Hello, and welcome to this
message from Pastor Skip Heizig of Calvary Albuquerque. Skip's teachings
are shared globally, and we're excited
to hear how they're helping to empower others
to live for Christ. If this message brings
you closer to Jesus, we'd like to know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/giving. Whatever season
of life you're in, we want to go
through it with you. In our new series "Where
Lives are Changed," learn about how Calvary
Albuquerque, and see how God uses Calvary to change lives. In this message, Skip considers
what that change is about and how it operates in us. We invite you to mark
your Bibles in Romans chapter 12 as Skip begins. Now, would you
turn in your Bibles please to Romans chapter
12, Romans chapter 12. Change is the one thing
that never changes. Change is a law of life. And life is dynamic. It's been said that time
stops for no man and no man can stop time. And no man can stop the change
that time will inevitably bring. Change happens around us,
and change happens to us. And that change can
come in many forms. It can come
suddenly, forcefully, or it can come slowly
and incrementally. It can be like a tidal wave,
it can be like a glacier, but it will come. And technology changes us. I've said for a long time
that we are becoming servants to these little devices,
these mobile devices. These things change
the way we live. They change the way we
drive, I'll tell you that. Ever go up to a stop sign
and look around at drivers and see how many are pulling
that little phone up? Because, my goodness, it's
been 30 second since I've looked at that screen. And it's important that
I look at that screen before I leave this light. It just seems to have
changed the way we do life, going to a restaurant,
it changes relationships. I've seen whole families
gathered around the dinner table, not talking
to each other, but looking individually
at their little screens. So we get changed by this. Nokia, the phone
company, put out a study and they said the
average mobile phone user-- I don't know if you fall
into the average category-- but the average
mobile phone user will look at his or her phone
once every six and 1/2 minutes, or 150 times in the waking
hours of a single day. I'll tell you when this
dawned on me that it changed me was the other night. Now, I've been noticing
this for months, but the other night I'm in line
and something happened to me. And I went home to look
it up on the computer, and I realized that
I have a condition. I have a syndrome. It is known as phantom
vibration syndrome. It's a real condition. And phantom vibration
syndrome is the condition whereby you perceive your
mobile phone is vibrating when, in fact, it is not. So I'm in line at a restaurant,
I was about to order some food, and my phone is vibrating. I need to answer it. And I reach down and I
realized I don't have it. It's not in my pocket. It's not on my person. But my pocket was vibrating. And this is a real condition. It is also known as-- I
looked it up-- rings-iety. Isn't that a great term? You got rings-iety. So I thought at that moment,
this item has changed my life. And look it, somebody's
ringing me right now. Just to be funny I think, yes. Paul, got it. Thank you very little. OK, so I want to talk
to you about change, but not about
technological change, not about outward change. I want to talk to you about what
the Bible calls transformation. It is a heart change. It is an inward change that
produces an outward change. It's a life change. It's being transformed
the Bible calls it. Over the years, by God's
grace, our fellowship here has been a place where
lives have been changed. My life has been changed here. My life has been enhanced
and enriched here. And it's really not
about the place. It's really about the people. It's not about the real estate,
it's about the community. It's not about some
physical construction, but a spiritual connection
where we connect in community with people who are pursuing
the God who is passionately pursuing a lost world. Last year my staff compiled
for me a little list. I won't read it all. But a little list to keep
this change in perspective. And it just proves how God
uses simple people like us, but He can do some
pretty monumental things. Place where life has changed. Since 1982-- and they
sort of tabulated the altar calls over the
years, the different church meetings, the
outreaches we've done, the crusades, and
events-- but since 1982, we have seen 82,000 salvations. 82,000 people come to make
commitments in Christ. We've had the opportunity
to baptize and disciple 16,000 individuals. We've sent out 1,000-- Yeah,
I mean that's exciting. I want to give you time
to respond to that. We've sent out 1,000 full-time
and part-time missionaries to over 30 countries. We've had the opportunity
to-- go ahead. We've had the
opportunity to plant about 35 churches overseas
and 35 churches in the United States. We've collected and
distributed 1,000 truckloads of food in the last
20 years to families. And this is something we don't
see or talk about as much, but 600,000-- 600,000-- visitors
every month to the websites that we have here. So I don't share that
as a bragi-mony-- that's a testimony. That's what God can do
through simple people who gather to honor His name. Well, Romans chapter 12,
there are two verses at the very beginning
of the chapter that I want to
look over with you. And I want to give you four
characteristics of this kind of change, this transformation. Let's look at Romans chapter
12 beginning in verse one where Paul writes, "I beseech
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service. And do not be conformed
to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God." The first characteristic of
this change is pretty simple. It's possible. This change is possible. The very fact that the Apostle
appeals and urges his audience. In fact, he gives them
an imperative, a command, be transformed. The very fact that
that is there shows that this change, this
transformation is possible. Now I want you to consider
the term "be transformed." Now the word in the original
language-- I'm going to say it, you're going to recognize
the English equivalent pretty quickly. The Greek word is metamorphoo. It sounds like metamorphosis. We get the word
metamorphosis, our word, from the Greek word metamorphoo. Metamorphosis means to
change from one form into another form. Or as the dictionary says, "To
change from an immature form to a mature or adult
form in distinct stages." That's a metamorphosis. So a tadpole has a
metamorphosis into a frog. It goes through distinct
changes to go from an immature to a mature form. A caterpillar undergoes
a metamorphosis to change into a butterfly. So used here in this text,
in the Greek New Testament, it describes a profound
and radical change of the inner you. That's the transformation. It's the same word Paul used
in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he wrote, "We are
being transformed--" metamorphosis "into his likeness
with an ever increasing glory." It's that inward, profound
change that occurs. All of that to give
you this principle. Church ought to be
a place where people hear that change is possible. Church ought to be the one
place people get the message, you don't have to stay the same. You can change. There can be a transformation. It is possible. Even if you've failed,
if you've fallen, and if you have faltered,
change is possible. You may have committed
your life to Christ and blown it, then recommitted
your life to Christ, then blown it again. Then recommitted the month
later and then did it again. And so you might be at
a place where you think, I'm ready to give up. It's over for me. You need to know there
is a God in heaven, and there are God's
people on earth who are committed to
your transformation. It is possible. Change is possible. And too often that is
absent from many churches. I was reading an article online. And I read a lot of them,
because I like to do research. But it was the title of this
article that got my attention. Listen to the title. It says, "The
Church is not Dying. It's Failing." That's the title of the article. Here's part of it. This author says,
telling why people don't go to church
anymore, "It's not that people aren't
interested in God. They're hungry for God. But many have just gotten
tired of the petty squabbles, or the obsession with
the way it used to be. Many people never see the
point in going to church, because it's not a place
that enriched their lives." What got my attention
in that article is the motivation that
brings people to church. They want to enrich their lives. They want their lives enhanced. They want to know that there's
hope of something different. That something is being
added to their lives. That's why I always want
the music, and the message, and the meeting together to have
that overall messaging of there is hope. Things can change. There was a pastor--
he's retired now-- of a very large
and pretty famous church in America, First
Baptist Church in Houston. The former pastor, John
Bisagno, years ago, when he was candidating to
be the pastor of this church. He said, I walked into this
building, this church building, where I was being invited. And I noticed was poorly lit. And there was a small group
of people huddled together, and they were singing. But listen to what
he writes, he said, "They were singing some
old, slow, funeral type song that was so depressing." Now this is written
by now-retired pastor. He's much older, good
speaker, but much older than he was when he
candidating for this church, but he's saying that about
that experience years ago. Then he writes, "Later
on the same day, I'm walking in downtown Houston. And I walk into a jewelry store. It was a grand opening
for a jewelry store. And he said this place
was well lit, there was somebody at the door who
shook my hand with a smile, welcomed me in. There was an atmosphere
of celebration and joy that permeated that store. It was very, very open, very
exciting, very friendly." And he said this, "After
attending both the church and the jewelry store,
if the jewelry store had offered an
invitation, I would've joined the jewelry store." Listen. We serve the living Christ,
who rose from the dead. And if He can conquer death, He
can conquer your dying hopes. This change is possible. Second characteristic,
this change is personal. It has to be something
that you are involved in and that happens
personally with you. Please notice in our text,
Paul writes in verse one, "I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." You see, this change is
a personal experience. It is a result of a
personal response to God. Let me unpack this verse. Let me unpack this thought
a little bit further. Paul says, I am beseeching you. That just means I'm appealing
to you, I'm begging you, I'm urging you. I beseech you,
therefore, brethren. And we've told you
this many times, right? Whenever there's
a therefore, you have to find out
what it's there for. So you don't begin a
thought with a therefore, you are referring back
to a previous spot. So he has just said 11
chapters-- 11 chapters-- of doctrine, of truth. In chapter 12, he
goes, therefore, right? I appeal to you,
therefore, brother. And when he uses the
term the mercies of God in our text, that's
a banner phrase to describe all
of the 11 chapters he had just wrote about. Now, I won't spend
much time in it, but let me just give you a
sampling of what the first 11 chapters are about. In the first 11
chapters of Romans, Paul says you have been
justified by faith, you have access to God,
you have hope of heaven, you are shaped by your
trials and tribulations, you have the overflowing
grace of God, you have the Holy Spirit
living inside of you, and whether you are
a Jew or Gentile, you've got God's great promises. OK, so those are
the mercies of God. Based upon all of that
which God has done for you, I am begging you,
I am urging you, present your life to the God
who can change your life. That's the thought
of this passage. Now how does this happen? How does it happen? Well, this is where the language
and grammar is most helpful. I mentioned that this is a
command, it's an imperative. It's an appeal, but when he
says don't be conformed, be transformed, it's in the
imperative mode or the command mode. However, it's a certain
kind of an imperative. It's called-- listen--
a passive imperative. You're going, oh goodness, I'm
in English class now suddenly. But a passive
imperative means this: it means that someone or
something else besides you on the outside of you is the
one doing the changing, doing the transforming. And who would that be? That would be God. So here is how the
passage is translated from the Greek language. Don't allow the world to
conform you to itself. Or I love the JB
Phillips translation. "Don't let the world around you
squeeze you into its own mold, but allow God to remake
you" or transform you. Be transformed by God. You can't do this on your own. So here you are. You're the person. And the transformation
is promised you, but you make it
personal by allowing God to do the changing. I was reading an article a few
days ago, USA Today newspaper, about a group of
scientists in Germany that are developing a rubber
tire that will repair itself. Wouldn't that be fabulous? Your get a flat tire, you don't
have to get outside the car and change it. Right now you do. So what happens is
the scientists say, we have vulcanized
rubber for our tires. It's quite durable,
and it's quite elastic. But it can tear and
it can puncture. When that happens, you
have to stop the car, get out of the car, jack it up,
take the tire off, take it in and get it repaired, you
plug it or you patch it. But a group of
German scientists are building a rubber
call renewable rubber that if you get a flat
tire, it will repair itself at room temperature. And the scientists,
the German scientists, say it is a superior
mechanical product. That sounds so German. We have a superior,
mechanical product. That's great. But until that
happens, you still have to be the one that gets
out of the car and jacks it up and gets it fixed. And the idea here
is simply this. You present yourself to
God, your body to God, your life to God. And you say, God, I have a flat
tire and I can't fix it myself. I don't have the renewable
rubber to do this. I need you as an outside source. I will allow that to happen. I'm presenting myself
for you to do this. But I need you to bring
transformation to my life. Now Paul says, when you do this,
it is your reasonable service. Notice in verse one, "which
is your reasonable service." Reasonable is the Greek word
logikos, logical, rational, reasonable service. The most reasonable
thing you can do is to turn your life over to
the God who can change you. It's the most rational,
reasonable thing you can do. So the church, then, ought to
be a place where personal choice is engaged for change to occur. This is why we give an
altar call many times in our services. We allow people to make a
decision to follow Christ. It's a chance for people
to clearly respond to God. We believe there is
a divine operation, but there must be
a human cooperation with the divine operation. That's why Paul says,
God can transform you, but you need to be the one
to present your body to Him. Now when you do
this, if you truly do this, if you
say here's my life, here are my hands, my mouth, my
feet, I want them to be Yours, I want you to do
your work through me, I'm presenting my body to you. When you do this,
the sky is the limit. Because you might think you
don't have much to offer, or that your life is broken or
you failed, but the Bible is filled with stories of
people who have presented their bodies to God
and God has done what could not be done on their own. For example, the womb
of Sarah was barren, it could not produce children. But when that womb was presented
to God by her husband Abraham, it produced a nation. The mouth of Moses,
Moses says, I can't talk. I lack the eloquent
capability to speak to people. And yet, God used that mouth to
be the spokesperson to Pharaoh and to the children of Israel
for their deliverance out of the Egypt. The feet of Paul the Apostle--
history tells us Paul was a wee little man,
a short little man. He probably had a
very, very small gait. And yet he walked around
the world at that time, and spread the gospel to
the lands of Asia Minor and Rome, et cetera. Present your bodies
as a living sacrifice. Choice is possible,
or change is possible. Change is personal. Here's the third characteristic. This change is progressional. It doesn't happen overnight. It's a process. Look at verse two. "Do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed." Then it says, "by the
renewing of your mind." That's a process. The renewing of your mind. The best Greek scholar--
one of the best-- RC Trench, says this means the gradual
conforming more and more into that spiritual world. In other words, the process. You know, it's
important that you understand that this
transformation is both an event and a process. An event and a process. Birth is an event,
growing up is a process. The new birth is an event. You come to Christ,
you are saved. In a moment of time,
you believe in Him, God places you in Christ, sealed
and secured, ready for heaven. You didn't do anything. You don't know much,
but that's the event. Now comes the
transformational process. The first is
salvation, the second is sanctification, getting holy,
being changed into his image inwardly. So the first is
like a tidal wave. The second is like a glacier. Something happens
instantly, but then there's that slow, steady process. I talked a minute ago about
caterpillars and tadpoles, metamorphosis. Transformation is to
change from one form to another in distinct stages. So you don't get
instant frog, right? It's not like instant frog. Add water and instant frog,
unless you're in a bath tub and you have little sponge
things and instant frog. But in real life,
no instant frog. You have to go through distinct
stages of eggs, larvae, pupa, imago or the fully
formed butterfly. There's distinct stages, and it
takes weeks-- sometimes months. Same with a tadpole
turning into a frog. There are distinct
stages of growth. So that's the renewing process. There's no instant Christianity. That, too, is a process. Now please notice the text. Where does the
renewing take place? Your mind. By the renewing of your mind. And sometimes the Bible refers
to your mind as your heart. Just the inner you as opposed to
the outer shell, the outer you. The inner you is
your heart or mind. And sometimes the Bible uses
them as meaning the same thing. I'll tell you why
this is important. Because I've
heard-- I don't know how many times for how many
years-- well meaning believers say things like
this, what we need is not more head knowledge,
but heart knowledge. And that sounds very
spiritual, I suppose. It just happens to
be a false dichotomy. It's wrong thinking. As if it's not what you
know, it's how you feel. And if you know a lot
but you don't feel a lot, it's not good. But you know, the Bible
uses the term the heart and the mind to
mean the same thing. Jesus said to his enemies, why
are you thinking evil plots in your heart? Proverbs 23, "As a man thinks
in his heart, so is he." So don't have the mind
as opposed to the heart. It is the same thing. It's the renewing of your heart
or the renewing of your mind. Your mind matters to God. And I want to tell
you, I want you to hear it from this pulpit,
it's OK for Christians to think. It's really OK for
Christians to think. Why do I have to say that? Because I have
been in some places where it's sort of
this unwritten rule, please check your
brains out the door. Come in and have some
emotional experience that's divorced and devoid of
logic, and then go out and live a normal,
logical life once again. Not so. Don't do that. Think through, reason through
issues that provide you with a basis for truth. God said, "Come now,
let us reason together," says the Lord. Jesus said, "You're to love
the Lord your God with all of your mind, as well as
your soul and your strength." So this is the reason we
believe when you come to church, you need to be saturated
with the word of God. This is why we do
exposition, this is why we look at verbs
and nouns and phrases, and you look at the text,
because we believe there's power in the text itself. Power in that it's transforming. Your mind is exposed to truth. The mind of the Christian
saturated with the scripture is the place where
lives are changed. You want your life changed? Your mind is
transformed as you're exposed to truth every day,
every week, every month. Now I warn you. It sounds good. It's all good to preach about. This takes discipline. Here's the hard part. It you want to be
good at something, you have to be
disciplined at something. If you want to play
guitar or violin or you want to be
good at sports, it will take hours
every single day for you to practice
that over and over again to become good at it,
become an expert at it. It's not like, I want to be
a great lead guitar player, famous in a rock and roll band. And I have two days to do that. It's not going to happen. You can't expect results
without the discipline. And there are
spiritual disciplines that need to be talked about. The discipline of Bible study,
the discipline of prayer, the discipline of
fellowship, the discipline of service to sacrifice, the
discipline of evangelism. All of that will renew
your thinking, your heart and bring
transformational change. So this change is possible, it's
personal, it's progressional. And here's the fourth
characteristic. It's practical. God is always practical. The lessons of scripture are
ever and always practical. Notice the end of verse two,
here's how practical it is. "That you may prove what is the
good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Paul didn't just throw that in
because, oh, this sounds good, let me write that. Notice the word that. Everything after the word that
is called a result clause. It could be translated
in order that or so that. In other words, if you do
this, that will happen. So there's a presentation
of your body to God. There's a transformation
of your mind that results in the
apprehension of God's will. That's the idea behind the text. One of the most
frequent requests I have heard by
believers over the years is, how can I know
the will of God? I just want to know God's will. Is there a way I can
know what God wants? I want to know God's will. And unfortunately some
believers actually think it's some
mystical experience to discern the will of God, so
I'm going to be really quiet and I'm going to ask
God to speak to me and I'm going to hear an
audible voice anytime now. And OK, here I am, God, and
waiting for that audible voice. And I'm praying and I'm
still waiting for that voice. If you wait long enough, you
may actually hear something. And it may not be
the voice of God. You might become delirious. I'm not saying God cannot
audibly speak to you, but more often than not it's
going to come by the process of exposing your mind to
the word and truth of God and the result of that is going
to be you'll prove what is the good and perfect and
acceptable will of God. You'll be walking
in the will of God. One follows the other. We present our bodies
to the control of God, our minds are renewed
by the word of God, we're then able to
discern the will of God. So the Church out to be a
place where we celebrate what change produces,
and that is you are living, walking,
moving in the will of God. Now as we're closing this
off, please notice something about God's will. Maybe you've never
noticed before. Look at the first adjective. It's good. Verse two, "that you may
prove what is that good." You know that the will
of God is always good. It's not always fun. It doesn't always feel good. In fact, some of you have
wondered, what on earth would God ever allow this
suffering to come in my life for? This isn't good. It doesn't feel good. But just wait, hold
on, it will be good. Because God causes all
things to work together for the good of those
who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That's a promise. It's good. His will is always good. Then notice the second. It's acceptable,
or it's pleasing. That's what the NIV renders it. It's pleasing. It'll please God,
and in pleasing God, it'll satisfy you. It's pleasing. The third thing it is it's
perfect God's will is perfect. It means mature in this version. Transformation will
make you mature. It'll grow you up. God's will is good,
it is pleasing, and it will mature
you, it will grow you. So once again, back to what
I stated at the beginning, change is the one thing
that never changes. It's always a part of our life. My question to you
is, in closing, in which direction is
your life changing? Are you being squeezed
into the world's mold? Or are you being
shaped into God's will? Where's the change happening? What are you more like? Do you remember
Sir Isaac Newton? Not that you knew
him personally, but you remember reading
about him in school, right? Sir Isaac Newton. And you remember the laws of
motion that he is famous for. Now, I'm going to state
his first law of motion, and you'll remember it
probably from grade school or high school,
whenever you learned it. Sir Isaac Newton's first
law of motion is this. Everything continues
in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change
by forces impressed upon it. Now listen to that again
in terms of what we just shared in our text. Everything continues
in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change
by forces impressed upon it. What forces are
impressing you the most? You live in a world with its
own forces, its own values, its own songs, its own
movies, its own messages. And exposure to all of
that changes your messaging and your values and you
and I have a tendency to be like what we
hear and what we see. That's all around us. That's why we need the balancing
pressure of renewed minds, presented bodies, and
living out the will of God by the Spirit of God and the
truth of God in scripture. What is impressing you? Father, as we
close this service, this is the best way
I know how to do this. Just to bow our heads in prayer. This is the best opportunity to
respond logically, reasonably. It's only reasonable that
we present our bodies to you just now. Our hands, our mouths, our
feet, our very lives themselves. You placed us in Christ,
that's the event. We're growing to be more
and more like Christ, that's the process. So we give you once
again these bodies. Some of us a failed. We have blown it. We're broken because of things. Only you can fix the flat. Only You can get us up and
running again and going. And so we don't want
to allow ourselves to be conformed to this world. We want to allow
ourselves to be shaped into your will, which is
always good, and acceptable, and perfect. So as we present our bodies and
our minds have been transformed as part of an ongoing,
lifelong process, we pray that we will leave
and walk in your will. I close by praying for
those who have come, and they've struggled. Or they've struggled in their
thinking about life itself, their purpose of life. They're wondering, is
there anything more than what I've
already experienced? Is there a change
that is possible? I pray, Lord, you would
convince them that there is. That there is hope, that
no matter what the past has brought, that no matter what
they have done themselves, that all can be forgiven. Their name can be written, so
to speak, in the Book of Life, they can have eternal
life, enjoy it right now as they're fitted for heaven. If you've gathered today,
if you've come today, maybe the invitation
of a friend, maybe it's the first
time you've come, maybe you've come many,
many times before, and you have been a willing
observer up to this point. You observe, you make an
assessment, you leave. Come again, observe, make
an assessment, leave. But never in that
time have you ever stopped to personally ask the
Lord to be the Lord of you. You have never presented your
life as a living sacrifice to Him, asking Him to forgive
you, asking him to place you in His kingdom. And I would say today is the
perfect time to end that. And instead of being simply
an observer, to be a willing participant in His
glory in His kingdom. So if you've come,
it's as simple as this. You want to give
your life to Jesus. If you want to know life and
forgiveness and a new start and let His plan, His will,
be what generates hope for you and gets you out
of bed every day. You want things to change. Now's the time for you to
give your life to Christ. If you've never done that
personally, if you've never asked Jesus to be
your Savior and Lord, or if you did something
at some point in the past, but you walked away from Him,
you're not living for Him, today, maybe it's you just
need to come back to Him. I want you to raise
your hand up in the air. I'll keep my eyes
open as we're praying. Just raise it up and keep
it up so I can see it. Raise it. God bless you, right up here
to my left, right up in front. Yes, ma'am. And in the middle, and
in the middle again. To my left. Couple of you right over here to
my far left in the family room. And again, in the family
room, a few of you over there. Anyone else raise your hand up. Are you sure that you're
a saved man or woman? Are you sure that you
are ready to meet God? God bless you toward the
back, in the balcony. Father, for people all around
this auditorium, this campus. I see the hand,
you see the heart. I see the outward, you know
the person inside and out. And what's more, Lord,
you love, deeply care for, deeply concerned about,
each and every person. What they've gone through,
what they're going through, what they're facing. Lord, I pray that there would
be a sense, a renewing sense to them, a sense of hope
is they leave today, as they place their
lives in your hands. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand to our feet. Here, we're going to
close with a song. And as we close, those of
you who raised your hands, I'm going to ask you
to do something now. I'm going to ask you to put
those hands that are attached to your feet in motion. And I tell you what
I'm going to do. Jesus often in the New
Testament called people publicly to follow him. I'm going to give
you an opportunity to make a public
commitment to Christ. I believe it does something
for you, inside of you. So some of you are
in the family room. I'm going to ask you to
come to the door that's in the family room on
the front to the right, and stand up here. If you're in the auditorium and
you're in the middle of a row, just find the nearest
aisle, come right now and stand right up in the front. I'm going to lead you in
a prayer before we close. Lead you in a
prayer to make Jesus your Savior and your Lord. Just stand right up here. If you're in the balcony,
please come down the steps. And we'll wait for you to come. We want to stand and
we'll stand with you. We don't do this
to embarrass you. You feel a little
embarrassed standing up here? Good. You should feel
accepted and loved. We want you to feel loved. We consider you a part of us. And we're glad that you've
made this commitment to stand up here. And we stand with you. Anyone else? I'll give you just
a few more minutes. If you're in the
balcony, or in the back, or in the middle of
a row, or outside, a pastor will lead
you if you're outside to stand here or in
the overflow room. But come and join the group
of people who need God. Anyone else? For those of who
have walked forward, I'm going to lead you
in a word of prayer. And as I pray this
prayer, I'm going to ask you to pray
it out loud after me. I want you to say
these words that you're about to say, say them from
your heart, from inside of you. You're saying these to God,
you're saying them out loud. Pretend that nobody
else is standing next to you, pretend you're not
in a room filled with people. It's just you and God. You're doing business with Him. You're giving him your life. Let's pray together. Say, Lord, I give you my life. Lord, I give you my life. I know that I am a sinner. I know that I am a sinner. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I'm sorry for my sins. I'm sorry for my sings. I believe that Jesus
died on a cross. I believe that Jesus
died on a cross. That he shed his blood for me. That He shed His blood for me. And that He rose
again from the grave. And that He rose
again from the grave. I turn from my sin. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to live for
Him as my Lord. I want to live my life
for Him as my Lord. I need your help. I need your help. I need you to help
me with this change. I need you to help
me with this change. In Jesus' name, In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Congratulations. As we spend more
time with God, He will change us and conform
us to the image of Christ. Has the Lord used Calvary to
make an impact in your life? Let us know. Email mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/giving. Thank you for joining us
for this teaching from Skip Heizig of Calvary Albuquerque.
