Transcript

Sermon Transcript: The Beauty of the Lordship of Jesus

8/7/2022 Jon Gaus 25 min read

Well, church, I'm sure that many of you have been to some of the Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC. If you've ever been to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, you probably know that the number one exhibit in that museum is the priceless Hope Diamond. Now many gemologists agree that the Hope Diamond is probably the most beautiful diamond in the world. So the museum exhibits the Hope Diamond in a glass case right out in the middle of the exhibition hall, because they want tourists to be able to walk all the way around the Hope Diamond, 360 degrees, to look at its beauty from every different angle and facet to really appreciate what the Hope Diamond is. In many ways, the Bible exhibits Jesus Christ the same way. From Genesis to revelation, it puts Jesus Christ and Christ alone on display. And as you and I read the Bible and study the Bible and meditate on the Bible from all the different angles that we can come in, we see more and more of the eternal beauty and the eternal brilliance of the full identity of Jesus Christ.

We enter in the word in one section and we find out that Jesus is the alpha and the omega. Then we move into another part of scripture and we find out that he's also the author and perfecter of our faith. And then we move to another angle of scripture, we come in and we find out Jesus is the great I am, but he's also the great high priest. And then we move into another part of scripture and find out that Jesus is the fierce lion of Judah and the lamb of God. That he's our Redeemer. He's our Messiah. He's our savior and Lord. That's the one we're going to camp out for a few minutes today. Jesus as Lord of all. Because that's the part of Jesus' identity that you and I as growing disciples can tend to resist against and push back against the most. That Jesus is Lord of all, he's Lord of every part of our life.

Now let's be honest in America, we've never been about Kings and Lords and monarchs. In fact, the last king that you and I were associated with was king George III. And we kicked him out in 1776. We're not about Kings and Lords and monarchs. Did you realize America is the only country that in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games, we refused to dip our flag to a city Monarch of another country because we are not about Kings and Lords and monarchs. Yet the word of God teaches us that the most blessed, the most anointed, the most prosperous, protected, and joyful place that you and I can live this side of eternity is underneath the Lordship of Jesus. Let me say that again. The Bible teaches us that the most blessed, anointed, prosperous, protected, and joyful place that you and your family can live this side of eternity is underneath the beautiful Lordship of Jesus Christ.

In fact, you and I should not be resisting the Lordship of Jesus. We should be craving it and running to it as fast as possible. Now we're in Psalm 34. Psalm 34, as you know, was written by the holy spirit through David. And right in the middle of this Psalm, David is going to give us an up close and personal description of the beauty of the Lordship of Jesus. Let's start at verse eight, Psalm 34 verse eight. The spirit through David says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. It's interesting that David didn't say hear that the Lord is good or read that the Lord is good or know that the Lord is good.

He said, taste and see that the Lord is good because David meant when you fully ingest the Lordship of Jesus and you savor it and you experience it, you're going to want to come back for more and more and more. I guess we could call that Costco theology. We've all been to Costco and we're pushing our cart down the aisle and there the free samples are. So we grab a toothpick with a pot sticker or a pizza roll and we walk a little further down. We put it in our mouth and we're like, that's delicious. That tastes so good. I'm going to go around again and hope the lady doesn't recognize me and I'm going to take another one. That's what David is saying here. When you taste the beauty of the Lordship of Jesus, you're going to keep coming back and you're going to bring more of your life under his Lordship until it's all completely there.

Now, some may say John, that's the old Testament. I'm a new Testament believer. I'm under the new covenant. What does the new Testament say? Well, let's fast forward a thousand years to Luke chapter two to that night. You know, that night, the night that changed human history. The night that changed the history of the universe. That night where God, the eternal son, Jesus took on human flesh and he entered the human race to come and rescue us from sin, Satan, and death that night of his birth. Well, the father, as he's dispatching the messenger angels with the birth announcement of the Messiah, it's really interesting what he had them tell the shepherds. They said for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. They announce the Messiah's full identity, that Jesus is savior and Lord.

