- How many of you honestly believe in the power of prayer, raise your hands? (audience cheering) Excellent. How many of you, even though you believe in the power of prayer,
believe you could pray more consistently and with more faith? Interesting, right? That's funny to me. Why is it that we as followers of Jesus know that we have access to go boldly before the throne of grace, that God hears our prayers,
He's moved by our faith, and yet so often our prayer
life can be inconsistent, can be haphazard, and is often
faithless in so many ways? Why do you think that is? My theory is that there are a lot of us that even though we really
do love and honor God, we don't feel like we're
good at praying at all. It could be because some people are really, really good at it, and when we're in a prayer time with them we feel like oh my gosh, I'm not gonna pray out loud after that. We get a little prayer envy. I don't know if you've
ever been around someone that almost, they look
like a professional prayer, meaning they're so good
like God probably goes, "Wow, that was really good," you know? And it's almost like there's this implied point system to praying, like you get more points if you use a Bible verse in your prayer, you're praying like,
"And God, we just ask you "to come upon us as you say in your word "in Isaiah chapter 54, God, "that no weapon formed
against us will prosper." That person can pray. They just used the Bible. I didn't know where that Bible verse was. Or you get bonus points
if you bind up the devil, 'cause when you bind up the devil, people go like, "Mm, yeah," and your prayer's like,
"I bind you, devil. "Get out of here in
Jesus' name" or whatever." And then if someone says, "Yes, Lord," in your prayer, ding, ding,
ding, ding more points. (audience laughing) I've often felt like a prayer failure, like a point-less prayer, like no Bible verse, no
mm, yes, Jesus, you know? And sometimes just almost
pointless before God, meaning what was that all about? Some people, you intimidate me. You're like, "Hey, let's get together "and pray for like an hour." Let's not. (audience laughing) An hour, are you kidding me? Five minutes straight, that feels like an accomplishment for me. Honestly, there have been times when I get very bored praying, like I'm bored. I'm thinking God's bored
when I'm praying sometimes. Like all you're praying
is this same old routine, kinda prayer rut, I think that's a big problem for a lot of us, and maybe at the root
of it for some of us, the biggest problems
would be that our prayers are just too safe, predictable,
mundane, rote, and safe. God bless this food, this
greasy cheeseburger and fries I'm about to eat, bless this food. That takes faith to pray that, whatever. (audience laughing) God, keep me safe today, be with me, help me get a good parking spot, whatever. (audience laughing) Sometimes I wonder if the
all-powerful God in heaven looks at our prayers like that and says, "That's almost an insult that
you're praying that safe." I'm very, very excited because this week, we released a brand new book. It's called "Dangerous Prayers." (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) The service that my mom
was in was much louder 'cause she screamed and went kinda crazy, but the title is "Dangerous Prayers" and the subtitle is, "Because following Jesus
was never meant to be safe." Those of you that were
with us four years ago, we did a message series
on three dangerous prayers that are in this book. We talked about the dangerous
prayer, "God, search me," David prayed this, "Search me, God, "see if there's any offensive way in me." We talked about the very dangerous prayer, "God, break me," break me. And we talked about the
dangerous prayer, "Send me. "Anywhere, anytime,
whatever you want, God, "I'm available." In the next four weeks what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about
four entirely different, brand new dangerous prayers. Our dangerous prayer today
comes from the book of Acts, it starts in the fourth chapter. To give you the context, Peter and John were preaching with great faith on the death and the
resurrection of Jesus, and they are praying for miracles, and there was this guy who was
unable to walk for 40 years, and they prayed for this guy, and God miraculously healed this guy, and now he was able to walk. The only problem is the Sadducees and the captain of the temple guard and some of the religious leaders thought that Peter and John were leading some kind of cultish movement and so these leaders
arrested Peter and John, put them in prison, put
them on trial the next day before the Sanhedrin,
who would've surrounded them in a circle and
asked them this question: "By what authority are
you doing these miracles? "In whose name are you preaching "this message you're preaching?" And Peter responded in Acts
chapter four, verse 10, he's crazy bold but he says this, he says, "Let me clearly
state to all of you "and all the people of Israel," in other words, make no mistake, "that this man was healed
by the powerful name "of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, "the man you crucified but
whom God raised from the dead." Some might say that was bold. - Yeah.
