Consecrate, Dedicate, Celebrate

There have been times over the last decade, ish, maybe more where if you would've told me that I would've had the opportunity to vote for a kid for president or governor or Senator, I think I would've taken you up on it. Literally, there are times where I thought to myself, I'd vote for a kid literal over the last decade. I wish we had a kid running the country. I don't know if you were like me at all, but kind of in some of the political upheaval over the last number of years, there was this little guy on video called the kid president. You remember him, anybody see him on video? Here's a picture of him. I wanted to vote for that guy. It wasn't allowed under the rules or whatever, but I literally was thinking to myself, I would vote for you for president. He was just a young guy, but I was thinking to myself, I would take my chances at times over the last decade and a half, I was thinking to myself, I would do it. Some people have chosen to do it with their local governing authorities. Dorset, Minnesota has a mayor. Who's three. Here's the picture? Nope. Yep. Cute little dude, little freckle face. He's got that cool little hat on. And he became the mayor by unseating, his five year old brother who was the mayor prior to him, his brother was not happy about that at all. He was ticked off that he wasn't the mayor, you know, with age should come wisdom. As we get older, we should get wiser. We should get smarter. We should have a better ability to handle life. But what can also happen is as we get older, we can continue to reinforce things that should not be there and know how to act on them like a lust for power or corruption or manipulation. All of those things can happen. As we age, even though we should be getting wiser. Sometimes if people are going in that direction, it's much more helpful to have a younger voice as a boy, as opposed to a voice that has been corrupted. Right? But there's also other times where having a younger voice goes really poorly where it's like, "oh, they do not have the wisdom and the maturity to be able to do these things and make these decisions." So sometimes it's great to have a younger voice. Sometimes it's really bad to have a younger voice. That was what was going on about 2,800 years ago in Judah, it describes the situation reasonably well because sometimes when the Kings would come into power in Judah, they would come into power at relatively young ages. There was a king named Ahaz that we're going to look at it just a moment, actually, not him, but his son in second Chronicles, 29, which is where we'll be in just a moment. But king Ahaz was one of those Kings who came to his crown and began his rule. When he was 20 years old, he was leading Judah at 20 years old. I don't know about you. Do you remember when you were 20? would you have thought to yourself, you know, I would choose my 20 year old self to lead. I wouldn't have chose my 20 year old self to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Right? And now we've got a 20 year old who is actually leading Judah, but the problem is king Ahaz, he was terrible. This wasn't a scenario where now having this young voice in there was gonna really help the nation. No, he was awful. He decided that he was going to worship pagan God's and he led the people of Judah to worship pagan God's it was terrible. He ended up closing the temple. He closed the temple of yahweh the temple of the Lord. He shut it down. And then he took all of the various things that were in the temple. And he started cutting everything to pieces. This is what his leadership looked like. In fact, it was so bad that as he began having children, he sacrificed some of his children to the false gods that he worshiped in fire. That was Ahaz. He set up in the high places around Judah and on every street corner, he set up altars to be able to worship false God's. This was the leadership of Ahaz. It was terrible, but he had a son who he hadn't killed named Hezekiah and Hezekiah once Ahaz died. Hezekiah took over the role as king of Judah. Here's how the beginning of second Chronicles Chronicles that, Hezekiah was 25 years old, also quite young, right. Was 25 years old when he became king. And he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years, his mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zacharia. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. So now we've got Hezekiah coming into a scenario where he is inheriting a very difficult kind of situation. Judah was spiritually dark. It had been under the leadership of Ahaz for a period of time and had gone dark and followed false gods. And Hezekiah had a national mess on his hands. Hezekiah was the 13th successor to king David. I know when we read that a moment ago, it said father David, and that doesn't mean it was his father. This is just how you they're Chronicle genealogically. His father was Ahaz, but his father David was the first one that ruled on the throne of Judah, so to speak. And now Hezekiah was the 13th in succession to his father David, by the way, keep in mind. When I talk about these people, these are real people that happened in real history at real times, you know, in 2010, in fact, when archeologists were digging around the Southern wall in Jerusalem, where the temple was around the Southern wall, they found a Royal seal. That was an imprint on a ring. And here's what it said. Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah. These are real people in real history at a real time. And Hezekiah the king has inherited a national mess and he had a choice to go one of two directions to follow in the way of his dad Ahaz and continue the direction that they were in or revoke what his father had done and turn his attention to Yahweh, to God alone, who could revive their nation, the nation of the people of God, thank God that Hezekiah chose that direction. But lemme tell you this, what happened in the seven hundreds BC during the time of Hezekiah, it matters to us today. And I'll tell you why, because what God did then in reviving his people, there are pieces of that, that when we extract them and we look at them, we can realize that God can do the same thing in our hearts today that he can revive us based on the same framework that we see there. He doesn't have to do it exactly the same way, but there are things undergirding, how he revived his people, then that matter to us today that we can grab hold of. And we can apply. Now as we look through chapter 29, and I'm gonna kind of cover the scope of chapter 29, I'm not gonna read every verse, but we're gonna cover it. I'm gonna basically break this down into three words so that you've got handles on what I'm talking about. Those three words are really pretty easy. Consecrate dedicate celebrate. That's what I'm talking about today. Consecrate, dedicate, celebrate. These are the principles that are undergirding. What happened when God revived his people here, let's start with the first one consecrate. All right. It's the very first one that I want us to start with. I'm gonna explain what that word means. Some of you're going, I don't even know what that word means. You're not gonna say that out loud, cuz you're in church. You wanna look smart, but you're going. I don't know what that word means. You're gonna tell me what that word means. I am gonna tell you what that word means, but it's a biblical word. And I want us to see it. Second Chronicles chapter 29 beginning in verse three says this "in the first month of the first year of his reign Hezekiah opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and assembled them in the square on the east side and said, listen to me, Levis, consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Levites. The Lord, the God of your ancestors remove all defilement from the sanctuary. Our parents were unfaithful. They did evil in the eyes of the Lord, our God and forsake him. They turned their faces away from the Lord's dwelling place and turn their backs on him. They also shut the doors of the Portico and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or present any burnt offering at the sanctuary to the God of Israel. When they had assembled their fellow Levites and consecrated themselves, they went to purify the temple of the Lord. As the king had ordered following the word of the Lord, the priest went into the sanctuary of the Lord to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord's temple, everything unclean that they found in the temple of the Lord, the Levis took it and carried it out to the Kidron valley. And they began the consecration on the first day of the first month. And by the eighth day of the month, they reached the Portico of the Lord. For eight more days, they consecrated the temple of the Lord itself finishing on the 16th day of the first month. Then they went into king Hezekiah and they reported. We have purified the entire temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the table for setting out the consecrated bread with all its articles. And we have prepared and consecrated all the articles that king a has removed in his unfaithful while he was king. They are now in front of the Lord's altar. You see what we see happened here in terms of the consecration consecration just means to set aside as holy, to set aside as sacred, right? And here's what Hezekiah did. He told the priests and the Levites, I want you to consecrate yourselves. And then I want you to consecrate the temple of God that I am opening back up. That's what I want you to do. And here's what they did. They spent eight days hauling out trash and then they spent eight days replacing the utensils and the items that were in there, the altar of bread, the table of bread and the altar of sacrifice, all of that had to be put back in. So eight days they took out the trash eight days, they ended up replacing what needed to be replaced in the temple. And then here's what they did at the very end. They reported to king Hezekiah, what they had done. Now, if we just look at that and say, okay, great. What does that mean for us a lot. If we wanna be a people who are consecrated to God, then that consecration should involve the same elements that it was involved in, what they did at the temple. Let me explain the first thing that you and I need to do in our lives. As we consecrate ourselves to God, is we need to take out the trash. Now be clear that the scripture actually teaches us that although there is no more physical temple right now that we go into worship. This building is not the temple, right? The new Testament actually tells us about a different temple. Here's what Paul wrote in first Corinthians chapter number six, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the holy spirit, who is in you, whom you've received from God. You are not your own. You are bought at a price, therefore honor God with your bodies. You now, as a believer, as a child of God, you are the temple of God. You are the place where the spirit of God wants to and desires to and does indeed dwell. And do you know what we need to do? When we want to be a consecrated people, a people that are set apart for God's own holiness is we need to take out the trash that exists inside of the temple. And there can be loads of it. That's why we need periodic inventories of our soul so that we can take out the garbage that is there. Brothers and sisters listen carefully to me, me where whatever campus you're on, wherever you're watching, wherever you're listening from sin is garbage.

