Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - The Time Is Now, Part 3: The Blessings of Obedience

Episode Date: November 21, 2015

No matter how much we want one, there’s no blueprint for a perfect life. Feel like you’ve hit a wall? Don’t be discouraged. Maybe it’s just a part of what God wants to help you rebuild. The Time Is Now to lay the first brick on a new foundation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Once upon a time, there was a man named Solomon who built a mighty temple. But before long, the people of Judah turned away from God and began to worship foreign gods and idols. One day, God allowed the Babylonians to attack Judah and destroy the whole city, including God's temple. The people of Judah remained in captivity. Until one day, God raised up the prophet Haggai to inspire the people to God. get back to work, saying the time is now. Well, I am very, very blessed to have heard really a lot of stories about how this little Old Testament book is impacting so many lives.

And so today we're actually going to wrap up our study through the book of Haggai. If you missed previous weeks, I kind of want to give you a little bit of the back story, just so it'll make sense to you. And I do want to say that this is really the challenging week as we deal with some really difficult text. My dad, who always speaks in baseball talk, was, say, son, bring the heat. Bring the heat. So we're going to bring the heat today. If that's okay with you, say bring the heat. Just remember, you asked for the heat, so you asked for it. You're going to get it. So anyway, if you miss previous weeks, let me kind of tell you the back story. We talked about

what happened back in 587 BC when the Babylonians under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Judah, crushing the temple that Solomon had built. And this was more than just a physical blow. This was a spiritual blow to God's people saying, not only did you destroy everything that we love, but you destroyed the house for our God. And for five decades, the Jewish people were held in bondage and captivity. And so when they were allowed to actually go back and start to rebuild, you can only imagine the thrill after 50 years of being. held captive, they were able to go back and to start to rebuild not only their own lives, but also to rebuild God's temple, the house, the dwelling place for God. If you remember in week

number one, they started strong, they built the foundation, they built the altar, and then when the Samaritans opposed them, they panic, ah, we can't do this, and they quit. Well, God raised up the prophet Haggai and said, the time is now, the time is now to build my temple, and so they started again, and then they became incredibly discouraged. As we pick up the story, this week, kind of reading between the lines, if you look at their attitude, you can find that many of them really battle the same battle that many of us feel when we think we're trying to do what you asked us to do, God, but things just aren't going well. We're trying to do what you told us to do, and yet we're not making progress. We're trying to obey you, God, and yet our

life still is not working very well. And you can almost hear the cry of their hearts, God, We're obeying you, and yet where are you? Where are the results? Is it really worth it to serve and obey God? And this is a question that I believe many people were asking, and quite honestly, many people ask today. God, I'm trying to do life your way. I went to church.

I'm trying to do this thing. And yet, my life is still not working the way I believe that it should. As a pastor, quite honestly, I see this oftentimes in dealing with people. I love going to the gym really to talk to a lot of people that are not Jesus followers and I really get to develop a lot of good relationships that way. And I made a friend with a guy and we talked really for years. And I'd always kind of try to share my faith with them in a respectful way. And finally he just like, he said, Craig, it isn't working for me.

My girlfriend won't have anything to do with me. I'm always broke. I'm addicted to this, that and the other. And I'm like, dude, come on, just one time. Just come with me. Let's see what happens, and maybe you might start to engage with God. Well, sure enough, he did come one time to church. And afterwards, he said, didn't work.

Like, what do you mean, didn't work? He goes, it didn't work. What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? It didn't work. He said, I came one time. My girlfriend still won't have any to do with me.

I'm still broke. I'm still taking. Hang on. Hang on. I mean, you know, come one time. Try it. And again, keep trying it. You know, it's like, no, it didn't work.

You know, like, look. Respectfully, you've been smoking dope every day for two years. Okay. You cheated on your girlfriend. with three other girls. You've been spending more than you make as long as you've been alive, you've ignored God your whole life. You think God's gonna fix all that an hour.

It's like, well, I was hoping so, okay? Put down your doobie when I'm talking to you. I gotta help you understand this. And so this is what a lot of times people think is I, you know, I'm doing, I tried the thing, I said the prayer, I did something good, I went to church, and it's not working. God, is it even worth it to try to obey God?

And this was kind of the context as we wrap up the final week. The Jewish people were trying to build the temple. It wasn't going the way they thought it would be. And they're wondering, is it even worth it to obey God in this area? And this brings about the problem I want to talk about today. It's a problem they battled with. It's a problem that I've battled with. Chances are it's a problem that many of you have battled with.

