Week 11 | Stop Judging and Start Living

When I was younger, I was just a little girl growing up hearing sort of like these kind of like rage outbursts, my dad's outbursts, my mom's outbursts, and then other times things were good. And then wanting to keep that peace, wanting to keep things good, keep people happy. And that's the nature of people-pleasing is like, how can I make myself as small or as pleasing so that everything could stay the way that it is when it's good? A mistake would result in me having the inner dialogue of, well, you're so dumb. Why did you say that? Why did you do that? What's wrong with you? I was in the middle of the living room in the apartment that I had with my husband. So just with love, I want to say he was facing his own demons, and I was just sitting there in the mess. It had been a long night, a long, tiring night, like the music that was just pouring out like poison, and the smell of like alcohol and all those things mixed together with everything. And I just squatted like up against the wall, and I just closed my eyes and I asked God like, just please don't leave me here. Don't leave me here. So my friend invited me to go to a Wednesday group here at Willow, which was Recover, and I knew I was in the right place because people had the same issues I have. People pleasing, procrastination, perfectionism, codependency. So that all was what I had in my life. I had to take that shell off that was not me and start to see myself clearly the way he designed me. That you're a woman after God's heart. And when my identity shifted, when I believed that and knew it, then there was so much more peace. And there were even just so much more opportunities to like love, to find more people to love, deeper connections, valuable connections. People started to come to me with their problems.

I had more opportunities to pray for people than I could bring the Father to them, them to the Father, and that's who he always wanted me to be. Sometimes I felt like I was stuck, like I was trapped in chains. But trust, trust me, they will be broken. Every single chain will be broken because he did it for me, and we know that if he does it for one, he would do it for another, and it delights him to do it again and again. Just so grateful to be a part of the kind of church. It's just willing to meet people right where they're at, walk alongside of their journey, connect them to a Jesus that can bring healing and wholeness to their life. So great to have you here this morning. How are we doing this morning? We're good? I want to welcome all of our Willow locations. Great to have you all here. Would love to welcome our brothers who joined us from the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Great to have you guys with us as well. And a big shout out to our Huntley location celebrating 15 years today. That's awesome. Really, really excited for you. We are in week 11 of this teaching series we've been in called The Jesus Way. I don't know about you. I've loved this series. It's been a lot of fun as we've been walking through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount together. Now week 11, a couple of little points of commentary. Pastor Dwayne was amazing last week. I mean, what a great message he brought us on worry. If you missed it, go check that out. Next week, Megan's going to be with us, so don't miss out. Next week's a can't-miss weekend. And then two weeks, we'll wrap up this series in really an unforgettable way.

You'll really want to make sure that you're a part of that as well. But today, we're going to talk about a topic that's probably pretty challenging to a lot of us. But let me just start with this question. Have you ever misjudged somebody or a situation? I mean, I probably have too many times to count. One of those moments for me was the summer of my seventh grade year. I was at home. It was the summer. I was at home with my older sister. And that was pretty typical for us. Our parents both worked, so we were kind of hanging out. It's a typical summer day. Now, I grew up in Texas, but I was a huge Cubs fan. Cubs happened to be playing a day game that day, and so I got to catch them with WGN. I was dialed into the Cubs game. My sister to decided to go outside to our backyard to jump on our trampoline. Now this was back in the days when they didn't have safety nets protecting the trampoline. You had like exposed springs and that kind of thing. We were rolling the dice every time we got on the trampoline. And so my sister went out there by herself. Apparently while she was out there, she was practicing her back flips and landed on her head. She was actually pretty hurt. But from my perspective, I wasn't out there, I didn't see what happened. She got off the trampoline, she ran inside,

