to have the faith to finish. You just have to have the faith to start. You don't have to have the faith to say, I can see how we're going to rebuild the wall all the way to the end.

You just have to have the faith to put down the first stone. I hope this speaks to somebody. You don't have to know all the details. God won't give you all the details. He's going to lead you in a direction and you take a step. You don't have to have the faith to finish. You just have to have the faith to start.

And this is such an emotional message to me because I get to teach it from 21 years into leading this church. I want to go all the way back to when I was 27 years of age, just about to turn 28, married to Amy with an 18-month-old and a 2-month-old, and dreaming about, doing church in a different way. Divine burden, revealing divine direction. We can engage people with the gospel in ways that maybe hadn't been done

the same way in our community. How in the world do you start a church? How you started church? I don't know, 27 years old. So I called my friends, the closest people, and seven of us met in the living room and said, where should we start? Like, let's name it.

It's a good place to start. So what are we going to name it? And we went through more names than you can imagine. One of them was something like Holy Ghost, Tabernacle, a Praise, cathedral. Dot TV, you know, whatever. I don't know. And so we came life church. Whoever finds God finds life.

We like that. We wrote down our values. And then we said, okay, what do we do next? Well, let's gather and teach the word. When are we going to do that? How about Sunday? That's a good day to start a church. How about Sunday?

Okay, which one? Next one. Why wait? Okay, next one. So where are we going to meet? Well, how about our home? Because that's all we had. Okay, we'll meet in our home. 1613, 13, Shadebrook Lane. We'll meet in our home. That's where we live. So we told everybody, come to our house. Well, Thursday, I went for a jog. I'm going for a jog in the neighborhood. And this guy waved at me, and I knew his wife back from college. And he asked me to stop, which I was so glad to stop and walk in front of his house. So I'm like, oh, I'm glad you want to talk. And so he said, what are you doing? I said, we're starting to church. He goes, where are you starting to sit in our home? He said, in a home, well, he said, I've got this two-car garage we converted into a dance studio. Would you like to meet there? Thursday, before Sunday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I said, sure. And so we called everybody, no 16, 13, Shadybrook Lane, meeting this little garage.

Let me show you this, let me show you where we started. This is actually where we started. There's people come in the garage. Watch the mirror. You're going to see it on the right. There's a mirror, which made the room look bigger. There's about 40 chairs sitting out. There's a garage.

There's me. And then there's Amy. with short hair because we had little kids and you see the one who grabbed their hair. That's enough. There's where we started. There's where we started. The only thing we owned, those chairs were borrowed from a Baptist Sunday school. The only thing we owned was an overhead projector that was donated by the Baptist Sunday

school. If you were born after 1980, you don't know what an overhead projector is. That's okay. You can Google it and find out. And the only volunteer role that we had, Amy was our worship leader, I was a preacher, we needed a transparency flipper. That's the person that moves the transparencies for the overhead that went on the garage.

So I asked a guy named Jerome, who was a drug dealer that became a Christian, but a finger got shot off in a drug deal that went back. And so we had a four-fingered flipper. Jerome would try to flip the transparency. And everybody else was like trying to worship with the words on the garage door, and they kept counting fingers.

One, two, three, four. And it was horrible and wonderful, all at the same time. And now you fast forward to this, how do you have something big and significant? You start small. Something you may say, but I don't want to start small. I didn't say think small. I said, start small. You always think big, but you have the faith to start small.

You always think big. I honestly had the faith maybe to preach to hundreds of people, maybe thousands, but I had to start with a few. If you go back a little bit beyond that before that, guess where I started teaching. Where I started teaching was when I went to my pastor and said, can I preach? He said, I don't know. Can you? I don't know. He said, why don't you start teaching a Sunday school class first? I said, fair enough. So I taught a Sunday school class down to the basement of First United Methodist Church every week before church, and there were four people that came. Me, Amy, because we were dating, a guy named Shane and a girl named Susan. And that's what I did

for a year, taught to four people. Every now and then Shane wouldn't show up. Every now and then and Susan wouldn't show up. And I'm not saying for sure, but we might have made out during the Sunday school hour in the basement of First Methodist Church. I can't tell you for certain, but it might have happened.

