SAINT
Work Out Your Salvation - Dez Brown
Welcome to the same podcast. Thanks for joining us. Our vision is to bring hope to the people of East London, and I'm praying that you would feel so encouraged by this week's talk. We are so privileged to have our speaker tonight, Des Brown. Des is a great friend. He worships here at church. He has such an incredible story. He was the author of a book called Convicted or Condemned, and I'll let him share a little bit more of his story. But he is a real inspiration that God has done extraordinary things in his life. And if you want to read a great story, I recommend this book Convicted or Condemned, the inspiring story of one man's journey to freedom. And honestly, if you want a page turner, I recommend that incredibly. Is there a dog sitting on a chair there? I thought I'd seen it all. But welcome to church. The dog is sitting on the chair. I mean, everyone is welcome, right? Everyone's invited. It's so good. Okay. So our speaker tonight is Des Brown. Des is my own Sheila. They're four children. He's part of the community here at St. Anne. He is CEO of an amazing charity called Spark2Life and does incredible work. And Des, it's great to have you preach. Come on up. Well, thank you very much for the introduction, for the warm welcome. It's a privilege to be able to share. I always acknowledge and honour that I've had the opportunity of sharing for many, many years in many, many contexts. And this evening, I have the privilege of sharing on the back of a baptism, the message that I've titled, Work Out Your Salvation. And I don't know about you, but it's always great to be in a space and in a place where you're seeing friends and loved ones. If you come here to support your friends and loved ones, just put your hand up. Let's just get a show of fans. Whoa, look at that. You are so welcome. Fantastic. And they're making what is, in many ways, an inward conviction and they're showing an outward display publicly of their level of commitment to follow Jesus. And you know, in a society and a generation that we now live in, I see that as very courageous, I see that as a people that are willing to stand up for what they believe in. And you know, the truth is, life doesn't always start out like that. I would ask for the flip chart if you could thank you very much. It's not always plain saying, is it, when we think about our lives and stuff that we've gone through and all the experiences that we've had, thank you, they can be good, bad and indifferent. And I've got the privilege of sharing and like Al had made reference to my book, I didn't start off life necessarily in a perfect or smooth situation. Actually, my first introduction to any form of faith, specifically Christianity, was when I was in Felton Young Offenders Institute. And my then girlfriend, who is now my wife, came and she said to me, she's been saved. And I said to say from what? And she said she's become a Christian. And at first, I wasn't interested because in my life, I was very much my own God. I decided what was right and I decided what was wrong. And I kind of came out and I'll kind of refer back a little bit of my experience when I came out. But while I was out on bail, at that time when a murder charge, I came into the encounter of the love of God and the grace of God. And I'm talking over 30 years ago now. And I share that really because as we sit in this room, we can all have opinions and views of maybe what's right and what's wrong. And what's interesting is there's things even that I have the opportunity of doing now. Like, for instance, on Sunday coming next week Sunday, I'll be in Felton Prison going back in there to share the message and the love of God. A few weeks ago, I was in Belmash Prison, again, sharing the message and the love of God. And the reason I'm sharing that with you, because the interesting thing about prison is everybody in there knows of them wrong. I mean, that's interesting, isn't it? You go into a place and everybody accepts, you know what? There will be a few people that will say, I'm in here because I was stitched up. I didn't do anything wrong. And there's a sense, but you know, I'm sure there's stuff historically that you've done that you've not been called for. People kind of think, yeah, that's true. And it got me thinking as I was preparing for today, how many people here would say that they've done wrong in their lives? Because is there much difference from being in Belmash Prison, a CAI prison, or on a Sunday evening on the 6th of October, 2024, standing in St. Church sharing with a group of people? Some people say this, that's a bit harsh. You're trying to tell me that this is like Belmash Prison? Well, actually, we're all people. And the truth is there's a scripture in James 4, 17. It says, it says, if anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. To them, it is wrong. So really, if we was to put aside the Bible and all the, say, the 10 commandments, all the things that we would associate with as being right and wrong, and you was to sit there and have to ask yourself the question, is there things that you know that are right to do, that actually you haven't done them, therefore to you it's wrong. And the truth is everybody would probably accept at some point they have done wrong. So if I was to ask you for argument sake, is anyone ever had a parking ticket? See, some people have been a little bit reserved and I'm not telling you the wrong I've done. I didn't even go to Belmash yet. Wait. If I was to say to you, is anyone ever lied? Hands are slowly going up. Parking ticket, you