Speaker 1: 0:31

Well, let me take you back to around December 1st. And once December 1st rolls around, that means that Christmas is coming. And since Christmas was right around the corner, that means I've got to go up into my attic to bring down all the Christmas stuff that we have stored there the other 11 months of the year. So I go up there and I bring down our Christmas tree, bring down the ornaments, bring down the wreaths and the nativity scene, like bring down all that stuff. And then my wife and I we start setting up for Christmas. But as we do my three-year-old daughter, she starts getting really, really excited. She's like mom and dad, can I help? Mom and dad, can I help? And we're like JC, absolutely not. No, you cannot help. So much of this stuff is fragile and breakable. No, unfortunately, you can't help with this.

Speaker 1: 1:17

And we start putting the tree together because we have a fake tree, not a real one. And once we finally finish up with the tree, she's still just like right at my knee, going Dad, can I help, dad, can I help, dad, can I help? And finally I'm like okay, jc, yes, you can help. What we're going to do right now is we're going to start putting the ornaments onto the tree. So just grab an ornament and then you're going to put it up onto the tree. So I turn my back to grab an ornament and as soon as I turn my back, all I hear is crash. And I look over and she's staring at the floor and there's an ornament that's just broken to a bunch of pieces right before her. And I was like, oh my goodness, like the moment I gave you a job to do, you failed at your job, like we were supposed to make something beautiful and yet you broke it. You broke it and, whether you realize it or not, that story right there is the story of my life and your life and the story of human history. Because our heavenly father was making something beautiful. He was making something that was going to be stunning and then he allowed his kids to take part in it. And the moment we hit the scene, our sin broke what was meant to be beautiful and our sin shattered what was going to be stunning. My sin and your sin broke what was going to be beautiful.

Speaker 1: 2:40

What we're going to talk about tonight is how God changes our brokenness, how God changes our brokenness. Last night we talked about how God changes our identity. This morning we talked about how God changes our path and tonight we're going to talk about how God changes our brokenness. What we're going to do is we're going to actually look at the very first prophecy about Jesus in Scripture. A prophecy is something spoken of years before, of what's going to happen in the future, and this is the first ever prophecy about Jesus. And what's fascinating is it's on one of the very first pages in Scripture. In Genesis, chapter 3, the very beginning, god's saying hey, I'm coming, I'm sending someone to fix what you have broken. So we're going to look at this story of Adam and Eve. When brokenness first entered the scene, while there was a perfect world that God had created, adam and Eve had made choices that brought brokenness.

Speaker 1: 3:34

We're actually going to start in Genesis, chapter 1, the very beginning of Scripture, starting in verse 26. Leading up to this, god has created the heavens and the earth. He's created the stars in the sky, the waters in the seas and the birds in the air. Then, on the sixth day of creation, he makes humankind and he says this verse 26. And he says this verse 26. Then God said let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them Male and female. He created them, god blessed them and said to them be fruitful and multiply, increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds in it. They will be yours for food. It's all Now.

Speaker 1: 4:55

There's a lot that can be said about this specific passage, but I want to point out to you the thing that stood out to me as I was preparing this message, because I want to point out the thing that almost feels like it was a mistake from God, because look at how much authority God gave Adam. He creates him and he says rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. He says fill the earth and subdue it. Subdue it means to have authority over it. Then he says I give you every seed bearing plant. So God creates this perfect world. He doesn't remove himself from creation, but he does give it over to humankind to rule over. And God says hey, the fish in the sea have authority over them. The animals on the ground have authority over them. Every seed bearing plant have authority over them. The whole earth, you have authority over it.

Speaker 1: 5:52

And the first thing I want to show you is this in looking at Genesis, chapter one in light of all of the scriptures, point number one Adam's use of authority creates the need for Jesus's use of authority. Adam's use of authority creates the need for Jesus's use of authority Because we see here in Genesis that God was in some ways a delegator. He allowed Adam and Eve the opportunity to manage what he hadator. He allowed Adam and Eve the opportunity to manage what he had created. He gave them authority over the world. Now, that command wasn't just given to Adam and Eve, it was given to us as well. He's given us authority over our life. My question is how are you doing with that, like with the freedom that God has given you. How are you doing with that? In looking at Adam and Eve's story, we see that they used their authority to bring brokenness into the world and they broke what God had made beautiful. So here's my question why did he let them touch it Like, why did he let them have so much authority? He's God. He's got to know he's a better person to rule over all of creation than they are, like.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Why did he involve them in this process? Well, I think here's why. Why did I involve my daughter in putting together our Christmas tree? Because I love her and it's a lot more fun for me to do things with her than to do things without her. I would much prefer for her to be in the process, even if things are broken, than for me to say, hey, go stand over there, wait on the sidelines, because she's my daughter, I want to involve her with things In the same way. God so loves you. He wants to involve you in his creation. But my question also is why did he involve them? But why did he give them enough authority to break things permanently? Well, the good news is is he didn't. He didn't give them the authority to break things permanently. The best thing.

