Hello and welcome
to this message from Calvary Albuquerque. We're excited to hear from our
special guest speaker, Kevin Miller, who is the founder
and pastor of Awaken Church in Clarksville, Tennessee. His teachings awaken people to
the relevance of God's word, equipping them for his service. If this message revolutionizes
your walk with Christ, tell us. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. Worry goes to war against
our faith every day. Life's what ifs will beat us
down and steal our attention if we let them. Thankfully, God's word
gives us a tutorial on how to flip the
script and go to war against the worry in our lives. Now we invite you to open
your bibles to Philippines chapter four as Kevin begins the
message, The War Against Worry. Turn your bibles to
Philippines chapter four. I'm honored to be filling
this pulpit today. I love this pulpit
because it's crafted for a six foot five man. That's helpful. These are rare, so
I'm thankful for them. But I'm mostly honored
to fill this pulpit because literally some of
the best Bible teachers of our generation have
taught from this stage. I mean, people like Chuck
Smith and Alistair Begg, J. Vernon McGee and Greg
Laurie and Franklin Graham. And not to mention your pastor
and mine, Pastor Skip Heizig. Literally, I'm not
making this up, one of the best Bible
teachers on the planet today. And he's our pastor. Amazing. The Bible says to give
honor where honor is due and our pastor is
worthy of our honor. 34 years of faithfulness
as a pastor, 33 years of faithfulness to his wife. We need to think the Lord
for Him and the opportunity that we get to gather
together here today. So Why don't we start
with prayer and then we'll dive into Philippines 4. Would you guys pray with me? Jesus, we're so honored to
be here in your presence. I believe there's
something so powerful that takes place when your
people gather in your house and open your word and
your spirit begins to move. That's why your word tells us
don't forsake these gatherings. Because when we gather
together, you stir us up to love and good works. And I pray that
would happen today. Lord, I'm praying for two
groups of people here today. Those who know you and have a
saving relationship with you, Lord. I pray that you would encourage
us and empower us in our faith. You would fill our
sails with faith that we would launch
out into the deep to follow harder after
you than ever before. Lord, I also lift up people
across this campus who will hear this message this weekend,
that maybe they thought that they had a relationship with
you but they realize today that they don't. Whatever their story is,
they've lived their life up until this point
exhausting themselves, trying to find peace. And today, Lord, I pray
that they would encounter it for the very first time. Would you grab their
hearts and change them from the inside out, God? Thank you so much for
the power of your word. We believe in it. We're leaning in because we know
that when your word is open, something amazing is
going to take place. We look forward
to it Lord and we pray these things in
the name of Jesus. Everybody said. Amen. Amen. Man, it's so good
to be with you guys. I want to talk to you guys a
little bit today about worry. Is that OK? If not, I'm going to
anyway, so buckle up. Worry is something
that I think we're all prone to on some level. And the danger of worry is
that it can be crippling. It can just really
blind us and take away our strength to move forward
in what God has called us to. And you know, the irony of
worry is that worry often causes the things that
are outside of our control to control us. And I think one
of the things that contributes so
often to our worry is that we don't
have the answers. We love answers. We love to know
timing and the date and the reasons behind
everything that's happening on our lives. We want explanations,
we want answers. And our bibles tell
us that God's ways are higher than our
ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And if you're
anything like me, you may have that verse
underlined in your Bible, but secretly you
think, I sure wish God's thoughts were a little
bit more like mine, right? And so there's like this
mystery to following Christ that sometimes frustrates
us, if we're being honest. And it can cause this
tension in our lives because we don't always
know what God's doing. And I think that tension is
compounded in the information age that we live in. I don't know about you,
but I find myself commonly in conversations that
end with my smartphone by saying something like,
just Google it or ask Siri. I don't know about you, but I
ask Siri stuff all the time. And five years ago,
this didn't happen. Five years ago, we would
actually sometimes end conversations in mystery. Without knowing the answer. Can you believe that? But we don't have
to do that anymore because the answers are at
our fingertips for everything. So that's fun when it comes
to directions and song lyrics and recipes and
all of that stuff. But the Bible says we walk
by faith, not by Siri. Or I think it's
something like that. Sometimes I get
that one mixed up. Today I want to talk
to you about going to war against worry. Because I believe that
there are so many of us that we live like these
weighed down worriers. But God has called us and
equipped us and given us everything we need
to be victorious warriors that march ahead
in faith and victory. We weren't designed
to be worriers. We were created to be warriors. And I believe all of us on
some level, wherever you are, wherever you're hearing my
voice right now, every one of us is pursuing peace in some way. Did you know that? Every one of us. We're after it. We want peace in our lives. And there are so many
outlets that the world says, if you only had this,
then you would finally have that peace
or that happiness that you're looking for in life. And I'm here today to talk
to you about the God who is the source of our peace. The Bible says that Jesus
is the Prince of Peace. And if you want peace, I'm
going to tell you today about how to get
it in your life. In fact, today you will
have an opportunity to embrace the peace that
surpasses all understanding. We're going to read about this
in Philippines chapter four. Now the great thing
about Philippians is we're going to read from
a book, a letter written by the apostle Paul. Which if you know his story,
you might agree with me in saying that if there's a guy
in the Bible that we would say we would make an exception
to the worry rule, like we'll let that guy
worry about some stuff, it would probably be Paul. If you've read his story
in the book of Acts, you know this guy had a pretty
gnarly time following the Lord, to say the least. Just read some of the
things that he went through. This guy had
enemies at one point that vowed not to sleep
or eat until he was dead. The guy was
shipwrecked and beaten. One time he preached and
they didn't like his message apparently, and so they
dragged him out of the city and they beat him up until
they thought it was dead. They left him on
the ground for dead. And then he got back
up eventually, came to, got back up,
brushed himself off, and went back into the same
city and started preaching. This is the guy that we're
learning from, all right? So how crazy is it that a guy
who we would say he probably has the right to worry about
some things, he chose not to. Instead what he did,
he pens a letter. And this is not from the
freedom of his own home. Philippines was written from
the floor of a Roman prison cell while chained to a Roman guard. And he pens a tutorial on how
to go to war against worry in our lives. I don't know about
you, but I want to learn from a guy like that. Anybody with me? So we're going to read from
Philippians chapter four. Let's read verse 6
through 8 and then we're going to unpack
these together. Philippians 4, verse 6. It says, "Be anxious
for nothing." How many things should
we be anxious for? None of them. Nothing. "Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving." That's important. We'll come back to it. "Let your requests
be made known to God. And the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your
minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren," verse 8,
"Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just, pure, lovely, of good report,
if there's any virtue and if there's
anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things." Here's what we're
going to do today. We're going to work our way
backwards through this text. So if you're OCD, hang with me. This is going to make
sense, all right? We're going to work our way
backwards, starting in verse 8. And we're going to start
here at number one. I want to establish
the standard. God's standard of perfect. His best. We want to establish
what the bullseye for how our heart and our
mind should look. And we find that in verse 8. We're going to work backwards. This'll make sense as we go. But what we find in
verse 8 is God's bullseye for our hearts and our minds. We want our minds
and the thoughts that are in them to be
defined by the eight words that we found in verse 8. Did you see them in verse 8? This is what our minds should
be defined by, true, noble, just, pure, holy, lovely,
of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy. And so we are commanded in verse
8 to meditate on these things. Meditate in this passage
is not like mindless yoga. We're talking about having
our minds actively engaged on these things. It's a command for us. Now, we don't have
a long time to spend on these eight characteristics. So let me boil it
down to one thought. Here's the idea when it comes
to our minds and our hearts. Make sure your mind is
open by invitation only. There are a few things that
