Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - This Is What We Do, Part 3: Abundant Givers

Episode Date: April 9, 2017

Do you do This? This opens doors and solves problems. This inspires others to do This, too—it’s the good kind of contagious. When they tell our life stories, we want them to put This at the top. We are hardwired for This. This is who we are, and T... 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 with the help of what God is doing at Church online. If you ever have any questions or you'd like to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.church. We'd love for you to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app, available wherever you download your apps from. Here at Life Church, we believe in leading the way with irrational generosity. We take to heart when Jesus says it's true.

truly more blessed to give than it is to receive. And today, Senior Pastor Craig Rochelle will help us see if we want to live a generous life. It doesn't just happen. You have to plan for it. In part three of this is what we do. Hey, it's great to have all of you today, all of our life churches, our open network churches, our church online family all over the world. Who's a little bit excited to have some church today?

Glad to have all of you with us next weekend. we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. The tomb is empty. He is not there. He has risen, and it's the perfect time to bring somebody that doesn't normally come to church. Today, we are in part three. The final week of a message here is called This is What We Do.

And today, I want to talk to you about the blessings of generosity. I'm going to try it again, Pastor Chris, because I kind of, it's still a little bit early for some people, but I think Jason's going to help me out here because I know our church gets excited whenever we talk about the blessings of generosity, I'm going to try it again, I'm going to make sure somebody in Florida's ready,

Albany, New York, I'm going to make sure you're ready, Owasso, Oklahoma, making sure you're ready, Wichita, Kansas, making sure you're at Fort Worth, Texas, just making sure. Today, I want to talk to you about the blessings of generosity. It's a little bit better, because at our church, we will lead the way, me out with irrational generosity because we truly believe it's more blessed to give than to receive.

In fact, Pastor Chris last week just ripped up a powerful message. Thank you, Pastor Chris, for a very powerful message. And in it, I love what he did. He actually asked our whole church, all 26 different locations, to consider giving $1 extra. A spontaneous gift of $1, which honestly, that just... doesn't sound like very much money, does it? One dollar. But what he talked about is this, when we follow Jesus, it's shocking how Jesus can do a lot with a little. He can do a lot with a little. I want to tell you more about that as we progressed in our message today. But first,

what I want to do is tell you a story that happened in our life group. Amy and I went to life group, and we were talking about the whole blessing of generosity. And there's actually a family. I'm going to change their name for, to keep them anonymous. But I'll, uh, I'll call her Dana. Dana was saying, let me tell you about a story of God multiplying in our lives. She said, years ago, I heard a message about the power of God to multiply what you give. And I really wanted to give to this specific offering, but she said, I looked in my checking account, we had $5.35. $5.35. And so she thought, I'll write a check for $5 and give that. And then she thought, that's too much. That's too close to the edge. And so she said, I want to give

something and she wrote a check for one dollar and as she's telling us this she was crying because she was embarrassed and she said i remember this being so embarrassed writing this check for you know only one dollar this is so and you know it's just humiliating but she said i'm going to do it and and she gave it and said god please multiply this to be a blessing to someone else well that night she went to life group and there was a couple in the group that said i don't know even know why but we've been praying about this for a while and today we just felt like it was confirmation that we're supposed to give you this. And they gave them an envelope. And she opened up the envelope with her husband, and Dana and her husband looked at it. And it was a check for $1,000. And they were so blessed and

blown away. You can clap for that if you want to, because that's crazy generosity. And the family that gave it, we'll call them the Schmitz. The Schmitz cried, Dana and her husband cried. It was a really powerful blessing. And so she's telling us this in our life group, and we're all really moved. I leaned over to Dana. So if God multiplied one to a thousand, you should have given five. You really should have given five, you know. And that is so much better. And I'm not going to say that always happens.

Please don't hear me say that always happens. But God is faithful and God multiplies what we give. And I'm curious, all of our churches, how many of you, when you hear a story like that, you think, I would love to be blessed like that. Raise your hands. I'll raise them up. I would love to be blessed like that.

