Lies, Deception and Favoritism

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Oh, good morning, Cross Church. Let's stand up all over the room as we get ready to worship today. Hey, I'm so glad that you're in church today. Today's a good day to bless the Lord. Whether you're in the room, in Overflow, online, it's a good day to pray to Jesus, am I right? So let's sing out to Him and sing His praise today. Come on. ♪ I believe in one salvation, one doorway that leads to life, one redemption, one confession. I believe in the name of Jesus Christ. Only one name we believe in today, come on. I believe in the crucifixion. ♪ I believe in the crucifixion, by His blood I have been set free. I believe in the resurrection, hallelujah, His life is death free. Come on, all praise. All praise to God the Father, and all praise to Christ the Son. All praise to the Holy Spirit, our God has overcome. The King who was and is, evermore will be. In Jesus' mighty name, I believe. Oh, we believe, yeah, yeah, in the mighty name of Jesus, oh. Come on, I believe in the hope of heaven. I believe in the hope of heaven, He's preparing a place for me. Far beyond what hearts imagine, ears have heard, the eyes have seen. I believe that a day is coming, He's returning to claim His pride. Light the altar, keep it burning, see the lamb who roars,

see the lamb who roars, we know He's dead. All praise to God the Father, and all praise to Christ the Son. All praise to the Holy Spirit, our God has overcome. The King who was and is, evermore will be. In Jesus' mighty name, I believe. And the only name that saves, it's the name of Jesus, the name of our Savior. Come on, church. And no one will ever be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How could I ever walk away from the One who saved my life? And no one will ever be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How could I ever walk away from the One who saved my life? And no one will ever be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How could I ever walk away from the One who saved my life? Come on, every voice, all praise. All praise to God the Father, all praise to Christ the Son. All praise to the Holy Spirit, and our God has overcome. The King who was and is, evermore will be. In Jesus' mighty name, I believe. Come on, all praise. All praise to God the Father, and all praise to Christ the Son. All praise to the Holy Spirit, our God has overcome. The King who was and is, evermore will be. ♪ In Jesus' mighty name, hallelujah ♪ ♪ In Jesus' mighty name, hallelujah ♪ ♪ We believe today in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ The name that saves, he has power in his name ♪ Come on church, let's celebrate that mighty name in this place. He's worthy of all honor. ♪♪

All right, well good morning everybody. Great to have all of you here in the room at Springdale. I wanna welcome all of our campuses right now. We told you we're gonna do this a little bit more this year of all joining together via technology. And we're calling these One Church Days where we look beyond just that we're a part of one campus and we really look at collectively the church and we just remind ourselves we're one church making a difference right here in Northwest Arkansas, America, and the world. So thanks for being here today. And what an incredible Sunday we had last Sunday. Let me give you some updates if you have not yet heard this. Last Sunday we began our Highway 62 campus down in the city of Farmington. And here's, let's praise the Lord together. We had over 1,200 people show up at our first Sunday. Praise the Lord for that. And last week at all of our campuses, we did a special day where we shared a clear gospel presentation at all four of them. And crazy, crazy move of God. We had over 300 people make a profession of faith that they trusted Christ last Sunday. So praise the Lord. Thank you. Thanks for inviting people.

And we're looking forward to what God's gonna do in your own heart today. Let me address one thing right off the bat. Why am I sitting down? It's kind of odd that I am sitting down. Yesterday, I threw my back out. This has never happened to me before. You may call it old age. I might agree with you, okay? I did tell me this last week. I said, I think I rolled my ankle in my sleep. So this is just like a continuing, it's a continuing pattern right here. I wish that I could tell you I was doing something like super athletic or like picking up rocks and throwing them in my yard. I was, it's ironic if you were at Crushers Together, I was actually cleaning out the ash from my fireplace. And I had like the broom and the little thing. And I was sweeping and just hit it in the wrong way. And I, my back just locked up and I went down to all fours. And I told our young, I was like, Maya, get mom. And I'm just on all fours in my office. And so it was, if that's ever happened to you, it's horrible. I am much better today than I was yesterday. I laid on the couch for the rest of the day, laid on the floor to try to get relief. So I'm working with my chiropractor who was out of town.

