Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Things Jesus Never Said, Part 2: Go Do What Makes You Happy

Episode Date: April 7, 2019

Jesus shared a lot of wisdom in the Bible. And lately, He also seems to share a ton on Instagram, on screen-printed mugs, and in those images your aunt posts on Facebook, too. But how much of it is true? Where’s the line between what He actually t... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, thanks for joining us this week here at Life Church. You know, we'd love for you to stay connected throughout the week and everywhere you go. And the best way to do that is through the Life Church app. There you can watch additional messages and find resources to help you in your relationship with Christ. It's free and you can download it wherever you download your apps from. But for right now, let's go to this week's message and join up with our senior pastor, Craig Rochelle. Well, I came ready to preach today. I hope you're ready to have a little bit of church before we dive in to the message.

Today, I'm going to need a little bit of help from 32 different locations around the nation to help welcome live right now, the 33rd location. Can you guys show some love today for all the new people in the Northland location in the Kansas City area? We love you all. It's hard to imagine that the first service, we already saw 17 people come to faith in Christ. We can't wait to see what God does in and through your service. ministry today. I want to say a big thank you to all of you at all of our churches for your faithfulness, your prayers, inviting people, your generosity. We are not praying for revival, church. We're living in

the middle of one. Embrace it. We're in a message series right now called Things Jesus Never Said. You might ask, why would a church talk about what he didn't say? If you're maybe new to Christianity or don't know much about the Bible, if you ever look in the New Testament, there's four books of the Bible, they're called the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you're reading in certain Bibles, you'll see that there are letters in red. Those are the words of Jesus. The words of Jesus are otherworldly. They are powerful beyond measure. The purpose of this series, though, to find the true power of what Jesus said, sometimes it helps me to look at what he didn't say what he could have said, what I might have said, but what he didn't say to truly

embrace the power of what he did say. Today, we're going to talk about what he didn't say about happiness. What I know about almost all of you is you probably want to be happy. I don't know anybody who says, my goal is to be miserable in life. But what I want to do is look at what Jesus didn't say about happiness to find the power of what he did say. Let me give you a few things just for fun before we dive in today about what Jesus did not say. Jesus did not say. Jesus did not say, go into all the world, and preach whatever makes people happy. He did not say that. He didn't say whoever wants to be my disciple, must affirm themselves, avoid the cross, and follow their own heart. He didn't say that. This one's my favorite. Jesus never said,

ask, and it will be given to you, because God is your celestial sugar daddy. He's your cosmic Coke machine. He's a jacuzzi Jesus. God never said that about our happiness. Today, I want to look together at John's Gospel, John Chapter 8. We're going to look at a relatively long story that has incredible power and application to every single one of us today. At the end of this story, we're going to look very specifically at what Jesus did not say because what he did say has the power, the potential to transform our lives. Verse 2 of John 8, the story starts this way. At dawn, Jesus appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around him. He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees, these were people who looked

very religious on the outside, but were generally hypocritical on the inside. The teachers and the Pharisees of the law brought a woman caught in adultery. Let's pause there for a moment because I want you to visualize this. Jesus is out kind of like in the town square. and he's essentially leading a life group, or there's a Bible study. Then some hypocritical religious men drag a woman that was caught in the act of adultery. There's a couple of things that we had more time we talk about. One is where was the man in the story, who's obviously left down to the story. Secondly, what were you peeping at when you found a woman caught in adultery?

That's a whole other deal going on here. But nonetheless, these guys bring a woman caught in the act of adultery, and you can imagine if she was caught in the act, chances are very good that she was barely dressed. This would have been the lowest, most humiliating moment of her life. What's interesting is the men didn't care about her. They were just using her as a tool to get at Jesus, and you can see that in the upcoming part of the story.

They made this woman stand before the group and said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law of Moses, it commands us to stone such a woman. Imagine they're going to publicly throw rocks at her until she dies a very horrible death. And they ask Jesus. Now, what do you say? Verse six shows us the motives behind their question. They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing Jesus.

They put Jesus in what appears to be a no-win situation. Why? Because according to the law of Moses, this woman was guilty. and according to the law of Moses, she should be stoned. And what I hope you'll understand is I'm not speaking about for medicinal purposes or recreationally speaking. I just feel like in the context of our current environment and the entertainment habits of some of you

that call this your church home, that I need to make that clear, okay? The law of Moses says this should happen. So Jesus is in an odd spot because if he agrees and says, yes, go ahead and kill her, he loses his reputation for being full of grace and being loving. If on the other hand, he says, oh, it's not that big of a deal. Let's make an exception here.