Speaker 1: 8:02

The best way I can explain that, I think, is this we had gone out to eat and my whole family me, my wife and my two daughters. We were going back to our car and here's a picture of it my daughter, my oldest daughter. She was like, hey, can I push Callie, our youngest, in the stroller? Can I push her in the stroller? Can I push her in the stroller? And eventually I'm like, okay, sure you can start to push her. So she grabs a hold of the stroller and that thing's not going straight at all, like she's pushing it up against the curb. Then she starts pushing it in the oncoming traffic and as her dad, I'm not like, okay, yep, that's a bummer. Like you're pushing that thing in oncoming traffic. That's a shame. No, whenever it would start going sideways, I'd correct it, because you see here she had some authority, but she didn't have all authority. She had some authority, she didn't have all authority. The moment that she made things go a little bit crooked, I stepped in and corrected it.

Speaker 1: 9:03

And this is really the reality of Scripture God gave us some authority, but the really, really, really good news is he didn't give us all authority, because here's really the story of Scripture. If you don't know the story of scripture, I'm going to give it to you. Really, from Genesis to Revelation, the story of scripture actually mirrors itself, and here's what it is. God created a perfect world and after creating a perfect world, he created a perfect man and he gave that man authority. That man used that authority to bring brokenness into the world. And upon seeing that, god sent a perfect man, jesus, who used his authority to restore the world that one day he will recreate a perfect world. That's the story of scripture. Again, it mirrors itself. Perfect world, perfect man uses his authority to break the world. So God sent a perfect man who would use his authority to one day recreate a perfect world, because while he gave us some authority, it wasn't a permanent authority. He gave Jesus all authority.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Matthew chapter 28 says this. Then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And if you wanna to understand Christianity, it's this. We have used our God-given authority to break the world, but Jesus has used his God-given authority to redeem the world. And it's point number one. First thing we can learn Adam's use of authority creates the need for Jesus's use of authority.

Speaker 1: 10:33

Now the next part of the story that we're going to read is in Genesis, chapter 3. We're going to start reading in verse 6. And leading up to that, god has said you can eat from any tree from the Garden of Eden, just not one of them, just not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But then Satan slithers onto the scene and said did God really say, did God really mean? I think God's keeping you from something. And then we see this in verse six when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. That's an important part of the story.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Eve gets a bad rap for she being the one who chose to sin. But it says Adam, her husband, was with her. He was just standing there as Satan the deceiver was speaking to her. He was standing there idly by, passive, with his hands in his pockets, allowing his wife to be lied to by the enemy. And then it says and he ate it.

Speaker 1: 11:39

Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man where are you? He answered I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.

Speaker 1: 12:05

So Adam and Eve used their authority to disobey God, and I love that. God's first question to them is not what have you done? But it's where did you go? Where are you? Why are you hiding from me? And you see, they're hiding from God because their sin brought about a feeling that humanity was never meant to experience, and it was this feeling of shame. This feeling right here is in stark contrast to what we see in Genesis, chapter 2.

Speaker 1: 12:36

Before sin, it says Adam and Eve were both naked and they felt no shame. There was nothing to hide and nothing to fear, because all they knew was love from their heavenly father. But now that they've tasted evil, the first thought they had was I need to run for my heavenly father and just like we saw with Jonah this morning. That's what shame is going to tell you. If he knows what you did, he's never going to love you. The same, if he saw how you disobeyed him, he's not really going to want you. So Adam and Eve run in their embarrassment and try to cover up what they've done.

Speaker 1: 13:14

This is point number two. Second thing we can learn from this text Adam's actions brought shame. Jesus' actions removed shame. Adam's actions brought shame. Jesus' actions removed shame. Adam's actions brought shame. Jesus' actions removed shame. And you see, it's not wrong that Adam and Eve felt badly about our sin. We should feel badly about our sin.