My family doctor is a member of the church. And so I text him like, hey, what advice would you give me? He said, well, I can give you a steroid. Like I can call you in a steroid like prescription. And so Meredith went and got that. And so it was like 5.30 last night. And he was like, hey, you know, you may have some insomnia, but this is the best, his words were, this is the best gun I can shoot to get you through tomorrow. I said, okay, I will do it. And so the first dose, six pills at one time, I said, do you want me to space this out? No, take it all right now. And so I took it all right now or at that point last night. And so I slept real good till 2.30 a.m. And then beyond that, it was a little different. But I say all that just to say, it's a great day to be at church. I'm on roids, I've not slept a lot. And you have no idea what I'm about to say. Nor do I, nor do I. So I'm glad you're here. I do, I would say like, I genuinely appreciate your prayers. I think some of this is old age and I'm ready for all the old age text, in between services, bring them on. But I would tell you too, the spiritual warfare in the weird things

that my family deals with on Saturday. And what I would say on a historic week in the life of our church, so, you know, we're still gonna preach, so take that, Satan. Let's go. Okay? Genesis chapter 27 is where we're gonna be today. If you've got a Bible and you've got your journal, why don't you turn there with me? Two weeks ago when we had to cancel church, we began a new series that I gave online. It's really gonna be a nine-week series on the family through the lens of the biblical family known as Isaac and Rebekah and their two sons, Jacob and Esau. We're calling this One Big Happy Family, which is a total play on words. This is anything but one big happy family. This family's crazy. They're jacked up, they're dysfunctional, and yet God ultimately sends Jesus through their line. Think about that. So like, there's hope for you and your family and me and my family, because God still used this family, and it's really a big deal. So week one, we talked about how manipulation can happen in a family and how that really is a tragic thing. You had Jacob who took advantage of his brother Esau, completely manipulated the situation for his own good, had him sell his birthright to him today. His mother Rebekah will join Jacob in that deception. So here's the title of our message today, and I actually wrote the title before I was on drugs, okay? Here's what it is, lies, deception, and favoritism. Sounds like a nice, light message, doesn't it? Lies, deception, and favoritism. Sounds like, honestly, sounds like a daytime soap opera. I don't know how many of you have ever watched soap operas.

I don't think I've ever watched a full episode, and I take pride in that. Our younger generation most likely does not even understand what a soap opera is. I put it in chat GPT, I said, describe a soap opera. You don't know what AI says to us? This is, all the younger people in the room, this is how it described it. Love, betrayal, jealousy, forgiveness, and rage, usually all in the same episode. I think I pretty much nailed it, right? And so this family is a soap opera. There's all of those things within their life story here in the book of Genesis. So we closed at the end of, two weeks ago, at the end of Genesis 25, and it says here that Jacob and Esau are young men. We fast forward two chapters, and remember, we've talked about this recently, just because one chapter ends and the next one begins doesn't mean it's like the next day. Between these two chapters, you now fast forward to Isaac is an old, old man at the age of, listen to this, 137 years old. We believe, even though we're not told exactly, that the gap is probably right around 50 years between chapter 25 and chapter 27. Now here's the interesting thing, 25 ends with Jacob being a conniving, deceiving brother. Genesis 27, 50 years later, guess what he still is? Conniving, deceitful brother. Look at verse 1 of chapter 27. It says, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, my son, and he answered, here I am. And he said, behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death, but then, now then, take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out into the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. Now, quick review, you remember Isaac had a favorite son. It was Esau.

Rebecca the wife had a favorite son. It was Jacob. It's never healthy in a family, yet that's what's going on in this dysfunctional family. Bible here tells us Isaac is very old, cannot see well at all, knows he's about to die, so he says, Esau, go out and kill me some food so that I may bless you before I die. I need some meat, son, so go get me some meat. And Isaac's full intention here is to bless Esau as the firstborn, to give him his birthright as the one who would receive a double portion of the family, and also who would become the leader of the family. Notice two things that he is overlooking right here. First thing is this, he is overlooking that Esau had already sold the birthright to Jacob. He's just glossing right past that and just speaking towards that. He's also neglecting the clear word that God had given this family, that the line of God's blessing would go not through Esau, but through Jacob. And so favoritism has a way of blinding you. And here it is blinding him, the two realities that are already in play. The birthright is no longer in play. And then secondly... The blessing of God was never going through Esau, it was always going through Jacob. And so, this is a long chapter. I'm gonna summarize some, read some, and back and forth like that. Let me summarize the next four verses, or excuse me, the next eight verses. Rebecca overhears this conversation, and let me translate this in Hebrew, okay? This is why I went to seminary for moments like this. Literally in the Hebrew, here's what Rebecca was saying. Ain't no way my baby's gonna miss out on that blessing.

