What If You Just Started Talking About Jesus? | A Cloud of Witnesses

who your like major sports hero was. But I'll tell you a little bit about mine. I grew up in a small town in Ohio, about 4,500 people. And in the 1900s, kids, we actually had what was called summer, okay? So what summer was, the way God intended it, you got out of school at the end of May and you didn't go back until Labor Day. And it was awesome, and we need to do that again. But both my parents worked. And so that meant I was a free-range child, okay? So I was home as an elementary kid, my brother and I, we just did whatever we wanted all throughout town, riding our bikes all over the place. But eventually at some point, you get kind of tired and it's hot and you go home and you wanna watch TV. But in the '80s, there was no on-demand, there was no streaming, it's what you turned on is what you get. So when you turned on in the '80s at 11 o'clock, what did you have to watch? Somebody? Price is right, that is correct. The price is right, that was your option. And then after that, what did you watch? Soap operas. Except in my little town of Ohio, we got a TV station out of Chicago called WGN. And all summer long, they had daytime baseball for the Chicago Cubs, why?

Well, because Rigley Field didn't have lights to play at night, so they had to play all of their games during the day. And so I all summer long could watch the Chicago Cubs. And I know that team was the lovable losers, I know they never won the World Series, but they are the greatest baseball team in the history of baseball. Andre Dawson, Sean Dunson, Mark Grace, Rick Sutcliffe, but then my guy, anybody know who my guy was? Ryan Sandberg, of course. 10 all-star appearances, nine golden gloves, seven silver sluggers, 282 home runs, into the Hall of Fame, Ryan Sandberg was my guy, and I was gonna be Ryan Sandberg when I grew up. That's until in sixth grade, I got cut from a baseball team where only 14 people tried out. (audience laughs) You start to realize, man, that's unattainable for me. He's superhuman, and I'm not. Well, about 16 years ago, my oldest son, he was probably three or four at the time, and he was going here to Northview Free School, which is also an incredible ministry of our church. And he became friends with this kid named Joshua, so Joshua and him were friends, and so we started arranging play dates with Joshua's family, and we'd meet at the park, and we'd meet at each other's houses, and eventually they were already coming to Northview.

We were like, "Hey, you gotta be part of our life group," and so they were part of our life group. And so we're doing this spiritual growth campaign as a church, and we've been friends for, I don't know, nine months or so. And one of those dumb icebreaker questions, you know what I'm talking about, that nobody likes to answer, but you feel like you have to. The question was something like, "Hey, tell the group something about yourself "that nobody knows." And so somebody's like, "Well, I want skydiving," and another person's like, "I'm a rodeo clown," or whatever, and then over here, Lindsey's like, "Well, my dad's in the baseball hall of fame." And I'm like, "Ooh, that's cool." I'm like, "What did he do? "Is he like a scout, or like a manager, or an announcer, "or really good at like striping the lines?" Like, "What did your dad do?" They got him in the baseball of fame. I was like, "What did your dad do?" And she's like, "Well, he played second baseman "for the Cubs." (audience laughing) And I'm like, "Your dad's Ryan Sandberg?" She's like, "Yeah." I'm like, "How did you never tell me that?" (audience laughing)

She's like, "Because he's just my dad. "He's just a normal, good dad. "Who loves his family? "He's a normal person. "To me, he was unattainable. "To her, he's human." That's where we're going today, because today we're gonna be talking about a Bible character and when we hear about it on the outside, we go, "That could never be us." But here's what I want you to know. It's your story, and it's my story. Today we're gonna talk about somebody who outside of Jesus, Peter, and King David might be the most influential person in all of scripture, and that's the Apostle Paul. So I thought what would be kind of fun is if we're talking about baseball and we're talking about the world series just happened this week, what if we had Paul's baseball card? So I said, "Hey, chat. "Create for me Paul's baseball card." And so this is what it did for me. (congregation laughing) Which, what a handsome dude, right? Here's the thing, we don't know in scripture, it doesn't say much about what Paul looked like, but Paul actually talks about it. in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 10,