she came into the living room where I was watching the Cubs, and she just threw herself on the floor, like flailing and crying and screaming and carrying on. I was trying to watch the Cubs game. And so I gave her like no compassion. In my head I'm thinking, if you're fine enough to get off the trampoline, come all the way inside, you're just kind of overreacting and making a scene in front of me. And so I was kind of put off by the whole thing. I was pretty annoyed if I'm really honest about it. And so I didn't really pay much attention, but it kept going on. Her cries got a lot louder, her screams and such. Finally, 15 to 20 minutes in, I said, okay, what's it gonna take for you to stop? I know, brother of the year, right? And so through this screaming cry, she says, just get me a bag of ice. And so I went into the kitchen, I got a Ziploc bag, I put a few cubes of ice in it, I came back and I didn't hand it to her, I just threw it down on the floor right next to her and went back to the couch to watch the Cubs play. Again, she was kind of interrupting the game, it was kind of hard to dial into what was going on. She now had her bag of ice, but she didn't quiet down. And so the screams continued, the cries continued, I probably let it go on another about 20 minutes. We're now 40 minutes in.

And I finally said, seriously, I mean, we're in the ninth inning now, you've kind of ruined my game. Like, what do you want me to do? And she says, call the neighbor, like call Janice. I'm like, fine. So I get her phone, I call Janice, Janice comes over and assesses the situation and recognizes this is not good at all. Immediately calls 911, ambulance shows up, paramedics show up, they realize that Lori's really in bad shape, put her on the board, on a stretcher, she goes out the house. I realize, I think I misjudged this situation, right? I don't think that I really was dialed into what was going on. Now, I would love to tell you that the story ended there. Lori gets to the hospital, they do an X-ray, they determined that she actually had cracked a vertebrae in her neck. So she's in a neck brace for like a few months after this. It was this constant reminder of how poorly I treated her in this particular moment. Now, what's fascinating about the situation is my parents were at work, they didn't see any of this play out. And so from my parents' perspective, Sean knew just what to do. He called the neighbor, he got his sister help.

So they were making this huge deal about how much of a hero I was in the moment. So much so that they made my sister write me a thank you note for how I responded on her behalf. And my sister just wrote the note. She didn't bust me out. And I'm like, she's the greatest big sister of all time. So she writes this note, and then it was mum's the word for probably 15 years. Nobody said anything about this. When I'm about 30 years old, we were having this conversation. My mom was bragging to somebody else about how great of a kid I was growing up and told this story. My sister was present and goes, all right, it's been enough time. I'm about to tell you what really happened that day. So my sister busts me out 15 years later. I thought my mom was gonna kill me that day. Because what happens is I look back at that situation, I grossly misjudged and underestimated what happened. And my mom misjudged my character as a seventh grader. Isn't it very easy to misjudge things at times? Have you ever felt misjudged by somebody else? I mean, it's into this experience that we all have. It's a very common experience that Jesus says some pretty pointed words. So we now turn the page to chapter seven of the Sermon on the Mount.

Here's what Jesus says. He says, do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. I mean, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? I mean, how can you say to your brother, hey, let me take that speck out of your eye when all the time there's a plank in your own eye? And then Jesus gets pretty pointed. He says, you hypocrite. I mean, first take the plank out of your own eye and then you'll be able to see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. And so again, to this common experience that likely all of us have in relation to. Jesus says some pointed words that I think are some powerful principles that you and I need to extrapolate to apply to our own lives. I think the first principle that Jesus is getting at is I think he'd say this, we need to be people who clear our own eyes so that we can see clearly. Because oftentimes judgment actually has a blinding effect on us that we actually can't see clearly. That it's way easier for us to see the mistake or the sin or the brokenness in somebody else's life

all the same time while ignoring what's going on in our own journey. But if we really look into what Jesus is saying, he's actually gonna challenge us to remove two different kinds of blindness. I would call the first kind of blindness this. I think he wants to challenge us to remove what I would call the hypocritical blindness. And maybe it's the difference, again Jesus uses the image of this speck or like sawdust versus two by four coming out of your own. Like how do you miss the board coming out of your own journey and be so focused on like a detail that's messed up in somebody else's life? And maybe if I switch the metaphor, what Jesus be saying that we're so good at looking through binoculars instead of looking in the mirror. And isn't that true? I mean, isn't it true that it's just so easy to identify the mistakes, the mess ups, the brokenness in somebody else while at the same time ignoring those very same things in our own lives, in our own journeys. It's so easy. I mean, think about it this way. How many of you would say you know somebody who's really judgmental? Most of us. How many of you thought of yourself when I said that?

