Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Stand, Part 2: Stand Up

Episode Date: August 9, 2014

When we’re pushed to our limit, we have a choice to make. Will we choose the path of least resistance or will we have the courage to take a Stand? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, it's great to have all of you with us today at all of our life churches across the country. Those of you at our partnering network churches, we love you guys so, so much. And on the other side of computers, literally all over the world, welcome to church online. We're in the second part of a five-part message series called Stand, as we're looking at five different stories from the Old Testament book of Daniel and learning how do we stand up for that which matters most. If you missed last week, I would encourage you to watch the message at lifefurch.tv. We talked about standing out.

Next week, if you feel weak spiritually, we're going to talk about how do we stand strong in the face of spiritual opposition. Today, though, I want to talk to you about how do we stand up for what is right? Because the reality is, I don't care who you are, at some point, someone that you love is going to make a unwise decisions, and every now and then God is going to prompt you to stand up for what is right and help guide them back to the right path. Now, week four is hands down my favorite week. I cannot wait to teach that one. I'll tell you right now, this is my least favorite week to teach on.

Because it's a difficult subject, and quite honestly, some of you could hear this the wrong way. There are some of you, you are so overly confrontational. When I teach a message on this, it's like giving you. you a loaded gun and a bottle of whiskey. You're like, come on, let me find somebody to kill, okay? So I want to walk into it carefully and with wisdom because some people are overly confrontational. A lot of you are more passive. In fact, just for fun, let's get a show of hand.

All of our churches. How many of you would say you're more naturally non-confrontational? Would you just raise up your hands right now? All of our churches raise up your hands. There's more of you than that, but you don't want to raise your hands because it would be too much controversy, and so you just sit back and be comfortable where you are. Those of you who are like, you're very confrontational, no problem at all, raise your hand. You might raise both them because that's the kind of person you are. You're the ones waiting for me to say something

wrong so you can email me a hateful email. Go ahead and send it, send it to Craig at I don't give a rip.com. It is a real email address, and when you mail it to there, you'll get an auto response that says, I don't give a rip. Thank you for your email. Anyway, just wanted to say that. So, anyway, to be real honest, if you're taking notes, here is one reason this message is very challenging. There's two confrontational extremes. There's extremes. Number one, some are more unwilling to confront. Some are unwilling to confront.

We tend to rationalize this out to say, well, it's none of my business. I'm just going to live and let live. Who am I to judge? and there are some that are really too non-confrontational and don't help move things forward. Then the other extreme is that some confront unlovingly. Some confront unlovingly. In fact, you know what a drive-by shooting is?

I would say there are some people who do drive-by confrontations, okay? They don't have any context, any relationship, and just you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to tell everybody where they're wrong. You know, and with social media, this is so easy for people who don't even know you have a clue about anything in the context of what you're saying, just to come out and just pound out their response and correct everybody. They feel like it's their God-given right because they're always right and you're always wrong.

And so we need to really seek God for wisdom as to how do we confront in the right way at the right time and for the right reasons? Because if you're a follower of Christ, there will be those times when God will call you to intervene in someone's life because you love them. If you're a parent, you may have a child that's making bad decisions, and you need to know when is the right time to step in so that you don't push too hard and push them away, but help bring them back to the things of God.

Or you may have a family member that's just making really poor financial decisions. And you know that over time it's going to be devastating to them, and so God may call you because you love them and care about them to step up and say, is a better way to manage your finances. Or your best friend and accountability partner continues to make bad sexual decisions. And because you love him and what's best for him, and you understand you're not perfect

and you're not judging, but you want to love him enough to help him make good decisions. You may have a relative that's just, you know, a judgmental pain in the backside. And, you know, every family seems to have one of those. You may say, well, ours doesn't. That's because it may be you.

You know, I don't know. They all seem to have one. You know, every Thanksgiving, they're undercutting everybody. And, you know, finally, you may just stand up and say, in our family, we're not going to do this. You know, I'm going to take a stand and help you to make good decisions that would bless everybody else. You may have a friend that already has two cats, and they're thinking about getting a third. And for the sake and name and glory of God, you'll stand up and say, no, because friends don't let friends have three cats. tweet that, if you will.