think, you know, I don't drive. If you did drive, is anyone ever, yes, as anyone, I don't please keep putting your hand up because it gets a little bit more, but it's only ever stolen. Yeah, I see that hand passed around. I'm joking. I wasn't. The truth is we've all done wrong at some point or another. And you know, if we've all done wrong and it could be if you just use this as a way of illustration, this kind of nice clean white flip chart paper, this is the reflection of humanity when we were created, when we were born, we came into this world and there was this sense of innocence, this sense of purity, but as life goes on, there's things that maybe through our experiences and encounters that affect us and maybe things like hate begins to dwell in our heart. You know, there's a description that says if you hate your brother, you're a murderer. That's a bit strong, isn't it? Because I think it's trying to make a distinction between actually, where does the desire that would be deemed as wrong or where does sin get birthed? It gets birthed in the heart. Now, some people have more restraint and they hold back and other people actually, they can't hold back and it begins to outwork. And for some it might be hate for others, it may be lust, a strong desire for something. If you're looking at manipulation and you're thinking, okay, you know, I've kind of said something and I had an intention to manipulate, to control, to perversely get an outcome that would benefit me, or maybe actually we've gone through stuff in our lives and it's kind of hurt us and justifiably so we hold resentment or it could even become unforgiveness. And we've not been able to forgive. And last but not least, the one that I'd mentioned before that I said, do not pull your hand up for was theft. And you know, what's interesting actually, there's people in this room that have done things that you and I would never know and they've done wrong and they're actually sitting next to you on your left and on your right. Maybe just turn to them and smile and say it'll be all right, don't worry. So you never knew you were sitting next to that bad person, did you? You thought you knew them so well. But actually the truth is we've all done wrong. We've all sinned. And there's this script in Romans 3, 23, 24 and he says here, he says, "For all have sinned and full short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." And what does that mean? The truth is we've all fallen short of the standard that God has. Now we may have a standard personally amongst our friends and our peers and our family and it's quite subjective because what we're saying and what we're saying is well our standard of right and wrong is different. But I even would challenge you in your own standard of right and wrong, you've probably broken that standard at some point. You know, there's that sense we're pointing our finger at somebody else for the wrong that they've done and there's kind of four pointing back at me, or three because the other ones are fun. But you got me. And so I think the truth is we've all done wrong but, and this is the powerful thing about realizing and recognizing that actually we've all done wrong. We've all done stuff and if I was to give everybody a poster, no, in a pen and used to write something and stick it on here, especially if you put your name on it, you know, show and tell, that'd be awkward, wouldn't it? And there's things that actually we might not be able to see, I know the camera helps but the stuff that God knows, he knows everything. And if the way of the land is such, whether it's a parking ticket, whether it's being called for something more serious that brings us before a judge and jury, sometimes we can understand the things of God and the things of heaven by just looking here on earth. Because ultimately, if we get caught for a wrong, we have to give an account. If we've done wrong and we haven't been caught, we go yes, or some people do, because it's not been caught. But if we was to just transfer that, when you and I, at the end of time, because there's two things they say in the West that you can't avoid, that's death and taxes. And even some people try to avoid taxes if you do, your name's up there. But the truth is, when we stand before God and we have to then give an account for the wrong that we've done, my big question is, who pays for all my wrong? Is it possible that I can take my credit card to heaven and just tap to say I want to pay for all my wrong? And the truth is, we can't. We can't do that. And once we begin to see this, we begin to understand the powerful message of salvation. In Luke 5, 32, Jesus says, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." You've got to think, someone like me growing up, realizing the stuff that I've done. That was a great message. You know, there's certain people who hear things in its good news. That was good news. You see, because righteousness, again, could be subjective, so I am righteous because I'm in right standing. So if you're here and you've never lied, you've never got a parking find, you've never deceived, you've never been manipulated, you've never done anything wrong, then actually maybe you are God. Because the truth is, we've all done something wrong. We've all fallen short of that standard. And he's actually come for people like me and I'm going to push you a little bit and you because we're all in the same bracket. We've done wrong. And that's the good news that he didn't just leave us hopeless, he actually had a purpose. Now, we're going to turn to the Scripture that's going to