Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - What’s Next?, Part 1: Take the Next Step

Episode Date: October 13, 2019

Have you ever felt like something's missing? Are you longing for a clearer sense of purpose in your life? You were created for significance, not just survival. Together, let's figure out What’s Next? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, big welcome today to all of our life church locations, our open network church, as you are in for an amazing treat. We have one of the most powerful men of God, one of my closest pastor friends with us today, all the way from Church of the Highlands, the founding and senior pastor of, believe it or not, the second largest church in America with 21 locations reaching well over 50,000 people every single week. He is a true man of God. Pastor Chris Hodges.

He helped start the best church planting organization in America, in my opinion, started almost 1,000 churches around the world, and he helped found Highland College. Get this, if you know a student wanting to go to college

to learn ministry, they have a goal to place 100% of every student that comes through the college into ministry. And guess what? They are doing it. This guy is on fire.

He has a brand new book out. The book is called What's Next? What do you do? What's your next step to grow spiritually? I asked Pastor Chris if he wouldn't mind speaking a message from his book, What's Next? Because I believe we all have next spiritual steps. Would you please show a very warm Life Church welcome today to Pastor Chris Hodges?

Come on, give him what he really deserves. Come on, all of our locations. That's awesome. Turn to the person next to you and tell him it looks like you've lost a little weight. Come on, tell them, tell them, tell them, tell them. Start off with some good news. Hey, it's so good to be here. What a joy. I really am thrilled to be at Life Church and with my dear friend Craig and Amy Groschelle. You guys do know you're blessed to have some of the most amazing pastors. Come on. Come on all of our location, yeah. And I just have to, before I get into the

message, just stop and say thank you because you are, you know, you are the largest church in the country and you are stewarding that responsibility, really that load extremely well, and you're so open-handed with what you give other churches. You guys do know there's almost 400 million downloads now of U-Version app. Come on somebody, yeah. Powerful. I don't even know if you know this or not, but you provide all of your church resources, sermons, everything, to about 70,000 pastors who late on a Saturday night when they don't have something to preach the next day. I promise you, a bunch of them are going there. So anyway, yeah. So I've done that before. But anyway, but I just want to say thank you. Your giving goes way

beyond you and you're making a difference. And I hope you have the sense of, you know, kind of fulfillment and knowing that you are making a difference in a lot of people's lives. And that never happens without great leadership. You have it in your pastor. It's probably something you don't know, though, is that part of your church government here at Life Church is that you rotate an outside pastor into the church government just for the sake of accountability and just to get fresh eyes and fresh vision. And so I served one of those five-year terms, which means I saw everything. And you're a better church behind doors than you even are in front of the world. I'm going to tell you, I'm telling you the truth. And I can say that about you too, Pastor Craig. You are an amazing man and

everybody knows the public, Craig, and Amy, but you are even better behind closed doors. One more time. Come on. Come on. You can do a little bit better than that. Come on. All right. Okay. So I want to start off with a verse out of Psalm 92, because I want to talk about your next step. And I want to begin by basically showing you a verse in the Bible that basically says the way that you grow, the way that you realize all that God has for you is that you have to get yourself in the right kind of environment for growth to happen. Psalm 92, verse 13, it says those who are, say the next word out loud at every location, those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

So if you get yourself in a right environment, good things happen. I don't know if you know this or not, but in America, there's a part of our country here that's called Death Valley. Death Valley is the hottest. Somebody knows where Death Valley is. It's not a great place to go. It's the hottest, driest place in America. Nothing grows there at all. In fact, nothing grows there because it doesn't rain. That's why they call it Death Valley. In fact, I have a pick for you. They'll put on the screen. This is just a snapshot of Death Valley. But a phenomenon happened in 2004. In the winter of 2004, they don't even really know how it happened, but seven

inches of rain fell in a short amount of time. Now, nothing happened. immediately, but by the spring of 2005, there was a phenomenon. Put the next picture on the screen, everybody, and that's what that same place looked like just a few months later. And what they realized was, is that Death Valley wasn't dead. Death Valley was dormant. So right beneath the surface of the ground were actually seeds of potential that just needed to be in the right environment for great things to happen. Anybody know where I'm going? here, you seeing this? And so what churches do and what pastors do and what we're trying to do and really what this book is all about is making sure that people get in the right environment

so the best version of you happens. Now, the big idea that I want you to catch is you are somewhere on a spiritual continuum. So you're somewhere in all that God has for you. You're somewhere along the journey. And so the key is to find out where you are and then take the next step. In fact, my goal of this message today is to help you identify where you are. And as I talk, I want you to go, wow, I'm right there. He just mentioned right where I am spiritually. And then I'm going to show you the step that you can take so that all of us are growing and flourishing because your life isn't supposed to be dead. Your life isn't supposed to be dormant. Your life is supposed to flourish. Say amen right there, everybody, right? Okay, so Psalm 16, verse 11 says it says, you will show me,

this is the greatest revelations, one of the greatest revelations of my life. You will show me, God, you're going to show me the path of life and in your presence is fullness of joy. In other words, when I see the path and I know the journey, there's going to be joy in your presence and pleasures at your right hand. Now, what I contend is that most people kind of know the potentials out there, but they don't know what the journey is. They have not been made known the path of life. And so several years ago, I did a study just to try to find out really what does God have

for people. What is, what is the spiritual journey? Because one of my passions is really just to make it all clear. And I always tell our church that I'm really, I mean, you call me your pastor, but what I really am is I'm a spiritual tour guide, taking you on a journey of all that God has for you. And he has so much more for us. And here's the greatest discovery, and that is, is that as I began to study the Bible, God has always one of the same things for people. So cover to cover from as early as I can find it about Exodus all the way, last place I find it is in the Book of Revelation. I can show you at least 16 places where God has always wanted basically four things for you. And that at every place, they're mentioned a little different, so they're said a

different way, but the gist of it is the same. And so what I want to do of you is I want to give you one version of that. I want to break down one scripture and guys that are running the lower thirds, keep the scripture up there so we can study it. I want to teach it for a few moments, and then I'm going to go back through it and help you discover where you are and help you take your next step. The version I want to show you, first of all, is found in a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for the church. I love that because, you know, Paul was a church planner, so he planted churches all over the known world at the time. And, of course, he had great concern and a desire for these churches to grow. And we really don't get that many prayers in

scripture. So, like, we know we're supposed to pray, but we don't actually get the prayer. Well, this is an actual prayer. In Ephesians chapter one, Paul says, as he says, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. I want to stop right there and say, Paul says, I just wish people could see this. I wish people could realize that this is where they are. And honestly, Life Church, that's my desire. I really wish you could come away from this message going, wow, my eyes are open to where I am spiritually and what I have next. He said, I just wish you could have the Spirit of Wiseman Revelation so that. And now he's going to mention these four things.

So that, number one, that you might know God. And he used a word there that doesn't shock you because no one reacted when I said, no God. That didn't mean anything to you. But Paul used the word there. It's Gnosco in the Greek. And it literally means to know God in an intimate personal way, which was completely foreign to religious people of the day. because God was always this religion. It was always this tradition. But he actually used the same word. He actually used the same word

where a man knows his wife and they have babies. And it's not a sexual term. It's an intimate term. It's a term that you've got to get way beyond knowing him right here and you've got to get to know him personally in relation. And everybody would have went, I had no idea we could do that. I wish you could just know God better.

And then he says, secondly, it says, I pray that the eyes of your heart get enlightened. This is the second step in your spiritual journey. And Paul actually says, I just wish, he says, I wish the eyes of your heart were, as the message says, focused and clear. To which when I first read it, I thought, hey, Paul, my eyes aren't on my heart. My eyes are on my head, my brother. You know, they're right here. They're not right here. And Paul's making a point that all of us need to realize, and that as we all aren't looking through these, we're actually looking through this. Every single one of you are looking at life.