So it's just, anyway, that's a side point. So on a more serious note, you will need to stand up at certain times for the right thing. And so that's what we want to look at today in Daniel chapter four is where we're going to be. If you missed last week, you missed my description of King Nebuchadnezzar. My pastor always made us boo whenever he said King Nebuchadnezzar boo, because he was so evil. It's impossible to describe how oppressive. his treatment of the people actually was. And in fact, just to give you an idea, this is true,

Saddam Hussein saw King Nebuchadnezzar as his ultimate hero. In fact, Saddam believed that he was actually King Nebuchadnezzar reincarnated. You can read that for yourself. And this is how evil King Nebuchadnezzar, he was horrible the way he treated people. And what's interesting is he actually saw God. God work and God move enough to where God's attention and he even kind of would lean toward the things of God, quite honestly, like many of you. There been at some point in your life, you were drawn to the things of God and then like Nebuchadnezzar, his pride would kick in and then he'd

pull back and say, forget about that. And maybe there are some of you, you've had that kind of ongoing spiritual tension where you're kind of going to go for God and then he'd do your own thing. And that's what was going on with King Neby. And so God gave him this crazy dream. And the dream so freaked him out that he couldn't sleep. He called in his magicians and his interpreters. And he said, what does this dream mean? Well, if you read different versions of the Bible, some versions say the interpreters could not interpret the dream. Other versions say they would not interpret the dream. I think it's just my opinion, I think they would not interpret the dream. Because when you hear the dream, a second grader could probably interpret this dream. I'm thinking they knew exactly what it was, and they're

like, I'm not going to tell the king this bad news, because Nebuchadnezzar and other kings were famous for actually killing the messenger of bad news. So the king's like, what does it mean? Oh, I don't know, king is a good one, man. I don't know. Ask somebody else. And that's what the king did. The king went and asked Daniel, who last week Daniel was probably 14 or 15 years of age at the point of the story. This week he's probably 45 or 50 years of age. He's already interpreted dreams for the king before, so they have a relationship that has been solid for decades. And the king says, here's my dream.

And he tells him, I dreamed about this giant tree that reached up toward the heavens. And the branches and leaves gave so much shade that it was a blessing to all these. people and animals lived in the tree and the fruit provided for many, many people, and suddenly a holy one from heaven shouted, cut down the tree and only leave a stump so that everyone would know that God is the most high God and rules over all the nations. King Nebuchadnezzar tells that dream to Daniel, and Daniel gets real, real quiet and does not want to interpret this dream. Now, what could Daniel have done? Okay? If I'm Daniel, I might have said, gosh, that's a good one. I don't know what that means. I might have said, I'm sorry,

King, I've actually retired from dream interpretation. Now I play golf and garden. Okay? He could have said, maybe you just ate pizza too late at night and you had a nightmare. Don't worry about it. But instead, we're going to watch as Daniel lovingly stands up to the king and helps to try to point him in the right direction. What does this dream mean? Now, I was actually doing some research this week on dreams because they're kind of fascinating to me. And since I only work on Sundays and have nothing else to do, I just did a little research on dreams to find out what they mean. In fact, according to several articles, a lot of consistent dreams that all of us have mean or symbolize different things. I thought I'd tell you these just for fun.

How many of you've ever had a dream that you're falling? All of our churches, you're falling. This occurs early in your sleep cycle. So like not late in the night or morning, right when you fall asleep. And it symbolizes that there's something in your life you can't control that really concerns you. How about forgetting an exam? You forgot that you had a test. And anybody have that one?

I have that one all the time. I hate that one. Even though I'm not even in school, I still dream about it. It means you don't feel adequately prepared for something. And that was interesting to me. If you ever dream that you're stuck, you know, like you can't get somewhere. That means you feel overwhelmed. If you dream about dirty water, this one article said,

that's your body telling you that it's sick or you may have some disease. So if you had a dream about dirty water last night, I'm really sorry, but maybe you should go to the doctor. Okay, I don't know. say. If you dream about chocolate, that means that you feel like you've done something good and you deserve to be rewarded. If you dream that you have to go to the bathroom, that means you got to go to the bathroom. You need to get up and go now. It's not a dream. It's real. Trust me on this. If you dream that you are naked, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand because I do not want to

know and I don't want that visual image in my mind. But if you dream that you're naked, that means that you feel vulnerable in some area of your life. Unless you dream that you're naked and someone else is naked in the same dream with you, and I will not interpret that dream in the house of my God. Just saying, okay? I hate, the worst is whenever my wife has a bad dream about me, and then she's mad at me, okay? I'm not better happen to you. One day she dreamed that I married some other woman right in front of her. She wouldn't speak to me until lunch. She was so mad. I didn't do anything. The interpretation of that dream is you married a haughty and you better be good to them, thus saith, Craig.

