Removing The Barriers of Doubt | Pastor Nelson Bowen

Come on, is anyone excited to be in the house of God this morning? I think you can do it. If that was for me, it'll be okay. But we're talking about the one who put air in your body and movement in your limbs. Is anyone excited to say, God, I'm just glad to be here this morning? Scripture says this, this is the day that the Lord has made, and he gave us two instructions. The first one is that we will rejoice. Is there anybody who can rejoice because God, come on, man, any people rejoicing this morning? Hallelujah, Jesus. The second one he tells them, Ja'kari, is to be glad. And many people will overlook that instruction because you let your circumstance steal your joy. Pastor had a hard week this week. Well, it's a new week. No, no, no. Being glad is a decision. It's a choice. It's a frame of mind to say, someone has it a lot worse than me. But what I do know is that God woke me up this morning. What I do know is that there's a roof over my head. What I do know is that I'm healed. What I do know is that—are you hearing what I'm saying? No, I'm choosing to be glad this morning, Courtney. There's nothing that's going to steal my praise. I'm not going to let a rock cry out for me. I am grateful that God has woke me up. Come on, God has kept me. Can't say he walks with me, he talks with me. God is for me. Anyone excited about being in the house of God this morning? Man, God, we lift you up.

And we praise you. You're so awesome. You're so awesome. We praise you. You said it ain't mostly. God, you're so good. You're so good. I've been in a good mood all morning. I think I'm just—I just understand that it's his kindness, guys. Oh, you don't understand, like, it's his kindness. What if God gave you what you deserve? It's his kindness that says, I'm not going to give you what you deserve. It's his kindness that loves on us, man. It's his kindness that allows us to get another chance to get it right. See, some of y'all said, diddy, it's okay. Because you got all your I's dotted and all your T's crossed and your halo is as polished as it can be. But there's some of us in the room who understands, had it not been for the goodness of God, had it not been for his grace, had it not been for his mercy, had it not been for him saying, I'm going to give you another shot. You told me last time you would get it right, and you still did what you wanted to do. But I love you, and I'm for you, and I'm with you. And that's just—is it just me? It's his kindness. He's so kind. And so, God, we say thank you. Any thankful people in the house? Lord, we love you, God. They gave me an instruction to give you. I don't like that they think they can tell me what to do all the time. But here's what they said.

If you have any seats next to you, could you just scoot down so we can get you seated? get as many people as possible. If you have it, you might not, but if there's one or two next to you, just kind of squeeze in so we can get as many people in here as possible. And you can be seated. God, thank you so much. My name is Pastor B. I pastor, I think, the greatest church on this side of having an engaged community church. And is that a seat free? If you got a seat free, just raise your hand. If you got a seat free next to you, and then we can greet guests, and y'all can kind of look around and figure out how we can get some of these people in. It's a great thing to have. Let's welcome God behind bars, man. Let's welcome God behind bars. My job is to just let you know I love you. You got a community here that's praying for you, that is believing God, that everything's gonna work out to your good. Don't you dare lose hope. Don't you dare quit. Don't you dare give up. If you clicked on this video, it's because Jesus wanted you to know that he's with you, and that he cares.

And I believe that the love of God can permeate prison walls. I believe that the love of God can permeate situations and find you. And I just want you to know that if you've given your life to Jesus, while the court system might have found you guilty, you can understand that Jesus has called you free, and he's called you forgiven, and he's called you healed. And just wanna let you know that we love you, and we're praying for you. Can y'all make some noise for our people? Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Well, I am excited, man. We're in part two of this sermon series called The Case for Christ. But before we do that, can we just thank God for our friend Charles Wings coming and leading us in worship this morning. It was great. Did y'all enjoy him? Yes! Yeah, he was great. And then I hear 87 people being baptized today, which was just absolutely, it's great. And so I'm thankful, man.

