Chris Hodges - With Everything
All right, who's glad to be in church today? Anybody, yeah? Me too. Oh yeah, me too. So good to see you guys. Welcome to week number five of a six-part series called "All In," and we'll tell you more about that in just a moment. As always, I like to greet all of our campuses and locations all across Alabama and into Georgia and to the 21 facilities of the Department of Corrections in Alabama here, God bless you guys today. By the way, I met one of our volunteers yesterday who goes to these correctional facilities every weekend, and they were telling me that every time we just mentioned them, even as a group, they just erupt with appreciation, but especially the ladies at Tutwiler. C'mon, everybody, let's show some love to them. That's awesome.
I love that. And then, of course, those that are watching online somewhere or OnDemand, we're glad you're along for the ride as well. Before we jump into the message today, let me give you a little preview of what's coming up for summer. We work very hard at what we call Summer at Highlands. And there are a few things I wanna make sure you get in your notes and be prepared for. Even if you saw them on the screen during the Highlands news, the lights are on now so you can actually see to write some of these down. And the first is that we start Summer Small Groups on the first Sunday of June, June 4 through July 15. If you know anything about our church, we are a church of groups. We actually have more people in Small Groups than come on Sundays. We have more than 5000 groups and this is really the backbone of our church, but we do them in semesters, so there's a 13-week winter-spring semester, a 13-week fall semester, and a very short 6-week summer semester.
In fact, if you've ever considered trying to lead a group, this might be the best time to try it, because it's only 6 weeks so get a co-leader for the weeks that you might be out, and lead a Summer Small Group. We're happy to help, and all throughout the month of May, during the 11:30 service, 12:30 in Columbus, during that service time, if you'd like to be trained or at least get the orientation to Small Group leadership, it's a very short orientation, so you can consider if this is something you'd like to do. So check that out, and then one of the events that we're so proud of is basically our version of Vacation Bible School which we call Summer Blast. It's a 3-day event and you already heard about this on the news. But be sure you register. Register, register, register, 'cause we wanna make sure we have enough, but not too much, so we're ordering popsicles now, everybody, all right, so we just wanna make sure we have enough of those and not be wasteful also.
So let us know, it's all completely free, but we do need to get a headcount before it begins and if you'd like to be a volunteer or involved on our Dream Team at this event, which is so much fun, you can just go out into the lobby and we have Summer Blast and Children's Ministry, a booth, at every location today. The last day of the Summer semester is July 15, which is a Saturday and I'm begging you to write that date down. Put it in your calendar and block it off to actually participate in an annual event that we only do one day a year called Serve Day. And even if that's not your normal thing, we ask it to be your thing on that day, all right? This is an all-call, for all of us to do thousands of serve projects all across the state of Alabama and Georgia. In fact, we have several thousand churches joining us on that day, nationally, so it's kind of become a national Serve Day, and we just want you to be a part of that day to paint a school, or go to a nursing home, or do something where we serve someone else and we'll give you more information about that as we get closer.
And finally, the pinnacle event that ends the summertime which is there. It's our Motion Student Conference which is probably the largest student conference in the nation. Now we're literally about 16,000, 17,000 students will join down at the beach ACC, junior high, high school, and college. Same thing, we need you to register for this event. All right, we're gonna get into the Word today and I wanna know how many of you have been around Highlands long enough to remember the little handout sheet I used to give out, anybody, anybody? How many also liked those or miss those, anybody, anybody? Okay, so we used to actually give out three-hole-punched handout sheets with little three-ring binders that clicked so loud throughout the service, some of you remember that. We're bringing it back, everybody, okay? Okay, but it's on your app, okay, everybody?
Yeah, okay, very seriously, today's message notes are on your app. If you've not downloaded the Highlands app, go ahead and get this. It looks exactly like the old handout sheet, except now you can do it right there in your seat with your phone so that you can even save your notes to whatever place you'd like to save them to, and even, there's a place for you to take extra notes. So go to the app, and look for the "In Service Guide". That's what it's called, the In Service Guide. And then you'll see a little place where you can click on "My Notes," and you can start following along right now with this verse, Jeremiah chapter 29, which is our theme verse for this series and it goes like this: "For," God says, "I know the plans I have for you".
