What's In A Name | Pastor Stephanie Payne

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, God, we fill you here in this place today. God, we just thank you that you are here. God, we just thank you that with freedom, God, we can come boldly and worship you today, gathered as the church. God, I pray today as we continue and open up your Word and grow, God, that the words of God will just go deep into our hearts on soft, fertile ground. As this worship has opened our hearts and we're ready to receive, God, help us come to the table hungry today. God, hungry sons and daughters, ready for a fresh word from you, Jesus. Help us to realize today, God, that yes, you have no rival. You have no equal. Your name is above every name. And Jesus, God, we just thank you for who you are. God, we just lift your name up today. God, meet us here in these next few moments. And don't just meet us, change us, Jesus. May we be changed from the inside out. We just dedicate these moments to you. And we ask all this in the precious name of Jesus. And everybody said. Amen. Amen, whoo! You guys can go ahead and be seated.

I'm at the pace myself. I mean, it's the third gathering, so I mean, I was giving them all the other two. I'm like, I'm not gonna have a voice left. It's like some good stuff. It's amazing, you know, just certain songs. I, you know, ran into somebody. They were like, every time I hear this song, I wanna cry. And I'm like, it's because you remember when Jesus met you through that song. When you are going through something and you realize he's for me, he's with me. And I don't have to do this alone. Man, thank you so much for that amazing worship, so good. Well, good morning. What a way to start our day, right? This week we had love week. How fun was that? You guys went into the city and loved the socks off our community. So I wanna just say thank you, thank you, thank you. It's so fun watching people experience the love of Christ through tangible actions, from meals to bus washings to everything, anything and everything in between. I know we did some homeless outreach. It's just incredible to see people tear up when they feel the love of God. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Pastor Tim is gonna go over that a little bit more at the end of the gathering.

So I promise you'll hear more stats and more to come for love week. So we've been on a trip this summer, right? We're taking a family road trip. And so while we're taking family road trips, I want you to mark your calendars, mark a reminder. Tomorrow the YTH high school students are going on a road trip straight to camp. So pray for the student leaders. Fresh energy, fresh anointing, mind, body, soul, Jesus. Pray for Pastor Steve and Mel as they lead so well. And then pray most of all for our students to encounter Jesus. We want them to come back changed. We want them to have had a moment with him and never be the same when they remember their moment on the mountain. So mark your calendars. But pray for us as we travel too, because we'll be, Pastor Tim and I'll be driving up, we'll be on a road trip. Gotta get some snacks today so I can get ready for it. Well, on this road trip, we've been road tripping through the 10 commandments. So I'm gonna refresh our memory just in case. Pastor Tim, the first week said, he talked on thou shalt have no other God before me, right? And he said, God doesn't wanna be our number one, he wants to be our only one. No other gods before him, first commandment.

And then the second commandment we've been talking, we talked about Pastor Blake and Pastor Amanda, amazing job, right? So colorful. I'm like, thanks guys. I gotta come after that. I'm like, my gosh, you paint this beautiful picture. They talked about not having any graven images or an idol above God. And you can't make me, you can't make the maker. You can't create the creator. And that's what we learned about in commandment number two. And today, I get to talk to you about fun things. Don't take God's name in vain. Uh-oh, uh-oh. Believe it or not, I'm the one who chose this one. I just thought it's, you know, growing up, I learned different things and experiencing different things. And Tim asked me, he's like, which commandment would you like to talk on? I was like, I want to do this one. He's like, okay. So I brought a few friends to help me. So this is just a, today my job is to teach you guys how to not have potty mouths. I'm just kidding. I promise you my message is more than that. But I brought some friends along to help me and some of you can maybe remember this. If you grow, grew up in the, you know, deep South, you may have experienced what I have in my bag here. Okay. So many times growing up in the South, if you took God's name in vain, you may have