- Bold. - That was bold beyond measure, because Peter's saying basically, "You killed Him, but God raised Him back." One of the reasons this was so bold, not just the fact that he
said, "You killed them," but whenever Peter said, "God
raised Him from the dead," the Sadducees did not believe in any form of bodily resurrection. What Peter was essentially doing was making a declaration of war. "You did this, God raised
Him, and I'm declaring war." Because of this boldness, verse 13 says, "The members of the council were amazed," they were taken aback,
they were blown away, "they were amazed when they saw "the boldness of Peter and John, "for they could see that
they were ordinary men "with no special training
in the Scriptures." They were amazed, blown
away, that these regular, unschooled, ordinary guys were so bold. This Scripture is funny to me
because the word in the Greek that's translated as
ordinary is the word idiotas. (audience laughing) Think about it with me. This word can be translated as unschooled, ordinary, of no special value, or idiotas can be translated,
you guessed it, as-- - [Together] Idiots. - They were blown away
and amazed at these idiots who had nothing special about them, but they were incredibly bold
in their faith for Jesus. So suddenly, there's a
little bit of a problem. The religious leaders looking on, they've got a guy that
couldn't walk but now he can, and so there's obviously a miracle, but they're afraid that Peter and John, this movement's gonna take over, so they've gotta shut them
down, so they threaten them. "Don't ever preach about Jesus. "Stop doing these miracles
however you do them. "If you talk about Jesus,
we will arrest you, "we will beat you, and
we will execute you. "Don't talk about Jesus or
you will physically pay." So what do you think Peter and John did when they could potentially not only be physically beaten and
tortured, but lose their lives? They did what I did, they prayed. But lemme tell you what
these men did not pray. They didn't pray, "Oh, God, keep us safe
from these bad guys. "Don't let anything bad happen to us. "God, all I want is a
nice job with a good 401K, "I just wanna be happily
married and left alone, "I just wanna go to my little Life Group "and listen to my little Christian music. "I wanna do my little
praise dance at church, "and I just wanna be comfortable." They didn't pray anything like that. What instead they prayed
with a threat of death was they prayed a very dangerous prayer, because following Jesus
was never meant to be safe. And I wanna show you the
prayer that they prayed, and this is our dangerous prayer that we're gonna pray
as a church this week, and who knows, you may incorporate this into your prayer life
throughout the years to come. Verse 29 they said this to God: "And now, O Lord, hear their threats," in other words, "we know
they plan to beat us "and to kill us if we talk about Jesus." "Hear their threats," and
watch this dangerous prayer, "and give us, your servants, "great boldness in preaching your word. Make me bold, God. Make us bold. Give us unshakable spiritual convictions, that we have the courage and the faith to obey you no matter
what the personal cost. God, even though it may
be painful, make me bold. And all of the religious leaders were amazed by their boldness. Question for you. How amazed, for those of you
who are followers of Christ, how amazed are people by your boldness? Think about it. We're gonna talk about this
this week in our Life Groups. On a scale of one to ten, one
being the absolute lowest, ten being the highest, how amazed are people by your boldness? Some of you, you might
even be a little modest and say like, "Oh, probably
a seven or a eight," but the truth is you're a 9 or a 10 because everyone,
everywhere that knows you know where you stand, that
you've been transformed by the grace of Jesus, that you have spiritual
fruit in all that you do. Sometimes you speak up publicly, other times you don't even have to, just your presence alone represents the goodness and the grace of God. Everybody knows whether they agree or not that you are a committed disciple, you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're up at a eight or a nine. Others of you, if you're really honest, you might say, "I'm a Christian, "but I just don't talk about it much, "I'm probably more like