In fact, you're looking at me right now through the lens of everything that's happened to you up to this point. Every one of you are looking through the lens of your past, your pain, your problems, your hurts, your good days, your bad days, your relationships. We're all seeing through the lens. And Paul said, once you know God intimately and personally

and really have a powerful relationship with him, I wish you could understand how important it is to take the second step of your spiritual journey where you start to get your heart right, where you get your heart healed, and you start working on how you're seeing things, because all of us in this room we're seeing the exact same thing,

and all of us are seeing it differently based on what's happened to us up to this point, and it's dictating your life. And he says, I just wish you could see how important that is. And then he says, so that. So in other words, you can't even go to this next one until you've done those first two. I wish you could understand how important it is

to be in an intimate, powerful relationship with God. and then once you know him you have the power to get your heart right, clean, pure, working so much so much better, so that, watch this, so that you might know the hope to which he has called you. So now you've got to realize that part of your spiritual journey is to realize that God's created you on purpose for a purpose. Come on say, I'm better amen right there, on purpose for a purpose, that you cannot see, now watch this, that you cannot see if you don't do the first two things. so it's virtually impossible to see the plan that God has for you in the future if you're still looking through the lens of yesterday.

You cannot see your tomorrows if your glasses are still covered in the smudge and the dirt of yesterday. So some of you have even wondered, why do I not know what God's purpose and plan for my life is? It's because you've never done the second step in the journey of getting your heart clear and settling the pain of yesterday so you can see the promise of tomorrow. He says, but once you do, what you do, I wish you might know the hope to which he has called you. He called it.

And notice with me that the word hope and calling are connected. So I want you to think about that just for a moment. The word hope and the word calling are connected. In other words, if you want to find hope, you're never going to find it circumstantially. You find it in knowing why you're on this planet. So once you know that you're here on purpose for a purpose, that is the source of hope. That'll preach right there, everybody. That's a powerful truth.

Because here's the deal. Because here's the deal. So many people are looking for hope to be found in, I need my family to work out better. I need the weather to be better. I need politics to be better. I need my job to be better. No, no.

It's found in knowing that you're here on purpose for a purpose. So that regardless, Paul said, Paul said, it doesn't matter what's happening around me, I have my eyes fixed. Not on the seen things, but the unseen things. These are temporary. Those are eternal.

Are you following me, everybody, right? All right. And then so he's giving us this progression. Again, I just want you to see it just like Paul prayed. I want you to see how important it is so that you can flourish, how important it is to have an intimate, powerful relationship with God. You can't even do the second one without doing that first one. But once you do that one, now he can do this powerful work on the inside where we settle yesterday once in for all and really deal with the pain and the problems and the hurts and the past of our hearts so that we can realize you're not supposed to spend the rest of your life, just praying about you and your issues. You're supposed to get out there with some purpose

in your life, doing something with your life that matters. And he ends it this way so that you might know the riches of his glorious, watch the language here, inheritance in his holy people to realize that you have an inheritance. Now watch this. And it's not just yours alone. That you have an inheritance. And it's with a group of people. That God now wants to make sure you're connected with a group of people who also know their purpose, who together are receiving their inheritance. To which you might ask, what is our inheritance? And the Bible makes it very clear. Psalm chapter 2, he gives you the nations as your inheritance.

People, the people of the earth. 400 million downloads of the U version is your inheritance. Are you following what I'm saying? I mean, that's so, I'm so passionate about helping people find out where they are and taking these steps. And we have tried over the years at Church of the Highlands different language to help people. And honestly, it worked okay. It didn't work really as well as I knew it could. So on a whim, my sister is my executive assistant, not like my sister in the Lord, like my real sister.

You know, and I mean, she is in the Lord too, but like first my sister. And her name is Carol. And as a side hobby, she's a fitness instructor at a gym. And I'm not really around a lot of people. that are far from God, unfortunately. And she is because she works at this gym. And I said, hey, Carol, I said, put together a little focus group of some people at the gym. And I want to tell them this journey and get them to help me figure out some language of how to say it. We actually did this. We actually got some completely far from God, went to no one's church people in a focus group. And I said,

okay. And I explained everything that I just explained to you very, very carefully. And I said, help me with some language that makes sense. And we were using, like, religious terms like salvation, sanctification, redemption, delivery, blah, blah, blah, like all this guys. And nobody wanted any of that, as you can imagine. And so, so, so we got in this focus group in about an hour and a half, they came up, and the lost people came up with four phrases to describe those four things. And here they are. To know God, find freedom, discover purpose, make a doubt. And make a doubt. And, difference. They said everybody understands. People don't want to build your church. They told me this. Hey, hey, they call me PC. P.C. Nobody wants to build your church. But everybody's trying to figure out

how to know God. A few people really want deliverance, but everybody has an area of their life where they need to find freedom. All of us realize, we know there's got to be some purpose of life. They all, even lost people understand, discover purpose. And did you know that God has already put it inside the heart of every human being alive, lost or saved, Christian or non-Christian? to do something with your life that really matters, to make a difference. He's already put, in fact, secular sociologists have proven that the highest need that can get met in the human heart is to live your life in such a way where your life is making a difference. They say the highest, the greatest lay your head down at night knowing you lived your life well

is when you did something for someone else. In fact, they thought for years that the highest level that can be met in the human heart was just when you win. When you make all the money you want, have all the things you want, have the job you want, the family you want. No, no, they said, no, there's one higher. In fact, secular sociologists, Pastor Craig, call it transcendence. They call it that. That deep down inside, you were called to make a difference. You cannot do that, though, unless you can discover your purpose.

You cannot do that if you're still settling yesterday, and you cannot do that without God. That's what I love being a part of the church. Amen, everybody. Are you seeing that? All right. So let me quickly go back through the floor again, and I want you to find where you are. Because the first step in this spiritual journey is to know God. And when I say no God, I'm knowing, I'm meaning intimately and personally. Now, this is a big deal to me because I was

raised in church. I've actually literally been in church. I'm 56 years old, and I've been in church every Sunday since birth. I've never missed a Sunday in church in my entire life to date. That's a fact. I've never been out of church in my life. My dad played Oregon in the church. My mom sang in the choir, and we were not given a church. choice to go to church or not, even if we were throwing up, dad's like, get a bag, you're throwing up a church. Like, that's, okay, some of y'all know what I'm talking about, right? And so when I was seven years old, in my tradition, I walked the aisle. That's what you did. You know, the preacher stood in front at the end of his message, and he'd do an altar call, and I walked the aisle

and got the clipboard and signed in and got baptized, but I didn't meet God that day. And I actually thought I was a Christian and realized, honestly, that I was really far from God until I came to a church like this one. And when I saw the people, honestly, you know what really impacted me the most? And this should bless all of you guys at all of our churches. It wasn't the preacher's message. It was the people in the crowd who were in love with Jesus that won me to Jesus, honestly. So when you worship, it matters to God, but it matters to others as well. Just thought I'd throw that out there. But so I went home. And so when they did the response time, I didn't, I didn't respond, even though I was responding on the inside because I'd been in church long enough. I knew they was going to

bring me to a room and I didn't want to go there, right? You know what I'm saying? Right. But I went home and I said, I've got to find out how to get to heaven. And I decided to do it on my own. And I found this verse, and it's the first verse I read in Matthew 7 where it says, not everyone who says, Lord, Lord is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, which I thought, well, that's a problem because that was my plan. You know, that's what they told me to do.

