Pause: Week One | The Parable of the Talents; Entrusted

Oh, beautiful for spacious sky For amber wave of grain For purple mountain's majesty Above the fruited plain America, America God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea Shining sea America, America God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea Applause Father, we thank you so much For this nation that we live in Lord, we're free, but we're not perfect And so, Lord, I'm asking now for your provision in our nation God, the provision I'm asking for You desire that every person would come to know you as their Lord and Savior God, you desire that heaven would be on earth as it is in heaven And so I pray that, God, there would be an awakening Spiritual awakening Eyes open, hearts turn towards you God, would you open the eyes of our hearts to turn back to you God, may peace be in our nation God, I come against every spirit of darkness Every demonic force that is trying to come against To come and to steal, to kill, and to destroy Push back the forces of darkness

Send the reinforcements of heaven And let your angels come And, God, I pray that the word of God would continue to go forth And nothing will stop the word Nothing will stop the church Give our president wisdom Give those in leadership wisdom God, I pray that even the decisions that they want to make That would be in their own wisdom I pray that, God, you would intervene That, God, it would be your wisdom that would prevail And I thank you that this nation will continue to be a beacon of light And that people would not look at political figures But they'll look to you That this is a nation that honors God in Jesus' name And everybody said, amen, and amen, and amen Come on, give God praise if you're grateful Anybody love Jesus in the house today? I love it, I love it, I love it You may be seated Man, America, that was good, Franklin That was really good Thank you Well, everybody, my name is Bernard Thank you for joining us Would you do me a favor? Every location, those that are online, wherever you're watching Some of y'all didn't make it to church Because, you know, you got your 4th of July meet hangover Or whatever the case may be

But would you put your hands together Welcome everybody that's joining us today Thank you guys for being here So, before I jump into the message today, I want to bring something to everybody's attention. So, Bayside, we're really excited about this. Bayside now has its own app, all right? We have a Bayside app, all right? And so, you can actually download that app on your phone. And what I love about this app, this app will allow you to follow along with us as we preach and study God's word together because this summer, we are actually kicking off right now, this week, we're going to be kicking off our series called Paws, and this is where we go through the scriptures together. But also, you'll be able to pray for one another, see other people's prayer requests. This app is going to provide a great place for us to be able to connect with one another and stay connected with the campus that you attend. When you download the app, you can tell them which campus you attend, and it's so cool because you get to see all of the things that are happening. You'll be able to sign up for events and keep in touch with what's happening. And I love that we have this app because one of the things like when I went on this morning, this reading plan that we're going to have for this Paws series, you can go on and do your daily habits, all right? And it looks like this.

You can see on the screen, it has your daily habits. And then you can, you know, go through, you can do your reading for the day, you can see what you're grateful for that day, you can also pray for others, see their prayer requests, and I enjoyed particularly doing that this morning myself, just seeing the different prayer requests. I actually saw different people from different campuses, and I was, it was able to help me. Because sometimes, you know, when you're praying, you kind of run out of what do I pray for? Man, this app right here, you can pray for your own family right here at Bayside Community Church through this app. So, I would encourage you to do that. So, this is how you can do it. You can take your phone out right now, if you have it, take your phone out. Now, some of y'all are like, I don't bring my phone to church. It's all about Jesus. That's great. I love that. Please continue to do that. But if you need help getting it, stop at any Connect Center at all of our campuses, and they can help you get it downloaded. But you can tap that sticker on the seat back in front of you, and it's going to take you to a page. And on that page, you will be able to see where it says download the Bayside app. Once you download that app, it'll take just a couple minutes to set it up for yourself.

But it's going to be a great tool for all of us to not only grow in our faith. Remember, the vision for this year was to come and abide. Come and abide. And one of the ways that we're doing this is we're going to be putting all of our resources right here. You can even watch past messages, because a lot of times it's hard to know, where do I go? Do I go website? Do I go to YouTube? Do I go to this or that? You'll be able to go right to the app and stay in touch with what God's doing through our church. All right? So everybody say, get the app. Get the app. There you go. All right. Now, I want to jump into today's message. And as I get into the message, we're going to be talking about today, the parable, depending on what version of Bible you read. It's the parable of the talents, all right? Or the parable of the three servants. And so I always read God's word, but because this passage is a little bit long, I'm just going to read it because we're just going to preach from the scripture. All right? But I want us to have context of what we're going to be talking about today.

