Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Twisted, Part 1: Ask Anything

Episode Date: February 13, 2016

The Bible is full of wisdom. People love to quote their favorite verses to encourage and inspire each other—but sometimes, those verses get taken out of context. What happens when the most important message of all gets Twisted? 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 today at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations with a mission of leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. If you'd like to learn more about us, you can check us out online at life.church. Today we'll be joining our senior pastor Craig Rochelle as he takes a look at one of the most misused verses in the Bible and helps us to understand its true meaning in part one of his message, Twisted. Twisted, the show where we reward the contestant who can best miss you. scripture to mean whatever they want. Let's meet our contestants.

She's a no-nonsense mother of three who believes she knows everything about the Bible. Welcome, Helen! Going up against her today is this confused man. Say hello to Doug. I'm not really sure why I'm here. Time for our first challenge. Take any verse out of context.

Helen. John 1413, Jesus said whatever you ask in his name he will give to you. So if you don't get what you want, then that means that my faith is better than yours. Ah, John 1413 just got Helen 14.13 points. That brings us to our first break. But there'll be more twisted.

Same time, same channel. As we start today at all of our churches, I want to take a moment to give God Praise, glory, and honor that at all of our life churches, we're celebrating 1,44 people being baptized, new life in Christ. Sins are forgiven. You are made new to every single one of you. Congratulations on your step of faith. Jesus is real alive inside of you, and we celebrate your baptism.

We also celebrate this week. We're launching four-week life groups. We're going to gather in homes and restaurants all over to get together to discuss this message series. We believe that life change happens better in circles than it does on rows. And so your local pastor will tell you how do you get involved in four-week discussion groups, I believe it's going to be really significant in the lives of so many people. Today we're starting a brand new message series, and I want to start it with a story.

This happened years and years ago when I was in college. I was the only American on an all otherwise Australian tennis team. And the Aussies became my very best friends. I love these guys like they were brothers. And they partied like nobody's business. Well, joining into them, I did my best to party like an Aussie until I came to the point where I had a massive life change and I went from being a wild party guy

to being a Jesus follower overnight. And this really confused my teammates. They're like, wait a minute. I thought you're a party guy, and now you're not what happened. I don't understand this. And so I was trying to be a witness to them, but it wasn't going anywhere,

and they were really confused. Well, one day we were at a match, and we had some time between matches, and we went down to, they had this track where people would do different kind of track and field events. Well, there was a high jump pit, and all my Aussie buddies were trying to jump over the bar at the high jump pit.

And to be real honest, they were pathetic, horrible. The bar's like three and a half feet, four feet. They were crashing into it. They couldn't do it. And they kept saying, Groshael, why don't you try? What don't you try? It's like, no, man, that's too high for me. I can't do this.

Well, as they were finally losing momentum, I went and put the bar up at six feet, okay? That's my height, well above anything they were doing. And I said, do you guys think I could do that? Like, no, never, never, never. They say, why don't we do this? We'll all pray and ask my God to do a miracle to help me do this. And if he does, you'll all become Christians and come to church with me. And they're like, bleep-a-de-leep, sure, that sounds great, let's do it, okay?

Little did they know that I actually used to be a high jumper, okay? And so I'm, you know, totally sandbagging this thing, and we all prayed. And I quoted a verse when I was praying because I heard in the message that if you quote the Bible in your prayers, it's even more powerful. And if God goes, oh, he knows a verse. Well, I'm going to give it in that one. And so that's what I did. I quoted a verse.

God, you said in your word that if I ask for anything in your name, you will hear my prayer and you will do it. So in the name of Jesus, I ask that you would help me clear six feet so all of my teammates would know you and come to church with me. And so they're like laughing and, you know, never thinking I could do it. Well, about 80, 85% of the time I could hit six feet because my peak was actually considerably higher. So I lined up and I kind of came into it and I got some, I took off and you could hear them gasp like, oh, he might actually do this. And I cleared it over my back

and then I had my bottom. And all I had to do is kick my feet at the very end. And unfortunately, I mistimed my foot kick and I clipped the bar. It didn't quite fall. It just wobbled. I landed in the mat and I watched it. Stay up there, stay up there, stay up there. and it fell. So all because I missed timed my foot kick, all of my teammates were destined for hell. I was devastated. I was like, God, I can do this one without you on most days.

