Jesus Has Long Arms - Pastor Brad DeLong

We're going to turn to the word of the Lord. This is one of the primary ways we connect with God through his word. So turn with me to Exodus chapter 6. Then Luke chapter 4 shortly after Exodus 6, Luke 4. In Exodus 6, the Lord is telling his future plans to Moses after revealing to Moses who he really was and is. He uses some very specific language to do that. Starting in verse one. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh.

For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land." Notice he said strong hand twice. But then he flips the script. And and God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord." Same God who's in this room right now. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name Lord or Yahweh. I was not known to them. I've also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers.

And I've also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage. I have remembered my covenant with them. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rescue you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I'll take you as my people and I'll be your God. And then you'll know that I'm the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Our Lord does not have to prove anything to us. But yet, he willingly does and he will today. And we know from the rest of the story of Exodus, that's what he did. He redeemed them with an outstretched arm. And I also believe we're going to see him redeem and deliver today. And we know in from the New Testament, he continued to redeem with the same mighty hand and arm. We read about one of the fulfillments of this promise of Exodus in Luke 4. Luke 4:16 says of Jesus, "So he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

As his custom was, he went into the house of the Lord on the Sabbath day, stood up to read, and he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me." Because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the I can feel the Holy Ghost reading this.

God's going to do this today, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And as they looked at him, he sat down, stared at everybody, and he said, "Today, the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." With these texts in mind, as well as the limitless reach and grace of the Lord that is expressed in his word, I want to preach to you from a title that I'll explain in short order. That is simply this. Jesus has long arms.

Jesus has long arms. The Lord is reaching for someone here today. Oh, not me. Yes, you. He's reaching for you. And he can reach you wherever you are today. I wonder if you just reach out to him right now. Would you lift your hands if you're comfortable and begin to call on the name of the Lord in the name of Jesus? Lord, we reach to you, oh God. We know that before we ever reached our hands this morning and lifted our voices and praised that you were already reaching some, Lord, you've been reaching for them for days and weeks and months and even years.

And now, standing here in your wonderful presence, we feel those arms of grace coming and wrapping us up today. We're so thankful that we're not beyond your reach and we're not beyond your power. We love you, praise you, and thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, brother Colin Buoie, for sneaking that large cross into the room until I let everyone know that you did. I chose this title today because it's truthful and accurate. It's also reflected in scripture. Those are the most important reasons to choose a title, but but also because I can relate to it on many levels.

and and I knew that my uh literal arms might offer a simple but proper analogy for God's arms of grace. So there it is all all my poetic power in this title. I'm sorry, you know, that's all I got. But uh the truth is that it might help somebody to know uh that Jesus has long arms and his arms are able to reach you. And I said I'm able to relate because I've always had long arms as far as I can tell. I'm convinced if I didn't have strength in my arms right now that my knuckles would be dragging on the floor.

Anyone else in the room have this problem? Anyone have long arms? Anyone? Okay. Yeah, I see them. I can see your wrists when you raise your hand. That's right. Anyone, not to embarrass me. Anyone have the opposite problem? You You have shorter arms. Okay. We can see them. We can see. We're no respector of how long your arms are here. Anyone here have to go to a a specific section to buy your shirts or you got to go to a a section online to get your shirts?

Is it just me? All right. And they're still Okay. All right. Thank you. This is I feel at home. All right. My wrists are always cold. Shirts, you know, some know what it's like to have this this plight in life. Uh, and you know what it's like to to buy shirts that are always right here when they're not supposed to be. You know, this is also accompanied by uh some of us in the room are always the ones that are asked to reach things that others cannot.

You know what I'm talking about. It it's not really a plight, but it's the direct responsibility of those who've been gifted uh arms that are longer in length than their entire bodies in height. Mine are two inches longer than my height. We, me and brother Lorenzo, my brother-in-law, we actually measured it and and found this to be true. So, because of this, as I'm walking through Walmart, this has happened at least a dozen times. Someone will look around and they'll see me and they're like, "Hey, you you can you reach this for me?" Absolutely.

