Don't Trade Your Inheritance I Stephanie Okafor I Social Dallas

Hey everyone, before we jump into today's message, we wanted to take just a moment and personally thank you for being a part of our Social Global family. Yes, we are standing in the future home of Social Dallas. Demolition has officially started and every day we're getting closer to making the space a place where thousands of people will encounter Jesus for years to come. And if these messages have encouraged you, strengthened your faith, or helped you grow in any way, would you partner with us? Your generosity helps us continue sharing messages like the one you're about to watch and helps us build a permanent home where lives will be changed forever. To support the Almost Home campaign, visit SocialDallas.com slash give and select Almost Home in the giving options or you can text the word give to 469-715-3755. Whether it's a one-time gift or becoming a recurring partner, every gift makes impact and every dollar moves dirt. Thank you for believing in what God is doing through Social Dallas. Here's today's message. How many can sense the presence of our God in this place? He is keeping His promise that He will dwell in the midst of His people forever. He's holy forever. He's worthy forever. He's consistent. He's trustworthy. That's why I have trust. Do you have trust in God? But not just any type of trust, confident trust in the Lord. Every single year at Social we come around a word and this year that word is trust. As we said not just any kind of trust but confident trust and that word comes out of a verse. Comes out of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 35 through 37 and we are gonna declare that as loud as we can together because we believe the Word of God is true. But remember you don't go until I say so. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you. Patient endurance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that He has promised. For in just a little while the coming one will come and not delay. Hallelujah. God is faithful to His Word and I am so excited for the word we are about to hear today. Our pastors have left us in incredible hands as they always do and I'm excited. The voice you're gonna hear is not the voice of a guest. She has

been here before. She is family and I remember the Sunday she was here and just how impactful it was. I'm ready. Are y'all ready? She is a passionate Bible teacher. She's a global voice impacting the church at large and she is an author and she has a word for us today. Social please help me welcome. Welcome real big Stephanie E.K. Okafor. Hallelujah. Can we lift up a praise to Jesus. Amen. Amen. Just like they said I'm family so if you're surprised by what's going on it's not me it's you. All right but let us pray. We have a word to get into and I'm excited for what the Lord wants to do today. Heavenly Father we thank you. We lift up your holy name Jesus. Lord you are in the room. Spirit of the living God your assignment has always been to glorify Jesus and I ask of that in this moment that none of us would be in the way. I would not be in the way and we would not allow distractions to keep us from that which you have for us and so Lord through this word would you minister to each and every one of your children. Every son and daughter. Would you draw them even closer to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. I'm so grateful to be here. You may be seated. I love this church. I love your pastors. I love what God is doing through Social Dallas in this city. There's so much more to come but I want us to get into the Word. If you're taking notes, and I always encourage you know that you whenever you're listening to a sermon that you take notes You take the scriptures you study it on your own time Because there are things that the Spirit of the Lord will continue to download in you as you you know become more Intentional with the Word of God you don't want to just rely on another person's encounter with the word You want to take the word and begin to let the Spirit of the Lord and counter you even deeper through it But as you're taking notes my message today comes from this word that the Lord really gave me don't trade your inheritance in Scripture we see patterns of this the one that is most visible is in the life of Esau Right and when we read about Esau It's it's just alarming the man if you ever studied about Esau and his brother Esau could cook Let's start there, and he could cook with meat and he traded his inheritance for fasting food

bowl of lentils makes no sense But that is the actual way humanity is that some of the decisions we make Esau is a reflection of humanity outside of the governance of God There is a reason why Jesus will call us sheep and him as the Good Shepherd if you ever study sheep sheep are really dumb it's just the truth a sheep cannot live outside of proximity to its shepherd if a sheep falls and rolls on its back if It's left like that a sheep cannot even turn themselves and if you leave them in that state They could actually have a heart attack and die Just something that is natural to them to fall on their back They can't even get up the shepherd has to come and turn them over Everything about sheep will teach you that in order for them to live and thrive. They must be in proximity To their shepherd and it must be a good shepherd Jesus be when you gave your life to him was not the moment. He immediately became your shepherd because the scripture would say that my sheep know my voice and The journey to knowing the voice of God is a journey of surrender It's a journey of obedience first you acknowledge him as Lord, but you have to give yourself to him as a sheep and Unfortunately many times there are other things that shepherd us while we call on his name and That is what we're going to go into today so that you don't allow other voices oftentimes some of us are more loyal to our pain that we're more loyal to the leading of the Holy Spirit and Although you may call him Lord your pain is your shepherd Because the shepherd is the voice that you listen to is the voice you've given yourself to and Until you find out that following Jesus is not just about what I say I am it's about the fact that I am led by his spirit and When we give ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit, that is when Jesus goes from just saying that he is Lord That we can acknowledge like David that he is my shepherd

