Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Outlasters, Part 1: Readiness Over Happiness

Episode Date: April 26, 2014

What will the world say about you when you’re gone? No one can live forever, but anyone can create a legacy that stands the test of time. Prepare to make your mark on the world—become an Outlaster. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is awesome to have all of you with us today at all of our life churches and our network churches, those of you on the other side of computer screens, all over the world at church online. We are beginning a brand new message series called The Outlasters. You may say, what is the outlaster? That's actually a word I made up, and I will kind of give you the story behind it. What I want to do over the next few weeks is actually ask you to do something that's challenging for a lot of people to do. I want you to think about what happens after your life is complete. Now, anytime you bring up this subject, a lot of people are just like,

I'm just trying to pay the bills and mow my yard. You know, I don't want to talk about death and all that kind of stuff. Many people are very hesitant, including my wife, Amy. Anytime I say, hey, maybe if something happens to me, here's what I want you to know or do, she's all like, don't do, don't say it. Like, that's going to jinx it, and I'm going to be dead by Tuesday or whatever. She just doesn't want to talk about it. And I want to go ahead and challenge you to talk about it because it can be really, really helpful.

For whatever reason, I am not afraid to talk about death. Part of it's because I've done the research and fully one out of one people die. That's what research shows. And so, you know, that's part of the reason. The other reason I think is because as a pastor for 20-some-odd years, I've done literally hundreds of funerals, and I recognize that death is really a part of life. And I wish I could give you a glimpse into what I've seen in the preparation time for funerals. It's impossible to put into words what happens when you walk into a room of family members and close friends

and you ask them to talk about their loved one who just passed away. I mean, it's really amazing. And I'll tell you what happens a lot of times is it's hard to describe, but actually the conversation gets rather awkward. I'll say, tell me about your dad or tell me about your brother, Tell me about your grandmother. Tell me about your mom. And sometimes the room is just kind of heavy.

And no one says anything for a minute. And everybody's waiting for someone to speak. And then someone will say something like, oh, granddad really loved college football. You know, or, you know, nanny really loved gardening. And everybody kind of breathes a sigh of relief. Like, oh, yeah. Oh, college football season. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then that's kind of it. And I'm sitting there going, you give me something to work. with and they just don't say much. Then, there are other times where it's like the polar opposite. Tell me a little bit about so-and-so. And men, I mean, everybody's crying with kind of sad tears for the loss and heartfelt tears of gratitude. I mean, they're slobbering, their dog slobber and I'm slobbering.

I mean, everybody's into this. And the story just flow. They're like, I remember the time, and she used to always say. And one time he looked at me and said, and I never will forget this. and oh yeah they always did this and there's just this rich depth of emotion and love and stories and gratitude. Tragically though, I'll tell you from my perspective, that is the exception. More often than not, when someone dies, there's just not a whole lot that lives on.

What we want to do over the next few weeks is I really want it to seek God and learn how can we live in such a way that we're out that our values and our faith outlasts us even to generations to come. I mean, think about this. It's mind-blowing to me to recognize that we live in the 21st century. And today, all over the world, there will be billions of people worship God through Jesus Christ because over 2,000 years ago there was a very handful of small followers of Jesus. that lived in such a way that their faith outlasted them and spread to all the corners of the globe. We want to live in such a way that we are outlasters.

So what I'm going to do today is going to be a little bit different. Basically, I'm going to spend this whole message introducing the concept, and then at the end of the message I'm going to tell you specifically what we're going to cover. So it'll be a bit different. I want to just read a verse, and then I'm going to talk a lot, and then we'll close out a few verses. And so this will be our key verse that will drive us through the series. I will come back to it because it's really important. Psalm 112. We'll start in verse one and read selected parts through verse 6. This is David who says this. He says, how joyful are those who fear the Lord

