Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Selfless, Part 1: Bold in Witness

Episode Date: January 7, 2018

When you serve more, you take less. When you give more, you need less. When you thank more, you want less. When there’s more of God, you’re Selfless. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

a big happy new year to all of you today. I am incredibly excited for so many reasons. First of all, it was 22 years ago on this day, on a snowy Sunday morning that we gathered with about 40 people in a two-car garage for the very first time to worship together at what is now called Life Church. And now 22 years later on this day, we are celebrating literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people expressing obedience to God through baptism, celebrating new life in Christ. I give God praise and honor today. And we get to be a part of something so incredibly special.

And I just want to say to every single one of you that are being baptized, I thank God for you. I celebrate your story. Everyone has a powerful story. And I just wanted to highlight just three today out of Rio Rancho, New Mexico Life Church, Angel who battled with depression and suicidal thoughts is now completely set free. Angel, congratulations on a life transformed by the grace of Jesus. Rio Rancho.

Also, Kirsten from Keller, Texas, no longer practicing Wicca, completely transformed, overcoming addiction. We celebrate with you, Kirsten, New Life in Christ. And Juan, also out of Fort Worth, Texas, we thank God, Juan, that you are free from your addiction to alcohol. You are completely clean and sober today going public with your faith. Can you all help me just thank God for hundreds and hundreds of stories, new life all over because of Christ? I also love this weekend because it's the first weekend of a new year. How many of you have New Year's resolutions? You have goals, you want something to be different

this year. I hope that you do. It's interesting to me when you think about it, most of the time when we make New Year's resolutions, most of them are more self-centered in nature. Not an entirely bad thing, just an observation. In other words, some of you might say, I want to lose weight this year, or I want to eat better this year, or I want to keep my house cleaner this year,

or I want to get rid of our cats this year. I don't know what it might be for you, but a lot of times our goals, they are more about us than anything else. The tragedy, though, is when there's so much of our life, when it comes to God is more about us than it is about Him. For example, so many people today when it comes to God, they are trying to get God to do what they want

rather than trying to figure out what God wants for their life. Sometimes it's a very self-centered faith. God bless me. God help me be richer. God help me be happier. God give me what I want. And whenever life doesn't go as we want, there are some people who end up blaming God.

In other words, I might say, well, you know, I tried to go to church or I read my Bible or I did whatever and I didn't get a better job and I didn't get a better parking space and the girl I wanted to date and end up dating somebody else. I tried God that didn't work because God didn't do what I wanted him to do. What's interesting is that people think God exists for us when in reality we exist to serve and to honor him. In fact, when Jesus invited people to follow him, this is what Jesus said. Jesus said, whoever wants to be my disciple must do what?

Life's not going to be more about them, but that person must do what? They must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. If we want to be a disciple of Jesus, it's less about us and it's more about him. And that's why as we move into a new year in the culture that we live in, a very self-centered, self-ish culture, I want to teach four messages that will help us become selfless and more obedient to following Jesus. Because if we want to follow him, it's going to be less about us and more about him. So let me give you our big four themes so you'll know where we're going in the coming weeks.

Today what I want to do is I want to talk about being bold in words. witness, bold in sharing our faith in Christ. I also want to talk about being faithful in service, using our gifts to ministers to other people. We'll also talk about being extravagant in generosity, and we'll talk about being grateful in the grind. In other words, instead of God, just do what I want, do what I want? God bless me, make my life better. Instead, what if we said this? God use me to reach more people even if I'm laughed at or ridiculed, bold, and witness. God, use me to use the gifts I have to serve others to show your love, even if it makes me uncomfortable, faithful in service. God help me to use what I have to be a blessing to others, even if I have to change the way

that I live, extravagant in generosity. And help me, God, every single day to wake up and do what even may seem mundane, but to do it all for your glory, grateful in the grind. Instead of being self-centered and selfish, what if we, as followers of Jesus, would strive to live a selfless life, starting off by denying ourselves and saying, Jesus, we want what you want, we want to follow your will. So today, we're going to start with a big idea, one that I believe will spur many of you on to share the love of Jesus. and we're going to talk about being bold in witness, bold and witness. Let me give you the context of what we're going to talk about in scripture today.

