Look to Jesus and Live | Robby Gallaty | Numbers 21

Today I wanna talk to you about how to look to Jesus in order to live, how to look to Jesus in order to live. How many people in here do not particularly like snakes? Anybody, raise your hand high. Okay, yeah, I don't like them as well. But let's just say, God forbid, just for a moment, example's sake, let's say as you're walking in a long hollow today, out of the bushes, lunges at you this snake, it bites the side of your leg in the parking lot as you're coming to church to worship, and the million dollar question is, what do you do next? Run, okay, there you go, yeah. What you don't do is, you don't walk in here, sit down, and try to debate theology about snake bites. That's not what you do. You don't go to a doctor and talk about all the symptoms. You go immediately to a hospital to get what? An antidote for the issue. Come in real close. The reality this morning of every person, I don't know all of you personally, but here's what we all have in common. Every person in this room has already been bitten already, and many people don't even know that they've already been bitten. Now, you may not feel the venom, but it's actually coursing through your veins right now. You know what it's called? It's called sin, and today what we're gonna learn is, what is the antidote that God has given us

for the greatest problem in a human being's life, and crazy as it is, it's counterintuitive to what the culture thought back then. So if you have a Bible, I hope you do. Turn with me to Numbers chapter 21. Numbers 21, how many people still reading through the F260 Old Testament? Raise your hand high so we can see. Okay, awesome. We're making our way through. I'll tell you a couple weeks ago, somebody stopped a church member in the lobby somewhere and said, man, I love Long Hollow. I've been there two months, but I'm ready to get out of the Old Testament. To which he said, buckle in. We're gonna be in it till December. But anyway, I love it. It's unbelievable when you read it slow like this. All right, Numbers 21, we like to say word at Long Hollow. We get into the word, so the word gets into us. And so if you're there, say word. Word. Word of the Lord. Then they set out from Mount Orr by way of the Red Sea to bypass the land of Edom, but the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against Moses and God and said, why have you led us from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There's no bread or water.

And by the way, we detest this wretched food. Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people and they bit them so that many Israelites died. I wanna give you three insights about the sin issue and the serum for the cure for our soul today. Number one is this. We see right out the gate is a sinful rebellion by the people against God. There is this sinful rebellion by the people toward God. So let me give you the backstory. Edom decides you can't go through. Don't collect 200, don't pass go. You can't go through, you gotta go another way. And so they go back to God and Moses is like, all right, we gotta go. God says, we gotta go the Western route, which is way around. And the people basically tuck their proverbial heels in the ground. They say, we're done. We're done with the walking. Now, you don't understand this until you understand this. And this is gonna shock some of you. I remember when I first heard this. Hold your place here in your Bible at Numbers 21 and go back just a few chapters to Numbers 14 and hold this right here, okay? Numbers 14, if you remember, we studied this last week, was when they went into the land to scout it out and they said, we look like grasshoppers,

they look like giants, no bueno. And from that point on, when they said no, which was one year after they left Egypt, this is crazy, from Numbers 14 to Numbers 21, 39 years. Did you ever know that? 39 years have passed. So when you read them saying, we don't like the food, we don't like the walking, we don't like the water, they have been doing it for a long time. So you have to realize, most of the people that left Egypt in exile are dead. Their parents have died and the rest who have made it will die because no one who left will enter except two. Joshua and who? Caleb. So now we have this new generation that was born into the desert and sadly, they have picked up the bad habits of their parents before them because they're complaining. They're just complaining all the time. Now, at first glance, coming close, it looks like they're complaining about the menu items of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. But I just wanna share with you, that's a facade. That's not the real problem. There is actually a problem behind the problem. You ever heard that before? There's an issue below the surface that's not really the issue. Now, let me just say for the record,

so I don't get emailed and nobody gets offended. I have permission to share this illustration with the church, okay? For my family. We, we just had a new tenant move into the Gallaty home recently, and she moved in without even asking for permission. She just kind of moved in, and I'm still getting used to how she talks to us, the family, just be honest with you. She can be moody at times. She goes from being cold when it's hot, and she's hot when it's cold. Wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when it's freezing. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Her name is Perry. Perry Menopause. Anybody, any guys know? I got approval. I'm telling you, I got approval. And I'm just saying, anybody know what a perimenopause, raise your hand sheepishly just so I can see guys. Ladies, I'm not talking about guys, that's what I'm talking about. We're all learning the new normal at the Gallaty home. And I just, when I know it's coming, when the tension's rising, I put out an APB to the dogs and the boys.