If you're taking notes, I call it the problem of conditional obedience to God. conditional obedience to God. Okay, God, I'm in as long as you're delivering. God, I'll obey as long as it doesn't cost me too much. God, I'll do what you want me to do as long as I see the results I want to see. But if it makes me uncomfortable, is inconvenient, or you're not doing what I think you should do. At this point, God, I pull back. Conditional obedience.

I'll obey as long as it doesn't make me uncomfortable or I see the results that I want to see. conditional obedience, conditional obedience. I'll tell you a story that I've told before, but this really highlights my own weakness in obeying God. I don't know how many of you have ever felt like God was moving upon you to do something to help somebody else. And I always kind of make it a rule. If I feel like I'm supposed to do something for somebody else,

I assume that's probably God. It's not like Satan going, hey, be generous and serve other people. And so that's the rule I've kind of learned. but as a new Christian, I didn't really know how to process all this. And so back when I was like 19 or 20 years of age, I was barely a follower of Jesus. I was at church one week, and I looked up during worship, and I saw this lady, and I don't want to sound harsh,

but she just, her appearance looked like she had more pain in her life than most people should have experienced at her age. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Just her demeanor, her appearance. She was worshipping God, but I thought, I had deep compassion for her. And so I just felt this feeling. It's like I assumed it was probably God saying you should go give her the money that you have in your wallet.

Okay, I was back in college. I didn't have much money at all. I looked in my wallet and all I had was a $5 bill. And I thought, well, that's ridiculously stupid. I shouldn't give her $5. So I'm having this argument kind of we're worshipping. Should I do this? Should I not?

Should I do this? Should I not? And so finally, I'm just like, okay, okay, God, okay, I'll do this. I went up to her and said, ma'am, I'm sorry. I hope this isn't embarrassing for her. It felt like I was supposed to give this to you. It's all I have. And she looked at the $5.

She looked at the $5. She looked up to heavens. And she just threw her arms up and, like, worshipped in this massive way. It was like, did God multiply it to a $50,000 bill? It didn't make sense to me, you know? And she just, she hugged me, and she was going crazy. And I was trying to walk away and not make a big deal. And she said, no, you don't understand.

She said, I'm a single mom. And I don't get paid until tomorrow. And she said, I had enough gas to, you know, get to church, but probably not enough to get home, and certainly not enough to get to work tomorrow. And I wanted to worship God, and I just said, God, what do I do? What I do?

And God just said, drive to church and trust me to meet your need. And God met my need. I was like, I'm so glad God met your need. That was my lunch money, and I'm glad your need is met. And so after church, a guy said, hey, you grow up, you want to go to lunch? I'm like, ah, thanks, no, thanks. You know, and said, no, really, we want to go to lunch. like, ah, no, maybe next week.

He said, no, really, you come with me, I'm buying. I'm like, you're buying, I'm in. I got an $8 lunch, a $3 upgrade. Boom, how about that for the goodness of God? And I'm sitting there thinking, this is how crazy is it that I felt moved by God, obeyed God, gave something that seemed irrational and insignificant. It met a perfect need in her life, and I got an upgrade for lunch. That's how good God is.

Fast forward a little bit and I had the same exact feeling when I saw a gentleman who looked like he had a really difficult life. Give him everything you have. Looked in my wallet. I just had a birthday and I had a $100 bill in my wallet. Had to have had a birthday to have a $100 bill in my wallet at the age of 19 or 20. And so I started going, oh, should I, should I, should I not? Should I, should I, should I, should I? Should I, should I?

I did not obey that feeling. I did not do what I felt like I was supposed to do. You could say I had $5 obedience, but not $100 obedience, right? Conditional obedience. I'll do it as long as it doesn't cost me too much. $5 obedience, not $100 obedience. To this day, I wonder. How did God want to use what I had to make a difference in that guy's life?

And what blessing did I miss and not being obedient to God? Conditional obedience. Amy, my wife calls it selective listening with our kids. I don't know if your kids are like this. They hear what they want to hear. Hey kids, come on here and help me do the laundry. Hey kids, hey kids, kids, kids, come help me do the laundry. They don't hear anything.

Then she'll say under her breath, ice cream, and they come running from every corner of the house. Okay, what is that? It's selective listening. It's, I'm hearing what I want to hear. I'll obey the commands that I want to hear. And we can be like this. We can be like this. I love that part, God, about the whole, you know, many of the plans, you know, in your heart to bless us and they're prosperous, not to harm us to give us a hope in a future.

