What God Really Wants From You This Year...

This week, as we start the new year and preparing our hearts to celebrate the goodness of God over 30 years, I've been doing a lot of reflecting over God's goodness in the past three decades. If you had asked me 30 years ago, what kind of church do you want to pastor? I would have told you a million things because I was so excited. I would have said I want to pastor a mission-focused church. I want a biblically-anchored church. I want an evangelistic church that reaches people far from God. I want a fast-growing church with people coming to Christ week after week. I want an innovative church. I want an influential church changing the city and maybe the state, maybe even the world. And if you ask me now, my answer would be similar, but it would be a little bit different. I still want all those things for God's church, but as I've matured a little bit over the last 30 years and I've grown to know God more intimately, if you ask me now, above all else, what kind of church do you want to pastor? I would tell you, point blank, cleanly, clearly, in one sentence. I want to pastor a church that pleases God. Above all else, I want God to be honored, the name of Jesus to be praised, and I want to pastor a church that pleases God.

And I want to tell you a little bit of the story and take you with me and why I would say that. There's multiple layers to it. And one of the things is I've noticed over the years that many of you, maybe most of you, would be pretty sure that God loves you. We hope that you start there. You're pretty sure that God loves you. But many of you, you're not sure that God is always pleased with you because there's a difference, right? Then just being loved by someone and living in a way that pleases them. Raise your hand if you're a parent. Raise your hand if you're a parent. Online, you can type in the comment section, I'm a parent. If you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? If you've got kids, you know the difference between loving them and being pleased with them. I've got six children, technically 12 now, because they're all married, and I love them all every single day. And I am pleased with them all every now and then, right? I mean, we love our children all the time, but we're not always pleased with the decisions that they make. And the same would be true for God, that God would love us,

every single one of us, all the time. But there are times when we live in a way that pleases Him and times that we live in a way that doesn't please Him. And it makes me think of the moment that Jesus had that must have been indescribably intimate with his heavenly Father, right after Jesus was baptized. In Matthew 3, verse 17, a voice from heaven, this is the Father, speaking to his Son. The Father says, this is my Son. Publicly, God declares the Sonship of Jesus. And then he said, this is my Son, whom I love. But he didn't stop there. God the Father went on to say, with Him, I am well-pleased. Not only do I love Him, and I do, but I'm pleased with the way that He's living. So what kind of church do I wanna pastor? Everything in me, I want to pastor a church that pleases God. That raises the question, if we're gonna be a church that pleases God, what kind of church pleases God? And the answer is, this is obvious, but here's the answer. A church that pleases God is made up of people who are pleasing God. Guess what that does for you? That puts you on the line with me

to be a church that pleases God. It's made up of people, made up of you. If we're gonna be a church that pleases God, we have to live a life, personally, individually, and corporately, that pleases God. So what I've done is I've done a detailed study of God's Word and found what is, in my opinion, perhaps the top five qualities, in God's Word, of a church that pleases God. And we're gonna talk about one quality each week over the next five weeks. I'm gonna give you those qualities. What kind of church pleases God? Today, we're gonna talk about a reverent church pleases God. Next week, we're gonna talk about, we're gonna see in God's Word. that a faith-filled church pleases God, because without faith, it's impossible to please God. Some of you have been doing your YouVersion Bible study. Good job. We'll shout it from the small group rooftops, you're in God's word. What else? A bold church pleases God. We're gonna see in week number four that a unified church is pleasing to God because Jesus prayed, Father, make them one as we are one. And finally, we're gonna see above any other quality,

perhaps a loving church pleases God. What does it mean to love God? Is it tolerance? Is it love? Is it something different? We're gonna see what a loving church looks like. Today, I wanna come a little bit harder with a little more passion and a little more direct as we start a new year. Can I push you? If I can, say you can. Can I? Yeah. You said it, here we go. We're gonna talk about a reverent church. What is a reverent church? If you're taking notes, a reverent church fears the Lord and lives with a sincere obedience to Him. A reverent church has a holy and a reverential fear of the Lord and lives with a sincere desire to obey and to please Him in all that we do. And we see it in His word in Psalm 147. The Bible says the Lord delights in, the Lord is pleased with, the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. I wanna show you what God's word says, but first I wanna show you what it doesn't say.

