As we explore Jacob's night of transformation and his journey to becoming Israel, we're reminded of the power held in our names and identities. We reflect on the beauty of adoption, both earthly and spiritual, considering the new life, family, and inheritance promised us in Christ. This episode is a heartfelt embrace, encouraging each of us to cling to Jesus, surrender to His will, and celebrate each new member welcomed into the family of God. Join us for an uplifting message of new beginnings, continual prayer, and a reminder of the joy that comes from worshiping together.
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
As we explore Jacob's night of transformation and his journey to becoming Israel, we're reminded of the power held in our names and identities. We reflect on the beauty of adoption, both earthly and spiritual, considering the new life, family, and inheritance promised us in Christ. This episode is a heartfelt embrace, encouraging each of us to cling to Jesus, surrender to His will, and celebrate each new member welcomed into the family of God. Join us for an uplifting message of new beginnings, continual prayer, and a reminder of the joy that comes from worshiping together.
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
We are like family. I could watch Brian Capshaw miss that shot a million times. I just love. I love it. That is so good. My family just wants you to know how much we missed you last Sunday. We love our church family so much. We missed our church family so much. We love you, we love your family. God loves you, god loves your family. Why? Because family matters to God. Everybody say family matters. Thank you so much for your prayers for my family.
Speaker 1:Last week, cruz a week ago, this past Thursday a week ago, cruz went back to the ER. He loves to, he loves to get the crew right because he loves going to the ER. It's just, it's one of his favorite things. He misses the doctors, he misses the nurses and so so we took him back. Michelle took him back in the middle of the night, and so they come back home about 2 am and then about 4 30 in the morning. This was Friday a week ago. Brooklyn starts throwing up and so you know what it's called Michelle and I. We call it divide and get Conquered. So she's on cruise and and I'm on Brooklyn and we're just trying to get them both back to help.
Speaker 1:And then Sunday, I think I'm fine through the weekend and Sunday morning about 1 30, I've got the stomach bug and I was supposed to preach on how to be happy in singleness and in marriage last Sunday and and we'll put that on the blog I didn't get to preach it but we'll record it on the podcast. I mean, we'll put it on the podcast and, but it just got so bad in our house that Michelle texted me. I was, I kind of experienced little singleness in my marriage last Sunday Because I was banished to the basement for the stomach bug. And she texted me and she said when is this family matter series over? I don't know how much more our family can take, so so this is the next to last baby one week away. What could happen in a week? Don't say that ever. Okay, here we go, just kidding, just kidding.
Speaker 1:So I want to let you know one little bit of church family business here. At first, baptist powder Springs, we have created a new position on our staff. This position is over all of our greeters on Sunday morning, all of our welcoming on Wednesday night, helping people move throughout their next step, that assimilation process, and Helping with all of our meals and things like that for church-wide special events and we talked to Sherri Sutherland and she has accepted the position. So would you put your hands together? Just so thankful for all that the Lord has done and Sherri is coming back on staff and we're just so excited. We're very thankful and we're very thankful for Dennis McAllister, who was our welcome 360, our greeting and welcoming ministry, that he has been doing it as a volunteer for eight years. Y'all can we put our hands to just thank God for Dennis McAllister and what an amazing job that he has done. We are super thankful. Let me pray for us, heavenly father. We love you, god, you're so good and we give you all the praise, the honor and the glory. And, father, I ask, in Jesus name, lord, would you use your word this morning in our hearts, in our lives? God, would you do it? Only you can do and we pray these things in Jesus name.
Speaker 1:And all guys, people said have you ever tried something for your first time and you found out the first time you did it that you were good at it? That's only happened to me once, so when I was in college. When I was in college, we had some friend, a friend that came back and he brought back some boxing gloves from from like Christmas break, and he had two, two sets or two pairs of boxing gloves. It's why I put them on. Another friend of mine put them on and we just said, hey, we're gonna box. And so we just started Boxing playing around and and I just got lucky and did a little, just just a little jab or whatever and and laid him out and laid Him out. And so someone said, oh man, chip, that was lucky, let me put these boxing gloves on. True story, he put the boxing gloves on. We start boxing playing around and I lay him out. I'm thinking, man, I got some magic fists going on right here. Somebody else came, I boxed him, laid him out and people started getting in line and I just got on this on this streak right, and finally, after about four or five guys, um, they said, hey, chip, you should box Jason Schneider.
Speaker 1:Now Jason Schneider was my college roommate. Jason Schneider was about he's as big as his house, he's about six foot two, 250 plant pounds. He, he played a football in high school and he wrestled for our college. And I said I don't want to fight, jason cuz, I want to live, I don't want to die right, and and and Jason came walking through the door and they they tossed in the gloves and he put them on. And I can't back down, I'm sorry, I just can't do it.
Speaker 1:And so Jason comes over, the dorm is packed, it's just filled with all the guys, and I'm thinking this is a great way to go. And so so so me and Jason get toe-to-toe with each other and and I and I said Jason come here, and he leans in, and I said, hey, man, hey, let's just tap, okay, let's just go real light, let's just give him a show, let's not really fight. He's like, okay, you know, and and and so I'm like great. And so I lean back and I swing as hard as I can, I hit him in the face as hard as I can, right, because I wanted to Catch him off off guard by surprise. I lied I'm sorry, your pastor lied and so I hit him as hard as I could, and I'll never forget it, because I thought I was gonna die. Jason went, just like that. I'm thinking, oh, this is it, this is the end. And so Jason, big, oh boy, he winds up from downtown, takes a swing at me, but he's so slow I just watch it in slow motion right and and I lean back and he misses was and just keeps going because he's so big and it just exposed his face. So I just pop right on his face and and so I knocked him down as well. And so, and why did I do that? Why did I lie? Why did I deceive him? Because I didn't want to die. I just want to make that clear, the only because I didn't want to die. And and so the story that I want to tell you like, what is it? Have you a church?
Speaker 1:The story I want to tell you about this morning is the story in the Bible of a man by the name of Jacob. In In Jacob's name actually meant liar Deceiver, he would steal, he would trick people. In fact, his name was Jacob. Jacob is a weird, has a weird name. Meaning it actually means He'll grab her. Why? Because all of Jacob's life is characterized by wrestling. He's always trying to fight his way to the top. He's always trying to do it his own style. He wanted to be a Self-made man. He wanted to prove everybody wrong. If he had a life song, it'd be I did it my way. That was Jacob, and so he's always wrestling and fighting, trying to get everything that he Wanted in life. In fact, the Bible says is very strange. His life story is from Genesis 25 to Genesis 35, and it even says that when he was in the womb he was a twin and even he and his brother, esau, were wrestling in the womb, so much so that when his older brother, esau older by a minute when Esau is born first, the Bible actually says that Jacob had reached up and grabbed the heel of Esau as he was being born. That's weird, but it's the Bible. So it's true.
Speaker 1:Jacob's life is characterized by wrestling. He wrestled with his brother all throughout their childhood. He tricked and he deceived and he lied to steal his brother's blessing, to steal his brother's birthright. He lied to his own dad and deceived him. Jacob has to run for his life and he runs to who became his father-in-law. He runs to Laban and he even wrestles with Laban over his dream girl. Laban tricked him, tricked the trickster, and so Laban of course gives him his oldest daughter, leah. But Jacob was in love with Rachel and so Jacob had to work and serve for 14 years just to get Rachel. And then we know that even he was wrestling with Laban over getting his wives and getting his children and getting his possessions, just to be able to leave. And in this passage we find Jacob in this very strange dark night that we can't even fully explain, but it changed his life.
Speaker 1:Look with me at Genesis, chapter 32. Genesis 32 and the title of this message this morning is how to turn a life of wrestling into a life of blessing, how to turn a life of wrestling into a life of blessing. I want to give you hope that your life of wrestling can turn into a life of blessing. Here we go. Number one you can write this down, it'll be on the screen is everyone wrestles with God. Everyone wrestles with God. Can I ask you a question? How are you wrestling with God in your life right now? Because everyone either has wrestled with God, is wrestling with God or will wrestle with God. Why? Because there are some things we go through in life that we will just never understand and it could bring doubt in our life. When we're honest, when we're transparent, it can bring hard questions. God can even. At times it feels like that God is hurting us.
Speaker 1:It could be that, like Jacob, that you grew up in a godly family and Jacob's granddaddy, who is Abraham, was blessed personally blessed by God and his dad, isaac, personally blessed by God. And Jacob just wants to prove everybody wrong and he wants to show everybody that he can do it himself. In fact, here, at this point in his life, it looks like that he had. It says that he's basically coming back home, coming back near the land where Esau lives. It says here in verse 22 of Genesis 32. Genesis 32, verse 22, says the same night Jacob arose and he took his two wives, his two female servants, his 11 children and he crossed the Ford of the Jabbaq. That is a river that's like a stream, and he took and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had.
Speaker 1:It looks like in this life that Jacob was very Jacob was very successful. It looks like that he had made it. It looks like that he had did it. He's got 11 sons, he's got two wives, he's got all these possessions. It looks like that he is the self-made man that he had always sought to be.
Speaker 1:But when you look into the passage, you can almost see into his soul that even though, by the world standards, when Jacob had everything, he felt so empty. His life was full of broken relationships, he was estranged from his brother. He had run from home and not seen his dad and not seen his mother. His own father-in-law, that he was at odds with His own wives, were fighting one another about whom he loved most and who could give him the most sons. He had Jacob's whole life. Even though he had everything that everyone could want. The one thing he didn't have, hear me, was the blessing of God on his life. He didn't have the blessing of God. He didn't have the peace of God on his life.
Speaker 1:So on this night they are, his family is traveling on this trip and they are getting closer to the land of Esau, his brother, and it says that Jacob took his wives, his servants, his kids, all the possessions, and he sent them across the river. He sent them across the stream and he stayed on this side and they stayed on that side. And, to be honest, the Bible doesn't tell us why it could be. We would like to believe that Jacob is like look, esau wants to kill me because of what I did to him back in the day, and so I don't want him to mess with y'all. He's gonna have to go through me to get to you, so I'm gonna stay here and y'all go over there. But that's probably not the case. It's the case is probably, just looking at Jacob's character, the case is probably Esau is gonna see the crowd and Esau is gonna go to the crowd, so then that Jacob can run for it. That's probably the type of self preservation, self preserving coward that Jacob is we see here.
Speaker 1:In verse 24, it says and Jacob was left alone. Hear me, we don't like being alone, we don't like quiet. We like for music to be playing, we like for the TV to be on, we like for people to be around us. Why don't we like to be quiet? Because when we get alone, when we get quiet, then God starts to deal with our very souls. God starts to speak through the silence. God starts to speak even through the darkness. And that's what's happening with Jacob here. He says a man wrestled with him from the night all the way into the breaking of day. They wrestled all night long.
Speaker 1:We know later on in this passage that this is not just any man. The Bible just says at first that it was a man. There's a very specific reason for that and maybe it wasn't much of a surprise to Jacob because he was expecting Esau to come and take him on, or back in that day. They don't have the incredible police department like we have here in our day, and so they don't have all of the protection that we have that we appreciate so much. And so maybe back in that day that at any time anybody could come and attack wherever you are.
Speaker 1:But it looks like here in this passage it says, a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day, and we know in this passage, hear me, that as Jacob had been wrestling all throughout his life, this was the moment of his life that God came, hear me, and God came and wrestled with him. One of the greatest blessings that could ever happen in your life is that God comes and he wrestles with you, that God comes and he wrestles with you. Let me show you why. Look at verse 25. It says when the man speaking of God I'll explain that when the man saw that he did not prevail it's fascinating when God saw that he was not winning the wrestling match. How is that possible? We'll explain. It says that he, god, touched his Jacob's hip socket and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Speaker 1:Hear me, there are times in our life when God has to weaken us to get us to submit and surrender to him so that he can bless us. It's a hard truth to swallow. There are times in our life that God has to weaken us, to get us to submit and to surrender to him so that he can bless you. That happened in my life four years ago, completely unexpected. Our little girl, brooklyn, just turned five this past Thursday. About four around four years ago is when we received her diagnosis on cerebral palsy.
Speaker 1:Up until that point, I'm just telling you that God had not broken me. He broke me. There is something that I learned that I needed so deeply about being humbled by God so that I could submit to God, so that I could surrender to God. God needed to put something in my life that I could not fix, something in my life that I could not solve, something in my life that I could not have an answer to that. It is in the breaking that God makes. Listen to me. It's in your breaking that God makes you closer to him. When God breaks us, the purpose is not to hurt us. When God breaks us, the purpose is he wants to draw us closer. He wants to show us how dependent we truly are upon him, because we, our sin, loves to live independence in and of ourselves.
Speaker 1:So my question for you this morning is how are you wrestling with God? What has happened in your life to where it has left you with doubt? It's left you with hurt. It's left you with hard questions. It's left you, maybe holding God at an arms distance, or maybe you and God are just not as close as you used to be. You're not in the Word of God like you used to be, you're not in prayer like you used to be, and I've seen it a million times and you can go through life and nobody even know about it because you don't tell anybody. One of the best things you can do for your life is being vulnerable, is being transparent, is being real with other people, and that's why we do groups here, because we just simply want you to know that you're not crazy, or you're not the only one that's crazy. We're all crazy, that we don't want you to feel alone, that we all struggle, we don't all have the answers, we all don't know why that God does what he does, except for the fact that he just simply wants us to submit and surrender so that he can bless us. So I want you to know you're not alone. Everybody wrestles with God. But number two, you ready? Turn your wrestling into clinging. Everybody say cling, turn your wrestling into clinging. That's what we see here in this passage.
Speaker 1:It's fascinating, verse 26,. It says then God said let me go, let me go. You can tell like Jacob is holding on to him. It's like when, when Brooklyn and I wrestle and our wrestling matches turn into tickling matches, right, and so we start to wrestle, and then I just start tickling her and then she starts laughing. And then somehow, when she starts laughing, she has this high-pitched, blood curdling scream. You know like all the neighbor's lights come on, the dogs start barking, the cats start me out and the cows start mooing. You know what I'm talking about. And so she just starts screaming and she's laughing. And she's just she's laughing. So our dad stop, stop, I can't take it anymore.
Speaker 1:God looks at Jacob and God tells Jacob let me go. Why? Because Jacob has transitioned from wrestling hear me to clinging. Jacob has wrapped his arms around the man. He's wrapped his arms around God. It says the day had broke and Jacob said God, I will not let you go until you bless me, I will not let you go until you bless me.
Speaker 1:We don't know what happened, that Jacob realized that this was God, that this wasn't just some man that came to him in the dark of night. This wasn't just Esau that came to try to get things or make things. Even this wasn't some intruder, but this was God himself. And how do we explain that? The only way I can explain it is this if you're wrestling with God, you know you are. When you wrestle with God, you know you're wrestling with him verse 27.
Speaker 1:And he said to him God said to Jacob what is your name? Don't you love it when God gets on our level and plays dumb with us? I love it when God plays dumb with me. I love it when God plays dumb with people in the Bible. Why does God play dumb with us? Like he doesn't know? Because we're dumb. That's why he plays dumb with us. He asks us questions. We see in the scripture that he already knows the answer to God said to Jacob what is your name? And he said Jacob said to him my name is Jacob, remember. Jacob means hill grabber. Jacob means liar. Jacob means deceiver, means trickster. Back then, your name it was. It was your reputation. Somehow, some way, people would live out their name. God changed Abrams name to Abraham, that he would be a father of a multitude of nations. God told him the name Abraham, son Isaac, the name which meant laughter, jacob, trickster, liar, deceiver, hill grabber. And God said your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but your name shall be Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and you have prevailed. In other words, the name Israel means you've wrestled with God and you won. You wrestled with God and you won.
Speaker 1:I love those adoption stories. Brooklyn's adopted. We adopted her out of the delivery room, so we just got to straight up name her Brooklyn Rose Dean. Right there in the delivery room. It went on her birth certificate day one. But I love those adoption stories where a child is adopted later in life and their last name changes man. I love those stories because when that last name changes hear me their identity just changed. When their last name changes, their family changes. When their last name changes, their inheritance changes, their future changes, everything about them changes why? Because what is true of the family becomes true about them.
Speaker 1:It is a beautiful picture of the gospel because that's exactly what God did with Jacob and that's exactly what God has done with you. We honestly can't explain it. But Revelation 2, verse 17 says that we are given a new name by God, which means when God gives you a new name at your salvation and I believe that this was Jacob's salvation, when you got saved the Bible says that God gave you a new name, which means he gave you a new identity, which means he gave you a new heritage, which means he gave you a new family, which means he gave you a new inheritance, which means he gave you a new hope, which means he gave you a new future. He gave you a new eternity. He gave you a new purpose, a new way to live. Can I get it? Amen? Why? Because you are a new creation.
Speaker 1:2 Corinthians 5, 17 says that you are a new creation in Christ, and Philippians 3, 16 says so live up to what you've attained. So how do you turn? If I were you, I'd be asking this question. So how do I go from a life of wrestling God to a life of clinging to God? The answer is surrendering. And how do we live a daily life of surrendering? You ready for this?
Speaker 1:The Bible calls it abiding. Abiding means to keep the life of the living. Abiding means to keep, to continue, to stay, to cling, jesus said. In John 15, verse four Jesus said abide in me and I abide in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Jesus said I'm the vine. He said you're the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for a part, for me, you can do nothing. Verse eight by this my father has glorified. Jesus said that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples.
Speaker 1:Here's what Jesus says when you get saved, you just hold on to me and you never let go of me all throughout your salvation. Why? Because I want to bless you. And he doesn't just want to bless you salvation, he wants to bless you all throughout your life. But what does blessing, what does God's blessing on your life require? Constant surrender, constant surrender. If number one is everybody wrestles with God, number two is we go from wrestling to clinging. Number three is this here we go and we're done. My last point Never stop clinging to Jesus for your blessing.
Speaker 1:Do you know why we talk about blessing so much through this series in Genesis. Here's why because Genesis uses the word bless, or blessing, more so than any other book of the Bible. It's actually the theme of the entire book. That's why he says in Genesis, chapter 28,. It's a prayer I've been praying all since January. God said and I will bless you and I will make you fruitful and I will increase you and I will multiply you so that you may fill the earth. That's what God wants to do in your life and in your family, but his blessing requires your surrendering. Look at verse 29,.
Speaker 1:Then Jacob asked God, please tell me your name. And God said why is it that you ask me my name? And there he blessed him. Isn't it interesting? It's just fascinating to me that God could have been like hey, by the way, my name is God. It's nice to meet you. I already know you're Jacob. I'm gonna blow my cover. This has been a plan all throughout eternity past and I already knew this was coming. But surprise, here I am. But God didn't do that. God said I'm not gonna give you my name. Why? Because I think most specifically hear me plot twist this is Jesus. I believe this is Jesus who came to wrestle Jacob.
Speaker 1:I believe this is what the Bible calls a Christophany, which is an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament, or, in other words, other people would call it a, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. What is pre-incarnate? Prior to his incarnation, prior to his birth, when God would come on the scene and he did many times throughout the Old Testament in appearance of a man. I believe every time that happened, that was Jesus. Why? Because God's plan for the fullness of time is that Jesus would come fully God, fully man, and he would live in our place. He would live on our behalf and he would go to the cross and he would be able to die for our sin so that he could raise from the dead. That Jesus is God's plan A for all of humanity. Put your hands together if you believe that about Jesus. We believe that. That's why Easter is coming and we wanna celebrate and invite as many people as possible. Why didn't he tell him his name? Because God wanted to make his name a mystery until Jesus' birth. That's when God revealed the name.
Speaker 1:Why do we like to hold on to our baby's names before or just before our baby is born? Because there's a bunch of baby name stealers out there. That's why People love to steal baby names. What's wrong with you, my goodness? And so that's, to be honest, like we were holding on to our baby girl's name. That's gonna be born in May, but I just wanna thank all the ladies that threw my wife an amazing shower about a week ago. I just wanna thank you so much. You all spoiled her, you all blessed us. We just can't thank you enough from the bottom of our hearts. And at that shower we kinda revealed that our baby's name will be Eliana Joy. Eliana means the Lord has answered. Joy is just what God has done in our hearts. Look at verse 30. Verse 30 says so God, I'm sorry. So Jacob, we're almost done.
Speaker 1:Jacob called the name of the place Penile, saying for I have seen God face to face and yet my life has been delivered. There's gonna come a day in your life. The Bible says in 1st John, chapter three, verse two, that you are gonna be able to see Jesus face to face when you go to heaven, when you die, when you enter into eternity. And here's what it says that we shall see him as he is and we will become like him. There's a day that all of your wrestling is gonna make sense. There's a day that all this difficulty in life that you're going through, you're gonna get the reason. We don't know it in this life, because it requires faith, because it requires trust. But there's a day that's coming that God is going to show us that it all makes sense and it is gonna be that moment when we see Jesus face to face, in eye to eye. That's why he says in 2nd Corinthians four, verse six for God, who said let light shine out of darkness. He has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. One of the greatest blessings of your life is that Jesus would come and wrestle with you so that you submit to Him, so that you surrender to Him. Can I just remind you that Jesus hasn't just wrestled with you, but before he did, he wrestled for you.
Speaker 1:The Bible says that Jesus wrestled against the evil one, the enemy, satan himself, taking on every human temptation and resisting on your behalf so that he could be your sacrifice. The Bible says that Jesus wrestled against all of His haters throughout His life. His own people, the Jews, were against Him. The Roman Empire was against Him. There were times His disciples didn't even believe Him. If you think it's hard living your life for Him, can you imagine how hard His life was living for you?
Speaker 1:The Bible says that Jesus wrestled in prayer the night before that he went to the cross. Luke 22 said that he prayed so fervently that this cup would pass from Him, but yet that God's will would be done, that he would receive, he would accept the mission that he had to go through with the crucifixion. The Bible says that he was in such mental, emotional anguish that he literally sweat drops of blood, which doctors tell us is possible under immense, rare times of stress. We know that Jesus wrestled against our sin, my sin, your sin, while wrestling for His own life just to breathe on the cross. And we also know that Jesus' wrestling was rewarded with resurrection, that he had to go through all the wrestling to get to the resurrection, to get the ultimate blessing. And that is exactly where our lives are headed as well, for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So I just want to encourage you. Your wrestling is worth it, your wrestling is going to be rewarded with resurrection, with blessing, with eternal life. All that you go through in your life, in this society, in this climate, in our country, in our world, that is not popular to follow Jesus. All this wrestling is going to result in reward. Cling to Jesus.
Speaker 1:How do you turn a life of wrestling into blessing? You stop wrestling God. You start clinging to God by surrendering to God for the blessing of God. That's what he's calling you to do. Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.
Speaker 1:With every head bowed and every eye closed, what's your deepest hurt in life? What's your greatest fear? What's your greatest fear? What's your greatest fear? What's your greatest fear? What's your greatest fear? What's your greatest fear? What's your hardest question? What is the doubt that you struggle with the most?
Speaker 1:I want to encourage you to surrender it over to God. There are things in my life, there are things in my family that I don't have a choice. There's no option. I just have to surrender it over to Him, because I don't know and I can't fix it, and he knows the purpose and I just need Him to bless it. Whatever that looks like, whatever that is, he knows best. I just need Him to bless it. You just need Him to bless it. And maybe you're here this morning that you've never fully, for real, given your life over to God Through Jesus, on His terms, and I can't do that for you. If I could, I would, but I can't, but I can't. But I can help you. I can't save you, but I can help you.
Speaker 1:If you need to give your life over to God, this morning, through Jesus, you can just pray a prayer like this. You can just say oh God, I believe in you and God, I need you. I don't want to wrestle with you anymore. God, I submit, I surrender. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and so I ask you to forgive me of all my sin. I turn for my sin. You can tell Him in your own words, in your own heart God, I turn away from my sin and I turn and I give my life to Jesus. You can tell Him I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, he's alive, he's real, and you can call on Jesus right now and you can say Jesus, be the Lord of my life, be my Lord, be my master, be my savior. Because the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Speaker 1:God, I just pray right here right now, in this moment, that for anyone unsaved, that they would have just given their life to you, surrendered their life to you and experienced real, true salvation and blessing in you alone. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And all guys, people said would you put your hands together this morning for anyone who just gave their life to Jesus? The Bible says that heaven rejoices every time a sinner repents, and we rejoice with you too, if that was you. We just want to say welcome to the family, welcome to the family. We love you and it is so good to have you as one of us in the kingdom of God. There's a next step card in front of you. You can just indicate on the card that I've received Jesus, I've given my life to Jesus today. You can bring it up to me after the service. Better yet, you can take it to the next step center after the service, because I'm leaving. Actually, I'm going to.
Speaker 1:I preach tonight in Kentucky, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow night. So pray for me and you can take it to our next step center or one of our pastors back here, anybody on stage, because we just want to walk alongside you in your life with Jesus. It's going to ask us all to stand right now. We're going to sing to him because he deserves our worship. We're going to lift our voices because he deserves our praise. Heavenly Father, we just pray that this time of worship, right now, god would be unto you, would bring glory to you. God, may we not try to make our own lives, but may we surrender to you to experience your blessing. We love you in Jesus' name. In all God's people said