I Believe | Tyrone P Jones | We Believe

To know Jesus father. We thank you and we love you in Christ's name. We pray. Amen All right, if you don't mind in your Bibles Hebrews, these verses won't be on the screen. I will repeat them a little later, but Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 in verse 6 2 verses Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 and verse 6 Hebrews 11 1 now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen Verse 6 and without faith, it's impossible to please him For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him Can you say man so far the reading of the word you you may be seated Now we're in this series. We believe we've been in it for quite a few weeks and this begins a nine-week stretch for me preaching from this series and Today my topic is real simple. It's I believe and it's based on the series Of course is versus based on the Apostles Creed million millions of Christians today Around the world will stand together and they will they will say those words I believe in God the Father the Almighty the maker of heaven and earth Those words come straight from the Creed which would be posted there Above you. I believe in God the Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ His only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary He suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified died and was buried He descended to hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended to heaven and It's seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from there He will come to judge he will come to judge the living and the dead I believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the word Catholic there I've described that that means worldwide Church the communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and

The life everlasting. Amen In any time that you recite those words read those words with understanding state those words You're declaring you're declaring what you believe. This is a real summary indeed of our Christian faith You're declaring that you believe in a triune God That there is one God who in three persons has worked for our Salvation the Father's will was for that everyone to be saved the Son Indeed was the one Jesus Christ who came to earth and died For us and it's the Spirit of God that sanctifies us and preserves us until the Lord returns for final judgment and eternity When we say those words We're saying that we believe in the creation That it was God the Father that created everything all things including us when we say those words, we are saying that we believe in the incarnation that the Son of God has stepped down from heaven and Was born through a virgin Humiliated himself to be crucified Suffered a death was buried but the same Son of God exalted himself when he resurrected and ascended Now sits in the heavenly reign where He will soon be our judge when we say these words. We're we're saying that we believe the Holy Spirit Supernaturalizes us all believers Transforming us from the character that we have to Christ likeness when we say this we say that we believe in the church that the church is a community of believers and That God has sustained brought us together and Sustains us together that we may worship that we may work that we may be a witness for him That we are a worldwide body of Christ and we got some distinctions We got distinct social circles. We got distinct racial persuasion. We got different gender age education professional Professionally and politically but yet we're all one in Christ Jesus. That's the church When we say this we say we believe in the forgiveness of sins That the Spirit of the Lord has caused us to realize that we're rebellious That we're separated from God, but this same spirit also reveals to us that the manner of that

separation is resolved through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and that our sins are washed away and affirmed by the risen Lord. And that when we say this, we say that we believe, we have a Christian hope, that this life is not the end of it for us, that there is a life beyond this. We have a hope in that life that we're going to be re-embodied in the resurrection and glorified. This happens when the Lord himself ushers in an unending and an unaging life in which we get to spend eternity with our God and our King. Those are the things that we're saying that we believe. And today, I want to focus on those first two words, I believe, because those words by no means should be looked upon casually. They're not just religious decoration. They're not some poetic tradition. It's really a declaration of our faith. For many people, centuries before us, and some not so far off, for them to declare that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it costs them their life. Now, that's happening still around the world. Maybe not so much so here in America, but it's happening around the world. If you've ever read books like Fox's Book of Martyrs or some of the Voices of the Martyr books, you may recall a story of an elderly gentleman by the name of Polycarp. Polycarp lived in the middle of the second century. He was actually discipled by John the Apostle that we read about in the scripture, lived at 84 or 86 years old, declaring his faith. He was leading a church in...it was Smyrna, as we read it in the Bible, but now it's Izmir, which is on the coast of Turkey. But at that time, the Romans, again, was beginning once again to put people to death that would not declare that Caesar was Lord. And Polycarp knew that they were looking for him. And initially, he was moved from place to place to kind of spare his life. But what they end up doing, the centurions end up taking his servants, two of his young servants, and they tortured them until they declared where Polycarp was. And so they show up where Polycarp is. He was upstairs. He gets word that the