I had a great reason for this to happen. I used a Bible verse. Why didn't you answer that prayer? Today, we're starting a brand new message series called Twisted, and we're looking at some of the most misused verses in the Bible. Now, I want to tell you next week, I can only say this one time all year long, okay? You ready for this? I'm going to say it about next week. Next weekend will be the number one most culturally relevant message I teach all year long.

It's early in the year, and I'm putting the flag in the ground, the stake in the ground today, and saying it will be the most culturally relevant message I preach all year long. If you have teenagers, you will want them here. we're going to talk about the most quoted verse by non-Christians, and one of the most quoted verse by Christians, judge not lest ye be judged. Do not judge or you two will be judged. That is next week, I promise you, you need to hear this when it will arm and equip you and give you a deeper understanding. Today, what I want to do is look at the words of Jesus.

The very words that I prayed in that prayer, trying to hide jump, from John 14 verses 13 and 14, one of the most misused verses in the Bible. Jesus said this, I will do what? Let's all say it loud. Jesus said, I will do whatever you ask in my name, so the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for what? Are you ready for this?

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. So if you pray in faith in the name of Jesus to get the job, you got to get the job, you got to get the girl, and you've got to win the lottery, right? That's what it says. If you ask for anything in my name, It's in red in my Bible. Jesus said it must come true like that.

And that's what I believed whenever I was at First Methodist Church and a really sweet lady got treatable cancer. Treatable cancer. Could have been cured by the doctors. And all these people in her small group decided to stand on that verse. I don't know what it means to stand on a verse. That's what Christians say sometimes like, I'm going to stand on it. I don't know what it means.

But I'm claiming this verse for her. In Jesus' name, we believe she has to be healed. Okay, and she refused treatment and she tragically died. Treatable, curable cancer. And she refused treatment, believing faith in Jesus, in his name, she would be healed. Obviously, this verse is not true. Obviously, this verse does not work. Obviously, this is not really what Jesus was saying.

It's not true. Or, perhaps, Maybe we're twisted in our understanding and our application of what Jesus was saying. So what I want to do today is I want to kind of give you a real simplified version of how we learn to interpret Scripture. Three real simple thoughts, if you're taking notes, to find the real meaning in Scripture. Number one, we need to understand the context. What does that mean? We want to know not just what the verse says, but what is coming before the verse, what's after the verse,

who wrote the verse to whom it was written, what is the major theme, what is God trying to say through this author? We want to understand the context. We don't want to just pull a verse out. And let's be honest, all of us are going to do this sometime. I've done this. It doesn't make you a heretic.

Doesn't mean you're going to hell. It just means you're learning and your understanding of Scripture. We want to embrace and understand the context. Number two, we want to interpret Scripture with other Scripture. This is really important. In other words, the best way to understand the Bible is with the Bible. We're not going to take one verse and build a life theology around one verse. We're going to take a verse and we're going to look at what other verses say about that similar theme

and we're going to build our theology over the consistency of 66 different authors writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and we're going to interpret Scripture with Scripture. number three and most importantly is we're going to apply what we learn. The Bible is not a book to be studied as much as it is to be God's letter to us to be lived. We want to apply it to our lives. And so that's what I want to do today as we look at John 14, the words of Jesus. You can have whatever you ask for in my name. I want to understand the context, interpret the Bible with the Bible, and then learn to apply it. So let's start with the context. Who wrote the book of John? The answer is, John, very good.

That's not a trick question, okay? That's as easy as it gets. Now, what is the main theme of the book of John? I'll tell you if you don't know. The main theme of the book of John is John was trying to prove that Jesus was the son of God. That's the main theme. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1-1, John 1-14.

And the Word became flesh, Jesus, and dwelt among us. The main theme of John was trying to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. What is the context of John 14? We've looked at one verse. Let me tell you about the whole chapter of John 14. It starts out, and Jesus essentially says, do not be afraid. I'm going away to prepare a place for you. In my house, there are many mansions, many rooms which will be for you.

Do not worry. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. When I go away, I've got really good news. It's only going to get better for you. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit who will dwell within you. even though I'm going away, do not worry, I'm sending the Holy Spirit. If you look at the main theme of John 14, Jesus is really talking, not about prayer,

but about the preparations he's making for you. What's the context of John? To prove that Jesus is the son of God. What's the big theme of John 14 is not actually prayer? The big theme is the preparation that Jesus is going to make. So, with that understanding, let's reread a portion of God. of the verse, and this time, let's do it from the perspective of not making ourselves the main character in the text, but let's remember and respect who is always the main character in the text,

and that is who? God, not us. God is always the main character in the Bible, not us. So let's read it with that context in understanding, John 1413. Jesus said, I will do whatever you ask in my name. Then what did he say? He says what? So that. What's the purpose? Why is he going to do this? Why? Why? So that the father may be glorified in the sun. Do you see what just happened? The reason God answers prayers is not so that our life would be better so we would have more money and you could always have the kitchen you've always dreamed of. Do you recognize that? The reason God answers prayers is so that the father may be glorified. in heaven. When we read this not as seeing ourselves as the main subject of the Bible,

but as seeing God as the main subject of the Bible, we recognize there is a much different purpose for our prayers than what many of us often realize. So why are we dealing with this today? And I'll tell you why we're dealing with this. Because as a pastor, I would argue that perhaps this is at least top two, maybe the number one reason why I've seen people walk away from faith in God. I prayed for it, I believed in it, he didn't do it, so therefore he is real, he doesn't care, or he's not good. And over and over again, I've seen people walk away from faith in God because God did not do what we wanted God to do. So, understanding the context, let's now take a moment and try to translate Scripture with Scripture. In other words, what else does the Bible say about what God cares about when we pray?

We're going to look at four things today. Four things that God cares about when we pray as we translate Scripture with Scripture. What else does the Bible say about prayer? And we'll look at four things. The first thing we need to recognize is this. What matters to God when you pray? Number one, evidently, your relationships matter. Your relationships matter to God.

Mark chapter 11, Jesus said this. He said, therefore I tell you. whatever you ask for in prayer. Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Amazing promise. Verse 25. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, what are you to do? Say it aloud, you are to forgive them.

Why? So that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins. Wow. When you're praying, if you're ticked at somebody, deal with that relationship before you keep on praying. evidently your relationships matter to God. It's a little bit like this. God, I want a pony. I want a pony in Jesus' name.

I claim it. I name it. I want a pony. And I hate my brother. Sorry, no pony, right? No pony with that attitude, because your relationship with your brother matters. As a parent, we know this is true, right? He hit me.

I hate her. She's touching me. She's got came in my room. Can I have a friend over? heck no friend over until you get along with your brothers and sisters you're not getting what you ask for as a parent is pretty simple and evidently to some degree this matters to god in fact let me talk to the husbands for just a moment and wives don't elbow him do not say amen just sit there and look forward and pretend like i'm talking about someone else's husband and let god work on your husband

this is what the bible says just a little see him for you first peter three seven husbands in the same way be considered as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life so that what so that nothing will hinder your prayers who okay how could i apply that if i am being a jerketh to amy i'm using king james to make it more spiritually see what i'm doing there watch it watch it you don't you may miss it if i'm being a jerked to amy what might that do that might hinder my prayers. Evidently, there's something else that matters to God when you pray, and that's your relationships matter to God. Second thing is your motives matter to God. James, the brother of Jesus,

said this in chapter 4, verse 3. He said, when you ask, you do not receive, because sometimes what are you doing? You're asking with what? The wrong motives. This was common in the day of Jesus. The Pharisees often had the wrong motives. They wanted to be seen, they wanted to be heard. they stand on the street corners pray these fancy prayers your God Father in heaven, I thank you, oh God, I am not like the Gentiles and I am holy and pray long prayers. And God's saying, that's the wrong motive.

Jesus said, you're a hypocrite when you do this. And we're all susceptible to this. I was, I became a brand new Christian in college, and I wanted a Christian girl, but not just a regular Christian girl, but a smoking hot Christian girl. And when I couldn't find one, I just picked a smoking hot wild girl

and started praying that she'd get saved. Oh, glory to God. There's a good prayer request. Save her, Jesus. Save her. Save her. Okay? Sounds right.

Wrong motives. Your motives matter when you pray. Proverbs 162 said all a person's ways seem pure to them. But the what? Say it aloud. But the motives are weighed by the Lord. Evidently, there are some things that matter to God when you pray. Your relationships appear to matter to God when you pray.