Oh, I love that verse. Oh, God. But forgive my enemies. Screw that. Okay. You don't know my enemies. I'm not, no, I'm not forgiven my future. enemies, I hate my enemies.

I'll pray for my enemies. Sure, God, I'll pray for my prayer. They'll go to hell. That's what I'll pray, God. You know, it's like, I'm not doing that. It's selective listening. I'll take this one part, but not that other part. Oh, you know, God works all things together for good.

For those who, oh, I love that verse. God, ooh, that's so good. That's so good. But wait until I'm married to share an intimacy. No. You don't understand. God, you have no idea what it's like to be a man. You don't understand my needs.

I'm not doing that. God. Forget that. Forget that. No, no, no, no. It's selective listening. It's selective. It's, I'll obey as long as I'm comfortable.

It's conditional obedience. But we need to understand, and this text is going to get really, really serious here in a moment, is that God does not give us options to consider, but commands to obey. I'm going to say it again. God does not give us options to consider, but commands to obey. And we're going to see God show very clearly to his people. I've described it as the corruptive power of sin. The corruptive power of sin.

And this is what Haggai does. If you remember earlier, God's people turned away from God and they worship idols. Their hearts were not with God. They put their own houses ahead of God's house. And so God tells Haggai, the prophet, to ask the priests some questions. Now, let me just say these questions sound a little weird at first. I'm going to unweird them for you, and they'll make total sense to you. Verse 12 of Haggai II, Haggai asked the priests.

If one of you was carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes, stop there, you're probably going now, what does that mean? Just so you'll know, the priest, when they were going to sacrifice, they would always wear their robes. They would take holy or sanctified meat, and they would take their robes and fold it up into like a little pocket to keep the meat. And what Haggai's going to do is ask, if your robe, which is now kind of like touching something holy, brushes up against something that's unholy, does the holiness

rub off on the unholiness and the unholiness becomes holy? That's what he's going to ask them. He says, if one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robe, and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew or wine or olive oil or any other kind of food, will it also become holy? And what do the priests say? The priests reply and say what? The priests reply it and say, no. In other words, the holiness doesn't rub off. It's like this, a modern example would be.

If I clean my hands, my hands are clean, and I touch a dirty plate full of spaghetti sauce, do my clean hands make the dirty plate clean? No, the dirty plate might make my clean hands dirty. This is what he was saying. And then he illustrates that principle in verse 13. Haggai asks, if someone becomes ceremonially unclean, by touching a dead person. You touch a dead person, and now they're uncleanness, makes you unclean.

And then if that person touches any of these foods, will they be defiled? And the priest answers, yes, what's you doing? He's basically showing that sin is like a disease. Sin spreads easier than holiness. It's the corruptive power of sin. Paul said it this way in the New Testament. He said, bad company, corrupts good character.

Bad company corrupts good character. He didn't say that good company cleanses bad character. He said that there's the corruptive power of sin. You could say that sin is like spaghetti sauce. It stains everything that it touches. This is where the text gets tough. Verse 14. So Haggai responded,

this is how it is with this people. And this nation, says the Lord, everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. Let me say it again. This is challenging. Okay, because they turned away, because their hearts are going after idols and not after me. Because of that, God says, everything that they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. We could say it this way. When your heart isn't right with God, everything you do will be wrong.

Let me say it again. This needs to sink in. When your heart is not right with God, everything you do will be wrong. I can hear some people pushing back. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Jump over to the New Testament. Jesus said this.

He said, hey, if you're going to go to the church one day and you want to give an offering, you're going to go up to the altar and give an offering. First, you remember that you have something in your heart against someone else. What did Jesus say to do? First, leave your gift there at the altar. Go and make your relationship right. Get your heart right. Then come back and give your gift at the altar.

Because if your heart is not right, then it doesn't matter what you do. Whatever you do is wrong. Parents, you know this is true with your children. One kid does something wrong to another kid. And so what do you do? Kid one, apologize to kid two. Kid one walks up and says, sorry! Walks away.

Does that count or not? No, right thing, wrong heart. Okay? Right thing, wrong heart. Does not count. Go up and say it like you mean it. Sorry. Almost, not quite.