a two, maybe a three. "I'm on the lower end." You might be the one that you're at work, and you work with someone
for three or four years, and they say, "Oh my
gosh, you're a Christian? "I had no idea." "We've been working
side-by-side for four years. "You go to Life.Church? "Wow, I go to Life.Church
too, what campus do you go to? "I had no idea you're
a follower of Jesus." In other words, if we really drill it down to what they're saying is, "I didn't see any real fruit. "There's nothing in your life that ever "gave any evidence that you're a disciple "of the one who gave His life for you." How amazed are people by your boldness? Back when I was in college,
I was a new follower of Jesus and we were studying in a Bible study this Acts 4 and 5 text, and we all agreed to start
praying, "Make us bold." Because in college, we
wanted to be popular, we wanted to be liked, we didn't want to be
written off as Jesus freaks, but we recognized after who
Jesus was and what He did, make us bold. Well, it was the end of my senior year and I had just met Amy, we'd been dating for about two months, but even though it'd been two months, I knew she was the one for me, and I was gonna close the deal and all God's people said-- - [Together] Amen. - Amen, I was in love and all
the love songs on the radio made sense and it was amazing. (audience laughing) And we had this banquet at
the end of my senior year that was the sports banquet for all of the athletes in my university, and I knew that I was getting an award, the reason I knew is
because my mom and dad drove up two hours to be there, so that cued me in that
someone told them to be there. I had no idea that the
award I was gonna get was the top big one, it was
the athlete of the year, top performing student athlete. And so they called me up and
I was really taken aback, and they said, "Would you
like to say a few words "for maybe 60 seconds or so?" Little did they know (audience laughs) that I had been asking
for God to make me bold. So the first thing I did was
just declare my love for Amy, even though I'd only
known her for two months. I introduced her as my Christian babe. Is that true?
(audience laughing) That's true, I said, "This
is my Christian babe, "of whom I would marry," and
I had to get that settled in case there were any
other guys out there who thought they had a
chance, uh-uh, no, get back, or I'll show you bold
(audience applauding) in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, okay? And so I marked my
territory with my bride. And then I went on to declare
with every bit of boldness that my life had been
transformed by Jesus, and if you don't know who Jesus is, He is the sinless Son of God, who loved people who were broken and messed up, just like me. And I called on the name of
Jesus and He changed my life, and He forgave my sins. And then I looked out
to all my other peers, all the athletes, all the
coaches, respected faculty, and said, "If you call on His name, "you can do it today, you
can do it a year from now, "you can do it five years, "you can do it 20 years from now, "but any time you call Him,
He'll hear your prayer, "He'll forgive your
sins, His name is Jesus, "His name is above every name," and then I walked off. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) Thank you for clapping for my boldness (audience laughing) 'cause nobody clapped
after the end of that talk. (audience laughing) It was awkward! I mean not like,
"Congratulations on the award," not like, "That was
inspirational," silent. Drop the mic and nobody's
excited about it. (audience laughing) And I was walking back to
my seat just dead silent, and there was this guy
that I didn't know well but I respected him, he's
a great soccer player, and he was sitting in the seat, you see, everybody was sitting
down when I walked by them, and he just looked up at me, and his mouth was kinda
hanging open, and he goes, "Bro, that was the boldest thing "I've ever seen in my life."
