Keep Doing Good | Jud Wilhite

Well, hey, we want to give a huge shout out to all of the men and women that are joining us in prison facilities with our partnership with God Behind Bars and the Pando app. Yes, let's shout them out. And right before we go into the message, make sure to go on the central app, go to the dashboard and check out our teaching notes to follow along. And we just want to give a huge shout out and we want to welcome up Pastor Judd as he delivers an amazing message. (audience cheering) All right, welcome everybody. Nice to see you today. Man. So glad that you're here. I want to say a big shout out to our central family locations. Let's welcome central Summerline and Aleante, Kingman and Sunrise Mountain. Good to have you guys here with us today. Hey, so a friend of mine sent me a text recently and it said, bro, pray for me. I'm tired. And I immediately knew what he was talking about. How many of you know what he's talking about right there? Yes, absolutely. And I'm like, yeah, man, I'm praying for you. I know, I know you're tired. Now, we can be tired for a lot of reasons, right? Some of you may be tired because you don't sleep that much.

Anybody in that phase of life where you just don't sleep that much anymore, you know what I'm saying? Some of you are too young to be raising your hand, by the way, like, I still sleep pretty good. I do good. I put my, like, Denmark sea waves on my white noise thing and I'm sort of like, shump them out. But my wife, man, she's not at that phase of life right now, man. It's like sleep is a really hard thing. And so she's waking up all the time. And so every morning, you know, we have the same conversation. I say, how'd you sleep? And then she tells me all about it, right? I got up this many times. I read my book this many times. I went through. Now she's got a sleep tracker and it will, like, give her not only, like, all the metrics on her sleep, it gives her a score, you know, like, this is your, this is your score. I'm like, I don't ever want a score on my sleep. I'm afraid I get, like, a D minus in sleep, you know, like, I don't even want to know. Anyway, that's, you might be tired because it's just sometimes hard to sleep through the night or you could be tired just because of all the things coming out you in life, you know, work pressure, family pressure, life pressure, dishes, laundry, chores, kids, kids, kids, kids, kids, school, kids, right?

It's a lot, it's a lot coming at us. And I think a lot of times we feel that text, bro, pray for me. Brother is tired. I'm out here, but I'm tired. And I think we all know what that is. You know, the Galatian Christians, I think they were tired, too, for a lot of reasons. Not only did they have all the pressures of, like, life and things coming at them, but they also had gotten into this whole kind of religious performance thing where they were trying to jump through all the right hoops and kind of obey every law that they could and be as good as they could because they kind of started to fall into this false belief that, like, their salvation came through faith in Jesus and it was a gift from God, but then it was up to them to complete it. And that's a big theme in the letter of Galatians. Paul's like, no, no, no, it's not for you to complete it. Jesus completes it, right? He does it in you and through you. Yes, you partner with God. Yes, you try, but it's not up to you. Jesus accomplishes it all. And so when he gets to the end of Galatians, chapter six, there's this little verse tucked away that I've always found to be so powerful and it really challenges us, especially in seasons when we might be tired and worn out to keep going

and to not give up. So check this out, Galatians, chapter six, verse nine. I'm gonna read this, help me out when we get to the red word. If you'll read that out loud with me. Paul says this, so let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of what? Blessing if we don't give up. If we don't give up. How many of you would like a harvest of blessing? Come on, man. Somebody's like, I don't even know what that is, but I want it, it sounds awesome. Bring me the harvest of blessing, right? I will receive it, I take it. Paul's like, this is the criteria for receiving a harvest of blessing. Two things, keep doing good and don't give up. Keep doing good and don't give up. And he acknowledges that we're often tired. So he says, don't get tired of doing good and don't give up in the process. The other way we could word it is this way, don't break faith before you break through. Can I tell you there's somebody today, you're right on the edge of a breakthrough. You have been praying, you have been pleading, you've been asking God to move and work in some way in your life, you've been holding on, you've been living in faith.

And right now you're so tired and you're so worn out, you're about to give up and you are about to quit. You're about to stop right before your breakthrough. You don't reap a harvest. You gotta keep going and keep pushing. Let's put our hands together 'cause somebody's here today and they need to be reminded. Don't give up, don't quit. You're not dead yet, you're not done yet. God still has a mission and a vision over you and over your life. You gotta keep going and keep pushing through. And I wanna share with you three simple things that we can rely on that can help us keep going when we're tired. The first thing is this, we gotta rely on Christ. We gotta rely on Christ. Have you noticed that there are people that when they pack to go on a trip or a flight, they pack like heavy, right? And then there are other people that pack light. You guys feel me here? And you know what usually happens is those two people fall in love. I can tell you like, like going to the airport. Am I right? Come on, somebody, am I telling it? Yes, I'm going to the airport and I got my suitcase and I'm rollin' along. And this has happened multiple times

where we're right up to where you put the suitcase on the scale and then my wife will go, hey, hey, judge, hang on, hang on. I need to move some stuff from my suitcase to your suitcase. And I'm like, what? She's like, 'cause I'm over the weight limit. Like she's dialed it in to the touch. She's got these spidey senses now that's like, oh man, I'm over there. In fact, once I remember like, like we put the suitcase on the thing and it was like 54 pounds. And they're like, that's going to be Lori's like, hold on, grab that thing, pulls it off. There's 400 people behind us in line. Bam, she opens the whole suitcase. There it all is, all the things. She's pullin' things out, throwin' 'em at me. Put this in yours, put it in yours. Stick it in yours. She puts it back up there, 49 pounds. Thank you very much, you know, like. (audience applauds) Wow. She has that, she's got it dialed in. Which, you know, like, there's a weight limit to what you can carry on in your bag flying. And I think there's a weight limit to what we can carry in our lives,

emotionally and spiritually. And some of us are over the weight limit. Some of our weight is too heavy. In fact, some of you, I would say you're tired, not because you're busy. 'Cause I can tell you like, when I was younger, I used to feel like, man, wanna be amazing when I have more free time. And you know what, as I've gotten older, I'm like, yeah, no, free time scares me. I think I'm gonna get bored out of my mind. You know what I mean? Like, I don't mind bein' busy. But here's the thing. It's not the pace of what's coming at some of you. It's the weight you're tryin' to carry at the pace you're tryin' to run. It's not that you're busy, it's that you're weighted. And that weight is incredibly heavy. And you're carrying some of you weight that I don't believe God calls you to carry. You're carryin' weight for things you can't. Bicks or handle on your own. You're carryin' weight for things that you can't even do anything about. You're carryin' weight that I think Jesus wants to take off of your shoulders, because listen friends, and I say this in love, there is a God, and you're not him. (congregation applauds)

Right? That's so one of my favorite verses, Matthew chapter 11, 28, so powerful. Let's look at this verse together. Jesus is speaking here, and here's what he says, come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens. He says, and I will give you rest. Jesus can give you rest today. Do you see that? He says, take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart. We'll come back to that. And you will find rest for your souls. Where my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is what, light. The burden I give you is light. Now there's a lot here. First of all, Jesus is saying, listen, come to me if you have heavy burdens. He says, I'll give you rest. He says, take my yoke upon you. That's like an agricultural kind of farming analogy. And so they would take an ox, and an ox would have a thing around its neck, a yoke, and it would allow them to carry a cart or a plow behind them. And you would never just put more yokes on the back of an ox, you would take the old one off, and you would put a new one on. And Jesus says, you've got to take that yoke off that you've been carrying, and then you've

got to put a new yoke on. And He says, take the yoke I give you. Now rabbis and teachers would use this language of take my yoke upon you to talk about follow my teaching. That was sort of the meaning. Follow what I'm saying to you. So we come to Jesus for rest, but don't miss this. We exchange the yoke we've been carrying, the weight we've been carrying, for the weight Jesus offers us. And so what's the criteria to receive Jesus' yoke? Well, are you weary? He says, come to me. "I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you." And so you got to take the old yoke off. You know what the old yoke says? It's all up to me. That old teaching says, "I got, if it's going to be, it's up to me. I got to make things happen. I got to get it done. I'm on my own. I'm out here. I'm alone. I got to work harder. I got to jump through all the hoops." That's the old yoke. Jesus says, "Take my teaching. Take my yoke. Put it on." You put on the teaching of Jesus, which says, "You're already loved. You're already valued. That God is listening. That He will help you. That He has good plans for you. That He sees what's ahead. That He's preparing you. He's supplying you. You're not alone. You have His presence. You have His Spirit. Your failures are not final. This life is not all there is. You're chosen and called and equipped and God has prepared good things and it bans for you to do that not only refresh you, it will help you refresh others. Somebody put your hands together if you're grateful that God has a different teaching for your life. Look, Jesus says, "I'm gentle and I'm humble at heart." It's the only time in the New Testament where Jesus tells us the characteristics of His heart. Like, "Who am I?" Jesus says it in His own words. And He chooses two very interesting words, right? "Gentle and humble." Right? Not angry, not enraged, not on a tirade, not exploding, right? "Gentle and humble." He says, "That's who I am." And so we take on the burden. Listen, you don't have to care. We take on Jesus' burden and we share the burden with Him. You don't have to carry the burden of providing for yourself and for your family alone. Men, let me say that again. You do not have to carry the burden

