Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Love Like Jesus, Part 1: Forgives Sinners

Episode Date: April 3, 2016

There’s so much pain and hurt in the world, sometimes it's hard to see anything else. But what if, when we looked around, all we saw was love? The greatest sacrifice in history shows us how to make it happen. Let’s learn to Love Like Jesus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Life Church, we are one church meeting in multiple locations across the United States and reaching worldwide through our network churches and church online. If you have any questions or you'd like to learn more about us, you can always visit us online at life.church. Coming up today, we'll learn how love is not simply something that we do, but rather a lens we can use to see the world in a completely different way. We'll join our senior pastor Craig Rochelle for part one of his message, Love Like Jesus. It is fantastic to have all of you with us today at all of our churches. I want to dive right in. Get a little crowd participation.

How many of you have brothers or sisters? You have siblings, raise every hands, all of our churches. How many of you are the oldest in the family? Oldest, they tell me birth order matters. If you're the oldest, chances are pretty good for most of you. For most of you, you were planned. Someone was hoping for you. Two people loved each other and why.

wanted to have you. How many of you are second? Second? Second, second born? Do you realize you were a play toy for the firstborn? I don't know if you knew that or not. That's what you were. The first one they tell me was probably planned. The second was like, oh, we need some help. Let's have another one so they can like do things together, right? Who was third? Third? Third? Yeah. Very few pictures of you. What happened along the way? I don't know how that happened, you know? We've got like six. I don't I think we have a single photo of number five and number six. In fact, I'm not even sure where number six is right now. She's somewhere, you know.

It's funny how that happens. Well, I'm the oldest. My little sister, her name is Lisa. Her birthday is actually the exact same day as mine, three years apart, which is really close. Same birthday, three years apart. And my parents' anniversary is exactly nine months before. I just made that last part up. But her birthday is the same day as mine, and she's three years younger.

And if you're the oldest one, you know the rules. The rules are you can haze your younger sibling, you can torture them, you can hurt them, you can make them suffer, and that's part of the rules, but nobody else can. You know what? You can give them, you know what, but nobody else can hurt them. And so this is what I did with my sister. We're very close to this day, and I love her like crazy, but I did give her a hard time as a kid. I'd hold her arms down with my knees and you'd do this, and then I'd spit a luggy toward her face

and suck it back up. I, you know, I would make her do all these different levels to get in a club that she'd never quite get in. I did magic trick. I'd put her in the magic box, lock it, until I'd make her disappear and leave the room for hours, and then we'd do that again and again. She'd always fall for it.

And so, I don't know, you know, that's the Big Brother type stuff. But I was crazy about her at Am to this day. And you can only imagine how devastated I was in my family when we found out this. horrible news about what someone had done to my little sister. And I tell you this story with her full permission, but she had a sixth grade teacher that I'll call Max. It's not his real name, but I'll call him Max. And we found out years and years later that Max actually took advantage of a

lot of the sixth grade girls that came through his class and abused them for years to come. We didn't even know the word grooming back then. It wasn't, you know, that wasn't something we talked about that many years ago, but he groomed these young girls, and Max was actually a family friend that significantly abused my sister and many others for years and years and years. And every type of sexual abuse is horrible. Every type is horrible, horrible, gut-wrenching horrible. This was on the upper end of horrible. And I was a freshman in college when I found out. And I will tell you right now, I wanted to hurt Max. I wanted them to die. I wanted him to burn in hell. Okay. If that offends you, that's just what I felt. And I was not a follower of Jesus at

the time. And that is, that is completely what I felt. I, after my sophomore year, I had a real encounter with God and was transformed by Jesus and became very active in following and serving Jesus, my church with all my heart and really submitted myself to my pastor's teaching and believe that his teaching could help change my life by the power of God's word. And he was teaching a message one Sunday and I never will forget the verse. It's a verse that pierced my heart, Matthew chapter six, verses 14 and 15. And he read these words and when he did, I just kind of sensed panic on the inside. He said, for if you forgive other people, quoting Jesus, when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Verse 15, he read these words. He said, but if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. If you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. And I broke into sheer and complete panic because there was nothing inside of me that wanted to forgive Max. In fact, I thought I cannot forgive Max. I will never forgive Max. I hate him with all of my heart. And suddenly I have a problem because Jesus says, I need to forgive and I am unwilling and do not want to forgive. Today, we are starting a brand new message series, and it's called Love Like Jesus. And I want to tell you that I honestly believe that over the next three weeks, that for many of you, you'll have kind of these breakthrough

moments. For some of you it will be today, and for some of you, it will be a painful day as you hear God's word and let God work in your life. Next week, we're going to look at three different images of how Jesus loved. Next week, we're going to look at how Jesus loved by washing feet. I've already prepared this message, and it moves me deeply the principle of serving. And quite honestly, some of you, when you're going to hear this, is going to move you to take a significant step in your life, and when you start to love by serving, it will completely transform you. Week number three is an equally emotional week for me. Jesus breaks bread. We're going to see how he values others in the context of community and relationships, and some of you are going to discover the power

of a shared relationship with Jesus. He washes his feet, he breaks bread. Today, I want to talk about the image that Jesus forgives sinners. Not only does he forgive sinners, but he actually calls us, who are Jesus followers, to do the very same thing to forgive as he has forgiven us. In order to absorb this thought today, I want to look at Luke 23, Luke 23, and we're going to see the most amazing display of forgiveness on the cross. If you can imagine, Jesus, the son of God, completely innocent, never, ever, ever sinned, hanging between two criminals, and we see the most amazing display of supernatural forgiveness. Luke 23, verse 32, says this.

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with Jesus to be executed. When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on his right, and the other on his left. As we read about the crucifixion or watch it portrayed on movies, I think a lot of times we don't really understand just how horrible it was to be crucified. To crucify a person that was actually very expensive. It was one of the more expensive ways to kill somebody because of the manpower.

It took in order to do it. It took a lot of time. And this was reserved to really make a statement to completely humiliate and torture someone publicly. So the criminals would be stripped down naked. They would be harassed. If you can imagine, stakes being driven through your hands and your feet. then they would hang them to suffocate.

So basically you have to push yourself up with tremendous pain to get a breath. And then when you can't do that anymore, you're literally suffocating naked and exposed. When you watch it in the movies, they show like their feet are this high and you're looking up at them. This is actually not how they would crucify someone.

Actually, their feet would be about this high off the ground. And so you'd literally be just one step away from getting a breath. So you're like, if I could just do this, I could get a breath and live. And so when people came by and mocked those on the cross, they weren't looking up going, ah, la, they were looking at you, essentially eye to eye in your face, spitting in your face,

calling you names. And that's exactly where Jesus was, when the creation that he was dying for was mocking the creator in the flesh, hey, you call yourself king of the Jews, one criminal saying, you saved others, save yourself. They're spitting on him. He's been beaten literally to where his internal organs

are exposed by hitting by whips, and Jesus looks up to his father and prays the most unbelievable, loving, grace-filled prayer that you can imagine. In verse 34, he says, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. For they do not know what they are doing. Jesus was asking his father to forgive those who were doing in the moment while he was suffering what seemed to be absolutely and completely unforgivable. Father, forgive them, for they do not even know what they are doing.

Now, I told you that for some of you today, this would be a little bit of a challenging message, and it will be, because if you live long enough, you will be hurt by someone, right? You'll be hurt, significantly hurt, or someone that you love. And there are those of you listening to this right now that you're carrying a wound. someone abused you. In fact, the story I told about my sister, tragically, probably one in three or one in four women

have been through something similar. And that breaks my heart to even say that and to know that many of you know what she endured. Some of you were physically abused, emotionally abused. Some of you, you're dealing with the pain about someone lying about you. Someone gossiped about you. Someone took advantage of you.

There would be someone that a Christian let you down. You trusted them, and they did something very un-Christ-like. Some of you, you gave someone very sensitive information, and they were not faithful with it. Some of you, you were mistreated at work. You felt like you were doing a good job, and you ended up losing your job,

and it didn't seem fair. You tried to do the best you can to keep your marriage together, and your spouse was completely unfaithful, misledged you, lied, lived a double life, all sorts of different things. Some of you, it's not something that's quite as, big and heavy, but it's this ongoing, non-stop person that just gets on your nerves,

kind of like fingers grating across a chalkboard. Whatever you do is not good enough, and you just can't, and whenever they're around, you're la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. And you just don't want to see them, and they just drive you crazy on your mother-in-law. Did I just say mother-in-law out loud? I mean, just, you know, just, just jugging. I'm thankful. I've got an amazing one, but from what I hear, some of you don't have that story, you know,

and it's just, it's ongoing, nonstop. Some of you, you're honestly, you're carrying unforgiveness to someone that's not even alive anymore. Maybe a parent did something to you or abandoned you and they're not even living and yet you carry a grudge years and years later. Some of you, you might really be carrying unforgiveness toward God. God, how'd you let this happen? Why did this happen?

And you're carrying that. Some of you is for yourself. You did something that you can't change. You hate it. And even though you may recognize God has forgiven you, I believe God's forgiven me, but you simply cannot forgive yourself. How do we, if we're called to forgive others, how do we learn to love like Jesus and forgive people who hurt us or hurt someone that we love?

How do we forgive like Jesus? And what I want to do today is I want to look at just two thoughts. straight from God's word that can stir your heart, perhaps begin to work, and you can find freedom in forgiving those who hurt you. How do you forgive like Jesus? It's not going to be fun, but it's going to be helpful. Number one, if you're taking notes, Jesus actually teaches us to pray for those who hurt us. Number one, just pray for those who hurt you. Luke 628, Jesus said this. He said, bless those who curse you. And then he said, Pray for those who hurt you.

I can already tell what some of you're thinking. You know, after they did something to somebody I love, I'll pray for them, all right. God, give them hemorrhoids. Give them the worst for them. Give them hemorrhoids in their ears. I don't even know if that's possible. I'm sure it's not, but it's gross. It's a good picture of how we often feel.

I'll pray for them. God, I pray. You just send them to hell where the worm never dies and there's weeping and gnashing a teeth. I pray for them, okay? That's how we often feel. Jesus says to bless those who curse you and pray for those who hurt you. In fact, in Matthew 5, verse 43 and 44, we see what would have been some of the most shocking words ever to the audience that heard Jesus say this. And let me just say it again.

The moment that his hearers heard these words, they would have been like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. He didn't just say that. He didn't, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What? Are you kidding me? it would have been the most jaw-dropping statement that they may have heard in their whole life. This is what Jesus said. He said, verse 43, you have heard it said.

Now, why did he say that? Because they have heard it said. You've heard this. Your whole life, this is what you've heard of hear in your whole life. He said, you've heard it said, love your neighbors and hate your enemy. Because that's literally what they were taught. Someone wrongs you. You hate them back.

But then he says, but I tell you. you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. Now, wait a minute, did Jesus just say that? This would have been totally and completely 100% countercultural in every way. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The reason this was so outlandish is because if there were any Roman listeners in this time, they actually worship the God of revenge. I mean like, revenge. Get them, God. Give them what they deserve. The Jewish listeners, they would have heard their whole life. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, okay?

Someone hits your car, you hit their car. Someone hurts your donkey, you hurt their donkey. Someone punches you, you punch them back. Someone steals your shirt, you steal their shirt. Someone flips you off while you're driving, you flip them off while you're driving, which is why some of you should not have a life church bumper sticker on your car. Okay, that's why I don't have one. Not because I'm going to flip anybody off, but if you flip me off, I may run you down and pray for forgiveness later, okay?

So it's an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. And so that's what's going on here is he's saying into a culture that said, someone hurts you, you hurt them back. Someone wrongs you, they are an enemy. You hate them. You despise them. And Jesus says, no, you've heard it said to do that, but I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecutes you.

So I'm going to tell you right now, did someone hurt you? Pray for them. Did someone lie about you? Pray for them. Did someone take advantage of you? Pray for them. Did someone abuse you? Pray for them.

Did someone hurt someone that you love and you've taken on that offense? Pray for them. Did your mom or your dad? let you down, pray for them. Why was Jesus saying this? Probably a lot of reasons. Perhaps one of the reasons I would argue is this, because it takes a right attitude before you often do a right action, right? Right attitudes precede right actions. And when you hate someone, when you despise someone, when you're bitter towards someone, when you harbor unforgiveness towards someone, you are almost incapable of doing the right thing with the right

heart. Oftentimes, you have to start with the right attitude, the right attitude towards someone. Listen to me. Many of you, as I'm telling you this right now, that, oh, I'm going to forgive someone, screw that, I'm not going to forgive them. Why? You don't feel like it. Okay. If you wait for a feeling to do the right thing, some of you, you may be waiting until Jesus comes back and you may not even feel it then, right? Can I call it what it is? You guys are being really, really quiet today. If you wait for a feeling, you may not have the feeling. So you start by doing the right thing even before you feel it. You pray for those who hurt you.

Pray for those who wounded you. You pray for those who hurt you. And this is what I started doing as hard as it was for Max. My pastor taught it. I didn't want to do it. I didn't feel it at all. In fact, I felt the opposite. And so I recognized as much as I don't want to do this,

I'll start praying for this guy. And the first time, I'm telling you, I could barely get the words out. It was like, God, do something in his life. That's it. I'm a dead serious. And the something was very open-ended. I left God a lot of options.

Do something, God. Right? You know what I'm saying? I mean, that's where it was. Do something. Do something to him in his life, God. Do something. Okay, do something.

Okay, next day it was like, do something, God, in his life. Next day, do something. Okay, over time, it was God do something significant in his life, and I could sincerely pray it. Then after a while, this was crazy, I felt like I was supposed to pray blessings on his life. That was a lot harder to do something, okay? Do something, God, okay.

Then it was like, okay, God, bless him, right? That's where I started. And listen to me, over a significant period of time, it was God do something in this man's life. Bless him and draw him to yourself. And that's what happened. See, here's the deal. I didn't know where he was.

I didn't know what he was doing. I knew he was suffering from multiple scrosis. I knew that. I wouldn't pray him for his healing. I'd do something in his life. I wouldn't that far into it. But I was praying for him. Didn't know if it did a thing in his life or not.

But here's the principle. Your prayers for someone else may or may not change them, but those prayers will always change you. Let me say it again. Okay. When Jesus taught us to pray for someone else, your prayer for others may or may not change them, but it will always change you. You've heard it said, love your friends, hate your enemies.

But I say unto you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. That's how you actually love like Jesus loved. The first principle Jesus teaches us is to, pray for those who hurt us. The second principle, and this will get right into it that we learn from God's word is this. We're taught over and over again to forgive as you have been forgiven. To forgive as you have been forgiven. Paul said it this way in Colossians 313. How do we do this? How do we ever forgive someone who did that? Paul says this. He says, forgive one another.

If any of you has any grievance against someone, what does he say to do? Say it with me. He says, forgive as the Lord forgave you. Let's do this again. I need someone in Wellington, Florida. I need someone in Albany, New York, someone in Hendersonville, Tennessee, someone in Fort Worth, Texas. Help me out.

Here's how we forgive. Say it aloud. We are to forgive as the Lord forgave you. How do we forgive something so significantly wrong? How do we do it? We forgive as the Lord forgave us. How do we forgive something that we do not want to forgive? We forgive as the Lord forgave us.

How do we forgive something that seems and feels unforgivable? We forgive as the Lord forgave us. And I can't speak for you because I don't know what you've done wrong. But when you add up the totality of my sins in my life, I have done so much wrong and I've been forgiven so much. Who am I to withhold forgiveness from others as I have been forgiven so much. We forgive as the Lord forgave us.

We forgive as the Lord forgave us. And I had a thought come to mind that I want to share because this may apply to someone. There may be a marriage that's hanging by a thread right now. And perhaps your spouse did something that seems unforgivable. In fact, when someone commits the sin of adultery, that is a brutal blow.

You talk about personal, you talk about pain, you talk about anguish, You talk about hurt, you talk about not even knowing if you can get up the next day, and there are those of you perhaps who have suffered that significant blow in your marriage. And right now you're contemplating divorce, and guess what? According to Scripture, you might have grounds for divorce. I mean, literally, you have grounds for divorce, and you have grounds for divorce, and you can embrace that all day long, and you have the right to embrace that all day long.

But consider this. Adultery may be biblical grounds for divorce. Adultery is also grounds for forgiveness. It's also grounds for forgiveness. If there is someone who is repentant and broken, you just might find the grace to do what doesn't feel right at the time and forgive something that feels unforgivable. And you could perhaps have a story on the other side of it

and blessings in a marriage that goes beyond which you could ever understand. There are miracles on the other sides of sin. There's miracles on the other side of sin. side of forgiveness and who knows if there might be a marriage that could be saved in this moment because while you do have grounds for divorce, you also have the opportunity perhaps to forgive. Okay. We forgive as we have been forgiven. We forgive as we have been forgiven. We forgive as we have been forgiving. Now, at some point, you're going to have a choice and you can continue to do what I did for a long time with Max and that's Holder Grudge. And you can do that. A lot of people,

You can be really good at it. You can be really good at it, okay? Christmas time, you're with the offender and your family, because a lot of times it's family, have you known that? Every family's got a screwy person, right? How many got you got a screwy person, your family? How many got one, right? Those of you didn't raise your hand?

Every family's got one, right? Right? And the family member comes in, and you're ticked. So what do you do? It's Christmas time, and you give them the cold shoulder. You give them the eye. Okay? You just let your ear turn red when you're angry.

Stay awake at three in the morning, just be ticked. Just rehearse the pain again and again and again. Practice the, if I only could, speech in front of a crowd when you say, and then you did this, and then you did that. And because of that, this is what God says to you, and the whole crowd cheers as you just belittle them, right? You know, practice the speech, rehearse the speech, feel the angry, the anger.

Let the bitterness just dwell up within you. Let it make you miserable. Let it make you sick. Just let the, Let the bitterness grow and grow and grow until it makes you a critical person and an angry person and causes you not to ever trust again and not ever to really have intimacy again and just let it. You know people like that, right? You know people like that.

Anne Lamont said this. She said, bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. Right? I hate them. Poison. This will teach them. it's choice at some point. I don't feel it.

I want to do it. But God, this is what your word says. So I'm taking it to you and I'm taking it to you and I'm taking it to you. I'm going to do what's right even though I don't feel it. And I'm going to pray even though I don't feel it. I'm going to pray some more. And God, by faith, I'm going to ask you to help me forgive and I don't want to and I don't feel it. I'm still angry.

But by faith, I'm going to ask you. And at some point, you turn into a frozen song and you just loo. All the parents know what I'm about to say, right? you just choose, I'm just, I'm going to let this one go. I'm going to let it go. As much as it hurt, as much as it took years off my life, I'm not going to let this hold me anymore. I'm going to let it go.

I'm going to let go what they said about me. I'm going to let go the hurt. I'm going to let go what he did to me. I'm going to let go what she said. I'm just going to, I'm going to let it go. I'm going to let it go. I'm going to let it go. In the same way God has forgiven me, I'm going to forgive others.

So the process was, I hate Max, I want him to die and suffer in hell. Okay, I'm supposed to forgive him. I don't want to. Okay, I'm supposed to pray for him. I don't want to. I'll start here. God do something. Okay.

Okay. Now God bless him. And then our family got together one Christmas and we made a day. decision. Our family did. Through tears, as all of us knew Jesus followers, we decided we're going to forgive this man. And I was the kind of loud Christian, and so I said, I'll write the note. And so I wrote him the note that said, basically, Dear Max, and what you did was devastating, and you hurt my sister, and you hurt our family, and all that kind of stuff. But as we have been forgiven, we're choosing to forgive you. And then I wrote in the note about what Jesus did in my life

and explained what Jesus could do in his life. And at the end, I put what is kind of like the prayer that you would pray if you want the forgiveness from Jesus. And so we sent it to him in off in a town somewhere. And he was dying under hospice care for the disease that he had. And after his death, months later, through a weird series of events, I met the hospice nurse that was caring for him. And she described what happened when she read him.

the note because he was unable to read it. She said, I don't know what he did, but it was obviously pretty bad because he cried and cried and cried and cried and cried. And at the end, he said, would you read that prayer to me again because I really need to pray it? And she read it to him again, and she said he prayed that prayer and the note significantly impacted her as well. So the man who did the unthinkable to my sister and many other girls, little girls,

okay, little girls. if he called on Jesus, then he will be in heaven today, not because he's good at all, but because Jesus is that good. In the same way that I will be in heaven one day, not because I'm good, but because Jesus is that good. And my sister today is married, has four kids, and an amazing family, and helps other women heal through what she's been through. And the reason she's able to help others heal is because she chose to let it go.

In the same way that we've been forgiven, we chose to forgive. Listen to me. If you choose to forgive, it will not change your past. It never will. But it can change your future. Let me say it again.

If you choose to forgive, it will not change what someone did. to you or someone you love, but it can change your future. And on the day that I chose to forgive this man, God set a prisoner free. And the prisoner was me. How do we love like Jesus? Listen, as Jesus followers, it's not just, hey, we go to church and we're trying to be nice people. He calls us to a higher level. You have heard it said, love those who are good to you and hate those who are not. but I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who hurt you, forgive those who have done wrong to you, forgive as you have been forgiven.

And that's one way that you love like Jesus. All of our churches, let's pray together. Father, I know this is a significantly heavy message for so many people, and I can only imagine for some the weight and the pain that they're feeling right now. And God, for those you hurt, I hurt with them, and I know you hurt even more for them than that we can imagine. We pray today, God, that you would do something that only you can do, that the miracle of forgiveness and healing for many would start, and God, that you would empower us to do what we don't want to do sometimes, don't feel like doing. That you would help us to forgive as we've been forgiven.

at all of our churches nobody looking around this is a real serious moment i just want to ask and give me a second before you respond i want you to i want you to think about this how many of you're carrying a hurt some unforgiveness maybe some bitterness it could be for something significant something big it could be just the person that you just don't even want to be around right now it could be something small you know you fought on the way to church today why does that happen so often i don't know and you're sitting next to your spouse and you're kind of ticked right now is something like that. And you want to let it go.

You want to let it go. It could be something that you've never even told someone before. And maybe something that you are holding against someone who's not even alive anymore. But as you've heard God's word, you recognize God is doing something. And you want his help to take a step toward what he wants for you, to find freedom. And the ability to forgive as you've been forgiven. And all of our churches, if that's you today, would you lift up your hands? Right now, just lift them up and say, yes, I need that help.

I need that help. Tons and tons of hands going up. All of our churches, God, I hurt with those who've been hurt today, and I recognize that there are significant, deep wounds represented in our churches. God, I pray that you would do what only you can do. I thank you there's power in your word. There's power in your presence. And God, the words of Jesus have been declared today.

and you are with us. And so we ask for you to do what only you can do. God, do a healing work. God, is there those even wiping away tears right now? I pray that in your presence, you would help us to love like Jesus. God, I know that even if we do what's right, there are other people involved

and they may or may not respond well to our attempts to make things right. But God, I think you were only held accountable for our actions and we can do our best to live at peace with those around us. So God, we ask for your help. I ask for your help for those who need it today to take a step toward forgiveness,

to learn to pray for those who've heard us, and ultimately God, to forgive as we have been forgiven. And God, I thank you in advance for all that you're going to do as you work in the hearts of your children. As you keep praying today, nobody else is looking around right now. There are some of you, you're carrying

the weight of your own sin right now. Man, I remember this feeling so well, thinking after all I've done, could God ever love me? Could he ever forgive me? And here's what you need to understand. When Jesus was on the cross, he was on the cross for you.

He was innocent, perfect, and without sin. And Jesus became sin for us. He died in our place so that we did not have to die in eternal death. He rose from the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on the name of the Lord,

Lord will be saved. It doesn't matter how bad you've been. It doesn't matter what you've done. Doesn't matter how dark your life is right now. When you call on him, your sins will be forgiven. Not because you are good, but because he is good. And all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize you need his forgiveness. Some of you, you have not forgiven yourself yet.

You need to call on him. Let him forgive you and feel his forgiveness that you could let it go. New in Christ. All of your sins gone. You become new. All of our churches today, you say, that's my prayer. I turn from my sins. I turn toward him.

I surrender my life. Today, by faith, I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All over the place. Lift them up here in the middle section. In the middle section, both of you, three, four, five in the middle section.

Right back over there. God bless you, sir, right over here. Others of you say yes. Back over here in this section. Fantastic. Others today. Call on his name. You're leaning into it.

Say, yes, Jesus. I surrender completely to you back over here on this side. I call on him. Church online, you click right below me. Together, we're all going to pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father, forgive me of my sins. Make me brand new. I believe Jesus died for me so I could live for you. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, serve you, and follow you for the rest of my life. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. In Jesus' name I pray.

And everybody said, amen, amen. Welcome those born into God's family. We're so honored to play even a small part in all that God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, just go to life.church slash next. And now let's take a look back to Easter 2016 as it was. was an amazing celebration for all of us here at Life Church.

Crazy things happening in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and God is good. One simple invite like this could be the first step in changing somebody's life forever. Everybody, this is the Northwest campus out here, just inviting people to Easter. We hope that everybody has an awesome. Yeah. No matter how bad you've been, no matter how dark your world is, you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus. That's my prayer. I lift up your hand and say, yes, I surrender to you.

All over the place by that day. I gave my life to Christ, with my best. It is someone that really loves you. It was like a little urge inside of me. My heart is so lightning. Jesus Christ. I accepted God to be first in my life. Today, the love of God.

It was like I said. We'd love for you to be a part of all that God is doing here at Life Church. So to find out if there's a Lifechurch location in your area, just go to life.church slash locations. or you can always join us for one of our live worship experiences at church online. You see, it's our mission and our passion to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ, and we do it all because we believe whoever finds God finds life.