Our Hope Henderson Congregation Pastor, Jeff Phillips, joined us this weekend and shared a word from Mark 12:1-12. We looked at learned some characteristics of God: He is Good, He is Patient, He is Love, He is Just, and He is Grace.
Hope Church LV Sermons
The Character of God
- Thank you for joining us today. We're excited you came across this message. The sermon you're about to watch is from our verse by verse study through the Gospel of Mark. Up to this point in our series, we have seen the first half of the book. In chapters one through eight, Jesus demonstrated through his life, miracles and teaching that he truly is the Son of God. And through the second half of Mark, we'll see Jesus establishing his kingdom by going to the cross. Our entire study through the Gospel of Mark thus far is available in our feet. We would love for you to join in. If you're joining us for the first time, I want to be the first to say welcome to Hope Church. Go ahead and open up the Hope Church LV app or visit hopechurchlv.com and click connect with us to fill out a short digital connection card. Once again, thank you so much for joining us today. Good morning Hope Church. My name is Bridget Nichols. I have been with Hope for about two and a half years and I have the privilege of serving in community groups, the hub and the care ministries. Today's passage was taken from the Mark chapter 12 verses one to 12 and it is the parable of the tenants. And he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent the servant to the tenants to get some of them fruit of the vineyards and they took him and beat him and sent him away empty handed. Again, he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully and he sent another and him they killed. And so with so many others, some they beat and some they killed. He sat still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent them to them saying, "They will respect my son." But those tenants said to one another, "This is the heir. "Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours." And they took him and killed him and threw him out into the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyards to others. Have you not read the scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing it and it is a marvelous in our eyes. And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. This is the word of God. - Amen, amen. Thank you, Bridget. Well, it's an honor to be with you today. As many of you know, I was the next gen pastor here at Hope Las Vegas from 2016 to 2021. And then in early 2021, through a series of circumstances, Hope Church was able to begin a new congregation in Henderson. And I was asked to go over there to lead that congregation. So for the last three years, thanks to your generosity here at Hope Las Vegas, I've been able to be the pastor at Hope Henderson. And also as many of you know or may have discovered today that we are now one church with three congregations here in Las Vegas and Henderson and in Boulder City. So, yeah, same man, amen. And myself and Pastor Eric Schelner from Boulder City, we get the opportunity every single Monday morning to meet here at Hope Las Vegas in our teaching team meetings each week. And together as a team, we sit around and we talk through each week's message, the Bible verses, the series, all of those kinds of things. And although the messages are delivered by three different teachers and three different locations, it also means that the sermons sound three different, sermons sound pretty different. But we are all united around God's word and around the teaching series. And so I'm always grateful for the leadership, I've hoped church from the lead team to our lead pastor, Scott Worthington. I want you to know the pastor, Scott Worthington loves Hope Church. And I am so thankful that God has placed him to be the pastor and I'm honored to serve alongside with him. Well, as we continue today, we are still in our verse by verse journey through the book of Mark. Let me ask you a quick question. Have you ever been in a meeting, maybe at work or at school where the boss or the leader of the meeting begins the meeting with something like this? This person, you're like, "Oh." This person is, and it may go negative, this person is never on time. This person never has their projects in before the deadline. You start going, "Okay, who in the room is that person?" All right, you start looking around. Or they may go positive, this person is always on time. They're one of our best employees. They always meet deadlines with their projects. Something's happening in those meetings and they always say, "They never give you the name." They just make you guess, right? So the whole time you're sitting there in the group going, "Okay, who's he talking about?" Who is she talking about? As we go around the room, I'm like, "Oh, nope, no, that." He said that, that disqualifies that person. You can't, you know? And then, have you ever been in that meeting where halfway through the meeting, you go, they're talking about me. They're talking about me. This is a perfect picture of what we see today in today's text. Jesus is continuing to talk to the religious leaders in his very last week on earth. And he tells these religious leaders a story, a story that we just heard read. And at some point in the story, the religious leaders realize, "Oh, he's talking about us." In this story that Jesus tells in our text today, we see how good and patient and loving and gracious God is, but we will also see that God's patience comes to an end because we see that God is a just God. I hope what we're about to hear today will encourage us and motivate us and transform us into deeper followers of Jesus, 'cause in this