Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - What Would Jesus Undo?, Part 3: Hypocrisy
Episode Date: February 26, 2018We tie ourselves in knots going through the motions to meet the world’s expectations. But you weren’t created for that. Whether you’re struggling to find a new start or looking for a place to gr...ow, it’s time to get real about who you’re meant to be. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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I am very thankful to have you with us today at every single life church location.
Before we dive into this week's message, how many of you were with us last weekend?
All of our churches, you're with us last weekend.
Did you notice last weekend felt like a really special kind of time?
Anybody kind of noticed that?
We're going somewhere.
I hope you'll know that.
What I want to tell you is something that's coming up, starting on Easter weekend,
we're going to do a message series I'm already working on.
It's called How Sweet the Sound.
How sweet the sound.
And what we're going to do is we're going to take some of the classic hymns from our faith,
and we're going to look at the story behind those hymns,
and then I'm going to preach from Scripture along with the themes that we find in those hymns,
and we're going to design our time so that we actually can worship at the end of our time
in a response to God's Word like we did last week.
What I hope you'll understand is that we are going somewhere as a church,
and I cannot wait to share that message series with you, how sweet the sound.
Perhaps if you're new with us right now, we're in another message series.
Maybe you've seen the bracelets on people over the years to say WWJD.
Who's ever seen a bracelet like that?
WWJU, what does that stand for?
It stands for what would Jesus do?
What we're doing is we're trying to answer the question, not what would Jesus do,
but what would Jesus undo?
What are the things that really grieve the heart of Jesus?
What is it when Jesus sees this in our lives?
He says, I would undo this so you could have something better.
Week number one, we talked about spiritual apathy.
Jesus would undo a lukewarm spirit.
Last week, we talked about hollow worship.
Jesus wants all of our hearts.
Worship isn't just the songs that we sing,
but worship is the life that we live.
To introduce today's theme,
I want to tell you a story
about something Jesus would undo.
This happened to me one day
when I was actually driving to the office.
When I drive in, I have a right turn
onto a four-lane highway,
two lanes going one way,
two lanes going the other way.
And one day I misjudged the speed
of a vehicle that was coming in the inside lane.
In other words, I thought he was going
slow enough for me to pull out comfortably without him having to break or go around me.
I misjudged how quickly this person who was probably significantly breaking the speed limit was actually
driving. So I pulled out in front of him and I realized very quickly that I made a mistake
because he was approaching my backside really, really fast. Unfortunately, this person,
instead of having grace for me acknowledging my mistake,
chose to express his disappointment
in my lack of judgment with a really loud horn
coming up on the back of me with tremendous velocity.
So being the man of God that I am,
I decided to acknowledge my mistake humbly
and I gave him the international sign of apology
that is translated my bad.
Head goes down, hand goes up, my bad.
Sorry, bro, I misjudge it.
I'm not going to bring up the fact that you are probably going 85 and a 55,
but I misjudge it, my bad.
Unfortunately, he did not receive my signature of repentance.
Instead, with a horn on on my tail,
he chose to go around me and give me the international symbol for one way to God.
You know what I'm talking about?
Peel the banana, read between the lines, whatever you want to call it.
I was disappointed in his response, but I chose to let it go, being the man of grace that I am,
until I saw on the back of his vehicle a bumper sticker.
Not just any bumper sticker, mind you, but a life church bumper sticker.
Immediately I transformed from the repentant one back into my pastoral role,
deciding that God had uniquely called me to execute judgment upon this.
man who sin not only against God, but against his pastor. So I picked up the speed rather rapidly.
We both might have been speeding as I was trying to catch up with him only with the goal of bringing
him to a place of right relationship with God. And his pastor, I eventually caught up to him
when he pulled into a stoplight. I pulled up beside him. He was still expressing creative
dissatisfaction with my decision to pull out.
rolled down the window, he was yelling at me, I looked over at him, smiled, and I said,
God is good. He looked back at me and he said all the time as he gave me the international
symbol, my bad, pastor, my bad. I feel like I shouldn't have to bring this up, but if you do
have a life church bumper sticker on your car, let the spirit of God lead you to refrain from
pointing directly to heaven at people when they make driving mistakes.
What would Jesus undo?
Something that Jesus would undo is a behavior or an attitude that he despised with all of his heart.
Jesus would undo hypocrisy.
Those who claim one thing, but then live in another way.
Jesus would undo hypocrisy.
Now, I want to ease into the subject because,
Hypocrisy is no fun to talk about.