If you can imagine there were some disciples, some men that Jesus had been training and investing in for about three years. He's teaching them what it means to know God, teaching them how to do God's will. He's investing in them. And the whole time Jesus is explaining to them every now and then it'll say, now you need to remember, the whole reason we're doing this is because one day I'm going to give my life, I'm going to die, and then on the third day, God is going to raise me from the debt. The disciples had a really difficult time with this because they didn't really understand

the whole context like we do today. It's like, no, no, no, he can't do this. And Jesus said, no, I'm going to have to die for the forgiveness of sins. This is why I came. I didn't come for the healthy, but I came for the sick. I didn't come for the righteous, but I came for the sinners. I'm going to have to die, and God is going to raise me from the dead. Three days later, I'll be back.

And so Jesus went to the cross, he suffered brutally. Three days later, it's Sunday evening. What do you think the disciples are doing? Do you think they were out preaching boldly? He's coming back. He told us about this. We've been waiting for any minute. Here he comes. He's coming back. Not at all. John's gospel tells us what they were doing, and we read it in John chapter 20 verse 19 that Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Jesus told him he's coming back but what were they doing? They were cowering in fear behind locked doors. Why? Because they were afraid of those who were enemies of Christ. Why is it, those of you that are Christians? Why is it that we are not more often

bold in witness? A lot of reasons. One reason is that we may be afraid we don't know enough. If we start to share our faith in Christ and someone ask us a question, we're like, ah, it got about it. I don't know. Another reason is we don't want to offend other people. We don't want to be pushy, we don't want to be that type of a Christian. We don't want to offend people. In my opinion, if you get to the root of it, almost every excuse we have, the root of it is because we're afraid. We're afraid we won't know enough. We're afraid we'll look silly. We're afraid that we won't get it right. We're afraid. We're behind locked doors, afraid of the Jewish leaders. I totally incompletely understand this.

Just because I'm a preacher doesn't mean I wake up every day and my Bible hovers over my desk and I glow in the dark with supernatural glory to be bold and all that I do. I totally get it. In fact, years ago, I had a seminary class that was called CWT. I think it stood for Christian witness training. And we had to memorize a script to share our faith

with people that were not followers of Christ. I don't remember the whole script, but here some 20, whatever years later, I do remember the opening line, and it goes like this. Hey, how are you doing? Have you come to a place in your life? You know for certain tonight if you died you'd spend eternity in heaven or hell?

That's the opening line. And from there, it gets deep, okay? Have you come to a place in your life where you know for certain? If you died tonight, you spend eternity in heaven or hell, I still remember the opening line. And the reason I remembered is because we had to do this whole script,

and for our final, we had to go knock on doors as our other seminary classmates watched, total strangers, and our professor would sit there with a clipboard and grade us on how well we would share this script with complete strangers. And so my professor always said, now, before you go to the door, make sure you pray. Make sure you pray, and you ask God to be with you. Make sure you pray. Make sure you ask the Holy Spirit to help you out. Just make sure you pray. Before you go to the door, make sure you pray, I'll tell you, I pray every single time. I pray, dear God in heaven. I hope nobody's at home. I don't want anybody there because I was so

afraid that I wouldn't do it right. Why is it that we're not more bold in spirit? For most of us is because we're so often afraid. But I want to show you in one additional verse of scripture. One event, one moment that transformed these disciples from being timid. and afraid to being bold and courageous. One event and one moment. Let's look at verse 19 again. This is so exciting. That's Sunday evening.

The disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, suddenly, Jesus, the man who died three days earlier, the man who was put into a tomb, Jesus was standing there among you. I love what he said. said, peace, be with you. But that's kind of cocky. Like, hey, but you guys, you know, did you

forget I'm coming back? Peace out. You know, here I am, boys, I'm back. And all of the sudden, these guys went from being selfish, being timid, being afraid, being self-centered, to bold, courageous, and evangelistic and all that they did. These guys who were in one moment hiding behind locked doors. The next moment were out preaching boldly. Peter, the biggest coward, who caved into little girls, and so I don't know who Jesus is. Jesus is now out preaching in front of all these people, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. You couldn't shut this guy up. And the religious leaders arrested them, put him in jail, and they're still preaching away, even when they're being put in prison. Then the high priest, a guy named Annas. And I have to pause for just

moment and think about this guy's name. You know behind closed doors, they made fun of anis, okay? You know they did. The fourth grade boy in me just can feel it. I got some good jokes about this. I'm not going to do it in my sermon, but if we bump into each other at a restaurant, I will tell you the Anas jokes that I have in my mind right now. So Anas, the high priest, says you healed this guy, by what power and in what name did you do this? And here we see Peter, the guy who was hiding, the guy who just earlier denied Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit the text says, said to them, rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly

state to all of you and all of the people of Israel. Watch his boldness. That he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, the man you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. What was he doing? Because the tomb was empty. Because Christ was risen. Because he defeated death, hell, and the grave.