come up on the screen. It's Philippians 2, 12 to 13. And this is Paul speaking to the church in Philippi. It's a book in the New Testament called Philippians. So if we understand this concept that may be we've all done wrong and we realize actually there's stuff in our life. And what goes, life kind of screws us up. You know, it could be adverse childhood experiences. I do teaching on this and we look at our childhood. People know about John Bolby and, you know, the whole attachment theory and stuff that's gone in our kind of life where we have a positive attachment, a secure attachment, an unsecure attachment. And there's stuff that goes on that isn't our fault. And life just does this thing to people sometimes and it just doesn't seem fair. You know what's really good? If I was to ask you a question in a minute, when we look at Philippians 2, 12, it says, "Therefore, my dear friends," so Paul is speaking to everybody. They're around saying, "Oh, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence." You see, sometimes, especially when we're in church, there's a bit of an etiquette that we will act a certain way when we're in a specific environment, you know, because we've got to be appropriate. We've got to be show dignity, show respect. And what Paul was saying, since I've been around you, I've seen that you have obeyed in my presence. But what's really encouraging is now when I'm not around, I'm hearing you're obeying in my absence. Because what had happened, there was a transformation. So you heard stories this evening of people of what they were like before they were a Christian. They kind of became a Christian, and they were living a certain way, but there was stuff that they were working out. Everyone say working out. Because there's things we need to, if I was to give you an example, what's two or two work with me? Four, about ten people are good at maths in the space. Well done. If I said ten times ten, a hundred, some people are seeing it really confident. Okay, let's test you then. 4,056 times by four divided by three multiplied by 59. You don't know it. Now some of you will get a calculator because you're really into maths and you'll get excited. I can see you there. I'll see you with your phone working out. No, no, no. She wasn't. She was texting a friend. But the point that I'm trying to make is that there are things that are not easy to work out. And when it says this in the script in Philippians 2, it says, "Not only my presence, but now much more my absence continue to work out your salvation." Now what's the interest in not work for? You don't need to work for salvation. So it's not, you know, if I pray more, I attend church more. It's not if, you know what, I study theology. I'm a really good person. I'm nice to everybody I meet. So I'm working for salvation. I'm working to be a good person. I'm working so I can be self-righteous. So next time I hear this preacher give a message about what we've all seen, I'm going to say to him, "Whoa, I haven't." Because I've been working very hard for my salvation. So when I stand before God, there's nothing he can hold against me. It doesn't work like that. And so what happens here? We don't work for it. We've got to work it out because it says this, "With fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you." You see, when we begin to work it out, it's got the works in. So my question is, what is the working out? Maybe the two or two is actually, I believe that there's a God. I've worked out. There must be a God intelligent design. The way that the world is. I may not understand it. I may not agree, but there is a God. And then it might be actually, I understand and I accept that a man called Jesus did come. Because you know historians, even atheists, theologians that teach theology but don't believe in God, would accept that Jesus did come. History will confirm that. I mean, you could ask Google, but seriously do you know what history will also accept that a man called Jesus came and a man called Jesus actually died? That's profound. Now what it will question is, did he rise again? I mean, that's the profound question because if he did, how come he rose again? Now, when they were getting baptized, they were symbolizing the death and then the resurrection of Jesus. I was identifying with his death because when he went into the grave, he took our sins and I'm going to come onto that and when he rose again, it's because the grave could not hold him. It's like when I was in court and the judge says, you're guilty, you're guilty for what you have done wrong. Therefore you have a punishment, you're going to prison. But he who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, became sin for us so that you and I could become the righteousness of God. So he knew no sin, but you know what? He took my hate, he took my manipulation, he took my lust, he took my thieving, my robbery, my murder, my deceit, et cetera, et cetera, my unforg-- he took all of that. So actually when he died, he had done nothing wrong, but he died in your place and in my place. That's why it says in John 3 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave is only begotten Son, that whoever believed in him will not perish but receive everlasting life." Because it's a free gift, it's a gift that he wants to give to everybody. And so when we begin to understand that it's God that's working in us and we begin to take that step that begins to bring that transformation in Ephesians 2 8 9 on to reaffirm this truth, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. We'll talk about faith in a minute. And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. So you can't earn it because you don't earn gifts, you can get paid wages, you can't earn gifts. That's why it says the wages of sin is death. Now I've got a charity, we have lots of employees and I can guarantee you at the end of the month they will get paid for what they've done. Because we all deserve to get paid for if we've done something. But to get given a gift, you don't have to work for it, you don't have to turn up for work, here's a gift. And it's a gift that God gives us, not by works so that no one can boast. That's interesting, isn't it? So if I get really proud and really self-righteous and quite pompous and I'm looking to my left and I'm looking to my right and I'm saying yeah I've been, I've done a few things, a few white lies, never got parking ticket, never deceived anyone. I mean not that anyone knows, it's gone on in my heart and in my head but I've never done it or never said it. I mean I'm not as bad as that guy up there, that's me. I mean he definitely needs God, I do, I can tell you that. But what made me really realize I needed God, it was that I was a sinner. Most interesting when I go to Bell Marshall to Felton's, I said to them the last message, you're actually closest to the kingdom of God than you realize. And they were like well where's that? I'm in prison, as that closer to the kingdom. Because you know you've done wrong. That's what the gospel message, that's the good news. And so when we begin to realize that and that we can't boast because it's something that we can't earn and we can't do ourselves, we go to the final scripture in Romans 10. It's about faith. So what is this faith thing that gets us saved? Like I said when I was in prison and my then girlfriend now, wife said to me, I've been saved, saved from what? There's this sense of salvaging. Probably the closest English word you can get to it is recycling. Restoring it back to its original state. And as God begins to unwrap, as people begin to say, I understand the two or two that God is real. I understand the 10 times 10 that Jesus, he actually was alive. He did come on this earth and maybe he did rise again and maybe he is alive. Just a thought on that. Put your hand up if you've ever been to a funeral. It's a bit sad. I mean, people are thinking, oh, what come to this message? Tell me I've done wrong. Have I gone to a funeral? It's good news. Don't worry. We get there. What's interesting when we go to a funeral is that we often in our consciousness really want to see the loved ones in the future. There's something within humanity that hopes and believes that maybe they're on the other side. So within the consciousness of humanity, bearing in mind, it is factual. It is truth that a man called Jesus did come. Historians will tell you that. It is true that a man called Jesus did die. That is true. The question is, did he rise again? Now, if he rose again, that means he's alive and that means I'm going to see him. Maybe when I die, within the consciousness of humanity, give us a bit into a funeral, but crying and more put things I see you on the other side. Hope you're partying up there. Hope you're dancing with the angels. Because there's something within us that wants to hope there's more to life than this. And that is because there is life after death. There is. And Jesus is alive. Because if I'm Betty, who I'm believing, rightly or wrongly, and that's a go-to-an-alpha 4,524 divided by three times by six question. That's not a two plus two or ten times ten. It's a bit more complicated. So they're the kind of places you want to talk that through. But the genuine truth is sin could not hold him because he had no sin. That was his own. It was yours and it was mine. And so if I was to symbolically talk about the cross and come back to that whole thought, things like last, actually Jesus took that when he hung on the cross. He took mine. This is when he went to have a hands-free mic. Theft, he took that. And the list goes on. I mean, you get a pitch, a manipulation. He took that. Because he took my sin. He took your sin. And that means although without me ripping it, because I was a bit rough with it, the idea is that you kind of get restored, recycled back. There's a few creases. There's a few tears. But all these things that you've done wrong and are longer there. You've been forgiven. You no longer condemned. That's why I wrote my book called convicted or condemned. It's double barreled. When you go to court, you either get convicted or you get condemned. Condem means there's no hope. Or you can get convicted because you know you've done wrong. Do you know that's the same with life and Christianity? You can either feel convicted or condemned. Some of you, I want to tell you, there is no condemnation. God hasn't come to condemn anybody. Because if you can save a wretched sinner like me, you can save anybody. But you might feel convicted. And that's a good thing. Conviction of sin is actually really good because that means we're getting close to the kingdom. The Bible talks about the Holy Spirit has come to convict the world of sin and of righteousness, which is being in right standing and of judgment that it is a reality. But the good news is, as we look at this text coming back to it here in Romans, it says here, Moses writes, and this is the final text now. And Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law. Now for those that don't know the Bible, the Bible works like this. You've got the Old Testament, you've got the New Testament, the Old Testament is from Genesis to Malachi. The New Testament is from Matthew all the way to revelations. There's a book in the New Testament called Romans, and Romans is referring to a righteousness, a right standing that was by the law. Which means if you obey the law, you were right, you were good. So it wasn't anything to do with the internal heart, nothing to do with the heart, nothing to do with whether you like the law, you hate the law, nothing to do with carrying hate in your heart, nothing to do with being deceptive. It was as long as you obeyed, you was right. But in the New Testament when Jesus come, he realized that actually humanity can be quite hypocritical. Just like me saying to you, do you know what? I love you, you're so good. But really I'm thinking I don't like you. But you wouldn't know that because I'm just telling you, I love it was anyone that had something, do you like my dress? Or do you like these trainers and you're thinking I don't really want to offend them? Yeah, they're all right. But really thinking they're dead, I won't wear them. You've had those situations, you see, so I can pretend outwardly, but you know what's going on in my heart? And so the truth is, God knows the heart. And so what they were saying here, but there is a righteousness that is by faith. Now it says this, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down or who will descend into the deep that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? What does faith say? So what it's saying here, I don't need to go up to heaven to see is Christ said? Did he really rise? Or do I need to go to the deep to think okay, when he died, is he still in the grave? It's like I need the evidence before I take the step. But what faith says, because faith in Hebrews 11 is the faith is a substance of things hoped for. And a hope is something that we all have. But when it becomes faith is when we put action to that hope, we add to that hope and action. So these individuals that are hope that God can forgive them. So one day they said yes to Jesus. So they had a hope in their heart that maybe God is real. Maybe Jesus really does love me and he died for my wrong. And they said a prayer. So they moved from just having a hope in the heart to acting. Going as far as saying publicly now, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus. I'm not ashamed of Jesus. I'm going to publicly bring my friends, my family and say, do you know what? Jesus is Lord of my life. It doesn't mean they're perfect. But what it means is that they've got a relationship and they experience that forgiveness. Whenever they've done wrong, they can pray to God the Father because he is just and faithful to forgive. So what is this faith? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the message concerning faith that we proclaim. That if, everyone say if, you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. So that's that way. And if I declare with my mouth, not if my friend who's really a devout Christian prays for me, not my nan who is a missionary prays for me, not my dad who's a pastor prays for me. It says, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart, now that's the interesting thing, and believe in your heart. So it becomes personal. See, confession with mouth is public. I confess with my mouth in the Lord Jesus. Believe in my heart is actually quite personal because no one knows my heart. You know when people sometimes say, well, God knows my heart? Yeah, he does. That's a double-edged sword because he knows everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. So if I confess with my mouth, the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in my heart that God has raised him from the dead, significant, why is it that I need to believe that God's raised him from the dead? Because if he wasn't raised from the dead, that means sin could hold him and there is no hope. But the fact that sin could not hold him, he raised from the dead and he returned to his father in heaven where he's waiting for us for as many as believed in him to them gave he the power to become children of God. So if I confess with my mouth, believe in my heart that God is raising from the dead, it says this, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe, your heart that you believe and are justified, justified, never done it. It's an interesting word, justified. So when I accepted Jesus, when I was 18 years old in a church and the preacher preached the message and I responded, my hair was in twists, when I had hair, I did at one point. Now some people shot with that, this bar lead, yes, it did you stuff here and I had my trousers rolled up and I had a bandana and I came in just as I was, didn't care about anyone and anything, didn't really even engage in the service until I heard the preacher say if you've done wrong in your life, anyone got to forgive you then come to the front. I thought that's me. I've done wrong. So I get up in a place like this. You know if you're sitting in the middle, it's really hard, isn't it, to get up and move across, you know, all these people. I got up and I walked to the front and they said to me, do you want to accept Jesus in your life and I confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and I believed in my heart that God you must be real, God I need your forgiveness because I knew I was a sinner and then they said to me, do I want the Holy Spirit? And I thought my brother in, well, my girlfriend's brother who used to talk a lot about God and Jesus and whatnot, he used to talk about the Holy Spirit and I thought, well, it's God, it's good, yeah, bring it on. Let's have it all. Unbeknown to me what was going to happen. So they prayed for me and I got filled touch by the Holy Spirit and he was so transformed, I mean, this is the first time I've been in church. I began to speak in this language that was so overcome that I stopped but it's called within Christianity. This is those 4,328 questions divided by two times by four kind of questions. Do it on alpha. But so overcome that actually I stopped, I sat down but I felt completely renewed. But I didn't understand what had happened. I didn't know the full gospel but I began to work out my salvation and God began to work in. So I went back the following week and it was boring. True. So I only go to church for about two weeks, three weeks because my whole life was based on what I could essentially get. Taste, touch, smell here. Did we understand the gospel? Then in the end my girlfriend said, come to her church which was actually in Hackney. And I went along, can't remember the message. All I remember is if you've done wrong in your life, you won't go to forgive you. I thought, well, that's me. So I'll get up again and I'll go to the front. And then they said we want to take down some details because we want to follow you up. We want to pray for you. We want to visit you. We want to encourage you. Like going to this room and there was this lady, mature lady, and she was jumping up and down, crying. And she was saying, we've been praying for you, we've been praying for you. For the first time the love of God hit me. I thought this woman, she knows what I've done, yet she's crying for me. And I thought if this is a God that they're talking about, that's in Jesus' name that I want to get to know Him. And hence my life started a journey of transformation. Got rid of the drugs, got rid of the weapons, addressed issues of unforgiveness, had to go to court, the rest is history. Became an ordained minister serving in a church and now lead a charity. And the reason I'm telling you that is because there is a God of grace and there's a God of mercy and is in this place and is accessible through faith that if you confess with your mouth and Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, guess what? You shall be saved. Amen. Praise the Lord. So we're going to pray right now. Who's up for praying? It's a short prayer. And I'm going to ask the worship team to come and join us. I'm assuming I'm known what I'm doing here. I didn't get the running order, but I'm sure it will flow. And if you're up in the balcony, hopefully you've been able to flow and this is completely for everybody, everybody. I'm going to pray this prayer. And it's called the prayer of salvation. And maybe you're here and you know you need to work out your salvation. Working out means you haven't got all the answers, but it means you're starting because remember this script in Philippians 2 when you begin to work it out, God works in. It's a journey. What you're seeing here is 30 years of transformation by the grace of God. If you'd seen me a week after I'd become a Christian, I'll still smoke and weed. For four months, still burning. But saying, God, help me. Still that unforgiveness in my heart. But saying, God, help me. Still battling with lust. But saying, God, help me. Still wanting revenge. But saying, God, help me in slowly by slowly like that paper because of tomologue, it began to unravel it. But if all got creases, I'm just maybe a bit more silly to stand up and put it in a book and tell you all my faults and all my wrongs. But that's because I know that God's forgiven me and I know he loves me. And at the end of the day, when I stand before God, I hope you'll all be there, but you won't be there when I'm standing before him. I'll be on my own. And I'll need his grace. I'll need his love and I'll need his forgiveness. So with every eye closed, every head bowed, we're going to pray a prayer. Like I said, you can confess with your mouth and you can believe in your heart. And it is about you right now. So we're getting the person to your left and to your right if you're up in the balcony, even if you're down here. And if that's something that you've identified with this evening, you've recognized yet, you've done wrong, you do believe in God. You kind of hope and believe the year. Jesus definitely did come because we know that's the truth. We know he rose a, well, we know he died. Maybe he did rise again. And when he rose again, he rose because he took all my sin and sin couldn't hold him. And the good news is right now, I can accept that same gift of forgiveness. So eyes closed and head bowed and maybe just pray. And if you're courageous, you might pray out loud. You might set where you are, however you feel comfortable. But if that's you, say this prayer after me. I'll say it slowly so you can repeat it. Say, dear Jesus, I ask you to come into my life. And I ask you to forgive me of all my wrong. I surrender my life to you today. And I ask you to lead me. I ask you, Father, does you forgive me of all my wrong? Help me forgive others who've done wrong against me. I turn to you this evening and I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And I ask you to protect me. I ask you to direct me. And whenever I go wrong, I ask you to correct me. And I ask for your Holy Spirit. I'm going to understand it all. But I need the love of God and I need the power of God in Jesus' name. Thanks for listening to this week's talk. If you'd like to find out more, give or connect with us, visit our website, saint.church. Have a great week and we'll see you soon. [Music]