Your motives appear to matter to God when you pray. Number three, your faith appears to matter to God when you pray. James said it this way, chapter 1, verses 6 and 7. He said, but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt. Because the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to do what? That person should not expect to receive anything free. from the Lord.

Evidently, your faith moves the heart of God. Your faith matters to God. I love when Jesus talked about a child-like faith. Some of you, if you've had a young child or a grandchild, who really trusted in Jesus, there's something beautiful, something powerful when you see this childlike faith. I saw this with Katie, my oldest daughter, who's now married.

You go way back to when she was a little girl, she got a massive case of poison ivy all over her. We took her to the doctor because she was our first child. Now, Kigas poison ivy were like, sucks to be you. But his first child was like, you know, is she going to die? You know, what's going on? And the doctor's like, yeah, it's bad poison ivy. And, you know, it's just going to be bad for a few days.

She's not going to die, but it's going to be bad for a few days. Well, we went home and we're saying bedtime prayers and Katie's praise, dear Jesus, I love you and you love me and I thank you, you're going to heal me. And when I wake up in the morning, I'm not going to have any poison ivy Jesus because I love you and you love me. Amen. Childlike faith. So Pastor Craig, her dad, started trying to help her understand why God was not going to answer that prayer. You see the irony here.

Childlike faith. Pastor Craig. Now, God might not do this, and so I don't want you to be devastated. She looked at me confused. Like, well, I asked him, and he would. Next morning, she comes in. You know, sun's not even up yet. She flips the lights on.

She's wearing nothing but Barney Panties. She comes into the room in her barney panties, and she just goes, ta-da! Like, what are you doing, naked girl? And she went, no, ta-da! Look! And there was no sign whatsoever anywhere on her body. The point is now that was completely gone. and God honored a child-like faith,

even when Pastor Craig tried to talk or honor her, a naive faith of believing that God could do anything. Because evidently to some degree, and I can't fully explain it, but our faith matters to God. In fact, whenever two blind men came to Jesus and said, have mercy on us, Jesus. In Mark 929, he did this. Scripture says he touched their eyes, and he said, according to your what?

Somebody, according to your faith, say it again, according to your faith, let it be done unto you, and their sight was restored. Your faith matters to God. So, if you're taking really good notes, here's what you can conclude right now, if my relationships are all good, and if my motives are pure, and if I have enough faith, then God has got to do whatever I ask him to do. Now, when we believe that, we slip into what some have kind of called a prosperity gospel or name and claim it, blab it and grab it, see it and be it.

I want that car in Jesus' name. That car is mine. I'm not going to mine. It's going to be mine. That car, I'm not unemployed, and I don't like to work, but that car is going to be mine. Bless God, it's coming to me. We're winning the lottery in Jesus' name, okay? The girl walked into a singles group.

I claimed her. I claimed before you, Bert. She's mine, in Jesus' name, she's mine. Okay. Name it and claim it, blab it and grab it, see it and be it. If I just have enough faith, it's got to be done. If I just only say good things. In other words, it's up to me.

It's up to my faith. It's up to me. Now, what I'm doing right now is I'm making some of you really, really mad because you've been raised in this and you're about to write me off. Hang with me. Hang with me. Because this is really serious. If I just have enough faith, okay, if I have the pure motive, if I do this,

God's got to, he's my magic genie. I put the money and I push the button. I've got to get out what I ordered, okay? Number four, we need to understand that God's will matters. His will, his sovereign nature, his goodness, his character, his eternal plan, God's will matters. John, the very same John who said you can have anything you pray in the name of Jesus, also said this in 1 John. The very same John who said that also said this.

He said, this is the confidence that we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything, let's all say this aloud all of all. of our churches. Somebody in Albany, help me out. Fort Worth, Texas, help me out. In Tennessee, help me out. If we ask anything according to his will, say it again. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we ask of him. If we ask it according to his will. according, we cannot ask him for just whatever we want and demand that he does it for us. That makes us God, not Him God.