It's not easy to see in our own lives.
It's very easy to see in other people's lives.
In fact, how many of you would say, I know a hypocrite?
Raise your hand.
I know a hypocrite.
How many of you say, I'm sitting by a hypocrite?
Do not raise your hand because they could point right back at you.
It's really, really easy to see hypocrisy in other people's lives,
but it's not so easy to see hypocrisy in our own lives.
In my opinion, this is a subject that is sometimes mistakenly belittled by pastors like me.
For example, there's the old pastoral joke.
One of the most common things that we'll hear from people who have objections to Christianity in the church that they'll say,
I'm not going to church because they're all a bunch of what?
They're all a bunch of hypocrites.
They say this all the time.
I'm not going to go to church because they're all a bunch of hypocrites.
And what pastors will often say is, well, you might as well join it.
We always have room for one more.
And we think that's kind of funny and it kind of is, and there is a little bit of truth to it.
but in my opinion, that really dismisses some very real pain that many people have when they are disappointed by the behavior or actions of those who claim to follow Christ.
Some of you would know this firsthand. There was someone that you looked up to spiritually. They said one thing. They did something else, and it was very, very painful for you. They represented one thing, a youth pastor. It could even be your mom or dad. Your mom or dad were one thing at church.
and then they would come home and they would act totally different at home,
and it can be incredibly painful.
In fact, I don't think I've ever shared this publicly.
I have talked about when my sister was molested by her teacher.
I don't think I've ever shared this publicly,
but we had a family member, very dear family member,
that was actually molested by a spiritual leader in the church years and years ago,
and thankfully, by the grace of God, we had good counsel,
and we were able to work through it and with lots of pain,
and lots of hurtful consequences we were able to forgive and to move forward.
Not everybody does that.
Some people see hypocrisy.
Well, you claim this and you did this, and it devastates them.
And they walk away from the church.
Many people walk away from God because hypocrisy is a horrible sin.
What would Jesus undo?
Jesus would undo hypocrisy.
I like what the author and theologian, Brennan Manning, said about hypocrisy.
He said this.
He said, the single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny them with their lifestyle.
This is what the unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
What would Jesus undo?
Jesus would undo hypocrisy.
Let's go ahead and build a foundation today
and understanding what hypocrisy is,
but to understand what it is,
we also have to acknowledge what it is not.
Let's start with what hypocrisy is not.
If you're taking notes,
hypocrisy is not the disparity
between what we do and what we wish we did.
It's not the difference between how we behave
and how we wish we behave.
Like I wish I didn't have bad thoughts, but I did.
I wish I didn't say that,
but I did.
What that is is that's just sin, not hypocrisy.
There's a difference between sinning and being hypocritical.
Hypocrisy, if you're taking notes, is the gap between what we show and who we are.
It's the difference between what we say and how we live.
It's the difference between our public persona and our private character.
What would Jesus undo?
undo the show when the real life isn't consistent with what we show. In fact, whenever Jesus would
rail against hypocrisy, there was a Greek word that he used. It's the word hoopocrates. It even sounds
like hypocrites. Hupacrates. And what this word literally means is it means an actor or a stage
player. It means one who hides behind a mask. In fact, if you've ever seen the Greek plays, the
Hupacrates was very literally the masks that they would wear.
In fact, I had a couple of rains today.
Pastor Chris, could I have, let me, give me the angry hypocrisy mask.
This is one.
Now, if I preach like this, it would be very creepy for the rest of the day, right?
But this is exactly what some so-called Christians will do.
I'm actually one person, but I'll show a mask.
This is what I'd call an angry hypocrite.
This is the ones that, hey, you don't drink, you don't smoke.
don't you? And don't you run with girls who do? But then when the mask is off, this person has
secret addictions going on in the background. They're going to show one face, but their
behaviors are very, very different. This is what I call angry hypocrite. There's also kind of what I
call happy hypocrite. Happy hypocrite. This one's much, well, still creepy. They're all creepy.
But right, this is the one that's like, praise the Lord, brother. Hallelujah. Oh, glory to God.
great to see you putting on a show acting, oh, I hallelujah, glad to see you at church when they
fought all the way to church with their spouse. But oh, praise the Lord, we're fine.
Oh, we need to build each other up. And did you see what she wore to church? Who does she
think? Oh, praise the Lord, brother. And this is what Jesus hated. It was when from the outside
they would show one thing, but from the inside, there was something very, very, very different.
In fact, Paul has one little verse to me that best represents what hypocrisy is.
