Wholly Healed

Could we just offer the Lord a sincere act of gratitude and thankfulness to him for his presence and his goodness, whatever way that looks for you, whether it be a lifted hand or a lifted voice or a quieted prayer, go ahead and offer that to him. Jesus, we thank you. We thank you, Lord, that this isn't just a bunch of humans in a room shouting and running around and doing their thing. You know, this is an encounter. This is an engagement with the living God. The God who loves us.

The God who has concern and compassion but also is able to work and to fight and to move on our behalf. God, we thank you, Jesus, for that reality. We thank you, Lord, for that experience. In the name of Jesus, everybody said, "Amen." I genuinely am thankful. And I think I'll be 33 next month, so I'm not that old. But everybody says it as you get older. You just reflect a little bit more and you become a little bit more okay with pausing in a moment, looking around and realizing how blessed.

Y'all, if you could just take a snapshot of this moment right here where the spirit of the Lord is moving and working in our midst. Not because we're deserving, but simply because he loves us and wants to be close to us. And I don't know, maybe there's someone in the room that maybe you feel alone physically. Maybe you feel alone even from your own biological family. Maybe you're feeling distant from all your friends, whatever. Even there, there is a God who is near to you today.

And I don't just want to skirt past this moment, that reality. I want us to recognize that God, the Lord of glory, is in the room wanting to just visit with us. We can't give him anything that he needs. He doesn't need anything. He just wants our attention. He just wants our affection. He just wants relationship with us. And oh, how amazing is that? How humbling is that? How worthy of a pause is that? that God simply wants relationship and I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that he extended relationship to my family.

I'm thankful he extends relationship to me. And I know that there are many in this room that are thankful that he has extended relationship to you. As our opening text this morning, and I'll ask you just to hang with me for a second. And I want to read from 1 Peter 2 where the apostle writes speaking about Jesus. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. It is by his wounds you have been healed.

Verse 25 says, "For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and over overseer of your souls." Today, I want to address this passage as the Lord leads us. I want to talk about the kind of healing that Christ's death on the cross can bring about in our life. And I'm not talking about partial healing. I I'm not even really I'll I'll address this. I'm not talking about physical healing. I'm I'm talking about the deepest kind of healing that a life needs and that is a restored relationship with him.

And if I could summarize it and this is my title for today, I'm talking about being wholly healed today. And it is at the cross where that becomes available to be wholly healed. So I would ask I need the help of the Lord both physically. You might hear it in my voice. I sound a little bit like Kermit the Frog, but I also need it spiritually today to preach this message. And and truth be told, we all need the help of the Lord to receive this today.

And so, would you join me just in a moment of prayer and say, "God, we need you to help us today." And so would you. Would you lift your voice right now and ask that of him? Jesus, God, we know that we are incapable both of your truth and receiving it on our own and under our own power. We need you to step in and help us, Lord. I pray, God, you help me. Yes. Help me physically. Help me spiritually. Help me to do a good job and to be clear.

Yes, I need it, God. But more than that, help us to receive your word, whether it be through my words or in spite of my words. God, help us to receive your word, to receive your voice, to receive your truth, and to receive that whole healing that is on offer today. God, I pray that it would be in this place. I pray that it would be in every heart and every life that reaches out to you in truth and says, "God, I need it. God, I want it." I pray you visit with them, Lord.

Pray you visit with us in the name of Jesus. Never said amen. That you can be seated in the presence of the Lord. Here in this opening text of first Peter, the Apostle Peter is trying to help us understand what the cross was really all about. And he reminds us that when Christ died on that cross, when he gave his life, he he wasn't simply suffering physically. He wasn't simply going through pain and agony. No, he was doing something for us. He was carrying our sins.

He was taking the guilt of our sin fully upon his own body. And in doing so, Jesus made something absolutely astonishing possible. That is that we could die to sin and to live to righteousness. In other words, to say that in some modern vernacular, he would offer a way for us to be restored to right relationship with God. Now, we've often used this passage, by his stripes, you have been healed. We we've used this passage to preach and teach about God's power to heal physically. And scripture, let me be clear, scripture absolutely teach us that God heals physically.

And he has healed physically. Just over the last couple of weeks, seven doctor's reports where God has stepped in and healed bodies. And we praise the Lord for that. We thank God for that. But the healing Peter is speaking about here, it runs deeper than any sickness. It runs deeper than any broken bone. It runs deeper than any diagnosis that we would ever encounter in this life. It is the healing of the deepest wound in a that a human being can have that Peter is talking about.

