Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Relationships Matter to God | Modern Romance: Part 1

Episode Date: June 6, 2021

Topics like attraction, desire, and relationships aren’t normally discussed at church—but they should be. Relationships matter to God, so we’re learning how to get them right during Week 1 of Modern Romance.ABOUT THIS MESSAGERelationships are complicated, but do they have to be? How do you know if your one is "the one"? Can a book as old as the Bible help relationships today? We’re talking about being single, dating, marriage, and more in our new series, Modern Romance.Learn more about Modern Romance: www.life.church/modernromanceStart the Modern Romance Bible Plan: www.go2.lc/modernromanceWE’RE OPENWe’re continuing to monitor guidelines and best practices for gathering in a safe way. Learn more about everything we're doing to keep you safe and how you can help by using hand sanitizer, washing your hands often, and more: https://www.life.church/updatesFind a time and attend a service with us: http://www.life.church/locationsNEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIdiIO-Y20hRW9niR0CA8AFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschel#lifechurch #biancaolthoff #modernromance  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I am very excited to be here and talk about the topic of relationships, because relationships matter to God. And if relationships matter to God, relationships should matter to us. I remember that when studying the Word of God, relationships have been at the foundation of God's relationship with us, and we see that in the very first book of the Bible. So if it's important to God, I want it to be important to us. So over the next couple weeks, we are going to be going through the Word of God in a series entitled Modern Romance. If you're a not-taker, I want you to jot that down, modern romance,

because I want to define modern relationships using a book of antiquity, because the Bible is a book of antiquity that speaks to us in modernity. Can I get it? Amen. Yes. So I believe that what God brings to us through the Word of God will minister not just to you in your singleness, but ministered to you in your singleness again. It will minister to you in your marriage will minister to you even if you are a widow. I believe that the Spirit of God has a word for every single one of us if we are willing to put in because what you put in is what you get out. All right, church. So the title of today's word is redeeming attraction. In the words of Justin Timberlake, we're bringing sexy back. Them other brothers don't know how to act. Okay. Now that might feel weird for some of you guys,

but I grew up Baptistocastal, which is like Pentecostals with safety belts, right? So we kind of like tiptoed around subjects like sex, attraction, and desire. In fact, you couldn't even say, at my church, your daddy's church, you could even say the word sexy without getting like a stank face from a church lady. Like, oh, I cannot believe. Why would you say something like that? We don't use those words here in the house of God. But as I began to go through the word of God, I began to see that sex, desire, and attraction wasn't just for procreation. It was for recreation. Hello, somebody, all right? And we see that played out no more than in the book of SOS, as I like to say, Song of Songs. That's where we will be.

So if you brought your Bible, your notebook, your pin, your highlighter, your Bible can glow due to you version. Mom does too. But if you got the old school paper Bibles, turn with me to SOS. And we think of conversations like attraction or desire, relationships. This is not conversations that usually are around church chatter. But my fear is that in making these subjects taboo, in making these subjects things that we don't talk about, we have turned over the messaging of sex and relationships and desire to marketing, movies, and mass media. And I feel like we need to snatch it back.

That is our message to tell. Our good God invented sex. We're not afraid with it. God's not looking down from heaven saying, oh, no, what are they doing? He's like, yes, in the context of marriage, get it. Get it. I bless it. The world has made monogamy, abstinence, and marriage look blasé, boring, and basic. No, we don't wear beige and even if vanilla ice cream up in here. No, church. We're going to have

some hard conversations and good conversations about modern romance. As Christians, we need to own the market on these terms. And I grew up feeling like you had to either be sexual or sanctified. But as we're going to see in the Word of God, oh my goodness, you could actually be both. You could be both, sexual and sanctify. And the truth is the Bible has a lot to say about intimacy, a lot to say about relationships, a lot to say about God's design for marriage. And so today, I kind of want to unpack some misnomer's. I want to take a look at attraction, because sensuality, desire, and relationships heading towards marriage start with attraction. So let's go ahead, pull out your Bibles and turn with me to SOS, chapter one, starting verse two.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is more delightful than wine. Church, I don't know about you. That's a good place to start God's word, all right? Some of you're like, turn up for Jesus, yes. That's how we're going to start up in here. Now, when we read this book of antiquity, my fear is that sometimes we can read this book of ancient poetry and feel like it's so beautiful. Oh, oh, kiss me with the kisses of your mouth. But I want a T.O.