It is not something we say out of goodwill. It is something that he becomes through submission and So we're gonna go in the Word of the Lord in Exodus 15 22 verse 22 and we're gonna go to 16 verse 1 and this is when the Israelites have been delivered out of captivity in Egypt Now one of the beautiful things that we will see about The Israelites being delivered is that it was a mirror of what salvation is out of bondage to a place where you would have come into a covenant with God and So Israelites have been delivered to the scripture says so Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea Then they went out into the wilderness of Shur and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water This is so fascinating how God works Because the Lord is so intentional about you. The Lord is not naive to your human experience The Lord is aware that while they were in the wilderness while they were in bondage There were things that happened to them. There was pain that was bitterness They had been in captivities for so many years Because when you study the Word of God, you will know that Moses was an answer to their cry Yes, the Lord desired to bring them out of captivity, but the Lord Lord will not go against your will. The Israelites had to cry out to God. And in response to their cry that they wanted to be set free from this bondage and captivity, the Lord encounters Moses. But the Lord knows that there is bitterness in their heart. You see, for all humanity, we were born into a fallen world. It is just, it is the nature of the world we live in.

You live long enough, you would experience trauma in one form or the other. You would experience pain in one form or the other because humanity came into a fallen world because of sin. And when sin governs people, they hurt people. They cause pain. And that's why Jesus is the one who restores the soul because he knows that you live long enough, you're going to experience some things that would break your heart. That's why Jesus does not just say he was anointed to set the captives free. The scripture actually tells us that he was also anointed to heal the broken hearted because he knew that the issue was not just about your spirit being reconciled to God, but that your soul will need to be healed when you come to him. And Jesus is so mindful of this. And so there are times that he would bring you into experiences so that what is in your heart could come to the surface. Because sometimes we tend to be distracted by freedom that we don't acknowledge the other places, the hidden places where we're still bound. We are attracted by the freedom that we see. We're out of Egypt, praise the Lord. But the Lord knew that their hearts were full of bitterness. And the way he's going to stir it up had to do with water. You see, water is very symbolic for the spirit.

And so first of all, how does he lead them out of Egypt? The water's part. They walk through water to encounter no water. Three days they go, there's no water. And then verse 23 says, "'Now when they came to Mara, "'they could not drink the waters of Mara, "'for they were bitter.'" They'd snow water, and now the waters are bitter. And it says, "'Therefore, the name of it was called Mara, "'and the people complained against Moses, "'saying, what shall we drink? "'So he cried out to the Lord, "'and the Lord showed him a tree. "'When he cast it into the waters, "'the waters were made sweet.'" You see, I believe that the Lord intended for them to go into Mara, because Mara was not just about bitter waters. It was a circumstance to reveal the bitterness in their soul. It was something to cause that bitterness to rise up. Because how is the waters made sweet? It's so intentional. The Lord shows him something that is already there. The tree was already there, and it's a tree. The Lord does not say, speak to the water. He doesn't say, put the rod in the water. He says, cast the tree into the waters. Now, we know that the tree is also symbolic for Jesus on the cross.

When you study, let's go to 1 Peter 2, verse 24. It says, "'Who himself bore our sins "'in his own body on the tree, "'that we, having died to sins, "'might live for righteousness, "'by whose stripes you are healed.'" The tree was always symbolic, pointing to the Lord Jesus. And from that moment, he's showing them, I know your bitterness, and I am the one who heals you. And if he wanted to make it even more clear, he goes even further. The scripture says, "'There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, "'and there he tested them and said, "'If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God "'and do what is right in his sight, "'give ear to his commandments and keep his statutes, "'I will put none of the diseases "'on which I have brought on the Egyptians, "'for I am the Lord who heals you. "'What does the Lord who heals "'have anything to do with bitter waters?' Because it was not about the water becoming sweet. It was about the condition of their hearts, to see Jesus. You see, when we talk about don't trade your inheritance, the first thing that we must point to, now is that don't trade it for bitterness. oftentimes we park at the things that made us bitter and sacrifice it for what God has for us because you cannot hear the voice of the Lord while you're bitter. so when the Lord is talking to them you see the response the Lord gives for people who are crying out

about bitter waters is telling you what he's actually dealing with through the bitter waters. how is it that from the waters becoming bitter the Lord says if you heed the voice of the Lord. what does the voice of the Lord have to do with needing water? because the Lord was using that to speak to them. if this bitterness does not come out of you it will be your shepherd. if you don't deal with the bitterness of your heart it will become the voice that you follow. so when the Lord heals the waters he speaks to them about following his voice because you see you can never get to your promised land. you can never get to the place that the Lord has ordained for you. you can never walk in the fullness of who you are called to be in God if he is not your shepherd. and so the Lord deals with the first thing. I've brought you out of Egypt. I've brought you out of darkness. you encountered me. you encountered my love. but there was pain in your history. there was bitterness in your heart. there was unforgiveness. there was heartbreak. there was betrayal in your life. we have to deal with that first and oftentimes how God deals with it he puts you in circumstances that trigger it. it's not to trigger it for you to go in a downward spiral. it's to bring it to the surface that you would bring it to him. so it does not become the voice that you follow. the enemy will try to leverage on anything that you allow to lead you outside the voice of God because he could use that to bring his thoughts. don't allow bitterness to be the reason you give up on what the Lord says about you. then the scripture continues. then they came to Elim. so they go from going walking through waters parted to no water and then bitter waters made sweet and then they continue to journey and they get to this place Elim that just feels like an oasis. it says where there were 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees and they camped there by the waters. see the next thing you must understand don't trade your inheritance for comfort. Elim was not the promised land. Elim was just a place of rest. it was a place to be restored. it was a place to sit and begin to ponder. it was a place to just sit with the Lord and begin to reflect on his ways and what he has done. it was a place for you to get your strength and your fight back. that after you have

allowed bitterness to come out of you that you can have a place where you can rest in the Lord and hear his voice. there is nothing that is distracting you but it is a place for instructions for you to continue the journey. it is not the place you park. you see one of the things that the Lord deals with me when it comes to territories and cities and nations is that he begins to show me what would keep a people captive if they are not intentional with him. and many years ago concerning Dallas the Lord showed me something about this region that if you're not intentional with him because you see in every region there is what the Lord desires to come out of that region and there is what the enemy desires to keep in captivity within the region. and I saw that concerning Dallas it was said from the camp of darkness this is the place where dreams come to die. understand this. this is not just any random dream. that this is the place where the God dream of your life. that is what the enemy desires. that is not the Word of God for this region. God wants to do great and mighty things through Dallas but what the enemy wants to create out of this region is death. that this is the place where people park. This is the place, this will become their elem, where they rest, they feel restored, but they don't continue in what God put in their heart. This becomes the place they stop dreaming with God. God gave you dreams, God gave you things that He wants you to do in your life. And He brought you here so that you can be clear to hear His voice and keep building. But then you began to park, you got comfortable. Everything is bigger in Dallas, so you got so comfortable. You got the job, you forgot the calling. The job is good because you need to be a good steward over your life, but not to forsake the calling just because you got the job.

It is called balance. Amen. Many people come here and park and they stop dreaming with God just because things got a little comfortable. They stop dreaming with Him. And the enemy is not threatened by you in elem. He's threatened by the call of God on your life. The enemy is not threatened because now you can pay your bills. He is not threatened because you have a thriving and healthy community. He is threatened when you are awakened to who God says you are. And so just because a door opened up for you, you have to ask yourself, what else did the door come with? Did it make me complacent in prayer? Did the door that I prayed for, the door that I believed was favor from God, what did it do to my spiritual life? The door that brought increase and opportunities and all these things, what did it do to my spiritual life? There's a reason why this region operates heavily under a spirit of religion. That's why I thank God for this church because the spirit of religion in Texas in general is strong. There is the appearance of that, which is godly, but no spirit. And why is that? So that you would just fall into routine, but no shepherd.

A spirit of religion does not have Jesus as a shepherd because they function through routine. They function through a system. They don't function as blind people being led by a voice. And it's heavy in this territory. And that is why when the spirit of the Lord revealed to me what the plans of the enemy is, is that people should come here and just park. They just do the bare minimum, but it looks like they're thriving. People are applauding them, but beware of the applause of man. It doesn't always translate to the applause of God. Beware by the things we call big because in heaven, it could look like small. You see, God has a different view from the lens of the Lord. What you might be calling a small thing, heaven is applauding because they see that which will be birthed through it. That's why the Bible talks about how the Lord rejoices to see a thing begin. It talks about not despising small beginnings. Be careful that you don't live your life for what people celebrate. You don't live your life in a world that is content driven, that you don't become just content and no longer a sheep. You just do what the people will follow when the potency of your life is about who you follow. Not just what people follow, but who you follow.

And so you don't park at comfort. Rest is part of God's design, but it's not where you park. Social Dallas, there are many things that God is gonna do through this ministry. The last time I was here, There was no building. Now we have a building coming. The Almost Home Campaign. But the Almost Home Campaign is not where we park. It's an address. But God is saying, take the city. And just because there's increase does not mean you park at an address. Because there is a reason why the Lord would give the messaging through this church, God loves Dallas. Because he said, take the city, not an address. So you don't park at Comfort. And then the scripture continues. And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin. Now this is not about sin in regards to Sinai, just a location, you know, so ironic there. But it says, which is between Elim and Sinai on the 15th day of the second day after they departed from the land of Egypt. Now this is so symbolic. Because they live Elim,

and they go to the Wilderness of Sin. The Wilderness of Sin is a wilderness, right? They're gonna go through the same struggles. We're gonna look at that in a little bit, where they're looking for water, they're looking for food. But it is in the middle of Elim, the place of comfort, the place where we would like to park oftentimes. And it's in the middle, on the other side of it is Sinai. Now that is the place where God encountered Moses. That was the place of the burning bush experience. It is the place of encounter. And it is the place when the Lord tells Moses, you are gonna deliver my people out of Egypt. He first gives him the first promise. He said, I would bring them into a land of milk and honey. I will bring them into the land of, he starts listing all the nations that he's given to them. So the promised land is a destination. But then he says, and this is the sign that I will give you, that you will come here and worship me. You see, before they could get to promise, they would need to fully understand presence. It was the place of covenant. It was the place where God will come into covenant with Israel as a nation. It is the place that we must all understand how to embrace and receive if we're ever going to take hold of the promise. It is a place that we must all experience

where you have your personal encounter with the Lord. And he begins to reveal to you. It is the place where it's not just information, but it is knowledge that I belong to Jesus. I am his and he is with me everywhere I go. Because without that knowledge, you cannot take the promise. Because the promise is not something that your natural mind can understand. Because God is telling them, I have given you the land, but there are people occupying it. There are people you must fight with. There are people you must go to war with, but I have already secured the victory. To understand that God has secured the victory and go, you must have a relationship with him. You must know that I am not going in my name, in my strength, in my relationships, in my reputation, in what I believe I can do, that I go in the name of the Lord for what he has called of me. In order for you to take hold, the reason why oftentimes we shy away from what God has placed in our heart, the reason why we run from the things that God has called us to do is not because we're being humble, because that is actually pride. The reason why we make all these excuses, we try to make it cute. You know, we're just like, Lord,

and then we find the worship songs that I don't know if they sing in heaven, that remind us of how unworthy we are. Why are we singing songs about being unworthy when God calls you worthy? Why are we staying? Why are we parking in what happened in Eden after the fall when Jesus gave us the cross? He gave us his blood. We just sang about the blood. Why do we want to stay in the place that says things about us that Jesus is not even saying? So we have to come back. What allows us to take hold of the promise is our burning bush experience and you have to be prepared in your heart for it because if not the burning bush can either be the place of your elevation or the place of your judgment and now we're explaining just a little bit because you see when they were when they got to the wilderness of sin and this is the last thing is that you can have the temptation to trade your inheritance for hunger because what did they encounter now they were not just thirsty but they were hungry and they started to complain and talk about we should have just died in Egypt. You see hunger will cause you to lose discernment. We should have died in Egypt. Why? Because there there were pots of meat. They were thinking about the food and they forgot it was still bondage. The enemy would always try to leverage on your appetite. Anything you hunger more for than Jesus becomes the place of your vulnerability. It could even be a good thing. Being hungry for food is a good thing. It's a natural thing. It's not demonic to be hungry. It's normal but if you see food more than you see him then it becomes the place of vulnerability. It becomes the place that the enemy would leverage to cause you to depart from the way. How could the same people that cried out to be released from captivity desire it but through the lens of food? I don't know what you hunger for and you will know it by the thing that keeps you up at night outside of the Word of God. You will know it by the thing you pray for the most. The thing that makes you fast even though you hate fasting. Now if that thing aligns with the will and the purposes of God and that's beautiful but

if it's something that more caters more so to your flesh, watch it. Don't allow hunger to cause you to give up on the things that the Lord has spoken because there would always be a burning bush experience for every believer. There will always be for some of you. You might be experiencing it even in a service like this where the Spirit of the Lord will start to minister to your heart. He reminds you of things that he has spoken and he has given you enough evidence of himself. It just depended on what you were looking at. You see it's interesting that the Israelites kept complaining and the only reason they kept complaining is because rather than seeing Jesus all they saw was their need. You don't look at the miracle when you see miracles. You look at the miracle worker. When you see the miracle worker, if Jesus can heal someone of a fever, you know he can heal someone of cancer. You know he can raise the dead because I'm not looking at the miracle. I'm looking at the one who did it. If I look at the miracle I will limit him to fever. That the only thing Jesus can do is heal a fever. But if I see him then I would realize that the same God that did that if in his word he says he's a healer and he did not say I'm only a healer for these kinds of diseases. If the same God that the Bible says that everyone who was sick, everyone who had a demon, he delivered them all. If I could see just a window, if I could see him just do it for a cold, he can do it for the dead. When you see him and not the works. The Israelites, the problem was they only saw need. They saw need and the need was consumed. They're looking for a need again. If you see him, then the moment of encounter he has with you becomes the game changer. When he reveals to you in your heart who you are to him, what he says about you. When you have the burning bush experience,

the burning bush is when your heart begins to burn for the things of the Lord. There is a conviction that comes upon you about what God desires out of you. But how you stewarded the moments prior to getting there is what makes the difference. It's either you receive it with gladness or you reject it by unworthiness. You see, all the while the Israelites were complaining, complaining, complaining, God was showing mercy, mercy, mercy. But after they got to Mount Sinai, after the Lord revealed himself to them in such a glorious way, after the Lord reveals his covenant with them, this is actually where judgment begins. Because I've shown you too much. This is where I want you to study this for your own self. You will see what the Holy Spirit begins to reveal to you. It was not up till they got to the place of Mount Sinai that people began to die. Because after that, they built a golden calf. It was not that God was not merciful anymore. God is merciful. But there comes a point in your life where you can no longer abuse the grace of God upon your life. It's not that the Lord is gonna start taking you out, no. That's not what we're saying. But there comes a point

where you can no longer abuse the grace of God. There comes a point where the window for who you're called to be, the grace for you to step into it begins to close. That's what their death represented. It's not that God was trying to be like a sniper, taking people out one by one, no. It was that you cannot continue in this way and go in the promised land. You cannot because the promised land is not just about what God gives you. It's about who you must become to take hold of it. And if you continue in a place that you keep abusing grace, then there are things that you cannot take hold of. Thank you, Lord. I sense the presence of God so strong in here. Just rise with me, let us pray. Amen. You have to be intentional about your walk with the Lord. You cannot do this thing with Jesus by default. You cannot rely on Sunday services and podcasts for your walk with the Lord, no. Because what you're doing is that you're relying on other people's encounter. Amen. When the Lord also wants to encounter you, we grow through community. Yes, it is part of God's design. There are things in community you will know about God that you can never know by yourself.

There is a way you would understand the love of God through community that you would never know by yourself. But you must have your intimacy and your time with the Lord. You must be intentional about your walk with the Lord. There is something unique that God has destined for you to take hold of. Don't write yourself off. Don't listen to the voices that make you feel like you're too small, that try to intimidate you, that try to make you feel like you should be ashamed of your past, no. The blood of Jesus took care of that. And that is why Jesus, how amazing is the God that we serve? That when he talks about what he was anointed for, you would think he would just park at the things that sound so amazing, anointed to open blind eyes, to set the captives free. This sounds very sexy. But Jesus, he doesn't just say all of that. he said the spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me and one of the things he says is to heal the broken-hearted the Lord knows there are things that broke your heart the Lord knows there were families you were born into that did not give you the best experience of the first community you should have seen love the Lord knows the things that you went through in the hands of people that should have been safe but it wasn't the Lord knows the hurt and the pain and the betrayal he knows all of that and he says that the anointing that when you receive the Holy Spirit he is called the great comforter you see the reason that many of us even though we are Christians but we find ourselves in this addictive patterns is because when we experience a wound in the soul what we found comfort in became our bondage so the Holy Spirit

calls himself a comforter when you experience that wound at five years old and what you ran to was food you didn't realize it then but then food becomes your bondage then food becomes the thing you run to over and over and over again when you went through the betrayal and there was a wound in the soul that in didn't bring to the Lord immediately and you wanted to smoke a little something to find some comfort what you were looking for was comfort you were not looking for bondage you were just looking to be comforted out of pain the Lord is not condemning you for that that's why he is the answer to every need of humanity many times what we're looking for on the other side of the bottle is not to just be drunk it was comfort and over time you forgot what opened the door to that vice and it just became your bondage but the Lord says I have given you a comforter he knows how to go to the root of the pain and heal it that you don't need to rely on those vices anymore that is the God we serve that is why Jesus will call himself the Good Shepherd because there are many things that can be your shepherd but the path they will lead you into is a path of destruction but the Good Shepherd leads you in the way of life he leads you in the path of healing he leads you in the path of trust he leads you in the path of wholeness he leads you in the path of purpose there is something God has always known about you don't park at safety it's always tempting even Abraham there was a moment where he parked and the Lord had to visit him again and say no no no you will continue this journey don't park at safety don't park at bitterness don't park in just your hunger don't live to feed the flesh live for the Spirit the flesh only produces dead works you are much more than that thank you Lord thank you Lord have your way Jesus just lift up your hands for a moment if closing your eyes helps you to not be distracted and I just invite you to close your eyes and just for a few seconds let the Spirit of the Lord minister to you let him begin to show you where you are and what he requires out of you for some of you he would start to remind you about things he said to you as a child he will start

to remind you about his promises to you and that he has not left you and he will not fail you if you will trust him the bitterness is there but then the Lord responds by saying if you would follow my voice because what you did not realize was that this was never about just water I can give you the Spirit but you can still be more loyal to your pain than me I can give you sweet waters this is about the Holy Spirit as a symbol you can be a Christian and still more loyal to your pain than you are to me. Would you surrender it before him? Would you surrender the brokenness before him? Would you surrender the shame and the guilt before him? Because he does not see you that way. He doesn't speak of you that way. There is nothing about that in his words concerning you. Any voice you hear in your head that makes you feel less than would never be how God speaks to you. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord. As the Lord ministers to you, there are people in this room, and maybe you come out for good vibes and community, but if you're honest with yourself, you have not even acknowledged him as Lord. Salvation is a journey with the Lord. You must start by acknowledging that he is Lord over your life. That means he owns you. You have to acknowledge that the way of sin is a way of destruction, and he is the only one that can bring me into life. If you want to make that commitment to say, Jesus, I want to walk with you. I don't want to be all over the place. This was never supposed to be about religion. This was always supposed to be about relationship. Christianity is not a thing of do's and don'ts. The reason we do and we don't is to please a person. It's not just a thing we have to check things off a list. It's because of a person that we have given our lives to, and there is a life he has given us. There is a new nature he puts within us, and that nature begins to hate the things we loved when we were in darkness. It's not a religion. It's not like Hinduism, where you're told this is how you worship. This is what you do. No, no, no. There is a person we meet. He is living. He is alive, and if you want to make that commitment to say, I don't want to just, you know, it's just too much. The idea of it's too much is deception. What else are you living for? What else is worth your life? The scripture says this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is not the day that anyone else made but the Lord. If he gave me this day, I should give him

back something that is worthy of the fact that I was awakened to see this day. There are people all around the world that did not have the opportunity to be in the day that you're in today, and you want to give it to what? Opinions of people? They didn't make the day. You want to give it to the person who hurt you? They didn't make the day. Why should they keep controlling your actions? Why should they keep having a hold on you? Why should they keep on you? Why should their puppet strings be that which directs your life? They did not make today. The Lord made this day. If you want to say yes to Jesus, and you want to be serious about your walk with him, you don't want to live by default, just lift up your hands. Hallelujah, we see you. Be bold about him. Be bold for Jesus. Can we celebrate what God is doing in this room? Jesus, we thank you. Jesus, we love you. Can we all repeat this after me? Let's repeat this together. Heavenly Father, I thank you. I acknowledge you as my Lord and Savior. On the cross, you put my sins to death, and when you were raised up, I was raised up with you, free and victorious. Holy Spirit, would you make a home with me? Would you make your life in me? Would you give me the Zoey life, change my nature for that which pleases the Lord? Thank you, Jesus. Let us celebrate God. Come on, can we celebrate everybody who made the decision in the room today? Come on, we're talking about people going from death to life, from darkness into light. Can you make some noise? in the room and just praise God for the work that he has done.