This time, say you're sorry and give them a hug. Sorry. Right? I know this doesn't happen at your house, but it happens, all right? Attitude matters. If your heart isn't right, whatever you do is completely wrong. So what do we see so often? Oh, God, I'll obey you, I'll obey you, I'll obey you, I'll obey you, I'll obey you,

as long as you do what I want you to do. God, I'll obey you as long as this is working out for me. I'll obey you as long as it doesn't cost me too much or isn't convenient to me. I'll give you $5 obedience, God, but not $100 obedience. and this is completely a dead wrong approach to our God. We need to understand that we do not obey God so that he will bless us. We obey God because we love him. It's all about the heart.

Let me say it again. This has to sink in. We do not obey God for what he's going to do for us, so he'll bless us so he'll make our lives better. We obey God because of who he is. We obey God because we love him, and we want to honor him with everything in us. This is why getting our hearts right matters so much.

If you think it's been challenging so far, you haven't seen anything yet. God reminds his people. He's going to get down to the heart of the issue. He reminds us people in Haggai 2, verse 15. He says, look at what was happening to you before you begin to lay the foundation of the Lord's Temple. If you were here week number one, do you remember we talked about this? Before they laid the foundation, we looked at the verse, that so many people identified with,

that, hey, you're drinking, but you're still thirsty. You're eating, but you're not full. You're putting your money in pockets with holes in it. In other words, you're doing everything you can to have meaning in this life, but you're still empty. You're accumulating as much wealth and things and having as much fun as you can, but you still feel like there's something more.

You're consuming everything that you can, and yet there's not enough left over. You're working your tail off, and you're not getting ahead. What's going on with this? He said, do you remember that? Before you built the foundation, that's where you were. And then in verse 16, he says this.

He says, when you hoped for a 20 bushel crop, you harvested only 10. We'll apply it to where we live today. You thought you were going to get paid $20 an hour, but when your paycheck came, it was half of that. It's not working like you thought it would be. Next verse. He says, when you expected to draw 50 gallons from the wine press, you found only 20. You were doing everything you could, and yet you just simply couldn't get ahead. Why do you think that was?

Verse 17 is really tough. God says this. God says, I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Oh. Ouch. God says, you were working your buns off, and I sent. blight and hail and mildew and the reason you didn't get ahead is because I didn't let you says God now if I'm honest I don't like that picture of God can I say that and live okay I don't

I mean I'm doing all this I'm trying I'm trying my best and you God you sent these things to keep me from having my crops? I'm trying, is it even worth it? Why in the world would a good God stop us from having provision when we're doing everything we can just to survive?

What kind of God is that? Is that a God that I want to serve? Is that a God that truly loves me? Why would God do that? The next part of the verse helps us to see. Verse 17 again, he says, I sent blight and mildew and hail. to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. And then God says, even so, you refused to return

to me, says the Lord. There it is. There's the reason. You see, God was not trying to punish his people. God was trying to restore his people. That was his goal. God was not trying to punish them. He was simply trying to restore them. And what I found about God is that sometimes, God may not change your negative situation because God is trying to change your heart. There are times when God may not change your situation because he's trying to change your heart. And let me just say this. I'm on a really thin ice right now because this is, I mean, this is really tricky theological territory. Because what I'm not saying is if something bad is going on in your life right now, you deserve it and God is sending it. I am not saying that.

We need to understand that sometimes God may allow something bad with a purpose to get our attention and draw our hearts back. There are other times probably many, many more when bad things are a result of our spiritual enemy attacking God's people or just the reality that we live in a sinful, broken world and there are bad things that happen. So if there's something bad going on in your life right now is not me saying, well, you deserve it and God is trying to get your attention. What I am saying is there are times when our hearts are turned away from God that God may allow or even cause something with the intention of bringing our hearts back to him. There are times when God may allow that. What's really loving to me is what God did. All he did was cut off their supply. Notice he didn't make them sick.

He didn't kill their kids. He didn't do something cruel. He just cut off their supply. Basically to get their attention to turn back to him. Oh, yeah, God, you are our provider. you are the one that controls the seasons. We need you, God. Our hearts are coming back to you.

And if this seems unloving for a moment, remember, if you are a loving parent, you would do the exact same thing to a rebellious kid. If your kid is off at college and you're sending money every month to help support your kid and your kid's smoking it away, drinking it away, partying away, not going to class, abusing your generosity.

The first thing you're going to do as a loving parent is cut off that supply. Why? Because you're not representing the values. And until your heart comes back to these values, then I'm not going to continue to supply your party lifestyle. And this is what God said. I'm not trying to punish you.

