Just as redwood trees gain strength through interconnected roots, we too grow stronger when we're connected to the body of Christ. We're challenged to play our part, recognizing that each of us has a unique role in building up the church.
Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/3WsWlwO
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LIFE Church
Ephesians, The Radiant Church Part 4 | Pastor Caleb Thomason
Just as redwood trees gain strength through interconnected roots, we too grow stronger when we're connected to the body of Christ. We're challenged to play our part, recognizing that each of us has a unique role in building up the church.Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/3WsWlwOWebsite | https://lifechurchww.comFacebook | https://facebook.com/lifechurchwwInstagram | https://instagram.com/lifechurchwwVida Music | https://vidamsc.com
- Duration:
- 35m
- Broadcast on:
- 28 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
[MUSIC PLAYING] Thanks for listening to the Life Church podcast. We hope you enjoy this message. For more information about Life Church, visit lifechurchwww.com. Well, I'm excited to continue on in our series in the book of Ephesians. How many of you just have loved this series? Hasn't it been great? We're halfway there. And we're not living on a prayer, but we're halfway there. So we're going to do week four this week. And if you remember our kind of breakdown of the six chapters is Paul starts by talking about the wealth of the church. And really, starting in chapter three, going all through chapter four, which we talked about last week. And we're going to hit today and into chapter five. In fact, most of chapter five, he's going to talk about the walk of the church. And then we're going to get to towards the end of the book, the warfare of the church. Now, we're going to be hanging in here in the walk of the church. But I want us to remember this, as I mentioned last week. And if you weren't here, make sure you jump online. If there's any week that you missed, make sure you jump on and check out those weeks. But what I want to understand is that Paul's talking about us maturing as believers, maturing as Christians. And what he's really going to talk about is stop being immature, then talking about living for the world and our old nature. And we're going to progress towards being imitators of Christ, which we'll talk about in chapter five. So we're going from immature to imitators. And in the midst of our growth, he's going to hit on what is-- I will say this, it's not just a set of key verses for this chapter or this book, but really all of the New Testament. And I want to look at those together. And so I wonder if we can do this. Could we stand together for the reading of God's Word? The Bible says the grass withers in the flower phase, but the Word of the Lord will stand forever. Amen. We're going to read a few verses, and then we're going to pray together before we're seated. But check this out, Ephesians 4, starting in verse 1. Therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling. For you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. That's for somebody today. That's for all of us today. Be patient with each other. OK, Paul, that's enough for today. We're fine. We're fine. No, no, no. Making allowance for one another's faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit. Binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one spirit just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church. The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. I memorize that by the five-fold ministry. All pandas eat pop tarts, in case you're wondering. I hang out with young people a lot, and I'm all about things that help us remember things. That was a gift. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son. That we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we'll no longer be immature like children. Come on, somebody. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever that they sound like the truth. Instead, which is us. Instead, all these things. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ who is the head of the body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. This is God's design for the church. So we're gonna talk about this today. Before we see that, I want us to not just pray for this morning that God would encounter each one of us, but I wanna pray for the fires, everyone that's affected by them. I'm gonna pray for everyone that's out there fighting for them as well. So can we just gather together in that and unified in heart? Father, we thank you so much for the privilege to gather together today. God, we come as a collective of your people. And we ask God for your grace to be on those that are fighting the fires. God, those that have been affected by them. We ask for your comforting arms of heaven to envelop them. Father, we thank you that you're with them and amongst them. And God, we ask as a collective, would you send rain God? Would you send rain? We just ask God, would you send rain? And would you put a stop to so many of these fires are burning? Father, we ask today that as we gather around your word that your grace would be amongst us today and that we walk out of here different than the way we walked in. In Jesus' name and everybody said amen. You can be seated, you can be seated. Last year, my family, right at the beginning of summer, we went on a road trip, a 10 day road trip and an RV. And I know, you're