Good or God?

I want to ask you tonight, do you want a message from me or do you want your life changed forever? That's a great request, but the Bible says you don't have because you don't ask I could be one of the best communicators in the World, but if the Holy Spirit doesn't touch these words, it's just information not transformation and we want transformation Can you say amen? Amen So let's pray. I want you to really believe with me tonight that you'll leave forever change Can we do that? No matter where you're watching from Father in the name of Jesus. Thank you for the church this church Hillsong Church, you know, Holy Spirit I sense every time you come to these services. You just smile because you love these black people so much father I'm asking tonight that you do would do something amazing in our midst that you would reveal Jesus to us in a way like we've never known him before as you do this May we go from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Living God for I decree your kingdom has come within us Therefore you will shall be done this place tonight on earth as it is in heaven and for this we give you all the honor and the glory and the praise and The Thanksgiving and it is in Jesus mighty wonderful majestic, holy awesome Magnificent name we pray and everybody that agrees shouts Come on, thank him in advance For what? He's gonna do tonight Amen Amen Well family you can be seated. So I want to ask you a favor. I've asked you before Please don't see me as a guest see me as uncle John. Okay, Papa Brian mama Bobby uncle John's in the house tonight, right? Tonight I want to share with you out of that one of the newest books that I've written. It's called good or God Why good without God isn't enough today in our society and this mentality Has even snuck into the church if we identify and how many of you know Identification is a big word today. If we identify something is good. We automatically assume it's of God In other words, we've almost made good and God synonymous Because after all aren't we born with the inherent knowledge of what is right and wrong?

But now let me say this if it good is so obvious Why then does the book of Hebrews tell us that we have to have? Discernment to recognize the difference between good and evil Why does King Solomon cry out at the dawn of his reign God give your servant an Understanding heart that I might be able to discern between good and Evil now, let's look at the context here he's about to take the throne and God appears to this man and God says ask me anything you want and He asked for the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong. I Don't think good is as obvious as we think it is I mean you would think it is a good idea to preserve the life of your friend yet Peter does this with Jesus and Jesus sharply? Corrects him and says you are seeing things merely from a human point of view not from God's If you remember the rich young ruler came running up to Jesus and he said good teacher What do I do to inherit eternal life and before Jesus answers the all-important question of how to be saved He says why do you call me good? Nobody's good, but God Now is Jesus not good. No, Jesus is perfect good But what Jesus is saying to this guy is you have a reference point for good God has a reference point for good. The two are not one in the same. Don't put me in your category Good is all about a reference point. You can have two families moving into identical homes Three bedroom two bath homes for one family. It's a good move for one family. It's a bad move the family. It's a good move They just moved out of a one-bedroom apartment. The family is a bad move. They just moved out of a three million dollar estate. I Remember when God really made this clear to me. I had flown to Stockholm Sweden. I was getting ready. Come on I was getting ready to speak to 6,000 leaders from all over Eastern Europe and I remember I landed Friday morning early and I had all day to pray So I'm praying in my room and I had judged a certain situation to be good and in that hotel room in Sweden The Holy Spirit goes no son. It's not good in my eyes when he said that to me, I I kind of started

Arguing And I I found myself getting in an argument with the Holy Spirit and finally I just put my foot down and said but God All the good that's come out of this situation And the Holy Spirit then said this to me and this is what changed my life He said son It was not the evil side of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he was attracted to It was the good side And when he said that to me my Bible's laying on the bed and I flew over to Genesis And when I read the words, when the woman saw the tree was good, and the word good literally leapt up off the page at me, that it was pleasant, it was desirable, it would make her wise, she partook. And I'm standing there in shock in that hotel room, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit says this to me. He said, son, there is a good that will lead people away from me. And all of a sudden I realized how Jesus's words would be fulfilled. You know, when anybody asked Jesus about our day, the day we're living in, do you know what the first words that he said were? Be careful that you are not deceived. And then he went on to say that the deception would be so powerful that if possible, the elect would be deceived. Now that's always bothered me. The elect are Christians. And in that hotel room that day, I finally figured out how these words would be fulfilled.

Christians, if possible, will never be deceived by satanic rock concerts, drug-infested parties, sexual orgies. Christians, if possible, can be deceived by evil that is masked with good. Proverbs 14, verse 12 says, there is a way, there is a method, there is wisdom that seems right. It seems beneficial. It seems profitable. It seems right. It seems wise. It seems good to a man. But its end, where it takes you, is where you don't want to find yourself, the way of death. So, James comes along in the New Testament, and James makes this statement. He says, do not be deceived. Now, that sounds like a command, but it actually isn't. It's a promise. What James is saying is, if you get the truth that I am about to unfold to you, you will never be deceived. Now, I don't know about you, but in a day when Jesus says the deception will be so clever, so powerful, that if possible, the elect will be deceived, I want to know how to be deceit-proofed.

Anybody in here join me in that sentiment, right? So, what's the truth, James? Every good and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, of whom there's no variation or shadow of turning. Can you please talk in our vernacular? What is he saying here? He's simply saying this. If you get this truth in you, you'll never ever be deceived. You ready for the truth? There's nothing good for you outside of God. I don't know if you know how much wisdom is in that statement. I'm hoping you write that down. There is nothing good for you outside of God. I don't care how good it looks, how beneficial it appears, how profitable it seems, how acceptable it is in society, how sweet she talks to you, and how rude your wife has been talking to you. If it is contrary to the written word of God, it will ultimately bring you to a place you don't want to find yourself. So, remember I said good is all about a reference point. Remember I said that? What is our reference point? Paul, some of the last words he writes on earth, says this, all scripture.

Everybody shout all scripture. All scripture is inspired by God and useful to teach us what is good. Everybody say good. And to make us realize what is wrong, bad in our lives. Now, look at this. It corrects us when we're wrong. Somebody says, yeah, but John, I don't like correction. Oh, you don't like correction? Watch this. Okay, so what's wrong with correction? I mean, if you're on the wrong road, it gets you on the right road. And if you're on the right road, it keeps you on the right road. So you don't end up in Saskatchewan, Canada when you wanted to be at the beaches in San Diego, right? So, in reality, the person who loves correction is stupid. I didn't write that. Please look. Proverbs 12 verse one. He who hates correction is stupid. Okay, I didn't write that. I'm just reading to you a scripture. So it's all about the scripture. The scripture is our reference point. And you say, John, why are you laboring this? Because never in my life, I've been a believer now for 40 years, never in my life have I seen scripture under such attack.

And I'm not talking about outside the church. I've always seen that. I'm talking about inside the church. There are groups that are literally cutting out scriptures out of the New Testament because it doesn't fit into the theology they like. So can we talk about the Bible just for a second? 66 books written over the course of 1500 years. Would you go back 1500 years? You're at 517 AD. Do you understand the British empire hadn't even existed yet? 66 books written over 1,500 years by over 40 writers from three different continents in three different languages. You put all of them together. Many of these writers didn't even live in the same generation. Many of them don't even know what the other guys wrote. You put it all together after 1,500 years and you got this perfectly harmonized book called the Bible? Come on. And to sweeten the deal, if you look at the Old Testament, 39 books written over 1,100 Many of these writers didn't even live in the same generation, don't even know what the other guys wrote. And you know what these writers did? They made predictions about the coming Messiah, that he'd be born in Bethlehem, he'd ride in Jerusalem on a donkey, he would be called out of Egypt, he would be betrayed, he'd be betrayed by a friend, he'd be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, he'd be crucified, buried in a new tomb. There's over 300 of these predictions made. Do you know that Jesus came along and fulfilled all 300 of these predictions? Do you know there was a scientist that said, I want to know what the mathematical probability

of that is? His name was Dr. Peter Stoner. He lived in the 20th century and he was an expert in probability. Do you know that he hired 600 scientists and they went on a massive research on what are the probabilities that any person on earth could fulfill just eight of those prophecies? Eight. And here's the eight prophecies they chose. Christ to be born in Bethlehem. Micah writes that. Christ to be preceded by a messenger, Isaiah and Malachi write that in two different generations. Christ to enter Jerusalem on a donkey, Zechariah writes that. Christ to be betrayed by a friend, the psalmist in a totally different generation writes that, and here's the rest of the eight. So after hours and hours of research, days, excuse me, months of research, you know what they determined? The chances of any human being on earth over 2,000 years, anyone, fulfilling those eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th power. For those of you who don't know what that is, that is number one with 17 zeros behind it. Does anybody even know what that number is? And it's not bazillion kajillion. Now I can illustrate that number. Here's your 50 cent piece. Everybody see the 50 cent piece? If I have that many of your 50 cent pieces, I have no place to store them. I just got to spread them across the ground. If I do, I will cover the entire providence of New South Wales two meters deep with these 50 cent pieces. Now mark one of those 50 cent pieces, shuffle them all up, redistribute them all over New South Wales two meters deep, put a guy in a helicopter in Melbourne, start flying them

over to New South Wales, blindfolded, at any point he can say let down. He gets out of the helicopter blindfolded, picks one of them up. The chance of him picking up our one marked piece is the chances that any human being on earth could have fulfilled just eight of those prophecies, yet Jesus fulfilled all eight. That's where you clap. So, can I make this really clear? We got 39 books. Many of the writers don't even live in the same generation, right? Many of them don't even know what the other ones wrote. The last one's written 400 years before Jesus is born, and Jesus comes along and fulfills all 300, and you tell me the Bible doesn't apply to today, you're stupid. Are you seeing this? This is why the writer of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, says this. I want you to look at these words. We must, not it's a good idea, not we should, we must listen very, not just carefully, very carefully to the truth we've heard, or we may drift away from it. How many of you know drifting doesn't happen knowingly? As a boy, I loved to fish, and I remember one time in White Lake, Michigan, I went out fishing and I forgot to anchor. And I'm fishing away for 30 minutes, I look up, I don't even recognize the shoreline. I had drifted so far from where I started, I didn't even know it, because drifting never happens consciously. See if you were crossing a landmine field, and there were thousands of landmines buried under this field. You step on one of them, you're dead. Somebody gives you a map showing you where every single one of the landmines are. How do you handle the map? Do you kind of just put it in your backpack and say, if I got time, I'll read it? You do that, they carry you out in a body bag.

You're going to study that thing and commit it to memory. Then you're every two steps, you're going to put it in a place easier to reach than your water bottle. Every two steps, you're going to look at it again. Let me tell you something. We're walking through a landmine field, it's called the world. That's why we're told, thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and it's a light unto my path. When I was writing this book, I had three international speakers over nine months, three different ones. If I said their names, most of you would know them. They said, John Bevere, you're writing one of the most important books you've ever written for the body of Christ. I remember the first guy said it, I was like, come on, beta Satan? But then the second guy... I said it a couple months later, and then the third guy. And so I went to the Holy Spirit and I said, okay, why this book? Why is this book so important? And the Holy Spirit said, son, it's a calibration book. I thought, calibration? You calibrate a machine so you get accurate readings. But I thought, I wanna know about this a little more. So I started studying it out. The word calibration is most frequently used in regard to gas detectors that they put in chemical factories. Our federal law in America requires that every single room in a chemical factory has to have a gas detector. Okay, why?

Because a little chemical toxins in the air can damage the employees for life. A little bit more can kill them. And I know this firsthand. My dad worked for DuPont, and safety was crazy important. So I went to Honeywell's website, because Honeywell is the company that makes most of these gas detectors. And I went to their search page, and I said, how do I calibrate your gas detector? And it brought me right to the page that the technicians used. In bold letters at the top of the page, you know what it said? We as the manufacturer strongly recommend that you calibrate these machines daily. And then they gave the reason. They said because the atmosphere in the chemical factory will corrupt the sensors. So then I'm gonna simplify this. Do you know how they calibrate them? They have to take all the machines down. They bring them into a clean air room. They clean off the sensors, zero out the machines, put it back into the factory so they know they're gonna get accurate readings. Our heart is our sensor. We live in a corrupt environment. It's called the world. Every day, we should be going into a clean air environment.

It's called the word of God and the presence of God. The word of God washes our sensor so that we go back into the world. We're not conformed to it, but we prove it's not a formula, what is good and perfect and acceptable will of God. Here's the deal. It is so important that we are calibrated correctly. Why? Because if you want to have intimacy with God and he's at 89.9 FM and you are at 95.4 FM, you're not gonna be in sync. You're not gonna be hearing. See, let me show you in my traveling around the world, in the Western world, I am seeing that many churches are out of calibration. Can I just show you one little area that I have noticed? I want you to look at Hebrews 12, verse 14. I want you to look at this scripture. Pursue, everybody say pursue. Pursue. Say it passionately. Pursue. All right, now that word, do you know what that word means? It means chase after with the intent to apprehend. So what he's saying here is chase after with the intent to apprehend holiness. Everybody say holiness. Now, you want to know why you didn't say that passionately? Because we get nervous when that word is spoken

in the church. Matter of fact, I have learned that I'd probably do better cussing from the pulpit than saying that word holiness. Okay, now can I ask a question? Why is it that we get so nervous when we hear that word? Can we talk about this elephant that's in the room? Can we just over the next couple minutes, okay? In order to understand why we don't like talking about holiness, you have to put yourself in the devil's shoes just for 30 seconds, okay? How many of you know the devil can read? How many of you know he's read the Bible more times than all of us put together? How many of you know he can read Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek? Do you know what he has discovered in reading the Bible? The only description of the church that Jesus is coming back for. It's not a relevant church. Is relevance important? Yes, we will never win people to Jesus if we're not relevant. Paul said, I become all things to all people. We have to be relevant, but it's not a relevant church. It's not a leadership-driven church. Is leadership important? Yes, we would never have what we have tonight had it not been for leadership. It is a gift from God, but it's not a leadership-driven church. It is not a connected group.

A connected church. Is being connected important? Yes, even God says it's not good that man's alone. But the only description of the church that Jesus is coming back for is a holy church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. If you are the devil, you have also read in the Bible the predominant description of God throughout the whole Bible is found in Isaiah 6 and Revelations 5. It's when Isaiah goes to the throne and John goes to the throne, and they see these massive beings called seraphim. And one is crying to the other, and he's crying so loud, he's shaking the doorposts of an auditorium that seats over a billion beings. He's not crying to the other, love, love, love. Is God love? Yes, you better believe he's love. He doesn't even have love, he is love. But that's not the predominant description of God. He's not crying faithful, faithful, faithful. Is God faithful? Yes, he's faithful. You can go to the bank on what he says, but that's not his predominant description. What is that being crying out? Holy, holy, holy. He's not singing a song, making God feel good about himself.

He is responding to what he sees. Every moment, another facet of God's greatness is being revealed, and all I can do is cry holy. Now you're the devil, you've read this. The predominant description of God in the Bible is holy. The only description of the church Jesus has come back for is holy. So what do you do if you're the devil? You raise up a bunch of mean, spirited, angry pastors, preachers, evangelists. They don't even like people. Can I say something? If you don't like people, you got no business teaching the Bible. Teach physics, but don't teach the Bible. And these guys didn't even like people. You know what they did? They beat us up with their legalistic version of what holiness is. And you know what they did? They made holiness an end to itself. But it's not an end to itself. It's the bridge to something else. But they made it an end to itself. And they beat us up if we didn't live like they thought we should live. And so you know what happened? The Chinese proverb, happy New Year's. The Chinese proverb was fulfilled. Here's the Chinese proverb.

The scalded cat, the cat that's been scalded by the boiling water will fear the cool water. Now don't ever try this, but this Chinese proverb says this. If you pour boiling water on a cat, then later you put out cool water, the cool water that will give the cat life, he will run or she will run from the cool water because they were scalded by the boiling water. That's exactly what the devil did with us. We're gonna scald him with legalistic holiness. So now we backed away and we said, we can't talk about holiness because we'd been scalded. We'd been so marred. But then some clever leaders came along and these leaders said, how can we ignore this word? It's all over the New Testament. So these clever leaders came up with an idea. They said, okay, we become holy when we're saved and that's all there is to it. But what they did is they lumped all the New Testament holiness into one bucket. When in reality, there's two different aspects of holiness in the New Testament. Let me show you the first one. The first one is called positional holiness. Everybody say positional. Ephesians chapter one, verse four says, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

God saw from the foundation of the world that man would fall. Jesus agreed to die. God says, the moment somebody receives Jesus, at that moment, I will declare them holy. So let me tell you something. The day you receive Jesus Christ positionally, God declared you holy and you're not more holy today and you're not gonna be more holy 10 million years from right now. You are just as holy as the day you got saved positionally. Can you say amen to that? Let me give you an example. 35 years ago, October 2nd, Lisa Toscano walks down an aisle in a white dress. On that day, she became my wife positionally. Do you know 35 years later, Lisa's not more my wife today positionally than she was the day I married her? And she's not gonna be more my wife 50 years from now. But let's talk about my behavior. Before I married Lisa, I flirted with girls. I got girls' phone numbers. I talked sweet to girls. I took girls out on dates. After I got married to Lisa, I stopped flirting with girls. I stopped getting their phone numbers. I stopped talking sweet to girls. Why? Because now I had a behavior that reflected my position.

