Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Pray, Part 4: How Do I Know What’s Best?

Episode Date: May 23, 2015

Prayers aren't empty words hurled at the sky. They’re conversations—in fact, they're the most important conversations of our lives. Find out just how much it matters when you Pray. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. Before we dive into part four of the series called Pray, I want to tell you about the June series. I'm super excited. I'm going to be teaching some subjects that I covered in a book called Christian Atheist. In fact, the series is called Christian Atheist. You may say, what in the world is a Christian atheist? Well, a Christian atheist is someone who believes in God, but lives as if God does not exist. Week number one, we're going to talk about those who believe in God but do not know Him. Week number two, those who believe in God. Week number two, those who believe in God but do not fear him. Week number three, those who believe in God, but don't want to go overboard. And week number four, those who believe in God, but don't trust him fully. The June series will be a spiritual, hard-hitting message series called Christian Atheist,

believing in God, but living as if he does not exist. Today, for part four of Pray, I've invited one of our all-star staff members, Pastor Sam Roberts, to bring an amazing message out of the book of Philippians. Pastor Sam started with me when he just graduated from college. He's been on staff for over 17 years. He oversees all 24 campuses.

I don't know a guy I'm more passionate about serving Jesus. He's a phenomenal leader, great husband, an amazing dad, and a great communicator. Would you please welcome Pastor Sam Roberts? Well, I want to welcome you all out at all of our Lifechurch.tv locations. Those of you at our network churches, and of course from across the globe at Church Online, it is always great to have you with us. Before we get started, I just want to say a special thank you to Pastor Craig, who's my pastor, your pastor, and truly, honestly, one of the best, if not the best communicator

of God's Word and the gospel on planet Earth. He is unbelievable. Absolutely. And even beyond that, and I haven't served alongside him now for 17 years. What I can say is, man, he's the guy offstage that you see on stage. He's the real deal. He's a great husband. Daddy, and I so appreciate my pastor and his leadership of this church.

It's awesome, awesome guy. And thank you for the opportunity. Craig, it's awesome to be here. Now, before we get started, I do want to give you a little bit of context into the way that I come to you today to deliver God's word to you. See, a couple of months ago, my wife was asking me, how can I be praying for you? And I said, you know, I think what would be great is if you would just pray that God would give me just a passion for prayer and a deeper understanding of how important.

this is in my life, and that would be awesome if you'd pray that. She said, okay, great, sounds good. So a couple weeks go by, and I'm sitting there talking to Craig, and he's talking to me about some of the upcoming series and the things that he's going to be teaching on, and then he tells me, I'm going to be teaching on four weeks on prayer. And I was like, this is awesome. I text Jamie, your prayers are working. They're great. I need to hear from Craig for four weeks about prayers. This is perfect. Well, then another two weeks go by, and he calls me, and he says, hey, would you mind speaking the last week of prayer? And I'm like, I'd be honored.

Are you kidding? This is awesome. I call my wife. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm preaching week four of prayer. You better get rid. Your prayers are really, really working. So here's the thing I want you to hear is that I come to you today in many ways as a fellow struggler of somebody who's trying to fully grasp and be as consistent.

Because many times, what do we begin to think? We're thinking, oh, I don't pray right or I don't pray enough or something's wrong. And so I come to you from there. but also at the same time having been spoken to by God during the course of this series about the power of prayer in our lives. And today, God has given me a message that as I share it with you, it will really transform the way you see, knowing God in prayer, and how that will transform your life. So I'm excited to share with you today. And truly, this series for all of us has been really transformational, as in week one where we began to hear about the need for praying and praying for God's power in our life. Week two, praying for God to be active in helping us to be active in sharing our faith.

And when we do, we begin to understand the fullness of God. And then last week, in week three, Craig talked about the power of, man, just understanding the unity when we pray for unity as believers. And what could happen when the church comes together. It could transform the world. It's such a powerful message. And today, we have yet another powerful truth from God's word about prayer. As we begin to see today how it is so important for us to actually want to know and how we know what is best. We begin to pray and see Paul's prayer for the Philippian Church as he prays for those that he loves dearly about the prayer of how do you know what is best and discern that.

Okay. Now, by show of hands, those of you, maybe you're a fresh high school graduate and you're trying to figure out, you know, what university to go to, you would probably say, man, knowing what is best would be a great thing. right? Or perhaps you're trying to make a purchase and you don't know, should I buy this or should I not? I don't know. I wish I knew what was best. Maybe it's an investment. You don't know whether you should make this investment or not and you're trying to figure that out. You'd really want to know what it's best. Or perhaps it's something quite as simple as a daily thing of like just posting something on social media and you're wondering, man, should I post this or not? I wish I knew what was best at all of our locations. Man, those of you just help me out. How many of my show of

hands would say, man, I really, really would want to know what is best. Now, come on, play along with me, keep your hands up. Those of you in Shawnee out in Rio Rancho, keep your hands up, keep your hands up. Now, what I need you to do is look around at the people with their hands down. These are the people that you do not want to ask for advice. They don't really want to know what's best, right? It's silly. Truth be known, we all really, really want to know what is best, right? And that is what is at the essence of this prayer that Paul delivers to the Philippian church. church. It's found in the book of Philippians chapter 1, verses 9, and 10. So if you have your Bibles, grab them, open it up to the book of Philippians, or better yet, on your, uh, is a smartphone,

or whatever, open up your U-Version Bible app and go to Philippians chapter 1. As you're going there, I'll set a little context for this, okay? So Paul, who is such an important apostle, he was such a foundation to the Christian faith. You wrote almost a third of the New Testament, right? This guy, important guy, is writing to the Philippian church. Now, he is writing from prison in Rome. He does not know if he's going to be executed next. This could be his last days on earth. He doesn't know he's in prison in Rome, right? And he's writing to the Philippian Church whom he loves dearly. In fact, in verse 3 just before this, he says, you know what? I thank my God every time that I think of you. Imagine a relationship in your life where every time that you think of this

person, you thank God. You love them deeply. This is the context. Now, remember, even though you love them, this is like a letter you're going to write to them and you may not get to communicate with them again. Whatever prayer that you pray for them is going to be of the greatest importance, is it not? And it is within this context that we read from God's Word, the Book of Philippians, chapter 1, verses 9 and 10. The Bible says, Paul says, and this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that, now remember this language, we've been seeing this

as Pastor Craig's been teaching through this series, so that language, Paul gives this prayer. I want your love to abound more and more. Why? So that you will be able to discern what is best. Now, something that's real interesting when we begin to break down this prayer and look at it, What we see is we see Paul saying, okay, I pray that your love would abound more and more. The first thing, logically, that comes to my mind is, what kind of love are you talking about, Paul? There's a lot of different loves, right? And today we love our mom, we love our parents, we love our spouse, and we love crucifed cream donuts. You know, it's like, what kind of love are you talking about?

Paul's talking about an agape type of love, a love that is an unconditional. It's from the heart of God. It is unconditional. It's a love that doesn't just give us what we think we want, but rather it will give us what we need. It's a love that is unconditional from the heart of God to us. Paul says, I want this love, this kind of a love. I want it to abound more and more,

both in knowledge and depth of insight. Now, this phrasing that Paul utilizes here is the ideology in this is that, okay, you're going to experience this love and it's going to transform you from the inside out. You're going to experience something so deep inside of you that it changes the way that you act, the way that you think. This can happen to you as a parent. When you have a child, it transforms the way you do things, when you haven't been in love,

and then you find the one you've been looking for. All of a sudden it transforms you. You now have a love that's abounding more, your knowledge of this person. It transforms the way you think, the way you act, the things that you do, right? Right. So now, with this agape type of love that Paul's talking about, a little different, this unconditional love. God expresses this love to us in so many different ways, but one of the ways that he will do it many times is through another follower of Christ, somebody who knows Jesus, and God will utilize those people to speak love and truth and share this agape kind of love

into their life. This happened for me years ago with Pastor Craig. Take you back. I was 22 years old when I began working here at Life Church. And I had been working a couple of years, and Craig asked me, hey, do you want to go to lunch? Well, when the boss asked you, if you're going to go lunch, what are you going to do? Were you paying? Or what? Of course, you're going to go to lunch. Who wouldn't want lunch with Pastor Craig?

Are you getting? So I go, yeah, absolutely, let's go. So we go out there, and about halfway through the lunch, he asked me this question. And it took me back. He said, hey, how long has it been since you've taken vacation? And I said, it's been about 16 months, actually, since I've taken vacation. And he goes, oh, okay. You want to know why you haven't taken vacation?

He said. Now, in my warped sense of thinking in the moment, I was thinking to myself, because I work harder than everybody else around here, because I love Jesus more than everybody else. I don't know, boss, man. Come on, tell me how good I am. I'm working hard around here. Right? That's not what he said.

He said, the reason you haven't taken vacation in 16 months is because you're insecure. And you're trying to convince and please people around you that already believe in you and know how great you are and all that God's going to do through you. And if you don't stop and rest as God is commanded, you're not going to make it the distance in ministry. and you're going to flame out. In fact, he said, it was October about this time. He says, you got between now and the end of this year to take seven consecutive days off or you're fired. Now, I nervously laughed like you just did, right?

That's funny. Craig wasn't laughing. He was looking at me with those gross shell eyes. You've seen them. They've been looking at you before right through this day. He's looking at me, and I'm like, oh, this ain't funny. Okay, okay. So, you know, what did it do?

What did I do? I took seven days off. That's what I did. Right? But no, no, no, no. It was so much more important. Here's what it was. Don't miss the power of this. You see, God was expressing his unconditional love to me through Craig. You see, what I, Craig was telling me what I needed to hear, not what I wanted to hear, about how hard I worked and how good I was. That's not what he said. He told me what I needed to hear, and because he was willing to step into a confrontational type, conversation and bring correction to me. 17 years later, I'm still going strong in ministry, doing God's work,

and it's because Craig was willing to have an uncomfortable conversation. And as I begin to experience through a tough conversation from a fellow follower of Christ, God's love, his unconditional love that wanted what was best for me, I began to change then. I began to have a knowledge and a discernment that changed the way that I did things which corrected my crazy work habits, and now I'm much more healthy because of it, right?

It transformed the way that I thought. Another example for you, a little bit different. This one's kind of silly, but stick with me on this. Watch this. Now, throw this logo up on screen, right? So many of you have seen this logo, perhaps on an airplane, a van, driving down the road, or maybe at a box at your front door. It's FedEx, correct?

Right, we all know this. Now let me just mess with your mind a little bit. There's actually, in the context of this logo, there was created in there a white arrow between the E and the X. You see it? Uh-oh. All right, all of you out in Tulsa area down in Wellington, squint your eyes a little bit, turn your head to the left. You see it now?

Boom, guys in the back. Show them where this arrow is. Help us out. There it is. There it is. All along, right? What happened? I just dropped a little knowledge on you about this little silly logo, right?

But here's the thing. It transforms the way you see it. Now, I just messed you up. Bill and I'll go back up on screen. What do you see? A white arrow? You see it? See?

You can't see it the same way anymore, can you? No. And that's what Paul's saying. I know it's a silly illustration, but it illustrates the point. You're not going to see it the same anymore. All of the sudden, you see God's word different. You experience it in such a way that it begins to transform the way you act, the way you see things. where other people look on at a situation and they see desperation.

They see no sense of hope. No, you see God at work. You see God doing something different. Why? Because the love of God has just grown up more and more inside of you, both in knowledge and depth of insight so that you will be able to discern what is best. What we have to do is begin to let the love of God transform us, from the inside out, and it changes the way that we do things, right?

So the essence of the question that Paul is saying that we see in this prayer is how do I know what is best? I want to know what's best. I've got situations. I've got crazy stuff and things. I want to know what is best. So how, Sam, do I know what's best? It's a great question.

And if you're taking notes, here's the key thought for today for you, that you can take away and stockpile right here. here, it's this. If you're taking notes, just write this down. The key to knowing what is best is knowing God. The key to knowing what is best is knowing God. It's just that simple and that complicated. I call it simply complicated. The key to knowing what is best is knowing God. The next logical question then is the question in which why we come to church, why we engage in God's where why we are here today, the very essence of this is because then how do I know God? That's why you're here, isn't it?

Whether you've been here for years or this is your first time, it's the essence of why you're here. You really want to know God. That's what it's all about. The key to knowing what is best is found in knowing God. So how do you know God? Well, let me just try to take a very complex and how do you do this? knowing the creator of the universe and illustrate it as simply and as plainly for you. And I hope and pray that this lands to you and is transformational as we hear this.

First of all, the caveat statement that I'll give you is that to know God, the ways that there are to know God are about as plentiful as the number of people on planet Earth. Okay? God is omnipotent. He's omniscient. He is the creator and sustainer of this universe. He can express his love to you in an infinite number of ways. What I'm going to do is I'm going to show you how I was given a situation where I was trying to discern what was best. And as I did that, I knew that the best way to understand and know what is best is to know God.

And I'll kind of give you my process of working through decisions that I believe are three great pillars that we can utilize when we're trying to understand and know God. Okay? So here's the situation. About five years ago, my wife had asked me a question. She said, hey, what do you think about us maybe becoming foster parents? And I think that would be a great thing.

And I was like, I'll pray about that. Right? I got to think about that one. That's like an all-in kind of thing there. I don't know. I'll think about that one a little bit. I've got to pray about this and think. So here's what I did.

Okay? I need to know what's best. This is a big decision. Well, the key to knowing what is best is knowing God. How do I know God? Here's what I did. I began to seek godly counsel. Okay?

I began to ask people around me whom I trusted, who I believed in, who I knew, followed Christ with everything in them. And maybe they were, maybe they had been foster parents before. Maybe not. Maybe they had just been further down the road in life than me. And I wanted to glean wisdom. from them. The book of Proverbs actually teaches this principle when it says that for the lack of advisor, for the lack of counsel, plans fail. But with many advisors, plans succeed. Wow, there's a lot of wisdom right in that one statement from the book of Proverbs. You want to know what's best?

Begin to seek godly counsel around you and see if God doesn't begin to speak through the wisdom of the leaders and people that God has placed within your sphere of influence. Godly leaders whom you trust. You'll see a consensus and a voice begin to emerge from those people. Seek godly counsels what I did. I began to ask them. Number two is I prayed. A funny thing about prayers is for me a lot of times and perhaps for you. We think of it as talking to God, right? And we talk to God. We even praise him, thank him for who he is and all this. And we pray, but seldom do we listen. Because prayer is a conversation. It is talking to God, but it's also listening for God. Right? It's amazing in our relationships that we have around us. We understand this quite naturally. Gentlemen, if you were to

come home one night and your wife asked you, well, how was your day? And you tell her, however so briefly, as we gentlemen tend to do, we tell them just the basics of how it goes. And then we ask our wife, well, how was your day? And we just walked off. your night's not going to be very good, is it? No, sir. You need to listen. Ladies, this is an appropriate time. Give your husband a little nudge, nudge, right?

He's talking to you. Pastor's talking to you. We need to listen, not just talk. So I began to pray, and here's what happened. God began to prompt me. It's what I call, when you'll hear people say, man, God spoke to me. When I say that, here's what I mean. I've never heard God audibly come down.

I say, Sam, you need to. Sometimes I wish he would, because things would be a whole lot easier. What it really is is it's more like this internal prompting. It's like God's just like, you need to do this. It's almost like a voice that comes from the inside that's so loud you can't ignore it. It's like a compelling thing from inside that you have to go give something, share something, write somebody something, whatever. Many of you, maybe you've felt this before as you listen to God in prayer.

What do you do? Man, you're trying to know what's best. The key to knowing what's best is knowing what's best is knowing. God, you hear Paul's prayer, I want this love to abound more and more. How are we going to do that? Seek godly counsel. Pray and listen to what God is saying. And then third, when I come to a decision that I'm trying to make, and in this case,

with it being a foster parent, do I do this or not, I look for God's word. I read God's word and listen to him to speak to me through it. So for me, I had asked people that I trusted. I had gotten a consistent voice from them, and I thought this is what we were supposed to do. I prayed about it. I felt like God had said, yes, this internal prompting, Sam, you need to do this. But it wasn't enough for me. What I needed and what I looked for is something that I simply call an anchor verse.

It's just what it means is it means that in this decision process, I'm trying to figure out, God speaks to me through his word and says, here, this is what I'm trying to tell you. And what happens is I can kind of hang my hat on that verse, if you will, because many times, as we know, if you're going to follow God and do what he says, it's in opposition to many times what is naturally logical to the world's standards, right? And so you many times need a little bit of a verse to be able to anchor yourself to so that when people are like, you're crazy, you're just gone nuts. You can go, no, this is what God has said. I remember from his word, this is what he said, right? So because for me, I'm looking at the situation logically and

knowing that, oh my gosh, I have four biological kids. Man, one, two, three, four. That is two past sanity according to the world standards. So is this really good? Because I knew there was going to be opposition, but I needed an anchor verse. So I began to read God's word. And what I want to do now is share with you

the verse that God utilized to speak to me as I began to try to understand, to know him more, to let his love abound more and more inside of me, both in knowledge and depth of insight. Why did I do that? so that I could try to discern what is best. This is what we need to be about. This is the essence of what Paul's praying here

for his dear friends in the Philippian Church. Look, let God's love, his agape love, let it abound more and more inside of you so that, man, when you do this, you will be able to discern what is best, no matter what the situation is that life throws at you. So here goes back to the verse. I can remember this like it was yesterday.

I was driving down the highway, and I was listening to my U-Version reading plan for the day, and it came from the Book of Numbers, Chapter 11. Now, for many of you, I know, like the Book of Numbers, of all the books in the Bible, right? God chooses the Book of Numbers. For some of you, yes, that is not actually a spreadsheet application on your MacBook. It is actually a book in the Bible, number. Chapter 11, what the situation is in this passage is that Moses had actually led the Israelites out of Egypt.

You see, the Israelites were in bondage. They were slaves to the Egyptians. And they had been crying out to God to release them and bring deliverance for them. And God sent Moses, and Moses goes to Pharaoh, says, let my people go. And he says, no. And they bring plague after plague after plague. Finally, Pharaoh relinquishes and says, get out of here. I don't want you anymore.

So they go. God parts the Red Sea. They go out into the desert. God now is supernaturally providing food for the Israelites through something called manna. What this was, was it was like the dew from heaven that came down and they would go out and collect it off of the ground, and then they would grind it up and make this sweet cakes that they would eat. Right? There was a problem, though, as we're about to read. They were tired of manna. They had been eating it over and over again, and the Israelites were beginning to grumble. Forget the fact that God had delivered us from slavery. I'm upset because I'm about tired of eating this manna day in and day out. And that's where we pick up in verse five. We see what the Israelites are saying. They're grumbling. And here they go. In verse five, we read.

Here they say, we remember the fish. Oh, the fish. You remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt. And you know what? It didn't cost us anything. Now, when I read it, I think they're crazy. I'm like, you're a slave. What do you mean? It doesn't cost you anything. Oh, the fish, though. And they look how ridiculous this gets. They go, oh, the cucumbers. They were so good. And, oh, man, the melons and the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. It was so good. It was so good. I wish we could go back. Oh, but now we've lost our appetite. All we ever see is is manna. How ridiculous. I'm sitting here thinking, been delivered from bondage and slavery and you're worried about leeks and garlic and onions?

You're crazy. Oh, but we do this same thing, don't we? God, please, just bring this situation. Then God does something powerful. And now you're like, I don't even like that no more. And I'm going to find something else to complain about. And we just begin to bring on us and we're just complaining. I don't know about you, but I do this many times, right?

I feel like an Israelite sometimes. Well, Moses. Oh, Moses, he's upset hearing this. He's fired up. God's wee bit angry about this, too. And Moses now begins a conversation with God. And Moses says over here in verse 12, did I conceive all these people?

Did I give birth to them? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms as a nurse carries for an infant to the land you promised and oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me. get me meat, get me meat. Where can I get meat for them all?

I cannot carry all these people by myself. This burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please, just go ahead and kill me. Thus say the word of the Lord. Moses. Now, maybe you're like me, and you think to yourself, man, what is Moses doing? It sounds a little bit like Moses is complaining to God, right? He's arguing, guys, telling God all this stuff.

Moses is praying. That's what Moses is doing. You just don't see it that way because it doesn't look like your typical prayer, does it? What's he doing? He's talking to God. We would categorize that in the Christian world is prayer. Moses is being real. He's like, I'm tired of these people.

They want to leak some garlic and all this nonsense. Where am I going to get meat for them, God? I don't understand. You know what? Just kill me. I'm tired of dealing with these people. He's being honest. He's being real.

Many times many of us would probably have good. dose of being real with God would help our prayer life quite a bit and quit all the stuff for trying to be like thinking Moses should be saying, oh servant, oh sovereign Lord, omnipotent father, your servant Moses bows before you and knows the trials of his people. That's not what Moses said. Moses is like, look, you're going to treat me like to just kill me. I'm tired of these people. I get frustrated, right? Some of you don't like prayer because you're not real in your prayer. You just got to be real with God. Tell God. Why? Because God's way. big enough for what you're thinking and what you're feeling, you act like you've got to bring

some pretense and prayer and all that stuff, and God already knows your thoughts anyway. Just go on and tell him. It'll feel better for you. Trust me. Express yourself to God in prayer. And then, check it out. Moses listens to God. And God says to him, look, go consecrate 70 people, 70 of the elders of Israel.

Go bring them up here. And then I'm going to give a little bit of power to them that I've placed on you. I'm going to distribute that so that burden. It's not so heavy for you. Seek that godly counsel. check this out. I'm going to put people around you, Moses, that are going to help you in this deal. Oh, and Moses, I'm going to give them some meat, Moses. But not for a day or a week. Moses, it's going to be for a whole month. I'm going to give them so much meat that it's going to run out of their nostrils.

And they're going to loathe it. I love this. I'm like, mm-hmm. Go on, God, do it. You know, Moses, what does Moses do? Moses is like, hold on a second. God, I don't know if you've been looking. but I have 600,000 men a foot down here. If I killed all of the herds that we have, I couldn't feed them. If I caught all the fish in the sea, I couldn't feed them. Are you kidding? Are you crazy? How's this going to work?

And then it happened. Verse 23. It was the anchor verse. It's where God just drops the, what I call that God bomb, right? Like, talk back to this, Moses, right? That's exactly what was happening to me. Bring it back to you for this situation. I'm thinking, can we do foster care? I don't know. Can we add a fifth kid to the family? I don't know. This seems crazy. I know they're telling me to do this. I feel the internal property, but this doesn't make any sense. God, did you know? I have four children. Things are busy. We're opening campuses all the time. I got more responsibility, more responsibility. And God just says, to me, the same thing he said to Moses out in that desert. He says, Moses, is the Lord's arm too short.

Sam, I know you got a lot of work. I know you got four kids. But is my arm too short? Anchor right here. I was asking the wrong question all along. I had the wrong lens. I thought I wanted to know what was best. But by the questions I was asking,

I didn't really want to know what was best. What I was asking was, that's the easiest. What makes me feel good? Maybe you've been there. You begin to ask the wrong questions. Those aren't questions that really, truly want to know what's best, are they? And then God transformed. His love abounded more and more.

As I got to know him, sought counsel, prayed, listened, and he just shot that anchor verse right into my heart. Is the Lord's arm too short? The question that you are asking, Sam, is wrong. Can I add a fifth kid to my family? As I began to be transformed, that question became? How could I not? how could I not?

I have five children. I'd like to introduce you to my fifth one. This is Brooklyn. My precious little princess, boo. And now, don't you worry, she knows she's a princess. Trust me. And if you forget, she will let you know.

She is a princess. How can I add five? Another child to the family. Can I really add a fifth kid? You see that picture, and you say, How could you not? The key to knowing what is best is knowing God. How do I know God?

There's many ways, but you can definitely seek some counsel, listen to him in prayer, talk to him, real. Look at his word, see if he doesn't speak to you, and give you a verse that will just pierce your heart and transform your life in the way that you do things. And as Paul prayed for the people that he loved in Philippi, we pray today for you. I pray, Lord, that everyone can hear my voice right now, that their love for you, the agape love that only you bring would abound more and more in our lives, both in knowledge and depth of insight, so that we will be able to discern what is best.

At all of our locations, let's now pray. Father, I thank you that through your power and through your word, we can begin to know what is best. And I pray that today that you would reveal your truth through your word to our hearts. As we're praying today, there's many of you today who, man, there's a decision that you're facing right down. What you need desperately is to know what is best in that decision. You've got some decision and you want to know what is best. Man, I'd be honored to pray for you at all of our locations at church online. Just lift up your hand right now and say, yeah, man, please, Sam, pray for me.

I got decisions to make. I want to know what's best. Yeah, there's hands going up everywhere. Father, as those who love you, we come before you with these situations that you've placed in our lives. And we know that you're at work in the midst of them, whether they be good or whether they be seemingly bad, we know that even if you work all things out for the good of those who love you, and Father, we love you, we want to know you more. And I pray that as we lean into you as we talk to people whom we trust and we seek counsel,

as we pray and we listen and we read your word, God, I pray that you would help everyone to be able to discern what is best in their given situation. And we know that when we do, that your name will be glorified through it. Still praying today, there's others of you who you're here for this reason. See, you've been doing life and beginning to think that you really know what is best. You begin to believe that knowing what is best is, oh, what's best is climbing the corporate ladder and if I could just get one more rung up, then that's best. Or if I could just get one more rung up, then that's best. or if I could just make this certain amount of money and just provide for my family, that's what is best. Or if I could just find acceptance with this group of people, and no matter what I have to do in the court, I have to sacrifice, it doesn't really matter as long as I find acceptance.

That's what's best. And really what those are are all just false. They just crumble around us. They're really not what's best. What is best is knowing God. How do we know God? We know God through His Son, Jesus Christ, whom the Bible says in John 316, that God, so loved. That's that word again, that agape love that God gives us not what we want, but what we

truly need. What do we need? What we need is forgiveness from our sin because the Bible says that we have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory and that separates us from God. But God so loved us. He so loved you and brought you here today, brought you to church online so that he could extend that agape love through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus for you. The Bible says that whosoever believes in Jesus and calls on his name will be transformed, will be made new. All of the old is gone. The new has come.

You will be able to discern what is best. You will be able to have purpose in your life. And most importantly, you will be forgiven of your sins and transformed and made new in Christ. When you call on his name. And that is why God has brought you here today at the Life Church locations, at our network churches at church online. It's to hear that truth. That is what's best. Those of you today who say, I want what's best.

I want Jesus. Forgive me of my sins. Make me new. Lift your hands boldly right now and say, yes, Jesus, come in, take over. Up here in the front section, both of you, right here in the front. Yes, sir. Welcome into God's family. Back here to the left.

Welcome into God's family. Those of you at Church Online, click right below me and say yes to a relationship to what's best of knowing Jesus. Back over here to my right, as people are continuing to raise their hands and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Let's just join our voices together and pray this prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place on the cross. You provided what was best. You provided forgiveness. You provided new life. Jesus, come in. Take over my life. Make me new. Help me to follow you all of my days.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, amen. Welcome into the family of a really, really great God.