My Way Or The Highway

We're so glad you're here, would you stand to your feet this morning, no matter what we're going to sing, we can praise the Lord. Come on, let's sing this together. We're so glad you're here, would you stand to your feet this morning, no matter what we're going to sing, we can praise the Lord. We're so glad you're here, would you stand to your feet this morning, no matter what we're going to sing, we can praise the Lord. We're so glad you're here, would you stand to your feet this morning, no matter what we're going to sing, we can praise the Lord. We're so glad you're here, would you stand to your feet this morning, no matter what we're going to sing, we can praise the Lord. All right, welcome to church, everybody. Glad to have all of you and welcome all of our campuses for what we call a One Church Sunday. This is one of those days we all connect via video to remind ourselves we are a part of one big family, called Cross Church Spread Across Northwest Arkansas, and this allows us to stay on the same page together, same mission. And so wherever you're at, welcome, glad to have you today. Welcome to Time Change Sunday, props to y'all, you made it to church, God loves you more than He loves other people, I'm just kidding, but we're thankful that you are here. I just left the 8 a.m. service at Fayetteville, it doesn't matter, every single year for some reason I schedule myself at the 8 a.m. service on Time Change Sunday, I don't know who makes the schedule, but he should really get it together, okay? But we're glad you're here, and if you've got your Bible in your journal, why don't you grab it? Genesis chapter 30 is where we're gonna be today. While you're turning there, I do hope you'll make plans to join us tonight. As you just heard the Blackwells talk about, it's gonna be an incredible time together.

Greg Mott is, man, one of the best. You're gonna love him. And if you're wondering, like, is anybody coming or is it just gonna be me and you and Meredith, all right, and Greg, like, we have over 2,000 people registered to come tonight. And so it's not gonna be, you're not gonna be alone. And so if you've wondered, like, hey, we're struggling a little bit, but don't want anybody to know we're struggling, listen, everybody's struggling. All right, come on. We're gonna have a fun time together tonight. And here's a little, I had a little birdie tell me the schedule. Trust me, you want to be in the room at five o'clock when it starts. So get there early, get your kids checked in, and it's gonna be a lot of fun, but the fun begins promptly at five. All right, does that sound good? Hope you'll make plans to join us. If you're new today, welcome, glad to have you. We are really have spent all of the fall and the spring up to this point in the book of Genesis through really four different series of sermons. And we are in the middle of one right now called One Big Happy Family. It's really a sarcastic title. This is anything but One Big Happy Family.

It would be better titled One Big Crazy Family. Anybody in the middle of a crazy family yourself and you think to yourself, man, this is timely. We're dysfunctional as well. Here's the incredible thing that we see and have seen for weeks, and you're gonna see it again today, is that somehow in the midst of all this dysfunction, God is still at work. That give you any hope today for your own life and family? That even in the midst of the crazy, even in the midst of this stuff that isn't the way that it should be, God can still move, and God is still moving in the midst of all that. So today, here's the Talibran message. We're gonna talk about my way or the highway. Anybody in your family like that, go ahead and be picturing their face right now in your mind, the person that stomps their foot against the ground and says, it's my way or the highway. You got that person in mind? Little heads up, if you can't think of anybody, you are that person, okay? Meredith and I have been married 20 years. It'll be 21 in May, which basically means we've been in a 20-year process of dying to the statement, it's my way or the highway. When you first get married, in fact, let me back up.

When you're first born, this my way or the highway mindset comes extremely naturally. And then you step into a relationship with somebody else and you start to build a family, and guess what? It's still there. And let me give you like an silly example of our own marriage. When we first got married, my family grew up with an artificial Christmas tree. Some might even go so far as to call them fake Christmas trees, all right? It's real to me. And then Meredith's family, they grew up with real Christmas trees. In other words, her dad would go out every Christmas season where they lived in Florida, and he would go buy a real Christmas tree, all right? So then we got married, and both of us had a my way or the highway mindset. So what that meant is for the first few years, I won. And then for the next several, several, several years, she won, all right? And then we both got tired of all the needles all over the house, and so we are back to a fake Christmas tree. I think it's a good time for a poll. All campuses, if you're a fake Christmas tree person, raise your hand all over.

Amen, hallelujah, hallelujah. I see, yes, hallelujah, amen. How about all the real Christmas tree people? Raise your hand. Okay. The end of our service today, we're gonna have a time of repentance and then getting right with the Lord. So, isn't that a silly example though? And we have a million others that we could share with you, and guess what? You do too, all right? This story that we're gonna read today in Genesis chapter 30, we'll bounce back to chapter 29 and back to 30, really is a story about a family who is insisting on their own way. And I would just tell you, anytime there's a my way or the highway mindset within a family, it's never gonna work well. Anytime that's present in a marriage, it's never gonna be a thriving marriage. It doesn't matter if it's a parent-child relationship, siblings, doesn't matter if it's business relationships or friendships outside of church, maybe it's a school friendship. Anytime somebody puts down their foot and says it's my way or the highway, dysfunction is about to ensue, and that's exactly what takes place

here in this passage today. If you remember what has just happened prior to chapter 30, Jacob has gone to the home of a guy named. Laban, and he has desired to marry one of the sisters. There's two sisters. There's Leah and Rachel. He desires to meet, or not just to meet, but to marry Rachel. And Laban, if you remember, through a deceiving type of thing, has him marry Leah, first of all, and then makes him work for years and years and years and years to ultimately get to marry Rachel. That is what you call polygamy. It is never good. It's not promoted here in the Bible. You're gonna see it kind of spiral into further dysfunction even here today. And so just heads up on that. The passage ends in chapter 29. Here's what you need to understand. Leah, the first wife, is able to conceive and have children while Rachel is barren and unable to have children. Everybody got that so far? Let's look at chapter 30. Just read with me in verse one. It says, when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied, underline or circle that word in your Bible, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, give me children or I shall die.

Jacob's angry at her. He says this, am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? Then she said, here's my servant Bilhah. Go into her so that she may give birth on my behalf that even I may have children through her. Okay, Paul's there. Everybody got the picture? Rachel's childless, really wants a child, so she ultimately offers her servant, Bilhah, to her husband as a surrogate who will have the child on her behalf. Now, this is dysfunctional, but here's what you gotta understand. This is somewhat of a normal practice in the ancient Near East during that time. We've already seen this dysfunction take place in the grandparents. Remember who else did this? Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was barren, unable to have children. She's desperate, so she offers, what was her name? Yell it out, Hagar. And so that was Genesis chapter 16, I believe. And so we've already seen this dysfunction take place, but can we all agree, weird practice, yeah? Like not a healthy relationship, not a healthy marriage, healthy family whatsoever. But listen, when you've already made the jump to two wives, why not make the jump to three?

I don't say that as like prescriptive. I say that as descriptive, okay? Just not promoting. Okay, let's go, let's keep moving on. Rachel basically says this, it's my way or the highway I've got to have kids. And here's what I would say, as we kind of like jump into this passage, there are several things that brings a person to a, it's my way or the highway mindset. And I'm gonna talk with you about four that we see in this family today that are four that are very present in our own lives and our own families as well. But here's what I would tell you. There's gonna be a tendency when I say these four that you're gonna have a, I think a good heart and maybe even a heart of obedience to say, well, I just need to stop that. And there is an element of that, but I think it's more than that. Like willpower on its own will not last against these four. There's a famous, like a viral skit years ago that a guy named Bob Newhart, all the older people in the room were like, yeah, Bob Newhart, I love Bob. All the younger people were like, never heard of him. Bob Newhart in this certain TV show, he played the role of a counselor. And this woman came in and she said,