I'm trying to restore you because I want your heart. Your heart has turned away from me. If you go back to week number one, and this is why I love this book, is because God is so simple in his love. Week number one, you remember the simplicity of God's message? They're like, I know we're supposed to build it, but we don't know how, God. And God said, here's how you do it.

This is so easy. Don't miss it. Guys say, here's how you do it. One, two, three. Number one, go up to the mountain. Number two, bring down the timber. And number three, build my temple. That's how you do it.

You read it. If you miss a week at church, you miss so much. God just do this. Go up to the temple. Go up to the mountain. Go up, go up. Bring down the timber. Build my house.

Week two, they're doing it. But we're discouraged. We're discouraged. We want to give up. We want to give up. God said, this is so easy. This is so easy. Just be strong, be strong, be strong, be strong, be strong.

Be strong. the work. Put down another stone. Put down another stone. Just stay in the game. Just be faithful. One stone on top of another. Successful people do consistently what normal people do occasionally. Just put down another stone. Week number three, God has one simple message. And in this text, above all else, God says, more than anything else, God says, more than anything else, God says, I want your heart. More than anything else, God says. I want your heart. I want you to seek me with all of your heart.

Here's what happened. You used to love me. I used to be first. But guess what? Now you turned away and worshipped other idols. I want your heart. I want all of your heart. I want to be first in everything.

I want Matthew 633, Jesus said, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And then all these things will be. added unto you. God says, I want you to delight in me, to enjoy me, to seek me, to delight in me, and then I will give you the desires of your heart, but first you delight in my heart. I want you to pursue me with all of your hearts. When you seek God with all of your heart, he says, you will find me. I want you to put me above all else. New Testament. Jesus said, there is one command above all others, and that is to love the Lord your God with all your

heart, mind, soul, and strength is all about the heart. If your heart isn't right with God, then everything you do is wrong. But when your heart is right with God, you'll see him start to bless you. It's all about the heart. I want your heart. I want all of your heart. I don't care if you have a nice house, but don't put your house ahead of my house. God says, I want your heart. And that for me is the biggest battle that I face. I can be so in love and so faithful to God. And then all of a sudden, conditional obedience. But God, this didn't go on my way. But God, God, God, God, God, God, God.

We don't obey so God will bless us. We obey God because we love Him. And that's why what we do is so important. That's why corporate worship together, where we come together in the church, and we corporately sing to God. We say, God, we love you with all of our hearts. We hear His word together in our hearts.

That's why this matters. That's why life groups matter so much because the pull of the world is so strong. and we gather together with other believers and say, God, we want to do life around your word in community. That's one reason why the tithe matters so much among so many others. God, as you bring increase, I choose in my heart to put you first and to worship you. God, I seek you with all my heart.

I seek you with all my heart. Because for me, it is so easy for my heart to be distracted, even as a pastor. First five years in ministry, I'm here to tell you, I let the ministry replace my heart relationship with me. God. Bill He said it this way. He said, the way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me. And that's where I was. I was doing the work of God, but God didn't have my heart. There are those of you who are just like what Jesus quoted. Jesus quoted Isaiah. If you, if you ever want to see something

important, if Jesus quotes the Bible, it's important. He quoted Isaiah saying, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And I'm afraid today, if there is any massive problem in Western Christianity, it's conditional obedience. Like, yeah, yeah, I'll do the God thing as long as it's going well for me. It's people who honor him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. Here's the beauty of this story. The beauty of this story is God got their hearts. Not only were they building the temple were they obeying, but God had their hearts. And because their hearts came back to God, so did the blessings of God. Not because they obeyed, but because their hearts were right with God. And this is the

amazing part of the story. In Haggai 2 verse 15, God says this to them, even though they hadn't finish the temple, even though they didn't do anything to deserve it, only because their hearts had changed. God said, I am giving you a promise when. Everybody said, he said, I'm giving you a promise. Now, now is the time to build the temple. Now is the time to get your hearts right with God. Now is the time to repent of sin that you have rationalized or justified.

Now is the time to stop giving God lip service and not giving your heart. Now is the time not to put your house first, but to put his house first. Now is the time. Now is the time. God says, I give you this promise now. While the seed is still in the barn. He said, you have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, your fig trees, your pomegranas,

and your olive trees have not yet produced their crops. In other words, you still got planting to do. It's not even harvest time. But here is what the Lord God says. But from this day onward, I will do what? God says. I will bless you. even though you did not even plant the seed,

I promise you you will have a harvest of blessing. Why? Not because you built the temple, but because you gave me your heart. Above all else, God says, I want your heart. And there are those of you who are here today that if you're really honest,

God is going to do a miracle in you and no one may see it from the outside because this one's going to happen on the inside. You may be obeying outwardly, but you are rebellious or discontent inwardly. No more lip service. We will give him our whole hearts. We do not obey God so he will bless us. We obey God because we love Him.