Not really. So anyway, we know that's not true. So here we've got the king. There's a big tree. The Holy One from heaven says, cut it down. He says to Daniel, who's interpreted dreams in the past, what is this mean? And Daniel doesn't want to answer. And the king says, come on, Daniel.

Tell me what it means. The first thing that Daniel says is he says, king. king. I wish this applied to your enemies. In other words, he's showing that he actually genuinely cares for the king. I wish this were not true of you. And then Daniel tells the truth. And he says this, Daniel 422. He says, Your Majesty, you are that tree. He said, you've become great and strong. Your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky. And your dominion extends to the distant parts of the earth. Then in verse 25, he translates the dream and says, here's what it means. He says, you'll be driven away from people and live with the wild animals. You'll eat grass like

the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. I mean, you're going to be down on all fours living like a wild animal and a crazy man. He says seven times will pass. This means seven years. Seven years will go by for you until you acknowledge that the most high is sovereign over all the kingdoms of earth and gives them to anyone he wishes. Verse 26, the command to leave the stump of the tree with his roots. This is actually good news, king. It means that your kingdom will be restored when you acknowledge that heaven rules. And Daniel interprets the dream before the king. Now, he could have stopped there because he did what the king asked him to do. He could say, here's the interpretation, and he could have very easily left it at that.

But Daniel didn't leave it at that. If you're going to notice, Daniel has the courage to do something that literally risked his life. He stood up to the king, not because he was proud of himself, not because he was arrogant and wanted to correct the king, not because he thought he was better than the king. He stood up to the king because he loved the king. and he wanted the king to know the goodness of his God. And this is what he had the courage to say, verse 27. King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice. In other words, I care for you.

I want what's best for you. And then he says, what, let's all say it aloud. He says, stop what? He says, stop sinning and what? Say it aloud. And do what is right. Stop sinning and do the right thing. In fact, any time you're going to help bring loving correction to anyone,

This basically summarizes what we're going to say. You know, stop spending your money foolishly and do what's right. Stop being so harsh and do what's right. Stop disrespecting me, please. I love you. I want a better marriage and do what's right. And that's what he says. Stop sinning and do what's right.

Then he goes on to say, break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Stop oppressing the people. God's given you influence. Be a blessing to the people that serve in your kingdom. Be merciful to the poor. and then he says, perhaps then you will continue to prosper. In other words, please do what's right because I want what God wants for you. I want you to be blessed, oh, King, please do the right thing.

Now, I don't know when it will be, and I don't know under what circumstances. But if you're a follower of Christ and you're living within Christian community as we are supposed to live, We're doing life with other brothers and sisters in Christ. We're encouraging one another. We're loving one another. We're supporting one another. We're doing life around God's word. We're praying for one another.

If that's where you are, there's going to be a time when God is going to call you to stand up to someone else who's making the wrong decisions to help them back to God's path. Just in the same way is there will be time when God will call others to stand up to you. because you're blind to it as I've been blind to many things and help you back onto the right path. And whenever God calls you to be the one to stand up to someone else, it's important to be very prayerful about how you do this. In fact, I want to take you to a New Testament verse that really mirrors exactly what Daniel did with the king. Galatians chapter 6 verse 1. This is the apostle Paul talking to the Galatian believers. and he said, dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin,

you who are godly should do what? Let's all say this aloud all of our churches. You who are godly should gently and humbly. Let's say it again, you all in Fort Worth, Texas, help me out. You should gently and humbly, not arrogantly and harshly, you see, as so often people actually do. Gently and humbly. What should we do? let's all read this together.

We should help that person back onto the right path. I love this imagery. Because I love you. I'm here as a brother in Christ, as a sister in Christ, gently and humbly. I'm no better than you. But I want to help you get back on the right path

because you're in a place that could end up hurting you, and I care about you. I want to help you get back on the right path. Then Paul says something very interesting. He says, and be careful not to do what? He says, be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. When we confront, we're going to be prayerful.