Now, when I ask you, would you love to be blessed like that? Probably some of you were thinking, I'd love to be blessed like Dana and her husband, right? I'd love to be blessed like that. But when I think about it, I wonder how many of you would love to be blessed like the family I called the Schmitz, who got the massive blessing

of being able to be obedient to God and impact someone else's life because we really believe it is more blessed to give than to receive. How many would love to be blessed like that? This is what we do. Because of what Jesus did,

we lead the way with irrational generosity As Jesus followers, this is just what we do. It may not be what everybody does, but it is what we do. And we recognize that giving and being generous are actually two different things, right? Everyone gives, but to live from a heart, a posture of irrational generosity. That is different than just giving. In fact, if you're taking notes, we say it this way. Giving and being generous, they are two different things.

As Jesus followers, we want to grow beyond where so many people live today, and that is with a scarcity mindset, and instead we want to have an abundant heart faith for our good God. If you were with us the first week, let me show you the cycles, because scarcity is actually a cycle. We talked about when your scarcity in your mindset, as soon as you receive something, we consume it, then we spend everything that we have, and therefore we lack.

And then we get afraid and we're living paycheck to paycheck. And the cycle continues. I wish we could give more, but we can't. As Jesus followers, we don't serve a scarcity God. We serve an abundant God. And abundance is a cycle. When God gives to us, we return the first 10% back to him. It is an act of worship because of his goodness.

We tithe and we give. We believe as Jesus followers that God opens up the windows of heaven and pours out blessings as we bless others. He multiplies. then our faith grows and then what happens we give even more and we have a cycle of abundance because we serve a very good and a very powerful God. Everybody gives but not everybody is generous. And what I want to talk to you about today is how do we as Jesus followers grow to become abundant givers reflecting the heart of an abundantly good God to be a blessing to people all over the world?

and I want to talk to you about three different ways that we as Jesus followers will faithfully give. The first way if you're taking notes is this. We are going to give spontaneously. There will be a time when we will see a need in someone else's life and think, you know what? I can meet that. God has given me more than I need.

I have time. I have resources. I have the ability. And I wasn't even thinking about it, but I see a need. and I'm honored and pleasureed and excited to meet that need. And honestly, this is the way most people give. Many of you have given this way many times.

An earthquake strikes in some other part of the world, and you see families suffering, and you think, what can we do? What can we give from here to meet that need? Where I live, there are big tornadoes that will wipe out entire cities. And there are those of you in our other life churches, when a whole community is wiped out,

You all just give, give, give, give, give to help people here recover, recover. You weren't thinking about it, but you do it. You might be driving down the road and you see someone in need or there's a single parent at your office that's not able to pay rent and you think, hey, maybe we can all kind of chip in. You give spontaneously. And this is a very important way to give. This is the way a man known as the Good Samaritan actually gave in a story that Jesus told.

If you don't know the story, there was a Jewish man that was beaten up by robbers and thieves. and left on the side of the road bleeding and likely to die if he didn't get care. A couple of other religious guys kind of walked on by this guy, and a Samaritan who would normally never, ever interact with a Jewish person, went out and spontaneously decided to help this guy. In other words, when the Samaritan woke up in the morning, he didn't think, well, today, I'm going to do something great for someone. All he did was say, today, I am a servant of the most high God.

If there is a need somewhere I can meet, I am available and on call to me. meet it. He saw a need he could meet. He went up to the guy and said, can I help you and put some oil on his wounds and bandaged him up and put him on his, in his Honda accord or his donkey, whatever he had back then, you know, all the disciples gathered in one accord or on a donkey. And he took, he took this guy to a hotel room and he paid the bill, and this is what Jesus said about. And the next day, he took out two dinari and gave it to the innkeeper and said, look after this man, he said, when I return, I'll reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. What did this guy do?

He didn't wake up that day saying, I'm going to do something. He was available on call, and spontaneously he saw a need, and he met it. I want to encourage you to give like that as Jesus followers. To you a really meaningful story to me that happened last week. Week number one, we started this message series, and there was a gentleman at one of our life churches who was a tither. He worships God with the first 10%. He was so moved by the message that he said, why would I stop there?

and he decided to increase his giving to 15% every single week to the church. He's blessed by God and wanted to be a blessing. Week number two, he comes, and he's worshipping and enjoying just the passion of the worship. And the worship leader there was a guest worship leader. Her name is Mindy. Let me show you a picture of Mindy. This is Mindy. She might be on our staff except for her husband actually has a very rare blood disease.

