Jesus Doesn’t Want Part of You. He Wants ALL of You.

before we believe He can use us. God, give me a bigger platform. God, give me more influence. God, give me more money. God, give me something impressive. And then I'll serve you. But maybe the question isn't, what else do I need? Maybe the question is really, what has God already given me? Listen, we're in a series that we titled out of nowhere. Today's message in that series is titled, "When God Opens Your Heart, You Open Your Life." Father, in the powerful name of Jesus, I thank You for being with us. Thank You for Your strength, Your comfort, Your majesty. I thank You, the Father that, as we're gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus, You're with us. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit that You sent to teach us, to guide us, to lead us, to even bring things back to our members. May You open our eyes and our hearts today, and may we let You in. In Jesus' name, amen. So how do you know God has really done something in somebody's heart? I'll tell you, one of the clear signs is they start opening up the rest of their life to Him as well. He changes who your life belongs to on Monday. Jesus doesn't just change what you believe on Sunday. Your home, your family, your work, your money, your plans. Everything starts coming under His Lordship.

He's what we're going to see today, or here's what we're going to see today. When God opened your heart, You opened your life. And there may not be a better picture of that in the whole Bible than a woman we meet almost out of nowhere in Acts chapter 6, or Acts chapter 16. Her name is Lydia. And the Lord opened her heart. Paul and his team have crossed in the Macedonia. This is the first time the gospel is landing in Europe, and they end up in a city called Philippi. Acts 16, verse 11 and 12. We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed straight across to the island of Samaras. And the next day we landed at Neopalas. From there we reach Philippi, a major city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there several days. Philippi was a big deal. Roman colony, Roman law, Roman pride, retired Roman soldiers live in there. But it wasn't much of a place for God's people. Jewish tradition has it that you needed at least 10 Jewish men to be able to start a synagogue. Philippi apparently couldn't come up with 10. That's how ungodly it was. So when the Sabbath comes, Paul doesn't find a synagogue. He finds a river, Acts 16, verses 13 and 14. On the Sabbath, we went a little way outside the city to a river bank, where we thought people

would be meeting for prayer. And we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there. One of them was Lydia from Thyatra, a merchant of expensive purple cloth who worship God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying. No building, no stage, no worship team, no coffee bar. When I first started coming to church, we had none of those things. We just came to church. Now if your coffee's not good, you go to another church. You don't have all the amenities that you're supposed to have. And it always messes with me something to think. I would come to church if we didn't have all this stuff and all the other stuff out there and being able to eat at church. I mean, I would still come to church. None of that moves me. We do it because we're not-- listen, I say this a lot and I just met some old people. And I wanted to tell them, you're not allowed to be old. You can get older, we can lie tonight, but we get older. But don't be old. Don't be stuck in your ways. People say something like, I don't like the worship. We're not worshiping you. We're worshiping God. It's like, what are you doing? So I'm getting older, but I'm not going to be old ever. But young families, young people, we have all the technology.

You know, when I was a kid, we didn't even have microwaves. We cooked everything. Remember those iron, iron skillets? Yeah, that's what we cooked. And I could cook some mean French toast and sausage. I'm telling you right now. That's all I could cook. And then I came home from college one day I'm like, what the heck is that? Well, you can heat up everything. So we quit cooking, some of it not all. But no building, no stage, no worship team, no coffee bar, just a few women sitting by a river praying. And that's where God starts a church. Luke tells us three things about Lydia. First, she was from Thyatra. Philippi wasn't her hometown. She had moved there, she was a transphine. How many of you have transphines here? Like I've lived here a lot of my life, so I don't know if I'm a transphine or not, but I've lived here more in my life than anywhere else. Second, she was a merchant of expensive purple cloth. In that world, purple was the color of money. It was the color of royalty. Making purple dye was expensive and hard. And the people buying it were probably people of great means. So Lydia is a business woman. She's got a business, she's got a house, she's got resources, she's doing really well.

