Staying Mentally Strong

Hey, big welcome to our church family. Before we dive into the Word today, let me tell you what's coming up next week. We are starting a brand new, very important message series called How to Pray. Why? Because we know that prayer is essential prayer, is powerful prayer, moves the heart of God. And as Christians, we know that prayer is important, but a lot of times we struggle to have an intimate and consistent prayer life. So we're gonna do a deep dive into the Word for three weeks. We're gonna learn how to pray. And now let's go to week number four of our message series, Heal Your Hurting Mind. Well, I'm very excited to share God's Word with you today. Well, I'm very excited to share God's Word with you today. We're in the final week of the message series called Heal Your Hurting Mind. And I wanna talk to you today about a category of mental health that a lot of people don't always talk about. We have a spiritual enemy, we know that, and their spiritual enemy attacks those that are pursuing the heart of God. And our spiritual enemy doesn't just attack you when you're struggling, but he often attacks even harder when you're healing. Many of you, you've made progress the last few weeks

and you're starting to grow closer to God and feel a little bit of peace and maybe a little bit of hope. And maybe at some point when you start to sleep a little bit better or the anxiety is not as constant, that's when fear often whispers. What if the progress that you've been making doesn't last? What if the problem that you once had comes back? What if you're not really better? What if you're not really healed? And that fear is very, very real. And the Bible speaks directly to it in many different places. And we're gonna look at many of those verses today. In fact, Paul said this in Galatians 5.1. He said, so Christ has truly set us free by the power of Jesus. The truth is Jesus and the truth sets us free. Christ sets us free. And then watch what Paul says. He says, now make sure that you stay free. Make sure you've been set free. Make sure you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law. Now, the context of this verse, Paul is talking about freedom from the law, but this principle applies to anywhere in any category of life when Christ sets us free. In fact, I wanna show you a very direct and very literal translation of this verse.

The English Standard Version is probably the most literal. And it says, for freedom, Christ has set us free. For freedom, Christ has set us free. In the Greek, Paul uses the same root word two times, for freedom and free. For those of you that are grammatical nerds, it's called a cognate construction. Hope you like that. It's two versions of the same root word. Why? Because freedom wasn't an accident. Freedom was the intention. When you think about it, Jesus came, yes, to forgive your sins, but he didn't just come to forgive your sins. He came to set you free from the burden of the law and the things that hold you hostage that are less than God's will for your life. So Paul says this. He says, Christ has set you free, but stand firm. Don't go back to that bondage. Fight to stay free. So freedom is a gift from God, but you have to guard that gift. So today, we're not just talking about healing. We're not just talking about getting free. Today, with God's help, we believe he's gonna empower us to stay free. At all of our churches, let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for your power. We thank you that grace initiates and our faith participates with your work in our lives, that the truth will set us free. And by your power and your word and with your people, we will guard that freedom to live for your glory and share your love. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said. Amen and amen. Let's get to work today. We are wrapping up the message series based on, but different from my new book, Heal Your Hurting Mind, biblical hope. for anxiety, depression, burnout, and the emotions that no one talks about. I am very, very thankful to God that he's using this message to impact a lot of different lives. What I wanna do is I wanna review where we've been and build on the foundation as we move forward. In week number one, we learned that we are body, soul, and spirit. We learned the principle that salvation is instant, but healing takes time. You could be saved in a moment by the grace of Jesus, but our mind, our will, and our emotions are renewed over time. Week two, we learned that a hurting mind isn't a broken mind, it's healing in progress, that Jesus may touch you once and he touches you again,

that healing is a process. And then in week three, we looked at the truth that Jesus asked you to meet his grace with your faith. Grace initiates and faith participates. Today, we're gonna learn from God's word that Christ sets you free. His power sets you free. But it's our responsibility to stay free. How do we know this? Because the enemy often attacks hardest after progress. You'll see it, he'll fight you when you're down, but when you start to come up, he wants to keep you out of God's will and in bondage. In fact, 1 Peter 5, 8 tells us very, very directly, be alert and of sober mind. If you're making progress, be alert, be on guard, be of sober mind, because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. So what do you do? In Christ, you resist your enemy. You resist him standing firm. Somebody say standing firm. Standing firm in the faith. How do you fight? You fight with faith for the breakthrough. And after the breakthrough, you continue to stand firm on the truth of God's word. And we're gonna talk about two things to be today. We're gonna be careful and we're gonna be prayerful.

