Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Does God Really Keep His Promises? | Book Club: Part 1

Episode Date: June 5, 2022

Have you ever been told empty promises? It can be confusing and hurtful when someone you trust lets you down. Does God keep all of His promises? How can we know? We’ll find the answers together as we kick off Book Club with special guest Sadie Robertson Huff. ABOUT THIS MESSAGENo one has all the answers. That’s why we need a variety of voices to help us grow. During our new series, Book Club, we’ll get fresh perspectives on identity, relationships, anxiety, and more from people who have been there and wrote the book on it.  WE’RE OPENWe’re continuing to monitor guidelines and best practices for gathering in a safe way. Learn more about everything we're doing to keep you safe and how you can help by using hand sanitizer, washing your hands often, and more: https://www.life.church/updatesFind a time and attend a service with us: http://www.life.church/locationsNEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIId...Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #sadierobertsonhuff Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Has anyone in here ever told an empty promise? Okay, y'all are honest. We got an honest church. We got vulnerable people. We've told empty promises. You've definitely heard your kids tell empty promises, I'm sure. I remember when me and my brother were little, and my brother was notorious for playing the game.

I'm not touching you. And that's like literally the most annoying thing ever, is it not? And so we'd be in the back to see the car. My brother would be like, I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. And I'd be like, Mom, make him stop, you know, because I'm really dramatic too. And my mom would turn around and she'd be like,

John Luke Robertson, do not touch her sister. He'd be like, I won't. So then, okay, what does he do two seconds later? I'm not touching you? He's whispering it now. And I'm like, Mom, he's doing it again. She turns around, John Luke Robertson, I said stop. And he goes, I promise, I won't.

How many of you know that's an empty promise? Two seconds later, he's going to be not touching me, right? Maybe you have teenagers and you've gotten a letter that says, dear mom and dad, if you get me a cell phone, I promise. I will not download any app. You do not want me to download. I will call you every day. It would make our relationship closer, really. You know? I mean, empty promises. We know this. I mean, some of us, when we were in fourth grade, we told someone they'd be our bridesmaid. They weren't our bridesmaid, you know? Like, empty promises. And I don't think we ever intend for the promise to be empty. I think a lot of the

times just things change people change circumstances change perspectives change and because that happens sometimes we tell bigger empty promises right sometimes the promises have a little bit heavier weight we say we're never going to go back to drinking then we're back to drinking we're never going to get back on drugs and then we're back to drugs we're never going to download that app again it's red downloaded we're never going to go back to that relationship we're back in the relationship we made vows that we haven't kept, we break promises. And that hurts when promises are broken. But why do we do it? Because we're hurt people. We hurt people. We're hurt people. We're insecure. Things happen. Life changes. We changed. All of the things change. And I think that sometimes because all of that happens and because

we change and people change and we get hurt and all that and we can't keep a promise and other people can't keep their promises, it's really easy to believe that God doesn't keep his too. And when we look at the world around us and we look at our own lives, it's really, to believe God doesn't keep his promises because you're like, really? You're a good God and this is happening. Do you really keep your promises? Of course, like I said, we sing it. We kind of know it. We kind of think that he is. We kind of are like, yeah, isn't he a promise keeper, right? We have nothing to back it up with. But we actually have a lot to back it up with. So today, I want us to look at why, why we don't believe God's a promise keeper. And then I want us to really root ourselves.

and affirm what we know to be true about who God is so that we can believe without a shadow of a doubt that yes, God is a good God, and yes, God is a promise keeper indeed. So we are going to read from Matthew chapter 4. This is when Jesus was tempted, and we're going to refer to this scripture a lot in this message. Matthew 4.1 says this all the way through 11. Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and he said to him,

