Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Ghosts of Christmas Past, Part 3: Labels

Episode Date: December 18, 2016

For many, the most wonderful time of the year isn't so wonderful. A painful past or our own insecurities can overshadow the joy we're supposed to be feeling. What if this year could look different? It’s time to let God heal the Ghosts of Christmas... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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You know, in a season that's filled with great memories, for so many of us, we still find ourselves feeling defeated by our own insecurities. And today our senior pastor Craig O'Shell will help us break the binds of the labels that hold us down in the final part of the ghost of Christmas past. It's awesome to have all of you with us today at every single one of our life churches. We love partnering with our open network churches. Those of you on the other side of computer screens all over the world at church online, you are a part of our family. If you're maybe just now joining us and haven't been to church in a while, We're actually in part number three, the final week of a three-part message series called

The Ghosts of Christmas Past. And what we're doing is we're talking about perhaps some things from the past that have followed us, haunted us, and paralyzed us from living the life that God would really want us to live. And today's message, I believe, is a special message that will speak to some of you in a way that could really provide some internal healing when it comes to your identity. we're going to talk about overcoming the labels that bind, overcoming the labels that we often wrongly believe.

I want to talk to you, first of all, about the power of words. How many of you know that words can be very, very powerful? Words have the power to create. Words have the power to heal. Words have the power to shape. Words have the power to motivate. On the negative side, though, words have the power to hurt, right? words have the power to wound, words have the power to discourage, words have the power to destroy.

In fact, there's a little saying, people say, well, it's just words, it's only words. Some of you might have grown up hearing the phrase, sticks and stones may break my bones. If you know what all of our churches say, let's sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That must be the stupidest thing that anybody ever said in the history of the world, right? Right? Words may never hurt you. Words can really, really hurt and sting and often stick with us for a lot of time. And the reality is this. Proverbs 1821 tells us this, that the tongue, or our words, the tongue has the power of life and death. Words can build or words can destroy. And the truth is, when you hear something over and over and over again, it's hard not to actually believe that it's true. Words have shaping power in our lives. I was blessed to grow up with two parents that were really great at encouraging words. My dad always spoke in baseball language. You know, that was a home run kid. That was safe beneath the tag. I mean, all sorts of baseball language. My mom said over and over and

over again, and I can remember this from the time I was a little kid all the way to this day. She'd say, there's something special about you. God made you special. You can do it. You can do anything you set your mind to. God made you special. And I honestly believe, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that so much of what I'm able to do today is based on the encouraging words that she spoke to me all of my life.

I honestly think it would be more difficult, not impossible, but more difficult for me to do what I do today if I'd grown up hearing, you're pathetic, you're nothing, you're a loser, you're never going to amount to anything. I wish I never had you, because words have such a powerful shaping force in our lives. The reality is, and let's call it what it is, that there are many of us,

many of you and me in different areas of my life, that we actually struggle in the present because of labels that we've picked up in the past. We struggle in this moment because of labels that we've wrongly owned from things that happened in the past. Maybe somebody said something about you at one time, called you something, belittled you, and made you feel less than and you've internalized that label. Maybe you did something, even years and years ago, and you can't seem to get the guilt to go away, and internally you own that action and connect your identity

with something that you did. Maybe you heard something about you on the outside, and you started to internalize it on the inside. I don't know what the label might be, but certainly there are those of you, you've owned the label, lazy. You're just a lazy person, or you're just average, You're always an average student.

You're never going to amount to much at all. You're just insecure. You're hot-headed. I mean, you lose your cool all the time. You're overly sensitive. You know, you're annoying. You're pathetic, whatever it might be. You're always bad at relationships.

You're just too much. You know, whatever you are, there's just too much of it. Dial it back some. And you own that. Some of you might own the idea that, you know what, my family is just always dysfunctional. And you put that label on your family. My family is broken.