Annie and Tubby, run for your lives. Perry's home. I'm playing. But seriously, the new line at the Gallaty home is, you get what you get, and you don't pitch a fit. And that's kind of, I do have a lot of sympathy. Ladies, look at me. I want you to hear my heart. I have a hard time controlling my emotions without hormones. Can I get an amen? So I get it, I get it. But here's the point of that. Normally, here's my point. Normally, the problem in our house, or your house, or situationally, the problem at hand is not really the problem. Here's what I mean. There's an issue behind the issue. Now, the same thing goes in life in general. When you're normally in a disagreement with a spouse, or a partner, or a friend, or someone in your life, there's an issue behind the issue. When you're dealing with your children, there's an issue behind the issue. Better yet, when you're getting criticized by cowboy keyboard, or keyboard cowboys online, who are trying to criticize you and confront you, normally, there's an issue behind the issue.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? Here's the point. The Israelites did not have an issue with the menu items. They had an issue with selfishness. See, they had gotten to a place where they had this sense of entitlement. Like, they felt like, God, God, you owe us something. You put us through this. They started to voice their opinion, and they suffered from something I don't want you to get into. Write this down. Nostalgia complex. You ever heard of this? A nostalgia complex is the tendency we have that the further away we get from our past, we glamorize it in our eyes. You ever notice that? We wanna go back to the good old days. The way that, man, when Brother So-and-So was here, our church was run. Remember that? Or we used to have, that business was booming. Back when we were growing up, boys, we used, that kind of thing. And I'm not saying it's not good, but look at the Israelites. Here they are, and they're saying, Mo, we'd rather go back. We wanna go back to Egypt where we worked seven days a week

in standstorms with high humidity and sweltering heat. How absurd is that? Think about this. They would rather trade the freedom of following the Lord in the present to go back to the bondage of serving Pharaoh in the past. Now, before you throw stones, have you ever done that? You say, oh, man, I wish I can go back to the good old, here's the problem, write this down. The problem with the people was this. The problem wasn't God's provision, meaning God providing. Their problem was their heart's condition. See the difference? It wasn't a God problem. It was a them problem. It was a heart problem. Look at me for a moment. What about you today? What are you complaining about in your life right now? What keeps you up at night? What causes you problems and pain? It's the first thing you think about when you wake up. It's the last thing you think about when you lay down. What you'll find if you really do some deep soul searching, you'll find that the problem you're mad about is not really the problem. There's actually a problem behind the problem. And the bite that you could see, don't miss this, is rarely the poison that's killing you. There's something behind the scenes.

So God says, okay, I'm gonna help you guys. Here's my encouragement. Raise a serpent and set it on a pole. So we have this serpent, really baffling, I'll just be honest with you, it's really odd right here. Put this serpent on a pole and raise it up. Let's look at verse seven of Numbers 21. The people then came to Moses and said, well, we've sinned against the Lord by speaking against the Lord and against you. Would you please intercede for us with the Lord? Intercede just means pray on our behalf. Intercede with the Lord. so that he will take the snakes away from us. And Moses conceded and interceded. It's crazy. Mo needs an award for patience of the year. I mean, this guy. He's like, all right, I'll do it again. Then the Lord said to Moses, make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he or she will recover. So Moses took a bronze snake and mounted it on a wooden pole. Whenever someone was bitten, he looked at the bronze snake and he or she, what? Recovered. Here's what you need to understand. God gets to a point with the people where he has enough. He's tired of the criticism.

He's tired of the insults. And so he sends serpents into the community to literally decimate the nation. Many people died that day from the snake bites. We don't know how many, but I'm assuming a lot of people died. And then finally, the people, after realizing the error of their ways, they go to Moses, hey, Mo, would you help us? Man, we're in trouble. Would you intercede? And Moses intercedes, and watch this. God spares them not by removing the snakes, but by giving an antidote for the venom that's coursing through their bodies. And here's what he says. Take this serpent, wrap it around a wooden pole, and hoist it up in the air so that anybody, here's the key word in your Bible, circle the word, anybody who looks at the serpent will live. Now, that word look is not a glance from a distance. It can actually be translated as trust or believe, because you have to actually believe this thing on a pole will heal you. I wanna give you three sidebar insights about what I found as I was studying this passage. Couple things stood out to me. Number one is this. The remedy for the sin was given by God after the damage was done.

Did you catch that? After the venom was already infecting them, that's when God gave them not a preventative measure, but a prescription to address the problem. Let me say it another way. God didn't remove the snakes from their life. He just gave them a remedy for the poison. Well, what does that have to do with us? God doesn't take, listen, the moment you accept Christ, the moment you fully surrender your life completely to Christ, what happens is two things. Number one is he takes away in that moment the penalty of sin on your record, amen? Anybody amen to that? So that means is when you stand before a righteous judge on the last day, he doesn't judge you based on what you did. He judges you based on the perfect record of Christ, which is flawless. The penalty of sin's removed. But what he doesn't do, come in close, he doesn't remove the power of sin in a person's life. Meaning, what did Paul say? The thing I don't wanna do, I do. The things I do wanna do, I don't do. What a wretched man I am. Paul is a person who is struggling with sin as a believer, and he's wrestling with sin. How many people know you still struggle with sin after you come to faith in Christ, right? The struggle's real, we have it.

But here's what Jesus does, or here's what God says. God says, I'm not gonna take away sin, but I'm gonna give you a cure for it by looking to the pole. Number two, this one's interesting. That word serpent, bronze serpent, where did we first hear that word in the Bible when we started the year, remember this? Not everybody at once. In Genesis chapter three, that word serpent is the same word that was used in Genesis when that serpent, filled with demonic presence, tempted the first couple, you remember this, and caused them to sin. The serpent is an interesting insight. It's a prominent symbol in Egyptian culture. They just came out of Egypt, and if you go to, oh, by the way, we're planning a trip, if you're interested, January 2028, because you can't, it's a long story, but January 2028, to the Nile, to Egypt, to Cairo, to the pyramids, to the Sphinx. We're gonna go to Mount Sinai, we're gonna walk, I mean, anybody interested in going there? I just figured we actually just went through the Old Testament. Why not go see it for yourself? I'm like, yeah. But when you go there, and I've been before, you'll notice that a lot of the symbolism

and jewelry from the kings and the pharaohs, remember this, have serpents woven in or symbols of serpents around their head, why? Because the serpent was a god, they believed, that had power and authority. So it produced power and authority. For the Jewish people, here's what God's showing us. By them wanting to go back to Egypt, they're, in a sense, saying, I wanna go back to the serpent. I wanna go back to Satan's dominion and control. And God basically says, tongue in cheek, oh, you want snakes? I'll give you all the snakes. A serpent you can handle, in a sense. And what does it do? It forces the people to say, they cry uncle, they say, I can't do it. God, would you save me? Which leads to the third thing, and this is the oddest part, I have to admit, the oddest part of the whole passage. When you read it like me, you said, wait a minute, didn't God just say in Exodus, when Moses was on the mountain and they formed a golden calf that just popped out of the fire as an idol, wasn't that just wrong, right? So what gives? Why is God instructing Moses to raise a serpent

on a pole for salvation? Here's the thing, you will not, I'm gonna show you one connection. You cannot understand the old, or you can't understand the new without the old, and you can't understand the old without the new. To get the full weight of this passage, we have to listen to the commentary of Jesus. Turn with me to John 3. Not John 3, 16, which is what we know, that's the most popular verse in the New Testament. Anybody know what John 3, 16 says? Say it out loud. I hope you're not trying to share Christ with a lost person, because that ain't gonna work. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. God help us, please, today, we're, no. No, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his own, you know this verse, okay? Everybody knows John 3, 16, but they don't know John 3, 14. Or 3, 15. John 3, 14 and 15 is a direct connection all the way back to Numbers 21. So if you're in your Bible, write down next to John 3, 14, Numbers, I like to write these little connections, Numbers 21. Here's what it says. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent or the snake in the wilderness,

so the Son of Man, that's code word for who? Jesus, the Son of Man, it's a Messianic term, must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Then he says, for God so loved the world in this way that he gave his only begotten, or that word begotten's not the best way. He gave his one and only or unique son. He's a son like all of us, but he's unique. He's unlike any other son. So that everyone who believes in him will not perish, be separated from him, but have eternal life. Number three is this. We have a serpent hoisted on a pole. We have a savior raised on a cross. That's what all this is about. And this is the punchline you're waiting for. Jesus is talking in John 3 to a religious leader. And that religious leader has a name. His name's Nicodemus. He's very high up. It would be like a cardinal in the Catholic Church, be like the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, if you would think that, or a bishop in the mass. And this guy's high up. And he comes to Jesus at night, and Jesus is basically saying, how can I be born again? He's like, I'm an old man.

How can I go back in my mother's womb? How can I be born again? And so he's not understanding salvation. And so he's having a hard time with redemption and salvation from a dead man who's crucified on the cross, put in the ground. He can't understand that. And Jesus says, this is not far-fetched, Nicodemus. Don't you remember number 21? And in a real sense, don't miss this. God gives this odd way of salvation in the Old Testament to build this reflex in the mind of the New Testament hearers to be receptive for what he's gonna do. That's what he's doing here. And here's what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus in my words. Don't miss this. Just as the people looked to the serpent that was raised on a wooden pole and were healed, in a very short time, Nicodemus, people will look to me raised on a cross for salvation to be healed. Now, here's what I want you to understand about the people. Notice for healing in the Old Testament numbers. When Moses raised the pole, did people run up and try to climb it? Thank you. Thank you. That's a seven-year-old too. No, they didn't run. Did they have to touch it?

It was like these CrossFit. They gotta climb and hit the thing. Did they have to do that? They have to hit the certain? No, they didn't have to do any meritorious. Feel the weight of this. They had to do no work to be saved and healed. They simply had to what? Lift their eyes and look up. Jesus said the same thing in John 13, verse 32. He said, if I be lifted up on the earth, you know this verse, then I will what? Draw all men and women to myself. That word lifted up has a dual meaning. It doesn't just mean hoisted up in the air. It does, but it's more than that. It's actually the same word for exaltation, to exalt or to magnify one's glory. So Jesus is saying, listen, the Romans are gonna kill me, and it's gonna look like I'm being eliminated, but that's not the case. I'm actually. being exalted and I'm honoring the Father through my death. Isn't that good news today? Like the serpent gave up his life, or like the serpent gave life to those who were dying, Jesus is saying, my death will be the serum to your sin problem. Galatians 3.13 corrects our thinking. Paul says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of what?

Of sin, of the law. So there's a curse with the law, with sin. Becoming a curse for us, just as it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. This is the paradox of the Christian life. I don't want you to miss this. God took the cross, something so sinister, death as a curse of sin, and he turned it around as a cure for your condition. Isn't that good news today? He took something so sinister, the crucifixion, death, punishment, crown of thorns, and he made it the only means by which men, women, boys and girls can be saved. And that's why John 3.16 says, for God so loved the Jews. Is that what he says? That's what they, listen, if you were in the audience that day, that's exactly what you're waiting to hear, because they were God's chosen people. They were God's apple of his eye. Here's what God, Jesus didn't say that. And by the way, this was shocking to them. This was scandalous to them. Jesus said, for God, it's like saying, for God so loved Long Hollow. We're the only church in town. God just loves, he doesn't love anybody else, but our church.

You're like, that's ridiculous, right? That's how they thought. Like God, no, Jesus says, for God so loved the what? Say it like you mean it. World, he loved the whole world. You know what that means? He loves even the Gentiles, those who don't look like you, act like you, talk like you, speak like you. And then he says, for God so loved the what? Now, a lot of people think, well, is that universalism? Like the whole world, like anybody can go? It's not universalism, because everyone will not be saved. He clarifies it by saying, for God so loved the world that whoever, what? Believes, that's the entrance. That's the entrance into the kingdom. That's the entrance into eternal life. I like to say it this way, you can write it down. Jesus's death is sufficient for all. Anybody can come to Jesus at any time, anywhere, but it's only effectual, meaning it changes your life. It only has effect for those who believe. See the difference? Anybody can come, but not everybody will. Believe in who though? Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Charles Russell, Harry Crick, no, he's specific. God so loved the world that whosoever, or who? King James, sorry.

Whoever believes in him. By the way, I have a video coming out. Couldn't record it, but it'll be out next week. King James version only-ism. Expecting some comments from that one, Todd. Some people believe that King James fell from angels in heaven. Anyway, you have to watch and see. But anyway, here's why. God says, my son, Jesus Christ. And here's what you gotta love about God. God doesn't enlist someone else to do the job only he can do. God doesn't send someone else's son to die on a cross. God doesn't elect another person to take his place. No, God says, I'm gonna send not just a son, my only son, and when he dies, he's gonna give life to everyone who simply believes. Now, I know what you're thinking. This is the oddest thing in the world. It can't be that simple. That's what some people think. It can't be that simple. Are you sure? That's what, you know who the hardest people to come to Christ? Those with a mathematical or an engineering mind. You're too, by the way, if that's you, you're too smart for your own good. I'm not that smart, and I'm okay with that.

Because I have simple faith, and I believe. Now, do I have all my questions answered? No, you never will. And by the way, if you can understand everything about God on this earth, he wouldn't be a God you'd wanna serve for eternity anyway. Amen? And so belief seems so simplistic, but that's what makes it amazing. And that's what grace is. See, by looking to the death of Jesus, you and I are able to enter the kingdom of heaven today. God takes something so horrific, so bad, and he glorifies himself through it. And that's who God is. For those who don't know God, friends, God loves to show up and show off that way. God always takes a mess, and he turns it around and makes a message out of it. Anybody know what I'm talking about? this week, what describes what I'm saying, and it brought me back to the time I went on a mission trip with my dad, small group, about 10, 11 years ago to Cairo, Egypt, I mentioned earlier. If you've ever been to Cairo, you know it's a city that has about 18 million people living in the city of Cairo. With that many people, you can imagine in a third world country, poverty is a problem, and trash is an issue.

And so within the city of Cairo, there's actually another city, you can look it up online, but it's called Trash City, Garbage City, that's what they call it. This is a place where the less desirables have created an income for their families by rummaging through garbage, recycling it, and then selling it. And what these people have literally done is, they've actually moved into the city dump and built houses and homes where they live. There's roughly, they say, roughly 50,000 people who live in Trash City. By the 1970s, you can imagine there were some problems in Trash City, the residents didn't have electricity, they didn't have gas, they didn't have water, they didn't have plumbing, alcoholism, because of the conditions, was on the rise, and so there was a lot of fighting, crime was out of control. I remember visiting that city for the first time. I was, being overwhelmed is an understatement. It's overwhelming. Trash was piled as high as I could see, not to mention, I met some folks who just went last year and I said this, and they're like, first thing we remember, the smell, it's unforgettable. It is unforgettable. It is the centerpiece of all things garbage and trash. Just imagine a place with trash as far

as you could see with your eye. No church in a town of 50,000. By 1972, an Egyptian garbage collector who lived on the outside and just traveled to drop the trash off to Trash City, shared Christ with one of his neighbors, or one of the residents in town, and that person came to faith in Christ, and when he was leaving, the Lord put on his heart, hey, I don't want you to leave anymore from Trash City. This is a true story, by the way. I don't want you to leave anymore from Trash City. I want you to actually take your family, move into the dump, and minister to these people. And the man, if you can imagine, if that was you, began saying to the Lord, he was overwhelmed. He's like, God, what can I do? I'm just an insignificant drop in the ocean. What can somebody like me do? I'm a trash collector. At that moment, as he's standing there, lamenting to the Lord, these people are hard, these people are wild, these people are out of control. What can I do? A Bible page of a fragment of an Arabic Bible, you can't make this stuff up, this is only the Lord. An Arabic fragment of a Bible page lands at his feet. He leans down, picks up the page, it's Acts 18, and he reads these words. The words say, I am with you, and no one's going to harm you

because I have many people in this city. So what does he do? He starts a church in Trash City. Now, let me prepare you for what you're about to see. This is a video I took from the bottom. You walk, you drive up in vans, and you have no idea what you're seeing because the church is cut out of a rock or a hole in the mountain, and you go down into the church. When you get out the van, you realize you're in a place that seats over 10,000 people. 10,000 people, and this is what we saw. It is simply breathtaking when you walk in. Now, this is me on the bottom, looking around the worship center here. You can see the stage there. And I'll just be honest, when I walked on that platform there, I had tears in my eyes filming this. Why? Because I got to see firsthand the handiwork of our God. I got to see what happens when a man basically says, God, I'm available. I was so amazed that God could take something so despicable, so dirty, so miserable, and turn it around and make it a trophy of His grace. Now, why do I tell you this story? Because if you caught it already, that's what He did with the cross.

He took something so horrific, the worst way to die, and God says, I'm gonna take the worst way and make it the only way to be saved. Feel the way it is. An uneducated garbage collector said yes to God, and a church was raised from the ashes. You know why God does that? God loves to take a mess and turn it into a mess. Can anybody amen to that? And here's what it starts with. Yeah, praise the Lord. You can praise the Lord for that. Here's what it starts with. It starts with putting your yes on the table. It starts with trusting Jesus for your future. Now, I don't know this for sure, but scholars would agree that what we don't talk about in Numbers 21, and it's an argument from absence, but here's the reality. The reality is not everybody looked to the serpent raised on a pole for salvation. You have to believe some people said, it's the stupidest, what are you talking about? A bronze snake on a pole, I'm not doing that, and they died. They died, because it was foolish. It was immature. It was rudimentary. I'm not looking to that. You know what's even worse than that?

That's a tragedy. You know what's worse than that? Men and women who live in Middle Tennessee, who come to Long Hollow, who watch online, who are incarcerated and journey with this every single week, but they refuse to look to Jesus for salvation, because it seems so foolish, so childish, so immature. Here's the good news today, and I wanna share this as we close. You and I live in a world where we don't have to look to a serpent on a pole for salvation. We just need to look to a Savior who died on a cross to set us free. And we serve a God who took the worst curse, and he turned it into a cure. And here's how you enter into that relationship with God, not just from a distance, personal. That's what I tell people all the time. Knowing Jesus died on a cross for sin is history. That's history. By the way, history is his story. Did you know that? His story. But anyway, it's history. He wrote it, his story. That's history. Knowing Jesus died for your sins on that cross, that's salvation. You see the difference?

One is from a distance, one's personal. Have you made it personal today, brother? Let me pray for you, sister, as you close your eyes. Before I pray, I wanna ask you a question. The question's not whether you've been bitten by sin. We've all been bitten. The question is, are you certain that you have a cure or a remedy for the issue? And the way you do that is simply crying out to the Lord. Right now, there's nothing special about this prayer. There's nothing magical, supernatural about the prayer. In fact, I tell people, when you open your mouth to pray or pray in your heart, God puts his ear to your heart. He wants to know your heart. Wants to know your sincerity. Maybe if you're saying, man, I'm far from the Lord, but I wanna know Jesus. Would you just, in the quietness of your heart, say something like this. God, I'm like the Israelites in the Old Testament who rebelled. If you're a Gallatin, maybe you're an incarcerated, say it with me. Say it in the quietness of your heart. God, I'm like the Israelites, I rebelled. Not with complaining about food or water, but complaining about my life or my situation. God, I feel like at times I'm struggling with sin, addiction, pornography, sleeping around, drunkenness, anger, judgmental attitude, criticism.

And I wanna do good, God, I know, but I can't because I realize I can't cure myself and I can't be good enough. I can't debate people long enough. And I know, God, I just have to look, and it seems so simple and foolish, but I just wanna look to the cross of Christ for healing. God, I give you my life. Say that now. God, I give you my life right now in Jesus' name. Every head bowed before I pray for you. If you prayed that prayer in your heart and you meant it, no one looking around but me, would you just slip your hand up so I could just acknowledge you before the Lord? I'm not gonna call you out, I'm just gonna pray over you in a moment. Thank you, sister. Anyone else? Just raise it high so I could see, don't be ashamed. Thank you in the back. Anyone else? Just raise it high. Praise God. Praise God. I see you in the back. Hands all over. Praise God. Anyone else? Pastor Robbie, just pray for me.

Thank you, little brother. Anyone else? Pastor Robbie, pray for me. Thank you, brother. Anyone in the balcony? Praise God. Thank you, brother. Praise God. Thank you, brother. Praise God. You put your hands down. Father, I pray for those who responded today, and you know their heart, God. We're not trying to be good enough or better or strong enough or work hard enough. We simply wanna release what we have and surrender to you. And I'm praying, God, as we leave this place, our lives will be changed for the better, that we would make a difference, realizing we're not here by accident, and we ask it in the only name we know how. And that's the strong and powerful name of Jesus Christ. And everyone said. Amen.