And because of that, she's devoting all of her attention to him. She just fills in for us at different churches when we need it. Very special family. Let me show you a picture of Mindy's family for a minute. This is her husband Bryce and just adorable kids. They're in a very, very difficult time right now. And Bryce will be getting a stem cell transplant in MD Anderson. And it's just been a really trying time with a family.

Well, we know that, but the church where they were leading worship didn't know that. And this guy who was now a 15% giver, went home and he thought, I really feel like I'm supposed to give to that lady that was leading worship. And he couldn't shake the idea. He couldn't shake it. He came back the next day. He'd already been to Saturday church. Came back on Sunday and said to the pastor, I don't know if I've ever heard from God before.

You talk about hearing from God, but I just feel like I'm supposed to help her. Would you mind just giving her this? And it was an envelope full of cash. And the pastor knew the story. He said, why are you doing that? And the guy said, I don't know. This is just what we do. This is just what we do.

And when he heard the story about the need, he was blown away that God had put that on his heart. When Mindy and Bryce received that, they cried and cried and cried because God knows their need. God spoke to a person who was obedient to God, and she felt the love and provision of God through his church. This is what we do. This is what we do. And what I love about this is that was just a worshipper in church that spontaneously obeyed what he believed was the voice of God and a need was met. So I want to encourage you as Jesus followers, give spontaneously.

But please, do not only give spontaneously. This is where most people stop. And if you only give spontaneously, you'll be very limited in what you can do to make a true difference. there, but do not stop there. As Jesus followers, we not only give spontaneously, but secondly, we also give strategically. We give prayerfully and strategically. Some of you will hear that story, you'll say,

well, I wish I could give more. And let me tell you right now, you can give more if you plan on giving more. If it becomes a part of your heart, your values, your strategy, you can if you plan, to give more. We are strategic givers. As Jesus followers, the first 10% of what comes in, we strategically, prayerfully, and out of a heart of worship, return to God through the church. It's not, we don't give last, we give first. We plan to put God first in every area of our

lives. And this is one of the many areas where we say, God, we worship you first. It's not a give when we want to, give when we prompted to. It's a strategic prayerful response to the generosity of God and we do it as an act of worship. I love what Isaiah 32-8 says about generous people. I need some help at our different churches, but generous people do what? Keller, Texas, help me out. Generous people plan to do what is generous. Let's say it again. What do they do? They plan to do what is generous. And then what does the Bible say? They stand firm in their generosity. They stand firm. They plan it. They plan it. Most of us, what do we plan when it comes to our money? We plan to spend it. We plan to consume. We see something we want, we want, and we claim it. I'm going so get that

person, Jesus name. Oh, when I come into words, I'm going to worship God in that church, and I'm going to look so good in that person. When I'm wearing, you know, those shoes, man, I can serve Jesus so much better if I have those fly kicks, man. You see me walk in and I'm going to get those things. That phone, I want it, man. I'm putting it on layaway. If I have to put it, I'm getting the phone. And what do we do? We plan to consume. But we as Jesus followers, we are not spiritual consumers. What are we? We are spiritual contributors. We do not believe the church exists for us. We believe we are the church and we exist for the world. And so instead of just planning to make the purchase, What if we, as Jesus followers, planned to make a bigger difference in this world with giving?

There's a guy I was talking to that he started tithing years and years and years and years ago, 10%. And then he said, I felt like God was leading me every year to increase my giving by 1%. Then 11%? The next year, 12%. This gentleman now gives 33% of his income to our church as year over year, Listen, that doesn't happen by accident. That ain't never happened by accident. That's strategic. I talked to another guy.

He said, Pastor Craig, this year, I'm going to set a PGR. I don't know what that is either. I'm like, I'm kind of smiling. Is that good? I don't know. What's the PGR? He said, I'm going to set a personal giving record. I'm going to set a personal giving record.

