Live As Jesus Did | Vision Sunday 2026

I'm glad we're together today in this space. My name is Mark Cummins. I'm the pastor at Church of Hope. And if you're a regular attender, welcome. So glad that week after week, we join together in this space. And if by chance, this is your first time, I'm really glad that we're beginning our friendship today. Understand that this broadcast literally goes around the world for free. See, we believe that life's at its best when people discover hope in Christ. There are people who give generously so this broadcast can be reached across every continent. If you've never given, I would invite you today to give. You can go to our webpage, hopeinOcala.com and drop down on the giving bar and give a one-time gift. Or you can give generously beyond just today. And if God's blessed you, help us as we give hope around the world. But for now, I want you to open up your heart and your mind. Let Jesus speak to you. Because what I believe is that when we open up our minds and let Jesus speak to us, life doesn't become perfect and all the problems don't go away, but you experience his presence in you, with you, and for you. Open up your heart. Let Jesus speak to you today. Peace.

Age eight and the vision you have for your life. Maybe it's on the playground, backyard. You dreamed about, you saw yourself being an astronaut. You had a vision. In your mind's eye, you saw your life in a certain kind of way. That's what a vision is. A vision is a mental picture of a preferred future. Now think about what happened from that moment on the playground, in the backyard, where you had a vision of your life and where you are now. Somewhere along that way, that vision got cloudy. Maybe it was a choice that you made. Maybe somebody said something that shattered your vision or just life happened. You know, on the micro level, every year, this New Year's resolution, it's a vision of sorts. You're kind of at the beginning of a year, you have a vision of what the year might look like. It's a preferred picture, looking forward, that you're hoping life will look like, feel like, unpack like this. So a question to ask this morning is, what is your vision for your life? I think for a lot of us, we get to a space in life where the hurt, the pain, the sorrow, the loss, the decisions that we've made, the decisions that others have made along the way,

the disappointment, the disillusionment, the quiet little wonder inside of our brain, am I good enough, do I have what it takes? It makes the vision for life really cloudy. I want you to know this morning, when we talk about vision, I'm not talking about some type of pie in the sky, some type of optimism or some type of personality. Not that, you know, I kind of hope maybe it all kind of works out. But I think vision can be much clearer because vision, what you hope for matters. Matters, why? Because hope is oxygen for your soul. Human beings, we need hope. And the Bible says that where hope is deferred, where we don't have hope, it says it makes our life sick, less than best. And so the vision of people finding hope, this preferred picture of like, you really can have hope in life, like hope for your marriage, hope for your kids, hope for your business, hope for your health, hope for, there is hope in life. We live in a world where in many ways, hope has evaporated. And we find ourselves going through the motions, getting along, hoping maybe possibly. But waking up to the same old, same old. For that very reason, God started Church of Hope in 2008. Because there is a deficit, there is a problem. We live in a world that is hopeless.

And God gave us a mission. See, a vision is a preferred picture. What is your preferred picture for your children? What is the preferred picture for your business? That's called a vision. A vision is how you see it. A mission is your compelling why. This is why we do what we do. And our mission is to partner with people. To discover that in Christ you have hope. That's what I want us all to know. Listen, I get it. That dream, that vision on a playground might have been destroyed by somebody. A vision for a business, a vision that you had in a marriage, a vision that you had for a career. Many of us find ourselves in a point in place today that you're like, listen, this is not the vision that I had for my life. And that's why we've gathered together for the past 17 years. It's because God wants us to know that hope, it's not elusive. Hope isn't just optimism. Hope isn't just pie in the sky, maybe it'll all work out. Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus. And Jesus wants you to know there is hope for you. There's hope for me. That's why we're here. The Bible says in Acts chapter 1 and 8, Jesus said to them, Jesus says to us, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem. There is a plan that God wants.