We're never going to have a happy Christmas. We're never going to have meaningful, deep, and intimate relationships. And let's be honest that sometimes when we internalize a negative label, there are times when there might be some truth to it. In other words, if someone says, you're lazy and you own that label, you might not actually be the most motivated person there ever has been. right you're a hothead the truth is you might actually lose your temper more than the average person and there might be some truth to the label that you've embraced but here's what i hope you'll

understand what's true about you now doesn't have to be true about you later let me say it again internalize it feel it believe it embrace it what's true about you now doesn't have to be true about you later god's power is bigger than your past his grace is stronger than any label that anyone would ever put on you. What's true about you now doesn't have to be true about you later. If you've embraced some hurtful, negative label that paralyzes you, holds you back, holds you down, tells you that you are less than, if you've embraced that type of label today, I want to encourage you to name it something different. Name it something different. And I want to show you a story from the Old Testament from

Genesis chapter 35, a really, really cool story, kind of a love story about a guy named Jacob who actually met Rachel when she was taking care of sheep. And he saw her and he was like, oh, okay? And he really, really liked what he saw. And evidently Rachel was very beautiful. And she had a sister named Leah. And interestingly enough, Leah was described by the Bible this way. Scripture says Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Then it talked to her sister and said her sister had weak eyes. How tough is that, man? I mean, that's just harsh. If you don't read the Bible, man, the Bible's real. She had glasses and that was it. She had weak eyes. Rachel's love inform and figure and her sister had a great personality. That's what it said. In the Hebrew,

that's what it means, you know. And this is kind of tough. And so Jacob, he's all up into Rachel and not so much the sister. And so he goes to the dad and says, you know, like, I want your daughter, Rachel. And the dad says, fair enough, work for me for seven years. And Jacob, like, done, deal, man. You know, I want so seven years he gets to work. Well, at the end of the seven years, the dad plays a little switcheroo. And instead of getting the figure, he gets the weak eyes. Okay. At the end, he's like, wait, that wasn't a deal. I thought I was getting, you know, a former girl. And the father said works seven more years. And so Jacob did, without complaining. 14 years he works to marry his dream girl. And then what do they want? They want to have a little house with a picket fence,

a couple of kids and a dog. The problem is all they had was a dog. For years, they couldn't conceive. and they were desperate and broken and Rachel was, you know, totally beside herself comparing. You know, my sister's got all these kids. Everybody's pregnant. You know, they look at each other and they get pregnant.

You know, we've tried everything and, you know, they couldn't conceive. And finally, after years of this agony, they give birth. And then she says, we really want another one. And they conceive a second time and tragically, the second pregnancy doesn't end well for Rachel.

And I want to show you how the story goes and we're going to see when you should name something, something different. Genesis chapter 35, verse 16 tells us this very, very sad story. Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And we're going to see this description two different times. And so we don't know what's going on, but this wasn't a day and age where you could have an emergency C-section. So she's in big, big trouble, the pregnancy's not going well, and her life is in imminent danger.

Verse 17 says, and she was having great difficulty. There we see it again in childbirth. And the midwife said to her, this is supposed to comfort her, don't despair, for you have another son. Don't despair for you're going to have another son. And then verse 18 is tragic. And in this one verse, we see this. As Rachel breathed her last, for she was dying, she named her son Ben O'Ne.

but his father named him Benjamin. Think about this. As she breathed her last, she held a little son and said, your name is Ben O'Ne. Rachel named her son one thing. The father called him something else. Let me say it again.

This is important. Rachel named her son one thing. The father named him something else. Names are so important. Anytime you're naming children, you should really look and see what the name means. In fact, Amy and I right now, we're pretty excited. We're expecting grandbaby number one. You can clap if you want to.

I should say we're not expecting, but my daughter, Katie, and her son, my son-in-law, Andrew, will give birth to their first son. And Amy's going to go by Gigi, just so you'll know, and I'm pops, just in case you're wondering. Not pop-all, not poppy, definitely not poppy, pops, right? And so they went through the whole, what are we going to name the kid thing, and they're going to name their first son, David Cole. David is after Andrew's real name, and then Cole is the name that Katie has dreamed about since she was like two, David Cole, which is a really like straight down the middle name. And I've got to be honest that the names that are coming out in this generation are, let me just say creative. Can I say that?

They were just crazy. You know, I got Craig and Amy. Those were kind of boring names, and you don't hear those names now, but it were really creative. So every week, I probably sign three or four cards to send to our staff members who were having babies, because evidently there's a lot of good marriages of the young families on our staff, and there's babies all the time. And I've got to be honest, like nine out of ten of them, the names are, I'm just going to say,

creative. I actually did a little research on names, and I found that some of the most unusual names are and these are more common names used multiple times in the last year. And if you look at the screen, I'm going to tell them to you. For boys, these are some of the uncommon names. Arrow, Bobo, that's going to be good. Miggy, Turgle, and Blade. How about that? Tattooed that on your arm before you join a gang, kid.

Blade, your blade. For the girls, let me tell you the weird girls' names. Fruity. Fruity. Fruity. Who's going to do that? Do you love your daughter or not? Hey, Fruity?

Fruity. This next one, I don't even think I should try to say out loud. Whenever I focus on the doctor at the beginning, it all comes out wrong. Durstie, what in the world is that? This next one is Messiah. There are no pressure there, little girl, Messiah. And then this next one I want you to look at, if you look on the screen, this L-A-Dash-A.

L-A. Now, how would you say that? I'm looking at it going, La-a, la, la. You know how you say it? You ready for this? Does anyone know how you say it? Does anyone know how you say it?

You know how you say it? La-dasha. That's right. La-dasha. La-da-sha. What were you thinking? La-a? Isn't it right there?

It's La-da-ha. I told you, everybody say it? They are. Creative names matter. Back to our text. I just had to work that out. I worked that out. I got the first grandbaby come.

I got to work it out. Got to work it out. Got to work it out. Back to our text. Verse 18 says, let's read it again. As Rachel breathed her last for she was dying. She named her son what? She named her son Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.

As she breathed her last, she named her son Benoni. What does that stand for? Ben means son. Oni means sorrow. She named her child, Son of my sorrow. Son of my sorrow, which is absolutely and completely understandable.

Why? Because what's going to happen? She's never going to get to feed her son. She's not going to see him take his first steps. She's never going to get to enjoy watching her son grow up. So in the moment she names him what is very true for her, and that is this is son of my sorrow. Imagine.

She's holding her son while she's bleeding and who knows what, dying in her last breath and says, this is son of my sorrow. Now, when you think about it, Rachel wasn't the only one grieving. Who else was grieving? Mr. I worked 14 years for this woman I love. This is my best friend and his wife is dying in childbirth and he's hurting like crazy. But when his wife who he treasured wanted to name their son, son of my son, sorrow? He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because what may be true in this moment

won't be true forever. What may be true in this moment won't be true forever. And the father took what was, and he named it something different. If you don't like the label you've been given, name it something different. Let the Father in heaven take what you're in me called you and name it something different. She says, this is son of my sorrow, and he says, no, we're going to call him something else. What's interesting is Jacob actually had some experience in renaming. In fact, if you know the story, one time he's wrestling with what was like an angel or was wrestling with God. I was actually the wrestling champion of my fraternity for three years straight until a real wrestler came in the freshman class and put me in a pretzel. Jacob's wrestling.

wrestling with God and endures the night. And at the end of the night, he says, bless me, bless me, bless me, for I survived this. Bless me, bless me, bless me. And God looks at him and says this. He says, your name was Jacob, which means deceiver. But now he says, I'm going to call you Israel, which means my God prevails. Jacob, who's now Israel, no longer called deceiver, he looks around and says, well, since we're renaming, I'm going to rename this place, Puneal, which means face of God, because I saw the face of God and lived. If you look through Scripture, we have two other incidences when Jacob sees something and calls it something else

because even though it had one name, he had the power to redefine what something was and call it something else. His wife said, this is Son of My Sorrow. He says, no, I'm going to call you Benjamin, which means son of my right hand. Son of my right hand. And if you know anything about Old Testament names or history, the right hand was the symbol of blessing.

That what the enemy meant for harm, I'm going to find good. What others would call a curse, I'm going to call him a blessing. What others would call sorrow, I'm going to call it a blessing from God. You may want to write this down, and this is so important. You don't get to choose what comes into your life, but you do get to choose what you call it. Let me say it again. You don't get to choose what comes into your life, but you do get to choose what you call it.