parable, we're gonna see five different aspects of God's character and how each of those aspects of his character relates to each one of us. So what do we see? Well, let's look again. Mark chapter 12, beginning with verse one. And he began, Jesus began to speak to them, the religious leaders in parables. A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country. The first thing we learned here about God is that our God is good. God will always provide everything we need to accomplish his will in our lives. He is a good God. Let's consider verse one. Jesus says, a man planted a vineyard. This owner, this man begins to provide for needs. This man also built a fence around the vineyard. He's now providing protection from animals or thieves who could come in and steal from the vineyard. Then the man dug a pit for the pressing out of the grape juice so the wall provided protection, but now the pit is producing a way for the vineyard to be productive. The pit would allow them to make juice or wine or even some jam or jelly. This would be a productive vineyard. He even built a tower. Now, for you hunters in the room, this is not a deer stand, all right? This is a different kind of tower. This tower not only served as a lookout point, but also it housed the people that lived or provided for the farm. The man, the owner, the vineyard, he is a good owner who provides good things. And he has provided everything needed to accomplish what a vineyard should accomplish. The man in this parable represents God. Just as the man is a good owner, so God is a good God and provides everything we need. Not once, but everything we need to accomplish everything he wants us to accomplish. Look at what the psalmist says in Psalm 119 verse 68. He says, you are good and you do good. Psalm 34, eight says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good over and over again. The Bible reminds us of how good he is through the pages. For us, we see this often in his word. Why does God want to tell us this? Because we, you and I, we have a tendency to forget the goodness of God sometimes when bad things happen. When the vineyard of our lives is attacked by an animal or a thief tries to take something away that doesn't belong to them, we begin to question God's goodness. When the vineyard of our lives experiences drought, we wonder and look at God and wonder if God really knows what he's doing. Is he really in control? Is he really a good God? Many of us have had experiences in our lives so we've had the opportunity to question God's goodness. In my own life, when I was five years old, my 14 month old little brother Matthew died of spinal meningitis. Two years later, my parents never recovered from that and they got divorced. So by the time I was eight years old, I was an only child who had seen my little brother die and my parents divorced. I had opportunity to look at God and say, God, I don't think you know what you're doing and I definitely don't think that you're a good God. But I'll tell you this, throughout the years, I stand here as a living testimony of the goodness of God in my life as it's transpired over the years. (audience applauds) Jesus said in this world, you are going to have trouble and just because trouble happens and your life gets difficult does not mean that God is not good. God is a good God because he's going to give you what you need to accomplish his will for your life. So our God is good and at this point in the parable, what we need to know is that the owner now has leased out his vineyard to some tenants, to some other farmers. And as the owner now has moved somewhere else, we see that at the end of verse one and he leased it to tenants and went into another country. Look at verse two, and when the season came, the harvest season, when it came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard and they took him and beat him and sent him away empty handed. We see that not only is our God good, and number two we see our God is patient. God's patience has a long leash. Praise God. The timer of God's patience moves very slow. And at times it seems God's patience is endless. Here other tenants or farmers have now leased the farm and they are working the farm. And we see in verse two that at the time of the great harvest, the owner sends a servant in to collect his share of the crop. The tenants not only get to live at the vineyard and look over the vineyard and work at the vineyard, but they also get paid by what is produced by the vineyard. The owner has provided for every one of their needs. However, the owner also makes a certain percentage off of the vineyard, but these tenants decided that they wanted the vineyard for themselves. They wanted to keep everything to themselves and at some point they decided to take control of the vineyard and to claim it as their own. So one day at the time of the great harvest, the owner sends a servant in to collect their share and his share and they take the servant and they grab the servant and they beat the servant up and they send him away empty-handed. Let me just ask you this. How would you respond to that if you were the owner? I mean, maybe there's someone in your family, you know? Maybe you got a guy. You know, you got a guy that takes care of stuff for you. Maybe you got a cousin, his name is Big Tiny. Maybe there's a family friend, his name is Crusher. What do you do, you and Big Tiny go down to that vineyard that you own and you show up with your posse and you go, you knock some heads around and you take back, what's yours? Some of you are like, I am not that violent. Well, maybe you are less violent. Maybe, you know, here in Vegas is all these lawyer billboards and commercials and so maybe you go get a lawyer and sue those tenants for breach of contract, right? Why do we do that? You know why we do that? Because we're fallen humans and we are vengeful people. But the owner of the vineyard is different. He's patient, very patient. Look at verse four. Again, he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and they treated him shamefully. I mean, I don't know about you but I was already expecting the owner to do something about the first guy. Now he sends a second guy in. Surely he's gonna do something with this guy. But he doesn't. Look at verse five. And then he sent another. He sent another servant and him, they killed. What is going on? I mean, the owner sends the first servant that tenants beat him up, send him back empty-handed. He sends the second servant that beat him up and bash his head in, send him away. Now he's sent a third servant and they have killed the third servant. What is happening? So the owner decides to send another servant. Look at verse five. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. The owner decided to keep sending servant after servant, after servant. And the tenants either beat him up or killed him. I mean, what is going on in this story? Jesus, what are you talking about? What Jesus is saying in this parable, we need to understand first of all, the characters in the parable. Look at the people in the parable. We've already distinguished that the man, the owner, represents God. The vineyard represents the Israelites. The tenants are the religious leaders and the servants are the prophets and messengers of God. The religious leaders don't yet see themselves in the parable yet. Jesus is setting up the religious leaders. This parable illustrates that God sending one prophet after another to the Israelites. The prophets were spokesman for the Lord. They spoke on behalf of God. God told them they spoke. Prophets like Isaiah. Isaiah is often referred to as the messianic prophet because of his many prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus. The New Testament quotes and applies more scriptures from the book of Isaiah than any other Old Testament prophet. But Jesus is saying here to the religious leaders in his story in our parable today. He said, "You didn't listen to Isaiah." And we have Jeremiah, the prophet who constantly taught the people of Israel that their hearts were hardened towards God because of their sin. And Jesus says to the religious leaders, you didn't listen to the prophet Jeremiah either. God sent too many prophets to Israel to count. 17 of those prophets wrote books that we have in the Old Testament. Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Tejona, to Obadiah, to Haggai, all the way to Malachi. And that's just to name a few of those that wrote books that we have in the Old Testament. Not to mention other major prophets like the prophet Elijah or the prophet Elisha. And each one of these prophets when they came to the people were either insulted, ignored, beaten, or killed by the religious leaders. The last prophet and messenger that God sent before Jesus walked the earth was a man by the name of John the Baptist. And they beheaded him. By sending his prophets and messengers throughout the centuries, God was demonstrating his patience with the people. God was patient and persistent. For you and me, God does the same thing, doesn't he? God sends his messenger into your life. Maybe it's a friend, a co-worker, a family member to you, maybe a pastor, a small group leader. I mean, think about it. What was it that first told you about Jesus? That person was God's messenger sent to you. What do we do with that person? Well, for some of us, you may have been like the tenants. That first person, those people coming along, those messengers, you rejected them. You mocked them, you ridiculed the messengers that God was sending your way. Maybe some of you had Christian loving parents who prayed for you and loved you and shared God's word with you, but then you rejected them. You made their life miserable. You disobeyed them, you even maybe even lied to them. But God, the whole time was patient with you. He sent more and more of his people into your life until one day, your eyes awakened to the reality of God's love for you and you syringed your life to him and began a relationship with him. Praise God for that day, man. (audience applauding) Have you ever been here? Jesus follower? Maybe after you became a Jesus follower, God sends someone else into your life to help confront a sin in your life or to help you grow in your relationship with him. Have you ever ignored him? Have you ever gotten angry with him or even judged them? Who are you? Come to me. Ever been there? Sometimes we still reject, ignore the messengers God sends our way. On the other side of that, every Jesus follower in this room has been called now to be a messenger of him, to be his voice, to speak on his behalf, to be an ambassador, as Paul says. We talked about this last month in our compelling disciple series. You are now the one that God speaks through. You have now been sent to share the gospel and God's word and his wisdom with others, but have you ever found yourself rejected, ignored, belittled, are devalued by the very people that you're sharing God's love with? Sometimes it's very difficult to be a messenger of God, but we need to be patient, just like God was patient with you and others. So far in this parable, we've seen that our God is good. He has great provision for us. We've seen that our God is patient through his messengers. We see another aspect of God in verse six. In Mark 12, six, he says, and he still had one other, a beloved son, finally he sent him to them, saying they will respect my son. Our God is good, our God is patient and our God is love. At this point in the parable, Jesus surprises the listeners. The owner of the vineyard has sent all of his servants, but there is one person that he has yet to send. The owner decided to send his one son, whom he loved dearly. The owner's thinking, they insulted my servants, they beat up my servants, they bashed the head in and my servants, they've even killed my servants. Surely they will respect my son. I'm gonna send him and then something terrible happened. Look at verse seven, but those tenants said to one another, this is the heir, come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. And they took him and they killed him and they threw him out of the vineyard. See the owner knew he was sending his son into danger, but his love for the vineyard, his commitment to the vineyard, his purpose for the vineyard compelled him to send his son the perfect representative. But what happened? The tenants came and they turned on the owner, they killed the son and they threw his body out like common trash. And the craziest thing to think about as we relate the vineyard owner to God is that this was God's plan all along. To send the servants, the prophets, to prepare the way for the son, then to send the son at just the right time. Look how the new living translation says in Galatians chapter four, verse four. But when the right time came, God sent his son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, prompting us to call out Abba Father. God's way is perfect, his timing is perfect. And when I think of the parallels between the owner and God and God sending his one and only son into the world, I can't help but think about verses like John 3 16. God still loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Look at verse 17, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." The new living translation also gives us an awesome verse here. Look at 1 John 4 and 9, and 10, look at this translation. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. Listen to this, this is real love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (congregation applauding) And knowing what would happen, the heavenly Father sent his son Jesus into the world to pay the penalty for our sins. Now, remember Jesus is telling this story to the religious leaders. We just saw in the previous chapter in Mark 11 that this is Jesus' last week on the earth. Jesus cursed the fig tree and then he completely cleared out the temple of the money changers and the people who had turned sacrifices that were meant for purity into a business. And last week, Pastor Trenton helped us to see how Jesus established his authority in a brief conversation with these same religious leaders that we pick up the story with here. Now Jesus is telling these same religious leaders a story, a story that they feel like has nothing to do with them until it does. But they're still listening to Jesus' story. And at this point, Jesus asked a question in verse nine. And before anyone could answer that question, Jesus gives an answer, look at verse nine. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Not only is God a good God, a patient God, a loving God, but he's also a just God. Our God is just. God's patience is not endless. We think it is, but it's not. At some point, every generation and every person experiences an end to that patience when we stop breathing our last breath on this earth and we stand before him. He is very patient. He is very long suffering when it comes to us rebelling against him. However, there always comes a time when that patience runs out. You know, a lot of us parent that way, don't we? But my daughter was about nine, 10, maybe 11 months old. She was a crawler at the time, hadn't yet walked. This is about 20 years ago when she was that young and 20 years ago, we still got this thing that magically appeared on our driveway called a newspaper. Can I remember this? I used to get a newspaper every single day, helped me keep up with my news, my sports scores. And so, but as what happened, you would get a daily paper and that paper would begin to pile up in your home and we put that paper in a basket on the floor at the end of our couch. What we didn't realize is brand new parents of a crawling toddler is that little crawling toddlers absolutely love the sound and crunch and look of newspaper. Combine drool that comes from them teething with the ink on the paper, you've got a mess on your hands. And she had a mess on her hands and on her face and on her arms and on her legs. Now, we have one or two options to do here. We could either pick these papers up and get them out of sight of the crawling toddler or we could choose to parent our toddler not to touch those things. And we chose to parent and help her understand she's not to touch those things. So inevitably, she'd crawl over there close to the papers, so we'd pick her up and we'd distract her with a baby doll or a toy and she'd be content 'cause that's what babies are, I love that about them. And then she'd remember papers and then she'd put that down and she'd crawl back and we'd pick her up and distract her with another toy and she would be playing with that and then she'd remember papers and she would crawl back and we did this little thing for a little bit but then there was this one time she was crawling over to the papers and I stayed on the couch. I didn't redirect her that time. I said, "Emma, no, do not touch the papers." And this little girl crawled over to that basket and she put a big smile on her face and she took one finger and she touched those papers. That may seem really cute to all of you but that's when my patience ran out. (audience laughing) Now here's the thing, I did not remove her from the vineyard like God did, these, right? She's right there, she's 22 years old. She's still living today. But she did experience some consequences from her newspaper touching actions that day, right? Well, praise God. That as long as we're breathing on this earth, he remains patient with us but there always comes a moment when the patience runs out and Jesus is illustrating that to the tenants that he is gonna cut them off and make a new covenant through Jesus with all who will believe in him for salvation and for you and me, we need to see and hear that not only is God good, loving and patient but he is also a just God and his judgment on sin is not because he's mean, it's not because he's mad, it's not because he's vengeful, like we would be as fallen humans. He judges because he is holy and righteous and his nature and character demands that he judges sin. Listen carefully Hebrews chapter nine, look at verse 27. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, listen, and after that comes judgment. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly awaiting for him. You know when God's patience runs out, the day you die. He's patient with you with every breath you take on this earth, every second, but the day that your breath ends on this earth, you will stand before him one day and that's when judgment happens. We see that in Hebrews chapter nine. However, it's the good news. If you have a relationship with God through Jesus here on earth, your sins are forgiven because of what Jesus Christ did and you will receive salvation from his justice. (congregation applauding) Now why is that? 'Cause not only is our God good, patient, loving and just, but God never ends his story on judgment. Look as we continue in Mark 12, look at verse 10. Jesus says, have you not read the scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Why does he say that sentence? Why does he quote here out of Psalm 18? You know why? Because our God is grace. He's grace. After telling the parable, Jesus offers this next prophecy saying that while he came to die, his death by no means was the end. In fact, it was a part of God's perfect plan of salvation for all who believe and begin a relationship with God here on this earth. Jesus quoted Psalm 118. The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. Even though the religious leaders would reject him, God would exalt him. The stone, the builders rejected would become the cornerstone of all of our relationship with God. In the book of Acts, Peter and John were out doing ministry after Jesus had ascended and after the Holy Spirit had fallen at Pentecost. They were out preaching and teaching to anyone who would listen about Jesus' life, death, burial and resurrection. This made the religious leaders the same one Jesus had been talking to. This made the religious leaders upset and so they arrested Peter and John. And just like we heard last week when these same religious leaders went up to Jesus and said, hey, where do you get your authority to speak and teach like this? They asked Peter and John where they got their authority, especially in relation to the healing of a man. Look at Acts chapter four, verse eight. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders. This is the religious leaders. If we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus, take a look what he says. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has now become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. (congregation applauding) Peter saying right here, Jesus is the stone that the religious leaders rejected, and he is the cornerstone of our salvation. Back to Mark 12, when Jesus says this statement to the religious leaders in this parable, it's a reminder of God's sovereign plan of his incredible grace, he's trying to tell them that his life, death, burial, and resurrection will now be the cornerstone to having a relationship with God. For us, we may take his goodness for granted, but his goodness is the cornerstone. We may take his patience for granted, but his patience is the cornerstone. We may take his love for granted, but his love is the cornerstone. We may take his justice for granted, but his justice is the cornerstone. We may take his grace for granted, but his grace is the cornerstone of salvation. Is the grace of God that he's extended to you and me? Look how Paul says that in Ephesians chapter two, verse one, "And you were dead, and the trespasses, and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the heir, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. It's by grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Jesus accomplished salvation. It is available for all who will believe. Well, what was the religious leader's response? Look at it in verse 12 on Mark 12 says this, and they were seeking to arrest Jesus, but feared the people for they perceived here it is, that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. There it is. Finally, they were listening to this whole story, this whole parable. And they were starting to put the pieces of the story together and they realized at some point, wait a minute, he's talking about us. Jesus used this story as an opportunity to warn the religious leaders, but they would not hear. They continued in their plans to silence and ultimately kill Jesus for you and me. (gentle music) Is that story about you? For you and me, we must consider our own heart. How have we responded to God? How have we responded to God's messengers that he sent to you? God is good. He made a way for you to have a relationship with him. He's patient as long as you are breathing breaths on this earth. His patience has not ended with you. God is loving. He sent his one and only son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for your sin, a penalty you and I should have paid, but he paid on that cross when he died of gruesome death was buried. The three days later, he rose again forever defeating the power of sin and death over our lives. Our God is just, he judges sin, but he has a plan for each person on this planet, for us through Jesus to rescue us from our sin because he's gracious. We don't deserve it, but he did it anyway. I wanna encourage you today to respond to him with repentance and worship and surrender and faith. What we're about to do is a response time. We do this at all three congregations. And we do a response song and a response time because as a church, we're asking you to ask yourself and ask God and to say, God, is there anything that I've heard from your word today that you want me to deal with in my own life? That's why we do these songs. We do this again, all three congregations 'cause we wanna give you that opportunity to respond to him. Now, I realize that there are some that trying to be people out of the parking lot miss out on that song. Here's my hope and prayer is that when we respond to him and when we sing these songs to him, we would be in prayer saying, God, is there any, and if there's something then do it, deal with it. Get along with God up here at the steps or come up here and pray with a prayer team or get along with God in your seat or whatever that looks like, whatever God the Holy Spirit's leading you to do. If it's not anything, pray for the people around you that God would do great things. But let's respond to him. If you don't have relationship with God through Jesus today, we say it like this. It's simple to begin a relationship with Jesus. It's not easy, but it's simple. The way we say it sometimes, I hope in your sense, it's as simple as the A, B, C's. To begin a relationship with God through Jesus, A means admit, admit that you're a sinner. That's pretty simple. If you're married, you can't admit that. Just ask your spouse, they'll let you know. Your parents let you know as you grew up, you're a sinner. We mess up, we're sinners. A is admit you're a sinner. B is to believe, believe that God loves you so much he sent Jesus, his one only son to pay the penalty for your sin dying on the cross, but raising again three days later forever, defeating the power of sin and death so that you can live in freedom. Believe in God's love for you. A is admit you're a sinner. B is to believe. And C is the not so easy part. C is to confess him as the Lord, the boss of your life. Saying to him, God, I'm a terrible boss of my own life. And so God, I need you, the one who created me. I need you to be the boss of my life. I'm surrendering my life to you. I'm confessing you as the Lord of my life. It's as simple as the ABCs, but that's not easy. 'Cause it's not easy to make somebody else the boss of your life. But maybe today, you say, I don't have a relationship with God through Jesus, and maybe today you need to admit you're a sinner and believe God's love for you and to confess him as the Lord of your life, surrendering your life to his authority. If you need to do that today, we'd love to talk to you about what some people on the prayer team that would love to talk to you about. He said, I wanna come up in front of all these people, that's okay, you can go out to the lobby, we have some people in the lobby at guest services that love to talk to you about it. But for the Jesus follower in the room today, you say, man, the ABC stuff, I did that when I was a kid. Awesome, great. Let me ask you as a Jesus follower in the room, have you taken the goodness of God for granted? Do you need to repent of that today? Have you taken the patience of God for you for granted? Maybe you need to get along with God today and say, God, I'm sorry, I've taken your patience for granted. Have you taken his unending love for you for granted? Say, now God, you'll love me anyway, no matter what I do, and you will, but have you taken it for granted? Maybe you need to repent of some things today, maybe you need to come to these steps. Have you taken his grace for granted? I don't know what it looks like today for you. That's why we give you the chance to respond. We give you the opportunity to stand before God and say, holy spirit, is there anything that I've heard today through your word? Is there anything that I need to deal with? And then do it. Just ask him, holy spirit, today, we pray that you would help us to see you in incredible ways, that we would be excited about what you're doing in our own hearts right now. God, there's some people in this room that need to begin a relationship with you for the very first time. They need to step into those ABCs, and so God, I pray that you would help them to enter into a relationship with you, give them boldness and courage to do it today. They wouldn't leave this property without doing it. God, for Jesus followers in the room, God, would you draw us to repentance? God, there are so many times we take your goodness, your patience, your love, your grace for granted. God, whatever it is, we pray for freedom in the spirit, in Jesus' name, and freedom in the spirit, for you, holy spirit, to move as freely as you want to move right now. God, if that means you draw us down to get on our knees at these steps, to get alone before you, to have somebody pray for us, or to just get on our knees in our seat, or to sit down, or to stand up and raise our hands. God, whatever that looks like today, God, help us to be obedient to you right now as we respond to what we've heard today. Lead us now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. Let's stand church as we respond to him. (soft music) [BLANK_AUDIO]