Living By Faith // Hebrews

All right, well, it's great to have you here this morning. We're in our book of Hebrews study, and I wanna just look in the camera now and say, welcome to the men and women watching from a prison facility behind bars. We are so glad that you're watching with us. Calvary Church, can we give them a big welcome today? Love what you guys are doing. Love how God's reaching you in a real way. And today is a special day. We do not have a guest with us. We have our founding pastor with us who led Calvary Church for 38 years as the founding pastor and the lead pastor of Calvary Church. Calvary Church, would you stand on your feet? Can we give welcome to Pastor Paul Jackson as he comes to bring a great message today. God bless you, Pastor Paul. Amen. Good morning. How are you? Remain standing with you for just a minute. We're gonna read a couple of verses of scripture. So happy birthday, Pastor. Have you tried Freddy's yet? Freddy's Smashburger, pretty good. And the frozen custard's awesome. So I'll take you, we'll go have Freddy's. All right, enough of that. So I've had a few people say, where in the world have you been?

Well, July, August becomes my busy preaching season. All the pastors are going on vacation and they call me and say, come and preach. I know you won't mess anything up while I'm gone. So I've been out preaching. So nice to see you. Good to be back home today. My assignment today is Hebrews chapters 11 and 12. And of course we won't cover it all. I gave you a lot of notes there that you can study on your own. And so I'd encourage you to try to fill in some blanks today so that this week you can take a little section at a time and think about it, pray over it, study it, read the background scriptures, spend some time with the Lord as you make the effort to hear what he's saying to you. You with me so far? That's sermon number one? Amen. Okay. Hebrews 11 and verse one says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's the conviction of things not seen. For by it, by faith, the people of old received their commendation. They received approval and praise, commendation from God, not because they were perfect. If you read the list in Hebrews 11, some of them messed up pretty good, but they received approval from God

because they exercised faith. And then in verse six, it says without faith, it is impossible to please God. Would you pray with me? Pray something like this. Heavenly father, thank you for your word. Thank you that I have it, that it's accessible to me. I pray that you would now give me the ears to hear, give me a mind to understand, heart to receive it and a will to live it out in Jesus name. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you. So I told the first group, I just wanna talk to you this morning, okay? I'm old enough to be most of your grandfather and a lot of your dad. So for those that are in my peer group, you can listen along too, but I just wanna talk to you for a few minutes. Would you take that from me? I didn't mean to bring that up here. I don't think my important people are gonna be calling me. So in John chapter six, I don't know if you remember this, Jesus did a miracle. He fed 5,000 men plus their families with two little fish and five loaves. You remember this? The feeding of the 5,000, miraculous event. He went on to heal people and minister that whole day.

And at the end of the day, he sent the disciples off in a boat and they went away. And Jesus went up in the mountain to pray and reconnect with the father and listen to what he was saying and doing so that he could continue on to do the ministry his father had called him to do. And then that night, Jesus himself crosses the lake walking on the water. I'd love to have been there for that. Kind of cool. Well, the next morning, the crowd realizes Jesus' disciples were gone. And so they started looking for him. They go around the lake, they finally find Jesus. And when they find him, they say to him, Lord, when did you get here? And Jesus said, you're not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs. You're not looking at me because you really believe in who I am and what God has done. is doing, you are looking for me because you ate your fill. You're looking for me just to get another free meal. I'm paraphrasing a little bit now. And Jesus said, do not work for the food that spoils, work for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man, that was Jesus's favorite title for himself.

It was a title from the book of Daniel, where one like the son of man would sit on the throne of the kingdom. Jesus was saying, I'm the Messiah that you've been looking for, but you're not looking for me for the right reason. You just want physical food. Don't work for the food that spoils, work for the food that endures unto eternal life. And so they say, okay, great. What work must we do to do the work that God requires? What do we have to do to get God's approval, his commendation, his blessing on our life? What do we have to do to be part of his kingdom? And Jesus said, the work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent, to believe in me. The work of God is to believe, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we live this life now by faith in Jesus. And that's what Paul said in Galatians chapter two, verse 20, I love those verses. He said, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, and yet I am alive. And it is Christ who is living in me. Let me read it because I'm getting tired and I'm messing it up. Let me read it. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It's not I who am living.