you know, I need help. I'm very fearful of getting buried alive in a wooden box. That was why she went to counseling. And so they play it out in a comical way of why she's afraid and what's it making her do. And then Bob Newhart, the counselor looks at her and says, I'm gonna give you two words to solve all this. And she says, okay, well, let me write this down. He said, you can, but it's just two words. Most people can remember it. And he looks at her as the counselor and he just says this, stop it. Stop it. Stop worrying. Stop thinking about this. Stop letting it do weird things in your life. Just stop it. And I think by the end of the message, that's gonna be almost in a legalistic mindset. That's gonna be where some of us get of, yeah, Nick's right. I need to stop it. And here's what I would tell you. You can, I would say you could stop these temporarily, but you cannot overcome them by stopping them. You must surrender them to the Lord. Those are different things entirely. One relies on your power. One relies on God's power. Whose power do you want?

And so I'm gonna encourage you to surrender. So let's dive into these four aspects of a my way or the highway mindset. Here's the first thing. It is the word envy, okay? The word envy. What is behind Rachel's decision to give her servant to her husband? in this way, in part, it's envy. If you look back at verse one, I had you circle the word, she envied her sister. Now here's the base definition, if you were to look in the dictionary today, of envy. Envy is a feeling of discontented or resentful longing. That's quite the start right there. A discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck. So it's this idea of envy, or even what is portrayed here is the idea of jealousy. I'll get to that in one moment. We often think of things like envy and jealousy. These are things that when our kids come home from school and they're upset that one of their friends got to go on this trip, or one of their friends is wearing these clothes, and we're like, hey, don't be jealous of them. You ever told your kids, don't be jealous? Can I speak to all the grownups in the rooms today? And a thing that we think is a childish thing,

have you ever had these thoughts? Oh, I don't know why they got to go on that vacation. Nice car they pulled in the parking lot with today. Why did they get the promotion? I've been here at the company longer. You know what that is? At its base definition, it is envy, okay? Now the book of Genesis is written in the Hebrew language. If you look at this in Hebrew, it is literally meant to say this in Hebrew, and she became intensely jealous. That's what envy, her sister, means here. In fact, the Hebrew emphasizes that intensity, giving the impression of a burning jealousy. Write that in your Bible or on your notes. This is a burning jealousy in the heart of Rachel. Now there are certain sins in your life, and here's what I would begin with. I would say that there's no level of sins. It doesn't matter if it's a white lie or adultery, like Jesus Christ died so that you could be free of that. And I believe he died so that you could be free of the four things we're talking about today, that Jesus Christ died, not just for the forgiveness of sins or to take you to heaven when you die, but Jesus Christ also died so that you could have freedom on earth from things like envy. And so when you think about this,

there are no levels to sin. Like Jesus Christ came to die for the white lie that you told as a child. And he came to die for those who've murdered multiple people, like all those in between. But I will say there are certain sins that have various consequences that are more harsh than others. In other words, there are certain sins that just seem to tear to shreds those in its wake. For instance, I think sexual sin is that way of any sort. Anytime you step outside of a man and woman within the confines of marriage and a covenanted relationship, anytime you step out of that and pornography, adultery, premarital sex, you name it outside of that. I think it's like this, it's like opening your hand and you lose the ability to determine the consequences. And it just tears things to shreds. I think any kind of family sin when you don't expect the people who are not supposed to hurt you to hurt you, that tears things to shreds. I would actually put envy in this category and you may be surprised to hear that. But I think envy in this burning jealousy has a way of ripping things to shreds.

Like let's just look at this one family. Look at the screens here. Look at envy in the life of Rachel. Three things took place. It turned her against her sister so that she had a burning jealousy towards her sister. Number two, it created conflict with her husband where now Jacob's angry. Like, why are you looking at me? Like God's the one who's closed your womb. Don't blame this on me. And then thirdly, it drove her to a desperate decision. Everybody agrees it's a desperate decision to give your servant to your husband. Like a little bit out of bound, not a little bit, like way out of bounds and just a desperate thing because you want what you want, my way or the highway. Envy ripped apart this family. Here's the second thing. Let's get to verse four. Here's what he says. He says, so she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife and Jacob went into her and Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, God has judged me. I want you to listen to her mindset here. And has also heard my voice and given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan.

Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said with mighty wrestlings, I have wrestled with my sister and look at her mindset and have prevailed. So she called his name Naphtali. All of you pregnant ladies in the room, do not name your kid Naftali, okay? He's gonna be made fun of at school, all right? First thing we see in this passage is envy. Here's the second thing we see. We see just pain, like just flat out real pain. We've seen already that envy can make some people do some crazy things, and here's what I would say. Pain can make you do some weird things. In my experience as a pastor over 20 years, I have seen pain make some people do some weird bad things that ultimately just spirals them in to further and further dysfunction. By the way, this is this family. One author that I studied as I was preparing for this message, he brilliantly talked about how both of these sisters had pain. Leah had pain, Rachel had pain. Let's talk about both of their pains. Number one, Leah had the pain of being the unwanted wife. How would you feel, ladies, if your husband wanted to marry your sister, but instead had to marry you first? You'd probably be like, I don't know that I'm really down

with this relationship, and it would not make you feel loved, but unloved, and not wanted, but unwanted, and that is this story, and that is this family right here. I just turned one page back in your Bible to chapter 29. Told you we were gonna bounce back there. Look at the mindset of Leah in verse 31 of chapter 29. It says, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben. Look at how she responds. Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, and now my husband will love me. That's a sad reality, is it not? Verse 33, she conceived again and bore a son, and said, because the Lord has heard that I am hated, and he has given me this son also, and she called his name Simeon. Verse 34, again she conceived and bore a son, and said, now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore, his name was called Levi, and she conceived again and bore a son, and said, this time I will praise the Lord. Therefore, she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing. This is both the picture of great faith and a really sad picture as well. You have an unwanted and an unloved wife, but here's where you gotta give Leah props.

In the middle of her pain, what did she do? She turned to the Lord. Let me speak to everybody in this room who's walking through pain of some sort. What are you turning to right now? Who are you turning to? This is a massive step here that Leah takes, that man, at least she's turning to God in the midst of her pain. Look at how she describes her own children. The Lord has looked upon my affliction. This time I will praise the Lord. So Leah is at least turning to God right now. Rachel, on the other hand, and I apologize to all the Rachel's in the room today. Rachel's a bitter woman. She's a bitter woman who is mad at her husband. She's mad at God. And look at how she has described her own children. God has judged me. And with mighty wrestlings, I have prevailed over my sister. Pain makes you do some weird things like seeing the birth of your child as a way to one up your sister. Everybody see how dysfunctional this is? Now I taught you this principle back when we were studying Abraham and Sarah's life. I think it applies again today. So I'm gonna say it to you again today. Write this down in your journal.

One of the greatest tests in your life is how you handle your deepest pain. One of the greatest tests that you will ever go through in your Christian life is how you handle your deepest pain. Will you allow pain to strengthen your faith? Or will your faith falter as a result? Let me make this personal. Several years ago, our family went through something that was brutally painful. I would say it was betrayal by many people. There was a loss of what once was. Can I not be a pastor for a second and just be a Christian with you? That get permission granted? This shook me to the core and shook my faith as much as anything else I've ever had happen in my life. Questions of if God allowed this, is he really still good entered my mind. Anybody else been there before? Just being real with you today. And I found myself at a similar fork in the road of dealing with pain, and the fork in the road was, will I respond like Leah or respond like Rachel? Leah turned to the Lord, Rachel turned away from the Lord. Leah got soft towards the Lord, Rachel got bitter towards the Lord and towards other people. And thank God in His grace, I give Him credit, not myself, He just kinda just picked me up and carried me forward to let it deepen my faith and strengthen my faith. So again, if you're in pain right now of some sort, who are you turning to and what are you turning to? Are you turning to a drink, you turning to a box of pills, you turning to immorality

