Christ Is Our Joy

Jay: Good morning. Thank you for joining us on The Chapel News Network. Today we have a unique opportunity to interview the most interesting guest. Now there are some guidelines, some time restrictions. There is another guideline. Our guest - he must tell the truth. He must answer each question honestly. Without further ado, please welcome our guest this morning, Satan.

[Wes enters playing the role of Satan]

Jay: Welcome.

Wes: Well, thank you. It's great to be here. Ha ha ha ha. Sorry, didn't mean to scare you.

Jay: Well, I have to be honest. You're not quite what I expected.

Wes: Yes, I know. Most people when they think of me and they think of some guy in a red suit with little horns and a pitchfork. I'm rarely what you think I am. That way people are more open to me. It's genius, I know.

Jay: Well, let's get started. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background.

Wes: Sure. Why not, I am my favorite topic. Well, we'll start here. I existed before time - a magnificent creature with more powers, more abilities than you have any idea. You, you, you're burdened with human eyes. If you could only see all that I am. I'm beyond spectacular. I began to realize I should be running the universe. I should be in charge. I should have the throne. And I wasn't the only one that thought that way. There's a whole host of angels ready, willing, wanting me to be in charge. And so, one day we rebelled. I decided it was time that I would take back that which was rightfully mine - the throne. God kicked us out of heaven. He banished us. Some of our brothers, even now, even this day, right now - they're chained in outer darkness. I hate your God. I hate everything about him.

Jay: Well, it's clear that you hate God. The question is why do you hate humans so much?

Wes: Really? They gave you this job of interviewing me? That's the stupidest question. I hate you because you remind me of Him. Every time I look at any one of you, you bear His resemblance, his likeness. I hate Him so I hate you. I hate you.

Jay: I have something that I'd like to show you. The bible. Do you have any thoughts?

Wes: Really? Do I have any thoughts? Yeah, the bible. Yes I have thoughts. I hate it. I hate that book. It tells the truth. It tells the truth about God, about life, about you. It tells the truth about me - exposes me. Exposes my lies. I mean, all right. Think of it this way. Think of all the lies that I tell you. You're not pretty enough. You're not good looking enough. You're not smart enough. You're not successful enough. And imagine I get you to believe that the only way that you have any kind of value is if people like you. And then I position my people around you to affirm that in your life. How will you know that that's not true? How will you know if any of my lies are not true? How will you know? That book. It's the only way. It's the only way you're going to be able to cut through my lies. I hate it. I don't want anything to do with it. I don't want anyone else near it.

Jay: That's actually why we look at it each and every week. I'd like to read a short verse for you because that's where we're going to find ourselves this morning. It's in the book of Philippians chapter 4 verse 4. It says this: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice.

Wes: Yeah - stop. Just stop, o.k.? Can't you see how hideous that is? Rejoice in Him? I don't want you to rejoice in Him. I want you to rejoice in everything else but Him. I want you to rejoice in your circumstances. I want you to rejoice in your successes, in your money, in your stuff. I want you to rejoice in your muscles. You got muscles. I want you to rejoice in them. I want you to rejoice in your pets. Your little fluffy pets. You got to have your pets. I want you to rejoice in them. I want you to rejoice in anything but Him. Because if I can get you to rejoice in that stuff, I own you. I can manipulate it all. I own you. You'll be a slave. You'll be a slave. It's all temporary. You'll be a slave to people's opinions, to the culture, to your own feelings, to even what you see in the mirror. Don't worry, I'll be right there. Whispering in your ear. Telling you how amazing you are. How great you are. How people are lucky to be around you. Or, I'll tell you what a loser you are. How awful you are. How pathetic you are. How fat you are. How unlovely you are. How nobody likes you and you better work hard. You better work hard to get God to like you. See how wonderful that is? I'm fantastic at it. I will crush you with my lies.

Jay: Well, that's all the time we have this morning. Do you have any final thoughts?