It doesn't say that the Lord delights in those who approach Him casually. He's the big guy upstairs. He's the big guy. He's not pleased with those who approach Him casually. He doesn't delight in those who serve Him comfortably or obey Him conveniently. Instead, the Lord delights in those who love Him with a reverent fear. Now, culturally today, like, I don't wanna be afraid of God. What does it mean to fear the Lord? It doesn't mean to be afraid of God, like you're gonna do something wrong and He's gonna get you and smoosh you like a bug. That's not what the fear of the Lord means. In fact, the word fear in this text comes from the Hebrew word yare, and this word means very directly, it means fearing or awe, A-W-E, awe-filled, reverently aware of God's holiness and authority. It's this deep sense of the holiness, the goodness, the righteousness, the glory, the power of God, and we are not Him. He is holy and set apart. So holy is He that we can't even stand in the purity of His presence and live. That's how holy He is. It's a reverent fear of a holy and a righteous and a good and a loving and a just God.

It's the fear of the Lord, it's reverence. Now, what does this mean? Reverence for God isn't a fear that drives us away from God, but it's an awe that draws us to Him. It's the sense that He alone is worthy of our praise. He alone is worthy of our lives. He alone is worthy of our first and our best, our gifts to use for Him. He should be the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the day. He should be the first one I wanna please when I go through my life. He alone is worthy of everything in my heart to give to Him for His glory. So what I wanna do is I'm gonna push you a little bit and ask you what may be the most important question as we move into a new year. And I'm not gonna ask you what you may think, like, what do you believe about God? I'm gonna ask you a deeper and more important question. And what I wanna do is I wanna ask you, what does your life say you believe about God? What is your life, your actions? If you just look at your last week, what does the way you live say that you prioritize? When you think about what you think about, what do your thoughts say is most important to you? When you look at how you spend your time, your money, who you hang out with, what makes you excited when you get really good news,

what's the best news you could get? Is it something that's God honoring or more self-focused? Not what do you believe about God, but what does the way that you live say that you believe? about God, why does it matter? It matters because how you view God determines how you live. How you think about Him determines how seriously you reflect what He says. And so again, I'm gonna push you a little bit and I just want you to think about this. Do you take Him seriously? Or do you treat God casually? I had a seminary teacher years ago that he called it a high view of God or a low view of God. Do you have a high view of God and His word, an elevated view that you place authority on it? Or do you have a reverent view of God? Or do you have a low view, a casual view? Jesus, I'm a homeboy. Yeah, I read the Bible every now and then. I mean, the parts of it that I like. Do you have a high view of God or a low view of God? And what I wanna do is I wanna show you very directly a contrasting view of a high and a low view of God. We'll start with the low view of God. When you have a low view of God, you take His word casually. If you read it, you may not take it seriously. You may debate it. You may obey the parts you like and not the other parts,

or you don't even value it at all. You treat God's word casually. Second thing is you ignore conviction and rationalize sin. If there's something in your life that you know is contrary to God's word, you may say, well, this is just the way I am, and this is just my one thing. It's not that big a deal, and this is my truth anyway, and it's none of your business what I do. And you rationalize sin and continue to live in it. And then finally, you know what God says, but you just do whatever you want. It's a low view of God. Contrast that with a high and a reverent view, a reverential fear and awe of the goodness of God. When you have a high view of God, you take His word seriously. It's not just a part of your life. It's the truth that guides your life. You're in it all the time, not because you feel like you have to do it to please Him, but because you want to know Him through His word. It's living. It feeds you. It empowers you. It convicts you. It teaches you. It guides you. It conforms you to the image of Christ. It renews your mind

so you're not bought into the lies of this world. You take His word seriously. You also repent of your sins quickly. When you do something wrong, you say, oh, God, I'm sorry. God, forgive me. And then you turn away and you walk away from it. You don't live in it. You don't rationalize it. You don't make light of it. You repent and you turn quickly. And then finally, you obey God with reverence no matter the cost, no matter what they say about you at school, no matter if they laugh at you, no matter if they talk behind you back at work, no matter if they say you're a religious freak or you're nothing, no matter if your girlfriend breaks up with you because you won't do the things she wants you to do, no matter the cost, you say, because I have a reverent view of God and His word, I want to obey Him no matter what. The reason I'm starting the year here and the reason I'm bringing the heat, maybe just a little bit more than normal, is because this is one of my biggest concerns as I look at culture and not just culture, but as I look at the church, the church, our church. It's not that people don't believe in God.

A lot of people do, but it's that people believe in Him without revering Him. And it creates what we could call a cultural Christian. This is someone who's like, I'm a Christian because I'm born in the USA and I'm a nice guy and I'm killed and embodied and stuff like that. And it's not that you've rejected God, you've just reduced Him. You've got a faith that's become way too familiar. And whenever your faith becomes familiar, you start to treat Jesus like He's no big deal. No big deal. Yeah, I was baptized, I was saved. Yeah, yeah, I do the church thing every now and then. Yeah, I watch church online. Yeah, I'll pick up the Bible every now and then. Yeah, I'll do a good deed every now and then. But it's not the consuming desire of my heart to please Him. There's one of the most powerful stories of familiarity with Jesus in Luke chapter seven. There was a Pharisee, an important, educated, religious leader named Simon, who said, Jesus, come over to my house. I'll throw you a fancy party. We're gonna have a great big party, a formal dinner. And so. Jesus was there and there were some other Pharisees looking very pharisaical, looking very holy, like some of you do when you walk into church,

like, oh, I'm in the presence of God here today. I'm glad to be in the church of the house of God. They're looking holy and such. And Jesus was there with them, but they treated him casually. When you walked into a first century home, there were these customs, kind of like today. If you came over to my house and I'm being polite to you, I'm honoring you, what would I do? I might say, hey, can I take your coat? Hey, come on in, come to the kitchen. Can I get you a drink? If we're really close, I say, like, help yourself to anything, you know, my house is your house. We even have this red plate that I think maybe Stephen made years ago. It was called the special plate. And if you're really special and you came to our house, you got the special plate. The problem is we lost it. Now you just get the regular plate, but in our heart, you still get the special plate. There's these customs. Well, this was the way it was. In Jesus's time, if you came into the house and you were honoring somebody, you'd wash their feet. Because this was a symbol of service and submission. Welcome to my home, I know your feet are dirty and I wanna bless you, and washed your feet. And you would greet someone with a kiss on the face

and say, you're welcome, you're loved here. And you might even anoint their head with oil saying, you're an honored guest in our home. But the Pharisees didn't do any of that. Jesus, the son of the living God was in their presence in the house and they treated him casually. To him, it was no big deal. It was just no big deal. It's just the teacher guy in our house. And then this woman comes running into the house. She's not just any woman. She's someone that the Pharisees gossiped about. She was a woman that had a lot of male friends, perhaps. She had an immoral reputation. And she had heard about the Messiah that forgives and the way he loves and the grace that he shows. And she came running into Jesus and fell down at his feet and she did what they didn't do. She wept and cried and literally like washed his feet with her tears. And she didn't have a towel so she took her hair and she scrubbed it with her hair. And then she didn't have any oil to worship with, but she had perfume which might've been a tool in her trade. Very expensive perfume. And she burst the thing open and pours it on him as an act of worship to say, I love you, save me, heal me, forgive me. She's in awe.

And the Pharisees look on with their self-righteousness and judge her and judge Jesus. And they thought to themselves, if Jesus knew what kind of woman she was, he would call her out and not even let her sinfulness get close to his so-called holiness. And in Luke chapter seven, verse 44, here's what Jesus said. Jesus said, I came into your house. You didn't give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn't give me a kiss, but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. You didn't put oil on my head, but she's poured perfume on my feet as an act of worship. Think about it. Jesus in the room, same Jesus, two entirely different responses. The Pharisees treated him as common, ordinary, no big deal. And the woman knelt down and treated him as holy. She was in awe that she got to be in his presence. She took probably her most valuable possession and gave it to him as a sacrificial act of worship to say, I need your grace and your love. You're honored in my presence. They treated him as common. She treated him as holy.

