Recognizing Jesus and Following His Way

how can you know in your life you're right with god i mean if there's a a test today and someone wants to say how do you know that you're right with god today how do you know that when your heart stops beating you've got access into heaven could it be the bigger the bible you have the better the person you are could it be that the more you go to church the the bigger the mansion you're going to have on the hill in heaven could it be the nicer you are the better of a person you are you're going to be met at the pearly gates because you were such a good person well i'll tell you none of those things will actually even get you into heaven they might be good things in fact i like having a big bible i love going to church and this world could use some more nice

people but those are not the things that get you into heaven so what does it actually mean to be right with god and today we turn to a text where jesus himself actually speaks and tells us what his mission is and how we can join him and i want to warn you in advance that it may sting a little because it's not natural it's not easy but it is the truth today we join mark the author of this book that tells the life of jesus and we find ourselves in chapter eight and if you're just joining us it's never too late to dive into the word of god in fact this week if you want to make it a priority you can catch up in all eight chapters in really one setting if that's too difficult to spend five minutes a day and read one chapter a day and by next sunday you'll be caught up with where we are

mark chapter eight where jesus is he's he's on this journey and as he's doing it he's going to reveal to us what he came to do who he is and how she he shapes everything the late aw toes are a wonderful preacher a prophet he wrote many different books he said this claim about you he said what comes into our minds when we think about god is the most important thing about us let me just say that again what goes into your mind when you think about god is the most important thing about you when i say who is god what conjures up in your mind is who you are in god so if in your mind you're wondering i'm not quite sure who god is

i'll tell you today it's never too late with god to have an accurate view of who he is but in your mind if you think i'll tell you who our god is he is all glorious he is great he is mighty he is perfect he is holy he never does anything wrong his timing is perfect in all his ways he is so absolutely wonderful he is a gift-giving god he is so great he gives me an inheritance he's the one that made me he's the one that holds me together and sustains me when you have that view of who god is it shapes who you are and jesus does not want you to come up with your own conclusion of who he is there are too many today that have a wrong view of who god is see what we've done is we've projected

our view of who god is on the lord but that's making god in our image and god is not made in our image rather we're made in his image so we need to turn to him to trust him for who he is and who you are and that changes everything let's look at an example in mark chapter 8 starting with verse 27 jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of caesarea philippi and on this journey he asked his disciples jesus is the teacher the disciples are the students and he asked them who do people say that i am what an awesome perspective he's wondering i'm going around i'm doing miracles i'm i'm bringing little girls back to life i'm healing people i'm feeding people i'm i'm creating

controversy at church come on this is a great guy so who are people saying that i am and they told him in verse 28 they said to jesus here's your poop people say you are. some say john the baptist others say elijah and others say one of the prophets so at the time when jesus was walking on earth people had different views of who jesus is just like today if you were to ask around who do you say that jesus is you might hear all kinds of different answers today he's a prophet he's a good guy oh he was he was a founder of a religion you're going to hear all sorts of different answers when it comes to jesus but jesus asks a very important question

and i believe that god wants to ask you today the same thing in verse 29 he asked them but who do you say that i am that's the most important question you can ask in your heart today who do you say that jesus is because what you think of jesus will shape who you are who do you say that jesus is and peter pipes up and in verse 29 and says peter answered him you are the christ and jesus strictly charged them to tell no one about him so let's set the occasion jesus is on a journey with the disciples and he warns them as the rabbi it's pop quiz day don't you all hate pop quizzes

the only person that hates a pop quiz is the person that's not prepared that was often me in school i'm going to confess that to you right now i just didn't like the pop quizzes all right i like to be prepared jesus throws on a pop quiz and he asked them first question who do people say that i am they had the answers the second question question on the test and this is only a two question pop quiz those are the worst because if you get one wrong you get an f but peter was prepared well done peter he was ready for the answer he tells jesus i'll tell you who you are you're the christ now the word christ is the greek form of the word messiah now the word messiah is a very special word to the jewish people the word messiah means the chosen anointed

one of god there will only be one messiah and this messiah will come to save the world this messiah will restore the nation of israel this is the christ and peter says you are the christ now when you think about the christ it conjures up so many different ideas and implications for the person that understands what the christ came to do so many thought the christ would be the conquering messiah and at the time of jesus when the roman empire ruled the world if the christ came he would have to flip upside down the roman empire he would have to conquer the king caesar and he would have to restore all things and make them right let me put it in perspective today

if many were to think the messiah would come today he would bring cheap gas prices he would make a great stock market and there would be liberty and freedom for all to be who they want to be that's how they perceived the messiah to be in the days of old and peter said you're the person that's going to do what we want the christ to do and jesus in verse 31 he began to teach them for that's who he is the master teacher the rabbi and he began to teach them that the son of man can we just stop there for a moment that the son of man he does not call himself the christ peter said you're the christ and what jesus chooses to call himself is the son of man a phrase used 81 times

in all four of the gospels the gospels are the story of jesus and the story of jesus what he prefers to call himself is the son of man a phrase that daniel the ancient prophet of old once wrote about the messiah the messiah would be the son of man and he will be the ancient of days he'll be eternal and jesus looking back on this book of daniel is able to speak through the prophecy he doesn't call himself the christ because when he says the christ it conjures up their own view of what the messiah would be but he's now going to teach about the messiahship that the messiah the christ may not be anything like you think he should look so we're going to start there he's going to look like who god said he is

not what man thinks he should be not what people have perceived or what the generations have passed on or what you think based on the circumstances of the current government situation so jesus began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things be rejected by the elders the chief priests and the scribe come on that's like all the religious folk are going to cause him to suffer because he's rejected he will not be received by any of the religious elite of his day and be killed and after three days jesus says he will rise again this is not at all what anyone would have perceived the christ to do

to suffer be rejected be murdered and then raised from the grave and yet jesus when talking about who the christ is the proper answer of who do you say that i am he makes it loud and clear the christ came to suffer be rejected be killed and rise from the grave now mark the author wants us to know that jesus did not make this confusing he did not speak to them in latin nor did he make this so religious through through different doctrines that you you're kind of wondering what is he actually trying to say no in fact in in verse 30 32 it says jesus said these

things plainly he made this clear so that all of us could understand he didn't speak in some parable here he made it really clear that he came to suffer be rejected to be killed and then conquer death defeat the devil and raise from the he said this plainly so that you would not come up with your own conclusion that you would not make a mistake and try to interpret what this means what did he mean by no he he meant the son of man will suffer he meant the son of man will be rejected he meant that he will die which means he's dead and he meant that he will conquer death and rise from the grave and when he said this plainly in verse 32 peter remember he just got the answer right just like one or two minutes ago

peter took jesus aside and he began to rebuke him now just a side note here if you're taking notes it's never a good idea to rebuke jesus it's like never ended well there's just some things in life that you could say no that's not a good idea to do and it's in this position and posture that peter says no way would the christ do that no way would the messiah come and suffer because when the messiah comes we will all know he's the messiah and we will worship him we will not reject him so peter does what everyone's thinking he rebukes jesus to say somehow you got this wrong jesus

i wonder if you've ever thought that in your life but turning verse 33 but turning and seeing his disciples jesus rebuked peter so he he looks at the disciples not just peter because the disciples were thinking the same thing jesus does not just call peter out he's looking at all of his students and he said get behind me satan for you're not setting your mind on the things of god but you're setting your mind on the things of man and so we see a principle here the message peter heard is a suffering messiah unthinkable the message peter heard is that the teacher is going to go through terrible times it's not going to happen under my

watch peter says you see the messiah is a symbol of strength the messiah is a symbol that's going to conquer the messiah is someone that's going to do great things and peter took jesus aside and absolutely amazingly when we read the story he rebuked god in the flesh now can i tell you a hard truth you may want to take notes on this one as well we are all peters we all at some point in our lives will say whoa whoa this is not the way it's supposed to go this is not the way i thought god works hey lord i'm going to just tell you i

think you got it wrong on this one this person this place this situation at some point we we all come before the lord and say i'm not quite sure you're getting this one right it feels like god somehow messed up but may i tell you jesus never ever makes a mistake he never has and he never will and so jesus words to peter are as severe as peter's words to him now just say you never want jesus to tell you get behind me satan now let's understand the context here he's not calling peter satan he's calling the idea that his mission would be rejected he's saying that is satanic

and that's demonic that you think somehow that i won't fulfill what i came here to do that is a satanic thought that somehow the mission of god is not to suffer be rejected take upon the sins of the world that god's wrath would be poured out on his son that is satanic to think that somehow there's a shortcut to experience the glory and the power of god and many of us give into the same idea that peter did that somehow suffering is not a part of god's plan but jesus wants us to know this was his mission from the beginning he did not come to this world to make this place the happiest place on earth he came to save us so he points to the reason that he's actually here he did not come to make

everyone happy he came here to show us that he is the way to eternal life yet satan wants us to take the easy way because satan knows that there's no such thing as the easy way satan will tell you you shouldn't go through hardships satan will tell you that trials are are actually opportunities for you to reject god to run from god satan will tell you the suffering means that something is wrong with god when in reality the suffering is the very thing that should draw us to god trial should be the opportunity to find joy because this is the place where god gets to be god because you are not we are reminded on this side of heaven this is not our home but this is a journey to something even greater eternal our heavenly home and as as mark is writing the story of

jesus life he's speaking to the romans that when they give their life to jesus they will be rejected they're declaring jesus as the greater king than caesar as he's writing to a gentile person someone that that does not have a jewish background he's letting us know that this eternal god has made himself known through jesus christ and when you give your life to him if you go through trials which you will go through trials it is not the absence of god but rather he's given you an opportunity to get to know god the lord doesn't ask you to go around suffering to go over suffering but rather to go through it just as he did

because it's not enough just to know about jesus you need to be changed by jesus see even the devil and the demons know jesus and they shudder at his name that's not enough to die one day and say i know who jesus is he's the savior of the world no no have you been changed by the savior of the world have you received the savior of the world have you surrendered your life to the savior of the world there's a big difference so jesus explains in verse 34 he goes from speaking to a small group in verse 34 and calling the crowd and calling the crowd to him with his disciples so he wants his disciples to know this but he also wants everyone else to know this jesus said to them if

anyone come on shout anyone if anyone that's you today my friend if anyone that's the person behind you and in front of you if anyone would come after me jesus said if you come after jesus let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me two requirements to being a disciple of jesus two requirements to really be a christian which means to be like christ the first one deny yourself now what does it mean to deny yourself is jesus saying that you should have have pity and say woe is me i'm the worst person in the world i'm absolutely awful that's not the case at all when you deny yourself you're doing what john the baptist said and that is less of me and more of him

when you deny yourself you're actually saying my ways are not as good as god's ways when you deny yourself you're saying i'm going to trust his ways over my way so i'm going to his word not my word when you deny yourself it's not about saying that you're less than you're saying he's greater i'm making jesus the center of my life when you deny yourself you realize it's not about my will but about thy will be done in my life it's not about making this the end it's about saying god would you just make heaven just a little more on earth so that one day i won't be surprised when i get there when you deny yourself you want jesus to be everything and it's not enough just to deny yourself jesus even went further and said take up your cross now they knew exactly what this meant

today we don't understand the weight of this because two thousand years have passed but the cross two thousand years ago was not a symbol that would reflect as an art piece in a church it was not a jewelry that you wear around your neck or on your ears to profess maybe what you believe but rather the cross was a symbol of shame absolute shame a person on the cross is despised they're rejected by men that when you look up at the cross you would see someone that is naked and nailed to a tree see when you take up the cross

the reader of this book years ago would have understood that you would carry your beam and the reason you carried your beam is because you were condemned and you would have to walk a journey to the place where you would be crucified and that journey to the cross is a one-way ticket there is no round trip there's no coming back from the cross the cross is the end of the story the cross represents opposition a person would be crucified when they oppose rome when the opposed caesar a person would be crucified when when they were opposed by the people as was the case with jesus christ and jesus

is saying if you really want to follow him not only do you need to deny yourself you need to realize and recognize you will have opposition from an enemy namely satan himself who is so clever he disguises himself like light and in this world that we live in jesus calls him the prince of this world that wherever you go satan is going to look like he's winning but we know the story of the cross he is not one but when you pick up your cross you have the opposition from the world the world will not understand the cross the world wants comfort while jesus says i use suffering the government will not understand the cross we've got all these issues today and we try to legislate morality and that is not the message of the cross

it's not arguing whether this is right or that's right the world is confused with the the racial realities that we find these are not new problems this is a cross problem and when you take up your cross you are saying it's not about me it's symbolic of what jesus has done for us this is the first of three times jesus shares the passion story the the suffering and the resurrection three times in mark chapter eight mark chapter nine and mark chapter ten he made it plainly and perfectly clear that it's all about the cross so when you take up your cross here's what you're saying i have died to myself so this is not just a metaphor this is a

reality when i deny myself i've died to myself well why would you ever die to yourself well as paul wrote to the galatians here's why because i've been crucified with christ so when i take up my cross it's no longer about me it's about the one that was crucified for me so it's no longer i who live but christ who lives in me and the life i now live in the flesh because i'm not with him yet i'm going to live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me so to carry your cross is to acknowledge that jesus who did not deserve death jesus who did nothing wrong jesus who knew no sin jesus who is god himself the son of god became the son of man and he suffered not because he needed to not because he had to but he chose to die on

the cross for me my sin was upon him on the cross therefore when i realized what he did on the cross i take up my cross because now my whole life jesus has made it really clear is all about him and so he speaks to us today to anyone if you really want to know what the message of jesus is there is a cost in fact it will cost you everything and when it costs you everything the world will not understand it as paul once wrote to the corinthians for the word of the cross when you when you really take the cross serious it is folly the translation may say this is

foolishness to those who are perishing to say i'm not going to focus on my career as much as i focus on the cross i'm not going to focus on on my good looks as much as i am the cross i'm not going to focus on all the things of this world as much as i am my whole life is centered on the cross and the world says oh you're a fool but to those of us who have jesus who are being saved it is the power of god because we know the cross is not the end of the story because as jesus said plainly not only was he killed he was murdered but what happened on the third day come on he rose from the grave so when you surrender your life and die you actually don't die you really start living and you start living because it's the power of god at work in you the same

spirit that rose jesus from the grave is the same holy spirit that's in you when you surrender your life to jesus christ so if you really want to save your life give up your life as jesus says in verse 35 for whoever would save his life will lose it so you think that you have a life with apart from jesus you really lose your life but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it for what is a prophet a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can a man give in return for his soul jesus in two verses emphasizes the importance of the soul this is what sets apart human beings from any other creature on the planet you have a soul and it's eternal from the moment of conception

you have a soul you matter to god he died on the cross not so that you can live an ordinary life or a mundane life he died so that you would understand you matter to him he came and left heaven and came to earth so that you would know he's your maker you have purpose you have a soul that's eternal oh we try to play the role of god and argue when does life actually start and as a woman body her own the lord would say no matter what happens there are no mistakes in god's eyes there's no such thing even if it was done under evil god can work it for good you matter to god you may have been abused by every person on the planet and that's why jesus died

for you he knows what you've been through so why would you try to find anything in this world to satisfy you when the only thing that could satisfy you is the one that made you you matter to god and jesus said the reality of this is he's given you the opportunity to follow him but in verse 38 he says for whoever is ashamed of me jesus said and if you're ashamed of his words in this adulterous and sinful generation if you're worried about what other people are going to think about you in this world that rejects jesus of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels

he climaxes this with this warning that eternity is real and you will face god despite all of the distractions in this world at some point you come before god the father and the only answer that will get you into heaven is not your good deeds it's not your good works it's not going to church it's not knowing the bible it's not being religious the only way to get into heaven is to acknowledge jesus christ and who he is and what he's done for you but if you get there and you don't have the right view of who god is in front of an entire army of angels that are all glorious perfectly good created to worship god surrounding the throne in the glory of god you are eternally separated from god

and mark is reminding us of the brevity of life that you have something worth living for but the only way to live for jesus is to recognize that you need jesus let me read a long scripture of texts so that we understand the beauty of what this is about paul writes a letter to a church in a city called ephesus so it's in this book to the ephesian people chapter 2 he says this let me read verse one through ten he says and you were dead in your trespasses so you're all dead people in your sin in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince and the power of air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience so so y'all were following satan everybody among whom we all once lived and the passions of our flesh we wanted what we

want and not what god wanted carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature you were born into this by nature you were born a sinner children of wrath like the rest of mankind it sounds terrible at this point but it gets better look at verse four but god everyone say but god but god being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loved us it's the motivation of who he is because he loved us he was rich in mercy even when we were dead in our trespasses he made us alive together with christ by grace alone you have been saved and you he's raised you up with him and seated us with him in the

heavenly places in christ jesus that in the coming ages meaning forever he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace upon grace upon grace upon grace and the kindness towards us in christ jesus for by grace you've been saved through faith this is not of your own doing it is a gift of god not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship the greek word here's poema you're god's poem you're his masterpiece he's writing his story through you created in christ jesus you were created for good works which god prepared beforehand that we would walk in them okay let's just make this abundantly clear what jesus came to do jesus did not come to make good people better

jesus did not come to take wounded people and heal them jesus did not come to take ignorant people and make them educated jesus did not come to make the poor rich jesus did not come to make sad people happy let's make it really clear jesus came to make dead people alive that's the message of jesus christ he did not come so that we would have our own agenda and try to fit it into god's will his will is that you would surrender your all into who he is unless we think we're alive the bible is clear in romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death romans 3 tells us that we we all have sin and fall short of the glory of god but by the grace of god by the free gift

of god is eternal life that is in jesus our lord so jesus took our sin and he bore on the cross so therefore your life's focus as galatians 6 14 says far be it for me to both accept in anything but the cross of our lord jesus christ if there's one thing i want to live for it's the cross of jesus christ and there are too many people today that say there are different ways to heaven that's a satanic belief to say there are many ways to get to god there are many that would say this religion is good and this religion is good and we like to think there are many ways because there are many different people and we try to honor the people while we dishonor god while we rebuke god and say no no you must have the wrong way because the scriptures teach us their

salvation and no one else for there's no other name under heaven in which but given among men which we must be saved it's only by the name of jesus he himself made this audacious claim in john 14 6 before he went to the cross i am the way the truth the life there's no other way to get to the father eternal heavenly father that loves you and made you but by jesus there's no way through buddhism and just being good and meditating there's no way through hinduism and many different gods that you try to please there's no way through islam which is not the way to eternal life there's no way through being a better person or a good person or through crystals or the way of this

universe or karma trying to be good enough you cannot get into heaven but by jesus and his finished work on the cross you could celebrate that because we celebrate all sorts of things but the message of jesus is offensive to so many and since it is offensive and there are enemies of the cross we start to shrink back not realizing that jesus is the christ the messiah the son of god and the son of man the cross reminds me that it's not about me but what paul writes to the colossians is for in him jesus the fullness of god was pleased to dwell and through jesus to reconcile himself all things whether on earth or in heaven

making peace by the blood of what his cross you see when we try to find any other way to be satisfied in our lives but by jesus and his finished work on the cross we become an enemy of jesus so we even have enemies in this house just look down your row and start looking for the enemy just look you can't see your enemy you might have the enemy sitting in the same seat you are i'll tell you it happens quite easily when you start to focus on your life you become as paul says in philippians 3 18 you walk as an enemy of the cross of christ and you know he was actually in philippians he was actually talking of the religious he was not talking about pagans who are devil worshipers he's actually talking

about people that try to make jesus something other than who he is jesus worded it this way and this is this is what i want you to really grasp today you see the cross is offensive to so many but would you hear the heart of jesus this is jesus his own words john 15 13 greater love greater love there's no greater love than this jesus said that someone lay down his life for his friends now can we just pause there for a moment we don't actually understand this love i really wish we did i've officiated many different weddings and there's many different vows i love you so much and like until death do us part and this is so great you're so beautiful and i'm crying because we're young and good looking and all these different things that happen listen listen all it takes all it takes

all it takes all it takes is to truly be offended by that person you made those vows with when they call you a bad word when they raise their voice and shake their fist at you when they throw something at you you still love them the way you did on the day you made vows because when someone has betrayed me guess what i do i stop loving them jesus was betrayed by his best friends and he still said i'm going to the cross for them jesus was betrayed by the religious and he said my blood is shed for them father they know not what they do he knew the weight of what he did on the cross when he prayed in the garden

bleeding sweat from his brow saying if there's any other way this is the worst thing that anyone can go through and he still did it i'm such a coward when i get offended i walk in the other room a pity party you don't treat me that way i'm a man this is who i am you understand this i'll pick a fight with you that's not jesus love he picked up his cross carried it to golgotha the place of the skull crucified god that made man that made the very tree he was crucified on why

there's no greater love than this no person no government no 501 c 3 church no no stock market no portfolio no car no house no children no spouse no one can give you this love no no no greater love than this than someone lay down his life first friends you are my friends jesus said if there's a condition you do what i command what do you command deny yourself take up your cross you do this you're a friend of jesus no longer do i call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing but i've called you friends for all that i've heard from my father everything god has given jesus i've made known to you

this is amazing almighty god says i call you friend why because i love you why did jesus go the cross because he loves you you don't have to wait for another day for this it's only one way to be saved through jesus when peter went up and preached the message of jesus crucified and risen from the grave the question was asked what must we do to be saved and peter put it really clearly you repent which means change your thinking it's no longer about you it's about jesus be baptized now you step into obedience you do what jesus tells you do every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit don't miss this you get the gift of god himself see our church is reflective of the world right now there's a lot of broken

people lest you think your marriage is the only one struggling there are so many marriages struggling pornography has gripped the heart of so many it's addictive and it's like cocaine that those who are addicted they don't want to keep going back to it but they do and it it robs them of all intimacy of all dreams there are many that are trying to make decisions with their finances not trusting in the lord that gave them the very finances they have there are so many who are lonely and hurting suicide right now is is so rampant and the world doesn't know what to do so we we don't really project this in the media that we we are so broken and i cannot turn to you today and say

would you just try harder with that addiction would you try to be a better spouse for your marriage come on today you can be a good person oh today you don't need to be depressed there's think good thoughts follow your heart that's satanic you say get behind me satan i'm going to the cross every time i'm going to the cross for my marriage i'm going to the cross for my kids so your health is suffering right now you turn to the cross of jesus christ he died for all sickness he died for all sin he died for all suffering once and for all and he did not die to avoid those things in your life but that you would find the power of the holy spirit through those things in your life he can heal you in just a moment but he

might actually bring you on a journey so that he might be god in your life i'm not going to even pretend to understand the sovereign plan of god in your life but i do know this for every single person that really wants the gift of god you have to suffer i wish i was like take up the cross means everybody gets a gold chain right around your neck that would be a great religion but this religion is when you suffer you don't run from god you run to god and god will give you what you need if you feel like you're a sinner today may i just declare you are and you have a god that's so much greater than your sin he has saved you far more exceedingly and abundantly more than you know

he had you on his mind on the cross so let's pray right now prayer is conversation with god and because jesus died on the cross we have access to god this is a message of hope my friends so in this moment with every eye closed i'm going to talk to the lord and i would love to do it with you but i want to know today if you want to receive jesus as the savior of your sins if you want to be forgiven of every sin not some sins every sin forgiven by jesus if you want that today you have to surrender your life to jesus you have to deny yourself and say it's no longer about me i want the fullness of jesus if you want that today would you slip up your hand so i could see who i'm gonna pray with right now just raise your hand nice and high so i can see you you're saying i choose jesus today praise be to god some of you maybe gone to church your whole life but you wouldn't really say

you've denied yourself or taken up your cross if you want to do that right now raise up your hand so i could see you praise god i'm so proud of you amen you're a daughter of god he loves you so much he made you he loves you someone else here today the father is so proud when you say yes to his son jesus no greater love than this today you want this just slip up your hand so i could see you i want to know who i'm praying with you be bold yes yes anyone else [Music] you can put your hands down i'm going to pray these words but i'll tell you the bible's so good it tells us that you don't need to say the right words or even eloquent words you just need to say words to jesus you're starting in eternal conversation

and i don't say that lightly eternal means forever today you're safe from this day forward if you receive jesus christ as the forgiver of your sins as the savior of your soul as the lord of your life in your heart say something like this lord i give you my heart i trust in you help me when it gets hard because it will get hard help me to trust you i receive your holy spirit work through me and may i point all people to you jesus thank you for what you've done just in this moment of prayer church i i know this is a weighty message but this is the message of jesus

that we would live for the right things so we come before you the righteous god and say lord help us to be your church for such a time as this that god the words that come off of our mouth would be honoring to you that the meditations of our hearts would be honoring to you god you you died to set us free not to stay in sin not to stay stuck so i pray for the liberation of captives today god i pray today you would set free those who have been trying so hard but they can't do it you already did it so we receive your grace today we receive it i declare marriage is healed by the cross of jesus christ i declare addiction set free by the cross of jesus christ i i declared depression set free by the

cross and the blood of jesus christ that what doctors can do you've already done it in jesus mighty name that's who you are so today there's someone wondering is that me lord can i receive that hope can i receive that joy can i receive that and you've said yes because you love them child of god would you hear that today jesus loves you that's why he died on the cross he calls you friend turn to your friend today no one loves you more than jesus turn to your friend today turn to him right now lord we love you thank you for this message that you said it so plainly i pray we would receive it by the power of the holy spirit that we would not be ashamed of you

[Music] thank you that you forgive even those who rejected you thank you that you forgive the worst of enemies say thank you that there's no one too young today that can't receive you and do great things thank you that there's no one too old that could have sent their entire life but in this moment forward you forgive them we receive it by the name by which we can be saved that is jesus if you stand in agreement would you say amen and amen my friends please please please please take this seriously jesus is coming again and we look forward and we long for that day we look forward to this we praise him we pray to him today if you made that decision we want to know there's going to be a prayer team over here would you receive prayer today before you leave

if you have something you're like i just i can't seem to do this on my own there's people who want to link arms with you you can fill out a connection card let us know of a decision you made today take a next step with jesus why because he's your friend and he loves you so much