Sunday Morning Worship Service
by Nathan Whitley
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Mark 1, Mark 1:14-15, Mark 1:2-3, Mark 1:12, Romans 10:17

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/nathan-whitley--sunday-morning-worship-service-47
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Remain standing and get your Bibles or your devices. We're going to go to Mark chapter number one. Mark chapter number one. I'm going to read a couple of verses here. And I will say at the outset, I apologize for this stuffy nose voice that you're going to have to endure for the next few moments. East Tennessee allergies, cold or something. I've got it. And I think many of you have probably have faced that in the past few days. And so I'll I'm I'm going to be cognizant of that. But you pray you pray that I can get through my my notes here with this voice. First, I'm sorry, Mark chapter number one. We're going to read verses 14 and 15. We've been doing a series at Apostolic Christian School on Friday mornings at our Elevate Student Chapel called Simply Jesus. And so, uh, Pastor Jerry Dean when he was here for camp meeting, he made that statement a few times. And, uh, Pastor Mcool took that, uh, that thought and gave it to our staff at the beginning of the year in our inservice meetings. And I thought that sounds like a sermon series to me. And so, we have been studying simply Jesus, and we're doing it from uh, Mark's Gospel. And so, we've been in it for about three weeks now. And I'm going to give you what I gave them from Friday morning. Mark 1:es 14- 15. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. My title today is simply follow. Simply follow. Would you lift up your hands, lift up your heart, and let's invite Jesus to help us today during the studying of his word. Thank you Lord for your spirit that is here today. Hey, we thank you Lord for the very first moment that we have began with prayer this morning and rehearsals today and the time of praise and worship in the time of giving that you have been here. And I pray now, Lord, in the in the weakness of my voice and the weakness in my in my in my body, that you would help me today to preach your word, to speak your word, and let the word of God come alive in your hearers today and do something within them because it's not by might, it's not by power, but it is by your spirit, says the Lord. In the name of Jesus, we pray. And everyone said, "Amen." >> Would you clap your hands again today? [Applause] Amen. Seen Brother Chase Baker here today. We honor you today. Can we give Brother Chase a great big hand? We're glad to see him. And you can be seated. Simply follow. Now, we we we started this series at school few weeks ago, and we noticed that uh Mark's gospel is the shortest of the four gospels. And even though it's the shortest, uh it doesn't mean it's insignificant. Uh instead, it's really just jam-packed full of information. And he he gets us to the point of his message and presenting the gospel of Jesus. And this is what he says. He opens up. He opens up his gospel and says, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I'll send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee, a voice crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord." And so Mark goes right into his account. And chapter one is full of action and not just action and um narrative but he makes sure that we know who we are studying and who he is uh revealing in proclaiming that this is Jesus and he calls him uh the Christ Jesus Christ. And I told our school today, and maybe you you you don't know this, but I think maybe you do, but uh Christ is not his last name. Uh it's not Nathan Whitley like Jesus Christ. Christ is a title meaning Messiah or anointed one. And then he calls him son of God. And let me just say this that uh the phrase the title son of god does not mean that Jesus is a lesser god or a second god or a junior god or anything like that. Instead this is a royal phrase uh that that is found throughout the scriptures. Adam was called the son of god. Israel was called the son of god. David and the kings that would come from him were called the sons of God. But these sons of God all failed, right? Adam fell uh in the garden. David sinned uh many times. Israel failed in the wilderness and beyond that. Uh they they were not able to be even though they were called the sons of God and they were royal and they were to have dominion and authority uh they relinquished that through their failure. So Jesus has come as the son of God to do what Adam, David, Israel before him failed to do because he's not just man and he is completely man but that he is God in flesh. He's not half God and half man. He is all God and all man. He is the man Christ Jesus. He is the mediator between God and men that he is the Christ, the anointed one, the son of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And so he has come. And so this this phrase son of God is royalty. It's kingly. And so as he presents this and we get right into John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord. So he's the he's the Christ. He's anointed to be the Messiah. He's the son of God. And not only that, Mark wants us and John wants us to recognize that he is Lord. And this is the covenant name for God. That this is the covenant name that he knew Israel. Israel knew him by that he is Lord. So we've got three right here in just a few verses. We see who Jesus is. That he's the Messiah. He's the Messiah. He's the anointed one. He's anointed to be prophet, priest, and king. He's the son of God. And he is the Lord. And not just a Lord, he is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Is anybody glad to know who Jesus is today? I'm glad to know that I serve the one true God revealed in Jesus Christ. And so we mean he is rushing right through this. And he begins this way because it's important to see what he is trying to present Jesus as. that he is the king. And so he says here in verse uh 14, now after that John was in prison and that's covered in chapter 6, so we won't spend time in that. But it says that Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel of God. What is the gospel? What does the word gospel mean? It's more than just a genre of music. uh it's more than just a biography like we might have here in the New Testament. But the gospel is the proclamation of good news. Every king would have a herald who would begin to declare good news. And the good news, this great news was that the king has come. that the Christ, the Son of God, the Lord has come, that the time has been fulfilled. Here we are. Here is the good news. The King has come. That's the gospel. The gospel is good news. But you know what? You can't have good news without bad news. Right. Right. What's the point of good news if we don't have any bad news? Why do you need good news unless we're living in some bad news, right? We're living in some bad news here in the last few few days, haven't we? We need some good news around here. But you know the here's what here's the thing about this is that usually on the news they give you these puff pieces at the end. Oh, Sally lost her cat and they found it. You know, they gave you 45 minutes of nothing but death and blood and bad news and carnage. And here at the end, somebody found their cat. Isn't that great? Have a good night. Isn't that right? You're like, "That didn't help me at all." No, it's not even my cat. I hate cats. I can care less. She found her cat. Tell them, you know, we need some good news. Well, you know what's the point of good news unless you know bad news. Somebody comes up to you, I say, I got good news and I got bad news. What do you want first? Give me the bad news first, right? Because hopefully the good news is going to make me feel better about the bad news. Well, I've got bad news for everybody today. The bad news is we are all sinners. >> The bad news is we are all sinners. All of us are unrighteous. All of us are guilty. And you might think, well, that doesn't that that's definitely bad news. That doesn't sound good at all. So the bad news is we are sinners and we are in need of saving because we cannot save ourselves. And the world may not like that diagnosis but scripture is clear. The bad news is we are lost and if we do not get rescued we will spend eternity in flames. >> I know that's not popular preaching today. I know we don't like to talk about that today, but that's the truth. That's the bad news. This is the carnage. This is the death. This is the bad news that we are in sin. We are sinners and we are in need of saving. That's the bad news. And not only that, that the bad news that we are sinners is that we are separated from God. That sin not only separates us from God, it destroys and divides relationships. Bad. That's bad news, isn't it? So when you hear good news, you're thinking, well, that's better than the bad news, right? And so in order for you to hear the gospel, the good news, you have to know the bad news that we are sinners. He's come preaching the gospel. And here's now I I found this this just a little ironic as I was reading this and studying this and preparing for uh Friday and today is that immediately here we are verse 12. Immediately the spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness and he's there in the wilderness tempted for 40 days tempted by the devil with the wild beasts and the angels and he go now he leaves out details that Mark and Luke give us and so he leaves the wilderness and as he is in the desert he comes preaching this the kingdom of God is at hand now I find that just a little ironic don't you is that if somebody's coming giving you good news about a kingdom and about a king, I would be looking for a crown, a castle, a steed at least, right? Uh, you know, an army of some sort, banners waving, and Jesus comes from the wilderness preaching that the kingdom of God is at hand. And this this this topic this subject of the kingdom is popular throughout uh the gospels obviously. And when we think of kingdom, we think of knights and soldiers and armies and banners. Maybe you're thinking of the castles you might see in uh Lord of the Rings or something like that. And guess what? Israel expected that as well. They wanted a kingdom like David's kingdom. They wanted a temple like Solomon's temple. They wanted a return to glory. They wanted to overthrow Rome. They wanted to overthrow all of the taxes. They wanted peace and they wanted dominion. They wanted their nation back. And they wanted their king. So when Jesus shows up without all of that, they're going, "This is not what we expected." You know, Christianity for a lot of people is not what they expect. They're expecting rainbows. No. There's no rain. It's only sunshine. A pot of gold on the end of the rainbow somewhere. Jesus is not what they expected because he has not come to overthrow Rome. He has come to over overthrow sin. You see they Israel believe that their biggest problem was Caesar and Herod and Rome. That wasn't their biggest issue. Their biggest issue was their hearts. >> You see, our biggest trouble today is not the government. Our biggest trouble today is not some enemy somewhere. It's not some boogeyman hiding under our beds. Oh, no. The real trouble, the real problem that we have is that we have a sin problem ruling and reigning in our lives. And so when Jesus comes saying that the kingdom of God is at hand and he has come to overthrow not Rome or governments, he has come to overthrow sin in our hearts >> and not just sin but the consequences of sin which is death, separation from God here and eternity. He says the kingdom is here. This is not what they expected and that's not what we expect either. Jesus's kingdom is not like the kingdom of this world. He has not come to advance the kingdom by swords and spears. Instead, he wants to expand the kingdom by spirit and truth. >> We don't conquer nations. We conquer sin. It's our biggest issue. We don't like to take responsibility for our sin though, right? So, the kingdom is here. But when when Jesus says the kingdom of God is at hand, he says the time is fulfilled, here's here's a mystery. The kingdom is both already and not yet. Make sense? So he reigns currently and will reign forever. Think of it like World War II when the Allies landed on D-Day in Normandy. The decisive victory had been won, but the tide of the war, the whole war wasn't over yet. That wouldn't come until V day, right? So even though they conquered that day, the war wasn't over yet. That's similar to how we can visualize Jesus's kingdom that he has already overthrown sin and he reigns right now as king of king and lord of lords, but he will come again to reign and rule forever. And let me just stop and say this. He is coming back. >> He is coming back. I don't know when he's coming back, but let me tell you something. We are closer today than we were yesterday. And we are 2,000 years closer today. Come on, somebody. Let's not forget that the King is coming back one of these days. He is coming back for his bride without spot or wrinkle. He is coming back for his church. We can't fall so fall so in love with this present world that we forget about a future world where Jesus reigns forever. Somebody say amen. >> I said I wasn't going to scream, but I'm feeling him today. >> It's already and not yet. Now, if the king comes, he has commands, right? And so, he didn't come to offer suggestions. Here's what he opens with. Repent. Repent. Here's the first Here's the message of the kingdom. Repent. This is not some soft word, is it? The word repentance in Greek in its verb and noun form means to change one's mind. It means a radical reorientation of life. And repentance is more than regret. You can regret a lot of things and never repent. And it's more than remorse. You have to change. It's a turning. Now in military terms, it's an about face or a 180. So if I'm facing this direction towards sin, towards worldliness, towards death and destruction, and I repent, I'm not simply doing a 360. I am doing an about face meaning I am forsaking my old life. You are changing your mind about your old life and your old habits and your old decisions. Right? So repentance brothers and sisters is not simply apologizing either. Repenting is not repeating what you've done. >> So if I'm facing this direction and the king calls me to repent, I turn around and begin to walk this way. I I no long if I'm if I'm going to follow the king, I cannot continually look back this way. If I'm if I'm trying to walk this way and I'm looking back this, what's going to happen? I'm going to fall. >> Had a friend of mine many years ago write a song called You Can't Walk a Straight Line Looking Backwards. You can't walk. You listen. You can't follow Jesus. You can't You cannot walk in peace and reconciliation and deliverance if you're always looking over your shoulder wishing you had the old life and looking back at what you used to do, thinking that used to give me great pleasure. No, you're going to have to turn around. If you're going to follow Jesus, you must repent. It's a forsaking of your sin. >> It's a turning around. I know this sounds so simple. You're thinking, "We know all this stuff." And I'm glad you do. That's why we got to be reminded. But here here's but here's let me let me define a few things for you. What is sin? What? What is sin? If I need to repent, what is what is sin? Sin, listen to me. Sin is more than bad behavior or bad choices. That's too easy. Paul tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now, yesterday, it was Friday morning. I got up early. It's still dark outside and I seen the moon. Anybody see the moon early Friday morning? It had like a little, you know, fingernail thumb print. Uh, look, it had a couple stars next to it. That is beautiful. Now, if I told Alex to jump from there to the moon, how far would he get? He get he Now, if he's got the greatest hops in the world, he might be able to jump from there to like right here, right? But is that the moon? If I were to tell you you must line up to God's holiness, love, righteousness, justice, guess what's going to happen? You're going to fall short. It is impossible to meet God's standard of holiness. Now, let me just let me just stop and and give you a bookmark. I'll come back. Some of us think this way. Well, as long as I'm not doing that or I'm not I didn't do what they've done. I'm not as bad as them, you are. You have you have you have put a a wrong standard to get to and you're still short. You might not meet their standard and they might not meet your standard, but all of us are still falling short of God's standard. And that's what matters. We have to understand the definition of sin before we can repent. It's more than just simply bad behavior or doing the wrong things. Yes, the Bible says that there are things there are behaviors and things that we are to not do or to avoid or things that are labeled as sin, but we got to get to the heart of the issue. Eastern and I were driving down the road. Can't remember. I think it was Thursday. We were talking about if if God is good and God created everything that's good, where did evil or sin come from? That's a deep topic to have with a 10-year-old. But it's a good question. We need to wrestle with this for a minute. that if God has created everything and he is good and all that he created is good. We find in Genesis chapter number one. Sin is the distortion of what is good. Can I give you an example of that? God created food, right? God created things that we can eat. Food, right? Anybody like food? You know Nate likes food. It's the majority of my post on social media. You want to argue with me about anything, we're going to argue about the best place to get a pizza. All right? I I But God created food. We must have food. It's a necessity. But what sin does, it's important to realize that the first sin in disobedience was with food. Sin perverts what is good and turns it bad. So food is good. You must have it. But what sin in us does is we make food. If I take another bite, if I have another plate, if I indulge myself, it will help me with my feelings and my emotions and my loneliness. >> It'll solve my disappointment. And so food then becomes gluttony. But it was good, right? But sin distorts. Same with money. Money is not evil. It's the love of money that's the root of evil. Money's fine. Nothing wrong with nothing wrong with money. But when you make money your god and think if I have this and if I can have more of that, it's going to give me security and it's going to give me popularity and I'm the And guess what? It never does what it promises to do. That is sin. So whether it's food, money, sex, relationships, careers, you can make any of those things and all of those things which are good that God created into bad things and cause it to be sin. >> So in other words, you make it a little God thinking it's going to do for you the only thing that God can do for you. >> You see what I'm saying? We are now diagnosing the problem that if we're going to repent, we must know we that we what we need to repent of. And your sin and my sin can be two different things. Somebody could need to repent of their jealousy. Somebody could need to repent of their envy. Somebody needs to repent of their anger. Somebody needs to repent of their greed. Somebody needs to repent of their gluttony. Somebody needs to repent of their perversion. Whatever it is, you're going to have to, if you're facing this direction, if you're going to follow Jesus, you're going to have to turn around and say, "That's what I do not want any longer. I want him. I'm following him." It might whisper in my ear. It might tempt me again tomorrow, but I'm going to I'm choosing to repent and follow >> y'all. All right. >> In the word here. I'm not trying to get technical, but the word repent and and the word believe are both in the present imperative in Greek, meaning it's not a onetime event. Well, I repented 1956 at camp meeting. Fantastic. Have you repented today? I repented at Strong Tower Youth Camp. Wonderful. Have you repented today? It might not be a repentance of remorse of something you've done, but repentance is a change of mind. And every day when you wake up, you're going to have to wake up and repent. >> Didn't say confess, but repent. And this is what I mean. I have decided to follow Jesus. The world's always going to be there. Sin is always going to be there, but I've just I have decided to follow Jesus. Every day, you're going to be tempted with the old life. Every day, the old man's going to come knocking on your door, and you're going to have to turn around and say, "I have decided. I have declared this is the king and I'm following my king today. Every day. Every day. Someone say amen. >> Y'all. All right. I was all right until you mentioned gluttony. I fight it as well. All of us do. Repent. Someone say repent. >> And believe. You see, repentance without faith leads to despair because all you'll ever do is turn from sin and never trust Christ to forgive you. Bishop says this, it's a principle. If you're going to restrict, if you're going to restrict, you need to provide something else, >> right? If we're just saying, and this is the problem that a lot of Christian churches do this, they constantly preach, repent, quit your smoking, quit your drinking, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit, quit. And there's nothing ever to take, >> repent, and believe. It's taking hold of something that's greater than what I'm forsaking. Amen. >> The greatest treasure is Christ. >> And until we realize that's what he is, he's the treasure in the field, you'll always get distracted and sidetracked with trifles that will never give you what you really desire. So you repent and forsake and you grab on to. That's belief. Faith, listen to me now, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, we are to repent and believe. There are repentance and and and belief are two sides of the same coin. But here's but here's where where faith steps in. Faith isn't wishful thinking. You all remember the malls? We used to have malls to all these millennials, places you would go to and hang out on Fridays. Mom worked at the mall. She worked at J C Penney. And I got to go with her and hang out at the mall until she got off work. I'm so glad. She has no idea what we did while we were at the mall. We I'm teasing. There was nothing not a whole lot you could do as a 13-year-old, but there was a fountain in the middle of our mall. Y'all remember that? They have fountains and I don't know what pe people's, you know, they just they they'd throw pennies and quarters in there, right? Wishing. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Am I the only one remembers that? You look around, you're like, "What? Has anybody been on uh It's a Small World at Disney and you look down in the water and you see hundreds of thousands of coins. What are people doing? They're wishing. That's not faith. Some of us treat Jesus like he's a water fountain or a wishing well. I hope he does this. That's not faith. I hope I make the team. I hope I get a I hope I get the raise. That's not faith. Faith is saying even though I don't see it, I believe he can do it. >> Even though the evidence says I've got cancer, I have faith that he can heal because the word of God says he's my healer. Oh, you're not hearing me today. It's it faith is more than wishful thinking or hopeful thinking. It's a I've got he's the object of my faith. It's not faith in faith. It's faith in Jesus [Applause] now. I'm going fast. I'm I'm almost done. Faith, where does faith come from? Is it some emotion that you just conjure up? Just going to get myself worked up into a frenzy until I feel faith. Or is there something that I can put my focus upon? And what is the thing that I can put my focus upon? Paul says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing. Hearing what? And hearing by the word of Christ. So when my feelings whisper in my ear, he didn't forgive you. You're not really saved. This is all foolishness. He didn't hear you. You didn't cry enough. You didn't use the right words when you said that. Am I the only one that feels that way? I I guarantee 99.9% of this room would say, "I've heard that whisper. He He He doesn't love you. You've done too much. You might as well just face this way. You might as well just come back to the old life." So, what what do I do or where do I go when my feelings try to overthrow my faith. Well, Paul said faith comes by hearing. That means I've got to go to the word of God that reveals the God of the word and I've got to get my focus on him. And I've got to find his promises. And what does he say? This is what he says. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. >> You're not forgiven. Uh I'm sorry, past. I'm sorry, devil. I'm sorry, flesh. But this says right here, if I confess my sins, he is faithful and just to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unright. Come on, somebody. I've got to find something greater than my feelings. I've got to find something greater than my guilt and my shame. And faith comes. It's birthed from the word of God. That's why you got to get in this book. It's my daily bread. Why? Because when my emotions and my feelings and the temptation of the world comes, I've got to go to a source greater than all of that. It's greater than everything. >> Come on, musicians, get ready. How do I know? Just how do I know? How do I know? You know why some of us are so defeated all the time? You don't have your Bible open? You know why some of you get so beat up by the devil, beat up by your own condemnation, you don't get in this word. You want to know why you keep going back to the things that God has forgiven and delivered you from? Because you don't have anything to fight with. You are not listen and I this I'm I'm just I don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings today. Please understand something. There are some things you can't praise your way out of. >> I feel him now. Some of us are waiting on a right key, a right beat, a right lyric >> to make you feel a certain way. You know what that borders on? Witchcraft. >> So what happens when the opposite song comes on? Am I really saved? Right. You're gonna have to There's some things you can't praise your way out of. There are things you must know your way out of. >> Hosea the prophet said it like this. He said, "My people are destroyed for a lack of praise." That's not what he said. My people are destroyed for a lack of worship. That's not what he said. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. If you want to defeat your past, if you want to defeat your guilt and your shame, you can't praise your way out of that, you need to get some information in your brain and in your heart to realize that something's greater than my emotions and I've got a word that says if I ask for forgiveness, he's faithful and just to forgive me. Somebody lift up your hands right now. >> I wonder if somebody stand to their feet right now. We don't have a keyboard. We don't have a drummer right now. They're coming. But I wonder if somebody says, "You know what? I'm going to believe that word today. I'm going to believe that word today. I'm going to believe that word today. There's some things I'm going to repent. There's some things I'm going to forsake, but I'm going to believe. I'm going to cling to something greater. this way. Death, destruction, condemnation, guilt, shame. But that way, I don't know why people won't follow Jesus. I don't know why people won't forsake their old life. I'll tell you why. They believe the lies that these things will give them fulfillment. And until you get to the bottle, the bottom of the barrel and realize that that that chemical didn't make me feel any better. So what happens? I got to get another chemical or more of it. That relationship didn't fulfill me quite like I thought it should. So, let me find another one. You see what you've done? You have put these things in the place of God and they'll don't they'll never do what they promise. When the serpent go ahead and start playing when when the serpent tempted Eve, he said, "Your eyes will be open and you'll be like God." Here's the promise. You're going to be like God and your eyes are going to be open. Just he's keeping God is keeping something from you. It's an attack on God's character, right? It's a It's an attack on God's person. So go ahead and partake of that. It's just a piece of fruit. It's just fill in the blank. But you're going to be like God. You're going to know things, see things. And she eats. And what happens? Let's hide. Let's hide. Let's hide. Let's hide. Let's hide. I'm naked. I'm bare. Let's hide. Let's hide. It did not provide what it promised because sin never comes through. [Music] >> It will never give you whatever it is. What? No matter what, relationship, sex, money, food, whatever it is, will never give you what you really desire. >> It will only make you go, "Oh, good gracious. Why did I do that? Let me hide or cover myself with something that's insufficient, like a fig leaf." Right? So, I'll try to cover up with something that I know is going to disintegrate here in about a day or so. That means I got to go back and get more, sew it together, and that's going to fall apart. And here comes God. First question recorded of God in the Bible is this, where are you? He knew where they were. [Music] Here I am. Fig leaves. I didn't design that for that. But we were naked. Who told you you were naked? that woman that you gave me [Music] blame game, right? And she goes, "That serpent that you made, that fruit that you created." So God does something. [Music] He does something better than what they could do for themselves. [Music] He kills something innocent so they can be covered. What is the gospel, brother Nate? The gospel is that Jesus came to do what we could not do for ourselves and to cover us in a way that we could never do on our own. So the condemnation that I deserved for my sin, he took and the righteousness that I did not have, he gave. [Music] So the gospel is this. If you're going to follow Jesus, if he's going to be king in your life, you must repent. Repent of your sin. What sin? All sin. You must repent of your sins. But what is the point of repentance if you don't believe that he can forgive you? So, you must believe that he can forgive you. But can I tell you something else? is that when you get in those waters, you are buried with him in his death, signifying the death of the old man and the old life at the remission, the cleansing of your sins. It's as if you had never done it before. But there's one more element and that is a gift. You don't earn a gift. You don't buy a gift. You receive a gift. And he wants to give you the gift today of the Holy Ghost. He wants to give somebody the gift of new life today. Not just some this know it's maybe your first time but even somebody who needs a renewal today he he wants to give that to you. Would you lift up your hands follow him is so simple. It's repent. It's believing. It's following after him. Come on. Does somebody want to make Jesus their king today? I know this just is old school gospel message, but I wonder if somebody would come to an altar. And I wonder if somebody wouldn't let somebody else come alone, but you're going to come together and say, "We're going to repent together. We're going to we're going to believe together. We're going to we're going to find new life together." Come on. I believe that he's going to do something for me. I'm putting my faith in him. I might not feel it. I might not feel it. It might not be in my emotions, but I'm I'm going to faith it that his word says that he'll do that. I trust his character. I trust who he is. I believe his promises, and I'm going to put it and apply it to my life today. Would you come? And as you're coming, I know there are some who are coming with needs. And there are some who are saying, "I know this." Would you lay your hands on somebody? Would you pray with somebody? Come on. There is something happening here today. There's something happening here today. I'm deciding to follow Jesus. I'm simply following him. It's a forsaking, >> but it's also a receiving. >> It's a receiving of him in my life. >> Oh yes. >> Found. >> Oh yes it is. >> Cannot be shen. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> My God, you never fail. >> Oh yes. never. >> Come on. Would you pray with somebody? Come on. >> You see somebody who's praying, would you pray with them? >> Come on. You know there's somebody who needs the Holy Ghost. >> Somebody who might need to get baptized, pray with them. >> Come on. It's your day. >> He's come to do what we cannot do for ourselves. >> He has come to save sinners of whom I am chief. So I'm running your voice straight to you. You are always faithful. I believe. [Music] I believe. [Music] that on that cross your blood was moved. And by your stripes I have been healed. Every promise you believe. Come on. Do you believe it? >> I believe. >> Come on. Do you believe it? Oh yes. Victory power in me. Lord. >> Oh, I believe. I believe. >> The gates of hell will not. They're >> not going to prevail. >> The church is still the truth to tell. I believe. Oh, I believe that one day soon. >> Come on. He's going to come back. >> He's going to come back. Are you ready? >> Come on. Lift up your hands. >> Lift up your hands and say, "I believe. >> I believe." >> Oh, you are who you say you are. You do what you say you'll do. >> Oh, you come through. >> You are always [Music] you. [Music] >> One more time. One more time. Father, would you lift up your hands all over the sanctuary? We're going to pray. Father, in the name of Jesus. Lord, we know that there are things that promise pleasure, promise fulfillment, but Lord, they are empty promises that will never be able to do what you're able to do. Father, in the name of Jesus, we ask you to forgive us. We ask you, oh God, to forgive us of the idols and the sin in our life that have never come through for us. and we repent of it and we forsake it today. But Father, we also place our faith in you that you are who you say you are. We are believing the word of God that you are true and you are just that you are faithful and you are always willing to help us. Lord, right now in the name of Jesus, that individual, that person that is feeling the weight of guilt and shame, Lord, I pray that you would reach for them one more time that they may lay down their sin and follow after you. Oh God, I pray right now for assurance in the heart of your people today to know that the word of God is sure and the promises of your word are sure in the name of Jesus. Would you say in the name of Jesus? in the name of Jesus. Now, would you clap your hands unto the Lord today? Oh, yes.