and delight in obeying his commands? Their children will be what? Let's all say this aloud. Their children will be successful everywhere. Those of you in Keller, Texas, welcome aboard. you guys help me out and give me a little more love. Their children will be what? They will be successful everywhere and an entire generation of godly people will be blessed. Their children will be successful everywhere. If we are successful and our children are not followers of Christ, we have failed. If we get all the money in the world and yet we're not imparting godly value to the next generation, we have failed. If I lead a big church, but I'm not making disciples at home, I have failed. Imagine being a part of an entire generation of people experiencing the greatest

blessings of God. They themselves will be what? Let's all say this aloud. They themselves will be wealthy. I want to come back to this thought at the end of our message. And their good deeds will what everybody. I need some help. They will laugh. forever. Their good deeds will outlast them. Their good works will make an eternal difference, and they will be outlasters. They are, let's say it aloud, they are what? They are generous, compassionate, and righteous. They are generous. Imagine we impart values of generosity to the next generation because we will lead the way with irrational generosity because we truly believe it is more blessed to give than receive. They are compassionate, carrying deeply

about the needs of other people, not bowing down to the culture's idol of self-worship, but caring deeply for the needs of other. And righteous, set apart for the use and the glory of God. Verse 6B says, those who are righteous, what's going to happen? They will be what? They will be long remembered. They're not going to die, and everyone say they love college football,

or they love gardening. Their values, their faith, will last, they will be outlasters. So what I want you to do is listen to this series as a parent, if you are a parent. I want you to listen, no matter if you're a parent or not, as a leader, because every single one of you are called to be leaders. If you don't see yourself as a leader, I've failed imparting this value to you because you're called to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. You're a leader. Listen to it as. a follower of Christ because we are commanded to go into all the world, to share the gospel,

to reach out to people, reveal God's love to them. We are called to impart our faith to people around us. To listen to it as a parent, as a leader, and as a follower of Christ. And let me give you some foundation. This will help us through the next few weeks. Historians and sociologists have studied for years and noticed a very common trend. It's called different things. I call it the problem of the third generation. Basically what they've found is that it's incredibly difficult to pass anything from the first generation down to the third generation. It's difficult to pass wealth, it's difficult to pass faith, it's difficult to pass values, it's difficult to pass a business. In fact, Harvard Business Review wrote an article that said only 10% of family businesses

survive to the third generation. It's very difficult to do. The joke in the business world for those of you who are business leaders. They say the first generation starts the business, the second one runs the business, and the third one ruins the business. That's kind of what they say. It's very, very difficult to do. And so in your notes, I've given you a little more details than maybe I'll cover, but I want to show you what the challenge is. As you see yourself as first generation, what do you want to pass along? Here's why it's difficult. The first generation is marked by strong leadership. You've got entrepreneurial risk and you see the rewards of your risk. It's often marked by economic prosperity or intellectual progress or spiritual growth. The first generation takes

risks and sees rewards. The second generation then, they inherit something that they appreciate but that they did not earn. And because they value it but didn't earn it, they don't know how to recreate it, therefore they think their goal is to protect it. And the second generation, with very good motives, moves into an attitude of preservation. Therefore, suddenly there's a loss of drive, often, there's a loss of an appetite for risk. And because they value it but didn't earn it, they try to protect it. The third generation comes along, and all they've seen is someone protecting something. And they're like, that's not inspiring. Suddenly, they have no vision for something greater, no cause beyond themselves, they often reject the values of those who've gone

before them, and the third generation is often therefore marked by decline. Growth, strength, preservation, and decline. You see it again and again. In fact, even as you look at stories to the Bible, there are countless numbers of stories where you can see this taking place. Take Joshua, great commander in battle, leads the people into the promised land, first generation risk and reward. Second generation inherits the promised land. There are no great battles. They move into preservation and worship of God then becomes half-hearted. The third generation comes along. All they've seen as preservation. All they've seen as half-hearted worship of God. They're like, why are we even worshipping this God? They turn away from God. And by the end of the third generation,