Let's all say it together. All of our churches, what are we gonna be? We're gonna be careful and we're gonna be prayerful. One more time, everybody online, type in the comment section, what are we? With the help of God, we're gonna be careful and we're gonna be prayerful. Let's start with the first one, and this is practical. And we're gonna look at three things to be careful about. We're gonna be practical and we're gonna be prayerful, spiritual. So let's first talk about, we're called to be careful. 1 Corinthians 10, 12 tells us this. If you think you're standing strong, you've made progress, you're getting healthy, you're doing better. If you think you're standing firm, say it with me, be careful not to fall, be careful. It's interesting if you look at this. Paul doesn't say, if you're feeling weak, be careful. He doesn't say, if you're feeling vulnerable, be careful. He says, if you think you're standing strong, be on guard, be careful. Because some would argue that the most dangerous moment spiritually is not when you know that you're vulnerable, but when you think you're not. Be careful, be careful, be careful. And we're gonna talk about three things to be careful about. The first thing is we're gonna be careful about your inputs, we're gonna be careful about your habits,

and we're gonna be careful about your relationships. We're gonna be careful about your inputs, what gets into you. We're gonna be careful about your habits, what comes out of you. And we're gonna be careful about your relationships, who it is that influences you. Be careful, be careful, be careful. Let's start with the first one. God's Word teaches us the principle to be careful about your inputs. What I want you to do is as you're growing healthier in your mental health, you're making progress. God's Word is renewing your mind. I want you to think about what comes into your mind. Think about your iPhone, your whatever kind of phone, your non-iPhone, your iPad, your computer, what comes across your feed, the music that you listen to, the shows that you watch, the people that you talk to. I want you to think about your inputs, because what gets your attention gets into your thoughts. And your thoughts may start small, but they don't stay small. They take root and they start to grow and they start to spread. And the more you think a thought, the easier it is to get it out of your head. is to think that thought, because God created your mind with neural pathways.

And if you're thinking on the wrong thoughts, they take you in the wrong direction. That's why God's word says, think on things that are pure and excellent and lovely and admirable. If there's anything excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. I want you to think about what you're thinking about because your thoughts shape your mind and your mind shapes your heart and your heart shapes your life. And that's why Solomon said this. He said, guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Be careful about your inputs because what fills your mind forms your heart and what forms your heart determines the course of your life. Don't pass by this. Every single one of you be open to what the spirit of God would show you about this. Look at what you look at, look at what you listen to and ask yourself, is this helping me become more like Christ? Or is it taking me away? Is it strengthening my mental resolve? Or is it weakening me? Is it building my faith in the truth of God? Or is it creating anxiety and fear? And do I feel left out?

And do I feel depressed? Is it helping me get stronger in the things of the Lord and more secure in Christ? Or is it distracting me from the truth that sets me free and keeps me free? Because when you look around at it, like some of you right now, you're literally asking God for peace of mind and you're feeding your mind with things that make you anxious. What you consume every day, if it makes you angry, fearful, insecure, empty, anxious, feel left out, if it makes you feel anything less than what God wants for, you change the input. And think about this. Let's just go social media. When did social media go mainstream? 2004. How do I know that? Because I looked it up. Thanks, chat, CBT. It may be right. There's about a 60% chance that's right. Then Instagram launched in 2010. And so social media is normal, completely normal. It's most of you, it's the most normal thing. Just because it's normal doesn't mean it's healthy. And for many of you, social media is a gift. It's like mostly good.

You stay in touch with people. You see cat videos. You know who got pregnant. For many of you, it's mostly good. For others of you, it's literally wrecking you. And if you were honest enough to look at it objectively, you would say the experiment has gone on long enough. And for some of you, the results are not healthy. Are there benefits? Yes, of course. If they're mostly benefits, then enjoy it. But if the benefits cost you your mental health, change the input. And not just this, but like literally, if you're scrolling on the news at 11 o'clock at night and having nightmares and can't sleep because you're freaking out all the time, don't scroll the news at 11 o'clock at night. If you watch shows that literally lower your own standards and desynthesize you to sin and makes bad words just a normal thought pattern in your life and makes looking at other people having sex on TV considered acceptable to you, maybe you change what you watch. If you have a conversation with a friend and every time you walk away, you're less like Jesus, more critical, more angry, more bitter, whatever, maybe you spend a little bit less time with that friend. Well, what I want you to do is be careful with your inputs. If you don't like the outcome, change the input.

