Satanic Lies

All right, well, good morning again. Welcome to church, everybody. I wanna welcome all of our campuses right now. We're so thankful that you are here, wherever here is for you. And I wanna encourage you, if you are at one of the locations where this is being streamed, you participate like you are right here in the room with us right now. We are having a One Church Sunday where we remind ourselves, we're a part of one big thing across Northwest Arkansas, reaching the mission of reaching Northeast Arkansas, America, and the world for Jesus. So wherever you're at, we're thankful that you are a part of our church and thankful that you are here today. If you got a copy of God's Word in your journal, why don't you grab it? John chapter eight is where we're gonna be in just a moment. Let me speak for just a second here. As you're turning in your Bible to our Highway 62 campus, today is a significant day in your life. Today is your last day of setting up at Farmington High School, because next week we move into our grand opening of our brand new renovated space on Highway 62. And we are thrilled to be on that.

Come on, Springdale, why don't we celebrate with them? I can't wait for you to see it. My family walked through it yesterday and one of my kids walked in and as soon as they walked in, they go, oh, wow. So it is looking incredible. And if you're here at Springdale, Pinnacle Fayetteville, here's my word on next Sunday, do not come to church at Highway 62 next Sunday, all right? Come here, then that afternoon we'll have an open house where you can come and walk through the building and you're gonna love it. But be praying next Sunday as we expect to have two full services that we are praying that God will bring lost people who will hear the message of the gospel and be saved and become a part of that church. Thank you, church, for your generosity in making things like this possible, reaching a brand new community for us as a church. So awesome, awesome stuff. Last week, we began a new series called This Means War. We're talking about spiritual warfare and whether you realize it or not, you are in a war. And if you don't realize you're in a war, here's what I would tell you, you're probably losing the war right now. You gotta understand that you're in a battle and this is a battle of spiritual warfare. In fact, we're talking about seven

of the battles of spiritual warfare that every believer has to fight. Last week, we talked about temptation. And today, here's what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about satanic lies, okay? This is one of those subjects that will affect every single person within the sound of my voice. And here's where I begin. Have you ever known a liar? Have you ever known a liar? In fact, once you think about that person for a moment right now, go ahead and picture their face in your mind right now. You got that? Got a person in mind? This person has most likely been someone you've lost trust in. You've probably been hurt by them and generally, you do not have good feelings about them. Some of you have their face on a dartboard right now and you are throwing darts right in their eyes right now. This person does not tell the truth. And in fact, you may have said this before to somebody else about them. You said, literally, they cannot tell the truth. And as a result of that, there's been brokenness in the relationship. You genuinely have bad feelings about them. And in fact, I'm ruining your day

by talking about them right now. I apologize, we'll move on, okay? Here's what you gotta understand. This is who Satan is in your life. This is who your enemy is, Lucifer himself. He is a liar who cannot tell the truth. I want you to look at John chapter eight with me today and I'm gonna focus on verse 44. We'll spend the mass of our time today on that one verse. But I want you to look all the way back to verse 31 because I think you gotta understand the context here. Jesus is in the temple right now. He is conversing with some Jewish people of the day. And he's talking back and forth with some of those who have responded to him initially in a very positive way. And then there's also those in the temple that day who are directly opposed to Jesus and his message. So what you find is you have this back and forth conversation between Jesus and these people who all that they know is Judaism. They were raised to be a Jew, both culturally and religiously. Everybody they know lives in Judaism. They have no concept of life outside of Judaism. And then Jesus is coming in and he's giving a radically different message that all that you were promised in Judaism is fulfilled in me. And so these people are struggling to understand exactly what it is that Jesus is saying.

And so I want you to look at verse 31 and we'll begin the journey together. He says this, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him. "'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples "'and you will know the truth.'" And look at this, underline this, "'And the truth will set you free.'" Anybody got that testimony today? Verse 33, "'They answered him, we are offspring of Abraham "'and have never been enslaved to anyone. "'How is it that you say you will become free?'' Paul's there for a moment. They believe that Jesus is speaking about actual slavery, that he is calling them actual slaves and they're like, Jesus, we're not slaves. In fact, my family, we've never been slaves. So I don't know how we're gonna be free if we're not enslaved to anything. And then Jesus goes deeper on what he's actually meaning. Verse 34, says, "'Jesus answered them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who,'' underline this, "'who practices sin is a slave to sin. "'The slave does not remain in the house forever, "'the son remains forever. "'So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'" And that's good news for every single person who can hear me speak today. In fact, let's read that verse together today because it's truth is very powerful.

"'So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.' They go on, Jesus says, "'I know that you are offspring of Abraham, "'yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place "'in you. "'I speak of what I've seen with my father, "'and you do what you have heard from your father.'" Now, if you're reading this with like, your eyes crossing a little bit and you don't understand what's going on, it's very normal. This is a bit of a confusing passage here that I'm gonna do my best to describe to you, all right? What Jesus is describing there in those last few verses is really the condition of every human heart. That's my heart, that is your heart. We are all born slaves to sin. Now, if we were to walk the streets of Springdale or Fayetteville or Rogers, Bentonville, and we were to say, hey, do you think people are born inherently good or bad? You'd have the majority of people say, well, I think that we're born basically good. And I think that we're good people by nature. And the only thing is that just doesn't jive at all with what the Bible says, okay? The Bible says the exact opposite, that we are actually born not only sinners, but we are slaves to sin. This is why you do bad things in your life. If you've ever wondered, this is why you do bad things

and you don't understand why you do them. It's because you were born with a sin nature. Jesus says here this idea about practicing sin. The idea here in this verse is not that you like sin every once in a while, but it is the predominant pattern of your life. Let me be very clear. This is every single person who has ever lived, who is living apart from a relationship with Jesus. Sin is the predominant pattern of your life and of my life before we meet Jesus. No one had to teach you to sin, teach you to do wrong, teach you to lie, cheat, and steal. This all comes very naturally to me. It all came very naturally to you as well, which is why we needed Jesus, which is why the gospel is so freeing. We need a God to come in and change us, to forgive us of all the wrong that we've done, to give us freedom that only he can do. And if that's never happened in your life today and you're like, dude, that sounds really, really nice, I would tell you this, this can happen in your life even here today. Jesus says, one of the confusing parts of this that you may not have understood is he says, you may be physical descendants of Abraham, but you are not spiritual descendants of Abraham. What he's saying is this, you may be a Jew by birth, but you need a new birth.

If you remember, we spent the entire fall and spring together walking through the book of Genesis. If you remember back when we studied the life of Abraham in the fall, we learned in Genesis 12 and beyond that through the line of Abraham, through his lineage, through his seed, a savior would come. And that savior's name is? It's Jesus, right? And so here he's giving spiritual language to them that they are struggling to understand. Jesus tells them, I speak of what I've heard from my father and you speak, however, from what you have heard from your father. You say, well, what's Jesus talking about? Well, the Jews had something in mind in their own mind. If you read the next few verses, the Jews essentially say, well, Abraham, he is our father, to which Jesus replies, nope. If you were his children, and he's speaking spiritual language here, if you really were the children of Abraham, you would not be trying to kill. Now, Jesus is about to have a drop the mic moment. You ever have one of those in your life? Like he's about to just say something and he's gonna drop the mic and everybody's gonna be left just sitting there listening. He gives one of the most crystal clear definitions of who their father is. Look at verse 44.

We'll spend the rest of our time on this one verse. He says, you are of your father. Who's their father? What does the Bible say? The devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth. Because why? Because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar, and underline this, and the father of lies. You say, what in the world is Jesus saying here? Well, let me clarify, okay? Jesus is not saying that all Jews have Satan as a father. It's actually much worse than that and much broader than that. He is saying that all of us who are born into sin, which is all of us, all of us who are apart from relationship with him, Satan also is our father. And the remainder of that verse, he begins to unpack as clear as anywhere that you will see in the Bible, the true descriptions of what Satan is like. And so I want you to grab a pen, grab your journal, if you don't have one of those, just grab your phone, start taking notes with this. I'm gonna give you from verse 44, here are five descriptions of Satan, all right?

Five descriptions of Satan, straight from the mouth of Jesus. Number one is this, he is a murderer from the beginning. He's a murderer from the beginning. Now you may say, well, Nick, what does that actually mean? Well, if you look at various scholars and you study this part of the passage, there are two primary views as to what Jesus is speaking about here. View number one is this, is that it is speaking, Jesus is speaking about how Satan killed Adam and Eve's spiritual life. Now rewind all the way back to the book of Genesis, very beginning of the Bible, before sin entered the world through Satan's involvement, Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony with God. This is unbroken fellowship with God himself. And yet Satan comes in the form of a serpent and he causes Eve to doubt the word of God and her and Adam disobey God, the eat of the fruit, and sin enters the world. And as a result, here's what it is, death also enters into the world. That's the first view of many scholars. View number two is this, is that Satan provoked Cain to kill Abel. Also Genesis, Genesis chapter four specifically, this was the very first murder in the Bible. And if you remember the story, Cain was angry at his brother Abel

because God looked at favor upon Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's, and so he killed him. You may say, well, Nick, you've given two views, which is the correct view? You want an honest pastoral answer? Not really sure, but here's what I would say. They're both true. Like, can we do yell up for some group participation this morning? I was like, so-so. Y'all up for some group participation this morning? Oh, yes, I love that, okay. Answer this yes or no. Was Satan behind the deception of Adam and Eve? Yes or no? Okay, how about Cain and Abel? Was Satan behind Cain killing Abel? Yes or no? You see what I'm saying? Of exactly which view and what exactly Jesus is saying? I don't know that we'll know exactly till heaven, but the bottom line is this, whichever one of those two, they're both true related to who Satan is. He was a murderer from the beginning. I once heard a pastor say it this way, I thought it was very helpful. He said, whenever you see the exact opposite of God, it is Satan at work. So like, take you scrolling through social media day by day,

and you see horrible things, or you're watching the news every night, and you see horrible things, and you see chaos, division, lying, stealing, anything like that, you know Satan is at work. So to put this within the context of our passage today, whenever you see murder, the taking unjustifiably of another life, of killing someone made in the image of God, you know that is never of God, and it is always of the enemy. Who is behind that? Satan, the murderer from the beginning. Now, the next four descriptions kind of shift from murder, and it shifts all about truth and lies, all right? This is incredibly, incredibly. significant for you to understand in your Christian life. Second thing he describes him like is this, he does not stand in the truth. Satan does not and never will stand in truth. This carries the idea, when you look at that phrase in this passage, it carries the idea of having literally nothing to do with the truth. His disposition is not in truth but in lies. He cannot live in the truth, he cannot remain in the truth, he literally has no relationship to truth. And so, anybody ever have the wrong thoughts and you know they're bad thoughts?

Anybody besides the preacher? I believe things that are not of the Lord. You believe things that are not of the Lord and yet you know it, you see it, you feel it. You need to understand this before we move on any further from this point. Satan has no relationship with the truth. If he is speaking, he is lying. Does that make sense? Jesus goes a step further in saying the same thing in the third description, just in a little bit of a different way. He says that Satan, there is no truth in him. This carries the idea that truth does not exist in our enemy. Think about some things that are mutually exclusive together. In other words, these two things cannot be true at the same time. Let's think about the lights right now. The lights can either be on or they can be off, right? Or we can be inside or we can be outside. Cannot be both of those at the same time. You either win the game or you lose the game no matter how your little league does the rules, right? All the dads know the score in the stands. You are either dead or alive. You're either an Alabama fan or a follower of Jesus. You know what I'm saying? Jimmy Martis, I know you like that

when I thought about you. Here's what Jesus is saying to us. Satan and truth do not coexist. In fact, they cannot coexist. They do not operate together. They are not in the same universe. They are never together. So whenever you hear the enemy speaking, you need to understand he is lying. Everybody got it so far? Jesus keeps going and I'll spend the rest of the time on the last two. He says it very plainly as the fourth description. He is a liar. He is a liar. If you could think back to the beginning of the message, I asked you to identify somebody in your mind who you know is a liar. Can you bring that person up back in your mind? Apologize for that. But if I were to bring you up on stage and I were to bring your person up on stage and I were to give that person a microphone and I would just say, hey, what do you wanna say to this person? What do they wanna say to you? And they just start talking. Your natural inclination would be to not believe them, right? Your natural inclination would be to,

I'm gonna doubt what he or she is saying right now. Your natural inclination would be to say, inwardly if not outwardly, you are full of it. Like you're full of it. I'm not believing anything you say. Do not miss what I'm about to say. If you don't get anything else today, get this. Here's the problem spiritually. Many of us do not have that same discernment when the enemy is speaking lies into our minds and into our hearts. We are prone to believe what he says even though he is a liar. We don't doubt what he says. We don't question what he says. We receive what he says as it is gospel. This is why Paul spoke of taking every thought captive. What Paul is saying is there are thoughts that are gonna walk through your mind and you've gotta discern as a follower of Jesus, is this truth or is this a lie? And he says, those that are lies, you take hold of them and you're like, you do not belong here and you are getting them out of your life. My fear is that many of us who are followers of Jesus are completely dominated in our mind. Completely. And if Satan walks into our mind with a thought, bringing fear, bringing anxiousness,

bringing identity questions to you about if you're really loved by God, things like that, we listen to him and we say, yeah, you know what? with no thought of anything that the Word of God says. And so today, I am here to wake you up as followers of Jesus. You are in a war for your mind. You're in a war for your life. And this never happens casually. If you think, well, Nick, you're a pastor, of course it's easy for you. It is not easy for me. Every single day, it is a battle in my mind. Every single day is a battle to follow Jesus. Every single day, I'm in a war for my spiritual life. And if you feel like, okay, me too, man. Like, if you feel like that, here's what I'd say. You're living the Christian life. I would caution you, like an extreme caution, if you say, well, I don't sense any of that at all. That means one of two things, and neither are good. Number one, it means you're not really saved. There's no war going on, because you're under the father of lies. Or number two, you're a follower of Jesus who has wandered so far away from the Lord that your heart has been almost like scar tissue over it, and you don't even hear the voice of God right now. This is a war. One of the greatest measures, in my mind,

of spiritual maturity is a man or a woman of God, a teenager, college student, young adult, who has learned to discern truth from the lies of the enemy. And if you never get over the hump, here's what I would tell you. If you never get over the hump of learning to discern the voice of God from the voice of Satan, you will live as a spiritual adolescent for the remainder of your life. And here's the reality. Can I be blunt today? There are some of you who are 50, 60, 70 plus years old. You've been in church for decades, and you're a spiritual adolescent because you are dominated in your mind because you are not taking hold of things that do not belong there and throwing them out, but you are listening and receiving the lies from the father of lies. And today, God is doing his very best to wake you up to those lies. When I was getting my doctorate, it was one of those deals where you'd be given the syllabus and I would have work to do before and after the week-long class. I would have to fly to the university in Virginia where I was going. And then I would sit in class for a week and then part of the syllabus was beyond

your assigned reading, you had to pick from, they had like a list you could pick of books. And the assignment, I took this guy for two different classes, was to read 1,000 pages out of this list, which was a lot. And you could also send in books and like his assistant would approve them or not if they would count towards the 1,000 pages. But Meredith and I were still somewhat young in our marriage, we had two small kids at that time. And someone had just given Meredith a book called Lies Women Believe by Nancy Lee DeMoss-Wolgemouth. Okay, it's a long name, but she got married later in life. For some reason, I thought, well, I'm gonna read this book. I was a young husband with a young wife and I guess it sounded more intriguing than the other books on the list. And so I sent it in, I said, okay, can I read this? And the guy wrote back, yeah, you can read it. So I read a book called Lies Women Believe. And it's actually, it's a great book. Nancy Lee DeMoss is a brilliant woman of God and her husband, who just recently passed away, wrote a companion book for men called Lies Men Believe. If you're a reader or even if you're not a reader, I think this is a great follow-up to this message and even to this sermon series that you would purchase this and make it a summer read for you, either book there, okay? What are some of the common lies that Satan tells men and tells women?

Can I give you just a few from their books? They give many more than what I'm gonna mention here, but can you just see if the shoe fits, you need to wear it, all right? Here's Lies Women Believe. Number one, God is not really good. Ladies, you ever been there? Maybe you're there right now. It's where Eve was, by the way. How about this second one, you see it on the screen? God is holding out on me. You may be having those thoughts right now. God's just a God of no. He's holding out on me. Number three, I need approval from others to have worth. So you're banking on what somebody else thinks about you, says about you, feels about you to determine how you feel about you. It's never good. For those of you who are married, here's two about your husband. My husband is responsible for my happiness. By the way, it never works on either side. Doesn't work in dating, by the way, you younger people. If you try to make that person fit in the place of God in your life, it always goes south. This can happen in marriage as well on either side. Ladies, do not amen this one, do not. If my husband were different, I'd be happy. You may could write that a little bit different.

If I had a different husband, I would be happy. Do not do that one as well, okay? How about this last one? My feelings determine truth. My feelings determine, I mean, I am feeling something and I feel it deeply. Is that truth, is that not truth, okay? So again, she goes many more beyond that with women. How about her husband? What are some lies that men believe? Men, let's be convicted together. This is a big one, I can manage my life without God. How many of you in this room, men, you wouldn't say it, but you're living it like this. I can manage my life without God. How about this one? My value comes from success or performance. So if the career's going well, I feel good about myself. If it's not, I don't. This is a big one related just to sin in general. No one will know. I can get away with it. It's just a little bit of, it's not hurting anybody. No one will know. Another career one, my job defines who I am. Next one, leadership means control. How about this final one? I can compartmentalize my life. I can compartmentalize my life. There was a book years ago, like a marriage book

titled something like this, I'm gonna butcher it, but Men Are Waffles, Women Are Spaghetti. Anybody read that book? And the idea was that men, you're a waffle. By the way, anybody hungry right now? I could totally eat a waffle right here as I preach. That'd be a little awkward, syrup dripping everywhere, but I could do it. But think about a waffle. You got the little squares where you can compartmentalize that syrup. Well, I'd like it on just this one little square, watching the calories, you know? And men are like that in life. Men are like that in marriage. I told an engaged couple that recently of this whole illustration of men in marriage can compartmentalize. Things are horrible at work, but then I'm gonna go have a great dinner with my family and I'm gonna forget all about it. I'm gonna compartmentalize my life. Women, on the other hand, this is not my idea. Somebody else's. See if it fits, ladies. Women are more like spaghetti. Everything's together. So if it's a bad day at work or with the kids, it's gonna be a bad night at dinner, all right? It's just everything's intertwined

and it's just all together. Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just here to describe the differences of gender, all right? And I'm really getting on the dudes here, right? Don't compartmentalize your life. That is a lie from the enemy. I can be one way at church on Sunday and then tomorrow when I'm at work, man, I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna be a different guy. It's not good, okay? Again, I hope both those books will be in your summer reading list. Let's get to the last one, okay? How about number five, the father of lies. The father of lies. Many of you have read this statement before, but if I were to pull you up on stage and say, hey, describe to the people what it means that Satan is the father of lies. You probably would struggle and be like, well, I don't know how to define it. I just kind of have always heard it. Here's what this means. Write this down in your journal. To be the father of lies means that Satan is the originator of lies. In other words, he started deception. It's a pretty powerful thing to think about. He is the originator of lies

and he is the one who started deception. A few months ago, Meredith and I went with Jeff Crawford and his wife Julie and our first class of seminary students and we went to England on a Christian heritage tour. It's kind of like their capstone trip of their experience. We went through London and we did Oxford and we did C.S. Lewis stuff. We ultimately got to Cambridge and we walked around to the different colleges that make up Cambridge University. It's a pretty fascinating situation. And we got to one of the colleges and right in front, there's a tree that's kind of blocked off. You can't go right next to it. And this is supposedly the tree. And there is debate on the real origin of this story, whether it's real or not. But there's debate here on Isaac Newton was sitting under this tree and he saw an apple fall and he thought to himself, why did it fall down and not fall up? And from there came the whole idea of gravity, okay? And so from now, from like then until now, Isaac Newton is known as the father of classical physics, all based on what happened right there. Now, if you think about other people in history who have been called the father of somebody or the father of something, in other words, they originated something, they started something.

You ever heard of Socrates, father of Western philosophy? What about Karl Marx, father of Marxism? You go Christian, you've got Martin Luther, father of the Reformation, awesome story. You got William Carey, father of the modern missions movement. So you got a lot of people throughout history who started something and originated something. And here's what Jesus is saying to us. Satan is the father of lies. He originated, he started the whole idea of lies and deception. He founded lies. It's not a great resume, is it? Can I close with this? Maybe you're out there today, and this would be a logical thought based on what I've talked about today. Hey, Nick, how do I know if I'm believing a lie from Satan? You ever wondered that? You're saying that it's a mark of spiritual maturity for me to identify what is of God and what is not of God and take hold of those that are not of God and to throw them out of my life and out of my mind. So how do I know what is truth and what is lie? How do I know if I'm believing a lie from Satan? I'll give you a long statement, we'll give you time to write it down. Here's how it is. You know you're believing a lie

when you have believed something that is contrary to scripture, which has then produced in you the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. Did you get that? Let me read to you again, you can take a picture of it. On the screen. You know you're believing a lie when you have believed something that is contrary to scripture, which has then produced in you the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. So there's really two aspects of that. Believing something that is contrary to the word of God that contradicts the Bible. So is there anything in your life right now that you are believing that is contrary to what God has said? Second aspect is this, which then has a negative effect upon my life. In other words, it produces in me harmful things. It produces in me the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. You say, well, what is the fruit of the Spirit? Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5. Every person who puts their faith in Jesus is indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And when we are living yielded to God, we are living in the filling of the Holy Spirit, the Bible says that there will be certain fruit that overflows from your life.

This fruit is as follows. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. Don't you wanna be that kind of person right there? On the flip side, how do you know if you're believing a lie? If your life is expressing the opposite of that, you know you're believing a lie. Fear, sadness, worry, impatience, unkindness, badness, if that's a word, harshness, no self-control. So I wanna close with these questions. Two questions for you, we're done. What lies am I believing right now? What lies am I believing? I would encourage you to put pen to paper on this very question. If you know them right now, I'd encourage you to write them down right now. If you're like, well, I'm not sure I need to process this, pull this back out this afternoon or tonight. Walk through this, what lies am I believing? Do you resonate with any of those lies I mentioned from those two books? Maybe it's something else, but you know in your heart and just the conviction of God is heavy upon your life right now. I have believed a lie hook, line, and sinker, that's me, Nick. Second thing is this, what fruit is this producing in my life? What fruit is this producing in my life?

Can I give you a bad rhyme? Like I'm no rapper, but this is a rhyme. If you have bad fruit, look at the root. All right, if you have bad fruit. In other words, if you don't like what's overflowing in your life, if you think, I don't wanna be this kind of person. I don't like who I am. I don't like when this happens, I become that person. If you don't like the bad fruit, you need to look at the root. And most likely what you will find at the end of the root is a lie that you have believed from the enemy. If you're constantly anxious, irritable, prideful, impatient, unkind to people, look at the root, okay? Now, we are responsive people to the word of God, amen? Like when God says something to us, we respond. Now that means all kinds of different things. For some of you, it means that you will leave this room and you will need to obey the Lord in some way outside of this room. For others of you, it might mean that there's a heart thing that needs to go on between you and God. But here's what spiritually mature people do. They respond when God speaks. And so how is God calling you to respond? Only you will know that. But this is part of the reason

why we do an invitation every single week. We create space in your life because as soon as you get to the lobby, it's gonna be a free-for-all. Like you're gonna see people you know, you're gonna high-five, hug, it's great, it's part of church, it's all good. You're gonna think you need to go to the bathroom, you're hungry, you want some coffee. Wait, where are we going to lunch today? Lunch isn't open, it's brunch. So you're gonna have all those kinds of thoughts. So we identify, we cut out time in the service to say, let's respond to God together. And so maybe you're here today and you know without a shadow of a doubt, man, I am believing some lies from the enemy and it is harming me and I need to get right with God. One way you can respond is we're gonna open up this altar and you just come and just get on your face and say, Lord, I'm not where I need to be, but I wanna go where I need to be. Would you do a work in my heart? Maybe you're here today and that's gone to such an extent that there's brokenness in your life. Maybe your relationship has been broken, maybe a career has suffered and honestly, you just need God to do some things that you can't do. I'm just gonna invite you to come to the altar today. Maybe you're here and man, when I give the picture

of those things walking into your mind and taking hold of lies and throwing them, man, maybe you know, I've been dominated in my mind and I need the help of God. I'm gonna invite you to come. If you're here today and no doubt, there are some of you who are in this position, you just say, Nick, I'm confused. I don't know in this situation, what is of God and what is of me? I just don't know. You know, just a second here as we pray in a moment, our staff's gonna make their way to the front of each aisle. You know, this is part of the benefit of church, part of the benefit of other people in your life. We can say, I don't really know how to view this. This is what's going on. Can you help me discern truth from lies in this situation? Our staff would love to do that. We'd love to pray for you. Maybe you're here today and you believe the biggest lie of them all, that you really can't live your life apart from God, that you have no need of him in your life. You're really not that bad. It's not that big of a deal, you know, to be a sinner, but maybe today God has revealed to you for the very first time, your desperate need for forgiveness, the unbelievable offer of salvation and grace and mercy

that God can give you. And you just need to receive Christ today. I'm gonna encourage you to come and you grab one of the hand of these men and women that'll be here in a moment. And all you gotta say is this, I need to give my life to Jesus. We'll take it from there. We'll answer any question you have. But whatever it is that God is calling you to do and to respond, let's be responsive people, whether that's inside the room, outside the room, over the phone, tomorrow at the office, let's obey the Lord, amen, church? Let's bow our head and close our eyes together. Our staff's gonna make their way to the front of each aisle. And if you are here today, and maybe you really identified with that last part and you would say, Nick, I know that I need Christ. Like I need to be forgiven of my sin. I'm gonna encourage you. And you can just raise up your head and you just peek a little bit. You can find the man or woman closest to you. They're all a part of our staff. And why don't you just determine right now, just pray, God, would you give me the boldness to go forward? Today's the day for salvation. Today's the day to be saved. Don't put it off any longer.

You come. We'll lead you to faith in Christ. If you've been into any of those other categories, you're a follower. of Jesus, but man, you need to get right with the Lord, or you just need help from God. However God's calling you to respond, this altar's open right now. Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray that you would move us from where we are to where we need to be. Whether that looks like something right now in this room, whether it looks like something tomorrow at the office, whether it looks like something later next week with our family, I pray that we would be responsive to your voice, and would we do that even right now in this moment. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.