So turn, if in your Bibles or your digital tablets, if some people are like, I'm still trying to download the app, that's okay. You can do it after church. All right. So Matthew chapter 25, and I'm going to start reading in verse 14, and it says this, "'For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more. Saying, master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I've made five talents more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, master, you delivered to me two talents.

Here, I have made two talents more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you. scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I've not sown and gather where I scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the 10 talents. For everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness and that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Father, in Jesus' name, I ask that you would open our hearts, open our minds to receive your word. Give me the words to say, I pray that comes forth with clarity that we would be challenged by it but also be transformed as we encounter your truth because your truth sets us free. To be all that you've created and redeemed us to be,

remove every hindrance and every distraction to you and you alone be glorified in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen, amen, amen, amen. So yesterday was the 4th of July and we had a great time. I'm sure everybody had some things that were going on. We celebrated freedom, you know, people have fireworks and family and barbecue, you know, everybody was a grill master yesterday, right? But here's what we're going to be talking about today. We celebrated, you know, independence yesterday but today we're going to talk about responsibility because freedom without responsibility eventually destroys itself. And the same is true spiritually. Jesus didn't set us free simply so that we can escape hell, he set us free to participate in building God's kingdom. And sometimes we forget, you know, we fight for all of this national freedom but we don't fight as hard for our spiritual freedom. And this summer we're pressing pause and we're going to be spending time in God's word together as a family. And as we do this, I want you to be reminded that the freedom that we have always will be the source, God. He's our source of freedom, all right? And so we're going to be going through these parables. Now, you got to first understand the purpose of parables. So the Greek word for parables is, I'll probably butcher this word but parabola, all right, which means to place alongside, all right? This is what the Greek word parable means. It means to place alongside.

So Jesus would give an earthly story and he'd put it beside a heavenly truth, all right? This is what the parables did. So these parables, they don't just inform, these parables expose. Now, what do I mean by that? It means every parable causes you to ask the question, which character am I? Which character am I? These parables help us to kind of, it exposes, you know, which one am I? So here's the historical context in Matthew 25 because this is really important. This is critical that we understand this. In Matthew 24 and 25, this is called the Olivet Discourse for the theologians that are in the room. Everybody else, what does that mean? Don't worry about it. It's all good. Jesus is on the Mount of Olives. So that's why it's called the Olivet Discourse, all right? He's on the Mount of Olives. And he's only days away from the cross. And being only days away from the cross there, these parables are amongst some of his final teachings, all right, before his crucifixion. And the disciples asked him a question. They were like, Jesus, when are you going to return? And when they asked him when he's going to return in these, in Matthew 24 and 25, these parables, Jesus answered them

with these parables. And one of the parables was the 10 virgins, and then one was the talents, and then one was the sheep and the goats. Now, the parable of the 10 virgins, it was about being ready, and then, of course, the ones with the talents that we're going to cover today is about being faithful, and then the sheep and the goats is about being compassionate. Now, all three answer one question, all three of these parables that are in Matthew 24 and 25 answer this one question, and it is, how should we, as God's people, be living while we wait for his return? How should we be living while we wait for the master's return? Now, the parable of the talents, I don't think that this parable is primarily... about stewardship. I've heard it preached that way, and you can totally take that angle. But it's really about participation. Everybody say participation. And what do I mean by that? So these three servants, they weren't just, you know, they weren't really managing money. They were being invited to continue the work of the king while he was away. There's a participation. And when that happens, this is really where we live today, between Christ's ascension, where he is now seated in heaven with the father, and then his return.

