Above It All | Get Empty | Derek Staaland

to be here today. Come on. Listen, it's Baptism Sunday. No better time to be here. And as Pastor Lisa already said, there was over 100 people baptized today, but that means that year to date, we have over 400 people that have publicly given their lives to Christ. Let's give God a huge round of applause for that. Folks, we don't want to take that for granted because some churches, they don't get to baptize one person. God is doing something special here. And one thing I noticed about this service was there was a lot of youth. We just had our youth summer camp this last week. Can we just give God a round of applause for the pastors, for what he did in the kids' lives? That was just so amazing to see how many kids baptized themselves or got baptized today. So here's the good news. Can I give you some good news about today? The good news is what we're going to talk about, 100% of the people in this room deal with. Not 90, not 80, 100% of us deal with this. And if you come up to me after service and tell me that you don't deal with it, I'm going to call Charlotte Gamble, who's speaking next week, by the way, and I'm going to have her speak a message on lying so we can deal with you on lying. So 100% of us are going to deal with this. But here's the thing about this, what we're going to talk about today. Some people actually wear this as a badge of honor. Even though God has told us not to do it, some of us wear it as a badge of honor, that we're proud that we actually do this. Other people like myself, I have dealt with this for so long that it's actually become part of who I am. In fact, before I started going on this journey that I'm going to share with you, I didn't know who I was without what we're going to talk about. Or others, it's so bad, they actually go to therapy, medication to deal with. So no matter where you are on the journey of what we're going to talk about today, I believe that God is going to show us how to transform this one subject. In fact, I'm going to give you one other thing before I tell you even what we're talking about. Theologians say that God says 365 times in the Bible, do not do this. Do you know what we're talking about today? We're talking about fear. We're talking about anxiety. We're talking about worry. Now, some of you, as I brought that up, just got a little anxious about talking about fear and worry. We're going to step on some toes today, but that's okay. It's going to be fun. We're going to do it together. Before I dive into the message, I do want to recommend a book for you. This book has literally changed my entire view of my relationship

with God on this subject of fear. It's called Living Fearless by Jamie Winship. If you're not a reader, you can get it on Audible. I would encourage you to read this book because a lot of what we're going to talk about today comes from his teaching. So I actually went online, went to chat GPT, which I'm still not sure what that is, or Google, whatever it is, and I asked chat, what are the top 10 things that people fear? All right, so let's look at our own top 10 list. The first thing that came up is public speaking. Public speaking. Number two was death. Okay, so I want you to think about this. Jerry Seinfeld famously said, so this means if you go to a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. That's how much fear of public speaking has taken over, right? But let's talk about some other fears. The fear of death, the fear of heights, fear of failure, the fear of rejection and abandonment, fear of flying. How many people are scared of flying? Let's just kind of have an honest moment here. I see your hand. You can raise it higher than that. That's all right. You can raise it higher. Be proud. Fear of illness. Here was one of my favorites though. The fear of the unknown. Okay. My brother growing up again, I've dealt with this my whole life, but the fear of the unknown, my brother used to make fun of me all the time. He used to say, Derek, you are worrying about not having something to worry about because if you're not worrying about something, that means something must be going on that you don't know. So you're worrying about it. And you know what? He was right. I was worrying about something I didn't know about. So the unknown, what about a loved one dying? Or what about darkness? Or we can even talk about every animal. How many people are scared of spiders in here? Every female raises her hand. Spiders. Okay. That's a blue job in our house is to take care of the spiders. But let's talk about things that are more day to day. You might be fearful of the economy, fearful of losing your job or fearful of not finding a job, fearful that your marriage is going to not work out. Or if you're single in here, that you're not going to get married. Fear of either not having children or that something's going to happen to your kids, or you're not going to have a good relationship with your kids. Or what about this one? The fear of finances. Some of you in this room today might be looking at a bill that's due tomorrow and trying to figure out how in the world am I going to pay this? See, these are day to day fears that to many of us actually become a part of our day to day lives and we don't even realize it. But here's the struggle

