How To Hear, Discern, and Follow God's Voice // Lord Send Revival Week 4

How many of you could use a move of God in your life? Let me see your hands. Pretty much everybody, good stuff. So we've got a promise to pray and believe. Amen? That's how it works. Hey, if I haven't met yet, my name is Paul. I had the privilege of being the founding pastor of the Church, the privilege now of being in support to Pastor Dan. Aren't you thankful for a pastor who's doing a great job leading this church? Come on. I think the last time I was here, I said, "Hey, it's phenomenal what God's doing here. It's unusual, and that is true." But let me tell you why God is able to do that. He's able to do that because he's given gifts and a heart and ability to this pastor, and he is exercising those gifts, doing a fantastic job. Listen, we ought to appreciate him. Can I get an amen? Read your bulletin, Pastor. Appreciation October the 18th. And put your money where your mouth is. And be generous. And listen to me. Don't buy gift cards. You may love Cracker Barrel, but he may not. Come on, somebody. Money always works. Can I get an amen? Say generous, give me money. Go to the dollar store, buy a card, and write something specific. Don't just say we love you and appreciate you. That's great. Be specific. Hey, God, use you to do this. God, I see this in you. Thank you for this. Are you with me? You do that? You're going to encourage him. You're going to build him up. He's going to work even harder. And we're going to see God do even more good stuff. Are you with me? That was the first sermon. You're welcome. God bless you. All right, so my assignment today, Pastor's asked me to teach and coach you a little bit in actually how to hear from God, how to recognize his voice, and then follow what he is saying and doing in your life. How many would be interested to know this? Good, I'm glad to hear that because that's what you're going to hear whether you want to or not. So there you go. So we're going to talk around that. Stand with me quickly.

I just want to read a couple of verses quickly and we'll jump in. I'm going to read from John chapter 10. Jesus is comparing himself to a good shepherd and he's comparing us to sheep. Now what you may not know about sheep is they're not the smartest animals on the planet and they can be defenseless and they can wander off. And so Jesus is comparing himself to a good shepherd and to us as the sheep under his care. Aren't you glad that he's our shepherd today? Alright, so this is what it says, John 10, Jesus in verse 11 says, "I am the good shepherd." And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He's not like an employee that says, "Oh well, I'll let it go." No, no, no. He lays down his life. Jesus laid down his life for you. They didn't take it from him. He laid it down in his timing according to the father's plan. So he lays down his life and then look at the rest of that verse, "I know my sheep and my sheep my sheep know me." They know me. And he says, "Because they know me, they listen to my voice. And I know them. And they follow me. I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one can snatch an eye on an hand. I pray for that promise." Amen. So Lord, thank you for your word. Speak to our hearts today in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. So what I want to do before I jump into talking about 10 different ways that God actually will lead you or speak to you to direct you, look at your outline. Get the outline out of your bulletin. Get a pen or pencil. You need to do this so that you can use this later on when you're trying to figure out if in fact God's speaking to you. Come on. Get it out. You're an active listener today. So before I do that, look at these principles in the introduction. There's four or five principles there.

Let's look at them quickly. First of all, how do I know God's going to speak to me? Well, God loves and values you perfectly and completely. Despite any flaws or failures or even your rebellion toward God, Jesus died for us while we were still sinners, not after we got it together. And he loves you because he is perfect love and because you were created in his image. Listen to me. You are God's masterpiece. He supervised your being formed in your mother's womb. He made you exactly how he wants you to be in terms of your personality, your gender, your gifts, your abilities. God made you special. You're his masterpiece. You were created in his image to be like him. Are you with point says this. However, God wants to be your heavenly Father. While everyone on the planet is God's child in the sense of creation, everyone is not God's child in the sense of being spiritually born into his kingdom, into his family. Jesus told that religious guy in John chapter 3 is a good religious man, but he told him unless you're born again, unless you're born from above, unless the Holy Spirit does something in you and your art and spirit, you cannot enter into God's family. You can't be a part of the family. We've got to be born again. God wants everybody to be born again. And the Bible says in John chapter 1 that everyone who sees Christ is born of God. The Holy Spirit comes when we say yes to Jesus, and he infuses the DNA of the Lord Jesus Christ into us so that we can, number three, principle. We can grow in his character and live according to his ways. The Lord changes our heart. He changes us from the inside out. Listen to me, Christianity is not about rules. Following Jesus is not about rules. Following Jesus is about knowing him, listening to him, having a relationship with him, and following him as he works in our life. Are you with me so far? Thank God, religion says, you've got to do this, do this, don't do this. But Christianity says Jesus did it. He did it all. He did it for you. All you've got to do is submit to him and let him guide you. Come on, somebody. And he wants to do it in a number whatever it is. God wants you to experience an abundant, fulfilling life now and in eternity. He wants to fulfill his purpose for you. And in doing that, you experience, as you grow in the character of the Lord, become more like him as you're transformed to be more