He says this in Titus 116.
He says, they claim to know God.
They claim to know God.
They show it.
But by their actions, the way they live, they actually deny him.
Jesus hated this.
He talked very, very directly about what hypocrisy was.
He said, any time you're giving to be seen, hey, I'm going to be generous, but I want everybody to know.
How generous I am.
That's hypocrisy.
Whenever you're praying to be heard,
the Pharisees would literally stand on the street corners.
Oh, dear God, we glorify you.
We pray for so-and-so.
And they were putting on this outward spiritual pride
to impress other people.
Jesus said, that is completely hypocrisy.
It's hypocrisy whenever you fast to be noticed.
Oh, I'm so holy.
I'm so spiritual.
I'm denying myself physical food.
I want to be noticed.
It's hypocrisy whenever you fast.
you criticize someone for doing something Jesus would say,
and you do the same thing.
It's hypocrisy.
It's hypocrisy, Jesus would say whenever people were taking advantage of the poor,
he hated that.
Jesus never spoke more harshly than he did
when people put on the mask.
One time whenever he entered the temple
and people were selling animals as a sacrifice,
he didn't just come in and say,
now boys I told you not to do that you guys need to be nice and you need not not to be about your
personal profit now man Jesus came in and he said I'm not going to stand for this and he took the
tables and he overturned the tables and he said this is my father's house and it will not become a den
of thieves this is a place where we seek my father in prayer he never spoke more harshly than he did
when people were hoopocrates, when they put the mask on.
In fact, back in seminary, I studied in detail what many theologians call the seven woes.
The seven woes.
In Matthew's gospel, Matthew 23, Jesus says again and again, woe to you who live like this.
Let me show you some of the woes.
He says this in verse 27.
He says, woe to you, teach you the law and Pharisees.
You hypocrites, you play actors.
You're like whitewashed to you.
who look beautiful on the outside,
but on the inside, you're full of all sorts of ungodly stuff.
You're full of your bones of the dead and everything unclean.
In the same way, he says, on the outside, you appear righteous to everybody else.
You put on the show, but on the inside, you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Now, watch what Jesus calls him.
He says, you snakes, you brood of.
vipers. Then he asks, how will you escape being condemned to hell? What is the hypocrite?
It's the one who wants to look good on the outside, when on the inside we're very far from God.
We want the illusion of public virtue while inwardly were full of private vices. What's so
interesting to me is this. Jesus didn't say, woe to you who say bad words. He didn't say,
woe to you who watch bad shows on Netflix sometimes.
He didn't say, woe to you who do bad things.
He said, woe to you who do it, but act like you don't.
Woe to you who put on the show.
Not woe to you who are imperfect,
woe to you who are imperfect,
but act like you're something different.
I would argue that today, perhaps more than ever,
social media is the perfect breeding ground for hypocrisy.
How many of you might agree with me?
This is the place where you can all day long show what you want other people to see
when in reality you're so much different from that.
We see it all the time.
Here's my perfect marriage.
I love my husband so much.
He's such a great man of God.
I'm so thankful for him.
Here we are.
Lovi-dovey-dovey-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-and.
In reality, you're not even sleeping in the same bed.
Happens all the time.
Here I am doing my devotion.
Here's my coffee cup because he gives it's not godly without a coffee cup in your devotion,
Instagram picture.
Here's my coffee and here's my Bible.
And I'm not going to tell you I actually spent more time getting the image just right than I did doing my Bible study.
But I'm going to show you what I want you to see.
Or there's what I call the Lego life.
Remember the movie Lego?
What's the song go?
Everything is awesome.
That's the only line I remember.
I don't remember the rest.
What's the next line?
Everything is awesome.
That's the only line that matters.
Everything is awesome, right?
And this is what we do on social media.
Everything is awesome.
My life is awesome.
I'm depressed, I'm miserable, I'm hurting, I'm doubting.
Everything is awesome.
What would Jesus undo?
He would undo a spirit of hypocrisy.
when what we show is so different than who we are.
Woe to you, Jesus says.
How will you escape being condemned to hell?
If you're a little bit uncomfortable right now,
that's probably a good thing,
because that means you have some self-awareness.
Because let me tell you right now,
somebody's going, oh, I'm so glad so biased here in this,
I'm so sending them this link, they need to see it, that hypocrite.
It's so easy to see in other people.
but it's so difficult to see in yourself.
If you're feeling a little bit uncomfortable
because you're recognizing some inconsistencies,
that's actually a good thing.
