Embrace the Conflict | Pastor Eric Morris

What's up, men of God? Pastor Eric here, and I am so excited to bring this message to you. I want you to feel encouraged. I want you to feel hopeful. I want you to know that God is still working in your story. Our mission here at Victory City is to help every person take a step closer to Jesus. And can I tell you, man, as you're growing in the Lord, you're taking a step. So let's lean in, let's see what God has for us this week. And I know you'll be blessed for it, and I love you. Hey, we're gonna be in Acts chapter five today. Acts chapter five, pull your Bibles out, and we're gonna go there. While you're pulling your Bibles out, I wanna say hello to Bartlett Innovation Unit, men of God. We love you guys. Pray and believe for you guys that this message will bless you. I'm excited for today. It's gonna be a good one. I kinda reworked this message multiple times, and I know it's gonna be good, in Jesus' name. I wanna title today's message Embrace the Conflict. Embrace the Conflict. Now, immediately, I just alienated like 75% of my room. Because 75% of my room goes, ooh, conflict, I hate conflict, I don't want conflict averse.

But hopefully, if I do well treating the text and asking the Lord to speak to us through the Scriptures, you'll have a different perspective on conflict, amen? Okay, so let me just bring you back up to speed. So the Book of Acts is a historical narrative of the early church. It's the expansion story of the church. There's a lot of things that the Book of Acts doesn't answer. You go to the epistles for that, you go to the Old Testament, you go to the Gospels. The Book of Acts serves the purpose within Scripture to tell us from the very beginning of this thing we call Christianity, the birth of the church, what that looked like, what we can learn from it, what we can expect, how we should continue to operate as believers. And so when you read the history, you learn from history and you go, okay, there's some truths there that we need to learn from and apply to our lives. Now, Acts chapter five is a repeat. It's a repeat of a similar story you find in Acts chapter four. Let me give you the high notes of Acts chapter five. Peter and John were preaching, they were arrested, God set them free, they went back to preaching, they were arrested again, they were whipped and flogged, they left that flogging rejoicing. This is the same situation with just a little elevated consequences that you see in Acts chapter four,

which we've talked about two weeks ago around boldness. And so to kind of set that tone, we're gonna lean in to Acts chapter five. Let's read Acts chapter five, verse 17. Let's see what God does. I wanna talk about three Cs. I wanna talk about conflict, I wanna talk about courage, and I wanna talk about a call. Conflict, courage, and call. That's what we're gonna talk about today and we're gonna ask the text to illuminate that to us. Amen? Amen. Acts 17, it says, but the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in public prison. Here's the cool part, but during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison door and brought them out and said, go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this new life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. All right, let's be honest here. They're arrested, they're thrown in prison, God miraculously sets them free from prison, and what does God do? God does not go, hey, go take a warm bath.

I know you've had a tough night. I know there's a little PTSD, there's a little traumatic experience, a little difficult experience. Hey, take it easy, go to your connect group, fill out a prayer request form. You know, hey, you have time, you know what? You've done your part, chill for a little bit. What does God do? God says, hey, I set you free, go back and do the very thing that got you arrested. Come on, how many of you guys, you're doing that? You're in Troutus County Jail, he sets you free, and God says, go back to the Capitol and begin to preach the word of God again. How many of you guys are like, nope, I did that, I learned my lesson, I don't want to get arrested. It's difficult. I was a youth pastor, and for many years, we used to take missions trips, and I wasn't in charge of the missions trips, that was another department of the church. My job was just to lead the students and go with them. And as a missionary kid, there's lots of different forms of missions trips. Sometimes there's good missions trips, sometimes it's. It's more like Christian tourism. And this missions trip, we would gather teenagers, and I remember one year we took all of 10th grade.

I took 80 10th graders to Nicaragua. And the whole prep for the missions trip is we would learn all these skits and dramas. Any Christians that, like, you grew up in church and you used to do skits and dramas and stuff like that, and you look back and you go like, that was the cheesiest. Like, what were we doing? And so we had these 10th graders, and we were like, let's go on a missions trip, and we would go to these little villages, and we would hand out tracks, we would knock on doors, and we would try to gather all the people from the village to come to the central part of the village, and then we would line them all up, and we'd get a little boom box, and we'd press play on the boom box, and these kids would start doing this dramatization, right? It was like 10 minutes long, and then one of the kids or one of the leaders would get up and share a five-minute gospel message, and they'd go, if you wanna know Jesus, just raise your hand, and we'd pray for him, we'd leave, we'd go to another village, and we'd rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, until it was the beach day, and then we went to the beach, praise God. And you used to have these decompression moments at the night where we would talk about, man, what did you see today?