Hey, couple of you, all right, you're catching on, right? Well, because what's interesting for most of us, myself included, when I asked that question, who do I know that's judgmental? My immediate reaction was thinking about all the other people who need to hear this message as opposed to looking in the mirror and realize I need this message. Like I need to hear the words of Jesus. They need to challenge me. And you and I know this to be true, that it's so easy to see the sin and the brokenness in other's lives. I mean, I would say like those who are like critical bloggers they have the easiest job in the world that every human being has a sin problem. Every human being makes mistakes. And if your job is to identify the mistakes in other people's lives and make them public, that's a very easy thing to do. Or like political analysts that have this ability to really try to uncover and exploit the weaknesses or the shortcomings of somebody else, it's a very easy thing to do. If you think about a social media feed and you're scrolling through a social media feed, I would argue that today in our divided world, 50% of our social media feed is criticism of somebody else because of how they handle whatever. And I think about, you know, in any social media feed,

it's easy to see what people are criticizing in others. Have you ever seen a social media feed where somebody goes, I'm the problem? I messed up in making my own stuff public. Even if somebody does that, look at the comment section, people will be like, well, he's not really sincere. He doesn't really mean it. Because it's just so easy to criticize somebody else all the time that we're blind to our own mistakes and shortcomings. And so Jesus says, I want you to remove that hypocritical blindness. I want you to be able to see more clearly. And it actually starts with looking in the mirror instead of the binoculars. So I wanna give us a couple of questions that might help us think through our tendency to have a little bit more hypocritical vision. I would say this, do I examine myself with the same intensity that I examine others? I think for most of us, myself included, I would say I don't. I'm typically harder on others than I am myself. Here's a second question for us. I mean, when an adversary messes up, does a part of me feel somewhat satisfied? I mean, think about the person who believes something different than you, that votes in a different way, that really kind of agitates you.

When they fail, is there a little sense of satisfaction that wells up? If I'm honest, that's where my heart can go. Maybe here's a third question to wrestle with. Am I more committed to winning an argument than loving the person? As we wrestle with this, we recognize there is some hypocrisy likely in every single one of us. And so Jesus says, I want you to pay attention to that. And I want you to recognize that there's this hypocritical nature literally in all of us. And so let's not be people that are so focused on the sin and brokenness of somebody else that we ignore it. nor what's going on in our own journey, let's be honest what God needs to do in our own journey. It's easy to point it out to somebody else. It's much more difficult to be honest about my own stuff, to bring it before the Lord and ask God to bring a sense of healing and wholeness to my life. But if we're willing to take that journey, then God can do immeasurably more than you would ask or imagine in your own life, in your own journey. Here's some of what I think is at risk, or maybe at stake with it. As I think about Jesus and who he was and what he came to do in his mission to ultimately to bring salvation to the world, you and I, in many ways, we are representative of God's love,

God's grace, God's faithfulness to this broken world that so desperately needs a hope that's only found in him. And so here's what I think is at stake when it comes to our judgment. What's at stake is our witness to the life, the love, the testimony, the grace of our great God in Jesus, because the truth is, if somebody is not a follower of Jesus, we shouldn't be surprised that their life doesn't look like a follower of Jesus. And so we can either judge that and condemn that, or we can love people in such a way that they might actually be drawn to the love of Christ. I would say it this way. I think it's virtually impossible to introduce somebody to the love of Jesus who believes that people who follow Jesus hate them. I mean, think about the different groups in our world who really have the perspective that Christians or Jesus-following people, they hate us. If somebody has that perception of us, that they feel judged or condemned by a faith-filled community, it is so difficult to bring somebody to the love of Jesus who has the perception that we hate them. Now, notice Jesus' posture when it came to the sin-filled and broken world that we're in. Maybe one of the most famous verses in all of the Bible, John 3, 16. How many of you know John 3, 16?

Maybe many of you know it by heart. I'm gonna start saying it. If you know it, just say it with me. Remember it in John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Remember that verse? Do you know what the very next verse is? For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, to judge the world, but to save the world through him. So even Jesus' mission when he came into this world was not one of judgment meaning condemnation. He actually came to this world to really love the sin-filled, broken world so that they may know the love of God that's made available in Jesus. I love the way that Billy Graham framed it, of really what it looks like to interact with the sin-filled, broken world in a way that might actually preserve our witness. He says it this way. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict people. It's God's job to judge people. It's my job to love them. And I think that that is what Jesus is getting at when he's saying, I don't want you to be people who judge others. I want you to be very real

with what's going on in your own life. I want you to figure out how to even continue to love people in their brokenness because what's at stake is our witness is at stake to be able to introduce people to the life-changing love that comes from God through Jesus. Now that's the first part of blindness that I think that Jesus is addressing. Again, I would call it this hypocritical blindness that sometimes we judge people in a way that's condemning people. But there's another kind of judgment that he actually wants us to do. And so I think the other blindness that I think he would wanna remove, I'm gonna call it naive vision. It's kind of a second kind of blindness. Here's the very next verse in the passage. It says this. It says, do not give dogs what is sacred. Do not throw away your pearls to pigs because if you do, they may trample them under your feet and tear you into pieces. What does that mean? What's interesting is he's all actually contrasting two types of judgment. Then what he's saying is, I don't want you to judge people in a way that condemns them.

However, you actually need to exercise judgment when it comes to discernment because there are people with malicious intent. There are people with ulterior motives. If you're not careful, there are people that want to take advantage of your life. You actually have to have and exercise some form of judgment. Otherwise, what will happen is you will give to, he calls them dogs, that you will give to dogs what is sacred. You'll entrust the things that matter most to you to people who actually want to take advantage of you. advantage of you. Now, he's saying, I don't want you to condemn that person. However, I do want you to exercise discernment and wisdom. I don't want you to throw your pearls to pigs. You know, because if you do, they will take advantage of you. They will trample you. They will tear you into pieces. And so he's contrasting two different kinds of judgment. I don't want my people to judge, meaning condemn, but I absolutely want my people to judge, meaning discern. But there's quite the contrast between condemnation and discernment. I would say this, condemnation assigns worth. Discernment informs a wise response. Let me give you a couple of examples that maybe will make this make some sense for us.

Condemnation would say that person is a lost cause, right? It assumes worth in another person. Discernment would say, they're just not ready for this conversation right now, and so I'm not gonna participate in it. Feel the difference? Let me give you another example. Condemnation would say that person is evil. And we have people saying this right now in our culture. I mean, just, again, people are naming other people evil right and left. They're assigning worth. Jesus says, don't judge in a way that's condemning to people. However, we might, discernment might tell us that their behavior is harmful, and I need to set a boundary. I'm not gonna let that person take advantage of me. We can exercise that kind of discernment. Maybe another example would be this. Condemnation would say, they're never gonna change. But discernment says, I've observed a pattern, and I need to respond wisely. Feel the difference? So I think that Jesus would challenge actually both sides of blindness. He says, I don't want you to be hypocritically blind, but I also don't want you to be naively blind. I want you to clear your eyes so that you can see people in the way that God sees them. That's the first principle. We gotta see clearly. The second principle is this.

I think that we're gonna lean to the God to say this. I think he wants to soften our heart. What would be people that the God, like, softens our heart? Here's the very next verse in the Sermon on the Mount, asking will be given to you. Seeking you will find. Knocking the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be open. Like, what in the world is Jesus almost, like, switching gears entirely to talk about prayer? I would argue that what we just talked about with judgment and what he's about to talk about with prayer are actually clearly tied together. Oftentimes, when you hear this passage talked about, we talk about it just as any prayer. Just ask anything, it'll be given to you. Seek about anything, and you're gonna find. Knock about anything, and the door will be open. Now, I do think that there's biblical precedent elsewhere in the Bible that we can take anything and everything to God in prayer. That's absolutely true. But contextually, in Matthew chapter 5, I actually think this is applying to what we just read. It follows the pattern of the Lord's prayer that we learned a chapter earlier in Matthew chapter 6. Remember where it says, give us today our daily bread? The next thing he says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Remember that? It's almost this pattern of a God who provides, I need that God to help me do what I can't do on my own. And that same pattern goes to this. He just talked about judgment. We're all prone to it. We're all prone to being hypocritical or naive, and we're people who take advantage of us. What do we need in that moment? We need a God who can help us. And so God says, ask, and it'll be given to you. In other words, ask that God gives you the ability to see people in the way God sees them. Seek, like seek opportunities by which you might be able to help or pursue what is actually in somebody's best interest. I mean, NOC is this active pursuit of God's grace. Let me kind of walk through these. Give me the next three words where it says, ask. It takes humility to have a posture to go, God, I'm having a hard time with this person. I'm having a hard time seeing them in the way that you see them. God, I know you love them. Sometimes I don't even really like them. And so I got to ask, with humility, that God, would you soften my heart to help me see them in a way that is not natural for me to see them? When it comes to seeking, again, it's this active pursuit. But again, when it comes to discernment, there may be reasons why I need to draw a wise boundary.

But in other situations where my safety is not necessarily a concern, it's possible that God would actually want me to actively pursue that relationship that sometimes is really challenging to me. How do I actively love the person that's not really that lovable at the moment? How do I be gracious with the person that doesn't really feel like they deserve an ounce of grace? I need God's help to seek that person that wouldn't be natural for me to do it, but it truly is an act of pursuit. And this whole piece about knocking is about moving toward that person with the grace that could only come from God. I think that this prayer, this put right after the section on judgment, actually pulls it together because we can't do this judgment thing in the right way without divine help. That's why we ask. That's why we seek. That's why we knock, to ask for God to help us do what is not natural for us to do on our own. I'd like to make this really practical for us, if I can do that. At all of our locations, when you arrive today, I think you got a blank white card. Did you get that when you walked in the door? Alright, everybody got that. If you get that, go ahead and pull that out for me. And we've got this blank white card. Here's what I want you to think about.

In three weeks, we get to celebrate Easter as a church, which I love celebrating Easter. I mean, what an incredible opportunity. Be reminded that not only did Jesus go for a cross to pay for the penalty of our sin, my friends, that grave couldn't hold him. That death wasn't his end. That he sprung up for that grave. And what that means for you and I is that we can step into a new life that's only provided by Jesus, right? And so I love Easter. I love celebrating Easter. I can't wait for Easter. Here's what I want you to think about. Who's the person in your life that maybe doesn't yet know the love and the grace and the hope that's found in Jesus? Could be a family member, could be a friend, co-worker, could be a neighbor, I don't know. Like, who's the person? And maybe the person, because they're not a follower of Jesus, their behavior doesn't reflect what a follower of Jesus is, and maybe the person is somewhat difficult for you. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to take the pen that's provided for you, this card, and I want you to write just their first name on this card. Just their first name. Don't write their last name. If you want, you can write their initials. That's fine as well.

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to pray for this person by name for the next three weeks. Because I think if clear eyes helps us see the problem, a soft heart helps us live the solution. So I want you to write a person's first name on this card that you're committed to actively praying for for the next three weeks leading up to Easter. And we're going to ask God, God, would you help me see this person clearly? And then here's what I'm going to ask you to take the next step. I want you to seek, in other words, I want you to seek an opportunity and maybe ask God, would you open up an opportunity that maybe I can extend an invitation for them to join me and my family at Easter? And then I want you to knock, and it may literally be knocking on their door, to give them an Easter invite and ask them to join you on Easter weekend at whatever location that you will attend Easter. Here's what we're going to do with these cards. Again, I just want you to ask you to write just a first name, not a last name. What we're going to do to all of our locations is we're going to take these cards as you leave today. We're going to put these up in our lobbies for the next couple of weeks. And as you walk by these cards in the next couple of weeks, I want you to pray for the literal hundreds, if not thousands of names that God has put in our heart about people. We're going to ask God, would you soften our heart toward this

person? And God, would you soften their heart toward you? And here's what I'm believing. I'm believing God's going to show up. I'm believing God's going to show up in your life. I'm believing God's going to show up in their life. If we're going to be people who will actively ask God to seek, to knock on behalf of this person, I believe that literally hundreds, if not thousands of these people will show up on Easter Sunday right here for us at one of our Willow locations, and maybe, just maybe, they meet the hope, the grace, the love, that everything that comes from our great God in Jesus, what if through your prayer, through your asking, through your seeking, somebody comes to know the love and the grace that comes to us in Jesus? You willing to pray for that? I believe in a God who can work miracles in people's lives. So write the name, hand it to somebody on your way out, we'll just play them in the lobby, and let's actively pray every day for the next three weeks. Let's just see what God does in our midst. Let's be people, again, who really think through this lens of clearing our eyes. softening our hearts. Here's the last principle, you ready? I want to be people who open our hands. We just open our hands. Here's where Jesus goes next. This is familiar to you. Here's where Jesus goes next.

He says, so in everything, do unto others what you would have them do for you. For this sums up the law and the prophets. Anybody ever heard the golden rule? Did you know that was in the Sermon on the Mountain? Did you know that it followed a section on judgment and praying for others that we struggle with? But Jesus drops this, what we now refer to as the golden rule. Here's what's interesting. Back in the first century, there were some different iterations of this statement, but they were formed in a negative way. And so what would happen is, is rabbis would teach this principle of whatever you hate, don't do that to somebody else. It was kind of framed in a negative context. Jesus was the first one that came along that framed this in a positive perspective and basically says, I want you to consider how would you want to be treated from a very positive perspective. How do you want to be treated? Whatever that is, I want you to treat people like that. And so think through that lens for just a moment. When you mess up, how do you want to be treated? I think for me, I want somebody to talk to me and not about me. When I think about that, I want somebody to potentially give me the benefit of the doubt.

Here's what's true about me. Oftentimes, I judge people by their actions, but I want to be judged by my intentions. And so in other words, I'll judge people for what they did, but when it comes to what I do, I'm like, but I didn't mean it, or it was an accident, or that wasn't my intention. I want to be judged by my intentions. I want to be given the benefit of the doubt, but I often don't do that to somebody else. That's why Jesus reframes this as, however you want to be treated. If you're feeling misunderstood, how would you want somebody to approach that? I mean, I wouldn't want somebody to approach it with kindness and gentleness and grace. If I take ownership of it, I would love for them to extend forgiveness. Whatever you want to receive, Jesus says, let that be the lens and the filter by what you choose to do. Do unto others what you would want them to do to you. And so it's kind of this principle, this principle about living with open hands. And so Jesus really challenges us in this passage. I think he would challenge us. I think he would say, I want you to clear your eyes. I want you to remove both hypocritical vision and kind of a naive type of vision. I think Jesus would say, I want you to soften your hearts.