soldiers was here. He comes down. He's not fighting them. He knows that his time has come. He even talks about a dream that he had or a vision that he had about his death. But he comes down and he asked the soldiers, he let them know, I will not fight you. I'm going to go with you. I'm not running, not hiding. But I would like one hour to pray undisturbed before I go with you. And so he told his workers in the home, feed the soldiers while I spend time praying. He spent one hour. When his hour was up, he surrendered himself to them. And he was well-liked in the community. He was just a wonderful elderly Christian gentleman. Always treated people right, good, even if they were opponents. So he was well-known. The governor came when they brought him to where he was going to be persecuted. The governor asked him to join him in his chariot. And he talked to him about how much he admired him. And he says, all you have to do is say that Caesar is Lord, and you won't have to go into that stadium. You won't have to be persecuted like all the rest. First, Polycarp didn't answer him, but he just kept badging him. More intensity, and he got more and more upset. Eventually, Polycarp let him know, I believe in the God, the Almighty, and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. With that, they shoved him out and took him into the stadium. When they took him into the stadium, they were going to tie him to a pole and put the wood around him to burn him. And he says, you don't need to tie me to a pole. I'm not going to run anywhere. I'm standing where I'm standing. So they just tied his hands and his feet so he wouldn't run. They put wood all around him, even up onto the sides of his legs. And they asked him again, would you revile this Christ, denounce him, and say Jesus is Lord, and will never light this fire? He said, I stand where I stand. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I'm not denouncing it to you. I'm not denouncing in front of these people I declare that Christ is Lord. The interesting thing is, and he prayed, and again, if you read any of that, it's a wonderful prayer where he

absolutely... admits himself to the Lord, knowing that he's dying. The interesting thing is when they lit the fire, the fire would never go up the wood. The fire just made a circle around the ring. Never would go up, never would light fully on the wood up onto his body. They watched that for the longest, thinking eventually the fire is going to move. It would never move. The whole time, Polycarp is just talking to Jesus and declaring him. Eventually, they just end up stabbing him with daggers. So much blood came out that it actually put the fire out and he died with a loss of blood. But he stood. Because this is the thing that I know, that in this faith that we have, when you believe in something, it's living, it's active, it's dynamic, and it's so personal that it could be risky. But hear me on this. All of our life is a faith, faith in something or faith in someone, faith in family, faith in friends, faith in plans, faith in ideologies, faith in instructions. People even have faith in forces beyond ourselves. We all look to someone or something to be a rock and to be an anchor that we can cling on to in a world that's a merry-go-round of chaos. We all do, a world that's spinning out of control. That's the reality of it, that we want to have faith in something. Faith, indeed, is a firm conviction, that one day what we hope for will happen. It's a confidence about the future that may look uncertain. And though people may put their faith in a whole lot of things and people, we as believers put our faith in God. That's what Hebrews 11 is all about, that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And the writer of Hebrews is real clear, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And those who draw near to him must believe that he exists, and the assurance is that he rewards those who seek him. So for us, to have faith means that we believe that there is a God that is there, a God that is with us, a God that is for us, and that this God offers something beyond this scarcely imagination that we have. Every one of us got needs for food, we got needs for shelter, and purpose, and companionship. Those are basic needs.

But I'm going to tell you what everybody here has that's looking at me with the white of your eyes, that every one of us has is a need to connect with the God who created us. That is the ultimate and the certain need. Augustine said this, you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. That is the truth of it. When we say that we believe in God, we're saying that we have reconnected with our maker, and we found satisfaction for this spiritual hunger in him. Here's what I know. Christianity is a faith to believe. From the very beginning, Christianity has always been a faith that calls for belief. The Christian life begins with belief. Now, people can have basic Bible facts, but that's not the same as saving faith. That's not the same. The scripture even says this. James, I'm not sure if it's chapter 1, chapter 2. James says even demons believe that God exists, but that's not saving faith. Saving faith is a lot deeper. It means that you're resting your life on Christ. You're not just believing that he exists, but you're resting your life on him. It's the difference of knowing that a chair is sitting there, and the fact that you're going to sit on the chair because you believe the chair will hold you up. John 20, 31 is like this. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you will have life by the power of his name. By believing in him, you will have life, Zoe life, not Biles life. Zoe life, by the power of his name. So the word believe in the Bible, it means trusting something that's true, entrusting yourself to that which is true, and in our case, it's our God and our savior. I believe it's a personal confession. It's interesting, don't you think, that the creed does not start with, we believe. Now, we may say it together, but it's a personal thing. Every one of us... must say, I believe, that I'm not just going along with the crowd. I personally believe because no one is a Christian because of your parents' faith. Now, I believe that anybody that walks in the CTC gets zapped by something, but just walking in here doesn't make you a Christian.