Speaker 1: 13:33

But there are two ways to respond to sin. There is shame and then there's conviction. Those are two very different things Shame and conviction. Shame says you need to run from your father. Conviction says you need to run to your father. Shame says you need to conceal your sin. Conviction says you need to confess your sin. You see, shame looks like running away and pretending like you've done nothing wrong. Here's how you know if you struggle with shame. Here's how you know if you struggle with shame versus conviction. You struggle with shame.

Speaker 1: 14:10

If I mention a sin struggle up here that you struggle with. Maybe it's sexual sin, maybe it's body image struggles which have turned into you hiding eating patterns in your life. Let's say I mention a sin struggle that is yours and your first thought is that's my sin struggle and I can't let anybody know about it, because if they knew what I have done, they'd see me differently. If they knew what I have done, they'd view me differently. And if God really knew what I thought or what I've done, he's not going to love me the same way. That's what shame is going to tell you. You should be embarrassed about who you are and what you've done, but I love what happens next in Genesis because from the very beginning of scripture God is going you don't need to feel shame because whatever you're ashamed of, I'm going to fix it, because here their sin made them ashamed of their nakedness. And look at what God does While Adam and Eve try to cover their sin up with leaves, their nakedness up with leaves.

Speaker 1: 15:14

Look what happens in verse 21. This is actually right here, pointing to what Jesus would do thousands of years later. It says the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Well, what actually had to happen for him to make garments of skin to clothe them, he would have had to make a sacrifice. An animal would have had to have been sacrificed so that he could take those garments of skin and cover up their nakedness. And I love this that the first ever sacrifice in scripture would actually point to the final sacrifice in scripture, because here, while God made a sacrifice of an animal to cover up their shame, jesus would come and he would be sacrificed on our behalf, and scripture says that he took on our shame so that we could no longer feel any shame. His punishment on the cross is what covered up our brokenness, our nakedness and our shame, and this is what we celebrate. If you've ever taken communion, this is what we remember when we take communion. We celebrate the fact that we no longer have to live in shame because Jesus' body was broken on our behalf and his blood covers our sin. You know, I actually think whenever we take communion, we should be remembering what Jesus did on the cross, but I think he also wants us to remember what happened here in Genesis, chapter three. This is something that I just noticed recently for the very first time, because look at something that I noticed in scripture In Genesis, chapter 3, verse 6, it says this when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

Speaker 1: 17:05

You see, in Genesis, chapter 3, take and eat is the phrase that created shame. But look at the words that Jesus intentionally chooses to use at the Last Supper when he institutes communion Matthew, chapter 26,. While they were eating, jesus took bread and while he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying take and eat, this is my body. You see, while in Genesis, chapter 3, that phrase take and eat is all about the giving of shame, in Matthew, chapter 26, that phrase take and eat is all about the removal of shame. Because, you see, while Adam and Eve took from the fruit, all of a sudden they became ashamed of their nakedness. Jesus came emptied himself and became naked upon a cross so he could take and eat of his body, so that we no longer have to feel any shame.

Speaker 1: 18:01

And that means, if you came in here tonight ashamed about who you've been, ashamed about what you've done, you feel like you're supposed to be a Christian believer, but you know your life, you know you have not been following Jesus and you're ashamed about what you've done. Or maybe you are following Jesus, but there's these certain areas of your life that you are deeply embarrassed of and you're thinking if only God knew he wouldn't love me. Here's what you need to know. He's seen it all, he knows it all and he wants all of you, in spite of what you've done. He so loves you. He emptied himself. So you don't have to feel shamed about what you've done because he's forgiven it. You don't have to hide in the corner covering yourself up, because his blood has already covered you up, and you don't have to run from your father. You get to run to your father and when you're in the presence of the king, there's no shame because he's given you his robes, robes of righteousness. So point number two, second thing that we can learn Adam's actions brought shame. Jesus's actions removed shame.

Speaker 1: 19:09

The last thing I want to point out about Adam is what happens directly after the verses that we just read. Adam tells God that he was afraid because he was naked. And God says this and he said who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from the man, said the woman you put me here with. She gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it. So God goes hey, did you do what I told you not to do? And Adam goes the woman that you placed with me. God goes, hey, buddy, did you do the thing I didn't tell you to do? He goes, the woman that you placed me here with you. See, it's not my fault, it's her fault and, more than that, it's actually your fault because you put her here with me. But God's like hey, no, buddy, did you eat it? Did you eat it?