I am setting a goal to give more to make a difference this year than I ever have before. That doesn't happen by accident. It's strategic. If I can talk a little bit about our family, Amy is here with me in this service today, and she is crazy, passionate, generous. We create a word each year. Every year we pray and we ask God for a word that would kind of define the year. One year my word was in joy.

One year it was rest. One year was power. Amy's word last year was give. Give. So my word was earn. Not really, but I kind of thought about it, right? I got a funder word, you know? And so that was her word, and it was crazy.

This year, she said, guess what my word is? And like, what? She goes, it's give again. Like, no, no, no, not again. And I'm just kidding. But it was, two years in a row. And so what it was really fun about this is we've always been strategic about our giving, but the last couple of years it's been massively strategic.

And so before the year starts, we actually plan our giving. We have a little bit set aside to give spontaneously, but for the most part, we're very prayerful and strategic about where we give, because we really believe, as we pray and put focus and effort into it, we can actually give way more into places that make a bigger difference. Most people give at the end of the year big. Many of you, you wait until the last week of the year, and that's when people give big. We give our biggest offering to the church, not tied, but offering, on January 1st. The first day of the year, we give our biggest offering. and the reason we do it is because we plan to. We plan to.

And we say, God, because of who you are, we want to put a seed in your church in the kingdom. The biggest offering will make this year on day number one because we're choosing to put you first. Then we look at everything we have through the year and we say, we're going to give this here, we're going to give this much as an offering to the church in these places. We're going to fund this ministry and this ministry and this ministry and we're able to do a lot, not because it's accidental, but because it's intentional. Generous people plan to do what is generous. That's what Jesus followers do.

We plan to do what is generous. We stand firm in our generosity. We don't just give spontaneously. Certainly we do, but we don't stop there. We as Jesus followers, we give strategically. And the third area, if you're taking notes, is this. We also give sacrificially. We give spontaneously.

We give strategically. And we give sacrificially. There are so many powerful examples of sacrificial giving in Scripture. To me, there's none more powerful than a story that Mark told in the 12th chapter of his gospel about Jesus watching what people gave. This is how Mark told the story. He said, Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.

That's almost creepy. Jesus is why he's sitting now watching what they're doing because what they do there reflects what's in their heart. Jesus is watching what people put in the offering bucket, and Mark said many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples together, Jesus said, this is so powerful, he said truly, this poor widow, this woman who would have been living off the scraps of other people. This poor widow has put more into the treasury than all of the others. They gave out of their wealth,

but she out of her poverty put in everything all that she had to live on. What's really interesting to me about this is that Jesus watched. What's second and interesting to me is that he didn't stop her. He didn't stop her. I mean, like if I'm pastor on duty that day, I'm probably like, no, no, no, it's covered. Rich people got it covered. You need that to live off of them.

Jesus did not rob her from the blessing of giving, and he celebrated her sacrificial gift. He celebrated her sacrificial gift. She's given more than anybody else. And that's what we, as Jesus followers do. I'm going to try to tell you a story without getting overly emotional about an incident that helped move our standard of giving personally to a whole other level. Years ago, Amy and I took our kids all on a mission trip,

and we went to this little village where it's, if you've ever, if you've never been to a place like this in the world, you have to go, and if you can take your kids, you have to take your kids, because it recenters you on how blessed we are. And, you know, these homes didn't have floors, they didn't have electricity, they didn't have anything. This, this actually was the dump right next.

to the houses that all the stuff would go into. This was the way they actually made dresses, this little village, that was their driving economic factor, was to make dresses. And they would actually sell maybe one dress a week per family, maybe two, and that would support their family. So a dress, you know, they sold one, might give them $2, maybe $3 on average a day to live off of,

and they would make these things and ship them to another village and hope for the very, very best. And so we're in this community. Our church is helping them. And there was a little man who was a translator. He was probably this tall, very short man. And he said to us, he said, your church has done so much to bless our village. We want to be a blessing to you.