With all of our hearts, minds, soul, and strength. There are those today who are returning in their hearts back to fully worshiping God. at all of our churches, let's take a moment and reflect in prayer. Father, we ask and pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you would do a work in us. God, I thank you that over the next few moments, there will be miracle upon miracles that take place in the hearts of those who may be far from you.

God, I know we can be in your house, but our hearts far, far away. And all of our churches, I want you to take a moment and just reflect. Be really, really honest. be really, really honest. I wonder how many of you kind of look to look, know the language, know how to play the game, but your heart is not close to the one who sent his son for you. If that's you today, the amazing thing is, the moment you turn back, he's ready for you.

You don't have to work your way back, you just say, I'm coming back, and he embraces you. And he's got blessings ready to release when he has your whole heart. And all of our churches, those who would say, you know what? Yeah. And I mean, I know I could say this several times a week. My heart gets distracted. My heart gets distracted. That's why daily, I'm in his word, daily. I'm seeking him daily because I need it. Without it daily, I will drift away so quickly. All of our churches you say, you know what? Yeah, I'm probably doing more lip service than with my whole heart. And I ask for his forgiveness. I want to pursue him and love him with my whole heart. That's you lift up your hands right now. All of our churches, all of our churches,

lift them up an act of faith before God. There's so many today. God, I thank you that your Holy Spirit is doing a work right now. I thank you, God, that inwardly you're doing miracle upon miracles. You're drawing our hearts back to you. God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your love, even when your love is difficult and tough. We thank you that you're a God that disciplines those that you love. And God, we recognize that not all hard times or certainly, they're certainly not from you,

but we know that you use all hard times to draw us to you. And God, if you are allowing something, causing something, or there's just something, something that's difficult in our lives, and you want to use it to bring our hearts back to you, God, we want to come running with everything in us, putting you first above all else, loving you, God, with our hearts.

I thank you today that's happening in so many lives. I thank you, God, for healing and restoration. That just like when the prodigal son runs home, you're there waiting to receive him. We thank you you receive us now with a joyful heart as we return to you in our hearts. And all of our churches, as you keep praying, nobody looking around.

We talked briefly about the corruptive power of sin. And let me just be as clear as I can. In our world today, sin is not a popular subject at all. Sin is incredibly destructive. It's destructive. If we're all honest, there's some things, that are sinful that can be fun for a little while. This is fun.

I like this. In the end, it'll mess you up. Some of you right now, you're in the messed up part. You've got secret sins that have taken over in your life. Some of you, you're in a place for like, ah, I don't know how I could ever recover. How could God ever love me? Here is the beauty about God.

Scripture is really, really clear that God loved us so much that he sent Jesus who was born of a virgin, and therefore he did not have the earthly sin nature. He was completely sinless so he could die in a cross for our sins. Scripture says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart, believe in your heart, your heart matters, believe in your heart, believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Every sin forgiven, washed away as if it never happened. God will not hold it against you. Those of you at all of our churches, you recognize, I need his grace, I need his forgiveness. You cannot earn it and you do not deserve it. It is freely given to you, and that's why you're here today. It's time to say, yes, in my heart, I turn to you. In my heart, I call on you. In my heart, I return to you, oh God.

Forgive me, and I give you my heart and my life. I give it all to you. Jesus, I need your grace today by faith. I give my life to you. That's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now? now and say yes, I surrender completely to you back there. God bless you. Over here on this side, fantastic, right over here. I give you my heart. Others today, right back here in this section,

all the way toward the back. Fantastic. Over here and over here as well. Back over there, both of you. Praise God for you guys. Church online, you click right below me, and we're going to take a moment and everybody pray aloud. All of our churches join your voices together. Pray Heavenly Father, today we give you our hearts. We ask for your forgiveness. Jesus, make us new. Fill us with your spirit so we could know you, so we could serve you, so we could follow you. Today, God, I give you my life.

I am not the Lord. You are the Lord of my life. My life is no longer my own. Jesus, I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray. Life Church, would you worship big, worship big, worship big?

Join the angels in heaven, praising God as people are born into God's family today.