And that wound is not physical. That wound is not behavioral. That wound is not emotional. It's not financial. It's not even circumstantial. The deepest wound in the human life is relational. It's a relational wound. It's a broken and severed relationship with God, our creator. And I think that's why it's so wonderful when Peter summarizes the entire work of the cross with one staggering, beautiful statement that by his wounds, our deepest wound has been healed. What he's saying is that the cross was the moment when the broken relationship between God and humanity, between God and you and I was restored.

What sin and what the weights of this world had taken away, had stripped from us, Christ on the cross, restored to us. He his death offered us a status change from distance to nearness. from wandering or being lost to returning and being found, from estranged to reconciled. And Peter reinforces exactly what he's after just a few verses early in verse 10 when he says, "There was a time where you were not a people, but now because of what Jesus has done on the cross, you are not just a people, but you are God's people.

You belong to him. Once you had not received mercy in your life, you were lost and devoid of mercy. But now, because of what Jesus has done on the cross, we have received mercy. And I'll be the first one to go on record to say that I needed God's mercy. And without the work of Jesus on Calvary, I would have access to none of it. But because God loved us so much, he came and he died, he suffered, he gave everything so that we could be his people today.

And that is the healing that Peter is preaching about. He's talking about being reconciled with God. He's talking about a restored relationship. He's talking about a new status. It is the greatest healing a person could ever experience. And I've got good news for everybody in the room today. It is available. If you feel distant from God, you don't have to anymore. If you feel like you've done too much to be in relationship with God, that's not true. The gospel says he paid the price. And so you can return to relationship with him.

That's the good news today. If I could just jump ahead of myself, you don't have to wait any longer. You can return to God today. It's that promise of life. It's that promise of wholeness. It's that promise of return that I want to preach about today. that because of Christ's wounds, not because you did anything, not because you add up, not because you tithe or live righteously, not because any of that, simply because of Christ's wounds on the cross, you can be wholly healed. You can be wholly healed today.

Around New Year's, it makes sense because they go by the name. New Year's resolutions are all the rage, aren't they? Some people are like, "No, I hate New Year's resolutions. Only losers set New Year's resolutions." Whatever. You've got them. You're like, "This year, I'm gonna get my mind right." No, you're not. Okay? You said it last year, too. But New Year's resolutions are all the rage. And and honestly, I don't think they're a bad thing. I don't set too many. And And I try to set them mid December so they don't count.

You know what I'm talking about. I don't set resolutions. I send endofear resolutions. Yeah. I set I I think they're great. I I think they help us reflect. I think they help us assess. I I think they help us plan for the future. I think it's a good practice that we have as a culture and and honestly I I I think as far as wisdom is concerned you can find biblical support for New Year's resolutions. You read Proverbs 18, Proverbs 22 and and many other proverbs where it says, you know, wise people try to learn some things and wise people try to avoid danger in the future.

And so as I'm reflecting of 2025 and I'm like, you know what, I almost died doing that. I probably won't do it next year. That's wise. I think that is biblically defensible. So resolutions are great and and and to to be honest, many of our revol resolutions are kind of surface level, right? We we can we can say things like this. I want better cleaning habits. My wife said, "Amen. I want She really did. I want better cleaning habits." Okay. I I want to eat better.

Really, better is not a great word. Eating healthier. It's not better. It's healthier. It's disgusting, but it's healthier. I want to make more friends. Or better yet, I want to be friendlier, Lenny. I want to be f I'm just kidding. I want to be friendlier. I want to make friends. Or maybe this is my personal one, my personal favorite. Maybe I I want to quit being so mean to cats. I just don't know why they exist. I don't know. They don't even like humans, but we have them as pets.

I don't They don't even like you. I just want you to know they don't like you. They're waiting for you to look away so they can kill you. They're not. No, they're demonic. Okay. So, I I want to quit being so mean. They're still one of God's creations. So, New Year's resolution. I want to be nicer to cats. Sure. So, some of them can be surface level like that, right? And but here's what often happens, at least in my life and some people I talk to that when the noise of the holiday starts to fade and the when the routine slow down just a little bit until January really hits and then we're like on the hamster wheel again, it goes crazy.