I go over, I reach the thing that they're probably not supposed to have because it's up on the top shelf. And pull it down and and I feel I feel great. It's not really a plight. It's it's just uh something that we are are responsible to do. It's allowed me to reach things without stepping on a step stool and uh straining like others have to endure. I rarely use my tippy toes. So, not all bad. But even at 74 inch wingspan and and my short sleeves ever apparent, the the truth is that my arms are dwarfed entirely by many many others, including the three Wingspan record holders mentioned by both Guinness World Records and Google alike.

Now, don't worry. I cross uh referenced or I checked on Google and made sure that this was all above board, but thankfully these are are verified. They're still unbelievable that Muhammad Shahada of Isra Egypt rather still holds the record for the widest arms span of a living person 250.3 cm or 8 feet 2.5 in wide. You want to know the lady who has the longest wingspan is actually his sister. Go figure. 7 feet 8.4 in wide in wingspan. and it runs in the family. And lastly, there's the wingspan of a man named Robert Wadlow of Alton, Illinois, just over the river.

The Alton giant, you've probably heard of him. He's said to have spanned over 9 foot 5.75 in. It was never included in the world record, but uh that's the uh the estimation that they have, 9T 7.5 in. And upon reading that, I wondered, I thought maybe he's a distant relative of mine. I could track that down and see if we're related to the Alton Giant. No doubt these are remarkable numbers and and human beings. They would be asked to reach things at Walmart that I could never ever reach.

And also, no doubt you're wondering what in the world do they have to do with an Easter sermon on this Sunday morning? And what do they have to do with your life and your present circumstance and what you're facing? As I said earlier, I use these human extremities and these human extremes and and even now my feeble wingspan in comparison to these. I I use them to draw a point that though many believe that Jesus was between 5'1 in and 5'8 in. The truth is that Jesus Christ has the longest reach and the longest outstretched arm of any human and any being ever recorded, even over and above those recorded in the Guinness World Record.

And he may not have had a literal wingspan of 9 ft 5 in or or even 74 in like my own, but I've come to tell you that Jesus is outstretched arm uh is outstretched to all of us today. And he can reach anybody at any time in any place. It does not matter how far away from Jesus that you might feel Jesus can reach you. Simply put, Jesus has long arms. I recognize it might strike some as a strange comparison or picture of God's grace of all things on Easter.

Why are we talking about Jesus's arms? But this analogy is one that the Bible uses expressly, one that the ancient writers use consistently. In fact, if you look at Exodus 6, which we read earlier, it starts with the Lord acknowledging that Pharaoh himself would move with a strong hand. Later, the Lord tells Moses that he'll deliver the people with an outstretched arm. It was an ancient near east Egyptian metaphor to say that someone had a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. They were common in Egypt, a country that held Israel captive.

One writer said its origin might be found in Egyptian royal hymns in official correspondence. And they gave these attributes to Pharaoh and to other sovereign leaders to show how far they could reach, to show their power, to show their authority. But then throughout the Exodus and beyond, you see the Lord commandeer that language to show them who really had the longest reach, who had the most power. Is it if to say that, okay, Moses, I see that Pharaoh has some reach. He's got some power and Egypt was a powerhouse, then he he has some sovereignty.

He has some control. But Yahweh or Jehovah, the the I am, has a greater reach than them all. He can save and redeem and deliver with his arm like nobody else can. And I know I'm taking some time to build a foundation today, but it's important for us to know what the Lord's driving at the pattern of his reach in scripture. In fact, it was a short time after the Exodus. We see the Lord use this analogy again. Moses is questioning God, how are you going to be able to provide for over a million people?

How are you going to be able to give them all meat and and quail? He didn't know at the time it was quail. But how are you going to do this? And the Lord asked Moses, "Has my arm been shortened?" He said, "Now you'll see whether what I say will happen to you or not." We see it again in Psalm 89. The psalmist says, "You have a mighty arm. Strong is your hand. High is your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.

