Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - The Right Heart, Part 2: Love, Love, and Then Love Some More

Episode Date: June 5, 2016

Love God, love people—sounds simple enough. So why is it so hard to live out? Maybe it’s because we're going about it all wrong. Join special guest Joyce Meyer to see why love isn’t about following the right rules—it’s about having The Right Heart. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world through church online. If you have any questions, are you like to learn more about us? You can always check us out online by going to life.church. This week, we welcome back renowned author and speaker Joyce Meyer as she continues to show us how loving God and loving people. Is it something that starts in our head, but rather starts by having the right heart? Hey, Life Church, you're going to be blessed again this week because we have Joyce Meyer back to teach another week.

And before I formally introduce her, I want to tell you what's starting next week. Next week we're starting a brand new message series. It's an unusual title. It's called Bad Advice. Come to church for bad advice. What are we going to talk about? Well, the reality is so many people do really stupid things every single day and we don't know why. What I'm going to do is actually show you the bad advice of how we get in trouble and then contact us.

contrast that with the good advice. The topics we're going to cover, we're going to talk about how to drift from God or how to lose your faith. People do it all the time. We don't know why. We're going to actually talk about how to commit adultery. Why? So we can avoid adultery. We're going to talk about how to be an addict. Nobody plans to become addicted, but people do all the time. And then how to be dissatisfied. When you see the steps that lead to dissatisfaction, you're going to want God's steps that lead to contentment, joy, peace, and every good thing that he has. Today I want to welcome back an amazing teacher, Joyce Meyer, author of over 120 books, amazing friend of my family.

Her new book is called Overload. If you don't have it and you feel overloaded, this is a book that you need to get. I am so blessed by Dave and Joyce, their personal friends of our family. We've been honored to partner with them in ministry for years and years. Her television show is translated into 85 different languages shown to tens of millions of people all over the world. She talks to over 200,000 women live in women's events. What's really special to me and our church is honored to support what they do is called Hands of Hope. They've got people all over the world that are empowering the poor to work their way out of poverty. She is the real deal.

She's a woman of God. She's a friend to our church and a blessing to my family. Would you please help me welcome today, Joyce Meyer? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I was just here last week, so I feel like family now, so this is good. We can just settle in. And I said it last week, but I want to say it again, you guys have just really got an awesome church. And I was thinking about something. You know, you have a really awesome pastor, pastors, and amen pray. One of the things that I can say is I've never heard a bad thing about them.

And I think that always says a lot, you know, because. if there's any bad thing to be said, somebody's going to say it. And so we love you guys and appreciate all the work that you're doing. Well, I mentioned last week at the end of the message that I had a dream recently. And in the dream, I was preaching. And I said to the people, if I could only preach one more message, I would tell you to love, love, and then love some more. and I would have to say really if there was only a couple of messages I could preach the rest of my life

the two things that I would preach on would be learning how to seek the presence of God learning how to seek God for who he is and not just what he can do for you that's so important that we seek God's face and not just his hand and then secondly I could probably just preach on love all the time and be happy because of what it has meant to me in my life and how life changing it was to me to learn that you cannot be selfish and be happy. And I think that's a power pack statement. So many people wonder where they're not happy. What happened am I not happy? And even a lot of those people have, they're like me, you know, I had a lot of things that were right, good husband, good kids, even in ministry, nice home, two cars in the garage, didn't have a lot of financial pressure,

but wasn't happy, wasn't happy, wasn't happy, wasn't happy. There's always something else, something else, something else. And I remember when God spoke to me, he said, you're not happy because you're selfish. And see, it's just not possible to have yourself on your mind all the time and be happy. And I further think that we complicate Christianity. You know, if you're not careful, we have a lot of gospel going out today. And you can almost feel like there's so many things to do. You know, I preached last week on being careful about your motives.

Now you've all got to do that. And today, I'm going to talk you about love. So then you've got to be nicer to people. So it's like, you know, somebody else can come in and teach on prayer. and I feel like you've got to pray more. And so there can be so many things that we, you know, because our hearts are right, we want to do what we're supposed to do. And if we're not careful, we can just get so frustrated almost

with trying to be a Christian. And I've found that one of the things that I can do to simplify my life is just always bring it back down to love. Because that's the most important thing that Jesus said we have to do. He said, one new commandment I give unto you, one new commandment I give unto you that you love one another, just as I have loved you, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples. They're not going to know by our church attendants. They're not going to know because we have a bumper sticker on our car.