And I've given you two very simple prayers that are memorable and applicable to any kind of spiritual confrontation. The first one, if you're taking notice, is this. God's calling us to confront someone. God, help us to confront with the goal of restoration. Help us to confront with the goal of restoration. We want to help someone that we love get back on the right path. We never confront because we're right. We only confront to help someone else be right with God.

That's so good, I'm going to say it again. We don't confront because we're right. Oh, I'm right and you're wrong, so I'm here to correct you. We confront to help someone else get back on the path with God. That's the only reason that we ever confront. We'll read it again, verse one, gently and humble. help that person back on the right path. You see, approach matters. It matters so much. I'll give you an example. Those of you who've been a part of our church for like 15 years, 16 years, you'll remember

back in the earlier years, I was much funnier than I am now. Much funnier. I was funny because I would often say things that were rather crude and very inappropriate. And, you know, for me, from where I came from. I mean, like, I was like really bad before Christ. So I made a lot of progress. And so I thought I was doing pretty good, okay? But a lot of church people didn't think so. And honestly, I would say things that were a little borderline sometimes because I wanted

to connect with people who didn't like normal church and really bring the message to a place where everybody lives every day. But I obviously crossed the line way too many times. And so people would write me hateful letters, send me hateful emails, you know, you cross the line and that was inappropriate in the house of the Lord, and you're going to hell when the worm never dies and just weeping a gnashing of teeth, you know, and it was just, you know, I didn't know them, there's no context, and all these people said things like that, and quite honestly, I didn't listen to any of it. Didn't listen to any of it.

The approach didn't earn the right to engage my heart. One day there was a guy, I never will forget the conversation. sat down with me over lunch, super kind, super encouraging. He said, oh my gosh, this church has changed my life. Your ministry is so special. He said, I got to baptize my son. My marriage is better than it's ever been. My best friend is now following Christ after I invited him to church. And he went on for probably 15 minutes about how the ministry had impacted him. And he said, I have nothing but respect for you. I'm going to continue to be a part of this church for years to come. This is my home. And then he said, and I know that you're a person of prayer, that you really want to please God. Would you mind just praying and asking God if you're ever maybe setting a bad example in some of the things you say?

And if you are and you pray, God will show you. And if God doesn't show you, I want you to know, I still believe in you with all my heart. And I listen to that. I thought, that's reasonable enough. I'll pray. And I'll be honest with you. It wasn't like a 20-minute holy prayer. It was just kind of like, okay, God, I said I pray.

And so show me if there's something wrong. Well, that Saturday night I was speaking, and I had a funny one. I mean a zinger. I was about to say it. And my oldest daughter, who's now 20, she had just graduated from children's church and was sitting right to my side in big church for the very first time. And I was about to say this thing that was funny but inappropriate. And right as it was about to come out of my mouth, I realized, oh my gosh, I would really not want my daughter.

to say that. And that's when the Holy Spirit, through the loving, gentle and humble confrontation of a brother in Christ got through to me. And I recognized I was wrong and I needed to change. Now, some of you say, well, Craig, you can still be kind of like borderline. Oh, you have no idea how far I've come, okay? Just let God keep working on me and you do your little deal. And you have no idea how far I've come. And it was, it was, it was, it was the loving, gentle and humble confrontation from a brother in Christ that helped me get back on the right path. Okay? Drive-by confrontation, you know, angry people on social media, people that we've got no relationship with. It's like, that just is ineffective. It's in the context of

relationship where we're trying to help bring restoration. Quite honestly, that's why I'm such a big believer in the life group is because we're doing life with other believers. We're walking with them. If for you, Christianity is going to church whenever you can, you're not going to get very far with the things of God. It's when we open up our lives and our hearts and we're vulnerable with others and you have access to speak into my life and you give me access to into your life. That's when our marriages start working. That's when we help parent children together. That's when we really, really compress into the deeper things of God when we open up our hearts. God, when we confront, help us to confront with the goal of restoration. The second thing,

if you're taking notes, is this. God, help me to confront with caution. Help me to confront with caution. And it's really interesting that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to put this in. Okay, gently and humbly, help them right on the path. You who are godly, you should do this. But be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Here's the thing. When you're confronting other people, guess what? You become vulnerable to pride. I know I do. If I'm confronting someone else, well, oh, man, I'm spiritual, and they're not, okay? And before long, we can embrace this really prideful, sinful attitude, you better bless God that I'm in your life because I'm here to save you from the pit of hell. God's giving me a righteous judgment to speak to you. If you keep going