like, dude, you have four kids. What are you doing to yourself? It was actually a lot of fun. It was really cool. Nothing makes you feel more redneck than driving a gigantic RV through downtown Los Angeles. And I'm just like, I mean, I've never got more one finger salutes in my whole life. But I'm just blessing the Lord. Get out of my way, I'm just blessing the Lord, right? And we went to a lot of places. We actually went down to California and kind of worked our way back up. And one of the things that I wanted to do, but we didn't get to do, is I wanted to go to see the redwoods, these massive trees. And many of you have probably been. And if you haven't, they're just the most enormous trees on the planet. They're like, they range anywhere from like 200, I think the tallest is like 390 feet tall, which is crazy. Like their circumference is like 27 to 29 feet. They're just absolutely massive. They're like 2000 years old. I mean, I just want to kind of go and stare at the enormity of them. Here's something interesting that I didn't know about them that I found out. Their root system actually goes down only about six or 10 feet into the ground. I didn't know that. But the roots go horizontally up to 100 feet. And not only is that pretty cool, but I'm like, that's awesome. The roots are completely intertwined with each other. So they build this massive, this is how they get their strength and their enormity and their grandeur is by actually being interconnected to each other. So when I think about this vast enormity and how they're able to grow, it's interesting how it comes from their interconnectedness. And Paul is talking in chapter three and all three, four and big chunk of five about how we're to grow and mature in him and what he makes sure that we understand is a key to that commitment and that growth is this commitment to the local body of believers as being significant to our growth. Listen, I want to make sure we get this. You cannot mature without other people. And I know what some of us think, no, no, that's not true. They're the immature ones. I'm the mature one, no, no, no. You cannot grow by yourself. And so I want to look through, out of this chapter, there's a lot of the Paul emphasizes, but I want to look specifically at three things that he calls us to, not just for our own growth, but for the growth of the church. And the first one is this, we have to play our part. We have to play our part. Look what he says here in Ephesians chapter four, look at this, he makes the whole body fit together perfectly, imperfect people, but they fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. He makes sure that we understand if there's going to be a growing in you and that there's going to be a healthy growth within the church that we each have to do our own part. Look at this, as, as each part, meaning that it's contingent on the fact that you're stepping into the game and you're being a part of it, that we each have our own part. And as we do our own part, we all grow, not just individually, but as a collective. So turn it over and say, grow with me, grow with me. But it's as a result of doing our own part that the church grows. In fact, I often will talk to people that feel like they're stunted or stuck in their growth in the Lord. And I'll tell them this. Don't just go and look at areas of sin in your life. Let me ask you this question. Are you serving? Because he makes it so contingent. If we do our part, we all have to play our own part that not just we just don't gather, but we actually engage in what God's doing. If you feel stunted in your growth in God, just don't look at areas of sin. Ask yourself, am I actually connected? Am I serving what God's doing? Because listen, the way that God is going to mature us, the things that he wants to work in you and the things he wants to work out of you, he's gonna use people to do it. And all the married people in the room said, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within." Listen, the accountability that you need, the discipleship that you need is gonna be found when everyone does their own part and we interconnect our lives. Here's what I love what Psalm says this. Those who are planted, those that are actually planted, planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God. And every week we have 200 dream teamers that show up to put on across our two locations, to put on and have a big part, have a, making this whole thing happen. And if I were to interview any one of them, they would all probably say the same thing. I am growing and I am flourishing. And one of those many reasons why is because I'm planted myself in the house of God. Listen, you need the body and the body needs you and not just showing up but actually playing your part. Can I get a name in? And here's what Paul's gonna say, his emphasis. Listen, this is such an emphasis to him. He lets us know how the structure of church works and he says this in Ephesians. He said, "Now these are the gifts that Christ gave "to the church, the apostles, "the prophets, the evangelists and the pastors and teachers." Look at this, their responsibility is to equip God's people. Contrary to popular belief, my role as a pastor is not only to do weddings and funerals. My primary role, my primary role as a pastor in this church is to do this, equip God's people to do his work and to build up the church which is the body of Christ. That is what we're here for, is to get people geared up for what God has you doing. So