Wes: Sure. It's all the time we have. That's all right. Don't worry. I got lots of time and yes, I do have some final thoughts so you can leave. Look at me. Do you really think that I don't scheme against you? That I don't dream up ways to destroy you? Do you want to know my tactics? I'll tell you, you pitiful little humans. I use gorilla warfare. That's right. My self and my demon hordes, we're organized. We're powerful. We're strategic and we fight. No, we don't take God head on. That'd be too obvious. We use a weapon way more powerful. We use you. That's right. We hit God where it hurts. For some unknown reason unthinkable to me, he actually cares about you. He loves you. So we use you to fight our battles for us. Yes. We use you to mock him and to ridicule him and to doubt him and to not believe him. It's wonderfully delicious. Every time you look at that website, every time you grab that selfish attitude, every time you nurse that grudge, every time you stay away from that book, you stay away from prayer - if you only understood all that it cost him to redeem you. Your apathy astounds us. And we love you for it. You are our best weapon. So keep it up. Keep doing what you do, choosing to please you, living for yourself, continue to tell yourself it all doesn't matter and just know that you have my deepest gratitude. And one day, hopefully, I'll be able to thank many of you in person. In person. [evil laughter]

Jay: We wanted to have a little fun. The reality is, is we easily forget that we have an adversary. Satan the accuser. We have an enemy and he feeds us lies all the time. We hear him. We feel him. We hear him through media, through our culture. Sometimes in our own distorted thinking. Jesus also warns his followers. He tells us he wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to steal. He wants to take away everything from you. And of the many things that he wants to steal, one specific thing is what Paul was writing to Christians about at the church of Philippi. All month long we've been in the book of Philippians looking at who Christ is. And in chapter 4 verse 4 we read it in the skit. It says this: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! But let's not overlook this short verse right now. Because although it's short, and it gives us a theme for the entire letter, the entire book of Philippians.

If you've been tracking with us this summer, some of you may remember the Recipients series we had and Pastor Jerry did a message on freedom. He went to Galatians 5:1 and said it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. In that short verse explaining the entire theme of the book of Galatians: Freedom. Well much like freedom is the theme of Galatians, joy is the theme of Philippians. Sixteen times we see it in this short letter. It doesn't take Paul but a few verses to bring it up because he has joy in his prayers. In the first chapter we see Paul's heart. He's living with some tension. He longs to be with Christ. He loves Jesus so much that he just wants to be with him. But at the same time he has a heart for the people that he cares for - that he pastors. He's got this pastor's heart but at the same time he longs to be with Jesus and he knows that he wants to be with Jesus but he's got to be away from the body and away from these people. But he says I will remain with you for your progress, your growth in your faith, and your joy. You see Paul is a man who lost everything yet writes about this joy he found in God. Writes about this joy in Christ. We're talking about a man who lost it all. Who - prisoned, beaten, shipwrecked, deserted, yet he found this reality of God's joy and he wanted those Christians to find that very thing. And I want you to find that this morning as well.

But so we're all on the same page and we're tracking, I just want to define joy. I don't want to have any misconceptions. In studying, I took a stab at giving a definition of joy. I'm not saying it's the do-all, I'm not even saying it's the best. I'm certain it's not. But it will make sure we're all tracking in the same place this morning. It's this: Joy is a settled state of contentment, confidence and hope. I'll say that again. Joy is a settled state of contentment, confidence, and hope. And what I mean by settled state is, oh no, I'll just settle for whatever life gives me or whatever God gives me. I'm just going to settle for it. No, no. What I mean by settled is when it kind of settles down, lays the foundation in your heart. Yeah, life gets crazy at times, doesn't it? Storms come. Life throws us curve balls. Things aren't always pretty. But this joy can settle in and be the foundation of our heart. A settled state of contentment. Content that God is aware of the details of your life. He knows the big things. He knows the small things. God cares. He cares deeply about them. Confidence. Confidence that one day everything is going to be all right. That one day everything is going to be right because Jesus is King. And he's the boss. And as Pastor Jerry said in the past, when Jesus is in sight, all wrongs will be made right. So a confidence that no matter how maybe these temporary circumstances play out in our lives, confidence that one day everything's going to be o.k. And then hope. Hope that only comes in Christ. If you know Christ, you know hope. If you don't know Christ, you don't know hope. This joy was so real to Paul that even as he's sitting in prison and he can write about it and he can experience it.