So we'll just stop right there. Look at me, everybody. Look at me, look at me. God has plans for you. So all that you've experienced of God is not all that God has to offer. He still has plans for you, "and they're good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope". And here comes the qualifier of getting the plans of God. And that is, you've got to "look for me wholeheartedly," to find it. It's "If you look for me wholeheartedly, that's when you find me". So this is the theme verse for the concept of going all in. Like, we're gonna give God our absolute best, and I'm gonna try in several areas, we've talked about your all-in next steps, all kind of different areas of all-in, and here's the thesis of the whole series. Jot this down, or you can, right now, add this to your blanks in your app. And that is: "I'll never get the best of what God has to offer until I give God my best".
And I'm celebrating 40 years of ministry right now and that for 40 years, this has probably been the most predominant theme that I've tried to share with Christians and that is God's not a halfway God. He's an all-in God. And for those of you who only experience God, you know, in sporadic moments or every once in a while, you're not getting the best that God has to offer, and we are encouraging you to go all in with God. Can I hear a good "Amen," everybody? All right, you with me? Okay, so today I've picked a topic that I think is one of the most important areas to go all in in. And that is to go all in in our worship expression. And when I say worship, I don't think worship today in the traditional church of America or in a lot of Christians, even, that genuinely love God, looks like what God intended. And for a lot of people, they're not experiencing the best of God because, even in their worship expression, they haven't worshiped God the way God wants to be worshiped.
How do you define worship? Worship, basically, is your love, but it's always expressed. So worship isn't worship without love, and worship isn't worship without it being expressed. So for those who say, "Well, no, no, no, I don't need to do all that. I'll do it my style". We don't have that option. God is really clear and you're gonna see it today, that God has picked the style. In fact, I don't even call today's worship experience contemporary. Somebody said, that was asking about our church, "Are you one of those contemporary worship services"? I said, "No, no, no, no. We're the most traditional church in town, 'cause we look like what the Bible looked like 3000 years ago in the book of Psalms, see, with shouting and clapping and dancing and loud music and strings and cymbals and", no, no, the new is actually contemporary. Though, the thing that's happening a lot of times in Christians and in churches, that's not how the Bible describes it.
In fact, Jesus himself said, "If you're gonna love me, love me with," say the three words right here, out loud. "Love me with all your heart, all your soul". Your soul, by the way, is your emotions. Your mind, your will, your emotions. "And with all your mind". In fact, in another place in John chapter 4, Jesus said, "There's a time coming," and guess what? It's already here. The time is now. "When true worshipers..." That's an interesting phrase 'cause it basically suggests that there are not true worshipers. People are trying to worship, that it's not the way God intended, "Who will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers that the Father is seeking".
Another verse in the Old Testament says that the eyes of the Lord are actually panning church services and Christians' hearts across the globe, looking for those who are fully devoted to him. That's what he wants and, by the way, you would do the same thing too, and this is kind of shocking. Just get ready for it. Might be a cool thing to put in your notes there, in your app. And that is that the word "worship" in the Greek language which is what the original manuscripts are in. You guys do know that Jesus didn't live in England, okay? So the Bible wasn't written in English. It was translated into English. He's from the Middle East and the predominant language of the day that was controlling, really, literature was the Greek language. And so our New Testament is in Greek.
So the reason why I say that is, when I study Scriptures for you, I always go back to original manuscripts and original languages to get deeper truths, because the Greek language, for instance, has four times more words than the English language. So there are words that you would never, like, the English language is limited in the way to describe it to you in many cases, because the word "worship" there, the Greek word is proskyneo.
Now, you don't need to write that down unless you want to, but proskyneo, you do need to write down the definition. You ready for it? The real definition of proskyneo is to kiss. And it's not a romantic kiss, it's not the kiss of lovers. It's like the kiss of a dog licking its master's hand. Now I don't know how many dog people are in the room. Tammy and I... where are the dog people at? Dog people, dog people, there you are, okay. We don't have dogs anymore. To God be all the glory, all right. We have officially retired from animals in the house but we first got married, Tammy and I, we went, before we had kids, I took her to the pet store at the mall in Colorado Springs and I was trying to hold her off from wanting babies 'cause I just wasn't ready for that, so we got us a dog, y'all.
And that's when you went to the mall and they had pet stores and you could actually pick 'em out in little glass windows. Some of y'all remember that. They don't really do that anymore. But we bought us this little miniature dachshund and we named her Gretchen and we were broke, y'all. We were so broke, I mean, honestly, we were so broke we couldn't pay attention. I mean, we were broke, okay? That's funny, I don't care what y'all say. And so, we found this breeder in town, this guy who had champion dogs. Our dog was not registered. She was almost like a mutt dachshund, but we found this guy who had, like, champion dogs. He had show dogs. And he had all males 'cause they retired from showing dogs and they used them for stud service, right, to breed. And so it wasn't really that much money to get our dog bred by this champion dog, but I thought that would raise the stock of these puppies, you know? I'm a business guy. I'm like, "I think I can make some money here," you know? And so, we bred poor Gretchen. We bred her and we made, like, $400 a puppy.
Now that was a lot of money back in 1987, everybody. That's a lot of money. In fact, we bought our first TV with puppy money, our first couch with puppy money. So we, bless her heart, we bred that dog all the time, all right? So anyway, she had puppies pretty much nonstop. But she was so in love with us. When I talk about proskyneo and a dog licking its master's hand, when we came home from anywhere, we raised the garage, we're pulling the car into the garage, so at the sound of the garage, the sound of the car, and we're still sitting in the car, obviously, with the doors closed, we can hear the dog on the inside of the house, just so happy, so happy, "Oh, they're back, they're back. Whoa-oh, oh, they're back. Whoa, they're back, they're back". Just you hear this yelling, yelling, she yelled and yelled and yelled. And then you hear zzz-zzz-zzz, and that's one of the reasons why I got rid of her, 'cause she scratched the doors so much and there's all the paint off the door, but she's so glad to see us.
"Oh, they're here. They're here, they're here, they're here. They're here. Oh, they're here". And so, and we'd open the door and she didn't jump on us. She'd start doing laps. She's like, "Oh my God, they're here. They're here, they're here, they're here". That's the word. That's the word Jesus chose to use to describe worship. And of course, she would jump up, and lick our hand. "They're here. They're here". Did you know that God's looking for that kind of a worship? And some of us are worshiping him like a cat... "They're here". Which is why cats don't go to heaven. You all do know that, right? Don't email me, please. Don't email. But some of us, honestly, God is looking for this. God is wanting the expression. It's the kind of worship, proskyneo is the kind of worship the Father, the Son, this is what they're seeking from us. May we give God what he's looking from us, everybody.
The kind of worship he desires and all throughout Scripture everyone who worshiped God with that kind of passion, he even gave extra grace and mercy to 'cause if you look at the Bible, the Bible stories, not everyone was treated the same by God, but that wasn't because God had favorites. You got to determine if you were one of his favorites. Did you catch that? So there were some that just loved and worshiped God who was mess-ups and God was just extra gracious to them because they had their heart after God. This was King David in the Bible who wrote many of the Psalms that we're gonna study today. He had an imperfect life in many ways but he was a man, the Bible says, after God's own heart. He was a worshiper.
In fact, when he was king, he had recovered the ark of the covenant that had been stolen and he was so excited to get that ark of the covenant back, that they had to trek this 8-mile journey from where they recovered it back to Jerusalem, which 8 miles is over 14,000 steps, and the Bible says that every 6 steps, so that would be 2347 sacrifices, every 6 steps, he got carried away with, "Oh my goodness, we have the presence of God back. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop". They got an animal, they sacrificed and they worshiped God with all their heart, the Bible says. They're, "Okay, all right let's get back to Jerusalem. C'mon, everybody". And then six, "Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop". Another sacrifice, they worshiped God with all their heart. "Okay, everybody, let get going again. Let's get going".
Another six steps, "Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Oh, I worship you, God". And then another sacrifice. That'd be 2347 sacrifices over 8 miles. And God looked at that and said, "I like that. This is somebody who loves me with all their heart, all their soul, and all their strength". I'm trying to raise us, everybody, to another level so we can go all in. I'm gonna give you about 3 seconds right now to give Jesus the kind of praise he deserves. C'mon, somebody, yeah. Yes! Every six steps, every six steps, c'mon. Whoa! I'm going on a break, but I'm going out on a bang, everybody. C'mon, somebody. But watch this. When David finally got to Jerusalem and he got home to bless his household, his wife, Michal, daughter of Saul, came out to meet him and she goes, "You embarrassed me today with all that craziness you had in church, all that, you just got, you disrobed yourself in the sight of the slave girls like a vulgar fellow".
She criticized his worship. And David said to Michael, "Look, it was before the Lord. I wasn't doing that to you, anyway. I was doing this for God's sake, who chose me rather than your father to lead the people of Israel". And he says, "I will celebrate. You ain't stopping me". In fact, he says, "And honey, you ain't seen nothing yet. I will be even more undignified than this. Why? Because he saved me". It's crazy to me how we can do this in other places. You go on a Saturday and pick your favorite stadium, and they losing their minds. First of all, they travel hours to get there, wait in line for hours, eat outside for hours, go in for hours, party more after that. Over a piece of leather, of a bunch of 19-year-olds swapping leather across the field, everybody. Nineteen-year-olds who don't even know my name and I'm not gonna praise God to the one who actually created me? Oh no, oh no.
In fact, I never even saw this at LSU, my team. Y'all spring games, you do know it's y'all versus y'all. And you're all screaming like, "Oh my God, oh my God, my God". How much more does our God deserve this, right? And that's why I'm trying to encourage you to go all in. Why? So I can have the kind of church to look like I won't know indeed. I'm on this because God deserves it, first of all, and you're gonna experience a level of God that you've not experienced yet. And that's why I'll just tell you where I'm headed. The end of this, and the goal of this message, is just to get you to go ahead and take your next step toward God. I remember when I was challenged with a message like this and I'll tell you, it's why I have a lot of empathy for those who go on, "Brother, this is a little too much now. You're pushing me too far". I get it, 'cause when I first showed up in a church like this, I thought, "There's crazy".
I really did, and I kind of wanted it at the same time. And I just, but I'm standing there, I'm like, "Okay, here we go, all right"? I remember the first day I decided, "I'm gonna raise my hands. Today's my hand day. I'm gonna do the hand thing today". And they were singing and everybody else was worshiping God and I was just like I was so nervous. And I was like, the song was going... Like, I thought I had really, like, man, that was a big step. And I worked my way up, you know? I carried the TV for a while, just carried the TV, just right here, you know? You get 'em on up there later, you know? But, I'm encouraging you to take your step. I'm asking you to go all in with God. Don't have half in. Go all in with God and when you do, it's gonna change your life. Listen to me. People are gonna come you names. They're gonna say you're crazy. You do it on a Saturday, they call you a fan. You do it on a Sunday, they call you a fanatic.
And I'm not a fanatic. I'm a fan of the one who saved me, changed me, delivered me. I'm giving you one more chance to give Jesus the praise in this place. Yeah, yeah. Of course, whoo! And that's the story of Palm Sunday. Jesus riding into Jerusalem and the disciples, the Bible says, burst into enthusiastic praise because their lives had been changed. The blind could see, the deaf could hear. Their sins were forgiven, because of the mighty works in their lives. And they said, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Glory in the high places"! And watch what happens. "The Pharisees from the crowd said, 'Teachers, get your disciples under control! That's too much.' But he said, 'If they keep quiet, stones are gonna do it. A rock is gonna take their place.'" And I'm not having any rock take my place, amen, everybody? So let me just make this as practical as I can now. Because the Bible describes worship this way. Not me, I didn't make this up. This is not my style, this is God's style. And it's in the largest book of the Bible.
Now just think about that. The topic we're talking about today is in a book of the Bible that has 150 chapters. This is how important it is to God. And as I told you, the Greek has more words than English does. So does the Hebrew. The Old Testament's primarily written in the Hebrew language, the language of the people of Israel. And the one word that you see over and over in the Psalms is the word "praise". Praise, praise, praise, praise, praise. Did you know there are seven different Hebrew words for that one word "Praise," and they're vastly different and I'm gonna show you these before we close today and this is where I wanted you to take some notes, all right? And the first one is the word "halel". That's a Hebrew word and it's called halel. It's where we get the word "hallelujah". The "jah" part means God, so we halel God.
And it literally means, I didn't write this now. This is in every pastor's lexicon dictionary, Hebrew dictionary, in the whole world, okay? They all have the same definition, and it means to rave, to boast, to celebrate, to be clamorously foolish. And God says, "I want you to hallelujah. I want you to celebrate, rave, boast, be clamorously foolish". Again, it looks like Saturday, doesn't it? I'll show you where this word "halel" is used. It's in Psalm 35 and it says: "I will thank you," not privately. "I will thank you in front of the great assembly. And I will halel you, celebrate, boast, rave, be clamorously foolish in front of all the people". And this is what God expects. And again, you the same way. I don't leave the house, take my ring off, put it on the counter next to the front door, say, "Honey, I'll be back in a little bit. I'll acknowledge you when I get back home but I don't want the world to know that I'm in love with you". How many of you all know I wouldn't have eyeballs? Isn't that right, everybody?
It would happen. And God's the same way. He wants this kind of expression for him. The second word is the word "yadah". And not "Yoda". That's the little green guy. This is yadah, okay? And look what its definition means? It means to acknowledge God in public. People say, "Well, I have God in my heart. My faith is private". Well, that's fine but it's not biblical. Our faith is supposed, we're supposed to let our light shine before men. Let 'em see our good works. Psalm 138 is where yadah is used. "I will yadah, I'll express my love for you in public, O Lord, and I'm gonna do it with," here's our series title, "with all my heart". Here's the third word and it's the word "Barak". Barak, and it means to bless by kneeling or bowing. So one of 'em's clamorously foolish, raving. One of 'em's get on your knees and it's just receive something from God. It literally means to present yourself to God, to receive his blessings. And I even, you don't have to do this, but I even have different expressions with my hands.
When I'm worshiping God and, God, it's all about you, I turn my hands toward God. But when I'm in a place in a song or a moment in the service where I wanna receive from God, I open 'em up to God like a funnel. "Lord, I'm receiving from you". That's this word. Psalm 103 says we need to barak the Lord, receive from God all his benefits, as all my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name, verse 2, and receive all his benefits. This is I received, I worship you by receiving from you, O God. Here's the fourth word and it's the word "zamar". Type that in your app there for the notes. Zamar, it means making music to God with stringed instruments. Somebody says, "I don't know about all those guitars". Too late, God loves it. God loves stringed instruments, right? Psalm 92 where is, "It is good to zamar before the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High".
In fact, another place where it's used is the last Psalm, Psalm 150, and notice how this is just the exclamation mark to the book of Psalms: "Praise him with the tambourine, with dancing, with strings, with flute, clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding," meaning loud, "cymbals. Praise ye the Lord". Somebody says, "Well, it's too loud in that church". Then you're gonna hate heaven 'cause it's loud there too. The Bible says, "The worship of God comes up before him in heaven like the sound of 1000 waterfalls". Why? Because he's worthy of all of this praise. Can I hear a good "Amen," everybody? Yeah, you know that. The fifth word is the word "shabach," and shabach means to shout to God in a loud tone. Clap your hands all ye people and shout to God with a voice of triumph. This is what my dog was doing... How many of you all know that's gonna be on the blooper reel at the end of the year right there? Okay, but I mean, excited to see you.