It's not the faith of the church. It's not just because you were born in a home of Christians. Every person must say, I believe. It's interesting with Jesus in Matthew Chapter 16, the disciples have been with him now probably at this time, maybe close to three years they've been with Jesus, and they've seen miracles, they've heard his teaching, and they really like what they see. But Jesus does not want people to be caught up in just the things they see of him and believe in those things. He doesn't want people to get caught up in that, even with his own disciples. Listen to this. It says, now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? He's asking his disciples now who've been with him for a period of time. And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Now, Jesus could have said, okay, well, if that's who they think I am, you guys know better. But he didn't leave it that way. He didn't leave it with them saying, this is who other people say. Jesus made this thing real personal. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? You see, that's where the rubber meets the road. Who do you? A whole lot of folks can say a whole lot of things about Jesus that can be right and may be wrong. But that doesn't even matter. What matters is who do you say that Jesus is? And, of course, Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Our faith always is personal before it becomes public. When it becomes public, it's an absolute, absolute confession of what you believe. I believe it's a declaration of allegiance. Again, I talked about it in early years, early centuries. When they said Jesus was Lord, it could have been dangerous. They could have lost their life. The Romans was in charge. They wanted to hear people say that Caesar was Lord. Many of the Christians refused. Instead, they would say aloud that Jesus Christ is Lord,

which means they're saying, I'm putting Christ over the empire, putting Christ over the king or the emperor or the nation. It was not just some mere intellectual thought or statement. It was absolute loyalty to Jesus, loyalty to Christ. Philippians 2, 10 and 11 says it this way, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, I don't want you to miss this because we're reading it in English, but this word should here is not English in how we would define it as you should do it. No, here it's you will do it. Now, I want you to understand here, I don't care how you parse this in Greek, Spanish, or Zulu, every is every. Every knee will bow down. Every knee will confess. Every one of you that are looking at me right now, you will bow down and confess that Jesus is Lord. If I was you, I would do it sooner than later because there will be a time when you do it then, it's like, okay, you did it because you ain't got no choice. You ain't got no choice. And the alternative, the end result of that is not what you had hoped for. I'd rather do it now than do it later. When you say that, I believe you're declaring indeed that my life belongs to the God that has been revealed to me as this Savior indeed. And so, I believe because I believe all of our life should be one to make a stand about what we believe in, what we believe in. We believe in God the Father. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand. That's not just spiritual, but physically, I stand in the face of others. Publicly, I stand and declare who Jesus is or who I believe Jesus to be. Anything that you believe in your heart eventually should show up somewhere in your body. So, the scripture is clear to us that we stand firm in the faith that we believe. Here it is in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, stand firm in the faith. Stand firm in the faith. It's a wonderful story in... 1 Kings chapter 18, this is before Elijah was taken up into heaven. And actually, this is one of his last acts here. And he's under the rule or the people of Israel under the rule of Ahab is the king,

Jezebel is the queen. And they were exercising so much harsh authority that many of the people who believed in the one God, Jehovah, were starting to waffle because the impending results of not going in the direction that Ahab and Jezebel wanted to go was not good. They were taking people's property, ostracizing them from the community, basically destroying their businesses, etc., trying to get everyone to follow after their gods, Baal and Asherah. Elijah came to the place of being very frustrated because he was the prophet for the people. He became very frustrated about this. And he called the people together, and we see it here in 1 Kings 18, 21. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, how much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? And this is what Elijah was saying. It's basically like they're bouncing back and forth on one leg and then going to the other. He says, how long are you going to keep doing this? Some days you're hobbling around like, I believe one God, Jehovah. Then other times you're hobbling around, serving and sacrificing to Baal and Asherah. He says, how long are you going to keep doing that? When are you going to become people and stand on what you believe and stop hobbling and stop wavering back and forth? He's bringing into a place to make a public decision. Make a public decision. Stop wavering. Visibly declare your allegiance to whomever you're going to have that to. He's calling them to stand decisively. Now, interesting enough, what Elijah did with this, he allowed them, Jezebel, Ahab, they brought 450 of their prophets of Baal. And he says, we can find out right now who the true God is. Let's just set up an altar. Let's prepare a sacrifice. And I'll give you the first part of the morning, you lay out this sacrifice, and you call on your God. And if your God shows up and receives this sacrifice, then, hey, then that means your God is God. And so, sure enough, he does that. He waits. They go on.

The scripture says they went on for about three hours, I believe. They're screaming. They're crying. They're hauling for their God to reveal himself from heaven, jumping up and down, cutting themselves. I mean, they're going stone crazy trying to get their God's attention. I love what Elijah did. Elijah started mocking them, said, man, maybe your God out on a date. Maybe your God's on vacation. Maybe your God's in the bathroom. I mean, he just started mocking. Maybe your God's somewhere else. After so long, he said, okay, that's enough. Matter of fact, he says, I'm going to take over from here. It's 450, y'all. It's just one of me. I want you to pour water on all of the sacrifices. We're going to make this thing even harder for a fire to strike. Sure enough, they poured water over everything, filled up the ditch and all that. And Elijah prayed one prayer and asked the Lord to declare himself and reveal himself to who he is to all of these folks. And sure enough, after that prayer, what comes out of heaven is fire that burnt up all of that sacrifice and all of the altars that declared the God that we serve is the one true God. The one true God. When they saw it, here's verse number 39. And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, the Lord, he is God. Yes, the Lord is God. Then they gave a visible response, fell down, they confessed, declared allegiance. Because again, that public confession should always be recognized. And sometimes this allegiance to our God may be under pressure. I don't think, again, some of us are not... Nobody ain't got a sword to our head, not now, at this time saying, you know, denounce Jesus or we're going to cut your head off. That might come. Who knows? There's people in other countries that are facing that. But there still is pressure that people go through. You can be in a circle of friends and committing things, doing things, talking about things that you know is not right. It's not good. It's not healthy for you spiritually. It's not good for your faith, their activities, their mindset, their behavior. But you're a little bit concerned about pulling out of that circle because you don't want people to say

negative things about you. You don't want people to count you out of things and you become the brunt of people's conversations. So you may feel a little pressure to be allegiance. Some folks don't like to be called. the Holy Roller. I don't care if they call me a Holy Roller. I'll fall down and roll right in front of them. I don't care. I don't care if people call me a Jesus freak. I'd rather be a Jesus freak than some of them freaks they're out there freaking with. I'd rather be that. But some folks under pressure, they're afraid to make that move. I've talked to countless people in this congregation who was in relationships and realize that we're not on the same page where we are on spiritually and what we believe about Jesus, and under pressure, had to make a decision. People who...I just heard a guy's story just recently. Oh, yeah, I said in first service. We were in Nashville, and a young man, he was a sharp young man, very kind when we were getting the boots. And you knew this guy had come from some background other than selling boots in a Tacova store. I love Tacova boots. I'm not against that at all. But I knew that. And so, sure enough, when I'm hearing him, I want to hear his story. And he tells us about being in a Christian music business, but there was some of the things they were asking them to do, some of the direction that they were going, some of the compromises they were being asked to make. In spite of all the money he had made and all the things he was doing, he said, I had to get out of that. I couldn't stay. I couldn't stay with that. I'd rather be selling Tacova boots than compromise my faith in that kind of environment. Sometimes there's allegiance under pressure. This story here in Daniel 3, verse 16 through 18, Nebuchadnezzar is the king. Babylon is under the control...I mean, sorry, Israel is...the Jews are under the control of Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar has this statue built up to himself. And it was a requirement that everyone show their allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. Certain times of the day, I believe it was,

or certain trumpet sounds or something, they all had to bow down to this statue. Well, these three boys, along with Daniel and others, it wasn't just them, but the stories about them, these three boys didn't do it because they knew their allegiance was to the one God, Jehovah. They weren't going to bow down to this statue. So sure enough, they captured these boys, and they threatened them and let them know, if you don't do it, we're going to throw you in the fiery furnace. And here we have it here, the words of these fellas. Daniel 3, 16 through 18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I told the first service when I used to preach in a black church, we would say, Shadrach, Meshach, and a bad Negro. But yeah. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego...I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry. I can't help myself sometimes. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they replied, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty. But even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you've set up. This is allegiance under pressure. They're threatened with this fiery furnace. They're questioned in front of the furnace. They still take their stand. And then the king tells them, turn the thing up seven times hotter. And they still took their stand, allegiance under pressure. They were being loyal to the God that they believed in. It was so hot that when they got thrown in, the people who threw them in got burnt up, but not them. They're in that fire, and they're walking around in that fire when everything else was getting burnt up around, they're walking around. The best sermon I ever heard on that 35 years ago was my elder, Andy Torres, preached a wonderful sermon on Shadrach. He said they were walking around, and they're looking at the cracks. Oh, man, everybody thinking they burnt up. Man, you got a few cracks in here, king. We need to fix a few things. But it's because they weren't in there

by themselves. Scripture says they looked in there, and they saw a fourth man, and the fourth man looked like the son of man. Because they were willing to stand up even under pressure. When everybody else bowed, they stood faithful in the face of culture. And this last thing I'll tell you is this. Believers speak what they believe. I absolutely love watching the baptisms. I'm telling you I love them. For people to publicly confess in front of you, in front of God, in front of angels, and these things get broadcast out to the world, they stand in that water and publicly declare, Jesus Christ is my Lord. We do that. When we believe what we believe, we'll speak it out loud. Romans 10, 9 says, if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe... believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's where that public confession has power, when you publicly, formally declare in front of others, I believe in Christ. I believe it in my heart, and I confess it with my mouth. Faith that is inward, it refuses to stay silent. It's going to come out. Jesus said this in Matthew 10.32. Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father. Jesus is saying that. If you acknowledge me before men, I'm going to acknowledge you before my father. Hear this, nobody is sneaking up to the throne. You ain't going to get through this life, call yourself an internal Christian, a private Christian, a personal Christian, and then we all standing up there before the Lord confessing, and you want to say, Jesus, can I talk to you privately? You know, I've really been wanting yours, I just didn't tell nobody. That ain't happening. Jesus ain't looking for no secret meetings with somebody because they got some secret faith within them. We publicly declare this thing unashamed. We know who our Lord is, we know who our God is. We have a public loyalty to Christ. So when we say, I believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, it's to declare publicly, Jesus is my King. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. Team, you can come. 1930s, under the Nazi regime, as you know, Hitler was just a straight maniac. Maniac with no sense.

This dude wanted... I know this is a side note. This dude is trying to make a perfect race with blonde hair and blue eyes, and he got black hair. That was stupid to me from jump. But anyway, I don't know. I never did get that. But under this Nazi regime, he gets to the point, he was not... Let me just say it this way. I experienced the same in China. Churches, you will find churches in China, but they're state-run churches. Pastors are not necessarily hand-picked, although some are, and they're informed of what they cannot say, what they cannot teach. Hitler went that same route in the 30s, and a lot of churches started giving in to it, compromised and afraid for their life, afraid of what's going to happen, afraid for what's going to take place in the community. But there was a group of pastors in Congress that refused to compromise. They became known as the Confessing Church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which is a wonderful story to either read or you can even watch the movies on. He was one of the leaders of this Confessing Church. In 1934, they write what's called the Barman Declaration. They wanted to show the distinction of confessing churches who were sticking to the faith versus those who were saying they were Christian churches and compromising. And they had six tenets in that, that Jesus Christ is the one and only word of God to be heard and obeyed. Sorry, Jesus Christ is the one and only, yes, and only word of God to be heard and obeyed. Christ has a claim on the believer's whole life. The church is solely Christ's property and must not change its message for political whims. Church offices are for service, not for some to rule over others. The state has a divine task of maintaining justice, but it is not the total order of human life. And the church's mission is to deliver the message of free grace to all people. So a lot of churches that joined this Confessing Church movement, every Sunday they would stand together, maybe more often than Sundays, and they would recite the Apostles' Creed, which is what we're studying. This was not routine for them. This was defiance. And they knew they were putting their life on the line because the