gotten a little of this. Okay. Is, can anybody testify for me this morning? Don't be lying up in church. Okay. And this is a good soap. Okay. This right here is clean soap and it's Clementine scented. Okay. That would have been a fresh breath, right? But some of us, some of you guys needed something a little more. You needed the dawn platinum plush plus because you needed Jesus help. Okay. And what's unfortunate about this is you probably still can taste this as I'm holding this up here this morning, some real, you know, remnants of the suds are still in your mouth. And you would think that we would have learned our lesson from the first time our mouths were washed out, right? But we did it again. I promise I'm not going to wash your mouths out with soap today. Parents, if you need to borrow these after church, they're up here, they're available. A small fee. You can use these. I'm just kidding. But today I want us to think about the name of God. What does it mean to not take God's name in vain? We're going to go straight to the scripture in Exodus 20 verse seven. I'm going to read it. You'll see it on the screen. I will tell you, I have a lot of verses today. So if you want to take notes, the fastest thing I found, maybe you're, you know, faster

than me writing notes. Many times I just take a picture and I take a picture. So that way when I go back home, I can think about it a little more and I'm not having to write. I can take a picture to remember it. So take pictures, I promise you, you'll want to take notes so you can remember all these things. But we're going to go right over here to Exodus 20 verse seven. And it says here in scripture, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him or her, ladies, we're not, we're still held accountable, guiltless of who takes his name in vain. And I want to read a couple more translations too, because it'll let you know the seriousness of this. In the NLT, you must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name. In the message, the more lighthearted one, right? No using the name of God, your God, in curses, silly banter. God won't put up with the irreverent use of his name. CEB, do not misuse my name. I am the Lord your God and I will punish anyone who misuses my name. And in the amplified, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. That is irreverently in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God. For the Lord will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes his name in vain, disregarding its reverence and its power. And I know you're like, whew, this is a lot to take in. We were laughing one minute ago, talking about, you know, washing our mouths out with soap and here we are. But I want you to feel the weight of this. God takes this very, very serious. And this isn't just a message for you guys not to say, OMG or GD, which you shouldn't

and you'll find out as we go later on into it. But what if there's more? What if there's more than just cleaning up this with Dondish soap? But our hearts being ready and to realize who Jesus truly is. In Scripture, names hold significant weight. There's a huge significance, you know? You read different people, they're like, they had this, you know, this was the sun out of my sorrow. I was in a deep depth of despair. And you're like, poor guy having to carry that name around the rest of his life. And then you're like, this one is, you know, dark forest. I mean, there were so many different names, whatever they were going through at the time, that's what their children were named for. So in Scripture, names hold significant weight. Name's always meant a huge significance. It's character of someone. And so the purpose of all this is in the Old Testament, God is gonna tell us the weight and the significance of why his name is so holy. We find in Leviticus 24, 16, anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be stoned to death. That's a lot worse than dawn dish soap, right? I mean, that's a whole nother level. Must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any native-born Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death. Now, at this moment, I'm like, thank you, Jesus, that we live in grace in the New, it's like the New Testament, right?

Jesus, I'm like, thank you, Jesus, that the law is done away with and we are living under grace, but I wanted you to feel the weight of what he's talked about in the law, the severity of when people took his name in vain, the depth of it. So we're gonna go back and we're gonna read Exodus 20, verse seven again. It says here, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. The Lord your God. It's very powerful, the Lord your God. Many times in scripture, you'll notice when you see that Lord is all capitalized, it's a huge significance, so pay attention. It means I am the Lord Almighty, and we see this here in Exodus. It says he is the great I am. He wants you to see who he is. He's telling you, I am the Lord your God, the great I am, the Almighty one. The Lord is a treasured name. He is the Lord Almighty. His name is to be kept holy and to be revered. His name is not to be handled as common or misused as common, but to be kept holy. And many times in our lives and as we go about our day

or we hear people just throwing out the name of God, throwing out this, oh man, I hit my toe. Oh, boom, Jesus, all these different things, his name is holy. And God says, do not take my name in vain. And what does it mean for take it in vain? So many times I think as a girl or as females, you can relate to this, but they're like, don't be so vain. So many times I want you to see what we're talking about with vanity or what God is saying, what does it mean? Like being vain or vanity, here it is. Vain is a Hebrew word, shav, meaning empty, worthless, meaningless, false, without its true purpose, a word of empty worship. So taking God's name and throwing it out in an empty, in a worthless way, void of its power. So it's more than us just not saying these, God, Jesus, what's in our heart? And as a believer, a Christ follower, do you realize the weight of the name that you carry? The image bearer that you are? His reputation of his character? When you speak of his name, we speak of his nature, his authority, his reputation, his character. When we use the name of God, are we taking that lightly? The disciples came to Jesus and they said, Jesus, teach us how to pray. So we find in Matthew, Matthew six, God tells us, I mean, this is the first thing he says

when the disciples ask him, how do we pray? He said this, you probably remember it. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That's the way most of us learned it, but I made it easy for you because we're like, who, what is hallowed? Like, what are we talking about here? So what it's saying is holy, holy is your name. That's what he is saying here. It says our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Are we keeping his name holy as a special treasure? We see here, and I love, I'm gonna go over some of the names of God. So many times we hear God, but we don't realize the character or the attributes or who he is, what he does for us, who he is to us. And I thought, how fun would it be this morning to go to reflect in some of the names of God? And these are some of my top favorite names of his, and I wanna share them with you this morning. I already told you. you about the Lord Yahweh, I am the Lord, but next we see Elohim. And we find this Elohim in Genesis 1.1, the very beginning of scripture, because he wants us to know he is in the beginning, right? In the beginning, God, Elohim, created by forming from nothing the heavens and the earth. Elohim was here at the very beginning. We find in Genesis 17.1, El Shaddai, when Abraham was 99 years old. Now when I'm 99, I definitely want Jesus to be come visiting me. I'm like, come walk with me, come talk with me, like tell me some good things, Jesus, right?

So Abraham is 99 years old. The Lord appeared to him and said, I am El Shaddai. God Almighty, serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. Don't you find it interesting, even at 99, he's telling him to still live a blameless life? So no matter what age we are, we still need to live a life that's holy. Still live a life that's blameless. Once we hit a certain age, we don't get a fast pass. Well, I've done my time, I was a good Christian, but now, hey, he is saying live a blameless life. He is El Shaddai, God Almighty. Next we find in Genesis 22.14, Jehovah Jireh. Now I want to like tell you real quick, if you go in, you're like, I don't see Jehovah anywhere in here. You're not going to find it. Jehovah is an English transliteration to represent Yahweh. So we speak of Jehovah, but we're also, we're translating into, we're speaking about Yahweh. So when you think of Jehovah, think of Yahweh. So in Genesis 22.14, Abraham named the place Yahweh Jireh, which means the Lord will provide. To this day, people still use that name as a proverb. On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided. Where do you need him to provide for you today? He is your provider. Do you need him to meet you maybe financially, a physical need, an emotional need, just to know that he's with you? He is. He is your provider. He is Jehovah Jireh. We find in Exodus 15.26, Jehovah Rapha. He said, if you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, there it is again,

the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you. He is a God that heals. He can heal you physically. He still heals today. He can heal you emotionally. He can heal you mentally. Where you need him to touch you, he is your healer. He is Jehovah Rapha. We find in Exodus 17.15, he is Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner. You're like, what does that mean? So excited. I love this. The Lord is my banner. Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh Nisi. It represents who you belong to and who your victory belongs to. It's not your victory, it's not my victory. It's his victory. All victory belongs to the Lord. And our banner, Jehovah Nisi, is we're letting people know who you belong to, who your victory belongs to. We find in Judges, Jehovah Shalom. Back in the spring, I had the opportunity to speak at a revival, and if you remember, I spoke in Judges about one of the judges, his name was Gideon. And remember, he was hiding. He was scared. He was hiding down, threshing wheat, and the Lord had to go find him. And remember, the Lord, as he came to him, says, oh mighty man of valor. The times I felt confident, I normally don't go hide, right?