And anyone who tries to divide that identity savior from Lord, that is an un-biblical false dichotomy. So church, how does this full identity of Jesus as savior and Lord practically unfold for us as born again believers, day in, day out. This is where I want us to turn over to Romans chapter 10. Let's turn over to Romans chapter 10 verses nine and 10, a very powerful and very familiar passage. Remember whenever we go to a familiar passage of scripture, be careful that familiarity does not breed indifference. Oh, I've heard this since I was a kid. I've got it memorized. Don't let it lose its power. Romans 10, nine, and 10 is how you and I got saved. It is an unfolding of the gospel. Romans 10, nine, and 10. The spirit through the apostle. Paul says, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Saints, that leads us to truth. Number one, in this message. When you come to saving faith in Christ, you are declaring and you're desiring Jesus as Lord. So when you come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, you're declaring with your mouth. That Jesus is Lord and you're believing it because he is. Jesus is Lord over everything in the universe seen and unseen. But you're also beginning to desire it in your heart. Now, before you came to Christ, your desire was to be the Lord of your own life. That's how we all lived. We love to be in charge of our own life. No one was going to tell us what to do, but at the moment you repented and received Christ. The holy spirit came in and he regenerated you.

He gave you new life and he gave you new desires. And one of the new desires you received that day was a desire to bring all of your life underneath the beautiful Lordship of Jesus. Now practically, what happened on that day is we got saved. The holy spirit came and dwelled in us, but practically my life was still twisted. It was still a mess and it was still filled with sin patterns. Can anybody relate to that? That's a dangerous question. As a pastor to ask: five of you, will you please say that? Okay, thank you. But that's what, that's the reality. That's why the holy spirit indwelt us, because one of his roles is the sanctifier. And at the very moment we got saved, he began to clean us up from the inside out to make us more and more and more like Jesus.

And part of that sanctification is the holy spirit is calling us and he's empowering us daily to bring more and more of our life underneath the Lordship of Jesus, because that's the place of blessing. That's the place of anointing. That's a place of prosperity and protection and joy and the things that we're trying to hold back and be Lord over, we're not ready to give them over to Jesus. That's a dangerous place to live. It's dangerous to our souls. It's dangerous to our families and we're very susceptible to the attacks of the enemy. In fact, I have a picture here that illustrates that when you and I are living with our life underneath the Lordship of Jesus, it's like being in that glow of anointing and blessing and protection. But when we refuse to bring certain parts of our life underneath the Lordship of Jesus, it is in darkness.

It's very dangerous. It's damaging to our soul. And we are very susceptible to the attacks of the enemy. Now to put this all in context of redemptive history, all of this cosmic battle about Lordship started way back in Genesis chapter three. Before Satan snaked his way into the garden, Adam and Eve were living in perfect communion and unity underneath the Lordship of God. And they loved it and they were living in perfect unity and communion with each other. But then Satan came in and he lied to them and he told them it's better to be Lord of your own life. It's more enjoyable to be Lord of your own life. Who is God? He's trying to keep you from the best. You should be Lord of your own life. Well, they bit at that temptation and it led to death and devastation until the last Adam showed up on the scene.

Jesus as Lord and savior. And he's the one who was able to reverse that curse. Now saints, let's get super practical and talk about three common areas in the church that keep us from fully enjoying the Lordship of Jesus. In fact, these three are so common, I think we have many Christians in the church today who are saved yet miserable. Saved yet still in bondage. The first thing that's keeping us away from the full Lordship of Jesus, number one, is unforgiveness. Now church, have you recognized that you've heard that topic a lot in the last several weeks from this pulpit. That's not by fate, luck, chance or coincidence it's because Jesus promised that in the last days he was going to purify his church. When I was studying this topic this past Wednesday, the holy spirit gave me a picture. He gave me a picture of this worship center with a sieve on this side, turned sideways.

And that the spirit was going to take his sieve and walk all through the whole congregation because he wants to free people from the sin of unforgiveness. He wants to bring you joy and bring glory to God. So unforgiveness, how does that happen? Well, someone has wronged you. Someone has tragically abused you. Someone has deeply hurt you. Someone has abandoned you. Someone has turned on you, someone has lied or gossiped about you. Someone has stabbed you in the back. Someone has cheated you or cheated on you. Now the natural thing to do when those things happen, the natural thing to do is to carry a grudge. That's a very descriptive phrase, carry a grudge. Because when I'm carrying a grudge, my hands are occupied with that. And three things happen. First of all, I take that grudge with me wherever I go, into all new circumstances and into all new relationships, because I'm carrying a grudge, it goes with me everywhere and it's toxic.

Sometimes we don't really realize it. It's like a natural gas leak in your kitchen. You don't realize it at first, but when you are refusing to forgive someone who wronged you, they hurt you deeply. You're carrying a grudge and you're carrying it into all your new relationships and all your new circumstances. A second thing that happens when I'm carrying a grudge is I cannot worship Jesus the way he deserves to be worshiped. I'm not free to do it because Jesus is seeking worshipers with clean hands and a clean heart. I can't do that because I'm carrying this unforgiveness. I'm carrying a grudge. So I can't enjoy worship and give Jesus all the honor and glory that he deserves. A third thing that happens when I will not forgive someone who really did wrong me is I cannot receive all of the blessing and good gifts that my heavenly father just wants to pour out on me.

Did you know that our heavenly father loves to give good gifts to his sons and daughters? But I can't receive them because my hands are occupied with this grudge. Those are three immediate things that happen. Now the first thing we have to establish whenever we're talking about biblical forgiveness is that Jesus never invalidates and he never marginalizes our pain or our experiences. Jesus never invalidates or marginalizes our pain or experience. In fact, he empathizes with it because he too was greatly abused. He too was deeply wounded. He too was lied about and abandoned by those closest to him. So he fully empathizes with us yet. He commands us and he empowers us to forgive everyone unconditionally. Look at this command of Ephesians four 32, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. It's that last phrase that stops the mouth.

It stops the excuses. It stops the rationalizing. Forgive as God in Christ forgave you. That is the only reason why I would forgive anyone. In my flesh, I'm a very black and white person. And if you wrong me, you are out of the circle for goods, but that's what convicts me as God in Christ forgave you, we all know all of the tens upon thousands of tens upon thousands of sins we've ever committed. All the sins we've committed in secret, all the sins we've committed in the dark, all the sins we've committed against God and our thought life. And Jesus says, I'm choosing to forgive you unconditionally of all of those past, present, and future. Now when God forgives, he does not forgive and forget. That's un-biblical because forgetting is a weakness. It's a flaw. And God is a perfect being. He has no weaknesses and he has no flaws.

Hebrews eight 12 says when God forgives, he chooses to remember our sins no more. That means that he'll never bring them up against us. He'll never hold them against us. And when he forgives, he removes our sins from us as far as east is from west. And that's an infinite amount of distance. And now Jesus is saying as I have forgiven you completely and unconditionally, I'm commanding you to forgive others the same way. That you will drop the offense. You will let them off... They do not deserve it, but neither did we from Christ and you won't bring it up. You won't gossip about it and you won't hold it against them. Now you can give forgive biblically, unconditionally, but you can still put up new boundaries. Boundaries can be really healthy. Boundaries can keep that person from sinning against you again and we shouldn't be enabling people's sin.

So there may be someone who really hurt me and through the grace of God, I've been able to forgive them unconditionally and forgive them completely. But I learned something about them, where they are in their journey right now. And I don't want to enable their sin. The holy spirit has given me perfect wisdom. And so I'm going to tell them we can deal in this part of my life and you can come into this part of my life. But this part of my life, I'm going to put up boundaries, because I want a safe place for my mind, my soul, my emotions, and my family. And you can do that. In fact, Jesus said to be Shrew as a serpent, yet as innocent as a dove. So many times we need to put up healthy boundaries with those people who have sinned against us.

Now I'm not talking walls. You still love them. You still pray for God's best in their life, but it is good at times to put up good, healthy boundaries. Okay, church, here are three of the main reasons why unforgiveness is so damaging to our soul. Number one, unforgiveness gives Satan a landing pad in our lives. You do know that in this dispensation, Satan has only been given permission to traffic in one area of the universe and that's in darkness. So as born again Christians, when we hold on to unforgiveness, we have created in our life, a dark spot, a landing pad for Satan to come in and harass us and oppress us and attack us in our family. Now he can't possess us because you and I were bought with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ, first Corinthians six 20, amen. But he comes in as a squatter because he found this landing pad and he'll always find it.

So when you and I refuse to forgive somebody, we are creating a landing pad in our life for Satan to get up close and personal against us and our family. The second thing that is so damaging to our souls is unforgiveness puts our fellowship with Jesus at a standstill. When you and I are harboring unforgiveness, it puts our fellowship with Jesus at a standstill. Jesus desires for our fellowship to be clean and current and close with him, so we can experience his beautiful presence and enjoy it all day long. But Jesus loves us too much to enable sin in our life. So he says, when you're harboring unforgiveness and you're carrying that grudge, we are at a stand still in our fellowship. We are not moving any deeper. We are not going any further down the spiritual journey until you let that person off the hook and you forgive unconditionally.

Look at what he said in Matthew, chapter six verses 14 and 15: for if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sin, your father will not forgive your sins. Our fellowship with Jesus becomes at a standstill. It's no longer close. It's no longer current. It's no longer clean. And we wonder why does God feel so distant? Why isn't God hearing my prayers? It's because Jesus loves us too much to enable us to continue on carrying that sinful grudge. The third thing that is so damaging to our souls is this: the longer we refuse to forgive, the clear it becomes that we're not really saved. The longer we refuse to forgive, it becomes clear that we're not really saved. Now don't take my word for it. Take the word of God for it.

Look at first John, three nine: no one born of God makes a practice as sinning for God's seed abides in him. He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. This passage says, if you're practicing unforgiveness, you have no proof that you're really saved. Unless the holy spirit is convicting you right now with the word of God and praise God if he is. And if the holy spirit brought you this morning, because he loves you so much and he's convicting you that you're living like an unbeliever, you should repent to the sin of unforgiveness right now. You should forgive that person unconditionally and you will prove that your salvation is true and sincere. That's how much the holy spirit loves us. Okay. Here's some great news this morning. When we finally forgive, immediately what happens is our fellowship with Jesus becomes clean and close and current and we get to enjoy the beautiful presence of Jesus like we used to before we picked up that grudge.

A second thing that happens when we forgive, we finally have open hands to receive all of the gifts and all of the blessing that the fathers wanted to give us for months, maybe for years, and God is going to pour out some gifts on you when you forgive, because he wants to honor the fact that you are obedient to his son. A third thing that happens to us when we finally forgive unconditionally that person who really wronged us, Jesus will transform the open wounds caused by that person.

You know those open wounds that St has been picking at for months and years? When we finally forgive that person unconditionally, the way Jesus forgave us, Jesus will transform those open wounds into healed scars. And we begin looking a lot more like Jesus, because he has healed scars from those who wounded him and that he unconditionally forgave. And what used to be a landing pad for Satan now becomes a testimony to the goodness and the grace and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Okay. A second common area that keeps us from enjoying the full Lordship of Jesus, number two is worry. And a hush fell over the crowd because now you've gone to Midland, right? Worry. Church, listen to this kingdom rule of thumb. Anything I'm worried about right now is not under the Lordship of Jesus.

Anything I'm worried about right now is not under the Lordship of Jesus. I'm still trying to control it. I'm still trying to Lord over it. Isn't it interesting that in the church we consider the sin of worry kind of a second class sin, kind of sin light. I mean it's not murder. It's not adultery. It's not stealing. But worry is a sin because it is unbelief. It is unbelief in the promises of God. It's an unbelief in the power of God. It's an unbelief in the goodness of God, the character of God, and the attributes of God. In Matthew chapter six, Jesus gives us a direct command, do not worry. And he bases it on who your heavenly father is. That's his reasoning. Do not worry. Don't you know who your heavenly father is? He owns everything. He's the God of the universe. You are the apple of his eye.

He sings over you. He rejoices over you. He surrounds you with warring angels in the holy spirit. Do not worry because of who your heavenly father is. Look at those words in Matthew 6 25 through 27: Jesus said therefore I tell you do not worry about your life. What you will eat or drink or about your body. What you will wear is not life. More than food and the body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sew or reap or store away in barns. Yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? How can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Here's some encouraging news. If you're a born again believer, there are over 5,000 personal promises in the Bible from your heavenly father to you. Over 5,000.

So the next time worry tries to come in like a flood in your mind and your emotions, you can just grab a handful of those promises and you can decree them and you can declare them and you can pray them back to God. Something like this: father, I know I'm being tempted to worry right now because of the circumstances I'm going through. But instead of worry, I choose to believe that father, you're with me. You're for me, and you're working on my behalf. That you're going to supply all of my needs through Christ Jesus. That father, this trial that I'm going through, ultimately you're going to work it out for my good and your glory.

Father, instead of worrying, I believe that no weapon that's formed against me shall prosper. Father, I even believe Psalm 56, where you promise that you keep all of my tears and you collect them in a bottle and anyone who is scheming against me or plotting against me or seeking to bring injustice against me, if they don't repent on judgment day, you're going to come against them with your full wrath and judgment. And you're going to set it right. In Jesus' name, amen. Now I can go to bed. That's how we combat worry right there. Now saints let's get amen. He deserves the glory.

Let's get really real. What do we do when worry wakes us up at three o'clock in the middle of the night. Does that ever happen to you? That happens to me a lot. I call that the bewitching hour, right around 3:00 AM. Because when you wake up and worry comes in like a flood, you are hypersensitive to everything in that dark room and everything in the spirit realm. And I've learned through lots of trial and error and failing many times that when worry wakes you up at 3:00 AM, you only have two choices. I'm either going to worry or I'm going to worship.

And those two activities are diametrically opposed because when I worship I'm full of faith and belief and when I worry I'm full of unbelief. Well, God really brought this nightly battle home to me in a very real way. Several years ago, when my beautiful wife, Beth and I were planting our third church, we had a very small core group. We had very small giving and we had three small children and I wasn't only bivocational. I was trivocational. My third job was getting up every day at 5:00 AM to deliver the newspaper. Here I had a master's degree and I'm a paper boy. But man, when you want to feed your family, you'll do whatever it takes, amen. So that was our situation. And almost every night worry would come in and join the enemy. And they would write a book called Worst Case Scenario every night.

And I laid there in bed and I felt so vulnerable and I tried to worship, but I couldn't break through and worry just was winning. Then sovereignly, God had me listen to some AM Christian radio station. I heard an old country preacher give this spiritual strategy. He said for those nights when worry comes in like a massive flood into your emotions, into your mind, and you feel it heavy on your chest, your spiritual strategy at that point for breakthrough is three words: eat some carpet. He literally said, get up out of bed physically, bow down in your bedroom or in your living room, and start praising God because James four seven will kick in. Do you know what James four seven says? Submit yourself then to the Lord and Satan must flee. And I'm telling you I've used that so many times and it works every single time because it's a biblical promise.

Aren't you glad you came today to get those three words, eat some carpet. I mean seriously, I could be done preaching right now, but pastor Jeff is paying me by the word, so let's move on. Okay. Now connected with all of this, an area that causes worry for many is the burden of prodigal children and prodigal grandchildren.

We have many parents and grandparents in this church whose heart is breaking over the prodigal children in their life. They desire for them to come back to the Lord, to walk with Jesus, live for Jesus, worship and enjoy Jesus in this life and in the next. Their heart's breaking. The father's heart is breaking and that is the time we're very susceptible to worry. And the natural thing to do when we have a prodigal in our life that we love is to worry even more. The supernatural thing to do is to call out to the Lord of the harvest that he will soften their heart, that he will bring them back, that he will remove the chains, that he will remove the spiritual blinders from their heart and give them a fresh view of Jesus Christ.

That he will bring someone under their life other than you even to share the life giving gospel with them. That they'll recognize their true condition trapped in sin, that if they die in that sin, it'll drag them to an eternity in hell of just punishment and their need for a savior. Well, about three months ago, I was kind of praying about this whole topic and the holy spirit gave me a vision that was crystal clear. It was a vision of this worship center, not the fellowship hall, not the lobby, this worship center. And it was a vision of a Sunday night. And it was a vision of clusters of our intercessory prayer team across the front of this platform. And it was a vision of the parents and grandparents of prodigals streaming down to receive prayer, agree and prayer that God wants to bring all the prodigals home.

That was the vision that the holy spirit clearly gave me. So on September 11th, which is a Sunday night, from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, we're going to start a ministry called prayer for prodigals. And what's going to happen is it's going to be in this room, not the fellowship hall, not the lobby. The holy spirit wants it here. And I'm inviting all of our ancestors to come here and be clustered right in the front. It's going to be profoundly simple, no worship team, just worship music playing softly on the speakers. And we're going to invite all parents and grandparents of prodigals. It's like an open house for prayer. You can come anytime between six and seven and I believe God is going to have you stream down these aisles to receive prayer for your prodigal because their story is not over until the Lord Jesus says it's over. That's going to happen on Sunday, September 11th.

Now I have put together an email address, prayerforprodigals@bravechurch.online. Before September 11th, we would love to know the name of the prodigal that's breaking your heart, the name of the prodigal you want prayer for. And you can give us any details about their life or their current circumstances that you want to give. But I completely believe this is from the holy spirit in these last days, we're going to see amazing breakthrough. Okay. A third area that keeps us from enjoying the Lordship of Jesus is habitual sin patterns. A habitual sin pattern is a sin from my old life that keeps calling back to me. It doesn't fit me anymore because I'm a new creation in Christ and righteousness fits me. Sin does not fit me. It's not who I am, but this one sin from my old life keeps calling back to me and more times than not, I go running after it.

In fact, I've run after it. So many times that I've worn a path to it, almost a rut to it. And by being in that area so often I've given territory over to the enemy and he's been lying to me that I'm never going to have victory, that I can't have victory over this habitual sin pattern. He's telling me that yes, you can defeat all these other temptations in your life, but you're just going to have to live with this one. And you can't dare tell anybody about that. Are you kidding me? If you let anybody know about habitual sin pattern at Brave Church, they will excommunicate you so fast it'll make your head spin. That's how Satan lies to us. And what happens is that keeps us from enjoying the full Lordship of Jesus Christ because this habitual sin pattern is damaging my soul.

It's damaging my family. It's damaging my marriage. It's damaging my children and Satan's got a massive foothold here. He's acting like he owns all this territory because I've given it over to him. If I want to be set free from that stronghold of sin, yes, I need to repent. Repenting is agreeing with God, I don't want to be part of that. That is carnal. That's from Satan. That's destructive. And I want to turn away from it. But because we have given territory to the enemy so often, we have to repent and we have to renounce Satan's ownership in that territory. You can do this through a biblical prayer of renouncing a stronghold. I have a model one here I want to pray for you. Dear heavenly father, I praise you that I am United with the Lord Jesus in all of his life and work. I affirm that I belong fully to Jesus Christ and I'm seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, far above all principalities and supernatural powers of darkness.

I now ask you, holy spirit, to search through my conscious, my unconscious and my subconscious thoughts for any control of wicked spirits and lies that I've given over to the enemy. Evict them now to where the Lord Jesus has commanded them to go. Sweep my thinking totally clean from evil powers, demons lies and manipulation. Break all of their power and oppression of my thought process. By my authority in Jesus Christ, I take back all authority I handed over to the lies of Satan. I bring myself under the Lordship of Jesus and I present all of myself as a living sacrifice to Christ alone. In his powerful name I pray, amen. That's how we break the strongholds of habitual sin patterns. We repent and we renounce. Now I'm going to put that prayer on the Brave app for you. It's just a model prayer, but you know when you pray it, you have to pray it out loud.

You know why? Satan cannot read our thoughts. Only God, the creator is omniscient. Satan can't read our thoughts, but he can try to plant thoughts in our mind. That's why you and I have to pray this out loud and reestablish our authority in Christ and really who owns our thought life. Who owns our emotion. Who owns us totally, Jesus Christ. By renouncing through a prayer like that, you're tearing up the rental agreement that you gave to Satan when you gave over all that territory to him by keep running back to that habitual sin pattern. If that's you today, praise God. He brought you here today. He loves you so much. He wants you to be free. He's tired of you destroying your soul, destroying your relationships, destroying your family. He wants you to be free here today. Well, we can't really have a teaching like this without having a response time in prayer.

So I'm going to have the intercessors come forward here. Our intercessory team and our elders and their wives. And I've asked the worship team to come up and there's four groups of people we talked about today. There are people who know about Jesus Christ, but have never received him as their Lord and savior. And here's what Jesus offers you. He offers you a complete exchange, your sin for his righteousness. An eternity in hell for an eternity in heaven. Spiritual death for spiritual life. If you've never received Jesus Christ, one of these people would love to pray with you to start your new life today. You'll get a new heart, new identity and a near new future. Maybe it was somebody who came in here carrying a grudge for years, maybe decades. You had no idea that the holy spirit has his divine appointment for you today, but he loves you so much.

He wants you to prove your salvation is true and release you into new freedom so you can have clean hands to receive all that God has for you. You could come up here and agree with one of these people in prayer or tell them during the message I forgave that person and I'm free and I want you to celebrate with me. Maybe you're a person here who has been overcome by the sin of worry. And now you realize that really is unbelief, but what you heard about you in Christ today, and your heavenly father, you're ready to receive prayer, drop that worry and start a brand new walk, a new season of freedom.

Or maybe you're someone who came here that has been suffering from a habitual sin pattern for months, for years. This is your day of liberation. Any of these elders or elders wives would just love to agree with you in prayer, that Jesus came to set the captives free. Father, I pray for transparency and humility in this worship center tonight. You've been so good to us today and I pray as you're speaking to people and you're convicting them and you're prompting their heart that they would come up and today would be a stone of remembrance in their spiritual journey, and they'd be able to look back and say, I remember that Sunday, August 7th at Brave Church, that was the beginning of new freedom for me. God, you'll get the glory and they'll get the joy in Jesus' name. Amen.