We're in part two of a sermon series called Case for Christ. And here's what I've been doing is I just felt this conviction of the Holy Spirit that it was time for us to take a time out and just preach the validity of Christ, preach that Jesus is, in fact, exactly who he says he is. Last week, we started this journey of just proving that he did, in fact, live, that he did, in fact, die. And the reason why he went through and encountered all of that was because of this one word, sin. Everyone say sin. Sin. And here's what sin is. Sin just means that you have missed the mark. In fact, scripture says this, all have fallen short of the glory of God. That also includes me. Sometimes pastors will get up here and try to act like they have not struggled. That is not my story. I am a part of the all. Anyone else a part of the all? Some people ain't raised their hand. I'm trying to be like you one day. But I'm a part of the all. It says all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. And so because of that, Jesus came because there was separation. Our sin created separation between us and him.

So Jesus came so that we can close that gap and have this unhindered access. And the problem, or not the problem, or the thing that blows my mind about this, Mama Deo, is that Jesus made that decision while we still did not make up in our mind that we were going to become followers of him. In fact, Apostle Paul, he says it this way in Romans chapter number five, verse number eight. Look at this. It says, but God showed his great what? Love. Okay, for who? Us. By doing what? Sending Christ to do what? Because the penalty for sin is death, not good behavior. It's not manage it. It's not try to do everything you can to get right. Someone has to die. And Jesus made the decision, I'll be that person. To die for us while we were still perfect. No, while we were still what? So Jesus went through death so that you can have life. And that decision was made in your worst state. It's the equivalent of this. Anyone like married, or got a partner, or any other type of relationship, anyone at all, if you got, if you got it, raise your hand. If you got it, raise your hand.

And I just want you, no, keep it up high enough so that the single people can see who's single. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just playing. I'm just playing. But, because some of y'all already like, where they at? He'd go to church. Okay, stop playing, stop playing. But, but, but it's the equivalent of this. Imagine, imagine if you caught your partner or your spouse in the act. of adultery. I had Mr. Charles, he was on his front row, he said, no, no, please don't bring that up. Don't say that, Pastor, don't say that. I don't want to think about that. But imagine if you caught your partner or your spouse in the act of adultery. And if instead of getting mad, you got down on one knee. And you said right there, man, would you marry me all over again? Some of y'all are like, I would never, ever. I'm going to get on one knee, all right, it's the grand... But we can say, I would never do that. Yet, that is the equivalent to what Jesus did. He died for you while we were still in the act of our sin, while we were still in the act of our mess. He did not get upset, he didn't get angry. Instead what he says, what I want to do is confess to you my undying love for you, even while you're in this situation. Some of y'all said, that's enough, I can preach that right there. What I want to do today is just kind of set the case, set the tone because we've got some incredible friends coming over the next couple of weeks and I just want to begin to maybe just talk about some of the barriers that are in place because Jesus made a decision to die for us before we ever made a decision to believe him. And in fact, he made that decision to die for me before I ever made a decision to follow him. The real question that we have to ask today then is this, Derek, why then is it still so hard for me to believe? Because if we're honest,

it's not that we haven't heard the truth. It's not that we haven't seen evidence, it's not that we don't want to believe. For many of us, it's something else that's getting in the way. And for many people in the room, truth is not the problem, it's what you've been through. Because it's possible to sit in a message like we heard last week where we heard in the validity of Christ, we heard everything that we've gone through and what he's gone through for him to be brutally beaten. We hear all of that and it's like, yo, I want to believe but something in me just hesitates. I hear it but I don't fully trust it. I know it but I don't feel it. And the reality is that the Bible begins to put language around some of these questions and some of these feelings that we have. You have this father who is...his son has been going through an incredible, intense act of spiritual warfare. In fact, his son is being attacked by a spiritual enemy and he keeps throwing him to the ground. He keeps going and having these epileptic episodes and the disciples are doing everything they can and they can't do anything. And so the father, he runs to Jesus. He's like, I hear you're the birthday boy. I mean... He says, he says, he says, he says, yo, I need you to do something for me. Can you heal my son? If you can do anything, I mean, if you can do anything, can you please heal him? And Jesus says, what do you mean if? If? He says, anything is possible to him who believes. And in this next verse, I think this verse was put for me because I think like it shows, I think this is the most humane verse in all of Scripture. I think it's... Okay, let me just read it. Look at this. Look at what he says. He says, immediately, the father of the child cried out, I believe but help my unbelief. That's to say two things can be true, that I can believe you and then still feel like I don't believe you. And many of us have been there with like, yo, I believe God can do it. I just don't know if he can do it for me. Like I've seen you work in other people's life. I've seen you move on the hearts of other people. I've seen, like I've heard it and I've seen it before. So I believe it but I don't know if I believe it for me. And I think it's so