Would you pick out the most beautiful and extravagant dress that we could present it to your daughters? And I said, I mean, I stood down and said, no, under no circumstances. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, this is a week's worth of whatever. I'm leaving a blessing to you. We're not receiving. And I just, I mean, I was as passionate as you've ever seen me and just put my foot down and said, no. This little man pointed up at me. Always very respectful.

But there was a little, this was borderline not respectful. He said, you will not rob us of the blessing of blessing your family. This is our blessing and you will receive it. And I said, yes, sir, yes, sir. Yes, sir, don't hurt me. And it was very moving. And so Mandy, my daughter, had to go and pick the dress. And when she picked one that wasn't very nice, they said, no, no, no, and took her to the very nice ones.

And here's a picture, actually, of them putting it on her with all of the decorations, and she's fighting back the tears. And we all were crying because this little group of people that had nothing. nothing wanted to bless a family who had everything to give sacrificially and Amy and I we prayed and we said God make us more like that

make us more like that I just want to ask you when is the last time that you have received the massive blessing of giving sacrificially when is the last time you've given in such a way that you felt it and you loved that you gave up something to be a massive blessing to somebody else this is what we do this is what we do we are Jesus followers and we give spontaneously and we give sacrificially and we give strategically and we give strategically and we give strategically

as we seek God. I want to be clear for a minute. I'm going to ask you to be generous. It's going to ask you to be generous. As your pastor, I'm going to ask you to be generous. And I'm going to ask you to give radically generously to a church. I didn't say to our church. I said to a church.

Because if you don't believe in me, this, us, whatever, don't ever give here. But give somewhere. Find a church, the church for which Jesus died, the church for which he will return for. And plug in a local church, be a time. titheer, be a giver, your time, your resources financially, be a giver as a Jesus follower in the local church, which is the hope of the world, and we know we can impact the world through the body of Christ. Give somewhere. If not here, find a place, please ask your pastor. We'll

recommend three or four places, get involved, get plugged in, and do it. I told you what we do. Let me tell you for a minute what we don't do, and I want to just be real clear as a church. We don't pass the offering plate multiple times. When I was a kid growing up, they'd come by once, and then there'd be another need. Sometimes it was three. If you didn't give enough, they'd lock the doors, nobody's going home. We don't do that. I want you to know.

Because you give strategically, we can give spontaneously. Anytime there is a need in the world, we have already cut a generous check. Why? Because you've given, and we don't have to go back and beg, beg, beg, beg. Second thing is, in 21 years, I've never asked you to give towards a gift. some need that we didn't plan for. The roof has a leak in it. We've got to redo the carpet.

We're behind on some bill. 21 years, those of you have been here, you know. Never one time ever did I ask you to give towards something that the church was not planned for. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. I simply ask you to give to expand the kingdom and to help people, and that is it. We don't do three-year campaigns, sign on the dotted lines.

In the early years, we did that for the first few years. And we just got crazy about year five or so, six into it and said, what if we just trust people to give and never do any kind of formal campaign, any kind of formal ask? If we haven't done it, it's not coming. There's no thermometer on the stage. Just understand we don't do that. Let me tell you what we do, do from day number one, back in a two-car garage with 40 people there.

I look down and said if there is anyone here who needs a place to sleep or something to eat, you can take back out of the offering. And 21 years later, we still say that because we believe we are the church and we will continue to meet people. I'll tell you this, without apology, Amy and I will steward our personal finances with integrity, and we as the leaders of this church, we will personally lead the way with irrational generosity

into our church being massively generous in all we do. I will, as your pastor, inspire you to give. I will inspire you to give, because we truly believe it's more blessed to give than to receive. And with God's help, we will wisefully, prayerfully steward the resources that are given. We are not in need. We're a debt-free organization.