So the question really isn't how much has God given me? The question really is, am I participating in what God is doing and wanting to do until he comes? That's really the question. Am I participating with God until he comes? That's really the context of this parable. It's not money, it's not investing, it's not readiness. Church, I want us to understand this before I really get into the meat of this. This isn't just a story that Jesus told. This is a story that we're living right now. Jesus came, he died, he rose again. He chose to partner with us. Until he comes, we are to do something. We're to be something. We are to partner with him to get things ready, and he's coming expecting something. So if you're wondering, what is my purpose on the planet? You can actually begin to see, just by studying these parables, what it is that you can be doing. If you're going, well, I'm bored, I don't know what to do. Just read the parable. The context is here. So that's really the entire Christian life. The king left, the servants lived, the king returns. Now, everything in between is where we live. So there's four movements in this parable. There's four movements, all right?

The first one, you're gonna see this on the screen. The first one is the king entrusts. Okay, he entrusts. What does that mean? That's grace. That's grace. He trusts us. He's entrusted to us the riches of heaven to be displayed on earth. There's a second movement. The servants choose. This is responsibility. Now, this is our part. This is the part that we play. And then we have the third part, which is the king returns. There's accountability. And then the fourth part is the faithful enter joy. This is the reward. So you got grace, responsibility, accountability, and reward. This really is the gospel story. God gives, we respond, Christ returns, eternity begins. That's the gospel story. This is us. And where we are right now is we're waiting on that last part, which is eternity. And Christ returns and then eternity. So here's the Jewish cultural background that I think is gonna really help us as we read this, because I didn't notice at first for years.

And then when I realized that I was hearing this the wrong way, and there was a couple of times I taught it the wrong way. But a servant in the first century wasn't necessarily a slave in our modern understanding. This is really important for us to understand. Many were actually household managers. They were estate administrators. They were business managers. These were trusted representatives, and they possessed a tremendous amount of authority. So when the scripture says these servants, I want you to get out of your mind what we know as modern day slavery. This is not the context of what you're talking about. In fact, when Jesus used this illustration, the audience would have known exactly what he meant and what he was talking about in the responsibility that was given to these people. And so when you know that in context, then you look at what is a talent. Now this word talent, it wasn't an ability, even though our English word comes from this particular passage. It's not what it was, it really wasn't a talent. A talent was money. And the largest, it was the largest monetary measurement in the Roman culture. Now this is gonna blow your mind when I tell you this. So five talents was actually 100 years of income.

Five talents is about 100 years of income. Two talents was 40 years. One talent was 20 years. Now, I want you to just sit on that for a second. So this master gives one guy five, gives one guy two, gives one guy one. Now, some of y'all would look at the one and go, dog, man, I feel sorry for him. That dude had 20 years of income that was handed to him. And you know what he did with it? He buried it. Now, the audience would have gasped at this illustration because even the servant with the one talent received an unbelievable gift. That's a lot. Somebody say that's a lot. All right, so five, two, and one. But here's what we do. We always focus on the one. And what I love about this is, you know, Jesus, he's basically telling a story, you know, for all you guys that are in the finance of ancient portfolio managers, right? You got two servants who go full kingdom, you know, Wall Street, and then one that goes mattress money, right? That's really what we're talking about. Anybody still hide their money in a mattress? I will not tell, right? I will not tell, okay.

But here's the key truth. Here's the key truth. This is really important. The king never transferred ownership. He transferred responsibility. All right, this is really important for us to understand. They were stewarding the master's money. 100 years of resource was not that person's. It was the master's. Now think how much that money that master had for him to give one five, to give one person 100 years resources, to give one 40 years resources, to give one 20 resources. How much did the master have? A lot. And then he's like, hey, I'm gonna go away for a long time. But while I'm gone, this reminds me of myself. Years ago, my wife and I, we moved to Minnesota. And when we got to Minnesota, we were in financial straits. A lot of debt, a lot going on. I've told this story before. Everything, we had maxed out our credit cards. At that time, my wife had 22 credit cards, 23 credit cards. They were all maxed out. I had one, so we had 24 all together. That's a whole nother story. I love my queen.

We don't do that anymore, all right? Praise the Lord, debt-free. Thank you, Lord, for debt-free. But we were struggling. So I couldn't even, it got to the point where I couldn't even buy groceries. I tried to go to get food stamps, and I went in dressed up in my suit and everything. And because I looked so good, they were like, I don't think you're gonna need help. I'm like, I'm hungry. But they denied me food stamps. I paid taxes, but I got denied. That's a whole nother story. But God ended up providing. And I remember one of the things that ended up happening, is we couldn't afford the apartment that we were staying in. It was absolutely ridiculous. But I didn't know what we were gonna do. And somebody came, and I ran into a friend at a coffee shop that I was applying at a job for. I was applying for a job there. And he was like, hey, what are you doing in the city? Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I told him I moved here. And so not knowing my situation, he's like, well, where are you staying? And I said, funny thing, we're staying over here, but we're trying to find somewhere else. He goes, oh my gosh, I have the perfect place for you.

I'm like, oh, what is that? Probably can't afford it. He starts taking me on this journey. And we're driving, he's showing me the city, and we get into this really affluent area on the lakes. And we go through, and we pull up on this almost six-acre compound. Long driveway, circular drive, big old house on the lake. I was like, um. You know I'm broke, right? Just saying, you know I'm broke. He's like, oh, no, no, I just gotta check on this one house. I'm like, ooh, thank you, Jesus. So we walk in, and we're walking around looking. The place is empty, beautiful place. And I'm like, well, what do you gotta check on? Ain't nothing in here. He's like, he turns around, and he tosses the keys to me. And I was like, what's this? I mean, 8,000 square foot home. And he's like, hey, this guy would rather someone be in the house than it just sit here. And in fact, there's two boats on the dock, use those. Also, here's his yacht club membership. He has to spend so much money, so go there, eat, do whatever you want. Here's his card, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The whole time that we're living there, I was living large on somebody else's income. Come on, somebody, okay?

I only tell that not to boast, because I didn't know the guy. I'm telling, this is the parable. This is exactly what this parable is talking about. I'm living stewarding someone else's who had a lot. And you know what I did with that place? We took that place, it needed paint, it needed a whole lot of yard work. We took that place and we made it better than the way we received it. This is really important. The gentleman came to visit town and he wanted to meet the people that were staying in his house. Now, his only memory of the house was the way it used to look. He pulls up, didn't even recognize the place. He was blown away. But I'm sitting here going, you know what? I'm gonna take care of this place better than if it was mine. You know what he ended up doing? Because he saw the way we were stewarding it, he said, stay as long as you want, you don't have to pay a dime. And I thought, thank you, Jesus, because I don't have a dime. I was like, I don't have a dime. We became friends, but what was really cool about that story is that he was very intrigued

about why I would do something like that. And I was able to share the gospel and we had many, many, many great biblical conversations that led to him trusting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. So I tell you all of that because this is actually the parable. The king never transferred ownership. This guy never transferred ownership. He transferred responsibility. And I took care of that stuff because I treated it better than my own. Everything, we have to understand, belongs to God. So Psalms 24, verse one and two says this, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. For he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. Everything in the earth belongs to the Lord. That's the context. Everything belongs to the Lord. This changes our perception. It changes our perspective. This means that your kids, entrusted. Your marriage, entrusted. Your influence, entrusted. Your church, entrusted. Your business, it's entrusted. Your retirement, it's entrusted. Everything that you have, God is entrusting it to you

because everything belongs to the Lord. If you approach it with that context, you're just partnering with him until he comes again because all of this stuff, you can't take with you. When eternity comes, when Jesus comes back, you ain't gonna be able to go, oh, wait, wait, wait, let me grab this. No, you ain't gonna be interested in none of that because what he has for you on the other side is far greater than what you have right here. It's not about stuff. Stewardship begins where ownership ends. So here's the first thing that we're gonna talk about is God entrusts according to capacity. God entrusts according to capacity. Now, Matthew 25, verse 15. To one, he gave five talents, to another, two, to another, one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. I want you to notice, he didn't give equally, but he gave appropriately. This is very important. God's not unfair, he's wise. He knows your ability because he made you. He knows exactly what your capacity is. He knows exactly what your capacity is. Now, here's the bad part. We limit our own capacity because we allow something outside of God to determine what I can handle and what I can't.