in some way? Listen, all those things that fill in the gap for you in the middle of pain, that is what Jesus desires to be for you. But you gotta allow Him to be that for you, you gotta lean into Him, okay? So my way, the highway mindset, it is all about envy, it's all about pain. Let me give you a third thing, it's all about fear, okay? Anybody afraid of anything today? Anybody letting fear drive you towards some different kinds of things in your life? Look back at the passage, chapter 30 in verse 9, it says, when Leah saw that she had cease-bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah, different sister, different servant. What did she do? Gave her to Jacob as a wife. If you've already got three wives, why not have four, right? I think there's a show on TLC about this, okay? Says then Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son, and Leah said, good fortune has come, and she called his name Gad. And Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son, verse 13, and Leah said, happy am I, for women have called me happy, so she called his name Asher. Now to be very frank with you, I just spent the last five minutes lifting up the faith of Leah, right? In the middle of her pain, she turned to God. Props to Leah. But just because you trusted in God at one point in your life doesn't mean you'll trust God at the next point in your life. Just because you're faithful to God in one season of your life doesn't guarantee that you'll be faithful to God in the next season of your life. Leah is that example. She trusts the Lord, and then here's what I think happens. She gets afraid. She's the one who had children first, and now Rachel's got children, and she's not bearing

any more children, so she's like, man, I'm gonna go back to being the unloved and unwanted wife. And so Jacob, here's my servant Zilpah. Sleep with her. On the count of three, everybody say dysfunctional, one, two, three. Is this not crazy? I mean the Bible holds no punches on these people of like, well, let's gloss over that so it doesn't sound as bad. This is jacked up to the max. Again, one of the reasons and proofs of the authenticity of Scripture is the Bible just says what happens. The Bible just gives it to us straight. And here's what I would tell you, fear drove much of this story. Rachel is fearful of the public and private shame because in that day, barrenness was seen as a, like an embarrassment to the husband, and so she's embarrassed and afraid of the public shame and private shame that's gonna come for this, and so she lets fear drive her to take matters into her own hands, and now Leah's afraid, and she's taking matters into her own hands, and let me just make this personal. Is there any evidence in your life of you allowing fear to drive you to some unhealthy decisions? I'm gonna say it to you again. Is there any evidence in your life of fear driving you to make unhealthy decisions? If you're, if you're not sure about this, ask your family. Are you doing anything, even that's weird, that your family can identify immediately like, well, it's just because you're afraid of. It's because it's happened to you in the past and now you're afraid it's gonna happen again. Like just over lunch today, ask your family. Is there anything that I'm doing that you think is really driven by fear, and you'll watch your kid maybe pull the mac and cheese out of his mouth and say, well, dad, I think it's this.

Mom, I think it's this. Fear drives us to some, some weird places. Here's a fourth and final one. How about control? Control. Let, let's do another poll. Anybody brave enough in this room to say? Nick, control freak, raise your hand. Okay, lots of honest people here today. How many of you would be honest? My husband or my wife, don't raise your hand, don't raise your hand. We have a marriage conference tonight, all right? You wanna make it to the conference without getting killed, all right? For the sake of time, I don't have time to read how the story ends, but let me just tell it to you. And I apologize in advance to all the parents who are gonna have to explain some different kinds of things on the way home, sorry. There's a weird twist in the story where Leah's son finds some mandrakes in the field, a fruit. And Rachel wants some of the mandrakes, and Leah essentially says, well, in order for you to get these mandrakes, you must let me sleep with Jacob tonight, to which Rachel agrees. It's an odd part of the story because Leah's already married to Jacob, so why is there permission given? This may give you an idea of Rachel holds the cards