The Pharisees were comfortable with his presence. She was overwhelmed by it. For some of you, this is your story. If you look back to last year, not what you believe, but what your life says you believe. You didn't walk away from God. You just grew comfortable with Him. I've seen it in some of you. If you've been here long enough, you've seen it in me at times. Some of you, I mean, you used to worship with awe. Couldn't wait to be in the presence of God. And now sometimes you show up and worship is over because it's just more convenient. Don't wanna fight the crowds. Some of you, you used to be in God's word like it was living and active, powerful, and sharper than a double-edged sword, and always fulfilling its complete purpose, like it was God speaking to you, directing you, guiding you, convicting you, empowering you, comforting you, convicting you, conforming you to the image of Christ. And now, you may get to it occasionally. I've talked to some of you online. If all you can do is online, more power to you. But there's something about being in a room. There's something about being together. Because when this service is over, I'm gonna lay hands on people, and I'm gonna pray for people,

and I'm gonna cry with them. I can't do that with you because you're not in the room. And you used to be in a room, but you got comfortable being on the couch. Because now being in the presence of God with God's people just became no big deal. And I don't want this to come across as like, I'm looking down because I have been there. 30 years pastoring here, five years before, that's three and a half decades. I'm telling you, when I was saved by Jesus, I was so saved, nobody knew what to do with me. Oh, they should've locked me up for five years just to let me grow up because I was so dangerous. I mean, anywhere, everywhere, I preached about Jesus. I had bad theology, didn't matter. I preached it so hard, it worked. Bad theology and everything. It was just, I said it like I believed it, and I got Jesus in there somewhere, and Jesus did the work even though my theology was bad. It was like, I was so passionate, so passionate. Started out in ministry, started Life.Church, and then I just gotta tell you, the grind of this, your life's tough, my life's tough, they're tough in different ways. This is tough, man. I mean, 30 years of spiritual attacks and opposition and the weight and the dealing with the, this is tough.

And several years in, the grind got to me. Can I just be real direct with you? Can we, I just kinda wanna do that. I'm kinda tired of being all correct. Every Christmas, Jesus was born of a virgin, every year. Like, hey, pastor, that sounds like your last Christmas sermon. Yes, it is, same story. Every Easter, the tomb's empty. One time, I just wanted to preach on, like, Daniel and the lion's den. One time, one time, one time, I wanted to open up and say, the lions ate him and it was bloody and he died. It would be gross, it would be sad, but it would be surprising. And the grind just kinda got to me. Somewhere along the way, in the routine of it all, somehow the holy moments started to feel familiar. And I didn't lose my faith, I lost my awe. That's a dangerous place to be because when our awe of God fades, our view of God shrinks. And my greatest desire wasn't to pastor a church that pleased God. My greatest desire became to pastor a church that maybe made me feel better about me instead of me trying to honor him. And so I did pray, but it was usually publicly, not privately.