It's not according to our will. It's according to His will. If we understand that suddenly our main text, John 1414, might make a little more sense to us when we read it again. Jesus said, you may ask me for anything in what? He said, in my name, and I will do it. In my name. In other words, if we're going to the Father and we're using, using the name of Jesus, then we need to ask something according to the will of God, or we are

discrediting and misusing the name of Jesus. Let me explain it this way. This is not a perfect illustration, but it may help. When I was dating Amy before I was in ministry, I had a really short time selling security systems. I walked into a ring store called Rings, et cetera, and met a guy named Roger, and was trying to sell him a security system. system. Suddenly, I noticed he had Christian music coming on. He didn't know I was a Christian,

and I said, what's up with his music? The next thing you know is he's sharing his faith with me, and he's crying, tell me how Jesus changed his life. Well, I'm a new Christian, I'm like crying back, when he changed my life too. And so I'm trying to sell him a security system. He's actually trying to buy it, and we're having a worship service in the middle of the stupid ring store, okay? And I was so moved by his faith, I just decided right then and there, Rogers my guy, I'm buying a ring from him as soon as I proposed to Amy. And sure enough I did. Roger gave me the best customer service you've ever, you couldn't imagine.

He spent so much time with me. He prayed for me. I was so moved. I just told him at the end of this deal. And I didn't even know what it meant at the time. And I wasn't Pastor Craig at the time. I just said, listen, I will buy every piece of jewelry for my wife, you know, my future children, my mom, anybody,

for the rest of my life from you, which I have. And every time I meet someone who's getting married, I'm going to tell him, go see Roger. As long as you treat them the way you treated God, me, if you continue with that kind of service for the rest of my life, I will send people to you. I'm always going to tell them, Craig sent you. Nothing, I don't want anything back, but I'm going to do that. Well, I didn't know I was going to become a single adult pastor. I probably did more weddings than, you know, any 10 pastors combined over four lifetimes. I mean, I did weddings three a weekend.

I sent them all to Roger. Go see Roger. Go see Roger. Go see Roger. And he continued to take great care of them. I ask him from permission this week. Hey, can I tell the story about you? And he said, well, what you need to know is when someone comes in and uses your name, I go into a different gear because I see this as a ministry to represent the goodness of God. I give them the best deal possible. I take as good of care of them as I did you. And when someone uses your name, I take it really, really seriously. When I give someone my name, here's the deal. You go in and you treat Roger with respect because it's a privilege and a responsibility to use my name. In other words, what I'm doing is I'm taking a 26-year relationship, and I'm giving you access to that relationship.

even though you do not have it. It's a privilege and responsibility. I'm giving you something you did not earn. Okay. When you go before God and you use the name of Jesus, you have access to the creator of the universe because Jesus gave you permission. Because of what Jesus did,

he gives you the right to speak to the God that you do not deserve to speak to. Suddenly, you recognize, using the name of Jesus is a massive responsibility and privilege. I have the privilege to enter into the throne of grace because of who Jesus is and what he did. Therefore, this is not the key that unlocks the lock to get me what I want.

I come in honoring Jesus who gave me access to the Father. So here's what happens. We pray. And sometimes God does a miracle. and we pray, and sometimes it doesn't go like we want. The tragedy is too many people walk away from God because God didn't do exactly what they wanted him to do. My daughter, Anna, two and a half years after slipping on water,

lost her dancing career as of today, surgery, rehab, doctor, doctor, special, special, special, special, special, special, special, special, on and on, still pain, still swelling, still hurts, and we're still praying. Every single day we pray, and every single day, I believe this is the day. We'll go to the right doctor. We'll get the right report. God will do a miracle. Every day we pray.

Every day we pray. Every day we pray. And God has not yet answered the prayer. But here's what you need to know. This is what I believe. Today when I prayed, I believe God can heal her. And today when I prayed, I believe God would heal her. but even if he doesn't, I still believe.

I still believe. I still believe. I believe he can and I believe he will, but even if he doesn't, I still believe. I still believe. Why? Because my faith in God does not rest on what he does or does not do for me. My faith in God rest on what Jesus already did for me on the cross and the empty tomb. It's already settled.

I am unwavering. If prayer is only a tool for me to get what I want, that is an insult to our God. Imagine if I only went to my earthly father, Dad, give me this, Dad, give me this, Dad, give me this. In a gross shell name, give me this. Give me this, give me this. What does it do?

That makes my dad my servant. And God is not my servant. I am his servant. I am not the main character in Scripture. God is the main character in scripture. If he doesn't do what I want him to do, that doesn't lessen who he is. It doesn't wreck my faith,

because my faith is not based on him doing what I demand him to do. My faith is based on his love when he sent Jesus to give his life for me. And suddenly, that changes everything. If I have anything I ask in his name, it'll be done unto me. Why?

So that my father in heaven may be glorified. It's more about him. So prayer isn't just for me to get my wish list accomplished by God. Prayer is the avenue through which I get to know God and give him glory. It's the avenue through which I get to know God and give him glory. It's not just getting him to do what I want him to do. It's me getting to know him. It's me hearing from him and getting to bring him glory. So 28 years later, I missed the jump. Missed the stupid jump. I could have hit it eight out of ten times.

And I missed the stupid jump. And my teammates didn't become Christians. And through social media, one of them contacted me recently and said, hey, Grosch, because that's what my Ozzie buddies called me. We all thought that that whole Jesus thing that you had was a hoax, a phase. We were certain it would pass. Obviously, it hasn't passed. Ha, ha, ha, is what he said. And then he went on to say, I'm hurting right now.

I don't know what to do. So I'm going to listen to some of your messages. Pray for me. And maybe I might just need that Jesus you told me about. 28 years later, God may answer that prayer I prayed. But he may answer it in a way that I never expected in a way that brings him the glory. So the purpose of God answering my prayers isn't so I get what I want. a better life, my best life today, the purpose of God answering prayers is so that he would be glory.

And the reason I pray is not to get him to do what I want, but it's to submit my will to what he wants. Your will be done, God, on earth as it is in heaven. So with that understanding, I hope your faith is built. I hope you pray for big things. I hope you believe God can. I hope you trust that he will. but even if he doesn't, I know you will still believe because your faith does not rest on God doing what you tell him to do.

Your faith rest on his goodness of the empty tomb that Jesus died and rose again so that we could live. And for that reason, we put our faith in him. So, Father, we pray today that your Holy Spirit would do a healing work in so many people's lives, especially God, for those who may have been let down, disappointed, or hurt. And for God, for those who are still praying for something, significant today, we ask God that you would do miracles in ways that only you can.

All of our churches today, I want to talk to those of you who have some burden in your life right now. There's something you're praying for. Every day I'm praying for Anna, and there may be something in your life like that that's unsettled, something you'd like different. A relationship healed, someone who's got a health issue, a financial issue, a job-related issue. It could be any number of things, but it's real to you. Some of you, you might have given up on prayer. You're not even praying about it. But if you believe that God might do something, you might even pray. Others of you, you're praying every day and you might be getting a little discouraged or a little worn out, but you continue to want to have faith. And all of our churches, for those of you who would say,

yeah, there's something in my life that I really wish God would do something about. I need his help. I need his power. If that's you, would you lift up your hands right now? I imagine that's probably about everybody. Lift up your hands right now. And thank you so much for participating. I hate when people come to church and just kind of sneak in, sneak out. We're open to what God wants to say to us, and I thank you that you're sensitive to what God may want you to say to you. Father, I pray for those with a need or with a burden today.

I pray, God, that you would build our faith. Not just because of what you do or don't do, but because your word is spoken, and when we hear your word, it builds faith. God, I pray that our faith would be in your character and your nature, and your goodness and your sovereignty and your will. So God, we come to you as children with childlike faith asking you, telling you're a big God, reminding ourselves you can do anything.

All things are possible with you, and we pray for miracles. God, I pray for my daughters need to be healed. I pray that she could dance again. God, I pray for those who have much bigger burdens than those. I pray for marriages to be restored and healed. God, I pray for those who are unemployed to have financial provision that you would meet their needs. God, I pray for those with very serious sicknesses, illness, cancer.

God, we pray that the name of Jesus is above every name. We ask for supernatural healing. And God, we believe that you can and you will hear our prayers. And God, we believe that in our lifetime we will see you do multiple miracles. And God, we believe by faith that you will hear these prayers and move, and there will be many instances where you give you glory because of what you have done. And God, even if you don't do what you do. we know you can and believe you will, we just declare it. We love you, we worship you. We still believe. As you continue in an attitude of worship and prayer today, there are many of you,

you're about to pray a prayer, and let me tell you right now, this is a prayer, God always answers. When you cry out to God for help, forgiveness, for mercy, for grace, he always meets your need and answers your prayer. I remember it was like yesterday. I partied hard with my Aussie buddies and so many others, and I was hurting, I felt alone, I felt desperate, I felt like I'd done too many things wrong for God to forgive. And I knelt down all alone in a softball field

and just cried out to God, please forgive me, have mercy on me, I need you in my life. And when I knelt down, I was one person, and when I stood up, I was somebody different. Just like those who were baptized today, they are new creations, that's what the Bible calls them,

people in Christ, the old is gone and everything becomes new. I wasn't a better version of me. I was new. I was different. Changed by Jesus. There are those of you at all of our churches. Listen, it's your time and you know it. I don't have to try to convince you.