I want to time out for a second, okay, church? because I'm Mexican. You know what Mexican is? Like when you're Mexican and Puerto Rico, okay? So how I read the Bible, this is my first time to live church. So I know I might be a little crazy to some, but let me invite you into my crazy. I would go to my grandmother's house, my Puerto Rican grandmother's house, and she would serve me a cup of coffee and would sit there and watch her shows. I was sick drinking coffee and watching soap operas. Okay, welcome to Hispanic culture. Now, I'd go to Grandma's house, and when I say soap operas, many of you at all of the locations are thinking, ah, general hospital, one life to live, young and the restless. But when

I say soap operas, it's different, friends. It's something called novellas. That's something way different. It's next level crazy. So to make sure we're all on the same page, let's do a side-by-side comparison. In an American soap opera, a woman with fair skin, blonde hair, light eyes, light makeup, bare minerals or something, a spelt's waist and thighs that definitely don't touch. She's going to look at her forlorn lover and say, but John, I love you. Please don't leave. And in a novella, somebody comes in with 10 pounds of makeup,

big old hoop earrings, a very tight dress and thighs that touch, come in like a bat out of hell and say, but Juanita, no se va mia! And then someone runs in, shoots Juanito. You find out that Juanito's her secret baby daddy, and you're like, oh my God. Church, that's how I read my Bible, okay? People are like, oh, the Bible's boring. No, boo-boo, you boring, okay?

Get on my level. So as we take a look at this love poetry letter between a man and a woman, scholars believe it is King Solomon and his wife, Abysha. And Abysha, she's not from the palace, y'all. She's from the south side of the kingdom, okay? She's from Midtown Tulsa location. Shout out, all right. So she's a little crazy.

We're going to find out that she got dark skin. So when my mind's eyes, she got dark skin, big old hoop eerie. She's like the biblical Cardi B, and now I want to read this. And she would read this. Dive into God's Word like it's a novella. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Oh, because your love is better than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes.

Hey, your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder that your women love you. Take me away with you. Let us hurry out. Let the king bring me to his chambers. Right? Now it's different. Now it's different.

Modern romance. Okay. And then her clique, her crew, her posse, rise up and affirm her. And they say, hey, girl, hey, we rejoice with you. We rejoice and delight in you. We will praise your love more than wine. Turn up for your marriage. Okay.

So scholars believe that in verse 2 through 4, that it is this couple looking back on their marriage. So they're married, and they're still finding each other attractive. The Word of God, a book written in antiquity, could speak to us in modernity, and that allow us not just to live sanctified Christian lives, but to do right in relationships and give us wisdom on how to love well. So Bible scholars, in verse 2, this verse would be considered revolutionary because it is written in God's Holy Word.

There is mention of kisses and wine. And some y'all got real scared, got tight booty. What are we going to talk about today? The Word of God. You know what it shows us? God cares about attraction. If God cares about attraction, it's okay that we do too. And it shows us that it's okay to be attracted to somebody.

The Word of God shows us that to be attracted to somebody to desire somebody is not non-Christian. In fact, I want to highlight some really revolutionary content. starts the conversation, who initiates the conversation? A woman. Who initiates intimacy? A woman. Who esteems their spouse publicly? A woman. Now, for those that feel like the Bible is repressive and misogynistic, Jesus is the greatest liberator of biblical history and world history. And here we have King Solomon, one of the wisest men in the Western world, begin to give honor and establish that his wife is a voice of priority. Oh my goodness. Now, I learned from this book and studying this book of verse by verse, chapter by chapter,

and line by line, that being attracted to somebody and desiring somebody doesn't mean that it's hedonistic or heathenistic. It makes us human, and this is good. So I thought, as in my ignorance, arrogance, arrogance, when I was single, that people would, when they would ask me, hey, who are you looking for? What's that thing that you want? What's the thing you desire? Well, as a good Christian pastor's daughter, I was like, somebody who deworms children in Somalia,

somebody who's memorized, Psalm 23, somebody who comes at me with pickup lines like, girl, I don't have your number, but I was reading the book of numbers, and I feel like I should have yours. Like, that's what I'm talking about, right? But I didn't know that there was a difference between attraction and lust. Attraction. This is attraction. I am attracted to someone who is tall, broad, shoulder, light eyes, aka Matt Altav. somebody. That's what I'm attracted to. Attraction's good. Lust sound like, oh baby, break me off

a piece of that. Can I get surprised with that shake, shake booty? It looks good. Kill you. Okay, we'll stop right there. Okay. Attraction is finding someone attractive. Lust is something different. And it's important that you're attracted to that person. Singles take note. This is the last person you're going to see in their birthday suit. I hope you like it. Okay? There is nothing wrong with that. And we see this played out in the very beginning of the book of the Bible. Genesis chapter 2. Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden. And Adam doesn't turn to even say,

someone to help me tend to my garden. Praise you, Father. I bet she has a great personality. No! You know what he says? Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh, I shall call her woman. Pause on this poetry.

Bone of my bone is internal. Flesh is external. From your inside to your outside. signs, I find you beautiful woman. Oh, man. So before we talk about the attributes of attraction and why attraction is good, I want to pause and speak to the married folk in here, because you're probably thinking, the ship is sailed. We're not attracted to each other anymore. If you're married and you're sitting here like, why ain't attracted to him no more? He don't brush his tooth. Listen, we could bring attraction back, okay? And sometimes I speak, I'm going to speak to the married women

in the house. I love you. I love you. I am one of you for 10 years. The Spirit of God has been with Matt and I over our marriage when the world of the enemy is coming up against marriage. We're going to talk about them in the next session. But what I am pausing on and hesitating and speaking love, truth in love to the married folk is the problem with many women is like, he doesn't bring me rose petals on my bed. There's no horseback riding at sunset or hot air balloon rides. This is not Bachelorette season 20, okay? No. You know what is romantic?

A man who pays the bills, okay? You know what's sexy? A J.O.B. All right. Hello. That is what we should be looking for. Now, do I wish that my husband did more romantic things? Yes, I do. I do. But sometimes we need to go and identify how our spouses demonstrate attraction and romance. I was preaching in London. I was preaching hard. I was preaching paint off the walls. I was preaching in a leather jacket in July with no AC. I was sweating more than Bishop T.D. Jakes in a hot flesh in July, okay? Like, I mean, it was dripping. And I knew I could not take off my leather jacket because I would be drenched. So after I preached, and there was a salvation message, I walked off, and I was standing next to my sweet husband who does one of these things and begins to blow on me, and that to me was romantic.

To love me at my ugliest and my worst and try to make me feel better. I think spouses, we need to learn how to identify what is romance in this season and station of life. Look at verse three. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes. Your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you. Now, she thinks he's hot. So hallelujah for hotness. But what is pleasing to her is his name. Now, in the ancient world, baths and showers were not as common as we have today so you would bathe yourself in perfume. Well, names were super important during this time. Names weren't just markers and identifiers, Jane and John. No, names were prophetic foretellings of a situation surrounding your birth or the destiny that awaited you. So in Hebrew, the name,

the word for name is Carasso, C-A-R-A-S-O, which means to be etched out. Your name is etched out in stone. Now, I love that what she identified wasn't his abs or biceps. What she identified was his name. See, because abs and biceps will fade away, unless your pastor Craig, they will fade away. But a name, a name will last forever. Married women, we need to discover our husband's name, not the name that was ascribed to him at birth, but the name that he is developing in this season. Because maybe you fell in love with him for his bank account. Maybe you felt in love with him for his Maybe you fell in love with him for his job. Now you need to rediscover why you love this person. A name does not fade away. Corrosso does not fade away when it is etched in stone. And maybe you got caught up in a whirlwind romance. We're two, three months down the road, you're like, I found my boas. Here's my P31 woman. Yes, we're getting married. Glory to God. And now you're like, what happened? Did you give yourself enough time to discover their name? Not the name that they told you. but the name that has been etched in stone. So here are two things that I want us to identify. Solomon gives us, as I like to say, two proverbs out of this passage that we just read. For the no takers in the house,

the first thing that we see is respect. What is attraction and relationship? It's respect. Look at verse three. No wonder the young women love you. So if you're attracted to somebody, you shouldn't be the only one that knows why you're attracted to them.

She talks about his caraso, his name that is etched out, and she recognizes the significance of this man's name. And then she says, no wonder the young maidens love you. I mean, this girl was the envy of her friends. And we all agree that we should marry a man or marry a person of great character. But if you're the only person that finds your potential spouse attractive or respectable, ask yourself why. And if you have your community, if your community isn't raising up like her friends and say, hey, you found a great one. This man's amazing. Ask yourself why. This man that she speaks about,

this is the man that we want our sons to become. This is the man if you are single that you want to marry. And my fear is that because of modern media, we are all looking for, you know, Michael B. Jordan with like an eight pack and, you know, he's six four with the bank account. No, no, no, no. This is the standard that I have for Christian women. And my bar is low. Do they love Jesus and do they have a job? All right? We're in business. We're in business.

Here's the tough part. If I'm speaking lovingly to the men of the house, this is a hard and tall order, it feels like, in this day and age for a lot of single women who are chasing Jesus. Now, what I love is that I'm seeing women rise in the house and it's beautiful. I would love to see and believe

and I speak forth and call to young men who are rising up and stepping to the God, upon their life. They're chasing the Lord. They're doing great things. And yet we write them off because they don't really fit our character type of who we want to date. You got to give a brother a chance. And so many girls are like, Bianca, you don't understand. This guy, he doesn't look Jesus, but he is so hot. Listen, he may be hot, but so is hell, all right? He doesn't love Jesus. He don't got no job. He's living with his mama and her 85 cats in the basement working at the barista at Starbucks. No, bubble. He's not the one for you. Okay. No.

The second thing that we see is confidence. I mean back it up in scripture, but there is something beautiful. There is something attractive about confidence. Men and women of the house, do you know that you could be rich and beautiful and tall and fit the stereotype of what Western ideal of beauty shares with us? But if you lack confidence, do you know that statistically speaking, that there is this X-vactor, there is a genesis quo, that there is a difference about you versus other people? that when you go for a job interview or you go to potentially pursue somebody, people who exude a sense of confidence are more likely to be chosen on the date and more likely to get the job.

There is something that we possess as children the most high God. It's not just confidence. It's a God confidence. It's a Godfidence. And you know what that is? That is attractive. I believe that we can pull this out. And I love that we see this sense of Godfidence and conviction in our heart. home girl Abashah. Look at verse five. Dark am I yet lovely daughters of Jerusalem. Dark like the tents of Qadar, like the tent curtains of Solomon. Ooh, don't stare at me because I'm dark. Because I'm darkened by the sun. My mother's sons were angry with me and they made me take care of the vineyards. My own vineyard I had to neglect. Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why would I be like those veiled women beside your flocks and your friends. Now, I love verse five, because there's parts of her body that she loves, but there's parts of her body that are difficult for her to own or feel desirable to feel

sexy for using modern nomenclature. And I believe that's true for many women here in all of our locations. We can wear spanks to cover our cellulite, but it doesn't cover insecurity. We can nip and freeze and tuck, but it doesn't give us a sense of confidence. We can wear makeup, but it doesn't cover insecurity. So men, be gentle. Be gentle. Your words can give life. Your words could speak death.

So we know that she's insecure based on verse 6. She says, don't look at me. Don't look at me because I'm dark. And then she has this reference to a Bedouin tribe. A Bedouin tribe, they were known for their black sheep. Sheeps? Sheep? I was homeschooled.

I don't know. They were known for their dark sheep. And when she references the tents of a qadar, they would shear the sheep and make wool that was black. So she is saying, I am dark, I am black like the tents of a cadar. But you know what they say? The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice. Hello, somebody. All right?

So in the ancient Near East, the reason why she's referring to this is because when you had lighter skin, it was a hallmark that you didn't work in the field. You were bushy. You were upper class. And we see that she's very self-conscious. Look at the middle of verse 6. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me. take care of the vineyards, my own vineyard, I had to neglect. So she uses her vineyard as her job,

and then she uses her vineyard as her body. There's a reference in verse 7 that we read over to veiled women. Well, if we don't, you know, no Old Testament theology or culture during that time, veiled women were prostitutes who would follow the shepherds in the field. So what is she saying? She's saying, I'm insecure and I love you. But there's certain things I will not do, for you. Tell me that this book doesn't speak to purity in our culture or the standards that we possesses children of God. I love that a book of antiquity could speak to us in modernity. And for me personally, I made a choice as a very young child that I was going to wait and remain a virgin until I got married. Well, that's cute in high school. It's not cool in college. And the older that you get,

that becomes weird. You know, it starts as like, oh, admirable, good for you. And then it just gets straight up weird. Well, I remember being in college and there was some guys that were like, you're a virgin, are you kidding me? Why? You know, women are like cars. You've got to test drive them. You've got to see how their curves handle. And I'm listening to this, and the Spirit of God gave me a word of response. I said, let's carry out that analogy for a minute. Pretty soon you're going to end up at a janky, used car lot trying to get some busted, broke down car. And when I say I do to my future husband, he's going to get a loked out drop-top brand-new BMW, okay? A big Mexican woman. Hello, all right? No. Here's my one sentence, purity talk for everyone in the house. No ringy, no dingy. Okay. You don't know

what dingy is? Ask Pastor Craig later. Bless God. So Abysha says in confidence, hey, I love you, but I will not do for you what the rest of the world is doing for you. So what do we see in these just seven verses? Number one, attraction is good and ordained by God. Attraction is more than just physical. And attraction is needed in good, healthy, sexual relationships. My heart for the men and women of this room, people watching online at every single one of our locations, is that Solomon affirmed and encouraged this woman. And as one of the wisest men of the Western world, the knowledge that he possessed has been shared from generations to generations. And I believe a lot of it is because he taught us how to do relationships. So men and fathers and brothers and cousins and bosses and bosses. And

is, let me encourage you to choose your words wisely. Ephesians 5 tells us that the words that proceed from our mouth, guess what? They need to be guarded by Christ and seasoned with love. And I referenced this earlier, Proverbs 1821, that there is life and death in the tongue. That's for the men, but for the ladies in the place with style and grace, my heart for you, is that we learn to find ourselves beautiful like Abbasht, that we don't compromise our values, that we don't let the world dictate who we are, that we stand up and know our value and know our worth, not being afraid to initiate intimacy when you're married, bless God, not to be afraid to initiate healthy conversations, drawing boundaries, and getting wisdom from God above.

And I believe that in this room that there are many people who are single. The church is comprised now of almost 50% single. This demographic has not been spoken to. I'm going to share this in the next teaching of our series, but this is what I see. There is a great vacuum of church of singles that want to be seen and want to be known and don't know how to play in church. Let me as a leader in church, as a lover of God's people, remind you that you don't have to have a significant other to be significant. That your significance is impredicated on whether or not you have a ring on your finger, Getting married is not the prize for being more holy or more pretty. No, no, no, no, that you have intrinsic value that God has given you. We're going to unpack this a little bit more next week. But my heart for this community, my heart for the community of God as a whole, is to know that if our Lord and Savior lived a significant life without a significant other, that that can give us hope, that our singleness is not a disease, that our singleness is not a curse, that our singleness is not a plague, that we have been identified. We have. We have

have been marked that there is one that calls to us like Solomon called to Abashah in our vineyards and saying, I choose you, I see you, I love you. My desire for you is wholeness. And we've got to get this right. Because if we do not get singleness right, we will get marriage wrong. If we don't get marriage right wrong. We will get divorced right. My fear is that we have got to know the importance of how to do relationships right in this season. I'm going to go ahead and close this out with a word of prayer and a word of blessing over this house. I firmly believe that this is just the beginning of what God is going to unleash for healthy relationships, modern romance here and online. Spirit and living God, we come before you. We say thank you, God. We say we love you, God. We honor you.

We praise you. We thank you. What I'm believing, Lord Jesus, is that your spirit will give us what we need. Your spirit will infuse us to do what you have called us to. do. Spirit of living God, I pray that you give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart that knows what season we are in. We love you, God. We thank you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, come on. Come on. You guys can do better than that. Tell Bianca, thank you. Powerful word. And for those of you think that I get edgy, ah, I'm just getting warmed up. in a response to God's word today at all of our churches, would you just prepare your hearts and an attitude of prayer and let's go before God and ask him to do what only he can do?

Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you, God, that you are the author and creator of relationships. And we thank you, God, that you're speaking a word of encouragement to both build our faith and to equip us to honor you in all of our relationships. As you're reflecting in prayer today at our different locations or on line. I wonder how many of you would say I would really like to honor God with my relationships. Before you respond, I want you to think about this. And I would beg you, don't give me the Sunday school answer like, yeah, I'm in church, I'm going to raise my hand. What I want you to do is

really think about it. If you're not married right now, you build a life of righteousness, you'll never do that on the foundation of sin, meaning do you want to honor God today? Those of you that are married, do you really want Jesus to be the center of your relationship? I want you to think about it, and we're going to pray and ask God to do something that only he can do at all of our churches are online. Those of you would say I really would like my relationships to be God honoring. Would you lift up your hands right now? Just lift them up. Father, I ask, by the power of your spirit and through the truth of your word, that you would guide our steps.

For those who are not married, God, may we be not married in a way that honors you. guard our hearts God help protect our minds and our bodies from straying in a direction that would be hurtful to you and even hurtful to us God anywhere that we fall in short we just ask for your forgiveness and we thank you that you forgive us so freely God for those marriages today that may be hurting we know that God you are the ultimate healer we pray that you bring healing forgiveness grace strengthen our relationships pray God that we wouldn't just be people that call ourselves Christians, but in all of our relationships, we would be Christ-centered. God, give us the faith in a world that often doesn't even believe

that you can have a great marriage, that it's not even possible. Give us hope, the faith to believe that with you, all things are possible. We pray for God honoring relationships and all that we do, and we thank you in advance for all the ways that you're going to bless our relationship. We pray for relationships. As you keep praying today, it's interesting. I grew up in church kind of thinking like God was watching over me, kind of have to get me. I thought he was a God kind of to obey. I didn't realize that God wanted a relationship with me. When you think about it, who is God? He is a relational God. He created us both to love each other and to love him to be known by him. And when you think about his love, it's really amazing that God loved us. He loves you so much that he showed it.

He didn't just say it, but he showed it. He became one of us in the person of his son, Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh. He was born of a virgin. He didn't inherit a sin nature, and Jesus was perfect. You want to talk about a guy that just love people. He loved even the lowest of the low. He loved those that religion rejected.

He is love. It's not just what he does. It's who he is. And in his love, while we were still sinning, while we were breaking the heart of God, just disobeying his truth, Jesus gave his life for us. The innocent one died in our place, and God raised him from the dead so that our sins could be forgiven, but not just so our sins could be forgiven, but so we could experience the goodness of God.

Not just trying to obey a distant God, but knowing an intimate and very close God, a relationship. If you're watching right now and you say, I don't have that. The good news is I believe God brought you here for that. He wants to reveal himself to you. He wants you to know him as he already knows you. All of our churches are those watching online today. You may feel like, well, there's things I need to fix first. I need to clean up my life first.

I need to stop some things first. I would just say, no, come to Jesus first. Come to him as you are. He loves you. He'll forgive your sins. He'll make you new. And you can be in a relationship with a God who loves you exactly as you are. At all of our churches today, those who say, I want that.

I need his forgiveness. I want to know him today. I want to give my life to him. As you cry out to Jesus, I promise you, God, here's your prayers. He'll forgive all of your sins, and he will make you brand new. Wherever you're watching, those today say, yes, I don't just want to watch the church service. I actually want to know God. I want to know Him.

I want His forgiveness today. I give my life to Him. That's your prayer. Do you just lift your hands right now? All of our churches and say, yes, I'm surrendering my life to him. As we've got hands going up in all of our churches, those of you online, yes, you can just type in the chat right now. I'm giving my life to Jesus. And we celebrate with you wherever you are.

If you wouldn't mind, would you just pray this prayer? You can pray it aloud. If you're comfortable, just pray Heavenly Father. Forgive all of my sins. Jesus saved me. Be first in my life. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you and walk with you and serve you and show your love. Thank you for your grace.

for your forgiveness for eternal life. I give you all of mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Could somebody worship big right now? Celebrate those born into God's family.