Speaker 1: 20:05

This is the third thing that we can learn from this passage. Adam avoids responsibility, while Jesus takes responsibility. See, adam falls short and doesn't own up to it. Even in Genesis, chapter two, adam was the one who God gave the command to not eat from the tree, not Eve. Adam was supposed to pass that command along to his wife, eve. Instead, he stands idly by as Eve is being tempted and he passively takes the fruit and eats it, and then he goes. But it's not really my fault. I don't know about you, but, man, I feel like that's so much like me. I feel like that's so much like us.

Speaker 1: 20:42

Whenever we're confronted with what we've done. We just want to blame other people. Like, maybe for you, you're really short with your parents, you're angry with your parents and your response is man, if they just weren't so annoying, I wouldn't respond that way. You're shifting the blame. Or maybe for you, man, you're struggling with drinking alcohol and you're going man, if my friends wouldn't drink alcohol, then I wouldn't. Either You're shifting the blame or maybe you're not giving your best at school, you're not giving your best on your sports team and you're just going. Well, my coach or my teachers, they're not very good at their job. Again, you're shifting blame. You're trying to say, hey, it's everyone else's fault and not my own. And we have a hard time saying, hey, this one's on me, this is my fault. But the good news is that's not who our God is.

Speaker 1: 21:34

Because while Adam goes, my sin isn't my responsibility. Look at how God responds next in verse 13. My sin isn't my responsibility. Look at how God responds next in verse 13. Then the Lord God said to the woman what is this you have done? The woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat the dust all the days of your life.

Speaker 1: 21:59

Now, right here, this is the first ever prophecy about scripture, thousands of years before Jesus was born. This is what God declared, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, and he, her offspring, will crush your head and you will strike his heel. You see Adam sins and goes hey, this is not my responsibility. And God looks at Adam's sins and he's going I'm going to make redeeming your sins my responsibility. Because before this moment of sin, god had walked with Adam and Eve in unhindered relationship. It was a perfect, harmonious relationship. But then Satan slithers in and said did God really say? And they chose to follow that snake instead of their God and that brought brokenness into their relationship.

Speaker 1: 22:46

And right here, genesis, chapter three, verse 15, is a declaration from God. As he says I'm going to come to get my kids back. Because when he says here that he will crush your head and you will strike his heel, what God is saying is he's saying I'm going to send someone born of a woman and it will be his mission to destroy you. Satan. That's gonna be his job. But what your mission will also be to destroy him. You will try to take him out before he can accomplish that mission.

Speaker 1: 23:16

So God sent that man his name was Jesus to destroy that deceiver Satan. But that deceiver Satan didn't go down without a fight, so he fought back and he convinced humanity to turn their backs on Jesus, until Jesus was arrested. And as he was arrested he was stripped of his clothes, beaten to his face, spit in his face, they put a crown of thorns upon his head and then they tied him to a pole and again with nothing covering his back, they took what was called a cat of nine tails, a whip with shards of pottery and glass, and then they whipped him 39 times, one short of death. And then Jesus, after he had been whipped so brutally that his back would have been totally open and covered with blood, they said hey, jesus, pick up your cross and take it to the place called Golgotha, the place of the skull where you're going to be murdered. And then Jesus was carrying his cross to that place. And then Jesus, who had the power to create all of humanity, no longer even had the strength to carry his cross and he crumbled underneath the weight of his cross and someone else had to pick up his cross. And then, once they eventually got to Golgotha, they laid him down against two beams of wood and then they nailed his hands and his feet to it and they raised him up on a cross to die.

Speaker 1: 24:39

Now, many of us don't really necessarily know how he died on the cross, but here's exactly how he died. When you'd be crucified, you'd actually suffocate. That's how you'd die, because, as you'd be on the cross, it would take so much effort just to breathe. You'd have to push down against the nails on your feet to go, and then you'd let out, and then you'd push down and go, and then you'd let out, and then you push down and go, and then you let out, and then you push down and take a breath and then let out, and then finally Jesus said it is finished. And then he died.