What did God do? And students would go, man, I just, it was so amazing being courageous for God. Like, we were going door to door. I've never talked to somebody about Jesus, and they would go door to door, invite them, and you could just see the boldness growing in them, and as a youth pastor, I was like, oh, man, this is gonna be incredible. We're gonna move back to our city. All these students are gonna be on fire for God, but the minute we landed and went back to school, how many of you guys know the boldness? It evaporated. It was like, wait a minute, like we were going door to door. We were praying for people, we were proclaiming the gospel, we were reaching people, and now you're in your school, and you won't invite anybody to youth group? Like, you won't do a Bible study at your school? And I thought, what is going on here? And then, like many of you, you can probably put it together. You start to figure out why they were able to be bold in a third-world country, and it was simply not because of the third-world country. It was because I'll never see these people again. I'll never see these, what's it gonna count? It's not gonna cost me. Like, I'm gonna go back to my first-world life

with my air conditioning and my nice things and my grocery store and my Apple products, and it's like, I can be bold when it doesn't cost me anything, when it doesn't cost me anything. Can I just be honest with you, church? Can we have a moment of honesty in ourselves? We do not have the boldness of Peter and John because we are afraid of people's opinions. Like, we're not afraid in the American church. Maybe if you lived in Nigeria where Islamists are killing Christians, but definitely not in America, definitely not in Pflugerville, definitely not in Austin. We are not afraid of prison. We're not afraid of a flogging. We're afraid of an unfollowing. We're not afraid to be arrested. We're afraid to be labeled, oh, you're one of those Christians, the people who, like, take it serious and believe it, not the people who keep it private. And here's one of the challenges that we must understand as a Christian, and this is just gonna be a hard pill to swallow if you're not confrontational. Embracing the faith will draw you into conflict. Conflict. Being a Christian will bring you into conflict.

Now, let's go back to the book of Acts. Let's start from the very beginning. Jesus is leaving this earth, and if you remember staying with us way back, if you've been with us for a little bit, maybe you'll help remember this for me. Jesus says, go wait for my spirit so that you will be my what in the world? Come on, say it with your chest, 930, if you know it. You will be my what? Witnesses. Witnesses. So the spirit of God, yes, it may be for your anxiety. Yes, it may be for your job. Oh, Holy Spirit, give me ideas. Yes, Holy Spirit, maybe have some functional use for your walk with Jesus that I am not downplaying, but God in Jesus says this. I am sending my spirit so that you can be my what? Witnesses. Are you doing it? Are we his witnesses? Or are we conflict-averse? I think sometimes as Christians, we wanna wait for the perfect timing. We don't wanna ruffle feathers. We want them somehow to go, I just had this epiphany last night. The Lord told me you were a Christian.

I don't believe in the Lord, but he told me you were a Christian. Will you tell me of the gospel? I want to know the message of Jesus. You're like, what? What in the world just happened here? But it's gonna bring us into conflict. Let me just name why. It's because we possess different worldviews. We see the world differently. As a Christian, we must understand this, that as Christians, we believe that we are broken, flawed, sinful people. We are not good. We live in a world today that says if you're a good person, if you do good things, somehow God will like smile on you. But Jesus says, no man can know the Father unless he comes through me. No man can be saved unless he confesses me. And to confess Jesus is to say this, God, I can't save myself. None of my goodness is good. It must be through you. And salvation is only through the name of Jesus. So when we witness what we're essentially telling people is this, you're a sinner. Amen. And us moderns, we don't like being called sinners. We want to blame all the problems of the world to the power structures above us,

and we want to call it circumstantial. But deep in our heart, when we are witnessing about Jesus, it is this, that we are broken, flawed people who cannot save ourselves. And when believers do not witness, it is the most unloving thing to the world. What we're telling the world is simply this, I care more about people's opinions than whether you're gonna burn in hell. I am okay keeping up my reputation, keeping my comfort, keeping my safety, keeping my distance, keeping my arranged, perfect Christianity. I don't mind if you burn and go to hell. And the thing is, is this, we must really grasp that reality. Really grasp that reality. At the core essence of what it means to be a Christian, why did the Holy Spirit come to you? So that you could be what? Witnesses. Witnesses. I can remember on the flight, I was sitting next to someone and we began to have a conversation, and the conversation turns to, oh, what do you do? I was like, well, I'm a pastor. And the individual next to me said, oh, are you like one of those like pushy Christians that's like turn and burn