If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, it is written. Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you. And on their hands, they will bear you up, least you strike your, foot against the stone. And Jesus says, again, it is written, you should not put the Lord your God to the test.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all of their glory. And he said, all of this I will give you if you bow down and worship me. And Jesus says, be gone for me, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him and behold angels came and were ministering to him. Powerful text. This message kind of came about from me and my dad. We were talking about this text one day. And man, he just had a lot of great thoughts and kind of got me thinking about this

promise keeper thing. And I think the first reason as to why we don't believe that God is a promise keeper is because we don't know the promises of God. Like we just don't know them. Like when we sing all your promises are yes and amen, like what are all the promises? Like if I really was thinking about and being honest with myself, before I prepared for this message, if you were to ask me, Sadie, what are the promises of God? I don't know that I could legitimately sit there and tell you 15 actual scripture of places to go,

and that is the promise of God. And there are actually hundreds in scripture, and I didn't even know 15 of them. Off the top of my head to say, yeah, here and Isaiah, and then there in Jeremiah, and then there in Ephesians and there in Galatians. I didn't know. We have to know the promises of God. You see, Jesus, in this moment, he knew the word of God. So he was able to say the word of God.

He was always to rely on the word of God because he knew what the word of God was. And I think a lot of times what happens is we think that our expectations of who God should be are the promises of God and they're not. And then we get disappointed in God for something he never said he would do. And we're saying, God, you're not holding up your end of the promise. That wasn't a promise of God. That was your expectations of what you thought God would do. but that's not what God said he was going to do.

You see, and many of us, because we don't know scripture very well, we miss quote scripture and we say, well, Sadie, hold up a second. God's good. And God says that all things will work together for my good, for those who love him and accord according to his purpose. I love God. Why isn't it good then? Well, Paul said that.

Paul said that. And Paul in 2 Corinthians 1125, this is a little bit of Paul's testimony. So this is me paraphrasing. This is me just grabbing all the things that are from this verse for the sake of really wrapping up his testimony. It says this. He was beaten. He was near death. He was stoned.

He was shipwrecked. He was lost at sea. He was in danger from robbers, rivers, people, cities, wildernesses, fake friends, sleepless nights, hungry, thirsty, cold, felt the weight of anxiety. And this dude was literally bitten by a snake. Paul went through all that. And Paul said all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. So what I want to remind you is that just because things are bad doesn't mean that God's not good. Just because you're in a wilderness doesn't mean that God's not there.

You see, Jesus right here when he was being tempted by Satan, he literally had just come from being baptized. He was baptized and God says, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. And then right from that moment was led by the spirit and to where, into the wilderness to do what? To be tempted by the devil. So you could be living in the perfect center of God's will. He can be so proud of you, pleased with you. You did nothing wrong. And yet you can still be in the wilderness.

But that doesn't mean God's not there. that doesn't mean God's not keeping his promises. God was very much so keeping his promises. God was with him in this moment. Even in the Word of God, it says you won't be tempted beyond what you can bear. He wasn't tempted beyond what he can bear. He was hungry. It was hard.

He wasn't tempted beyond what he can bear. It says in the Word of God, if you exist the enemy and he will flee from you, soon as he said, be gone from me, Satan, where was Satan? He was gone. And the angels came to minister him. God was keeping his promises in that moment, even though it looked like a wilderness. Psalms 234 says this. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. I want us to notice something. The promise in that is not that you won't walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The promise in that is that God will be with you and that his rod and his staff will comfort you. And so, friends, if you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, if you're walking in the wilderness, if you're having sleepless nights, if you're lonely, if you're

afraid, that doesn't mean that God is not still keeping his promises, that God is not still good just because the situation is bad. God's there. He's with you. He's to strengthen that moment. He's your power in that moment. He's so, so good. And so the last person you want to get mad at in this moment is God. God's your friend in that moment. The next reason why I think that sometimes we, you know, forget that God is a promise keeper, is because number one, we don't know the promises of God. And number two, we have an enemy who does know the promises of God and manipulates the promises of God. You see, that's actually really important that you know that. That you know that the enemy knows the word. Isn't that interesting to think about? Like, you don't really think about that.

When you think about the devil, you think about like a slithery, sneaky little snake, and you Think about like, you know, horns and red and scary and evil. And yes, he is all those terrible things, but he also knows the word of God. Like here, as Jesus was being tempted, the first time that scripture was quoted was in red letters. That means Jesus said it. But the second time that scripture was quoted, it says the devil said it. The devil was throwing back scripture at Jesus, but manipulating scripture.