That means you're self-aware.
That means you're open to what the Spirit of God will show you,
and what I want you to see is there is hope for the hypocrite in all of us.
There's hope.
Let me show you the hope.
Jesus shows it in 25, in verse 26 of Matthew's Gospel.
He says this, he says,
woe do you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrite.
You clean the outside of the cup and dish,
but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence.
You're showing the show, but you don't have the substance.
So what he says is this, blind Pharisee.
First, clean the inside of the cup and the dish.
Then the outside will be clean.
First, let the Spirit of God do a work internally
where no one else sees.
And when internally you're being conformed to the image of Christ,
when the Spirit of God is working within you,
when God's word is transforming you,
then out of an overflow of who you're becoming,
you will display the goodness of God
as a reflection of his work internally,
not as an act to fool people,
on the outside, but born within true spiritual work on the inside.
Let me tell you my story of how this kind of came to be.
When I was in seminary, I had a well-meaning seminary professor who taught us this.
And quite honestly, this was kind of the mindset of pastors for generations prior to mine.
The seminary professor taught us this, that you have to always guard what he called the pastor's mystique.
The pastor's mystique.
there's an image that you must keep up.
You must be slightly above the people.
You must always dress the part, look the look,
have the pastoral language.
You can never let them know if you doubt.
If you have questions, you have to keep that to yourself.
If you have a bad day in your marriage,
don't let anybody know.
And so I was 23 years old in seminary.
I thought, okay, this is who I have to be.
I've got to keep up the pastoral mystique.
So here I was as a young United Methodist pastor would go into church, put on the external robes that we had to wear, and I learned to put on a very real show.
Here's what I did. I would tell people all the time, brother, I'll be praying for you, praying for you. And I almost never did.
I'm going to be seeking God on your behalf. I'm in there with you, and I almost never ever was.
What's God showing you in the Word, Craig?
Oh, oh my goodness.
Oh, too much to count.
I don't even know where to start
because I wasn't really consistently
and passionately in God's Word.
I would read it to preach,
but it wasn't real in me.
So here I was with this young guy playing a role.
I'm pastor.
I'm going to impress you.
And it became so exhausting
and so dangerous.
I was so vulnerable to doing something really significantly wrong
because sin grows best in the dark.
And everything that was wrong with me
I kept hidden behind this pastoral mask.
There was one Sunday and there might even be
two or three people in our church that were there that day.
I took what I consider to be a really, really big risk.
And I stood up before the church
and essentially metaphorically I took the mask off.
And I just told the church,
I need to come clean with you.
And I just repent.
The language I used is this,
that God had showed me,
I'd become a full-time pastor
and a part-time follower of Christ.
Some of you, this will resonate with you.
You are your full-time mom.
Part-time follower of Christ.
Full-time business person.
Christian, maybe, maybe not.
Full-time student.
Not really.
passionate about the things of Jesus. And so I just explained on that day, I've been faking some
stuff. I haven't been real. And I just want to confess that before you. The decision I made was this.
I would rather be an honest sinner than a lying and deceptive hypocrite. I'd rather just drop the mask
and be honest about it. And what I did on that day, it was a little bit like last week at church.
for some people as a breakthrough.
It's kind of like an ah, a ha moment spiritually.
And that's what happened in our little church.
People just, other people said, I can drop the mask.
I've been pretending.
I've been faking it.
I've been showing one thing, and I'm really not.
I've been portraying to you that I've got it all together spiritually,
but I'm kind of a mess.
And what I learned is a principle that if you remember one thing,
I hope you'll remember this.
Jesus has zero tolerance for hypocrisy.
He can't stomach it.
He can't stand it.
It turns here.
He hates it with everything in it.
Jesus has zero tolerance for hypocrisy.
But he has unlimited grace for a sinner in need of forgiveness.
Jesus cannot stomach the show.
But when anyone who's hurting drops the mask and says, forgive me, heal me, redeem me, save me, change me,
Jesus's answer is always yes, because he did not come for those who appear to be righteous,
but he came for sinners.
He didn't come for those who are healthy on the outside.
He came for those who knew they were sick.
He has no tolerance for the show, but he has at limited grace.
for a sinner in need of grace and repentance.
And so I simply dropped the mask on that day.
And there are those of you, you're going to drop the mask as well.
But you may say, what do they find out?
What do they know?
They know that I'm not perfect.
What do they know that I have false?
What if they know that I'm showing one thing and I'm not?
Listen to me, you have nothing to fear when you have nothing to hide.
