Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Love Song, Part 5: Love In Action

Episode Date: November 22, 2014

God knew what He was doing when He created love and sex. In fact, He wrote the book on it. You’ll be amazed at what God had in mind when He wrote the ultimate Love Song. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's great to have all of you with us today for week number five of the series Love Song as we're going through the book of Song of Solomon. And I want to say I really anticipate that today's message could be the most practical and hopefully the most helpful to prepare people for marriage or to really invest in their marriages. Before we dive in, I just have to tell you our next series is called Come to Worship. And I've been studying ahead for this. I sat at my desk reading God's Word and just really started crying. And I'm not an easy cry guy.

I cannot wait to share this with you. I believe it's going to light our church with spiritual passion. I cannot wait. And I just want to tell you that I'm charged with spiritual anticipation. So let's dive into today's message. I want to talk to you just as we walk into it about the difference between intentions and actions, what we intend to do and what we actually do. For example, I think in almost every marriage or every relationship that the biggest challenges

fall between I intended to and I actually did do something. Nobody walks into marriage and thinks, I'm going to be a jerk, a loser, difficult to live with. We all walk in thinking I'm going to do some good things, be a blessing, and yet the difference between what we intend to do and what we actually do is where the tension falls in our relationships. For example, in our home, Amy really kind of only has one rule in the kitchen. She gets to make the rules in there because I really don't do anything. I don't deserve the right to bring any spiritual input into this very important room. And our one rule, since we do have

six kids and always extras at our house, is everyone takes their dish, rinses it, and puts it in the dishwasher. It's a relatively simple rule somewhere. in the top 12 or 15 commandments of God is this one. The challenge for me is like every day I make oatmeal and a half a banana for breakfast. I'm boring like that. It's just what I do. And when you make oatmeal in the pot and you heat it up, it just has like oatmeal that's still in the pot when you're done. And the same with the bowl. And I'm like rhythmic in my getting ready, maximizing every moment in the morning. And I don't want to sit there and scrub the oatmeal.

And so what I do is I turn the hot water on and I soak it and I go to do something else and I let the water work for me while I'm doing something else and then I'll come back and it's really, really easy to do. You can see the wisdom and my approach. The only problem is, you can probably see where I'm going with this, is sometimes I intend to go back to finish the. job, but I forget to go back and break this very important commandment, only to greet Amy in the morning with my good morning gift to her oatmeal goo left in a hot soaking pot.

That is not a blessing in our marriage, thus saith Amy, okay? So I always want to say, well, you know, I intended to do it. I was going to do it. I was thinking about doing it. I was planning on doing it, but I didn't do it. I intended to do this, but I didn't follow through. Isn't it interesting how we tend to judge other people by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions? Don't I get bonus points because I intended to?

No, no, no, no, no, no, okay? You are responsible for your actions. Your intentions do not affect me one way or the other. We judge ourselves by our intentions, but other people by their actions. In this final week of Love Song, what I want to do is talk about closing the gap between our good intentions and our actions to be an incredible blessing to our spouse and to develop the type of intimate marriages that I believe with all my heart God wants us to have. So we look at three simple thoughts. And I don't know about you, but there's often real power in simplicity. Three statements that I promise you, you can easily remember.

And if you will let the Holy Spirit bring these to memory and actually act upon them, these three small power thoughts can be life-giving in your future marriage, or if you're married, your marriage you have today. So let's dive into the first one. It's actually a thought we've covered before in a previous message, but we're going to cover it again and probably again later because there's so much power in it. Number one, if you think something good, what do you do? Help me out all of our churches.

If you think something good, we're going to say it every single time. Why? Solomon said that there is power in the tongue. There's life-giving power. There's a power of life and there's a power of death. If you want to have a life-giving marriage, speak life-giving words. The challenge is whenever you start to criticize, tear down, you're actually seeping poison into your relationship.

I'm going to challenge you. Every single time you think something positive about your spouse, do not ever rob your spouse of a blessing. Set it free. Say it. Spray it. Text it. Whatever it takes.