It may look like the son of my sorrows, but I choose to call this son of my right hand. If there is a label that you've embraced and you don't like it, name it something else. Call it something different. Remember, God's power is bigger than your past. what may be true about you now doesn't have to be true about you later call it something else i'll unpack this for you a little bit in my own life i became a a christian in college out of kind of a very wild lifestyle

some of you maybe were like that you could kind of say that i majored in partying for my first year and a half or so. And when I came out of the party lifestyle, it was like a massive change. And I felt immediately, just like day number one, I felt like I'm supposed to be a pastor. Well, I was already a business major. It never dawned on me to like change to religions. I just finished my business major. And then I was there, hey, I want to become a pastor. And nobody was hiring. And so my pastor had to bring a friend Sunday where he said, bring friends. I brought 17 people to church. When he found that out, he said, go hire the guy that brought 17 people to church. And that's I became a pastor, true story.

I went from being party guy to very, very quickly, a very young, inexperienced, terrified pastor. And I carried some labels from my past because of the stuff that I had done. And one day, it just hit me. Oh, my gosh, what if this comes back to get me? What if they find out what I've done? What if, you know, they hear the stories?

What if, what if, what if? And I remember sitting down with my pastor just full of fear because of the labels. And I said, pastor, but I used to do this and I used to do that. And this is going to be a hindrance. This is a liability. This is going to cost me. People aren't going to trust me. And my pastor looked back and said, that's one way to look at it.

The other way to look at it is that could be your greatest strength because you know the power of Christ to change you because you're able to relate with people where they've been because you understand the pain of sin. You can call it a liability. or you can say it's your greatest asset. Your enemy can take something and mean it for harm, and our good God can use it for something good. If you don't like a label you've been given,

call it something else. Name it something else. If you don't like what's been put on, you call it something else. And so here I couldn't yet internalize or embrace or really believe I was finally a pastor. I felt like a pretend pastor, a wannabe pastor, a junior pastor, kind of faking it pastor,

like I'm not really there yet. And I didn't even have a real robe. My pastor had one with stripes on it. Mine was a stripless robeless robeless wannabe pastor, you know? And I felt so insecure. And I never will forget when this lady named Mary Branda, her name is Mary Walbert now, Mary Branda, I was passing by and she said, hey, Pastor Craig. I'm like, oh, I can't have that name.

I'm not good enough. I'm unworthy. I'm not, I'm too young. I haven't graduated seminary yet. I'm not worthy to be, I can't own that label. Again, I sat down with my pastor. I said, I can't do this. And he just put his, I never will forget.

He put his feet up on the desk, crossed his arm. He said, don't worry, Craig. I promise you, you will grow into that title. You will grow into it. And it's true. Now, that's who I am. It's a part of my identity. You'll grow into it.

You'll grow into it. You'll grow into it. There's somebody here that God's going to call you something that you need to grow into. You're special. You're transformed. You're new. You're a difference maker. You're a child of God.

And you may not believe it yet, but over time, you'll grow into it. God will renew your mind. It may seem like too lofty, too good, but you'll embrace it. You'll grow into it. So I kept growing into my title, and I went through an ordination process. I was halfway through seminary. I ended up graduating about two years later, and I went before the ordination. process. I've told this story before, but this was a very shaping moment in my life.

I went before the ordaining board, and the whole group of us, everyone passed for ordination except for moi. And the ordaining board looked at me and said, we're not sure you're qualified to be a pastor. Your gifts are very, very different. Your ideas are very, very different, and so we're putting you on probation, and you are not passed to be ordained. And suddenly, that label, unqualified, not good enough, very different, started to stick with me. Guess what? I embraced it. I am unqualified. Christ and me is more than enough. Different? Different's good. Who wants to be a normal pastor when you can be different? Who wants to do a normal thing? When you can be different. And that which I am convinced my enemy wanted to use to stop me,

God used to strengthen me. Call it something else. It's not a liability as an asset. It's a title I'm going to grow into. That may be true about me now, but it's not true about me later. Somebody needs to hear this. You've been owning a label for way too long, and someone may have called to that, and it may be true in the moment, but it's not true forever. This is not son of my sorrow. This is a blessing. This is son of my right hand. I'm not going to take what it is. I believe God wants it to be something else. If you don't like what you've been called, name it something different. Someone's called you insecure and it's been something you've identified with for too long. No, no, no, I am confident in Christ. I have everything in Christ I need to do everything that he calls me to do.