is that some say, this is Paul talking about himself, his letters are weighty and forceful. But in person, he's unimpressive. And is speaking amounts to nothing. But outside of scripture, through Jewish historians, we actually have a description of what Paul looked like. So let's go back to that baseball card. Here's what they say about Paul. They say he was short. They said he had sturdy legs is how one of the writers described him. But they said he was bow-legged. So it looked like he was walking like he rode a horse everywhere. It said he was bald. And it said that he had eyebrows that met in the middle. He had a unibrow. Says that he had a long, hooked, protruding nose. Man, this is a real dude. That by our standards was not real impressive. But then you flip over the back of the baseball card. So what I used to do as a kid, memorize all the stats of the players in the back of the card. What are Paul's stats? Well, Paul is accredited with writing 13 letters that are now part of our New Testament. Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st 2 Thessalonians, 1st 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon. We're all written by Paul. Paul went on three missionary journeys.

He's credited with starting the churches all throughout the Roman Empire. No one is credited with spreading the gospel more than the Apostle Paul. Through all of that, he was beaten, he was flogged. He was put in prison. He was shipwrecked. And nothing deterred him. Nothing deterred him from sharing the gospel. And we hear his story and we're like, yeah, that's Paul. I'm just me. Here's what I want you to know. Paul had two names. Many people believe that his first name that we go by in the Bible is Saul, that we believe that when he met Jesus, he actually changed his name to Paul. That's not really true. He had two names because Saul was his Jewish name, but he was also a Roman citizen. So he had a Roman name that went by the name Paul. So as you're reading your scripture and you're reading through the Bible and you see Saul, typically the reason they're using the word Saul is because it's talking to a Jewish audience and talking about him as a Jew. When you read Paul, he's talking to a Gentile audience, a Roman audience, okay? So I wanted you to read and hear about the Apostle Paul

because we need to understand who he is and understand why it matters to us, all right? So the first time we meet him, he's known as Saul and that's in Acts chapter seven. Now in Acts chapter seven, you need to know Saul was a devout Jew. In fact, he was not on the team. So I had him in a uniform here called the way. That's the way to heaven. That's actually what the early Christians were referred to. They were part of the way. Now Saul, he was playing for the other team. So if it was the cubs, he was actually playing for the Cardinals, gross, right? So he was on the other team. And here it was what he was doing. He believed that anybody who believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and that he had risen from the dead was actually directly speaking against his God and ruining his faith and his religion. So he believed that it was his personal responsibility to fight against Jesus and to fight against every one of those who was proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah. So he got letters from the chief priests to go from town to town and find those people who were Christians, who were part of the way and to put them in prison, to beat them, to flog them, and in some case, to have them stone to death.

So that's where we meet Saul. He's actually right there where Stephen has just now proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ and he's there with the Jews putting his approval on the death of Stephen. So let's read it in Acts chapter seven, starting at verse 57. Says at this, "They covered their ears "and yelling at the top of their voices. "They all rushed him." This is Stephen sharing his story. "And they dragged him out to the city "and they began to stone him." Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus received my spirit." Then he fell to his knees and he cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep, chapter eight. And Saul was there giving approval to his death. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. This is the story of Saul. He was actively fighting against Jesus, living his life in contradiction to the gospel. But here's why I need you to understand about Saul.

And this is what I want you to understand about you. I don't know who you are, what you came in here with, at whatever campus you are, the prison that you're part of. I don't know what your past has been, but one encounter with Jesus. One encounter with Jesus, it can change your life forever. And this is the story of Paul. He has this one encounter. So we're gonna read it in Acts chapter nine, verse one. Acts chapter nine, verse one. It says, "Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out "of murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. "He went to the high priest and asked him "for letters to the synagogues in Damascus "so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, "whether men or women, he might take them "as prisoners to Jerusalem. "As he neared Damascus on his journey, "suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, "he fell to the ground and he heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus whom you are persecuted," and he replied. I'm gonna stop right there for just a second. What did Saul hear? He heard his name. Have you ever thought about it for a minute? What your name means when you hear it, when you're walking through a crowd

and somebody shouts out your name, what does that mean to you? It means that somebody's saying, "Hey, I know you. "Hey, I see you. "Hey, we have relationship," right? I told you I'd done student ministry for 24 years. When I used to do training with student ministry leaders, one of the first trainings I would always do was the importance of a name to a student. You know, when a student walks into whatever setting it is, youth group, whatever group they're a part of, you know the first question they're asking? Is I, am I known, am I value, am I accepted? Am I welcome here? And when somebody can see you and call you by your name, you know I'm known, I feel accepted. So it was quite a few years ago now. I was doing junior high ministry here at the Carmel Campus and we had six seventh and eighth graders and there was tons of students coming on Friday nights and we'd have like 25 to 30 new kids every Friday night. And I remember this one Friday night, this herd of girls comes walking in and I knew I'd never seen them before because this is when Goth was kind of a big thing and all of them were dressed completely in black. And as they walked in the door, this little sixth grade boy comes running over to me and he grabs me and he's terrified and he goes, "That's Kayla, she just got kicked out of school." And he begins to tell me all of the rumors that he's heard

about why she's possibly been kicked out of school and how terrible she is and how afraid he is. And I thought, note to self, watch Kayla, right? So we go through the service and they were great. And at the end of service, we have long hangout time in our student ministry. Why? Because we believe community is king. If we can combine a student's social life and their spiritual life, help them feel known and accepted, man. Then, right then we can help connect them. And so I was like, man, we gotta connect these students. And so I'm out by this fire pit afterwards and what am I doing? I'm calling kids by name as I'm talking to them, 'cause I know them. And here comes this herd of girls. And for whatever reason is they walked by Kayla, heard me calling these students by name and she stops and she goes, "You don't even know my name." To which I said, "Yeah, I do, your name's Kayla." And her face changed. And she's like, "How did you know that?" And for once in my life, my filter kicked in 'cause I was gonna say, "Well, there's a sixth grade boy crying in the corner 'cause apparently you're a horrible person." (audience laughs) And I said, I kinda lied. I said, "Ah, I know everybody's name."

Well, but I don't know your friend's names. And she goes and she introduces every single one of her friends to me by name. And week after week, they keep coming back. Why? Because they were at a place where they were known and they were accepted. The other thing we do in student ministry at the Carmel campus, right next to the stage, there's these two big walls. And on these walls, we give kids a sharpie. And the first time that they make a decision to accept Jesus Christ, we give them the sharpie. And we say, "Hey, sign your name and date it "on this wall as a marker." You know, Kayla's name's on that wall. As well as many of her friends. Why? Because she was known. [BLANK_AUDIO] Jesus knows you. I don't know what you think you've done. I don't know the shame you carry. I don't know how lonely or isolated you feel, but did you hear that story of Mahak and her husband? Man, Jesus is calling out to them and knowing them by name, and he's calling out to you and he knows you by name, and just like he knew who Saul was, he knows you, and he loves you, and he values you, and you're accepted. But let's go on back into the story.

Saul says, who are you, Lord? I'm Jesus, whom you're a persecuting here, he played. Now, get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard a sound, but they didn't see anyone. So Saul got up from the ground. But when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So they led him by hand into Damascus for three days, he was blind and did not eat or drink anything. In Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision. Ananias, he knew his name too. Yes, Lord, he answered. The Lord told him, go to the house of Judas on Straight Street, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him and restore his sight. Lord Ananias answered, I've heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints and Jerusalem. And he has come here with the authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call in your name, Ananias is like, I ain't gonna do it. He's after me, he's my enemy, he's not on my team. He's coming here to arrest me, God, I'm not gonna do it. Listen to what the Lord says to Ananias. But the Lord said to Ananias, go. This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings. And before the people of Israel, I will show him

how much he must suffer from my name. The Lord says to Ananias, no, you don't get to decide what you do because this man is my chosen instrument. And here's what I want you to know. You also are God's chosen instrument. Do you know that? Paul himself, when he's writing to the church at Ephesus, he writes this in his letter to them. He says, for we, we meaning you and me, as Paul's talking, are God's workmanship. Some scriptures say God's masterpiece. And we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance to us to do. Paul's saying, you are God's chosen instrument just like I am God's chosen instrument. And you might go, no way, I am not God's chosen instrument. You don't know how flawed I am. You don't know how much I've messed up. And Paul's like, what are you talking about? I was actively an enemy of Jesus. You being flawed? Paul's like, I'm flawed. He says, we're all flawed. He writes in Romans this. He says, all have sinned. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. He then goes on to tell us, hey, the wages of the sin is death but the gift of God. It's eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Church, I don't know what you walked in.

I don't know the shame that you carry. I don't know the mistakes of your past. I know I have many in mind. I know I make mistakes even daily. I know the weight of my sin. I know that I don't measure up. I know that I'm not perfect. I know that even my best acts, the Bible says, are filthy rags compared to God's righteousness. Paul, he knew just how desperate he was for God's grace. In fact, he tells us this in 1 Timothy. He says this, here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What's he saying himself? Of whom I am the worst. Told you Paul had two names, Saul, which is Jewish name, which means prayed for. His name Paul actually means little. Now, some say it's because of his short size. I think God just has a way of showing somebody, hey, in humility, I make you pretty big. What does Paul say about himself in Romans? Says, what are we? Jesus Christ our Lord." I don't know how you feel about yourself, but Paul would say, "If God can use me the worst of sinners, the enemy of Jesus, you need to know that you are God's chosen. He has a plan and a purpose and he wants to use you. Throw off the past, it's time to move forward and let's see what Paul did." Starting back in verse 17, it says, "Then Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing

his hands on Saul. He said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.'" He says, "Brother Saul, remember that he was one of enemies. What a Christian response to an enemy for Ananias. We can learn from that." Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again. He got up and was baptized. After taking some food, he regained his strength. Don't miss this. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus, verse 20, "At once." Ready? "At once, how long at once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God." Paul has this moment where Jesus appears to him. He recognized the error of his ways and he repents. He then goes on to tell us in Romans as he's writing his letter to Rome, "Hey, I know firsthand of this, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Paul didn't get a chance to fix all of his past sins before he had an encounter with Jesus. He didn't have a chance to fix all his past sins before Jesus said, "Hey, I love you because you fixed those." No, while Paul was actively sinning against Jesus, Jesus met him and said, "And I died for you too." You need to know that for you. You may go, "Man, once I get my life in order, then I can turn and become a Christian." No, while you're sinning, Jesus is pursuing you and he loves you and he died for you and he wants to forgive you. That's the story of Paul and that's the story of you.

But then it says, "At once, at once, he began to preach the gospel." Well here's the challenge for you and me. This last week, I was actually hanging out in the lobby at the Carmel Campus after service and my friend Isaac came up and he started talking to me. And he started talking to me about his purpose and his passion for his life and his belief in what God has asked him to do and he's an engineer by profession but he's a personal evangelist by purpose and he said, "Kurt, I've been spending my whole life after I met Jesus trying to tell people about Jesus but he said, you know, I've been doing these different things and he said a few years ago, I got to go to this conference in South Korea, this Billy Graham conference and they do it every six years and they started in 1974 in South Korea doing this conference and then every six years and at the conference they always report how many people in the world have yet to hear the gospel. Said in 1976, you know how people, what the percentage of people in this world that have yet to hear the gospel was 40 percent of the world. Well they just did the conference again in 2024 and they reported on the statistic again. Do you know what the statistic is? 40 percent." And he said, "God, how are we not reaching people with your word? Why over the last how many 40 years have we not been able to make any difference in the percentage of people that heard the word, don't we have enough churches God and aren't some of our churches huge who are sharing about the gospel and we're seeing people get saved all the time. Don't we have enough missionaries God? People who are out sharing the word and I love it. Isaac said, "And I heard God say to me, whose responsibility is it to share the gospel? Who was the great commission given to? Was it to the church?" No. It was to the follower of Jesus. The great commission comes from Matthew chapter 28, it's Jesus talking to his disciples.

He says, "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you and surely I'm with you always. Whose responsibility is it to be sharing the gospel? Every one of us, if Jesus has changed your life, it's your responsibility to share the gospel. Paul's story, he met Jesus and at once, he began telling people that Jesus was the Messiah. You notice he didn't go and spend a bunch of time with all the other believers and say, "Hey, teach me what I need to know "so I can be more effective in sharing this gospel." You know, at once, he began to go and just share his story. And here's the challenge, 'cause this is a story for you and me. If you are a follower of Jesus, it is your responsibility and it's my responsibility to share the gospel. And you might go, "I don't know." Like, "I'm not great at speaking, or man, "I don't know, I don't have all the scriptures memorized. "I don't know how to point people to Jesus." Like, what if they ask me a question that I don't know? I'll tell you a story, back when I was in college, I got an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Northern Ireland for almost an entire month. And a week before that mission trip, I was back home for Christmas and New Year's. And on New Year's Eve, I was hanging out at a party

with a bunch of my friends. And I was in the basement with one of my best childhood friends that we had been basically best friends since seventh grade. And for whatever reason, everybody kind of cleared out of the basement, except for him and I. I don't know what we did, but they all left us. And it was just the two of us sitting down there talking. Now, he had gone to church growing up, but I knew that his first couple years of college, he had kind of walked a little bit away from his faith. And as we were sitting down there talking, he began to ask me a lot of questions about my faith and about my church. And I don't know why, like, I got super nervous. And he's my best friend. And I remember I answered a couple of his quick questions, and then I purposely changed the subject. We hung out for a little longer, and then he left, and he went back to Ohio State, and a couple days later I went back to my school, which, by the way, there's a bunch of students in here that couldn't get into my school. They go to Indiana Westland now, but Taylor is where I went. Just thought I'd throw that in their direction. But I go back to Taylor to go to school. And so, as I'm there, we're getting ready to go on this mission trip, and we all went over to a leader's house the day before the trip in the phone rang at the leader's house,

and he answered it, and then he pulled me into a side room, and then he stood beside me as my mom talked to me on the phone. And she began to let me know that my friend had died of an aneurysm in his head. Here I am, getting ready to go on a mission trip. The next day I get on an airplane, and I fly to Northern Ireland. The first couple weeks of that mission trip, all I could experience and think. Here I am, sharing the gospel with people I've never met. And if I'm honest, I don't really care about it. And I had an opportunity to share it with my best friend. And I didn't do it. I've had a lot of time on that, and I believe the reason he was asking those questions is because he had rekindled his faith, and I do believe that I will see him in heaven. But I won't be sure because I shied away from sharing the gospel. Why? Because I was so nervous that I wouldn't have the right answer, or that he was smarter than me, or that I was embarrassed or that he'd be offended. Well, we get to the very end of that trip, and we were going to go to this church in Belfast. And this church was right on Shank Hill Road, right where the Catholics and the Protestant fighting have been happening. The tripleer is saying, hey, you get in there. We're going to lock the doors behind you. It's safe now, but they still do that.

And he's like, and they've asked us to come and bring the sermon. And I decided, I think God wants you to bring the sermon, Kurt. And I'm like, me? I wasn't a ministry major. I'd never given a sermon. And now you're giving me, like, 12 hours to prepare to speak to this church, this historic, amazing church. I'm like, oh my goodness, and I'm super overwhelmed. So the whole rest of the group gets to go out and have fun. And I'm going to stay back in the house and try and figure out what I'm going to speak on. And one of the girls from the trip, before they left, she comes up and she handed me a letter. And in it was this sticky note right here. And it just says, Kurt, 1 Corinthians 2, 1 through 5, which, by the way, is the words of Paul. She said, may this be your strength tomorrow morning? I'm praying. Here's what 1 Corinthians 2, 1 through 5 says. When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom, as I proclaimed you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. they were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but God's power. This is your story. If Jesus Christ has made any difference in your life, it is our responsibility to share it. And you might go, "But I'm not ready." And Paul says, "Me either. I wasn't wise." And he's like, "Yeah, people said my message amounted to nothing." All he did was walk in and say, "This is what I know to be true about Jesus, and I hope it's true

about you, that you would find to be true about you." And Church, I'm challenging you and I'm challenging me. What if, what if we took that charge today and said, "No, this week I'm going out and I'm telling somebody my testimony, just like my heck and her husband did a little earlier." I'm telling my story about what Jesus did for me and hopes it will change them. You're like, "Well, Kurt, what if they asked me a question I don't have the answer to?" Great. It gives you an opportunity to go, "Wow, I don't know the answer to that question. Would it be okay if when I figure that out, I come back to you and talk to you about it again?" Or, "You know what? I don't know the answer to that question, but can I invite you to my church? I want to introduce you to my life group leader or my Bible study leader or my pastor, because maybe you could answer that question for us." Or, "You know what? I don't know if you answer that question. All I know is that Jesus changed my life and I hope he changes yours." Could you do that? As we close today's service, I'm actually going to pray that you would, and it's a bold prayer. So I'm praying two prayers here at the end. The first, well, the first is for those maybe that have never, ever placed your faith or trust in Jesus Christ. All right, told you, the Bible is very clear that every one of us has sinned and we fall short of the glory of God. The Bible tells us the wages of our sin is death. We deserve eternal separation from God because we did not measure up to the standard of the life that he had for us. The Bible says, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus Christ came and he took the penalty that you and I deserved to restore you in relationship with God. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead, that you'll be saved. That's an eternal salvation. That's a promise from God. You could be sure today that you're going to heaven, you have an eternal relationship with God. All you have to do is repent, asking God to forgive you and claiming that he's the Lord of your life. I want to pray that. If you've never done that today, I want to pray that for you so that'll be the first prayer I pray. The second though is for all of us who have accepted Christ and have Jesus Christ as the Lord of our life. We have the Holy Spirit living in us. I'm praying this week that the Holy Spirit would lay upon your heart one person that you will share your testimony with and that the Holy Spirit would give you the courage to follow through with it. That's a bold prayer

because when your will and God's will align, it happens. This isn't a prayer that we're like, "God, I hope your will aligns with us." No, this has already been a command that we are to do it. I'm believing that God is going to lay on your heart and he's going to lay on my heart this week the importance of sharing our story. I'm praying that you would have the courage to follow what God asks you to do. So, if you would bow your heads, close your eyes. You know, that first person that I want to pray for though is that person who's like, "Today is my day." One encounter with Jesus changed my life forever and today I want to put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If that's you at any of our campuses, really here's what I want you to do. I want to acknowledge that I'm praying directly for you. So I want to know who you are just by simply having you raise your hand at the campuses. Somebody will be looking around. Is there anybody here today that says, "You know what? Today I want to put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If so, just raise your hand so I can see it so I know who I'm praying for." Anybody yes in the very back? Yes. Yes, here in the front of these two, yes. Yes, over here on my left I see you. Yes, I'm praying for you. Yes, down here front. Yes, I see you. You can put your hand down once I see it. Yep. Is there anybody else? I know I saw five here at the Carmel campus but I'm sure there's others of you at other campuses maybe join in online. Maybe that didn't raise your hand right didn't see Here's what I need you to know. This is the prayer between you and God, but I wanted to know I was praying for you because this prayer matters. And so all I'm asking you to do is just repeat it silently to yourself. And here's what I promise, just like the word of God does, that you'll be forgiven of your sin and you have a relationship with God and you will spend eternity in heaven with Him. So pray this with me. Dear God, thank you for loving me.

God, I'm sorry that I've fallen short of your stand, but thank you for sending Jesus your sin to take the punishment I deserved. God, today I'm accepting Him as my Savior and my Lord, and I'm choosing today to begin to follow you and put you first. Thank you, God, for loving me, for knowing my name, for believing in me, for giving me value. Today I'm committing to you in Jesus' name. God, I thank you for those that prayed this prayer, but I'm also thankful for everyone in this room at all of our campuses and online who has made you the Lord and Savior of their life. God, you tell us that your Holy Spirit resides inside of us. But God, you've put us on mission. We are your chosen instruments created to do good works. And God, it's our mission to personally share about what you've done in our life. And so God, I pray right now that this week, the Holy Spirit would be so active and strong that we would not be able to ignore it, but we'd be seriously listening to what you are telling us to do and that you would help us to identify those people in our path that need to hear about you, that need to hear our testimony. And God, would you give us the boldness, every one of us, to follow through with whatever you ask us to do? Give us courage and go before us, God, because it's not about us.

It's a demonstration of your spirit's power in our life would you use us this weekend. We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.