and like you need everybody else to be a Christian? And I said, yeah. That's me. Now, does that mean we're belligerent? Of course not. And I was kind to this individual and I said, here's the thing, here's what we believe, we believe we're all flawed and broken. And we need a savior. And if I truly believe that and I did not share that, how cruel would that be? If I believed with all of my heart that if you died today, you would spend eternity far from God, would you think that was very loving of me? The individual said, well, I guess I never saw it that way. I just see Christians all the time wanting to push their faith. Can I name something else for you really quick? You're gonna share your faith and some people are not gonna be convinced. But your job is not convincing them, your job is telling them. And this is what we see in the book of Acts and you wonder why the book of Acts, the church kept growing and growing and growing and growing and people were saved. It's because they truly believed in the message of Jesus

that oh my goodness, this is real. So the first thing we have to understand is this, if we are going to really follow Jesus and be his witnesses, I want to tell you about this, it is going to bring us into conflict with the world. It's unavoidable. Does that mean we're mean? Does that mean we're ugly to people? Of course not. But at the core message of what we're saying is this, it's not being a good person. You must be a saved person, a forgiven person, a redeemed person. So how do we have courage? I don't know about you but I want more courage. Like I want to live boldly, I want my church to live boldly. There's people in your life I will never reach but God may have sent you to them. And notice what God does, he opens the prison door and he says go back. How many times have believers, maybe you've done this, where you tried witnessing one time and you were like, never doing that again. Maybe God's saying to you this morning, go back.

Don't quit, keep going. Your job is to tell him. I'll convince him. How do we have the courage? Well, there's a clue here in the courage. Again, I was talking to my son about this last night. He was, I was reading, I was like going, hey, here's what I'm preaching on tomorrow. And he goes, wait, dad, like didn't this story just happen in Acts chapter four? And I was like, I did, it did. And what you're gonna see in the book of Acts is conflict after conflict after conflict after conflict as the gospel expands. In fact, in just a few weeks, we're gonna see a man named Stephen be killed and stoned to death. And then Saul begins to ravage the Greek and there is like a wild animal against the church. And you're gonna see this time after time after time after time. And let me just name something really quick. You're not gonna be thrown in prison and flogged in America. But yet the American church is so timid and so afraid, something is off. Yeah. Like, let's just name something. Let's just have a real honest conversation.

Let's be intellectually honest here. When we read the book of Acts and the sign of the first century church and what the Lord was doing, and then we look at the current church, we look at our own life, and should we not go, am I doing that? Are we doing that? If it's no, should we not go, okay. Then something's off. Is it God, or is it me? Second thing is courage. How do we do that? How do we have courage? Well, the thing is, is we have to, again, understand, again, contextually, I know we're bringing it up again, but remember, this was not Peter's personality type. This is the very same man leaning with me. I know you've heard me say it, but it was a week ago that I said it and two weeks ago, and you forget things. This is the same Peter that two months ago was denying Christ. He was afraid of a teenage girl. So this isn't a personality thing, because some of us go, well, that's just not my personality type. Well, Peter's the same way. He's like, listen, I'm not, I'm conflict-averse.

I don't want any conflict. How many of you are married to someone who loves conflict? You're like, I'm not raising my hand, because then there's gonna be conflict on the way home. How many of you know somebody who loves conflict? How many of you know somebody who loves conflict? How many of you hate conflict? How many of you, the minute conflict starts happening, you start sweating, you start having like an asthma attack. You're like, what's going on here? This is terrible. I hate this. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Like, take my money. I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't wanna do this. This is Peter, guys. So we must, like, listen, when we see the text, when you're a Christian, when you're a believer, when you're reading the text, your mind should go, okay, your mind should go, okay, what happened? What happened? Something happened to Peter, and if something can happen to Peter, can something happen to me? You're like, no, I don't want it to happen to me. It happened to you.

It can happen to you, but not me. But lean in. Look at what it says. Okay, so let's go to the scripture. It says here, I wanna take you all the way down, and I want you to go to Acts chapter five, verse 34. And it says, but a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all people stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little bit. Let me set the context up. They arrested Peter and John. Peter and John are out there preaching again. They go to the jail. They don't see him in the jail. Then they go, oh my goodness, they're preaching again. They go get them, and the Sadducees and the Pharisees want to kill them. They're literally arguing about how do we kill them? How do we stop this? All that kind of stuff. And then this guy Gamaliel stands up, and Gamaliel was actually the Apostle Paul's teacher. So how we get this detail is more than likely the Apostle Paul was in this council meeting, and Gamaliel is trying to cool everybody down. He's like, hey guys, listen. Here's what we're gonna do. And he is actually not a believer in Jesus, but we see in this sequence how Peter and John

had the courage and faith. There's a little insight. I wanna show you this. It says this, in verse 35, he said, and he said to them, men of Israel, take care what you're about to do with these men. And then Gamaliel starts listing things. He goes, hey guys, listen. Don't you remember the days of Thutis, naming another religious leader? He goes, remember Thutis rose up, and he was claiming to be somebody? So again, Gamaliel's trying to connect the movement of Jesus to Thutis, and Gamaliel's trying to go, hey, this is just another thing. It's another 15 minutes of fame. It's another little Instagram star that's popping off, getting a little following. They'll fade. Okay, and look what it says. He says, and the number about 400 joined him, and look what it says in verse 35. And when he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed, and it what? It came to nothing. And then Gamaliel dies. down he goes oh and by the way remember Judas the Galilean he rose up in the days of the census and drew some people away and it goes and he too perished and

again what was the result of the perishing of the leader what does it say it says and all who followed him what come on say with your chest 930 so Gamaliel is trying to equate this he's saying this Judas he rose up he had a little upstart following when we killed him it went away Judas the Galilean he took some people away he started something crazy oh by the way we killed him too what happened then they scattered and oh by the way on Friday when they killed Jesus what happened to the disciples so what happened what happened can you imagine being Peter and John and seeing the same man hung on a cross and brutally murdered literally no flesh on his back bleeding out of sides hands and nails thorns all that like he is a bloody pulp and then three days later he walks into your house is this AI has Elon created humanoids again like like I don't know about you but like if I saw a man die two days ago and he shows up at my house I'm having a little bit of like a moment of going like what am I seeing and it says that Jesus was with them for 40 days how long until they're like not awkward around this Jesus they just like secretly go go touch him ah like messing with him a little bit like is this real and this is the clue how they had courage I'm gonna show you this come on do I have any gamers in the house no okay how many guys play Call of Duty I mean played Halo how many play Battlefield 6 come on do I have any gamers in that's come on like act like it don't be embarrassed it's okay you ever played those like war games and then like you actually talked to someone who's seen kinetic combat and it's like yo like the video games are not like real life and like everybody knows that right mentally but like when you're playing the video game you're like doing stuff that you would never do in a real war like you're running with rocket launchers you're like yeah it's a tank slide get my gun out throw grenades right you're doing all kinds of stuff that in real life you are not doing come on fellas come on preach with me right you're like you're like doing banana stuff and you're not scared to die in the game why because you what I respond which means in Call of Duty you can kill me over and over again I'm still gonna

chunk grenades down your throat I'm gonna roll with pistols I don't care I'm gonna stand in front of tank and if it blows me up guess what I respawn here's the deal Peter and John go oh my gosh you respawn you come back to life wait a minute you die and you come back and it's real holy mess if I'm Peter and John I'm like what if I die I die this is what gave them courage the greatest fear that evil has over humanity is we will kill you and Jesus goes X respond and we are scared of opinions haha which means this let me just say this if you are afraid of people's opinion opinions people's opinions are more worth it than Jesus to you wait a minute if I come back if there is life after this that's why Jesus came back and spent 40 days with him so that they could go it wasn't Peter's personality type it was Peter living with a whole new reality oh my gosh 15 years ago I was at Walmart for Black Friday got there like 1130 there was a flat-screen TV I wanted and when flat-screen TVs were rare and expensive I saw one in the newspaper I was like oh said limited quantity I was like bet there's a 60-inch Samsung I was like I'm getting there got there to like 1145 And I saw the stack of TVs that I wanted. There were seven of them. But the cash registers didn't switch over to the new pricing until 5 a.m. So I waited, put my hand on it. I'm not lying, I literally put my hand on it. Another person shows up, put his hands on another one until about 3 a.m., there's seven of us all standing there with our hand on the TV we wanted. Black Friday, it's the dumbest thing in the world. How dumb are Americans? We're gonna take the crap we don't sell normally, we're gonna put it on sale and get you to buy it. Ha ha.

I was there, about 4.45 before the cash registers clicked over, this lovely woman, she was wonderful. I don't know why she picked me, but she came up to me and she goes, you can't reserve those. I was like, what are you talking about? She's like, just because you put your hand on it, it doesn't make it yours. I've been up all night long. It's 4.45 for a stupid TV. My wife was with me and I look at her dead in the face and I was like, try to freaking take my hands off of it. She was like, I'm gonna go get a manager. Get the manager, I don't care. Now I'm not doing that today, because I live with a different reality. And that reality is Jeff Bezos. I don't have to wait until 5 a.m. at Walmart for some TV. I can go online and go deliver it today at 3 p.m. for the same price, if not cheaper. I don't have to squabble over that, right? Because I live with a new reality. Here's the thing, Jesus came back. I live with a new reality. Your opinion, your problems, your crucifixion, your flogging, your unfollowing, he came back. And when you meditate, that's why Christ is preaching crucified and risen. We preach a risen Christ. That's why Paul says is this, if Jesus did not come back, everything is foolish.

But if he did, it changes everything. So how do I illuminate? How do I ask the Spirit, because that's what the Spirit of God can do in your life, is this, is he can take something that exists in your mind as a theory. And he can make it a reality. The Scripture illuminates. The Spirit of God makes it real. In prayer, when you meditate, oh my gosh, God, if you would focus and listen to this right here. Holy Spirit, your prayer should be, Holy Spirit, if I am lacking courage, it is because the reality of a risen Christ has not dropped into my heart. It's in my head. And that's why those teenagers, when they went back to school, the peer pressure of their friends was greater than the reality that he has risen from the grave, which means this, any other fear we may face is downstream and easily handlable. Like God's got it. If he can take care of death, he can give you grace when your pet died. He can help you with your friendship problem. He can help you in your job transition. He can help you in the situation you're in. You see, everything is downstream from death.

That is what changed Peter. Changed Peter. How would you live today if you knew? I respond. And what's the call? What happens? You see, it says in Acts chapter five, verse 40, it says, and when they called them in, the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And I love this. Look at verse 41. Then they left the presence of the council. What? Come on, preach it with me. And I heard, what were they doing? Listen, if this happened in my church, I'd get a prayer request, not a praise report. Pastor, are you praying for me? I was whipped. They counted it what? Worthy to suffer. We do not have a theology for suffering in the American church because we believe that God only provides us comfort. Blessing. In fact, most of us, when we go through suffering, we think, what is God doing? God, I didn't sign up to suffer.

But fathers, you know that you'll suffer for things that are worthy. You'll suffer for your family. You'll wake up at 4.30 in the morning and go to that job. Come on, medical student, you'll know you'll suffer through those exams. Anybody ran a marathon, you know you'll suffer for 26.2 miles. The thing is, you will suffer for what you count worthy. Which means this, if I am not willing to suffer, and listen, this is not general suffering. This is not like I stubbed my toe Lord, I'm suffering. It's suffering for your name. Which tells me this, that if I am not willing to suffer for the Lord, I don't think he's worthy. If the world thinks you're obnoxious, worthy. If your friend thinks you're an idiot, worthy. If you get fired from your job, worthy. Come on, you know how I'm preaching it. If they stop inviting you to brunch, worthy. Come on, if the girlfriend breaks up with you, worthy. Come on, if your friends in high school won't hang out with you, worthy. Does God have the right to call your life? Say, I wanna use you for my purposes. Does God have the right to go, you, I want you to do that. Peter and John considered it worthy. They rejoiced. This isn't masochism.

This is an understanding of I live for something beyond what the world can provide me. That's why Paul says in Romans, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Many of us, we live for today rather than tomorrow. We believe an extra $50,000 a year will give us more. We believe that if we had a big following, we believe if we had the material things of this world that somehow we'll be happy. And Paul says, I consider the what? The sufferings. Come on, let's be honest. In the American church, we're so comfortable. Go to Nigeria, where Muslims are killing Christians. Go to the Middle East, where if they find out you're a Christian, they kill you. In America, we won't even talk to our neighbor. We won't even talk to our best friend that we know is not living for the Lord, but we don't wanna. Hey, I just like, if you ever want to know about Jesus, call me. It says this, what it says in verse 42. In every day in the temple and from house to house, I love this, Peter and John were like, nah. They did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. Every day.