When the quiet settles in, the questions can sometimes get deeper and the resolutions can get a little deeper. We no longer ask things like, "What should I fix this year?" We ask, "Well, who am I supposed to be? We don't ask, "What should I do this year?" But we ask things like this. Why am I here? What is my life really about? Does does my life matter? Am I a part of something bigger than myself? And and it's important to say this clearly when when you start having those deep questions.

Um you're not strange for thinking this way. You're not broken. You're not depressed. You're not a philosopher having an existential crisis. None of those things are happening. you're simply human to have these questions. Scripture tells us that God has placed eternity into the human heart. That means these longings for something more or something beyond ourselves, they're not defects. They're actually evidence of design. They're evidence of how we're made by God. That that pull toward meaning, that sense that life must be about about something more than just survival or success or comfort, that's not failure in your mind.

It's a sign that we were made for more than this world can fully provide. For some people, that longing, it it feels like something eternally important that we're supposed to be a part of, but it's just out of our reach. We just can't quite figure it out. And for others, it feels like an ache. It feels like an absence, like something is missing deep down on the inside of us. And and sometimes words fail us. We we don't have language for it. We can't really explain it.

But I think everybody in the room knows what I'm talking about. We've all felt this kind of ache, like there must be something more to life than this. And here's the part that really matters. This feeling isn't limited to people that are struggling. Some people accomplish everything that they set out to do. They hit their goals. They're nicer to cats. They get the promotion. They build the life that they have ever dreamed of. And still, even there at the pinnacle of success, something doesn't feel quite right.

And as an example of this, in 2005, Jim Carrey, not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination, but he represents a pinnacle of worldly success. In 2005, he's giving an interview. And he's wealthy, he's successful, he's achieved so much as far as the world is concerned. And they're asking him some questions, and he's quoted as responding to them admiring the success of his life with this right here. He says, "I think that everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.

Everyone's looking at me like I've got it figured out and I've got the answer and I've filled the void inside." I wish you all could have my experience, Carrie says, so you can realize it's not the answer. Even when everything is in order on the outside, this the heart is still asking, "Is this really it? Is is this really all there is to life? I I still feel this emptiness. I still feel this void. There's still this unresolved longing in the depths of my heart. What is it?

And I think it's that question. I think it's that ache. I think it's that longing that ultimately today leads us to the cross. The question naturally becomes for those wondering what's missing. you got everything. You've achieved all your stuff. What in the world's missing? What what can fill that hole? What can fill and and resolve that aching absence? And I know that many of us in the room right now, you know where I'm going and you're like, "It's God." And we're going to shout it out.

But but hear me. Sometimes we're too quick to pull the trigger in a cliche way on the answer here. And we've forgotten the depth. And we've forgotten the true weight of this reality. that the only thing that can fill that void in a life, the only thing that can answer that aching absence in the depths of your heart is a relationship with the one that created you. It's a relationship the one that made you and sustains all things by his power. It is only God that can fill that void.

And some of us are so used to hearing that that we have forgotten how important it is. And so I've got to say it plainly and I've got to say it again. Until we realize you can search the world high and you can search the world low. You will not find anything that can fill that void in your life outside of the Lord of glory. Outside of your God and creator, the one who loves you and died for you and gave everything for you. The old song says, "Can't nobody love me like Jesus?" It is true.

No job's going to make you feel loved like Jesus makes you feel loved. No career or relationship is going to make you feel full like Jesus makes you feel full. I've got to preach it until WE BELIEVE IT AGAIN WITH PASSION. It is ONLY GOD THAT WILL FINALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT achiness in our heart. IT IS ONLY JESUS THAT CAN FILL THAT VOID DEEP DOWN IN OUR SOUL. YOU CAN LOOK EVERYWHERE ELSE. YOU'LL never find an ANSWER UNTIL YOU LOOK TO THE CROSS AND SAY, "OH, THERE IT IS.

THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO FILL THE VOID. THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO FINALLY HEAL ME. IT IS JESUS. OH, IT'S HIM. IT'S ALWAYS BEEN HIM. IT'S ONLY HIM. IT CAN BE NO ONE ELSE BUT HIM. IT CAN BE NOTHING ELSE BUT HIM. WE'VE GOT TO RETURN TO THE CROSS TODAY AND SAY, "I FOUND IT IN JESUS. I FOUND LOVE IN JESUS. I FOUND PEACE IN JESUS. I FOUND WHOLENESS IN JESUS. I FOUND SOUNDNESS OF MINE IN JESUS. AH. OH, it's in him.