Third, Luke says she worshiped God. She was spiritually hungry, she was seeking, she was showing up to pray, but she still didn't know Jesus. You can be successful and still be empty. And you can be religious and still be lost. You can be at the prayer meeting and still not know the savior. And then Paul sits down and starts talking to these women about Jesus, look at it again. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart and she accepted what Paul was saying. Paul spoke, Lydia listened, but the Lord opened her heart. Paul couldn't do that part and neither can we. Paul could preach, Paul could explain, Paul could tell her about the cross and the empty tomb, but only the Lord can open her heart or open a heart. Jesus said it this way in John 644, for no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me. And at the last day, I will raise them up. You know, so often in our culture today, we have popular preachers and famous preachers and Hollywood preachers and God never called us to be that. He called us to be servants. And people take credit for what God does. Well, I got this many saved, I did this. We don't get anybody saved. And we need to come back to a place where we give God all the praise and glory and honor for only he is worthy of such things.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and who is and it is to come. Only he is worthy of such praise. You know, I begin to say to people now, just as I'm reading the Bible over and over again. And I just came across the scripture that stuck out to me that when the guy talked about, I'm gonna build barns and I'm gonna build these new barns and put all my stuff in it. And God basically said, how do you know you even have tomorrow? And so I've started saying, if God's willing, I'll be here. God was willing, so we're here today. If God's willing, I'll make it home. If God's willing, I'll be okay. And so we need to come back to a place where we recognize everything put in your hands is from God himself. He's the owner. He has a cattle on a thousand heels. The earth is his footstool and he owns everything in it. And people say, he don't know me. When you die, you'll find out who the owner really is. Who the creator and the maker really is. 'Cause there's only two places to go, heaven or hell. You know, I have people tell me, oh man, when I go to hell, I'm me and Satan, we're gonna run, you know, hell, we're gonna do all this stuff and party. And I look at him like, I don't say this, but I look at him like, that's so stupid.

I guess Dom, come on. Satan doesn't own hell either. He's not in charge of hell. God is in charge. He'll have weeping and gnashing at teeth and be tormented all the days of his life. Just like anybody else who choose to go there. You don't have to go there. And can I say this as I teach this message? You don't have to be perfect either. People try to be perfect and they think, if I do good, God will do this. If I do that, God will do that. You know, you can even do bad things and God will still help you if you're moving your life towards him. None of us will ever be perfect. We all have stuff. We all sin and come short of the glory of God. And people say, I don't, well, that's only Bible. Bible says you lie to yourself if you don't think you do. God is merciful and compassionate. And we've got to keep that in our minds. And when he said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me to me, and that ought to take the load off of some of us. Because some of us put an incredible amount of pressure on ourselves when it comes to the people we love. If I can just say the right thing.

If I can just answer every question. If I can just win the argument. If I can somehow talk them into it, listen to me. You cannot open somebody's heart. You can't open your husband's heart, your wife's heart. You can't open your kid's heart. You can't open your co-worker's heart. You can point people to Jesus, but only Jesus can change a heart. First Corinthians 3, 6, I planted the seed in your hearts and Apollo's watered it. But it was God who made it grow. I'm praying today that God gives you increase in your walk with him today. Understanding in his word. Because we're watering right now. We're called to be gardeners. We plant seeds in people's heart and then we people water them. And hopefully they come to fruition. Because a lot of people don't know really know what the Bible says when it comes to these things. See, our job is to plant. Our job is to water. Our job is to pray. God's job is to open. So we need to quit trying to do God's job and just start doing ours. We share Jesus. We share the word. We plant seeds.

Then maybe someone else will come and water those seeds and say, yeah, and emphasize it. But it's God who creates the increase. You know, so much is said about judging, especially in our world today. People that aren't Christians try to tell Christians you're not allowed to judge. Only God can judge me. Can I tell you something? God has already judged humanity in some ways. Not in the last days, but in some ways. He said, this is right and this is wrong. It takes judgment. I say this a lot. People judge you all the time. People say, well, you can't judge me, but you'll judge what someone wears. Ladies are looking ladies and say, didn't they wear that last week? I mean, it's funny. Now, if you're a man and say to another man, didn't he wear that last week? Then you're not a man. Like, what the heck? You're looking at my wardrobe. Maybe, you know, 'cause how many men like, I have a pair of pants that you like the best. Come on. Yeah. You like that shirt that makes you look fine, right?

Like, baby, in this shirt, I look good. But men are funny. Men will look in the mirror and be, you know, balding, old, beer belly or belly. And look at the mirror and say, you look fine today, dude. You look good. Women look in the mirror and say, hey, do you think, does this make it look bigger? And if we're your real man, you say, baby, that looks good anyway, right? (laughing) Man, I've been gone a while, so I'm just taking my shots right now, just taking a few. See, her faith didn't stay in her heart. The Lord opens Lydia's heart. She believes, and then something starts happening. The gospel doesn't stay in Lydia's heart. It starts moving into the rest of Lydia's life. Let me finish my thought about judging. People use that scripture that says, you know, don't judge unless God judge you in the same manner. Here's what he's saying in that scripture. If you're an alcoholic telling another alcoholic not to drink, he said, man, before you pull the toothpick out of your brother's eye, pull the beam out of yours, you can't do that. In one drug addict or another drug addict, quit taking drugs, like what?

But then the Bible talks about in John that we are the vine, I mean, he's the vine, we're the branches. And every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he breaks it off and casts in the pile to be burned. But every branch that is connected to the Lord and produces fruit. So we know people by their fruit. Some of you judge, people say, well, they're good people, you judge her. But if you say they're bad people, it's like, you're not out of judge. Tell me good things, and it's not judgment, but it is a judgment. And the Lord God is telling us that you need to deal with people, you have to judge the fruit. If they have a peach tree and they're telling you they're an apple tree, something's wrong. I can look at a peach tree with peaches and say, that's a peach tree. Cherry trees, when I was a kid in Clovis, there was these families that had big cherry trees. And we would, all of our guys would get together and we'd climb that tree and start throwing the cherries out so we could eat them. And then the guy would come out and say, get out of my tree and we'd be running. But I knew they were cherries, like let's go eat cherries. Oh no, if someone said those are apples, I'm like, that's dumb. God is just saying you know them by their fruit. You can tell a person that loves God, a person that doesn't. It's evident. So when you come to Christ, he opened your heart, you opened your life, something should change. Something should. So the Lord opened Lydia's heart, she believes, and then something starts happening. The gospel doesn't stain, let his heart, and start moving to the rest of her life, Acts 16, 15. She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guest. This is what she says. This is crazy. You can tell she's a businesswoman. If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord, she said, "Come, stay at my home." And she urged us until we agreed. It's, women are the same. They have superpowers.

Yeah, see? See, the women are always braver than the men, the men like I ain't saying, "Oh, man, amen." I should remember that for the rest of my life, you know. But look how fast it moves. She believes, she gets baptized. No waiting around. No, let me think about it for a couple years. When you get born again, you should get baptized immediately. You don't have to have 20 classes or understand it all, you just obey. And if you're here today and you haven't been water baptized, get water baptized. We better water baptized after every service. You say, "Well, I didn't plan for it. Who cares?" If God has to wait for all of your plans, he gets nothing done. Sometimes we're going to be in convenience while we serve God, not for our detriment, but for our betterment. So she moves fast. It's not just Lydia, her household is baptized with her. And that's already bigger than Lydia. And what God did in her heart is already reaching the people around her. Her faith is in staying contained within her. People say, "Mean God, we've got our own thing." It's no such thing. There's no secret agent Christians. Either you are or you're not. That's what we've got to understand. You're not half Christian. Well, I'm almost a Christian. That means you're not. I'm almost believing God. Well, that means you don't. You can't almost God. You just have to believe. Well, she believed. And when God opens, your heart, you open your life to him. And one of the first places it shows up is with the people closest to you. Your family ought to be able to tell. Something happened. Your kids ought to notice. Your spouse ought to notice. The people who live under your roof ought to be the first ones to say, "Hey, something is different about her or something is different about him." And then Lydia turns to Paul and his team and says, "If you really believe, I belong to the Lord now, come stay at my house." And Luke says she urged them until they agreed. Don't you love that? She wasn't asking politely. She wasn't checking a box. She basically said, "I'm not taking no for an answer." So Paul, just like being a normal man, said, "Okay." So Paul tried to be polite, but Lydia won. Here's a woman who just met Jesus and the very first thing she does is open her front door. That's not a coincidence. That's what happened when God opens a heart. Number three, Jesus doesn't just get part of your life. I think a lot of believers, Christians, have a compartment view of their faith. They can compartmentalize their life. Okay, this is my church life, this is my work life, this is my family life, and we compartmentalize. We've got our church life, we've got our work life, our family life, our money life, our social life,

our private life, and Jesus gets the religious part. We come to church, we worship, we pray, we read our Bible, we believe in Jesus, and then we go back to everything else and live like those parts belong to us. But that's not what it means to call Jesus Lord. If Jesus is Lord, there's not one room or part in my life where I get to hang a sign on the door that says, "Keep out." Not my checkbook, not my calendar, not my phone, not my marriage, not my business, not my thought life. Jesus didn't become Lord of Lydia's religious life. He became Lord of Lydia. Saint Corinthians 5, 15, he died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ who died and was raised for them. So he's not asking for part of you. Now here's what I really like. Jesus didn't tell Lydia to stop being Lydia. Jesus didn't quit her business. She didn't sell her house. She didn't run off and try to become the apostle Paul. She just put the life she already had in the hands of Jesus. I need to say this again. God is merciful and gracious. Because we don't think that way. We think, man, I messed up, so I got to do penance. There's no scripture in the Bible that talks about penance. There's a lot of scripture in the Bible talks about repentant, to be repentant or repentance. But nothing about penance. And we think, if I do good, then God loves me. If I do bad, then somehow God's against me. That's not true. You've got to hear it, it's not true. God is merciful and compassionate. When you ask Jesus to be Lord of your life and open your heart, there's a progression in your life.

