Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - God Can Handle Your Doubts | The Benefit of Doubt | Part 2

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

Faith and doubt seem like opposites. But having doubts doesn’t disqualify your faith—they can actually strengthen it! Find out more in the message.Start The Benefit of Doubt Bible Plan: https://go2.lc/doubtplanDive deeper into your questions with Pastor Craig’s latest book: https://www.craiggroeschel.com/books/the-benefit-of-doubtGET TO KNOW YOU—NEW!You get to hear our voices—now we want to hear yours! Check out this special survey for podcast listeners. It’ll allow us to get to know you better and hear how we can support you. Find the survey at: https://www.life.church/podcastconnectNEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesABOUT THIS MESSAGEAt some point, we’ve all questioned what we believe. But doubt isn’t a dead end. Confronting our deepest questions can actually lead us closer to Jesus. Together, let’s discover The Benefit of Doubt.ABOUT 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.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #thebenefitofdoubt Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a real genuine spiritual hunger with people today. In almost 30 years of leading the church, I think that I'm seeing perhaps more of a kind of organic spiritual hunger with people asking questions and seeking the things of Jesus today, maybe unlike any time in my history of leading this church. I mean, if you look at last week on one weekend in one church, 2,200 and what 19 people, baptized, new name, new life in Christ. For the glory of God, we see people all over the world coming to faith in Christ. And I want to acknowledge that and give God praise for it. And at the same time, tragically, there are some who call themselves Christians that are deciding not to be Christians. And it's interesting, while we see so many people that are around

the world converting to become followers of Christ, we also see some people who maybe grew up believing in Jesus that are deconstructing and deconverting away from following Jesus. And this hits close to home. In fact, that's one of the reasons why I wrote the book, The Benefit of Doubt. I've told you before, I always say we homeschooled our kids, which is really not true. Amy homeschooled our kids, and I cheered her on. Got a picture of our kids, doesn't that look like a homeschool family? You got matching shirts, we made our own butter and made our own skirts and stuff. And we were homeschooling back before it was kind of semi-normal, like COVID hit, and then it was like, you know, everybody's weird. And, you know, everybody did their school in their pajamas. So we did it back

when it was really, really weird. And it was different if you've ever been around, like if you've been to a homeschool graduation, usually it's mom and dad in a living room going like, hey, congratulations, you're valedictorian, you know, and your class president. And you're the entire student body. Congratulations, I'll go clean your room.

That's kind of how it would go sometimes in homeschool graduations. But we had this ridiculously special community. It was about 10 families, and together they had about 400, kids. Not that many, but a lot of kids, because there wasn't a lot of birth control in the homeschool families. And so there were kids everywhere. And it was crazy, but the, once a week, for years and years, all the moms would come to our house and they would do Bible sending

to pray. And then they'd bring all their kids, like all 90 billion of them. And for the glory of God, we actually only lost one. True story. One kid wandered away in a neighbor brought you're missing a kid, like, ah, absolutely, we didn't know, but yes, we only lost. kid. And it was a really special group, but what hit me so personally is these kids grew up in my home. And like a lot of them called me dad and they grew up in the church and really strong followers of Jesus. And then somewhere along the way, a few of them had some spiritual questions. And they faced, like many people, some very real spiritual doubts along the way. And instead of continuing to pursue Jesus, there were a few of them that walked away from their faith.

And I promise you, I'm not going to shame them or criticize them right now. Instead of pointing to blame it, then what I want to do is I want to take responsibility and ask, how can we, as Christians, as families, and as a church, consider possibly doing better instead of sometimes responding in a way that doesn't help but ends up hurting. And so I just want to say very sincerely, if you right now maybe have a, um, spiritual hurt or a doubt, you're wrestling with some questions, I believe God wants to speak to you. And the title of this message is, God can handle your doubts. So I want to pray, God, thank you for this amazing, faithful community of believers. And I pray God for every single person here,

questions in all, that as we seek your son, Jesus, that he would do a work in us and that your Holy Spirit would draw us close to you. And if we do have hurts or questions or fears or things we can't answer, God, that we could take them to you. And God, you're a good God, a loving God, that will draw us closer. We thank you for who you are and pray you do a work in all of us today. In Jesus' name, we pray. And everybody said, amen. All right, let's look at Matthew 14. And I'm going to show you a story that if you've been around the church for a while, you know, but you may look at it from a little different perspective. I'll give you the context.

The disciples were out on a boat, and Jesus walks up on water. That's pretty cool. Disciples are freaking out. Like, ah, it's a ghost. It's a ghost. It's a ghost. It's not a ghost. It is I. Jesus.

Who'd you think was going to be walking up on water? It's the guy that's been raised in the dead. And in Matthew 14, Peter says this. Peter says, Lord, if it's you, If that's you walking on the water, tell me to come to you on the water. And Jesus says, all right, Peter, come. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the winds, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out,

Lord, save me. And immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught Peter. And Jesus said, you have little faith. Then he asked the question, why did you doubt? Look at the person next to you and say, why'd you doubt? Look at the other person, your second choice, and ask him, why'd you doubt? You can type it in the comment section if you want to. Why do you doubt?

I like that question. What's interesting is everything that Jesus could have said that he didn't say. For example, he didn't look at Peter and say, well, Peter, obviously, you're not disciple material after all. He didn't say that, right? Jesus didn't roll his eyes and look at the other disciples. He'd go, can you believe that guy? This is pathetic. He's asking the question, why did you doubt?

And what's interesting is what did Jesus do whenever Peter doubted? If you notice, Jesus reached out his hand and he met Peter in his doubt. This is powerful. Jesus didn't reject him for his doubt, but he rescued Peter from his doubt. In fact, when you look at Scripture and you just look at every time Jesus would encounter somebody that had questions or didn't understand or doubted, you'll notice that Jesus took time, had grace, and had compassion for them. Let me show you some examples. Some we've looked at and some we haven't. Peter, we just saw this.

He doubted, and Jesus didn't condemn him, but Jesus pulled him out of the water and rescued him. Last week, we looked at Thomas. He doubted and said, I need to see to believe, and Jesus gave him what he needed, and he gave him proof. We also looked last week at the disciples when they doubted. Remember, they were up on the mountain, and some were worshipping, and there's a resurrected Christ. Some are doubting, and Jesus looked at him right after they doubted and said, go into all the world and preach to the gospel. they doubted and Jesus sent them out doubts and all. John the Baptist, he was the one that devoted his whole life and said,

I'm preparing the way for Jesus. And then he said, but I'm not really sure now that you are the Messiah. He doubted and Jesus reassured him. When Martha doubted, like Jesus, if you had been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died, Martha doubted and Jesus reminded her of his power. Then there's a father of a demon-possessed boy who doubted, I think you can, but help me overcome my unbelief. He doubted, and not only did Jesus heal his son,

but Jesus strengthened his faith, powerful, emotional, and personal connection, that Jesus had grace for those who doubted. He had grace. And so that kind of makes me just say, like, in a church, with you. I wonder how many of you might have some faith questions, might have some spiritual doubts. Now, what's interesting is I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to say, hey, raise your hands right now if you have doubts. Because if I did that, how would you feel in a church environment?

We might feel less than. We wonder, am I the only one? We might feel a little bit of shame because there you are wearing your life kids shirt and you're a life group leader and in the back of your mind, I'm not really sure God cares about me right now. And it would make you feel really maybe insecure or less than. And it kind of raises the question like, why in the world, if Jesus had grace for doubt, why are we so afraid to be honest about our questions in church? If Jesus had grace for doubts, shouldn't we?

And so what I want to do is I want to remind us, mind you of what we talked about last week and build on the foundation that your doubts don't disqualify your faith. We learned the principle that doubt isn't the enemy of faith, but doubt is often a pathway to a deeper, more meaningful faith. In other words, like, if you doubt, that doesn't make you a bad Christian. It just makes you a human being. And doubt isn't the enemy of faith. In fact, sometimes you have to push through your doubt, in order to get the answers that build your faith to be even closer to Jesus than you were before. And so I would just kind of ask you the question, like, why do you doubt?

The very same question that Jesus asked Peter, why do you doubt? And just based on my pastoral experience, talking to a lot of people, some of you would say, I doubt because I've got a spiritual question that I just can't find an answer to. or you're reading your Bible and you come across something, you go, oh my gosh, it says this here, but over here it seemed to say something different, and there's an apparent contradiction in your Bible that throws you for a loop, and you think, well, can I really trust God if there's this contradiction? Or you watch a YouTube video where this guy that's really, really smart,

and he's got like 17 degrees, and he tells you that science disproves the Bible, and so you think, well, maybe all that stuff I believed as a kid isn't true. Or you go off to college and you meet some girl that's really, really nice, and she's from another country, and she's a devout Buddhist. And you say, but Jesus is the only way to God. And she goes, wait a minute, that's not fair. I mean, look at the way I was raised. Surely Jesus can't be the only way to God.

And so you think, well, she's a nice person. And so maybe what I was taught is wrong. Or you experience something really unfair. So I've got a horrible pain. It's justice in life, and you can't reconcile. How in the world could a loving God allow that to happen to me or someone that I love? Or it might be a personal prayer request. You prayed and had faith and believed that God would heal somebody, and he didn't.

Or you were a little kid begging God to save your parents' marriage. God, just please, I'll do anything. Just keep them together. And they ended up divorcing. Or you looked up to. to a really strong Christian, someone that was very influential in your life, made a difference and loved you

and helped point you toward Jesus. And then they did something that was very, very sinful, hurtful, maybe even hurt you. And you think, how can I believe in God when someone that led me to him would do that? Why do you doubt? I'll tell you one of my times. people sometimes say like, I can't believe you doubt too.

Like long before I used to be a pastor, long before I was a pastor, I used to just be a guy. You know, and so I had a real season of doubt early in ministry. I was serving full-time at First Methodist Church, and I was also going to full-time seminary, which was really, really hard. And most people would never believe that I doubted in seminary, but I actually did. I had a New Testament professor, and it's a little bit of long story, but back, some of you may remember, there was something that, a book called The Critical Red Letters of Jesus. And there were scholars that went and looked at all the things that Jesus supposedly said,

and these really smart Bible scholars put the words of Jesus into four different colors, red, pink, gray, and black. And red meant that these scholars said Jesus definitely said it. and pink meant Jesus probably said it, and gray meant he probably didn't say it, and black meant he definitely didn't say it. Well, my professor of the New Testament was one of those guys on that committee,

and he didn't believe all of the New Testament. And he said, I don't believe all the New Testament. So here I am, 24 years old, young Christian sitting in his class with a guy much smarter than I am, and he's telling me why I probably shouldn't believe the whole Bible, and I thought, Maybe I shouldn't believe the whole Bible.

Why do you doubt? That smacked me right upside the head in the middle of trying to study to become a pastor. Maybe all this stuff isn't true. And Jesus asked Peter, why do you doubt? Why do you doubt? Here's what's so interesting to me. For years, when I read that, I saw it as kind of an accusation. Like Jesus is saying, like, why do you doubt, dummy?

I mean, you saw me do the loz and fissus thing, you saw me raise it. Why did you doubt, dummy, you of little faith? But when you look at Jesus' character all through the New Testament, the way he treated people, the fact that what did Jesus do when Peter was doubting? He reached out his hand and pulled him up. When you think about the loving, grace-filled character of Jesus, I would raise the question, why do you doubt? What if this question isn't an accusation but an invitation? Why are you doubting, Peter? You know, I'm here for you?

I mean, I'm walking on water to see you. I told you to get on the boat. You're walking on water. Why are you doubting here? And so I'd say that to you. Like, if you have a faith question, if you stumble somewhere along, let's try this. All right.

Let's just keep rolling for a second. So Peter says, so Jesus looks at Peter, they're like, why do you doubt? That's totally weird. This good? Devil's in the microphone. Get behind me. I got a new microphone. Hey.

You ever see those guys that some of my friends, when they get one of these in their hands, they do things I don't know how to do with it. Jesus said I might try it later I don't know how they do it Anyway So I'm sorry I like when they do it I just don't know how to do it

It's like it's a whole other gear Like I didn't go to that seminary You start to doubt You start to ask questions Don't panic Process don't panic Because sometimes you get You doubt a little bit around Christians

And they get all weird on you don't let weird Christians run you out of the door. You know what I'm talking about? I don't mean to be critical, but some of you're weird. I'm like, you're good at you. Like you got the spiritual gift of weird. Someone starts to doubt and what do you do? You're like, you must not be reading your Bible.

That's just mean. You don't have enough faith that they look at you, that kind of shame. You're like, hey, stop letting the world influence you. Or your parents say, hey, just believe just like we taught you. and with really good intentions, sometimes unintentionally, they'll actually push people away from the church. And what happens today in today's culture when someone's pushed away?

Well, often they start to deconstruct. How many of you know what deconstruction is? Raise your hand. Raise your hand. There's a controversial subject, and I'm going to say some things that'll make some of you mad. What is deconstruction? It's an emotionally charged topic, and there's lots of different opinions about it. So pastorally, I'll tell you right now, that deconstruction, in my opinion, done poorly, can be very destructive to someone.

That done with the wrong people, in the wrong type of community, can, you can take someone that's maybe they were a Christian and then they're hurt by another Christian. They get mad at God. They get mad at the church. They get mad at everybody. And in the name of deconstructing, they end up unintentionally filtering. everything through their hearts. And instead of getting better, which was their goal, they just get bitter. Not necessarily their fault.

They just get pissed at everybody. And done poorly, deconstruction can be very, very destructive. And so a lot of Christians write it off and say, Deconstruction is bad. I'm going to tell you right now, deconstruction done well, can actually be very helpful and can be very healing. Let me say it again. And this is going to really make some of you mad.

but deconstruction done well in a community of loving people can be very helpful. Sometimes it's necessary. So what is healthy deconstruction? I'll give you a definition of it. Healthy deconstruction is a sincere examination of your beliefs, letting go of what's untrue to build on what is true. It's a sincere examination. Is this what I think I believe?

Is this true and is it helpful? or is it untrue? In fact, I would go as far to say that deconstruction done well can actually be a form of discipleship. Done well, it can lead someone closer to Jesus. And I'll give you an example. There's something that's known as Lex Talionis. This is Latin.

It's a Latin term, which stands for the law of retaliation or the principle of retribution. In other words, if someone hurts you or commits a crime, then the punishment should be proportional to the severity of the crime. And it goes like this. Someone pokes out your eye. What should the punishment be? Fung!

poke out their eye. If someone knocks out your tooth, then the punishment should be equal, and you knock out their tooth. Watch what Jesus says, and he does this five different times in one sermon. In Matthew 5, he says this. Jesus said, you've heard that it was said. an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. And then essentially he says, but I'm going to bring deeper insight

to what you thought you believed. He says, but I tell you, don't resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek. Also, five times in the sermon on the mount. Jesus says, you've heard it said, but let me bring a little deeper explanation

to what you think that you believe is the whole story. And if there's any part of what you believe, there's not consistent with who my father is. We're going to deconstruct what you don't believe, and we're going to build on what is true. And if you watch, Jesus had to do this with Peter over and over again. In Matthew 16, Jesus said,

I'm going to go to Jerusalem, and I'm going to have to suffer, and I'm going to be killed, and on the third day, I'm going to be raised from the dead. And Peter's like, no. No, no, Jesus. Never. That's not going to happen to you.

That's not what I want. That's not my plan for you, Jesus. And so what does Jesus say to Peter? He says, you don't have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. What you believe is not true to what my father wants. And essentially, Jesus is deconstructing Peter's wrong beliefs about Jesus.

as Messiah, because Peter thought the Messiah would be a conquering king. And yet Jesus came as a suffering servant. Peter thought that the Savior would rule with power. And Jesus said, no, watch me lead with love. So over and over again, you're going to see as Jesus looks at what Peter thought was supposed to happen and said, hey, Peter, let go of whatever isn't true. and instead, let's build on what is true. So, you've got a question, you've got a hurt. You've got an unresolved faith issue. How do you build your belief system?

What do you do? On what do you build your belief system? And the answer is, there's a song about it. How do you build your belief system? You build it on the B-I-B-L-E. Help me out. Say it loud. Now, can be?

A lot of you didn't grow up in my Sunday school class. The B-I-B-L-E. Now, that's the book for me. Not bad. You build your belief system on the B-I-B-L-E, right? Not exactly. The problem is you can go to the B-I-B-L-E with good intentions, but you have to remember, everyone reads the Bible with a bias.

You do. I told you that's going to be a little controversial in this message. But you take the same Bible. same text, and you go to one church and they'll preach it with one focus. You go to another church, they'll preach it with another focus. You go to another church, they'll preach it with a different tone. You go to another church and they'll bring a little different theology to it because everybody, including you, including me, we read the Bible through our own filters. Like through your family background, through where you were born, through how you were raised from the church that you grew up in,

There may be no church at all, what your friends say, what your parents think, you read your Bible through your own filters. And so what happens is over time, you pick up beliefs about God. And many of them are true. But some of them are not. Because you're around people who have different beliefs that may rub off on. You go out to college and a professor tells you, well, all religions lead to God. You think, well, that sounds reasonable, which is not true.

or you've got a friend that says to you, if you just have enough faith, then whatever you pray for. And that's kind of what the Bible says. It's just incomplete. But if you just have enough faith, God has to do whatever you name and claim in Jesus name. Blab it and grab it. See it and be it. Name it and name. You've got to say in Jesus' name. And they'll teach you that. Or something that'll go wrong. And they'll say, it's your fault. Why? You didn't have enough faith or there's sin in your life. Something bad's happening to you is because God is punishing you because you didn't do something right or the TV preacher will tell you if you tithe God's going to make you rich and everyone reads the Bible with a bias. Therefore

everything you believe about God may not be true. Let us sink in for just a minute. everything you believe about God may not be true. So sometimes the reason we get upset and get mad is not because God isn't good, is because what we believe about God isn't true about God. So what do you do? Well, when you discover that part of what you believe isn't true, you don't have to leave the faith. When a Christian hurts you, it doesn't mean,

God hurts you. And if I can just say it, if a Christian hurt you, it didn't mean the whole church is bad. You have a bad experience at Olive Garden. You don't say, forget your breadsticks. It's a whole other thing. But we're not family here, you know. But what you do is you take the part that maybe is bad. They were mean. They did hurt you. And you forgive them. You move on. You you say, or even that place was maybe toxic or abusive, and you recognize it, and you, and you let go of that, and you hold on to what is true. For example, I have four daughters, and they grew up in these two bedrooms that had mold all over them. We didn't know it. Like, dumb me, like, what's that black stuff on the ceiling? Oh, I don't know. I mean, stupid, stupid.

And so it impacted their health. Well, when we found out there was bad mold, what did we do? Let me tell you what we didn't do. We didn't burn the whole house down. We just burned. their rooms down, kind of literally. We just deconstructed. We took everything out of their room, massive reconstruction. We took on everything that was bad, and we replaced it, and we didn't tear down the house because the whole house wasn't bad, just their rooms. And so what do you do with your faith if you realize there's something that's not true? Well, when you discover something that you believe isn't true, you unbelieve what isn't true, and you pursue what is true. That's what you do.

You unbelieve it. Say, I'm going to put that aside. And you pursue what's true. So how do you interpret the Bible? And earlier I said, you know, you go to the Bible. Well, you go with a bias. The best thing you can do when you're going to the Bible, I would say, is if you really want to understand who God is,

just start in the Gospels and read Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read Jesus. Pursue Jesus. Look at who he was because he represents the Father. Look at how he treated people. at how he loved. Look at what he said. If you want to rebuild your faith system in something that is truly God honoring, start in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, read about Jesus and then interpret

everything else through the lens of Jesus' love. Whenever somebody asks Jesus, what's the most important command, he said, hey, all the law and the prophets hang on this command. And he said, this is what it is. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. And so you read everything in God's word through love. And then if you're doing that, you look at Peter when Jesus says, why'd you doubt? He's not going like, why'd you doubt? He's not going, why'd you doubt? Let me help you up when you read it through his love. And so if you've been hurt and maybe you're considering leaving the faith or you know somebody that is, I want you to think about Peter and recognize that in many ways, it appears that he had real doubts and you could claim he

actually might have left the faith too. Why? Because three different times, someone said, hey, do you believe in Jesus? He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Peter, were you, were you one of those disciples? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm, no, no, I'm, no, I'm, no, I'm, no, I'm, no, I'm, no, no, I'm, no, I'm, no, I'm, no, I'm, no. And so you could say, he kind of left the faith. And what happened after Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead? In John 21, you can read about it. It's really meaningful. Jesus comes to Peter and says, Peter, do you love me?

And Peter denied Jesus three times, three times. Jesus says, do you love me. And he's like, yes, yes, I do, I do. And then Jesus said, well, feed my sheep. In other words, you're forgiven. Like, now go do what you're supposed to do. And this is so special because who did God choose? to preach the day the Holy Spirit fell and 3,000 people were saved.

You know who he chose to preach that day? Peter. The guy whose faith was built after his doubt and denial of Jesus. Let me say it again. Who did God use? Peter. After his doubt and denial. Ridiculously powerful.

about 30 years later, after Peter was forgiven, this is what he wrote. He said this. He said, for you were like sheep going astray. But now you've returned to the shepherd and overseers of your soul. How did he know what it was like to go astray? Because he went astray. How did he know what it was like to return to the shepherd? He had gone astray and returned because whenever Peter doubted on water,

Jesus reached out his hand and pulled him out of his doubts. And whenever Peter denied Jesus, he remembered looking back that Jesus loved him three times, forgave him. And the same is true for you. Because doubt isn't the enemy of faith. But doubt is often the pathway to a deeper and more meaningful faith. So if you find yourself with real faith questions and you're sinking in your doubts, reach out to Jesus. because he's reaching out to you. That doesn't make you a bad Christian,

just makes you human. And God is a good and loving God. He can handle your doubts and love you through them and you can be closer to him on the other side. So Father, do a work in us today, we pray. All of our churches, I will ask you now, nobody's looking around.

This is between you, me, and God. I wonder how many of you would say that you do have names. maybe a hurts or some doubts or some questions, would you raise your hand right now? Just so many of you. I wonder how many of you know someone that you love, maybe a family member, a spouse, a child, a close friend, someone in your life that has doubts or hurts or questions. Would you raise your hands?

We're going to pray, God, I pray for the first group. God, I pray for my friend that I referenced earlier. And I thank you for what you're doing in him. God, I thank you that through all the hurts, he's now turning to you. God, I pray for everyone that may be hurting or have real questions. God, I pray they would have the courage maybe to open up and that you would bring them the right Christians to process with. And if they are believing something that's untrue or been hurt,

God, give us the wisdom to deconstruct in a healthy community and a healthy way to let go what's not true and not helpful and to build on what is true. And God, for those who are loving others that, maybe drifting away or even have completely run away from you and run away from the church. God, give us the wisdom to love them well, not push them further away,

but to love like Jesus loves. If he had grace for doubts, God help us to have grace for doubts and point them to you who always heals. As you keep praying, there would be some of you, if we could sit down and just talk openly, you'd say, you really do have sincere questions about where you stand with God. And if you do, if you don't know where you stand with God, let me just do what I told you do.

Let me point you to Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the son of God. He is the one who said, if you want to know what I'm like, you want to know what my father is like, look at me and I'll show you what my father is like. What did he do? Jesus came, not for the righteous, but he came for sinners. People like me, people like you. He didn't come for the healthy.

He came for the sick. And Jesus loved those that religion rejected. He had grace for the broken And he forgave those who sinned Who is Jesus, the son of God, perfect in every way And on a cross, Jesus paid the price for our sins. He died. And three days later, God raised him from the dead

So that anyone who calls in his name would be saved. Saved by faith through grace, not good works, but by grace through faith. Today at all of our churches, those of you would say, I might have questions, I might have doubts. But that story is the good news. That is so good I want to trust and believe in the goodness of God. How good is God?

He is so good that he would send his son to die in your place so you could be forgiven. To all of our churches, those who say, I need that today. I'm going to step away from my sins, my doubts, my fears. I'm going to put my faith in Jesus. When he calls on Jesus, he hears your prayers, he forgives your sins, he makes you brand new today. at all of our churches, all over the world online. Those who say, I need that.

Today, I want to know Jesus. I give my life to Jesus. I'm calling on Jesus. If that's you, call on Him. When you call on Him, he hears your prayers and forgive your sins and make you brand new. Those who say, yes, today, I trust in Jesus. I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer.

Lift your hands high. Right now, all of the place, lift them up, right up there. God, both of you together. Praise God. Over here, both of you. Others today, right back there. Oh, come on. Right back up there.

Praise God. Oh, there's a hunger in the place. Right back over here. type in the comment section. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Others of you today say yes, Jesus, I surrender to you. Let's all pray. Pray Heavenly Father, forgive me of my sins. Jesus saved me. Be the Lord of my life. Fill me with your spirit so I could walk in your love and show your love and do your will. I trust in you. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Could somebody celebrate? Give God praise today. Oh, come on, because somebody celebrate!