I was crucified with Christ. He is living in me and the life I now live in this body. I live by faith in the son of God who loves me, who lives in me. It's no longer I who live, but Christ is alive. His spirit is living inside of me. How many of you are followers of Jesus this morning? Say this out loud if you're trusting Christ. Jesus is alive in me. Jesus is alive in me. That changes everything. That changes everything. And so the life I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who is living in me, not faith in faith, not faith in my circumstances, not faith in my efforts, not faith in my feelings, not faith in the circumstances in which I exist. I live by faith. Listen, not even faith in biblical promises in and of themselves as if I have the ability to keep and believe them. Mm-mm. No, I live by faith in Jesus who lived the life I cannot live, died the death for me, was raised from the dead. I live by faith in Jesus who fulfilled all of the promises and principles of the Lord and who made them available to me. I live by faith in him and what he is doing because he lives in me, even when I am down and out,

even when I'm struggling, even when I'm tempted, even when I'm overwhelmed with the pressures of life. I don't live by faith in myself, but I live by faith in the son of God who's alive in me. It changes everything for me. Do you ever just get so tired and just feel like giving up? You ever get to the point where you just are wondering, as pastor said earlier today, you're kind of wondering where is God? What is he doing right now? You ever been there? Well, that's where it's important to understand then living by faith. So I wanna talk quickly about living by faith. I'm gonna give you three things. I won't cover it all this morning, but I'll try to fill in the blanks for you so you can study it later. So I'm gonna talk to you about what faith is, what faith enables and what faith requires. Those are the three main points. What faith is, what faith enables and what faith requires. Those are the three main points. So what is faith? Well, if you've ever watched or heard of anyone who baked a cake, and let me just say, I know I've taught this before. I used an apple as an illustration not too long ago. I'm not so old that I forgot.

I'm doing this intentionally. I'm gonna use a cake today. How many of you know eggs are not a cake? But how many of you know eggs go in a cake? Flour is not a cake. Sugar is not a cake. Vanilla's flavoring is not a cake. Chocolate flavoring is not a cake. Are you with me? I don't know what else you put in a cake. All you bakers can tell us. Here's the point. A cake is not a cake unless it's got all the ingredients in it. And if all the ingredients are there, it's a very satisfying and enjoyable thing to eat. And when it doesn't, it doesn't taste so good and it doesn't work out so good. Why? Because a cake needs all of those elements in it to actually be a cake. Are you with me? Faith is like that. Faith has four basic characteristics to it. We see it in this text. When he says faith, he uses two words. He says faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith is a deep inner confidence, not in my feelings, but in my spirit. Deep in my spirit man, in my heart of hearts,

in the inner man, there is a confidence that what God says is absolutely true, which comes to me when I hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's an inner sense of this is true, this is right. There's an assurance of it, a confidence there in me. Now, there are times when I may not feel confident. There are times when I wonder where the Lord is or what he's doing, just as you do. And yet, despite my feelings, despite my discouragement at times, despite the fact I get down once in a while, anybody ever get down once in a while? And anybody ever doubt? And yet, in the middle of my doubt, down deep somewhere, there's an assurance that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is Savior, that the Bible is true. I am gripped somewhere down in my soul with that assurance. How many of you understand what I'm talking about? So I don't always feel it. I certainly don't see it sometimes, and I can be discouraged. And yet, in my spirit, there's an undergirding, that's the idea of the word assurance. In fact, you could use the word title deed to describe this. Faith is the title deed of things hoped for, of things that God has promised to us. And we're hoping because we know God will bring them to pass. I told the first group that Ron Cragnalli

bought my wife's car, we sold him the car. He paid me for it, I gave him the car, he paid me for it, I gave him the title. He had it, it was his, but he didn't need it right away, so he let it sit over here in the driveway for about a week and a half, two weeks, something like that. It was his, he had the title deed. It was the assurance that it was his, but it wasn't his until he came and picked it up and drove it home, are you with me? So there's an assurance, but he uses a second word. It is the conviction of things not seen, the conviction of things not seen. So this idea of the word conviction is that not only is there that kind of assurance down deep, but there's this motivating element to it. So conviction compels me to do something in response. So here's the point. The first characteristic of faith is simply this. Faith is not something you work up. Faith is not something you talk yourself into. Faith is not something you produce. In fact, the Bible tells us you cannot produce faith of yourself, let alone the works God wants for you to do. Faith is a gift and a work of the Holy Spirit. The first characteristic of faith is that it's something the Spirit of God does in your spirit because he loves you and he wants you to know him