Matter of fact, when we put Christian symbols all over us, we better really perk up the act. The display has got to go, because, you know, then people are watching you, more so. And so that's not what's going to convince them. Your neighbor can see you go to church every Sunday, and that may cause them to watch you more, but then if you don't treat them right during the week, then it's all blown to bits. And so the only thing, the only thing that's going to convince the world that Jesus is real, is if we who call ourselves Christians can learn to walk in love everywhere that we go.

We cannot just be good in church and good around our Christian friends and then get out in the world and be impatient and rude and obnoxious and hard to get along with and sit at the lunch table and gossip with everybody else and on and on and on. So really, you won't hurt, you won't sin again. people if you love them because that one that love takes care of everything so we can simplify our life by just thinking more about love more about love and you know I tell a story and it's a saddest thing but it it it really makes my point I've written a lot of books but one of the books that I wrote is called love revolution and what I

said is we we need a revolution of love we need you know we just need to start something. Christians need to start something. Let's start a revolution. Let's learn how to love each other. And that was the worst selling book that I've ever written. It was terrible. I mean, absolutely terrible. And it's a great book. And the reason why people didn't buy it, and this is sad. That's not what they're interested in. You can write a book on success. There's so many things you can write a book on, and people just buy it, buy it, buy it. But love, and you know another thing, it's not even always that we're not interested in it,

but I think we hear the word thrown around so much in church that we think we do it. I know all about that. I got all those scriptures underline. Well, I was out preaching on love and did not know what it was. It's not a sermon. It's not a theory.

It's not a book. It's how we treat people. It's how we treat people. Amen? And I think you can really see love when you look at how you treat people that can't do you any good. That don't have, how do I treat people that don't have anything I want? How do I treat people that can't do anything back for me? Or people I'm never going to see again?

Or people that maybe in the natural would be unlawful. and the natural would be unimportant to me. You see, that's what's important to God. I think it's so good for us if we can learn to really realize that God sees everything we do. And we really need to live for him. I want to live for him. I want to realize that he's with me all the time

that I represent him everywhere that I go. The Bible says that we are ambassadors for Christ. and get this, the amplified says that God is making his appeal to the world through us. Is that not amazing, brother? God is making his appeal to somebody in your life out there through you. That is awesome, isn't it? What an opportunity, but what a responsibility. See, with the opportunity always comes responsibility.

And that doesn't mean we have to be perfect. Sure, you make mistakes. Somebody knows you're a Christian. they're not a believer, they're going to probably try to judge you. We're not going to be perfect, but if we focus on what's important, what we focus on is what we produce. And so the more we focus on love, I mean, to be honest, if I were you, I'd buy every book I'd get my hands on love and the fruit of the spirit.

You don't know people by their gifts. You know them by their fruit. And so, Matthew 22, 36 through 4. 40. Love actually really is the most important thing in the world. So I guess that's why I had that dream that if I could only preach one more message, that's what I'd preach. Now, let me clearly say this will not be my last message. That was a dream. I've already decided I'm going to live to be 100 just to make the devil mad. Teacher, they said to Jesus, what kind of commandment is great and important in the law? Some commandments are light. Which ones are heaven? Which ones are heaven?

heavy. And I love that. You know, if you ever come out of church and somebody says, whoa, that was a heavy word. Well, Jesus said, you want a heavy message? Here it comes. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. Now, I want to put a little different spin on that for you maybe than what you've thought of. I believe that that's exactly what we do. We love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And I'm not talking about like, I'm going to tell you today you need to love yourself, but I'm not talking about being in love with yourself. I'm talking about loving yourself. You can't give away what you don't have. I can't love you if I don't love me and I can't love me

if I don't know that God loves me. And so receiving God's love for us is probably the first step towards successful Christianity. We have to know that God loves us and he loves us unconditionally. And he's never going to stop loving us. Matter of fact, I'm going to tell you something today that I find every time I say this, people just look like, are you sure? God will never love you any more than he does at this moment right now. And see, sometimes people that's like, well, surely if I pray more, he'll love me more.