You can't just think, OK, I want my heart, so I'm going to be good. No, we've got to work things and we change them as we learn them. So when you hear the word, you should act on it immediately. Because the longer you say, keep out, know the harder your heart gets. And the Bible talks about a hardened heart that not even God can penetrate that. And the longer you say no, the more you say no to the things of God, the more your heart gets hardened to the point that it doesn't even affect you anymore. And folks, if you're not ever feeling conviction, when you read the Bible or meditate or worship, if you never feel a conviction, then something's wrong. I stand here and worship sometimes in repent before I come up here, like, dear God, I get convicted. I shouldn't have said that, shouldn't have did that, whatever. I should have been a nice to my wife when she was acting up. You know, that kind of thing. You know, tomorrow, we'll be married 41 years. And my wife was at Rio today, so I got to talk to her over the online thing, the streaming. But I said, look, it's Cynthia, after 41 years, you still get this. Come on. See, I'm a man whether it looks good or not. Doesn't matter, because men don't have to look good. We always look good. Come on, how many of men say men? Finally.

Oh, my gosh. He's not asking for a party. He wants all of you. Some of us have this idea that, for God to really use us, we have to become somebody else. I've got to be more spiritual. I have to be more gifted, more polished, more impressive. No, you don't. As we look at Lydia, she's a woman running a business. She's got a household. She's got a house. She meets Jesus. And then she says, what I have is available to you. That's called discipleship. Following Jesus isn't just asking, what does Jesus want me to do at church? It's asking Jesus, what do you want me to do with my life? What do you want me to do through my marriage? What do you want me to do through my family? What do you want me to do through my job? What do you want me to do through my home? What do you want me to do through my money? What do you want me to do through the relationships you've put around me? Because there's no part of my life that gets to live outside the lordship of Jesus. When God opens your heart, you just open your life. And then you work on things. Well, pastor, I'm working on things for a long time. That's OK.

At least you're striving towards the things of God. We'll never be perfect. This is not part. I mean, people say, well, be perfect. No, you can't be perfect. We expect our kids to be perfect, though. Like some of you-- yes, so well, some of you go get your kids from church. You'll be driving home. They'll be happy. And then you'll ask them this dreaded question. What did you learn at church? And then the kid says, I don't know, I had a great time. And then you're like, well, they're not teaching them. Tell me what you learn. But if I was asked you when you leave it today, hey, what did you learn at church? Some of you'd be like, dang, man, I slept through that. Been on my phone. I was looking up stuff on Facebook or whatever. Or I fell asleep because I'm not the cure for insomnia, by the way. But we put pressure on them. You can tell they're learning because when they walk in life, they'll say things. I've had parents come up to me. I was doing something my kid said, dad, mom, that's against the Bible. And then what do you do? You say, dang, man, they got me.

(congregation laughing) I probably shouldn't say dang, but I kind of like that word. It's kind of my word. The gospel got into the Lydia's house. Now, Acts 16 keeps going and it gets kind of wild. Paul and Silas cast out a demon of a slave girl. So here's the picture, they're walking through the city, talking about God and the slave girl who tells fortunes and tells people about their life and all that, and there's these business guys that make money off her, they own her. So she walks behind them and says, these men are the servants of the Most High God and they do this for days. Well, Paul had a temper. You can read through the Bible. He wasn't passive, he wasn't perfect. He gets ticked off and turns around and says, come out of her, you foul demon. Well, the demon leaves. Then the men get so angry because now they have no income that they take them to the officials of the town and they say these guys have ruined our business, they're preaching this funky gospel or whatever. So you know what he does? They beat 'em, throw 'em in prison. They beat 'em so bad that they throw 'em in prison, they lock 'em and change. And the Bible says at midnight,