It's in him. It's in him. It's in him. And y'all, it's just how it works. Colossians 1:16 says, "For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. All things were created through him and for him." Y'all, we weren't just created by God. We were created for God. Relationship with the Lord Almighty is not an accessory to human life. It's the main event. It's the very purpose of human life. Paul reinforces it in Acts 17, speaking of God's action of the world.

Verse 26, he said, "And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him." Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. Paul is saying that everything about human existence, our history, our boundaries, our time on earth was arranged with one intention that we should seek God and most importantly that we should find God.

And of course, God is not far from any one of us. How could he be? He wants relationship so passionately that he has shaped all of creation. He has shaped all of history and even his own saving action in the world to bring us back to himself. That is why that ache you feel in your life deep down on the inside, it's not random and it's not mysterious. It is the soul recognizing it is disconnected from the one it was made for. It is God's design at work.

It is the CALL OF GOD PULLING us back toward relationship with him. That inner longing, hear me somebody. It's not weakness in your mind. It's not failure in your body. It is evidence that you were made for him and that he is calling for you to know him. Some of you have been wondering why you haven't been sleeping at night. Some of you have BEEN WONDERING WHY THESE THOUGHTS have been causing you to daydream while you're at work, saying, "There's got to be something more to this.

YOU ARE NOT WEIRD." THAT'S GOD CALLING YOU TODAY. THAT'S GOD SAYING, "I DID EVERYTHING SO THAT YOU COULD KNOW ME and I COULD KNOW YOU. I ORGANIZED HISTORY AND CREATION AND EVERYTHING I'VE DONE IN THE WORLD FOR YOU. >> It is not pride to recognize the truth of God's word that he had one intention in mind to know you and to know I to know me. No wonder we feel it. It's a sign that it that design is working that we are being called back to him.

But here's the danger. Here's the danger. We hear it as true. We recognize it. Yes, God is the only one. God is God's the one that can fill that void and fill that hole in my heart. We say that. We believe it. We recognize it. Maybe we nod along. Maybe we say, "Amen." But then in practice at times, we treat it as though it were no big deal. We know the answer to the question, "What is missing?" We all would say it. We've all clapped already to it.

God is missing. Yet, we respond, I have responded with partial or no action at all in my life. John tells us plainly the beginning of his gospel speaking of Jesus says in him was life and the life was the light of men. Life was just not from him alone. Life was in him. Life itself was in Jesus. And yet John goes on to say with some of the most sad words in scripture in verse 10 where he says he was in the world. Jesus was right there and the world was made through him.

Yet the world did not know him. Verse 11 says, "He came to his own." He presented himself to his own, and his own people did not receive him. Y'all, the tragedy in that moment was not ignorant. The tragedy in that moment was not that they were they were close to Jesus and they just didn't know who he was. The tragedy in the gospel of John is there was proximity with the truth with no response. The tragedy was that there was proximity with life itself but no attempt to lay hold of it.

And this kind of rejection, this kind of mistake, it's it's not new. It wasn't new in John's day. It's not new in our day. It's not novel. No, it's it's just normal. We humans, we have a tendency to do this. In fact, in Jeremiah's day, Jerusalem was living in open rebellion against God. Not because they lacked religious activity, but because they sought substitutes for the one thing they actually needed. God says to the prophet of Israel in that day in Jeremiah 2, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters.

And worse than that, they have hewed out sistns. These things are designed to hold water. They feed out cy turns for themselves, broken cy turns that can hold no water. They turned away from the source and they tried to build replacements. And what's worse is the leaders made it more difficult by minimizing the seriousness of the problem. And Jeremiah 6:14, the Lord judges the the leaders of Israel. It says, "They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying peace." That word is shalom. It means wholeness.

Everything's fine. They have healed the wounded my people lightly. It's okay. Peace. Peace. When there is no peace. The leaders of Israel, they treated a gaping wound, spiritual alienation from God like it was a minor inconvenience. And the people that day believed them. They believed that it wasn't a big deal. They believed that they could just handwave it and say, "Oh, we'll get to that later." Or, "It's not it's not that big of a problem. We really are okay. It's It'll be fine. We're going to be fine.