The very man who was timid in spirit was now bold and courageous because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What do we learn from this? We need to embrace this principle if you're taking notes, and that is this, that we speak boldly about what we believe deeply. We all do this. Because Peter experienced the resurrection of Christ, this consumed him.

Later on, he said, we can't stop talking about this. It was everything to him. We all speak boldly about what we believe deeply, don't we? If you go to a great restaurant, and it's amazing, what do you do? Man, you're up in everybody. You got to go there, man. The Ancelot's like, woo, they're to die for it. I mean, you're just so amazing.

If you get like really comfortable shoes, like, oh, I mean, I'm just walking. It's like I'm walking on air. They're just like the most comfortable shoes ever. And there's this new Netflix series. You have to watch it. I mean, I took off work for three days and I watched the whole three seasons, all in one. You know, it's like, it's amazing because what do we do? We speak boldly about what we believe deeply.

If we're not speaking boldly about our faith in Jesus, do we really believe it deeply? Do we really believe it deeply? Peter says, let me tell you about the powerful name of Jesus. Verse 12 of Acts 4, he says, there is salvation in no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Verse 13 says the members of the council were amazed. They were shocked. They were blown away.

They were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John. They were amazed when they saw the boldness. They could see there were ordinary people. With no special training in Scripture, they also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. They were amazed by their boldness. Here's a question for you. Those of you who are Christians,

how amazed are other people at your boldness for Christ? Think about it. How amazed are they? And let's go ahead and let's try to quantify it as best we can. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is unmoved, 10 is massively amazed. How amazed are they? Don't put 10, 10 is Jesus. You're not Jesus.

One is the devil. That might be you. I don't know. It could be the devil here. You know, one is nothing at all. What would you say? for those of you that are probably like legitimately a seven or an eight, let me help you know that you're there.

You're probably not at church alone right now. You've probably got one or two or three people that you brought with you from your school or from the gym or from the place that you work because you're always inviting people. Or perhaps at least this week, you talk to three or four different people about faith in Christ and God was using you. Or you've got a list of people every morning. I mean, you're praying for your mom, You're praying for your brother-in-law.

You're praying for three people that you work with. You're praying for your sorority sisters. You've got names. You're praying every single day. You've got a heart to share the good news with other people. You're probably a seven or an eight or maybe even a nine. How do you know if you're lower on the scale? It's probably pretty obvious.

Never brought anybody at church at all. You know, praying, you pray for other people. You know, sharing your faith at work, you're not even sure if the people at that work even know you're a Christian. You're probably lower on the scale. How amazed are people by your boldness for Christ? I'll tell you a couple of stories. Years ago when I was a brand new Christian,

it was my senior year of college. I just met Amy. We were in the early stages of dating. And they had the athletic award at the end of my senior year. And I knew that I was getting some award because my parents drove two hours to come to the event, so I knew they were primed that they needed to be there. I had no idea that I was getting the athlete of the year award.

of the year award was blown away, shocked, stunned, never expected it. They called me to come up and they said, would you like to say a few words? This was the first chance I had in front of all my peers, all the athletes from all the other sports, to tell them the story about what had happened to me, how it's changed by Christ. I grabbed that microphone and preached about an 87-point message, probably a four-part message series about Jesus did this and Jesus did that and I was lost and I was found now, I was blind, now I see, I've been transformed, I was hurting, and Jesus chame me, and Jesus can change, you too. And when I got done, nobody clapped. They all just went, and I put the microphone down, and I was walking back to my seat, and the whole place is kind of stunned. And there was a soccer