Then he's breaking the law of Moses and apparently condoning the sin of adultery. What in the world is Jesus going to do? He's in a no-win situation. Verse 6, the end of the verse says, but Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. This is interesting. They ask him a question, and he kneels down and starts scribbling some words in the sand. That raises the question that everybody's been asking since the very birth of the story.

What did Jesus write in the sand? The answer is, we don't know for sure, but we have some ideas. Later manuscripts say that Jesus wrote the sins of the hypocritical men accusing this woman in the sand. We don't know for sure if that's true. I tend to think that it's likely, and one of the reasons I believe that it's likely, is because there's two different Greek words that it can be translated to write down. One is the word grafin, and it means to write down.

The other word, which is the word used in this context, is the word cata-grafin. Cata-grafin. The word that is used is the word cata-grafin, which means to write down against. So whatever Jesus wrote in the sand, it was something against something or against someone. I'm just visualizing this.

Jesus is looking out at the Pharisees, and maybe he sees fill. Fill the Pharisee. And so he writes down in the sand, fill. Since I'm the son of God, I know what is in your browser history. And I don't have to go back too far to realize you were searching for bikini babes just last Tuesday, or whatever it is. And perhaps he's writing down the sins of those. who are bringing in an accusation against this woman. The story goes on.

When they kept questioning Jesus, he straightened up, and he said to them, let any one of you who was without sin, in other words, if I might not write your name down here with whatever you did, then you can throw the first stone at her. What's interesting to me, again in the original language, when it says without sin,

it doesn't just mean whoever's without sin, but the Greek word also means not just without sin, but not only did you not sin, but you also didn't even want to sin. It means literally without even wanting to. I don't know about you, but there's been a lot of times where I didn't do it, but there was a part of me that wanted to. Is that too real? It's also true that I'm really, really good at finding your sins

and pretty good at covering my own up. It's amazing at how easy it is to point the finger at other people when you, in fact, are doing the very same thing or maybe even something worse or something different, kind of like the time I preached on lying, a whole sermon online, and then walked down to the church, and Amy said, go to the grocery store and pick something up and be fast because we have people waiting at our house, so I walked in the grocery store, and I just preached online, and people were trying to talk to me,

so I faked and I put my phone up, and I acted like I was talking on the phone, and it went great until Amy actually called me to tell me I needed something else. And I just preached on lying. Whoever is not only without sin, but you've never even wanted to sin, you can pick up the rock and be the first one to hurl it at this woman who is so ashamed. Verse eight says this. Again, Jesus stooped down and he's riding on the ground. At this, those who heard begin to go away one at a time.

Phil left first. I just added that part in. Okay. The older ones left first until only Jesus was left with the woman standing this. there. Jesus straightened up and he asked her, woman, where are they? Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? And she says, no one, sir. Then Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. But here's what he did not say. Jesus did not say, then neither do I condemn you. So go now and do whatever makes you happy. Go now and follow your own heart. It doesn't matter what you do.

As long as you don't hurt anybody, go now and you do you, boo-boo. Do whatever makes you happy. Jesus did not say this, but he asked her, where are your accusers? Has no one condemn you? no one sir she said then jesus said neither do i condemn you and this is what jesus did say he said go now and leave your life of sin this wasn't a condemning judgmental statement this was full of love and you can feel the urgency go now don't wait you're free go now don't wait live a better life go now don't Wait, you don't have to live in shame anymore. You don't have to live for the lower things of this world. You don't have to be afraid or live in darkness.

I've set you free. Go now and be free from your life of sin. It's full of love and full of grace. You don't have to be held hostage anymore. You're free to go and walk in truth. Why is it that so many of us, including me, given to temptation so often. Why is it?

The answer is it looks appealing, right? It looks fun. How many of you would agree sin can be fun? Raise your hands, raise your hands. I'm like, I'm not saying that in church, light and it strike me. No, it can be fun. Hebrews calls it the fleeting pleasures of sin. It's pleasurable for a little while.

