Are You Trying to EARN Your Salvation? | Pastor Steve Smothermon

Folks, the Bible says we're saved by grace. I say this a lot because I think we still struggle with it. You are saved by grace. You can't earn it. You don't deserve it. You can't do anything to get it. You just have to receive it because there's nothing we could do to earn it. But then what happens when we get saved, people think, "Well, now I have to earn my salvation." And then I go do this, this, another thing. You can never earn your salvation. We're saved by grace, not by works unless any man should boast, but we are saved to do works. You're not saved just to be a couch potato and do nothing for the kingdom. But we don't earn our salvation because that's why people say, "Well, I've done everything right, why is this happening?" Because it has nothing to do with you doing everything right. Because you're doing everything right, it'll turn out for your good and God's glory, but you're still going to go through some stuff. And if we don't stay humble and teachable, we'll miss God. People are always trying to say how much they know and how spiritual they are. And I don't get it like, "Why do you have to flaunt that?" We need to humble ourselves. We need to recognize and be more like the Lord. And let me say this, it doesn't mean you'll ever be perfect at it, but you can get better at it. Listen, we're in a series titled "Out of Nowhere." If you're new with us, we've been in this series most of the year. And the title of this message in this series is "Profer Others, Live Like Christ." So we're going to talk about preferring others today. We're going to give you some examples in the Bible of people who preferred others over themselves. It's Christ-like to begin to prefer others over ourselves. So number one, what isn't normal should become normal. Have you ever met somebody who is always looking out for everybody else? Anybody who met those people? They're sick, but they still check in on you. They make sure everybody has a plate. They haven't even eaten yet, but they make sure everybody else has a plate. Their first thought is never about themselves. It's always about somebody else. And people like that stand out, why? Because that's not the normal in our culture. Our culture tends to be very selfish. We don't teach people manners anymore. We don't teach kids to open doors for ladies or especially older people. We don't talk to them about what it is to treat people kindly. We're just so consumed with ourselves trying to make a living. And that's one of the things that's wrong with our state is that people are willing to give up their freedoms for so-called security, and there's no security outside of God. And they're willing to give up their whole freedoms to feel secure when folks want you to lose your

freedoms, you're never getting back. And we've lost a lot in our country. And one of the freedoms that I'll fight for to the day I die is the freedom to preach this gospel the way we deem fit and the way the Bible says to. But the reason those people stand out is because it's not normal. It's just not the norm in our culture today. Normal is, look out for number one. Make sure I'm comfortable. Make sure I get what I deserve. But when Jesus becomes the Lord of your life, something is supposed to change. There are things that are supposed to change. See, what isn't normal in the world should become normal among those who follow Jesus? Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5, the Apostle Paul writes, "Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ, any comfort from His love, any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble. Thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others. Others too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Now, when I was reading this, and I'm sure a lot of us have read this a lot of times, I got stuck on, then make me truly happy and agreeing wholeheartedly with each other. And I'm like, Dang, we gotta agree all the time with each other. But the word here means from the Greek, the meaning of this comment is a statement, "We are all pulling in the same direction." So when he says, "A green whole heart with each other," we're all pulling in the same direction towards Jesus and His Word. It means it's not that we all think alike, but that we all purpose to learn to think more like Jesus. In other words, the flow of our life is going in the same direction. We may disagree, we don't have to be alike, but the flow of our life says we're pulling people, we're pulling closer to the Lord Jesus, and that's what He's saying. And then in the Scripture, He says, "Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress people. Be humble." That goes against everything our culture talks about today. You've got to be popular.

You've got to be an influence with all that stuff. You have to be recognized. You have to be noticed. And that's hard because selfishness comes natural. You don't have to teach your two-year-old to say mine. They figured that out all by themselves, mine, mine, mine. I literally took a French fry from my youngest grandson the other day, and he just stared at me. I'm like, "You like it? I'll take them all." And then he just went and did his own thing, but I'm like, "No, those are mine." And he's like, "No, those are mine. We don't have to teach people to be selfish. We have to teach them to be unselfish." Here's another thing. And some of us are 50 years old and older and still saying it. It's all mine. We just say it a little nicer. I just want what is fair and what we mean is what is fair for me. I'll pray about it when we already know the answer is no. Kids say mine, grown-ups say I'm just saying. I'm just saying, here's one, I don't need the credit, but it would sure have been nice if they mentioned me. That's what it looks like. A little kid will just say mine, mine, they'll cry, they'll throw fit mine. And we say it differently, we say it nicer, but we still say it. See, but Paul doesn't root this in good advice. He roots this in Jesus. He's not saying, here's some good advice. He's saying, "In the Lord Jesus, things should begin to change in us."

Verse 2, "The one who deserved to be served came to serve." Philippians chapter 2 verses 6 through 11, "Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself an obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is God. And we need to realize that when we come to Christ, we should follow him. Jesus humbled himself. He wasn't looking to be noticed and recognized. In fact, we need to realize again, he is God, Jesus is God. He didn't stop being God when he became a man, but he didn't use that position for his own advantage. He humbled himself. He took the position of a servant. He went all the way to the cross. We spend our whole lives trying to climb some ladder. Jesus spent his whole life coming down to us. The one who deserved to be served came to serve. But here this, Jesus didn't come just to teach us how to treat people better. He came to save us from our sin, from hell, from what we could never pay a price. We could never pay a price big enough for that. The cross wasn't just an example of humility. It was the sacrifice that makes sinners right with God today. That's what we need to realize.

We need to stay humble. We need to stay teachable. And Jesus gave up everything. that we could have life and have it with, with God. See, we don't live like Christ to earn salvation. We live like Christ because we belong to Him. Folks, the Bible says we're saved by grace. I say this a lot because I think, I think we still struggle with it. You are saved by grace. You can't earn it. You don't deserve it. You do anything to get it. You just have to receive it because there's nothing we could do to earn it. But then what happens when we get saved? People think, well, now I have to earn my salvation. And then I go do this, this, another thing. You can never earn your salvation. We're saved by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast. But we are, excuse me, we are saved to do works. Do not say just to be a couch potato and do nothing for the kingdom. But we don't earn our salvation because that's why people say, well, I've done everything right. Why is this happening? Because it has nothing to do with you doing everything right. Because you're doing everything right, it'll turn out for your good and God's glory, but you're still going to go through some stuff. And if we don't stay humble and teachable, we'll miss God. People are always trying to say how much they know and how spiritual they are. And I don't get it like, why do you have to flaunt that? We need to humble ourselves.

We need to recognize and be more like the Lord. And let me say this, it doesn't mean you'll ever be perfect at it, but you can get better at it. And when you truly ask Jesus, be Lord of your life, there should be some changes going on on the inside of you like, you should start desiring maybe church more. Why? Because God, Jesus died. He's the head of the church. You should desire the word more when you read it or hear it, it should just like float your boat some and be like, man, this is good. I'm understanding it. You're understanding it because now you're born again, now the word is for you. But we can't earn it. That's why when people say, well, I've done so much, I don't know how the Lord can save me or God, that's a lie. That's false humility. That's not being humble. That's being prideful because you can't earn it anyway. I can't earn it. There's nothing I can do to make me more safe than I am right now. There's a lot I can do to show people I'm saved, but not to be saved. Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and 13, dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Your card to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. When we talk about that God gives us the desires of our heart, those desires are the ones that please him. We use it in forms of us personally, like God give me the desire. I have a desire to do this.

I have a desire to do that. I have a desire to do something else. And those desires don't necessarily aren't bad, but if they're not in line with what Christ wanted you to do, then they become something that's frustrating to you. So when He says He'll give me the desires of my heart, He'll show me what's in me so I can begin to function the way He wants me to function. Will I do it perfectly? No. Will I sin? Yes. Will I make a lot of mistakes? Absolutely. We all will. But we keep working on it to get better and better and better. You know, we live in a crazy world where people are always dealing with nice people, where they're nice people. I talk about Islam now because it's invading our country and it's evil. You say no, it's not. In the Middle East, they cut off Christian's heads. They've done it live and on television, just showed it all over the world. You can't go into a mosque if you're an infidel like all of us. We're the evil. And you can't go into a mosque because they'll probably kill you. There's places in our own country. You can't go into those areas because if you do and you're an infidel like we're infidels, that's what they call infidels, all of us who aren't Muslim or believe in Islam. And you can't go into parts of our own country because they're so crazy. But yet we talk about where they're good people. Islam is not a good religion. And people say, "Well, I know some Muslim.

They're nice people. I don't care if you know a thousand of them." The people may be nice. they're against what you and I believe. And in it's sad, in the Muslim world, those women are having their babies. In our world, we can't wait to see how many we can kill. Murder. God intended us for have families and pretty big families. Yeah, but you don't know about global warming. I could care less about that and climate change and everything else. That does not trump the word of God. It says be fruitful and multiply. Have all your kids. I mean, when my family was five kids and people say, they tell my family, you got five kids? Well, in my mom's day, there was 12 kids. All you have to do is look at the man and the woman. High five him and hug her and high five her twice and say, "Lady, you're tough." (audience laughs) Keep having these babies. But think about it. We as Christians should not espouse the same things the world does. Well, this is how I was raised. Well, I was raised a certain way too, but when Jesus comes in and life, he gets to re-raise you if that's a term.

He gets to help you rethink some things so you can start walking in the truth. God is forest, guys. And the bottom line is, you're never gonna be perfect. So quit trying to say I'm gonna do everything perfectly. Or if you're not perfect, then oh man, the sky is falling. It's not falling. God is still right there with you. We just have to pick it up and keep walking. And we have to do it his way. We should espouse life in this country, not death. And the reason he wanted us to have kids so we could train them up to be Christians. Well, my kids, they don't like church. Well, the problem is when they were younger, did you like church? Did you make it a priority? Or was it sports? Was it school? Which should be priorities, but not the priority? Keeping commitments when you're part of a team. And that's why he wanted us so we could have a lot of Christians, people who are believers. But just in our culture and in the church world itself, people are still murdering their babies. They're God intended for you to have. And we've got to come to a place where we aren't looking just for what's normal in the world. We look and see God, what's normal in your word? And that's gonna become normal to me.

So God gives you the desire. God gives you the power. You respond. And he changes you from the inside out. That's not behavior modification. That's a heart transformation. God is not trying to modify our behavior. He's trying to get us to be transformed, to be something different than we were before, to actually renew our minds, to start thinking the way he thinks. See, two men who lived it. I said, we're gonna talk about some guys who lived it. Then Paul gives the Philippians two real life examples. Men they knew. Philippians 2 19 through 22. If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit. Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along. I have no one else like Timothy who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. Think about the apostle Paul writing this. There's only one person like Timothy. That cares about you and everybody else just cares about themselves. It's no different in our world today. You have pastors that won't preach the gospel,

the whole gospel, 'cause they're afraid they're gonna lose somebody. And what they don't realize is that if we don't preach the whole gospel, they're gonna lose people yes to hell. 'Cause they'll never know the truth. And when the truth is being preached, we should embrace it and not fight it and say, "Oh, I don't agree with that because of this." God, what do I need to do to start believing that because I saw it in the scriptures for myself? At some point, you and I are gonna have to decide who we're gonna believe in. And it doesn't mean again you'll be perfect, just means you, the flow of your life, you're going in the right direction. And God wants us to see even in our world today that there's some who care about you, the church, and there's a lot of others who only care about themselves. Self-preservation, I'm not gonna talk about this, I'm not gonna do that, I'm not gonna stand for this, I'm not gonna preach that. And what does the Bible says? That people will heap up teacher after teacher after teacher, heap up to themselves having itching ears and only go to those places that preach what they want to hear, not what God wants to say. That's why we freak out on the truth sometimes. I think that's a little tough.

No, it's just we're not normal to hear the truth. It's normal to hear some watered down version of it. And pastors are doing it all over America. Maybe it's always been like that. I don't know if it's been as bad as it is now, but I'm just saying it's just wild what's happening in the body of Christ. Let's don't talk about this 'cause man it might affect somebody. We should talk about that and hopefully it does affect somebody. At least it gives you the choice to make instead of not having any. Here's the truth, here's how I live. Do I want to continue to do this or do I want to start working towards acting on the truth? It's your call, but if you never know where the boundaries are how would you ever know which direction to go? You just stay the same. People come here and they get convicted. Some say I don't like the way I feel. Well that's God loving you enough to help you to change something in your life that needs change. Paul says I've got nobody else like Timothy. Everybody else is looking out for themselves. You know it's just like me when I pray for this service. I never really pray, I pray the message blesses people but I pray God help me serve the people. Help me serve the people.

Why? Because that's what we're supposed to do. That's preferring others. I don't care if they like everything I said. I had a lady the other day, it was so funny. It was after Tuesday night message and she walked up to me and she goes, "I really loved your Sunday message." I said, "Okay." This is Tuesday, I just got through preaching. And I smile but in my mind, I'm like, "Well, did you like today's?" I mean, you know. But I do that, you just, you just, I mean she was being very sweet. But we can take things any way we want. Like maybe I didn't do good tonight. Maybe it was awful. But either way, it shouldn't matter because if we're here to serve others, it should be about what God does. And that's what he wants to do in your life. Some of you are stuck in life, it's not because God wants you stuck, it's because you're unwilling to prefer anybody over yourself. You're unwilling to prefer people over yourself over your own, you know, calendar. Your own stuff, the things that you do every day. I don't want to be inconvenienced. I'm busy doing this, that, another thing.

And so we don't prefer others over ourselves. We don't do things that show that we're truly believers. And so he says he has no one else. Timothy wasn't asking what's best for Timothy. He was asking what matters to Jesus. And what matters to Jesus, just the bottom line is people. When the interests of Christ become our priority, the needs of others begin to matter to us. Then Paul tells them about Epaphroditus, Epaphroditus. Philippians chapter two, verses 25 and 27. Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphroditus, Epaphroditus, oh, back to you, Epaphroditus, I got it. He is a true but brother, co-worker and fellow soldier. He was your messenger to help me in my need for I'm sending him because he has been longing to see you. And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill, in fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him and also on me so that I would not have one sorrow after another. For he risked his life for the work of Christ. And he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away. So he talks about Timothy, there's no one else like him. Everybody out for their own interests, other preachers, many ministers, maybe whoever, but Timothy was out for you. He wanted you to do well. Then he starts talking about Epaphroditus and how he didn't want the people to know he was ill. He was upset that they found out.

This guy risked his life for the kingdom. And the church in Philippi sent Epaphroditus to take care of Paul in prison. While he was there, he got so sick he almost died. Now watch this, he's not upset because he almost died. See that's beginning to put people, prefer people over yourself, I don't want them to worry about me. It doesn't mean we can't go talk to people though. We shouldn't just bottle things up and keep it on the inside. But it should be people we know that will pray for us and believe God with us. But the point of this is Timothy and Epiditis, they were serving others. They were preferring others over themselves. And so that's what God wants for all of us. And he didn't want them to worry about him and look at verse 30, he risked his life. The word risked here is the gambler's word in the Greek. Now I'm going to butcher this, but I'll get close. Paraboloumi mai. It means to roll the dice, to put it all on the table. Epiditis gambled his life for the work of Christ. Years later in the early church, there was a group of believers called the parabolo-bo-lami. Alumni, lonai. And the word meant gamblers. Here's who they were. When plague hit the city and everybody else ran, they stayed. They cared for the sick. They buried the dead. They put their lives on the line for people nobody else would touch. Epiditis didn't just say he followed Jesus, he bet his life on it. And then a group of people with the same word gamblers were the ones that cared for people when everybody else left them.

Folks, that's the heart of who we're supposed to be, help others. So what about us? This is the way we treat people, reflect the Savior we claim to follow. Think about this, folks. When you prefer others over yourself, you want them to succeed. I was talking to a guy that's pretty well off, and he said, you know, you would think in New Mexico. And it's probably all over the country, but we live here. You would think that if you're successful, people would be for you, but all they want to do is tear you down and see you fail and falter. Folks, if that's what you think about others because they're successful, then here's what you're telling God very clearly, I don't ever want to be successful. And the Bible says we should rejoice with those that rejoice. You know, some of the junk on TV about pastors and different ones that have fallen and made mistakes or whatever, I don't watch them. People tell me you got to see it, I don't want to watch it. I know how the media lies and sensationalized stuff, they put stuff in there out of context. I just know how they work. And then I thought to myself, God, I don't get off on. I'm not excited about someone faltering or falling and hurting people and hurting themselves and their family. There's nothing about that that I enjoy. Someone told me to watch the preacher's wife or something. My wife and I started watching, I bet I watched 15, 20 minutes of it, and I turned it off and I said, "I don't know what's the truth, I just don't want this junk in me." I don't thrive and rejoice when people falter and fall. We can't live that way, we're not supposed to. And as Christians, we should want people to do well. But the problem is if they do better than us, then that's when we get a little offended. You can do good, just don't do better than me.

And if you do better than me, then I want to try to tear you down to bring you back down to where you're with me. Instead of just saying, "God bless them." Maybe they're not godly, but God help them to come to know you. We should rejoice with those that rejoice and have sorrow with those that sorrow. But folks, we've got to start believing that people, we want them to succeed. And here's the thing, people hate rich people in our country. It's like if you're successful, you're evil. But they're the job creators. We all have jobs because of that. And we've got to stop thinking like the world, what's normal to them, and start thinking about and getting more Christ-like and figuring out what's normal for a godly person or a person that believes in the Lord Jesus. Again, you won't always get it right, but you can get it right more often than you get it wrong and keep working on it and working on it, preferring others over yourselves. That's a big deal. People have a hard time doing our country. I just decided I don't want to hear that. I've got enough problems without everybody else's problems in me. And if we get off on that, if you thrive on that, you think that's cool, like they fail. Oh, they fail. Folks, that's not the right heart. Now, I did want the Eagles to fail the other night. But, you know, but what I'm saying is, folks, we don't want people to have harm in their life. We should want them to thrive. We should want them to do better. And maybe they're not serving the Lord, but we can pray that they serve the Lord. So it's easy to prefer others until their preference conflicts with yours. It's easy to serve until serving gets inconvenient. It's easy to be humble until nobody notices what you did. Did you get that one? It's easy to be humble until nobody notices what you did.

Don't they know how much? They don't appreciate me. That's not being humble. That's thinking about you. And there's probably a lot of people who do appreciate what you've done. Maybe they haven't verbalized it like we should or they should. But, folks, that's not why we do it. I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. Years ago, John Jones or whatever the fighter is, he was having some PR issues or whatever, so he bought a bunch of coats to give away to the homeless, the kids. And he bought nice coats, too. They were nice. And that day I went over to the tent with me and my family, and we began to serve the people by just passing out coats, telling little guys, "Hey, what coat do you like? What size are you?" And I can remember looking at some kids' faces and they're not very happy with their coat. I said, "You don't like that? No. Which one do you want?" And just give it to them. It's just fun. And the thing that I think about that so fondly to this day is because nobody in there, the homeless, knew me as Pastor Steve. They just knew me as a guy helping them. And I told my wife, when I left in others, that was probably one of the greatest Christian days I've had in a very, very long time. You say, "But why?" Because I wasn't doing it for position. I was just doing it so I could serve. And no one messed with me. These kids and these family, they come up, they were all kind. And I just thought, "Okay, God, this is what serving does. This is what preferring them over yourself and just being kind and nice." I enjoyed the whole time. My grandkids did. My wife. I would go back and if someone said, "Hey, you want to do that again?" I would do that in a second because then I just got to serve without any other stuff. Folks, if we ever get the heart of Christ, we'll want to help somebody else. We'll prefer others over ourselves because that's how God works. So let's get personal for a moment. How about your marriage? Are you more concerned about getting what you want or loving your spouse the way Christ called you to? How about your family? Are you frustrated that nobody meets your expectations or are you looking for ways to serve them? When somebody needs help, is your first thought how inconvenient it is going to be? Or do you say, "Hey, I'll just go help." See, preferring others doesn't mean you never say no either. There's times when you'll say no, I can't. I'm not. Yeah, but if you prefer me, I do prefer you, but I'm not doing that today. Maybe you have a reason. Maybe it's not healthy for them. But I don't teach this so you can be manipulated because people will leave

here to say, "You're supposed to prefer me over them." That is not the hard attitude. See, Paul didn't say, "Don't look out for your interests." He said, "Don't only look out for your interests." So you got to take care of yourself too, but it can't be only that. What about the others around you? What about people in your family, your world? See, the issue is selfishness. You cannot make yourself the center of everything and live like the Savior who humbled himself for others. You can't do it. And none of us, again, will do this perfectly. Nobody's going to be perfect at this, but we can get better at it. But that's why we need Jesus, period. And maybe you're here today and you've never given your life to the Lord because you can't live for Christ until you belong to Christ. You can try. You can attempt not going to happen. You can even do start doing good things. But if you're not born again, it means nothing. Listen, when you get to heaven, and I get to heaven, the only thing that will last is what we did for Christ in the kingdom. I built a business. I tied off the business. That's a blessing. I helped others. I gave. One of the reasons Cynthia and I give almost every bit of our money-- we'll go to church sometimes, and I'll give something-- but almost every dime that we give goes through the church and then to other organizations. And here's why, because when you give to something, personally, which we give, then you get the credit. So and so gave that. And you get the credit. And the Lord said, that's the only credit you get. But when the church gives, God gets the credit. God gets the glory. Because they don't put it on a person. They put it on a church. And the church represents the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if we'll let our good works shine before men, our Father in heaven will be glorified. And so we let our good works. We give to these organizations. But we do it in the name of God, not in the name of myself or others. And that's what people have missed. They feel good about it. And you should, because you're giving. But who gets the credit? Who gets the glory? And our world is supposed to be God in front of the throne room of grace. For all time, the angels cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. They don't confess anything else except call them holy. And said, you receive all the praise and glory and honor. That's why we do it. That's why my wife and I, we purpose to give. And we give, we tithe and give to this church. Just like anybody else would. Because it's our home. But we know when we give it out to so many different places that God's being glorified. And if you're going to be humble, you're not looking for the credit. You're just looking for the thing to be accomplished or something to be done. But you can't live like Christ until you belong to Him. And the same Jesus who came down from heaven

came down to the cross for you and I. He gave everything so we could be forgiven. Today, we can stop living for ourself and start living for Him if we choose to. So let me ask you, are you living to serve yourself? Or are you living to serve Christ? Do you prefer others or do you prefer yourself? Do you live like Christ is real? Because if the answer is no, you can. If the answer is, you know, pastor, I have, but I could do better, then that's all God wants. We can just do better. But in our culture, it should be the norm to teach our kids manners, to teach them to open doors for people when they're coming through. I don't know how many times I've been stuck at the front door at a place, a restaurant, or a store. And I just tell people they laugh and I just hold the door. And I said, yeah, I'm a good glad-hander. They just look at me like, what? But they all say, thank you. And I feel good about it. Why? Because we're preferring somebody over ourselves. The more you practice it, the better you'll get at it. And that you'll see more peace in your life. And you'll see God do things. And you'll be like, oh my gosh, he just did that. If we choose to make the norm of the scriptures are normal, not the normal of culture and the world.

Father in Jesus' name, I thank you for being here. I thank you for teaching us. I thank you for helping us all. I thank you for your word that's truth. The God that we can embrace, that we can learn from it. And I know there's people that have gone through so many different things in this room. Some are hurting. Some are happy. Some are struggling through an issue. Some of them in their hearts have been broken. And God, you're the God of all of us and all of it. So if they need comfort, comfort them. If they need peace, grant them that. If they need your help, help them to get it. The way you would say you would help. That they would become doers of your word and not ignore it. That we would get better and better to preferring others, God, because it's your heart. It's what you desire for all of us. It's what Jesus did. And he's our example. We know we'll never be perfect at it. For God, we can get better at it. Help us, give us the power and the strength to overcome in Jesus' name. If you're here with every head bowed and you say, "Pasty, would you pray for me?" I walk with God, but I walked away. I want to get it right.

I want to come home. I want to know that I'm right with God. I don't want to run anymore. I don't want to keep being mad or angry. I'm just going to prefer him over myself today. Over here and you say, "Pastor, would you pray with me?" I've never truly asked Jesus to be Lord of my life. Because folks, without that, there's no way you can be Christ-like. You can be a good person, but good people don't go to heaven. Say people go to heaven. So you must believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and invite them into your life. If that's you right where you're seated all over this place, I'm gonna pray with you right at your seat. And if you say preacher, that's me, pastor, that's me, include me in your prayer, right at your seat right now, in Jesus' name without any hesitation. If you say that to me, would you just lift your hand all over this place? Is there anybody here? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.

God bless you over here. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you, man. I'm just looking across. God bless you over here. God bless you, sir. God bless you, thank you. God bless you. God's helping. God's here. How are you gonna do say yes? God bless you. Yeah, thank you. I'm gonna look across the top one more time. Anybody else? By the lifting of your hand say, okay, that's me. God, I want you in my life, preacher, including your prayer. Thank you, God bless you. I see that hand. See those hands. Anybody else's I look across the top. See, this is my day. This is my journey. I'm gonna get this right. I'm gonna know that I'm right with the living God. Thank you. I see that hand. I'm gonna look across the bottom section one more time. I don't want to miss anybody.

I'm just giving you an opportunity to say, God, I don't care what anybody else thinks I want you in my life. By the lifting of your hand, thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. I saw your hand. Thank you. I see your hand. Father in Jesus' name, I thank you for all the hands that were raised. 'Cause they represent people. And Jesus, you're all about the people. You came and died for people. So bless them. Show yourself strong on the behalf that they may come to know you and know your ways. Thank you, Father, in the powerful name of Jesus for helping people. In Jesus' name, amen. If you lifted your hand, I want you to pray this prayer out loud. Loud enough for your ears to hear your voice. The Bible says, not Steve, not legacy. We believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. And so if you lifted your hand, would you pray this with us aloud? If you're right with God already and supported those who lift their hand, would you pray with us so no one's praying alone?

And if you didn't raise your hand, but you know you should have, please allow me the honor of introducing you to Jesus. 'Cause he's the only savior of the world. Would you pray with me, church? Would you pray God? I choose to believe in your son, Jesus. And I believe he's your only son. And you raised him from the dead. He gave me a new life. So according to your word, I believe that in my heart. And now I willingly confess with my mouth, Jesus be Lord of my life. Thank you for saving me, for forgiving me and for always helping me in Jesus' name.