They did not cease. So what does that look like practically for us? You see, you may not find yourself, again, a person who likes conflict. But you have no problem getting into conflict if it's in defense of your family. Because you find it worthy. And the reality and the uncomfortable truth is this. The message of Jesus is one of love. It's one of love. And it's the most cruel thing in the world to believe in the hope of Jesus and then not share it. We tell the world, literally, to hell with you. I've got my salvation. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, 24, five times at the hands of the Jews, I've received 40 lashes, less than one. Luke 9, 23 says, and he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 14 says this, for which one of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost? We counted the cost. Holy Spirit's not for your goose bumps. Holy Spirit's not for your essential oils and your candle and just to feel vibey. I just feel so close to the Lord. Praise God. Who have you told about him?

Well, I'm just waiting for my season. Hey, church, if you believe Jesus rose from the dead, that means this, that there is no threat on this earth that can threaten your eternity. This is what we believe, Christ risen. That means the opinions don't matter, the suffering, I'm not saying it doesn't matter. It's not like I'm saying like, yeah, let's go get whipped. That sounds fun. But if that's what it costs, that's what it costs. And here's what I just want to lovingly say. This is like the easiest place in the world to share your faith. And here's what I want to tell you as a pastor. You practice sharing your faith. I'm just telling you, what it's going to do is it's going to force you to read your scripture because you're going to get asked questions like, bro, I don't know that. I got to go find another word. You want to up your prayer life? Start witnessing. Like your prayer life literally is all about like, God, I need a new comforter. God, I'm going keto, will you just help me in this season? Like it's the dumbest stuff in the world. Father, you have filled me with your spirit to be a witness. Come on, somebody shout where you work. Literally, where? Witness at Dell, baby. Come on, somebody else, shout where you work. What's this right here? You were saying Dell? Okay, two Dell witnesses. Come on. Michael Dell's not going to flog you.

Come on, somebody else, where do you work? The Capitol. All right, we got witnesses in the Capitol. Come on, left side. Y'all are all quiet over here. Come on. No, the far left side. People are trying to hide. Come on. Where do you work? No, you're too short. Come on, right corner, right over here. Where do you work? Somebody over here. Where do you work? Where? Witnesses in the hospital. Do you see how the church, the, not me, but you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you going out into your world filled with the spirit of God to be what? Witnesses. Hey, can I buy your lunch this week? Why? Because I just want to talk to you. There's a man named Jesus that died for your sins. Bro, I don't like that. That's dumb. Don't push that on me. Oh, no. That's why the church kept growing. That's why sticks and stones, they break our bones, but hell will never stop this.

Sticks and stones, they break our bones, but hell will never stop this. So now I want to pause. If you're here today and you are far from God, you are not following Jesus. Today is the day of salvation, and I want to be Peter and John in this moment right here, and I want to say Jesus is Lord, and you will only receive the life that Jesus offers when you surrender your life to him. So with every head bowed and every eye closed in this moment of prayer, if you are far from God today and you want to surrender your life to Christ, on the count of three, will you put your hand up in the air, and I want to pray with you, and I want to see Jesus fill your heart. One, two, three. If that's you, yes, sir. Thank you. In the back. Yes, ma'am. In the middle. Praise God. Yes. In the back right here. Praise God. On the left side. In the front side. Praise God. Anybody else? Yeah, I see you. Far back. Praise God. We got like 15 people. Raise your hand. If you raise your hand, you can put it back down.

Church family, we're going to say this prayer together. If you raise your hand, this is your confession of faith, and it goes like this. Let's say it together. We're going to say, Jesus, today, I surrender my life to you. Jesus, I name you my Lord and my Savior. Forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. Holy Spirit, will you fill my soul and help me to follow you for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. And God, I pray over my church, those who didn't. Father, I pray in Jesus' name that you would fill us with a vision of a risen Christ. It's the vision of a risen Christ that creates boldness. Boldness does not happen detached from what your scripture says. It's not an energy. It's not a personality type It's a new reality that if he has conquered death Then the opinions of other people don't matter why he conquered death Lord We help my church We help all of us be witnesses for your name walking with the Holy Spirit with the new reality of wait a minute I respond in Jesus name. I pray come on church. Let's celebrate everybody who said yes to Jesus