JUST JUST DON'T LOOK too closely. It's going to be okay. And if we're honest and if we're not careful, we could do the very same thing. In all of our New Year's resolutions, we can overemphasize good things while downplaying the most important thing. Y'all, I know it's quiet in here, but can I just preach scripture? Can I just preach truth? We can overemphasize good things. I'm not here to to throw stones at anything we might try to improve about our life, but we can overemphasize good things and we can underplay a God thing.

We can undervalue the most important thing. We can start believing things like this. If I could just get my health in order. If I could just fix my mental state. If I could just heal that broken relationship, if I could just get my career back on track, or if I could get my education underway, then finally that ache deep down on the inside of me, that missing piece that I know is missing, finally it will go away. But here is the hard truth. Self-improvement of good things, it can treat symptoms for a season, but it will go WITHOUT EVER HEALING THE deepest wound in a life.

And I've got to be clear, I'm not demonizing health. I I'm not demonizing discipline or PLANNING OR MENTAL WELLNESS or personal growth. These are good. They matter. I I think they even matter to God. BUT I'VE GOT TO BE JUST as clear. Self-improvement without God at the center is a band-aid on a wound that is spiritual alienation. And we cannot, WE MUST NOT, I CANNOT CRY PEACE. PEACE. ALL IS WELL OVER GOOD INTENTIONS OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT. IF WE DO NOT ADDRESS THE REAL ISSUE THAT WE'VE GOT TO KNOW GOD, we've got to know him.

We've got to have relationship with him. The warning I'm offering today, it's not one against effort. Of course, we should try hard. Of course, we should be excellent. It's not against effort. No, it's against misdiagnosis of what will finally bring healing in a life. if I could just push on a little further and please know my heart. I made resolutions to start going to the gym and eating right. And so I'm in the same boat when I say these words. If we make it to the gym but never to prayer, there is no peace.

I feel the conviction of those words even over my own life. as I make such a priority about I've got to make it to the gym. I got to stay on track. I got to get I got to get my health right. Oh, but if I miss a morning of prayer, I'll get to it. I treat it like it's no big deal. I treat it LIKE I COULD JUST HAND WAVE IT AND EVERYTHING'S GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT. If I could just make it to the gym, I'm going to feel better.

Oh, let it not be said of the saints of God. Let it not be that the scale reads what we want it to, but the word stays closed. Oh, hear me. If every relationship is restored, but our walk with God is neglected, there is no wholeness to a life. If we succeed at work and we succeed at school, but we ignore God on our priority list, there is no true health. Oh parents, speaking as a youth pastor who longs to see wholeness in our students lives, please do not settle for academic success while neglecting family devotion and disciplehip.

>> Please do not settle for impressive transcripts and a well-rounded student and flat spirituality. All right. BC, I'm not accusing anybody. I am just pleading for the most important thing. >> I'm not here to condemn anybody. I'm not here TO THROW STONES. I'M JUST HERE TO POINT US to where the health is. >> And if we can get everything else right, but we miss this. Oh, we've missed it all. We've missed it all. We've got to turn to God. We've got to turn to him. We've got to make our spiritual life a priority.

We've got to make our spiritual health a priority. Church attendance matters. Spiritual disciplines matter. Reading the word matters. Following God matters. Being holy matters. Being consecrated MATTERS. LIVING BY THE SPIRITUAL standard matters. Oh, it matters the most. And really deep down I know. I don't know. I know I don't have to plead very long. We know. We know that everything that I've just talked about is true. It's true because many of us, maybe all of us, myself included, at some point, we have tried and tried again to fix our lives without ever touching the real problem.

I've done it. We've adjusted habits. We've tweaked routines. We've changed friend groups. We've changed churches. We've started new plans. and new schedules and new disciplines. We've we've done all the work that is that should have made us feel better and yet we come up for air year after year still feeling empty. Sometimes even more exhausted than before because we've just spent our wheels for the last year wondering what was wrong. Really, we shouldn't be surprised because you cannot heal a spiritual wound with a physical, emotional, or behavioral solution.

It just doesn't work. But here is the good news. We don't have to wonder anymore why we don't feel whole. And we don't have to wonder anymore where to look. We simply need, as Peter told us in the beginning, we simply need to look to the cross because it was there on that tree where healing finally became possible for every life that would accept it. Jesus himself explained the purpose of his death this way in John 12. He says, "And I when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself." Verse 33 clarifies what he means.

He says, he said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Jesus is telling us here that his death would be a drawing agent for all of those that have wandered away from him. The cross is not just about forgiveness. It is about forgiveness, but the cross, it is an invitation. It is a moment of restoration. It is the drawing power of God pulling wandering hearts back home. And this ties perfectly back to what Peter said in 1 Peter 2 that he himself, he bore our sins in his body on that tree.

And it is by his wounds that you have been healed. What kind of healing you talking about, Peter? Verse 25. For you were straying like sheep. You were alienated in that distance with God. But have now because of the cross, you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Do you hear the echo between what Jesus said and what Peter is saying? Jesus said before his death, I will draw you. And Peter speaking to people that have received the cross into their life, he says, you have now returned.

It offers a simple gateway. How do you get to God? How are you restored in relationship? How do you fill that gap in that hole? You've got to meet Jesus at the cross. The cross is where it happens. It is by his wounds through his suffering on that tree that he heals the deepest wound of all our separation from God. Everything in us that aches for meaning. Everything in us that longs for wholeness. Everything in us that feels out of place and out of sink and out of peace, it finds its answer only in him.

It finds its answer only in the cross. That is where we need to go today. Not another habit. Not another TWEAK OR A CHANGE. WE NEED TO GO to Jesus today. We've tried it. We tried to be our own healer. We've tried to arrange our own peace. But now we know we need to look to the cross. We need to look to Jesus. We need to look to the wounds that heal. Because in those wounds, we find him drawing us back to himself. And in those wounds, in that drawing, we find complete and whole healing.

Truth is, at some point, all of our self-improvement and all of our good intentions, they've got to give way. We've got to just stop trying to do it on our own. Good intentions aren't enough. Discipline isn't enough. Trying harder is not enough. And really, that's good news because I'm exhausted. Even right now, y'all, you know, when this was when this was first preached in the church 2,000 plus years ago, Peter begins to preach the gospel about Jesus and turning to him and repentance and all these things.

The people that day, they they didn't get up in arms. They didn't argue theology. They didn't deflect responsibility. They accepted it as true that we have to have a return to Jesus. We've got to return to him. And so they ask in in verse 37 of chapter 2, they they look at each other. They're pricked to their hearts and they just say, "Okay, what do we do?" Fair enough, right? What do we do? Peter didn't answer by telling them to try harder and get their life together and quit being so pagan.

you. He responded with words that have echoed through generations to this church in Acts 2:38. It starts simply with this. Repent. Repentance sometimes it can be an ugly word to us because it implies that something's wrong. And I don't like that. I don't think humans like that. you know, maybe a coat of paint, little touchup around the edges, and I'm I'm really good after that. You have to understand the prophets of old, they spent most of their time calling the people to repentance. Repentance, hear me, repentance isn't self-hate.

It's not, "God, I just hate myself. Just kill me." No. Repentance is simply honesty before the Lord. We say, "God, I've been trying to do it my own way long enough. I've thought that my solutions were the answer long enough, and I am surrendering that to you, and I'm turning to your truth and your word, and even if it feels uncomfortable, I'm going to pursue what you say is the solution." Love what David says in Psalm 51. After he committed the greatest sin of his life, he begins to pray to the Lord.

Verse 16, he says, "You will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with burnt offering. In other words, if I could give you something to make you forgive me. If I could just try harder, I'd do it, God. But I know you're not going to accept just effort, just working hard, trying harder. Instead, verse 17 gives us the answer. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise. The principle here is what James says in James 4:6, that God opposes the proud.

God, I've got it. I can figure this out. I'm just going to try harder this year and it's going to work out. God resists the proud. He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. What is scripture trying to tell us? It's trying to tell us that God does not meet us in our strength, with our opinions, and with our plans. God meets us in our weakness, and in our surrender to him. And I I I want to walk through the rest of the plan of salvation.

We know we've got to be baptized in the name of Jesus and we need to be filled with the Holy Ghost and we're going to speak in other tongues as God solidifies that experience. I believe it. But I feel the Lord asking me to stop and pause right here because this is the step we've got to get through before we get to any of that other stuff where we say, "God, I'm done doing it my way. I'm going to follow you." Some of us, pastor, you you're in control.