And if Jesus didn't know the word, it could have been really easy to be like, oh, well, yeah, that's true. That is the word, right? He's manipulating the word. You know the best football players? You know what they do? They study film. The best lawyers, they study the other person's case.

Because if they can know what you're going to do and your next move, man, they can take you out by doing that. So if the football, if the quarterback does this, oh, that person knows who's been watching film. I know where he's going. I'm going to go take him out. So the best thing that the enemy could possibly do is to know your playbook and to confuse you with it. And to take you out with it. You can be thinking, man, I'm living, I live in my best life. Like I said, you can be misusing scripture, misquoting scripture, doing all this stuff in the name of Jesus.

But yet, the enemy has just manipulated you, friend. And we shouldn't be that surprise that we have such a crafty enemy, because we've known that since the very beginning of Genesis. I'm going to read you all Genesis 3, and we're introduced to this crafty enemy. It says this, Genesis 3. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beasts. of the field that the Lord had made. And he said to the woman, did God actually say? So here we have it from the beginning, questioning, did God really say that? Can God really do that? Is this really what God said? You should not eat of any tree in the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the

fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden. Neither so you touch it least you would die. I think this is actually really cool that we have this in there, what Eve said back to Satan at the very beginning, because right here we see that Eve actually knew what God said. Like she actually knew what God said. So our first point, we got to know what God said. She did that. She knew what God said. She said it back to him. But then the enemy is so convincing and he said, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Well, that's true. You're not going to be like God. But that's the same lie that the enemy's telling us today

trying to convince you, you can be like God. And what a great thing if he could convince you of that because then you're so much less powerful if you think you can be God. If he can get you to get God out of the picture who actually is your strength and your weakness, who actually is, you know, the power behind everything that you could possibly do, who is the creator and the king. If he can get him out of the picture and just you there and make you think, you know, think that you're powerful enough to be God? Well, man, that's the best strategy he can have, not to mention he's always wanted to be like God. So of course that's going to be his angle. He says this, and then verse 6, everything changes. So when the woman saw that the tree was good

for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave it to her husband who ate. Then the eyes of both them were open and they knew that they were naked and sewed fig leaves together and made themselves flowing claws. So right here is where sin into the world. It's where shame enters, all this stuff. It's so interesting to me is, like I said, a few verses before, she knew it was bad. She knew it was good and evil. She knew this is not something I need to do. This is not something I need to eat. The Lord said, no. And then just a couple scriptures later, all of a sudden, all she saw was good. It was good. It was desirable. It was pleasing to the eye. It was only good. All of a sudden, you don't even hear.

about the evil anymore. You don't even see the other side of it. And that's what the world does too. It's never going to show you the evil side. It's only going to show you the good side. See, when the enemy is trying to convince you of something to step into something, he's never going to show you the bad side. He's only going to show you the good. It's like this. You're going to start noticing this everywhere now. You're going to be watching a movie one day, and it's going to be this cute love story, but this couple is having an affair. And you're like, oh my gosh, you're so cute. I hope they make it all this stuff. And at the end, it's like, like all happily ever after.

And you're like, what a great movie. That wasn't a good movie. They just didn't show you the bad side. They didn't show you the kids. They didn't show you the heartache. They didn't show you any of that. No, it's only good, right? You're going to be watching an alcohol commercial

and it looks so fun. It looks great. Everybody's having a good time and drinking and everybody's drunk. Nobody's showing you the next morning. No alcohol commercials going to show you the next morning. They're never going to show you alcoholism 10 years later. never going to show you that. Maybe it's fame.

You want fame so bad. You desire fame. You're like, if I could just have that, then everything would be good. Then I know I'm loved. Are you kidding me? They're not going to show you the other side. No one's going to show you the hate. No one's going to show you the isolation.