that way, you're in big trouble. You're no good sinner because if you follow my life and live like me, then you'll live in the righteousness and fruit and freedom of our good God. That's how some people can be. And we don't want to do that. We need to be very careful. And here's a reality. If you're concerned about a specific issue to confront somebody about it, it could be that God has giving you a burden for that issue, or it could be it reflects a weakness in your own heart. And you need to understand that. I saw this more clearly than I have in 25 years of ministry. Years ago, this guy came to me and he was irrate, I mean, irrationally beside himself, upset because his roommate was looking at pornography. And I never will forget his,

he was like, I got to get him out of my house. I can never see him again. I got to get his computer out of my house. I can't let that filth in my house. And I thought, that's a little over the top. Yeah, he shouldn't look at pornography. That's a little over the top. Well, the very next day, I found out that the same guy that was so offended had been having an ongoing affair with a married woman. Okay? What happened? He was picking at someone else's speck and there was a log in his own eye. He was falling into the same temptation that he was tempted to try to correct in someone else's life. We have to be so careful. That's why it's gently and humbly.

You see, if I ever lovingly bring correction to you, I am not higher than you. If you ever lovingly bring correction to me, you are not higher than me. We're all lower than God. And when we realize that we're lower than God and we're trying to lift each other to the things of God, that's when we can do it accurately. That's when we can do it in the right way for the right reason and see the right results. And that's why I told you I'm not excited about this message, because the last thing I want is a church full of people who are against each other.

That's the worst thing. With all my heart, I hate when Christians are known for what they're against. We want to be known for what we're for, and we are for the broad kingdom of God, and we are for other people, and we want to see others get closer to God. And the last thing I want you to hear is, Pastor Craig said, you need to find three people to confront before sun down tonight. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're looking to help one another get closer to God. And that's what we're called to do.

And so that's exactly what Daniel does. Oh, King, man, I love you. I wish this didn't apply to you. I wish it were for your enemies, but it does apply to you. Here's what it means. And I humbly tell you, please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what's right. Because if you do that, maybe you'll continue to prosper.

Maybe God will continue to bless you. So what does King Nebby do? Does he go, oh, you're right. Forgive me, let's take communion and sing our God reigns. Okay, does he do that? He doesn't do that. What he does is he continues to rebel against God. and seven years goes by.

Seven horrible years. Okay. Some of you, you're going to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and you're going to get it right. You're not going to be overly confrontational, you're not going to be arrogant, you're not going to be harsh. You're going to do the right thing, and you're going to lovingly confront a brother or sister,

and sometimes they're going to turn. Other times they aren't. And here's what I hope you'll hear. You're not responsible for their response. You're simply responsible. to be obedient to what God calls you to do. You do it right and you trust God with the results. And that's what Daniel did.

And seven years later, by the grace of God, by the grace of God, seven years later, verse 34 says, at the end of that time, seven-year period, I Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the most high. I honored and glorified him who lives forever. Seven years later, the evil king repents of a sin and turns to God.

And God is glorified because he worked through someone who had the courage to stand up to a king that had the power to take his life. Sometimes you're going to have to take a risk, and it can be messy and it can be ugly. In your marriage, you may have to say, you know what, I've been a doormat for a long time. You've been treating me with disrespect. I love you too much to let this continue. Let's get counseling. Let's get help.

Your supervisor may be above you and not respecting your opinion. If you got something significant to offer and you need to say, hey, would you please give me a chance? I have something that I want to offer. Your child is going the wrong way and you say, listen, I love you too much. I made mistakes when I was young too. Would you please listen to me?

I want to help give you solid advice that will bring you in the right direction. and when the Holy Spirit connects in your heart and works through you, in God's perfect timing and God's perfect way, we believe that we're going to gently and humbly help people get back on the right path. Not because we're right and they're wrong because it's our desire to help them be right with God, and we're open when others want to help us be right with God. So our Father, we pray in the name of your son,

that you would lead us to be a church full of people that are not known for what we're against, but what we're for. for helping others know Jesus, walk with him and serve him faithfully. And all of our churches, as you just reflect on this, I want to just ask kind of a broad question, and I want you to think about it. This is for those of you that are followers of Jesus. I would ask if you would just make yourself available to the prompting of the spirit,

not like three times a day, but every now and then, when someone you're doing life with needs help, loving correction, a godly rebuke to help bring them back on the right path that you would make yourself available and be willing not to be overly confrontational but certainly not to be passive in the right way at the right time and for the right reasons that you'd be available.