And so those lies begin to influence us, and many of us function beneath our capacity because we think our worth is in our job. We think our worth is in our accomplishments. Nope, our worth is determined by God. And because he's determined by God, he knows what your capacity is. This is what I love about God. He's not gonna give you what you don't have the capacity to handle. But I want you to know this. Your capacity is way more, it's still a lot. You have a tremendous amount. Remember, five, two, and one was still a lot. 20 years, if you have one talent, 20 years of resource. That's a lot. Let me ask you this. What have you done with your life in the last 20 years? What have you done in your life in the last 40 years? Someone's like, I'm not 40 yet, I don't know. Well, it's not too late. Here's a revelation. Capacity precedes increase. You gotta have capacity. Once you know your capacity, increase can come. Our culture says more creates faithfulness, but that's not true. Jesus says that faithfulness creates more. Faithfulness creates more. Look at this scripture in Luke 16, verse 10 and 12.

It says, if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy with worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people's things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? Now I can just spend another series just on that verse. Because somehow, sometimes, and I'm just gonna meddle just a little bit. All right, so whatever campus you're sitting in, wherever you're at right now, this is God's house. This is the church. This is the place that we celebrate. This is not my church. This is not your campus pastor's church. This is not Pastor Randy. He says it all the time. He says, this is Jesus. Jesus is the lead pastor of this church. Now, we get to steward it. So how do we steward it? And this is something that I think is really important and I'm just gonna meddle just a little bit, just a tiny bit. If you drop something on the floor, pick it up. Why? Faithful in little things, much. If you're wondering why there's chaos

or things not coming to you, it's because you're not stewarding the little things, the little opportunities that you have. I remember my first car, someone had given it to me and I mean, it was a beater, but I took that beater and I mean, I hooked that beater up. I cleaned it out all the time. I made sure, I mean, I was gonna take care of that because that beater had to last. I was so faithful with that car. And anytime I got a little extra money, I just made it a little bit better. I made it look a little bit better and made sure it got waxed, got a paint job. I just kept being faithful in the little. And then another opportunity came. And I was blessed with another car. You say, well, why all these blessings be coming to you? I didn't ask for it, wasn't even looking for it, but this is what happened. That car broke down. Someone saw it and this was years ago. I was in college, y'all, so don't get crazy. I was in college and I'll never forget. And I was walking and I'm walking. I would walk every day. I'd walk to work, walk to school, walk everywhere. And someone pulled over and asked if I needed a ride, total stranger. I wasn't hitchhiking, I was just walking.

And they said, hey, you need a ride? And I was like, you know what? Today it was, it was hot. I mean, Oklahoma heat is another level of heat. And so I jumped in the car. We're getting to talking, small talking. And a few days later, I'm walking the same path. This guy pulls up. He says, hey. And he asked me if I needed a ride, I get in. We were driving. I told him where I wanted to go, but didn't get there because we went somewhere else. He drops himself off. He says, take the car, it's yours. Say what? What you talking about, Willis? Faithful in the little creates room for more. Here's a practical application. Stop comparing. Comparing has buried more callings than failure ever has. Should I say that again? Yes. Okay. Comparison has buried more callings than failure ever has. God doesn't compare servants, people do. So let's not do the comparison thing. Here's the key truth. God never measures you against someone else's assignment. He measures you against your own faithfulness.

That'll preach right there. It's only point number one. And I have to wrap this up real quick. All right, let's go to number two. The kingdom always multiplies. The kingdom always multiplies. This is a principle that we should understand. Matthew 25, 16, he who received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. He immediately went to work with what God gave him. The master never told him how. He simply entrusted him. Why? Because mature servants. to learn the heart of the master. That's really discipleship. Not necessarily following rules, but thinking like Jesus. How would Jesus want me to live today until he comes again? This is why Paul told us to have the mind of Christ. The servants didn't simply obey, they became like him. They multiplied. God is a multiplication God. God is a multiplication God. And here's the thing that we have to understand, that in our marriages, in our lives, our marriages should multiply love and family. As parents, we should multiply faith. As businesses, we should multiply generosity. As churches, we should multiply disciples.