Call it something else. Well, you're just lazy. No, actually, I'm not. I'm being transformed by him. I am motivated to fulfill his divine calling in my life. I wake up every day with divine purpose to use my gifts to make a difference in this world. Well, I'm just, I'm miserable. And I'm always, no, the joy of the Lord is my strength. I call it something else. I'll grow into believing it over time. I'm going to confess what God says is true about me. Don't embrace the lie.

Well, you're undependable. You're a cheater. You're a loser. You're a failure. No, you are forgiven. You are transformed. You are made new. You are healed by the grace of Jesus.

You are loved. You're an overcomer by the blood. of the Lamb, and by the words of your testimony, name it something different. You may be saying right now, well, I'm just going through a tough season. This is just a really bad season. This is just a tough season. No, actually in this season, I'm being conformed to the image of Christ. I'm being shaped as I'm learning to persevere and to have faith and to trust in Christ. And when it looks like I'm being hurt, actually, I'm being transformed from the inside. My spiritual roots are growing deeper. It may look like winter, but spring is coming. I believe it. I can feel it. God is doing

a divine work in me. You might say, I feel so alone right now. I'm totally dreading this Christmas season. I hurt. I feel so alone. Actually, I'm drawing closer to Christ. He is my strength. He is my identity. He is my comfort. I've never so much felt the presence of God. I draw near to him and he draws near to me. Oh, you might say, well, I've thought. I've thought, I've failed. I'm just a failure. And it may be true. You maybe did fail something. But guess what? Another way to look at is, hey, look at the experience I've got. Man, I've learned so much. I'm growing. I'm going to take what I've learned. I'm going to apply it in a new way. Whenever your enemy calls you something you don't like, name it something different, name it something different, name it something different, name it something different.

Because you don't get to choose what happens to you, but you do get to choose what you call it. Perspective matters. Perspective matters. And the reality is, you have an enemy who hates you. His mission is to steal, kill, and destroy. Everything that matters to the heart of God. Let me tell you what really matters to the heart of God. You matter to the heart of God. Our enemy is a liar, the Father of Lies.

And what he wants to do is tell you over and over and over again, but you're not. You're not good enough. You're pathetic. You're never going to mount anything. You can't make a difference. After what you did, if they really knew you, and on and on and on.

those are the ghosts of Christmas past, but we served the Savior of Christmas New who came into this world. Born of a virgin, born of a virgin, not inheriting the sin nature who never ever sinned, who loved us where we were, died so we could be forgiven, rose again from the dead

so that anyone who calls on him is a new creation in Christ. The old is gone, the old is gone, the labels are broken, the power no longer holds you. The old is gone and the new has come. The old is gone and the new has come. You may look at it and say, this looks like son of my sorrow, and it may be true in the moment, but what's true in the

moment doesn't have to be true in the future. I call it a blessing. You are Benjamin. You are the son of my right hand. When others call a curse, I choose to call a blessing, because that's how good my God is. He's working in all things to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. You can't choose what comes into your life, but you can choose what you call it. If you don't like the label you've been given, call it something else. Father, today I pray that by the power of your son, Jesus, you would bring healing. And God, you would break the labels that have so many of us in bondage.

All of our churches, as you take a moment and reflect and pray, I just want to ask very lovingly, and this will take a little bit of courage on your part to maybe just even admit that you are connecting some outward label with your inward identity. And today by faith, you want to take that before Jesus and say, Jesus, help me call it something else. I don't want to be what someone else says. I don't want to be a result of the brokenness in my past. I want to be who you say that I am.

Transform me by your grace. And all of our churches, those who say, you know what, there is a label that I'm sick and tired of internalizing. I need to be free from this. to be free from this. I want to take it to Jesus now. All of our churches, if you say that's you, would just lift up your hands, just lift them up all over the place and say, yes, Jesus. So many hands going up today. Father, I pray for a healing work. Just as we saw the father call the son something else. God, we ask that you, our father, would take a negative label and call it something else.

God, take whatever the enemy meant for evil in our lives. And God, by faith, we believe you'll turn it into good. God, we pray that we would see ourselves as you see us, that we would never call ourselves something that is contrary to your image of us. May Jesus renew our minds, conform us to his image that we can please you in every single way. God, help us to take whatever lie we've been embracing and call it something else. God, help us to call it as you see it because you are the source of all truth. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, there are some of you right now

that when you look at your own life, you're even calling yourself some things that are very, very dangerous and very, very self-defeating. Some of you may say, you know, I'm a mess, I'm pathetic, I'm this, I'm that. And the reality is, there may be some truth to this.