And the reality of it is, you're not gonna be able to soften your own heart. I think that you gotta look to a God who's the only way who can actually soften your heart in a way that you so desperately need it. And I think Jesus would say, I want you to open your hands. I want you to be able to recognize that whatever you want to receive, let that be your guide for how you live. Because if you do, it will fundamentally change everything. And here's what I believe. At Room This Large, across all of our locations, at JCCC, there's likely people who are with us. They're still kind of kicking the tires of faith. They haven't yet crossed the line of faith. They haven't yet given their life to Jesus. First, I just want to let you know, I'm ecstatic that you're here. I know that you may have all kinds of questions. You may still have all kinds of doubts. I just want you to know there's space for your questions and for your doubts here at Willow Creek. I'm glad you're here. Here's what I also want you to know. That everything we've been talking about here, that you are somebody maybe who has felt judged by other Christ followers. If that's true, I'm sorry. Because I believe in a God who didn't come into the world to condemn the world,

but actually to save the world through Jesus. That actually means you. And I want you to know a God who's actually not a condemning God. I love how the book of Romans actually states it. This is Paul's writing. He says, therefore now there is, how much condemnation? I almost heard you. How much condemnation? Like none, right? He says, therefore, there's no condemnation for anyone who's in Christ Jesus. Do you know why? Because the condemnation that was meant for you, Jesus actually took on himself. That we don't experience condemnation because Jesus set us free from it. And because we're people who've been set free from it, we also have to live through the lens of setting other people free. free from it. And so if you're somebody who's not yet a follower of Jesus, I want you to know about a God who's crazy about you. I want you to know a God who does not condemn you, a God who does not forsake you, a God who's not turned his back on you, that when you yield your life to Jesus, you yield your life to the cross of Jesus Christ where he took on our shame, he took on our guilt, he took on our condemnation

so that you and I could be set free. I want you to know him. Truly the only way you avoid condemnation is by surrendering your life to the person of Jesus. If you've never made the decision to give your life to Jesus, man, what are you waiting for? There's never been a better day than today. As I would encourage you across all of our locations, if you want to give your life to following Jesus, we have prayer team members after every single service across every single location. They're not only there to pray for you when times are hard and absolutely they're there to pray for you when times are hard, but those prayer teams are also there that if you want to ask more questions, if you want to wrestle that through, if you want to talk to somebody about what it means to follow Jesus, please, please, please take that step at any of our locations, seek somebody out. We would love to introduce you to Jesus. We'd love to pray for that decision. We'd love to come alongside of you as you start your journey with him because I want you to know there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Give your life to Jesus. Let's do this as far as a prayer is concerned. Again, I mentioned in three weeks

we get to celebrate Easter together. And again, it's the celebration of what we've just been describing that Jesus took our condemnation on the cross, but death could not keep us hold on him. It actually gave us the opportunity for a new life, a new hope and a new direction. So here's what I want to ask you to do. I want you to ask you to take out your card that hopefully has a name written on it. Somebody you care about, somebody you love. And I just want to ask that we would hold these cards up and we just pray a prayer on behalf of this person. So if you would, across all of our locations, we just simply hold up that card and then collectively as a community, I just want to ask that we say this prayer on behalf of those that we love. Let's pray these words. Father, we come to you with open hands. We're holding the names of people that we love and we love them dearly. God, these are people who matter to us, people who we believe matter actually infinitely more to you. So right now, God, we lift up every name that's written on one of these cards today. God, we ask that you begin working their lives in ways we cannot see. God, soften their hearts if they're hard. Stir a curiosity in people who've written you off.

God, open doors that we don't even know exist yet. God, for the person who's running from you, slow them down. For the person who's convinced they're too broken, remind them that's exactly who you came for. For the person who thinks that church just isn't for them, God, this Easter, would you prove them wrong? God, give us courage. Give us the right words. Give us confidence without being pushy, like loving without being weird. God, we're believing that three weeks from now, some of these people, some of these names that are on these cards are gonna walk into one of our church locations. And when they do, God, we're trusting that you're gonna meet them. God, that they're gonna hear the gospel. They're gonna hear that Jesus didn't stay dead, that that tomb is empty. God, we believe that nothing is too broken for you to redeem. So God, we're asking, we're seeking, we're knocking. We're trusting that you are answering. God, do something that only you can do. God, we're praying that for the lives of those we love. So God, give us the courage to step out in faith. In Jesus' name, amen.