When you give, we use it to make a big difference. We will give to churches. We will give to help people in need. And we will start churches all over the world to lead people to become fully devoted followers to Christ. That's what we do. That's what we do. That's what we do. Now, I want to tell you what you did last week when Pastor Chris said, would you consider

giving one dollar. What you need to understand is you're sitting in one service. There are 154 or so other ones like it. We are a strong church of generous people. When you give one dollar spontaneously, let me show you one of the things that God did last week through your giving. This one happened at Life Church Rio Rancho, New Mexico. For some of us, life can be tough. For others, life is devastating. Sheila Herrera has been through more in her life than any of us could imagine and left her in a place where she never even learned to read. Tell me a little bit more about Sheila. What's she like? Well, one thing that impressed me the most about Sheila when I first met her was she had a huge desire and drive to learn to read. Heather went on to tell me that Sheila had gone

through her whole life with a lower than pre-kindergarten reading level until she got connected with Life Church Local Mission Partner, Read West. I had a job. I had a good job. It was a janitor job. And it's not hard to clean windows and bathrooms. It's not. But since I didn't know how to read the detergent,

was for the bathroom, what's for the floor, and they found that out, they had to fire me. I understand one of the things that was real important to you to learn to read was the Bible. Can you tell me a little bit about that? I know we're here for reading, right? She said, yes. I said, well, good, I brought my Bible.

And this is reading. And I want to learn how to read this Bible. At least show me what to do. So then all of a sudden, I started learning how to pick up and find chapters and the verbs and all this. It was exciting. With the help of Reed West and mentors like Heather, Sheila is now at a fifth grade reading level. But her lack of safe and reliable transportation is making it difficult for her to find and keep a job. It's evident that God is doing something significant.

As a church, when we see God moving, we want to throw fuel on the fire to help that grow more and more and more. And so what we've actually done is we have an organization that's local that helps individuals that are in need of transportational help. And so with their help, we are going to be able to cover all the costs of giving you an automobile, all because we believe that God is doing something really truly special in your life. And my granddaughter's always telling me, Grandma, you're always going out there to the homeless people and giving them blankets and pillows in that nervous life that one day will come back to me. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, guys.

I want to burn my heart. So this is what we do. This is what we do. This is what we do is what we do as Jesus followers. And this is just one thing that we did last week when you gave spontaneously $1. Would you believe me if I told you there was more? Would you believe me if I told you there was more? because it's amazing what Jesus can do with a little when he multiplies it through the strategic prayerful use of God's people.

Let me tell you what happened last week if everybody gave $1. What I'm going to tell you did not all happen in a week, but it was all paid for in a week. Does that make sense? Let me tell you again. It didn't all happen in one week, but it was all paid for in one week. You may hold your applause later to the end because this may take a minute and you may get kind of excited and you may want to go cross. crazy at the end at what we get to do. One of the things that happened that you would have paid for last week is you paid for 75

at-risk teenagers to go through a one-year mentoring program. On top of that, you're protecting 833 people from being trafficked into forced labor or prostitution in India. On top of that last week, you provided 1,400 people emergency food and shelter in the South Sudan famine. On top of that, you provided 17,000 pastors and church leaders free resources. You may wanna clap anytime, I don't know. You funded 66,000 free,

U-Virgin Bible apps to people around the world, and you are reaching 85,000 people in Pakistan through church online. And you purchased a car for Sheila in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and this is what we do. Because of what he did, this is what we do. This is because of what he did,

this is what we do. the Church of Jesus Christ, this is what we do. This is what we do. This is what we do. And I just have one question to ask you. Are you a part of we? Because this is what happens when we give one dollar spontaneously. One dollar.

What do you think the Church of Jesus Christ can do? when we give strategically 10%. And then what do you think can happen? When we as Jesus followers give sacrificially. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask, think, or imagine to his power and be glorified in and through the church that his name would be known for generations to come.