Okay? It's literally what it says in the Hebrew. Ain't no way my baby, Jacob, is gonna miss out on that blessing. Okay? And so, she runs to her favorite son, Jacob, and says, go grab two goats from the herd, bring them to me, I'm gonna fix your dad's favorite meal. And before he passes, we're gonna dress you up in Esau's clothes, and he's gonna think you're Esau, and he's going to bless you before he dies. Here's how Jacob replies. He's like, Mom, I don't look anything like Esau. Esau is very hairy. We learned that a couple weeks ago. Even as a baby, he's hairy. And he says, I'm very smooth, and so Dad's gonna find out, and he's gonna curse me. And Rebecca continues to press him. So look at verse 14. Says, so he went and took them and brought them to his mother, this is the goats, and his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loved. Then Rebecca took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And the skins of the young goat she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck, and she put the delicious food and the bread

which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. Can we just pause here? Let's imagine we're reading this passage for the very first time. Some of you probably are hearing this for the first time. And let me just say like an overarching statement. Family drama can make you do some really weird stuff. I mean, this is, if you're reading this going, and this is, Nick, this is kind of an odd story. You're exactly right. It's extremely odd and extremely weird. And favoritism within a family, it's always harmful no matter which way you shape it. Think about this. Rebecca's favoritism of her son Jacob has led her to lie to her husband on his deathbed and deceive her husband on his deathbed. It's like a deathbed deception here. So those of you who are married in the room, can you imagine having a long, fruitful marriage with your spouse? And then when they're about to die, you're pulling a fast one on them. Like in their old age when they can't see any longer, you're totally deceiving them. Think about this way in your own life. Have you ever lied about something? And then you had to lie to cover up the first lie, and then you had to keep lying, and then you eventually forgot

what you lied about in the first place? You're laughing because it's you, right? We've all done that at some point in our lives. This is almost like a physical representation of that very truth. Rebecca and Jacob have begun the lie, and now they are covering him as a physical representation of that very principle right here to lie further to the father. They're covering Jacob with Esau's clothes so he'll smell like Esau, and they are covering him, well, listen to this, with the skins of the goats that were killed, put him on his hands and on the back of his neck. Now, just a side note, just for kicks, how hairy was this dude to where the dad would put his hand on his neck and be like, oh, my son Esau. He's like, dad, it's goat's hair. Or grab his hand by the bed, and it's so hairy from goats, and his dad thinks it's Esau. We all got to cross the bear, right? This was Esau's. This deception and these lies ran very, very deep. You say, well, how deep? Remember, Isaac is 137 years old. We all had that crazy Aunt Kathy who lost it at 80. This is 57 years beyond that, okay? Look at what he says, verse 18.

So he went into his father and said, my father, and he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, how is it that you found it so quickly, my son? And he plays the God card here. Listen, he answered, because the Lord your God granted me success. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, who felt him and said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. He said, are you really my son Esau? He just lies again. He answered, I am, and he said, bring it near to me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you. So he brought it near to him and he ate and he brought him wine and he drank. Lie after lie after lie. The story is actually a pretty good picture

of the human ability to dive deeper and deeper into deception to simply get what it wants. We want what we want, is that not true? We just want what we want. Now I wanna make this personal, okay? If you got your journal there, I want you to write down two ways that this often plays out. Number one is what I'll just call the deception of self. The deception of self. You say, well Nick, what do you mean when you say the deception of self? Let me clarify what I mean. We'll throw this statement up here and we'll leave it up here for a second. Here's what it means. Deep within us is the powerful tendency to justify and rationalize any decision to get what we want. Anybody ever been there? Deep within us is the powerful tendency to justify and rationalize any decision to get what we want. I have seen this thousands of times in my own life and in the lives of other people. By the way, we could clarify that this is what happens any time you and I step into sin. Can I give you some examples of how this plays out, how we rationalize, how we justify? We say things like this, well I deserve this. I need this. I need this. This will make me happy.