they began to worship the Lord. And an earthquake happened and the stocks fell off and they got up and the jailer tried to kill himself and they said, don't do it, we're still here. Then he fell at their feet and said, how do I get saved? And they preached Jesus to 'em. Now I don't know about you, but if I just got beaten, thrown in jail in stocks, I'm probably not gonna lead a worship service. (congregation laughing) I'm gonna be like, oh, what happened? I'd be like, oh, I'd be like, I'm so stupid, why'd I do that? But that's what happened. And when you look at it, you just think it's kind of crazy. And God sends an earthquake again and the doors fly open, the chains fell off. And in Acts 16, 30 and 31, we pick it up, then he brought them out and asked, sirs, what must I do to be saved? They replied, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved along with everyone in your household. Before the night is over, the jailer and his whole household believe and get baptized. There it is again, another opened heart, another household chains. But then, after Paul and science get out of prison, I think this is interesting. Luke gives us one more detail

and I don't want us to miss it. Acts 16, 40, when Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more than they left town. Where did they go? Lydia's house. Who was their believers? Think about how this chapter started. Paul shows up in Philippi and can't even find a synagogue. He walks outside of town. He finds a few women praying by a river. He tells them about Jesus and one woman's heart gets opened and she opens her home. And by the end of the chapter, the church is meeting there at her home. The same house Lydia had before, she knew Jesus is now being used for the purpose of Jesus. The gospel didn't just get into Lydia's heart. The gospel got into Lydia's house and it didn't stop there. A few years later, Paul sits down and writes a letter to the church, Philippians 1-1. This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God's holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and deacons. See, we call the letter of Philippians the joy letter.

Why? Because Paul uses the word joy or a joy, so related forms of that, over 16 times in four short chapters. Paul writes it from a prison cell and it's the happiest book he ever wrote. And listen to what he says to them. Philippians 1, 3-5, 3-5, every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my request for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the good news about Jesus from the time you first heard until now. From the time you first heard it, that goes all the way back to the river bank. That goes all the way back to a woman saying yes, and changing her house and her home and her life. Philippians 4-15, as you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help. know the church did this. The only ones out of every church Paul planted, the generous one was Philippi. And where did that church start? Again, in the home of a businesswoman who opened her heart, opened her door and opened her resources. Some of us have been doing church for so long. We forget that every church starts somewhere. I'm very grateful for the people who went before me that my life changed forever. And you should be grateful. When we built this thing here, what we see here, it was about 1,400 or less people in the church. Think about it. Think about that. But they believed in God. They believed in doing something for the kingdom. And so we have this great facility. It looks funky from the outside, you know. I think it's Santa Fe when we first built it. See, they believe in Mother Earth. I'm like, no, we don't. We believe in economics. And it was cheaper to build this than a normal

church. It was not spiritual. It was like economics. Like the guy said, you'll save a million bucks. And you know, we said, yes. It's so funny to me. Well, they didn't think what they want. Legacy didn't start with a bunch of campuses. It started with a small group of people who said, God, what we have is yours. Never underestimate what God can do with an open heart and an open door. So what is already in your hand? Sometimes we're waiting on God to give us something extraordinary before we believe he can use us. God, give me a bigger platform. God, give me more influence. God, give me more money. God, give me something impressive. And then I'll serve you. Maybe the question isn't, what else do I need? Maybe the question is really, what has God already given me? When God called Moses, Moses had a list of reasons why he couldn't do it. And God asked him a simple question. Then the Lord asked him, what is in your hand, a shepherd's staff? Moses replied, a stick. Moses had a stick. And God used that stick to part the Red Sea. When Jesus fed 5,000, the disciples looked around and said this. There's a young boy in John 6'9. There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd? Most Bible scholars and theologians believe there was approximately about 20,000 people in this moment. About 20,000. When you, because there was 5,000 men so you think of wives, kids. So they said, what good is that? Put it in the hands of Jesus and you'll find out. Lydia had a house. She opened her house. She had resources. So her resources became available. She had relationships. So her household heard about them about Jesus. So she surrendered what she already had. The point isn't how much Lydia had. The point is what Lydia had was available to Jesus. You may not have Lydia's house. You may not have her business. You may not have her money. But you have something. And Jesus isn't asking you to surrender what somebody else has. He's asking whether what you have is available to him. Maybe what God wants to use is already sitting in your hands. Your home, your business, your truck. So funny. Only in the Mexico where we say truck in Texas probably. Oklahoma. Your dinner table, your paycheck. That truck can help somebody move. That dinner table can feed a family going through a hard time. That paycheck can build something that outlives you. Ordinary things become incredibly significant when they're surrendered to the Lord God Almighty. There's nothing flashy about Lydia's story. No miracle at the river. No earthquake. No angel. Just a woman whose heart was opened by the Lord and who responded by opening her life to him. And look what Jesus did with it. Think about this. Maybe we've made being used by God way more complicated than it needs to be. You don't have to be famous.

You don't have to have a platform. You don't need a title. You don't have to become somebody else. You just have to make what you have available to him. Because that's what lordship means. Jesus doesn't want one hour of your Sunday. He doesn't want one compartment of your life. He wants you. All of you. The good, the bad, the ugly, the pretty, the nice things. He wants all of you. And when you get saved, don't you think he knows you? Don't you think God knows us? He created us. He knows everything. He says he knows the number of hairs on your head. Which is easily, easily counted with some of us. He knows everything. And he still wants you to be part of his family. That's incredible. Because I know some Christians that I wouldn't want to be part of any family. (audience laughs) Thank God God's God and we're not. Thank God. Thank God that he is. (audience applauds) He wants all of you. He wants what you have. Everything you have becomes his. Your family, your work, your plan, your future. Your ordinary Tuesday afternoon, all of it. So Lydia's story leaves us with one simple question. What part of your life have you not opened to the Lord? What room still has the keep-out sign on the door? Maybe it's your money, maybe it's your marriage, maybe it's your schedule, maybe it's a habit nobody knows about? Because if he is Lord, he doesn't just want the religious part, he wants all of us.

And maybe you're here today and you're a lot like Lydia by that river. You believe in God, you show up, you pray. But you've never actually opened your heart to him, to Jesus. So today can be that day. The same Lord that opened Lydia's heart can open ours. And for some of you, he's been dealing with you the whole service. He's felt the presence of God. You know, I told a guest I have with me today that that favorite part of my service is the prayer time. I just get moved by it. I never, it never gets old to me how the house of God should be called the house of prayer and that we pray. We believe God because prayer means something and God hears us and he wants to answer us. We just have to give him us, all of us. Every compartment, I'm hiding this from God because it's so bad. He wants to move in there too. Some of you here today and you've walked with the Lord, but you've walked away. You've said, maybe I'm not good enough or I've messed up too much. I hurt this person or that thing. You think all those thoughts and somehow you think God doesn't want you anymore. That's a lie.

God has never stopped reaching out to us, to humanity. People say all the time, "We're all God's children." No, we're all God's creation, but we're not all His children. If you want to be a child of God, He sent Himself. Jesus was all God and all man. And He sent them first to the house of Israel and then to us, the Gentiles. That's why, well, I'm not going to go that way. Maybe you're here and you've never asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life. I don't even know. I don't understand. It's not what I'm used to. And you're ready to say yes. He's opened your heart and you're ready to respond. If that's you with every head bad, just for the next few moments, you say, "Preacher, that's me." Would you pray with me? Would you include me in your prayer? And the answer is, I'd love to. I love the honor and privilege of praying with you that you can ask Jesus to be Lord of your life 'cause we don't get anybody saved. It's only God that can save a human heart and mind. If that's you and Jesus' name right where you've seated, I'm going to ask you to do this one simple thing. It's just simple. It's not hard. I want to know what I'm praying with

and I want you to be able to say, "God, I just want you in my life." Whatever that means, I just need you in my life. If that's you right where you're seated in the powerful name of Jesus, are you ready? With no hesitation, just say yes. Would you just lift your hand all this way? You can put it up, put it down. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you. Man, tons of people, God bless you. God, I want you in this family, God bless you. God bless you, thank you. I'm just looking around, people just living up in your hand and putting them down. Thank you, God bless you. Thank you. Father, in the powerful name of Jesus, you see all these hands today. And Father, you love us. Thank you for loving us. In our best moments and our worst, thank you for never giving up on any of us, that you love us. And Father, as people open their hearts to you, as you open their hearts, may they let you in. Bless each one in Jesus' name.

If you lifted your hand, I want you to pray this prayer aloud with me right where you're seated. I want everybody in this room to pray with us. Let me introduce you to Jesus. I can't do anything on a God can. But I can surely do that way. Would you pray this with me loud, loud enough for your ears to hear your voice? The Bible says, "We believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths." Would you pray this with me? Would you pray God? I choose to believe that Jesus is your only son. And you raised him from the dead to give me a new life. Today, I believe that in my heart. And now I willingly confess with my mouth, Jesus, be Lord of my life. Thank you for being with me, for helping me, always, in Jesus' name.