Does God Still Love Me
Transcript
00:00 Well, today we celebrate the tomb is empty.
00:04 (congregation cheering)
00:06 Our Savior has risen from the dead,
00:08 and I wanna express my praise to God
00:13 and my love to all of you, happy Easter.
00:16 You guys look better than normal.
00:21 (congregation laughing)
00:22 I mean, you look good, you look Easter good.
00:25 Touch the person next to you and say, "You look good."
00:28 Hey, online, if you look good, type in the comment section,
00:31 "I look good."
00:32 If you don't look good, just say, "I'm in my pajamas."
00:34 Whatever, just be honest on Easter.
00:37 You look good, you look good.
00:39 Hey, on Easter weekend, I wanna ask you a question.
00:43 Why did you come to church today?
00:46 Think about it.
00:49 Obviously, A, it's Easter,
00:52 but why did you come to church today?
00:55 What are you hoping for?
00:58 What do you want God to do in your life?
01:02 What do you need God to do in your life?
01:07 Why did you come to church today
01:08 or why are you joining us online today?
01:11 There's probably several different groups of you.
01:13 There's probably some of you,
01:14 your life has been radically changed
01:17 by the love of God and the grace of Jesus,
01:19 and you're here to celebrate
01:21 and you're here to worship the risen Christ,
01:24 and you wanna dress up to honor that.
01:26 You'll take a picture, you'll get your family photo,
01:29 you'll post a hashtag, #blessed, he is risen.
01:32 You'll go to grandma's house.
01:34 It's tradition and you celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
01:38 But if we could kinda cut through the Easter formality
01:42 and just be real honest,
01:44 there are probably some of you
01:46 that feel like I did growing up.
01:48 You feel a little bit obligated.
01:50 I mean, Jesus did a lot for you,
01:53 and so you better make a show,
01:54 and at least on Easter and probably Christmas, right?
01:59 I mean, you feel a little obligated.
02:01 And then there may be some of you
02:03 that you're not a church person at all,
02:05 but you have an annoying family member that is,
02:11 and they've been telling you,
02:11 "You gotta come to church, and you gotta come to church,
02:14 "and you don't really wanna be here,
02:16 "but it's easier just to come
02:18 "than to create drama around the holidays."
02:23 Why did you come to church today?
02:24 What are you hoping for?
02:27 What do you want God to do in your life?
02:31 What do you need God to do in your life?
02:36 'Cause you guys, honestly, from right here,
02:38 you do look good, better than normal.
02:42 Dresses, a couple of suits.
02:44 Some of you wore your best Easter T-shirt.
02:47 (audience laughing)
02:50 You look good on the outside,
02:51 but some of you, you're not good on the inside.
02:54 Some of you are hurting right now.
02:59 Some of you have experienced a significant loss.
03:03 There are those of you that are quietly,
03:06 maybe privately ashamed of something that you've done.
03:10 There are those of you
03:12 that are going through a season of grief.
03:15 Why'd you come to church today?
03:20 Because honestly, if we can just kinda like cut through the,
03:22 we all look good stuff, all of us are in need.
03:26 And almost all of us are hurting in some way in our life
03:31 or someone that we love is.
03:34 And what I wanna tell you with all sincerity is
03:38 that no matter what you're going through,
03:42 Jesus has a promise that speaks directly
03:49 to your pain.
03:50 And so Father, we honor you, we worship you,
03:54 we celebrate you.
03:56 You are worthy of all praise.
03:59 And on this Easter weekend, we pause and we remember
04:03 your love poured out for us
04:08 through the sinless life of your son, Jesus,
04:11 his brutal death and his glorious resurrection
04:17 for your love and his life, we give you praise
04:20 in Jesus' name and all God's people said.
04:23 Amen. Amen and amen.
04:25 All right, today we start a brand new message series.
04:28 It's called He Promises, He Promises.
04:32 And over the next six weeks,
04:34 we're gonna look at six different promises of Jesus.
04:39 I wanna tell you where we're going.
04:41 Next week, I think it's maybe my favorite of all of them.
04:43 We're gonna talk about the promise
04:45 that Jesus promises you will know his voice.
04:48 He says that he is the good shepherd,
04:51 that you are the sheep and the sheep know the voice
04:53 of the shepherd.
04:54 If you're wondering, how do you hear from God?
04:56 We're gonna look at the promise next week
04:57 that Jesus, you will know his voice.
05:00 Then we're gonna look at the promise
05:02 that Jesus promises to be with you always,
05:05 no matter what you're going through,
05:07 he will never leave you, he will never forsake you.
05:11 Then we're gonna look at the truth
05:12 that Jesus promises to give you peace.
05:15 In a crazy world where many of us battle
05:19 with anxiety and stress, Jesus doesn't just give us peace,
05:22 but he gives us his peace.
05:24 Then if you're worried or anxious,
05:27 Jesus promises to meet all of your needs
05:30 so that you don't have to worry.
05:33 And on the final week, we'll look at Jesus's promise.
05:36 If you're tired, if you're weary, if you're burdened,
05:39 he promises to give you rest.
05:43 Today, we wanna look at the promise
05:46 that comes from maybe the most quoted verse in the Bible.
05:51 What do you think it is?
05:52 You see it at banners at football games,
05:54 you even see Tim Tebow painting it beneath his eyes.
05:58 What verse is it?
05:59 Say it loud, it's John 3:16.
06:02 The promise of Jesus's love for you,
06:05 for this is how God loved the world.
06:10 Do you wanna know how good God is, how loving he is?
06:14 This is how he loved the world,
06:16 that our loving God gave his one and only Son
06:21 so that everyone, this doesn't matter who you are,
06:25 what you've done, how dark your life has been,
06:28 everyone who believes in him, who believes in Jesus
06:31 will not perish, but will have eternal life.
06:36 I wonder how many of you believe that God loves the world?
06:39 Raise your hand.
06:40 I grew up believing that God loved the world,
06:42 but I wasn't sure if God would love me.
06:45 I wonder if any of you have ever felt like that.
06:49 I knew he could love everybody,
06:50 I knew he could love the world,
06:51 but I wasn't sure he loved me
06:55 because I knew what I had done,
06:58 and I knew about those that I had hurt,
07:01 and I knew about my secret struggles
07:04 that I didn't wanna tell anybody at all.
07:06 I knew about my spiritual doubts,
07:09 I knew about my dark thoughts, I knew how bad I was.
07:14 How could God love me?
07:18 Eight billion people in the world,
07:19 how could he personally love me?
07:24 Well, I like the St. Augustine quote,
07:26 St. Augustine said, "God loves each of us
07:30 "as if there were only one of us."
07:34 And what I wanna do today is I wanna show you,
07:37 no matter what you've done,
07:39 no matter how dark your life feels,
07:41 that you are the one Jesus loves.
07:46 You are the one that he loves.
07:50 And Jesus told a parable about this very personal love
07:54 in Luke chapter 15, Jesus said,
07:57 "If a man has a hundred sheep,
08:01 "and one of them gets lost, what will he do?"
08:05 Jesus says, "Won't he leave the 99 others in the wilderness
08:09 "and go search for," how many, say it with me,
08:11 "search for the one that is lost until he finds it?"
08:15 And Jesus goes on as he tells the story, he says,
08:17 "If he finds the one,
08:19 "he puts that little lost lamb on his shoulder,
08:21 "and he calls all of his friends and said,
08:22 "'Come over, let's have a big party, let's celebrate,
08:25 "'because the one that was lost
08:26 "'is found the one I was searching for,
08:28 "'I actually have with me.'"
08:29 And then scripture says this,
08:31 in the same way Jesus said,
08:34 "There is more joy in heaven
08:36 "over one lost sinner that repents and returns to God
08:42 "than over 99 others who are righteous
08:46 "and have not strayed away."
08:49 It is a promise that you are the one Jesus loves.
08:55 Jesus loves.
08:57 You are the one.
08:58 (congregation applauding)
09:00 And what's amazing about Jesus
09:02 is he didn't just promise his love,
09:06 but he proved his love.
09:08 In fact, in 1 John 4, scripture says this,
09:11 "That God is love."
09:14 Everybody say that, what is God?
09:15 God is love.
09:17 In other words, love isn't just what God does,
09:20 but it's who he is.
09:22 God is love.
09:24 And this is how God showed his love among us.
09:28 He demonstrated it,
09:30 that he sent his one and only son into the world,
09:33 that we might have life through him.
09:36 This is love.
09:37 Watch this, not that we love God,
09:40 but that he loved us and sent his son Jesus
09:44 as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
09:48 This is a ridiculously powerful verse,
09:51 that God loved us so much, he sent Jesus.
09:56 Now, I wanna ask you a little question just for fun.
09:59 This verse is so powerful,
10:00 but it's even more powerful
10:02 when you know who wrote this verse.
10:05 A little bit of Bible trivia just for fun,
10:07 who wants to play Bible trivia?
10:09 Who wrote 1 John?
10:12 Excuse me, this is not a trick question.
10:18 Nobody's gonna say it out loud, I might be wrong.
10:20 Who wrote 1 John?
10:21 John, very, very good.
10:23 Now, this is not John the Baptist,
10:25 this is John the disciple.
10:26 And what you may not know about John
10:29 is that he actually had a nickname.
10:31 Jesus was cool.
10:32 If you're friends with somebody, they got a nickname.
10:36 If, this is a guy thing,
10:38 if they don't have a nickname, they're not really a friend.
10:41 And Jesus gave out nicknames, it's pretty cool.
10:43 He called Simon, he called him The Rock.
10:46 Sorry, Dwayne Johnson, but long before you were The Rock,
10:49 Simon was The Rock.
10:51 And there were two guys, James and John,
10:54 that were brothers and they became disciples,
10:57 and Jesus gave them a nickname.
10:59 What do you think he called James and John?
11:02 Let me tell you what he didn't call them before you guess.
11:04 He didn't call these two guys the two gentle lambs.
11:08 He didn't call them the Bible brothers.
11:11 Jesus called them the sons of thunder.
11:16 That's cocky.
11:19 I wanna be one of the sons of thunder.
11:20 I'm picturing Thor and his brother on a Harley,
11:23 sons of thunder.
11:24 These guys were tough, they were brash, they were loud.
11:30 They might've said some words that were inappropriate
11:33 for your life group before they were a follower of Jesus.
11:37 Why did Jesus call them the sons of thunder?
11:39 We do not know exactly,
11:42 but Luke chapter nine gives us a glimpse
11:44 and it's pretty cool.
11:46 The context is whenever the people
11:49 in the Samaritan village rejected Jesus,
11:52 the sons of thunder spoke up.
11:54 And let me tell you what they didn't say.
11:57 The sons of thunder didn't say,
11:59 "Can't we all just get along, guys?
12:02 "Come to my life group.
12:04 "We'll eat bagels and wear Lululemon
12:07 "and go out for avocado toast."
12:08 They did not say that.
12:09 Whenever the people were rejecting Jesus,
12:13 let me tell you what the sons of thunder said.
12:14 When the disciples, James and John saw this, they asked,
12:17 "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven
12:21 "and destroy them?"
12:22 This was John who wrote about the love.
12:27 Hey, can we just wipe them out for the glory of God?
12:31 In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
12:33 Can we just burn them, fry them, black spot,
12:36 right there on the driveway.
12:37 This is John.
12:39 For his whole life, John was the guy
12:43 that would have gotten kicked out of his kid's soccer games.
12:46 That this was the guy that didn't just start the fight,
12:49 he finished them.
12:50 He would have been rude, he would have been harsh,
12:54 he would have been violent.
12:55 And then what happened?
12:57 John started spending time with Jesus.
13:02 And every moment of every day,
13:11 Jesus loved John.
13:16 Jesus loved him.
13:19 He loved him as he was.
13:22 He loved him whenever John might've crossed the line.
13:25 He loved him whenever John might've done something
13:28 that was inappropriate.
13:29 And Jesus just kept on loving John.
13:34 And we don't know when.
13:36 It probably took a little bit of time
13:41 and it probably took a lot of love.
13:43 But John's identity started to change.
13:49 And how do we know?
13:51 Because John started calling himself by a different name.
13:57 Three times in the gospel, John called himself
14:03 the one that Jesus loved.
14:08 I'm the one that Jesus loved.
14:11 Jesus loves every single one of us
14:17 as if there were only one of us.
14:20 And John said, I'm the one that Jesus loved.
14:24 No longer John the hothead, John the screw up.
14:29 No, I'm John, the one that Jesus loved.
14:35 The one that Jesus loved.
14:37 So why'd you come to church today?
14:44 What are you hoping for?
14:48 What do you want God to do in your life?
14:54 What do you need God to do in your life?
14:58 I don't know who it is, but there is someone here
15:02 that needs to hear from heaven that you are the one
15:06 that Jesus loves.
15:09 No matter what your parents said about you,
15:13 no matter what they made you feel like,
15:17 no matter how you feel about yourself,
15:20 no matter how much you've failed,
15:24 no matter who you hurt or what you said
15:29 or what you did that you can't undo,
15:31 you are the one that Jesus loves.
15:36 And I want you to take a moment,
15:40 all of our live churches, every single one of you,
15:43 I want everybody to participate,
15:45 even if you don't really wanna be here.
15:47 And what I want you to do is just say this,
15:51 just softly and say it and feel it.
15:53 I want you to say, I am the one Jesus loves.
15:58 Would you say that?
15:59 I am the one Jesus loves.
16:04 I want you to close your eyes and two more times,
16:06 those of you online, you just type it in the comment
16:08 section, I hope you will, but just a couple more times.
16:10 Eyes closed, I want you to say it, I want you to feel it.
16:13 I am the one Jesus loves.
16:17 One more time, hear it from heaven, he loves you.
16:20 He sent his son for you, say it, say it and believe it.
16:23 I am the one Jesus loves.
16:26 This is not pride, this is truth.
16:29 He loves you, you're the one.
16:31 And I believed for so long that God loved the world,
16:33 but I couldn't believe that he would love me.
16:36 Can I be honest?
16:39 Sometimes it gets old being a pastor
16:42 'cause you gotta be all pastoral.
16:45 Sometimes I just wanna be a dude.
16:46 Can I be a dude/pastor?
16:51 First I'm gonna be a dude 'cause I wasn't always a pastor.
16:55 I grew up in the 80s, MTV, risky business,
17:00 and fast times at Ridgemont High.
17:05 Some of you know what I'm talking about.
17:09 Don't even laugh at that.
17:11 I was ridiculously insecure.
17:13 I was so insecure that I lied so many different times
17:20 I couldn't even remember what story I told
17:24 to some people.
17:26 And I cheated and I stole
17:32 and I got caught and arrested for stealing.
17:37 What did you steal, dude/pastor?
17:40 Several things, but I got caught stealing
17:44 a $6 pair of running shorts
17:46 to give to my mom for Mother's Day.
17:48 Not only was I bad, but I was dumb.
17:53 I got caught stealing a $6 pair of running shorts
17:57 from Montgomery Ward for my mom,
17:59 and to make matters worse, she didn't even run.
18:03 (audience laughing)
18:06 And like most people in my family before me,
18:16 I had a drinking problem.
18:20 And so I decided to quit drinking in college
18:22 and I couldn't quit.
18:23 And one time I got so stupid drunk
18:27 that my friends took me back to my room
18:29 and I remember looking in the mirror,
18:31 I don't know if any of you have ever done
18:32 this drunk hatred thing where you look at yourself
18:34 and I remember looking at myself going,
18:36 I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,
18:38 I hate who you become, I hate you.
18:40 And I hated myself, I hated who I'd become.
18:44 And I went and I got in my bed and the room was spinning.
18:47 And they tell you if the room's spinning,
18:48 put your foot on the ground.
18:50 Well, that didn't work,
18:51 so I put my whole body on the ground.
18:53 And I had a rabbit,
18:54 so some don't know what I'm telling you,
18:55 but I had a pet rabbit and I let the rabbit out of the cage
18:58 and I'm on the ground, I'm drunk,
19:00 and a rabbit hops on my chest,
19:01 I thought at least my rabbit likes me.
19:04 And I reached over and turned on a boombox.
19:08 If you don't know what a boombox is,
19:10 you can Google it or ask your grandma.
19:12 I turned on a boombox and the station, radio station,
19:17 if you don't know what a radio station is,
19:21 that's another thing too.
19:22 But the radio station was oddly on some Christian station
19:27 that I don't ever remember putting it on, 91 FM.
19:31 And I was sitting there, my rabbit was right there,
19:33 the room was spinning, I was hating myself.
19:36 And this female DJ came on the radio and said,
19:40 she said, "I don't know who this is for,
19:46 "but I want you to know that God still loves you."
19:50 I'm telling you, right there in the middle
19:53 of that little fraternity house room,
19:54 God put it on her heart for one person
19:59 that in the middle of all my sin,
20:02 that I was still the one that he loved.
20:05 (congregation applauding)
20:11 Where does this fit in to Easter?
20:18 What I want you to understand is that God didn't just shout
20:21 his love from heaven, but he showed his love on earth.
20:26 And Romans 5, 8 tells us just very directly
20:31 that God demonstrates his own love for us in this,
20:36 that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
20:41 While you were still sinning, Christ died for you.
20:46 Christ died for you.
20:47 While you were still lost in your lust, he died for you.
20:51 While you were still seeking after your own greed
20:57 and personal attention, while you were still living
21:01 for the desires of this world,
21:03 while you were still comparing
21:05 and while you were still gossiping
21:07 and while you were still hating
21:09 and while you were still harboring unforgiveness,
21:11 he died for you in that moment.
21:14 (congregation applauding)
21:16 And the gospel, the good news is that the Virgin Mary
21:21 gave birth to a son and they called him Jesus
21:25 because Jesus did not come to condemn the world,
21:28 but to save us from our sins.
21:32 And after healing the sick and befriending prostitutes
21:37 and loving lepers, Jesus willingly walked into the arms
21:43 of his betrayer and he suffered an emotional anguish
21:48 in the garden of Gethsemane.
21:51 And Jesus did not resist arrest.
21:56 He didn't even defend himself at the trial
21:59 when he was completely innocent
22:00 and he willingly subjected himself to physical
22:03 and emotional torture where the creation spit
22:09 on the creator and they mocked him, making fun of him,
22:14 putting a crown of thorns on his brow and they whipped him
22:18 and they beat him again and again.
22:21 The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said
22:24 that he didn't even look like a human being.
22:27 And the Roman soldiers drove spikes through his wrists
22:32 and through his ankles.
22:34 And Jesus, the innocent, sinless son of God,
22:39 hung naked for hours on a cross.
22:45 In the heat of the day, in excruciating pain,
22:48 his muscles would have been cramping,
22:51 he would have been dehydrated,
22:53 he would have been hallucinating
22:55 and it would have been in shock and slowly suffocating.
22:58 And the only way he could get a breath
23:01 was to push himself up with the stakes through his feet
23:04 and pull himself up with the stakes through his wrist
23:06 with his back bloodied across the cross
23:09 and pull himself up and get a breath
23:11 while people cursed him.
23:15 And while they despised an innocent man,
23:22 he looked up to his father in heaven
23:26 and said, "Father, please forgive them.
23:33 "They don't even know what they're doing.
23:35 "I wanna know why.
23:39 "What could possibly motivate anyone
23:48 "to endure such suffering, torment and pain?
23:53 "And the only answer is love."
24:01 Love.
24:02 God demonstrated, showed it, displayed his love
24:12 that while we were rejecting him, Jesus died for us.
24:19 And I don't know who this is for,
24:23 but somebody needs to hear it.
24:24 You are the one that Jesus loves.
24:28 Jesus said this of himself,
24:29 "Greater love has no one than this,
24:34 "than to lay down one's life for one's friends."
24:39 There is no greater love in the history of the world
24:44 than the love that God showed for you
24:48 when Jesus gave up his life so you could be forgiven.
24:57 On the cross, Jesus was thinking about you
25:01 when he said, "It's finished, God.
25:05 "I did everything you sent me to do."
25:09 And he looked up to heaven and he said,
25:11 "Into your hands I commit my spirit."
25:14 And he breathed his last breath.
25:16 And at that moment, the earth shook and the sky went dark.
25:23 (soft music)
25:25 And that was not the end of the story.
25:30 Because three days later, when the women went to the tomb,
25:36 the stone was rolled away and that tomb was empty.
25:43 Jesus was not there.
25:47 By the power of the Holy Spirit,
25:50 God raised him from the dead
25:53 so that anyone who calls on his name would not perish,
25:58 but would have eternal life.
26:01 Jesus was the sinless sacrifice
26:05 for the forgiveness of sins.
26:07 So I'm gonna ask you like just dead honest,
26:10 and please don't play the stupid church game.
26:14 Why'd you come to church today?
26:19 (soft music)
26:21 What are you hoping God will do?
26:23 What do you need God to do?
26:28 Some of you, you're desperate right now.
26:33 You're about ready to give up.
26:35 Others, you are hurting.
26:37 You're trying to smile on the outside,
26:39 but inside your heart is breaking.
26:41 Some of you feel alone.
26:43 Others of you feel afraid.
26:45 Some of you feel trapped.
26:47 Some of you have almost no hope left.
26:50 Some of you have doubts, questions.
26:55 You feel ashamed.
26:58 You feel dirty.
27:00 You feel unworthy.
27:02 And God told me to tell you
27:06 that you are the one that Jesus loves.
27:10 You are the one.
27:11 You are the one that Jesus loves.
27:17 And for some of you,
27:18 this will be the day that everything changes.
27:21 This will be the day that everything changes.
27:24 If you receive it, if you believe it,
27:26 you're the one.
27:27 You're the one.
27:30 You are the one.
27:33 If there was only you,
27:35 God's love is so good.
27:38 It's not just what he does, it's who he is.
27:42 That he would send his son
27:46 to be with him.
27:47 You are the one that Jesus loves.
27:52 If you don't feel his love, I wanna remind you,
27:56 love is not a feeling, it's a promise.
27:59 And it doesn't matter what you feel,
28:02 by faith, believe the promise
28:05 that you are the one that Jesus loves.
28:10 Can you imagine a God that is so good?
28:15 A God that is so loving, a God that is so compassionate,
28:19 that he would send his son to suffer,
28:22 the innocent one, the perfect sacrifice to die in our place,
28:26 so that anyone who believes in him would not perish,
28:31 but would have eternal life.
28:34 Would you say it again and say it with faith
28:39 and believe it in your heart?
28:42 I am the one Jesus loves.
28:46 Say it again.
28:49 I am the one that Jesus loves.
28:54 No matter what you've done,
28:55 no matter how dark your life has been,
28:57 no matter how far you feel from God,
28:59 say it one more time.
29:00 I am the one that Jesus loves.
29:04 So Father, by your power, by your grace,
29:06 by the presence of your Holy Spirit,
29:07 would you reveal deep down in our hearts,
29:11 by faith, how much you love us?
29:15 And God, our only reasonable response
29:18 is to worship you, to praise you,
29:20 to give you all the honor for who you are.
29:23 Today, as you're praying at all of our churches,
29:25 those of you online,
29:27 I wanna talk to those of you who know his love,
29:33 and you've got friends or family members,
29:35 people in your life that don't know his love
29:39 and need his love.
29:40 If that's you today, you've got people
29:41 that you're praying for, people that you care about
29:44 that maybe are far from God and broken
29:47 and need his hope and need his healing,
29:48 would you lift your hands right now?
29:49 Just lift them up all over the room.
29:51 You can type it in the comment section.
29:53 I have someone who needs Jesus.
29:56 We're gonna pray for them.
29:58 God, we ask that by the power of your Spirit,
30:05 you would use us, use others, use anything
30:08 to reveal your love,
30:10 that people who are broken would find healing,
30:15 that those who are hopeless would find hope,
30:18 that those who are far from you will be brought near
30:22 by the grace of Jesus.
30:25 We believe by faith, God,
30:27 that in a world of darkness, your light will shine,
30:31 that lives will be changed.
30:33 God, draw those who need you into a relationship
30:36 that they could forever be changed by the grace of Jesus.
30:40 As you keep praying today without looking around
30:43 at all of our churches, there are some of you
30:45 that this is the day that everything changes for you.
30:48 This is the day.
30:49 My story, I grew up, we went to church Christmas and Easter
30:54 and a couple times extra just for good measure.
30:56 And I kind of believed in the love of God
30:59 for everybody else, but I didn't know it personally.
31:01 Didn't know it personally.
31:05 And I always thought God was kind of an idea.
31:07 I didn't realize that he was a relational God,
31:11 that he was loving me.
31:13 There are those of you today,
31:15 you don't know where you stand with God.
31:17 You're not fully engaged.
31:19 You're not following Jesus.
31:20 Let's just call it what it is.
31:21 You weren't at church last weekend.
31:22 You don't plan to be here next weekend.
31:24 It's not really a priority to you.
31:26 But when you recognize just how good God is
31:30 and what he did for you, your only reasonable response
31:33 is to say, "All of me, my life becomes yours.
31:36 I wanna give it all to you."
31:37 How are you made right with God?
31:39 It's not by your good works.
31:41 It's not by becoming religious.
31:43 It's not by trying harder.
31:44 It's not by stopping doing the wrong things.
31:46 The way we're made right with God is by grace,
31:49 the grace of God.
31:50 Jesus' death and resurrection, it was enough.
31:53 That paid the price for your sins, for my sins.
31:57 Now, what do you do?
31:58 You believe.
31:59 How crazy is that?
32:01 When you call on the name of the Lord, the name of Jesus,
32:05 the name that is above every name,
32:07 there is something about that name.
32:10 When you call on the name of Jesus,
32:12 your sins are forgiven and you are made new.
32:15 There are those of you, this is your day.
32:17 This is why you're here.
32:18 All of our churches and online, those who say,
32:20 "I need that."
32:21 We're stepping away from the old life.
32:23 We're stepping into the grace of Jesus.
32:25 When you call on him, you are made new.
32:28 Today, in all of our churches, those who say,
32:30 "Yes, I'm stepping away from my old life.
32:32 I need his grace.
32:33 I am the one that Jesus loved.
32:36 Therefore, I give my life to him."
32:38 That's your prayer.
32:39 Lift your hands high right now.
32:40 All over the place, lift them up and say,
32:42 "That's my prayer today."
32:42 Praise God for you.
32:43 Others say, "Lift up your hands and say, 'Yes,
32:45 I surrender to Jesus.'"
32:46 Right back over here and over here as well.
32:48 Praise God for you.
32:49 Others, if you lift them high and say, "Yes, Jesus,
32:52 I need your grace.
32:54 I surrender to you.
32:55 Would you be the savior and Lord of my life?"
32:58 Online, you can type in the comment section,
33:00 "I am surrendering my life to Jesus."
33:02 Type that in the comment section.
33:04 And today, church, nobody prays alone.
33:07 Would you pray aloud as the family of God?
33:10 Just pray, "Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins.
33:14 Save me because I know I am the one Jesus loves.
33:20 Thank you for your grace.
33:27 Thank you for new life.
33:28 Now fill me with your spirit so I can know your love
33:34 and show your love in all that I do.
33:39 You have my whole life.
33:43 In Jesus' name I pray."
33:46 Could somebody give thanks?
33:49 Could somebody worship God?
33:50 Somebody give them grace?
33:52 The tomb is empty.
33:53 Christ is risen from the dead
33:55 and we worship our good and loving God.
33:58 - Did this message on God's promises speak to you?
34:01 We've got more videos ready
34:02 from a series called "Ever Wonder Why."
34:05 We're tackling questions like,
34:06 "Why didn't God answer my prayer?"
34:08 And, "Why does a loving God send people to hell?"
34:11 Click here to keep watching.
34:13 you