Mercy and truth go before your face. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. They walk, oh Lord, in the light of your countenance. Even when the people of God were exiled, even when they're far away from God in in Babylon in that cap captivity, we see Jeremiah exclaim the same thing about the Lord. I love this. He says, "Ah, Lord God, behold, you've made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm." There is nothing too hard for you.

I'm going to repeat that. There is nothing too hard for There is nothing too hard for you. Later in the chapter, the Lord responds. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, "Behold, I am the Lord God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?" He concludes that chapter with a promise that he would reach all the way into Babylon and pull his people out and bring them home. all pointing back to the truth that our God can reach anyone, anywhere, at any time.

He's able to find you. He's able to reach you. He's able to pull you out of a mess. He's able to pull you out of captivity, out of darkness, out of storm. And maybe, maybe just like Israel, your adversary, like Pharaoh, maybe that adversary has some pull. Maybe it's got some power. Maybe that storm that you're facing has some reach. Maybe, just maybe, what you're facing has reached into your heart and caused some turmoil and caused some doubt. Maybe what you're facing has reached into your family and turned things upside down.

Maybe that sickness has reached into your body and has caused you to have a lack of health. Maybe it's even reached into your sleep and you're not able to sleep right now. Maybe it's reached into your mind and your mind is not healthy right now. No matter the reach of what you're facing, your adversary, your enemy, I can tell you our God can outreach them all. Our God is more powerful. Our God is more sovereign. Our God is all powerful. He's able to outreach whatever is reaching into your life.

He's able to change the circumstance. His arm is not short. His power is not dim. He can reach you today. And I know some may say, "Well, it's it's Easter and we got plans after this and we" But God is ready to reach to where you are today and touch you in a miraculous way. Here's what the psalmist later said in Psalm 139. It's one of my favorite psalms. Oh Lord, you've searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought from a far off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. The Lord knows where you are. exactly where you are. He says this, "For there not there's not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh Lord, you know it all together. You You've hedged me in behind in before. You've laid your hand upon me." God's hand is on you whether you feel it or not. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high. I cannot attain it. And I love verse seven. Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from the presence of God? If I ascend into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in the realm of the dead in hell and shol, you're there as well. If I take the wings of the morning and I dwell in the uttermost, the farthest parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall uphold me. If I say that surely darkness uh will fall on me, and even the night will be a light around me. Not even in darkness can God not reach you.

But his light will shine into that darkness and find you where you are. I feel the Lord reaching for somebody today. Reaching into places of your heart that you don't even know were there. Maybe the Lord and the word of the Lord is unlocking some some things and maybe you even feel some emotions, right? What is going on? Is God really reaching for me? Yes, he is because he loves you. There's no distance and no darkness that our God cannot reach into and pull you out of.

Psalmist says, "Even the realm of the dead is not off limits to the Lord. His arms are long enough to reach you where you are today." Jesus has long arms. And this, I believe, is exactly where the scriptures point our hope and our faith today. As you walk through the Old Testament, like we've done briefly, you read about Yahweh, his reach, his sovereignty. Then you get to Isaiah, a book that's full of promises that are for you that you ought to claim and prophecies. Isaiah 59, the Lord speaks to a people who had turned their back on him.

They had walked in darkness. Literally, they're they're walking away from God, and he's still trying to reach them. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy, and it cannot hear. And then in verse 20 it says, "The redeemer will come to Zion himself and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob." How would he do that? How would he save and deliver them? How would that redeemer of Exodus 6 and Isaiah 59, the the God of the Old Testament, how would he come himself to a people of God in Zion?

Isaiah 40 verse one says, "Comfort, yes, comfort my people, says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem. cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she's received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. He's coming. Zion's coming or he's coming to Zion the redeemer. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain brought low. The crooked places will be made straight.

The rough places made made smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Verse 10 says, "Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He'll gather the lambs with his arm. He'll carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young." And I love these questions.

Who has measured the waters in the sp and the hollow of his hand? Who has measured uh the heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains and scales, hills in a balance. This great God, this redeemer's coming with an outstretched arm. It says he'll gather his sheep in his arms and he'll come to save those who are lost. By his own words, that redeemer stood up in a synagogue one day and read from the same book of Isaiah.

Jesus, the God of the Old Testament, with an outstretched arm and hand came himself. And when he did, he showed us just how long his reach would be. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, he said, because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And they knew what he was talking about.

That redeemer, he's talking about that redeemer is coming to Zion. And Jesus sits down. He looks at them. He says, "This day, scriptures fulfilled in your hearing." What does it all mean? What what's it have to do with our Easter celebrations today and our bright colored ties and and dresses and our shared experience and lives? What does it have to do with my storm right here and now? Why what are you talking about? What's the significance of these ancient prophecies? And why does it matter that his arms are strong and ever reaching?

It matters because the same God who brought Israel out of Egypt, the same God who brought Israel out of Babylon is the same God who stood in that synagogue that day and said, "I'm here." and I've come to reach people that nobody else can reach. He didn't just deliver entire nations in the Old Testament. He came to heal the brokenhearted in the New Testament then and now. He came to reach those who are unreachable. He came to extend his hand to the broken, to the poor in spirit, to get them to their feet.

He came to pull up the oppressed and the lonely, the discouraged, the destitute. He came to reach the ones no one else could reach. And he came to show that there's no one he couldn't reach with his outstretched arm. Despite what could have been his average frame, 5'5, 5'7, truth remains that Jesus, the God of the Old Testament, still has longer arms and longer reach than anyone else could ever hope to have. And I don't want this analogy to be lost on you this morning. It It's more than a comical title.

It's a truth that means that Jesus can save you. He can deliver you. He can redeem you. He can heal you. He can set you free. He can make you new. No matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter who you've been. There was a young lady this week at youth convention. I found out uh she had attended as a foreign exchange student for some time from Germany. She heard about our event here in St. Louis. She's back home in Germany. And what I'm told is that she begged her mom and dad.

She felt the Lord tugging at her and pulling at her from across the ocean to come to Missouri youth convention. So she comes and she sees people being baptized in Jesus' name. And she said, "I I want to experience that." So she goes over to the baptismal tank and they baptize her and all of her sins are washed away in the name of Jesus all the way from Germany. God's re God is he he can reach anyone anywhere at any time. I talked to her. I said, 'You got to go back there and tell everybody what's happened to you.

And she said, 'I'm coming back next year and I'm going to tell everybody that I can what the Lord is the Lord's reach in my life what God can do. Hebrews 7, therefore it says he's also able to save to the uttermost, to the farthest reaches those who come to God through him. in Ephesians 2, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, you've been brought near by the blood of Christ. And then Acts 2:39, this promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

I looked at what that Greek word means, far off. It means far off. I'm I'm beyond God's reach. I'm far off. The promise is to you. >> I I've walked too far away from him. No, no, no, no. The promise is to you. You've been brought near by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus came and reached people who are unreachable by everybody else. When you see the people that Jesus reached, you see this people who were untouchable. There's a leper in Matthew who the Lord reached out and he touched.

And you got to understand any person who would have touched that leper would have been considered unclean and probably could have succumbed to that illness. But Jesus reached over and I don't want know what the the leper was saying at the time. I know that he asked for healing. But likely right before that that leper was walking through and saying unclean, unclean. In other words, get away from me. You can't touch me. But then he finds Jesus and he says, will you heal me? And Jesus touches him physically and literally.

I just felt to tell somebody maybe you feel like you're untouchable and uh no one wants to touch what's going on in your life and things are such a mess that oh they anyone that gets near me they're going to they're going to succumb to this. Maybe you've been pushing people away because of some shame. Or you've been pushing people away because of things that have happened to you that were not your fault. Someone here today, it was not your fault what happened to you. And yet you feel like you got to push people away.