That's called behavioral, right? Look what Peter says. Peter says this, live as children of obedience to God. Do not conform yourselves to the evil desires that govern you in your former ignorance when you did not know the requirements of the gospel. But as the one who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living. Now he's not talking about positional holiness. He's talking about behavioral holiness. But here's the problem. I tried to live holy and I failed. I tried and I failed. I tried and I failed and I kept getting frustrated. I was bound to pornography. As an 11-year-old boy, I became bound to pornography. When I got saved at 19, I could not get free from that pornography. The most beautiful girl in my eyes that walks the face of the earth in 1982, I was still bound to pornography. I went into the ministry in 1983, I was still bound to pornography. But on May the 6th, 1985, I discovered something. Grace not only forgives my sins, grace is not only my salvation, grace is not only a free gift, but grace empowers me to do what I couldn't do in my own ability. And I got free, and I'm still free today, over 30 years later. If you look at what God says to the Apostle Paul, God says, my grace is sufficient for you for my power. God refers to His grace as His power is made perfect in your weakness, your human inability. Grace gives us the ability to do what we couldn't do in our own ability.

If you look at the Apostle Peter, look what he says, grace be multiplied to you as His divine power has given to us everything we need to live a godly life. You know, they did a survey, and only 2% of the American Christians know and understand that grace is God's empowerment that gives us the ability to do what truth demands of us. That means 98% of the Christians in America are trying to live holy in their own ability. You become a miserable person when you do that. When I discovered that God's grace not only frees me from the penalty of sin, but empowers me to be free from sin, I became a happy person. Are you with me? I said, are you with me? If you look at Hebrews, it's all going to make sense. Look at this again. Let me show it to you again. Pursue holiness, without which no man will see the Lord, looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. How could you fall short of the grace we've preached in America? You know what the grace I'm talking about? I know I'm not living like I should, but thank God for His grace. That's not grace. How could you ever fall short of that? But when you understand that grace empowers us to do what we couldn't do in our own ability, you can understand how you could fall short of it. Are you still with me? Now look at Hebrews 12, 14 again, and let me wrap it up. Pursue holiness, okay, Hebrews 12, 14, please, 12, 14, yeah. Pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Now what is he talking about there? Nobody's going to see God, because the Bible says when Jesus comes back, as lightning shines in the east and is seen as the west, every eye is going to behold Him.

Everyone's going to see God. So what is he talking about? As a citizen of the United States, for the last 57 years, I have been now under 12 presidents. I am under their rulership, their jurisdiction, their decisions affect my life, but I've never seen one of them. I have never been in the presence of a United States president. Now there's other Americans, they see the president every day, why? They work with him, or they're his friends. But I've never been in the presence of a president of the United States. There are Christians, they're under the rulership of Jesus, they're under his jurisdiction, his decisions are affecting their lives, but they're not in his presence. Why? Because they're not chasing after holiness, and it can't be positional holiness, it has to be behavioral holiness. I'll let Jesus settle this one. Look what Jesus says in John 14, 21. Look at this. Jesus said this, the person who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who really loves me, and I too will love him and will show, reveal, manifest myself to him. I will let myself be clearly seen. Remember, pursue holiness without which no man will see the Lord. I will let myself be clearly seen by him and make myself real to him. Do you know what we've done by not preaching holiness? We've destroyed the bridge. Because that bridge, remember I said holiness is not an end to itself, it's the bridge to something else. What is it the bridge to? It is the bridge to what every Christian desires more than anything else, and that is intimacy with God, to be in his presence. Do you know what we've almost done, some of us?

I have a marriage certificate that says I'm legally married to Lisa Bevere. It's a state of Indiana marriage certificate. You know, I could hold that certificate up to Lisa and say, hey, we're married. We are married, while I'm jumping in bed with other girls. Now I may still technically be married, although she is a sharpshooter and she told me she would make it painless. I may still technically be married to Lisa, but you know what, I guarantee you, I guarantee you she will not share with me the intimate secrets of her heart. I've cut myself off from intimacy with her. Do you wanna know why I don't commit adultery against Lisa? Because I don't ever, ever want to lose that time when our heads are on the pillow and she shares with me something in her heart that she will never, ever share with any of you. I never wanna lose hearing the heart of this remarkable woman I'm married to. Do you wanna know why I don't commit adultery against God? Because James says, you love the world, you're an adulterer. Okay, he's talking to Christians. The reason I don't commit adultery against God isn't because I'm scared of judgment, it's because I never wanna lose that intimacy. People ask me all the time, they say, where do you get this revelation in all these books? Hello? I never wanna lose that. I understand that holiness is only the doorway, the bridge into what I crave more than anything else,

and that is intimacy with God. That's why Paul, or that's why the writer of Hebrews says, chase after holiness, because he knows how much all of us want that intimacy. Watch this video. All right, you're laughing. Let me ask you an honest question. How many of you would marry somebody like that? Let me see a show of hands. Nobody. We'll pray for you later. All right, you're so brilliant. You're so bright. Why? I mean, he's gonna be her favorite. She's gonna spend most of her time with him, I mean, just every other week on a leap year. Why wouldn't you marry somebody like that? Because even if it is every other week on a leap year, she still hasn't given him her entire heart. She's still got a place reserved for her other lovers. Now, you'd never marry somebody like that. So what makes you think Jesus is coming back for a bride that's the same? What makes you think Jesus is coming back for a bride that says, give me the world every other Friday night? If you believe that, you're as deceived as she is. He's not coming back for an adulterous bride. He's coming back for a bride that has given herself to him the way he gave himself to her.

I want every head bowed and every eye closed. Father, in the name of Jesus, I preach what you've commanded me to preach and Holy Spirit, thank you again for your faithfulness. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed. 35 years ago, when Lisa walked down an aisle, do you know what she was communicating by doing that in that white dress? She was saying goodbye to every guy on the planet except for me. She was giving me her entire heart, her entire life. Has Lisa made mistakes? Have I made mistakes? Oh yeah, you better believe it. In the first year, the second year, the third year, in the 35th year. But I'll tell you one thing that's never changed. She gave me her heart on that day and that's never ever changed. That's what we're talking about here. That's the only way you can enter into a covenant relationship with God. Not just by praying a prayer. It's by saying goodbye to willful sin. That's the other lovers, that's the world. And saying, Jesus, you have my entire heart now. I am completely yours. That's the only way we can enter into a true covenant relationship. I'll never forget, I was in the ministry

and I went to the Philippines and a man preached a message on the Lordship of Jesus. He said, the word Lord appears over 7,000 times in the Bible, the word Savior, 36. Is he your Savior or is he your Lord? And I sat there in that chair and my heart said, is he really your master? My head said, you're crazy, you've left everything. You've gone into the ministry. And my heart said, Judas left everything, Judas followed Jesus, but Judas is not in And I realized that I had to give my entire heart to him. And I didn't realize is that I hadn't entered into fullness of life yet. Let me tell you, shortly after that, I put a chair in a room one day and I said, that is the throne of my heart and I'm not leaving this room until you and you only are seated on that throne and no one or nothing else. I remember weeping at that chair for 30 minutes and I left that room a changed man. Jesus said, if anyone wants to come after me, he's to deny himself, take up his cross and come and follow me. Give your life to me the way I've given my life to you. That's a covenant relationship. Some of you sitting here tonight, whether you're watching by video, you're in another location, you know that you've never done this. You know that you still have not given him your entire heart and life. I want to give you that chance right now. What a time to do it. First day of the Chinese New Year. If you're in here tonight, or if you're in any of the locations, with your heads bowed and your eyes closed and you say, John, truth be told, I really haven't given him my entire life and I want to do it right now. I want you to put your hand up high right now. I want to pray for you tonight. Wow.

Look at the hands. Look at the hands going up. Look at these hands. Don't look. I said to keep your heads bowed. This is beautiful. This is beautiful. Put your hands back down. I want all of us to pray with the people that have raised their hands. And there's a lot of them in this building that have raised their hands. I know there are in other buildings too. Can we all pray this together? Say this from your heart. God in heaven, thank you so much for sending Jesus to die for me. Forgive me for not living for you fully, for living my way. I'm changing that tonight. And this very day, I give my spirit, soul, and body, everything I am, everything I have to you, Jesus Christ. Jesus, you are now my supreme Lord. You're my lover, my only lover. And you are my eternal king. Thank you for changing me. Thank you for welcoming me into your fellowship. Reveal your heart and your life to me as I walk this journey with you. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's give him praise for what he's done. Amen. Amen.