You have absolutely nothing to fear when in the community of grace you ask for help.
This is what Proverbs says.
Proverbs 28 verse 13.
Whoever conceals their sins doesn't prosper.
Whoever lives like this behind the mask.
Never finds the blessings of God.
Whoever conceals their sins shows the false life on the outside,
hiding the truth on the inside.
Whoever conceals their sins doesn't prosper.
But the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
The one who asks for help finds mercy.
Here's what I hope you'll understand.
Some of you, you're going to recognize right now,
you're hiding behind a mask.
When you drop the mask, when you are honest, there is power.
You are only as strong as you are honest.
You are only as strong as you are honest.
And many of you, as you're in life groups
and we're even forming life groups right now,
this is the perfect week to step in by faith,
into a community, a consistent group of other believers,
and join one another in open confession of our need for God.
We are not perfect people living a perfect life,
pleasing God in a perfect way.
We're sinners, we're strugglers, we've messed up, we fall short.
We have battles, we have struggles.
We're afraid sometimes.
We're inconsistent.
We want to do one thing and then we do something else.
We don't want to have those thoughts than we do.
We don't want to go back to that old life,
but we do, but we come together with other people,
and we open up and say, I'm about to tell you something.
I've never told anybody before.
And suddenly in that moment of truth, the truth will set you free.
We're always in bondage when we hide.
Whoever hides their sins, conceals their sins, doesn't prosper.
But whoever drops the mask and renounces them.
We find mercy in the presence of God because Jesus has zero tolerance for hypocrisy.
But he has unlimited grace for a sinner.
in need of forgiveness.
David prayed this prayer in Psalm 139.
I would ask you, invite you to join me in praying this prayer.
It's so easy to point out hypocrisy in other people,
but it's so difficult to see in ourselves.
David pray, search me God and know my heart.
Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there's any offensive way
in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.
Search me, God.
Search me, God.
In preparation for this message, this is what I prayed this week.
Search me, God.
Show me God.
Show me where I'm wearing the mask and don't even know it.
Because listen to me, if you wear this thing long enough,
you'll hide behind the lie long enough,
you often start to believe your own lie.
You don't even know you're wearing the mask.
And this week, God showed me one very specific area in my life, very specific area that's going to become business before God every single day.
God, help cleanse me in this.
Help me drop the mask.
Help me be real.
Search me, God.
Know my heart.
Test me.
See if there's any offensive way in me.
Lead me in the way of everlasting.
What is hypocrisy?
It is the gap between what we show and who we are.
What do we do with that gap?
What do we do with the gap?
Here's what I hope you'll understand.
Is we don't close the gap with perfection.
What do we do?
We close the gaps with Christ.
We don't close the gap with our outward behavior
now I'm pleasing to God.
We close the gap with Christ.
He is our righteousness.
He is our source.
He is our healing.
He is our redemption.
He is the one who brings forgiveness.
We don't close the gap with outward behavior.
We let Jesus do an inward work.
And then inwardly as we're transformed over time,
our outward behavior.
is a reflection of the inward healing work of the grace of Jesus.
What would Jesus undo?
Listen to me, church.
He would absolutely undo hypocrisy.
And in our culture today, we are ripe with it.
This is who we are.
We're not hurting.
There are some of you.
You will have a breakthrough moment when you drop the mask.
I need help.
I'm addicted, and I need someone to pray and strength to help me out of this addiction.
My marriage is not where it should be.
We need some people to support us, to pray for us, to counsel us.
We're not there.
We're showing that it's all good.
Look at the bling.
Look at the life.
Look at the car.
Look at the house.
And we're drowning in debt.
We're showing you one thing, but we're hurting on the other side.
I'm looking like I'm all great today.
I'm smiling, but you have no idea.
I am scared to death at this medical report, and I don't have faith right now.
Whoever conceals their sin does not prosper.
but whoever drops the mask and renounces it finds mercy.
I would rather be an honest sinner than a lying hypocrite
because Jesus has zero tolerance for hypocrisy.
But he has unlimited grace for a sinner like me
in need of forgiveness and a savior.
And all of our churches today, there are those of you.
You walked in this way.
But today you drop the mask.
Today you drop the mask.
And when you know the truth, the truth will set you free.
What would Jesus undo?
Jesus would undo the show.
He's not asking for perfection.
Jesus was perfect.
The perfect one lives in us and over time conforms us and then lives through us.
Don't forget it.
No tolerance for the show.
But unlimited grace for the honest one who needs help.