in this polygamous family. Again, against God's plan, and this is why. And so Rachel agrees, and you say, well, why did Rachel want this fruit so bad? Well, in that day, there are some scholars who believe that this fruit was believed in that day to increase female fertility. And so here she is, if that is the reason, it may explain her still trying to control. Try to control the situation, first of all, here's my servant, Bilhah, sleep with her, I'll get kids. Now she's like, I still want to conceive myself, and I need some mandrakes so that I can get pregnant myself, and just control, control, control. Note these two statements here. I want you to write these down about the connection between pain and control. Number one is this, unresolved pain in the heart often expresses itself as a desire to control. We'll pause there for a second, let you have time to write that down. Unresolved pain in the heart often expresses itself as a desire to control. I got hurt at this point. Y'all wanna hear it in Arkansan? Ain't no way I'm ever letting that happen to me again. You ever been there? You get so hurt, and from now on, everybody's at a distance, everybody's at arm's length, and you begin to control relationships, nobody gets close.

What is that? In part, that's unresolved pain. Secondly, I would just say it this way, pain that isn't surrendered often becomes control. So if you would say, Nick, I do think I'm a control freak, or I mean, I've just got a controlling nature to me, I would say, look back at your life, look back at your past, and are there certain elements of pain that you have never surrendered to the Lord? You've handled Him yourself, you've carried Him yourself, but there's never been a willing submission of that pain to be dealt with by the Lord. Again, do you want your power or God's power? That's the difference in willpower or surrender to the Lord. Just FYI, just for kicks here, Leah's also guilty of control. If I control these mandrakes, then I can get what I really want, which is just to feel loved by my husband. Again, just wild dysfunctional story. Story ends with Leah having a few more children, and Rachel also has a son whom she would name Joseph. In the midst of all this crazy dysfunctional family, the sovereign thread of God's plan is still moving in this family. Man, you should give us so much hope today. If you feel like, man, we have blown it as parents, or we've blown it as grandparents, or I've blown it as a child,

or I've blown it as a sister or brother, aunt, uncle, whatever, I've blown it. Man, God, in His grace, in His sovereignty, is still writing a story, and He makes all things work together for good. Anybody need that hope today? All things. Aren't you thankful that God didn't put a limit on what that is? He just said all things. You know what that means? You know what all things means in the original language? All things. All things. So God can turn all things that are dysfunctional in your family, and use it for His good and His glory in your life. but you got to lean in. I want to give you two questions as I wrap up today. These are for your own life. Number one, you need to ask yourself this, am I this person in my family? Am I this person in my family who's driven by these four things? You know, the word of God, before it is ever meant to be applied to somebody else's life, it should serve as a mirror to your own life. And so I think you need to honestly ask yourself, am I this person?

Am I driven by envy, a burning jealousy in my life in some way? Is past pain in my life causing me to do some crazy things? Is fear driving me to make harmful decisions in my life? Am I a controlling person? That's just led me to some weird places. Am I this person? Second question, maybe more of you can get your arms around. How do I handle these people? There are no doubt, there's probably many of us in the room who we've been convicted by one, two, all four of those things in our own lives. And we're ready to repent before the Lord, get right with God. I would say even more so, there's all of us in the room who are like, I got to deal with her on that. I got to deal with him on that. And we got to deal with it every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, every vacation or every day. And you're like, how do I handle these people? And can I give it to you in non-church terms? They're just driving you nuts. And you don't really know what to do. I could talk to you about boundaries today as we wrap up. And no doubt, there are some of you who need to create some godly, healthy boundaries.

I could talk to you about giving grace to people or forgiving people. And no doubt, some of you need to give grace to people in your family. You need to forgive people in your family. But here's what I would say. Let's not fail to do exactly what Leah and Rachel failed to do. You see, the story here is ultimately not one of envy, fear, control, or pain. The story is of two sisters. Here's what it is, whole message like this. The story is two sisters who failed to turn to the Lord. It's what it is. They had circumstances in their life that they didn't like. And they just didn't turn to God. But they turned to what? To envy, to pain, to control, to fear. And that led them to some really dark places, some really dysfunctional places, some really polygamous places. Think I'd ever say that word out loud, to say that phrase out loud? And so can you guess where I'm gonna encourage you to get to today? If you're in a situation that is not going the way you want it to go, if you are disappointed in life, disappointed by other people, you're not where you thought you would be right now, I'm just gonna encourage you to turn to the Lord today.