And it goes on to say, they'll do a bunch of religious things, cast out devils, prophesied, do miracles, and still not make it to heaven? And then Jesus said, that's right, because I never knew you, and he uses the same word that Paul used, Gnosco, that I wasn't looking for religion, I was looking for relationships. Someone here today in one of our churches needs to take that step from, this is not about just attending a church, and this is not about being a more religious person or trying to get your act together. It's about being in a personal relationship with a very real, alive, and living God. Amen? And you just need to take that step today. Now, a bunch of you had taken that step, but you've never taken the second step in the spiritual journey, which is to find freedom.

And what I mean by that is to deal with the stuff that keeps holding you back that's making it where you're not getting the best version of you. And you know what I'm talking about. Every one of you are thinking of that area right now. You know what it is. It's that one thing. It's that. habit, it's that addiction. You ready for this? It's that secret that you've not told anyone else, you've only told God. I've got good news and bad news for you. The good news is there is a solution, and the bad news is it's not just God. That God set in motion a way for you to find freedom, and you may not have ever known this. And that is, and it's found in James chapter 5, where it says this, it says, therefore confess your sins, watch this, not to God. confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you'll be healed.

So you go to God for forgiveness, but you've got to go to God's people for healing. And for a lot of people, yeah, for a lot of people, you've wondered why you still have the same addiction and habit. It's because you need to get in a life group and get comfortable enough with that relationship where you take the mask off and say, guess what? And even if you can't do it to the whole group, you need to do it to someone in the group. You need to, before they leave, walk out in the front yard or wherever you meet and say, I need to talk to you.

This is not the real me. And peel the mask back and say, guess what? And you're going to be afraid to do it. But let me tell you what's going to happen. When you do that, they're not going to go, oh, my God, I had no idea. That's not going to happen. You know what they're going to do? They're going to go, what?

You two? I thought I was the only one. And what's going to happen, you're going to find accountability. and you're going to find prayer, and you're going to find support. Look, our life groups are not just a place for you to go get another Bible lesson. You can do that online. You don't need another Bible lesson. I mean, you do, but you need a person.

Come on, you need a person. Someone you can be honest with. So you can really, it's really important. So once you do that, once you get in that place and really get honest with someone, you're going to discover that there's real healing on the other side of that. Confess your faults, your sins. one to another, pray for each other so that you can experience real healing. And I want that for you. For some of you, that's where you are in your spiritual journey. You've been a Christian a long time,

and you know you're not getting the best version of you. That's your next step. I encourage everyone, under the sound of my voice. Find a group. Find a group. They're all over at every one of our churches. There are groups. Get in the group. And you might have to shop for a group. You might go to the first one and go, nah, these aren't the people, and just go to another one. But find you a group. Honey, y'all are in a group. In a group? You're in a group? Yeah, yeah. So we're going to know God. We're going to find freedom. And then what you do, you need to get at some point, and for a bunch of you, this is where you are. In fact, chances are it's probably 80% of you are right here that you need to discover your purpose. According to one study in America, 87% of the body of Christ does not know what body part they are.

So can you imagine what the body would look like if 87% of your body did not know what it was? Okay? And that's probably why the church does not function like the church should, because the church people, the body of the Christ, you're a part of the body, you need to know what part of the body you are. And according to 1st Corinthians 12, all of the body parts have different functions. Let me say it this way. You have a function. You're a part. And you've tried to look for it in other places. So people tend to look forward in making money, job, career. Other pursuits, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them. They're just not the best part for you. Paul said this. Paul said this about his purpose. He said, I consider my life worth nothing to me unless I finish the race, the call that God has for my life.

I want you to have that same thing. But Romans 12 says that you all, we all, the church does, have different gifts. The word gifts there is the word carous, where we get the word charismatic. And the charismatic is not a wild person in church. I don't know why it's funnier to me in my head than it obviously was you, but anyway. But Akaris is a grace gift. It's the thing that you're good at that makes a difference in someone else's life. Please look in my eyes, every one of our churches.

You have something that God designed before time that you're good at, that when you do it, there's fulfillment, and it makes a difference in other people's lives. You've got to get on a pursuit of that. You've got to allow God to show you what those things are. And if you don't, what will happen is you'll end up chasing things. things that really don't matter in life. I don't know if you've ever read what I consider to be one of Pastor Craig's best books ever. He wrote a book years ago called It.

It might be the shortest title book in the world, It. And he talks about how do you get it and what does it look like? And it's really probably a better book for pastors and leaders. Pastors, you ought to get this book. It's phenomenal. I love it. But he tells a story in this book about a greyhound dog track. Now, I've never been to a dog race.

You guys know what I'm talking about, a dog race, right? I've seen it on Bugs Bunny. You know, they've got the... And if you know anything about a dog race, they put a mechanical rabbit on the interior rail. Because, like, with a horse race, you have a jockey. You have someone making the horse run. But how do you make the dogs run?

Well, they chase something. So they send this mechanical rabbit just a little bit ahead, and they release the dogs, and they're chasing the rabbit, right? That's what they're doing. Well, as the story goes, as Pastor Craig told, I think it was in Florida at a dog, a greyhound dog track, the mechanical rabbit had a mechanical malfunction. And right around the first turn, it explodes, and wires and fur go everywhere.

And as the story goes, the dogs, because they didn't have something to chase, they said they did three different things. Some of them just sat down on the track and took a nap. That's it then, all right. Some of them just turned to the crowd, just barked at all the people that were betting, you know. And then some of them actually ran through the railing and hurt themselves. Like some of them broke the ribs running through the railing of the track because they were confused and disoriented. And I thought, what a picture of humanity.

If you're not chasing the right thing, you'll take a nap, bark at everybody else or hurt yourself. I mean, that's what you do. And it's true. And that's why it's critical for you. If you want your life to be successful, we've got to go. on a pursuit of the purpose that God has for you, and it's critical. But then once you do, you can do this final thing. Hey, Life Church, this is what you are created to do. You aren't created just to celebrate other people who are making a difference. And again, thank you for being

a part of a church that is, and you are a part of that. But God has something for you as well. Every place you go, every person you meet, to live your life in such a way where your life is making a difference. I want to read you this last verse. And in John chapter 15. It says, this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. Sounds kind of demanding right there, doesn't it? Like, okay, go help some people. But watch what he says next. But I've told you this. I've told you this. So a bunch of people will get blessed. No. I've told you this because that's what I want you to do. No. I've told you this so that my joy may be in you.

Jesus is saying you haven't even discovered what life is really like. Like you haven't even discovered real joy until you lay your head down it and I think, wow. Now that's how you live a day. And I'm going to tell you some of the low-hanging fruit of making a difference, get on a team here at church. Like park a car for heaven's sakes. You know, worship one, serve one.

Go get in a nursery. Go get in a children's church. Play an instrument. I mean, 33 kids. 33 locations and counting. We need you. The church needs you. The loss needs you. Make a difference. Make a difference. Make a difference. Make a difference. And I think if I'm really trying to say something to you today, that it's time for you to get moving. So funny, I don't know if you've never done this before, got behind a pulpit and talked to people, you have emotions that go on on the inside of you, okay? So you're trying to say things that sometimes are pretty in your face, but you want to do them. It's going to be good.

You know, like, you're trying to do it like that. And because you want people to want to do it, right? It reminds me, it happened this year. I was driving on a very busy highway in Birmingham where I live. And I'm barely saved when I'm driving. Where are y'all at? You know what I'm talking about? Like, that's the one part where God's still doing a deep working on the inside of me.

I'm real impatient. And I was at a light that was taking a left-hand turn. and I know where I'm in the light because this is my light. I know this light. I know when the left. I know I'm going to make it on this light cycle. I know it. If everybody goes.

So I knew I was in trouble already because I could tell the person in front of me, they weren't looking up, like they had the head down, and you know what they're doing. They took the occasion that was a red light to do some text or check social media or whatever. I knew it. And my wife Tammy is always fussing at me. because I'm a honker like, ah, don't do that, you know. And Tammy goes, oh, they probably go to our church.

I say, well, good, they need to learn something. You know, anyway. So anyway, it's terrible. I know it's terrible. I'm confessing my sins in church today. So I'm there. So I'm hearing Tammy's voice in my head. She's not in the car.

I'm thinking, be nice, be nice, be nice. But I know if this person, and it looked like it was a young girl, like she doesn't go, I'm going to miss the light. And sure enough, light turns green, everybody goes, and that car is just dead steel. and I'm there and I'm trying to be saved, you know. So I just went, Bibi. That's all I gave her. I just thought, you know how you can do it in the nice way,

but in my heart, in my heart, okay, okay, you ready? Okay, in my heart today, what are you waiting for? Now, I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. I'm just going to tell you what I would say if I was telling you how I'm feeling, but I'm not going to say it. But what are you waiting for? Really?

you're going to go another week without knowing God? Really? You want to hang on to that pain, that sin, that habit? Really? Another year? Another New Year's resolution with the same? Really? Really?

You're not going to discover the second greatest day of your life? The day you were born is the first. The day you discovered why is the second? Really? Really? You want to live another day just thinking about yourself and not making a difference? Really? Let's go.

Listen to me. Listen to me. Take a step. Take a step. Take a step. Come on. God has so much more for you. You're supposed to flourish.

Come on. You're supposed to bloom. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. At all of our churches, heads bowed, eyes closed. Just pray right there where you are. Father, I pray, God, for the courage, the boldness.

I pray, God, for the clarity to take steps. God, I pray that everyone. under a sound of my voice at all of our churches, all of the network churches, every person who's watching around the world, take a step, not all of them, just the next one. God, give them clarity, give them grace, give them wisdom to know what's next. God, let them leave here today realizing that you have so much more for them in the mighty name of Jesus. Heads bowed, eyes closed at all of our locations today. There are so many of you that are listening to me right now, you need to take the first step. So if you don't take the first step, you can't do the other three.

And I wonder how many of you here today are thinking, it's time. I've carried my own sin and my own shame all myself for far too long. I've got great news for you today. Jesus has stepped into the scene of your life and he offers to carry your sin, to pay for your sin, to forgive you of everything you've ever done, even though you're the one who did it. He's willing to not only forgive you of your sin, but to come into your life and make your life meaningful and real again. You might say, Chris, what do I have to do? The best word I know to describe salvation is surrender.

Let your life go out of your own hands into the hands of the one who can direct it so far better than you could on your own. I wonder who today are watching online or in this auditorium or one of our other churches to say, that's me. I'm ready. I'm not going to have you stand up. You're not going to come to the front of any of our rooms today. But just that you'd acknowledge before God, that's me.

I'm ready to surrender my life to Jesus. I'm not even really sure what I'd know what that fully looks like, but I'm ready to surrender my life into his hands at all of our locations today. If that's you would, you just put your hand up right now. His hands are going up at every location. Just say, that's me. that that's me I'm ready I'm ready to get my life to Jesus I'm ready to surrender my life to the one who can change my life and make it meaningful all of our locations just continue to put your hands up

that's it just all over our you're watching online right there below me there's a little place you can say that's me count me in every head bowed every eye closed just pray this prayer come on why don't we have one voice just join in support with them say Jesus thank you for dying on the cross and paying for my sin, I receive what you did for me by giving you my life everything. Forgive me, save me, change me, make me more like you. Thank you for setting me free. Come on at all of all locations. Let's put our hands together and welcome the newest members of the body of Christ.

do better than that. Thanks again for joining us today. We'd love to continue to see you grow in your relationship with Christ, and we have a great resource to help you do that. Just go to life.church slash next, and there you'll find all kinds of ways to help take your next step in your relationship with Christ. And if you've enjoyed today's message,

you can find all of our messages on our YouTube channel or inside of the Life Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from. See you next time.