So the question of course is why do you and I struggle at times to feel this joy, to feel God's joy? I think the problem is this: our happiness is too often rooted in our circumstances. Our happiness is too often rooted in our circumstances. I use happiness on purpose. We're shallow. Kind of fleeting, right?

You call me on the phone and you say, hey, Jay, like man, you're such a good guy. And I'm like, hey, thanks. And you're like, I'd love to take you out to get some steak. And I'm like, awesome! I love steak. All right. So you know, I probably hang up my phone. Look at my wife Jill, and be like, hey, I'm going out for steak! Where do you think I'm going? I bet I'm going to the Buffalo Chophouse. I've never been to the Chophouse. Man, I can't wait to go to the Chophouse! And Jill says, ah, it's kind of overrated, overpriced but, I'm like, I get to have steak! Man, I'd be so happy. I'd be thrilled. You show up to my door, say, hey, man, I'm driving. You take me to Tops and take me to the freezer section of frozen dinners and pull out a salisbury steak. I'm not going to be so happy anymore. Nothing against salisbury steak. Actually, everything against salisbury steak. Sorry.

But our happiness, it's fleeting. It's too often rooted in our circumstances. And see, what I think is you and I when we misplace our affections, we go from loving the giver to loving the gift. We go from loving God who gives us these blessings to then putting all of our emotional energy, all of our affections, in circumstances so when life is going well because our relationships are going well, they're healthy. I don't have any relational strife. Or my job's going well. My superiors are recognizing what I'm doing - my hard work, and it's going well. I'm getting a raise. Or my money situation's going well. I've been stewarding my money well. My bank account's at a nice number. I feel comfortable. My happiness is all tied up in this money and this job and relationships with other people. The problem with that is that things change. They're temporary. The scriptures warn us of that. They wither away like a flower. It's all vanity. We misplace our affections. So then good things become god things and then become a bad thing. Good things become a god thing, and then they become a bad thing. You see our hearts, man, they're just a factory for idols, aren't they? When we look at the Old Testament and we look at them and say, oh my gosh! Look at the Israelites. They experienced God. He set them free from the Egyptian empire. It didn't take them long where they fashioned themselves a golden calf and started worshipping it and you're like, what are these people doing? You look at them and just laugh and say they're so primal, so stupid!

The reality is you and I do the very same thing. And God blesses us with good things but then that's where we put all of our heart. That's where we put all of our affection. And it becomes an idol. And when good things become god things, then they become bad things. And then verses like this aren't a reality in our life. Like 1 Peter 4:12 and 13. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. Dear friends, don't be surprised. But you and I are. We freak out. Things aren't going well. Throws us for a loop. We're spinning. Peter says look at the big picture. You're going to be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. That's big picture perspective right there. Looking at the big picture. When you and I put our happiness in our circumstances, man that verse isn't a reality in our lives. Neither is James 1:2. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. We don't consider it joy. We freak out! We start to doubt. We doubt God, we doubt God's plan for our life. We doubt ... God's saying you're supposed to consider it joys. Use these trials for your growth, your progress, and your joy.

Philippians 4:6, right after rejoice, Paul says this: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. We're always anxious. I mean we're an anxious society, aren't we? We hear about anxiety all the time. We've got medications and methods, people making tons of money to cure anxiety. And I wonder if we freak out and we doubt and we have anxiety because we put our hope, our contentment, and our confidence in circumstances rather than putting them in Christ. There is a solution. Pastor Jerry said it right at the beginning of this series, at the beginning of the month. Paul's answer: our joy must come from Christ. Christ is our solution. In John chapter 15 Jesus is talking to his disciples. He says I am the vine. My father is the gardener. Remain in me, or abide in me and I will abide in you. Every branch that's connected to me will bear much fruit and sometimes we equate fruit to this list of accomplishments. Like yeah, I'm connected to Christ and I'm going to bear much fruit which means I'm going to build this incredible resume. I'm going to do all this stuff for God. What does Galatians 5:22 and 23 say about fruit? It says but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. See, don't forget - God cares more about who you are than what you do. God cares more about who you are than what you accomplish. The by-products of the Spirit, of God working in your life is love, joy, peace, forbearance - it's joy! And what's great about that is, is that's not your joy. It's Christ's.

So you can't sit here this morning and say, well, you don't understand. Like I'm not an optimist. You know, I'm more of a pessimist, Jay. You don't understand. I see the world, everything I see is grey. I don't wake up in the morning, Jay, and eat my bowl of Wheaties and look in the mirror with the finger guns and say you're a champion. And it's probably good you don't do that. But it's not your joy. It's Christ's. See, we get it twisted. We forget the gospel. We forget the gospel. We come to Jesus and say, Jesus, you've got it all. You've got my life. And then somehow we think we can just earn his approval. Like, God, I'm going to show you that I was worthy to die for. Folks, we're not. Never will be. We don't connect to Christ so that we can work up our resume and become more like Jesus and be a sidekick. It's not Batman. No, but the gospel is this: Connect to Christ and Christ will begin to transform you. God's Spirit will start to bring things alive in you that are supernatural like love and joy and patience and peace and gentleness. And God's Spirit will begin to awaken that in your soul and it will be seen in your everyday life. As Jesus is closing out his thought in John 15 about the vine, he says this to his disciples: I have told you all of this, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. Christ says abide in me. Remain in me so that you'll have my joy and when you have my joy the cool thing is your joy will be complete. Now I understand a room this size, and the people watching online or other campuses, I totally understand that. Some of you have circumstances that I don't even want to pretend to understand or have easy answers for. I don't. But I know this joy is real. If a man named Paul who lost everything but Christ could have this joy, I believe you can have it.

If another man, a pastor in Nazi Germany - his name's Dietrich Bonhoffer - he and the people he loved wouldn't submit to the Nazi regime. So they're imprisoned and they're being executed. And this pastor, he would write letters to his people. And part of the letter he would write what's been happening. He'd give names of people who have been executed. But then he talks about joy. And this is what he writes and I think he says it brilliantly. He says this: Joy abides with God, and it comes down from God and embraces spirit, soul, and body; and where this joy has seized a person, there it spreads, there it carries one away - I love this line - there it bursts open closed doors. A sort of joy exists that knows nothing at all of the heart's pain, anguish, and dread and that joy he says does not last; it can only numb a person for the moment. But get this - God's joy - the joy of God has gone through the poverty of the manger and the agony of the cross; that is why it is invincible, irrefutable. It does not deny the anguish, when it is there, but finds God in the midst of it, in fact precisely there; it does not deny grave sin but finds forgiveness precisely in this way; it looks death straight in the eye, but it finds life precisely within it. I know this joy is real. And I know God wants you to have it. So, let these scriptures settle in on your souls this morning. And then Pastor Wes is going to come up and give us very practical application on how we can have Christ's joy.

[scripture video]

Wes: We're going to wrap up our time together this morning real quick by looking at a verse that Jay's already talked about. Here in Philippians 4 Paul gives some practical application to this. We're going to walk through it, verse 6, and I'm going to do that in my normal voice, so ah, there you go. Verse 6 says do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. It says don't be anxious. It doesn't say don't care or don't be concerned. That's not what he's talking about here. Anxiousness is about worrying, about fretting.

Look it - life is full of struggles and challenges and problems and issues that are real. We know that. Paul knew that. He was in prison, for crying out loud. He didn't know what his next day was holding for him. So he understood that. He's not saying, hey, deny it, act like it's not real. It's not there. It's not happening. No. He's just saying respond to it rightly. God has a plan. He says don't be anxious but in everything, by prayer, everything by prayer. See, when I worry, I'm all about me. I'm self focused. But when I pray, I'm God-focused. Right? When I worry, I bring my problems and my issues to me and my resources. But when I pray I bring my problems and my issues to God and to His resources. And Paul is telling us, think of all the time, energy, and effort that you put into being anxious into worrying, take all of that and put it into prayer. In fact, when you and I, when we feel like, you know we're being anxious or worrying starts to happen in your life, immediately it should be like a bell going off. Like somebody pulled a fire alarm and immediately we should rush to prayer. We shouldn't waste one more moment in worrying. The moment we sense that, it should send us right to prayer. And look at what it says. Don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer. In everything. You know what that means? There's no boundary lines. Table is open. Anything you want to put on it, put on it. In essence, God is saying, hey, if it's on your heart it's on my heart. If it's a care for you, it's a care for me. That's awesome! I mean think about who we're talking about. This is God, the King of the universe, seated on the throne in blinding majesty. This is the one who looks at you and looks at me and says I want you to come into my throne room. I want you to spend time with me. I want you to pour it all out. Prayer is a gift where we get to connect with God. We get to speak to him. We get to listen to him because God is all about relationship. And God says, look it, I know what gets you excited. I know what overwhelms you. I understand that. I know it. So come, bring it, pour it all out to me.

And then, Paul includes something incredibly practical and unbelievably profound that if we're not careful we can blow right by it. He says this: but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving! Hey, do you know that one of the main markers of somebody who's not a believer, who doesn't know Christ - who's actually following the enemy - you know that marker is ungratefulness? It's not being thankful.

Look at Romans, chapter 1. Paul tells us in his book of Romans chapter 1 it says for although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. They didn't give thanks to God. That's one of the markers of someone who doesn't know God. God says if you're a follower of mine, I want you to have the opposite happening in your life. I want you to choose to be thankful. Paul says cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Why? Thankfulness is powerful. One: it's hard to sin when you're thankful. Ever notice that? It's hard to sin when you're thankful. You know it's hard to rebel against God when you're just so thankful for his love and his grace and his faithfulness. It's hard to be jealous about somebody else in their stuff when you're just thankful for what you have. Thankfulness wars against sin. I mean it fights against our self-centeredness. He says I want you to be thankful.

Two: it helps us get the right perspective. When I take time to be thankful, I'm taking time to worship. I'm taking time to declare who God is, to remind myself of how awesome and amazing and incredible and loving he is. And the more I remind myself of who God is I begin to see God for who he really is and the more I do that I begin to see my problems for what they really are. No match for this guy. Thankfulness helps position us to get the right perspective.

And thirdly, when you and I, when we thank God, we are taking sides with God on an issue against the enemy, against his lies, against his schemes. When you and I - when we choose to say thank you to God we are taking sides with him. We are affirming that he is God, that he is King, that he is worthy, that he's in control. Do you know, listen to me, do you know that there's no middle ground in your spiritual life? The world wants us to think there's all kinds of options. There's not. Jesus said, look it, either you're for me or you're against me. There's no middle ground there. There's no, hey, I'm just going to tread water spiritually. No you're not. No you're not. You're either going to go towards Christ or you're going to go away from him towards the enemy. And when you and I, when we choose to be thankful, man, we're staking our ground on God's side saying I'm going to affirm God. I'm taking sides with him. In essence, we are saying, hey Romans 8:28, I believe that it's true and that it's real. For we know, that in all things, God works together for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. It doesn't say all things are good. It says God, because he's God, he's able to work all things together for our good, for those who love God, are called according to his purpose. That means, stuff that's awesome, stuff that's awful. My great choices, and my stupid choices. God says I'll use them all. I'll use them all. And when I thank God, I'm taking sides with him, declaring I believe him. And there is an enormous promise attached here, to this - when we choose to do this: But in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. Pray. Run to prayer. Be thankful.

Verse 7: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. The peace of God. It is a supernatural settled-ness that God will pour on your life. It says it's going to guard your hearts and your minds. That word guard is a military term. Man, it posts a sentry over your hearts and your minds. Heart stuff - you think of stuff we feel, mind stuff - stuff we think about. About our whole inner person. God says I'm going to guard that. My supernatural settled-ness. You can't manufacture it, you can't think your way into it because it transcends all understanding. And then it says this. In Christ Jesus. He is the source. He's the anchor, he's the foundation, he is the source. Christ is our joy.

So let me ask you this. God brought you here for a reason today. He put you in front of that screen for a reason today. It's not an accident, God is not haphazard. He's not playing around. He's brought you here to hear this, to hear the Word spoken, to hear the Word sung, to hear the Word proclaimed. Here's my question to you. What is the one thing out of all you've heard today that God is raising up and He's pressing it against your heart He's pushing it on your life. What is that one truth that God is taking and by His Spirit man He's putting it on your heart. If you listen you'll hear it, you'll know it. He's doing it because He loves you. So what is that truth. What has He talked to you about today. And what are you going to do about it. It's never enough to go wow that was great or that was a great message or that was a powerful truth or wasn't that important. That's never enough. Nothing in your story changes until you act until you obey on God's truth. Nothing changes in my life until I obey God's truth. What is it that God has talked to you about today? What does He want you to do about it? 

Let me close our time this way. We started with a little sketch, by the way, thank you for hanging with us on that, I really appreciate that. We were really kind of unsure, to be honest with you, how you would react. You know, we did that with our college kids and they like yeah and I didn't know if there would be like storm the stage and fire Wes. I didn't know if that was going to happen. Thank you. Let me tell you why we did that. Because we want to be reminded in a very real way, by the way, we couldn't begin to portray how savage satan really is. But maybe you've come into this place, or you're watching and he has lied to you and you bought in. He's manipulated your feelings and your circumstances and he has lied to you about God and you bought in.

Maybe you've come into this place and you think God is distant or He doesn't really care, or He's not listening or He's let you down, or maybe God is all about judgment and wrath and hellfire and justice. By the way, He is, because no one would want to worship a God who doesn't care about justice and holiness and making things right. You wouldn't, I wouldn't. God is also awesome and all powerful and all-wise and all-knowing and He's kind and He's good and He's wonderful and He's a blast to be around. You know how I know that? I'll give you one way, from the Bible. The Gospels are the stories of Jesus' life, His biographies. One of the reasons Jesus came, He said I've come to show you the Father. In other words, you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. You want to see what God is all about, look at Jesus. The second person in the Trinity, look at Him. He has revealed the Father.

As you read the Gospels, what are kids response to Jesus? How did children respond to Jesus? They run towards Him, right? It was often the disciples that would be hey, stand back, don't bother the Master, trying to push the kids away, and Jesus saying stop it, let them come to me, let them come to me. What kind of person do kids want to be around? Do they want to be around someone who's mean, angry, who is vengeful, grumpy, who is distant, who doesn't care, who is manipulative, who's preoccupied? Really? When you were a kid, what kind of a person did you want to be around? Did you want to be around Mr. Jones next door, hey I want to be around Mr. Jones next door because he's angry all the time, that's awesome. Really? You need counseling. No, right? Who do kids want to be around? They want to be around somebody who's good, who's kind, who's fun, who's loving, who's real, who's gentle, who cares. That's who Jesus is. That's who God is. .  Do you know Him? Really? Do you know Him? Because He went to unimaginable lengths so that you could. So that you could be in a relationship with Him. God doesn't want you to be lied to, He wants you to know the truth. He wants you to know that Christ is our joy. Jesus wants you to know Him like that, and you can. You can. But it's your choice. Let's pray.

Heads bowed and eyes closed just for a moment. Thank you so much for your attention. This is the critical piece right here. Right here. What is it that God spoke to you about and what are you going to do with that. What truth did God design personally for you today? What has He spoken to you about and what do you need to do with that. Take a moment as a Christ-follower. As a Christian take a moment and talk to Him about that. Respond to Him in prayer right now. I don't know what that is for you, but I'm going but I'm going to let God's Spirit, who knows you inside and out, speak to you. Will you respond? Please respond.

A final question, you're here, and you don't know Christ. You don't know Him, you don't have a relationship with Him. If you died tonight you don't know you'd go to Heaven, you're pretty sure you wouldn't. You know a lot about Him, but you don't know Him. And God has been speaking to your heart this morning. This is your moment. This is your moment to come into a relationship with God. He designed you for Himself and this is your moment. Maybe you've been coming to the Chapel for a while, you've been hearing some great teaching, but you've never stepped across the line of faith. Today the invitation is for you. And you're here and you don't know Christ, but you want to. He loves you like crazy and He gave His life for you. If you want to know Him and if today is your moment. If you want to give your life to Him then I want you to tell Him right now, right where you are, silently, just tell Him. Tell Him. In fact, let me give you some words. Somebody loved me enough one day to give me some words. Let me give you some words, head bowed, eyes closed, but if I'm talking to you silently say something like this, just silently say something like this, mean the words as your own, dear Jesus, I'm a sinner, I need a Saviour, I'm lost, I want to be found, I believe you died for me, to pay for my sin, to give me life, I want that, I want you, so I turn from my sin, repent, and I turn to you, come into my life, I will trust you, I will follow you, I am all yours, and I will declare it. I'm all yours, and I will declare it.