player, this guy I liked a lot, but I didn't know well. And I walked by him. He was sitting down in the chair, so he was looking up at me. And when I walked by, I just remember him looking and go, dude, the boldest thing I've seen in my whole life. He has walked on by. He was amazed by my boldness. Fast forward to recently, a few weeks ago, I was at a phone store getting some phones repaired in our family, and the guy on the other side of counter was a super nice guy. He knew who I was, although he wasn't a Christian, he was actually from a different faith tradition. We talked some about that, and some of the other workers there were part of our church, so they kept coming

up and kind of talking. I was trying to share a little bit with this guy, but I kept getting interrupted. Then there were some people from, you know, other customers that came up and were talking. And what should have taken, you know, 15 minutes or so, ended up taking close to an hour. Amy was waiting for me at home. I was rushed. I kept getting interrupted. I thought to myself, I should invite this guy to church. But so much time had gone by, I didn't really want any more complications. So I just took my phones and went out and got in the car and left. Well, he knew somebody who he told, got back to me and the guy said, man, I really like that guy who's much nicer and, you know, really down to earth and stuff. And he said, I was just surprised that that

pastor didn't invite me to his church. So years ago, people were amazed by my boldness. Recently, they were shocked by my spiritual apathy. What would it be for you? How amazed are people by your spiritual boldness? Or would they even be surprised to know that you're a follower of Christ? So that raises what I would consider to be a very important question. If you are a Jesus follower,

we are called to go into all the world. We're called to be salt and light. This is a calling. This isn't just a suggestion. This is what we're supposed to do. How do we grow in our boldness? How do we become more bold and spirit? I want to give you just two real simple thoughts

from our text in Acts chapter 4, incredibly simple, but they can have a profound impact. The first way we become more bold is this. Number one is we very simply spend more time with Jesus. What does that mean? That means we're praying, we're listening to him, we're in communication, we're reading his word, we're spending time with Jesus. For example, look at verse 13 of Acts 4. They were amazed by the disciples' boldness,

for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in scripture. One version says they were ordinary and unschooled men. There's a Greek word that's translated as unschooled, and it's the word idiotase. Can you take a guess what English word can also be translated from the word idiotase? It's the word idiot.

If you've ever felt like an idiot, what I want you to understand is you are a perfect candidate for God to use. God specializes in using idiots who've been with Jesus. These are ordinary people, just like you, just like me. No training in scripture. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. What happens when we're followers of Christ,

but we don't spend time with Jesus? Let me tell you what happens to me. I don't have any time with them in the morning, any time with them in the day. Instead of being heavenly minded, I get consumed with everything in this world just like you do. Somebody cuts me off in traffic. I want to rear in them.

I get angry. I get consumed with the things of this world like everybody else. I'm like way into the game if my team loses, I just wanna go die because my team lost. You know, I get too into whatever it is, too into fashion or too into social media, or too into what people think about me.

And then the next day, because I didn't have anything happen, that was spiritual, I don't wanna spend time with God, because I skip time with God, and all these negative spiritual consequences flow out of that. On the other hand, if, like I do almost every day of my life, wake up and spend the first half an hour, 45 minutes, reading my U-Version reading plan,

letting God's word renew my mind, adjust my attitudes away from my selfishness to a selfless attitude where I pray and bring people before God and situations before God, and I listen to God. When I walk out of my house, What do I have? I've got divine confidence. God is with me. His spirit's going to guide me.

Suddenly I feel bolder because I've been with him during the day. And so when I see an opportunity, I recognize this is someone that God brought into my life for me to make a difference in their life. And so I might say something, or I might give them something. I might do something to serve them. And then I see how God might use it. And it increases my faith. And I become even more bold. And so I do it again and again.

And so the next day when I wake up, I want to spend more time with Jesus because I've got spiritual, positive momentum going on in my life. because I started the day with him. If you wanna grow in boldness, it's very simple. Spend time with Jesus. They were amazed at the boldness and took note. They were ordinary, everyday people who had been with Jesus. What do we do to grow closer?

Very simply, we spend some time with them. The second thing that we can do is very, very simple, but I'm telling you, God will hear and answer this prayer. Ask God to make you bold. Just pray. God, give me boldness today to share your goodness. When is the last time you ask God for boldness? You ask him and why he'll answer this prayer.