like him and you're thinking, you're speaking, you're acting, your values. What happens? You experience more of a fulfilling life because he made you in his image. Come on, somebody. So the more like him you are, the more abundant your life becomes, even if your circumstances aren't great. Your physical circumstances might not be great. But as you grow in the character of God, the Holy Spirit produces righteousness, peace, and joy in your heart and you are fulfilled as you're fulfilling God's purpose. That brings me to the last one and that is, God has both a purpose and a plan for your life. This is critical. This is critical. This you need to understand this. God has a purpose for your life and he has a plan to fulfill that purpose. Now here's how it works. You and I are all worried about the plan. Oh, well, who should I marry? Oh, should I buy that car or the house? Should I not? Should I go to work there or should I not? Should I date that person or not? We're just consuming. We're worried about the plan. We're always trying to figure out God's plan. Wrong focus. You don't need to be concerned with God's plan. Here's how it works. If you will focus on the purpose of God for your life, he'll take care of the plan. You've got to focus on the purpose. Well, what's his purpose? His purpose is that you would know him, that you would get to know him better, grow in relationship with him. His purpose is that you'd worship him and be in church and be involved and get connected and love people and give generously and pray and intercede and share the gospel with other people. That's his purpose and bless God if you'll fulfill his purpose. If you'll do what you know to do in those areas, I can guarantee you God will take care of his plan. He'll guide you in what to marry, who to marry, where to buy, what not to buy, but if you'll just concentrate on loving him and loving people, he'll take care of the details. Come on, somebody. That's how it works. But you and I are so worried about the plan thinking that the plan is what satisfies us. No. What satisfies us is fulfilling his purpose. Does this make sense? Come on. So those are the principles about why and how God might speak to you. Somebody might say, "Will God speak to me to me?" Absolutely. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, he wants to. He cares about all of those details. And he's got a plan if you'll just concentrate on the purpose of God for your life. Excuse me, as you work to fulfill that, he will work everything out. A great illustration of that is when we moved here, we were trying to find place to live. I was coming here because God had called us here to start a church.

We had like 3,000 bucks, a little plus, to our name and trying to rent something somewhere. And it was tough to do that. We randomly met a realtor and then said goodbye 'cause you know, we can buy anything and we kept driving around for a couple of days. And so eventually I met him again and God worked it out. God actually directed our steps when I didn't know He was directing me. I was just making decisions. I was just driving looking, stopped at a stoplight. And I said, I'm gonna go into the next real estate office. I see randomly and I made a left. I saw a century 21 building walked in and I saw the same realtor. I'll tell you more of that story in just a minute. Listen, God will direct you and fulfill His plan. Sometimes you don't even know it until you look back later and you go, oh my goodness. The Lord did that, the Lord provided that. The Lord blessed me there. Are you listening to me? Fulfill His purpose for you, He'll take care of His plan. Now that brings me to 10 ways that God speaks for Drexus. Number one, God speaks, God has spoken and He still speaks through the Bible. The Bible is the primary way that God speaks to you. God authored the Bible. He has spoken. Make sure you read the verses later.

I don't have time to read them all. Second Corinthians, second Timothy says that all scripture is God breathed. God breathed on the men and women wrote the Bible so that it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness so that you can be thoroughly equipped for every good work in your life. The Psalmist said the word is a lamp for my feet and a light to my path. The Bible is the primary way that God speaks to you and you need to pay attention. You gotta make a commitment to the word of God. You need to discipline yourselves to seek the knowledge of the word of God, not for knowledge sake, because it is the word that reveals Jesus to you. He reveals His ways to you. He gives you His heart and understanding. You've gotta get into the word of God and make it a discipline, not just come on Sunday and listen and go home and forget you wherever heard it. I'm not yelling at you, I'm just old, okay? Come on, somebody. But I'm really young 'cause I've got eternal life. So I'm just getting started. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Listen, failing to make the commitment to read and study the word of God will keep you immature.

You'll just be a 72 year old immature Christian and not really have or see all the God wants to do in your life. And if you'll commit to the word of God's study and it'll keep you from being deceived 'cause there's lots of things that come our way that feel good and sound good, but they're absolutely not according to the word and the will of God. The word of God is a primary way that God will speak to you. He will quicken verses to you or just as you read it and you just understand it and you know how to apply it. That's God speaking to you. Are you with me so far? I know you know this but I just wanted to emphasize it. Let me give you an illustration. Do not give me a show of hands. Do not raise a hand. Here's a little survey. Pastor Dan, a couple of weeks ago, he preached a great message on Temple, on Tabernacle Prayer. The week after that, he preached a great message on J-Business Prayer. The week after that, he talked about the Bible. Now let me ask you, do not raise a hand. How many of you actually, during the week, apart from church, had nothing to do with church, you actually used the Tabernacle Prayer in your private prayer life? How many of you actually used the J-Business Prayer?

How many of you actually are motivated to pick up the Bible and read and study it? Listen to me. It does no good whatsoever to come to church and sit on your butt and listen to us. Teach you the word of God. If you have no intention of actually doing something with it. Like I said, I'm not yelling at you. Maybe I am. I don't know. I'm just saying it's important to put the word into practice. Pastor Dan shared this verse last week. Luke 18, Jesus said, "Be careful how you listen to the word, how you listen to it. Are you listening actively? Are you putting it into practice?" Because here's why Jesus said, "Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have even what they think they have will be taken away." God's not gonna give you more until you do something with what He's given you already. He wants to direct you. He loves you, wants to fulfill His plan. You need to get into His purpose, get to know Him through His word. Are you with me so far? All right, I know I got to hurry real fast. Number two, God speaks through godly wisdom

and sanctified common sense. When you become a Christian, godly wisdom and just plain old common sense. The Lord will direct and help you as you read the word of God. As you ask for wisdom, he will show you in the word as you do and he'll begin to guide you through just wisdom. Wisdom is simply knowing the best thing to do in any situation in light of the teaching of Scripture. In light of what God has shown us, we don't throw away our brains, our common sense or our thinking process when we come believers. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1, 7, that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Paul said we have the mind of Christ. The Bible says he writes his law in our hearts. Come on, somebody. So common sense wisdom based on the word of God. If you buy that car and spend more money than you have, you charge it up on your credit card 'cause you love amazon.com. I'm just saying, then that's gonna inhibit you from being able to give generously. You're not gonna be able to tithe, why? Because you've encumbered yourselves with debt that keeps you from doing everything you want to do because you made bad decisions that weren't based on scriptural principles that got you into trouble. I know that person is so wonderful.

You just think they're the greatest things since life's bread. They don't love God, they have no heart for God. They're away from God, but you just feel like you ought to marry them and be close to them. The Bible says don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Pay attention, do what makes sense. According to God's word, fulfill his will and his purpose and he'll direct your path to the right person. Bless God and you'll have a great marriage because you listen to the word of God. Come on, somebody. I didn't do this in the first service. I'm gonna get better, Pastor, I promise. I love this quote from Joyce Meyer. Listen to this quote, this is a great quote. "The audible voice of God is not needed when wisdom is already shouting the truth." That's a great statement, I love that. Number three, God speaks through conviction in your thoughts, your feelings, your conscience. God convicts our conscience for the things he wants to do in and through us. The Bible says in John 16, Jesus said, "When the Holy Spirit comes and he has come, Jesus has poured the Spirit out because he was ascended." When he comes, he'll convict the world concerning sin. What's right and wrong? And he will convict of righteousness.

That is, he'll motivate and convince us to do what's right and of judgment that we will all stand in judgment. The Spirit will convict us, convince us of those realities. Now, let's just talk quickly then about conviction versus condemnation. Conviction, let me quote this verse first. Everybody knows John 3.16. John 3.17, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world." God, Jesus doesn't condemn us. God sent his son into the world to save the world through him. So conviction is a positive motivating. It's God saying to you, you're better than this. I've got something more for you. Convictions, looking at the future saying, "Turn from that and do this instead." Are you with me? Convictions motivating us toward doing what God wants. Condemnation is from the enemy. And the enemy heaps guilt and shame on us and it's focused on the past. Oh, I blew it there. I didn't do it. And we filled with regret and shame and guilt. It presses us down and makes us want to give up and quit. Are you listening to me? But the conviction of the Holy Spirit will always shine forward and say, I've got more for you.

Come on, trust me. Come on, do this and follow me and let me bless your life. Are you with me this morning? Do you remember that story? The woman caught in adultery. Chris Hodges used that Wednesday night in the video on freedom. If you're not in the freedom conference, you ought to be here on Wednesday night for freedom. And he told that story about the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. They bring her, they want a stoner to death and they're testing Jesus. And you remember what Jesus did? Jesus said, "You, if you don't am his sin, "throw the first stone, they all leave." And then what did Jesus say to her? The first thing he said was, "I do not condemn you." Jesus doesn't condemn us. He doesn't speak condemnation to you. But then he said, now go and leave your life a sin. I have so much more for you. You were not made for this. Don't give yourself to that. That will not lead you to the life that I have for you. Come on, somebody, are you with me? There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Aren't you happy for that? Amen. All right.

Number four, God speaks through godly desires and motivations that He places in us. We moved to New Jersey because God put a motivation in our hearts to start a church in New Jersey. I didn't pick it. I didn't ask for it. I wasn't praying. God moved me to New Jersey. God put a desire in our heart to pass our own church. He put the desire in us. And as we acted to fulfill His purpose, He took care of the plan. He provided a place to live. He provided the place to meet church. He provided people to come. Because why? I was fulfilling the purpose that God had put in my heart. But He motivated. You see this in the Bible all the time. You and I, the Bible says in Philippians 2.13, that we work out our salvation. How do we work it out? What do we have to work out? Well, it's God who's worked within us to work according to His good pleasure. He puts a will, the desire, and the motivation. And so we live out. You see it in Romans chapter 12, where it says, "The offer your body is a living sacrifice." And then it tells you how to offer your body in that text.

It's not talking specifically about being holy, even though, of course, holiness is there. And I've heard great messages about that. But the context is, here's how you give your body to the Lord. You use whatever gifts and abilities you have to build up the body of Christ. Because your gift belongs to the church. It doesn't just belong to you. That's what Romans 12 teaches. And so we're motivated. The person who has the gift of service, guess what? They're motivated to serve. The person who has the gift of teaching wants to teach. The person who has the gift of helps wants to help. The person who's got a gift of prophecy wants to be able to speak. Listen, God is gonna motivate you with godly desire. Act on those godly desires and let the Holy Spirit as you're fulfilling His purpose, let Him take care of whatever plan He's got for you about where you work or whatever else is going on or you with me so far. Now somebody will say to me, well, what if it's not God? Listen to me. Even if it's not the Lord and you wanna give generously, you wanna love somebody, you wanna pray for somebody, you wanna speak a good encouraging word to somebody, just go ahead and knock yourself out and do it. Come on somebody. You can't lose just doing the right thing.

Can I get an amen? And then you'll learn and you'll see whether or not it was God in it'll help you understand when God is motivating you. But listen, it's always okay to do something good. Can I get an amen in the room? Focus outward and do good and let God direct your heart. Number five, God speaks through inspired, repeated thoughts. For instance, in the book of Hebrews, if you're to read the book of Hebrews, a phrase is repeated. He's writing to Jewish believers. You're thinking about going back to Judaism and what does He say? "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart." That phrase is repeated over and over. He's emphasizing to them to continue to trust Jesus. So when you read the Bible and something is repeated in a short period of time, that's God's way of saying, "Pay attention." I'm saying something important here, are you with me? And so it's all important, but that highlights it. And God can use repeated thoughts in your own mind to help direct you. I told you the story about looking for a place to live. And as we were driving around, we only had a certain amount of money, we couldn't buy anything, we didn't think, but I kept having this thought of least purchase. Least purchase.

And I kind of dismissed it at first, but it kept coming back to me, least purchase. And so when I finally walked into the real estate office and saw that guy again, you know the divine appointment like, "Oh, weren't you the guy, y'all, y'all, y'all?" And I said, "Hey, we're looking for something to rent "or maybe even least purchase." And guess what? That was the key phrase. That phrase registered in his heart, his parents had a home, listen to me, this will make some of you angry. We actually assigned a lease, a two-year lease, and part of our $800 a month rent went toward the purchase of that four bedroom, two and a half bath, beautiful home and sentiments, and it needed work, I worked pretty hard on it for 10 years, finally gave up. But nonetheless, listen to me, we ended up purchasing that home after two years, that the house was actually worth. We bought it for 50% of what it was worth because I listened to a thought where the Lord said, "Lease purchase dummy, tell him, "Lease purchase." Come on, somebody. God's got the plan. You just got a fulfill His purpose. All right, I got to see you number six. God speaks directly to us through our minds as if He was speaking audibly. Sometimes you will actually hear God speak to you in your thoughts. In 2 Corinthians 12, 9, Paul is praying for healing, and he said, "God spoke to him and

said, 'My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in your weakness.' God spoke that into His mind. When God chooses to speak to you like this, you will know that you know it's the Lord, and faith will be quickened in your heart. Hebrews 11-1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." God speaks a word. When the Lord chooses to speak in that sort of audible voice in your mind, you're going to know that it's God. You're going to know what He's saying, and you're going to know what you need to do about it. It's going to be very, very clear because His sheep know His voice because they're getting to know Him and walk with Him. Are you with me? Sometimes we preachers make that sound like that happens all the time. Well, not really. The Lord uses this variety of ways to speak and direct us. Once in a while, though, He will speak a specific word. I can still remember the day that God spoke into my heart and told me certain things, and I cherish those moments when He does, but God has directed me in all these other ways as well. Number seven, God speaks through promptings or urgings or a sense of restraint regarding something. You can read the verses there where the Holy Spirit forbid Paul and his company from going in a particular direction. He restrained them in the sense of giving them that sense that they shouldn't do something. When I was a kid in college, one time I went to the bank in my 1971 XR7, boy, it was a great car, and I pulled into the bank, and I was pulled into the parking. I had this sense of, "Don't park here." It wasn't a voice.

It was just this sense. I shouldn't park in this parking space. Being the spiritual giant, I was at that moment. I didn't pay attention to it, and I parked in that parking space. When I came out, somebody had parked next to me, and when they left, their corner of their car hit the side of my car and put a bag on dent and scratch in it. Does God care about the details of your life? Yes, but you've got to learn to pay attention. How are you listening? How are you listening? Are you pursuing the Lord? Are you putting His Word into practice the purpose for your life? As you do, He's going to direct you. It may be through a sense of restraint. It may be through some prompting. I was prompted one time to pray for some people that attended the church here a number of years ago. I just had a real burden to pray for them, and pray for them later that day discovered that they had had a car wreck, and thank God they were okay. The car was pretty much destroyed. Why does God want to use us like that? He loves us. He likes including you in what He's doing, and He wants to work through you. He can give you a burden to pray, or He can prompt you to say something to someone, or do something, act on it. If it's good, act on it. You use the Word of God. You can filter every feeling, every thought, every motivation, filter it through the Bible. If it's consistent with the Word of God, then you know you're okay. Are you with me?

Because God has spoken. He's spoken through the Word. All right, got to hurry on. So number eight, then God speaks to other people and Godly counsel that could come in the form of rebuke. Someone may speak a rebuke to you. I've had my four-year-old grandson rebuke me once or twice when I was younger. And I knew it was the Lord speaking to me. Come on, somebody. I knew I needed that rebuke. Are you with me? Or it may come in the case of a prophecy. Somebody may be inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak something to you. Now listen to me. If so, it's always going to be encouraging. It's always going to be up-building. That's 1 Corinthians 14. You want to read that verse. It's always going to be encouraging up-building. And listen to me, it will always be consistent with what God is already saying to you. If somebody comes up to you with a word of prophecy, it's completely out of the blue. Beware. That's not the Lord. Scripturally speaking, we know that prophecy is used to reinforce what God is doing in you. He will speak something maybe, and it could be in just casual conversation. It could be standing out in the lobby this morning, just chatting with someone. And the Holy Spirit may speak a word through them, and they may not even know it's a word of prophecy to you. But they say something, and it just, you go, "Oh my goodness, thank you, Lord, for that heart open to the Lord fulfill his purpose he'll fulfill his plan God

speaks through God lead discussions and counsel as you share with people working with the board over the years I am so glad that for the board of this church and and how I would be able to share a vision or thought with them and and we begin to discuss it and boy I thought I thought it was such a great idea and I throw it out there and we start talking about it and they start pushing it back a little bit and and by the end of that discussion you know what happened we either decided to wait a little bit until it until it seemed right or what would frequently happen is by the time that discussion got over we're all on the same page but guess what we didn't prove that idea that idea became even greater why because there's wisdom in the counsel of God's people and that's if you'll go to a life group if you get involved in life group if you'll be honest and vulnerable and let people speak and discuss as you study the word of God and it's always got to be filtered to the word that as you filter things through the word of God as you're listening to the Holy Spirit he wants to direct you wants to be your heavenly Father he'll give you good counsel number nine God speaks during the internal sense of peace and notice I put this last because you and I often put it first listen the Bible says in Colossians 3 17 let the peace of Christ rule in your heart it's the it's the picture of an umpire let the peace of God call the shots let him determine your responses and peace is not a feeling it's not this just feeling on the surface it's this deep inner assurance this deep inner sense of peace not just a good feeling I've discovered that it doesn't always feel good at the surface level to obey God sometimes it doesn't feel good to confront people sometimes it doesn't feel good to say notice some stuff I want to do and yet I've got that deep inner faith assurance peace that it is the word and the right thing to do and as I take a step God confirms those things are you with me are you with me and then number 10 I said circle the word may God may choose to speak to you through a vision or a dream I don't think the Lord does this often but he may choose to he certainly did it in the scriptures but here's what I know listen you and I dream all the time we all have dreams amen and our dreams usually a result of whatever we were

thinking about that day and whatever we are mulling over and we have some crazy dream you know that seems a listen don't try to figure out every dream don't look for some hidden spiritual thing every time you have a dream most of the time you just ate too much pizza come on somebody you were listening to the news before you went to bed your mind was filled with all kinds of garbage turn the TV off turn your phone off and meditate in the word of God for a few minutes before you go to sleep and your dreams might change hallelujah but here's what I know if God speaks to you through a dream you're not going to have a go around saying what does it mean what does what does that mean you're going to know exactly what God is saying to you and you're going to know exactly what to do because God will speak to you with clarity God always speaks clearly to us and it'll always be consistent with the teaching of the Bible listen to me here's the concluding statements number one God's voice is not always a voice so you need to learn to grow in your relationship so that you can discern what he's saying to you God's voice and leading in your life will always be consistent with the word of God and lastly as you make an effort to fulfill God's purpose by seeking him worshiping doing what you know to do he will direct your steps and fulfill his plan for your life the proverb says in his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps and Proverbs three five and six trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding your own wisdom lean on the wisdom of the word of God the truth of God word of God acknowledge the sovereignty and the goodness of God and he will direct your steps he'll make your baths smooth he'll remove obstacles he'll make the cause of your righteous a shine like the new day son delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart because he's going to put his desires in you so get to know I'm growing him so that your noise voice and can follow his lead can I get an amen come on stand with me as we wrap up this morning quickly it all begins with surrendering your life to Jesus Christ it all begins with accepting Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins and the leader of your life. Are you ready to do that?

and you'd like to be born of the Holy Spirit so that God becomes your spiritual heavenly Father, a good Father who wants to guide and bless your life. If that's you, would you pray something like this, dear God? Thank you for sending Jesus. Jesus, thank you for coming. Thank you for dying in my place, taking my punishment. Thank you that you're alive today and in this room. And Lord, I decide now to surrender to you so that God may become my heavenly Father. I accept you as the King and sacrifice in Lord of my life. Thank you, heavenly Father, for loving me. I want to follow you now. Strength in me to do so and fill me with your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Man.