Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Winning the Battle Against Your Enemy | JP Pokluda | Book Club: Part 2

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

Every story has a hero and a villain—including yours. In this message, Jonathan “JP” Pokluda unpacks how to put on the armor of God and trust in His victory when things get hard.NEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesGET READY FOR AT THE MOVIESMovies speak to our circumstances, connect us to one another, and inspire us to action. But there’s more we can learn from them. During At the Movies, we’ll look at films in a whole new way. It all starts this July! See what it’s like: life.church/atthemoviesABOUT THIS MESSAGESome of our most meaningful growth happens when we hear someone else’s story. During Book Club, we’ll get fresh insights and practical ideas for living with confidence and purpose.Find strength for everyday battles with these five prayers: https://go2.lc/spiritualwarfareABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIG GROESCHELYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #jonathanpokluda Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When I wrote the book, Your Story Has a Villain, I went on a podcast tour, which took me over to California. I flew into San Diego, and then I was driving up the coast to L.A. I called a pastor friend, because I knew he pastored in that area. He said, where are you going? I said, I'm going to Santa Monica. He said, no, you're not. I said, why not? He said, because there's a fire.

Well, in Texas, where I'm from, when there's a fire, they put it out. But I learned that he was saying Santa Monica's on fire. And so I didn't go there. And it was such a wild experience even being there just to give you a picture. When I flew out, this is what the fire looked like. This is what you would see from the airplane. And it's weird to see like, okay, that's what it looks like from afar. But when you're actually in it, like the firemen who are fighting for their lives and fighting to save lives,

like this is what they're engulfed in. But the really strange thing was before I got on that airplane, I went to Venice Beach just to see how close I could get to the fire. And it was strange. People were skateboarding. They were just going about their normal business. What you see in the distance there, that smoke in the distance, that's the fire that I showed you from the plane. that's the fire that the firemen are fighting and yet right to my right where I took this picture there's a guy on the beach getting a massage it's almost as though unless you're in the fire unless you're fighting the fire you're oblivious to the fire you're not aware of it and as I think about that I think that's spiritual warfare for us we're like oh I'm a Christian there's angels

there's demons, I've got an enemy, my story has a villain. And I didn't even really think about it today. And I know that I'm to fight, you know, I got to fight, I got to put my spiritual armor on, I got to do work. I spent the last three years studying this closely. And what I want you to know is you have an enemy. He hates you. He is strategically working.

against you and he has an army of brilliant soldiers. They are not in any way afraid or intimidated of you. They are terrified of Jesus. Terrified. No match. Not dualism, not equal and opposing forces. There's God, creator of the heavens and the earth. And then there's these demonic forces that are waging war against us. Second Corinthians. Chapter 4, verse 4 calls him the little G, lowercase G, God of this world. So he has some authority here, but greater 1 John 4 verse 4. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. That's the good news.

And so we are fighting or standing, I'll show you from the scripture, from a place of victory. And probably my biggest takeaway in being entrenched in this reality is that if you just, Just pursue Jesus as the scripture calls you to. You're good. You are protected. Deliverance is such a buzzword right now, and I'm not here to preach against it. It has a place, but discipleship. You growing in your knowledge and understanding of God and His word and all that He's called you to. That's what I want to show you that I believe the Apostle Paul, when he wrote Ephesians Chapter 6, is calling us to. So if you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter 6, open the U-Version app, go to Ephesians Chapter 6. If you've been in church long, you know this is the spiritual armor chapter. But what I want to show you that Paul is actually doing is just describing a normal follower of Jesus with this armor.

He's just describing the real deal follower of Jesus. So we're going to talk about real weapons for real warfare. That is the message. And I want to show you the danger of not understanding this. And to do so, I'll start in Acts 19, because Paul's doing work. He's casting out demons. He's healing people in the name of Jesus. The gospel's exploding.

And there's this Jewish priest named Skiba, and Skiba has seven sons. And his seven sons, they watch Paul do this work. And so they're like, oh, let's go do it. So they go out, and they're like, hey, there's a man who's possessed by demons. And they say, hey, in the name of Jesus who Paul is. talks about, come out. And it says that, verse 15,

one day, the evil spirit answered them, Jesus, I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you? And it says, then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on the seven of them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran

out of the house naked and bleeding. And you probably have seen some fight. you know, go to decision. It's like who won. If you go into a fight with clothes on and you leave naked and bleeding, you lost. Nobody like they're like, you lost. End of the story. Why? Why did they lose? Because they were pretending to know Jesus. So dangerous, man. So dangerous to learn the game when to raise your hands at what note and the memory verses and the ichthuse on your ankle from the fraternity or sorority days and the Philippians 413 on the letter jacket playing the game,

it's really dangerous. You've got to have a real relationship with him. And so Paul's going to show us what that looks like. I'll start in verse 10. I love preaching. I learn from this church. I learn from your pastor so thankful to pastors Craig and Amy Groschelle. I would want you to know I'm going to break a lot of preaching rules tonight. We're going to fly. And so write down as fast as you can, ask the Lord right now, what do you have for me? What would be helpful for me today? And we'll pray that the right things stick. Paul's writing this on house arrest in Rome, most likely chained to a Roman soldier. He's looking at the Roman soldier. And he's using his armor as an illustration to teach us about the spiritual war.

And so this is what he says. Finally, because it's the end of the letter, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. You don't have to be afraid. You do need to be aware. The power that you have access to, it's God's power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your... What's the word?

Stand against the devil's schemes. And so let me show you how to take a stand, verse 12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. This is huge. Your struggles not against your roommate or your mother-in-law. Your struggles not against your spouse or your neighbor's dog who barks in the middle of the night. Your struggles against demons that hate you and want to use people to make you angry,

they delight in you poisoning yourself without. alcohol, starving yourself. They receive it as worship when you throw up your food. When you give yourself to people you're not married to, they delight in that. Therefore, verse 13, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, I think it's the moment of your greatest temptation. That in that moment, you may be able to, what's the word? Stand your ground. And after you have done everything to what? It's not fight. It's stand. He's like from God's power, you stand firm.

You put on the full armor of God. You live the Christian life. You operate in faith. Stand firm then, verse 14. With the belt of truth buckled around your waist. And so as we're describing someone who has a real relationship with Jesus, the first thing that person is doing is they're walking in truth. they walk in truth and so there's a war over what is true and most of us are not on a truth

we're on a happiness journey and you're watching a younger generation say well that's your truth and that's his truth and that's her truth but this is my truth no no there's capital t truth and Jesus says when you find it then you will find freedom so we have to start by knowing and understanding what's true, getting a grasp on what is true and standing in it with the breastplate of righteousness in place. My second point is acting in righteousness. The breastplate would guard your heart. What I want you to know about your heart is it works like Netflix.

You guys know how Netflix works? Oh, you like office space? How about the office? What about suits? You like gossip girl? How about Gilmore girl? How about Outer Banks? How about the summer I turned pretty?

It takes what you look at and it gives you more of it. That's how the heart works. I get done preaching and for a long time, as Pastor Craig said, I did, I minister to young adults. And I would have, it was like Groundhog Day, same conversation. Young woman would come up and say, Pastor, I need help, relationship advice. I only date losers. I'm only attracted to losers. Can you help me? And I'm like, well, let me ask you a question.

What's your favorite song? Who's your favorite artist? Oh, no, no, no. I'm looking for a relationship advice. We'll get there. Just humor me for a second. Who are you listening to? I don't know, like Sabrina Carpenter, please, please, please, Espresso, Drake, Virginia Beach. Man, anything by Taylor, honestly, like Queen Taylor, like she's amazing. And, okay, all right, I got you, I got you.

What are you watching? Relationship? No, we're going to get there. What's you watching? Oh, gosh. Love Island. But I don't understand while I only date losers. It's because you're systematic.

dramatically training your heart to date losers. You're feeding your heart the algorithms. You're giving the enemy a foothold. They're like, we got one. We got one. We can watch her hurt herself over and over and over by getting in dead-in relationships that go nowhere because of what she feeds her heart.

We want the freedom to pursue whatever we want to pursue, but try and stop. That's not freedom. You want the freedom to vape? Try and stop. You want the freedom to look at pornography? Try and stop. That's not freedom.

It's slavery. And with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. So if you're positioned in truth or walking in truth and you're aligned with righteousness, then of course you are number three ready with gospel. You're ready with the gospel. You're looking for opportunities to share the gospel. This is normative for the Christ follower. To have conversations with people who are going to hell about how

they can go to heaven. It's totally normal. That's just why God saved us and left us here. He didn't save us and call us home, take us up to heaven. He's like, hey, I want you to do some work down there. I was getting this haircut yesterday. I paid someone to do this to me. And her name was Cynthia. I literally looked at the list of stylists and I prayed. I said, Lord, this is true story. I said, who do you want me to share with? I never had, Cynthia had never cut my hair, but I chose Cynthia. And we were sitting there and I asked her two questions. I said between one and ten, as I was sitting in the chair, between one and ten being certain, one being not so sure, if you died today, certain are you that you would go to heaven? And so I just put you know, 10, I'm 100% sure,

one, not so sure. So let's just do this at all the campuses, wherever you're at real, real quick. I'd love for you to get your number. Think of your number. Give me a good head nod when you got your number. Ten, I'm positive. I'm certain, you know, I know I'll be up there. One probably won't. You know, five coin toss. I think of your number. And then let's just do this. Wherever you're watching from, whatever city you're in, would you just close your eyes for just a minute. The campus pastors are going to watch your purse. I know not everyone's a believer. Just close your eyes. Think of your number. Get your number. Don't go point five on me, Life Church. Round up or down. All right. And so I'm going to ask you, when I call out your number,

I want you to raise your hand, wherever you're at, with all the eyes closed in the campuses, campuses, close your eyes. If your number is four, five or six, right in the middle, would you raise your hand? Okay, lots of four, five, and six is here. I'm sure where you guys are you are, lots of them. Okay, you can put them down. And we'll go at the beginning. We'll start. We'll go one, two, or three, or zero, would you raise your hand? If you're here today or watching, wherever you're at, if you're a one, two, or three, or a zero, would you raise your hand? I see you. Okay, you can put it down. And then if you're a seven, eight, or nine, would you raise your hand? Okay, lots of sevens, eights, and nines here, and I'm sure at wherever you're watching from,

okay, you can put it down. All right. Okay, you guys, can open your eyes. And so I was sharing with Cynthia, she was like, I'm a one, and I get to tell her the good news of what Christ did. I said, you know, we just celebrated not too long ago at Easter was Jesus died for your sins. Your sins were paid for. The only thing you can do in hell is pay for your sins forever. So the person who doesn't have to go to hell is the person whose sins have been paid for. And so I'm like, you know what I'll ask people is like, do you believe Jesus died for your sins? And they're like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, 90% of your sins, 80% of your sins, 50% of your sins, 20% of your sins, Cynthia, 10% of your sins.

Because what I came here to tell you is that Jesus died for all of your sins, past, present and future, and you're going to be with God because of what he did. And this is what she said to me yesterday. She goes, oh, oh, and I was like, are you okay? and everybody starts looking in the, she said, oh, what's that? And I'm like, what's going on? She goes, I woke up this morning. My mother got diagnosed with stage four cancer.

And I woke up this morning and I said, God, I don't know if you're real, but if you're real, send someone to tell me. So be ready with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel. And if you understand, this is what it says in addition, verse 16, In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith. Shield of faith, that's huge. It's your protection. Faith is your protection in the spiritual war,

with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. So if you understand you're at war, you are firm in faith. You're standing firm in faith. That's number four. Firm in faith. And Roman shields, they were not like Captain America, trash can't lids. They were big wooden doors that they would stretch leather over. that they would drench in water so that when the enemy would shoot a fiery arrow, it wouldn't just burn up, but it would extinguish it.

So Paul's using this imagery to say, your protection, right? What does Peter say? Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like roaring line, looking for someone to devour, resist him, standing firm in the faith. What does Jesus say? In Luke 22 to Peter, Peter, the enemy has asked me to shift you like wheat, which if I'm Peter, I'm like, just tell him no. You know? Like just say no, Jesus. But he doesn't. He says, so I will pray for you. That your faith won't fail. Because your faith is your protection. When I was a brand new believer, I became a believer as a young adult. And so I still was worldly. I didn't have church friends yet. So I'm out with my non-church friends, and one of us had too much to drink. It was the littlest one of our crew. Because I ran with like a big, you know, they were on the creotene, big dudes. And we were there. And the littlest one of us had too much to drink. And he goes up to the smallest guy there and is like, what are you looking at? I don't know why guys do that. But that's what he's like, what are you looking at? And then they're chest to chest.

And like, I'm a believer, but I'm brand new. Like, I just, you know, I don't even know what I'm doing yet. I don't know any Bible. And I just go up and I break them up. And this little guy here, he's like, don't touch me. And I was like, no, no, he's had too much to drink. I'm going to, I'm taking him home, man. We don't want to do this.

And they get chest to chest again. And I separate them again. And he's like, he goes, I told you don't touch me. And I said, hey, man, why are you doing that, buddy? I'm trying to take him home. You don't have to, you know, and he does this really bold thing. He pulls out his phone, and he pushes a button. And he goes, hey, you here?

All right, good, I got something I want you to take care of. And I'm like, who was that? Batman? I'm like, what in the world? We go outside, and two of the biggest dudes I've ever seen in my life, they're like, these are guys? I'm like, no, sir, they left. And I just remember the look.

of confidence on that young man's face. I'm like, there's eight of us and just one of you. He's like, you don't know who I know, man. You don't know who I know. Tell the enemy that. Greater is he, 1st John 4.4.

Greater is he that is in you than the one who's in the world. 17, take up the helmet of salvation. That's your mind. That's your thinking. What you're thinking about. And so number five, be aware of your salvation. If you have a relationship with Jesus, you are aware of your salvation.

That is, you're thinking about it, you're reflecting on it because wars are fought over real estate and the spiritual war, listen, is fought over the real estate of your mind. That's what they're after. They want to change the way that you think. They want to keep you out of prayer, keep you out of quiet time, keep you from reflecting on the things of God. And I know some of you are like, but I can't control my thoughts. Well, you know, honestly, some of the latest breakthrough in neurology says you actually can. So do this for me for just a second. Think of an apple.

We'll say a red apple. Are you thinking of a red apple? Can you see the red apple? What you just did is controlled your thoughts. That's what you did. You willingly thought of a red apple. So at any moment, you can think of Jesus on the cross, you can think of the empty tomb, you can think of what he did for you, and you can fight the fight.

And he says this, back in the scripture, and with the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. Okay, if you have a real relationship with Jesus, you are responding with the Word. Some say it's the only offensive weapon. We're going to get to prayer. It's pretty offensive. I know you guys get this. You have put the Bible in more hands than any organization, church, generation, generation, to ever walk the earth. I can't.

I mean, it's unbelievable. God's kindness to you and through you is the renounce. that what a legacy. Jesus, he was tempted not, you know, we have some lower level generals assigned to us, right? Satan's not omnipresent. He's probably never been anywhere near you. You've got some lower ranking demon attached to an area or family or something, right? There's a lot of mystery there, too. Jesus is tempted by Satan himself face to face. Hadn't eaten for 40 days. He's in the wilderness.

He responds with memory verses from Deuteronomy. If that's your only chance of survival is responding with the memory verse from Deuteronomy, how are you going to do? And so as you think about how the enemy might tempt you, listen, he might say, hey, I'm going to get you to lust. And you say, Matthew 5, no, I'm not going to look at someone else lustfully, because whoever's looked lustfully has already committed adultery in their heart. Job 31-1, I've made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at another woman.

He says, well, if you're not just going to look, why don't you go for the whole thing and have sex or pursue intimacy? He say, no, 1st Corinthians 6, I'm going to flee sexual immorality. All other sins, a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. Do you not know that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? It was in me, whom I've received from God. I'm not my own. I've been bought by price. Therefore, honor God with my body. For a lot of you, like we talked about last week, he's like, be anxious, be anxious, be anxious. No, I'm not going to be anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving,

I'm going to present my request of God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding with guard my hearts and my minds on Christ Jesus. First Peter 5, 7. I'm going to cast my anxieties on him because he cares for me. Matthew 6, who by worrying can add a single hour to their life. life. He might go, well, you're alone. Nobody likes you. You're all by yourself. And you go Deuteronomy 31. He says, God says, never he's going to leave me or forsake me, that he's always with me. He says, well, you know, you don't have what they have. It's okay, because I'm going to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, Matthew 633, and trust him for all the other stuff. You've got to have that word ready because the enemy's going to be ready. Your villain, the villain

that your story has is going to be ready. So you've got to have that word ready. And verse 18 and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and request with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people because you have a real relationship with Jesus you're talking to him in prayer if you have a real relationship with Jesus you are number seven engaged in prayer you are engaged in prayer if you think about these spiritual weapons locked in a trunk and you need to access them the way that you have access the key to the trunk is prayer. You talking to God. You spending time with God. Again, the protection comes from God's power in you and through you. The goal is that you would have a real authentic

walking relationship with Jesus. And so so much of that relationship is going to be defined by what you do all by yourself. What you do when no one else can see you. You want to know, hey, how much is my faith today? How big is my shield today? I would say, what did it look like when you woke up this morning? And there was no one there to impress. What did it look like when you were driving down the road, in the car, in your truck, all by yourself? Were you communing with the creator of the heavens and the earth? Do you have a relationship with him? Are you talking to him? The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But he's come so that we might have life and have it to the fullest, that we would know and that we would live an abundant

life. And so the way that you defeat the enemy is by having a real relationship with Jesus. And when you do, you are, number one, walking in truth. You are acting in righteousness. You are ready with the gospel. You are firm in faith. You are aware of your salvation. You are aware of your You are responding with the word and you are engaged in prayer. And just because I was so impressed by what Pastor Levi did last week, that's how you have victory in spiritual warfare. I was at, I've been to Africa several times. I've been to Haiti, six times. I've been different mission trips. And people always have these stories. These fantastic stories of like, there was somebody, you know, possessed or superhuman strength or this happened.

I've just never seen it with my own eyes. You know, I just have never, some of you have that story. I just didn't have that story. You know, people that were in my group had that story. I just, I didn't have the story. I was in a country club in Utah for a Christian fundraising event. And this guy comes off the course. He's got his title, his visor on, you know, his golf pleats tucked into his khaki shore. and I talk with him and I'm, I know I'm going to share the gospel with him. And I said, hey, do you have a relationship with Jesus? And he said, do you have a faith? And he's like, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian. And we start to talk.

He goes, I just struggle to pray. And I said, oh, man, I said, what happens? He goes, something happens to me when I try to pray. I said, wow. And as he describes it to me, I go, that sounds demonic. And I'm not even trying to be the spiritual warfare guy. I'm just like talking. And he's like, ha, you sound like my mom.

It's not demonic, you know. And I was like, oh, okay, you know, let me pray for you. And as I go to pray for him, my friend walks up. And so we just lay a hand on his back. And I'm just like, Lord, I pray for John here. You know, would you heal him? And if there's anything demonic, just in the name of Jesus, and I say Jesus, he goes,

Oh! I was like, whoa. And I'm like, just in the name of Jesus. Oh! And I'm like, what is happening? And I'd love to be like, I was like, Kate blown in the wind, but I was like, please don't jump on me, please don't jump on me.

Please don't jump on me. Because I just didn't, I didn't grow up in this. Like, I didn't grow up. I was not charismatic or Pentecostal or anything. I'm just like, what is happening? And his arm goes up, and he starts contorting and all this weird stuff starts happening. He starts growling and making this noise.

And I keep praying for him. And I'm just like, Lord, I pray that you would heal him. Would you surround him with your people? Would you happen to grow in your word? And he kind of gets bigger. and then it kind of gets smaller. And I'm like, in Jesus' name, amen. And he looks at me.

He's like, I didn't expect that to happen. I was like, that makes two of us, my friend. That makes two of us. And I said, I don't, I think I know why you've been struggling to pray. And he goes, why? I go, because whatever had you didn't want you talking to God. And I think you hear that and there's this fear in us. Like, well, what if Satan sends a demon to me to prevent me from praying?

He doesn't need to. He gave you TikTok. He gave you Instagram. He gave you the distractions of this world. And I think you've got to audit right now. What is God doing in my life and what is the enemy doing to distract me so that I don't see what God is doing in my life? And that's what I'm going to pray for you right now. And so Lord, would you show us? Would you help us to see the distractions that you are trying to keep from us, the distractions that are trying to keep us from you? And would you just turn our eyes towards you, the author and the perfector of our faith,

and help us to surrender fully to Jesus? Thank you for this church. Thank you for their pastors in Jesus. name. Amen. Powerful word, and I know that God wants to speak directly to every single one of you. So let's just stay in that attitude of prayer. And God, we thank you that you brought a powerful man of faith to teach us what it means to stand firm, to put on the full armor of God to take our stand against the schemes of the

evil one. And today, I want to speak directly to those of you that know that you're in a battle right now. And you may not even think consciously, like often, like, yeah, I'm in a spiritual battle, but you recognize when you step back from it and you look, get a little bit above it, like actually, yeah, there is an enemy who's attacking and you're in a spiritual battle. You know it. It might be a family member.

It might be your marriage. Your finances might be under attack. It might be your health. It might be your mental health. It could be just somebody that you love. And you need the power of the risen Christ. If that's you today, you're in a battle. and you need the power.

You need the power of the risen Christ. Would you lift up your hands right now? Just lift them up all over the place online. You can just type in the comment section, I need the power of Jesus. And I want to pray for you. God, I thank you that greater is he that is in your believers than he that is in the world.

God, I thank you that by the power of Jesus, we are overcomers by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of our testimony. God, we thank you that there is no spiritual weapon formed against us that will prosper. And so, God, renew our minds with the truth of your word. Help us to draw on the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and fight back against the lives of the evil one and speak your truth, that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,

that we are blessed by you coming in, blessed going out. God, that there is the power of the risen Jesus that you're working in all things to bring about good to those who loving are called according to your purpose. God, we speak your word. By faith, we believe that you hear us, God. We believe that you push back the forces of darkness. And God, whenever we are weak, when we don't have the strength, God, we thank you that your power is made perfect in weakness. God, we need your presence, we need your word, we need the power of your spirit, we need your strength, we need your comfort, God, we need your great. We need your God, we need you. Would you be everything that we need? Help us to depend on you. As you keep

praying today, nobody looking around. I want to just pause for a moment when when Pastor JP asked the question like how sure are you? One, one, you've got no confidence that if you died today you'd spend eternity in heaven 10, you are completely sure. A lot of you raise your hands at a four, five, or six. Some of you had a seven. seven, eight, or a nine. And I just want to tell you what pastor told you is that Jesus didn't die for 50% of your sins. God loves you so much that he became flesh in the person of Jesus. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He didn't come for those who are perfect and righteous. He came for the sick, the sinners, and the broken. And not alone about you, but I've sinned

and I need his salvation. And he didn't die for part of my sins. He died for all of them. And so therefore I tell you, I'm a 10, like I'm a 10. I'm a 10. I know that I know that I know that my sins have been forgiven, not because I'm good, but because he is good. If you are anything less than a 10 today,

I would suggest maybe you need to get to know him through his word. He paid for all of it. His work is perfect. Jesus sat on the cross. It is finished. He died and rose again, so you could be forgiven and you can rest assured in that. At all of our churches, if you're not sure,

today we're stepping away from our sin. By faith, we're stepping into the fullness of the forgiveness, the grace, the power, and the glory of Jesus. When you call on him, he'll hear your prayer, he'll forgive all of your sins. You're brand new. You're not a better version of you. You're different.

The old is gone and you become new today at all of our churches online. Those of you, you're six, you're seven, you're an eight. You don't know for sure. today by faith you say devil get your hands off me I belong to Jesus I step away from my sins I give my life to Jesus be the Savior the Lord of my life that's your prayer lift your hands high right now all of the place lift them up high right now say yes Jesus yes I surrender my life to yes Jesus yes I surrender my life to you y'all come on come on come on come on online type in the comment section I'm surrendering my life to Jesus

I'm surrendering my life would you pray wherever you are pray heavenly Father I surrender. I trust you to save me, to forgive all of my sins, to make me new. Not because I'm good, because you're good. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I could stand against the schemes of the devil. Help me to stand strong, to stand firm, to stand boldly for who you are. My life is not my own. I give it all to you.

In Jesus' name, I pray. Come on, church, you better give God some glory right now. I'll give God some praise.