In fact, some of you right now, you even know it's time because you love someone to help them back on the right path. You'll be available to be a vessel for God to use to help point others back to him. If that's you, would you lift up your hands right now all of our churches, just lift up your hands, lift up your hands. I'm going to ask it again because there's not very many of you.

Either you're not listening or you're something's the matter. I want to ask you again, would you be willing and available to let God use you to help others back on the right path? Lift up your hands right now. All of our churches. Fantastic. God, I thank you today for those who follow your son, Jesus. I pray first of all that we would be open to what you want to show us through trusted brothers and sisters in Christ. Then God, I pray that at the right time, when you, you lead us to confront others toward truth, that you would give us the words to say and the timing and the approach and that your Holy Spirit would even go before us to soften hearts.

God, I pray in particular right now for marriages. God, I pray that if there needs to be some tough conversations to bring the marriage to a better place, I pray there would be the courage to do so, and that it would be done in the right spirit and right attitude. God, I pray that there would be healing where there is brokenness. I pray for parents who are aching because their children are making bad decisions, give them the wisdom as to when to step in. God, I pray for those today that are under conviction just by being in your presence that there's something in our lives that's not quite right. I pray, God, that we would be open to your loving rebuke and your discipline and your correction.

As you discipline us not to be an angry, harsh father, but a loving father, bringing us back to your perfect will. God, we repent in those areas that you show us, and we come running back because you love us, and you want to bless us. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, I'm going to be a little bit in your face for a moment because I wish someone had been in my face. I had no idea. I went to church, and I didn't understand the gospel. I didn't understand it.

I thought I believed in God, and so that was enough. I had no idea how much I defended the heart of God by our own. all of my sinfulness. I did feel guilty. I felt, I felt unworthy, but I didn't know how to reconcile those feelings. Some of you right now, you may have that. You recognize, hey, maybe you believe in God, but you're not serving him and you know it. Others of you, you're not like a church person at all, but something's happening right now and you're feeling drawn toward the things of God, and you don't know what that is. Let me just be in your face and tell you, that is the Holy Spirit of God, and you are not here by accident.

You are here because God loves you, and he's trying to reach you, just like he was trying to reach the king, and the king kept fighting against it. And some of you, there's been a war going on for you. And I'm going to tell you right now, if you don't settle it today, then something really bad could happen. And I'm telling you, even if you follow Jesus, something bad still might happen, but at least you'll be with the presence of God sustaining you through it. And all of our churches, there are those of you, I'll just be as direct as I can.

You are not walking with Jesus. If something happened to you eternally, your destination would not be in the direction that you wanted to go. And by the grace of God, you're here today, when you call on the name of Jesus, God's son, who was without sin, died in your place, rose again when you call on him, he will forgive every sin you've ever committed. He will make you brand new. And quite honestly, that's why some of you are here right now. And I would tell you, do not leave without surrendering to him. and all of our churches, those who say, yes, I'm ready. By faith, I give my life to you, and my life is no longer my own.

I call on Jesus. Today, I give my life to you. It's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now, all over the place. Lift them up and say, yes, that's my prayer. Right back over here as well. Others of you who say, yes, that's my prayer. Right back over here.

Close to me. Both of you right here together. Right over here as well. Praise God, if you're right back here at the back, right over here, say yes. Others of you, come on right now. You're leaning into it. Say yes, I surrender both of you right here. Praise God for you.

right back here in this back section, say yes, by faith I give my life to Christ. Church online, you click right below me. We're all going to pray together. Pray aloud. Pray Heavenly Father. Today I give you my life. I need your grace and your forgiveness through your son, Jesus. Jesus make me new.

I believe you died for me and you rose again so I could live for you. Fill me with your spirit so I could follow you for the rest of my life. my life. My life is not my own. Today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. In Jesus name I pray. Life Church, would you take a moment? Worship God. Thank him. Welcome those today, calling on his name, born into his family.