God sees the brokenness in you. God sees the disillusionment in our family and our friends. God sees all the fear and the shame and the emptiness. He hears us say that life shouldn't be so empty. So he says, hey, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make you my witnesses. I'm going to make you hope distributors to live your one and only life, to walk on your campuses and walk in your businesses for people to see that there is hope. And hope has a name, and his name is Jesus. And not just a little bit of hope. He wants us to have a lot of hope. In Romans 15 and 13, may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow. Not just a little dab will do, that you will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not the power of social media, the power of the Holy Spirit. Not the power of a feel-good afternoon, the power of the Holy Spirit. And the reason I tell you, I share with you, that hope has a name and his name is Jesus is because Titus chapter 2, we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The hope you and I are looking for has a name, and his name is Jesus. And Jesus understands this, it's not lost on him that we live in a world that is marked by hopelessness. You know, in the very end of his life,

Jesus is with his disciples, and he's getting ready to go back to heaven. And he gives them what some pastors, theologians call the great commission. I think in many ways, it's become the great omission in our life. Or somehow we have thought it's a great suggestion. Jesus is suggesting this, but it's really not. No, it is the great commandment. Notice what he says in Matthew 28, verse 16. Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When he saw them, they worshipped him, so some worshipped him, but noticed some doubted. That's where some of us are today. Kind of really wondering. Life hasn't unpacked the way that you thought. Maybe you kind of tried the God thing, and the God thing hasn't been working out for you. Maybe somewhere along the line you got hurt. A pastor, some church leader, or somebody in a church said something, or your family, or whatever. I get it. We live in a world that is marked by doubt. That's why Jesus says, Hey, listen, I know some of you are worshipping me, but some around you are doubting. Your family, your co-workers. Some of you have grown kids who now doubt Jesus. So notice what Jesus says. He says to them,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, as a result, because I have all this authority, here's the action. Go and make disciples of all nations. Pause for just a second and ask yourself, Am I? How am I, if I am a Christ, if you're a Christ follower, if you're not a Christ follower this morning, my hope is you'll make a decision to become a Christ follower. But if you are a Christ follower, Jesus is commanding you. He didn't say to the first church in a particular town. He didn't say to the Baptist church, the Pentecostal church, the Methodist church, the Catholic church. He's talking to you. He's talking to me. He's saying, how are you going and making disciples? How are you becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ? He says, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the end of the age. There is a tension in this piece. There is a tension in all of us. There is a tension of saying, I know Jesus. I believe in Jesus, but am I becoming like Jesus? And you gotta ask yourself this morning, is there an option?

Is it biblically possible to say that I believe in Jesus, I think about Jesus, I pray to Jesus, but I am not becoming like Jesus? Or how do you even answer that question? How do you become like Jesus? In the gospel of John, 1 John 2, it says this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Did you catch that? Now, these verses are gonna wreck some of us. We know we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar. And I know that strong language. And it's very offensive, right? To walk into the life of another human being and look him in the eyes and say, you're a liar. Like, them are fighting words. You can call somebody a lot of different things, but like to call somebody out and say that you're a liar, like that breaks a relationship. So to those of us who are followers of Jesus, the tension that's in our lives is we have good intentions, we're watching online, we're here on campus today, you have prayers, you think about God, but now there's this tension that if we really say that we know him, we have to keep his commands. Look at verse four. Whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar.

And the truth is not in that person. So that person that you're refusing to forgive, that opportunity that you're refusing not to serve, that moment where you choose to trust yourself more than trusting God, this is the tension that can often keep us on the sidelines spiritually. But verse five, but if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know that we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. See, being more like Jesus is the way that you win in life and win in death. And that's what I want. That's my goal, that's my dream. I want us to win. I like winning. I prefer winning over losing. It's much funner. It feels good. And Jesus says, I want you to win. I don't want you to limp through life. I want you, no matter what season you are in, as a student, as a single person, as a married couple, as a parent, as a grandparent, as an employer, employee, a retiree, wherever you are, I want you to win. The question is how? What is the step? How do we win? How do we follow Jesus?

Now, you'll notice in your journal that today, Vision Sunday, I have given you this logo, this picture that we have used since 2008 to teach our discipleship process. And this discipleship process, it's not a Baptist thing. It's not a Pentecostal thing. It's not a Presbyterian thing. It's not a Mark thing. This is what Jesus did. When Jesus walked on this earth, he trusted God. He trusted God when he left heaven and he came to the earth. He trusted God being pregnant into a teenage Jewish girl. He trusted God on the cross. He trusted God when he committed his spirit. He trusted God. He loved people. Regardless of what they said or did to him, insiders and outsiders, he loved people. And Jesus invested his life. He was all in. It wasn't just a little bit here and a little bit there. He wasn't a weekend warrior. Hello, he invested his entire life. So this is the discipleship process. This is how we become more like Jesus. Now, notice in the very center of this graphic, the hope guy, that's you. And my dream for you is that you would experience life at its very best. I don't want you to kind of just wonder any longer.

I want you to know, here's how I can follow Jesus. Here's how I can win in life. There are a lot of voices, students, a lot of voices will tell you, here's how you win. There'll be educators, there'll be coaches, there'll be social media influencers, lots and lots of good opinions. What's most important is you put the first and best opinion, Jesus Christ, into your listening first. That's most. And that's not just true for students, that's true for all of us. I want you to have a stellar career. I want you to have hobbies, and I want you to travel the world. I want you to experience, God wants you to experience life. But what matters most first is how are you becoming more like Jesus? Because that's what God's doing. God is conforming, he's transforming us into who we are, into the image of his son. So you are in the middle, you are in the middle of this story. Here's the dream, here's my vision for us. Acts chapter four. When they saw the courage of Peter and John, and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Like when people see you,

that what they see most is like, listen, okay, maybe you're a good athlete, maybe you're a good student, maybe you've done well in business, all the different things. But first and most, what they see is that we are people who have been with Jesus. And this vision is so important, and there's a lot at stake. Because when we don't have a vision, people drift. Churches maintain instead of multiplying. Faith becomes selfish. This is my faith, this is my faith, rather than being spread. Jesus never intended or instructed his followers to sit still. Jesus commissioned us to stand tall, to step out, and to partner with people to discover in Christ, we have hope. So the vision for your life. Yes, you've got a vision for a family, vision for a marriage, vision for traveling, vision for retirement, all that's good. But what's best, and what will set you up to experience that vision most, is the vision of following Jesus and becoming more like Jesus. So you say, how do I do this? So first notice that first arrow of trust in God. It all starts in trust in God.

Trust in God for our salvation. John 14 and six, Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That might sound narrow-minded this morning. You live in a culture where everybody wants to have their own opinions. There can be multiple paths towards God. And people can have their opinions, but God gets an opinion too. And God says the only way to him is through Jesus. Notice Acts chapter four, by the name of Jesus Christ, salvation is found in no one else. No one else. There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. See, our vision is not to be impressive. Our vision is to be impactful. For others to discover in Christ, we have hope. That's why we say all the time, we will do anything short of sin for people to discover hope in Christ. This is what's at stake. Your friends, your family, your coworkers. Like life is not a dress rehearsal. It's happening in real time. So we trust God for salvation. And then we trust God in every situation. I do find it a little bit remarkable that many of us would say,

I've trusted God for my salvation. That when I die, he's gonna take my soul to a real place called heaven. But we can't trust God with our time, with our cash, with some type of difficulty on a Tuesday, some kind of chaos on Thursday. Notice what God says in Proverbs 3. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings. So in all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight. See, this is the human dilemma, is you wanna lean on your own understanding. And let me just say, with all kinds of love, you ain't that good, I'm not that good. When you lean on your own, when human beings lean on their own understandings, we mess it up. Can you say the Garden of Eden? All the ladies in the house, you understand that that monthly. is all a result, all that pain and all them cramps is a big time result of Eve saying, I'm gonna lean on my own understanding. Wouldn't you ladies like to have a conversation with Eve? Girlfriend! You messed it up! Then in the Bible right it says that that also to the men that the curse would be sweat of your brow when you go to work. It's kind of not fair ladies right because in the culture we live today not only you get the monthly visitor called the cycle you also are going to work every day and us guys and it got quiet in the house that's a truth to be told right could you imagine how depressing the world would be if guys had a daily a monthly cycle we would just all die we would

just kind of go be over with life right all that is a result and since that moment to where we are now today the dilemma is our own understanding that's why Jesus modeled life is that it's best when you trust him what's the vision for us as a church over the next year as we trust God along the way one is to celebrate 300 baptisms in other words 300 of your friends coming in discovering that you can have hope in Jesus Christ that won't happen by the way as you sit on the sidelines you've got to step up you got to trust God second 500 people attending discover the hope class I want people to discover that they don't have to live through life they don't have to just survive that they can actually thrive along the way and yes two million dollars trusted for people to discover hope in Christ we spend our cash on just about anything and everything but when it comes to leveraging our lives and our cash so men and women boys and girls moms and dads this is what's at stake them discovering in Christ we have hope and that's listen our focus at hope you have seen it's not on a building it is on meeting people where they are so they can find hope in Jesus Christ this is this is the vision so there you are hope person you're in the middle of your story how are you trusting God now when you trust God it all starts there because when you trust God you can love people until you trust God the cray-cray people in your life you can't love them too much it's like oh my goodness but when you trust him now and you stack it you stack these disciplines on top of each other you trust God for your salvation check I'm glad you've done that the reason many of us can't get to the love piece and can't get to the investor life piece is because you're not trusting God in every situation you're still blaming somebody about whatever you're this and you're complaining and defending you got to trust you got to believe that God is for you because he is for you he has best for you you trust him for your salvation and in every situation now you can love people love people in the church and love people in the community and sometimes it's easier to love people in the community than it is to love people in the church because we have this expectation that somehow people come to

church are gonna act and behave a certain way hello every single one of us our sinners and so we can say and do the craziest craziest of things inside of a church and in the community notice John 13 a new command it's not a suggestion a new command I give you love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another just because you listen to joy FM doesn't mean that you are loving Jesus you love Jesus when you love that stinker in your life that extra grace required person that frustrates you and irritates you and agitates you notice 1st Corinthians 9 and 22 the Apostle Paul says whatever a person is like whatever they're like right there they're too loud they're too soft they're too fast to do whatever it is however they are right I try to find common ground with them so that he will let me tell them about Christ and let Christ save them see it's finding common ground that that's why we're not a Republican church we're not a Democrat church we're not an independent church we're not any we are a church that has Jesus in the center that he loves all people and the problem isn't people's political ideology the problems we have in the world as people don't have hope in Christ because when a person discovers hope in Christ then everything from that point forward is upward because now we have the possibilities why because hope is not an option hope is the fuel it's the oxygen for our soul what does that look like when we love people it means that we'll engage 500 people in hope life groups and classes it means that through small groups and doing life together that will get into smaller groups because we actually love people and we'll come to a Tuesday class, or we'll start our own class, or if your small group is kind of fading a little bit and you sort of meet every once in a while, you'll be the person that says, I love this group too much. We're going to keep meeting together, regardless of how busy. We need to meet together. Second, all Church of Hope partners will lead one person to Christ. That's the dream.

That's the vision. That this year, you will lead one of your family members, one of your coworkers, one of your children, one of your neighbors. You understand what's at stake. If you keep your mouth shut, if you say nothing to them, if you don't leverage your life and love them, you understand if they die without Jesus, they go to hell. Not because Mark said so, because the Bible says so. This is what's at stake. Can you imagine you dying, I'm called upon to officiate your service and you have lived your entire life, 20 years, 40 years, 60 years, and 80 years, and never ever led one person to Jesus Christ as their savior. That stops this year. This year, here's what I know. Every single one of us knows somebody who doesn't know Jesus, so we're going to follow and be like Jesus and we're going to lean to their life because we love them so they discover hope in Jesus Christ. We're going to launch a recovery ministry, and recovery isn't just for someone who has a chemical addiction. Some of you, we need to stop Gossipers Anonymous. My goodness, we need to have a complaint. Some of you need recovery from complaining, so I'm just sharing my opinion. Know you're a complainer. Here's how you know if you're a complainer or not. Somebody who speaks about a problem and gives a solution, that is a difference maker. People who just wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah about a problem, you're just a complainer. Buy a t-shirt, let the whole world know, I'm just a complainer, here I come. We're going to change. We're going to have recovery ministry, and then this, I'm excited about this because this is beginning to happen. We're going to see, 1440, we're going to see 100 students every single weekend coming,

growing, learning, developing, and then going to your high school campuses and middle school campuses and leaning in and developing and partnering with people over and over and over and over. This is the vision. This is what happens when we, there you are, the hope person, right in the center of the vision. We have trust God for our salvation. We're trusting God in every situation. We are loving people in the church, and we're loving people in the community, and then finally, we invest our lives, but you got to stack these habits. The reason many of you can't invest your life because you're not trusting God, and if you're not trusting God and then you can't love people, that's why you don't invest your life. Jesus invested his life. You've got to wrestle with it. You've got to wrestle with this morning. Am I becoming more like Jesus? What does my life declare? Ephesians 2 and 10, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. I'm looking out at you, and you are the handiwork of God. God has gifted you. God has put skills in you to make a difference in our world. 1 Corinthians 12, now God gives us many kinds of special abilities, but in the same Holy Spirit, who is the source of them all? There are different kinds of services to God, but it's the same Lord we are serving. All of you together are the one body of Christ, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. When I invest my life, I invest it in a ministry, and I invest it on mission. My body has a liver and has a heart. It has muscles and bones. These pieces inside of my body do nothing for you.

Collectively, when I'm healthy, I can be on mission and encourage you. I can serve you. We can share a meal together, but internally, this is mission. My liver is doing something for me, so ministry is what happens inside of the church. Nowhere biblically is there an independent, rogue Christian. We are all to be a part of a local identity. We have churches all across our county, across our state. Inside of that church is where you engage your energy and your efforts. So what's our vision? Our vision is for 75% of the people who attend on the weekend to serve on a dream team. Right now, we're right about 25%. happens on this campus today. There are a lot of people who are serving. People came real early this morning and set up flags. The music team and the musicians were here on Wednesday and through the holidays and here early this morning. And there's more of you who are musicians. We'd like to have a rotation. Let's let some of our musicians have a weekend off. You look at the back of the house and the technology that's back there. There's all kinds of needs. There's cameras and how this streams out online. And there's a soundboard. There's a light board. Students, how technical you are. I want you to get on the tech team. It is. Listen, if you're following Jesus, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve.

So it is backwards theology and it's lazy humanity that you come on a Sunday to a place called Church of Hope and just sit on your blessed assurance. You are a consumer. And what's going to happen in 2026 is you're going to move from being a consumer to being a contributor. I'm all in. I'm not asking every single week. I'm saying, find a moment. Find an hour. Like one hour a month and say, I'm going to lean in. You can use this card that's at your chair and say, hey, listen, spirit has spoken to me. I'm done sitting on my blessed assurance. I've been gifted. I have skills. I'm putting my name on here. I'm going to figure out which dream team, where am I going to get involved? We're going to move from 25% to 75% of people who come on Sundays from being a consumer to being a contributor. Now, here's where I get excited. Our second vision is this. We're going to have 100 men leading across all ministry areas of Church of Hope. And ladies, I'm not leaving you out, because quite frankly, you're already doing double duty, triple duty along the way.

But men, I want to talk to you with love, but I also want to talk to you as a spiritual coach. You should be challenged this morning. Listen, I'm glad that you know how to take your son fishing. And I'm glad you know how to go hunting and how to dress a deer. But how are you showing your son and your daughters how you serve your Savior? How are you showing your sons and your daughters how you're modeling financially? Here's how dad makes Jesus Christ, how we're going to give money here so that people around the world will have the Bible in their own language. How are you leveraging? Men, you lead all week long. You are businessmen. You are carpenters, and you are contractors. You are coaches. You are not shy. But then somehow, we come on a church campus, and we become quiet and soft. There is an epidemic in our culture. We have a breach of biblical manhood. And I'm calling us this morning to declare that in 2026, we are going to flip that script. And one of the ways, men, that we're going to encourage you and inspire you is our men's conference. We're bringing Chad Robeshaw. He's been here before. He's going to come, and he is going

to motivate, challenge us to get off of this kind of comfort zone, or where we lead, and we're experts. Listen, don't die knowing how to build a house, and you don't know how to win someone to Jesus. You won't stand before God one day, and God says, oh, I'm so glad you were good with your hands in life, but you let people die and go to hell. Don't die that way, men. So here's what you're going to do. Right now, take your phone out, because we need you to register. I'm not joking, guys. Come on, get off of it. Get your phone out. I want you to register right now for the conference. We're going to have food. We're going to feed you. We're going to have all kinds of activities. It's going to be at a whole nother level. But listen, the days as men, when you start looking at your options, let me see. What do I have going on February 1? I got this, and I got that. It's time, men, to make Jesus Christ the center and the point for your life. Your spouses, your wives have been waiting their entire life for you to become the spiritual leader. I just want you to know, it's happening.

It's game on. You were created. God chose you not to make you a chick. He made you a dude. It's time you stand up and you say out loud, I'm going to be the leader that God made me to be. And by the way, ladies, you are incredible leaders. But I also know this. Any woman of God would just love for her man to be the spiritual leader. And not just in voice, but in actions along the way. And then we're going to recruit 100. ...prayer partners. We gather. Listen, this church has been built on the idea that people need hope. And so when we have people coming forward at the end of a gathering, as we will in just a moment, we need more than six people who are willing to come down and pray with people. We need other Christ followers who say, I've been walking with God all week long. I know what it's like to kind of feel broken, but to watch God get in the middle of my brokenness, I know what it's like to fail and what it's like for God to restore me. I know what it's like to get alongside somebody and say, listen, I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to come alongside of you. I'm going to encourage you. That's not just something for the pastor to do. That's not just something for six or seven. We need a hundred people who are going to make a decision out loud that we are going to engage. This is our vision. This is what's going to happen when we make a decision to trust God and to love people and to invest our life. We make a decision to commit, but every move, every story reaches a moment where the hero, you in the story has to make a decision. You can't wish your way into a hope-filled life. You've got to commit your way. I've shared this, this quote many times. If you've never taken a picture of it, take a picture of it now. Commitment. Until I am committed, there's a hesitancy. You've got to put a lie in the sand. I'm just telling you, you've been sitting on your whole life, this gap between where you are and the vision that could be. It starts today, but it starts with a commitment. Until I'm committed, there is a hesitancy, a chance to draw back. But the moment I definitely

commit myself, then God moves also. A whole stream of events erupts. All manner of unforeseen incidences and meetings and persons and material assistance, which I could have never dreamed would come my way, begin to flow towards me the moment I make a commitment. The call is clear. The action that's needed is for you and I to trust God, to love people, and to invest our life. Whoever says that you are in Christ must live as Christ lived. And the success, the stories that we'll see, marriages that don't end in divorce, stay together. Students who grow up and know who they are and know that God's for them, and they're going to step out and to make a difference in our culture. The addiction that keeps you silenced is now going to be setting you free. The opportunity for us as a community of believers in Ocala and Marin County for people to discover the freedom that they're looking for. This is what success is. Not fame, not comfort, but faithfulness. But there's also, there is a huge risk. Because if you just listen and don't apply anything, then nothing's going to change. And if we don't act, every story has a tipping point where that hero refuses to respond to the call of the guide, and life ends in failure for the hero. People drift, hope fades, and the mission stalls. But that's not who we are. That's not who you are. We will not be a church that just exists and goes through the motions until the buffet line on Sunday. We are making a difference. We will be the church that trusts God, we love people, and we invest our life along the way. Thank you. Being together in this space today is really good. If you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, I'd like to invite you today to start following Jesus. It's not about your behavior. It's not about your church attendance. It's about the reality that Jesus is for you. God's not mad at you. He's madly in love with you. Would you right now pray this prayer with me? Hey God, it's me. I've sinned and I know it, and I can't fix me. But today, I receive you, Jesus, as my Savior. I believe that you died on that cross for me, and that you were buried for three days, and then you became alive again. And I invite you into my life to guide me and direct me all the rest of the days of my life. And with that prayer, my friend, welcome to God's family. I'd like to continue our friendship. If you would email me, pastor at hopeinocala.com, I'll follow up with you, and together we'll celebrate Jesus in your life. Peace.