Be careful, number one, about your inputs. The second thing is be careful about your habits. This is so important because as you're growing in your mental health, your habits will help sustain your mental health. How do you heal? You heal by God's grace and some hard work. And you stay healed by God's grace and by healthy habits. The habits keep you healthy. It was Paul who said in Galatians 6, 7, a man reaps what he sows. What you sow over and over again brings the harvest. If you have healthy habits, they bring a healthy harvest. If you have unhealthy habits, they bring an unhealthy harvest. And so what do you do? If there was something that hurt your mental health in the past, create the habits that keep you free in the future. And it could be anything, like if anxiety rules your mind, well, maybe you create the habit of the first thing you do when you wake up is you open up the Your Version Bible app and you take in God's Word and you let His Word renew you. your mind and comfort your soul and guide your steps. You're creating a habit that keeps you healthy. If burnout is crushing you, you're always doing too much. You can't stop work. You might go ahead and look at what God's word says. You're gonna have the habit of a Sabbath

where there is a day where you're not going to work so that you can recover. And you might find that when you live God's way, you're more productive on the other six days because his word is true and sets you free. If you find yourself always left out, I feel like my life sucks and everybody else is amazing and she's been on 17 vacations this year and has new shoes and a boyfriend that likes her in a diamond ring and had lobster last night and my life sucks. Well, maybe if that's making you feel stupid, you'll limit yourself to 10 minutes a day on social media or whatever if you don't like the outcome change, the input. For me, I talked about how I literally worked myself into a very unhealthy spot. A little more, a little more every year, a little more, a little more. And finally, the anxiety became crushing. It felt like I described it as like a 50 pound weight right here. It's really odd. Not here, not here, right here to where I couldn't really breathe. And one of the things that creates the anxiety and the pressure for me is the preaching of God's word is so important to me. When I take his word and try to deliver it in a way that is accurate and applicable and interesting because let's be honest, you guys are bored easily. I mean, you really are.

And I gotta work really, really hard and you're critical sometimes and you can be mean. And so what I'm really trying to do is I'm trying to accurately convey his word in a way that transforms lives, honors him and keeps your attention in a world where it's really hard to keep anyone's attention. And so I work really, really hard at it. And I learned that because of the pressure I put on myself, it was working me into a plate of anxiety. So with the help of Dr. Chappelle, we're creating new habits, little things like disconnecting my mind. And I talked about flying and that's oddly enough, doing that takes my mind off of it. So when my mind comes back onto it, it's more focused. But then I'm creating rhythms now in my schedule that helped me to be very, very healthy today. A few years ago, I had a goal of doing a certain number of weekends and taking off a few more weekends than normal. Well, that year, I actually exceeded my goal by doing five more weekends than I should have. Why? Because I feel responsible, I feel the weight. But when I take a weekend off, it frees up study time in the week to both do some enjoyable things, to interact with people, to do more pastoral work. If I'm not on a weekend, I can actually visit campuses,

which may still be work, but it's life-giving work because I get to come and see you and hear your stories and pray with you. So what I'm doing is I'm intentionally creating the habits that will keep me healthy. You have to do this. If you find yourself consistently struggling, look at your habits. Certain habits will make you struggle more, certain habits will help you become healthier. Remember, you heal by God's grace and by hard work. And you stay healed by God's grace and healthy habits. Be careful with your inputs. Be careful with your habits. And be careful about your relationships. Be careful about your relationship. One day, we will do a whole message series on the importance of friendships. And my mom will love that because when I was growing up, my mom said, you are who you run with. You are who you run with. You become like those around you and over and over and over again. And the Bible says it even better than my mom said it. Sorry, mom, but the Bible's the Bible. So here's, let me show you three verses. Proverbs 13, 20. Walk with the wise and what do you become? You become wise. But a companion of fools suffers harm.

If you find yourself suffering harm, look who you're running with. Next verse says this, 1 Corinthians 15, 33. Don't be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. The Bible says this, Proverbs 12, 26. The righteous choose their friends carefully. You can love everybody equally and still choose your friends carefully. But the way of the wicked leads them astray. Look at who you're running with. If you're trying to stay mentally healthy, you cannot spend a lot of time around people who make you sick. If someone starts to pull you back, you can still love them, but you redefine the relationship. You don't wanna be shaped by them even though you can still love them. So you watch. who you're running with. And this is obvious if you're a drug addict and you're saying, I'm trying to get free of drugs. If you're a drug addict and you wanna get free of drugs, you don't go crash at your drug dealer's house. That's obvious. But so often when it comes to mental health, it's not that obvious to us. For example, years ago, Amy and I had some friends that we loved, but every time we got with them,

we realized that we were becoming negative and critical and they just liked kind of gossiping about people. And oddly enough, at first it seemed relatively innocent. We're like, well, these people, whatever, we need to pray for them. That's how you try to make gossip legal when you're a Christian. Well, I need to tell you who you need to pray for, sister so-and-so, she really needs the spirit of the Lord right now. And so we were doing that and we found ourselves actually not just being prayerful, but being gossiping. And the Bible says, don't speak evil against one another. And we recognize our friendship with this other couple is basically built on a critical spirit. And we were becoming like that. So we prayed about it. We went and just said real openly like, hey, we find ourselves being more critical around you. Can we not talk about this kind of stuff? And they were like, well, we kind of want to. And they did. And so we redefined the relationship. We're still kind to them. We still love them, but we're not spending a lot of time with them. If you want to get more mentally healthy, if you want to stay mentally strong, you got to recognize that not everyone from your past belongs in your future.

You have to be careful about the inputs, be careful about the habits and be careful about the relationships. Let me pause there. And this week in our life group, what I want you to do is I want you to just ask God and talk about which one is the one that you need to be most careful about. Be careful about your inputs, be careful about your habits and be careful about your relationships. If you don't like what's coming out, look at what you're putting in. Be careful about what's shaping your life. Be careful, be careful. That's practical. And God's word is very practical. And then be prayerful. This is spiritual. This is spiritual. Be prayerful. Prayer is powerful. Prayer touches the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God. God responds to faith. The effectual affirmant prayer of a righteous man, availeth much. If two or three people gather together on earth and call out on him and he hears our prayer, if we pray according to his will,

he will do what we ask him to do. Prayer is powerful. And so what I'd like to do is I want to read a big portion of scripture that talks about the spiritual nature of what you're facing. Now, here's what I want you to understand. Do you have anxiety? If you do, that's both physical, it's practical, and it's spiritual. Do you feel depressed? There could be a very real physical component to that. Your hormones may be out of whack. You may be dealing with extremely difficult life challenges that are outside of your control. And there's a spiritual nature. Do you find yourself angry? You may be a victim of something that you have every right to be angry, but you don't want to live in that. In your anger, do not sin. And there's something practical, it may be even physiological, and it can be very, very spiritual. If you're struggling mentally, emotionally, physically, remember, we are not just a body, we're not just a soul, we are a spirit that has a soul that lives in a body. And God cares about every part. And our battle is not against people, and it is not just worldly, it's incredibly spiritual.

So what we're gonna do to end this message series is in just a moment, if you're able, at all of our churches, I'm gonna ask you just to stand, not yet, but stand in honor of the reading God of His Word. And I'm gonna declare His Word over you. And when I do, I'm gonna believe that throughout the past four weeks, that whatever God spoke to you, He's gonna bring to the front of your mind. And whatever He brings to the front of your mind is you're gonna live out in your life, and that the Holy Spirit's gonna show you what He's doing in you and what He wants to do for you and what He wants to do through you, and then go live it out. For freedom, He set you free. Stay in it, be free, be careful, not to go back, not to get stuck in it, but for freedom, Christ set you free. It is practical, it is your diet, it is your sleep, it is your hormones, it is your mindset, it is spiritual, it is His truth, it is His Word, it's pushing back against the force. It's all of it, and God created all of it, and it all matters, it matters to Him, and you matter to Him, and you are not here by accident. because God wants you to do what you can do and trust Him to do what you can't do.

So we're gonna do what we can do and we're gonna call on Him to do what we can't do because our God is always good. So I'm gonna get a drink of water because I'm gonna read His Word with power and with passion. All of our churches, if you're able today, would you mind standing to your feet in honor of the reading of God's Word? Ephesians chapter 6, this shows the spiritual side. And I want you to notice two things. I want you to notice that you're called to stand and you called to pray. You're called to stand and you're called to pray. You're called to stand, you're called to pray, you're called to stand and you're called to pray. When you stand, that's what you can do. When you pray, you're inviting God to do what He can do. Grace initiates, faith participates. When you stand, you do what you can do. When you pray, you're calling on God to do what He can do. The Bible says this, finally, be strong in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord, not in your own power, but in His power. Be strong in the Lord, in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your, help me out, so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against the people that make you crazy. It's not against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers and authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to help me out. Hey, you may do this with me. You may be able to, all of our churches, one more time. You may be able to stand your ground after you've done everything else to, stand. Stand firm then with a belt of truth around your waist, with a breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, which can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray, church, and pray, and pray, church, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kind of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert, be on guard, be alert. Your spiritual enemy roars around like a lion seeking whom it may devour. When you're standing strong, be careful that you do not fall. Be alert, church, and always keep on praying for the Lord's people. Before the battle, you pray.

After the breakthrough, you pray. When things are going well, you pray. When you think you might slip, you pray. Because prayer isn't preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle. We battle against, not against flesh and blood. And what does prayer do? What does prayer do? Prayer reminds you you are never in control. And prayer keeps you close to the only one who is. So be careful and be prayerful. Be careful and be prayerful. Because the same God who saved your spirit is sanctifying your soul. Week one, the one who called you, remember, he is faithful and he will do it. How does he do it? How does he do it? Grace initiates and faith participates. Therefore, if you're in Christ, you are not stuck on the porch. By grace, what do you do? You get up. By faith, you pick up your mat and you walk. Because when Christ heals you and sets you free, Christ is the one who will keep you free. So every moment of every day, be careful, be prayerful. Be careful, be prayerful. Stay dependent on God. And whenever fear whispers to you,

what if you slip up? What if you go back? What if you're not really healed? You just tell the devil. The same Jesus who set me free is faithful to keep me free. He who the Son sets free is free indeed. What will he do? He will strengthen my mind. He will steady my thoughts. He will heal my anxiety. He will comfort me in sadness. Tell him he will comfort me with his hope and he will heal my hurting mind. Because who is he? He is the God of peace. And his word says he is faithful to do it. So Heavenly Father, we ask for you to continue the work of healing. We know that salvation is instant, but healing is often a process. So heal us, God, body, soul, and spirit, that we could know you and serve you faithfully. Churches, you remain standing today, nobody looking around. What I want you to do, if you will, just keep your eyes closed so that you can recognize this as what it is. Yes, it's practical. Yes, it's circumstantial. And yes, it's very, very spiritual.

What I want you to do is if just right now, your feet are planted on the ground, I want you just to intentionally visualize your feet firmly planted. You may even just like position them. Like if I'm in a fight, I'm positioned, I'm planted. I'm ready. Because Christ set you free. What are you doing now? You're standing firm. You're standing against the attacks of the evil one. You're standing firm in the truth that set you free. And I wanna tell you right now, stand your ground. Don't go back. Don't give up. Don't give in. Don't believe the lie. You're stuck this way. Stand your ground against the devil schemes. Stand firm. Be careful and be prayerful. And what I want you to do if you're comfortable with this, just plant your feet, plant them. You're standing firm. And if you're comfortable, maybe just raise both hands kind of in front of you about waist high, palms up. Just in an open stance before God. Not clenched, not striving, but open. Symbolizing your dependence on the one who set you free. The same one who heals you

as the same one who keeps you whole and well. And with your feet planted and your hands open to heaven, I'm gonna pray for you. Heavenly Father, guard everything that you're healing. Strengthen every single mind. Protect every single thought, God. May your Holy Spirit do a healing work. God, renew our minds. Heal our broken souls. God, free those that have experienced deep and severe trauma that they could experience true and real healing in Christ. God, every problem, every burden, every lie, may it flee in the name of Jesus. May you initiate with your grace. And God, with our faith we participate, believing that Christ truly sets us free. We pray for this and believe it in Jesus' name. As you keep praying today without looking around, some of you, you can put your hands down if you wanna take a break, keep it out of your prayer. Some of you, you recognize you've never really been free. You've been managing, trying your best, hoping things would change. And I wanna just tell you very lovingly as your pastor is that freedom doesn't start with better behavior. Freedom starts with surrender to the one who sent his son for you. It's for freedom that Christ set us free. It's not self-help, self-help doesn't set us free. Willpower doesn't set us free.

Positive thinking doesn't set us free. Christ sets us free. Last week we studied the truth that grace initiates and our faith participates. God initiated that while we were still sinners, the Bible said, before we deserved anything, while we were sinning against him, Jesus died on the cross for us. God initiated, he sent his one and only son, Jesus. Who is Jesus? He's the lamb of God who was slain for the forgiveness of our sins. And God raised him from the dead so that anyone that calls on the name of Jesus would be saved and would be forgiven. Grace initiated, now faith participates. The Bible tells us that you are not saved by your own good works, but you're saved by grace through faith. It is the grace of God and it's your faith believing that what Jesus did saves you. By grace through faith, your sins are forgiven and you're made new. And when you're new, salvation happens in an instant. Then healing takes place over time. And yes, God can heal you instantly. Yes, God can change in a moment, but if you've been sick for a long time, sometimes it takes a while for the word of God to renew your mind.

At all of our churches today, there are some of you, you could have been around a church like me. I grew up going to church and thinking I was a Christian because I went to church, but I did not know God in an intimate way. I did not know him personally. And many of you, you're gonna recognize you're there today. Grace is initiating, you're feeling drawn to God. What is that? That's his loving kindness drawing you to him. And so what do you do? You simply just say, I'm turning away from my sins, I'm turning away from my brokenness, I'm repenting of those things and I'm trusting Christ. Your hands are open in a moment, I can't do anything. I'm receiving the free gift of salvation. When you confess your sins, he's faithful and just, forgives your sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness, the Bible says. And you become new and you become free. Today, at all of our churches, today online, those of you who know, you may even have been around the things of God, but you don't know him, you don't know his freedom, you're ready, we're stepping away from our sin, we're calling on him. When you call on him, he hears your prayers, he forgives your sins. He makes you new. You're not here by accident.

You're here, today is the day of your salvation. For freedom, Christ sets us free. Around the world, online, those of you at church today, you say, I need him, I need his grace. Today, by faith, I give my life to him. That's your prayer today, his grace is here. By faith, I give my life to Jesus. That's your prayer, lift your hands high. Right now, all of the place, lift them up. Oh, praise God today, as we have people at all of our churches saying, yes, Jesus, we surrender. Come on, church, come on, church. We have people today saying, yes, all over the place. Online, type in the comment section, I am surrendering my life to Jesus. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Would you pray with those around you? Pray, Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins. Jesus, make me new. Holy Spirit, fill me with your power, so I could do your will. Thank you for freedom. Thank you for healing. Thank you for new life. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Church, could you worship God today? Give God praise for new life in Christ. Woo!

Hey, it's Pastor Craig and Amy Groeschel with Life.Church, and if you just made the decision to give your life to Christ, this is the most important and life-changing decision that you'll ever make, and all of heaven is celebrating right now because of your decision, and we're celebrating with you, too. That's right, and we want you to know that God sees you. He's with you, and He loves you. He has a purpose for your life, and incarceration, it doesn't define you. It doesn't confine you, because you are free in Christ. You are new in Him. Chains have been broken today. And so, as a follower of Jesus, God wants us to be on this journey together, and I want you to know you don't have to do this alone, and that's why we, as your church family, we're here for you, and we want to help you grow in your faith and find your next steps. So, first of all, just keep joining us for church every single week and worshiping through the Pando app. We're so thankful that you're here. When we draw close to God, He draws near to us, and so I would also encourage you, read God's Word if it's available to you, and as you do, just start to pray and invite God into every single aspect of your life, and then if you feel led, you might even share your decision with somebody else.

There might be a family member or a friend, and they're gonna want to hear your story and your spiritual journey. We'd love to hear it as well, and you can send us a letter if you'd like to. The address is on your screen, and our team will write back to you and help you grow in your faith with Jesus. And so, we'd love to mail you some content about who Jesus is and help you grow in your relationship with Him, now that you've chosen to follow Jesus. And God's plan for your life, it's greater than anything that you could ever imagine. In fact, Ephesians 3.20 says, God is able to do abundantly more than we could ask or imagine. Trust Him with your whole life. You will see Him work in ways you have never thought possible. Congratulations on this decision. We are your family, and you're part of the family of God.