You're being drawn to the things of God. You're not even sure why, but you recognize you need him and you need his grace. When you call on him and confess your need for Jesus, he is faithfully hears your prayer. He will forgive every sin that you've ever committed and you will be transformed in this moment and you recognize that is your need, you are here right now because you need it at all of our churches. You say, yes, Jesus, I give my life to you. Forgive me of my sins.

I trust you to save me. That's your prayer today. Lift your hands high right now and say, yes, Jesus, I surrender to you. Right here in the middle section, God bless you, right back over here, the back, both of you, way back over there as well. God bless you guys over here. Praise God for you. Way back over here in the back.

Lift them high. I just want to see you. Love you, acknowledge your prayer right here. God bless you. Others today way back over here on this side. We praise God for all of you. Church online, you click right below me. We're all going to pray together.

Everybody allowed. Nobody prays alone and pray. Heavenly Father, I give my life to you asking Jesus to save me, to forgive me, to be the Lord of my life. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, so I could serve you, so I could follow you. my life is not my own. Today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Jesus, you have mine.

In your name, I pray. Would you all worship loud, worship big. Welcome those today, born into God's family. We are honored to play a very small part in what God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out some next steps about your relationship with Christ, just go to life. church slash next. Or to find out if there's a Life Church in your area,

you can go to life.church slash locations. I recently had the chance to talk with Pastor Craig and why he believes this message twisted has the power to radically change how we read the Bible. Check it out. Hey Life Church, I'm here with Pastor Craig Rochelle going behind the message twisted. We're exploring some of the most misused

and misinterpreted verses of the Bible. Craig, I'd love to know why is this message so important to you? Well, the reason I'm talking about Twisted, quite honestly, Jonathan, it's because for years when I was a young Christian, I would just take verses and build a theology around a verse without understanding the context of it. And so every verse that we're talking about and twisted would be a verse that I actually misused early in my relationship with God. And so I want to try to help Christians to understand how to properly interpret God's word. And then as we talked about in the message here, it's not just interpret,

but apply it. Sure. Now, I know we're going through several verses, but we're going through several verses, But what's one takeaway? If you could boil down this series to one thing that you would hope someone to walk away from, what would that one thing be? Well, I think the one thing would be just a love for God's word, that I really wanna be a student of this word, I wanna hide it in my heart, and then I wanna apply it.

And then the tool we're talking about is, really, this is an oversimplification, but how do we accurately interpret the Bible? And so we're trying to teach our church to understand the context, who wrote it, when do they write it, to whom do they write it, understand the context. We also wanna learn to learn to interpret the Bible with the Bible.

In other words, the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. And then the third thing is we don't just read it to study, we read it to live it. And so we want to apply God's word. That's amazing. Now, I know there's something else you're also excited about that recently launched at your leadership podcast.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah, I'm super excited about the new Craig Rochelle Leadership Podcast. The reason is because when the leader gets better, everyone gets better. And I'm very blessed to have learned under some of the greatest leaders. I get to teach leadership around the country. So along with other leaders in our church, we get to train our own staff on leadership,

and then we get to train people outside the church on leadership. What I recognize is we don't really have an avenue to train our church or just the general population on how to become better leaders. Jesus was the best leader who ever lived, in my opinion. We want to model after him. And so the Craig Groshell Leadership podcast is available to help train people to become better leaders. That's awesome. I can't think of a better leader to learn from.

Oh, that's because I'm your boss, man. Thank you, though. It's review time. It's review time. I just remember that. If you want to learn more about the Craig Grouchel Leadership Podcast or subscribe, all you have to do is go to life.church slash leadership podcast. For those of you in the Kansas City area,

we are excited to announce that our 25th Life Church location is coming to Overland Park, Kansas. For you or someone you know to be a part, all you have to do is go to life.church slash Overland Park, and we would love to get you connected. Thanks again for joining us. It's our passion and our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life. See you next time.