You ever said this? It's not that big of a deal. I can handle it. You ever play the God card? I know God will forgive me. Just this once, I promise I'll stop after this. Let me ask you a question today. Is this you? And I would say not is this you in the past because if we're honest, that's been all of us in the past. I wanna ask, present day, February of 2026, is this you right now? Like rationalizing to get whatever you want. If you're here today and you're like, well Nick, how do I know that I'm growing spiritually? How do I know if I'm maturing as a Christian? Here's one way I think you know. You stop deceiving yourself. You stop lying to yourself. So if you say, well Nick, I do wanna be a man or woman of God, I wanna be a teenager, college, doing young and old, and I wanna be a child who is growing in my faith and maturing in my faith, how do I do that? Stop lying to yourself. I've said it recently, I heard it recently in a sermon. I've used it other weeks. I think it applies again here today. Some of you need to stop listening to yourself and you need to start talking to yourself. Some of you are getting dominated in the mind.

Your thought life is crushing you. You have zero faith, zero victory in your battle against anxiety. You need to start talking to yourself the truth of God's word and stop listening to yourself and all the lies that the enemy is telling to you. Here's an easy decision for every follower of Jesus today, like everybody here, across this room. Every believer can make this decision based on Genesis 27. I will no longer live in self-deception. It's an easy one to make. I'm not gonna lie to myself anymore. I'm not gonna manipulate my faith. I'm not gonna lie to myself. I'm not gonna manipulate. I'm not gonna rationalize and justify. I'm not gonna live in self-deception. Now, self-deception leads to the second thing I wanna talk to you about. And there's what it is. It leads to the deception of others. So if you lie to yourself and lie to yourself and lie to yourself, eventually what happens is you begin to lie to other people around you. You begin to lie to family members. You begin to lie to friends. You begin to lie to other people here at the church. And this is what is on display of Genesis 27. This is a sad reality within this family. A mother and a son conspiring together

to deceive their husband and father in the final days of his life. He can't see clearly. He can't take care of himself. He's about to die. And listen to me, all they're thinking about is themselves. This is the deception of other people. Let me define it for you this way. The deception of others is rooted in selfishness and a desire. to get your own way. It's rooted in selfishness and a desire to get your own way. We have internal thoughts like this. I don't care what it takes and I don't care who's in my way. I want what I want. It's funny is those same statements I used about the deception of self also are true when it comes to the deception of others because either way it's rooted in sin and selfishness. Things like, well, man, I deserve this. I need this. So make me happy, it's not that big of a deal. All of those we use, and listen to me, we just use people. We just use people to get what we want. Let me ask you like a penetrating question today. Are you using people in your life for your own benefit? Or are you stabbing people in the back

just to get a hold of what you want? Here you have a mother and a son deceiving a father and a husband on his death. Just wild, wild events. You say, well, how does the story continue? Well, Isaac blesses Jacob thinking he's Esau and bestows the fatherly blessing upon him as his birthright. If you're new to the Bible, you have to understand ancient culture to understand why a birthright was so significant. A birthright basically said that the first son would get a double inheritance from the father and they would ultimately become the head of the family. And so the Bible says that that happens. He blesses Jacob and then Esau comes in. Imagine Esau like with a tray of meat and he comes like, dad, I got it. I killed the animal and I brought you the food. It's just the way you like it. And Esau's like, excuse me, Isaac is like, who are you? And Esau's like, what do you mean? It's me, Esau. And the Bible says that Isaac realizes what has happened and he explains it to Esau. And Esau, as you can imagine, he is royally ticked off. And he's like, man, Jacob has now missed me over twice. He's stolen my birthright now. He's stolen my blessing. If you've ever wondered, well, what's the difference

between the two biblically? The birthright was more legal in nature. The blessing was more spiritual in nature. Got that? Birthright was more legal in nature. Blessing was more spiritual in nature. So skip down all the way to verse 41. This is how the passage begins to wrap up right here. It says, now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are approaching. Then I will kill my brother Jacob. But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah. And so she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said, and behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, to my brother in Haran, and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away. Verse 45, until your brother's anger turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of both of you in one day? Esau hates his brother, sets his heart to kill him. He's like, hey, listen, we're about to mourn for my dad. And as soon as that's over, I'm coming. And I will kill Jacob for what he has done to me.

And somebody tells Rebekah, and she's like, listen, you got to flee to your uncle Laban's house. One big happy family. Right? More like one really messed up, selfish, deceiving, conniving, I'm gonna make up a word, favoritizing, jacked up dysfunctional family. Allen Ross is an author, and he writes about this part of the book of Genesis in such a powerful way. I want you to look at the screens. He says, in a sense, Rebekah and Jacob won, though they gained nothing that God would not have given them anyway. Such a powerful phrase. And they lost much. The story is one of parental favoritism, which tore their family completely apart. Think about two chapters in two weeks that we've talked about this family so far. Favoritism, manipulation, lies, deception, all of these are devastating anytime they hit a family. By the way, they're devastating within friendships as well. They're devastating at... at a company or at a business. They're devastating here at church. If I were to give you a little heads up on this passage, I think what's in the background of this passage we've not even talked about.

