Rise Above Your Fear | Rise Above | Pastor Rob Koke | Shoreline Church | Message

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Good morning, everybody. We are so glad that you're here, and we want to give a very warm welcome to all of you who are watching online from around the community, the state, even in some cases, the nation and the world. Would you welcome everyone that's a part of our online congregation right now? We love you guys so very much. Super excited about today, but I want to just plant the seed for next Sunday. So we've been in something that we've called Shore Fest every single weekend in the month of August, and it started a little bit small, and it's been building and building. Today is the largest, you know, expression of enthusiasm and passion with food trucks and all kinds of sign-up opportunities out in the front lobby and special treats and all of that. But next week is like everything. We're going to have inflatables for all of our kids. It's our welcome-to-back bash, celebrating, you know, the fact that we're launching into the school year. We'll be praying over all of the students and the teachers and just having a grand celebration and party.

You don't want to miss it. And then you want to invite all your friends and neighbors to be a part of it. It's going to be absolutely awesome. And one of the most special things about next weekend is our baptism service. We're going to do baptisms outside, and so if you haven't signed up to be baptized yet, if you haven't been baptized yet, we want to encourage you to be a part of it. It's going to be fantastic. All right, with that said, let's all of us stand to our feet. We do something at the beginning of every message. We recite what we call the Shoreline Creed. It's just our way of remembering that Christianity at the end of the day is about God's amazing grace. If you're new to Shoreline, you can read along. The rest of us, we're going to say this with some enthusiasm and passion. You guys ready? Otto, you ready? Okay, Otto's ready right here, up front, awesome. You haven't been in church for the last couple of weeks, so it's really good to see you. I'm glad you're back in your chair. Would you give Otto a great big hand clap? He's awesome. I shouldn't call you out like that, but you know. Okay, you guys ready? Here we go.

I am loved by God. I cannot earn it, I cannot lose it. I am forgiven and made brand new. In Christ, I live with passion and purpose. I am empowered by the Spirit to be the church in the world and to live this love revolution. Come on, let's give God praise for that. Okay, so, you know, they say that when you get married and you spend a lot of years together, you become a little bit more like your spouse. They rub off on you, and I've been the beneficiary of a lot of Laura's incredible talents and skills. I'm better organized, I eat better, and I dress better. I'm actually more, you know, fashion forward. Because of her influence in my life. I've got a picture of how I used to dress before we met. I want you to take a look. Yeah, that's me. Give me an eye patch, and I look like a pirate. But she has helped me in all kinds of different ways. What's interesting is, it hasn't necessarily worked in the reverse. Some of the things that I'm really good at, as we continue to grow older together, she's actually regressing, she's getting worse at. Like, take for instance, I'm really good with directions. I don't know what it is, just had it, you know, innate, born that way, I can just, you know, figure out how to get places. Laura is directionally challenged.

It's true. She just follows that blue line on the GPS. If it didn't have a GPS, she would get lost all the time. The other day, she called me because she was going home from church, following the blue line. She called me from Killeen. She has no sense of direction. Now, it might be strange, a strange flex to brag on my sense of direction, but we all gotta, you know, compliment what we're good at, right? And even though I'm really good at directions, I still want confirmation. It's kind of a funny thing. So I know I can drive home, I know all the turns, but I still put it on the GPS, partially because I wanna beat that estimated time of arrival. You know, I always wanna get there a little bit faster. But I think there's something about me that you might share in common. You always want that final confirmation that you're getting it right. When you make a dinner reservation, they give you a confirmation. You want that confirmation. When you make a hotel reservation, you want that confirmation. When you're booking flights. The other day I was booking some flights,

using some miles, and I just wanted to make sure I had done it right. I wanted that confirmation. We are in a study on the life of Gideon. And this story is so profound and so beautiful, and it's very, very human. I think that the reason why this particular story from the Bible resonates so deeply is because, you know, how he relates to God, the questions that he has, and how he approaches things is so much like how we do things. Let me kind of catch you up if you haven't been a part of it. Gideon is in the midst of a really challenging set of circumstances. The Midianites, the Amalekites, a lot of eastern tribal people have conquered Israel, and they're making life very difficult for them. They plant seed, the Israelites do, to reap a harvest, but the Midianites will come and rob them of their fruit and their harvest. Every time they try to do something, you know, it's like a swarm of locusts come, and they're just destroyed. And it's been seven long years that they've been oppressed by the enemy, and that's where we're picking up the story with Gideon. And Gideon is going to be used by God not only to set himself and his family free,

but God wants to use him to make a difference in his entire world. He wants to set the whole nation free. And just a little bit of a side note, God wants to do the same thing in your life. You might be facing some challenging circumstances. He wants to set you free from those challenging circumstances. He wants you to have the victory there, but he also wants to use you to make a difference in the world. And one of the things that we find here about Gideon is that he wants some confirmation on that. So God shows up and he says to Gideon here in Judges chapter six, the Lord turned to him and said, "'Go in the strength you have and save Israel. "'I will be with you.'" And Gideon wants some confirmation about that. And so the first thing he does is that he asks God to consume an offering that he will bring. And it cracks me up a little bit here. This is found in verse 17. If I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that is really you talking to me. And the sign that he asks God to give him is that he grabs some meat and some bread, puts it on an altar, and then he says,

"'God, if you consume this offering, "'then I'll know that you're speaking to me.'" And God does it. Fire comes down from heaven, consumes the meat and the bread, and he gets the confirmation that he needs. But Gideon, he's a lot like us. He's so human. He's got some issues, but it's kind of endearing if you think about it. He was cautious. He was dealing with lots of insecurities. What I find incredibly ironic is that even though Gideon had all of these doubts, he is highlighted in the most famous chapter in the Bible. They call it the Hall of Fame of Faith, Hebrews chapter 11. Gideon is in there, even with all of his doubts and insecurities. I don't know if that does something for you, but it does something for me. It really gives me some encouragement that God can take all of us, even those of us who are a little bit flawed and a little bit challenged and got some issues in our life, and he can use us as well. But Gideon wants some additional confirmation, and so he comes to the Lord,

and he says, listen, I'm gonna lay a fleece out before you, and he says, if there is dew only on the fleece and all of the ground is dry, then I'll know that you spoke to me. And this is where it kind of gets. It's a little bit comical. If it was us and we were God, we might probably be thinking next, let's choose somebody else to lead this movement. Let's choose somebody else. I hung out with him underneath the tree. I told him that I put some gifts and talents in his life. I already consumed the meat and the bread, and now he wants some more magic tricks. I would be thinking there's gotta be someone better. This is the general that's going to lead the whole nation of Israel to freedom. There's gotta be somebody else. But after he gets confirmation with that particular request, there's a third request. Don't be angry with me, he says. One more test. This time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew, and God actually honors his request. And this is something that I want you to get a hold of here this morning about God. God will give you exactly what your faith needs.

He's not gonna hold out on you. God will give you exactly what you need. God's in the habit of doing that. The truth is, Laura and I went through a very, very difficult time in the year of 2009. It was the most difficult year that, well, quite frankly, that anybody would ever walk through if they experienced what we did. On July 2nd in 2009, I lost my dad in a boating accident off the coast of Florida. And then 12 days later, I lost my son, Caleb. Laura and I, in a car accident a mile away from our home. As you can imagine, we were plunged into grief and plunged into heart sorrow like you could never imagine. We went to a counseling center in Colorado for a week. And while we were there, even though I had preached many sermons on the comfort that heaven brings, even though I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that life is not over with this life, that as believers, we trust that when we die, when we transition to heaven, that it's not goodbye forever. It is only see you later to meet again for all of eternity. That's what we believe. But still, my heart was hurting so bad. And I just needed something. My heart needed a sign. And while we were driving down the road, and just, I think we were going out to lunch

and we were driving back to the counseling center, Laura looked out the window and she drew my attention to this beautiful, beautiful, solid as you could ever imagine, double rainbow. It wasn't one, there was two. And it was so crystal clear. It was like God was giving us a sign that everything the Bible says about heaven, everything we believe about heaven, he gave me exactly what my heart needed to move forward in my life. And I just want you to know that that's the kind of God that we serve. He will give you exactly what your heart needs. Jesus spoke to Thomas. We refer to Thomas as doubting Thomas, but the reality is, is he was such a courageous man. He laid down his life. He died a martyr's death proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. But Thomas's heart needed something. And when Jesus showed up, he said to Thomas, put your hands in my hands and put your hand in my side. He gave to Thomas exactly what Thomas's faith needed. He gave to Joseph, you know, the one betrothed to Mary. Mary is carrying the savior of the world in her womb. And Joseph was having serious concerns and doubts, but God gave to Joseph a dream. He gave him exactly what his faith needed. God gave to Peter a dream

about how, you know, food descending from heaven. And it was a sign that the gospel wasn't just for the nation of Israel, but was for all people. And then God gave to Saul, who became Paul, a blinding experience on the road to Damascus. Our God is the God who gives us exactly what our faith needs. And you might be here this morning. Maybe the encouraging word from a friend in the lobby will give you what your faith needs. Maybe the comfort in a worship song that we sang together. Maybe a promise from the word of God when you have your devotions. Or maybe he will even use this message today to give you exactly what your faith needs. Everything hinges on your faith being strong. And I just want you to know that God will give you exactly what your faith needs. Now, I've never had God physically burn, you know, some meat and some bread. I've burnt the toast and I've overcooked some meat from time to time. I've never seen God do that in my life. And I'm not a strong advocate of putting out fleeces like Gideon did when I was in school. My Bible teacher in college said that those who lay out fleeces can often get fleeced or scammed. Most of the time, it's just God's peace speaking to our hearts about what is right,

a sign that gives us what we need. And there's a reason why God does that. There's a reason why God wants our faith to be strong. Because it's in that place where our faith is strong that we can see the opportunity to win the day. You might be facing some challenges in your family, in your work life, with your health, in some relationships, and what you need is strong faith. Some of you might be sitting here today and you're wondering, you know, how God can use you or what you can do to make a difference. You need to have faith. And so God gives you what your faith needs because he wants to partner with you to make a difference. When we talk about what Shoreline is all about, we often, you know, recite our vision statement. It's to help people know God, find life, and make a difference. That's what we're all about. We want to raise up fully devoted followers of Jesus that will know God, find life, and make a difference. If there wasn't an opportunity to make a difference, then why would we stay here? If God doesn't have a purpose and a plan for our lives, then why wouldn't he just take us home as soon as we gave our hearts to him? The reason why every single one of us are still here is because he has a purpose and a plan for you to help make a difference in someone else's life. He wants to bring victory into your circumstances

and he wants you to help change the world. And so our faith is important. And we need to recognize that we're in partnership. We can't change the world by ourselves. In fact, we can't do anything significant by ourselves. But in partnership, all kinds of things are possible. So God speaks to Gideon and I think to all of us now these thousands of years later, God speaks to Gideon and says, go in the strength you have and save Israel and I will be with you. Notice the two things that are a part of that phrase, that collection of verses. Go in the strength you have, that's your part, and I will be with you, that's God's part. We do what we can, God does what we can't. We take the steps in the natural and God makes it supernatural. And when you read the Bible, there is always this combination, this partnership of what we do and what God does. God spoke to Abraham and said, I'm gonna send you to the promised land. And then when Abraham got there, he had to walk out the land. God gave him the land, but Abraham had to walk it. And then you have Moses standing at the edge of the Red Sea and there's an army behind him and mountains on either side. And God said, I will set the children of Israel free, but Moses still had to raise up his staff.

David approached Goliath with faith in his heart. He knew God had to do his part, but he also had a stone and a sling. Everything we do is in a partnership. I have two older brothers. Many of you know my oldest brother, Pete. He was on staff with us and now he's pastoring a church up in the Boston area. But there is another brother between Pete and myself. And he's named after my mom's dad or my grandfather on my mother's side. His name is Enno, that's a Dutch name. E-N-N-O is how you would spell it. But we would just call him N, the letter N. And so when N was in high school, he got a car, it was a beat up old Beetle, and sometimes it started and sometimes it didn't. But since he was the one who was taking us to school, on the days that the car wouldn't start, we would all get behind the car and push the car down the driveway. My brother would then jump into the front seat and pop the clutch to get the car started. Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. I guess you had to be a part of a certain age. So you would pop the clutch. You know what, there's no perfect analogies, but I have a feeling that that's exactly what God does with us. He pushes us down the driveway,

but then we've got to pop the clutch, we've got to activate our faith, and then we've got to steer in the direction that he is leading us to. There's always this sense of partnership between us and God. It's the key to gaining victory over your own circumstances and it's the key to making a difference in the world. So in this particular part of the Gideon story, we see him really going overboard to get confirmation about certain things, to settle certain things in his heart. And if you want to gain the victory in your circumstances or if you want to make a difference in our world, there are a lot of ways that you can do that. Or if you want to make a difference in our world, there are some things that you need to settle in your own heart. You need to get that confirmation. And there are three things from the story of Gideon that he gets confirmation on that we also need in our own lives. The first is this. Gideon needed to go in the strength of his gifts. We need to go in the strength of our gifts. Before ever even taking a single breath on earth, God put something inside of Gideon that he had no idea he had. In the very first couple of verses describing the Gideon story,

God shows up and tells Gideon, you are a mighty warrior. God put inside of Gideon a leadership gift that he had no idea he possessed. If you want victory in your life or you want to make a difference in the world, you've got to go in the strength of your gifts. The Lord is with you. God spoke to Gideon, you mighty warrior. In James chapter one in verse 17, it says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. You might be here in church this morning and you know you've got some gifts, but you've been leaving them on the shelf. You just haven't been using them or accessing them. You haven't offered them up to the Lord. You know what they are, but you have just kind of let them lay dormant. Or maybe some of you are here today and you don't know how God has gifted you. I want to encourage you like Gideon to have that tenacity, to have that passion to say, God, I don't know how you wired me. I don't know all of the gifts you've invested in me, but I want to. Will you give me what my faith needs? You've got to go in the strength of your gifts. When the Bible talks about gifts, it's listing a whole bunch of different ones. Some of them supernatural, some of them natural.

Some of the supernatural gifts that we read about, like gifts of healing or prophecy or tongues or interpretation of tongues, the working of miracles, et cetera. Some of them are more natural, the ability to serve, to be involved in hospitality and administration and encouragement and leadership. Some of them are abilities and skills like singing or the arts or musicianship or construction. Every gift you have is from God. That's what the Bible says. And if God went through all of the trouble to give you a gift, don't you think you should? have light hands, and say, God, as you have gifted me, so I will serve you. That's the only thing that makes sense. This week, I heard the story of Renee. She's involved with our worship team. Renee has the gift to sing, but she convinced herself that it would be better to just sit back and stay on the sidelines. But God wouldn't let her do that. He had given her the gift, and he made it clear to her that he wanted her to use it. And so she took a step of reaching out to the creative team so that she could walk through the process. And so she did. She walked through that process, and just a couple of weeks ago,

she sang for the very first time on this stage. Would you give Renee a great big hand clap? And she said, now I'm using the gifts that God has given to me. This is a quote, to be a blessing to this church and to this community, because I wanna make a difference with my life. She took the natural step of just saying, hey, I'm available, and I've noticed that God has given me this gift, and that's all she had to do. She just took a step. She did what she could, and God is now using her in ways that she could never accomplish on her own. So go in the strength of your gifts. The second thing that God needed to solidify or settle in Gideon's life is something that we need to settle in our lives as well. Not only go in the strength of your gifts, but go in the strength of fresh consecration. You see, Gideon had some issues in his life, some things that needed to be dealt with. And maybe you came to church today, and that's how you feel. The truth is is that every single one of us have issues, every single one, your El Pastor included. And if you don't think you have issues, that's your issue. We all have them. But Gideon is being challenged by the Lord

to deal with those issues, to live his life with fresh consecration. And I want you to notice what God tells Gideon to do. Tear down these bad altars, your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole beside it, and then build the proper kind of altar to the Lord your God. And so God tells Gideon, listen, we gotta do some business. Now, nobody's gonna be perfect, not ever. You're not gonna be perfect, I'm not gonna be perfect, we'll never be perfect, but don't allow that to stop you from dealing with the issues that you know need to be dealt with. And God spoke to Gideon and said, you gotta tear down some altars, and you gotta build some good ones. I don't know what the negative altars in your life might be like, but in Gideon's life, there were some altars that were built on lies and insecurities, fears and doubts and distortions. And some of them came directly from his own father, who had built an altar to a foreign god. And while we're not necessarily building altars made out of stone or wood to worship some foreign god, I think we all know what it's like to worship things other than God in our life. Some people worshiping money or fame,

some people worshiping their favorite sports team, college football kicks off next weekend. Hook them horns. And I don't know what altars you might have come to church with here this morning, what's been passed down to you from your parents, what you had to deal with in your own life, but I wanna encourage you, with God by your side, you can do it. Most people don't want to tear down those altars. They don't wanna deal with their issues. They don't wanna have to look in their closets and see what skeletons are there. But there are lots. the kinds of alters, there are big, life-consuming alters, and then there are subtle things in our life. Someone, you know, a hundred or so, couple hundred years ago, you know, coined this idea that there are seven deadly sins, seven sins that impact our lives in a negative way. Selfishness and laziness and, you know, lust, pride, gossip, envy, and all of them have a negative impact. And none of us are free from any of these seven, and there's probably more. I'm not free of them, you're not free of them, and they have an impact on our lives that we just gotta deal with. Sometimes facing these skeletons is hard. We're afraid, but you need to do it anyway.

In Judges chapter six and verse 27, so Gideon took 10 of his servants and did as the Lord told him, but because he was afraid of his family and his townspeople, he did it at night rather in the daytime. And whether you do it in the day or whether you do it at night, doesn't matter, just do it. Gideon was afraid, but he did it. And you know what's kinda interesting? He took with him 10 friends. When you're doing hard stuff, when you're dealing with your issues, the best way to do that is in community with other brothers and sisters who will stand by your side and help you along the journey. Sometimes you gotta do it scared. Sometimes you gotta deal with some of the things in your past so it doesn't impact your future and you're scared to do it. Do it anyway. Sometimes you gotta admit that you did something wrong, you offended somebody, you did something you need to apologize for and you're scared to do it. Do it anyway.

Sometimes you need to take that courageous step to get the counseling that you need or to go to celebrate recovery, to deal with some of those significant issues in your life and you're afraid to do it. Do it anyway. And build a good altar in its place. An altar that's built on grace and the finished work of the cross. An altar that is built on hope and power and the love of God. An altar that is built on humility and kindness and courage and surrender. But you don't have to do it alone. Gideon took 10 of his servants and they did it together. Community is always a healthy, strong place to do the things you're scared to do. When I was in college, and I'm not sure if this would be a good example to share but just hang with me. When I was in college, there was a lake nearby where we went to school in Oklahoma. It was called Lake Tenkeller. But because they had so many cliffs that you can jump off of into the water, it was nicknamed Lake Teen Killer because some people foolishly made jumps they shouldn't have made.

Some of the cliffs are like 100 feet high. Some 50 feet, some 40 feet. But they're high. I don't know how high the cliff was that I was with with a couple of my friends but it was high. And there was a guy down below who was doing some bash fishing. And we were contemplating jumping off of this cliff into the water. And I thought maybe it would be a good idea to see how deep the water was. So I asked him with his depth finder if he could tell me it was like over 100 feet. I said, good, we're ready to go. And we were up there and we would get to the edge of the cliff and we would step back, get to the edge, step back. It was scary. But then somehow, someway, the combined courage of that particular group, they were encouraging and I just ran off the cliff and jumped. And then when I got down into the water, I looked back and everyone else jumped after me. Some things that are hard to do are easier when you're in community. Now, if you take away from this message today that I encouraged you to grab a bunch of friends and jump off a cliff,

you've missed the entire point. The point I'm trying to say is that in community, you can do the things, the hard things, the scary things that you can't do on. Your own. Our lives are meant to be lived for his glory and his purposes. God wants to set you free from the challenges in your own life, but he also wants to help you make a difference in our world. You need to go in the strengths of your gifts and you need to go in the strength of fresh consecration. And you need to go in the strength of his spirit. When you think about fresh consecration and building the right kinds of altars in your life, I think about Gia here at our church. She kept her influence and circle of friends very small. She had built an altar, if you will, of anxiety and fear and lack of trust. And she kept people at a distance. But then God began to work in her, challenging her to tear down those altars and build in its place altars of love and grace and strength in the Lord.

And she took a step of faith. She called it a leap of faith. And I love how she put it in her testimony to me this week. She said, I have absolutely no regrets from launching out of my comfort zone. And now she's one of our key leaders in the Celebrate Recovery ministry here at Shoreline. Would you give Gia a great big hand clap this morning? Go in the strength of your gifts, go in the strength of fresh consecration. And then the third thing that Gideon had to settle in his heart. It was going in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Now, all of the Midianites and Amalekites and other Eastern people joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the valley of Jezreel. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet. And when he blew the trumpet, 32,000 people came and rallied to the cause. Every one of us also needs to settle in our heart, our dependence upon God. We don't do this in and of ourselves. You don't win the battle in your family.

You don't win the battle in your health, your finances, your business, or any other challenge on your own. We need to depend on what the Holy Spirit can pour into our lives. When we first started our church, it was very difficult. The circumstances were very difficult. The circumstances were daunting and it didn't look like we were making much progress. And I was ready to throw in the towel, really honestly, to give up. And I was praying and I said, Lord, unless you do something, we can't continue. And the Lord dropped in my heart this verse of scripture from Zechariah. It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty. And something supernatural happened. We were taking the steps in the natural, but the Holy Spirit ensures that our steps are not only natural, they become supernatural. We do what we can and God does what we can't. And that experience in my life was so revolutionary that every single day, and I promise you, every single day I pray, I pray,

Holy Spirit, would you lead me, empower me and favor me? We can't do it on our own. But together. God can work miracles. I wish you were here this morning. Do you know that there were some people here at 530 this morning getting ready for service, volunteers, not staff, volunteers that were here setting up tents and sound equipment and getting everything ready for services today. That doesn't happen all the time, so please don't feel like that's the bar. But today it was. And we got into a huddle, we do that every single Sunday morning, all the volunteers, they huddle together. And we got this little chant that we do as a group of volunteers. And I'm not gonna even do it because you gotta be a part of that group to get that chant. Maybe next week you'll hear it. But there's a chant that comes from the heart of every single volunteer. The Holy Spirit just inspiring our collective efforts. We've identified our gifts, we've made fresh consecration. We're depending upon the Holy Spirit, and we're like the body of Christ.

You are a part of this body of Christ, and everybody's got something different but important to contribute. Not everybody's an eye, and not everybody's an ear, not everybody's a mouth, but we all have what we have, and God, as a beautiful conductor, takes all of the gifts and, like an orchestra, just produces something beautiful with all of us together. Go in the strength of your gifts. Go in the strength of fresh consecration. Go in the strength of the Holy Spirit. I think sometimes, in a church like this, you look around, you say, well, it looks like everything's organized. It looks like you got all the people you need. Nothing could be further from the truth. I asked our team to tell me how many people, in addition to what we have right now, that we need, and I just kind of penciled it in, as you might imagine, at the last minute to tack on to the end of this message. We need 32 more people on the worship team, 36 on the production team, 8 on the media team. We need 6 more to help with Shoreline Online. You know, we have a whole online community. In fact, over 20,000 people at Shoreline Behind Bars alone are a part of our online ministry. We need people to reach out to them and make them feel welcome and at home. We need 50 to 60 more people in children's ministry, 35 in the nursery, 39 in youth ministry. We need 60 more ushers and greeters and 10 more in the coffee shop. We need 6 more in parking. We need 20 more prayer partners. It's just, this list can go on and on and on. I just want you to know there's room for you. While you're fighting the battle for victory in your own life, join hands with other believers and help make a difference in our world. Could I hear a good amen? Now, I gotta tell you, the climax to this whole story happens next week. And it's so exciting what God did for Gideon that He also does for us. It's literally gonna blow your mind. But to get ready for next week, you gotta settle some things this week. Settle the gifts. Settle your heart in consecration. And settle your dependence upon the Lord. Then next week, we'll make all the difference in the world. Could I hear a good amen? All right. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for our time together here today. Lord, you are so good to us. So good. Father, I pray that you would settle our hearts. That we would go in the strength of the gifts you've given. That we would go in the strength of fresh consecration. That we would go in the strength of your Holy Spirit. And Father, help us to recognize our dependence upon you in Jesus' name. Still with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you came to church here today and you're not

where you need to be with God, you'd say, Pastor, I'm not living right. I'm not doing right. I'm not where I ought to be with God. I need prayer. Some of you came to church and you made a decision to follow the Lord, but you've slipped away. And today, you need to rededicate your life to serving Him. Some of you have never made that decision, but you want to make that decision today. If you want to meet Him for the first time or rededicate your life to serving Him, would you please raise your hand quickly and boldly wherever you are? Wonderful. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Hands are going up all over. All of you with your hands raised, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer. And I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. Would you do that? And everyone else is a reaffirmation of your faith in God. Let's all of us pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Jesus. Jesus, I ask You to come into my heart. Forgive me of all my sins. I put my trust in You. And I will live for You from this day forward by Your power, for Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Would you give them all a great big hand clap? Okay, let's all of us stand to our feet. Again, please, nobody leaving early. I've got a really important announcement I think you'll enjoy in just a moment. But those of you who did raise your hands to get right with the Lord, whether to meet Him for the first time or rededicate your life to serving Him, would you please raise your hands? And I want you to pray this prayer serving him. We have some folks at each entrance on our east side and our west side. They're out loud. I want you to pray this prayer out loud. I want you to pray this prayer out loud. holding a sign, Made Brand New. We want to give you a very special copy of the New Believers focus of the Bible that we think will really help you. And we want to give you some information that will really kind of give you the strength to walk out the next steps in your Christian journey. So please, if you don't mind just gathering your things right now and just slip out of the aisle and go to each one of these sections. Again, let's give them a great hand clap as they go. Today is something we call Serving Sunday. And so out in the front lobby, we've put a lot of effort out there into making it as easy as possible for you to make the transition from being on the sidelines to getting on the team and helping make a difference with your gifts and talents. And so we want to encourage you to be a part of that. One of the fun things that we're doing out there is that there is a dunk tank out there. And well, I'm going to be in that dunk tank. You got to give me a couple of minutes to change, but I'm going to be in that dunk tank. But go out there and get involved. Use your gifts

and talents to make a difference in our world. Amen. God bless you. Listen, this past Wednesday night, we had the largest increase ever. 70% more women, 110% more men showed up on Wednesday night for small groups. So you want to be here on Wednesday night for that kind of community. It is absolutely amazing. God bless you. Have a fantastic rest of your weekend. We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night and then for a welcome back bash on next Sunday. God bless.