of providing for yourself and for your family alone because God is also your provider. And women too, but this is a deal for men. Listen, you don't have to carry the burden of solving every problem and issue alone because God is your helper. You don't have to figure out every detail of your future alone because God is your shepherd. He's going ahead of you. Listen, you don't have to figure out how to fight back against those who are making life hard for you because God is your defender. You don't have to find a way to make up for every mistake because God is your forgiver. Look, you don't have to lead the perfect moral life because God is your Savior. You don't have to discover and fight for every opportunity because God is your leader. You don't have to carry the heavy burdens that are on your shoulders alone because Jesus is not only strong and powerful. He is gentle and humble and He can give you rest for your soul. Don't break faith before you break through. You've got to rely on Christ. Trust Him every day and realize He is with you. You are not alone. If you want to keep going, another thing you can do is then rely on each other. Rely on each other. How many of you would say you're an extrovert? Extroverts. You're like, you just love people. You could talk to anybody. Man, extroverts, I'm not even going to ask the introverts. They won't raise their hand. They'll be like, "Yeah." You know. I had this flight recently a few weeks ago. One of our best friends was getting married. We were so excited for her and Loria had already gone. I was in Nashville. She'd already gone to Nashville. She had spent a few days helping her get ready for the wedding. So I was going to fly in on Friday, first flight out, dark early Friday morning, leave the house at 4.30 a.m. First Southwest flight I could get to Nashville. And then as soon as I got there, I go straight to the hotel change, boom, straight to the wedding, see the wedding, and then literally about 4.00 a.m., Nashville time, back to the airport, back here because we had services Saturday night. So quick trip, right? And I get on and think, "I'm going to get all this work done. I'm going to make progress. I'm going to knock things out. I don't even put some things off. I'm going to have that flight. I'll be able to get it done." Because when I get on a flight, I don't really want to talk to people. Anybody feel me here? Those people that are just like, "Hey, man, look, I don't know you. I don't know you before. God bless you. I'm not going to know you after." I'm just putting my headphones on. I'm trying to get work done. Anybody else like that? Sorry if I just defended you. But some of us are just, it's not personal. We're just like, "I'm in the zone." I get on. I put my headphones on. I sit down,

and here comes this mom, this lady. She comes on the plane and she says, "Oh, I'm in this seat next to you." I'm like, "Okay." I could tell almost immediately that this lady was not like every other person. She was like a tornado coming down the aisle. sits down, and then the talking begins. For four and a half hours, she barely took a breath. I mean, I learned about her family, her husband's businesses, all the things they got going on in Nashville, all the stuff that's happening. I mean, did Lindsay Clancy do it or not? I know all the details. I know the gossip from the people that lived in that town, supposedly. Every speculative narrative you could imagine, I got it all for four and a half hours. Now she's a lovely person, right, but I just finally gave up and sat back, like just surrender. Maybe the Lord has a plan here. I am surrendered. We said goodbye. I did the wedding, bam, the next morning I'm there, and would you believe she was on the same flight? I'll catch you now. No joke, the same flight, Southwest, one row in front of me, I'm like, I'm good. Soon as she sat down, she turns to the person next to her, and she says, would you be willing to trade seats with him? She's a hurricane, and what are you saying to this lady? Everybody said the same thing to her. Sure. Yeah. Okay. No problem. Four and a half more hours of conversation. Lord Jesus, help me. Have mercy.