here's what this means. That the pastors are teaching you how to pastor your employee. That the prophets are teaching you how to get prophetic words and discernment for people that you work with to encourage them. The evangelists are encouraging us, challenging us and teaching us how to share the gospel in our workplace and people in our own family. This is how we're being equipped up because you weren't made for the bleachers, you're made for the game. (audience applauding) Now, when I was in junior high, I actually was, this is my official title, equipment manager for the varsity baseball team. It was really just me trying to get in close with the coach. I just had this goal of starting on varsity as a freshman, and so I was like, "Hey, can I help out?" And there's like, "Sure, you can carry the gear." But I was an equipment manager, which is funny that I was an equipment manager in junior high. I'm actually still an equipment manager. (audience laughing) Oh, come on, somebody. Pun intended. But here's the deal. I always had to catch, carry all the gear. And I remember one of the things I had to carry was like the catcher's gear, like all of his gear or whatnot. And so I would take it to and from the bus and bring it out there and even pull it out of the bag. But here's the deal. It wasn't for me. I was actually not supposed to wear it. It was not for me to wear. In the same tone, if we understand that we all have a part to play, that every week we're gathering to be equipped for what God has in front of us. But the gear isn't for me. It's for all of us to do what God has called us to do. And here we are with gear ready to hand out in what we're finding nationally. The national average is only 10 to 20% to go to church are actually involved in serving in church. I mean, Jesus said this in Matthew chapter nine, that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. The kingdom of God had a labor shortage way before America ever did. And God's saying, I'm calling some people to come out of the stands and get their gear on to serve God's purpose by serving God's people in God's house. Can I get a name in? Come on, somebody. And you can't do, listen, you can't do somebody else's part. You can only do your part. I find this happening a lot. Like we find ourselves wanting to do other people's parts. Here's what Paul writes. He says, he makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work. Its own special work. Don't try to do somebody else. Listen, I gotta say this, because I see the body of Christ sometimes getting so unhealthy because we're just getting killed by comparison. We're just wanting somebody else and wish we could be this. What I find is the body of Christ is not as healthy as it could be because we have people that are built to be hands, trying to be feet. And we've got people that are feet trying to be an arm. You just need to play the part that God has called you to play, stop comparing and watch how much will grow and be healthy and how the ball will move forward as it were in the kingdom of God. (congregation applauding) I make a horrible Bob Grimm. A horrible Bob Grimm. Mostly because I'm actually aging. Unlike him, I'm actually aging. So I'm just by default. Don't worry, I got one on him. I can grow a beard like in two hours. I clean shaved this morning. This is, I razor shaved this morning. So I make a horrible Bob Grimm. But I make a great Caleb Thomason. I make a great Caleb Thomason. I recognize the part that I have to play. Listen, I think for some of us, we just got to recognize that you're one of a kind. Here's the horrible thing about comparing is, in order to compare, we often have to devalue ourselves in order to do it. Well, I just wish I could do so and so I could do this. And when we devalue that, really what we're doing is we're saying, God, you didn't do a good job at making me the way that you made me. But how about we just put comparison aside and say, God, you've equipped me to do a job. And so I'm going to stop comparing. I'm going to take ownership. I'm going to get equipped and I'm going to get in the game. And if you don't know the part that you're called to play, well, we have coaches all over the place that are happy to help you discover, hello, discover experience 11 o'clock. Oh yeah, this is a push. I'm not even going to make any films about it. That sounds kind of sales pitchy. It absolutely is sales pitchy. But if you don't know the part that you play, that's our role is to help you discover the part that you are called to play. Go to discover at 11 o'clock. Turn your name and say, gear up, gear up. Second thing is this, that Paul tells us to do. Look at these verses. "Therefore, I am prisoner, serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life, literally they'll be calling. For you've been called by God. Always be humble and gentle, be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love and make every effort, every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace." Second thought is this that Paul calls us to you in our growth and the healthy growing of the church. So we got to fight for unity. We have to fight for unity. Paul says make every effort to live in unity with one another. It's almost as though he knew the power of a unified church. And so he says, whoa, you got to make sure under inspirational Holy Spirit, he's right. You have to make every effort to live in unity with one another. Like I can't help but think that as he's sitting there under inspirational