you should be focused on and there are many
that you should not be. Let me simplify it even
a little bit further so you can understand. You're throwing a party. Let's pretend you're
throwing a party and the venue is your
mind and your heart. There's only eight
people on your guest list according to verse 8. Here's the eight
people that you and I should allow to our party. Mr. True, Mrs. Noble,
their three friends, Just, Pure, and Lovely. And the three
amigos, Good Report, Miss Virtue, of
Captain Praiseworthy. They're the only ones that
are allowed at your party. And anybody else who
shows up at your party, they weren't invited. You gotta bounce them
out of there, OK? And here's the reason. God has your best in mind. And so he wants your
mind at its best. And this is where we
start the standard. This is God's bullseye
for our brains. This is where our thoughts
and our minds and our focus should be and this is how
they should be defined. Now let's look at the
scene of the battle. Number two is the scene. Where is the battle
taking place? The trenches, the front lines. According to verse
7, it's happening in our hearts and minds. This is the scene of the battle. Now, why are our hearts
and our minds so important? Well, the Bible tells us earlier
on in Proverbs chapter four. The New Living
Translation says, "Guard your heart above all
else, for it determines the course of your life." It's obviously a big deal. Romans chapter 8, verse 6 says,
"Letting your sinful nature control your mind
leads to death. But letting the spirit
control your mind leads to life and peace." Here's the thought. An unguarded hearts is
a ticking time bomb. It's a land mine waiting
to be stepped on. Its a grenade with
the pin pulled. If we choose to allow
our hearts and our minds to go unguarded and live as
though they do not determine the course of our life,
something dangerous will eventually
transpire in our lives. And so the question is not
will it explode, but when and who will be hurt by it. Now here's the catch. The challenge with this scene
of the battle being our hearts and our minds is that we
can't see those things. And so the Bible
tells us that man looks at the outward appearance,
but the Lord sees the heart. But because we can't see
the heart and the mind, our focus naturally
gravitates toward the things that we can see. All of the external things. And so it's so easy for us
to be focused on the things that we can see. Meanwhile, while
the battle is waging in our hearts and
our minds, we're trying to just line up all
the things on the outside. That's like taking
some ibuprofen when you have pneumonia. You're dealing with the
symptoms, not the real problem. The scene of the battle is
our hearts and our minds. It's internal. But Christians, we tend to get
worked up about all the things that we can see. This is just natural
human thing to do. I meet Christians like
this all the time. I'm guilty of this
at times in my life. In fact, I'll give
you an example. And admittedly, this is a bit
of a controversial example. So if you have angry emails
for me after this, it's OK. Email me at
nateheitzig@calvaryabq.org. Did you take that down? I'd love to hear from you. So I meet Christians
who are so worried about our country because
of this recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay
marriage across our nation. And I meet Christians that the
way they're talking about it and living their
life is telling me that they think that God is
also worried about our problems. As though we serve a
god in Heaven who goes, wait, wait, wait. The Supreme Court of the
United States said what? Oh. What am I going to do? As though He fell
off His golden throne and is no longer the
king of the universe. Guys, we serve the God who
spoke the stars into existence. We serve the God who
said, let there be light when no such thing existed, OK? And I believe that we can
have such great confidence in his ability to
control the things that are far outside of our control. Because thankfully, the
things that freak us out don't bother God. The things that surprise
us don't surprise our God. Can I tell you a phrase
that God has never used? He's never said, "Uh oh." He's never said it. He's never been surprised. I'm so thankful for our
God who focuses on where the battle is being waged. Now, so here's what I'm
trying to help you understand. When we focus on
the external, we miss the battle on the internal. So I'm not trying to
downplay how big of a deal it is that our nation has
tried to redefine marriage. Which by the way, no
nation has the right to redefine something that God
defined in the first place. So I'm not trying to downplay. That's a big deal. But can we talk for a moment
about a much bigger deal? People are dying and
going to hell while we're focused on the outside stuff. Don't get me, wrong there will
be homosexual people in hell. But there will be many more
heterosexual people in hell who thought they were OK because
of all of their outside things were lined up, because the
world looked at them and said, they're a pretty good person. Because they thought that
the good in their life would outweigh the
bad and that would be enough on Judgment Day. I'm here to tell you, God
doesn't let you into heaven because you read
through the Bible a certain amount of times. God doesn't let you into heaven
because you showed up to church and sat in a chair. God doesn't let you into heaven
because you're a heterosexual. God lets you in heaven
because you had a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. He is our only hope. He's it. [APPLAUSE] There's no apart
from Jesus Christ. And so that is where the
battle is being waged. We have to focus
our attention there. And the scene of the battle
is our hearts and our minds. We cannot afford to allow
them to go unguarded. Now if there's a
battle, then obviously there must be a soldier. Let's talk about that. Number three is the soldier. Again, as we're working
backwards in this text. We find out verse
7 that God only has to deploy one
soldier in this battle. Who's the soldier? Verse 7 tells us it's
the peace of God. If we go back to our party
scene illustration earlier on. This means that if you've
allowed some people into the party going on in
your mind and your heart that aren't supposed to be there. Verse 7, the peace of
God is your bouncer. He came to get
everybody out that was not supposed to be there. So here's the thought for us. God's peace defeats what we
could not defeat in a lifetime. Did you know that? You will exhaust yourself
trying to find peace apart from the Prince of Peace. So many of you have lived your
lives up until this point, and I'm praying
this changes today, but you've lived your life up
until this point seeking peace wherever the world
says, if you had this, then you would finally be happy. I'm here to tell you,
it is not accessible apart from Jesus Christ. It is the peace
of God that guards our hearts and our minds. And so God's peace
can defeat what we can't defeat in a lifetime. And we get so amazed at these
stories of heroin addicts and prostitutes who put
their faith in Christ. And I love stories like that. We just hired a guy at our
church who just a few years ago was addicted to heroin. And in two years of
his life attended nine funerals for his
friends who either overdosed, committed suicide,
or were murdered. This guy sat in my office
and told me his story. And now he's on
our church staff, faithfully walking with Jesus. And we hear stories like
this and we're amazed. I love stories like this. But on the other hand,
you know what I say? Of course they finally
realized they needed Jesus. Because life is exhausting and
completely void of all peace until you let God in. It's the peace of God. Only from Him. He is the sole manufacturer and
distributor of all true peace. And it is only when you find
it a relationship with Christ, full surrender, that you
can finally have this peace. And so it's no wonder
that Paul describes it as peace that surpasses
all understanding. You can't really
fit it in your brain how you can be at peace in
the darkest, deepest valley that you're in. It surpasses all understanding. And if you've
experienced it, you know that you can't explain it. Jesus is with you. And we rest in that. I watch people who
suffer through so many different
seasons and challenges that they face in their life. And I especially watch people
who are not followers of Christ try to just numb
the pain of life. And I wonder, how do you
make it through a divorce? How do you survive the
loss of a loved one? How do you have
hope when you hear that diagnosis from the doctor? How do you have hope
in the middle of all that if you don't have Jesus? It's no wonder our culture
turns to drugs and sex and so many other
things to numb the pain. What we really need
is the peace of God. God's peace will defeat what we
couldn't defeat in a lifetime. So we've got the
standard, right? Verse 8. Eight characteristics, this
is God's bullseye for us. The scene of the
battle we understand is our hearts and minds. It's internal. And we know that
the soldier that wages war that can defeat
what we could never defeat is the peace of God. But how do we get this
soldier into our lives? Come on, I need some peace,
you might be thinking. Well let me tell
you how this works. Number four, let's
hit the strategy. Here's how this
happens in our lives. If God's peace is the
soldier, then verse 6 is the call that
deploys the soldier. Look at verse 6. "Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer," there it is, "and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your request be
made known to God." I love how the New
Living Translation simplifies this verse. It says, "Don't
worry about anything. Instead pray about everything." Isn't that good? So simple. That's the thought for us. So here it is. A peace filled life
is only accessible to a prayerful heart. You want peace, you have to
pray to the source of peace. Because it just
told us in verse 6, in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving. Now we could do
multiple sermons on what it looks like to pray for these
things and talk through prayer. We don't have time
for that today. But I want to
highlight an ingredient that Paul makes sure to include
in this talk about prayer that is so easy for us to
leave out of our prayers. We're so concerned
about all of the things that we don't have
that we forget to be thankful for the
things that we do have. And so Paul says, by everything
with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Guys, please don't forget to
be thankful and worshipful in your prayers. We have so much to
thank God for, amen? I mean, a prayer
without Thanksgiving is like a biscochito
without the sugar. This is not OK. Prayer without thanksgiving
is like a breakfast burrito without green chili. Come on, this should be illegal. New Mexicans, am I
speaking your language? Are you picking up
what I'm laying down? Come on, a prayer
without thanksgiving doesn't make sense. And I wonder if our
worry in our lives stems from a lack of worship. I wonder if there's
so much that seems to be taking over our lives
because we're so easily taken over the things
that we don't have instead of focusing on all the
amazing things that we do have. Now I'm not talking about
Peter Pan think happy thoughts theology here. I'm not talking about
living in denial and pretending that everything
is awesome in your life. LEGO Movie,
everything is awesome. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is
let's take some time and let's think through
some of the great things that God has done. Because what I've found is
that an attitude of gratitude has such a healing
effect on the heart. And I've learned from
experience that so many times when my life is
filled with worry, it's because it's
also empty of worship. And so I wonder
what would happen if we put some worship
back into our prayers. And maybe you're wondering,
why is this such a big deal that we're focused on worry? Well here's the message
that worry communicates. Worry tells God and
it tells everybody who's watching your life, which
by the way if you're Christian, the world is watching. Worry communicates
that you don't trust God for the details. Worry basically tells God,
without ever saying this, worry tells God, hey, thanks
for all the stuff you've done in the past. I know like that whole speaking
stars into existence thing was pretty great. And like, the orbiting
of the planets and how you made all the animals
and you're making my heart beat right now. That's cool and all, but
I'll take it from here. That's what worry communicates. We don't trust God
with the details. Come on, let's be honest. Moment of honesty here. You and I are really
bad at being God. Can we just commit today
to give God His job back? Let Him be God. Why do you and I get so
weighed down and worried and lose sleep about stuff
we weren't meant to bear? The Bible says, "Cast
your cares on Him because He cares for you." Hey God, I'll let
you stay up tonight. I'm going to bed. Martin Luther said
pray and let God worry. You know, something
happens amazingly when I'm around my kids. I have three kids. Eight, five, and one. And when I'm not
around my kids, they tend to do crazy things that end
up with bleeding and Band-Aids. They're wobbly and
fearful and clumsy. My eight-year-old is
terrified of thunderstorms. She invents reasons
to get out of bed and come get in bed
with me when there's like a possibility of
maybe it might rain. Like, I'll be
tucking her into bed and she'll go, hey dad,
real quick, can I have a drink of water, number one. Number two, will you
check the weather? She's so stressed
about maybe it's going to lightning tonight. But the walls can be shaking
and she runs downstairs from the thunderstorm and
she gets in bed next to me and she's out in a minute,
asleep like a rock. There's something that
happens when I'm with my kids and I open my arms
or I grab their hand. What I've found is that
the nearness of the father gives confidence to the
heart of his children. And so you may have
walked in here today, you may be listening to this
right now in your family room or here in the sanctuary. You're in the balcony, you're
out there in the amphitheater, wherever you're
hearing this right now, you came today as a worrier. You're stressed out. Man, life is falling apart. You never thought you would
be in the middle of a divorce, but you find
yourself there today. You got a call this
week from a doctor that you never thought
you would hear. You've got a family
member in a hospital bed somewhere that's got
a few months left according to the doctor. You just lost your job. The future doesn't look
bright for your family. You don't know how
you're going to put food on the table for
your kids this week. You may have walked
in here a worrier. I hope you would leave
today as a warrior, knowing the god that you serve. And again, I wonder if our worry
stems from a lack of worship. So if you would allow
me for a moment, can I inject some praise into
your pity party for a moment? Is that OK? Because the Bible I read
says that God demonstrates His own love toward us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The Bible says that
there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who walk in Christ Jesus. That if we are faithless,
He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. The Bible says, He Himself has
said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The same spirit
who raised Christ from the dead, Romans 8:11,
is alive inside of you. Jesus said, in this world,
you will have tribulation. But be of good courage. I have overcome the world. What then shall we
say to these things? If God is for us, who
can be against us? Yet in all these
things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither life nor death nor angels nor
principalities nor powers nor things present nor
things to come nor height nor depth nor any
other created thing shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. He who is in me is greater
than He who is in the world. And the God of peace will crush
Satan under your feet shortly. And then we will sing, o
death, where is your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? Because the sting of sin is
death and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to
our God who gives us the victory and our
Lord Jesus Christ. Come on, church. It is time that we live
like the victorious warriors that we were created to be. Because we serve the lion
of the tribe of Judah. He has conquered. The war is over. Phew. Let me leave you
with this thought. We all want peace. But you need to know it's only
accessible, the peace of God is only accessible
through the grace of God. Paul begins every letter that
he writes with a similar phrase. He says, grace to you and peace. You'll never read peace to
you and then some grace. It's always grace
to you and peace. We're all after the
peace, but so many of us want to circumnavigate the
grace to get to the peace. I'm here to tell you today
that the peace of God is only accessible through the
doorway of the grace of God. The grace of God is the key
that unlocks the peace of God. We don't like the grace of
God because that immediately makes us have to admit
that we're fallen and in need of grace. And many of you today, wherever
you're hearing me right now, I'm going to give you
an opportunity here in just a moment to swallow
some pride, to humble yourself, and to understand what you
are most in need of today is to receive the grace of God. Because it is only
through His grace that you can access His peace. And He would love
to grant you peace that you can't even
comprehend today. But it will only
happen when you lay it all down at the feet of
Jesus and accept salvation through the name
of Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me? Jesus, we believe
this right now. We believe it. We're standing on the
promises of scripture. We believe that when the what
ifs of life begin to worry us, we replace them
with the what is. We stand on the
promise of Your word. So Lord, I pray for
Christians across this campus right now that have a
relationship with you. I pray Lord that You would lift
their souls, lift their heads, let their eyes fixed on you. Release that burden. Strengthen them. Lord, I pray now for
everybody who does not have a saving relationship with You. I believe right now you
are calling people out of sin to their Savior. But there's a problem. Their pride is in the way. And Lord I pray that You would
do what Your word says it does. It's like a fire,
it's like a hammer that breaks apart the stone. I pray You would break
apart hearts of stone and set us on fire today. Lord, across this
campus I ask you that you would grant faith
to those who are lacking it. And for the first
time ever today that they would finally
experience the peace of God that they've been searching for
in a world that is empty of it. We pray that right now, Lord. And while your
heads about and eyes closed, wherever you're siting,
this is your opportunity. I don't know why you
came to church today, but I have a hunch that God
brought you here for a reason. I don't think it's any accident
that you are sitting wherever you are within the
hearing my voice and I believe God is calling
some of you out of your sin and to Himself today. He wants to grant you peace
in the midst of your valley. In the midst of your storm,
in the midst of your pain, He wants to give you peace
and life and forgiveness. He wants to allow you
to start fresh today. And if you would like to
receive that gift of salvation, this is your moment. What I'm going to
ask you to do right now, if the Lord's
speaking to your heart and you understand your
need, that you're a sinner and you need to be
saved today and you are willing to surrender
your life to Him and follow Jesus, what I'm
going to ask you to do right now, wherever you are as
you hear my voice right now, would you lift up your hand. And in a moment,
I'm going to ask you to step out of
your chair or come in maybe out of
the amphitheater, join me from the
balcony, right down here, and I want to just help you
make this a public decision to follow Jesus Christ. Would you put your
hand up right where you are if the Lord
speaking to you and you realize today what
you need is the peace of God, but you're only going to get
it through the grace of God. I'll wait just a moment. But I believe God is calling
people across this campus here today. I'm going to ask you, would
you respond right now? Today the Bible says is
the day of salvation. And I know you
didn't plan for this. But you're not
guaranteed tomorrow. I see your hand all the way
in the back, praise God. All the way in the
hallway back there. Come on, where are you? I see over here on the side,
right here in the middle. Come on, if God's speaking
to you, I see your hand. You can put your hand down
after you've raised it. If you're in the amphitheater,
start making your way in here. I want you to join us as I
help you make this public. Is there anybody, if
you're in the balcony, if you're in the back, I see you
right here on the second row. Praise God. People of all ages making
this decision here today. It's the most important decision
you'll ever make in your life. Is there anybody else? We'll wait just a moment. And then I'm going to
ask you to come forward. We want to celebrate with you. Jesus, thank you for the
hands that have gone up. Lord, I pray that you would
do a supernatural work, that today would mark a day
where their lives are never the same. Pray this in Your name
give them the boldness to get out of their chair
and make this a public life change as they surrender
their hearts to you. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Church, would you stand with me? We have a reason
to celebrate today because there's people
who are deciding to receive the grace of God. And we're already
joined right here. Come on. If you've raised your hand
or if you should have, would you step out right now? If you're in the
balcony, you come down. If you're in the
back, come join us. If you're in the
amphitheater, come on in. We want to celebrate
this decision with you. The greatest day of your
life here on earth as you turn your eternity
over to Jesus. Come on church, we got
something to celebrate here. Oh, man. [APPLAUSE] Wherever you're at, you come. Right now. We'll wait. You come as you are, beaten
and bruised and broken. Jesus takes you as you are. Don't wait until
you're cleaned up. He'll start to clean up. You come as you are. (SINGING) I'm running to your
arms, I'm running to your arms. The riches of your love
will always be enough. Nothing compares
to your embrace. Light of the world
forever reign. All right, here's what
we're going to do. We're going to make
this real quick. I just want to give you guys
a few words to pray out loud. We're going just say this
as a prayer to the Lord as you guys choose today to
surrender your hearts to Jesus. And so I'm going to give
you a few words to say. These aren't code
words in heaven. This is just you saying
some things from your heart to the Lord. And we're going to
invite Jesus to take over your life believing that
today you're a new creation. Nothing will ever be the same. It's a great day. [APPLAUSE] I'M going to give you
guys some words to say. Would you guys just repeat
these out loud after me? Say dear Jesus. Dear Jesus. I commit my life to you. I commit my life to you. I'm all yours. I'm all yours. I'm done living for myself. I'm done living for myself. And I want to live for You. And I want to live for You. Thank you for paying the price. Thank you for paying the price. In my place. In my place. Thank you for dying in my place. Thank you for dying in my place. And that you're alive today. And that you're alive today. I have a reason to celebrate. I have a reason to celebrate. In Jesus' name I pray. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Come on, church. Yeah. We hope you enjoyed
this special service from Calvary
Albuquerque featuring our guest speaker Kevin Miller. Were you challenged with
what you just heard? Well let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online and securely
at calvaryabq.org/giving. Thank you for joining us for the
special teaching from Calvary Albuquerque.