So Father today, please do a work.
At all of our churches, those of you who would say, I will pray it.
It's a dangerous prayer.
Search me, God.
Know my heart, test me.
Show me if there's any offensive way in me.
If you'll pray that, be open to what God will show you.
Would you lift up your hands right now?
Just lift them up.
Father, I thank you today, and I believe by faith that God you're going to do the very same thing
for your other kids that you did for this one of your kids.
You spoke to me, God.
And rather than being hurt or afraid of what you show us, God, we thank you that on the other
side there's freedom and there's healing and there's grace and there's mercy.
I pray God especially for those who are lacking in a real community to support them.
I pray God they'd have the courage to take a step forward, even if there's a fear.
What do they find out?
What do they know?
But they recognize there is only healing in a true, grace-filled Christian community.
God, I pray that they would have the courage to step forward and find others.
Knowing that life is always better together.
We need one another.
God, I pray for the conversations that are going to happen.
today. The one who's going to talk to another one, I'm addicted and I need help. I can't stop.
I know this is going to shock you, but I've been doing this. I'm in trouble. I'm hurting.
I'm afraid. I need someone there with me. God, I pray that in those conversations, we recognize
there are holy moments that you are with us and you will bring healing for this.
those who confess their need.
We thank you for the grace of Jesus.
We understand he does not tolerate hypocrisy,
but we thank you that he came for sinners.
We rejoice in that today.
As you keep praying at all of our churches,
there are those of you you're going to recognize right now.
You need Jesus.
Jesus.
The son of God,
the sinless one,
the Lamb of God,
God who was slain for the forgiveness of sins. I grew up the perfect hypocrite, going to church,
playing the part. I was president of the youth group, and I did not know Jesus. I was wearing the
mask, and I didn't even know the mask was on. I had no idea. Some of you, you're going to recognize
that. You've been showing the show other people think, yeah, obviously you're a Christian, you're in church,
but you're not. There is no real intimacy. You haven't been transformed. You're no different. You've
never been made new by God, and you're here today because today is the day that he's going to
make you new. Others of you, there ain't nobody going to question if you're a Christian, because
you're not anything close to a Christian, but something's happening right now. You're being
drawn to the things of God. You recognize there must be something more. You've tried it all.
You're still empty. You're still hurting. The problem is that you are a soul. You are a soul,
and there is no physical thing that meets the empty needs of our souls.
The only thing that will ever satisfy is the grace-filled truth of the love of God through
His Son Jesus.
And you're starting to sense that.
You're not here today by accident.
You're here today because God brought you here.
Why?
Because he is reaching out to you so you can say yes to the unlimited grace of Jesus for a sinner
in need of a Savior.
To all of our churches, those who say, yes, I've sinned against God.
Yes, I need his forgiveness.
I'm empty on the inside.
I turn away from all the things of this world.
I turn away from my own sin.
I call on the name of Jesus.
When you call on his name, he will hear your prayer.
He will forgive every sin that you've ever committed.
He will make you brand new.
You don't become better.
You become different.
You're not here by accident and you know it.
All of our churches, those who say, yes, I need the grace of Jesus.
I turn to him.
Today, by faith, I give my life to him.
That's your prayer.
Lift your hands high now.
All over the place, lift them up.
Right back here, leave them up, if you will.
My goodness, all three of you, five of you right here,
here in this middle section, all three of you back here.
Leave them up, if you will.
Lift them up right back here in this section.
Others of you today saying, yes, right back over here.
Praise God for you, right back over here.
Church, I hope somebody is a little bit more.
Excited about what we're seeing right here.
Back here in this section.
Oh, my goodness.
God is working, God is working.
God is working.
Church online, you just click right below me.
Church, we are going somewhere.
The spirit of God is moving in this house.
Would you pray today with those around you with great anticipation?
Pray Heavenly Father, I surrender my whole life.
I give it to you.
Forgive me of all of my sins.
Change me.
Make me new.
Fill me with your spirit so I could know you.
and so I could live for you every single day.
My life is not my own.
I give it to you.
Thank you for new life.
Now you have mine.
In Jesus' name I pray,
church would you celebrate big worship?
Welcome those born into God's family.
As a church, it's our honor to play a small part
in all that God is doing in and through your life.
To find out what your next steps could be,
check us out at life.church slash next.
And to stay connected throughout your week
and everywhere you go,
download the Life Church app
available anywhere you download apps.
It's our mission to become
fully devoted followers of Christ
because we know that whoever finds God
finds life.