Holy Spirit, writing these things, writing these things down, that he begins to imagine in his mind a collective group of people, all from different backgrounds and different places and experiences coming together and being unified in Christ. The vast power that that actually is. I mean, think about this. Jesus said in John 17, he said, "Father, I pray that they would be one in the same way that you and I are one." I mean, think about that. Think about this. First, Jesus and the Father in perfect unity. I mean, you want to talk about powerful, right? Now here's what's crazy. I believe Jesus didn't come to the planet to die for our sins. I believe one of the many things he came to do was to model to us what the power, the magnitude that can happen when someone or some people live in perfect union with the Father. And so here's what he's saying. I pray that they, not just notice he doesn't. I just pray that one of them would live in unity. No, he says, "I pray that they would live in unity in the same way that we are in unity, in the same level of oneness." He's thinking of the church being together like that. And you want to talk about powerful. You want to talk about unstoppable. I love this verse out of Psalm, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is." How amazing it is when the brothers dwell in unity. Imagine the magnitude of a unified church. Now I want you to imagine with me how the enemy of your soul would also, better than we do at times, recognize the power of that unity. And thus is gonna work over time to sow discord and disunity in the church. Think about this, he's gonna do everything he can to give us, I call this the distraction of disunity. It's to distract us from coming together and making every effort to be unified, to coming together and worshiping and gathering and encouraging and being equipped. And then not just leaving it here but taking it with us to wherever God, all the places and spaces that God has called us to, the distraction of disunity. He's working over time to work it in to our hearts. And so his ultimate goal is that you would somehow get offended and that you would leave your small group so that ultimately you would start talking trash about the church and be frustrated at her. Which by the way, we've already learned, you don't talk crud about God's wife, it's not a good idea. I'm just throwing that out there, right? But to get us hurt and get us offended, can I encourage you with this? People make mistakes. We all make mistakes, nobody's perfect. There's no such thing as a perfect church. But what the devil will try to do in your heart and your mind is saying, no, no, no, no. This was vindictive, this was intentional. This is all to get us bitter in our heart to sow discord and disunity. And Paul wouldn't say make every effort. In fact, before he even says, make every effort, look what he says. He says this, always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other. Making allowance for each other's faults. He says that statement before he says, make every effort to be in unity. It's as though he knows the people are gonna mess up. (congregation laughing) And that we have to be okay with the reality that people are going to mess up, people are gonna make mistakes, but we make allowances because we wanna fight for unity. I think a sign of immaturity is how easily offendable we are. God, I wanna mature. That's why Paul, do you know the very last verse that he puts in chapter four? Forgive one another. He wouldn't have put that in there if he didn't realize there's gonna be ample opportunity for forgiveness to be had in the midst of fighting for unity. Right? By the way, unity is really tested, not just when you agree. It's when you disagree that unity gets tested and we fight in the midst of it. So we need to fight for unity and a fight for unity is a fight against disunity. There's so much division in the church when we come together and say, God, I just love the privilege that we get to gather together with our brothers and sisters and to see what you wanna do in and through the earth. And every time we're doing fighting for unity, we're fighting against disunity 'cause every time we're making every effort for unity, the enemy's coming to make every effort to sow disunity, but we're saying not today, devil. And so any time he messes with a toe, the next thing you get the fist 'cause that's my brother, that's my sister, how 'bout the tooth? Where's the tooth? Tooth's gonna jump in there and say, no way. (audience applauds) It's worth fighting for. Can I say it, can I be honest with? It's worth fighting for. The body of Christ is worth fighting for to see the advancement of what God wants to do in the earth. Don't take the bait of disunity. So I say to people all the time, let's develop an allergy to disunity. Let's not gossip, let's get an allergy to that. But let's celebrate, let's encourage, and let's honor, and let's fight for unity. Come on, are you making every effort? Think to yourself, am I making every effort to fight for unity? Last thought is this, look what Paul writes. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build up and to build. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to build the church which is the body of Christ. Last thought is this, we have to have a burden to build. We gotta have a burden to build. I believe playing your part and fighting for unity really begin with having a burden to build. There's this guy in the Old Testament, his name was Nehemiah. And at the prelude up to the book of Nehemiah, is God's people have been released by miraculous hand of God. They have been released from captivity to go back and to build in their homeland again. And two groups of people have actually already went ahead and began to rebuild. And as Nehemiah begins to record in the first chapter of his book, he records that his brother, along with some other people come to visit him and in visiting him, he asks them, hey, how is the rebuilding going in Jerusalem? And this is the response, this is where we pick up the store. This is the response that he gets. And they said to me, things are not going well for those who return to the province of Judah, for they're in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down and the gates have been destroyed by fire. When I heard this, I sat down and I wept. Here's my thought for us. That we would be a people that would have the same heart that Nehemiah did for the church. That when it's, when we see an opportunity for the house of God to be built, we would carry a burden for it. The Bible says that he wept, when it wasn't being built, he said, and he just got so upset that he wept and if he'd go in to read that he fasted and he praised and he's like, my goodness, and he gets so burdened that he just doesn't weep, he actually does something about it. He ends up taking the third group of people to go and he actually puts people at the walls in families and says this, everybody's building. This is our city, this is our place to build, this is our time, and I wonder if we would be the kind of church that would have such a burden to build that we can't sit on the sidelines, but we would take our place in the wall and say, I wanna be a Nehemiah, I wanna see the house of God built, I just don't wanna watch it from afar, I wanna be a part. The kind of burden to build that would recognize that when disunity comes, 'cause Nehemiah saw all kinds of opposition that came against him, that we'd be the kind of people that when disunity comes, we wouldn't back down, we said, no, no, no, no, wait, no way, no way. When it tries to sew itself, I'm not backing down from that, and when culture tries to say that it's not important, that we don't buy it. Like, can I just say something for a minute? I'm not really taking a vote, it's like perceived democracy. So when I say things like, can I say something, I'm really not taking a vote, I'm just gonna say it, I just have to be honest with you. One of the things that Paul says in chapter four is, she says, don't be immature of being blown and tossed about by every deceitful scheme of the enemy that comes out culturally, lie, that tries to trick us. Do you wanna know what I believe one of the strongest modern day deceptions in our culture is, is that church is an important. That the body of Christ isn't that important. Friend, try telling that to Jesus. Who died for who, who bled out for her, and by the way, who's coming back for her. Don't tell me she's not important. Listen to me, 'cause this is about as strong as I'll ever say it. It is a deception from the devil to say that the 21st century church is a little different. It's not really important that we kinda gather, like they did in the early, are you kidding me? You have a better model for the early church, are you kidding me? I wanna see revival in the earth, and last time I looked, God doesn't pour revival out on the road. Well, I'm just gonna do it on my own. I'm gonna be a Rambo, no, no, no, no. Gather together. God pours his spirit out on the collective. When we gather together and treat it as utmost importance, that's why Hebrew chapter 10 says, to not forsake the gathering together. Don't do it, don't forsake it. As some have come in the custom of already doing, or as some have the habit of doing. But we'd not just gather, but get in the game. 'Cause when you have a heart and a burden for God's church, then guess what you also have? The same burden and the same heart that Jesus himself has. And I wanna be somebody that carries a burden. It's so funny, it seems like, man, the algorithm on the internet, it's just so funny to me. What it tries to feed you, right? I'm just gonna say this. It's just crazy how much self-promotion stuff puts out there. Well, if you'll just do this, and you'll do this, and you can become a millionaire from a one-bedroom apartment, you know? Like, look, I'm all about making money for the kingdom. We talked about it. But I wanna have a burden to build God's house, not a burden to build my own brand. Such a self-promoting, self-focused world. I wanna be kingdom focused. I say, God, what are you doing in the earth? That's what I wanna build. There's a story in Matthew 27, Jesus has died and been crucified. And his body's laying there, and you'll read in your Bible, that a man named Joseph, he comes to him, not his father, man of Joseph's bare methy. He comes to Pilate, the Roman official, in charge at the time, turned to Jesus over, wiped his hands, turned him over to be crucified. And it says this, that Joseph came to Pilate, and he begged for the body of Jesus. (gentle music) I wanna have that kind of burden for the body of Christ. God, I wanna see her growing. I wanna see her healthy. God, I wanna be a part of what you're doing in the earth. God, if I could be a part of it. 'Cause builders have a burden. If like, if you're not connected, you should feel convicted. To not just come and be here, but to actively be a part of what God's doing in and through this local expression of the church. To not just be in the stands, but to get on the field. Can I say this? This 100% truth. Where we are going as a church, we need as many builders that have a burden as we possibly can get. I'm telling you, we need as many as we possibly can get. So I wanna pray for us today. I wanna pray for this burden. And I know it's in some of us, and it's stirring in others. I believe that even today, I'm watering it, and some of us. God's been cultivating it to get in the game. 'Cause Paul gives, listen, I said it in the beginning, this is not just an emphasis of this book or chapter. It's of the New Testament, of the body of Christ. And I wanna pray for us today. And here's the only thing I can ask, is that we would open our hearts with receptivity, and then we allow the Lord to stir maybe a fresh, or maybe for the first time, a burden to build the house of God by serving God's people, and serving God's purpose in this local body. Father, I ask today, God, would you give us, would you help us, would you stir in us, the burden of Nehemiah, would you cultivate in us a burden like Joseph had for the body of Christ, be burdened God. They would be ones that would just be so burdened that we would cry out on behalf of. God in relish, just the opportunity, God, to be a part of what you're doing and building in the earth. Father, we ask that you would stir us today for a greater burden, God, the kind that pulls us out of the stands and onto the field, the kind that says, God, I'm committing to a new level of ownership in this thing called your body and church. I wanna play my part, God. I wanna fight for unity because I have a burden. And God, we have this burden that would move us to get equipped and get on the field. And anywhere there's a need, God, we wanna serve. We wanna help those that are hurting, that we can be a hospital for the hurting within this valley. Oh, God, with a privilege, it would be to be a part of it. And so today, God, in a fresh way, even if we've signed already up to be a part of a dream team, God, we say in a fresh way, we sign up in our hearts, and we know that that's gonna motivate us to action, to sign up today, to maybe do discover God, or to go out to attend after service and sign up there. We thank you, God, for the immense privilege of serving your house. I wanna do this with every eye closed here today, that maybe you're here today. And you've never heard the goodness of Jesus, that God called you, that He saved you, that you're a one of a kind, like I mentioned today, that you don't have to try and be like somebody else, 'cause Jesus hung on a cross for you. He loves you, He bled out for you, He died for you, He's coming back for you, He loves you, He's running after you, and you're here today, they're in the room, or online, or in Pendleton, you know today, that you can't leave here, this room, either here in Wall of Wall, or in Pendleton, or logged off online without recognizing that I need Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of my life. And if that's you today, and you're in this room, or in Pendleton, I wanna pray with you today, that you would say, Caleb, that's me, I wanna surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus. And if that's you, just right now in this moment, nobody looking around, will you do me this favor, just so I know who I'm praying this prayer with, where your life is forever gonna be changed, your eternal trajectories forever gonna be switched, and if you're here today, and you say, Caleb, that's me, I wanna make Jesus the Lord of my life, will you just look up at me and wave at me, so I know who I'm praying with today, that you don't wanna walk out of here the same way you walked in, just so I make eyes with you, thanks man, I see your hand, I'm just looking around the room, making sure I catch eyes with you, just look at me and wave, thanks bro, greatest day of your life, man, I'm serious, greatest day of your life, you'll never regret another day after this, anybody else today, I wanna make sure that you know that today, thanks bro, it's a real deal man, I see the power of God all over your life, he's moving in your heart, I can tilt for you man, it's a turnaround moment, you're just like sick and tired of being sick and tired, God's like, that's all right man, here we go, here we go, anybody else today? Now here's what I wanna do, if you raise your hand or even if you know you should have, you're online or you're in Pendleton, you raise that hand, you're making that commitment as well, walla walla, here's what I wanna do, I want us to pray all together, out loud with our friends, and if you raise your hand or know you should have, I want you to pray this prayer with us to right now from the sincerity of your heart, 'cause the Bible says if you believe in your heart, man Jesus, I know you died for me, and you confess with your mouth, you will be saved. So let's help our friends together walla walla, can we do that? Say Jesus, here I am, a sinner in need of a savior, today I give up and I give over all that I am to you, I'm sorry and I repent, and from this day forward, my life is yours, in Jesus name somebody say man, come on, can we celebrate with our friends, come on. - Thank you for listening to the Life Church Podcast, we wanna help you on your journey of finding the life you remain for. Please visit LifeChurchWW.com to take your next step and connect with us. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)