I did read the Word, but it was to preach to you instead of to feed me. And I lost my awe for a while. And then, by the grace of God, I hit one of those hell seasons. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Hope you're not in one now, but you go 30 years on this planet and you're gonna be in a few. I was in one of those seasons. It was one of those seasons when Amy started preaching my sermons to me. That's how bad it was. I hate when she does that. Pastor Craig, you know what? I heard it in a sermon one time and then she quotes me to me, that's how bad it was. I got the Holy Ghost and the Amy Ghost all in the same house. I love you, but that's annoying. And how many know when you're down so low, there's only one way to look? And I started to look up and just cry out those desperate prayers, kind of like when I got saved, like, God, if you're there, can you forgive my sins? If you're there, can you save someone as bad as me? And I started praying prayers that had that desperation, like, I need you, God, I need you, God. And the more I pursued him, the more he reminded me of who he is and how big he is and how powerful he is.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, God almighty, who was before the foundations of the earth and is so big that he spoke the galaxies into place. And he's big enough to know every hair on your head and know every tear that you cried, that's our holy God. Big enough to hold the whole world in his hands and loving enough to care about the details of your life, that's our God. Powerful enough to speak and raise the dead and personal enough to love you right where you are at this very moment, that's our God. And so hear this, hear me. God loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you. You can't do anything more to earn his love, he loves you, but he's not pleased with everything that you do. He's not pleased with everything that I do. So there's a difference between loving and being pleased with. And that's why I want you to have a high view of God, to see him as he is. And so the question we're gonna ask in our life groups, and again, if you're not in a life group, I don't know how many times I've had to tell you,

we need the people of God to do the will of God on earth together in community around God's word, empowering each other. In our life groups, we're gonna ask this question and we're gonna be honest about answering this question. And the question is this, where has God become casual to you instead of holy? Where has he become casual to you instead of holy? For some of you, this will be a real easy thing to answer. It's your language. You take God's name in vain, or say things that are not God honoring, coarse language. Be convicted by that, repent of it quickly. Don't live in it, just repent. Some of you, it's in what you watch on your phones, on TV, like you're literally entertained by sinfulness. Sex, murder, rape, cussing, violence, like, hey, let's watch another episode of the Night of Sin. Some of you, don't clap, cause I'm coming for you too. All of us, it's all of us, it's me. It's you got something called the temple of the Holy Spirit and you're putting up a trash in there. Like it's a temple of the Holy Spirit and you're feeding it garbage nonstop, not honoring God with your body. It's your time, like literally, like let's look at your life and you're gonna spend years and years, years, years, doom scrolling, instead of out doing the will of God,

just wasting the, you're a vapor, you're a vapor. You're here for a while and you're gone. You're spending, you're hooked on algorithms that are feeding you stuff that are destroying your mind. Some of it is taking God's word for granted. For some of you, it's rationalizing sin. For some, it's a casual approach to worship. For some of you, you've got the spiritual gift of being judgmental and that's all you do. You go around hating everything. Like that's God honoring. Criticizing every ministry instead of like finding what's good in it and trying to be unified together in the body of Christ to do something. But you're so smart, you're mad at everybody. Glad somebody's laughing, I'm kind of playing. What used to be sacred has become casual for some. So what do we do? How do we move forward? What do we let God do in us to get us through it? God's word is living and it's powerful. And I'm gonna show you what Paul said in Philippians 2. It's life-changing. He said, work hard to show the results of your salvation. Let me stop there. If you're genuinely saved by Jesus, work hard to show the results of your salvation. This does not mean that you work to be saved. You are not saved by works ever. You're saved by grace through faith, but faith works.

Let me say it again. You're not saved by works, you're saved by grace through faith, but faith works. So what do you do? You work hard to show the results of your salvation. Then what do you do? Obeying God with deep reverence and fear, with deep reverence. He's a holy God. Doesn't matter what you feel. Doesn't matter what desire you have. Doesn't matter how you think you were born. Doesn't matter what feels good to you. You obey the word. of God with deep reverence and with fear. Now watch this, for God is working in you. In other words, you're not on your own. It's not you just like trying to be good and trying to be holy. No, because God is working in you. It's the king of all kings, the Lord of all lords, working in you, the power of the Holy Spirit. If you are in Christ, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is inside of you. And so you work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear for God is working in you. Watch what he's doing. Giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. He gives you the desire, the want to,

and the power, the how to, he gives it to you. Oh, and thank you for that golf clap because there's so much more power in that from God's word. Think about it. He's at work in you. He gives you the desire to do his will. He gives you the power to do his will. He gives you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. That's how powerful he is. That's our God. That's our God. In other words, you can't please everybody. You can't, you can't please everybody. You please them, they don't like you. You please them, they don't like. You cannot please everybody, but you can please God. He gives you the desire and the power to live by his spirit in a way that pleases him. So happy new year. Let's go. 30 years ago, we started with nothing. And the future of this church will not be determined by our size, by our budget, by our focus, by our vision. It'll be determined by how seriously we, you, me, us, the church takes the word of God. I'm gonna tell you what, because if God answers my prayer, one day I'll stand in front of him, he'll say, well done.