Heads bowed, eyes closed, no one looking around, but if you just prayed that prayer, then this is your moment. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. If you prayed it and you meant it, I'm going to ask you to stand right now and eyeball me for a moment, because I want to pray for you. I'm going to ask you to stand to your feet, and look right at me, I prayed it and I meant it. Bless you. If you're in the East Worship Center, I want you to do the same, you know nothing changes in our life unless we move. Your standing does two things. One, it allows me the privilege of praying for you and I want to pray for you because someone prayed for me, but two, the Bible tells us to make our decisions for Christ public. Your standing starts that process. Anybody else. God spoke to you. Yeah, man. Stand right up, look right at me. In the balcony, across in the East Worship Center stand up, this is your moment for you and God. Many of us had a moment just like this. I did. Anyone else before I pray for these. Here's what I'm going to ask if you're seated next to someone who's standing because you're their friend or you're their relative or loved one, I want you to stand with them. Stand with them, put your arm around them. I want them to know they're not alone in this. And if you don't have anyone to stand next to you, guess what, you've got us. We're your family.

Heavenly Father, I only see faces from afar, but you see hearts, you're the one who does this work. This is your activity Lord, and we praise you for it. I pray for these guys and these girls, these men and these women. That they would know that you are good to your word, that they can trust you. That you've moved into their life right now to rescue them, to save them, and to give them eternal life. Lord that you will smother them with your love. That they would follow you all the days of their life. Thank you Christ. Heads bowed, eyes closed, no one looking around except for those of you who are standing. I want to give you some information. I want a quick word personally from me to you. I want to encourage you. The worst thing I could ever do would be to say hey, you just made the most important decision of your life, good luck with that. I'm not going to do that. So here's what I'm going to ask you to do. Jay, the other guy who spoke, he's going to be there right in the middle isle, I want you to make your way to him. He's going to lead you to the Fireside Room. I'm going to meet you there. It's just going to take a couple of minutes so go ahead you can start out that way. If you're in the East Worship Center just meet us in the Fireside Room. So go ahead, just step out, right where you are meet Jay right there. Yeah, yeah, come on. Step right out, go right up there, take your gear. If you didn't stand up, but you know this is you, come on, come on with us. We are a church that loves to see Gods activity in the lives of our people, in our lives, man. We worship Him for that. We worship Him for that. Right on.

I want to do one final thing, man. Thank you for your grace and we're done with this. I'm just really impressed on my heart, there are some people who really need prayer today. So if that's you and you have a burden on your heart, we are a family, we love each other and we care about each other, man, and we just lay it all out, cuz' we care about Him. If that's you, if you're like man, I'm just going to raise your hand. If you've got a burden on your heart, if you need God's intervention and something in your life, just raise your hand. East Worship Center, just raise your hand. All right, hold up your hand for a moment. If you're near someone with their hand up, I want you to reach over and put your hand on their shoulder and we're going to pray together for them. Okay. So if you've got a hand on your shoulder, put your hand down. I want to make sure everybody has somebody praying for them. We're going to do this together. Anybody doesn't have a hand , all right. If you've got a hand on your shoulder put your hand down. We're going to pray together. There's people who have their hand on your shoulder, they're praying for you right now. Just as a family we're going to pray together. We need to do this.

God we pray together, we come to you. You're the God who has the answers, you're the God who gives life, you're the God who gives hope and gives strength. Lord I don't know what's going on, but man, you do and I'm so thankful for that. God you are more powerful than any issue, Jesus you came to destroy the works of the enemy and we look to you for that so we pray for our friends and our brothers and our sisters. We lift them up to you. God we do battle for them right now in this moment and we ask that your activity be real in their heart, in their life, whatever they need, Christ. Minister to them today, may they leave this place encouraged. Thanks Jesus, we love you. You're awesome. In your name we pray. Amen. Thank you guys, have a great day.