Oh, if they knew, they wouldn't get near me. Jesus knows. And yet he's coming to you and he's trying to touch your life. He's trying to touch your heart right now. You know, the things that are dead are not beyond God's touch and his reach. You may feel like your situation's past due and there's no hope. But I know of a man named Lazarus who we sang about today. Dead in the grave four days. He said, "Lord, don't even bother. He stinks at this point. Things that are dead tend to stink, right?

Jesus said, "No, he didn't have to go in there. Lazarus, come forth." And here he comes. Jesus can touch people without even having to touch them. I want you to put Ephesians 2 up there if you wouldn't mind. Ephesians 2. This is our testimony. If it's not your testimony yet, it can be. You might feel dead to rights. You might feel like you're situ Well, if the Lord would have touched me two years ago or five years ago, then then something could have happened. But I want you to read this.

And you he made alive, who were dead. You were dead to rights. There was no way you were getting out of that. You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air who had you captive. And it says in the next verse, we all walked that way. We were all children of wrath just as the others. But verse four is one of my favorites. But God He's in the grave.

Jesus, you don't even bother. Lazarus come. But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins made us alive together with Christ. By grace you've been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places where you are not disqualified from grace. says, "By grace, you've been saved through faith and not of yourself >> on your own." We get in some messes, right? >> But by the grace of God, what is dead?

Dead relationships, dead hope, dead peace. Oh, maybe you feel like your future's dead and there's nothing coming. But Jesus can reach even into the future. And he can change things. He can change you, you and your heart, and your life and family today. He can reach the untouchable. He can reach the dead. And Jesus can reach things and persons that no one else can seem to reach. Tax collectors. They were worse then than No. Thank the Lord for public servants. >> Tax collectors were despised in their culture.

Jesus went looking for one and said, "Follow me." And he did. Jesus reached Roman centurions, the enemy. Jesus reached him. Jesus reached a Samaritan and no one wanted to touch. You are not unreachable. It begs the question today. If Jesus can reach all of these, who can he not reach? And I'm talking to someone. Are you the exception to God's power and his reach? You're not. If you need one last piece of evidence as we come to a close today, there's two crosses here. There were three on that day.

As far as we know, I was reading Exodus 6. If you could put that on the screen real quick, Sister Britney, thank you for your help. Verse six, if you wouldn't mind. The Lord speaking to Moses and the people of Israel who had been in bondage for, as far as we know, centuries. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, the most powerful people in that land. Whatever has power over you does not have power over him.

And God can overwhelm what has been overwhelming you. I'll bring you out. I'll rescue you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. I already told you the language behind that Neareastern euphemism that they used. I cannot say definitively that when the Lord was conveying this to Moses that he had the cross in mind. But as I read that this week, I could not get the image out of my head. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. >> With Aaron Wright as our one-man prop department, I asked him to make that cross 5'8 in in diameter, wingspan.

If you want to know how far the Lord can reach, it's longer than 5'8 in. But even when he's on that cross, he reaches a thief to his side. He reaches his mother who's watching him being tortured. And a Roman centurion nearby, who may have been one of the ones gambling for his garments, when Jesus breathed his last, says, "Surely this was the Son of God." A title they only gave to the emperor. Can God reach you today? Yes, he can. And we've seen how he how he does it.

If you're a guest with us today, the Lord can touch you and touch your life in a miraculous way. We just celebrated six who had this experience. But you can repent of your sins and turn away. The Lord can reach you while you're walking away from him. But it's always easier when you turn towards him. And what that looks like is just saying, "Lord, I'm so sorry for everything that I've done. Will you forgive me of my sins?" Repentance. Repent. You've seen those soldiers do that.

Turning towards the Lord, walking towards him, asking for forgiveness. And then we're told to be baptized in the name of Jesus, and all of your sins will be washed away. uh in your past that you felt like the Lord couldn't reach into and redeem will be washed away. And then the promise is that you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues. I just got to witness 70 people experience that. And just the last week, we got to see 10 of them.

And just two weeks ago, it can happen in your life today. And the Lord can reach in to whatever darkness, whatever storm, whatever may be going on in your life. He can touch you and reach you. If you've never experienced that, you ought to experience it today. Today. And then those who are facing a storm with a long reach, the Lord. How many of you ever faced a storm that the Lord reached into and pulled you out of? Anybody? Yeah. >> And how many of you that just raised your hand thought that that storm at one point you thought maybe this storm will be the end of me?

Anybody? Yeah. Yeah. Disciples are in a storm and Jesus comes walking on water. He'll get creative to reach you. And I feel the arms of grace reaching to somebody today. Would you stand with me right now? Musicians, you can come. The Lord can reach you in your seat wherever you're standing. We have a a practice here. It's one of faith. We do it out of faith. There's nothing mystical about it, but our church family in response to the word of God, if if the Lord's moved on us in any way or if we see the need for the Lord's help, there's many Sundays almost every Sunday that we'll uh in a moment that we'll step out of where we are and we'll come and we'll seek the Lord.

James says, "Draw close to the Lord and he'll draw close to you." You can do that in your seat. We've had it happen. But there is something about taking a literal step. Maybe if it's just out in the aisle, that adds to your faith. There are needs all across this place. There are those who maybe want to repent and you want to turn your life over to the Lord. And maybe you'd like to be baptized today. And we can do it. We're ready to go if you're ready.

Or maybe you'd like to receive the spirit of God and you like that power and that strength of God in your life. If that's you, we'll invite you to come in just a moment. But you won't be alone. There'll be others. And there's others who need the Lord to reach into a mess, to reach into your family, to reach into your body and heal you and strengthen you. I got to watch a young lady this week who had been diagnosed with a a form of mutism.

Would not speak. She was speaking with other tongues. Yes, he can reach you. He can reach you. Here's what I'd like us to do. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me? This just makes us all comfortable. Nobody looking around. If you need the Lord to touch your life today in any way, shape, or form, would you just lift your hand right now? If you need the Lord to touch you, you need a miracle in your life, you need a miracle in your family, a miracle in your body, just lift your hand right now.

You need the Lord to touch you. We've got hands throughout the room today. Need the Lord to reach in. You can put your hand down for just a moment. Keep your eyes closed. And then I'm going to ask if you need the Lord to touch you and give you salvation and you want to repent of your sins or you'd like to be filled with the spirit of God, would you lift your hand right now? If you want to receive the spirit of God, anybody. All right.

All right. I believe that today is the day you can be filled with the spirit of God. Now, as we all open our eyes, there's just your part in the service. The Lord's reaching and we're going to respond in some way, shape, or form. Again, you can respond in your seat by calling on the name of the Lord. But if you lifted your hand in a moment ago and you need the Lord to touch your life, I want to invite you to begin to come right now.

They're going to sing in a moment and we're going to worship the Lord. But if you lifted your hand, would you just begin to come if you if you need a you have a need in your life or you need the Lord to touch you today in a mighty or miraculous way. You need a you've got a need of a miracle. You've got need of a healing. You have need of the Lord's hand on your life. Or maybe you just need the peace of God to touch your life right now.

You can join these others who've come forward. And I wonder uh as these begin to pray, you all can lift your hands and begin to seek after the Lord. If some brothers and sisters who've been touched by God's power would come right now and lay hands on those who are needing the Lord's strength. If you need the Lord and you raised your hand a moment ago, you you can pray right where you are. You don't have to come to the front and brothers and sisters can gather around you and begin to seek the Lord on your behalf.

God is reaching for somebody today. Would you lift your hands and voices all across this place and reach out to the Lord? Reach out to his arms of grace. His arms are extended to you today. They're extended to your life today.