No one's going to show you any of the negative side of it. The world isn't going to show you that. The enemy's not going to show you that. And so what the enemy does to us is what we knew two seconds later was bad and not good. And God said no. All of a sudden, after a conversation with him, me, it's great, it looks good, what could go wrong? Did God really say, is this that bad? Is it really that bad? Yes, friend. It's outside of the will of God. Yes. It's not for your good. It's not for

your good. And God does want things for your good. God has good, good plans for sure. Very good plans. But the enemy is going to twist it and make you think that if you go outside of his plan, they're better. There are things that are better. And it only took Eve two conversations, two back and force with the enemy for her to completely forget what God said. That's why it's so important you know the word. And that's why it's also important you know that the enemy knows the word. Because it is so easy for that word to get manipulated. The last thing, the reason why I feel like sometimes we question God as a promise keeper is actually not so much that we really question that God is, keeping his promises, it's more of the fact that we just begin to take empty promises instead.

It's not that we really don't think that God could probably, you know, hold up his end of the deal. It's just the offer that the enemy gives us looks a lot better. You see, because the enemy is going to give you something to satisfy that very moment. And a lot of God's promises are eternal. In Hebrews 11, there was this verse that used to drive me crazy. It was like Hebrews 11 is like the heroes of faith, right? It's like, this person did this and this person did this. and it's just amazing.

And you're like, man, I want, I want this to be my story. And there's a verse in there that says, and all these people did not receive all that God had promised them. And you look at that and you're like, what? Like these people, the heroes for real God? And that makes you want to be like, well, this should just close the case. He's not a promise keeper. But then it says, but God was not ashamed to be their God.

For he had something better prepared for them later to come. So what it's saying is, yeah, but God's not ashamed to be their God just because they didn't get, you know, the promises on earth. Because he has literally eternal promises to come, heaven, our home, where all things are good, where all sorrows are gone. And so, like, he's not ashamed. It might not be now. The promises might not be now, but they will be later in here in Matthew 4. what was happening was the enemy was promising Jesus an empty promise, but it was actually a pretty good one. You see, what my dad said to me whenever we were reading this text, I got me really thinking

you wanted to do a message around it is my dad said, Siddy, have you ever thought about what if Jesus would have taken the temptation from the enemy? What if he would have taken it? And to be honest, I never considered that. Because when you're reading the Bible, you already know that Jesus is God. You already know that he's perfect. You already know that he doesn't sin. You already know that he's flawless and all of these things. But you also have to remember that he is human. Like just a few verses before, it says he was hungry. Like he's hungry. He's human. He is totally human. And here he is being tempted by the devil himself. Back to back with the word. I mean, it's like the garden all over again. Here's the enemy and he's tempting enemies.

he's manipulating the word and if God is your God, then do this and if you're really God, do that. Don't we do that too? If you're God, show me this. If you're God, where do we get that language? The enemy. If you're really God, do that. If you're really God, that's a hard thing to go up against. And then he promises something that was actually so enticing because you know what he promised him? He took him up on the temple. He took him up on the high things and he says, all of these kingdoms, all of this, I will give you if right here, right now you bow. And, you know, if you're reading it from the context of he's God, you're like, well, why does he need that? But if you're reading it from the context that he's human and that God sent him to come build kingdom on earth

and here's a kingdom, the kingdoms of the earth, and the enemy's saying, I will give you everything you came for, but without the sacrifice. Then all of a sudden, this is really tempting. You can have everything that you came for, but you don't have to die. You don't have to have the sacrifice. You don't have to have the sacrifice of the cross. And you see, that's what the enemy does to us. It's an easy way out. If you have this, you don't have to have the hard night. You know, if you have this and you don't have to have the hard things, like, you don't have to have the sacrifice of it. But friends, don't we know that everything has a sacrifice? I talk about this in the book. Talk about who are you following? You know, sometimes it looks like it's hard to follow Jesus. Easier to follow the world, right?

So hard to follow Jesus because you have to pick up your cross, right? It is hard to follow. follow Jesus, but it's not easy to follow the world. Why are we the most anxious generation if it was easy? Why are we the most lonely? Why are we leading in suicides? Why are we doing all of this? Because it's hard. So both require sacrifice. Both require you to bow. Are you bowing to the enemy? Are you bowing to God? And what Jesus did that day that Eve could not do is he remained secure in who he knew God was, what he knew he was called to do, what he knew the word was and knew, yeah, this is going to be hard, but it is way harder to live a life outside of the will of God. It is way harder to walk life alone. And so if he would have taken the temptation, what would have happened? Well, we would have ended up right where we started with Adam and Eve,