Some of those things were kind of screwy you did there, but well done, my good and faithful servant. You pastored a church that was pleasing to me. In order for this church to be pleasing to God, my life has to be pleasing to him. Your life has to be pleasing to him. Look what he's done over the last 30 years. Think what he can do in the next, if we become a church with a high view of our holy God. Come on, somebody, give him praise today. Give him praise today. He's a good God. Father, we ask that you would do a work in us that only you can do. As you're praying, not looking around today, those of you who have some area of your life, a casual view of God, and you want to raise that view, no more casualness, reverence and awe. If you've got a casual view of God in some place, you're like, the way you live shows it. Lift your hand in repentance right now. Lift it up, lift it up. There's more of you right now, but put your hand back down. If you are a Christian and there is some area of your life you know is not what God wants it to be, you've got a casual view of God in some place, area of your life, and you want God to fix it, give you the desire and the power, lift your hands right now. Online, say, God's speaking to me,

God's showing me an area. Lift your hand up as an act of worship to him, Heavenly Father. You are King. You are Lord. We stand in awe of you. You're holy, you're righteous. God, help us to work hard because you've saved us. God, give us the desire to please you, the power to please you. And God, we know we won't be perfect, but we thank you that we start from a place of love. Just like you said to Jesus, this is my son whom I love. God, thank you for loving us always. Give us the power by your Spirit to live in a way that pleases you. Speak to us all, convict us toward your will, we pray. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, let me talk to those of you that you may believe in God, but you don't know him. If you look at the way you live, he is not the Lord of your life. Your life does not demonstrate his kingship. God loves you so much. This is what his word says, that he sent his one and only son, Jesus. Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, but to save the world. He didn't come for the righteous. He came for broken sinners, just like me and just like you.

Jesus was perfect in every single way. Because he was without sin, he could die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and God raised him from the dead so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name would be saved. Campus pastors, I'm making an audible. I want you to be ready. We're going eyes open. Everybody, eyes open right now, eyes open. Campus pastors, be ready. You may have grown up in church. You may have been baptized as a kid. You look at your life right now and the way you're living doesn't reflect the lordship of Christ. What we're gonna do today is we're gonna step away from our sins, and we're gonna say yes to the grace of God. You are not saved by your works, but only by grace through faith. You put your faith in Jesus, and you declare this year, by the grace of God, his power will enable you to be saved. me to live for Him. I'm not casual about my, this isn't a half-hearted, this isn't just a kind of sort of maybe Christian add-on, this is a fully surrendered life to the Lordship of Christ. If He died and rose again for me, that demands everything in me. Jesus, I surrender my life to You, I give my life to You publicly in front of anybody

and everybody, I don't care, all in. Jesus, save me, be the Lord of my life. That's your prayer today, lift your hands high right now. All over the place, lift them up. Oh, come on somebody, lift it, oh my gosh. All over the place, oh, praise God for you. Hands up all over the place, praise God. Praise God, church, stand up to your feet if you will. Online, just type in the comments section, I'm surrendering my life to Christ. Pastor Sam, come up here, help me pray. Would you lead this amazing campus in a salvation prayer and then you better make them give God some praise. Come on, let's do it right now. Let's do it, go, Pastor, lead them. Come on, let's pray, repeat this prayer with me. Say, Heavenly Father, I give you my life. I surrender it all. Today I declare Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. I give you everything, forgive me of my sins. Wipe them away and make me new. Fill me with your spirit so I can follow you and serve you and please you every day of my life. Thank you for a new life. You now have mine, in Jesus' name I pray. Somebody get a little loud. Somebody get a little excited. Come on, worship Jesus today. Let's go. 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 wanna 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. That's right 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.