Speaker 1: 25:11

And when he said it is finished, satan thought that meant Jesus was finished. Satan thought that he had won. Satan thought that he had dealt. Satan thought that he had dealt God the final and fatal blow. But then God just counted to three and then, three days later, jesus rose from that grave and as he stepped out of that garden tomb he goes. You know, my heel is bruised a little bit from what you did on the cross, but as he stepped out of that garden tomb he stepped on Satan's head and when he did, he put that deceiver to death. As he did, he silenced that liar and as he did that enemy who wanted to take out God's children from Genesis, chapter 3, he was the one who dealt the fatal blow in Matthew, chapter 28. You see, he lost because God took the responsibility to get his kids back. And what I love about this is the defining moment in Adam's life is that he was defeated by Satan in a garden. And the defining moment of Jesus' life is that he gained victory over Satan in a garden because Jesus came to save his kids. And see, we are saved because while Adam abandoned his responsibility, jesus never abandoned his. And, in summary, point number one Adam's use of authority creates the need for Jesus's use of authority. Point number two Adam's actions brought shame. Jesus's actions removed shame. Point number three Adam avoids responsibility while Jesus takes responsibility.

Speaker 1: 26:49

You know, I mentioned at the beginning that my daughter JC, she broke that arm and it shattered into a bunch of pieces and I wanted to show you what it looked like. So I took a picture of it and here's what it was. You can't tell here, but there's. It was in a picture of it and here's what it was. You can't tell here, but there's. It was in a bunch of different pieces, had to gather them up and put them back together. You might not be able to tell, but actually the person on the bottom right still couldn't find their head, like they are headless even in this picture, because this thing was like broken, broken.

Speaker 1: 27:15

Now imagine after she had broken this ornament. Imagine that she picked up all the pieces of it and came to me and said hey, dad, I broke this, can you fix it? I would have had to tell her hey, jc, girl, I can't, I can't fix what you have broken. This thing is beyond my ability to repair. We can't glue it back because we can't even find all the pieces of what you broke. I wouldn't be able to fix it.

Speaker 1: 27:48

But check out what was on the ornament, because on the inside of the book cover it quotes Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 6. And this is another prophecy about Jesus in scripture and it says this for unto us, a child is born. Why was he born? Why was Jesus born? He was born to fix what we had broken. He was born to put the pieces of our life back together, and this is the good news of the gospel. This is the reason why all of us have a reason to rejoice, because all of us have brokenness in our life. I don't know what it is for you. I don't know if the brokenness in your life is disordered eating. I don't know if the brokenness in your life is sexual sin. I don't know if the brokenness in your life is disordered eating. I don't know if the brokenness in your life is sexual sin. I don't know if the brokenness in your life is anxiety. I don't know if the brokenness in your life is isolation and loneliness and despair and depression. I don't know what your brokenness is, but all of us have brokenness because all of us have sinned.

Speaker 1: 28:49

In our response, even sometimes, what we feel like the church has told us to do is you've got to get your life in order, you've got to fix it, you've got to do enough good things, and if you do enough good things, then your life will be fixed. And we want to pull ourselves up from our bootstraps and say I'm going to fix up my life. Here's the truth. You can't fix what you've broken, but he can. This is why he came to fix your despair, to fix your isolation, to fix your sin. And the good news of the gospel is, when you see the shattered pieces of your life down on the floor, here's what you can do. When you see the shattered pieces of your life down on the floor, here's what you can do. You can pick up the broken pieces of your life and bring them to your dad and say Heavenly Father, can you fix it? And he will, because that's what he came to do. Let me pray that he would.

Speaker 1: 30:12

Heavenly Father, I pray that we would sense the gravity of the gospel, that we'd be face to face with our sin and know that we have sinned against the holy God that you so loved us. You desired to create a world for us that was perfect, but we said we don't want you. We're going to do our own thing. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to throw myself into sexual sin. I'm going to throw myself into selfishness. I'm gonna do my own thing. I'm gonna throw myself into sexual sin. I'm gonna throw myself into selfishness. I'm gonna throw myself into an alcohol addiction. I'm gonna throw myself into whatever it is, believing that that's gonna be better.

Speaker 1: 30:42

But I know there's so many students here in this room going it's not better. My life feels broken. It feels like something's missing. God, I pray that they would realize that it's not something that's missing, but it's someone that's missing, and it's Jesus Christ who came to live for them, die for them and rise again for them. And I pray that they would understand in a real way for the first time tonight that you are what's missing and that ultimately, you're the one who can put the brokenness of their life back together. So, father, I pray that through the power of your Holy Spirit, you would bring salvation in the room tonight, that tonight would be a night that these students could say for the rest of their life.