It's been a long time. How do you start something significant and big? You have the faith to start small. Don't let the start stop you. You never finish something. You don't start. God's going to speak to somebody.

God's going to speak to somebody. that's going to speak to somebody and you're going to start. What do you do? Number one, you start small. Number two, get ready for it. You take the next step. You start small and you take the next step. You start small, you take the next step.

And this is what Nehemiah did. Chapter 2 versus 19 and 20. They started to have some opposition. The bad guy showed up and tried to stop them. But when Sam Bilat, the Hornite, Tobiah, the Ammonite official, and Gesh, the Arab heard about this, they mocked and ridiculed us.

If you were here last week, spirits prompting certain uncertainty and predictable resistance. They're moving in God's direction and then there is resistance. What is this you're doing? They ask, are you rebelling against the king? I answer them by saying the God of heaven

will give us success. We, his servants, will start rebuilding. What do you do? You take the next step. You start small and you take the next step. You let God prompt you and you take a step. Then you take another step and you take another step and you take another step.

In fact, I want to tell you about a step that I'm taking that is very emotional to me. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but it's a big deal to me. For years, I've had this real burden to help leaders get better. And when the leader gets better, everybody gets better. We don't find great leaders. We build great leaders. and I'm very passionate about it. And so I've taught leadership often, mostly to church leaders.

I'll be in three cities this week. Atlanta yesterday, Orlando, and then Tulsa teaching leadership, mostly to church leaders. Well, I've wanted to broaden this, but I've been insecure to do it because what does a business leader want to learn from a pastor? And so that's the thing that goes on in my mind. And this has been year over, year over year. I've said, I want to do something. I want to do something.

And so finally, one of my good friends said, if you say one more year you want to do it and don't, we're no longer friends. He's kind of joking when, all right, you're right. So a little over a year ago, I thought, I'll start a little leadership podcast. And honestly, I'm thinking, will anybody listen? I don't know. And I had no idea that it would grow to impact literally tens of thousands of people every single month. And now suddenly, business leaders are saying, could you help in different ways?

Well, I've wanted to do a leadership event, but I've only served other people's events. And it doesn't sound like a lot of difference, but there's a lot of difference, because I go where they go, teach them what they want, rather than saying, I want to build leaders the way I want to. So what I'm going to tell you right now is this year I'm committing publicly to something that's been on my heart for years and I haven't had the faith to start. We will do some leadership event,

and I don't know the details, most likely for our business leaders. It may be two hours, it may be two days, it may be for 50 imitation only, it may be 2,000 people, everybody come. I don't know the details, but here's what's so exciting to me is that the way you start something significant,

is by simply starting something small. And we may do one event and go, okay, that was pretty good, and may never do it again. Or we may wake up five years from now and recognize, just like we never predicted you version, to go to a quarter of a billion people, that we could be impacting hundreds of thousands of leaders and using it as a tool for evangelism to impact people all over the world. I've got no idea. All I am is, if you could say, spiritually pregnant with an idea, and so I'm just telling you, and again, I feel kind of vulnerable, because I don't know,

but what I'm going to do is just take a step. Just take a step. Take a step. And I don't know who needs to hear this, but there's been something on your mind for a long time. And it doesn't mean you have to start something big. It may be losing 20 pounds is really big. And so for you, it literally might be a step on the treadmill,

followed by another step on the treadmill, followed by pushing the brownie away today or whatever. And just step by step, one pound after another, you do something significant and you feel better about yourself. It might be, you want to get out of debt. How do you do that? It just seems so big. It would say, well, a $1,000 emergency fund.

Where in the world am I ever going to come up with a $1,000 emergency fund? You decide not to go out to a meal, fast food instead eat at home. You don't buy the $5 cup of coffee and you sell something on eBay, and you're $85 of the way there to your $1,000 emergency fund. It might be that you just, you know, listen, that God wants you pursuing Jesus, that you get so easily distracted by the things of this world, that it would be so much better if you were consistently seeking him first.

How do you become more like Christ? Well, you start small, and you pick a U-Version reading plan, and the first thing you do when you wake up is you seek God. And the next thing, God may prompt you and say, well, Craig's been telling me for a long time that if I'm a part of a life group with roots planted deep in a spiritual community, that would help my faith, and so you do that. Next thing you know, someone invites you to serve with them and switch and you're impacting kids.

Next thing you know, you're like got a life church bumper sick on your car and 43 free shirts, and you're one of them, and you know how it happened? How did it happen? It happened when you just had the faith to start small and take the next step. Don't ever let the start stop you. I love what St. Francis of Assisi said. He said this. He said, start doing what's necessary.

Then what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible. Start doing what's necessary. Then what's possible. Then suddenly you're doing the impossible. And this is what Nehemiah did. Divine burden often reveals divine direction. God give me favor as I step out. King, would you grant me permission?

Pack the bag, put the toothbrush in there, get on the donkey, and take a step. Step, step, step, step. Wait three days, survey, rally the people, put down the first stone. What's miraculous is they built this wall, and people look at it and say this may be the greatest construction project in history, they built this wall in 52 days, 52 days, which according to experts is really quite a feat. We look at that and go, project completed. We did it. Not at all.

on the other side of that was another project now rebuild the temple rebuild the economy rebuild the culture rebuild the passion and obedience to the one true god and this is why i didn't call the book divine destination because you never ever arrive what we do is we move in the direction that jesus is calling us to do and suddenly when you do one thing there's a leadership podcast oh now there's a leadership event. Who knows what's on the other side of it? Who knows what's on the other side of your first step of obedience? You don't have to have the faith to finish.

You just have to have the faith to start. You don't have to have the faith to finish. You just have to have the faith to start. Dream big, but start small. Dream big but start small. Most of all, start. Do you think for a moment I had the faith to one day preach to 100,000 people in our church

to have a Bible app that impacts the whole world? I didn't have the faith for that at all. What did I have the faith for? To plug in the overhead projector and set the four-finger flipper free. Just start where you are. Start where you are. Start where you are. And then one day you may look back and realize that very small step you took,

that one step in the right direction, was actually one of the biggest steps of faith of your entire life because you had no idea what our good God would do on the other side of it. And that's why I love Galatians 6-9 that tells us this, do not grow weary in doing good. For at the proper time, at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Somebody needs to hear this.

Do not grow weary at doing good. Take another step, another step, another step, another step, start it, start it, start it, start it. It's in you. God gave you the burden. Start it, start it, start it, start it. Take a step, another step. Do not grow weary in doing good.

For at the proper time, you may not see it immediately, but you will see it eventually. I'll never forget what my mentor said to me when I was starting the church. He said, number one, promises God will break you. Thank you very much. I appreciate the encouragement, but he was exactly right.

God will break you. Then he said, Craig, you will very likely overestimate what God will do through you in the short run. You will very likely overestimate what God will do through you in the short run, which could not have been more true. I was more miserable with disappointment. Why are there only 40 people here?

Why are there only? I see so much more. I see so much more. Our church just did this kind of at the beginning. Just this, this, this, this. And one day, wow, God did this. Just this for a long time. He said, you'll very likely overestimate what God will do through you in the short run.

He said, I'll never forget it. But you will vastly underestimate what God will do through a lifetime of faithfulness. You will vastly underestimate what God will do through a lifetime of faithfulness. Be faithful. Be faithful to what God put on your heart. Dream big, but start small. Have the faith to take the next step. Do not grow weary and doing good for the proper time to reap a harvest if you do not give up. And you have no idea. If you will take that first step, where God will take you one day, five years, ten years, twenty years from now, as you faithfully serve Jesus. Don't ever let the start, stop. you. You never finish what you don't. Start. Dream big. Dream big. Start small. Most of all, start. And one day, one day, you'll look back and you'll be blown away that what you thought was a very small step in God's divine direction was one of the biggest steps of faith that you've ever taken in your entire life. So, Father, today we ask that you would inspire your people, God, to have the faith

to start in the direction that you're calling them. And I thank you, God, that yours from now we'll look back and see, oh my gosh, God. You did more than we could ever imagine when we had the courage and the faith to obey the spirit's prompting. God, we thank you that the what matters. God, help us to live, God, to become who you want us to be

so we could do what you call us to do. God, we thank you that the why drives us. When we live with the right why, you'll lead us to the right what. God, we thank you whenever we want, wisdom to know what to do. You give us wisdom. Thank you for the spirit's prompting, certain uncertainty, predictable resistance, and uncommon confidence. Now, God, as we hear from you with your divine direction, give us the faith to start in the right direction. All of our churches, those who say, I want the faith

to do what God calls me to do. I want the faith to start. Would you lift up your hands right now? All of our churches, Father, thank you for speaking to so many people. I pray God that you would convert a divine burden into a divine direction, showing us what you want us to do. Give us the courage, God, to take one simple step of faith, trusting God, that you will lead us exactly to the place that you want us to go. Give us the faith to follow Jesus. Understanding if we're never a little bit nervous, we're not living by faith. We'll follow you, God, wherever you lead us. Give us the faith to start. keep praying today at all of our churches. There are many of you, you're going to take one

faith step today. And let me just tell you, and give you a little clue, it's going to be in a different direction than you've been going. If you've been walking in a direction that is not straight toward God, what I want to do is ask you to turn directions. There's a biblical word for it as the word repent. It means to change direction. It means to turn from the way you're going and go toward a higher way, go toward him. If you recognize right now that you're living your life outside of pursuing God with everything in you. And you acknowledge honestly, you have sinned against a holy God

and the truth is all of us have. Let me tell you about the good news and the grace of God through his son, Jesus. Jesus was perfect in every way. Jesus never ever sinned. He loved those that religion rejected, but he didn't leave them where they were. He accepted them as they were,

but he pointed them toward the kingdom of God. Jesus, perfect without sin, was the Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of this world. He gave his life on a cross, and the amazing thing is, three days later, after they put him in a tomb, when the stove was rolled away, he was no longer there. He was risen from the dead. Why?

Because he defeated death, hell in the grave. Therefore, anyone, and this includes you, no matter what you've done, no matter who you are, when you call in the name of Jesus, your sins will be forgiven. You will be made new, and there are those of you at all of our churches. You are here today because God brought you here. There's something pulling you in the direction of God. What is that? That's His Holy Spirit.

loving you toward the grace of Jesus. What do you do? You recognize I've been going my own way today. I'm going to turn away from my own desires. I'm going to turn toward Jesus and say, Jesus, I want to know you, I want to serve you. I surrender my life to you when you call on him. He will forgive you.

You become a new person. The old is gone and everything becomes new. At all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize this is why you're here. One step, one step toward the one who gave it all for you. One step away from your sin. One step toward Jesus. and your eternal life has changed forever,

and you experience his life here on earth. All of our churches, those who say yes, I need his grace, yes, I need his forgiveness today. I surrender my life to Christ. Lift your hands high right now. All of our churches and say yes, that's my prayer, lift them up and call out to him right back over here.

God bless you, right back over here as well in this section, say yes to Jesus. Others of you today say yes, I surrender by faith, I trust him, I give you all of my life. Church online, you click right below me, and we're going to pray together. Nobody pray is alone. Everybody pray aloud.

Pray Heavenly Father. Today by faith, I give you my life. Forgive me of my sins. Make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you, step by step, serving you with my whole life. Give me the faith to follow you. My life is not my own.

today I give it completely to you. You have my life. In Jesus' name, I pray. All of our churches, would you worship big, worship loud, welcome those born into God's family today. It's our honor as a church to play a small part in all that God is doing 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.church slash next. You know, life groups are such a vital part to the health of our church and really to the health of who we are as Christians. And recently, Jamie Pickle of Nashville, Tennessee, saw a huge need in her city to help people find community. She found a solution by starting a life group. Check it out. I'm from the Nashville area and I saw a lot of people my age with things to do, but nothing to be a part of. For the longest time, I didn't want to start a life group because I thought someone else can do that. That's not my job.

Then God put on me that, Jamie, you need to start this life group. And it was one of the best decisions that I ever made. So on a Sunday night, when everybody gets to church. And right before we sit down, I finally get to see my life group after a long week. And we get to worship together. Like, I just forget about any stresses I had before. And we hang out on more than just Sunday because these are the people I want to do life with. Even though I played a small role in starting the life group, the people in the life group are changing me more than I ever thought they would before.

Like, we might just be on a life group on Sundays, but we are a group doing life together. You know, here at Life Church, everything we do centers around our mission of leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ, ruling to do anything short of sin to make that happen, all because we believe whoever finds God finds life. I'm