that I've had my whole life. And this is the journey that I'm going to talk to you about over the next couple of minutes is I know in God's word that he said he did not give us the spirit of fear. Second, Timothy one is very clear. It says, I did not give you a spirit of fear. Fear. You don't need a theologian to interpret that for you. It's very, very clear that fear does not come from God. But if fear doesn't come from God, then what if, what if God can use fear for our good? Okay, now fear doesn't come from God, but what if, according to Romans, he can turn fear for our good? And see, a lot of us just allow fear to be a part of who we are, and I believe today God is gonna open our eyes and show us that fear can be turned for our good. Are we ready to jump on this journey together? All right, so we're in this series, Above It All, Sermon on the Mount. We're gonna look at Matthew 6. This is where it talks about fear and worry. We're gonna start in verse 25. It says, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, or about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food and body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Now, I wanna read this next line very slowly. Look at what it says. Are you not of more value than them? Now, I've read this verse a lot throughout my life. I've been in church my whole life. I have gone to this church for 40 years, all right? So I have heard this verse a lot, and I've always thought these verses were about worry and about fear, but as I read it this week, I began to realize these verses, yes, they talk about worry and fear, but actually the theme is how valuable you are to God. See, he's saying, don't worry, don't fear. He's not just saying it on another list of do's and don'ts. He's saying, don't worry, don't fear, because you are so valuable to me. Some of us in this room don't believe that. We don't believe that we are valuable to God, and here he is trying to tell us, you are so valuable to me. Let's go on to verse 31. It says, therefore, take no thought or do not worry, in some other versions, saying, and we're gonna come back to that word saying, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knows you need these things, and then here's that famous verse, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things will be added unto you. So let's look at that word saying. God says there, take no thought or do not worry, saying. Now be very, very, listen very carefully to what I'm gonna tell you here. That word means to speak, but it also means to affirm, to direct, and to call by name. So listen to this. God's saying, when you worry and fear, and you take that and you say it, whether it's verbally or to yourself, you are calling yourself that name. You are calling yourself that fear that you have. You are calling yourself that worry, that anxiety that you have. It says, take no thought saying, because he knows that when we do that, we call ourselves a false identity. Because God didn't give us fear. So when we call ourselves that fear, that worry, that anxiety, that's not from God, and God knows that's not who you truly are. But we say it all the time. We call ourselves or speak fear and worry all the time. Because when we say it, either to ourselves or verbally, these words reveal what is in our heart. Worry and fear cause us to call ourselves by false identities. The connection I wanna make today is fear is not just out here as something we struggle with.

Fear leads us to false identities. Let me share my story, my journey with you a little bit. Now, we're not gonna start it. I was born on May 10th. We're not gonna do that. But let me just share with you a little bit of my journey. In second grade, I would call myself a portly young fellow. Can I just say it nicely? I was a little bit bigger in second grade, and I didn't think anything of it till I started going to school. And I started looking around, and all of my best friends were not portly. Let's just say that. They were not bigger. In fact, two of my best friends, if they turned sideways, they would disappear. You couldn't see them. That's how thin they were. And I began to realize I look a lot different than everybody else around here. And I began to grow this fear of rejection, this fear of what are other people thinking of me? You know, you'd go to those sleepovers. You'd be changing. And all I could think about is what are they thinking about how I look? And that continued to go. And in fact, in second or third grade, I was at recess one time, and I was out playing,

and I bent down, and my pants ripped. This was not a good day for me, by the way. Not a good day. Pants ripped in second grade, and on recess, I had to walk into the office, this walk of shame, and I sit in the office and wait for my mom to bring me back a new pair of pants. and I began to grow this great fear of what are other people thinking of me. Now, thank God over the years, I grew and in sixth grade, I weighed the same in sixth grade actually that I did in second grade, so I began to grow and that issue was gone, but then puberty came. Puberty was not good to me, can I just tell you that? This time in my life was very, very tough from middle school all the way through college because I had terrible, terrible acne. Now, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands of who else struggled for this, but if you've struggled with it, you know my pain, right? I still to this day have not met one person that had more acne than I did. Now, I'm not saying that to make you feel bad for me, I'm just telling you what I dealt with. It was literally all over my face, all over my chest and all over my back. It literally was everywhere and these were not small, these were quarter size acne that were all over my body, it looked like I had boils at some point. And I began to grow this great fear,

it had already started when I was a kid, but more and more, what are people thinking of me? I played basketball in high school and college and my worst fear was going to practice and playing shirts and skins. Because I knew if I got on the skins team, which I almost always did by the way, everyone would say something about what I look like and they would. Young men are not kind in middle school and high school, let's just say that. In fact, one time in college, it was after practice, I had my shirt off and one of the other guys I played with came and said, hey, why don't you start using soap when you shower so you can take care of what's going on there? It was bad. And I actually was very angry at God for having me walk through this. But I tell all that to say, my story grew this great fear of rejection and what are other people thinking of me? And when I finally got through that journey, it didn't stop. Because as I was at work, I began to think, what are people thinking of my performance at work? See, everything began to be focused on how I performed and how I looked to other people. And I cared greatly about it. And even in high school, when my now wife, Carrie,

we started dating in high school, I would think to myself, why in the world would she want to date me? Doesn't she know what I look like? Like, this is not a great thing to look at all the time. And still to this day, I'm not sure why she dated me, but thank you, Carrie, for dating me and marrying me. Greatest thing that ever happened. But I'm telling you, I've dealt with this for so long. And God has begun to show me, listen, yes, you have this fear, but that is not from me. And I want to transform this fear and use it for your good. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. Because see, when we look at ourselves, this is how we start out. This is our true identity. This is who God created us to be. But what happens when we start walking in fear is we begin to speak these things over us and call ourselves these names. Our fear causes us to call ourselves unlovable. I'm not accepted unless I perform. I am weak. I am sick. I'm never gonna be healthy. I'm a failure. I'm worthless. I'm not enough. I'm not a good husband. I'm not a good wife.

I'm not a good father. You see these things that we speak over ourselves? I'm not loved unless I earn it. Or what about this one? I am going to control every situation because I want to make sure that I'm in control. I'm so scared that something's gonna happen that I'm gonna be a control freak and control every situation. See these things that we begin to speak over ourselves? See, every statement that we make, every I am statement that we make is an identity statement. And fear is the one that causes us to make these identity statements. So fear is not just hanging out there as something that we deal with. It changes who we are. In fact, Jesus warns us not to fear, not because he doesn't want to give us something else to do, but because he knows fear changes our identity. It changes who we believe we are. Fear always arises when we're living from a false identity. So folks, listen, as we lay the groundwork for this, I want you to see that as fear rises up, we begin to speak these things over ourselves, and now this is what we look like in the spirit realm. See, God created us not to look like this. He created us pure in our true identity, but now this is what we look like because we have spoken this over ourselves.

Now, every message I give, I give you one phrase that I'm gonna require you to write down, okay? They're gonna- Check at the door to make sure you wrote it down. I'm just joking. If it's your first time here, they're not gonna check. This is not that phrase, all right? I'm gonna tell you when it comes. But this is a key phrase to understand. So if you're looking at your phone, I want you to put it down. If you're not listening to me, listen to this one part, okay? Fear is a warning light to signal a false identity that has been built on lies. Okay, remember the question we asked. Fear doesn't come from God, but can he use fear for our good? Fear is a warning light to signal to you that you are believing a lie about yourself, God, or other people. So listen, when fear comes, I want you to look at fear differently. I don't want you to look at fear as, oh, this is just who I am, or I don't want you to say, you know, God, just deliver me from fear. God may be allowing the fear to reveal to you the lies that you believe about yourself, him, or other people.

Jesus didn't just come to forgive you of your sins. He came to give you back your true identity. Let's give God a round of applause. Listen, I am so grateful that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. None of us would be here if he did not do that. But that is not the only reason he came. Jesus came to give you back your true identity, and that true identity can only be found in God the Father. And that's what we're gonna walk through for the rest of this message. But remember our statement that fear is a warning light to signal to us that we believe a lie about ourselves, about God, or about others. Let me show you in scripture where Jesus does this to the disciples. This story is found in Mark 4, and it says in Mark 4, verse 35, on the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side. Who is he in this story? Jesus. I want you to think about this. Jesus is the one that told them to cross over to the other side. Now, when they had left, they took him along in the boat as he was, and the other little boats were also with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat

so that it was already filling. Let me just pause here for a minute. This is a nice way to say the boat is sinking, okay? Now, let me go back. Who told them to cross over to the other side? Jesus. Jesus is the best weatherman we could ever ask for. Now, around here, we accept that weather people, they could only be right 30% of the time, right? We still allow them to have a job. If you are a weather person in here, I'm sorry, we love you, we appreciate you. But they're not right all the time. Do you think Jesus knew that a storm was coming? Do you think Jesus knew this was not a sprinkle, this was a huge storm? And what did he tell them to do? Let's go to the other side. It gets better, though, or worse, if you're the disciples, however you want to think about it. But listen to this. Their boat was sinking, verse 38, but he was in the stern asleep on a pillow. Okay, now, I know we've read this story a lot. If you've been in church, I want you to think about this story as if you've never read it. Now, I hate camping. If you ever ask me to camp, the answer is already no, so don't ask me to go, all right?

I don't want to sleep outside. I want to sleep in a bed. I want to sleep with a roof over my head. But here's Jesus asleep in a boat while it's pouring rain. I'm not even sure how that's possible, but Jesus is peace, right? So here he is sleeping. Now, maybe he just had his one eye open. Maybe he was faking like he was sleeping, I don't know. But the verse says that he was sleeping, and look at what the disciples said. They awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Now, listen, I know they don't tell us how their voice sounded, but I'm pretty sure they didn't go up to him and say, hey, Jesus, hope you're sleeping good. We're dying here, so if you would like to get up and help, great. If you want to keep sleeping, totally fine too, right? I envision them yelling and screaming, do you not care that we are perishing? Now, let me ask you a question. Before they got in the boat, an hour earlier, if Jesus would have asked them, do you think I care about you? What do you think the disciples would have said? Yeah, yep, you care about me. If Jesus would have said, do you believe that I will protect you wherever you go?

The disciples probably would have said, yep, yep, we believe that you would protect us wherever we go. An hour later, they're in the storm. And they go to Jesus, do you not care that we are dying? See, I believe Jesus allowed this storm to happen to reveal to them the fear that they had and the false identity that they were watching. See, they would have said, oh, no, no, we believe God will take care of us, but they did not believe it. Now, see, we look at the disciples and sometimes make fun of them, if we're honest. We kind of make fun of what they do. But can I tell you that some of us in this room, we're angry that we're in a storm right now. And all we're doing is praying, God, get me out of the storm. And maybe, just maybe, God wants to turn this storm around for your good and show you that you have a false belief, that your fear is leading you to a false identity that he didn't create in you. Because now, look at what was revealed in the disciples. They believe that Jesus doesn't care about them and that he will not protect them. And look at what Jesus says. He arose, rebuked the wind and the sea, and said, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

And then he said to them, why are you so fearful? So good. He woke up out of a sleep, calmed the storm. Why are you so fearful? Now, from what we've just learned, we can maybe even rephrase this question where Jesus said, why are you allowing fear to create a false identity in you? See, don't despise the storm that you're in. And quite frankly, God may not want you to pray, get me out of this storm. I'm not telling you that he brought the storm. What I'm telling you is he wants to use the storm you're in to reveal the fear that is in your heart so he can talk to your true identity. Because he knows you're believing something that's false. Let's talk about finances for a minute. If you're that person that has a bill due tomorrow and you have no idea what's gonna happen, you might be praying, God, just send me some money. I'm gonna go to my mailbox, just have some money come. God may want to reveal to you, listen, I am your source. You don't trust me as your source. Trust me as your source. And he wants to reveal what is actually in your heart. God wants to deal with your fear before anything else. He wants to deal with your fear because he knows this is what fear does to you. Fear changes who you are. And once the fear is gone, now God can engage with you as the real you.

Your true identity. Now, in this society, we talk a lot about identity. And listen to me very carefully. You cannot create or choose your own identity. You can only receive the identity that God has created for you. When you were in your mother's womb, when you were formed, God created an identity for you. Now see, we might look like this, but this isn't who God created us to be. You can't create your own identity. You can only receive an identity from your creator. In fact, for us type A personalities, you can't even achieve your true identity. You can only receive it. See, sometimes I think that if I achieve enough, then I'm gonna look good enough for everybody else. And now I'm gonna achieve my identity. No, no, no. God's saying, listen, I've already created an identity for you. And now I want you to receive that identity from me. Now remember, I told you, I'm gonna give you one phrase to remember. Everybody ready for the one phrase? You're gonna take a picture. I want you to write it down. When you're out at lunch today, someone asks you what the message is about. This is the summary of the message.

Is everybody ready? Okay, here is the summary. Get empty of fear so your true identity can become clear. God is asking us to get empty of our fear so your true identity can become clear. Because you can't operate in your true identity until there is room for God to work. So get empty of your fear so your true identity can become clear. Now, as we wrap up today, I'm gonna give you three steps that I have been journeying with that has literally transformed my life. These steps are very simple, but I also understand that in the service, we're not gonna have time to do this. We're gonna give a little bit of time at the end, but I am encouraging every one of you, if you are next to someone that you know, ask them to keep you accountable to do this. There are three steps to getting empty of your fear so your true identity can become clear, and I wanna walk through these with you. Number one is to identify your greatest fear. Identify your greatest fear. Now, this probably isn't something that normally comes up in conversation, but if you ask someone, what is your greatest fear, deep down, all of us know what our greatest fear is. As I started to go through this,

my greatest fear, again, I've shared with you a little bit, my greatest fear was that I am not gonna perform well enough that God and other people will not love me, that my performance. will not lead God to say, yep, I love you for your performance. I'm so scared that I'm gonna fail and that God's gonna say, hey, you're not good enough. You're not good enough for me to love you. Other people are gonna say, you're not good enough for me to love you. That is my greatest fear. The other thing you could ask yourself is, what are the lies that I'm believing about myself? What are some of those things that I've spoken over myself? I'm unlovable, I'm a failure, I'm a bad father, I'm a bad mother, whatever it might be. What are the lies that you are believing about yourself? So step number one is simply to identify your greatest fear. Step number two is to confess that greatest fear to Jesus. Now listen, remember we talked about the word say early on when we said say means to call your name, to call a name, to call that over yourself. That root word say is the root word of the word confess. So these words are connected. But we think confessing is just simply saying, I'm sorry. But here's what's interesting. Do you ever see in the Bible where Jesus walked up to someone and said, you need to say you're sorry.

When Peter denied him three times, did he walk up to him and say, Peter, you need to tell me you're sorry. Jesus doesn't care about sorry. Jesus cares about the truth. And what he wants us to do is simply confess the truth to him. Jesus, my greatest fear is that my performance is not gonna be good enough, that you're not gonna love me and that others will not love me. And see what happens when we confess? We begin to empty ourselves of this fear. Jesus, my greatest fear is that I am a failure. My job, I'm gonna lose my job. My greatest fear is that my wife or my husband's gonna leave me. My greatest fear is that my children are not gonna follow God. My greatest fear is that you're never gonna heal me, God. You can confess your greatest fear and what it does is it empties out all of these things. See, we identify the fear and then we go to Jesus and we tell the truth. Jesus, this is where I'm at. And what God says is I want you to empty yourself completely of this fear because that's not who I called you to be. That is a false identity. And when we do that, now look what happens. Step number three is now allowed to happen,

which is ask God what name he calls you. Folks, this question has been one of the most powerful things I've ever done. In fact, after first service, I'm just gonna be vulnerable, I went back to the back room and I started crying because I shared and I'm about to share with you what I felt like God called me, the name he called me and it just was such a reminder to when you hear God what he calls you, it changes your life. And when I did this, when I emptied myself of fear, confessed that to Jesus and then I said, God, what do you call me? I felt like he said, Derek, I call you an eye opener. He said, I want you and I have called you to open people's eyes to what is possible in their life, in their finances, in their marriage, in their job, in their life. I want you to encourage them, open their eyes and see what's possible and see what happened when it happened for me and it's gonna happen for you. When God calls you and says, this is the name I call you, now look what happens. He fills you back up with your true identity. He's saying, this is what I call you. Now that you've emptied yourself out, now I can fill you with what I've actually called you. And in fact, he says this in Isaiah 43. He says, but now says the Lord who created you,

who formed you, fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. Remember when we started in Matthew, it's not about worry, it's about how valuable you are. You are so valuable to God that when you were formed in your mother's womb, he called you a specific name. And look at what he says in Revelation 2. He says, to the one who's victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who will receive it. When you go to God and say, God, what do you call me? I believe he's gonna give you a white stone that he has been waiting and so excited to give you. And that white stone has your name on it. See, don't try to be like me or don't try to be like the person next to you. God doesn't need another person like the person next to you. He needs you to walk in your true identity. And see what happens is fear takes us out of that true identity and God wants to bring us back. Think if everyone in this room walked in their true identity of who God has called them to be. Think about what God would do in Rockford, in Cape Coral, in Janesville, in God Behind Bars. God Behind Bars, I wanna speak to you right now. God does not call you a criminal.

That is not who you are. God has given you a specific name. And when you ask him the name, he will tell you who you are. what he's called you. It will literally transform your entire life by these three steps. So listen, we've left a couple minutes in service on purpose. This is not the end. And please do not leave unless it's absolute emergency. Because I told you early on, there's going to be some homework. And I want to give you a little bit of time to get started. Because I know if we get started in the service just a little bit, you have a better tendency to go home and finish this up. But I've asked the band to come and play a song called fear is not my future. Essentially, fear is not your identity. That's not who you are. And what I'm asking you to do is go through these three steps as they play. Identify your greatest fear. Confess that fear to Jesus. And then ask God, God, what name do you call me? And I can promise you, by hearing the name that God has called you will literally change your entire life. That is not an overstatement. Allow God to speak because I believe he is literally jumping up and down with excitement waiting for you to ask this question. But you can't ask the question before you empty yourself of your fear. Because if you do that, he can't fill you up with what he's called you. You've got to identify the fear, confess it, and then ask God what name he calls you. So as they play, take advantage of this couple minutes and go through those three steps. Fear is not my home, you are, you are. Death is not the end, you are, you are. Fear is not my future, you are, you are. This weakness is not my story, you are, you are. Heartbreak's not my home, you are, yes, you are, Jesus. Death is not the end, you are, yes, you are. Oh, hello, peace. Hello, joy. Hello, love. Hello, strength. Hello, hope. It's a new horizon. Oh, we trust in you, Lord. We open our hearts to you. Would you stretch our hearts, please? Come speak to us now. Oh, come speak to us now, Lord. Oh, we trust. Church, if you're ready and able, would you stand to your feet as we declare this together? Fear is not my future. Fear is not my future, you are, you are. This weakness is not my story, you are, yes, you are. And heartbreak's not my home, you are, you are. Death is not the end, you are, yes, you are. This fear is not, fear is not my future, you are, yes, you are, Jesus. This sickness is not my story, oh, we remind ourselves of the truth today, that heartbreak's not my home, you are, you are.

Oh, death is not the end, you are, yes, you are. Oh, hello, peace. Hello, joy. Hello, love. Hello, strength. Hello, hope. It's a new horizon. Oh, hello, peace. Hello, joy. Oh, you have no strength today. Hello, strength. Hello, hope. It's a new horizon. Oh, fear. The fear is not my future, you are. Oh, we say no to fear today. This sickness is not my story. ♪ You are, yes you are Jesus ♪ ♪ Our place, not my home ♪ ♪ You are, oh you are ♪ ♪ Death is not the end ♪ ♪ You are, yes you are Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh we trust your word Lord, we say, we say ♪ So Heavenly Father, we thank you for the deep work that you are doing in our lives today. God, we thank you that you are uprooting lies of fear, you're uprooting false things God, and in its place, we come into agreement with your truth, declaring that you are who you say that you are, and we are who you say that we are. So God, I speak freedom over each and every one of my friends in the house today. We thank you God for freedom that is flooding hearts and minds, and we receive every good thing that you have for us today, that we're gonna leave different than how we came in. With every head bowed and eye closed, Derek talked about knowing our identity in Christ, but that begins with the relationship with Jesus. And if you've never made the decision to come into a relationship with Jesus, which just means that you believe he's the son of God, died on the cross for your sins, rose three days later,

defeating death, hell, and the grave, giving us forgiveness, and you wanna make that decision today, heaven forever as your home, would you go ahead and just slip up your hand and say, that's me, I wanna make that decision to follow Jesus, leader of my life, forgiver of my sins, hands up all over the place. You can go ahead and you can put your hands down, but if everybody would repeat this prayer after me, so no one's saying it alone. Heavenly Father, thank you for your son, Jesus. I believe that he died on a cross for me and forgives me of all of my sin. Today, I choose to follow you. And in your name, everybody said, amen, amen, amen. Church, can we give everybody who prayed that prayer a huge round of applause. All of heaven is rejoicing. What an amazing message from Pastor Derek Stalin. And I just really wanna quickly speak to those individuals before we dismiss those individuals who prayed that prayer for the very first time. That is the best decision that you could ever make. And we wanna come alongside you as a church family and really help with the what now, what's the next steps that you can take now that you've started that relationship with Jesus. And so the first thing that we encourage you to do is to tell someone, whether it's dropping it in the chat so one of our hosts can see or texting a friend

or telling a family member, don't keep that good news to yourself. Tell someone so they can celebrate you and cheer you on in this faith journey. And the second thing is to download our new beginnings resource. Scan the QR code or look in the chat link to download our new beginnings resource. Really, that's a free resource to help answer the question what now, what does this relationship with Jesus look like? And we'd love to resource you with that. And the next best step for you after that new beginnings resource is to sign up for growth track. Growth track, it's a four week program. It only takes a couple, probably an hour every single week to really dive into the what is the calling and the purpose that God has placed inside of you. What are the spiritual gifts that he's placed inside of you? So you can unlock those and make a difference in this world. So sign up by visiting cityfirst.church forward slash growth track and to make sure to choose the online option. Well, City First Anywhere family, it has been a great privilege and an honor to be here at church with you guys today. Make sure to take that message into the week and know that fear is not your future, Jesus is. We hope to see you back next week as we have pastor Charlotte Gamble.

She's gonna preach the house down. She's gonna bring a word. So text your friends, bring them to church and share that link. We cannot wait to see you next Sunday. God bless.