taking the temptation, eating the apple, falling. And then all the years trying to get back to God, trying to get back to God, trying to get back to God. And then here we have a Savior who came to us and he didn't fall into temptation. He's the redeemer. And that's why we get to sit here today and we get to rejoice, right? It's amazing. But we have to also realize, like, what he was promising him, yes, it was enticing, yes, it was this, was all that, but it was empty because the enemy did not actually have authority to give Jesus what he was telling them and he could give. You see, he would say, I'll give you all this. That's not his to give. Like, that's God. You see, what the world's going to do and what the enemy's going to do, when you look at all the sins of the world, when you look at

sex outside of marriage, right? When you look at alcoholism, drunkenness, when you look at any sin, just name it. I mean, I could name all of them. Think of whatever yours is. If you name it, it all is kind of promising you something, right? It's promising you joy or satisfaction or happiness or whatever it is, but it's empty because it doesn't have that to give. So if the world or if the enemy is ever offering you something that looks like love and joy and peace and all of these things or the fruit of who God is, just know it literally can't give it to you because it doesn't have it to give. Because that is who God is. God is love. God is joy. God is peace. So if that's what you're looking for, go no further than right here. If that's what you're looking for, says this in Psalms

13515. The idols of the nation are silver and gold, the world of human hands. They have mouth, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouth. Those who make them become like them. And so do all who trust in them. That verse just, I read it one day,

and I was like, wow, like, just empty. The idols of the world, the things of the world, it's just empty, but yet we have a God who is full of promises. I want to read draw these two verses, because it just paints the picture really, really clearly. Like I said, who are you going to bow to? And you're going to bow to the enemy, trusting that he'll give you what you want. And you say, I've never bowed to the enemy, but who have you obeyed? You know, if you obeyed the voice of the enemy, have you obeyed the voice of God?

Romans 6.16 says this, do you not know that if you present yourself to anyone as obedient slaves, you're a slave's the one who you obey? Either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness. Then Romans 623, a few verses down, it says, for the wages of sin is death. But listen to this, friend. gosh, this is such a good promise, but the free gift of Christ is life, which leads to eternal life. That's the promise right there. So I went out and wrote some of the promises of God. Just a few. Just to name a few. There are hundreds. But let me just name a few so that you know who we're talking about and what he has promise. Because yeah, it's so easy when you're not in the word and

when you're not talking to God, just be like, you're not keeping your promises. What do you do? around, all this stuff. When you read the word and you actually know the promises and you're reminded, man, it is so great to anchor yourself in the truth. So let's anchor ourselves. These are just 20. Says this. Psalms 4814 says that he will guide us. Genesis 2815, he is with us. Isaiah 4113, he will help us. I'm just going to read him straight through. He will advise us. He will make our path straight. He will satisfy your needs. He will have compassion on you. He will love you. He will be faithful to you. He will never leave you or forsake you. He says, if you stumble, you will not fall. You've been saved by grace. You're forgiven. You're redeemed. You're cleansed from all wickedness.

You have been given a new birth. You've been given life with the Holy Spirit. He was beaten so that you can be whole, whip so that you can be healed. He said, if you ask for wisdom, he'll give it. He says, if the sun sets you free, you are free indeed. Like, you're just 20. That's just 20 of the promises that he's given us. But you know what I noticed when I was reading that? That the promises of God are not so much what God can give you. What they are, is who he is. You see, the promises of God are not, I'll give you this.

I will be with you. I will help you. I will satisfy you. I am going to guide you. The promise is him. The promise is that he sent his son who died to death for you so that you could be free indeed, so that you don't even have to fear death because where's death seeing?

So that you have an eternal promise. The promise is him. And so our disappointment in life is not coming from God, not keeping his promises. Our disappointment in his life is coming from God in and of himself not being enough to satisfy your needs. It's just like the Israelites when they were, you know, going out and they're like, God, you know, we need this and we need that.

And God's providing, you know, a fire by night. he's running a cloud and he's providing man and all this stuff and it was never enough for them because he wasn't enough for them don't be like them friends he's got to become enough the fact that he sent his son to die on the cross it's almost like we hear that so much that we become numb to how amazing that is that's enough if he never does a single thing for me in this life he's done enough like what he's done is enough not to mention who he is he's done enough but who he is he's the lion and the lamb he is the first and the last the beginning of the alpha and the omega he is a god he is a king he is a redeemer but he is also a father and a friend is that not enough that's enough that is enough

that is enough. And so today, whatever disappointment you came in here with, I just pray that that you would be radically moved by what he's done and by who he is. Is he a promise keeper? Yes. Is he keeping his word? Yes. But you got to know it. So three things I'm going to leave you with. Number one, you got to know the word. I'm changing my notes. You just got to know the word. Number one is you've got to know the word. You got to soak on it.

You got to meditate on it. You got to know it. Psalms 1, 2, and 3 talks about how you'll be like a tree planted by a stream of living water. Everybody wants to be a tree planted by a stream of living water. But before that, it says for those who meditate on the law, if we want to be like a tree planted by a stream of living water who's bearing fruit in every season, you got to meditate on the word. You got to know the word.

number two you need to know that god's promises are greater than your expectations so whatever you're expecting god to do whatever you think he should do whatever he might do can do would do he can do it all but what he's done is enough he's done is enough i really can't remember number three i really can't but i think it's enough i think it's enough i think if y'all go out and you know the word of god and you know that that is greater than anything you could ever expect in life. And you know that you have an enemy who knows it too, so you've got to combat that by knowing it. You're going to live a completely different life than whatever you're living right now. Pester Kredd's going to come up and do an invitation.

But friends, I love you. I'm for you. I'm so thankful that we have a God that we can all say, is true to His Word in a world that changes their opinion every day. We have a God who's remained the same. The truth has remained the same. from the beginning to the end. And that is a great thing to be able to anchor ourselves to

in a world that's constantly changing. Thankful for that. I'm thankful for you guys. Come on, church. Let's tell Sadie, thank you. And in an attitude of prayer, I wonder how many of you are in more of a difficult spot right now and you really need the faithfulness of the promises of God.

But you lift up your hands right now. Just in a moment of honest, let me give you a moment more. You really need the presence of God right now. I'll lift up your hands. You can type in the chat. I need the presence and the faithfulness of God. Just type in the chat.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that it's always true. Thank you for bringing Sadie to remind us of your goodness and your faithfulness. So we cling to you. God, we thank you that even when we are faithless, God, you are always faithful. So we hold on to your promises. And ultimately, God, you are the promise we hold on to you.

Work in the lives of those who need you. As you keep praying today, what is the ultimate promise of God? We read in scripture, said he read to us that the wages of sin is death, that we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of God's standard. That's bad news. We've all messed up. We all know that. We feel the sense of our guilt and our shame as we let people down.

We've let ourselves down and we sinned against a holy God. but the good news is that the gift of eternal life is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The most powerful promise of God, perhaps, is it anyone, and this includes you, it doesn't matter what you've done, anyone, you've been settling for the lies of the enemy. You've believed the false promises, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord, the name of Jesus, you would be saved, your sins forgiven. Today, those of you who you recognize, you've believed a lie, you've settled for less. You've been empty, you've been hurting, you've been broken because of your sin.

When you call in the name of Jesus, he sets you free. The son sets free is free indeed, wherever you're watching from. Those of you need his forgiveness, you need his grace. Today, step away from your sin. Call on Jesus when you do. He hears your prayer. He forgives your sin. He makes you brand new wherever you're watching from.

Those who say, yes. Today I choose Jesus. I surrender to Jesus. By faith, I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high now. All over the place. lift them up. Come on somebody.

We have people today in all of our churches. Those of you online, you're saying yes. Just type it in the comment section. I choose to follow Jesus. I choose to follow Jesus. Would you just pray wherever you're watching from? Pray Heavenly Father, I surrender to Jesus as the Lord of my life. Save me.

Forgive me. Change me. Fill me with your spirit so I can, walk with you. Thank you for new life. Thank you for your faithfulness. I give you all of my life. In Jesus name, I pray. All God's people said, amen. Amen. Would you celebrate today?