and he wants to fulfill your life and work in and through you to make you like Jesus, that you become all that he intends for you to be. It is a work of God. It is God inviting you into relationship with him. If you were a lady and somebody came to you and said, I love you so much, will you marry me? I love you, I'm assuring you, will you marry me? There's a compelling there to respond. And that's the idea that when we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus, the son of God, left heaven and lived the perfect life and went to the cross and took all of our punishment so that we can be forgiven and know God and we can be his children. When we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, You hear the message of the gospel or read it or someone that's the idea of the gospel of Jesus Christ. shares with us the Holy Spirit gives down deep in us an assurance a conviction that this is true and I should respond. Now whether or not we respond is another question but the Lord is faithful to do his part because Romans chapter 10 verse 17 you know it it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ as we hear the gospel the Spirit of God quickens and assuring conviction in us that this is true and we need to trust Christ it says in Ephesians 2 8 9 for it is by grace that you've been saved this by faith and this not even of yourself it is the gift of God grace is a gift faith is a gift salvation it's all a gift and a work of the Spirit not by

work so that no one can boast before God because it is God who calls God who is initiating the life of a Christian is the life of a response to what God is doing what God has said what God is doing and he wants to do. I have been crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me in the Son of God who's living in me in the Son of God who will make it happen in the Son of God who fulfilled it in the Son of God who is faithful in the Son of God who will deliver me in the Son of God who will take me through my faith is not in my feelings it's not my circumstances it's in the assuring conviction compelling of the work of almighty God deep in my soul and I will therefore believe faith is a gift and a work of God you respond and that brings me to the second point that word conviction it compels something faith is a decision of your will you see you hear the gospel and you can either harden your heart because you just don't want to hear it right now you're not willing to let go but faith begins with the initiative of God saying will you marry me and then you say yes I surrender I surrender to you really if you think about it's kind of what marriage is about I just felt like I need to throw that out there for some of you marriages surrender of your selfishness to live with the person who loves you just throw that in there that's extra I won't charge you for that one so faith is a gift and a work of God but it's also a decision of our will we respond in faith we don't work faith up or talk ourselves into it it isn't a feeling it's not just an intellectual acceptance you OK that's true we can't in and of ourselves produce the assurance that we need to live by faith it's a gift and a work of the

spirit in our hearts and our minds that deep seated sense as you and I come as we listen to the Word of God we hear the gospel and then our whole life is listening to the Word of God letting the Word of God draw us letting the Holy Spirit work in us so that we're surrendering to the Lord we're trusting in Jesus we're relying on him who else is worthy who else is worthy who else will I rely on who else will depend on you will fail me every single time I will fail you but Jesus never fails I rely on him I'll look to him he's the Savior he's the Lord he's the coming king he's risen and seated at the right hand of God he is my righteousness he is my helper he is my strength when I have no strength when I am weak then I am strong because I am weak trusting in him and he brings the strength through me as a supernatural work of the spirit as we learn to trust in Jesus are you with me when I am tempted to sin it is trust in Jesus that helps me overcome when I am depressed and discouraged it is trust in Jesus depending on him to help me when I'm overwhelmed with the pressure late at night I am tired and overwhelmed with the pressure of life and its difficulties it is faith in Jesus who lives in me who restores my soul and gives me strength are you following me this one he's fulfilled it all he's done the work wow so it is a gift and work of the spirit it's a choice that we make and then what happens is then it becomes now listen all these characteristics right eggs flour gift decision all these together and then it is a profession or a declaration with my mouth. So we hear the gospel, we make the decision to trust the Lord. We say, yes, Lord, I confess my sin before you.

I choose to trust in Christ. We're professing our faith because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You can learn a lot about yourself by listening to what you're saying all the time. Some of you need to listen to yourself. You need to listen to the words that are coming out of your mouth. It tells you something. We're living in faith in Jesus who gave himself lives within us. And we profess, it begins with confession of sin and confession of him as Savior and Lord, ruler of my life. I'm surrendering. But then it doesn't stop there. As the Holy Spirit keeps working and we keep reading and studying the word of God individually, the Spirit keeps compelling and assuring and speaking. We keep responding. And the profession then begins reminding ourselves of things that we've read. Oh, I am discouraged and overwhelmed, but the Lord is my helper. The Lord is my strength and my shield. He is my ever-present help in time of trouble. I profess it today. I don't feel it, Lord. I don't see you, Father.

I am discouraged and down. And Lord, I give you my heart today, but I still have that deep, assuring conviction down deep in my soul somewhere that your word is true and I'm gonna hang onto it, God, despite the situation. I will declare that I will continue to trust you in this circumstance. Faith is a gift and a work of the Spirit. Faith is a decision of your will. Faith is a profession that you make and faith is an action that you take. Faith always has an action. There's always something to live out, something to do as a result, not to earn the favor of God, but out of faith in the Son of God and what He has done. There's this compelling urge to change my behavior, to turn from trusting something else in order to turn and truly trust and rely on the Lord. And without works, faith is dead. Faith without works doesn't exist. Faith without a gift and work of the Holy Spirit doesn't exist. Faith without a decision doesn't exist. Faith without a profession doesn't. It takes all of these characteristics for we live this life by faith in the Son of God. Are you following me? Have I lost you this morning? And so all of these things, we begin to act

according to the will of God and what He's doing within us because it's all of those things. This week, 42 years ago, let's see, 42 years ago, I guess 40 years ago this week, a little fuzzy on that. I was a senior associate pastor in a church of 2000 in our headquarters city in Springfield, Missouri. Had an opportunity to be on TV, preached on Sunday night to a crowd of 2000. I had 200 college kids and a class that I taught from all over the world. Pretty amazing opportunity, right? But the Lord began to put in my heart, the Lord put in my heart a desire to pastor my own church despite that reality. And I began to pray on that. I'd like to pastor my own church. And because of how the Lord, notice how I'm trying to emphasize here. Because of how the Lord wired me, because of how He created me, I'm a kind of a visionary, creative guy. I like to see something come out of nothing. And so I love flea market flip. Come on, somebody. Yeah, I love flea market flip, man. You take that old thing and turn it into awesome. I love that. But somehow I never applied that to starting a church.

I wanted to pastor a church. And in those days, assemblies of God churches, if you had a church of 250, man, you're knocking it out of the park, you know? And so I had this vision of being a pastor of a church and leading a church, hallelujah. Never occurred to me to start one. But listen, but God knew me. God knew how He wired me. And God put a desire in my heart to have my own church, lead my own church. And He listened to the prayer of a woman who lived in Del Rand. and had been praying for years that God would put an Assembly of God church in Delran. He heard her prayers. And for some reason, beyond any of our understanding, he picked this boy out of Southern Missouri, put in my heart, hooked me up with a guy starting churches in New Jersey who invited me to come. Long story short, we came and interviewed, did the whole process. And then this week, 40 years ago, packed up and came to New Jersey, knowing two people. You say, oh, that's, you're so great. No, no, no, don't miss the point. I am not great. I don't have great faith.

No, Jesus lives in me. Jesus who knows me. Jesus who made me according to his will. Jesus who is working in me. Jesus did it. Jesus envisioned it. Jesus started it. Jesus made it happen. And all I did, listen, all I did was respond to what Jesus was doing. When Jesus started saying to us as a church and a board, tithe on the tithe, Jesus initiated it. I didn't sit around one day thinking, oh, it'd be a great idea if we tithed on the tithe. No, Jesus began to work in me. You ought to lead the church to tithe on the tithe. Are you listening to me? A life of a Christian is a life of response to what Jesus is doing and what Jesus has done. He's given you the Bible. He's given you a written word that faith comes a hearing and hearing by that word. But some of you won't pick it up. You won't do anything, but come to church and sit on your butt to listen to somebody else spit it and throw it in your mouth. And I'm not mad at you, but listen to me. You need to pick up the Bible and simply read it and think about it and study it

and let God work in your heart because he's got more for you. I'm glad you're on the dream team. You should be, I'm glad you're going to a life group. You should, these are important things, but we don't do that to earn God's approval. We do it to position ourselves where God can do something in us and through us that he cannot do in us and through us unless we're willing to respond to what he's already done. And he's made clear in his word, we're to be together, serve one another, pray, seek God worship. And we've got a great pastor leading us, showing us the path, but bless God, we've got to open our hearts and we got to understand he wants to do something deeper in us, not just through us, but deeper in us to make us more like Christ. All of these activities of church is just the kindergarten of faith. What God wants is to make us more like Jesus as he's working through us to make sure no one's without Jesus. And he does that as we surrender by faith in the son of God who is at work within us. I'm way off my notes, sorry. And we got to quit, so let's do this. I'll fill in blanks for you real quick so you can study at home.

So I gave you the three things that faith is. What does faith enable? Well, that's chapter 11, it shows you all the things that he enables. I'd encourage you to study that. I'd encourage you to study through those verses and see all that God enables. And then the last one is what does faith require? And if you look at chapter 12, in verse one, it says, since we have all these examples, let's lay aside every weight and sin and let's run with endurance the race is set afoot. What does faith require? It requires endurance. It requires perseverance. We keep responding. We keep trusting. We keep returning to the word. We keep returning to church. We keep on praying when we don't see anything happening because there's doubt in our soul. We know it's true, even though we don't feel it at the moment, but we know it. We know that we know that we know. And I got to throw this in real fast. I got to throw this in real fast. So I had a couple of people come up to me after the first service

and they both said something similar. You know, one guy said it like this. He said, you know what I struggle with pastor is faith and presumption, or, you know, how do I know for sure? So I said, well, listen, two things. First of all, we have the word of God. That's why you need to read it and study it and memorize verses and remind yourself if something that you're thinking about or something you're being led to is the opposite of what the Bible teaches. You know that you know not to do that. The Holy Spirit authored the Bible. He's not going to lead you into an adulterous relationship. The Holy Spirit is your provider. He's not going to lead you into a life of gambling. The Holy Spirit is your security. He's not going to lead you into a life of gossip and slander. Are you listening? So we've got the Word, so we do our best to live by the Word in the sense of we're trusting Jesus. Okay, Jesus, I see what you're saying here. Love my enemy. Lord, I've got to be honest. I don't even like them. I don't want to love them. But Christ, you're alive within me, and so I'm going to rely on you to help me, Jesus, to do what you're asking me. I'm going to believe you for the strength that I need to love my enemy.

Are you listening to me? And then we set an action out to do it with the help of the Holy Spirit. Let me get back to my point. So I said, well, let's say maybe you were struggling with, should I live here or should I live there? Should I work over there or should I work over here? You know, these are the kinds of things you and I often wrestle with, and we wonder about faith. Listen carefully to what I'm saying. I think at this age that the Lord gives us a lot more responsibility for our decisions than we're willing to take. And I think we blame the devil and the Lord for a whole lot of stuff we decide. Okay, so what do I do? Well, if you're praying and seeking the Lord, you're doing your best. You know you're doing what you should be doing. Just, you know, you're staying faithful, you're not involved in immorality, you're praying, you're loving God, you're serving. You know, you're doing, as far as you know, the Holy Spirit isn't convicting you on anything and you're trying to figure out, should I work there or should I work there? Here's what I think you should do. I think you should say, Father, you said in your word that you would direct my steps. And I'm believing you for that. Lord, I'm believing you live in me. And so you'll direct my steps. You'll show me this is the way, walk in it, or you're telling me not to. And so Lord, I surrender to you. But right now, Lord, as far as I can tell, I'm leaning over here. I think as far as I can tell, this is the step I should take. And so Lord, I'm going to take that step. And Lord, my heart is open before you.

Now, you've got to be honest. If the fact of the matter is you just want to go there, regardless of what the Spirit says, that's a whole nother issue. Are you with me? But if you're honest before the Lord, you know, I'm kind of torn. I see this. I kind of want to go over here, but Lord, I don't see any reason not to. And so I'm going to take that step. And Lord, here's what you say. And Lord, my heart is open. I am listening to you. You correct me. You convict me. You lead me somewhere else. I surrender all. I surrender all. Lord, it's in your hands because I want to do your will, Lord. I don't know where this generation, I don't get this generation in all honesty. Listen, the question is not what you want to do. The question is what does God want to do through you? How do you want me to serve, Lord? Where do you want me to work, Lord? What do you, where do you want me to live, Lord? What have you got for me? Not what I want. And here's what you ought to do, Jesus, because I believe in you for it. Bless God. You have that job. Well, what if God doesn't want you to have it? What if it's not best for you?

How about just surrendering your life to Jesus and let Jesus be Lord and serve him according to all that is within you, believing that he'll direct your steps and he will direct your steps and he will help you and he will be your strength and he will be your provider as you learn to surrender and walk with the Lord because you're walking with faith in the Son of God who lives in you. So what does faith require? Perseverance. That means we keep trusting him when it doesn't seem to make sense. So how do we do that? I'll give you the answers. I don't have time to teach them. Pick which race you're going to run every day. When you wake up in the morning, as soon as your eyes open, you got to decide which race you're going to run. The race of the flesh or the race of faith? You can't run them both. You start deciding right that moment. Number two, prioritize your life accordingly. Put first things first when it comes to living by faith in Jesus. That means you're going to prioritize prayer and the Word of God. You're going to lay aside everything that hinders, not necessarily sinful, but it just hinders. We went to Freddy's last night for ice cream. I did not get ice cream. Anybody else got ice cream? I didn't get ice cream. You know why? Because I know if I eat ice cream on Saturday night, I'm laying awake all night and I'm not gonna be able to do this.

Are you with me? That would have been a hindering force from me being able. Is it sinful to eat Freddy's ice cream? Somebody say, I sure hope not. Come on, somebody. Are you with me? And then he says, purify your thoughts and behavior. He says, lay aside or throw off the sin that so easily entangles. It is the sin, meaning there is some sin in your life that has entangled you. And notice it doesn't just hinder you, it wraps itself around your spiritual feet and you cannot move forward until you deal with that issue. And you do it with trust in Jesus, not trusting yourself as you love the Lord. I know we're in trouble. I gotta quit. So I ask, let's see, did I give you all the stuff? What is it? Yeah, that last one is purify your thoughts and behavior. Okay, and then put, I'm sorry, put your focus on Jesus. So looking unto Jesus, he says, looking unto Jesus. That's the whole point of the sermon. Looking unto Jesus who lives within you. We put our focus on Jesus, why? Because the enemy constantly puts the focus on ourselves, our failures, our mistakes, our stupidity, our wants, our desires, our feelings. Satan is constantly focusing you on you.

And the key to the Christian life is getting your focus off of you, looking full into his wonderful face, as the old chorus said, and let the glory of Jesus shine into your heart. Second Corinthians three, go look that up and read that. It talks about Moses and the 10th meeting. All right, so the conclusion, being a Christian means living daily with active, dependent faith in Jesus. Okay, stand with me, please. I asked Claudio if he'd help me out. So next Sunday night, we're gonna do what we call rejuvenate. It's kind of a joke about resonate. We're doing rejuvenate. If you like to worship using old hymns and choruses, we're gonna do that next Sunday night at five. Come out and join us. We used to sing this old hymn when I was a kid, and I sing a phrase and then there's a repeat. So I sing something, you sing it back, right? So it's living by faith, living by faith, in Jesus above, in Jesus above. You got it? So it goes like that. So it goes like this. ♪ I'm living by faith, living by faith ♪ ♪ In Jesus above, in Jesus above ♪ ♪ I'm trusting, confiding in his great love ♪

♪ Yes, in his great love, and from all harm saved ♪ ♪ Saved from all harm, saved in his sheltering arms ♪ ♪ His sheltering arms, I'm living by faith ♪ ♪ I'm living by faith, and I feel no alarm, I feel no alarm ♪ Would you bow your heads for just a minute? Are you living by faith today? Faith is a now issue. Now faith is, are you living by faith today? Not in the past, but today, are you trusting Jesus? Have you given your life to Jesus yet? Have you surrendered to him? If the Holy Spirit is somehow deep in your soul convincing you that you need to trust Christ, you're not doing this for my benefit, you're doing it for your benefit. If there's something down deep within you that says it's not just intellectual agreement and it's not just somehow foolishness, but somehow I know that I know I need to give my life to Jesus today. If that's you, I'm gonna count to three, just throw a hand up and say, I wanna trust Christ today. You can put it right back down. One, two, three, go ahead. I wanna trust Jesus today. Thank you, God bless you, God bless you. Yes, God bless you. Several hands this morning around the room. God bless you, thank you.

So would you pray something like this? Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus. Jesus, thank you for coming. Thank you for filling all of God's principles and promises. Thank you did it for me. Thank you that went to the cross to take my sin and my shame and my punishment so that I could become your child, be forgiven and have eternal life in Jesus and your spirit to live within me today. I surrender to you, Lord, in Jesus name, amen. Come on, can we celebrate with. all those that just made that decision.