And maybe you're here today and you realize that you're the dysfunctional one. I would encourage you not only to turn to the Lord today, but you need to turn to people around you. And at some point today, tomorrow, sometime this week, you need to try your best to make that right. But if you're the dysfunctional one in the family, and you're like, dude, I have been dominated by one or all of these things, I'm just gonna ask you to come. And I think this begins with you just doing business with the Lord. Lord, I don't wanna be like this. And I can't just stop it like the counselor said. I just wanna surrender that I've not been healthy and I wanna get healthy. What an amazing journey God would take many of you on today if you just said those words, Lord, I'm not healthy, but I wanna be healthy and I'm submitting my life to you. Maybe you're here today and you're in a broken family and it's not even because of your own choices. It's other dysfunctional people within the family, but you're like juggling jello. Can you get that word picture in your mind? And like all the time, you're just having to juggle jello and try to figure out different situations within the family. And you're just desperate for God to help. I'm just gonna invite you to come to the altar today. Like maybe you need a divine intervention of God.

I have prayed and I have had hard conversations. I have set boundaries, but Lord, I'm just asking for a divine intervention of health into my family. I'm just gonna invite you to come. not alone, maybe you're here today and you really are wrestling with envy, a burning jealousy, or you're here today and you have pain in your life. Can I even say this, pain that's not your fault, but it's still pain nonetheless. Some of you are fearful and you've had past experiences that are bleeding into your life right now and you're fearful about, well, they did this before, will they do it again? Or that person hurt me, will they hurt? You just got a lot of fear. Maybe because of all this, it's just caused you to be a control freak and you're trying to control every single thing about your kids' lives. That's why the school's always wrong, wherever your kids go to school, that's why the coach is always wrong no matter where they play or whatever they do, because you're trying to control, control. If you're wrestling in any of those four categories, I'm just gonna ask you to come, and here's what I, don't come to the altar to stop it, come to the altar to surrender it.

Lord, I know that I cannot do this in my own power and I'm leaning into the power of God. Would you free me from these things? If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ, I told you earlier that Jesus Christ came to forgive you of your sin, that is so true. That can happen in your life today. He's come to take you to heaven when you die, that can be a reality in your life today. But here's what I tell you in the context of all that we've spoken about today, you don't have to live a life dominated by sin. You don't have to live a life dominated by the wrong things, Jesus Christ came to give you freedom. And so if you're here today and this has never happened before in your life, today is the day of salvation, today is a day of freedom. But you gotta trust in Him. We wanna give you that opportunity right now. At all of our campuses, would you just bow your head and close your eyes? Our staff is gonna make their way to the front of each aisle. And today, if you're here and this has never happened in your life, like you've never trusted in Christ before, but you know you're in your sin, you know you're powerless against it, you know you need to be forgiven.

Some of you may have the thought, well, Nick, you have no idea what I've been involved in, you have no idea about my past. And I would say, you're right, I actually don't. And it doesn't matter, Jesus Christ can cover anything in your life with His blood. Does anybody need that today? I'm gonna encourage you in just a moment as we stand and sing, just to make your way to one of these men or women from our team. And if you need to give your life to Christ, here's all you gotta say, just take Him by the hand and say, I need to give my life to Jesus today. Maybe you're here and you would say, Nick, I'm already saved, but man, I need prayer about something in my life. Our team is here to pray with you, we'd love to pray with you today. But if you fall into any of these other categories, I just wanna encourage you, today's not a day to stop it. Today is a day whereby the power of God, today's a day to surrender it to God. And I'm just gonna ask you to make your way to this altar and just do business with the Lord and surrender those things to God. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your blood that covers our sin,

we pray that that would become a reality in others today. And Lord, it is our desire that you would bring us to a place of freedom. Lord, we know that that happens through surrender, so Lord, we surrender to you right now. It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen.