It's Not Too Late To Return To God | Robby Gallaty | Joel 2

So I thought we had a great, Adam French did great, and Dr. Artie Kendall, I thought did great. Amen, did you enjoy them as well? Today, I wanna talk about why it's never too late to return to God. How many people believe that? It's never too late to return to God. During COVID, we didn't hear a lot about this, but in early 2020 in East Africa, they experienced the worst locus outbreak in history. Really in decades and decades before that. One swarm of locus in Kenya, it was reported to be, you ready for this? 40 miles long. These locust insects were responsible for destroying billions of crops. They could eat as much as an entire town of people in a moment. They just came and destroyed and devastated the community. Fathers literally, or farmers literally stood on the edge of their properties and watched their entire year's work go up in a moment. Now why am I saying that? Because that is the responsible party in the book of Joel for the destruction. We're gonna read the Prophet Joel. How many people still reading through the week, the F-260? So we read about Joel and how these locusts have come in and destroyed their possessions. And you'll see there are different locusts,

four to be exact. Did you catch that? The swarming locus and the devastating locus and the destructive locus and the young locus. In case you miss one, God says they're all there. And they destroyed everything. And the drought has killed the water supply. So the people are in a predicament. Let me give you the backstory. The people have no grain for a grain offering. They have no water for a drink offering, which means not only are they affected physically, they are affected spiritually. Why? Because they can't worship God. There's no worship in the town, in the land. Let me paint it for you. The fields are empty. The altars are empty. The people are empty. And in the midst of this devastation, God gives two words that changes everything. Look at these words, write them down. Even now, not even tomorrow, not even next year. Even now, and it shows us that God wants to do something on us and in us before God ever does something even greater through us in the future. And today's message is all about us returning to the Lord. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Joel chapter two. We'll pick up in Joel chapter two verse 12.

We like to say word at long hollow. So if you're there, you can say word. The word of the Lord. Here it is. Even now, this is the Lord's declaration. Turn to me with all your hearts with fasting. Weeping and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, in return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger, abounding in faithful love. And he relents from sending disaster. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him so that you can offer a grain offering and a drink offering to the Lord your God, the word of the Lord. I wanna give you two aspects of coming back in right relationship with God. The first is this. You and I, there's the text shows us, need to return to God with our whole heart. Not just with our actions, but there has to be a heart change. Now, I'll tell you, I'll give you a little backstory for those who aren't reading with this. Joel wanted to begin with the impending judgment of God on the horizon. So the people can see, the locus have yet to come, they can see the locus of destruction in the distance.

Now, scholars debate as to when this prophet was speaking or writing. Some would say it was before the Babylonian exile. Some would say it's after. Regardless, it's not good. Wherever you are, when locus invade the town, it's not good. And I want you to see something right off the gate. It's kind of a conundrum, so wrap your mind around this, but watch this. God in this passage is the one sending the locus. But God in this passage is also the one giving away out at the same time, write this down. God is both the army attacking them and the refuge they run to for help. You probably said, I don't understand that. Well, join the club, right? I mean, but that's how God works. God is the one attacking them, but he's also the one giving them refuge. And it shows us God's saying it's never too late to run back to me. This is what God's doing. Friends, I want you to understand this. God uses trials and tribulation. God even uses judgment, not for our ruin, but for our restoration. We've been reading this. The theme of the Old Testament is this, when God sees those he loves, stray or disobey, what does he do?

God gets our attention through trials. Anybody been there before? Tribulation, suffering, difficulty. I would say to you, if I'd pass a mic out today and go through the crowd, I would ask you this question. When was the most spiritually significant moment of your life? Or I'd ask you this way, when could you look back on your life and say, this is where I grew the most? If I would pass the mic, nobody would say, kick back on the beaches of 30A, in the sun. Nobody would say that. Here's what you would say, and I don't know all of you, but I know my life. You would say, during the hardest season of my life, when I lost a child, when I got fired, when I went through a divorce, whatever it was. And this is how God works. Look at Deuteronomy 4, verse 30. This is the promise in the wilderness before the promised land. When you are in distress, and all these things have happened to you, when the bottom has fallen out, when the wheels have come off, in the future, you will return to the Lord, your God, and obey Him. You will as not just a promise, it is an action on our part. When you return to God, yes, God will return to you. Now here's the thing. Some of you right now are struggling. Look at me.

You are in the hardest season of your life. And let me just share with you this. Don't be tempted to get mad at God. Don't do it. God loves you so much, that He will not allow you to stay wallowing in sin where you are. Let me say it this way. God meets us where we are, but He doesn't leave us where we were. And God loves us so much that He will use any means necessary to get our attention to draw us back to Him. Isn't He a good God, amen? He's a good God. Now most people know this verse, in fact, I've preached on it, full disclosure, out of context. You've heard verse, this verse, preach. We love this verse. You hear it at school graduations. You hear it at student events. You hear it from youth pastors. Jeremiah 29, 11. You ready to know this verse? For I know the plans for you, says the Lord. Declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope in a what? In a future. Now, let me just say right out the gate. Does God want to prosper His people? Of course He does.

Of course He does. But it misses the point of the passage when you reduce it to that. The passage actually is bigger than that when you understand the context. So just for clarification. Where is or where are the people of God when Jeremiah is speaking this to them? Are they in Israel or Babylon? Babylon. For those who don't know, Babylon is a city that is foreign to them, a pagan land where they're surrounded by false idols everywhere, idolatry and adultery and immorality. The people are disoriented, they're displaced, they're depressed. They're wondering things like, where is God? Like we lost our home. We lost our community. We lost our culture. We lost our temple. We can't even worship. God, are you even there? Are you even working? Do you even care? That's what they're asking. Now, God is gonna give them a plan. And the plan starts in the next verse. Pop quiz, million dollar question. Don't look at your Bible.

Who can tell me verse 12? Not Jeremiah 21 out of 11. That's on your wall at your house on a nice script format. Do you have that in the bathroom? I get that. Anybody can tell me verse 12. Okay? Here it is. Full disclosure, I had to look it up myself. Anyway, I know 11, but I didn't know 12. All right, why is this? You will call to me and come and pray to me. And if you do, I will listen to you. Now, remember in the Bible, listen doesn't mean just hearken your ear to. Listen means to do. God says, when you come to me and you seek me, I'm gonna respond. You will seek me and find me when you search me with all your what? You see the connection? Tear your hearts, not just with your actions or clothes. I will be found by you. I love that promise. God says, when you seek me, you will find me and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you. This is the Lord's declaration. I will restore to you the place

from which I deported you. Look at me. God is giving us an outline or a roadmap for restoration from him that is infinitely better than anything you can get in this world. God is saying, returning to me is better in this world of getting a law degree. It's better than successful business in the world. It's better than being a professional athlete and having all the fame and fortune in this world. Friends, living in right relationship with God is better than a thousand days elsewhere. A thousand, that's what the psalmist says. Being in the presence of God is better than a thousand vacations at the beach. Knowing God, look at me. Some in here are saying, man, that sounds great, but I don't know what you're talking about. God feels distant to me. I don't have peace with God. God feels far from me. If that's you, Joel gives us step two, which is not only returned to God with your whole heart, why is this? He says, gather the congregation to pray. Through prayer, you're gonna return to me. Look at verse 15, notice what he says. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Announce a sacred fast, proclaim a solemn assembly. There it is, a solemn assembly.

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the infants, even those who are nursing at the breast. Let the groom leave his bedroom. Let the bride leave her honeymoon chamber. Let the priest, the Lord's ministers weep between the porch and the portico, or the portico and the altar. Let them say, have pity on your people, Lord, and do not make your inheritance a disgrace, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should it be said among the people, or the peoples, where is their God? In the Old Testament, it was customary for an army before they charged their enemy to have someone blow a horn. The horn signified that it was time for war. It was time to attack. And normally that's what happens when you blow a horn. But in the Jewish culture, when you blew the far horn, the ram's horn, it didn't signify war, it actually signified right this down, worship. Worship, which is kind of odd, 'cause normally you don't fight a battle with worship, you fight it with a spear or a sword or a knife. The sounding of the horn was a signifying act of call the people to pray, call the people to fast, and seek the Lord. Now, if we know our Old Testament, we just read this not long ago, that's exactly what happened when Joshua

comes into the promised land, remember this, and they go up to this walled impenetrable city named Jericho, remember this? And the walls are high, and they're coming in the land, and God's already promised the land, and they're like, how are we gonna take this down? And God says, I'll tell you what, gather the people, so the guys are like sharpening the swords, they're getting ready, they're whittling down the wood for the spear, I mean, they get ready, let's go, we're gonna take this thing, guys, like, no, put the sword down. Actually, what I want you to do is, I want you to march around this place how many times? Seven times, the entire time you're gonna be blowing a chiffar horn or ram's horn, and then at the end, I want you to scream. Watch what happens, Joshua 615. Early on the seventh day, they started at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same way. That was the only day they marched around the city seven times, and after the seventh time, the priest blew the ram's horns, Joshua said to the troops, shout for the Lord has given you the city, verse 20. So the troops shouted, and the ram's horns sounded, and when they heard the blast of the trumpets, the troops gave a great shout, and the walls collapsed. Now notice what didn't happen. At that moment, no one looked over and said, way to hit the high note, John.

Did they say that? Oh, way to scream, Simeon, with all your, that's what brought the wall, did anybody say that? No, what did they say? They stood in awe and they said, this is only something God could do. Who gets the credit that day? God does. And God is teaching them a principle that we need to learn. God is saying, if you let me fight your battles, I'll go before you. And how do we fight battles? The greatest weapon we have as a church long hollow and believers, the greatest weapon we have is prayer. And that's why he says, call a solemn assembly. A solemn assembly is a gathering of all the people of faith to pray and to see God. And so the question is who should come? Just the pastors or leaders? Everybody, old and young, did you catch it? Moms and dads, singles, newlyweds, married couples, high school students, college students, kids, children, those who are pastors, those who are deacons, those who are elders, long hollow. Everybody is called to pray. I don't know if you know this. The greatest weapon we have against the enemy we face is prayer. And do you believe that? Well, let me ask you a question.

Look at me. Why do you pray so little? We live in the North American church, Christianized world of American. We have great activity in churches. You see it all over. You have great programs in churches. We have great ministries in America. We have great meetings. We have great ideas. We have great strategy. We have great preaching. But we have no persistent praying today. During my first semester in seminary, by the sovereignty of God, I took a class called proclaiming the Bible. First semester, first class, Jim Schaddics, Dr. Jim Schaddics. And he's gonna teach me how to preach. And I was all excited 'cause I thought we're gonna learn how to preach, but we didn't get to that till week three. The first two weeks, we studied a book together where we had to read and then discuss the next week. It's a must read book for every Christian. It's called The Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds. Anybody read this book? E.M. Bounds. E.M. Bounds. The Power Through Prayer. Little bitty book.

Bounds says the prayer closet, don't miss this, is not an asylum for the lazy and worthless Christian. It is not a nursery where babies belong. It is the battlefield of the church. It is the citadel. That's what he says. That's what you fight, the battle. Bounds goes on in the book to record the prayer lives of every man and woman that was used mightily by God. Charles Simeon, he said, devoted the hours of four till eight in the morning to God in prayer. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, spent two hours daily in prayer. He would start his day of prayer at four a.m. in the morning. John Fletcher would pray throughout the day. He said, I would not rise from my seat without lifting my heart to God. Bishop Asbury stated, I propose to rise at four o'clock as often as I can to spend two hours in prayer and meditation. Bishop Andrews devoted more than five hours every day in prayer and devotion. Martin Luther, we just got back from Germany, saw the church where he nailed the 95 theses or posted it to the door in Wittenberg. He said, if I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, then the devil gets the victory throughout the day. I have so much business to do. I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer. Now I know what you're thinking.

Praying two hours is inspiring, but it's also intimidating. Like, who can pray two hours a day and prayer? I get that. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a moment, and I don't know the answer to this, you do. I want you to take a moment just right now, and I want you to audit your prayer life from this past week. And I want you to think, don't say that I love, but I want you to think how much time have you spent or did spend this past week in prayer and devotion to God alone? Not reading the Bible. I listen to the worship songs, not memorize Scripture, all good stuff, just prayer and meditation with God and God alone. How much time have you done that? Now for some of you, if you're honest, you're like, man, by the way, take out the sermon from last Sunday. Take out the prayer before meals. Some of you like, man, I'm bankrupt. I'm at zero, and that's okay because at least you're honest, and that's a place to start. But some would say maybe five minutes, maybe. Ten minutes, maybe. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to see where you are, and I want you to ask the Lord to give you a passion. It's not wrong to pray this way, for the Lord to give you a passion to pray more, because you don't have the desire in your flesh to do it.

So I used to pray for years, God, give me a passion to pray more. And I want you to up your time with God. One of the ways you can do that is, if you haven't started already, is to join us in the wait here challenge that we're doing as a church. How many people are reading through the book, wait here and doing the challenge? Someone said, why are you promoting your book? Here's the reality, that was a season of time. and there's only two years to write the book, and I tell people, people always say, "Your best book is your next book." I feel like this is the best book I've ever written, and I've had the privilege of writing some, but I'll tell you why. Not because it's better than the others, but because it's practical, and here's why. The greatest thing that you can do is to hear from God, not from me. And if you hear from God, guess what? You will never fear men and women again. If you get a word from God, and it's free. You don't have to buy the book, you can go to weightherechallenge.com. You can text weight to 90, 173. I have seven videos I recorded that walk you through silence and solitude, and the examine, and how to develop a rhythm,

and how to put alarms on your watch to keep you praying, a daily office. All that's there for free. I wanna challenge you to take that step toward the Lord. Let me ask another question. If revival coming to our church, or your church, if you don't go to our church, if revival coming to Long Hollow, was dependent upon your prayer life, would we see it? If revival young person, listen to me, young student, if revival coming to your school was dependent upon your prayer life, would you see it? If revival coming to your team, coach, athlete, was dependent upon your prayer life when we see it? If revival coming to your home, dad, mom, was dependent upon your prayer life, would we see it? You have to understand, when the Holy Spirit directed the people at, or Jesus directed people at Pentecost to do something before the Spirit fell in Acts chapter two, they devoted themselves for 10 days to continually doing something. You know what it was? Fundraising, right? No. Preaching, right? Of course, no. Church planting, right? No. Strategizing, planting, no. They devoted themselves for 10 days

to praying for more of God. And don't miss this. They weren't just praying for miracles. They weren't praying for healing. They weren't praying for church growth, they're more finances. They were praying to have more of God. That's what they wanted. They wanted God. Here's the thing. If you get God, you get everything. Brother, sister, look at me. The reason you don't sense the presence of God. Maybe because you haven't gotten real with God. You haven't been honest with God. And here's what I know. Until you get real with God, God will never be real to you. Friends, revival is not dependent upon the right laws being passed in Congress. Some of you still wait. If we just get this law passed, or this amendment, no, the revival that we're seeking from God is not dependent upon the right president in the office, or the right congressman or congresswoman in our seat of Congress. No, it's gonna come when the people of God start getting serious about prayer. And so let me speak this into your life. Stop putting your hope in a political candidate or leader

and start putting your hope in a prayer meeting, amen? Let's start praying and expecting God to move. And I wanna speak this with love, and I'll speak this to my own staff. And our staff here at Long Hollow need to stop playing and start praying. The deacon body at Long Hollow, we need to stop playing and start praying. The students at our church need to stop playing, and we need to start praying. Teachers in our community, coaches in our church, we need to stop playing and start praying. Couples, we need to stop playing, and we need to start praying together. And if we do that, listen to me, God will move. God will move. I remember learning about dependency and change in 2012. I was experiencing, I tell you probably before, but I was experiencing symptoms of passing out. I didn't know why it was happening. It was a dark time my life happened for about three, four months. And there was no rhyme or reason to it. I would get up from a restaurant, feel lightheaded, like I was gonna pass out, it happened at Walmart, it would happen at the store, it happened at the mall. Even happened while I was preaching, you're talking about nerve-wracking. Like literally I thought at any moment I could just pass out. And so I'd be standing on a stage like this

at my former church. The only consolation, it was kind of funny, but I had to laugh or I'd cry. But the only consolation I said to myself was, Robbie, the good news is, if you pass out and fall face first off the stage and face plant, at least the video will go viral. (audience laughs) I think we'll go, you know? But it was scary, I went to my doctor and they ran a battery of tests on me. A blood glucose tolerance test, stress test, CT scan, extensive blood work and they couldn't find anything. "kind of monitor your heart for two days." I had an episode where I thought I was gonna pass out, I felt like I was gonna die. And I sent the monitor in the next day and they called me. They said, "Hey, you need to come have an arteriogram, "or angiogram where they go in your heart the next day." And before I was rolled back into the room, the electrical doctor walked in and he said, "Hey, listen Mr. God, I'm sorry to tell you this, "but you need to have a pacemaker put in at 35." I was like, "Wait a minute. "Can I not take a pill for this, like a pacemaker, "like heart surgery, can I not change my diet? "Can I not like take a supplement?" He said, "No, you don't understand. "You have a physical issue that supplements "or medication won't fix.

"You need to have heart surgery." Look at me. Every person in here, regardless of who you are or where you have come from, you have a similar heart condition to me. Not a physical one, obviously, but we all have a spiritual one. And what I mean is this, you can't fix your life. You can't change your situation by taking medication or to change your, you need the great physician. Look at me to come in and do heart surgery on your soul and take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, which Ezekiel says. Here's what I'm saying. You can't clean yourself up enough on the outside unless God cleans you up on the inside. Now why is that important? Because that's what Joel says. Joel says, "Don't just tear your clothes. "Let God tear your heart. "Let God change your heart for why he is a gracious God "who's compassionate and loving, long-suffering, "abounding and faithful love "and relents from giving day." Who knows? Who knows? God may turn, relent, and pour out a blessing from heaven upon you.

How do I know if my heart is changed? How do I know if I'm right with God? I wanna ask you two questions and this will show you. If you were to stand before the Lord, let's say God forbid, let's say something happens from today and you leave this earth and you go and stand in the presence of God and I don't know if God will ask it this way, but probably around about way. And God were to ask you personally, you personally, why should I let you in my heaven today? Personally, he's asking you and he's asking you. Here's the second question. What would you say? Don't say it out loud, think about it in your head. I want you to come up with an answer 'cause everybody, you need to have an answer today 'cause you don't wanna be caught off guard there. If God were to ask you online and incarcerated, why should I let you in my heaven to be with me for eternity, what would you say? If your answer starts with the letter I, if you just sat in your head and it started with the answer with the letter I, I would question your eternal destiny, why? Because some of you said, well, I was a good person. I tried my best. I went to church when I could. I gave money in the offering.

I went to camp, I went on mission. I was sprinkled as a baby, as a child. I got wet in a baptistry. I hope, I hope I'd done more good than bad. If you said anything like that, look at me. I would not wanna be in your shoes for any amount of money in the world because you have no assurance of your eternal destiny. Here's why. If you die in your sin, the Bible says you pay the price for your sin and the wages of sin is what? Death or hell separation from God. But if your answer is something like this, some form or fashion, the only reason that God will allow me into heaven for eternity is because not of anything I did, but because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross when he died on Calvary and he transferred his righteousness to mine. That's it. When you get to God, you're gonna say, I don't even know why I'm here, other than that man right there. If you said that, listen to me, you have full assurance that God will grant you eternal life forever. Here's why I say that. It's better to get it right today than to be wrong tomorrow. Friends, look at me.

Eternity is too long to be wrong. And some of you sadly are justifying your salvation by what you did or what you will do instead of what Christ has done for you. So I wanna end where we started. God says, even now. Did you guess that? Not tomorrow when I get my life fixed, not when I clean myself up, not when life gets easier, not when the finances, no, no, even what? Now, today, today, even now, who knows? God may pour a blessing out on your life. size there are some who don't have assurance of their salvation they don't have right relationship with God you don't have peace with the Lord I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna ask you to do and I did it in the first service and many people stood up so I don't want you to be caught off guard and just a moment I'm gonna ask you to stand right to your feet in this place surrounded by all these people and you're probably saying that's crazy why would I do that here's why for far too long some of you have lived in the shadows and the enemy's plan is perpetuated as long as we stay in the shadow meaning you could just sit and everybody else thinks you're a good Christian and you come and church you and you know that you know you're not right with God but when you stand up you bring the darkness to light and the Bible says the enemy can't continue in the light because the light overpowers the darkness and so it's about time for some of you listen to me to take a stand for Christ and here's the other thing Jesus said if you won't take a stand for me on this earth in front of people I will be ashamed to talk about you when I get to heaven in front of my father and the angels as I was praying for you last night and this morning the Lord put in my heart if you can't stand in this place surrounded by

friends then I would question if you're standing out there in front of lost people in the world so I want to pray over you because I know in a group this size there's some who are like man I don't know I'm unsure before you can do even greater things for God God has to do something great in your life so pray with me bow your head for a moment put all your stuff aside I just want you to get along with the Father here's the question here's the question I want you to ask God ask God directly this question God are you calling me today to surrender my life to you do you know that you know that you know that you have assurance for eternity in heaven and if you're 95 percent sure you're a hundred percent wrong because the Bible says you can know that you have eternal life if you know the Sun Jesus Christ so I'm gonna ask you right now if you're unsure of that then you're ready to surrender your life no one looking around every head bob the mine looking around everyone if you're unsure of your relationship with God if you don't have peace with the Father I'm gonna ask you right now just stand right to your feet you're not saying anything just in your standing you're just saying Pastor Robbie pray for me thank you brother anyone else people already standing you're not the only one stand quickly for time just stand right where you are if they feel like the Lord speaking to your heart right now thank you sister thank you brother in the back anyone else thank you brother I see you praise God anyone else just stand right where you are and pass the right pray for me do not stay in the darkness any longer dead it's time for you to get right with God praise God thank your sister in the back anyone else people standing all over praise God single mom in here pray for me thank you little man brother just went through a divorce pray for me I need I need the Lord just lost a family member thank you brother in the balcony anyone else people in the balcony standing as well in the back if you're at Gallatin you're incarcerated you're at home praise God thank you sister just a moment longer I tell people if you don't come when God calls you may not come and all think about this when was the last time you felt the presence and the calling the Holy Spirit like you are right now or

like you do right now thank you brother praise God anyone else right where you are praise God just stand to your feet amen anyone else if you're standing no one else but those who are standing out of respect for them just look at me for a moment just if you're standing look at me stay standing look at me for a moment I just want to speak a word into your life this is a big deal and I'm not asking you to do anything that I wasn't asked to do not long ago when I was in a seat like yours one of the things we do at Long Hollow is we take your Christian life seriously meaning we want to help you grow as a Christian and the greatest thing the enemy whispers in your ear is you can do this alone and I'm here to tell you you can't that's why I relapsed twice and went back to drugs and I tried to do it alone so here's what I want to do I want to pray a blessing over you personally and then I want to give you a resource to help you walk the Christian life and so I'm asking you to come out and to come up here just to pray so in the back sisters just kind of come together brother I want you to come here and I'm a pray a blessing prayer over your life so would you join me in the balcony we're gonna wait for you brother if you need to grab the hand of the person next to you just make your way down praise God just come on down you're not gonna be the only one I promise It's a great Scott. Amen. Come on down. If you want to bow, you can. If you want to kneel, you can. You don't have to, it's up to you. I'm just going to kneel and pray over you. But you just come, race God. Race God, this is a big deal. Amen. It's a big deal. Amen.

Race God, thank you, brother. Race God. Amen. I'm going to ask some of our prayer teams, some of our deacons. If you want, we're going to get around. Just pray a prayer blessing over them from behind. So just make your way down, if you can, if you're on our prayer team. One of our deacons, one of our leaders, life group leaders, you can come and pray. Just going to surround these men and women with prayer. We believe God does wonderful things to prayer. And we're going to pray that you don't leave this place the same way you came in. Amen. We believe that praise God. Just come extend hands and we're going to pray over them. And if you need to come, others are still coming. Race God, still making their way down, race God. If you wanted to come and didn't, weren't able to come. Julie, we can come down here. We got rum over here. We got a few over here. Need to be prayed over, race God. Amen. Race God. Come on down, brother. Amen. Thank you, sister. Come on down. Join me as we pray.

We're going to ask the Lord's blessing. If you're seated, just extend a hand if you want. We're just going to pray for God to bless this moment. Father, we thank you for Jesus. We know there are a lot of prayers of going into this moment. And God, for some of us who are here today, you're saying this isn't the first time I've come down, but I pray God, this is the definitive time for life change, God. That today is total surrender. Total surrender, God. I'm praying for those who are here who have responded, that as they come out of darkness into light, God, that you would rearrange and change their lives for the good, that you would have them return to you. And they would leave this place not the way they came in. They would look different and think differently and act differently. God, I pray that you set them free from any bondage in their life. God, would you break all the chains in Jesus' name, God, we're praying right now. If there's an addiction holding them back, set them free in Jesus' name. If there's pain and shame from the past, maybe something they did in the past, a divorce, an abortion, a porn addiction, something immoral, sexual, that was not police. God, set them free from that guilt and shame, God. And I pray God right now that you would give them a hope in the future as they return to you and you return to them as we call into you and you respond and listen. And I pray God that you do something so amazing. And when they try to explain it to their friends and family, they say, I don't even know how to put it in human terms. We love you, Jesus. Thank you for what you're doing in our life. And we ask it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, amen.