Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - How Generosity Changed My Life | Overflow: Part 2

Episode Date: October 9, 2022

Have you ever had someone show you generosity? Maybe they brought you coffee on a bad day. Maybe they covered a bill you couldn’t pay. The grace of giving can change our lives. Let’s find out more in this message.  ABOUT THIS MESSAGEDo you ever feel like you’re not enough? Or what you have isn’t enough to make a difference? Sometimes what seems insignificant at first can actually become an Overflow. Let’s learn how in our new series. NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #generosityandthechurch Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, welcome to our YouTube online or podcast community. I'd love to know where you're watching from. So if there's a comment section, tell us where you are. We're in a message series called Overflow. We're talking about how God's work in us can overflow into the lives of others. Today, I've invited my good friend Pastor Sean Johnson to share his story on how a $50 check changed his life forever. Here's his story. Hey, I love this series that you're in called Overflow.

When Pastor Craig told me about the series, I got super... excited and this was the first passage of scripture that came to my mind, honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to, and here's that word, overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. I love it. God says, listen, you start getting generous towards building my kingdom and he says, watch me flex in your life. Watch me start to do things in your life in an overflowing fashion. And that's what this is. this whole series is about, so I'm so excited. Two things up top. First off, I cannot talk about generosity on this stage without saying thank you. You are the most generous church I've ever

seen in my life. And I mean that. In fact, I found you guys 20 years ago. I was a brand new pastor. I didn't grow up in church. I'm trying to be a youth pastor. Have no clue what I'm doing. I don't know how to put together a talk. I mix up the names all the time. I don't even know what a sermon series is. And all I wanted was to watch some people who were good at this stuff so I could learn. And some of you remember this. This was a reality back in the day. You used to have to pay $2.99 to watch somebody's sermon. Well, I was an intern making $50 a week. And I'm like, man, your sermon might suck. I can't take this risk. Like, I don't have that kind of cash. And I found Pastor Craig Rochelle in a church called Life Church who said, you know what, we're not going

charge you for the sermon. You can have the sermon for free. You can have the notes for free. You can have the outline. You can have the promo material. You can have all of it. Guys, it changed me. And I just found out this morning that because of your generosity, just try to wrap your head around this, over 500,000 pastors are being helped out around the world right now because of your generosity. And so as just one of those guys out there in the world who's been changed because of your generosity, thank you. And I just want to say this. Number two, some of you just found out we're about to talk about money. And that brought up some emotions. And I just say, let's acknowledge it. Let's not pretend it's not there. Let's just acknowledge it.

And look, it's not just a church thing. You can sit down at Chili's today. And if somebody sits down across me and goes, I'd like to talk to you about your money. You're going to start feeling something, aren't you? It's just real. And so I said, let's acknowledge it. It's okay. Some of you found out we're talking about generosity a day. And you're like, woohoo! Yeah. I love generosity. Some of you're like, well, I'm not woo-hoo, but okay. Right? Some of you're like, really, bro?

I brought a visitor today. That's what we're going to talk about. And some of you, you hear we're going to talk about money. And can we be honest? It makes you a little mad. I get it. I know that feeling. In fact, I've sat in all those places.

In fact, part of my story, I'm going to be real and raw and honest with you today. I'm going to talk to you about my journey through this thing called. generosity. And when I was first introduced to it, I wanted to fight somebody. I was so mad. So I get it. So listen, if that's you, can we just all just kind of lower, lower the guards today? Nobody's going twist your arm and try to guilt you into anything. I promise you this series is not about what life church wants from you. This series is about what life church wants for you. I promise you that. And so let's just let God speak. In fact, can we do this? God, thank you that we're here. Thank you for your son. Thank you that you see us. Thank you that you care.

Thank you that you have a plan for us. We pray that you would speak to us about this important topic in our lives today, and we trust you, and we love you. In Jesus' name, and everybody said. Amen. So like I said, I'm going to take you through my journey, and what I know is that Revelation chapter 12 talks about this. There's so much power in our testimony. When we're willing to say, look, here was my struggle, but here's what God did.

It helps somebody out with their issues, right? And the same thing with you. You share your story. It helps me. it helps. So we're going to do that. So my journey with generosity started with me being very angry about the subject matter, just to be honest. I was 24 years old, and I had just been living in Los Angeles, California. I was a drug addict, and I got really suicidal. It was the first time I ever had anxiety in my life. I started having panic attacks, and I got real suicidal. In fact, I sat down one day to end

my life, and I made one phone call, and it was to the only Christian guy I knew, and he flew me across the country to Illinois, and he took me to a church service, and I sat in a service just like this and experienced the presence of God for the first time in my life. And at the end of it, with cocaine in my pocket, I raised my hand and said, if you're real God, I want you. And I've never been the same. There's something special that happens when we get together and experience the presence of God, right? And I believe that's going to happen for a whole bunch of you today. Well, so about three weeks after that, I actually moved from L.A. to Illinois just to sort of be around some church people for a minute. I just, I loved my friends, but I was so in the middle of the drug

culture, I knew I needed a change. And so I get there, and I had nothing when I came. I had just totaled my car. I spent all my money on drugs. Like, I had nothing when I came. And they gave me a little part-time job at the church, kind of a, just a little help the kid out thing. And I had no money. I had about 20 grand in student loans. I had about 30 grand in credit card debt. Like, I was a mess. And so the pastor's wife, she's like, hey, we're going to give you this little part-time job to help you out. But she's like, you need a budget. I was like, a what? She said exactly. You need a budget. And so we sat down and she started writing out the budget. She goes, okay, you're going to need a little bit of money for food and a little bit of money for gas.

You have to start paying off those credit cards. And then she goes, oh, I almost forgot. And then she wrote at the top, she goes, you got to pay tithe. And I was like, huh? who's tithe and why does he want my money? I'm broke. She said, no, no, Sean, we give the first 10% of our money back to God. And I said, you do. I have, maybe you don't understand. I have nothing. And I'll tell you, I wasn't like angry. I was scared. Truthfully, see, I grew up really poor. And I only knew two things growing up. My mom was a teenage heroin addict. And so, And so when she had me and the guy left, and so I've never met my dad, and we grew up really poor.

And so I only grew up knowing two things. I really want to be a dad someday, and I don't want to be poor. There's sort of my big fears in life. And so now I'm 24, and I'm poor. And this lady's telling me I should take 10% of my money, and it made me really scared. And she said, Sean, let me read you something. This is Malachi chapter 3. bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.

That means 10% of what you make to your local place of worship. That's what that phrase is. That there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing. This is overflow talk. Pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

She said, Sean, this is the only time in the entire Bible where God says, test me. I said, ma'am, I got nothing. She said, well, 10% of that shouldn't be hard to come up with then. I said, listen, let me wait till I get on my feet. You ever had that feeling? I believe deep down inside of us, every single one of us wants to be known as being generous. I just do.

But I know that feeling of, let me get in a safer spot so that I could start being generous, right? She said, Sean, she said, you're not going to believe this, but the more you make, actually, the harder it is to tithe. Now, I didn't believe her, but now I've lived a little life, and I found that to be true. She said, because it always takes faith. See, if you've got nothing or next to nothing, then 10%, that feels like a lot, isn't it? But if you got a lot, 10% of what I have, that's a lot. It's hard either way. And she said something to me that I'll never forget.

She says, Sean, generosity is not about how much you have. It's about trusting God with what you have. That's the key right there. Jesus talked about, had an interaction with a very wealthy guy who, the Bible says literally he walks away sad and missed out on everything God wanted to do in his life. And he had a ton of money. And then Jesus goes bananas over a girl who gave a two-penny offering. Right?

It's not about how much we have. It's, am I willing to trust God with what I have? That's what it's about. And she started to help me understand this. And she said, Sean, she said, listen, if God promises overflow, if God promises to open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing in different areas of your life that you can't contain it, why would you wait till you have more? You've never needed that in your life more than you need it right now. Now's the perfect time to start. And I said, I said, well, you're going to have to take it out of my check then. Because I know me. And you'll have to talk me into doing this every two weeks for the rest of my life if I'm going to do this.

So just take it out of my check. I just went in the church and I was like, I just got to sign up for the recurring giving thing. Because here's what I know is that there will be seasons where I feel financially strapped and I'll make decisions based on emotions, not based on the person I want to be. Right? And so for me, I have to pre-decide what kind of person I want to be and then make that decision and then just go walk in it. And so I went in the church and I never forget this conversation.

I walked in and I'm an intern. Actually, I'm sorry. I'm not an intern yet. I'm just a little part-time employee. And I said, hey, would you take 10% out of my paycheck, please? She said, what? I said, take 10% out of my paycheck, please. I'm done.

I was not happy about this. I remember walking to my car. Keep in mind, I had had financial worries and stress and pressures ever since I knew what money was. It felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted off my shoulders. I said, okay, God, your word says test me. Your word says test you. All right, here we go. Guess what? Now, my financial problems are your financial problems. Good luck with that. Sorry about the credit cards. Hey, I'm telling you, Life Church, I felt,

I went to sleep that night with a piece that I had not felt in a long time. And, and, you know, here's what's crazy. Guess what? I didn't get rich the next day. No one gave me a Rolls-Royce or a Rolex or a Jet. And some people might go, well, I guess it didn't work then. I told you my testimony for a reason. A month prior, I was having such bad panic attacks I wanted to end my life. I didn't need a Rolex or a check. I needed peace. And that's what God gave me in an overflowing fashion.

You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts you. I never saw that coming. my very first step towards generosity brought peace in an overflowing fashion. And Life Church, I want that for you. The next couple of things it brought me was purpose and joy. And I put these two things together because I felt like I experienced them at the same time. And it was interesting. I felt like there was a day in my life. I'm going to tell you back here in a minute where this passage of scripture jumped off the pages and it was almost like God went, see, I mean what I say. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 if you have a Bible or on your phone and want to flip to it

Paul's talking to a bunch of his friends in Corinth and he's talking about another church and what he's saying is is I've seen these guys live it's a different way to live and if you'll live this way it'll change you he says let me tell you what I've seen says brothers and sisters we want you to know about the grace that God is given the Macedonian church churches in the midst of a very very severe trial. So these guys are struggling. They're overflow, there's that word again, they're overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up enrich generosity. Wait, what? He goes, I've seen it. I'm telling you, I saw it my own eyes. I testify. They gave as much

as they were able, even beyond their ability, entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service of the Lord's people. people. And the next verse in the message, I love the way it reads, verse five, the other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives. So let's put this together real quick. Here's what Paul's saying. He says, guys, I've seen it. I saw a group of people that they were really, really struggling, and they decided to be generous in the middle of their struggle. And they're experiencing so much of the purpose of God on their lives, the byproduct is overflowing joy. And I don't know about you, but I want that. Right? I want that. And there was a day

when I felt like God hit me with this scripture over the head and went, hey, you're in it, bro. I was, if you were here a few months ago, or I'm so bad with time, 10 years ago last month, whenever I talked to here last, I told you guys that I had the last three years have been a real bad struggle with anxiety for me. And I spent a lot of time trying to hide it. And if you're watching this and don't know, this church just finished a series called Peace of Mind and it's absolutely amazing. You need to go back and get caught up and watch it if you're struggling. But I struggle with anxiety. And one Sunday morning, I was having such bad panic attacks that I didn't think I could go to church. And I wasn't speaking that weekend,

so it was okay. But my wife was like, babe, I just feel like you need to be around God's presence today. You just need to be around the worship. And so we drove to church. And on the way there, I was having a panic attack and almost had to like turn around and get out of the car. I was a mess. So we went to this one campus of ours in Denver, it's called the Lakewood Campus, and we went in the back in the green room because I didn't want to go out in the auditorium, because again, I didn't want anyone to see me. I was so embarrassed. And I sat in the back, and I'm just watching the service on the TV in the back,

and it happened to be baptism Sunday. And I'm watching people from this TV, and I'm watching people go, I got brought to church on this day, and I sat right over here in the third row, and I gave my life to God, and then they get baptized. And then someone else would go, here's what God did for me. And the first time I came here and I never experienced it and God's changed my life and everything's different. And they get baptized. And I'm watching, watching, watching.

And all of a sudden I felt like God dropped a thought in my head. He's like, hey, remember when we bought this building? That was the very first building we ever bought as a church. A few years before, we had about 8,000 people on a weekend and we had these two rented facilities and we got kicked out of both of them in the same week. you don't relocate and park 8,000 people in a week. Like, that's a, that's a tough task. So we realized for the first time, like, hey, we got to stop just renting buildings. We got to buy a place.

We got to have some stability. Well, I never thought I'd be a pastor. And when I became a pastor, I never wanted to talk about money because I don't want to make anybody mad. I just want to tell you about Jesus. And I never, never wanted to do a building campaign because that sounds awful. So now we're going to do one. We're going to do a building campaign. And I was scared to death.

And so I was having this moment with God and I said, God, I can't ask people to sacrifice if I'm not willing to go first. The problem was, I didn't have anything. We didn't have much at all. Everything we owned, we made payments on. And I felt like God was like, you got one thing. And then I said, I realized the only thing I owned in my life that I didn't make payments on was my Harley.

And as soon as I realized that's what God was challenging me to sell, I went, how dare you? How dare you? That's off limits. I started praying. I felt like it's what I was supposed to do and sold the Harley. And I think we got like 12 or 15 grand for it. And it was the first part of the money that was going to go to help buy this building. And I watched that guy drive off on my Harley and I'm like, he didn't even know what he's doing.

I'm taking it back. Well, I'm sitting there in the middle of trying not to have panic attacks, and I'm watching baptisms, and God went, hey, you're a part of that. Your generosity is a part of this. You helped buy this building and look at the lives that are being changed. And all of a sudden, my anxiety and my depression started to go away just a little bit, and I started to feel this unbelievable sense of I have purpose in this world. And all of a sudden, to my surprise, joy started to creep in.

And I seriously went, oh my gosh, he means what he says. It's one of my most struggling seasons of life. And all of a sudden, I'm starting to experience the purpose of God and overflowing joy. And the whole thing was triggered by generosity. Life Church, I want this for you. And God says, it's possible. He says, I'm not asking you to be generous. God says, it's not for me.

It's for you. It's because of what I want. for you. And I want you guys to start to see the purpose that you're walking in. If you've ever given to this church, I want you to start to feel it. You may know this, you may not. You give the Bible to the world. To the world. I think it's over like half a billion people have gotten a free Bible because of life church. Your pastor's generous. Your executive team's generous, but they couldn't do it without you. You're a generous church and you're changing the world. Last month, over 3,000 people gave their life to God at this church. Like, you know, you read Acts and it's

like the day of Pentecost and 3,000 people got saved and everybody goes, oh my gosh, that's unreal. More people than that got saved last month at Life Church. If you've ever given here, you're a part of that. Here's what I want you to do. Next time you're in church, Pastor Craig, earmuffs, you can't hear this. It's just between us. Next time Pastor Craig, you're... does one of those, hey, if you want to give your life to God, do they raise your hand? And if you've given here before, I want you to peek. I'm serious, peek. I want you to look around the room.

I want you to see somebody over in the corner who's raising their hand and realize that their eternal life is changing and you're watching it happen. Their family will never be the same. Their kids will never be the same. Their friends will never be the same. Heaven's getting more crowded. Like, watch the light come on in their eyes. and as you see that person, raise your hand, remind yourself, I'm a part of that.

That's me. I'm a part of that. God's using my generosity to change the world. And the last thing that generosity brought into my life in a overflowing fashion that I never saw coming was a closeness to him that I hadn't experienced yet. I was in church one week with my wife. I'm an intern, so I'm making 50 bucks a week. And the pastor had the audacity to read this scripture. But since you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we have kindled in you, see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

This is somewhat of a theme scripture for this series. He said, let's give and let's give big, church. Some of you tie, but let's go above and beyond. Let's give big. And I honestly wanted to fight him after church. I'm like, how dare you? You don't have a clue what I'm going through. I'm an intern making 50 bucks a week.

I'll be picking up the church after you go home today. And you know, I never wanted to be poor, right? And so as I'm an intern, I was an intern for two years, probably 50 times. At least, I said, God, are you watching? Like, do you care? Am I wasting my life? Because I'm really poor. It's really hard.

Are you paying attention? And I'm sitting in church and the pastor wants me to give more. And what he didn't know is, just that week before, me and Jill were at dinner with some friends sharing a salad 100%. And our friends told us that they're going to Mexico. Just going to Mexico on a vacation. And we're driving home and I was super quiet. And Jill's like, you okay?

And I'm like, I'm fine. I just, I said, look, I'm happy that they're going to Mexico. I just wish I could take you there. Because you deserve that. I just don't have that, you know. And a couple days later, I came home from interning at the church all day. Come home, I'm tired. I got my backpack.

I walk in. My wife meets me at the back door. She says, babe, come here. I said, what are we doing? Come with me. She brought me into the living room of our little apartment. We had this little two-person table that someone had given to us, and she had moved it out of the way.

And she put two beach towels on the floor. And she took yellow construction paper, and she cut out rays and taped them on a lamp and put them like the sun. And she made tacos, and there's a little boombox with the sound of ocean waves. She said, babe, tonight, let's not worry about money. tonight we're going to Mexico I got a cool wife huh pastor says let's excel in the grace of giving

let's give big and I'm thinking I got nothing I bet you vacation pretty good I just went to Mexico in my living room on our way home we're talking about it and we felt like God was calling us to give to excel in the grace of giving and give to this ministry and we parked out in front of the apartment and we're sitting in the car and Jill's like, I think we're supposed to do it. And I'm like, I know, I think we are. She goes, what if we just gave it all? I'm not insinuating in any way, shape, or form that you should do that. I'm telling you my journey.

Here's what I'm thinking. I don't know how we're going to pay rent this month. I don't know how we're going to pay our car insurance this month. I said, babe, how much do we have? we had a paper checkbook you guys remember those things she opened it up she said she said we have $50 to our name i'm not going to be able to pay those things anyways so let's do it and we wrote the check the next day you can't make this stuff up the next day i'm walking through the church down this hallway and this guy with a really nice suit walks up to me and he hands me an envelope he goes you're

shone right the intern said yeah he goes start walking up off. I said, what's this? He goes, I don't know. God woke me up in the middle of the night last night and told me to give it to you. See ya. I opened it up as a check for $5,000. Paid the rent, paid the car insurance. Me and Jill went to Red Lobster. Got those cheesy biscuits. I went and sat in my car and just bawled. The money was great, but you know the deal, especially when you're in debt like it goes fast. I wasn't crying because we got $5,000 I was crying because for the first time as a Christian, I felt like God was paying attention. I sat in the car and cried and said, God, you are watching. You are with me. You do care.

See, I was about to quit the internship because I couldn't take it. Because of that moment and how close I felt to God, I stayed in the intern program, and then I became a youth pastor, and then a young adult's pastor, and then got to start a church called Red Rock's Church, and then met a guy named Pastor. Craig Groschelle and then got to stand up here and talk to you. The entire direction of my life has changed. It's triggered from generosity. A $50 check changed the course of my life. I want that for you, Life Church. And I believe that's what God meant, what he said. Like, you start being generous towards my kingdom. He's got everything. He doesn't need my money. He doesn't need your money. He doesn't need it. He's got everything. He says, you start being

generous towards building my kingdom. And watch what I'm going to do in your life. He's got everything. He doesn't need my money. and there's going to come a day when you're going to turn around and go, oh my gosh, look what God has done. That's what he wants. Generosity has brought peace into my life in ways I never thought I would experience. Purpose and joy in ways that just floored me. And he brought me closer to him than I'd ever felt before. And I promise you, Life Church, that's been my prayer all week. I want you to experience that. Amen. Amen. I love you, Life Church. Thank you for letting me hang out with you today. Well, I would think our church might just want you to stick around, Pastor. And especially if you keep your wife with you, we love you like family. And the message really moved me and spoke to me.

And my story is very similar in the resistance to experience the blessing. And I just want to say to our church family, I am overwhelmed, like overwhelmed with the work of God in you and through you. What we're able to accomplish together is mind-blowing. I had a friend text me and said, would you mind talking to my 14-year-old daughter? She has something who wants to tell you.

And so I talked to this sweet little girl, and she said I was saving up for a musical instrument and had saved up a large portion of money, and she said, I just feel prompted that I'm supposed to give it that God can do more with that through our church. 14-year-old daughter, 14-year-old girl. And I just told her, I said, you have no idea what God can do, not through that kind of money, but through that kind of obedience and that kind of faith.

And the ability to give the Bible app away to half of a billion people and to serve hundreds of thousands of pastors and to reach people at locations across the United States and serve churches across the world is made up by 14-year-old girls with faith. It's made up of wealthy people with faith. is made up of everybody from the beginning to the end saying, God, here I am. Use me. Use me. And so I just want to say to you, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your generosity. And we say all the time that we'll lead the way with their rational generosity because we truly believe it's more blessed to give than is to receive. Well, we'll lead the way, we'll lead the way,

will lead the way. And some of you, you may find the joy like you never have before. The blessing of stepping into faith and trusting God and seeing what he will do. Now, Pastor Sean, because of your set up today, we'll probably close the message a little bit different because I know there are a lot of people that are going to want to peek today. A lot of peekers. And we're going to call it holy peaking today. But what we're going to do before we give you that chance is we're going to open up our hearts to God. And wherever you're watching from today at all of our life churches, church online, YouTube, the whole family, just let's take a moment and go before God in prayer. God, thank you so much. Thank you, first of all, that you're a generous God, that you loved us

so much that you gave your son, Jesus. And God, I pray today that if there's anyone that feels skeptical, God, please don't let him give here. Store up generosity to give somewhere in the world, somewhere else just give, give, give, give, give, give, give, give. God, to those who are planted in this church, this is their home, God, we thank you, that we have the blessing of being able to give into good ground. Stir within us the heart of generosity. As you're listening and just kind of have an open heart toward God today, I just want to ask you a question.

