Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - I Choose, Part 3: Discipline Over Regret

Episode Date: August 21, 2016

We are the result of our decisions. While we agonize over little things like what to wear and what to eat, are we glossing over the big choices? There might be more on the line than you thought when you say “I Choose.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Um, can you tell us more about the flattened marriage? It's full of regrets and comes rested on a bed of half-boiled excuses and unfinished to-do lists. Oh, that sounds nice. It's our anniversary. Congratulations. How many years? No idea. We can't remember. How about dessert on the house? Tonight's selection is a low-motivation pie.

Well, that's our favorite. Let me get that order going for you. To years of neglect. I am really glad to have all of you with us at all of our life churches, our open network churches, our family, all over the world at church online. If you're just now joining us, we are in part three of a four-part message series called I Choose. I choose. What we're doing is we're looking at four big choices that we are intentionally and prayerfully going to make.

Why are we doing this? Because when you think about it, what are we now? essentially we are the sum total of the choices that we have made. What are you now? We are the sum total of the choices that you have made. If you think about it, the choices that we're making today will determine who we become and what we can do tomorrow. I choose.

Let me tell you about next week. I really believe that almost everybody can be significantly impacted next week. I bet all of you are like me. You've got so many urgent things grabbing at your attention. Got to do this. Got to do that. Got to do this. Next week, we're going to talk about a very important message.

We're going to choose the important over the urgent. We choose the important over the urgent. Today, to introduce our theme, I'll tell you about my seminary preaching professor taught me this. In seminary, my preaching professor said, always start a message with a positive tone, with some kind of interesting hook, whatever you do, never start a message with a negative. Okay? Never start with a negative. I didn't do a lot of things I learned in seminary, and I'm going to break that rule today.

I'm going to start with a negative. Are you ready for it? Here it is. You are going to experience a lot of pain in this life. You're going to experience pain. Welcome to Life Church, where we're here to make you feel good about yourself and give you an uplifting word to encourage you today. You're going to experience pain. pain. All of us will. The reality is a lot of the pain that we experience will be outside of our

ability to control. Jesus even said this. John 1633, Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble. A lot of times it's not your fault. You get in a freak accident. Somebody you love betrays you and hurts you. Your company downsizes. Now you're looking for a job. Your kid comes home with a cute little kitten. A lot of pain will happen in your life from beyond your control, right, okay? Now you got a cat, okay? The reality is, though, that some pain is within your control. In other words, you will have a choice between one type of pain or another. You can choose your pain. Think of it this way. You can choose the pain of obeying your parents today or face the pain of the consequences later. And all the parents said, amen, right? You can choose the pain of living within your means today.

or choose the pain of battling a mountain of debt tomorrow. You can choose the pain of studying for the exam today or experience the pain of retaking the class later. You can choose your pain. What I want to do today is I want to talk about choosing a certain type of pain. Our big decision we're going to look at today is this. I am choosing the pain of discipline over the pain. of regret. What are we going to do? We're going to choose discipline over regret. We can all have

different types of pain, but we're going to choose the pain of discipline over the pain of regret. If you're taking notes, let's go ahead and get a working definition of discipline. There would be many. This is one of my favorites I've used for years. What is discipline? I'm going to define it this way. Discipline is choosing between what you want to, want now and what you want most. What is discipline? It's choosing between what you want now and what you want most. In order to set this up, what I want to do is I want to look at some of the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7, and I've got to be honest, man, it makes me feel so good to see Paul say what he says. He almost sounds crazy when he's saying it. Now, if you're new to

church, maybe you're not a Christian, you may not know much about the Apostle Paul. Let me just give you a little context. This was the guy who met the risen Christ, like Christ was already dead, rose again. Paul experiences this glorified Christ. He's healed of blindness. Paul was caught up into this place called the third heaven. Paul wrote almost a third of the New Testament. So if there's anybody who had a spiritual edge, okay, Paul had it. If there's anybody who should have been able to get it right, It was Paul. And in Romans chapter 7, Paul talks about how difficult it was to do the right thing. And I'll be honest, his struggle to get it right makes me feel so good because I often

messed it up so big. This is what he says in Romans 715. Paul says this. He almost sounds crazy. He says, I don't really understand myself. For I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. All of our churches, how many have ever done that before?

How many? I can't believe I ate the whole thing. I didn't want to eat the whole thing. I ate the whole thing. How that happened. He says, I want to do what is right, but I can't. He says, I want to do what's good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

Then he says, have you ever felt this way I have? Oh, what a miserable person I am. Who will free me from this life dominated by sin and death? He sounds like there is no hope. And what's going to happen? I can't do it. I want to do what's wrong. I don't want to do what's wrong.

I end up doing it anyway. Who can help me? And then his tone changes. And he says, thank God. I'm a crazy man. I can't get it right on my own, but I don't have to get it right on my own. He says, the answer is where?

Let's all say it aloud. He says, the answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. What's he saying? I want to do the right thing. I can't do it. I'm often ashamed that I didn't get it right. I feel so down on myself.

I feel so embarrassed. You would think that by now I could get this right. I don't get it right. Who can ever help me? And he says, thank God. The answer is not in me being better. It's not in me being stronger. The answer is in Jesus Christ, my Lord. And this is the key to our whole message today that on our own, we are prone to over time make wrong choices. But with the help of the power of Christ, he can, in and us to choose not what we want now, but what we really want most. With the help of Christ, we will choose discipline over regret. And I want to let Paul take us on a journey to do this,

because it's really fun to watch his growth as he learned to tap into the power of Christ and to live a more disciplined life. This is the guy that says, I can't get it right, and watch how he progresses. First Corinthians 924, he uses the imagery, or the metaphor of a race. And I love the way he says it. He says, don't you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. Everyone runs, but only one person wins.

And in case you're wondering, his name is Bolt. I'm just saying, okay? I'm just saying, that's what his name is. You know, it should have been in the Bible, but it wasn't. Everyone wants to win, but only one person gets the prize. And so what does Paul say? He says, so run to win. and everybody will say that aloud.

He says, so do what? Let's all say it. He says, so run to win. He said, when you're running, we're not running for second place. When you're running, you're running with every bit of focus, intensity, power that you have. You are running to win. I love this. This fires me up, and I'll tell you why.

This is a side note just for fun. Our staff, we do a lot of development, spiritual development, and leadership development. One of the tools that we used, and if you don't use this in your business, or nonprofit, you might consider it, it's called strength finders, strength finders. There's 34 different strengths according to this one researcher, and what we do is we kind to go through and help people identify their top five strengths. And there's so many of them, positivity, woo, maximizer, strategic, on and on and on. My top strength, you might guess, is competition.

That's why I like run to win, run to win. Number one gift is competition. I refuse to lose. Sometimes people say, well, my number two gift is competition. I always say if your number two is competition, then I win, okay? Right? If you're not number one, it shouldn't be on there anyway, okay? It's like, competition means it's got to be there.

So just saying that I wanted to work that in, I don't know why, I just like that. Paul says run to win, okay? Then he goes on, and you can see how this is really contagious imagery. He says this. He says, all athletes are what? Let's say it aloud. All athletes are discipline. in their training. If you're going to win, what do you have to do? You have to choose what you want most over what you want now, right? What I want most is to be in tip-top shape. What I want now is to sleep in and eat pizza. You have to choose what you want most over what you want now. We're disciplined in our training. In fact, I like that the root word for discipline is the same root word that creates the word disciples. What are we? We are disciples of Jesus. We're following Christ. We are disciplined as disciples. He goes on to say. We're disciples. He goes on to see. We're disciples. We are.

say all athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away. In other words, they're doing it. You know, when your soccer team wins, what do you get? A cheap little plastic trophy, okay? A little blue, you know, ribbon. If you're the best of the best, you get a gold medal. All that fades away. We as Jesus followers, though, what do we do it for? We do it for what? For an eternal prize. That's why we run to win. That's why we run to win. We're not doing it for some little trophy that passes away. We're doing it to honor and glorify the one who gave his life for us. That's why we do it.

Everything we do, we work as unto the Lord, not for human masters, but to glorify God. That's why we run to win with everything in us. And I love the imagery that Paul's talking about. And when he said to his audience, run the race, they would have been thinking of the race known as the Isthmian Games. That race was very popular with tremendous patriotic pride. It's not too different than the Olympics. And what these athletes would do is they would go into a 10-month, very strict training. No junk food, no alcohol.

They would expose themselves to extreme heat and extreme cold to sock and train their bodies. And then the author to the Hebrews used the same imagery and said, you run the race that's marked out for you. That I love what this author said. He said, let us strip off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And he's saying this in the context of the race. And this is important because his audience would have known exactly what he was talking about. He said, let us strip off anything that hinders us from running to win.

Let us take off any sin that entangles. And when he said, strip off for the race, everyone there would have known. That's what the athletes did. Literally, this is kind of gross, but what they would do is they would take their clothing off so there would be nothing to slow them down. So they ran naked, which gives you an entirely another and big reason to run to win. I'm racing a bunch of naked men. I'm not coming in second.

I want to be in first. Okay? I'm just saying? I'm just saying, okay? Sorry we had to go there, but it's kind of obvious, all right? We're running to win, okay? And we're not running to win some earthly prize. We are running to win a prize that will never spoil, perish, or fade.

We are running to glorify our Father in heaven. Okay, that's why, let me just kind of rant for a minute. When you come to church every week, what do you do? I mean, you come with a prayerful expectation. If I'm in your shoes, I want to get there early. I want to get up front. If I'm going to a game, I want good seats, man. I want to be close to the action, okay?

I want to be up front, I want to be early, and then I want to be prayerful. God, I'm coming expecting to hear from you today. God, I'm coming to bring you a sacrifice of praise and worship today, and God I'm believing you're going to use me to impact a life today. Every time, what's the, I'm running to win. I'm coming to the house of my God with an expectation. He's going to speak to me. I'm going to glorify him.

He's going to use me. Oh, we went to church today. I'm an encountering God. I'm hearing from God. I'm being transformed by his power and his presence. And I'm going to minister to someone else. I am serving God today. I'm here with purpose.

And so when you come in every week, you expect, believe that God will speak to you. And I promise you, you'll hear from him in worship. You'll hear from him in a conversation. You will be different if you come with that expectation. So with that in mind, here's something else I learned in seminary. That your messages should always have a so what. my professor always said that it needs to have a so what? In other words, what is the application?

We're not just communicating knowledge. We're communicating knowledge that transformed and we can live out by the power of God. And so I've got two application questions for you, and this is really big. And let me just set it up. Let me just set it up. There are some of you that because of this time in the presence of God, the trajectory of your life will significantly change. I promise. I promise. I promise there are some of you that this is a divine moment which you're about to experience is an encounter with the spirit of God and a truth that can literally change the trajectory of your life. Let's go for it.

Okay? Question. What do you want most? I need your help here. What I want you to do is think about what do you want most in your life right now. And don't tell me something stupid like you want to win the lottery, you know, or you're going to divorce your husband and Mary Channing Tatum. Okay. Work with me.

Give me something real here. Give me something godly here. Okay. What do you want most? What do you want most? Some of you recognize it's time for me to take Christ seriously. You know, I want to get close to God. Someone else is going to be, it's time to get in better shape. I'm going to quit smoking. You know, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to lose 20 pounds, something like that. For some of you, it's all right. Game on, man. I'm paying off my credit cards and I'm getting rid of my student loan debt.

Game on. Bring it on. This is going away. For some of you, it might be the marriage, you know what? We are no longer going to tolerate average. We're no longer going to tolerate bad. We want intimacy. We want to honor God. Whatever it is. You name what you want most. Now, be careful here because somebody going to go, well, I want blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I need to change a bunch of things. I'm undisciplined on my lives. I need to quit smoking, doing crack, gambling, you know, shooting people. Then just start with one. I understand. We're all there. Okay. Start with what you want most.

And what happens is once you start finding victory in one area, guess what? It becomes easier by the power of God to find victory in other areas. Pick an area. What I want you do, if you will, write it down. Okay? Go ahead. I'm looking for somebody to do this. I'm just looking for somebody.

I'm feeling you all in Wellington. Somebody do this. Look, somebody just fake it. Just fake it. Make me feel better. Just fake it. Somebody. Anybody.

You may have a pen, man. Just like, use your finger. Thank you. All right. Okay. All right. What do you want most? Now, second application question is this.

What do you need to choose now to achieve what you want most? Really simple. What do you need to choose now? Because we're disciplined people. We're disciplined people. What do you need to choose now to achieve what you want most? You're smart people. figure this out. What do you want most? You say, I really want to be close to God. This is easy.

So what are we going to choose? We choose a U-Versian reading plan. We are students of God's word. We do it together in community. We are people who worship God in his house every single week. Church is not an option. It is a priority. We seek God first every single week. We're there early, we're prayerful, we're serving. We're involved in community. We are people of Jesus who do life in life groups with other people. We would never try to serve Jesus without the strength of a community. We know what to do. What do you need to choose now? And so you do that. You're wanting to get in better shape, lose 20 pounds. Okay, what do you do? Well, it's pretty easy. You're going to join a gym, perhaps get a trainer or get some kind of home workout thing.

You're going to get some advice on your diet because, man, 90% of it's going to be your diet. And most likely they're going to tell you we're going to lower the carbs, lower the sugar, perhaps increase the protein or whatever it is. And then you're going to start to start. applying it. Why? Because you want something most and you're not going to settle for what you want now. Instead, you're going to choose what you want most. I'm asking that question. You may say, well, I want a great marriage. What are you going to do? Not rocket science. If you're Christians, we might be praying together. How would we expect spiritual intimacy without seeking spiritual intimacy? It might mean that you have a date night every week. Once a week, we need a couple of hours with no

rug rats, you know, going and having time to discuss things together. It might be, you need a little, you need more than a tweak, you need an overhaul. So we're inviting a third party in. We're inviting spiritual counsel in to counsel us. It might mean, you're going to tell your kids this weekend we're having an NIB conference. We're going to NIB conference. What is an NIB conference? Kids are going to Grandmalls. We've got an NIB conference. NIB stands for naked in bed all weekend long. You're at grandmas. We're at an NIB conference. We're at an NIB conference.

And all the men said, amen. Jesus wants you to have this. I'm sure he is. At least I hope he is. That's what I'm preaching. Jesus wants you to have about once a quarter. An NIB conference. NICN.

NIC conference. Just thank me later. Okay. So a lot of you all are going, all right. Okay, so I got to do, I want to get out of debt. I want to get, what do we do? Well, man, this is easy. we're getting in a Dave Ramsey financial peace class.

Super easy. Imagine this, two months of a one night a week, that it could change your life forever. You can say, well, that's hard, yeah. It's going to take some work, yeah? And praying's awkward, yeah? And go into counseling, expensive, yeah. Choose your pain.

Seriously, choose your pain. Choose your pain. You can choose the pain of discipline, or you will experience the pain of regret. What do you want most? And what do you need to choose now to achieve or experience what you want most? Let's let Paul guide us through this principle. 1 Corinthians 9, 26, and 27.

Paul's continuing with this imagery of the race. And he says, so I run with what? Let's all say it aloud. He says, so I run with purpose in every step. I love this. I run with purpose and every step. I'm not just shadow boxing. What does he say?

I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. I run with purpose in every step, training my body to do what it should. I run with purpose in every step, training my body to do what it should. I talked on discipline a couple of years ago to our staff, and afterwards I was so disappointed in what everybody said. they're like, Craig, it's easier for you because you're a naturally disciplined person. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. No, no. You missed the point entirely. I am incredibly undisciplined. I am incredibly undisciplined. Man, I like junk food. I like to sleep in.

If my kids are fighting, I don't want to get up. I just want to give them boxing gloves and say, tell me who wins, okay? I don't want to deal with that stuff. Like anybody, I am incredibly undisciplined. That's why I have to run with purpose in every step. In other words, I have to say, Jesus, I need you here, and now I need you here. And I need you in this moment, and I need you in this moment. What I hope you'll understand is there is never a moment where I don't need Jesus. I need them all the time. Without him, I'm like, Paul, I want to do what's right, and I do what's wrong.

I don't want to do what's wrong, and I do what's wrong. Why? I need him every moment of every day. I need his power. I need his strength. I need him with me. When I am weak, I need him to be what I can. not be for myself. I'm incredibly undisciplined. I have accountability in my life. Why? Because I need

accountability in my life. I have structure in my life. Why? Because I need structure in my life. I have people who pray for me and ask me hard questions. Why? Because I need people to pray for me and ask me hard questions. Let me explain it like this. I was talking to a Christ-centered psychologist and she gave me an image that was super helpful. I want to try to do my best to explain it to you like this, she said, imagine you're walking out your front door. And what you want is you want a beautiful yard. That's what you want. You want a beautiful yard. But to get down to the street, what you have to do is you have to actually turn and walk on a sidewalk and go out of your way to the driveway, avoiding the yard before you walk all the way down to the sidewalk. You want a beautiful

yard, but there's a little longer path to get there. What she said is the problem is when you come out, sometimes you say, I want a beautiful yard, but the shortest distance between me and my destination is through the front yard. And so you think to yourself, well, this is an easier path. It won't matter if I travel this path one time. And guess what? It's not that big of a deal. You walk it one time. It didn't really hurt anything. And so the next day you come out and you think, well, I probably should, shouldn't do that again, but I did it yesterday, and it was kind of fun. Why is it fun? Because when you travel a path you're not supposed to, your brain releases a little chemical called dopamine. You're like, I'm not supposed to do this. That was fun. And it gives you a legal high.

That was a high. Oh, that was a high. Woo! I'm doing something forbidden. And so your brain is getting all jacked. This is fun. And this is easy. And then once you do it several times, when you walk out, you say, well, I've been doing it all this time, and nothing's really happened, and so you just keep on doing it. And your brain has created what they would call a new neural pathway, where this is simply what I do when I walk out. Now, I just walk across the yard. And once you do that long enough, what do you do?

You create a trail across the yard, and what you wanted was a beautiful yard, and now you don't have it, because you chose what you wanted now over what you wanted. most. As disciples of Jesus, we are going to be disciplined. We instead are going to choose what we want most over what we want now. So what we do is when we walk out, we stop and say, oh, I want a nice yard. So with purpose in every step, we're training our bodies to be disciplined. This may take a little longer, maybe a little more time consuming, may be a little more difficult, but we're

choosing what we want most over what we want now. Let me tell you how it plays out. This weekend, my two sons are in two soccer tournaments, eight games. So like Amy's in church and she just snuck out, back and forth the games, nonstop. So we wouldn't normally do this, but there was, like, they were hungry and there was any time to get anywhere. So there was a donut store, and they said, let's look, we got to get some food in their bodies. And so we went to get donuts, okay? Reason we wouldn't do that is because I don't need donuts. Not because I don't like them, because I love them. Love them.

We went in this donut store. Dear God, it was the best donut store I've ever seen. They had, like, new donuts. There's like, I'm in there, I'm telling you, I wanted the chocolate covered sprinkled ones, the chocolate cover with no sprinkles, the glazed, the strawberry ones. I wanted the twist. I wanted, I literally like hot dogs. I wanted the dog in the carb-filled bun.

It's all there. Do you know they used to have donut holes? Now they've got filled donut holes. Help us all. They've got lemon in them. They've got raspberry in them. So here's what it is. Okay?

So I'm walking out. My door. Donuts. I want to walk down that path. I want, want, want, want, want, want. But more than what I want now, what do I want most? I want to honor God with my body. I need physical strength to serve him.

When you think about donuts look good, but you've ever squeezed one? Squeeze them one time. You'll throw up in your mouth. It's the nastiest thing ever. I'm not putting that trash in my body because, I mean, this is God's body. I'm not putting garbage in this thing and expecting a great result. So what am I doing? Well, I want that, I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it, but I'm stopping.

God help me. I'm choosing purpose in every step. I'm choosing what I want most over what I want now, and that's what we're doing. So I'm not walking down that path. I'm creating a new neurological, new neural pathway. So the next time it's kind of easier. Like, yeah, I don't do know-inous, man. I have something, a higher calling.

Same thing with finances, okay? I want to buy this thing. The shortest distance between me, and that boat is debt. I want that boat. So what I want to do is this, but because I want something more, which is not to be obligated under debt and the freedom so I can just help people and be generous, instead what I do is choose, ah, I'm going to walk this way, and I'm going to save, I'm going to save, I'm going to continue to give, I'm going to save,

and then I'm going to have what I want most over what I want now. Let me just be real with you. Is it okay if I just be real? Can you guys handle it? Long before I was a pastor, I used to be a man. It freaks people out. They don't know. It's hard for them to deal with, but I used to actually have like real temptations.

Now, you know, everything floats and everything's holy and all that kind of stuff, okay? Lying to you, right? Still a man, as much as it's like freaking out. I'm still vulnerable to things that men are vulnerable to, right? Attractive woman comes up, okay? There's the sinful part of me wants to go, you know, whatever, you know, just look, I don't know where that came from, but you know what I'm saying. I'm a human, I'm a man, I'm a sinful man, okay?

So I walk out my house and I'm in a gym, and one of you are dressed entirely inappropriate. There are many of you, and, you know, you're wearing next to nothing. And so, what do I do? my sinful lust want to look and take the shortcut, okay? But what happens is I stop and say, no, I want to honor God. I want to honor my wife, Amy, I want to fight for purity in my life. I'm choosing with purpose in every step to walk this way. If you get closer, I'll walk this way, okay?

Because I am vulnerable to this, so I choose with purpose in every step. The more I do this, the more I create a neural pathway. And so now I can just, hey, yeah, that's not what I do. Why? I'm choosing, and I've got the path that I know is right. I'm choosing what I want most over what I want now. And here's the key. Here's the key.

What I tell myself every day, every day I get up and I go through a list of personal declarations, I declare them out loud because they really matter to me. One of my declarations is this. I say this. Every day I say, and it's very important to me. I say, I am disciplined. Christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires. me. Every word is important. I'm telling myself, I am disciplined. I've got new neural pathways,

and in fact, from a biblical perspective, what that means is God's word actually renews your mind. You no longer think in a sinful pattern, but you think more with the mind of Christ. I am disciplined, but not me, but Christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires than me. And this is so important. That's what Paul said. Hey, I want to do it's right, but I can't. Who can help me? Christ is the one who can help me. Christ is the one who empowers me to choose what I want most over what I want now. It's Christ in me who leads me to choose discipline over regret. That's why I run the race. Now here's what's really important and don't miss this. What did you write down or what is in the front of your mind about what you want most? Think about it. What do you want most? What do you want most?

What do you need to choose now to achieve or experience what you want most? Here's the thing. thing. If you do not do something now about what you want most, that will very likely become your greatest regret. Let me say it again and feel it. If you do not do something now about that which you want most, that will very likely become your greatest regret. And I, for one, refuse to live with regrets. I will not be the father who says, I give any of it. I give any of you. I give anything to go back and have time with my kids, but I was too busy, blah, blah, blah, and I missed it. I will not be the husband who says, oh my gosh, if I'd only check those lust and been honest, I wouldn't have lost my marriage. I will not be that man. I will not be the one late in my life

and says, man, if I'd only taken care of my body, I wouldn't be dealing with this right now. Listen, you talk to anybody at the end of their life who's battling with regrets. It'll change everything. I refuse to be the one who lives with those regrets. in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me. And the bottom line is this is we all have a choice. We have a choice. And that's why for some of you, today is the day it all changes. What are you doing? You're walking out your door. You're looking and saying, this is what I want. If I can just stay off that grass long enough, guess what? God makes the grass grow again. God is a redeeming God. And I run with purpose in every single step. I run with purpose in every single step.

And as God is renewing the places that I trampled on, I will choose the path that always brings healing. I am a disciple of Jesus, disciplined. And as a disciple with his power, we choose discipline over regret. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would do a life-changing work in our hearts. All of our churches today, many of you right now, you say, man, there are a lot of things I need to change. I'm on discipline in this area, that area, whatever. You pick one. What do you want most?

What do you want most? and we're going to bring that before God and our life groups this week, we're going to talk about it. If you are not in a life group, you will be in a life group because life is better together. We are not going to try to serve Jesus alone. We are connected in his community, relying on the strength of others and encouraging one another's in your life group.

You will say, here's where I am. Here's what I need. Here's where I'm going. Pray for me. And guess what? Christ in you will be stronger than the wrong desires in you. And if you happen to accident, And then weeps, I walked through the yard.

Guess what? It's not the end of the game. There is redemption. There is forgiveness. And the next time, you just choose to turn right, one step, in the right direction, away from what you want now, toward what you want most. All of our churches, you'd say, yes, there is something like that. There's something I really do want.

I refuse to be one who regrets it later. God, help me be disciplined now to achieve and experience what you want most for me. I need your help. That's you today. All of our churches. Lift your hands high now. Right now, all of our churches, lift your hands up. Hands going up all over the place with people who came to church expecting to encounter and hear from God.

So now Holy Spirit minister to us. May you seal the truth of your word deep within our hearts. Conform our minds, transform our minds, renew our minds, conform us to the image of Christ. Create new neural pathways, spiritual pathways. This is who we are. We're disciplined, disciple, disciple. disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, give us the wisdom to stop

whenever we want easy. Help us to choose right over easy. God help us to choose by the power of Christ what we want most for your glory over what we want now. Because we're running to win with purpose in every step. Not for a temporary prize,

but for an eternal prize for your kingdom. God help us to run to win. As you keep praying today at all of our church says there are so many of you that if you look at your life right now, you're kind of frustrated. You tried your best to do things right and you still do things wrong. You can really relate to Paul. Hey, I'm trying to get it right. I'm trying not to do bad. I'm trying to do good. But when I try to do good, I end up doing bad. When I try not do bad, I still do it. Who can help me? Who can help me? Here's the problem. Let me just tell you plainly, and this is not

popular. And a lot of people would argue today, but quite frankly, they're dead wrong. And the truth is, we are all sinners. We're all sinners by nature. We are sinful people. You never have to bring a kid in and say, today we're having sin lessons. Today I'm going to teach you to be selfish. We are naturally selfish. It's mine. We're self-centered, sinful beings. And no matter how hard you try to get it right, guess what? You cannot get it right on your own because we are bent towards sin. And that's why the grace of God is so amazing, and that's why it's called good news. Because God sent Jesus, who was without sin. Jesus became sin for us on the cross.

He died for our sins, rose again. Why? So that anyone who calls on him would be forgiven. Anyone, no matter what you've done, no matter how dark your life is, no matter how messed up you are when you call on him,

he hears your prayer, he forgives you, he transforms you, he makes you new. Some of you, you're on a path, you're taking one step, off of your path, onto his path. Jesus, today, I give my life to you.

I need your grace. I surrender Jesus. Take my life and make me new this. Your prayer. Lift your hands high now. All of our churches and say, yes, I surrender. Right over here. God bless you back on this side.

You as well. Back over here on this side. Others today who say, me too. Right back here. Right back over here toward the back in this section. Fantastic. Others today, call on him.

Call on his grace. Church online, you click right below me. Right back over here toward the back and over here as well. when we celebrate with you. We praise God with you. We praise God with you. Everybody praying together.

Nobody prays alone. Pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life asking Jesus to save me from my sins and make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I could be yours, your disciple, disciplined,

and following you with purpose in every step. today I give you my life completely to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray, all of our churches, would you worship big, worship loud? Welcome those born into God's family today.