Well, surely when I improve my behavior, he'll love me more. No, love is not something God does. It's who he is. God is love. For us, it's something we do and then don't do. We do it and then we don't do it. But I want to have enough of God in me that I can be walking, talking, oozing, dripping love. You know, there's a scripture in Ephesians 3 that where Paul prayed for the church, and he prayed the most amazing thing.

He said, I pray that you will become bodies wholly filled and flooded with God. Just a body walking around full of God. And so if I'm just a body walking around full of God, then I've got to be a body just walking around full of love. And I tell you the truth, once we get this, once I got this, life got to be so much. fun. It's fun to do things for people. It's fun to wake up in the morning and on purpose think, what can I do for somebody else today? Instead of waking up in the morning and thinking, what can I get Dave to do for me today? My kids never do anything for me. Well, Dave never does anything for me. He just plays golf. The kids go out and play and I do all the work around here.

I clean the house and nobody cares about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. That's what makes us miserable. that's really what makes us miserable. And oh my gosh, this is the most important thing. You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. You know, I had a very difficult time learning how to be merciful to people. I wanted to. I heard messages on mercy. I was just harsh and hard and legalistic.

And I was raised by a father that was like that. And I thought that that's what the cause of it was, and that was a good part of it. But God finally showed me, he said, you can't be merciful to others because you don't know how to receive my mercy. And then he taught me you can't give away what you don't have. See, if you won't be so hard on yourself, then you won't be so hard on other people. If you'll receive God's mercy quicker for yourself when you make mistakes, it'll be easier for you to give other people mercy when they make mistakes. and I believe, I honestly believe this,

I believe that most of people's problems and unhappiness, insecurity, fear, all kinds of things, come from people not loving or liking themselves. So I'll just say this today, just to make the devil mad, I like myself. I like my personality. I like my unique voice. I like my sassy personality.

I like myself. Well, I got written up in a newspaper in Pennsylvania one time. Meyer says she likes herself. Well, you know, what would they rather I say? I hate myself. I am a wretched, miserable, awful person. People would call that, oh, she's such a humble preacher. No?

I am the righteousness of God in Christ. born again, set apart, made holy by the blood of the lamb, and God loves me, and he's taught me to love myself, and I even like myself. I like to spend time with myself. I like to be alone with myself. But you know what? When God started teaching me this, I didn't like myself. I didn't like my personality. I didn't like my voice. I was always comparing myself with other people, competing with other people. I thought my prayer life should be like this person, my Bible reading program. should be like this person. I should be able to memorize whole chapters in the Bible because somebody else does. It's awful when you have to live your life comparing yourself with somebody else

all the time. Be yourself and love the person that God created you to be and be the best version of you that you can possibly be. Amen. Even when it comes to churches and pastors, God doesn't want us all to be just alike. My style is one thing. Craigs is something else. Somebody else is something else. We need a little variety in the world. That's why God's given us all different set of fingerprints. If he wanted everybody to be just alike, then he'd make us all alike. Amen? You don't have to not like yourself because you're not like somebody else and you don't have to compare and compete. Love yourself. Do me a favor. Give yourself a hug today. Now, you guys are pretty good. See, that's because you know a little bit of stuff. You should see me when I get about

three, four thousand people that are like, I love my, do I like? I don't know if I like myself or not. You know, it's something people don't even think about a lot of times. And it can be the root cause of a lot of problems in people's lives. How many of you understand that? That that can just, boy, that can be the root of a lot of stuff. So let me read it again. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. First, Corinthians 1231, but earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and the best gifts and the graces, the higher gifts and the choice graces, and yet I will show you a still more excellent way,

one is better by far, and the highest of them all, and that is love. Now, he was teaching about the gifts of the spirit, which the Corinthians walked in a lot of the gifts of the spirit, but Paul said, that's great, cultivate the gifts, seek after the gifts, but let me tell you something. that's greater than all of it, and that's love. So everything, over everything we do, we need to have this overarching theme of, I'm doing this because I love God, and I'm doing it because I love you.

I'm doing this because I love God, and I'm doing it because I love you. 1st Corinthians 13, 13, and so faith, hope, and love abide. And the greatest of these is love. So what is love? well God is love. 1 John 318, little children let us not love merely in theory or speech, but indeed and in truth and practice and in sincerity.