I want you to think about what Pastor Sean talked about. There's a peace. There's a peace of trusting God. There's a joy of being used by God. and there's a closeness and intimacy when we're generous to the God who is generous with us. Those of you today that say,

I wanna experience a little bit of overflow. I want the overflow of joy, the overflow of peace, I want the overflow of purpose. I wanna overflow of intimacy with God. I wanna experience that, the goodness, the blessings of obedience to God and generosity. Would you just lift up your hands right now, just lift them up around the room?

Those of you online, you can say, you can type it in the chat, I wanna experience the overflow, goodness of God. Thank you, Father, that it's impossible to out give you. And so with a heart of worship in response to who you are, make us a generous church. God, thank you that we can meet needs in our community, that we can be generous to those who are far from you. God, that we can touch needs around the world through missions and partnerships and local partnerships. God, thank you that we can disciple children, that we can evangelize teenagers, that we can spread the message and empower pastors

around the world. And God, thank you that you have allowed us, just a local church, to steward the greatest tool of distributing your word in the history of the world. God, thank you for trusting us and using generous people to spread your word to the Bible app. Stir up within us, God, the gift of generosity. As you keep praying today, I'm gonna just ask you not to look around, and in a moment, I'm gonna ask you to look around. There are those of you, you may wonder, where do I stand with God?

And I love the power of Pastor Sean's testimony, a young kid who was a drug addict who came to church, just like you're here today or watching online, and in his brokenness, in his darkness, and his sinfulness. He experienced the love and the grace of God. Who is God? How much does He love you? He loves you so much.

He loves you so much. It doesn't matter what you've done, how broken your life is. He loves you. And he loves you so much that he became one of you, that a holy God became a man, God in the flesh, in the person of Jesus. It was God in the flesh, and Jesus was perfect in every way. It was Jesus who said, it's more blessed to give than to receive, and he knew it, because there was no greater gift than he could give

than lay down his life while we were still sinning, While we were sinning against God, Jesus laid down his life. He shed his innocent blood that we could be forgiven. He died in our place, and God raised him from the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter how bad your life has been, doesn't matter how far you feel from God, anyone, anyone who calls out on that name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. Scripture says that all of your sins, they'll be washed away, they'll be forgiven, you'll be free,

of that and you'll become new. What I'm going to ask you to do is we're going to all pray this prayer and at the end we're going to all peek. Everybody's going to peak. And we're going to give some people today in front of God and everybody the chance to say, I prayed that prayer today and we're going to celebrate and we're going to worship because everyone who gives and everyone who serves is a part of new life in Christ. Those of you today that say I need that forgiveness, I need some grace. Just everybody pray aloud. Would you pray aloud?

Pray a loud. Pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Jesus forgive me. All of my sins. Wash them away. Make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit so I could truly know you.

So I could show your love. So I belong to you. My life is not mine. I give it all to you. Thank you, Jesus, for new life, for forgiveness, for peace, for purpose, and that I can be close to you. I give you my whole life.

In Jesus' name I pray. Now I need a bunch of peekers right now, everybody looking around, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to count to three, and if you said that prayer today, and if you mean it, if you recognize, hey, that's a big step, and I gotta do it in front of people.

And scripture kind of says this. Jesus said, hey, if you confess me before people, I will confess you before my father. If you're ashamed of me, I don't have a whole lot of time for you. So let's just go big today. Let's just go bold today wherever you're watching. You can type it in the chat. You can say, I surrender my life to Jesus.

In a moment, I'm gonna count to three. And if you prayed that prayer today, I want you to lift up your hands. And we're gonna all peek, and we're all gonna celebrate with the angels in heaven who are rejoicing with new life. You prayed that prayer. you want new life in Christ.

One, two, three. Lift up your hands right now. Lift up your hands all over the place. Somebody go crazy today. Somebody thank God today. Let's worship God. Let's worship God. You're a part of new life in Christ.

Welcome into the family of God. Today we rejoice that he who the sons sets free is free indeed. God help us to lead the way with irrational generosity, showing the love of Jesus. truly believe is more blessed to give life, give love, give faithfulness, give the word than it is to receive. Bless this church to be a blessing to the world. We pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen and amen, amen.