(audience laughing) And then I sat down. Question for you. How amazed are people by your boldness? When they look at you would they say, "Oh, undoubtedly, beyond
a shadow of a doubt, "you are a disciple, a follower of Jesus." Or would they say, "Oh, I didn't even know "you were a Christian, really? "Me too, how amazed." I wanna look again at
this very bold prayer, and I wanna show you what God did. Peter and John prayed this, in the middle of threats
against their life, "Oh now Lord, hear their threats, "and give us, your servants, "great boldness in preaching your word." Make us bold, God. "Stretch out your hand
with a healing power; "may miraculous signs and wonders "be done through the name
of your holy servant Jesus. "After this prayer," somebody
say "After the prayer." - [Audience] After the prayer. "After this prayer, the
meeting place shook, "and they were filled
with the Holy Spirit. "Then they preached the
word of God boldly." Here's what I love. It was after the prayer, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they preached the word of God boldly. After the prayer, they were
filled with the Holy Spirit and they preached the word of God boldly. You may say, "Well, I'm not really "naturally a very bold person. "I'm kinda more quiet, I'm
a little bit more timid, "I'm more reserved, I'm
kinda the laid back type, "I don't like to be very
public with my faith." Listen, from a biblical sense, boldness is not a personality trait. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you can be naturally quiet and suddenly filled with spiritual courage, and boldness comes out as a
result of the Holy Spirit. It's not a personality trait,
(audience applauding) it is the work of the Spirit. What I love about these
guys is they prayed, the Holy Spirit came, and
they preached with boldness. They didn't go back and
put in their Air Pods, and hit their favorite pump-up song. (Craig beatboxing)
(audience laughing) What are you doing? Working on my boldness. Jesus loves people, na,
na, na, na, na. (laughs) That's kinda what I might look like before I preach sometimes,
not lying, just saying. (audience laughing) They prayed, the Holy
Spirit came upon them, and they preached with boldness. Be very careful. If you pray this dangerous prayer, "Make me bold," you may see opportunities to be bold in ways that
you never saw before. Be forewarned, oh my gosh, am
I gonna have to give a speech? Here's my PowerPoint presentation of why we should do this deal at work and you should follow Jesus, okay? Do you have to do that? Maybe, maybe not. There's innumerable ways the Holy Spirit may prompt you to be bold. You may just be in a
conversation with someone and suddenly you feel urged to ask them, "Do you mind if I pray for you?" And you're not even
comfortable praying out loud, but the next thing you know, you're calling heaven down
and believing by faith for the power of God to touch this hurting person right in front of you. You may be in a meeting
and there's something that's inappropriate and you just very lovingly and appropriately say, "Now let's not do that, we
could be better than that," and you might be bold. You might be bold when everyone else is gossiping against someone
and trash talking it, and you just don't
participate, or you walk away, or even bolder you say, "Come on, look, let's be
better people than that," and you just step in. You might be bold by dressing modestly in a culture where everyone else does anything but dress modestly. You might be bold enough to say, "You know what, I'm not
hooking up like everybody else. "I mean, that may be your thing, "but I'm called to a different lifestyle," and you just declare
it, "I'm saving myself," and that's really, really bold. You might see someone
that's hurting and say, "Hey, I'm coming to bring
you to church this week, "I'm not just inviting
you, I'm bringing you." There's a difference between
inviting and bringing. Some of you, you've been kind of inviting, but you start to bring. "You know what, guess what? "This weekend, we're going to church," and you invite someone. There are so many different ways that God might manifest Himself through the power of the Holy Spirit when you have the courage
to pray, "Make me bold." What would happen if
every day just this week you set an alarm on your phone before you go to class,
before you to work, before you go wherever, whatever you do, you took a few moments and just said, "God, make me bold today. "May I have the faith to
believe that you'll show up "and do what only you can do? "Make me bold." Peter and John. In the midst of very real
possible persecution, kept on preaching Jesus, kept on watching God do miracles, people continued to get saved, and the high priest and
the religious leaders said, "We're going to stop you." Verse 18 of Acts chapter five says, "They arrested the apostles
and put them in a public jail. "But an angel of the Lord came at night, "opened the gates of the
jail, and brought them out. Then the angel told them,
"Get back to work, boys." "Go to the temple, "and give the people
this message of life." If you're daring enough to pray a very dangerous, faith-filled
prayer, "God, make me bold," let me show you three
attributes of boldness that I promise you will see. The first one is not fun, but it is true. Number one, boldness almost always triggers spiritual opposition. Boldness almost always
triggers spiritual opposition. Peter and John, they
continued to preach boldly, "Jesus is risen from the dead," and verse 18 says they were arrested and put in a public jail. This is the second time this week they've been put in jail. A lot of times people say, "Oh my gosh, I'm trying to live for Jesus "and things aren't going well." Listen, serving Jesus is not a formula for everything going
perfectly in your life. Whenever you serve Him faithfully, there's often spiritual opposition. In fact, I don't worry when there's opposition for my obedience,
I worry when there is none because I may not be being obedient. Hear me, I promise you. If you pray, "Make me bold," the Spirit of God will come upon you and you will find yourself standing up for the power and the
name of Jesus in ways, and it will not always go well for you. People will make fun of
you, they'll laugh at you, they'll talk behind your back, you may not get invited
to all the parties, you may be passed over for a promotion, people may not let their
kids hang out with your kids, or whatever, there is
spiritual opposition, and the bottom line is this: if you're not ready to face opposition for your obedience to God, you're not ready to be used by God. It's a part of it.
(audience applauding) It's a dangerous prayer, it really is. Make me bold. Boldness often triggers
spiritual opposition. The second thing is really
exciting and that is this: that boldness often
releases God's miracles. In other words, when you
live with bold faith, you'll often see the hand of God move miraculously in and around you. I want you to see this
verse, verse 19 of Acts 5, and I hope you find it as funny as I do. To me, this is just
unbelievably hilarious. Peter and John are in
prison the second time, Luke is reporting on this,
and this is what Luke says. The way he says it just makes
me, just, it's so funny. He says, "But an angel of
the Lord came at night, "opened the gates to the
jail, and brought them out. "But an angel of the Lord came at night, "opened the gates to the
jail, and brought them out." No exclamation point, no, like, "Oh my gosh, you're not gonna
believe what happened next. "This is the most amazing
thing I've ever seen." Not, "Hey, hey, hey, listen to this. "They were in jail and an angel showed up! "Ten feet tall, eyes of blazing fire! "Sword the size of a Honda Accord!" And nothing like that. (audience laughing) An angel showed up. Listen, if an angel shows
up behind me, get the photo! (audience laughing) 'Cause I'm putting it online. Hashtag #angelwings or
whatever, I don't know. An angel shows up, I'm talking about it. This is amazing. But Luke just says, "You know what? "They're praying, they're
preaching, they're in prison, "and an angel of the Lord
shows up and opens doors." In other words, when you're
walking in obedience to God, you are not surprised
by the miracles of God. He just shows up,
(audience applauding) He's just faithful. When you start praying, "Make me bold," and the next thing, you are bold, suddenly you'll see the
power of God in your life in ways that you may not have ever before. You may pray out loud for the first time and you don't even know how
to pray and you're nervous, and suddenly you're praying with faith and it's like this prayer's
coming from somewhere else because maybe it is. Someone might ask you a verse if you're trying to share
your faith with them. You're like, (stutters). They ask you a question and
you don't know what do say. Like, "I don't know that." And suddenly a verse of
Scripture pops into your brain, and it seems to come out of nowhere. You're like, where did that come from? You won't be surprised
by the miracles of God when you're walking in obedience to God. Bold obedience often triggers the faithfulness and
miraculous power of God. Make me bold. The third thing I hope
you'll know is this: that no matter what, boldness
always requires faith. It always requires faith. You pray, "Make me
bold," and I promise you this week, you're gonna
have to live by faith in a way maybe you haven't in a long time. The angel says this to Peter and John, opens up the doors and says, "'Go to the Temple and give the
people the message of life!' "So at daybreak, the
apostles entered the Temple, "as they were told, and
immediately began teaching." What do the angels say? Essentially, "Hey, go
do the very same thing "that got you arrested twice,
go keep doing that thing, "the thing that may get you
killed, go do that thing." It's always going to take faith. Make me bold? Watch as the Spirit prompts you to do something that takes faith. Recently, I was at the gym
and a guy came up to me that happened to be the very same guy that was at the awards ceremony that said, "That was the boldest
thing that I've ever seen." I hadn't seen this guy for a long time, and he gave me an unusually warm greeting, not kinda like the, "Hey,
we played different sports "at the same college" greeting, but a much more special greeting, and he quickly told me his story that he had gone through a
very dark season in his life, and he didn't know where to turn, and he thought about
that time back in college when I talked about the power
of Jesus to heal and to save. And so he thought well, I need
to go to church somewhere, might as well go to that bold guy's church and see if he's still
saying the same thing. (audience applauding) So he said,
(audience cheering) "I came to your church,
but I know you hate it "when we call it your church." He said, "Now it's my church as well." And he said, "I love our church." And he told me how he'd been transformed by the grace of Jesus. And then we had a really awkward bro hug in the middle of a gym,
which was kinda bold in a
not-so-wanna-be-bold-that-way-everyday
type of way. (Craig laughs)
(audience laughs) And I was moved beyond description (gentle music) because you never know what
our God might set into motion through a single act of bold obedience. You never know what might happen when you pray, "Make me bold," and later on that day you
stand up for the name of Jesus, or you step in when
everyone else steps out, or you show a generous expression of love in a way that you might not
have felt comfortable otherwise, and you may not see it in that moment, but you never know what
God might set into motion through a single act of bold obedience. Here's the great news, ha-ha, Peter and John were bold, "Make us bold," and they served Jesus faithfully, so do you know how God blessed them and how God rewarded them? I wanna tell you all about it. Peter ended up marrying
his high school sweetheart, John met someone online
and fell equally in love, (audience laughing) they had the perfect weddings
at the Jerusalem chapel, they got the amazing Instagram photos, Peter took his bride to Jamaica, John took his to the Bahamas, they had the best honeymoon, they came back because
they were best friends, and riding the wave of the resurrection and the miraculous healing, they started a consulting
business together, (audience laughing) and it went wild beyond
their expectations. They made so much money,
lived such a comfortable life. In their early 50s they
sold their business, they retired in the mountains, and they raised their
grandkids happily ever after because whenever you're
boldly obedient to Jesus, your life always gets better, doesn't it? Let me tell you what
happened to Peter and John, who prayed for boldness and were incredibly bold for Jesus. Contemporary historians tell us that John was arrested
and dipped in boiling oil. It was designed to kill him because it killed almost everybody, but somehow he lived through that torture and was exiled, excommunicated
to the Isle of Patmos, where he spent the rest of his life alone. Peter, we know according
to first century sources, was martyred in Rome, and
tradition tells us when they went to crucify him as Jesus was crucified, Peter said, "I'm unworthy
to die as my Savior died. "Would you crucify me upside-down?" And that was his reward
for bold obedience. It's a dangerous prayer
because obedience and boldness, almost always trigger
spiritual opposition. So don't worry when you face opposition for your obedience and boldness to God. Worry when you don't. How amazed are people by your boldness? If you know Jesus like I know Him, if you've been forgiven
like I've been forgiven, you wanna be bold, you
wanna let the light shine, you don't care if you face opposition because you want others
to know the freedom and the grace available
through God's son Jesus. What would happen if you
pray, "Make me bold"? What would God do in you? What would God do through you? Remember though, it is a dangerous prayer. Make me bold. So Father I pray for a church
full of Jesus followers, bold and courageous in dangerous faith. At all of our churches,
nobody looking around, I'm just gonna ask, the next seven days, between now and when we
see you back at church, 'cause you will be here next weekend 'cause you have no idea what you miss when you miss a week
in the presence of God with God's people,
we'll see you next week, between now and that time, I'm
curious as to how many of you will pray this prayer daily. Put a reminder on your phone before you walk out of your
apartment or your house, do not raise your hand 'cause you feel like you wanna impress anybody, don't raise your hand out of guilt, but raise your hand out of passion that you want God to make you bold. If you'll pray that with
me for the next seven days, let's see what our God will do, will you lift up your hands right now? Just all over the place,
all of our churches. O God, thank you for people
ready to be bold in our faith. God, over the next few days, and even over the
remainder of our life, God, we pray for a spirit of boldness, that your Holy Spirit would come upon us and not that we'd be like
weird, annoying bold, but appropriately,
lovingly, full of grace, standing up for that name, that name that is above every name. God I thank you that
over the next seven days we will see time and time again when you prompt us, God,
empowered by your Spirit, to represent the glory, the goodness, of your Son, Jesus, make us bold. As you keep praying today
at all of our churches, let's just talk plainly,
let's do this if you will. Go ahead and open up your eyes and just kinda look up
this way if you will. A scale of one to ten, if
you're on the lower end, I might ask you this: do you
really know the grace of Jesus? Have you really experienced
His forgiveness? Because when you do, it's
really hard to keep to yourself. There may be some of you, you recognize you could be like me, I
grew up going to church, I had a head knowledge but
not a heart relationship. Some of you, you may recognize that's you. You can be in church but not
be engaged following Jesus. Who is Jesus? Peter and John said it very simply. He is the Son of God. He was without sin. He died on a cross for
the forgiveness of sins and God raised Him from the dead, defeating death, hell, and the grave. Anyone who calls on that name, the name that is above every name, your sins would be forgiven, you're new, the old is gone, you become new. You're not a better version of you, you're different, you're new. You'll be filled with the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that raised
Christ from the dead, and you will never, ever be the same. You belong to God, you are in His family. At all of our churches, some of you may say, "That's not me." Here's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna fix that, and you're gonna boldly
say, "I need Jesus." Let me tell you something Jesus said. He said, "If you confess me publicly, "I'll confess you before my Father. "But if you're embarrassed
by me, ashamed of me, "if you won't confess me,
I'm not gonna confess you." If you follow Jesus, you follow Jesus, and we often follow Jesus publicly. At all of our churches, those who say, "I need His grace, I need His mercy, "I need His forgiveness. "Today, I'm turning from my sins, "I wanna follow Jesus, I
don't care who's watching, "by faith, I give my life to Him "boldly at this moment,
Jesus save me, make me new, "I give my life to you,"
that's your prayer, lift your hands boldly all
over the place right now, and somebody celebrate,
(audience applauding) somebody give God some
praise, praise God for you. Others of you say, oh come
on church, come on church, hey, help them feel a little bit of love, help them feel welcome. Jesus, I need you. Others of you today, "I surrender, "I don't care who's watching,
Jesus, I wanna follow you." We love you, God loves
you, we celebrate with you. How about you just stand to
your feet if you don't mind. Hey, we're gonna pray together, and in a moment I'm gonna give you one more chance to make them feel loved. You may reach down and
hug the person next to you if they lifted up their hand today, and we're gonna pray as a family to God. Pray Heavenly Father. - [Audience] Heavenly Father. - Forgive my sins. - [Audience] Forgive my sins. - Jesus, save me. - [Audience] Jesus, save me. - Make me brand new. - [Audience] Make me brand new. - Fill me with your spirit. - [Audience] Fill me with your spirit. - So I can follow you. - [Audience] So I can follow you. - And live for you, and be bold. - [Audience] And be bold. - In all that I do. - [Audience] In all that I do. - My life is not my own. - [Audience] My life is not my own. - I give it to you. - [Audience] I give it to you. - In Jesus' name I pray. - [Audience] In Jesus' name I pray. - Could somebody celebrate big? Welcome the born
(audience applauding) into God's family, come on church, we're not praying for revival, feel it, we're living
in the middle of one. (upbeat music) - Hey, thanks again for
joining us here at Life.Church. You know, as a church it's always our hope to help you continue to grow
in our relationship with Christ and deepen your faith,
and we have a number of resources and videos
on our YouTube channel to help you do just that. You can find additional videos that go along with this message content as well as past messages,
all on our YouTube channel, and a great way to know
when those become available is simply subscribe. Again, thanks for joining us,
and we'll see you next time.