Now here comes a good one. 1 John 317, if anybody has this world's goods, resources for sustaining life and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in him? You see, anything that doesn't flow dies. It becomes stagnant and it dies. And so God's love flows into us.

It ministers to us. We love him back, so we got this really cool thing going on between us and God. But then it has to flow out of us. Otherwise, it becomes like a stagnant pool of water, and our lives just begin to stink. and anything that we pour out, God pours more back in, and so there's a flow in our life. He pours in and we pour out. He pours in and we pour out. He says, open your heart of compassion. We have a heart of compassion. Now, I had a pretty hard heart because my dad had mistreated me,

but let me tell you something. I don't care how hard-hearted you are. You see a starving kid, something happens inside. I mean, you see people hurting. You see kids living in a garbage dump somewhere, and something happens in your heart. We have a heart of compassion. We hear about so-and-so whose wife has cancer and they've got $300,000 with a doctor bills. You've got to be moved with that. But I love what he says,

if you see a need and you close your heart of compassion, in other words, I can see a need and I have a heart of compassion. Now, am I going to open my heart and let something real flow out of my life, or am I going to say, nope, I'm not going to get involved. Nope, that's not my problem. Nope, I'm already doing my part. Or am I going to say to God, show me what I can do? Show me what I can do.

I want to tell you, that's a dangerous prayer to pray. The next time you hear of any kind of need, you say, God, show me if there's something you want me to do. Get ready. See, a lot of times even if you can't meet a need by yourself, you could go around and gather up 16 other Christians and all together, you could meet the need. And that would be an exciting project.

A lot of times we just assume, well, I can't do anything. I can't do anything. But we can do a lot more than we think we can do if we really, really, really, truly want to. Don't close your heart of compassion because then the love of God won't live and remain in you. I believe that love is how we treat people. And I think it has many different facets. I've got a diamond ring on up here and it's got different facets. You turn it different ways and you see different things flashing off of it.

Well, 1st Corinthians 13, I'm not going to read all eight of the verses just to save time, but let me go through it just a little bit. If I speak in tongues and I don't have love, I'm just a big noise. If I have prophetic powers and understand truths and mysteries and have so much faith I can move a mountain, but if I have no love, I'm a useless nobody. If I give everything I have to the poor, And if I surrender my body to be burned in order that I might glory, back to last week's message, about motives, then I gain nothing.

Here are the facets of love. Love endures long and is patient and kind. Love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy. Love is not boastful or vain, glorious. It doesn't display itself haughtily. It's not inflated with pride. It's not rude, unmannered. does not act unbecomingly, doesn't insist on its own rights or its own way.

It is not self-seeking. It's not touchy. It's not fretful, resentful. Takes no account of the evil, none to it. Pays no attention to us suffered wrong. On and on and on. Wow. I don't know about you, but I know a bunch of rude Christians. I mean, I've had, I remember two ladies who got in a fight over who was going to buy my last series that I had just finished on love. Out at the resource table, and I am not making that up. Had two ladies in the front row sitting in the same seat together, because they both wanted the seat and nobody would get out of it.

Now, I was teaching an eight-part series on love one time, and just so proud of my series. I was teaching on patience and love, all these things. It's going to be eight whole parts, two four-part series on love. and I didn't even really know what I was talking about. But I didn't know I didn't know what I was talking about. Because you see, you can theorize and make a sermon on just about anything. How many of you know that we're really good at giving advice to other people

and not doing ourselves what we tell other people to do? I recall one time I was having a problem and something was going on and I just didn't know what to do. And I'm like, God, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. He said, why don't you just do what you tell somebody else? else to do. It's not that we don't know the answers. It's just that we want to see it. It's good to give the advice, but we don't know how to take it. So this is a long story, and we don't have time for a long story, so I'm going to shorten this story. I was in McDonald's. There was only one

booth left. I wanted the booth. I'm teaching my eight-part series on love. Dave was getting some food. He said, get the seat. I start heading for the seat out of the corner of my eye. I see another man headed for the seat. I know love is not rude. I know love prefers other people. I had a split second to decide, am I going to follow the Holy Ghost, or am I going to follow my flesh and get the booth while I went with the flesh and I got the booth. Like I said, don't have a lot of time, but it ended up, this poor guy that I raced for that booth in McDonald's was crippled. See, everybody does that to me when I tell that story. And you are not helping me to feel any better.

