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>> PERRY NOBLE: Is it just me, or did you expect Johnny Cash to start singing? It sounds
Johnny Cash, doesn't it? Happy Single Awareness Day, everybody. So glad you're at church.
Hey, I'm going to do something that I don't like to do. I seriously don't like to do this,
but they told me I had to. This is my book. I just wrote another book. It's called The
Most Excellent Way to Lead. If you are a leader, or if you know a leader, you can pick one
of these up. I don't make any money off of these. All of this money goes to the church.
I'm a mega church pastor that wrote a book, but I don't ... Yeah, they put my picture
in it. You could throw darts at that. I seriously had a lot of fun writing this book. It's the
most fun book I've ever written. If you want to pick up a copy today as you leave, you
can. If you don't, you don't have to, but if you do get a copy, you'll be a better leader.
Let's pray. I'm just kidding.
I love, love, love to travel. When I say travel, I'm not talking about going for a little drive.
I love to travel internationally. How many of you have traveled internationally before?
You know you get to see other cultures, you get to have different experiences, you get
to see different things, and one of my favorite places in the world to go is London. Anybody
ever been to London? That place, first of all, I just love to hear British people talk.
You can talk with a British accent, and automatically your IQ goes up like 100 points. Unlike us,
in the South. When we talk, our IQ goes down 100 points. The first time we went over there,
I remember I just went out and walked all day. I walked to Big Ben, and saw the big
clock there, Parliament, walked into Westminster Abbey. There's some famous dead people buried
there. I didn't know. I was like, "That's cool," and then walked around. That's where
Princess Diana got married. I remember watching that on TV as a little kid. I was like, "This
is so cool." I walked by the Queen's palace. She wanted me to stop in for tea and crumpets
but I didn't have time. I told her I'd get back with her later.
I just kept on going. I was walking around London, and it's a fascinating city, buy you
know what fascinated me the most? You know what blew my mind the most? Those buses. Your
know what I'm talking about? The double-decker red buses. I remember the first time I saw
one of those things. I was like, "That is fascinating. This is awesome." They're beautiful.
I was like, "We got to get one of those at NewSpring, paint it green. That would be awesome.
A double-decker bus." I was so fascinated by the double-decker bus, the big red one,
that I took a picture of it. I wanted to share it with you so you could see it today. Isn't
that beautiful? That bus is absolutely amazing, and every time I see this picture of the bus,
I'm just reminded about how beautiful the bus is.
Now, of course I'm being funny. Some of you are like, "He's lost his mind. He legit just
lost his mind." I'm making a point that sometimes you can get so close to something that you
can't see how awesome and beautiful it really is. All of us have experienced that, whether
it's marriage, whether it's with our kids, whether it's with our job. In church world,
it's really, really easy to zoom in on things like this, and lose sight of the gospel. The
things that Christians fight about are mind-blowing when you think about at the end of the day,
it boils down to about four things. We're going to get into that in just a second.
A lot of people tend to be rule followers. They want to focus on the rules. A lot of
people want to argue about certain methods of baptism. Other people want to argue about
this. Then there's the parts of the Bible that nobody understands, or nobody wants to
talk about. My daughter, Karis, she's eight years old and she told me, "Daddy, I want
to read the Bible straight through. I want to start in Genesis and go all the way to
Revelation." I was like, "Um ... Don't do that. Let's start somewhere like Matthew,
Mark ... " She's a rule follower. She's like, "No, you start at the beginning. You go all
the way through." I'm like, "Okay, well, Leviticus is going to show up sooner or later. We're
going to have to talk about some of the stuff in there."
A few weeks ago, we got in the car to come to church, and we always talk about our quiet
time on Sunday morning. I was like, "Did you read your Bible?" "Yes sir." This morning
she was telling me about the pillar of cloud, and the fire and all that stuff. It was great.
A couple Sundays ago, we got in the car. "Did you read your Bible this morning, baby?" She
said, "Yes, sir." I said, "What did you read about?" She said, "Don't have sex with animals."
I was like, "That's good. That's awesome. Praise the Lord." That's all I said. I mean,
what do you say after that? I don't know. We just drove to church. There's verses in
the Bible that people get hyper-focused on. There's subjects in the Bible that people
get hyper-focused on. There's some things in the Bible you get hyper-focused on, when
in actuality if we would just stop, as followers of Christ, and take about a 30,000 foot view
of the gospel and Christianity, it really is breathtaking.
In fact, I think I can sum it up in four words. If you're a note-take you can write these
down. Number one, creation. Now, I want to pause right here and say a lot of people like
to argue about creation. Did God do it in seven days? Did he do it in thousand years?
Is it million years? What about the dinosaurs? Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? I don't
know. I don't. Here's what I know. God did it. I don't know how he did it, and neither
do you because you weren't here. I just know that God did it, and that God did an awesome
job.
I was reminded of this last night driving down the road, and watching sunset, and the
sky was purple and orange, and it was just beautiful. Clemson. It was just beautiful.
I could see this sunset, and you know, God could have made everything black and white.
He didn't have to allow us to see color, but we get to see color. That's amazing. When
you think about creation, think about the fact that God created taste buds. How awesome
is that. When I walked in my house last night, my in-laws were in town, and they go and buy
Krispy Kreme. They had donuts there, and I felt obligated to finish them. You put a hot
doughnut in your mouth, isn't that one of the greatest things in the world. Somebody
brought me a gluten free doughnut the other day. I was like, "Get that out of my face.
I want extra gluten on my doughnut."
Creation. God created this world, and he created you. You're not an accident. You were planned.
I don't know if your parents planned you, which is always awkward by the way. When you
have a conversation and someone goes, "Well, we're pregnant." "Were you trying?" That's
a bit personal, right? Do you have to ask that question. Whether your parents were trying
or not, you got created, but ultimately it was God who created you, custom designed you.
Your DNA is yours. It's unique. There's nobody like you on the planet. Creation. That's part
one.
Part number two, though, is the fall. We're summarizing the gospel. You got creation,
then you got the fall. The fall is where Adam and Eve sinned. Where sin entered the world.
All of us are just fallen people. We can watch fallen people on TV. We can watch fallen people
on reality shows. If you would have been with me Thursday night, you could have seen me
in a fallen condition, because American Airlines lost my wife's bag, and it's pink. It's pink.
It's so pink that if there are aliens, they can see this bag. It's pink, and they can't
find the bag. I just needed to talk to a competent person with a three digit IQ, and I could
not find one Thursday night, and I'm about to ... I had one of those moments. If you're
here, and you're brand new to church, and you're like, "I think the pastor should be
more godly," oh, you have no idea. I'm just telling you all what I thought. We're all
fallen. When I say fall, I mean we're born sinful, right? No one here had to teach your
child how to sin. "Come here, let me tell you how to back-talk your mama. Let me tell
you how to steal our of your mama's purse." None of us ... Kids are born intuitive. They
know how to sin.
Which leads to number three. Redemption. This is where God redeems us by paying for our
sin with Jesus on the cross. All of us love a redemption story. We love stories, movies,
books where there's redemption. Shawshank Redemption, right? I love that movie because
of the redemption that takes place at the end. Let's be honest, if there's not a good
redemption at the end of a story, we don't like it. I think the reason a lot of people
might not like their lives is because they've never experienced the redemption. They've
never experienced God saving them. They've never asked Jesus to come in their life. Now,
most people when they're describing the Bible they'll say three words. Creation, fall, and
redemption. I think it's good. Jesus died on the cross. It's great, but listen. Salvation
is not the pinnacle of Christianity. Salvation is not the mountaintop.
The mountaintop is this thing called restoration. It's in the Bible. It's called the wedding
supper of the lamb, where we're going to sit and dine with the king of kings and the Lord
of Lords, and there will be no cancer, and there will be no Alzheimer's, and there will
be no poverty, and there will be no sex slave trade, and there will be no sickness, and
there will be no sorrow. I'm excited about that.
You've got creation. God created the world. We sinned. He sent Jesus to pay for our sins,
and then one day he's going to restore everything and it's going to be brand new, and it's going
to be amazing. That's the gospel. That's the 30,000 foot view. If we lose sight of that,
listen, if you can hear any part of that story, and it just doesn't move your heart, it's
probably because ... Two options. Number one, you don't know Christ, or number two, you're
focused on that red picture of the bus.
That's why we're doing this series, Hosea. I love the book of Hosea. Really interesting.
Let me give you a little bit of historical background before we dive in. The book of
Hosea ... This takes place in about 750 BC. Israel was divided into two kingdoms at the
time. There was a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. The southern kingdom, for the most
part, stayed pretty close to God, stayed pretty close to following his ways. The northern
kingdom, they were very religious. At this particular time in history, their economy
was pretty strong, but they wanted nothing to do with God. Does this sound like another
nation that you might have heard of? Economy is strong, very religious, but they wanted
nothing to do with God. In fact, they were into this thing called Baal worship. Baal
worship, I don't even have time to go into it. It was so grotesque. Baal worship included
child sacrifice, where they would take newborn infants and throw them into the fire, because
that's what that religion required. These people did not want anything to do with God.
Don't miss this. They knew all about him, they just didn't want anything to do with
him. God sent a man named Hosea to these people to preach to them.
Before I even move on, this blew my mind when I saw this a couple weeks ago. The name Hosea
means salvation. Don't miss the symbolism. God sent salvation to people that weren't
even interested in being saved. God sent someone to preach the good news to people that didn't
even want to hear good news. At the end of the day, the reason that moves me so much
is that's my story, and that's your story too because nobody in this room went looking
for God. God came looking for you. He sent Hosea, whose name means salvation, to preach
to people who were far from him.
Now, interesting ... God tells Hosea, "You're going to go preach." Hosea's like, "Yeah,
I've been waiting on that. Ready to go. Fired up." God said, "I want you to get married
first." Hosea's like, "That's a good idea. I think marriage is good. I'd love to get
married." Anybody getting married this year? Anybody engaged? Somebody back here. Marriage
is awesome. Get those invitations sent out, right? Save the date. People are getting married
all over the place now. In barns, and fields, church. Hosea's fired up. He's like, "Man,
I'm going to get married. This is awesome. I've had my eye on this little girl down at
the Bible study thing I go to. She's pretty hot." God said, "Yeah. We're going to go a
different direction."
Hosea 1:2 says, "When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, 'Go marry
a promiscuous woman.'" If you don't know what promiscuous means, ask your mom and dad on
the way home. They'd love to explain it to you. "Go marry a promiscuous woman and have
children with her, for like an adulterous wife, this land is guilty of unfaithfulness
to the Lord." Now, I've got to be honest with you. If I'm Hosea, I'm pulling the I don't
think so card. "All right, God, hold on. Let me get this straight. You want me to marry
a ***? How do I tell my family about that?" "Tell us about your wife, Hosea. What
does she do?" "Um ... She's self-employed in the entertainment business." How do you
put this on a card? How do you get excited about this? I just want to pause and say,
following Jesus isn't always easy. Sometimes he's going to ask us to do things that we
don't understand. Sometimes he's going to ask us to do things that everybody around
us do not understand, but when our goal in life becomes to be understood, more than following
Jesus, then we'll hit mediocre and average every single time.
God said I want you to go and marry a ***. Now, it gets worst. He married Gomer. Come
on, God. First of all, I had to marry a ***, but Gomer? Nobody here is going, "That's such
a beautiful name. I'm going to name my daughter that." If you did ... Hopefully nobody here
is named Gomer. I'm sure if you are, I already have an e-mail. Thank you for that, by the
way. Gomer. This has always been a little weird to me until really diving into this
text over the past couple weeks. The name Gomer means completion. Don't miss this. Hosea
means salvation. Gomer means completion. God put salvation and completion together, because
we're never complete until we're connected with God through Jesus and salvation. The
symbolism is so powerful. It's so powerful.
He married Gomer, daughter of that dude. His name means fig cake. I looked that up. I have
no idea why that's in there. She conceived and bore him a son. Now, this is good, right?
They get married. They have a kid. But, it gets a little crazier. Then the Lord said
to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre
at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel, and that day I will break Israel's
bow in the valley of Jezreel." Jezreel means, "I will judge." How would you love for that
to be your name? "What's your name?" "Judgement. My name's Judgement. Mom's named Gomer. I'm
Judgement." Now, Judgement, if you're a linebacker, that's an awesome name, right? God is reminding
... Don't miss this, the symbolism. You got Hosea, salvation. Gomer, completion. Jezreel,
judgement. See, God will pour out his wrath and judgment one day. Either we pay for it,
or we receive the price that Christ paid for it, but God is very clear that judgement is
going to happen one day, because when it comes to sin, somebody always has to pay.
Now, he says some good stuff later on, but the Bible says in verse 6, "Gomer conceived
again, and gave birth to a daughter." Now, some people are like, "Yes. They had baby
number two. That's awesome." Except for the fact it wasn't Hosea's. See, Gomer had a past,
and your past has a way of sneaking up on your, doesn't it?
I don't know about you, but recently I decided that I was going to start eating clean. Diet
is too restrictive. I don't like that word. It limits me. I said, "I'm going to start
eating clean." I made some plans a couple weeks ago, and got some lentils. I'd never
had lentils, but I could have lentils on this eating clean plan. I got some tuna, and got
some chicken. I had it planned. I told everybody. I had some meals pre-packaged. I had a plan.
I'm like, "I'm going to eat clean." On Sunday night I ate real bad food, because that's
what you do right before you go on a diet. You gain seven pounds.
The next day, I ate clean for breakfast. I did. It was awesome. I ate clean. I felt good,
felt great. For lunch I had my clean food on my plate, and I had a friend who brought
his lunch in, and it was the most awesome, amazing looking quesadilla I've ever seen
in my life. I love quesadillas, y'all. The more cheese, the better. I just love cheese.
Some of you all are lactose intolerant and it sucks to be you because you don't get cheese.
I love cheese. I looked at him, and I said, "Hey, man. What are you doing?" He looked
at me and he said, "I'm living in freedom." I went and bought ice cream. That was the
end. Literally that day was the day. I had plans, and I had told people. I had said,
"Hey, this is what I'm going to do," but when it came time to do it, I couldn't actually
follow through. All of us have had probably that experience in life at some point. Gomer
had it too.
Gomer had a past, and sometimes our past has a way of creeping into our present and luring
us back to our past. Gomer started messing around on Hosea, and we don't know how long
she did this. We don't know if it was just one time, two times, or whatever. I'm sure
she told herself, "I'm going to let it happen this one time. I'll never let it happen again."
She gets pregnant, and it's not Hosea's baby, and so there's a conversation. Gomer conceived
again, and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-ruhamah,"
which means not loved. These names are just bad. "For I will no longer show love to Israel,
that I should at all forgive them." Notice he did not say, "I do not love them." He said,
"I will now show them love. I will not show them favor." It wasn't God's fault. Israel
walked away from God. Israel turned their back on God. Israel was the nation at this
time period that said they wanted nothing to do with God.
Isn't it funny the same thing happens in America? America will say, "We want nothing to do with
God," but you let a tragedy happen in this country, and who gets blamed for it? God.
Every single time. I think a lot of times, God's just being a gentleman about it. He
says, "You want to experience life without me? I'll let you feel what that's like." It
always leads to something, and it isn't good. I mean, this is just not good. He said something
good. He said, "Yet I will show love to Judah," which is the southern kingdom, "and I will
save them not by bow, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their
God, will save them."
In verse 8, "After she weaned her daughter, Gomer had another son." Not Hosea's. She couldn't
quit going back to her past. Now, she had met salvation. Salvation and completion had
met, but she had this battle, this internal struggle, that manifested themselves in the
sinful way she kept going back, and she kept doing stuff. Listen, she knew it was wrong.
She knew she shouldn't do it, but there was something that gripped her, and she could
not quit doing this behavior. Then the Lord said, "Call him Lo-ammi, which means not my
people, for you are not my people. I am not your God." This is serious. Everybody in this
room knows what it's like to do something that you said you would never do, or you would
never do again.
In 1990, I met Christ. Jesus saved me. I got born again. Whatever tag, or label. Surrendered
my life to Christ. I became a Christian, and for about three months, I was pretty solid.
I loved Jesus, and I was reading my Bible, and leading people to Christ. Before I came
to Christ, at a ... I could go all the way back to about the age of 11, 10 or 11 is when
I saw my first Hustler magazine, *** magazine. I got addicted. Dad bought a satellite dish.
Y'all remember the satellite dishes that were actually the size of satellites? Y'all remember
those? Yeah. I knew where the dirty channels were. I got addicted to *** and was addicted
to *** up until I became a Christian.
When I became a Christian, May 17, 1990, I was like, "I ain't looking at *** no more.
I'm awesome. I'm not looking at *** anymore. I don't even want to." That lasted about three
months. After about three months, I started wanting to look at it again. I was like, "Man,
am I ... " I've heard people say, "If you have a sinful desire, you're probably not
a Christian." I believed them. Full of crap, but I believed them. I just prayed the prayer
again. I couldn't ... Those desires were in me, and before I knew it, I stepped back into
looking at ***, viewing ***. For nine years as a Christian, served on two church staffs
and kept it hidden. Nobody knew. It was my secret sin. I felt guilty, and every time
I did it, I promised God I would never do it again, and I begged God to forgive me,
and I just couldn't seem to break that habit, and it was pulling me away from Jesus.
There's some people in this room, that's your story today. It may not be with ***. It may
be with a substance. It may be with alcohol. It may be a habit or addiction. I don't know
what you're wrestling with today, but here's what I do know. There's some people here today
that at one time in your life, you were closer to Jesus than you are ... You're saved, but
you've taken a step away, or you've taken two steps away, or you've taken several steps
away, and you feel like maybe it's too late for you. You feel like maybe you're out of
the game. You feel like you've disqualified yourself. You feel like you're not good enough.
That's the lies that the enemy will begin to tell you over and over and over again.
We don't really know what happened. We don't know all the details. This is what I think,
because we know Gomer eventually left Hosea. Don't miss this. Hosea didn't leave Gomer,
because salvation never leaves you, but completion can walk away. We don't know what happened.
Maybe she's with this dude, this other guy, and he goes, "Hey Gomer, why don't you just
come away with me? We'll just move somewhere. We'll relocate. You're married to a pastor.
It's obviously not working out. You've got three kids. We're not sure who the father
is on a couple of them. Your life is just busted up. Let's just leave. Let's just go
away." Sin has a way of luring us away from what's best for us, and sin is incredibly
fun. You ever had a pastor tell you that before? I've heard people say it. I love it. "Oh,
young people, sin is not fun." You ain't doing it right. The times I've ... I mean, if it's
not fun, then why do people keep doing it? Sin is fun, and it always has a price tag,
and it's always more than we thought it was going to be.
She gets lured away by this guy, and I'm sure they lived it up, and had the dream life,
and everything's great, but all of a sudden this dude wakes up and goes, "Man, she's a
***. What am I doing with her?" He walks away, and he leaves her, because that's
what the world will do. The world will lure you in and say this will make you happy, this
will give you peace, this will give you joy, this will fulfill you, and when you get there,
it walks away and leaves you empty. That's why there's so much emptiness in people's
lives today. Gomer is left in another city, and the only thing she knows how to do is
sell her body, so she steps back into slavery. Don't miss this. She's still married to salvation.
In spiritual terms, she's still saved.
There are people here today, maybe that's your story. You've walked away. You're still
saved, you're just not living for Christ. Here's the cool thing, though. Jesus never
gives up on people, and his desire today is not to get you back, but to bring you back
to a place where he can continue to complete you and make you into the person that he's
called you to be.
We don't know how this went down. This is conjecture at this point, but maybe somebody
runs into Hosea in the street, and they go, "Hey man, I was in another town about a week
ago doing some business, and you'll never guess who I saw there." Hosea's like, "Who?"
"Gomer." Hosea was like, "Is she okay? What's going on?" "Dude, she was on the auction block.
She is on the auction block." I can almost imagine this conversation. "Hosea, I'm so
glad. I'm so happy, because she hurt you, and she walked away from you, and she disappointed
you, and she's getting what she deserved." If we're not careful, we'll turn into those
people when we see people suffering. "That's what they deserve," when none of us actually
want what we deserve. Hosea has a different response than most people would.
The Bible says in Hosea 3:1, "The Lord said to me, 'Go show your love to your wife again.
Though she is loved by another man, and is an adulteress, love her as the Lord loves
the Israelites, though they turn to other gods, and love the sacred raisin cakes.'"
God says, "Hey, Hosea, salvation never leaves. You go pursue your wife." That's what Jesus,
I believe is doing today.
There are some here today, maybe you've walked away from God. Isn't it ironic that you showed
up at church today to hear God saying, "Hey, I want you. I want you to step back into this
closeness that we once had. I want you to step back into fellowship with me. I want
you to step back into this." If you walked away, I'm talking you're saved ... You are
saved. But you've walked away. Today is the story of Hosea taking place in your life going,
"Hey, I want you to just come back. I want you to just come back."
I love the story. It gets more beautiful. He bought her for 15 shekels of silver, and
about a homer and a laketh of barley. That doesn't mean very much to us, but we're told
in Leviticus that the price of a slave is supposed to be 30 shekels, and he only had
15 shekels, so he had to sell some stuff. He had to get rid of some stuff. Some scholars
say this was everything he had. He gave everything he had just to get his wife back.
Understand this: Jesus gave everything he had so that you and I could have abundant
life and eternal life. He did not short-change the cross. He went through the cross and also
came out of the empty tomb so that you and I can have life. He gave everything for you.
He gave everything for me. He gave everything.
"Then I told her, 'You are to live with me many days. You must not be a ***, or
be intimate with any man. I will behave the same way.'" This is what he's saying, "Hey,
Gomer. Come home. If you'll be mine, I'll be yours. We can make this right. Everything
that's happened back here, we'll just move forward. I just want you to come back home."
The concluding idea is only Jesus can take us from broken to brand new. Only Jesus. If
you're here today and you feel like you've walked away from God, you are a Christian,
but you've walked away from God, in just a minute, I'm going to ... We're going to do
something we haven't done in 16 years at NewSpring church. It's been amazing today so far. Before
we do, in church world, if you've been around church world for a while, you know we have
words and phrases that sometimes don't make sense, or confuse people, right?
I remember when I first started going to church, and they asked me had I been "washed in the
blood of the lamb", and I was like, "No, I have not, and if you bring a goat out, I'm
out of here. That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard." Somebody asked me one time, "Are
you Spirit-filled?" "What? Spirits?" "No, not spirits. Spirit." "Okay, because I've
been both. I was just kind of curious." Spirit-filled. Baptized. Fire-baptized. I remember I was
at a church one time and the preacher said something really awesome, and the woman behind
me went, "Hallelujah!" I went, "That's a great word." So I just picked it up. 15 years as
a Christian, and that's what I would say when something good happened. "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
Somebody asked me one day, "What does hallelujah mean?" I was like, "I have no idea. I have
no idea what hallelujah means." I've been saying hallelujah, I might have been cussing
somebody out, for all I knew. I don't know what hallelujah means, so I went and looked
what hallelujah means. It basically means God be praised. God be praised. God be praised.
The reason I say that, it's very simple. When we look at the gospel story, creation, fall,
redemption, restoration, the only word that can really sum up that story is hallelujah,
God be praised. Hallelujah that God would save me. Hallelujah that God would change
me. Hallelujah that God would accept me back, even after I've walked away from him. Hallelujah.
God be praised. For the next few moments on every campus, I'm going to ask you to remain
seated, because our video team has put together something that I really think is going to
wrap up this day, and wrap our minds around this concept of hallelujah and the gospel
story, and then for people that need to legitimately re-dedicate your lives today, you're going
to get that opportunity.
Father, over these next few moments as we just think about the fact, Jesus, that you
knew everything about us before you made us, and you created us anyway. God, I pray for
every person in this room. First of all, for the person that is walking closer to you than
they've ever walked before. Jesus, thank you for that person. Thank you for their walk.
Thank you for their discipline. Thank you, Jesus, for drawing them to you. God, you are
amazing. God, I pray for the man or the woman here today that they've just walked away from
you. They're a Christian, but they've taken a step, or several steps away. Jesus, that
they would realize over these next few moments that today is not about getting them back,
it's about bringing them back into a fellowship with you where they can experience abundant
life. We love you, Jesus. We ask this in your name. Amen.
If you're not standing, I'm going to advise you to stand at campuses, and we're going
to do an invitation. That song, that word, hallelujah, I hope it just did something in
your heart today. I hope if you're here today, and you've taken a step or two, or 20 or 30,
away from Jesus, listen, you're saved. You know you're saved. As you look back, you know
you've made a commitment to Christ. Today, you really know you need to rededicate your
life to Jesus. Now, we haven't done a rededication type thing, I don't think, in the history
of our church. We're going to do one today on every campus. Just a second.
I'll offer the invitation, and if you want to re-dedicate your life to Christ ... You
know what, I've taken a step or two away. Today I want to come back. There's not a better
day to do it than on Valentine's Day. My gosh. Then I'm going to ask you to step out of your
aisle, and I'm going to ask you to walk forward. Just stand until everybody that's going to
come responds, and then we're going to pray. I'm going to lead you in a prayer of rededication
out loud. Some of you right now, you're like, "Oh my gosh, why can't we do the hand raise,
or go out the back?" I don't know. This is the way God said to do it, so that's what
we're going to do here. If that's you, and you know you need to rededicate, this is your
time. God set this whole thing up just for you.
Father, right now, in the name of Jesus, I'm just asking for every person here, Jesus,
that just knows in their heart they're not where they need to be in their relationship
with you, and they legitimately have a desire to step back into that fellowship, the relationship
is there, but the fellowship has been damaged for whatever reason ... Jesus, today they're
going to take their next step, and they're going to stop doing whatever you say to stop
doing, and start doing whatever you say to start doing, and rededicate their lives.
Heads bowed, and eyes closed, if you know that's me, I need to rededicate my life to
Jesus, I want you to step out of your aisle, and I just want you to walk forward and stand
at the front of the stage. Some of you are like, "There's a screen there. That's weird."
No, no, no, it's not weird. There are people moving in Anderson. If you're in the balcony,
don't let the enemy talk you out of not moving. We've got time for you to walk down. There's
plenty of time. There's plenty of time. If you're in the balcony right now in Anderson,
if you're in an overflow facility, just walk to the front of that facility. If you're in
Anderson, I want you to come forward right now. Man, there are dozens of people moving,
so if you're in Powdersville right now, if you're in Lexington, Spartanburg, Boiling
Springs, you're not the only one. There are dozens of people just coming forward here
in Anderson. Listen, if you're standing there, fighting this, why in the world would you
fight the grace of God? Don't fight that.
Today, I need to re-surrender. Today, I need to recommit. Today, I'm coming back home.
I'm not where I need to be, but today is the day. It's not too late. It is not too late.
Don't let the enemy lie to you and tell you it's too late. It is not too late. If you're
ready to recommit your life to Christ. This is not salvation. This is re-commitment. You
know you've been saved, but you're just not where you need to be, and today you're going
to make that right.
There are still people responding in Anderson. I want to be real sensitive here. If you're
in Greenville or Myrtle Beach, listen, I just want you to feel the freedom to step forward.
We'll wait. People are still coming, so just be sensitive. If you're a Christian right
now, just pray that people would continue to respond. If Jesus is drawing you back to
him today, would you come forward. We're going to pray. If he's drawing you back, let's go.
This is so powerful. This is unreal. There are still people responding, and I just, once
again, if God's saying move, I just want you to be obedient to him. Church, there are still
people coming forward. God is working right now. He's doing unbelievable work. If he's
pulling at your heart right now, just respond.
For those of you that have came forward on every campus, I'm going to invite you to pray
with me. There's nothing magical about this prayer. You don't have to get it just right,
or write it down and make sure you've prayed it correctly. It's legitimately re-surrendering
your life to Christ. You've been saved, but February 14, 2016 is the day that you're going
to know, "Hey, on that day, that's the day I came back home. That's the day I entered
the sweetness of that relationship again. That's the day I stepped into abundant life.
With that in mind, I just want you to pray with me. Just say out loud:
Jesus Christ, I am yours, fully yours, completely yours. Thank you for my salvation, and thank
you for bringing me back. Fill me with strength. Fill me with courage. Surround me with godly
people, and may I truly believe that the best is yet to come, and I am living an abundant
life. In Jesus's name I pray, amen.
Can we celebrate? Wow. Hey, I want to be real sensitive to this. I want to be real sensitive
to this. If you responded to the invitation, and if you want to go back to your seat, you
can. It's perfectly fine, but if you're dealing with something, and it's a little bit deeper,
and you're like, "I need someone to pray with, or I need someone to pray for me, or talk
to me." Instead of your back to your seat, just walk out the back doors, and there are
staff members and volunteers in the lobby that would love to talk to you about what
it ... If you want to. No pressure. We didn't tag you, and we're not going to follow you
out in the parking lot. If you're here, and you don't know Christ, I want you to step
out of your aisle, and you go out the back door right now. You can return to your seats,
or walk out the back door, and if you're here and you don't know Christ, or you want to
talk to somebody about how to have a relationship with Christ, you just step out the back door
right now.
If you don't have to leave, don't leave, because I want to be sensitive to the people that
maybe need to walk out the back door, that need to receive Christ, that need to pray
with someone about what they just recommitted their life to. Hasn't this been an amazing
day in church? Are you glad you came to church today? Man.
Father, thank you so much for the people that have responded. Thank you so much, Jesus,
the hundreds of people across the state, even watching online right now, Jesus, just said,
"You know what? I'm tired of playing games, and I'm really going to do this. I'm really
going to live my life for Jesus." I pray for those that God, as soon as they step out of
this room, as soon as we step out of this room, God, the struggles are real, but you
are stronger than the struggles that we have. Jesus, because you are stronger, we're going
to trust you to deliver us. We're going to trust you to walk with us. We're going to
trust you with everything, Lord. Thank you so much for who you are. Thank you so much
for what you're doing. Thank you that in you the best is yet to come. In your name we pray,
amen.
Love you guys. Y'all have a great week. We'll see you next Sunday.