humane there because he's saying, look, I believe but help me in the area where I don't. I think what's interesting is that it wasn't a lack of information that was causing his father to struggle because after all, he knew who to come to. So it wasn't a lack of information that was causing the struggle. It was an internal conflict. And as I was preparing for this message, and you'll hear over the next couple of weeks what this is about, I started to identify four barriers that can stop us from believing, four areas of struggle that can be blocking us from truly coming to the point where we believe that Jesus is who he says he is. And because you guys like charts so much, I figured you would enjoy this. But there's four areas. The first one is the intellectual barrier. Some people are just so smart they don't believe. It's like, I don't understand it. And that's the root issue of that is head knowledge. For some of us, it's emotional barriers, like you've been hurt. And that's a heart issue. For some of you, I'm going to spend some time here, we're going to really go into this next week. But some of you, it's a cultural issue. This isn't, look at me, our faith. And for you, it's an identity issue. And for some, it's a spiritual barrier, like you just, because you can't see it, you don't believe it. I'm going to set the case for a couple of these barriers, and I'm going to spend time talking about like one and a half, is that okay? But over the course of this, you'll hear us touch all four. But here's some, I just want to find some locators. So as we're preaching and as we're teaching, you'll begin to understand, okay, which one is for me.

Here's the first one though. When the barrier is intellectual, it shows up like, God, I just don't understand. Don't none of this make sense? How would you even allow this to happen? How you God and Jesus, because you can't be two, like what? You light, but then you're the word, but then you're the word, and you just like, no, come on, man, that don't even make sense, bro. Okay, so there's some intellectual stuff there. Okay, number one. Okay, but number two, how do you know when the barrier is emotional? Because I've been hurt. You've been hurt by people. You've been hurt by, how about this, the church. And can I help you out though? You've never been hurt by the church, you've been hurt by people. You don't have church hurt, you got people hurt. And people are going to be at every church. Oh, okay, okay. Maybe you've been hurt by life. And what happens is sometimes it's not that you doubt God, I'm going to be very clear, it's not that you doubt God, you're still processing what's happened to you, and you're still in a place of processing. So sometimes it's hard to believe certain things, we're going to get there in a second. The third one, how do you know when the barrier is cultural? I'm going to take my time here, is this okay? This is where people say the religion was used against us. Can I help you out? Christianity did not start at slavery. It did not start on a slave ship. Before Christianity was ever introduced to America, it was already alive and thriving

in Africa. But don't just take my word for it, let's just go to the scriptures about it. Acts chapter number 8 says, and he rose and he went, and there was an Ethiopian. Oh, where is Ethiopia at? In the book of Acts? A eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of her treasure. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. So an African traveled all the way to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning seeing his chariot and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. He's reading at this time, Lady B, the present-day Bible. And the Spirit said to Philip, Philip was one of the disciples of Jesus, he said, amen, I need you to go over because there's an African who's sitting there reading the Bible. So the Spirit of God impresses on Philip to go speak to this African. You got me? And watch what happens, next verse, so Philip ran and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet in Acts. The same question, whether you're African, whether you're American, no matter what race, sometimes you read the Bible and you say, do you even understand what you are reading? Do you understand the words coming? Because I'm going to tell you, because you all can be honest, you don't read that Bible like, yup. And here's what this African says, Greg, how can I unless someone guides me? And so now this African, way before slavery. just after Jesus post-resurrection invites this man named Philip to come up because he's in the chariot because he represents royalty to sit with him look at what happens now the passage of Scripture that he was reading was like this like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he opens not his mouth I could see why he said do you and his humiliation justice was denied to him who can describe his generation

for his life was taken away from the earth he's talking about Jesus watch this in the eunuch said to Philip hey hey Phil can I ask you a question who was this prophet talking about himself or is it about someone else and then okay then Philip opened up his mouth and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about listen this man invited someone else on his chariot to hear about the good news of Jesus not on a slave ship being taken across the mid-atlantic that comes with no this happens here and as they were going along the road they came to some water baby and the eunuch said wait a second I've just heard this good news about Jesus there's water here what prevents me today from being baptized so here he hears the good news and the merely responds with repent and be baptized and look and Philip said if thou believeth with all that heart thou mayest in he answered and said I believe God all you just missed this that Jesus Christ is the Son of God African man in the book of Acts but if that's not enough well why you got way to ask let's go to Mark watch this I'm trying to help some of y'all out and they compel they pass about at this point Jesus has been beaten brutally has been I mean he's carrying now this 300 pound cross and can no longer carry it Derek and the person they asked was Simon of Cyrene Cyrene also another city in Africa so the person who helped Jesus finish his assignment was a black man from Africa that said I got you I'll walk this thing up in that man's family began to plant church after church after church because of the encounter with Jesus what I'm telling you is that the African nation was not like given a religion to be forced upon they've been a part of it from the very beginning I digress it just really gets on my nerves when they say that because God is never the oppressor of people there's nowhere in Scripture where you see God is the oppressor he's always been the deliverer and oftentimes what happens is we can't receive Jesus that because we're going through our own identity trauma God is a deliverer never an oppressor and just because some race decides to misuse it does not cancel what's true cancel that okay whatever what about when the barrier is spiritual it's in me

but I just happen to resist what's right in front of me 1st Corinthians 2 14 speaks to this pretty clear it says the natural person that's very clear that's very very critical the natural person that's the person who was not yet given their lives to Christ because the moment you give your life to Christ you're no longer natural you're spiritual so you no longer just live in this world you're living you're passing through this world there's a difference between people who live here and people who pass through here in the moment you give your life to Jesus you're now passing through you are a spiritual being that now possesses a body so the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because these things are spiritually concerned here's the translation sometimes it's not that you don't want to receive the evidence or receive the truth that's in front of you there's actually a spiritual war going on that's stopping you from being able to hear because with that other side which is the kingdom of darkness They understand is the moment you get hold of this truth, the moment you get hold of what Jesus wants to do in your life, it's gonna change and rearrange your entire destiny. And so he doesn't want you to be free because when you get free, your whole house, especially my men, men, when you get free, men, when you get the conviction, men, when you are fully aware that God wants to use you, your whole life changes, your whole home changes, your home marriage changes, your children change, your community changes. So sometimes there's stuff just blocking you from hearing. And so when that happens, Ephesians 1.18 says this, hope you guys are getting anything out of this. Having the eyes of your heart enlightened

that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. Oh yeah. Sometimes all you have to really start praying is God, open up the eyes of their heart. God, would you allow the scales on their eyes to fall off? But what I've discovered because I've introduced four and you'll hear all four addressed, I'm gonna talk about one in particular today and that's the emotional barrier because the emotional barrier is the one that's connected to the heart. And what I've discovered is that for some of you, what's happened to you, what I just said, what's happened to you is speaking louder than what God is saying to you. What's happened to you is speaking louder than what God is saying to you. And what stops you from believing is a painful moment. Maybe I can say it this way, God, why didn't you come through? Let's throw that up there please. God, why didn't you come through? Because you prayed hard, you were committed and it still didn't happen. You believed, you fasted, you even had a vision board party and it still fell apart. You trusted and you hoped against hope and it still did not work out. See, I'm only talking, I'm gonna find me my crew

in a second, I'm talking about the people because sometimes what I discovered is like, you can do everything you know you're supposed to do. You can do everything the pastor told you, you've been fasting, you've been praying, you've been keeping yourself together and sometimes there's nothing more disheartening, I'm trying to find some real people, says more disheartening than the people who don't even acknowledge him, the people who don't even serve him, the people who have come flat out and said, I'm not even with this God thing. How do they get blessed? How do they get promoted? How do they seemingly get the stuff that I've been praying for? Sometimes what you're going through is more louder than what God is even saying. David, he penned it this way, Psalms 13, that when I'm feeling sorrowful, sometimes what I go to, he says, how long? Oh Lord, will you forget me forever? Have you ever felt forgotten about from God? Like God, like come on man, I'm your dude, like you know how, how long do I gotta go through this? What is, how long are you gonna hide your face from me? I've been trying to get an answer from you, how long will you not say anything? How long?

What's so important though, is that we don't take seasons like that and then make them statements. You gotta be careful not to make season statements. Because unhealed disappointment turns into silent doubt. And if you doubt long enough, you step into unbelief. When we turn seasons into statements, seasons where you can't hear from God turn into God doesn't speak to me. That's right, that's right, that's good. Seasons of loneliness becomes until God has forgotten about me. See, when we turn seasons into statements, the problem is that it leads to disappointment, disappointment can turn into doubt. And if we doubt long enough, we then step into unbelief. Yet, here's what I'll do. love about Jesus is that he's not afraid to join you in the midst of your doubts. You see, there's this person in Scripture who I don't think gets the best rep. His name is Thomas. Thomas don't get the best rep. Thomas, he missed the first resurrection appearance of Jesus. Jesus shows up and he gets to hang out with the disciples and they're having a good time. Thomas comes and when Thomas gets there, the disciples are like, hey, Thomas, Jesus was just here. He was here, bro. And Thomas is like, stop lying, dog. You're always lying.

No, I'm telling you, he was here. We saw him. We had conversations with him. We were in his presence. And Thomas is like, man, let me tell you something. Unless I see them nail scar hands and unless I see that pierced side, I'm not going to believe any of this. And all the disciples are like, no, no, no, no, stop playing, man. Come on, Thomas, you got to believe this. It's going back and forth. And I can hear Peter now. Peter like, Thomas, man, you always the birthday wait list. No, he's like, I'm not going to believe this thing at all. Thomas gets a lot of doubt. I mean, a lot of a flat for his doubt, but I kind of get it. Because I don't think Thomas was doubting and rebellion. I think Thomas was doubting and disappointment. Because he's believed once. Oh, you just missed it. He's believed once. He's already followed Jesus and he saw that in death. So now what you're telling me to do is re-engage with something that's already disappointed me. Because I thought Jesus was going to be the one to turn all this around. I thought Jesus was going to come through for me and I watched him die. I watched him get stabbed. I watched him get nailed. And you want to tell me that he's alive and maybe it's not doing that. But for you, it's made you pray and you fasted and you did everything you could and they still died from cancer.

And it's like, God, you told me that if I came to you that they would stay alive. You believed for that baby. You said, man, we're going to have one and you didn't even get to hold them because they was a stillborn. And you said, God, if you are who you are, why does this keep happening? You was a little girl. They shouldn't have came in that room like that. And you're like, if God loves me, then why is this kind of stuff happening? And what I'm finding is that doubt is nothing but shattered hope. I hoped and I believed and I was still taken advantage of and I tried to have the conversation and they brushed me off and no one believed me. And I believed but I held my unbelief because I know you can do it for them, but what's happened to me? And what I find is that Jesus could have rebuked Thomas. He could have rejected Thomas. He could have ignored Thomas. But instead, this is what we find about Jesus in John chapter number 20, verse number 24. I need you to see this. Now, Thomas was one of the 12. He was called the twin. Hey, twin. Was not with them when Jesus came. So, Thomas won't dare, verse 25. So, the other disciples told him, man, we've seen the Lord. He said to him, unless I see his hands in the mark of the nails and place my finger, and place my finger. What did he say? Into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side. Look at this, I will never believe.