I'm sure that's been at least 36 years ago when I did that. It's been a long time ago, long time ago when I did that. But you know what? The thing is, is when I realized what I had done, I was like, Joyce, you're preaching on love and you're racing a crippled man for a seat in a McDonald's restaurant. I mean, come on. And so I'm glad for the experiences that I've had like that. I am glad when God gets right in the middle of me and makes me look at myself and say, look at this.

Look at this. And I'm telling you what, I refuse to be phony. I will not be a phony preacher. I will not be a phony Christian. I am going to do the doing with God's grace and get him to help me. And I want him to get right in the middle of me every single time that I do something stupid or hurt somebody. because I don't want to be like that. I do not want to be like that.

Okay, how many of you really enjoy the presence of God? Okay. You know, I've read books on walking in the presence of God, and then I find myself trying maybe a little too hard to get into the presence of God. Have you ever done that just like, you go somewhere and you're like, maybe you haven't done this, I don't know, but I have. wonder how long I'll have to wait here or be quiet. Go ahead.

Has anybody ever done that? See so? I mean, all you've got to read do is read Brother Lawrence's book on the presence of God, and it just wipes you out. You just think like, oh, Lord, was I ever relieved when I read 1st John 412? No man has at any time seen God. Are you ready for this? but if we love one another, God abides.

Do you see that? Where any time we're loving, God's there. Because God is love. And we can love people with our thoughts. We can love people with our words. We can love people with our time. We can love people by listening to somebody who talks more than you'd like to hear them talk.

Boy, I've got a, you know, I'm a bottom line person. Just, you know, I don't want to know about the yellow cat and the tree with his tail hanging down and the tree was purple and had some red leaves and he was up. I'm just like, okay, you saw a cat. Let's go on to the next thing. And so, boy, I can get like,

mm-pacient when I get with somebody trying to tell me, their version of the story that they could tell me in two seconds because I have other very important things to do. After all, I'm a Bible teacher and I'm trying to study. Don't have time to listen to you. And you know, I'm really trying to practice that, just that I can just love people just by listening to them when I really would rather not listen to them. I was in a, well, it's the truth. I mean, I was in a doctor's office one time, and an old guy had broken his leg, and he kept wanting to talk to me and talk to me,

and he lived by himself, and he broke his leg, and he was telling me over, and I'm like, I'm, I was sitting there praying, reading my Bible, and I said to the Lord, would you please make him shut up? I want, I want to pray. What to pray? You know what God said to me? If it was Billy Graham, would you listen to him? So you think I don't cut you any slack?

God doesn't cut me any. That's why I'm like this. I mean, I'm only dishing out to you what I have to eat. Would you listen to him if he was Billy Graham? And then I realized, well, of course I would. Why? Because it would be impressive to tell people I met Billy Graham. It would be impressive.

Maybe Billy Graham would invite me to do something with him. I don't know. But this guy can't, you know, we don't think like this. But the reason we do that is, well, that guy can't do nothing. for me. But see, those are the people that God wants us to take time to pay attention to. Those are the people. It's all the invisible people in the world that he wants us to see. Just taking a few minutes to just be kind to somebody, to tell somebody they're doing a good job, to tell somebody you appreciate them. You even try sometimes.

stopping somebody that's working sweeping out in the mall or something and just say, hey, you know what, I can tell you really work hard. Thanks for what you do. I mean, it's like changes their whole day. And so if I only had one message left that I could preach in my whole life, I think I would have to say love, love, and then love some more, because that's really what's very important. to God. Thank you. God bless you. Well, we've got an assignment. Love, love, love all of our churches. Let's pray and then we're going to love. Father, thank you so much for bringing Joyce to share such a powerful, important, and life-changing word with us today. We ask God that we would have open hearts to hear what your Holy Spirit would say to each of us, that we would be different, God,

because you've loved us and your word dwells within our hearts. As you pray today at all of our churches, let me just get right to the point, because I don't want to offend Joy. and talk about the yellow cat in the tree. Okay? All of our churches, those who say, I want to be more full of God's love. Would you raise your hands right now? Just lift them up right now.