Nazi state demanded that they have their ultimate loyalty to the fewer, to Hitler. But when these believers stood and said, I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, and our Lord, they were absolutely declaring that their allegiance was to Jesus Christ alone. Many of them, of course, lost their life, was killed, Dietrich Bonhoeffer himself, in 1945. But this was not just theology to them. This was loyalty. This was standing. This was confessing. Those words either were freedom for them or they were life. And that's the same place and position that every... one of us, we got to get, we got to get to that place that we absolutely have an ultimate allegiance to Jesus, that our life belongs to him. And we're not doing this alone. Every time you stand and confess, I believe you're standing with Elijah on Mount Carmel. Every time you stand and confess that I believe you're standing with Peter in the face of the Sanhedrin. Every time you stand and confess, you're standing and confessing with Shadrach, Meshach, and the bad Negro. You're standing with those. And you're confessing that I believe, and I'm standing strong here. We're standing with the mortars of the church. There's no doubt about it. What we're saying is the Lord is God, Jesus is Lord, and we belong to him. That's saying, I believe. I believe. Stand on that. I'm going to live for it, and I'll die for it. Because this one has already died for me, that I may have a life eternal with him. Everybody stand, if you would. Prayer team, you can come. We'll pray one prayer. Worship team, you'll hang with us as we close out with a song here. My encouragement is that every one of us that know Christ would not be ashamed to stand as a witness for him. But there may be somebody here who's never made that confession, that Christ is your Lord. And today, I'm telling you, it's the best day for you to make that confession, that I believe in God the Father, the maker of heaven and earth, and I believe in his son, his only son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. The maker of heaven and earth, and I believe in his son, his only son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Every head bow for just a moment, eyes closed. Father, I want to thank you today for this opportunity to share your word, Lord, to speak this truth. Lord, there's many of us, of course,

that stand firm. We have our allegiance, we have our loyalty, and unashamed to declare, I pray that we be strengthened and affirmed in that. But Lord, there may be some here for the first time, first time have the courage, they got the courage to say that I confess Jesus as Lord, that I confess Jesus as Lord. And so, Father, I pray as the spirit of God works upon their heart, that you, Lord God, will bring them to that place, to have the courage, have the faith, have the confidence, have the love for you and the belief, and declare so. While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I'm just going to count to three. If you're here and you've never made a confession to Jesus, but you want to do so today on the count of three, if you'll just lift up your hands, that will declare to heaven and with my eyes that you're saying I confess Jesus as Lord. If you've never made that confession, on the count of three, I'm going to ask you to do that. One, two, three, just lift up your hand. God bless you, young man. I see you there on the right. God bless you, man. Never made a confession to Jesus, want to do that for the first time, God bless you too, young man. I see the young man back in the back. Come on, let's celebrate what the Lord has done. God bless you, man. I see you there. Father, I pray that you'd finish the work that you have began. And Lord, that we may be a house full of people who are unashamed of who Christ is and who he is to us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Can the people of God say amen? Amen. Amen. If you've raised your hand and you want to get with someone here, they'll help you on the next steps of your faith. If you want prayer for anything, they'll be here to pray with you. To stand with you. Maybe you're going through a journey, you want someone to yoke with you. Maybe you want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Maybe you want to grow in your faith, whatever it is, these dear folks are here to pray with you. God bless you. Have a great day.