judges 2125 describes them this way. In those days, Israel had no king. And what did the people do? Let's all say it aloud. The people did what? They did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. From the first generation, passionate, faithfulness, following of God, to the third generation they do what is right in their own eyes. Therefore, we must be intentional. If we are successful and don't pass the values in the faith onto future generations, then what we do dies with us, and we want to be outlasters. So what I want to do is, in this next little segment is I want to talk to you about three big problems that I'm going to say kind of my generation, our generation has in imparting values to those who are younger. Now, Dr. Tim Elmore

is a good friend of mine. He's written many books on parenting and trends in society. He's got a new book that will come out later this year called 12 huge mistake parents can avoid. I had the privilege of preview in the book. And I took three of his 12 ideas, made them my own. They're obviously more problems, but in my opinion, these are three of the biggest problems that my generation has in imparting values and faith to the next generation. I want to talk about these. I believe they're important. The first one is, if you're taking notes, is that we risk too little. We risk too little. In fact, I'm going to give you some examples in all of our churches. If you remember this or relate to this, I want you to raise your hand. Let's just practice right now. Everybody raise your hand.

Fort Worth, I need you guys raise your hand. Albany. Let's see. Are you there? Albany. Wellington. Florida. Well, give me some love in Southern Florida. Okay. When I say this, if you relate to any of it, raise your hands because there are people that are going to be 20 years of age. They're going, there ain't no way that happened. And when they see your hand go up, they're going to go, you're kidding me. That really happened? Yes, it did. We risked too little. For example, those who are around my age, chances are you walked to school at some point in your life. You walked to school. Some of you, you dove off a high dive. Many people don't even know what that is. You played around outside in your neighborhood with no cell phone and your only room.

rules be home by dark. Right? I know those were the crazy days. We actually had one other rule, and that was don't cross the four-lane road to go to the 7-Eleven. So we simply went under the drainage system to get there. The drainage system was the most secure form of travel. We could get all over the city by going in the drainage system, and that's how we traveled. Very true story. This doesn't even get into the lack of safety rules that we had in cars. And I'm not a proponent of this, but I'm telling if you're around my age and you played T-ball or you probably rode in the back seat of a pickup truck with all your friends down the highway, many of whom were sitting on the edge of the truck. That's the way it was.

There was also a place back in the day when they made the cars, in the back of the car, beneath the back window, there was a flat place where the speakers would actually come up, and this was the perfect place to crawl up and take a nap on long trips to grandma. Then seatbelts, what were they? Nobody wore seatbelts. And again, I'm not advocating this, but you sit in the front seat and what was your seatbelt? Your mama was your seatbelt. When you came to a stop, what would she do?

Boom! Okay, you weren't going anywhere. Nobody died because nobody can break through mom. So boom! You know, and the only injury was, you know, when you were hit. In fact, that's how they came up with the airbag. A kid was riding with grand. grandma. And you know what happens when you get older, you kind of get that, you know what I'm saying?

Get that thing. And it was like, too, do, do, do, do, do. Okay, so I made that up, and it's wrong. Okay. Don't look at me like it's not funny. It may be offensive, but it is funny. And every now and then, we just have fun in church. Airbag. That's the way it is. So, anyway, I have not saying that's the way it should be. But now, man, we're going to keep any kind of risk from happening. What are we going to do? We're going to remove playground equipment so nobody gets hurt. We're going to forbid the teacher from using a red pen because we don't want to hurt someone's psyche.

And we're going to make sure that no one ever loses ever and anything. I mean, used to be you had to win to get a trophy. Now you just have to suck and show up. All right? And so what happened? We've protected the next generation from normal things. We've kept them from experience the blessing of failing. Now, college professors say there are 18-year-olds that are afraid to fail in an application

form because they might mess up. Or they're afraid to interview for a job because what if they don't get it? or honestly, there are a lot of 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds who do not want to drive now. They'd rather someone else drive them around, and it just seems, honestly, way too risky. We've protected them, and we've robbed them of the blessings of failing. Now, I'm not saying we should be crazy. You know, I don't want them to go back surfing on the hood of a car like I used to do. There's a balance between that and putting on a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads,

before letting them go check the mail. You see what I'm saying? So first mistake is that we, me, my generation, we're risking too little with those who are to come. Second thing is we rescue too quickly. We rescue too quickly. They get in trouble. They didn't do their science project. So mom, to the rescue at 11 o'clock at night, and I get down a Coke bottle and cut it up and make a science project. Or they forget their jacket or their lunch money. And so dad takes off work and drives 45 minutes instead of letting them go hungry one day or cold one day to learn the value of bringing your lunch money. or jacket, or they get in trouble in school, and mom and dad are down there. Oh, my little Aden would never do that. He would never do that. My mom and dad would say, oh, Craig did that?

Spank him hard, and they would. And they'd pull out a paddle, and they'd spank, and then you sign it afterwards to your name, it was like a ride of passage. And my gym teacher would cut holes in it so it would have more velocity. And again, I'm not saying this is the way to solve problems, but we weren't rescued. And now, because we've rescued whenever there's trouble, there's like, hey, let's go back home, and mom and dad will take care of us. In fact, one article I read says 85% of those under the age of 32

will move back home at least one time after the age of college. 85%. And what's crazy is, those of you here are younger, like, well, that makes sense. I should go home. It's free rent, okay? What's crazy is when I was that age, man, if my 24-year-old buddy moved back home,

Oh, we're making fun. You're a loser self. You know, we've made fun of him. But now he is the age of I am. We're going, yeah, come back home. Come back home. You're 28. You can play video games all day long on my sofa while you're unemployed and I'll pay all the bills.

Come back home, sugar baby, baby. I want you to be happy. What are we doing? We're rescuing too quickly. Imagine this. The son runs away, the prodigal son. What the father not do? The father didn't rescue.

him. The father loved him enough. The kid took the money. He ran. He blew it all. He's living with pigs. He's in bad shape. The father loved him enough not to rescue him so the son could come to the natural consequences of sinful, bad decision. So on his own, he could come to his senses and say, this is no way to live. We're protecting the future generation from the natural consequences of bad decision, and we're handicapping them, causing their development to atrophy when they be doing so much more. We're trying to protect them from that which actually helps them. Okay. We risk too little. We rescue too quickly. And number three, we reward too frequently. We reward too frequently. We give them something that they should actually earn. Okay? We give it to them

with good motives because we want to help them. But the better thing to do is for them to earn it. And again, I'll make a slight overstatement. In some cases, this is an understatement. So a little child gets an allowance at the age of seven, $100 pair of shoes at the age of 10, because everybody else has them and we don't want them to be left out, a mobile phone at the age of 12 and a car at the age of 16, none of which they worked for, they have no chores at home, and they've never earned a dollar on their own.

It's entirely unfair to them because we're training them that everything comes very easily. It's no wonder then one day when they're 24, they wake up, and they feel very dissatisfied, and it's totally unfair that they can't have. the same lifestyle as their parents that work 30 years to achieve it, therefore they'll go into debt to try to get it, and again, handicempt themselves for the future because we haven't helped them. Basically, and essentially what we've done as a modern-day culture, maybe one of our

biggest problems is we've bowed down and worshipped at the altar of happiness. Oh, it's all about happiness. We just want you to be happy. We just want our little baby to be happy. We just want them to have more than we had. We just want you to be happy. We're going to do everything we can to give you what makes you happy. We're going to protect you from anything that might make you momentarily unhappy. We just want you to be happy. In fact, we're going to model it for you. If we can't afford it and we think it makes us happy, we're going to buy it and pay 18% interest on it over time and get ourselves in a financial buy because we think it makes us happy. And oh yeah, we're going to promise before God to be faithful to this person for better or for

worse, as long as we both shall live, and as long as they make us happy. Because if they're not making us happy, then we're not going to keep our promise because God wants us happy, right? After all, he says in his word, be happy as I am happy. Oh, did I get that wrong again? No, no, no, no. No, no, no. God said be holy as I am holy. And yet we worship the idol of happiness. When God wants us holy before happy. You see, here's a problem. When we pursue happiness, it'll always be elusive. You try it. You think money makes you happy.

Go get as much as you can. Some of you've done it. You've gotten a lot. If I only made this much one day, then I'd be happy. Then one day you make that up that much. And guess what? You're still not happy. Well, if only I had somebody different, then I'd be happy.

So you divorce that person and you go to someone else, but you're still not happy. Why? Because your unhappy self is still with you. Right? because no other person's going to fill that void. If I had more power or more popularity or more Facebook friends or more Instagram likes or more Twitter followers or more people at school or a different car, listen, you pursue happiness and you will never ever get it because happiness is not the goal.

Pleasing God is the goal. And don't miss this. Happiness, joy, contentment is a byproduct of a life well lived for the glory of God. You see, when you're serving God, there's a deep sense of fulfillment and there's an abiding joy. For example, what will they be? We read it earlier in our opening verse. They will be generous, compassionate, and righteous. Generous, compassionate, and righteous. When we impart values of spirit-led generosity to the next generation, guess what? There's joy in that. There's peace in that. There's contentment in that. Because when we're using what we have to make a difference in

someone's else's life. The byproduct is a deep sense of gratitude and satisfaction. God use me to help someone else. It's a byproduct of a life well lived. Compassionate. When we're caring about other people, guess what society says care about? Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. In fact, all weekend long, I've preached my brains out, and people just kind of look at me almost blank like, I just want to go to lunch. The reason is because culture says it's all about me and it's all about now. And I'm forcing you think about others and to think about later. And that's very difficult for some people. But when you think about others and you think about later and you care about others and you do something for them, there is joy in that. There is fulfillment in that. There is peace in that. It's the

byproduct and righteousness. When you're living set apart for the glory of God, listen, people will make fun of you, but you don't care because you've already determined in your mind. You cannot please everybody, but you can please God. And when you're pleasing God, and and using the gifts that he's given you to make an eternal difference, there is a byproduct, and that is joy and peace and contentment. It's not the goal. It's the byproduct of the goal of pursuing God. So all that being said, here's one statement to set the foundation to move forward.

Here's the big thing. We must focus less on today's happiness and more on tomorrow's readiness. We need to be less concerned in our children about today's happiness, and prepare them with the gifts, the tools, and the values to live a life for the glory of God. We need to worry less about today's happiness and more about tomorrow's readiness. So how do we do that? How do we do that? Well, I'm not going to tell you exactly how today.

As much as I'm setting the table for the weeks to come, and I want to show you where we're going in the weeks to come. And again, I want you to hear this as a parent, but even more so, somebody like, well, I don't have any kids. Listen to me. If you're a follower of Jesus and this is your church, I believe with all my heart, you have a calling to impart spiritual life to the next generation. In fact, if you are not serving in life kids or serving in Switch, if you're not ministering to the next generation, I would simply ask you, why not? why, after all you've experienced, after all the grace you've been given, after all the blessings that God has done in your life, why would you keep that to yourself and not pass the faith along? To tell a four-year-old who may not hear it at home just how much God loves them. To reach out to a 15-year-old that may not have a father figure and be an image of a godly man in the life of a teenager.

to come along a single mom who's trying her best to raise three kids while working two jobs and be a supporting voice into her life to show her kids the love of God and help lift them up to become more than she has the strength to do on her own. To come along other Christian parents and to speak life and truth into their children because sometimes what they say has less credibility than what someone outside the home says. To light up the next generation. It would be my dream that there would be a waiting list for those who would get in to serve and life kids because we are so passionate about reaching out and ministering to the next generation that you have to sign up and hope you get picked

because our church is so in love with this. How do we prepare the next generation? Let me show you where we're going the next few weeks. This is an introductory week. Next week, here's what we're going to do. We're going to learn how to create wealth to use for the glory of God. If you remember earlier, we read that they will be wealthy and their good deeds will be known forever. There's a problem in our world today, and there is almost a disdain for people with wealth.

It's the craziest thing ever. A lot of people say, well, wealth is bad. Wealthy people, they're all evil. This is just so ridiculously stupid. If it is wrong to have wealth, then Christians should not have wealth. If Christians do not have wealth, then the other side is funded and the work of God is not funded. There's nothing wrong with wealth. The problem is today that there is a deep love of money.

As followers of Jesus, we're not going to love money. The problem is people love money and use people. We're going to love people and use money to make a difference in this world. And there is nothing wrong with living beneath your means, investing wisely, leveraging what you have to make a difference in this world. And the reality is, my generation, many of us need to learn to do that. We need to learn to get out of debt, teach the next generation because they have no idea. The 20-somethings, they are the most in debt generation in history, and yet strangely, they're the most optimistic about their financial future.

And I ask them all the time, why? Why, if you're most behind, yet you're most optimistic, because they haven't trained and they don't even understand what debt does and how to leverage money and so. And so we have to teach them. So I invited the best in the world to come in and teach this next week. Dave Ramsey and his daughter will be here next weekend to teach this. And this is a great opportunity to bring people who might not come to church, and they're the best of the best.

They're going to teach us how to do that next week. I'll teach week three and four. Week three, we're going to talk about creating a hunger for first generation faith. First generation faith. If you're a follower of Christ, you need to see what you have as first generation faith. You do not want your children or those who come behind you to have second generation faith. you want them to have first generation stories. So we're going to expose them to places and things so they can say,

I remember when God answered my prayer. I remember when God met my need. I remember when God used me to make a difference. I remember when I was doing my Bible study, my U-Versian Bible study, and that verse just jumped off the page, and it was just like for me. It's going to be first-generation faith stories that help build in them a divine calling to make a difference. And then week four, we're going to cultivate.

an internal drive and an eternal passion, an internal drive. A lot of people are hard on the younger generation, and man, I've got nothing but belief in them, because they are the most cause-driven, mission-minded generation in history. I mean, they care so much about other people. They want to make a difference. And so all I want to do is remove the obstacles, give them some tools, and say, you can do more than I did. I want them to develop an internal drive and an eternal passion. How are we going to do that? Very simple. We're going to expose them to the presence and the power of God in the local church. Listen, when you get this, it changes everything. You don't just go to church. You are the church. And we experience in the context of Christian community the presence

in the power of God. And then our lives revolve around it by 15-year-old. She worships at one service and serves at six. Why? Her life revolves around the local church. It's her community. And then we're going to expose the next generation to the needs of the world through the eyes of Christ. We're going to take them out of more of our kind of materialistic, prosperous bubble, and help them see places in the world where people have nothing, help them see deep needs, and there's going to be a brokenness and a longing to meet the needs of the world through the love of Christ that will be life transforming. Then we're going to expose them to the thrill of being used by God, that when God sets them apart and does something through them, like when my nine-year-old

brought a family to church, nine-year-old, that had never, ever been to church before, and was so ecstatic. And I said, baby, do you realize you might have the gift of evangelism? She said, what's that? That's when God uses people to bring others to Christ. She says, you think I have that gift? You just brought a family to church who's never been to church before. She said, yeah, I did. Let's go find somebody else and do it Again, it's a thrill of being used by God. Now, before you say, oh, well, Pastor Craig's family must be perfect, I also had to discipline two of my kids for being disrespectful for their mother last week, so I'm not saying we have it all together.

What I am saying is we're going to expose them to the power of God and believe they can do more than we did. This is what David, the father, said to his son, Solomon. And Solomon, First Chronicles 28, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. In other words, don't have a secondhand knowledge of God, know him firsthand. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, son, you will find him.

If you seek him, you will find him. We tell the next generation. So take this seriously. The Lord has chosen you to build a temple as his sanctuary. Be strong and do the work. It's a father saying to a son. It's a first generation saying to the next generation. You can do what I wanted to do, but I couldn't do it, and you can do even more.

Be strong. You have what it takes. I'm not going to help you. I'm going to commission you. Seek God, know him, do what he called you to do. Be strong. Do even more for his glory. I am an outlasters.

I will impart to you what I have and believe you will do even more with it for the glory of God. Father, help us to be a church full of outlasters, serving you and passing along, what you've put in us for your eternal glory. All of our churches, as you take a moment and pray, I recognize we've covered a lot of ground, and I'm really worked up about this and really excited, and you just kind of walked in as a normal day. I believe the Spirit of God is going to speak to many of you,

and you're going to recognize, man, I'm just kind of living in such a way that if something happened to me, there wouldn't be a whole lot that would last. I want to be an outlaster. I want to be an outlaster. I want to impart that which matters most, not just to my children, but to the next generation. I want to be involved in my church, disciplining others to know Christ more intimately. God, help me to be an outlast.

All of our churches, if you really want that in your life and through your life, would you lift up your hands right now? Just all of our churches just hands up going all over the place. God, thank you so much for a church full of people that want to make an eternal difference. God, I pray right now in your presence that you would start to get a good. give us eyes to see those opportunities just in the normal flow of daily life. God, help us to recognize that this will not happen accidentally, but it's only intentionally that we will be able to impart your love. God, show us opportunity after opportunity. God, even today, I pray for

fathers that you would give them the courage to lead, even when they may feel spiritually inadequate just to even start praying with their children, do a devotion with their children, or to take their children with them to work or to a place to serve, to serve even alongside their children in church, to be an example of loving you and loving and serving in your church. God, empower the fathers. God, I pray that for the mothers that they would be overflowing with your love and your grace as an example of one who pursues you with all their hearts. God, I pray for, I pray for 20-year-olds, God, that they would see themselves as outlasters, imparting in teenagers, imparting in children. God, I pray that 15-year-olds would recognize they could be a mentor to someone. I would be a

mentor to someone younger. That as we pursue you, God, that your spirit would overflow through us, God, give us a heart to make a difference in those all around us, make us outlasters. As you keep praying today, nobody looking around at all of our churches. Some of you, you're going to recognize you're not serving God with first generation faith. You may say, man, you know, my kids might have stories of how God has worked, but I don't. Some of them. Some of the of you, you are raised in maybe a Christian family or around Christian things, but you realize that that was someone else's faith and not your own. Others of you, you're like, yeah, I wasn't raised around anything, spiritual or Christian, but something's happening right now, something's

drawing me, I can sense that I'm creative for something more. What is that? Let me just tell you very plainly, that is the love of God reaching out to you, drawing him to himself, drawing him to his son Jesus, who was the greatest outlaster of all time, the son of God, who lived on earth, who died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins and rose again from the dead. So anyone who calls on him would be forgiven, would be transformed, and would be forever changed. Let me tell you, there are those of you here today. You are here because God wanted you here. It's time for you to step across the line of faith and call on Jesus for yourself, for his salvation, for his life in you. Let me tell you what. If you're married, your marriage could change. If you're a parent,

your family can change. If you're young, there are generations that could be different because you step across the line of faith and surrender your life to the Lordship of Christ. There are those of you. You're here for this very reason, and you know it. Call on him and say, yes, by faith, I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All over the place, just lift them up right up here. God bless you and over here as well. Right back here in the back section, both of you back over here. Others of you. Right here, ma'am, and sir right back over here saying yes, right back here as well. Ma'am, others of you say, yes, I call on him.

I surrender to him right up here in this section, right back here toward the back. Church Online, you click right below me, others of you today that would call on him right up here close to me and sir right back over here on this side. Others call on him right here, sir, in the middle section. Would you pray with those around? Do you pray aloud? Pray Heavenly Father, I surrender to you and make you first in my life. Jesus saved me from all my sins. Make me brand new.

Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you, know you, serve you, make a difference in your name. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Life Church, would you worship? Big thank God. Welcome those born today into the family of God.