I mean, some of us are just wired that way. She was a lovely person. She just had a lot of words, you know, and some of us are wired as quiet people, and it's really hard to interact with other people, and some of us that find it really easy to interact with other people, find it really hard to interact with other people about deeper things in our lives. And so Paul is going to challenge us. You want to keep going in the faith journey. You've got to not only rely on Christ, you've got to keep relying on each other. Look at this. Galatians chapter 6 verse 2, "Share each others," what? And in this way, you obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Thank you, Paul. Serve it up a little humble pie. Right? Paul is like, if you think you're too good to help somebody, think again. Because sometimes we all need to give help, and sometimes we all need to receive help. That's really what the church community, I think, is so important as a community that comes around each other and supports one another and helps one another. Now it's interesting that Paul uses this word when he talks about burdens. And the word in the original Greek language is really a word that refers to like a very large, like, supersized burden. Like some of you are carrying supersized burdens. It could be health-related, family-related. It could be generational, something that you carry, that you have carried. It could be related to where you're at right now. I feel like every week I pray with people that are trying to find work or people that are dealing with issues with their kids or people that are just trying to survive and

get through the next month. You have a supersized burden. Sometimes our temptation with a supersized burden is to carry it ourself, right? To think, "I can't share it. I got to hold it in." And there's some men in the room. You don't share it with your girlfriend. You don't share it with your wife. You don't share it with your family because you think that part of your responsibility as a man is to be able to carry the supersized burden. But you can't carry a supersized burden by yourself for long without it eventually crushing you. And so what do you do with a supersized burden? Well, with a supersized burden, you've got to share the weight. You've got to share the weight. You've got to invite somebody in. You've got to ask somebody to. And here it could be as simple as this. Like my friend's text, "Bro, pray for me, man. I'm carrying a heavy weight." Even that, like you've opened the door for somebody to help share that weight, right? Give me some insight, some advice. Or sometimes we just need somebody to listen because the weight feels so heavy. And so that's where the church is, that's what we're supposed to do. Share each other's burdens. Pray for each other. Support one another. One other thing, when you come to church and we tell people, "Hey, if you need prayer in your life, raise your hand." Some of you are dying, but you won't raise your hand.

Can I just tell you, like, humble yourself next week and put your hand up in the air and say, "Somebody, pray for me." You'll feel so much better. Can I tell you, I've had moments just because I'm the pastor. Pray for a brother. I need it. We all need it, right? Share the burden. Share the weight. Now, later he uses another word for burden. And the word he uses there refers to more of like a normal size burden. Can I just say that like, we all carry burdens. Life is hard. It's hard for all of us. You know, we all go through difficult stuff. We all get challenges. We all have things. We live in a fallen, broken, simple world. You know, we all carry normal size burdens. And what do we do with normal size burdens? Well, we bear the weight with the help of God, right? With super-sized burdens, we share the weight with one another, and we help each other carry it. With normal-sized burdens, we bear the weight courageously with the help of God, right? The problem is, as I see it, some people with super-sized burdens, they don't ever share the weight with anybody else. They just keep carrying it. And some people with normal-sized burdens,

they don't share the burden with God and with a trusted friend. Instead, they start sharing the burden with everybody. But God, they're venting, they're complaining, they're frustrated. You work with this person. Hello. You know what I mean? They're sharing. And it's like, before you go sharing your normal-sized burdens with everybody else, my question is, have you shared it with God? Have you prayed about it? Have you asked God to help you and give you strength? Have you invited somebody else in? So share each other's burdens. It can change your life. I know in my own life. You know, I've had these moments in the lobby recently. It's been kind of funny at Central, where people will walk in, and they will see me. And maybe one couple had been gone for like 20 years. They had moved away, and they were just back visiting. Another lady came in, and she had just kind of not been to church in like 20 years that she walked in. And they both said basically the same thing. They said, ah, you're still here? No lie. I'm like, it just keeps happening. And I'm like, what is happening right here?

You're still here. And I'm saying, you're still here. I'm like, yeah, I'm kind of like the wallpaper man. Still here. But I was thinking about it today. You know, the only reason I'm still here and loving it is because of the amazing community in this church that has prayed for me, and carried me, and helped me. And helped me keep going when I wanted to quit. I can remember my early year, my first year. It was rough. Anytime there's like a senior pastor, leadership transition in a church, it can be rough, or at least maybe not for attendees, but rough behind the scenes, right? You know, and I remember I was taking all this criticism, people were questioning everything. And I remember I wanted to give up. I wanted to quit. I just thought this. I'd already told Lori, don't unpack all the boxes, right? The first year, we just left them in the garage in case we were moving on. And at this point, I'm like, that was a good decision. That's what I was thinking at that moment. And I went to my office, and I sat down on the floor, and I was just like, man, can I even do this? And I saw I had a message on my phone. This was a long time ago, because you had like actual, like hard, wired phones, and the little red light blink. You have a message.

Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. That's OK. Listen to an old man for a minute. You know, I hit my messages on speaker, right? I'm sitting on the floor. And it's a friend of mine in the church who just knows kind of enough to know what I'm going through. And he just leaves me the most encouraging word. And he says, man, Judd, don't give up. We believe in you. We love you. We pray for you. You're making great decisions. God's hands on you. You keep going. You don't give up. And I was basically in the fetal position, balling my eyes out. But that gave me the strength that day to keep going. Can I just tell you, like, people need encouragement? Don't underestimate it. People you're sitting around, the people you see in the hallway, people you see in the parking lot, people need encouragement. Man, when you pick your kids up today at church, maybe you just tell the volunteer, hey, thank you. You're doing a great job. You don't know, maybe nobody's told that volunteer, thank you all week long, right? You see somebody that you know in the community, hey, man, can I just tell you I appreciate this about you?

Keep going. You're doing a great job. That's one of the ways we share each other's burdens. We speak hope and life and encouragement into each other. Like we got to, let's keep going. Don't give up. Let's get better. Let's keep going. Let's keep running. Like God has his hand on you. So sometimes it's a prayer. Can I pray for you? And we pray for one another. Sometimes it's an encouragement and a word of encouragement. Paul goes on in Galatians 6 to talk about a brother or a sister in the faith who's kind of lost their way. Maybe they've dropped out of church. Maybe they've dropped out of your group. Maybe they've just gotten into some destructive things. Maybe they've slid into the party scene. Maybe you just see it kind of go sideways. Maybe an addiction's got a hold of them. And they're kind of lost their way. And he basically says, look, one of the ways you-- If you have a relationship with that person, is you try to bring them back on the path. You have reached out to them. And if you have a relationship, you'd sit down with them and you try to bring them back on to the path. It's how we share burdens with one another.

Friend of mine was, I was listening to him on a podcast. He's a pastor and he was talking about before he became a father of Jesus. I thought this was so powerful. He was basically in a situation in his life where he kind of come to the end of himself. He was exhausted and tired. And he said he sat down in his apartment on the floor, leaning up against the couch with a shotgun in his lap and a bottle of whiskey. And he was trying to drink enough to unalive himself. And he said, in the midst of all of this, as he's sitting there and he's been drinking and trying to get up the courage to do this, like his hairdresser, who I guess cuts his hair at his apartment, like showed up and knocked on the door and ends up peeking in and sees him sitting on the floor with a shotgun in his lap. And with an empty bottle of whiskey beside him. And he said, she walked in, she walked over to me. She sat down beside me and she held my hand. And she didn't say anything. And he said it was the power of her presence that kept me alive another day until the Holy Spirit ultimately got a hold of my heart and I surrendered my life to Jesus. Can I just tell you that sometimes it's just the power of your presence that people need even more than your words or your great coaching or your brilliant insight

or how they need to fix things in their life. Sometimes they just need you to show up and just sit beside them. And in doing that, you're sharing the burden. You're sharing the burden. So we gotta rely on Christ, we gotta rely on each other and then we gotta rely on God's timing. Look at what Paul says in Galatians 6 verse seven, check this out, he says, "Don't be misled. "You cannot mock the justice of God. "You will always harvest what you plant. "Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature "will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature." This is a theme in Galatians. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. Let's go to the next slide. So let's not get tired of doing what is good. Here's our verse at just the right time. We will reap a what a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. So Paul uses sewing and reaping language here to challenge us, to keep planting the right things in our life, keep planting the right things for others. It's like if you plant tomatoes and you're a farmer, you're gonna get what? Tomatoes, right? If you plant beans, you're gonna get beans. And I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but if you plant hate, don't be surprised

if you grow hate in your life. If you plant rage, don't be surprised if you don't start growing that in your life. It's not karma, it's not the secret. It is the law of sewing and reaping, the biblical principle. But if you plant love, you're gonna grow love in your life. If you plant joy, you're gonna grow joyful things in your life. If you plant truth and kindness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control, you're gonna grow those things in your life. You're gonna reap what you sow. You'll reap back what you sow. And so Paul is saying, keep doing good. Keep planting good things in your life. Listen, keep praying for your friends and neighbors. Keep showing up at church. Keep, if you're in a rooted group, keep showing up at rooted. If you're in celebrate recovery, keep showing up at celebrate recovery. If you're in student ministry, keep showing up at student ministry. If you're a young adult, keep showing up at young adult gatherings, like keep showing up, keep doing good, keep planting roots, serve others, keep giving financially, keep reading your Bible, keep praying,

keep praying for others, keep walking with others, keep sharing your burdens, like do it together, do it in community. Don't give up because if you don't give up, you will reap a harvest, he says, a blessing. It's just the right time. Turn to somebody next to you and just say, hey, don't quit. Don't quit, listen, listen to this. Don't quit because it's tough. Don't quit because you can't see a way out. Don't quit because you can't see the dream anymore. Don't quit because you don't feel like you're enough. Don't quit when you feel like you're not talented enough. Don't quit when you feel like you don't have what it takes. Don't quit when it feels like the system is rigged. Don't quit when others get promoted over you. Don't quit when others seem to be so much happier than you. They're not. Don't quit when it hurts. Don't quit when it's hard. Don't quit when you fail. Don't quit when it's unlikely, unpopular, or impossible. Don't quit doing good because it's just the right time you will receive a harvest of blessing. And can I just say it today, friends, as a church, we won't quit. (congregation applauding) As a church, we won't quit. Look, we're not gonna quit loving our neighbors. We're not gonna quit inviting friends to church.

We're not gonna quit praying for people who are going through things in their life. We're not gonna quit on those who are running from God. We're not gonna quit serving food to people who are hungry in our community. We're not gonna quit providing Christmas for thousands of kids every year. We're not gonna quit giving generously and sacrificially so the church can meet the needs in the community. We're not gonna quit. We're not gonna quit. Will we get tired? Absolutely. Will we send text messages to our pastor? Hey, bro, pray for me. I'm tired, absolutely. But you know what we're gonna do? When we're tired, we're gonna rely on Christ. And when we're tired, we're gonna rely on each other. And when we're tired, we're gonna trust and rely on God's timing. That if I just keep going at the right time, at the right time, I'll reap a harvest of blessing. In fact, I think for some of us, we're gonna get to the end of our lives and there's gonna be a phrase spoken about us. And that's this phrase, and they kept going. Life got difficult and they kept going. People took shots at them and they kept going. It seemed like there was no way out and they kept going.

It seemed like they weren't sure how they were gonna... You see, my God was taking too long. They kept going. It seemed like God wasn't moving. They kept going. The obstacles seemed overwhelming and they kept going. And at just the right time, they received a harvest of blessing. And my prayer is that harvest of blessing for you will leave a generational impact. And it will reap fruit for many, many, many years to come. What's the qualification, he says? Do good and don't quit. Do good and don't quit. Friend of mine was telling me about a pastor we all love and respect who's been in ministry like as long as Moses. (congregation laughing) And he said, he called him, he picked up the phone and he said, "Hey, what are you doing?" And this friend of mine who's a little younger said, "Man, I'm trying to be like you." And I loved his response. He said, "Oh, I didn't do anything, man. "I just didn't quit." That's all. I just didn't quit. Still here, right? And you're still here and God's still here. Lean into him and rely on him.

Don't break faith now. You could be right on the edge of your breakthrough. Maybe you're here, maybe you've never crossed that line of faith, I want to give you that opportunity to reach out to God, to trust him in your life and receive his hope and his salvation. So it all of you bow your heads and close your eyes. And if you'd like to become a follower of Jesus, you could begin that journey by repeating this prayer after me as just a way of opening your heart and your mind to him. Just say, dear God, I thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus into the world. I believe he died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me for my sins. Give me the gift of eternal life. And help me face the challenges that I'm up against. God, I surrender my life to you in Christ's name. Friends, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that's your prayer, if it's your commitment today, I want to ask you to just slip your hand in the air. Just acknowledge at Summerland, at Alliante, Kingman and Sunrise, if you're watching online, if you're watching from a prison facility and our partnership with God Behind Bars, just acknowledge you're going to trust him. You're going to follow him. You're surrendered to him today. And God, I pray for each person reaching out to you

that you move powerfully in their life, that you call them home, that you fill them with your spirit, that you give them the gift of forgiveness and purpose and guidance every day as they follow you. We commit them to you now. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. (congregation applauding) Hey, if you made a spiritual commitment, I'm going to ask you to remain seated for just a moment. If you made a spiritual commitment, listen right after service, we'd love to connect with you. We'd love to know how we can pray for you. We'd also love to give you a resource called How to Follow Jesus. And so I've got some amazing volunteers down here on my left and to my right. If you raise your hand, I want to ask you to take another step and just come on down front and talk to one of these individuals in just a moment after service is over.