And this is what had happened. The religious leaders continue to threaten the disciples. They said, we're going to put you in jail. We're going to put you in jail. Imagine if not only could you possibly go to jail for sharing your faith, but imagine if you could lose your life. Because right now, I'm speaking. to hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of people on the other side of computer screens

at countries around the world where this is your reality right now. And I understand that. When you go bold for your faith in Christ in some countries based on wherever you were raised, your family might turn on you, or your life can literally be in danger. What if that was happening to us? Would we be scared to death hiding behind the locked doors? What will we pray for? Oh dear God, keep me safe today. God, if I share, keep me safe, God, you know, protect me as I go to Grandma's house. God, don't let us get in a car wreck today. We're going to Grandma's house.

God, keep us safe, God. We pray for me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Watch what these disciples under the potential threat of death prayed for. This is so exciting. Verse 29 of Acts 4. And now, O Lord, hear their threats. and give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word. Not keep us safe, not protect us today, but give us boldness,

even though they're already threatening us, God, make us even more bold in what we do. When we spend time with Jesus, we grow in boldness. When we ask him for boldness, he helps strengthen our faith. And then we start to realign and realize, and remember, and it's at the front of our mind, when this life is over, people will live somewhere forever in eternity.

People will. They'll either live in the presence of God in heaven or in the horror of eternal damnation in hell. I'll be honest. I've never been a big fan of what they call fire and brimstone preaching where you try to scare everybody to death. No, you're going to go to hell

where the worm never dash, and there's weeping and gnashing a teeth. I've never loved that style, but I cannot be true to scripture without telling you. There is a very real place that the Bible calls hell. It's called eternal damnation. It's called a place of torment. It's called the outer darkness. It's called a place of sorrow.

There is indescribable suffering that happens day and night eternally in a place called hell. And words cannot convey the horror, the excruciation, the anguish of hell. In the same way, there is another place. And words cannot adequately convey the glory, the beauty, the splendor, the majesty of the dwelling place of God and his people in what the Bible calls heaven.

Paul said this in 1st Corinthians 2.9. He said, no, I has seen. No ear has heard. No mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love them. We can't even dream it up or explain it. It's so otherworldly and glorious. John, one of the guys who was preaching in our text, he had a vision that is displayed in Revelation 21 of heaven.

He said this. He said, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And I had a loud shout from the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people. He will live with them and they will be his people. And God himself, what will he do? He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there'll be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.

And the one sitting on the throne said, it is finished. I am the alpha and the omega. the beginning and the end. To all who are thirsty, I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings. And I will be their God, and they will be my children.

The glory of heaven that God has prepared for us. We speak boldly about what we believe deeply. a timid, fearful, faith. It doesn't reach a lost and hurting and broken world. Remember soccer buddy? My buddy? That's the boldest thing I've ever seen. Twenty-five years later, I'm at a soccer game with my boys,

and he comes running up to me. He hasn't seen him in two decades. He throws his arm around me. I didn't remember this kind of friendship. He throws his arms around me. He says, Pastor Craig, I'm like, I didn't know you knew I was a pastor. He goes, yeah, he goes, I remember you were wild,

and then you did that bold thing, and you told us all about Jesus and how we could find him. Years went by, and I found myself in a painful place, and so I thought I'd come to your church. Just check it out. But you're still preaching just like you did back then. So I came back. I came back again.

I brought my wife. He said, I've given my life to Christ. My wife's giving her life to Christ. My kids have given their life to Christ. We've led four other families to the church. And just so you'll know, when I heard about the phone guy being shocked by my apathy, I drove back to the store, spent some time with him again,

and invited them to come to church and explained to him the goodness of Jesus and why I came back. It matters so much, because it wasn't too late for him. What I want you to understand is that there are people in your life that you love who do not know the grace of Jesus, and at this moment it's not too late for them. this moment. One day, one day it will be too late.

And so what we tend to think as we're hiding behind the doors, well, what if I do this and I don't get it right? And what if I try and they say no. And what if, what if, what if fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. What if I share my faith and they don't want to hear it? Another question we could ask ourselves that is perhaps more powerful is,

what if I don't? What if I don't? What if I don't? Remember this. In one moment, they were scared to death. When they realized Jesus was risen, everything changed. For some of you, this is that moment. The tomb is empty. Instead of being afraid, just like Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit.

You're an ordinary person filled with the Holy Spirit, courageous in faith and bold and witness. Because we speak boldly. about what we believe deeply. And we believe Jesus is the name above every name, the soon returning, conquering king of kings and lord of lords,

the way, the truth and the life, the living water, the bread of life, our source, our savior, the one who died and who rose again. So, Father, I ask today that you would make those who are followers of your son, Jesus,

bold, rather than being selfish, God, we deny ourselves. We follow us. the one who gave his life for us. At all of our churches today, those who'd say, I am a follower of Jesus, God, make me even more bold in spirit. Would you raise your hands high right now? Just lift them up all over the place. God, thank you so much for hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of people today saying, yes, God, I pray that we would have a revelation of the goodness of yours through the resurrection of your son, Jesus. God, may we center our day around you,

seeking you first, God, increase our boldness. We ask for it. God, give us a heart for those who are far from you. I pray that every single day this week, God, you'd give us spiritual eyes to see those who are in need of the matchless love and grace of your son, Jesus, and then God prompt us, give us courage just to take that step of faith. Not afraid of what will happen if we do, God, but realizing there might be something worse that happens that if we don't. God, make us bold for your son, Jesus, make us bold. As you keep praying today, nobody looking around. Let's go back earlier in the message and remember what Jesus did before his death. He told them, I'm going to have to die. Why? He was going to die and be raised from the dead for the forgiveness of sins.

If I can just be blunt with you, we live in a culture today where people say, well, I'm not a bad person. I'm not a bad person. I'm not a bad person. Listen, we're all bad people. If you ever lied, they were stolen, they were cheated, lusted, have you been greedy? Have you been unforgiving? We're all bad people. And the Bible calls the sin. Why do we feel guilty for this? I believe God has put something in us called a conscious. It's an inner guide that helps us know we've done wrong. We've done wrong. So a lot of times when we think about God, we wonder, could I be good enough for God? Do I need to clean up to come to God first? And this misses the whole point of the good news. Why am I preaching with such passion because God so loved the world that he became one of us in the person of Jesus.

Jesus was born without sin, lived the perfect life, became sin for us on the cross, died in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. He was raised by God from the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name, would be forgiven, transformed forever. In fact, here's an audible, campus pastors, be ready. We're going public. Everybody heads up, eyes open right now. What I want to do is give you a chance to go public before everybody else of your need for Christ. Who are we? I am a sinner and I'm in need of a Savior. And all of our churches there are those of you, it's time for you to say in front of God and everybody, I need Jesus. When you call on him, he hears your prayer, he forgives your sins. He makes you

brand new, not a better version of you, but completely new. Well, what's she going to think and what are they going to think? And they thought I was and what about all these other people? Listen, Jesus said this. If you don't confess me before other people, I will not confess to you before my God in heaven. But if you confess me before people, I will confess you before my God. So let's just do it and let's just do it right.

All of our churches, bold in front of God and everybody. I am a sinner and I need a savior. Today, just like Peter said, I repent, I turn from my sins, I turn toward Jesus. I give my life to him. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high now. All over the place.

Lift them up now. Oh my gosh, now, now, now. Now, lift them up high, say now. Oh my, lift them, leave them up and say, I'm a follower of Christ, hands, hand, leave them up. Say I celebrate, I give my life to Christ. Praise God for you guys. Praise God for you right there, others of you right there.

Church, can you worship God? Right back here, church can you worship God? There's someone else, you're leaning into it, you're hesitating, you're leaning into it, don't hesitate anymore. On three, one, two, three, lift up your hand right now. Praise God for you and you, way back here on the back.

Oh my gosh. Why don't you stand to your feet? Everybody stand to your feet and worship God. Stand up to your feet and pray. Father, we ask that you would inhabit the praises of your people and bring these people into your kingdom. Simply pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father.

Today I give you my life. Asking Jesus to save me, to forgive me of my sins. Fill me with your spirit. so I could follow you. I deny myself. It's not about me. It's all about you. I trust you and give you my life.

Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. Use me to show your love, to bring people to know you, Jesus. As you've changed me, in Jesus' name I pray. Life Church, would you worship? Would you give praise to God today? As a church, it's our honor to play a small part in all that God is doing in and through your life.

To find out what your next steps could be, check us out at life.church slash next. And to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go, download the Life Church app, available anywhere you download apps. It's our mission to become fully devoted followers of Christ because we know that whoever finds God finds life.