Father, I thank you for every hand that's lifted. I pray, God, that you would empower us to love you first, to love ourselves. And out of the overflow of that love, we would embody your love in everything that we do, God, that we would be bodies full of you, full of your love. You would give us eyes to see those who are hurting,

ears to hear those who need someone to care, a heart to feel the pain in other people's lives. God, give us resources to be a blessing to others. God, I pray that there are people who could not leave the church building they're in or not turn off the computer they're watching without reaching out to someone else, to show an act of love. God, I pray that every day that our feet hit the ground, that we would dedicate our whole lives to you, being sensitive, to the voice of your spirit, to see the needs in people.

God, to spend an extra moment to allow you to interrupt us with the needs of other people. God, may we never be self-centered, always other-centered as Christ dwells within us. God, I even pray this would impact marriages, families, God, relationship with children, that you would show your love through us. Convict us, God, to be better at showing your love. Now, Father, for those who need to learn to love themselves, God, I pray that they would be set free from any guilt of the past, any shame of the past, and recognize that because you love them, God, they can receive that love, be transformed, and show it to others freely. Thank you, God, as you're changing our hearts to be more full of your love in every single way. As you keep praying

at all of our churches, there may be some of you that you're here by divine appointment, not by accident, but because our good God wanted you to be here today to receive his love. You may think, well, I'm not worthy of it. I've done so many things that are, that are, that are, that are, but I'm not, are wrong. And the reality is, you're right. None of us are worthy of his love. None of us are good enough for it. But he loved you so much that while we were still sinning, Christ died for us. And I love what Joyce said that God will never ever love you more than he does right now. He loves you, not because of what you've done. He loves you because of who he is. Recognize there is nothing that you can do to make him love you more. There's nothing that you could do to cause him to love you less.

He loves you because that's what he is. He is love, and he wants to share that love with you right now. At all of our churches, there are some of you who would recognize you don't know that love. It's not personal for you. You may believe in God, but you don't know him personally. Today, I want to encourage you to call out on Jesus, his son, God in the flesh, who was without sin, who died on the cross so our sins could be forgiven. When you call on him, all of your sins will be washed away.

you'll be brand new, not a better version of you, but a brand new, a new creation in Christ Jesus, that all of our churches are those of you, you need to receive his love. Simply call on him, and as you do, he will invade your life with a supernatural love, and you will never be the same. Those of you who say, yes, that's what I need. I need his forgiveness. I need his grace. Today, by faith, I call on Jesus. I ask him to change me, to forgive me, to be the Lord of my life. I give my life to him. That's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now at all of our church and say, yes, Jesus, I surrender completely to you. As a church, we are honored to play a very small part in all that God is doing in and through your life.

And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life. that church slash next. One great next step for you could be starting the all-new 14-day reading plan from Joyce Meyer inside of the U-Bersion Bible app. All you have to do is search for the plan called Closer to God, and you can start reading today. You know, here is a church. We love to be a place where everyone is accepted no matter where they came from. And John Abaca from Life Church, Oklahoma City, experienced that acceptance the first time he walked through our doors.

And as a result, found the love of Christ that ultimately changed his life. I always knew there was a God. You know, my mom had taken me to church growing up, but I didn't really know. know the basic principles of what it means to know God, what it means to have a real relationship with them. I actually lived right across the street from Life Church, and I would see all the cars coming in. To me, the average Christian was a hypocrite. So even before I knew anyone that even went to the church, already had these thoughts of this is how it is. So I'm going to put that label on Life Church. As soon as you pull up in the parking lot, you see young people, people smiling,

people excited to go to church. Everyone was clapping, hands, bumping. Growing up, I never saw that. I never saw anybody excited to go to church. Craig got on, and he starts talking. I don't know even what the sermon was about that day, but I remember how it affected me. It was everything that God's been trying to tell me,

and I left that place feeling like a completely different person. I didn't change immediately. It took some time. It took some reoccurring attendance. It took some digging into the scripture. It took me going into a life group, having people sharpened me, having people invest in my life.

My verbiage, my want-toes, my drive, my passions in life are completely different. I feel like it's embedded into my soul and my being now. And I think God wanted me there at that moment. And I think that God had been calling me for a long time. And he used Life Church to get to me. And, yeah. Life Change Stories like Johns are the reason behind everything we do here at Life Church. And if you have a great life change story, we'd love to hear about it. All you have to do is send us an email to Stories at Life.church. You know,

it's our mission and our passion here at Life Church to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. And we do everything because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life.