Sin can be fun. If you don't think it's fun, then you didn't do it right or you're lying. It's fun for a little while, but it'll mess you up. What does temptation do? Sin promises satisfaction at the cost of disobedience to God and eventual pain to you. Let me say it again.

Sin, temptation. It promises satisfaction. You're going to like this. It's going to be good. It's going to make you feel happy. You're going to really enjoy it. It promises. promises satisfaction at the cost of disobedience to God and eventual pain to you.

I like to try to get into the mind of this woman that was caught in the act of adultery. We have no idea what type of a woman that she was. Maybe she was just an evil woman that woke up one day and said, I'm going to wreck someone's marriage and just be, you know, have sex as freely as I can't. Maybe she was like that. The odds are she wasn't. Odds are, and I'm just playing the odds, that she was probably a decent, kind of God-fearing woman. And I'm just imagining, and I'm kind of imagining it in a modern-day context because it helps me,

I'm kind of visualizing perhaps she was in a marriage that was flat. They loved each other a lot, but then it went flat. And maybe her husband took her for granted, didn't appreciate her. Maybe he was verbally abusive. Who knows? Maybe even worse. So perhaps she goes and gets a job and feels a little bit better about herself, and she's working next to all sorts of people. And then one day she's interacted with a guy at work, and he's kind of fun, and they have a good conversation, and it's totally innocent, and she enjoys it.

And then after a while, he starts paying a little attention to her, and she feels a little bit guilty about it, but it's still kind of innocent, and he compliments her, and he appreciates her work, and he says, he says, you did a good job on this. And one day he notices her hair, and a husband didn't even nut her hair, and she even got it highlighted, and he didn't notice. but the guy at work notices. And then she finds herself looking forward to interactions with him. She doesn't really want to, but her heart kind of moves in that direction. And then he follows her on Instagram. And he starts liking and commenting on every post. Fire, heart symbols.

And she finds herself liking this. She looks forward to seeing him during the day. And then one day they both stay late and he opens up about his marriage and his wife isn't so good. And then a few weeks later, he tells her, I think I made a mistake. I shouldn't have married her. I wish I'd married someone like you. Then he accidentally brushes up against her arm as they walk by.

And she feels tingly, wingly, wingly, wingly, wingly, wingly, wingly. And then she wonders, was it an accident or was it on purpose? Maybe there's something there. And then she starts to think, he would make me happy. He would make me happy. Then she tells her girlfriend, and her girlfriend says, you follow your heart. You do whatever makes you happy. You do you, baby.

We don't know how it happened, but it could have been like that. And step by seemingly innocent step. One seemingly insignificant decision after another, after another, after another, after another, after another. And she finds herself barely dressed in the most publicly shamed moment of her life. How did she get there? Sin promises satisfaction at the cost of disobedience to God and eventual pain to yourself. Why do so many of us end up in similar places today? We live in a very relativistic culture.

what is the idea of relativism mean? Relativism is the belief that everything is relative. In other words, there's no absolute truth. You'll hear this all the time in culture today. Well, that may be true to you, but that's not true to me. That's your truth, but I have a different truth. You live your truth, I'll live my truth. There's no such thing as absolute truth,

so I'm just going to do whatever makes me happy. Here's the fundamental problem. without a belief in absolute truth, then truth is defined by whatever makes me happy. And when the bottom line is my happiness, then happiness becomes the standards by which I judge my actions. If it makes me happy, it must be good. If it doesn't make me happy, it must be bad. I know that everyone says this is wrong, but it feels so right. what is the root cause of this problem?

For so many of us, the problem is that we think that happiness and holiness are at odds. Deep down somehow, because of our distorted view of what Christ represents and teaches, we tend to think you have to choose one or the other. If you choose holiness, I want to be holy, then you're destined for a life of being miserable forever and ever. And this is what I believed in college. When I was having fun in the party life, I was feeling drawn to God, but I thought if I really become a follower of Christ, then I'm not going to have any fun,

and I'm going to be destined to live a life, wearing braided belt, pleaded khaki pants, and listening to Amy Grant tape for the rest of my life. If you don't know what a tape is, you certainly don't know who Amy Grant is. The good news is, you can still go to heaven if you don't know who Amy Grant is, but barely. You'll barely get there, but you can go to heaven.

If I follow Jesus, I'm going to be miserable. our God is not in heaven looking down upon you whom he loves and saying for God so love the world that he wants his children to be holy and miserable. No, he is a good loving father. In fact, Jesus said this about him. He said, if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how many of you love to spoil and bless your children, have them be happy, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him if we find ourselves

at odds with, I want to be holy, but I don't want to be unhappy. The problem is you're looking for a happiness in the wrong place. You're looking at a lower place when God designed you for a higher place. In fact, Max Lucado tells a great illustration, I'm going to make it my own so if you don't like it, blame me not Max. But Max asked the question, would a fish ever be? happy on the beach. Visualize it. You take a fish out of water, put a fish on the beach, answer the question, is the fish on the beach happy?

Answer, no. What's the fish doing? What's the fish doing? The fish is flopping. I'm not going to try it. I might fall, but he's flopping. So imagine we give the fish some things from this world to help the fish feel happy. We give the fish a pile of cash.

It's rain and binges, baby. It's rain and benjamin's. Is the fish now happy? And the answer is, no. What if instead we throw a party for the fish? We get all the best-looking fish out of the sea, and we put them there together, and we give them some cool beats

so the fish can pop, fup, fup to the beat, and they're all dying. Is the fish happy now? No. What if we give them some margaritas? A little mitai. Still not happy? What if?

The fish takes a selfie. It gets a record number of likes. Not hashtag FitBot. Hashtap FishBod. Everybody goes great. Ooh, hot. You look so good. Oh, fire.

Fire. Oh, you hot. You hot. You hot. Is the fish happy? No. What if you get the fish a play fish magazine? Look at that tail on that fish.

Okay. Is the fish, the answer is, the fish is never happy. Why? Because the fish was not created for the beach. If you find yourself wondering why you aren't happy living for the things of this world, maybe you should lower your expectations of earth because you were not created for the earth. You were created by God, for God to live for things that are not of this world. And that's why sin promises and never delivers. It promises satisfaction at the cost of disobedience to God.

and eventual pain to you. What do we need to understand? This is so important. Holiness isn't mutually exclusive of happiness. In fact, they are very, very related. Holiness, in fact, is the pathway to true happiness and joy. Let me say it again.

They're not mutually exclusive. They are united. They are connected. serving God, living for Him, not for the lower things of this world, but for the higher things that are eternal. That is the pathway to true meaning in life. I love the way David said it in Psalm 16, verse 11. He said, you, God, will make known to me the path of life.

Your presence, in your presence, is the fullness of joy. In your right hand, there are pleasures forever. ever, not the fleeting pleasures of sin, but the eternal pleasures. And that's why when the woman who was guilty as we are guilty was caught in the most shame-filled moment of her life, Jesus didn't look at her and say, I'm embarrassed by your behavior. After all I've done for you, that's the way you choose to live? You're pathetic.

And what Jesus said, is there something so much better? be free. Go walk in truth. Go now. Leave the lower things of this sin-filled world and live for the things that really, really matter in life. What do you do when you know what's right, but you keep doing what's wrong?

What do you do when you feel trapped? It looked good. It promised something. But it didn't deliver, and now you can't find your way out. For me, it was in college when just like so many people on both sides of my family who had ongoing battles with alcohol, I found that I too was vulnerable to alcoholism. I drank my brains out, wasn't a Christian, and my non-Christian fraternity brothers said, Groschelle, you got to dial it back.

I had a night that almost cost me way more than I intended to pay. I beer-bonged six beers as a warm-up. I remember that. I remember drinking a little bottle of Segram 7. Why I remember that? I don't know, but I do. And then we went out partying. Midway into the evening, my brothers said, you're out of line, you're out of control,

and they delivered me back to my room, and they said, game over, you stay home. I remember thinking two more things. I remember thinking, no, night's young. I'm running to the nearest girls dorm. There's still a potential for something to go down tonight. That's what I remember thinking. And then I remember running full speed, because that's sometimes what you do when you're drunk and in college,

running full speed toward the girls' dorm. And the last thing I remember, and I promise you, I remember like it was yesterday, I remember thinking, this is so cool. I'm running full speed and I can't even feel my legs hitting the ground. That's the last thing I remember. The next thing I remember, it was about 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, and I was back in my fraternity room.

I had overslept practice again, was this close to losing my scholarship, and I didn't know how I got back there. I found out that I had passed out on the side of the road with my head hanging over the curb on a very, very busy street, when by the grace of God, a couple of guys from another fraternity had found me, passed out there, and were gracious enough to pick me up, put me in the car, delivered me back to my room. And I woke up about to lose my scholarship, could have lost my life, about to lose everything, and so what did I do?

I did the only sensible thing, and as I opened up another beer. What do you do? When you know it's wrong, but you can't get out. For a lot of you, like, it's not beer or alcohol, it's something else. You're medicating something. You're trying to fill a void.

with approval. Will you like me enough? Maybe for you it's something that you smoke, something that you pop. Maybe for you, it's, you feel empty on the inside, so you fill up your inside with food and you keep eating and you keep eating

and then you feel embarrassed and so you try to hide it, but you keep doing. Some of you perhaps, it's this feeling of emptiness and so you somehow believe that if I just get that something, whatever it is, a pair of shoes, the purse, the image.

And so you overspend and you overspend, and you wait for that box to be delivered to your house. Whatever's in that box is what I need to really be happy. For some of you, it might be that just a critical spirit. It's the way you deal with your low self-esteem. So you pick everything apart. And you don't know why you do it, but you just don't like anyone. You don't like anything.

And somehow just seems to kind of try to make you feel better, but then you don't feel better. So you just pick everybody apart, pick everybody apart. Some of you, you're stuck in a lust-filled prison. You click and you look and you click and you look and you swear you'll never do it again and you ask God to help you never do it again and then you look again. And then you promise I'll never do it again and then you look again. And then you surrender and you just go into it might as well and then you feel sick and ashamed again and you can't get out.

For some of you, it might be the wrong type of relationship. You go back, he mistreats you so you find somebody else who mistreats you again. What do you do? when you know it's not God's best. But you find yourself barely dressed and ashamed. I can't quite figure out how you got here. I came today to tell somebody about the faithfulness, the goodness, the grace of God that is available to you at this moment.

The faithfulness of God, the faithfulness of God. Paul said it this way. He said, in our God is faithful. Our God is always faithful. faithful. Our God is so faithful that he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But listen to me, when you're tempted, when you're trapped, when you're stuck, when you feel like you're in a prison and there is no way out. When you're tempted and you're stuck, our God will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. There's always grace. There's always the potential

for freedom. He always gives you a way out. It's a little bit like video games today. There's so many popular game today. There's Call of Duty and there's Anthem and there's Fortnite and such. I grew up in a different era. I have to say it was a little more God-honoring era. It was a little more holy era. It was a little more, it was the era of Pac-Man and Frogger and Donkey Kong and Gallagher and Dig-Dub. I feel the Holy Spirit in the place today. I feel the presence of God today. There was asteroids. The graphics on asteroids, they were unbelievable. There was a spaceship that was just like this. I mean, you could draw like this.

And there were asteroids that would come your way and you could draw them like this. And you had unlimited firepower. And you would blow up your asteroid. And then there would be little asteroids coming all over toward your little triangle spaceship and so you would thrust forward

and try to move it around and stuff. And then whenever you were in trouble, there was a button. Oh, praise God. There was a button. The button was called hyperspace. If you remember, you may feel the power. When you're in trouble,

boom, hyperspace. your little spaceship would disappear off the screen and appear somewhere else. There was always a way out. There was always a way out. In the kingdom of God, there is no hyperspace, but there is a button that's called hyper grace. Oh, somebody. Have a little fun with me. Our God is faithful.

He is faithful. He is faithful. And he will always give you a way out. What do you do when you're tempted? I hope that you'll understand this powerful truth. every temptation is an invitation to depend on Christ. Every time you feel trapped, it's an invitation to depend on the grace of Jesus. What do you do when you're trapped?

You recognize he gives you a way out. He doesn't look down on you and say, I'm embarrassed by you. I'm ashamed of you. Now go do whatever you do you boo. No, he says, you go be free because of my grace. you can be free. It's an imitation. So I became a follower of Christ, bold for Jesus, and continued to drink until one day sitting out on the front patio of our fraternity house, halfway through a beer, it dawned on me. I had been trying in my own power,

and there was a power that was greater than what I had in my own body. And so somehow, and it doesn't work this way for everybody, but it did for me. And my weakness, the power of Christ became strong, and I poured it out, and that which had held me prisoner held me no more. No more. No more. Go your way and walk in truth. There's a big difference between remorse and repentance.

Remorse is, I got caught. I'm so sorry. I got caught. I got caught. Repentance is something entirely different. Re means to turn. Pint is that which is highest, like the pent house, is to turn from the lower things of this world

to the higher things of God. Go be free and sin no more. It's all about the re. Some of you, you're going to return to God. I looked up rewords, and I put them together in a sentence one time, and my sentence goes like this. When you rebuke the enemy and return to God by repenting of your sins and receiving Christ,

your spirit is reborn. your mind renewed, your life rebuilt, and while you're reconciled by the grace of Jesus Christ, you reap the rewards of relationship causing revival to break free. It's all about the re. And when you feel trapped, and when you feel caught, and when you feel broken in shame,

what Jesus does not say is that wasn't good. I go do what makes you happy. No, he says, I've got a better path for you. I'm not going to let anyone else throw stones at you. You go be free. Because holiness and happiness are not at odds. They're actually really connected. You were created to walk in truth.

And that's where you find real lasting joy. So Father today, do a work in our life. We submit our hearts to you. As you pray at all of our churches today, nobody looking around, those of you who you need a little more of the grace of Jesus, you may feel trapped, you may feel stuck, you may just feel spiritually flat, and you want a little more of his grace. Would you lift up your hands right now? Father, I thank you for people at all of our churches.

I thank you, God, that when we're weak, your grace is sufficient for us. God, I pray today for those who feel stuck, that because you are faithful, you would show us. You always provide a way out. God, give us the courage to take a step of faith out of that which holds us hostage and to follow you, God, and let the truth set us free. I pray for miraculous healing, from bondages and God from strongholds. God, set us free to follow you. God, may your church, may your children feel your love, feel your grace. And go now, be free, not to live for the lower false promises of this world, God, but to live for the higher truth of following you.

Help us go now and leave our life of sin and walk in a life of truth. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, some of you, you're about to get crazy free. There are those of you that you're watching online, maybe you walked into a church building, maybe you're listening to a podcast, and you feel the weight of your sin. What would happen if anyone found out what I did? What would God think about me? How could he ever love me because of what I did?

Let me just tell you right now, very true promise. God loves you, period. Period, period, period, period. There's nothing you could do to make him love you more, nothing you can do to make him love you less. He loves you because that's what he is. He is love. He loves you.

God so loved you. What did he do? He sent his one and only son, Jesus. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the sinless son of God. who came into this world not to condemn, but to set free to show his grace, exactly what Jesus did to this woman caught in the act of adultery. Jesus is without sin.

He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins on the cross. He died in our place. They buried him in a tomb. Three days later, the stone was not there. Neither was he. God had raised him from the dead. Why? So that anyone, and this includes you,

who calls on his name, the name that is above every name, your sins would be forgiven. and you would be made new. New, forgiven, whole, complete, spiritually healed because of the grace of Jesus. And all of our churches, if you're under the weight, the burden. Don't feel bad about it. That's remorse.

Repent. Turn away from it. Repent of your sins. Turn to that which is higher. Surrender your life to Jesus. When you call on Him, he hears your prayers. You will never be the same. All of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his grace,

I need his forgiveness. I don't just feel bad. I'm trapped. I'm turning. away from it, I give my whole life to him. Jesus, I surrender to you. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All over the place, lift them up. Right back here, two hands going up. Praise God for you. Right back over there. God bless you, sweetheart. Sir, right there. Others of you. Right back here in this section. Right back over there both of you. Praise God for you. Others of you.

Over here on this side, somebody ought to worship a little bit more today. Others today. Right back over here. Man, thank God for your church online. You got to just click below me. Would you all just stand to your feet together right now. Stand to your feet. And in this middle section, don't want to leave you out as well. Stand to your feet. We're going to pray together. Would all of you just join your voices as we unite praying and celebrating new life in Christ? Pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Forgive all my sins. Make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I could walk in truth. follow your ways and share your love. My life is not my own.

I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Somebody shout, somebody cheer. Somebody welcome those born into God's family. Hey, thanks again for joining us here at Life Church. You know it's always our heart as a church

to see you continue to grow in your relationship. with Christ, we have a great way to help you do that. It's called life.church slash next. There you'll find videos and all kinds of resources to help you take your next step in your faith journey. Again, thanks for joining us here today. We'll see you next time.