The truth is that all of us, we're a mess. Without a relationship with God, we all, we stray away from what's right, we stray right into danger again and again. And the reality is, that we are bent towards sin. We never have to learn how to sin.

We're naturally sinners. And our sin separates us from a holy God. What our enemy will do, we'll try to convince us, well, we're not good enough, we'll never be good enough. We can't have, we can't know God. He's probably not even real. He doesn't care if he was.

He wouldn't let this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But at the same time, there may be something drawing you toward God today. Let me tell you exactly what that is. That is His goodness. That is His spirit. You are not here by accident. you're here because God wanted you here.

You may have embraced some lie, and today your name is going to be forgiven. You're going to have a new title as child of God. It's no longer sinner. Now you're going to be seen as a saint, forgiven by Jesus, because Jesus came to earth, lived without sin, died in our place, rose again. Why? So that anyone who calls on him would be saved. Anyone who turns to him would be forgiven.

And all of our churches there are those of you, You need His grace and you know it. You've internalized the lies of the enemy and you're ready for a new name. Today, by faith, when you call on Jesus, your sins will be forgiven and you will be made completely new. And all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his grace. Yes, I need his forgiveness. Today, I surrender. I call on Him.

I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All of our churches, lift them up and say, yes, Jesus. I turn to you. Church Online, you simply click right below me, and it would be a great honor if all of you would join your voices together. Nobody prays alone. Church Online, you pray right where you are and all of us together.

Pray Heavenly Father, I turn to you and ask Jesus to forgive me, to make me new. I trust you, Jesus, to save me from all of my sins, to fill me with your spirit so I could love for you. Thank you for new life. I give you mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. All of our churches, would you worship really big right now? Give God, thanks today. Welcome people born into this family.

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, the end of 2016 is a very exciting time for the U-Version Bible app as we celebrate a quarter of a billion installs on mobile devices around the world. And two of those people are Tina and Teddy Campbell from Los Angeles, California, who through the help of the Bible app found restoration for their marriage and restoration for their life. Here's their story.

I am Tina Campbell, better known to many people that might be familiar as one has. of the gospel group, Mary Mary. I am a drummer by a profession. I did The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, American Idol. I tour with Christina Aguilera, Brittany Spears, The Backstreet Boys, 98 degrees. We went on to put out about seven albums and won a few Grammys

and won a few American Music Awards and all of that kind of stuff. We also have a reality show called The Merry Mary Mary Show on We TV. We have been blessed to have a platform where we can share Jesus with many people, who would otherwise not be interested. So my relationship with my wife took a term

when the overwhelming demands on our life was professional and personal. I became aware of indiscretions in my marriage and I thought I was going to lose it. It was just our personal struggle at first and then it ended up being on TV because it was our reality. You know, the devil's playing in my head

all these tormentors, you no good for your kids. Now you can't even sing the gospel because you don't even believe in it and God doesn't love you. And every night was a night of torment. Every day was a day of sadness. I didn't know this person that I had become. I screwed up as a man. And so in my search of trying to be a better man, a better husband, everything pointed to Jesus. And I told God, if you won't let me die, show me how to live. No residue, no remnants of what happened to me. And so I started reading the Bible. So I opened up the word.

I didn't just find silence for the devil, silence to the noise and torment. I found life in every aspect of my existence. And all of a sudden I saw a plan that was exactly what I needed. And that changed my life. So I spend every day of my life on my Vue version Bible app every day. I had my phone and I could open up the word of God and I could find answers and solution and knowledge and understanding. I lived on that app.

Everything together now. Music, write songs together, produce records together, put books out together, everything we do together. I'd like to think that this app saved my life. It made the things of God easier for me to take in and to understand. But people are going to come up to you in heaven and say, thank you for being a part of that church that launched one of the most, one of the most powerful communication tools ever made. To download the Bible up to your mobile device and engage with God,

God's word on a daily basis wherever you go, all you have to do is go to Bible.com slash app. You know, it's our mission and our passion here at Life Church to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. That statement drives everything we do here as a church because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life.