Speaker 1: 31:27

That's when things change for me, because that's when I started following Jesus for real, not just because my parents brought me to church, not just because that's when I started following Jesus for real, not just because my parents brought me to church, not just because that's what everyone else in Bernie seems to do, but because that's what I want to do, because I trust in the fact that Jesus is alive and with me and for me, and although I have turned my back on him, he never turned his back on me. So right now, while you're there, sitting with every eye closed, man, if you want to follow Jesus, if you want to make the best decision you'll ever make in your life, you can do that right now, wherever you're at, whatever you've done, whatever you've said, whatever you've watched, you can follow Jesus right now and experience his full forgiveness and acceptance, mercy, grace, hope and love. And if you wanna follow him, you can just pray after me in your head. You can just follow these words along with me in your head and just say Jesus, I am a sinner. Although you so loved me, I decided to not love you and I pursued things that were contrary to your commands, but even then, you still so loved me that I believe that you sent your one and only son, jesus Christ, to live for me, die for me and rise again for me so I could have a hope and a future, so I could live eternally with you in heaven.

Speaker 1: 33:17

Not because of what I've done, but because of what Jesus has done and God, right now, I'm giving my brokenness over to you and asking God, would you fix it? I'm bringing my failures over to you and saying God, would you forgive it? And God, thank you for the good news of scripture that we can know that you will forgive, that you will restore, that you will redeem, because you have done what it takes to fix our sin by being crucified on the cross. And if that's you and you want to follow him all the days of your life, you can just say right now in your head Jesus, as best as I'm able, I want to follow you for all the days of my life, until I see you face to face in eternity. In Jesus' name, I pray amen.

Speaker 1: 34:11

And if that's you right now, you guys can take a seat for just a second. If that's you and you're like man, I want to follow Jesus, like things just changed for me. If that's you, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to respond to the good news of the gospel and I'm gonna ask you in a moment to stand as a declaration of I'm not who I once was. I am standing because I believe that Jesus is alive and with me and for me, and he's changed everything in me. And here's why we ask you to stand. We believe that when you respond physically, it solidifies what has just happened to you spiritually. When you respond physically, it's saying this is what's happened inside of me. I'm different now. I'm changed now on the inside. I want to declare that to everyone on the outside.

Speaker 1: 34:58

Now, here's what's probably going through your head. The enemy is going to try to tell you don't do that Like, think about what everyone else would think of you. Don't stand up. Do you really want to follow Jesus? Here's what you get to do. When you stand, you get to say Satan, you don't have the final word in my life anymore. I don't listen to you.

Speaker 1: 35:18

I'm taking a different set of orders from Jesus Christ and he says that I'm so seen, I'm so loved and I'm so saved. So I don't care what you're going to try to convince me to do. I'm going to be obedient to what God has called me to do and he saved me spiritually. And I want to declare that publicly in front of all my friends, so that I can help them, so that they can help me follow Jesus, so that I can help them follow Jesus as well. So if that's you, if you want to follow Jesus, if everything has changed for you, I'm going to count to three in just a second, and you have to stand and declare that you have a new life because of what Jesus Christ has done in your life. So, on a count of three, you're going to stand up. One Jesus loves you. Two this is the reason why you're here. Three you've been saved by Jesus. If that's, you, just stand right now and say I have a new life in Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:29

I don't know if you know what scripture says. Hey, keep standing. I don't know if you know what scripture says. It says that in heaven, there is more rejoicing when one sinner repents, and right now there's like I don't know, there's a lot of you. So, as heaven is rejoicing, hey, let's rejoice with what heaven is doing right now. Yeah, hey, to those of you that are standing, I remember that moment when I came to follow Jesus for the first time. It changed everything about the rest of my life. It was the best decision I've ever made and I'm so excited for you that you get to know and follow Jesus. Your life will never, ever, ever, be the same.

Speaker 1: 37:12

What we're gonna do right now is we're gonna respond in worship. If you are standing, you've got leaders who are at the back or the sides of the room and I would encourage you, I would ask you to, during this time of worship, to go find them and talk to them, have a conversation with them, and if you are sitting right now and you're like man I didn't stand, but I do want to follow Jesus you can go find them as well. Or if you've got anything else going on in your life, if you're like man, I've got this hidden sin, or I want to get baptized, or this is going on with my parents. I just need to share this with someone. Now's the time to go do that. So now, for the rest of us, let's stand, let's respond and if you decide to follow Jesus, go find your leader.