In other words, you got some people like, listen, I'm just not, I'm never going to believe this thing because I've seen too much. I've been through too much. I'm not going to believe this thing. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again. And this time, Thomas is with them. And although the doors, well, you got to understand why the doors are locked. The reason why the doors are locked is because Jesus is no longer in the grave. He's been walking around and the Romans still believe that the disciples had something to do with this, that they stole the body of Jesus. And so, what's happening now is that the disciples, they got death wish out for them because they're like, you're going to tell us where Jesus is. So, they're in the house scared with the doors locked. And Jesus walked through that lock. Could you imagine? No, no, for real. Imagine being in your house and Jesus just... Just walked in, hey, greetings. I want you to see what happens. Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace. You got to understand, I love that. Okay, can I preach this? I didn't preach this in the first half. Can I get three extra minutes to preach this? I want to get down so bad, but I can't. Listen, listen, I love that because in this part of Jesus, you're starting to actually see Jesus and God being one. Pre-resurrection, this was not the case. Jesus was all man. But the moment he defeated death, sin, hell, and the grave,

it was now, it was the resurrection power of God. So now you see Jesus and God interacting as one. So now what you're able to see is that he understood that the disciples were sitting in fear. I love that before Jesus deals with Thomas, he says, let me deal with your emotions. I got to get you together. I got to let you know that you don't need to be afraid. You don't got to be scared. Peace is with you. Now, it's a double entendre. It's not just saying peace, but it's also God informing, saying peace. Oh, you're not hearing what I'm saying. It's with you. It's both. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Okay, now, okay, that was so good. Okay, next one. Then he said to Thomas, watch this. Put your finger here. Here's the problem. Jesus wasn't in the room eight days ago. Eight days ago, Thomas is saying, I'm not going to believe unless I put my finger, y'all not hearing me, unless I put my finger where the nails are. So if he wasn't in the room, how did he even know that that is what was being said? It's because you're seeing God now in the flesh.

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The Word became flesh. You're now seeing it because just because he's silent doesn't mean that he's not present. And so you couldn't see him, but he was with you. He heard you. He looked. Okay. He says, put it in my sight. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Okay, why is that important? Because some of you are trying to heal from doubt. You cannot heal from doubt if you pretend that you don't have questions. Oh, I'm about to help you out. Go ahead. Because there's a difference between ignoring the fact that you got questions and bringing questions to Jesus. Jesus was willing to revisit Thomas, listen, in the place of his doubt. And if Jesus was willing to revisit Thomas in the place of his doubt, why do you think he won't revisit you in yours? What I begin to learn from Thomas is that Thomas teaches us that doubting is not the end of your faith. Doubting is the beginning to a deeper level of faith.

You're not hearing what I'm saying. Okay, because Thomas says, I will not believe unless I. Okay, okay. This is important because with Thomas, he gets this encounter from Jesus. He said, okay, I'm not gonna believe unless I. And Jesus was willing to give him the thing that he needed to believe. Some of you, you gotta be bold enough to go to your father, to go to Jesus and say, I got a bunch of questions and I got a bunch of doubt, but here's the deal. I'm not believing this thing unless you blank. And I'm telling you that my God is so bad, that Jesus is so good that the thing that you need him to do is the thing that he will do. He said, I'm not gonna believe unless I. And somehow that changes to John 20, 28. Watch this. He says, Thomas answers, my Lord, and. Now this is an important statement. Say it where it said it. The reason why this is an important statement because he's also Jewish. The Jewish believe that God and that Jesus weren't the same one. But because of this encounter, that directly challenges belief, which you get in scripture is the biggest personal conviction

of the divinity of Christ. Because he goes from I'll never believe to my Lord and my God. My Lord. And my God, my Lord, and my God is the strongest personal declaration in all of the Gospels. A man who once demanded proof is eventually the same man who goes from Jerusalem preaching the good news of Christ all the way to present day India. Because God sent His Son and Himself to meet him in the place of his doubt, and his doubt became the platform in which he preached all of Christ. And here's the deal, eventually getting martyred or dying because of his faith. You see, my prayer today is not that you overcome your doubt. My prayer today is that you get an encounter from Jesus. And the reason why is because encounters create conviction, and conviction is what creates a witness. And some of you, you really just need Jesus to encounter you, to not be afraid, to say I'm honest about some skepticism here. There's a lot of things that I don't know that just don't quite add up, Jesus, here's what I need you to do. Well, if it's in the New Testament, you got to find it in the Old Testament. Okay, great. Gideon, if it's you, put the fog on top of the fleece. Okay, I don't believe it's you. Put the fog underneath the fleece. What I'm telling you is God and Jesus has never been afraid to do whatever is necessary for you to know that He is Christ, the Son of the living God. I'm off script here, but I just feel like this is what God wants me to tell you. Our church, the church, no, America does not need passive Christianity anymore. We don't need pastors that are ashamed to preach the gospel of Jesus. And we don't need believers who don't carry conviction. And you'll only get conviction not by living off your grandmother's faith.

You don't get conviction by some lady down here praying over you. You get conviction by having an encounter for yourself about who Jesus is. And if you don't have it, you got to pray, God, would you meet me where I am? Because I'm struggling to know some things, I'm struggling to believe some things. And I'm telling you that this man named Jesus wants to... We need encounters, bro. We need encounters. Encounters can't be fabricated. Encounters come after pain. Some of y'all are going through some of the most painful things you've ever been through in your life. It's not a group meet that's going to fix it. It's not a Facebook post that's going to fix it. It's not someone coming over your house that's going to fix it. It ain't meals being sent that's going to fix it. The only thing that's going to fix it is you on your knees saying, Jesus, if you don't meet me here, Jesus, if you don't come in this moment, I need you. That creates conviction, because then you'll be able to say, no, no, you can say all you want. You weren't there when he showed up for me. You weren't there when he made a way out of nowhere. You weren't there when I was getting ready to, like, I was calling it quits, but he stepped in and I felt him put his arms around me. I seen him work through it. He gave me a peace that surpasses all understanding. It's him, bro. It's him. And until you get there, you're going to always be in a place of confusion. The way you settle it is not a theologian, it's not a historian, it's Jesus. I'm not going to believe unless you.

And that dude's so bold, man, he'll give you what you need. That conviction is what makes a witness, and if we as believers don't step up now, this world is begging for us to say no. Jesus is the way. You can't be passive, man. Why did I just cry in front of all of these people like that? Hallelujah. No, listen. We got to preach Jesus, y'all. We got to live Jesus, y'all. I'm not saying it's going to be perfect. I'm not saying it's all, but at this time, it's got to be Jesus only. I love that man, Jesus, man. Because I know what I'm deserving of. See, I ain't one of them Dr. J that's going to sit up in here and act like my—I don't got no halo. I lost that a while ago. I'm still trying to find it. But I'm trying to figure out how he keeps giving me— why he keep waking me up to get another shot at this. Like, I didn't want any of this. This scares me, man. I don't want none of this. I don't. I liked it when it was six of us. I don't want—this ain't me. I promise you it's not. I don't want it. Y'all see me going out this bathroom?

I go out this door, I go to the bathroom. I'm so nervous to get on this stage because I'm like, Jesus, what if they see what you see? What if they know, like, Jesus, I don't want this, man. But some of us, we got to be bold enough to say, God, I trust you. Not your—this word, nevertheless. It's not about what I want. And my men, like, we, men, we, we got to step up. We got to lead our families. We got to lead our children. We got to lead our households. This world is asking not just for men, but men of God. And you don't got to come to this place to get beat up. I'm your biggest supporter. We got this. We in this together. We going to do what God has called us to do. All right. Why do you say so much? I love y'all. Let's pray. God, thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your love and your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for allowing us to be able to be honest about our doubts. Ooh, Jesus. Honest about our fears. That you're not afraid for us to bring you honest skepticism. And you'll meet us in that place. We thank you.

Hey, I'm going to pray for one more person. I'm going to pray for the person today who may be like, yo, I don't even need the whole series. Something's happening in my heart right now. I want to know this man named Jesus that you're talking about. I want to know him for myself. I want to encounter with him. I want to get that personal conviction. See, here's what I love about Jesus, man. He loves us so much that he gave his life for us. The only perfect person to say, I'll pay the price, I'll pick up the tab. There's a bunch of debates and one of them is about heaven and hell. I'll sell it for you. Both of them are real. Here's the myth. God doesn't send you to neither one of them. You actually get to decide where you go. That's your choice. And we decide to go to heaven. And we say, man, Jesus, I need you to come into my life. See, I've only got one job, one calling in all the earth. It's to make sure that as many people as possible get to spend eternity with God. Because at one point, you're going to take your last breath and you got to know, like, when you die, will you spend eternity with Jesus and his father? It's possible. It's possible by just saying, man, God, I want you. There's something coming to my life. Maybe even now your heart's racing. You're like, yo, what is this? Simply Jesus, he's knocking on the door.

He's a perfect gentleman, so he doesn't come by intrusion. He doesn't come by invasion. He can only come by an invitation. Hey, I'm a sinner, and I'm in need of a savior. Maybe you had that relationship, and you just kind of walked away. Maybe you was dragged here to church, and you had no idea like why even in this room, I thought I was gonna see somebody get baptized, or whatever that even means. God's done something. Your heart is like, yo, what is this? Jesus, he's a divine orchestrator. He knew that you need to hear these words. And these words would be the words in this moment of you accepting him would be the one that rewrites your life forever. So don't be afraid, and don't be embarrassed. Make this between me and you and no one else. Make the best decision you could ever make by giving your life to Jesus. We're not gonna do anything spooky. We're not gonna do anything scary. I'm not even gonna ask you to stand up or even come to the front. Instead, I'm just gonna ask you to raise your hand on the count of three, and be like, yo, that's me, Pastor. I wanna give my life to Jesus today. And then we're gonna say a confession together, because here's what scripture says,

that when you confess him before me, I'll confess you before the Father. And then we're gonna celebrate and go crazy because it's just an invitation to what God's gonna do. It says all of heaven rejoices when even one person gives their life to Jesus. But I just feel there's a bunch of us in this room today that you're not gonna delay this anymore. You're just gonna raise your hand, be like, yo, that's me, I'm giving my life to Jesus today. So if that's you, on the count of three, come on, man, let's do this together. One, God loves you. Two, your life will never be the same. Three, if that's you, raise your hand. Come on, come on, come on, come on. So many, so many, so many, come on. Come on, come on, hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah, you got some in this corner over here. You got three or four in that corner. Come on, hallelujah, God. Maybe you said, if you ask me again, I'll do it. So I'm gonna ask you again, if that's you on the count of three, just raise your hand. One, God loves you. Two, your life will never be the same. Three, if that's you, raise your hand. So good, so good. There it goes over there. Hallelujah, God, thank you, Jesus.

Come on, let's say this together. Say, God, today, I give you my life. I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Come on, let's celebrate. You said that prayer for the first time. Now, I'd love for you to just do a couple of things with me. They put a card in your hand. If you meet me, they can get a card. I would love for you to, there's the next steps table in the back of our Life Center. If it's gonna tell, hey man, I gave my life to Jesus. I'm gonna give you a gift. Tell you we love you, we're praying for you. And also tell you about a class we call Salvation Class so that you can have your next steps. Hopefully, you'll take a code of the QR code, all of that. I love you guys so much. Hey, man, it's been fun. I'll see you next week at 9 a.m. with special guest, Preston Perry. Love you guys. ♪ Oh, Lord, you changed my life ♪ ♪ For better or for worse, He is mine ♪ ♪ You are my everything ♪ ♪ And if one word is the only thing you speak to me ♪ ♪ Then I'll hurt it all if I feel it all ♪ ♪ All you never see or hear, have it all ♪ ♪ No trade for Him, Lord, He has that in mind ♪ ♪ You are my everything ♪