Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Don’t Stop, Part 2: It Will Happen

Episode Date: March 28, 2015

The finish line. The goal. What are you working toward? Obstacles and trials will come and go, but one thing can always remain constant on your journey. Keep your eyes on the prize because good things happen when you Don’t Stop. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everybody, welcome today to all of our life church locations. Those of you and our network family, we love you as well. And all over the world on the other side of computer screens at church online, you're a big, big part of our family. I want to remind you, next weekend is Easter weekend. And quite honestly, more people are willing to go to church on Easter than probably any other weekend of the year. And I want to remind you, this is the perfect weekend to invite people

that aren't following God and are not normally connected to 11th. local church. Next weekend, we are starting a brand new four-part message series called I deserve it. We're going to look at four different stories in the Gospels and see when people actually deserve something bad, but because of the grace of Jesus, he gave them something they didn't deserve. We're going to see the thief on the cross deserved death, but Jesus gave him life. We're going to see the woman caught in adultery. She deserved condemnation, but Jesus gave her mercy. We're going to see Peter. He deserved to be counted out, but Jesus gave him. him a second chance. And we're going to see Zakias who deserved rejection, but Jesus gave him

acceptance. It starts next week. It's called I deserve it. Today, I want to invite back for the second week, our amazing guest speaker. Every now and then, God raises up someone with an incredibly special gift, and Pastor Stephen, I believe, is one of the most special and gifted leaders in our generation. He's a pastor of Elevation Church. It's a nine-year-old church touching over 20,000 people every single week, and you will see why, because he's one of the greatest and most gifted communicators around. More than that, he truly loves God. He's a great dad, an amazing husband.

He's one of my best friends. Would you welcome back for week number two, Pastor Stephen Ferdick? Thank you. Can we take a moment and thank God for all that he's doing at Life Church at every location? Can you put your hands together? Did you know sometimes you can be on the front row? of something incredible and miss the perspective on how big it is. You really can.

And this is going to take a minute, but I'm going to shout out every life church location just to let you see that your church is a whole lot bigger than the little room that you come to church in every week, reaching the world, touching the nation. And when I say your campus name, you got to shout real quick. I'm saying like real quick because it's going to fly. And I may mispronounce a few of these. But I believe we're joined now with Oklahoma City, Edmond, Tulsa, Stillwater, South Oklahoma City, Hendersonville, Fort Worth, Wellington, northwest Oklahoma City, Albany, South Tulsa, Oswo, Oswo, Oso, Osowo, Aso, Aso, Aso, Aso, Aso, Auxom-WO, Campus, Awesome, UConn Midwest City, Broken Arrow, Broken Arrow, Broken Arrow, Jinks Moore, Keller, Broadway and Britain, Wichita, Rio Rancho, South Broken Arrow, the hundreds of network churches around the world, the hundreds of thousands watching through church online.

This is amazing! This is a move-up-up. This is incredible. Can you believe this is your church? Look what God is doing. And don't you ever take it for granted? Don't you ever? Or I'll come back.

That's a threat. I'll come back and say mean things to you if you take it for granted. You know that what you consistently take for granted in your life is eventually taken away. And you go to a great church and hear great teaching and be a part of a great community that's serving a great mission, but fail to appreciate it. And eventually it'll lose its power in your life. You get out of something what you put into it on so many levels, you know? And for all those weeks that you come saying, I'm going to get something out of this. I want to get anything out of it.

I wonder if I'm going to get anything out of it. You're missing the point because what you sow is what you're going to reap. So this is good ground. This is good ground. That means you ought to be giving big, serving big, praying big, because nothing that you'll ever put in the soil of this amazing ministry will be wasted. On any given weekend, maybe a thousand people receive Christ at this church on a normal weekend. Not to mention Easter weekend. We're thousands and thousands and thousands.

And can I make an announcement? You don't deserve it. Being a part of something like this is way better than any of us could ever deserve. And so we don't want to take God's grace for granted. Every day you come in here, you ought to thank God. You get to come to a church like Life Church. And tell somebody next to you say, you ought to thank God that you're sitting next to me. Bonus blessing.

Amen. I want to preach to you for the second week of our Don't Stop series. Were you able to be here for week one, don't stop on six? How many of you decided to take another lap this week? To go at it again. To not stop short. To believe that when you can't see God working around you, he's always working within you.

All things work together for the good of those who love God who are called according to his purpose. And we said that this might be your last lap, but you'll never know if you stop. You've come too far in your marriage to walk away from it now just because it got tight in those teenage years. You've come too far and you're walked with God to go back to your old life now. And I believe that many people are going to be sharing testimonies in the weeks to come that I didn't stop. Maybe in the months to come.

Maybe it'll take years. But I was faithful and God showed himself more faithful than I could ever be. That was last week. This week I want to preach to you a message from a New Testament story. As you'll remember, we have a theme verse because I think every good series needs a goal verse, a structure, something to hang itself on. And I chose Hebrews 10, 36. And I got to find it because my piece of paper that has it on there went away.

And I don't know it by heart. And I feel unspiritual because I should have them memorize. But the writer said, you need to persevere. Tell somebody next to you, you quit too quickly. That's what he's telling those questions. He said, you give up too quick. If you don't lose 10 pounds in the first week, you quit going. You quit doing cardio if you're not an Olympic athlete within a month.

You need to keep going so that when you've done the will of God, you'll receive what he has promised. Once you've been walking with God a little while, it no longer impresses you as much those who have the faith to start something as it does those who have the fortitude to finish it. That's why I thank God that Pastor Craig Rochelle is my pastor for almost 20 years now leading the same church. For more than that, loving the same woman. admire the people who not just have the faith to start. Anybody can show up at the sale event, but those who pay the price in perseverance. That's who we want to be. That's who we want to be. Well, this week I want to preach to you about God's purpose in your life, and I chose as a title,

and this is a real simple statement, and it's a statement of faith. I want to call this message, It Will Happen. It Will Happen. And I want to unpack that statement a little bit from Acts, Chapter 20, where the great Apostle Paul, one of the Bible heroes that we often read as writings, but sometimes I don't think we understand what was behind the principles that he shared, what he suffered to be able to share what he shared, to be able to pin so much of the New Testament, to be able to write to us about the depths of the riches of Christ. He had to experience some personal depths of pain and disappointment.

If you ever see somebody who has great spiritual strength, you can bet that it was born out of some sorrow. We're going to pick up with Paul at the end of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 27. And Paul's in trouble, y'all. Paul's in transition and he's in trouble. Which, by the way, if you're in either of those states today, if you're in transition or if you're in trouble, I wanted to let you know it's a good place to be because it's a place where God does his deepest transformation. when we're in transition and when we're in trouble. And Paul is in both.

In fact, he's on board a ship. He's headed to Rome. And it'd be one thing if he was headed to Rome on Royal Caribbean or Princess Cruise Line because he always wanted to taste the wine in Rome. But he's not in Rome as a visitor. He's going to roam on a ship as a prisoner with 275 other passengers, bound, hand in foot, probably some pretty barbaric conditions. and as if it's not enough for Paul to be headed to Rome as a prisoner, along the way he encounters an unexpected difficulty that wasn't his fault.

That's what we're going to read about today as we talk about it will happen. Having a spirit of faith that God's purpose will be fulfilled, it will happen. And I want to pick up in verse 9. You guys love the Bible? Like a whole lot? Me too. Acts 27, verse 9. I love the Bible because it doesn't pull any punches. It lets us see the interior world of the people whose example we're to follow. And it's talking about how Paul's on this ship. And Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, is giving an account of what happened.

And he says, much time had been lost and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the day of atonement. And so conditions weren't ideal. They rarely are in our lives. And so Paul, warned the people on the ship, he said, men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo and to our own lives also. Listen to verse 11. But the centurion, the guy that was in charge, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. Now, I wrote, Out beside that verse in my Bible, I wrote, obviously. Right.

Because if you are in charge of getting the prisoners safely transporting them to where they're supposed to go, and you've got the owner of the ship and the pilot of the ship saying we can keep going, and then there's a preacher on board. I'm talking about now. I just want to let you know that I've been praying about this. And the Lord told me, people will put some funny stuff behind the phrase, the Lord told me, by the way. It's like the Christian Trump card.

It means I can say whatever I want to say next, and you're not allowed to say anything back in response, because the Lord told me. And so he says, the Lord told me we shouldn't go. And so it says that the guy that had to make the decision, he's like, okay, I can listen to the pilot of the ship who has gone to nautical school, and he has maps and his understanding of how ships are,

or I can listen to the preacher on board who's been arrested. Preacher prisoner. Pilot owner. I think I'll go with the owner. And yet because he made that decision to not listen to Paul on board, Paul was no ordinary preacher, y'all. Paul was on the boat because he was fulfilling God's purpose. And so what Paul represents on this boat is more than just a preacher. He actually represents on this boat the purpose of God. And so God is speaking through Paul to warn these men, but they're not listening.

And I'll tell you what, this is a metaphor. for how in our own lives so often we listen to all the other voices on the boat come on somebody we listen to all the other indicators we listen to everybody else's ideas we listen to everybody else's opinions we listen to everybody else's assessment of the situation before we listen to gods so you got to make this decision and I'd like you to write this down will I steer by my senses or will I steer by the Spirit? See, every ship is being steered by something. The ship represents your life.

The ship represents the direction you're headed. The ship represents all the things that God has given you. And your life, which you've been entrusted with, by the way, your life is heading in a direction according to what it's being steered by. Follow me, follow me, I know it's a simple analogy. But it occurs to me that a lot of us are like this centurion. Instead of listening to what the voice of God says, because a lot of times that doesn't make sense, we're listening to what our senses say because that's something we can understand.

But can I tell you there's a lot of stuff that God told people to do in the Bible that didn't make a lot of sense? And if you live your life by what makes sense, you'll never become a person of strong faith. If it always has to make sense for you to obey God, you'll never know what makes sense. what it means to sail out into deep waters and trust him. It didn't make sense, y'all. It didn't make a bit of sense for Joshua to walk around the walls of Jericho seven times. It didn't make a bit of sense for Moses to put his staff in the Red Sea and expect that the water was going to part. It didn't make a bit of sense for Daniel to spend the night in the lion's den talking about God's able to keep me and protect me with these lines. It didn't make a bit of sense, not a lick

of sense for Jesus to hang his body on the cross and yes, say, Father, forget. them for they know not what they do. It didn't make a bit of sense for when the stone was rolled away for him to get up and appear to all of the 120. It didn't make a bit of sense. It didn't make any sense for them to go out preaching in his name. It didn't make a bit of sense when they persecuted the apostles for them to say we must obey God rather than men. Are you living your life by what makes sense? You'll never have faith. And if you stop every time it doesn't make sense. sense, oh, it's going to cost me a little bit. People are going to think I'm weird.

People aren't going to want to be around me. People are going to call me one of those kind of Christians. If you're always trying to make sense, you'll never walk in faith. But see, we walk by faith, not by sight. I want you to think about those key areas of your life. Are you living according to your senses, what you can calculate? Are you living according to a sense of confidence in God's promise? That he does the math.

You know what I like to say? outcome is God's responsibility, obedience is yours. You don't have to understand to obey. You don't have to know where it's going to end up to take the next step. And in this passage, we see some men who keep sailing when they should have stopped. Now, this is going to be a disaster. Because any time that you ignore God's warnings, the winds will be against you. You need to hear this because we're going to be.

We're in a series called Don't Stop, but this is one situation where the sailors should have stopped. Because they went along and they caught a wind. And for a little while it probably looked like everything was going to be okay. But look, in verse 13, it says when a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity. So they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long. Doesn't say how long. But ignoring God's warnings and sailing into the wind and being.

Before very long, before long, unspecified period of time. But eventually a wind of hurricane force, what was at first just a soft wind, became a hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island, and the ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind, so we gave way to it and were driven along. Now, I pictured this in my mind and I thought, you know they had the wind at their backs, and sometimes when you ignore God's warnings, it feels like you're making progress, but even the progress that you think you're making is ultimately leading you to disaster? For what is it for a man to gain the whole world if he loses his soul?

What is it for you to make more money if you have to cut corners to do it and you're not even going to like yourself when you see yourself in the mirror? What good is it for you to amass material stuff and not be involved in the things that matter most to God? So you're going with the wind, but the wind is against you when you ignore the warnings of God. And there, I love this phrase. it describes so many of us. Driven along. Driven along. Just going with the flow.

They've completely lost control. And he says, verse 16, as we passed to the lee of a small island called Cada, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted it aboard. And then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Cerdis. They lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be.

There's the phrase again. Let's say that loud, driven along. I wonder how many people are being driven along today because you ignored the warnings of God. You know, it's interesting? I could stop right here and mention some of those warnings you've ignored, but I don't have to because that's what the Spirit of God does. He doesn't threaten you. No, he doesn't condemn you, but he calls to you with a gentle wind of whisper.

You need to pay more attention here. You need to put your heart back into this. You need to get back over there and do it like you used to do it. You've lost your passion. You've lost your intensity. You've lost your focus. You've lost your first love. And now I'm driven along.

And now I've lost my hold. I've lost my anchor. He says, verse 18, we took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. It's getting bad now. It's getting bad. And I know this is supposed to be an encouraging message, and I'm going to get there. But before I can get to the encouraging part, I need to describe with some accuracy what some people's lives look like right now. You're just throwing stuff off and trying this and trying that, caught up in a storm, all up in the midst of trouble, all up in the midst of trials, all up in the midst of situations that many of them you yourself created.

It says on the third day, they threw the ships tackle overboard with their own hands. and when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging. Isn't that a terrible thing when the storm keeps raging? Come on somebody. Have you ever been in a storm that kept raging? He said, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. And that's a very profound statement of not only distress. Distress is one thing.

That's when you're throwing the cargo overboard. That's when you're still trying to do something to save your life. That's when you're still trying to make a way. That's when you're still trying to survive. But he said, eventually, we went from distress to despair. That it's never going to be any different. I believe some of you have made that conclusion about your lives. Like, this is just how it is.

I'm always going to be depressed. This is just how it is. I'm always going to be overweight. I'm always going to have these health problems. This is just how it is. I'm always going to be lonely. This is just how it is. I'm always going to be addicted to this.

This is always going to get the best of me. This is just how it is. I'm always going to be bitter. This is just how it is. I'm always going to have a negative view of things. This is just how it is. Driven along. Gave up hope. He said, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, he said, it got so dark out there. He said, as long as we could see something to guide by, we kept going, even though we were taking a beating, but we kept going. But eventually, we lost what we had been guided by. And when we lost our guiding light, we gave up. our hope. Now I'm just drifting. I'm just drifting. I wonder who God sent me here for today. That's drifting. I can picture you in my mind, man. You're just, you're drifting. You feel like that man is talking to me. And see, here's what I love about God. Because it says in verse 21, this is the message

God sent me to give you, by the way. It said, after they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them. And I want to stand up like Paul today and preach a word to all of you who have been driven along. You've lost some time, you've lost some cargo, you might have lost some money, you might have lost some moments, you might have lost some people, you might have lost some peace,

you might have lost some brain cells, I don't know what you lost, you might have lost some things, but here's what the word of the Lord is, and lean into this, lean into this. Paul stood up before him and said, men, you should have taken my advice. I love that, and some of you were thinking, and I'm so confused.

I didn't know the Apostle Paul was a woman. Yeah, totally kidding. Kind of. I think that's Holly's life verse. Men, you should have taken my advice. You should have listened to me. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, God's saying, if you'd have done this my way the first time around,

it'd been a lot better. There's consequences. You should have listened to God the first time. But this is where it gets good. He said, you would have spared yourself this damage and lost. Look at verse 22. But now. They're feeling it in Owasso.

Is that how you say it? Did I say it right? I didn't get it right. They're feeling this. They're feeling it in Wellington. They're feeling it in Albany. Somebody say but now. Shout it out, say but now.

I can't do anything about what happened back there. I can't do anything about the decisions I made when I was 16. I can't even do anything about the decisions I made last week. But now. There's some things I would change if I could change them. If I could get a do over, I'd do it over, but I can't. But now. Everybody say, but now.

I love it. You know who Paul sounds like here? He sounds like Mary and Martha when Lazarus was dead. And Mary and Martha came out to meet Jesus at the road, and they said, Lord, if you would have been here, our brother wouldn't have died. But even now, even now, but now. We serve a right now, God. We serve a now faith is the substance of faith.

things hope for and the evidence of things not seen. I can't see the stars, I can't see the end, I can't see the dry ground, but now. Paul said, I forget what's behind me and I reached toward what's ahead. Now, now, but now. I could preach a whole series on but now. High five somebody say, but now. But now, but now. Come on, we're not putting this off anymore. We're going to defer our obedience anymore. We're not going to drift along one more day, but now, right now. The right time to do the right thing is right now, but now, I urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you, I know it was your mistake, but not one of you will be lost. Isn't that merciful? I always hear preachers say things like, well, if God gets

you in a situation, he'll get you out. Amen. But what if he didn't get me in the situation? What if I got my own stupid self in the situation? He said, I'll still come looking for you. I'll still come get you out. I'll still come snatch you. I'll still save you. I'll still give you another chance.

I'll still call your name. I'll still love you. I'll still accept you. I'll still use you. He said, not one of you will be lost. But about this boat is not looking so good for the boat. He said only the ship will be destroyed. Let me ask you a question.

Is this good news or bad news? I guess it depends on what your priority is in the situation. See, if what you care about the most is the boat, when the boat goes down, your hope goes with it. But Paul said, keep up your courage, men, because not one of you will be lost. The ship, we could talk about that later. But as for you, see, sometimes our hope is too much in how we want God to do something. Follow me, follow me.

Sometimes our hope is in our plan for how we want to get where we think God wants to take us. And see, if your hope is in your plan, when your plan is interrupted, your faith fails. Because I thought I'd be further along by now, and I thought they would never leave me. and I thought they were going to be there with me for life, and I thought I was going to get into this university, and I thought I was going to marry him, and I thought that they were going to... Are you so focused on how you thought that it was going to happen,

that you're missing the way God wants to bring it about? Because that's what Paul is trying to get these men to see. He said, we're not going to get there in the boat, which I would prefer, by the way. I like the boat. I'm a fan of the boat. I'm totally into the boat. But there's no hope left for the boat.

In other words, some things are never going to be like they were again. You're not going to be able to rewind and do that part over. But he said last night, an angel of the God, verse 23, to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me. I'm so glad for that phrase that it says he stood beside me. I love it because the Bible teaches that God goes before us, he goes behind us, but he's also beside us. I'm so glad he's an omnidirectional God.

He's a 360 God. He's gone into my future and he's prepared it. He's gone into my past, he's redeemed it. And he's right here beside me in this moment to comfort me and give me courage. Come on, you got to keep your courage up. Touch somebody, say, keep your courage up. Touch them at every location and say, keep your courage up. Keep your courage up.

The boat might be going down, but keep your courage up. Your bank account might be going down, but keep your courage up. Your grades might have gone down last semester, but if you keep your courage up, you can get your grades back up. See, sometimes the only thing that's in your control is your courage. Your conditions are not always in your control. You don't always get to decide what kind of skies you face. You don't always get to decide what kind of sees you sail on.

You don't always get to decide the weather forecast. There are some things that are outside of your control, but your courage is in your control. It depends on what you're focused on. And some of you have lost your courage and you've lost your confidence and you've lost your hope and you've lost your joy. You want to know why? Because all your hope was in the boat. Your hope was in your circumstance.

So God said, sometimes I've got to break your boat apart so I can teach you how to let your hope float to the surface. without it. I thought about calling this message. Hope floats. Nobody remembers that movie. He said, do not be afraid. Look at this. Verse 24. Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar. And God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. So keep up your courage, Life Church. Keep up your courage, my sister. Keep up your courage, single mom. Keep up your courage, even though you didn't know you'd be divorced. Keep up your courage, even though your industry is starting to shrink a little more than you projected. Keep up your courage, even though the retirement account.

Keep up your courage, even if everything else goes down. Keep up your courage. He says it twice for emphasis. Keep up your courage. For I have faith in God that it will happen. Just as he told me. not just like I thought not just like I wished

not just like I thought when I was a little girl but it'll happen God's purpose in my life will be fulfilled he hasn't left me he's still standing beside me he still got me we were never alive because of the boat to begin with one time Jesus wanted to show the disciples that

so he just went walking on the water Wanted to show him, hey, I borrow your boat when I want to, but I don't need your boat because I created this stuff that you think you... He's not subject to what he created, y'all. He can get up on top of any circumstance and do anything. He doesn't need a boat to save you. Tell somebody next to you, it will happen. It will, it will, it will, it will, it will. He's going to do it.

Nevertheless, verse 26, we must run aground on some island. And you know it's amazing. You know it's amazing. It says in verse 41 that eventually the ship struck a sandbar and ran a ground. And when it wouldn't move, the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. Hey, thanks for saving our lives, Paul. We're going to kill you.

But the Centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and he kept them from carrying out their plan. and he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first to get to land. And the rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way, everyone reach land safely. Are you worshipping the way you want God to do it? Or are you worshipping the God who said he would? And trusting him to do it any way he sees fit. He said he'd provide for you, but he didn't always say how he would provide.

He said that he would be there for you, but he didn't always promise that you would feel it. He promised to meet every need, but he didn't say give you everything you wanted. And I came to tell you that it will happen. It might take a little longer than you wanted it too. And it might look a little different than you thought it. But if God's spoken, see, one thing I hold on to, whatever's happened in my ministry, whatever's happening in my life, whatever's happening in my spirit, whatever's happening to my friends. I hold on to one thing.

This is one thing that I wanted to tell you before I go. That the scripture says, he who began a good work in you, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying God finishes what he starts. And some of you just need to remember today that God's the one who started it. Paul said, God's the one who started this. God's the one who let me get on this ship.

God's the one who let me end up in chains. I always wanted to go to Rome. I didn't picture this travel accommodation. But if God put me on this ship, if I have to float in on pieces, if I have to grab onto boards, if I have to do the breaststroke, I'll do it. Last week I preached to you about just keep marching. This week, I feel the spirit of Nemo coming on me. I came to tell somebody, just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

Come on, somebody, just keep swimming. If you got a backstroke, if you got to tread water, if you got a doggy paddle, if you got to borrow some money, if you got to take a little while, if you got to take a time out, just keep going forward and it will happen. I need you to find seven people and tell them it will happen. happen. It will happen. I promise it will happen in Jesus' name. At every location, let's pray together. Heads bowed, eyes closed. There's somebody here today who's in a storm. The storm has been so severe that you've started to despair. You've given up hope of being saved. You're drifting

along in life. You don't have a compass to guide by. Maybe at once you had a strong sense of a relationship with God. But today you feel yourself drifting. You're being driven along. You've thrown all the car go off, you've done everything you know to do, but still you're drifting along. You've taken a beating, you've been pounded by the surfer days and nights now, and now emotionally you're at the place where you don't know what to do. You've used up all your connections, and now God's brought you to this place where he wanted to show you all along that he's the one who's been sustaining your life. He's been waiting for this moment so long.

He's been waiting for you to reach out to him. And if you reach out to him today, I believe you'll find that just like he lifted Peter from his sinking state and brought him upright again so that Peter could say, truly, you are the son of God. I believe today you're going to see the power of God in your life, raise you up to newness of life. The scripture teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Just like the men on the ship, we've all gone in the wrong direction.

We've all turned astray. We've all gone to our own way. But I believe there's someone here today, and God let your boat break apart in life so that you could experience a relationship with him, the one who created the waters, the one who gave you life, the one who has brought you this far. He didn't bring you here to leave you. He brought you here to rescue you to show you that he is the source and sustainer of life. Heads about eyes closed. If that's you today, and you'd like to begin a relationship with God, I want you to repeat this prayer with me. We're going to pray it out loud as a church family at every location for the benefit of those who are

giving their life to Christ for the first time. or those who are coming back to God. Sometimes God has to use storms to get our attention, but the important thing is now that you fix your eyes on Jesus, the only one who can save. Let's pray now together, church family. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Today, I give my life to Jesus. I put my hope in Jesus. I believe he died to forgive my sin. And on the third day, he rose again to give me life. I received this life. I receive your grace. I receive your purpose. I follow you all the days of my life.

Head still bowed, eyes still closed. If you prayed that prayer on the count of three, I want you to shoot your hand up in the air. Let's celebrate. One, two, three. Hands up at every location. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, church. That's a reason to celebrate.

That's a reason to give God praise. Let's go crazy. Let's welcome these people to the family of God.