It's letting us know the humanity, right? He felt fear, he felt anxiety, he felt like death was looming on him, and he was in a place of hiding and the Lord found him and called him out. He said, oh mighty man of valor, go in the strength that you have. You will conquer what I've called you to do. So that's the context. If you're in judges, it is all right, the Lord replied, maybe you need to sit in that moment today. Feel the anxiety, the weight of the bills, the weight of responsibility. I don't know if I can do this. You feel like the water is going to take you over. The Lord, Jehovah Shalom, says to you today, it's all right. It's all right. The Lord replied, do not be afraid. You will not die. In our minds many times, right? Worst case scenario. Gideon built an altar to the Lord right there and named it Yahweh Shalom, which means the Lord is peace. He can be your peace today. It's amazing when you're around people who don't know Jesus and they're like, how do you have so much peace when all of this is swirling around? Because he is our peace. That's when Jesus comes to us and says, it's all right. I will be your peace. Next we find in Genesis 16, 13, which I love. I'll have to set this story up for you as well. But this is El Roy. And this is about Hagar, the Lord who sees me. And to set the story up, remember God had come to Abraham and said, you will be the father of many, the father of many nations. And they're like, woo, let's go. Who doesn't want to be blessed? Let's do this. Well, the time came and kept coming and time passed and time passed and old age set in. And they're like, where's our son, Jesus? Where's our son? So Sarah came up with the plan. She's like, I am way too old to be having babies. So I'm going to come up with a plan. And how many, I can personally speak about this, know that when God has given us a plan and we take the reins back from him and create our own plan, it doesn't go very well, does it? But Sarah was like, I'll help you, God. I can do this. Trust me. I got you. So she takes Hagar, her handmaid, and gives him to Abraham and says, sleep with her and have a son. That way we can have a son and he can be, you can be the father of many nations. But that's not what God had told her to do. That's not what God had told them to do. So when Abraham did that, all of a sudden Ishmael was born and that created a problem. Sarah was jealous. Sarah saw Abraham giving Ishmael and Hagar all this attention. So she now had to fix the problem

that she had created. So she goes to Abraham and says, kick her out. Send her away. I'm done with her. You take care of the problem you created. Abraham's like, what? I know you guys can probably relate, right? You're like not saying a word, just looking down, looking down. She's like, fix the problem. So Abraham sends Hagar away. Here Hagar, she didn't ask for any of this. She didn't make any of these choices, but here she was a product of her circumstance and environment. She's cast away into the desert and the wilderness alone with the son. What is she to do? God meets her. God meets her right there. That is because he is Elroy. So she, Hagar, named the Lord who spoke to her. You are Elroy. She said, in this place, I have actually seen the one who sees me. Today, I want you to know that he sees you. Maybe you're in a circumstance out of your control. You didn't choose this and here you are and you feel so alone. Does God even see me? I'm alone over here. I feel like I'm the only one. God sees you today. That is who he is and he wants you to know that you are seen and he is for you. What I'd love to do, follow one in the story. God tells, the Lord tells Hagar, I will bless Ishmael. He will be a father as well. God blessed him even when it seemed impossible. Next, we come in Psalms 23.1. We hear this verse a lot, right? This is Jehovah-rah. The Lord is my shepherd, to feed, to guide, to shield me. I shall not want. He is your shepherd. He can guide you. you, he can feed you, he can shield you, you don't have to have want because he is your Jehovah-Rah. Next we come in Genesis 14, 18, El-Elyon, most high, supreme, the highest, and Melchizedek, the king of Salem and the priest of God, most high, brought Abraham some bread and wine, hallelujah. Melchizedek blessed Abraham with this blessing, blessed be Abraham by God most high, creator of the heaven and earth. He is El-Elyon, most high, supreme, and highest. Next we come to Revelation 1, 8, he is Alpha and Omega. And what's significant about that is in the Greek alphabet, Alpha is the first letter, Omega is the last letter. And what he's letting us know and what he's letting you know today, he is there before you, he is in your present circumstance, he is the one who sustained you, and he will be with you to the very end because he is Alpha and Omega.

Revelation 1, 8, I am the Alpha and the Omega, don't you love that? The Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end says the Lord God, I am the one who is always, who always was, and who is still to come, the almighty one. But I saved the best for last, my favorite. What's in a name? What's in a name? There's power in a name, and that name is Jesus. It's a name that is above all names. We find in Philippians 2, 9 through 11, therefore God elevated him to the place of the highest honor, gave him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare. So instead of taking his name in vain, we get to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is his name. Acts 4, 12 says there is no one else who has the power to save us, for there is only one name to whom God has given authority, by which we must experience salvation. That name is Jesus. Do you know him? And if you are a believer, you carry this. You carry this into the workplace. You carry this into your home. You carry this into your neighborhood. If God's name doesn't carry weight in your mouth, it won't carry authority in your life. Think about that. Are we taking God's name and just throwing it when we hurt our toe or we get bad news? Just flippantly throwing it around? Or do we realize the weight, the glory, the holiness of his name? If God's name doesn't carry weight in your mouth, it won't carry authority in your life. Jesus wants you to walk as a son and as a daughter in authority when you have Jesus inside of you.

And as a Christian, don't let the relationship you have with God, you calling yourself a Christian, cheapen the reverence that you have for him. Keep his name holy. Many times familiarity can threaten the respect and honor that when we hear his name, how well do you represent the name of Jesus? If your life was the only Bible someone was reading, would they experience the true character of God? What we talked about, all of those names, they're like, man, I feel peace. Man, he is a healer. I'm experiencing this because I'm around them. Do you carry the name of Jesus well? So we're going to go back to vain. These are a few ways that we take his name in vain. Empty, worthless, meaningless, without purpose. First of all, it's in our words. What we talked about, it's our words, it's our mouth, what we speak. Don't attach something negative to the name of God. As I was studying, I thought, it's so true. Anytime you say his name, normally it's attached to something negative. Something bad has happened and you say his name. It's not like I'm calling on his name. You're just saying his name and attaching it to something that is negative when he wants you to see how positive and how powerful that it is. And my kids and family can tell on me driving in the car or normally when I'm the passenger princess just sitting there and riding along. Tim is a good driver, I have to say this. He is a good driver but sometimes I get scared, okay? It's the other drivers that aren't good drivers, right?

They pull out in front of us and all of a sudden I'm like, shoot, hopefully that's what I say most of the time, 99% of the time. Shoot and the next words that come out of my mouth is Jesus and the kids always look at me like why are we shooting Jesus today, mom? I was like, well shoot is my scared word and Jesus is my, I need you Jesus right now because these drivers are crazy and I need you to protect me. But like, do you see the difference? Are we calling on the name of Jesus? Are we bearing his name well, filling the weight of it? Don't cheapen his name by attaching it to something negative. Attach his name to his character of who he is. Another way we can take his name in vain is our motives. Do we live with integrity, with having the character of Christ? Or do we tag his name onto our agenda? This is what I wanna do and yes God, God told me to do this. Maybe he did or did you just think it was a good idea? You didn't get in his word, you didn't pray about it, you didn't get good godly counsel but you're just like, I'm gonna tag God's name on it because then if it doesn't work out, it's his fault, not mine. Are you taking his name in vain or for granted? What about with your business? Putting a fish or calling yourself a Christian business? If you do that, which is amazing,

we saw, well you'll see the businesses that we've served that have put their name on as Christians and they're walking that out. But if you're calling yourself a Christian business, are you leading it with integrity? Are you bearing the name of Jesus well? Do people know that you are a Christian business without you saying that? Do they experience that? We experienced this when we went on a cruise in March, our kids had had big birthdays, so we're like, let's go on a big cruise. And so we went on this cruise, we had several families with us and so we get to Jamaica and I'm like, okay, a little shady, okay, but we're still gonna have fun and a good time. So we're like, let's all stay together, rent a bus, like a van, and then we'll drive through the city, we'll hire a tour bus. So we're, you know, they are like, here this, you know, fast talking, all this stuff. Well, we look up and see on this one bus and it says, to God be the glory. And we're like, we're going with that one. How bad could it be with the bus saying, to God be the glory? Next, we find ourselves in a back parking lot and I'm like, hold up.

This is not what we paid you for, you already have our cash. And why are we here? They're like, well, I'm not gonna be your van driver, but this guy is coming in here. The lies, the deception. So then his employee comes and he treats him like garbage. I felt bad for the guy. I was like, and so we're like, okay. And then as he leaves out the door, he's like, take care of my beep, beep, beep, beep friends. God bless you and out the door. And I'm like, I'm not sure what part of, to God be the glory is happening with any of this. We need to pray that we're not taken off in the bushes somewhere and we come back to America, right? But don't be like that. That's a funny story and it's a great illustration. We were all a little scared what was happening, but that is using his name in vain. That's not to God be the glory. If it wasn't us, somebody else would have experienced that. They would think that that's who God is. And that is not our God. Our God leads with integrity. He treats people with love. He treats people with respect. To be a man and woman of our word. Do you take his name in vain in your words, in your motives?

What about your life? How well do you represent the name of Jesus Christ? Do people see the character, the nature of God through your life? It says here in first Corinthians 10. In 31, whether you eat or drink, live your life in a way that glorifies and honors God. You can't represent God's name well if you live contrary to the character of God, the God whose name you carry as a believer. Keep his name holy. Don't take it in vain. Let people know the character, the true God that we serve, the power in his name, the provision in his name, the purpose of his name. That's the brevity of it. It's not just for us to go out here, and I hope you don't, just not to take his name in vain, but to live a life of integrity, to wear his name, to carry his name, and realize what an amazing God that we serve. Go ahead and close your eyes. I wanna have a little bit of time of reflection, a few questions for you. And I've already had these reflection questions. This week, or even like leading up to this, this last month, I've been dwelling on this and thinking about this, and there's several times when I've said God's name, and I would never say I take God's name in vain,

but all of a sudden, when I would say his name, God's like, is that for its true purpose? Are you really carrying my name well? And I had to do these self-reflection questions as well. So I'm not asking you to do anything that I have not personally done myself. First of all, I'd have you ask Jesus today. Just ask him privately, personally, right there. Draw a circle around yourself, not for anybody else, but just for you. Have I used my words to take God's name in vain? He'll show you. And maybe if it's even not right now in this moment, just like me, he took me on a journey, and when I was in a moment, Holy Spirit's like, uh-uh-uh. Do you need to do this? Are you taking my name in vain? Ask him, God, show me any area that I need to change. And one thing I know about him, he will. He wants you to be more in his likeness. Second, ask him, do I honor the name of Christ in my actions and in my lifestyle? Am I being an image-bearer for Jesus, the name above all names? Show me where I need to change. Show me so I can be made more in your likeness. And last, I'd have you ask, God, have you used your name in any way to manipulate, to get what I want or for selfish gain?

Have I been doing this subconsciously or consciously? Jesus, show me how I can change so I can truly honor your name and no longer take your name in vain. God, today, I pray with and over my brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be men and women of integrity who are pure representatives of who you are. Help us to show others this week and moving forward in the years to come. Let us honor your name in a whole new way. Honor your name in a whole new way. Let others see Christ in us and through us. May this week, others see a whole new side of Jesus than they've ever seen before. Jesus, continue to work in our hearts, move in our midst. And before I close and say amen, I just wanna share with you, maybe you've never given your life to Jesus. Maybe you've never trusted Him to be your Lord and Savior and ask Him to be a part of your life. That's the first step. You don't wanna miss the first step to be a Jesus follower. Have you asked Him to be Lord of your life? The Bible says in John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, put your name right in there, for God so loved Stephanie that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

There is a true literal hell and Jesus doesn't want you to go there. Jesus wants to spend eternity with you, but He also wants to help you. You live your life today so He can be with you here today and then spend an eternity together. He died on a cross for you. He was nailed to a cross to take your sin, to take your punishment, to take your shame. He took it all for you because He loves you so much. He shed His blood just for you. And when He died, after He died on the cross and they buried Him, I've got good news for you. He came back up out of that grave. No wonder they call Him the Savior because He is alive. We serve a risen Savior. Choose Him today. He wants to be a part of your life. Scripture says, for whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. It's what we call the sinner's prayer. It's us saying, God, I'm turning from sin and self and I'm turning to you. I need you to be a part of my life. I encourage you today, make that decision. Pray this prayer. We're gonna pray it together to help you, to encourage you if today's your day. We wanna celebrate with you. So church, we're gonna pray this prayer together

because people in here and online and around the world are giving their lives to Christ at this very moment. So let's pray this prayer together. Say, Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I need you. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and that God raised you from the dead. Today, I'm turning from sin and putting my faith in you. Jesus, I surrender my life to you. Forgive me, wash me clean and make me new. Jesus, I surrender my life to you. Be my Lord and Savior and the leader of my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and lead me all the days of my life. You can go ahead and look up here. If you prayed that prayer today for the first time or maybe you rededicated your life today, you're like, I saw who he was for the first time and I'm coming home. We wanna celebrate with you today. Let us celebrate. Church, we're gonna clap because we know heaven is throwing a party. If you're online or watching us, I want you to text Jesus to 833, the number on the screen, 406-9689. Let us celebrate with you and we wanna give you steps and tools to help you on your Jesus journey. Are you ready to celebrate, church? On the count of three, we're gonna celebrate

that somebody has just crossed the line of faith. On the count of three, are you ready? One, two, three. ♪ Whoo! ♪ ♪ Whoo! ♪ It's a brand new day and he has made you new. Let's go ahead and.