And as Christians, we should multiply hope. God is all about multiplication. Here's the truth. What God entrusts, he expects increase. What God entrusts, he expects increase. He did not save you so that you could just stay saved by yourself. He's ready to receive a party because of your influence on earth. And here's the third thing. Fear will always bury what faith builds. Fear will always bury what faith builds. Matthew 25, verse 25. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. Fear will always cause you to bury what God has given you. And as I close, I want us to understand something really important because in all of this, you know, this great nation that we celebrate, there's some significant things that have been entrusted to this nation, vast resources, innovation, freedoms, like religious liberty, free assembly, and global influence. And these can be seen as stewardship opportunities before God, not necessarily national privileges. And there's been two patterns that our nation has had. At our best, those talents have fueled movements like abolition, civil rights, missionary sending, and charitable work around the world. And at our worst, those same capacities were buried

in greed, in exploitation, injustice, and self-protection. The good, bad, and the ugly. My question to us is, is who are, as a nation, are we becoming? I see the pattern, I see the trends, I see the darkness. Are we gonna participate with darkness, or are we gonna participate with His light? Who are we becoming as God's children? There's, in these jars, there's seeds and there's dirt. And what's interesting is, these three servants, each given a measure, five talents, two talents, one talent. And seeds are amazing, but if they stay in this jar, or if they stay in my pocket, they're absolutely useless. But if you put it in this dirt, it will multiply. And if you put it in this jar, it will multiply. Now here's what I think is very interesting. Separately, these things, they're just dirt and seeds. You put them together, and something happens. So for those of you that feel like you're being buried, that life is just smothering you, I want you to know, on the inside of you, is potential. And don't allow the burying to make you think that you're gonna die. Allow you to think, to remember, that unless a seed is buried in the ground, is what the scripture says, and dies, it's only then that it will actually multiply. Jesus was a seed that was buried, and He rose again. And look at the multiplication that has happened. The servant that had one talent, you know what he did?

This is really interesting to me. Thank you, Holy Spirit. The Bible says that we were made from the dust of the earth. He formed our bodies out of the dust of the earth. And this gentleman took his talent, and he took it back to the earth. The earth, how many people die without ever releasing the potential that God's put on the inside of them? The wealthiest place on the planet are cemeteries because people never reach their fullest potential. They were given one, two, five talents and they died with that talent because they were afraid to release it. Let's steward this season that we have because we don't know when he's coming back but we're gonna have to give an account for when he comes back, we're gonna have to give an account for everything that he's given us. And he's either gonna say, well done, good and faithful servant. And what I love about that is they got a reward and that reward wasn't necessarily a mansion or this or that, we think heaven's all about, oh, and let me get my mansion and all that. No, you know what the reward is? The reward is Jesus. The reward is Jesus himself. He says, enter into the joy of the Lord. He is the reward. So let's steward until he comes.

Would you bow your heads? Let me pray. Father, thank you so much for who you are and what you're doing in our midst. And I'm asking that God, you would help us all to steward what you've entrusted to us. I'm asking that God, we would be faithful until you come again to partner with you. In Jesus' name. And with every head still bowed and every eye closed, nobody looking around, I wanna extend an invitation to every person here that may not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I wanna give you an opportunity to surrender your life to him. And so on the count of three, it's a simple acknowledgement by saying, yes, I wanna surrender my life to Jesus. I want him to be my Lord and my Savior. On the count of three, lift your hand. One, two, three. Lift your hand if that's you all over. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, you can put your hands down. If you lifted your hand or desire to lift your hand, we're all gonna say this simple prayer together as a church family. And this is just an affirmation of the decision that you just made in your heart.

So say these words after me, everybody. Lord Jesus, I believe that you died for me and that you rose again. So I make a choice to surrender my life, be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Come on, can we celebrate with those that made that decision?