Every single time you think something good, bless them by saying it. In fact, in our story, Solomon, he is like the master. complimenter. I mean, he lays it on. Sometimes he almost goes a little too far in his compliments, but he is never thinking something good. He's always saying something good, and there is a world of difference. Look at chapter seven. We're going to look at verses one through three. And let me just tell you right now that it looks like she's actually dancing for him, which is altogether a very good thing. Okay. It's harder to get a woman to dance for a man. than it is for her to get him to dance.

For her, she can get him to dance, but it's not going to look very good. But if he can get her to dance, okay, we're on to something very God honoring, in my humble opinion. So if you remember week number one, when he complimented, where did he start? He started with her head and he worked his way down. This dude is creative. Now he's starting at her feet and he's working his way up. This guy's good. Here's what he says.

He says, how beautiful. Your sandaled feet, O Prince's daughter. Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of an artist's hands. Every time I read that verse, I just picture the kid in the movie Christmas story when he gets the leg lamp, and he's like, your legs are like, and he's going up like, I can just, that's what I, I probably ruined that verse for you, but that's what I see. And I just had to say it. So, verse, hey, we're just getting warmed up, maybe, hang on, because this is, we're, we're,

working our way up and it gets excited. He says, your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. I don't have a clue what that means, but it sounds romantic. Then he says, your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies. Now, just between you and me, I'm going to recommend you never compare her waist to a mound of anything. But that's just my opinion and who am I to mess with the master. Then he goes in verse three straight to the breast. He didn't wait long because he doesn't wait long. And he says, your breasts are like two fauns. The twin fons of a gazelle. Evidently, he's excited that there's two of them because he keeps pointing that out. but we're going to watch him as he compliments her very, very specifically.

He's not just thinking positive things about her, but he's blessing her by saying it. In fact, what's one of the most common and complimentary and loving things that most every couple, even if you don't have a great marriage, you're going to say. You're going to say, I love you, I love you, see you later, love you, love you, love you, I love you, I love you, love you, love you, love you, love you. you want to change the dynamics of your relationship, I'm going to encourage you to simply to add one word to that statement and fill in the blank. One word and fill in the blank. Instead of just love you, I love you, love you, love you mean it, love you, add the word because and fill in the

blank with something different every single time. I love you because you're my best friend. I love you because I'd rather spend time with you than anybody else in the world. I love you because you're incredibly faithful to me. I love you because you are way too good for me when you married me. I punted my way out punted my coverage. I love you because you're the best mom in the whole wide world. I love you because you put the family ahead of your work or career. I love you because, and you fill in the blanks. Years ago, Amy wrote me this like one page thing that just said, I love you because. That's where I got this idea. I love you because. And then she went like all these little things. It was like so great. I framed it and I still have it. Because she didn't just love me.

She loves me because of a lot of reasons. And that's the game change. But here's the thing. Whenever you don't say something good, by human nature, your spouse usually assumes something bad. Think about it. Anytime you don't say something positive, people often assume the opposite. For example, have you ever done something that took a lot of effort for someone and then they didn't acknowledge it? Okay? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. You know, I cleaned up the house and you came home and you didn't even notice it. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Or you make this meal and you pour your heart into it and then you put it before Cookie Monster who just and doesn't say a word. What was the deal? Because they didn't say something positive, you end up assuming something negative. I had to travel a week ago. I was on the road for three nights. I'm never gone that long. I was like miserable, homesick.

And so I'm like texting Amy, and I texted her one morning. I said something kind of romantic and a little bit romantic. Okay? And then I didn't get a text back from her for like an hour. And then another hour went by. And all of the time I went, what's the matter? I mean, that was cute and funny and adorable and romantic. And she hasn't said anything.

And then finally, she sent me a duck face selfie, picture of herself, with something very romantic back. We're good. We're good. We're good. We're so good. We're good. When there was nothing, I was nervous.

There's no reason to be nervous. But whenever someone doesn't say something good, we often think something bad. And therefore, in marriages, sometimes you actually are thinking something good, but not saying anything and robbing your spouse of the blessing. Listen to me every time. You think something good. Text it, say it. You show it every single time.

This is what he does in verse 5. He says, your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. He said, your hair is like royal tapestry. Remember early on we learned this guy likes long hair? And we can see it again. He says, the king is held captive by its tresses. That word captive in the Hebrew, it literally means a prisoner put into bonds. So, like, he's like saying, whenever you do this, you know, whenever you do this, I'm like

your love slave. I just like, you know, I'm your prisoner. That's what he's saying. Your hair does that to me. Now, verse seven and eight, I just need to tell you to approach these verses with caution and wisdom from heaven. This is what he says. He says, your stature is like that of the palm.

He's not talking about like the palm of your hand. He's talking about like a palm tree. He's like, your stature is that, like a palm tree. He's like, your stature is that, like of a palm tree. And your breasts, here we go again, are like the clusters of fruit. I don't know what to do with my hands. I'm like usually talking like this. And like, you're like a palm.

And your breast are like clusters of fruit, okay? And so here's what he says. He says, I will climb the palm tree and take hold of his fruit. That's in the Bible. that's in the Bible. I'm going to climb the tree and grab the fruit. Now, if you're going to use that one, be careful because at best there's going to be a 50-50 chance of a good response.

You just need to know this because you try it one day. You know how women are. We talked about it earlier. And you're cute and you're adorable. Oh, yeah. Come grab my fruit. And other days, get back from me and don't you touch me again. Because you never know what you're going to get.

get. Let the spirit guide you before you climb the palm tree. And so evidently, she's like, she's in a good mood and she likes him and she says this in verse 10. She says, I belong to my beloved and his what? Everybody say this word aloud and his what? And his desire is for me. He desires me. But the word in the Hebrew is a really powerful little word, is the word to shuka. Teshuka, okay? Sounds like, you know, it's going to be like a commercial for some great infomercial product or whatever. Teshuka.

This word actually, if you've ever watched like the nature channel, whenever some cat like creature, lion, you know, tiger overtakes a gazelle or a deer, that's what this word is like. It's like, ah, shukha. And she's like, he tusukas me, okay? He's pursuing me. And she doesn't feel used. She feels loved and she feels beautiful and she feels cherished and she feels honored because he has given life to the good things that he's thinking.

Every time you think something good. Bless them with it. Every single time you may say, well, I don't think a lot of good things. I just say, hey, say what you want to see. You know, you see anything that looks good, blessed. I'm like, I want him to be a spiritual leader, but he doesn't do anything. Well, if he prays over the Thanksgiving meal, go crazy over that. oh, when you prayed, you were like a spiritual giant, you know, you're a blessing to me,

and you're encouraging what you want to see. She may not know how to encourage you. She says one thing that's good. Oh, thank you for encouraging me. Oh, you made me feel like such a great leader or a man when you did that. And so you encourage and you say what you want to see. Every time you think something special, say it. The second thing is this.

Every time you think something good, say it. Number two, if you think something special, do it. if you think something good, say it. If you think something special, do it. And I want to break this point down into two different types of special acts. The first one I'm going to call purposeful time. Purposeful time. If you think about going and doing something together,

don't just think about having that time. Make it happen. Make it a priority. This is what she does here in verse 11. She says, come, my beloved, let's go to the country. Let's spend the night in the villages. In other words, let's go get a bed and breakfast. Let's go get a hotel room and just spend some time together.

Let's go on a little getaway where it's just the two of us. No kids around. In fact, I would encourage every single one of you who are married to do this at least one time a year. At least one time a year. I don't think there's been a year in 23 years of marriage where we haven't gone away at least for a night or two, sometimes three or four without the kids. And you're going to tell me all the reasons why you might not be able to do that. I'm going to tell you right now you can't afford not to.

Because when you get away, there's something special that happens. I'll just be real honest. Our life is so chaotic with ministry and all the kids and all their activities that we're just, we just go, go, go, go, go, go. When I get away with Amy, I laugh my head off so hard. I'm like, I forgot you are a riot. You're hilarious. I mean, I'm like rolling on the floor laughing, and then I'm rolling on the floor doing other things,

because, I mean, there's something special that happens when you get away. You reconnect in a way that you just simply cannot do as effectively when you're in the normal routine of everyday life. Purposeful time. Some of you, you're going to have to say no to a lot of things. Most people say yes to to say yes to something. Very few people have. No, to all the other activities and the burdens and the things that are begging for your attention to say yes to some intimate time. I don't know how many marriages could be saved or better if the couple would make their marriage a priority,

escape for a night or two, and laugh together, pray together, tell stories together, eat together, stay up late watching shows and wake up in the morning and celebrate, okay? Purposeful time in our relationship. I want to do this with you. This is what they do. And she's saying this too. In verse 12, she goes on with it. We're going to go and get a little bed and breakfast.

Then she said, let us go early to the vineyards and see if the vines have budded. Okay? Let's go to the vineyard. Let's go to the park. If their blossoms have opened and if the pomegranates are in bloom, what does she say?

Say it with me. She said, there I will what? Everybody say this aloud. She says, there I will give you my love. Woo! Let's go celebrate in the world. the park. Now, obviously, this is before there were satellite pictures posted on Google Earth, and is also before it was illegal. But there's a way around those things. I mean, you know,

my point's not to have sex in the park, but we do whatever you want. But what I want you to see is they are planning to have purposeful time. And on a side note, what she says there is like a man's dream come true. She says, later on, Tashuka, you. Okay? I want, she's saying, I want you. And listen, when you do that and say, tonight's the night, tomorrow night, you were farming out the kids, man, this guy, he's going to be happy all day long because he knows that you've thought ahead about him. You want her to know you're thinking of her, you're planning, you're working for purposeful time. Hey, let's go to the park together. Let's go to the garden. Let's get away. Let's have a date night. Let's do some things together, purposeful time. The second thing is this, thoughtful

acts. Thoughtful acts. If you think something special, do it. In thoughtful acts. This is what she does for him. She's very thoughtful. In verse 13, she says this, the mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy. I went grocery shopping. I got it all there for you. She says, both old and new that I have done what? Say it with me, that I have stored up for you. The mandrakes are here. I've been thinking ahead and I've stored them up for you. Now, you may say, what in the world are the mandrakes? These were actually, believe it or not, they were an aphrodisiac. They were thought to bring desire and even to help you with fertility. And so she's like, I've been saving up the mandrakes for you. Okay. I want to get away with you.

And this is going to be really, really fun. And she's thinking ahead of ways to be a blessing to him. Now, I'll let you in on a little secret how I prepare messages just for fun. What I do every week is I go and take staff members and I talk it through with them because I just have my perspective. I want to hear from a 25-year-old, how does this impact you? I want to hear from a single mom, how it impacts them and such. And so what I want to do on this one is I went and got a group full of women and wanted to totally get their perspective.

And I came to this point and I said, thoughtful acts. What does your husband do or what would your potential husband do? that would be very thoughtful and romantic and be a big blessing to you. Okay. I'm a guy. I'm thinking he brings home flowers, he brings home chocolate. You know, that's kind of how I've been trained to think. Not a person said anything like that.

Every woman there said, oh, like if he'd help fold the clothes, okay? If he'd, like, help with the dishes. If he'd help get the kids ready for bed. That's like, I'm like, that's romantic. Oh, that's so romantic. Why? Because he's serving her. He's thinking of her.

That's a thoughtful act that is more romantic than just dropping a few dollars on something and saying, I care about you. And when they said it, like, it clicked with me. I thought, yeah, I love it when Amy serves me in this particular way. When we got married, I realized that one of our differences is I like to have the bed made before getting back into it. And Amy's entirely practical. She's like, well, if nobody's coming over, then why would we?

would we make the bed, we're going to mess it up again? And I said, because when you get in one that's like, like the sheets are straight, that honors God. Okay. And if the sheets are clean, that's like a whole nother level of spiritual blessings. There's just, like, like, and even if you've got the throat pillows, I know I'm losing cool points with some guys, but if the pillars are on there in the right place,

and you slip into clean, cool sheets with no wrinkles, ooh, okay. And so I would like make the bed. The problem is I wouldn't do it right because evidently I don't do much right when it comes to that kind of thing. And so it was like this, nah, nah, and one day, Amy said, you know what? I know this means a lot to you. I'll make the bed.

And so every night when I get in the bed in my mind consciously or subconsciously, I'm kind of remembering. She did that for me. She didn't care about it. there's nobody that came and looked in our bedroom today. At least that's what I'm hoping. Nobody did. There's no show.

It's just she did something that she doesn't value because she values me. And I like that. That makes me feel special. When you think something special, do it. When you think something good, say it. Every single time. And these little tools, when you act in this way, you're going to end up being a big, big blessing in people's lives.

If you think something good, everybody helped me out. I need some help. All of our churches. If you think something good, say it. If you think something special, do it. And number three, if you want something different, be it. Be it. If you want something different in your relationship, don't demand your spouse be what's different.

You be what's different and be a different. blessing as you serve your spouse as Christ served the church. I want you to think about those of you who are with us in all the weeks, and for those of you that were, thank you so much for making the worship of God and the priority of the teaching of His Word a priority in your life. I believe you'll be honored as you do that. If you remember early on, she said this. She said, I'm not going to be like the veiled women who give themselves to other men. And what she was saying there is, I'm going to be different. A lot of the women, they'll give their bodies away to get a man. I'm not going to do that. If you want that, go somewhere else. I'm going to be different in this way. He said,

catch for us the little foxes, the little foxes that ruined the vineyards. If you remember, the vineyards represented their bodies. We're not going to let sexual impurity pollute our purity before God. We're not going to arouse or awaken love before its appointed time. We're going to be different. Last week we saw how they would be different in working through conflict. We're going to talk things through, not walk away. We're not going to react in anger. We're going to respond by the spirit. Instead of assuming something bad, we're going to think the best of our spouse. We're going to be different. If you want something different, you be it in your relationship. Gentlemen, I really, sometimes people criticize me. I know it takes two, but I like to put a little more

responsibility on the men to take charge and lead toward what God wants you to have. And part of the reason I think it works better this way is because women are multipliers in every way. When I met Amy out of Bachelor pad, and she came in and she did women's stuff, and she multiplied it, and the toilet paper matched the shower curtain for the first time ever. It was really cool. I like that. She multiplied. I can go to the grocery store and buy food and bring it home, and I can't do anything with it.

She goes, oh, we don't have any food. There's no food in the house. She does this thing, and she multiplies. And it's just a beautiful thing. Physically, if I give her my love, who, she gave me six kids, okay? They tend to multiply. What you give them, they multiply.

What you need to know is if you give them a hard time, they'll multiply, and they'll give you hell right back at you. And so what I always tell couples, listen to me, If you don't like what you're getting, look at what you're giving. Look at what you're giving. If you don't like what you're getting, look at what you're giving. You can't change anybody else, but you can change you. You can pray for them.

You can be a blessing to them. You can serve them. And I know that now is a point where 20% of you get really mad at me, like, you don't know, and I don't know the details. And I know there are so many complications. and I understand there's abuse and there's lying and there's deceit. I know that and I don't want to ever belittle that. But at the same time, you can stand before God and you can do what he puts on your heart

to be different and to be special and to be a blessing. And I'll tell you right now, when I was dating Amy, you have no idea how much I wanted something different. when I look at what I see in this world today, I do not want my children to have the normal type marriage that I see. I do not want that. I don't want that for our church. In fact, I would just almost declare, I believe by faith that our church is going to want something better

in their relationship with a spouse. And if you want something different, you cannot do what everybody else does. And so we just decided to take a very different approach and to not have sex before marriage and to spend a lot of time praying and learning from a mentor, how do we do relationships. I'll tell you right now, I never, ever dreamed, honestly. I never dreamed that marriage could be so good.

There wasn't even a category in my mind, and it doesn't mean that we don't fight. The night I taught on fighting, we fought. How do you like that? I'm not saying we don't fight. We're like anybody else. But I'll tell you right now, I promise you, your marriage can be. be as good as both of you want it to be. If both of you want to serve Christ and to serve one another, you can experience the blessings that are greater than anything you could imagine,

but it's not going to happen by accident. You're not just going to, oh, I didn't mean to him. We were just happy. You can love each other. It's going to take some intentionality. It's going to take seeking God and surrendering to his will. And when you see this couple do this, I love this verse. I want to close out our whole series with what, she says. She's been loved and honored and cherished. And you can often tell a lot about a man by looking into the wife's eyes. If you look into her eyes and hear what's in her heart, here's what she has to say. Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 6. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. I love this.

For love is as strong as death. That's how strong it is. It's jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Place me like a seal over your heart. You are mine forever. I am yours. You are mine.

My desire is for you. I want to serve God with you forever. I just want to say as I close out, You're my dream girl, and I thank God for you, and I love serving Jesus with you, and I don't even want anything out of this whole thing tonight. If you want to do something, that's up to you. But all I'm saying is, with that, let us pray. Father, I come to you on behalf of every couple, every potential couple that's in this place, and I know there are, there's pain and there's hurt, and there's regret.

and there's also blessings all over the place. I pray God that by the power of your Holy Spirit, that we as a church would not be on the broad path that leads to destruction, but we would follow your son Jesus on a narrow path, recognizing that we must be very different from those in this world. And all of our different churches today, as you're reflecting, I just want to take a moment and ask you whether you're married or not,

do you want what you see around you or do you want something different? Do you want something better? And I'm going to pray for you if you honestly want something. something different at all of our churches. If you say, yeah, either in a future marriage or my relationships or in the marriage I have now, I want something better than what I see around me. I want what God wants. I really believe that he has a better plan and I want to surrender to it. If that's you today, would you lift up your hands right now? I hope it's everybody. Father, I thank you that you're doing a work in our church and your healing hurts. God, your renewing marriages.

I thank you, God, for those that are being prepared that are not yet married today, but you're giving them a foundation and putting siege in their heart that will create a harvest of righteousness in their relationships to come. God, I pray that you would lead us by your spirit to recognize that if we want what everyone else has, then we could do what everyone else does. But if we want what few people have, we've got to leave the broad path and follow Jesus, knowing that things will be different, that will be criticized and ridiculed. But, God, we don't want to be like the veiled women who will do whatever they can to get the relationship. we want to have something different, something intimate, something real, something lasting,

and something that honors you. So God, I pray that you would give us the tools, the wisdom, and the direction by your spirit to be different, to lead toward righteousness, to love selflessly. And God, we thank you in advance for what you're going to do in the picture between your love for the church in marriage as you love the church so much you lay down your life for her. God, may we lay down our life. for one another and may other people look on and say what makes you guys different and we'll tell them it is your son Jesus who has healed us changed us and blessed us in ways we do not deserve as you keep praying today at all of our different

churches once you just listen right now not just to my words but really listen to to and see if you might hear something beyond my words what I hope you'll understand is this there are some of you who are not walking with God today and God is pursuing you He loves you and he is pursuing you. I can't even imagine what it must feel like to God when he does everything he can to show you his love and you reject it.

Let me tell you what God did. He said it, he showed it, he did it, he said it. He loves the world so much that he gave his only son. Jesus, his son, shed his blood, died for the forgiveness. of our sins. While we were still sinners, while we were rejecting God, Christ died for us. Now, what do we do? We recognize, and some of you're going to recognize, he's pursuing you, he's reaching out to you. You have a choice. You say yes and accept his love, or you say no,

and you reject it. It's that simple. Yes, or no? Yes, yes, I surrender to him. Yes, I need his grace. Yes, I'm ready to completely give my life over to him, to receive his love, and a give of salvation. Or no, I reject it. It's that simple. He is pursuing you. Some of you, that's exactly why you're here. On the other side of computer screens, you're here for this moment. You sense it. You sense it. It's not by accident. You're here because it's time for you to say, yes, I need your grace. I need your mercy. Today I turn from my sins and I turn toward you, and I surrender by faith. I don't even understand it all, but I surrender by faith. All of our churches, yes or no. Some of you, you're going to say no. Others of you, guess what? You're

here today because today is a day, you say yes to his grace. All of our churches, those of you who say, yes, I need him. Yes, I need his grace. By faith today, I give my life to him. Lift your hands high right now and say, yes, I surrender to Christ. Say yes, I surrender to him. Right back over here and over here as well. God bless you guys. Right back over here. Say yes, I surrender. Others today who say, Jesus, I need you. Yes, I surrender to you. Lift up your hands and say, I surrender to you. Church online, you click right below me and we're all going to pray together. Father, thank you. Everybody pray aloud.

Pray Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die for me and be raised again. I acknowledge I am a sinner who needs a Savior. Jesus, forgive me of all my sins. Make me brand new. My answer is yes. Yes, I need your grace. Yes, I need your forgiveness. Yes, I need your salvation.

My life is not my own. today I give it to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Would you all worship big, worship loud, welcome those born into God's family today.