We have no idea what God can do. when the church rises up and says, because of what he did, this is what we do. Because of what he did, this is what we do. Father, we pray today that you would inspire us to be your church to share your love all over this world. As you're praying at all of our churches, nobody looking around, those who are Jesus followers

and say, Jesus, help me be even more generous, giving spontaneously, giving strategically, even giving sacrificially. Would you raise your hands right now? of our churches. Father today, inspire us, God. I pray that you would show us as Jesus followers needs that we could meet in the lives of people, just like you met Mindy and Bryce's need through a generous person. Show us, but God, may we never stop there. Make us strategic and how we use what you've given us. We are tithers. We worship you, God, because of what you do. And God, move us even

beyond what we think is possible. Give us eyes to see, heart to care, ears to hear your voice that we could give sacrificially, even as you sacrificed your son for us. Because of what you've done, God, this is what we do. We are Jesus followers. And we will lead the way with irrational generosity because we truly believe it's more blessed to give than to receive. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, there are some of you that if we set down across from each other right now and had a conversation and I said, where do you stand with God? You might hesitate. You might not exactly know how to respond. Because in the back of your mind or even in the front of your mind, you might say, well, I'm not sure where I stand with God. I've done so many

things wrong. I'm ashamed of some things. You know, maybe I'll try to be good, but I'm not sure if I'm good enough. And let me just be quite frank with you. You cannot be good enough. There is no such thing. We are all sinners. We've all sinned and we all fall short of of God's standard. Every single one of us we sin. And this is why the story of God's grace is the greatest and most amazing story in all of history.

For God so loved you. You want to talk about a giver? That he gave the most sacrificial gift in the history of the world. His son, Jesus. Jesus, born of a virgin, lived on earth. Who did he hang out with? He hung out with sinners, with prostitutes, with those that religion rejected.

And he loved them where they were, but he never left them where they were. Jesus on a cross became sin for us. He died in our place on the third day when the stone was rolled away. He was not there. He has risen. Why? So that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name, would be saved, forgiven, and transformed. In all of our churches, there are those of you who know you need his grace.

You need his forgiveness. You're here today, not by accident. God ordained you to be here. It's time for you to say yes, all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need him. I need his forgiveness. I give my life to him. Lift your hands high now, all over the place and say yes. Here in the middle, God blessed you others today.

Back over here in this section, lift your hands and say, yes, Jesus. Lift them up and say, I surrender. I trust you with my life. Church online right back over here as well. Praise God for you. You click right below me. Everybody pray aloud. nobody prays alone pray heavenly father i give you my life forgive me of my sins make me brand new

fill me with your spirit so i could follow you for the rest of my life my life is not my own i give it to you in jesus name i pray life church would you worship big worship loud we're not praying for revival we're living in the middle of one we're living in the middle of one worship God for new life in Christ. Here at Life Church, it's our honor to play even a 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.church slash next. You know, one of the biggest honors we've had here as a church is being able to be a part of the U-Bersion Bible app, an app that's been downloaded over 250 million times worldwide, enabling people to engage with God's word on a daily basis. And one of those people is Michael Chandler, a champion mixed martial arts fighter who looks to the Bible out to find confidence in who he is and who he is in Christ.

Go time, Mike. I'm known by many as a guy who fights in a cage, but there's so many more layers to who I am. I was on our side. 90% of success is between the years. Chandler Aydon, big trouble still. What a fight. Man, this is unbelievable.

Chandler's struggling at this point. In mixed martial arts, you're not just fighting against your opponent. You're fighting against yourself, your own doubts. That small voice you have to silence because you know that you were put on this earth to do something great. To achieve more than you thought you ever could. Every time before I go into battle, I focus on talking to myself. If I sit in silence and I listen to myself, I'm going to hear negative.

I'm going to hear the doubts. I'm going to hear the fears. But if I talk to myself, if I choose what gets dwelled on, I am in the driver's seat. I can't listen to the lies that I've been told. I have to continue to listen to God's truths, and I hear his truth through his word. I tell myself that I was created in the image of an almighty Savior. Created in the image of an almighty God. It's a constant battle every day to try to stay built. up. And the easiest way to stay built up is to stay in God's word. And I stay in God's word through the Bible app. And to be able to have God's word right there at your fingertips is something that doesn't just have the ability to keep you built up and keep you encouraged every day, but it's something

that can literally change your life and change your life for the better. To download the U-Version Bible app so you can engage with God's word on a daily basis for yourself, all you have to do is go to life.church slash app. You know here at Life Church, it's our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. That single statement drives everything we do here as a church, all an effort to help people find God and truly find life.