- Amen.

- [Jerry] Sin is toxic to your soul. Sin sets itself up to oppose what God wants to do inside of our hearts. It may feel good for a moment, but it's actually toxic to our soul. It's garbage. As some have said in the past sin fascinates, then it assassinates sin thrills. And then it kills. Sin takes you farther than you want to go and keeps you there longer than you wanna stay and makes you pay more than you're wanting to pay. Sin is garbage. It is trash inside of the temple of God's spirit. And we need to take out the trash. That means sexual sin needs to be dealt with in our lives. Maybe that's the sin of sexual involvement outside of marriage, young man, young woman, you think, oh man, you're kind of, you know, you're old, you're kind of gray, whatever, I may be gray, but the word of God says to us, that sex outside of the bond of marriage is sin. It's garbage to your soul because it's engage. it's mysterious and it's beautiful. And it is a gift of God. Sex itself is a beautiful gift that God has given to us, but it's meant to be in the boundary of marriage, demonstrating the commitment and faithfulness of Jesus to his bride. This is the point. It is not to be exercised as just some casual thing. And you need to understand that it is toxic to your soul to view it otherwise. Your addiction to pornography is garbage.

- Amen.

- [Jerry] It's trash. It is trashing your soul. It's trashing your relationships. It's, compromising you in your future relationships. It's actually engaging in making other people objects instead of humans And all for the satisfaction of your eyes and our desires. There's plenty of other sin outside of sexual sin. Maybe we have just loved to coddle bitterness in our lives. Maybe we've enjoyed the feeling of being malicious. Maybe we have just exercised pride. Maybe we have born false witness against people around us, whatever it is, whatever the Bible calls sin is garbage. It's trash. It is toxic to the temple and we need to take the trash out. That's why we need God's help because what God will do is he'll identify that in our lives. And he will help us understand, not listen because he loves us because he loves us. He'll help us identify that and recognize that by the, the lens of his holy spirit, shining the light in our souls, and he will allow us then to confess and renounce and repent and get this garbage out of our lives. This is what God wants to do in our hearts. Now listen carefully to me, please. The reason, part of the reason that we are asking people to get engaged in a time of fasting and prayer and to sign up for that is because what we're trying to do is to move you in the direction of time with God. That is uninterrupted. That is carved out so that you can listen to his voice. Now some of you are scared to get into the presence of God, because you might think to yourself, God may point out some things in my own heart. Yes, he might, but know this. He loves you and it's for your good. He wants the toxins out. He wants the garbage gone. He wants the trash out of the temple. This is what God endeavors to do. So allow him to do that in your heart and in my heart. And if you haven't signed up, make sure that you go online to sign up at chapel.com/fast and pray and allow for God to do whatever it is he wants to do in your heart. So if we wanna be a consecrated people, we gotta take out the trash. Secondly, we need to restore what belongs you see what the priests and the Levis did by Hezekiah order is they took eight days to haul the trash out. But then for the next eight days, they ended up replacing the articles and the instruments and the things that were supposed to be in the temple that weren't in there. So in other words, what we need to be doing is not just listen. We're not just emptying the temple of trash. We're replacing with beauty with that, which belongs, right? This is really what God's heart for us is. In fact, I want you to listen and watch what Paul says in the book of Ephesians chapter four. Notice this, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires and to be made new in the attitude of your minds. And to put on the new self created to be like God, in true righteousness and holiness, did you see that we're taking off the old self, but we're replacing, we're putting on the new self that is in Christ. And here's what it goes on to say. Therefore, each of you must put off, watch this put off falsehood and replace it with what speak truthfully. You see it. You're putting one off and you're putting one on to your neighbor for we are all members of one body in your anger. Do not sin put off your sinful anger and do not let the sun go down while you're still angry and give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing, you need to put off stealing and steal no longer instead. Here's what you put on. You must work, right? This is what Paul is giving to us. He's reminding us of this so that you do something useful with your own hands, that they may have something to share with those that are in need. Don't let any unwholesome talk, come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building each other up, right? What we're getting rid of is on wholesome talk. And what we're also doing is replacing it with talk that builds up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen and do not grieved the holy spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling, and slander along with every form of malice and instead do what be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you, you see what we're doing? Listen, when we consecrate ourselves, when we are being set apart as holy being set apart as sacred, we need to make sure that the trash gets taken out, but that it is replaced with the work and the fruit of the spirit of God. What goes out? Bitterness, sinful, anger, malice, all of those things, right? What goes in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness. Self-control the fruit of God's spirit. Sometimes you have to pull weeds in order to grow what you need to grow in your garden. Don't you? anybody ever walked outside at their house or their apartment complex and gone? Yeah, it doesn't look good. I've done that. My back little patio area. It just got really overrun, you know, with weeds and stuff. And it took me forever to pull 'em all up because sometimes you gotta pull 'em all up so that you can plant in proper soil, but then are there still gonna be weeds? Yes, but you know what I like to do? I like to get after 'em when there's just only one or two, every time one comes up goodnight, goodnight. Right? We should be doing the same thing in our souls. We should be doing invent inventories of our souls consistently so that we're not allowing it to be overgrown with the toxins and the weeds of sin in our hearts. But instead as God shines a light on that, we allow him to pull that out and we see it replaced by the work of his spirit. So take out the trash restore, what belongs in the temple. And then thirdly, if we want to consecrate ourselves, we need to live knowing that we're gonna report to the king. That's exactly what they did. They spent eight days taken out the trash. They spent eight days putting back into the temple, what needed to be there. And then, you know what they did, they reported to the king. What had transpired my brothers and sisters. Paul writes this to us in the book of Romans chapter 14. So then each of us will give an account of ourselves to God, if you and I would live, like we are going to give an account of ourselves to God. And we would have an eternal mindset in the way that we go about doing what we do in the way that we treat people in the way that we talk to people in the way that we choose to use our time and our talents and our resources. When we begin to do that, it changes the way that we view the world that we live in. I'm encouraging you to have an eternal mindset because you and I were going to report to the king. Also we will, every one of us is gonna report to the king. That's a way for us to be consecrated consecration here in chapter 29, involved taking out the trash of the temple, restoring what belonged in the temple and recognizing that we're all going to give report to the king. Consecrate was the first word that I wanted to sum up what it means to be revived in this setting. What it looks like. The second word is dedicate consecrate dedicate. Look at what verse number 31 says second Chronicles, 29, verse number 31 says then has Hezekiah said, you have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord, come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord. So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings and all whose hearts were willing, brought burnt offerings. Do you know what the kind of the calling card of the people's dedication to the Lord was a restoration of sacrifices. That's what a calling card was for them. At that time, you have dedicated yourself to the Lord. Therefore I want you to bring these sacrifices. And when you begin to look at the text of that chapter, you'd see in verses 20 through 24, an explanation of the sin offerings in verse number 28, you'd see an explanation of the burnt offering. And then verse 31 reminds us that they also had thank offerings. So there were three offerings that were present sin offerings, burnt offerings, and thank offerings. All three of those need to be something that we pay attention to as we dedicate ourselves to the Lord. In fact, when you look at sin offering, for instance, sin offerings should remind us of something Substitution. That's what sin offerings remind us of, because remember it was bulls and goats and lambs and Rams that were sacrificed and their blood was shed so that Israel could dwell in God's presence. And God used the sacrificial system with the shedding of blood to be kind of an opportunity for them not to be consumed by his holiness. But you and I, we live in a different world. We don't live under the same sacrificial system because of what Jesus has done, right. We have a sin offering that has been made for us. Here's what the book of Hebrews says, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a Heffer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially, unclean, sanctify them. So that they're outwardly clean. How much more than will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our conscience from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin, but he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin, by the sacrifice of himself, just as people are destined to die once. And after that to face judgment. So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many, and he will appear a second time not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Thank God we have a sin offering in Jesus, the son of God, thank God that we have, that he is our substitute. And that means this, that to be dedicated to God means that we embrace what Jesus has done on our behalf, that he has died as a substitute so that we would not have to face the consequences and the eternal separation from God that sin brings. But Jesus took it upon his sinless self, the sinless one dying for the sinful ones so that the judgment of God would be poured out on him. Instead of us, Jesus became our sin offering and that should rise up in us, a desire to be dedicated to him.

- [Jerry] Jesus became our sin offering and that should rise up in us a desire to be dedicated to him. But you know, we also read about burnt offerings. You know what burnt offerings, tell us if I were writing a word consumption. If you were thinking about what a burnt offering really was, you could think about the word consumption sin offering substitution, burnt offering consumption. Why do I say that? Because the burnt offering would be completely consumed by fire, nothing left over and do you know that that's what God desires from our lives. He desires that our lives would be offered to him fully and completely. The apostle Paul wrote it this way in Romans 12. Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. God's not looking for pieces of you. He's looking for all of you. He doesn't just want to be one among other gods in your life. He wants to be all of your life. And his expectation is that you offer him all that, you are consumed by God sin offering, offering, and then a thank offering, right? This just reminds us if I were writing a word of gratitude, sin offering substitution, burn offering consumption, thanks offering gratitude. How should that look for us? What would that look like in our context, cuz we don't bring sacrifices to a temple. What does that look like for us? What the writer of Hebrews tells us this through Jesus. Therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess his name and do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices. God is pleased when we realize all that God has done for us in Christ. We are a people that offer our lives as an offering of thanks and praise to God for everything that he has done. What we're learning here in second Chronicles, chapter 29 is that if we wanna be revived, we need to be consecrated. We need to be dedicated. But then where that leads us to is that we get the opportunity to celebrate. This is a beautiful picture that we see in the context of second Chronicles, 29. Remember they're coming out of a terrible time under king Ahaz and now very quickly has Hezekiah has put all of these things in play. And how did people respond with the cleansing of the temple and the replacement of all that belonged in the temple and the sacrificial system being restored? How did they respond? They responded with joyous worship. Look in verse number 30. It says this king Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped. And then in the next chapter over, it says the whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days. So for another seven days, they celebrated joyfully the entire assembly of Judah rejoiced along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel, including the foreigners who had come from Israel. And also those who resided in Judah. There was great joy in Jerusalem for since the days of Solomon, son of David King of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. Joyous worship is what was involved there, joyous worship and you know what, that joyous worship involved. It involved singing joyous worship, involved singing, you know what? It also involved obedience, you know what? It also involved generosity. All of those things can be seen in chapter 29 and chapter 30 that the people of God were joyously singing praises to God. The people of God were joyously obedient to what God had put in place. And the people of God were joyously generous to God because of all that he'd done in their lives. Let me ask you a question. If that's not descriptive of you, if you don't have a heart that is joyously singing to God, joyously, obeying God and joyously giving and generous to God, maybe you need to be revived. You know, the healthy don't need to be revived. It's just those who are kind of either in a nearly dead state or maybe those who are slumbering need to be revived from their sleep. I don't know what that may be for you. And I don't know how it might have happened. It could have been self-imposed sinful choices do that. They deaden us to God. Sin deadens us to God because sin is a deadening agent. That's what it does. And that's what its ultimate end is. The wages of sin is death sins, a deadening agent. And it will deaden us to the very life of God in us. That's why the trash needs to continually be taken out and replaced with the very life of God. Right? So I don't know how you came to that spot potentially, but I've got good news for you. The very last verse in second Chronicles, chapter 29, listen to what it says. Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly God prepared this for his people and it came about suddenly that's actually really good news for us because what God had prepared, he can do suddenly preparation in your life. And in my life may feel long in coming at times, but know this, that what God wants to do, he can actually do suddenly we've gotta position ourselves, but he can do it suddenly. I mean think about the life of Jesus, right? Jesus birth. As early as Genesis chapter three, we see a projection of the one who is going to come and deal with the enemy and all through history millennia ago, we are hearing story after story from the prophets about one who is supposed to come and be born among us. And then listen to what it says in Luke chapter two, verse 13, suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace Goodwill toward men born to you this day in the city of David is a savior and he has Christ the Lord, right? This had been prophesied for millennia. And then suddenly God does it. It had been prepared and it felt long and coming, but suddenly God does it when Jesus went to a cross and he was in the grave and everybody thought everything is over. Listen to what occurred in Luke chapter number 24 on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices. They had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were wondering about this, suddenly two men enclosed that gleaned like lightning stood beside them and in their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground. But the men said to them, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee. The son of man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified. And on the third day be raised again. Then they remembered his words. He was dead and suddenly he's not, this is the way that God acts. God takes his time and preparation, but then he can move suddenly. How about when Jesus resurrected, ascended back to the father. And we knew that there was a promise of the holy spirit, Joel, the prophet who hundreds of years before the event told us that this would be the case and listened to what happened in acts chapter two. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place and suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house, where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire, that separated and came to rest on each of them. And all of them were filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other languages. Other tongues, as the spirit enabled them, all of this prophesy long ago that God had prepared and God brought it to pass suddenly. And you know, there's a time coming where Jesus, 2000 years ago, who died, who rose again, who ascended to the father, he's coming back and do you know how that could happen? Listen to whether apostle Paul said for you know, very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night while people are saying peace and safety destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape, but you brothers and sisters, you're not in darkness. So that this day should surprise you like a thief. What God prepared may be long, but it can come suddenly. So listen to me, maybe some of your sinful choices brought you to a place of deadening in your life. You know what you do, you repent and you don't be ashamed of it. Listen to me, John, Chris, some said, said, this not me. Sin is the shame. Repentance is the medicine. You don't, you don't shame. You're not shamed in repentance. That's the medicine that's turning from your sin and turning to the Lord. That's the medicine. Sin is the shame. Repentance is the medicine. The shame is when we stay in our sin and allow our lives to continually be deadened by the effects of sin. And so maybe it's been a while and you've been deadened to God because you've been living in some areas in your heart where you've allowed sin to harden and to deaden your life, turn to God and let him begin to take out the trash. Maybe you've been waiting on change to happen in our world. Maybe you've been waiting on change in your own world. I would encourage you to position yourselves through consecration and dedication because what God has prepared he can do suddenly. I don't know what he wants to do, how he wants to do it, but what he can do, he can do suddenly. Maybe, maybe you're here at the Crosspoint campus. Maybe you're at our Lockport campus. Maybe you're our Chito Wago or Niagara falls campus. Maybe you're watching online. And maybe today, maybe God has prepared your life For this moment to meet Jesus. Your faith in Jesus. Listen to this can bring new life suddenly, old becomes new darkness becomes light. Death becomes life. Maybe God's brought you to this spot to help you realize you friend, you cannot save yourself. You are not your own savior. You can't self help your way into relationship with God because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says, but to as many as receive him to them, he gives the right to become children of God, to those who believe on his name. And if that's your need today, I want to encourage you. Even though it may have felt like a long time, incoming, God can rescue you, Save you, bring you into the kingdom of life, forgive your sins, change your life. And he can do it suddenly. Why not today? Because the same God that did what he did for Hezekiah and brought about all of this suddenly in the life of that nation of the people of God can do the same in yours. Let's bow our heads together everywhere on every campus. I don't know where you are today in your life. What God has spoken to you, what he is speaking to you. But I want to remind you of something. If you are a believer already, if you have been born from above, if you have genuinely put your faith and trust in Jesus, maybe you have allowed some sin to come in and to take ownership and deaden your heart. And you need to be revived. I want you to go back to what we talked about. Consecrate dedicate so that we can all celebrate in joy of what God has done. And I want you to do that work with God. Don't, walk out of this place. Don't walk out of this day, having not done the work that the spirit of God wants to do, do not let the word of God fall on soil. That is unprepared to receive it. The seed of the word of God wants to grow in your heart, shape you more into the image of God's son, Jesus, and bring you into life. Instead of living in places of numbness or deadness, he wants to revive you. Maybe the first move is making sure that you discipline yourself to spend time with the Lord. Maybe it's signing up that chapel.com/fast and pray so that you can dedicate some time just to the Lord so that he can point some of these areas out and do his work in your life. As a good father, who's rescuing us from our own selves. Like Jonathan said earlier, we sometimes just need to be rescued from our own stupid. And he wants to do that. God wants to do that. He cares about us, just like a father wants to do that for a child, like a parent, a mother wants to do for a child. But if you're here and you've never before received Jesus as your Lord and savior, you've never before confessed that Jesus' Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead. You've never turned from your sin and put your trust in him. Then I want to encourage you this day to do that very thing, maybe right where you're seated. You say, you know what, that's my need. I feel like God is kind of speaking to my heart right now, right? Where you're seated. Maybe you can just pray a prayer of faith, prayer of trust in the Lord. And maybe it, maybe it can sound something like this. My words really don't matter, but maybe you make this your own heart. Just pray this in your heart. Lord Jesus. I know that I've sinned and I can't save myself. I believe you died for my sin and because of my sin. And I believe you rose from the grave. I believe only you can save me. So I confess my need. And with all the faith that I have, I put my faith in trust in what you've done. Lord Jesus in dying for my sin and rising from the grave. I receive you by faith. It's my Lord and savior. Our heads are bowed. Our eyes are closed. I'm not gonna embarrass your point you out. But if you would just say in this room wherever you are, if you'd be honest before God and say, you know what? I just prayed that with you. And I'm in it with all my heart, with all the faith that I have. I just prayed that prayer with you. Would you just put your hand up in the air? Everybody's heads are bow. Eyes are closed. I'm looking, but would you just put your hand up in the air so I could see it just wherever you are, put it up high so I can see it. It's a big room, put it up high so I can see it. There's there's a number all over the room. There's a number of you. You can put your hands down. Could, if you just raised your hand, would you just listen carefully to me for just a moment when I pray and I'm gonna dismiss everybody, literally in just a matter of seconds, but down front, right in this room, down front, if you're in the east worship center, you can connect with somebody there or you can come over here down front. There's gonna be some folks down here. Some will be folks on our staff. Some will be prayer partners that we trained, and here's what we want you to do. If you just prayed that, would you just come and let one of them know, cuz they wanna take a moment to pray for you. They wanna take a moment to encourage you before you leave. There's no greater decision that you can make than that. And sometimes it just helps us to take a step of faith and draw a line in the sand to be able to say, I am doing this. I am trusting my life to Jesus. So when I say amen, you'll see some folks, that'll be down here, down front and I want to encourage you to come take one of them by the hand and say, I just prayed that prayer with Jerry in a minute, with all my heart there's folks already coming that are down here right now. And I wanna encourage you to do that in just a moment, father, I pray that you would take the words of your word by your spirit and that you would write them on the hearts of your people. God, I'm grateful for how kind you have been to us. And I'm grateful for the way that you speak and may we not lose sight of what you are doing in our hearts? May we listen to your voice so that you can clean whatever trash needs to be cleaned out of our temple. And it can be replaced with your very life in us. And that we would be a people who offer ourselves completely and totally to you and out of grateful hearts, we will serve you. And I pray God for courage for my brothers and sisters who just prayed to receive Jesus, God, there's no better place to be than here. No better time than now, surrounded by people who are on their team, who are cheering for them. So God would you give them the courage to walk that decision out by faith. I trust you to do this now in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.