Like I think if you just read Genesis 27, start to finish, through all the manipulation, lies, favoritism, deception, I think we've not even talked about what really the passage is all about. You know what the passage is ultimately all about? This story is all about a lack of trust in the Lord, more than any of the other sins. It's all about a lack of trust in the Lord. Rebecca didn't trust God's plan, Jacob didn't trust God's plan. If you've ever wondered, well, Nick, I look back at certain things in my life with regret. And I look back at certain things that have happened and I think to myself, why did I do that? Anybody by a show of hands besides the preacher today? Or anybody do something that you look back on and you say, that was weird. Like, why did I respond in that way? Why did I say that? Why did I do that? If you've ever wondered why you do things like that, here's what I would say. It's because we're not content to leave it in the Lord's hands. And whenever you take it away from the Lord and you begin to carry it, I would just say, nothing's off limits. And you may shock yourself and surprise yourself at how devious you may become, how conniving you might become.

You may surprise yourself at the weird lengths to which you will go in a certain situation to try to protect, to try to retain control, all because we're not content to leave it in the Lord's hands. Everybody just look up here. Look at the action I'm taking, okay? Anytime we do this and we take it back, it always goes wrong, every single time. I say that to you as a professional person, okay? Some of you are the same way. Anytime you try to take things out of God's hands for control because you're worried, because you're anxious, because you think God doesn't see where you're at, it always, always, always turns out wrong for you. And so as we wrap up, let me talk about trusting in the Lord. Can we do that today? I wanna challenge you based on the faulty ways that this family did not do it. How can we do it in a better manner, okay? Number one is this. I wanna encourage you just to trust in God's plan today. Just trust in God's plan. You know, what's sad about this story is that Rebecca actually knew the plan of God. Like she had a unique experience with the Lord that we don't often get. I would say 99% of the time in your life, you will not know or understand the plan of God. How's that for an encouraging word?

99% of the time, you will not know what God is doing. Rebecca is in the 1%. God has told her, listen, you got two boys. The blessing is gonna come through Jacob's line, not Esau's. Her failure as a mother is not just in having a favorite son. It's not in the lying or the deception or any of the sins that she displayed, okay? Her main failure as a parent was failing to trust the Lord. It's what it was. Can I just speak to every parent in the room today? Every grandparent in the room today? Is this you? Are you failing to believe God? Are you failing to trust the promises of God for your family, for your children, for your grandchildren, and so on? I get it, y'all. I got four. Four kids and my natural tendency as a father, and as Meredith was standing up here today, she'd say her natural tendency as a mother is to protect, to guard, to rescue. Any other parents in the room today with me? It's what we wanna do, right? Here's what I would tell you, and this is Genesis 27. You cannot rescue your child from sanctification. In other words, you cannot rescue them from what God desires to do in their lives.

And I say you can't, meaning not that it's not possible, but that as a Christian parent, do not do this. Can you rescue your kid from sanctification? Yep. Can you wipe away consequences that they get at school? Yep. Can you rescue them from hard things in their life? Yeah, you can. And you know what you're doing? You're robbing them of how God wants to use hard things to mold them. So here's what I would tell you. When you rescue your children from sanctification, you rob yourself of your own sanctification. One of the main ways that God desires to form you as a parent and as a grandparent is that not only will your child or grandchild trust in God's plan, but that you would trust in God's plan for them. It's easier to trust in God's plan for your own life, is it not? Like you can handle some hurt, handle some, and when those babies start hurting, you start fighting, right? Can we let a mother who did it wrong here give us an example to just trust in God's plan? Don't rescue your child from what God is doing in their life. Doesn't mean don't be loving to them, don't be there. All of that, amen and yes.

Don't rescue them from what God is desiring to do in their lives right now. Here's the second thing, not only trusting in God's plan, but I think this one's harder, trusting in God's timing. I encourage you to do that today, to trust in God's timing. Think about this story. Had Rebecca just waited, had Jacob just waited, they would have received what God had promised. As the quote I mentioned said from Alan Ross, they gained nothing that God would not have given them anyway. They didn't want to wait. So I said a moment ago, I think trusting in God's plan is one thing. Some of you are there like, man, I believe in the promises of God, God's gonna move. I think trusting in the timing of God is way harder than that. Anybody tired of praying today? Like I'm in church, I'm not sure I'm supposed to nod on that one. Anybody tired of trusting the Lord for a child? A career thing? Something with a friend and you're like, God, I've asked and I've asked and I've asked and I've pled and I've pled and I've pled.

Lord, I believe you're gonna do it, but honestly, I'm just exhausted because of your timing, Lord. And God has you in that period of waiting. There's a lot of four-letter cuss words. Wait is the one that Christians hate the worst. Some of you are there. And God's saying, not only will you trust me, but will you trust in the timing that I've got going on here? So let me move us just to closure like this. How's God speaking to your heart today? Maybe you're here and you've been deceived by somebody. Now, when you have been hurt by people you didn't expect to be hurt by, when someone has deceived you or they've stabbed you in the back and man, you did not see it, it was that friend that you never saw coming. It was the boss that you thought had your back. And man, you just are in a deep pit because you've had a deep wound in your life. Maybe you know you need to turn to God, but man, you're not quite sure how to even do that. I'm gonna ask you to come to the altar today and just give it to the Lord. Maybe you're here today and you're on the opposite end of that spectrum. Maybe you're here and you're caught in some lies and maybe you're not even caught yet, but man, you feel horrible.

You need to confess something to somebody and maybe that's gonna happen two hours from now over a phone call with a family member or a friend. But man, you just need to get right with the Lord. First of all, I'm gonna ask you to just to come today. Maybe you're here and if you're honest, you say, Nick, I think I've been deceiving myself, that I've been justifying some things that I'm involved with. I've been rationalizing some sin in my life and man, I'm just ready to stop. I'm gonna ask you to come. Maybe you're here and you're having trouble really trusting in the plan of God. Some of you feel like God's absent, that He's silent right now in your life. And, but you know you need to put your trust in Him. I'm gonna ask you to come. Maybe you're here and you're like, Nick, I'm trusting in the plan of God, but man, I am exhausted at the timing. And I'm really struggling to believe God, not for His overall plan, but I'm just really wrestling with the timing of God. And I just, I need to, I need to do this. Like I need to give it to the Lord. You know, any time that you come to the altar, here's what a personal experience. I found that it is this in action. Lord, I'm trying to carry this.

I'm trying to carry your timing as if I am you, and I'm ready to turn it over to you. Maybe you're here today and you're caught in the deception of yourself and that you think you're good enough and you don't need God. Think you're good enough to go to heaven on your own. You believe you're a good moral person. And yet maybe today that in the message about lies and deception in a family, maybe the thing that God has brought to mind more than anything is that you've been deceiving yourself and it's time for you to give your life to Christ. God in his love has given his only son to die on a cross for your sins and for mine. So that if you would in a moment like this, put your trust in Christ, he'd save you. Some 300 people last week made a profession of faith that that happened in their life. This can happen in you today. And God can save you right where you're at. Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me all across this room today? Our staff's gonna make their way to the front of each aisle and you may say, well, Nick, why are they coming? Well, they're here to talk to you, to pray for you. If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ, but as I just spoke about a moment ago, you're like, Nick, this is what I know

God is speaking to me about. I know that I need to be saved. I'm gonna encourage you just to find the man or woman closest to you. And as soon as we stand and sing, I'm just gonna ask you to go down and all you gotta say is this, grab their hand and say, I need to give my life to Jesus. They know exactly what to do from that point forward. Maybe you're here today and you're looking for a church home and you've thought to yourself, man, I really wanna link arms with this place. Why don't you come and talk to one of our staff and we can help you figure out that process and we'll explain that to you. But maybe you're a follower of Christ and you would say, Nick, I do fall into one of those categories that you mentioned earlier. And I just need to lay some things at the altar. What I've experienced in 20 plus years of being a believer is that anytime my physical posture matches my spiritual posture inside, something almost cements. Like I've seen it happen on my own, alone in my house. When God will be moving, I just get on my knees. I've seen it happen in my own life during church services when I'll come to the altar and just say, Lord, I'm just giving this to you. And so listen, I just wanna encourage you to just respond to the Lord.

I don't have no idea what that means for you today, but I'm gonna encourage you to come if God's speaking to your heart. Lord, in the powerful name of Jesus, we pray that the Holy Spirit of God would speak to individuals today. You'd be clear about our next step. You would give us the power in this moment, the boldness in this moment to take that step towards you. It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen.