(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We're honored you're with us today as we continue our teaching series, we have titled "Who is Jesus."

And today we're going to be talking a little bit about having a personal relationship with God that comes through Christ Jesus.

Having a personal relationship and each and every one of us have the opportunity to have a personal relationship with our Creator whenever we embrace who Jesus is and what he's called us to do.

And so we want to talk in that vein a little bit today about how to have that personal relationship with God.

Now, how many of you know that relationships come with responsibility?

Relationships come with responsibility.

In other words, I can be in a relationship just to get, but if I'm responsible with the relationship, I can also give in that relationship and together that relationship can grow and great and mighty things can come out of that relationship.

But we're called in a relationship oftentimes to work together in order to accomplish greater things.

And we all have responsibilities when it comes to relationship.

If you don't believe me, ask my wife, Kim, right over here on the front row.

I have responsibilities in my relationship and she lets me know when I'm not fulfilling those responsibilities.

And I think that's a great thing.

Well, I want you to know today that you, you have a responsibility in the relationship that God calls you into through Christ Jesus.

But you have to be willing to work the relationship and work the responsibility in order to see what God wants to do in you, something amazing, and he wants to do through you.

But we have to all embrace our responsibilities in the relationship.

And we're going to talk a little bit about that today out of a passage of scripture that Jesus spoke from in John chapter 15.

So if you brought your Bible with you today, I invite you to open it up to John 15 in the New Testament.

You can open it up on your phone app or however you read along with God's word.

It'll also come up on the screens as we read along.

But we're going to learn some incredible things about the relationship that God calls us into with him through John chapter 15.

This is towards the end of Jesus's life.

He is preparing his students, his disciples, for his leaving the planet.

In other words, he was going to go to a cross, he was going to be crucified, he was going to resurrect from the grave, and then he was going to ascend into heaven.

We live on the other side of all that.

But this is right before that event began to happen.

And so Jesus is preparing those disciples how to navigate the relationship that they can have with God.

And he speaks this story in John chapter 15.

But before we get there, he was talking to them about the way back to God.

And he is speaking of himself and he says in John chapter 14, verse six, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Pay close attention.

He says, no one, it don't matter what people group you're from, no one comes to the father, he says, except through me.

So Jesus is basically teaching his disciples in this one statement, that he and God are one.

He is in God and God is in him.

He is God in the flesh and they are one and in them together, he can begin to do great and mighty things in and through our life.

And in this moment, Jesus moves to this metaphor of a vine and begins to describe himself in that relationship.

And so this metaphor is more about how Jesus relationally connects us to God, so that, everybody say so that, so that we can produce great things with our life.

And he uses this metaphor of a vine and branches and fruit.

And I want to read through it.

And then we're going to talk through it just a few minutes today.

John chapter 15, verses one through eight, Jesus says this, he says, I am the true grapevine.

The people of Israel, the people he would have been talking to at this particular time were called a grapevine of God.

But now Jesus makes an announcement.

He says, I'm truly the, the real grapevine, the real connection to God.

He says, and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that they will, what, produce even more.

You have already been pruned and purified by the message I've given you, speaking to those first followers.

He says, now remain in me, and I will remain in you.

He says, for a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

And then in verse five, he continues to reiterate the metaphor.

He says, yes, I am the vine, and you are the branches.

Those who remain in me, everybody say remain.

He says, those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.

He goes on to say, anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.

Such branches are gathered and piled, they are piled to be burned.

And then in verse seven, he says, but if, everybody say if.

He says, if you remain in me and my words in you, you may ask anything you want, and it will be granted.

He says, when you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.

And this brings great glory to my father.

And so here Jesus basically, again, uses an analogy, a metaphor, calling himself a vine to connect human beings in the relationship to their creator.

And he says, I'm the vine and you are the branches.

And whenever you connect to the creator in relationship, your job is to produce fruit and to produce much of fruit.

And so, again, we're going to dive into this a little bit today, because I really believe that most people want to have an abundant life.

They want to have a successful life.

They want to have a life full of blessing.

And in this passage, the Bible says that, you know what, if you remain in Jesus, that you can ask anything in the name of the father and God will give it to you.

But the key is, is to remain.

Because he says, if you remain, then you can ask.

And if you ask, the father will give you whatever you ask for.

But the key word there is if.

That's a conditional clause.

In other words, he says that, you know what, there is a condition to your asking for whatever you need in order to produce and do great things in life.

Salvation is a free gift from God.

For anyone who would dare believe in the name of Jesus and why he came to earth and what he came to do in human beings life.

The Bible says that God freely gave his son for the forgiveness of humanity's sin on a cross.

So whoever believes in him shall not perish, shall not waste away, but have forgiveness of their sin and have eternal life.

In other words, when we put our belief, our trust in who Jesus is as the source of the relationship, God begins to go to work and do great and mighty things.

And so what we have to first understand when Jesus says he is divine, we have to understand that he is the source of the relationship, not only the source of salvation, but the source of relationship.

And what I think may happen in our Western culture and in the mindsets of people today, is they're only thinking of Jesus as a source of salvation to get to heaven one day for the forgiveness of their sin.

And they're missing so much about what God wants to do in their life and through their life, because they're only trusting him for the forgiveness of their sin, but he came for way much more.

Come on.

And if you've only trusted him for the forgiveness of your sin, you're a miserable person.

Because you're not producing the fruit that God brought you in connection with himself through Christ Jesus to produce.

And the fruit in this particular passage is to bring great joy to our life.

And the source here is Jesus.

Look back at the passage, John 15 verses five and six.

He said, yes, I am the vine.

You are the branches.

Those who remain in me and I am them will produce much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing.

He's speaking relationship here.

He says, anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch that withers.

In other words, Jesus is not, he is, if he's not your connection to God, what you produce is not from God.

What and who is the source of your life to God?

Jesus did not only come to perform a transaction, he came to reform our thinking.

Don't miss what I just said.

Jesus didn't come to just perform and pay a debt on a cross, perform a transaction so you could be forgiven and go to heaven one day.

Yes, he did that.

He performed a transaction.

He paid a debt that you couldn't pay.

I couldn't pay.

You can't work the debt off.

You can't earn salvation.

You can't do any of that sort of stuff.

Jesus came to pay that debt for humanity on a cross.

He defeated death.

He rose from the grave so you and I could enter into a relationship with our heavenly father.

But he came for so much more than that.

He didn't just come to perform a transaction.

He came to reform your thinking.

And when Jesus is speaking in this passage, it's all about reforming the way the disciples saw themselves in this earth.

The way these first students saw themselves in this earth.

The whole reason he came is so they could produce and do great and mighty things.

The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 6 verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wages of sin is death, but the free gift.

And if you've never trusted Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life to the father, as the free gift offered from the Father, guess what?

That's where the relationship begins.

But you have to receive that gift by faith.

Some of us are trying to do good things to get in the right relationship with God, and you don't get in right relationship with God by good things.

You get in right relationship with God by trusting Jesus as the source of your salvation.

It's a free gift.

Everybody say free.

Look at your neighbor and say, you ever got anything free?

You probably have, but it cost somebody something.

And the Bible says that the free gift offered to you and me cost Jesus his life on a cross.

Because you and I, we couldn't pay the debt for any human being, not even ourself.

That we owe back to God for falling into a lifestyle of sin.

God came and did that on a cross.

And the Bible says in John chapter 3 verse 17, it says, God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him, through Jesus.

In other words, God didn't come with a pointed finger.

He came through Jesus with open arms to invite anyone, no matter who you are, what background you come from, how much you did or didn't do, to invite anyone into a right relationship with God.

He came into the world to save the world, not to judge the world.

But understand Jesus the Son did not come so we could keep on living in sin, but as an escape route from sin.

In other words, he came to forgive you of your sin, not so you could just walk out of here today and go back to doing whatever the hell you want to do, let's call it.

Okay?

No, no, no.

He came to forgive you of your sin so you could step away from that and have an escape route from sin and become all God designed you to be.

He didn't die on a cross so we could keep on going down the wrong path.

He died on a cross to get us back in right relationship.

And then as we remain in that relationship, God begins to feed us in our life so that we can begin to do amazing things with our life.

So again, this is more of a story, not about salvation, but it's a story about relationship.

Jesus is the source of our salvation, but he is also the one who gives the relationship substance.

And whenever our relationship with God has substance, then we can take on our responsibility and begin to see amazing things produced out of our life.

God's desire is not to just save us from our sin.

God's desire is to restore us in relationship and then turn us into success stories that produce fruit in this world.

And so God's desire is to turn you and I into success stories.

In other words, to bring us out of a lifestyle of sin.

We get in that relationship, we remain in that relationship, and when we remain in that relationship, we begin to produce great and mighty things with our life.

And so God's primary purpose isn't just to save you, it's to save you and help you step into the relationship.

Jesus is the source.

But now let's move to the relationship and the relationship has to have maintenance.

You know, nobody likes maintenance.

I know because we built this new building a year ago, and most people don't like the maintenance side of the building, the upkeep of the building, the things you have to do.

It's grind work.

Come on somebody.

Most people don't like to keep the yard up.

Most people don't like to mow grass because it's work at mowing grass.

But can I tell you something?

Maintenance in anything really determines the longevity of what it's all about.

And I'm here to tell you, God has a relationship with you, but your responsibility is to maintain that relationship, do the work in that relationship by faith, and watch God do great and mighty things.

And so we have to, we have to maintenance.

Look what Jesus said again in John 15 verse 7.

He says, if you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will, it will be granted, if.

He's speaking of relationship, he's not speaking of your salvation.

He's saying, you know what, you want a strong and productive relationship?

Remain.

As the branch, remain.

God calls us as branches to connect to the vine and remain.

To stay put, and remaining or maintenance has to be intentional.

In other words, you have to pay attention to the maintenance of your life with God in the relationship.

It's a free gift, salvation is a free gift, but if you really want to produce great and mighty things with your life, you have to be intentional about maintaining the relationship because there is things coming along over and over again in your life that will challenge that relationship over and over again that wants to steal that relationship, that wants to destroy that relationship, that wants to break that relationship, and you and I have to be intentional about maintaining the relationship.

The way God's Word says it, the way God's Word says it is God prunes the things out of our life that don't belong there in the relationship so that we can produce more fruit and do great and mighty things, and so we have to be intentional with our relationship with God, and God prunes the things out of our life that are unnecessary, that is not building that relationship into a success story.

Remember, God saves you so that He can work in you and work through you and produce great and mighty things out of you, but you have to be intentional in the relationship.

Things, stuff, people, happenings, things are always pulling on this relationship, and I have to be intentional in the relationship, and I have to be intentional daily.

I'm talking about me, because every day I wake up, something is pulling on the life that God called me to live, and something wants to begin to pull me away from that, and I have to make a conscious decision, no, I'm remaining.

I like to say it this way, I'm going to stay under the spout where the glory of God comes out.

Come on, somebody.

I'm going to stay connected to the vine.

And sometimes I have to say no to some things.

Just because somebody calls you on the phone don't mean you got to say yes and go to that party.

Just because, you know what, there's demands on your life.

You need to have three jobs, more money, you got to have more stuff, you got to have more, more, more.

No, no, no, listen to me.

Your most important priority is a relationship with God, because when that, listen, when that relationship is in right order everything begins to flow and amazing things begin to happen in your life.

Some of us need to prune some people out of our phone.

And again, I'm not saying that in a negative way, but the reality of it is we're putting this world to change the world.

But if the world is changing you and you're not being an influence, drawing people out, out of negativity, then maybe you need to for a moment delete them from your phone so you can feed them and begin to do amazing, amazing things with your life.

And I'm not telling anybody in this room to go and divorce your husband or your wife.

I'm not saying that at all.

So don't take it out of context.

But I know that every relationship in life ain't for me and what God wants to do in me and through me.

And I have to learn to discern.

Am I going to do this today?

Is this going to bring glory to God?

Is this really going to matter to the kingdom?

I have to learn to discern what's important and what's not important.

Listen to how Jesus put it in Matthew 6 verse 33.

He says, don't worry about things saying, what will we eat?

What will we drink?

And what will we wear?

He says, these things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

But your heavenly father already knows all your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and he will give you, look what it says, everything you need.

But if we don't prune things out of our life that continue to worry us, that we have no control over.

Other words, sometimes, you know what, that's what happens.

That's what worry is.

I'm trying to control the outcome of a situation.

Sometimes I don't have any control over, and I'm worrying myself to death about something that don't matter.

And the reality of it is, I need to prune that stuff out of my life.

I have to be intentional about it.

I have to think about it.

What's stealing my time with God?

Am I truly reading His word?

Or am I watching too much Netflix?

Because in reality, Netflix, some of you want to go binge for 24 hours on Netflix, and that's what's assuming and consuming your time and your mind and your energy.

And God says, hey, why don't you print nothing wrong with Netflix?

Go watch a little bit of it.

I don't care.

But the reality of it is this.

If it's stealing your relationship with God, maybe you need to sever it for a while and let God speak in you and speak through you.

Be intentional.

Hit the stop button.

That's a decision you make.

What's consuming your time?

Because the reality of it is we've all been gifted with the same amount. 24 seven.

Every one of us.

And I choose.

There's demands on my life, but I choose to put God first in all circumstances and situations.

And when I choose to put God first, he tends to line everything up that is necessary in order to do great and mighty things, which leads me to the next part about maintaining the relationship.

I have to be consistent.

I can't be on for one minute and off the next minute.

Spiritual disciplines aren't about being religious, so God likes me more.

Spiritual disciplines are things I put in place to discipline myself in order to develop the relationship in such a way that I can nurture from the vine and begin to have God do great and mighty things in my life and through my life.

We have to stay consistent.

And again, I'm not talking about working for your salvation.

I'm talking about working because of your salvation, being consistent in the relationship, developing in the relationship, staying strong in the relationship.

But I think some of us see God as with this big pie and says, here's this free gift.

Do whatever you want to do.

No, here's this free gift.

Eat it all.

But when you eat it all, begin to understand.

I want to develop.

I want to nurture your soul.

I want to nurture your spirit, and I want to do great and mighty things in you, and I want to work through you.

Come on, somebody.

And I got to be consistent.

Can you imagine if I just show up every now and then?

Hey, Kim, I want to be married this week.

But for the next three months, I just don't want to be married.

That's not consistency.

And the reality of it is, it's the reason some of us are not producing great and mighty things and seeing God do these miraculous things in our life and through our life.

It's because we're hot and then we're cold.

And the Bible says that when you're hot and you're cold, that's called lukewarmness.

And God don't want a lukewarm relationship.

The Bible says He spits you out of His mouth whenever you are lukewarm.

And I ain't saying everybody in here's got to go charismatic.

It's not what I'm saying at all.

I'm saying everybody in here needs to develop their relationship with God by having consistent time with Him, consistently maintaining the relationship, consistently reading the Word, consistently praying to God, consistently asking God, consistently taking a part of what God's doing in the earth, consistently making yourself available to God over and over again.

I have demands on my...

I lead a church.

I have demands on my life just like you have demands on my life, but the demand on my life will not... my wife will not supersede my relationship with God.

There is nothing in my life more significant than my relationship with God.

It is first and foremost.

It don't mean that I sit around like a monk for 24 hours a day talking to God, but what it does mean is I enter into that and I remain.

What's the most significant thing in your life?

Is it Jesus and the life He came to offer you?

Some of us are digging and crawling and scratching for meaningless things, and we wonder why it ain't working, and it's because we need to be intentional with relationship.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted.

The relationship takes maintenance.

And then lastly, I close with this because Jesus is telling this metaphor, and He's not talking about salvation.

He's talking about staying connected so you can be in right relationship with God and God can work in you and work through you, which leads me to the last point, is the disciples are the branches, but it says that the disciples are to do something, produce fruit.

That's the mission.

Everybody needs a mission, a purpose, an assignment, whatever you want to call it.

And the Bible says God has given us a clear assignment for our life, and it's simply to produce fruit and not just a little bit of it, much fruit.

He says when you remain in the relationship that the Father will prune the vine, he doesn't take you away from the vine, but when you maintain that relationship, you're consistent, you're intentional about getting the things out, and that relationship, then God comes in, he produces fruit.

That's the mission of your life, for being in relationship with God.

And that mission, that producing, that means character, and it also means purpose, action.

In other words, God calls us to produce fruit.

What's remarkable about this passage is, you know, the vine don't just have one branch, it has multiple branches, because one branch can't do and produce great fruit by itself.

And so what's fascinating to me is a vine has multiple branches on it.

When those branches are put together, and all of those branches are flowing in the relationship, much fruit is produced for something amazing.

The Bible says that the church is here to offer that fruit to the world around us, so people can see and taste the goodness of the Lord.

And so the question for me is, I'm living on mission with God.

It's what's being produced out of my life as I remain in the relationship, something called love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, because the Bible says that's the fruit of the spirit.

And when the fruit of the spirit is flowing out of your life in this character manner, what happens is when I put my life with that character in it together with the other branches, we produce much fruit in the community that God has placed us in.

And so this is what it means to be a part of the local church.

God don't want to just work through you.

He wants to work through us collectively together.

And some of us are miserable in our life because we're developing character, but we don't connect our branch to the other branches to produce much fruit.

And we're wondering why we live in kind of like a long range or person in the relationship.

And when we ask God, because what God's going to do in the world, he's going to do, listen to me through the local church.

Come on, somebody don't miss this.

Other words, if you're operating out here in your salvation apart from the vine and apart from the other branches, that means you're just kind of out here floundering in your life.

But the Bible speaks of the church as so much more than a vine.

The Bible speaks of it as a body.

The Bible speaks of it as a house.

The Bible speaks of the church, the people of God, the branches as a group of people built up together to bring God glory in this world.

And so God calls us out of darkness into the wonderful light in order for us to think collectively about a mission and begin to reach the world with the goodness of God that is in us and works through us.

In other words, God's given you a gift.

And God desires for you to find that gift and put it with the local body.

And can you imagine if we all start hitting on all cylinders, what will begin to happen in a community?

The overflow.

The overflow, because this is really what this passage is about.

It's about overflow.

The Bible says you will be overflowing with joy.

And when joy overflows in us and through us collectively, the world around us drinks from the cup of the Lord Jesus Christ and eats from the bread of God and begins to be filled in their heart and their life.

Come on, church.

Listen to what Jesus says in John 15 as he closes out this passage in verses 9 through 17.

He says, I have loved you even as my father has loved me.

Remain in my love.

And when you obey my commandments, you remain in my love.

Just as I obey the father's commandments and remain in his love.

I've told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.

Yes, your joy, he says, will overflow.

This is my commandment.

Love each other.

Don't just love God.

Love each other in the same way.

He says, I have loved you.

There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command.

I no longer call you slaves because the master doesn't confide in his slaves.

Now you are my friends.

Jesus says, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

You didn't choose me, Jesus says.

You didn't choose me.

I chose you.

And I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit so that the Father would give you whatever you ask for using my name.

This is my command, Jesus says.

Love each other.

So what this passage tells me is that when I truly connect to the vine and I love God with all of my heart and he feeds my soul and I connect with his body, the local church, the vine, the building, whatever it is and I ask in God's name for anything I ask for, if I'm living in that right relationship, God begins to work in me, give it to me and work through me.

But I have to connect myself in such a way that I remain.

And again, it's not a relationship where I'm in and I'm out.

I stay connected.

What God is after in the local church is unity.

Unified, not uniformity, not us all looking alike.

Aren't you glad you don't have to look like me?

Come on.

Not all of us dressing alike, looking alike, all this.

He's looking for unity.

Unity around who Christ is as the vine, as the Savior, and unity around how God feeds his people and the mission of the local church.

And again, the mission of the local church is to produce in this world so people find the goodness of God.

One of the reasons we call this Valorous Church is simply we want to be brave with the goodness of God in the community.

We want to have courage to sever from the vine what needs to be severed from the vine, to cut the branches back, and then for us together to figure out, you know what, who God's made us to be, put that together and produce something great in the community.

And again, my participation really determines the level of what God's going to do in my personal life and through the life of the local church that I'm connected to.

Because when we all put our gifts together, you know what, God does amazing, amazing things.

The book of Ephesians chapter four speaks of this unity, and it says it this way.

In verses four to 10, there is one body and one spirit, just as you've been called to one glorious hope for the future.

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all in all and living through all.

However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.

This is what the scripture says.

When he ascended, he Jesus, to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and he gave gifts to his people.

Notice that it says he ascended.

This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.

He's God in the flesh.

And the same one who descended is the one who ascended after the resurrection of Christ, higher than the heavens.

Look at this, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.

So Christ is seated in the heavenlies right now, resurrected.

And Jesus has called us out of darkness into the wonderful light and connects us to the Father.

And when we're intentional in that relationship, we become branches that produce fruit.

The whole reason the vine produces fruit is to fill the universe with God himself so that other people can know who God is.

Much more than that, it's more than other people knowing who God is.

The Bible says the universe with himself.

That means the seen and the unseen realm.

That means all places and spaces.

And what God's mission is in your life is to come in, transform you, build you into something great.

You be in that relationship, draw on that relationship and watch him do great and mighty things.

Come on, church.

Who is Jesus?

He's the one calling you today.

And he's calling us at different levels.

In just a moment, we're going to do something a little bit different.

For the last several weeks, we've been given an opportunity for people to respond to becoming Christ followers, to become followers of Jesus.

And we've been doing that by allowing people to publicly raise their hand and say, today, I'm trusting Christ for the forgiveness of my sin.

Today, I'm choosing Christ as the one who saves me from my sin.

And if you've never done that, I'm going to give you that opportunity in just a moment.

But after we pray through that prayer, we're going to, we're going to, in a few moments, open up this altar for prayer for anybody in here that needs to come get their life right with God.

And in just a few moments, I'm going to call our prayer ministers up here in the front.

They're going to be standing around up here.

There's kneeling benches for you to come to the altar.

But some of us, you know what?

It's not salvation we need today.

It's reorientation to the relationship that God wants to work in and work through.

In other words, we haven't been remaining.

And some of us need to come forward today and just say, you know what, God?

I need to turn away from my sin.

And I need to receive the forgiveness.

And I just need to come to this altar.

And I need to allow you to work in my life.

And so in just a moment, we're going to open up the altar.

The worship team is going to come out and they're going to sing a song and we're going to sing that song together.

And again, you know what, the altar is open for you to come to.

It's a place for you just to come, not to embarrass you, but a place for you to come and kneel and talk to God, let God talk to you.

These prayer ministers are going to be up here to put their arms around you.

And if God is speaking to you today on the top row, in the bottom row, anywhere in this building today, you know what, this altar is open during this song for you to come to.

But you know, God's really began to work in the life of our church and say, not just offer up a message for people to walk out of here, but offer up a message that people can respond to, and he can begin to work in their life and change their life.

And so I'm going ahead and call the prayer ministers to come up here to the front.

And they're going to stand here in the front.

And as they stand here in the front, in just a moment after we pray again, the worship team is going to come out and sing a song.

And if God so moves in your heart to come up here and hang out and have prayer with these folks, or just kneel at one of these kneeling benches, you feel free to do that today.

But I ask you to move as God moves in your heart.

So could you bow your heads, please, all over this auditorium?

You know, this is probably the most special moment in all of the service today.

And I know that some of us are going to be tempted to get up and get out of here, but I'm going to ask that you remain seated for just a moment, if at all possible.

If you have an emergency, I understand.

But just getting up and moving around would be rude, and nobody in this room wants to be rude.

So God's working in people's heart and life right now.

And if God's maybe not working in your heart and life, maybe He's working in the hearts and life of somebody around you.

So let's take this moment to be a sacred moment and allow God, the Spirit of God, to work in people's heart.

So as you have your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I've got to ask you today, how is God speaking to you?

Do you need salvation that's only found in Christ and Christ alone?

Have you been running this race called life without the free gift of salvation in your life?

His name is Jesus.

The whole reason He came to give His life on a cross and defeat death and resurrect from the grave and ascend back to heaven is to save you from your sin, put you in right relationship with God so that God could begin to work in your life.

My friend, maybe you've been trying to run from God, maybe you've strayed away from God, and maybe today is the day of your salvation.

You need to trust Christ.

If that is you today, I'm going to give you that opportunity before we move on in the prayer.

After I pray this prayer, maybe you want to pray it quietly along with me in your seat.

Then I'm going to allow you to just publicly declare Jesus as your Lord by, in a moment, allowing you to stick your hand straight up in the air to say, today is the day of my salvation.

Bible says when we publicly declare in Romans 10 that Jesus is Lord and we trust that he is resurrected from the dead for the forgiveness of our sin, that we'll be saved.

And if you need to pray a prayer of salvation today and let Jesus come in and be the Lord of your life, then maybe right where you sit today, you want to say something like this, no matter where you are in the room, say, God, today I need to surrender.

I admit I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.

And I believe that it's Jesus who gave his life on a cross, shed his blood for the forgiveness of my sin.

Say, God, I believe he paid a debt I couldn't pay, and I thank you for that gift today.

Tell God you believe that three days later he resurrected from a grave to defeat death, sin and the grave.

Tell God, thank you for the resurrection.

And you want to see your life resurrected too.

My friend, if you said that prayer, in just a moment I'm going to ask you just to stick your hand straight up in the air.

I just want you to publicly acknowledge that today is the day of your salvation.

So I'm going to count to three and if you said that prayer today, right where you sit today, just put your hand in the air.

Don't worry about who's around you.

This is your moment.

This is God speaking to you.

So on the count of three, right where you sit today, just simply stick your hand in the air.

One, two, three, wherever you are in this auditorium.

Praise God.

Hold it up so I can see it.

All over this room.

God, if I miss one today, you saw their hands.

Praise God.

You saw their hands today, God.

I thank you, Lord Jesus, for the forgiveness of sin.

I thank you for moving into their life, and I pray that you would produce great fruit out of their life.

We thank you, Jesus, for the gift of salvation.

And if there's others of us in this room that need to respond, repent of our sin, and begin to get back in that right relationship with God and remain and let him flow in us and flow through us, maybe you need to prune something from your life.

Maybe you need to come to the altar today and just kneel and get your heart right with God.

That's what this next moment is going to be all about.

And again, if that's the decision you need to make today, this altar is going to be open when they begin to sing.

You just come freely as God begins to move in your heart.

These prayer partners, these prayer ministers are people who just simply want to love on you.

They want to wrap their arms around it.

You can put your hands down if you prayed that prayer today.

But they just want to wrap their arms around you.

God calls me as the communicator of the message today to strictly just transfer his authority over to them.

And so as you come forward today, they're there as representatives of God just to wrap their arms around you and pray with you today.

So you move as God moves in your heart today.

This is a special moment.

And again, if you need to leave, totally understood.

But if you just want to worship God with us for the next five minutes or so through song, feel free to do that.

Feel free to come to the altar.

Whatever God leads in your life, this is your moment.

Let God speak to you in this sacred moment.

God, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.