Some of us in this room, we need to develop a prayer life this year. We're not condemning anybody. It's just where health is. It's like telling somebody they got to go to the doctor. It's okay. That's good advice. Some of us, we need to begin to read the Bible consistently this year. Some of us, we need to put church on Sundays and Wednesdays, Wednesdays on our calendar. Prayer that we have together, connect groups, we got to put it on our calendar and say, "We're not missing it." And we've got to build faithfulness into our lives this year.

Y'all, let me just ask, what have you got to lose? We've tried it every other way. I've been going to the gym and I've been eating. Do you know what I still miss? My time with God. I crave that above all else. What have we got to lose? We've tried it every other way. We've walked every other path. We've walked every other road. Why don't we just turn to God and say, "God, I'm making your model my priority, and I'm going to see what happens." And I promise you, because we've got generations of believers in the room that can attest to this truth, you're going to find out that you find a whole new level of healing that you've never experienced before.

But it all begins with repentance. So, we're going to stop here and be led by the Lord. if you'll stand with me in this place. Again, it's not in our strength and our opinions and our own ability where God meets us the most. It's in our surrender to him. So, if you've been searching for health, you've been searching for wholeness, you've been trying to figure it all out, maybe year after year, you've been looking for answers, I'm here to tell you under the authority of the word of God, today is the day where you can find what you've been looking for.

And it all will start by you opening up, maybe even taking a step of faith to come to this altar and say, "God, I'm done doing it my way. I'm done trying to figure it out, and I'm turning to you." If you're willing to have a cooperative spirit with the Lord and just have a season of repentance and allow the Lord to lead you from there, I'm going to open these altars right here in this moment. Let's just come before the Lord and say, "God, I'm done.

>> God, I'm coming to you. Would you lead me? Would you direct my mind? Would you direct my habits? Would you direct my schedule and my priorities? God, I give you permission to rewrite them. I give you permission to change them. I give you permission to take things away or add things to it. God, I give you complete and total control. Oh, let's do it together. Church, we turn to you, God. We want wholeness. We want holy healing. >> Where your love redee all to you.

I owe all to you. At the cross. At the cross. I surrender my life. I'm in all of you. I'm in you. Where your love red and my sin washed white. I owe all to you. I owe to you at the cross of the cross. I surrender my life. I'm in all of you. I'm in all of you. With your love red and my sin wash, I owe to you. At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. I'm in all of you. I'm in all of you.

With your love and red and my sin wash, I hold to you. I owe to you. At the cross. At the cross. I surrender my life. I'm in all of you. in all of you. With your love red and my sin wash, I hold to you. Here my hope is found. Here on holy ground. Here I bow down. Here I bow. Here. Arms open wide here. You save my life. Here I bow down. Here I bow. Here my hope is found here on holy ground. Here I come.

Here I come. Here arms open wide here. You save my life. Here I go. Here I go. The cross at the cross. I surrender my life. I you made all of you. Your love red my sin wash. I to you. I to you. At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. I you my s I to you. I to you. At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. I made of you. I made of you. Where your love, my sin. I to you.

I to you. Here my hope is found here on holy ground. Here I go. Here I go. Here arms open wide here. You save my life. Here I go. Here I go. Here my hope is found. My holy ground. Here I go. Here I am. Here my soul is right here. You save my life. Here I go. Here I go. At the cross and the cross. I surrender my life. I need you. coming all you with your love red. I owe all to you. At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life.

I love you. I love you. Where your love in my sight. I owe to you. I to you. At the cross. At the cross. I surrender my life. How are you? How are you? Your love red. I to you. My to you. My hope is found here. All holy ground. Here I go. Here I go. Here you save my life. Here I go. Here I go. Here my hope is found here on holy ground. Here I go. Here I go. Here arms open wide here. You save my life here.

We sing this together with your hands lifted at the cross. We need you Lord. We return to you the shepherd. We oversee our soul. You come in all you love and my sin wash. I >> thank you for the cross, oh God. >> Thank you for the healing, oh God. >> At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life. How are you? How are you? Where your love red and my sin wash. I owe all to you. I owe to you. Would >> you lift your hands right now and just ensure that you are right with the Lord?

That you're in connection with him and relationship with him. Lord, I know I've already prayed it. I've already sought after you. I've repented already. But I want to know by the time I leave this place that I I'm whole and I I'm on the way to health. Not just a superficial health, but an eternal health. That I'm healthy and growing and full of love which is only found in you. Only found in your word, only found in connection with you, oh God. Thank you, Lord, for the cross, the opportunity we have.

Jesus name.