Can you imagine being gone for months. Your family shows up at the airport right behind the security line and when you get there, there's no poster and balloons, like, "He's here"! It's like, "Go get the car". Like, no, you would like, "Hey, hey, over here. He's back, he's back, he's back". This is what God, and you want it too. You'd be so disappointed you get the airport and nobody even there. Everybody else has got balloons and posters and nobody's there for you. God... me show it to you. Psalm 63: "Because your love is better than life," can you say "Amen" right there? "My lips will glorify you". And I will shout, address you in a loud tone, "as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands," which leads us to number 6 is towdah, and that's where the hand thing is. We worship God with hands lifted. Psalm 50: Whoever offers hands lifted to God glorifies God: "and to him that orders his conversation aright I will show the salvation of Almighty God".
What does hands do? It shows us reaching to God. It shows us a life of surrender. It's a touchdown of victory. It's a place of, "Lord, I receive from you". I lift my hands. 1 Timothy says: "I want men and women to lift up holy hands without wrath, without doubting". Why? 'Cause he's worthy and we need him. Like a little child reaching up to their mom. "Oh, I need you, I need you". Now, I gladly lift my hands before the Lord and worship him. And finally, "tehilah". Not tequila, tehilah. Although it does the same thing, all right, there, everybody? Yeah, so, it gives you exuberant singing, okay? Kind of fun. In fact, you're gonna love the verse, Psalm 34: "I will extol the LORD at all times; and his tehilah will always be on my lips".
So there you go. Somebody says, "I found my verse". No, it's tehilah. Tehilah, and it means I'm gonna praise God with my singing. I don't give God golf tournament-type clapping. If I'm singing, it's exuberant. Why? Because he deserves our best. For heaven's sakes, he gave his best. "O God, my heart is fixed on you, and I'm gonna zamar," play with those stringed instruments, "even with my glory, and I'm gonna yadah Thee, O God among the people. And I will sing praises," tehillah, exuberantly, "among the nations". Three different words in one verse and all we get is the word "praise". And it just gives us its ability to love our God. You say, "Chris, but that's... I mean, I love the songs. That's poetic. That's not literal".
Well then, let's go to the New Testament, last verse. "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a," it's not what you feel. It's not necessarily even what you want. It's what he wants. A sacrifice means you don't necessarily feel it or like it. That's why it's called a "sacrifice of praise to God, that openly profess his name". I want this for you so badly, 'cause I know when you love God that kind of way you're gonna experience God at a whole new level. And even if you didn't, he's worthy. He's worthy. I'm gonna tell you, church, we're all worshiping something. Something's getting our expression. Something's getting our heart. And why not God? Let's worship God with all of our heart. Can I hear a good "Amen," everybody?
I'll close with a story, yeah. You wanna clap, go ahead please. Praise God. So let me close with a story I've probably told a couple or two or three times and there are so many that are new here, but I grew up playing classical music and because my love for music, I love musicals as well so, one of my favorite of all time is the musical, "Fiddler on the Roof". And if you've never seen it, it's very long, by the way, I warn you, if you wanna go try to watch it. And they're singing most of the lines. But it's the story of this Jewish family in Russia, Tsarist Russia, so early 1900s. And in the Jewish culture, Daddy picks out the wives for their daughter. So the daughter has no say-so in it. They pick it out, and they actually do it with the help of a matchmaker.
And that's where the song comes. "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match. Find me a find, catch me a catch". I'll be here all day, folks, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. And so, anyway, unfortunately, the girls were falling in love with guys other than the dad picked out and the whole movie's about this clash of does the dad let them be in love or do they have to follow the tradition. And one song is "Tradition, tradition," and he's just, he's struggling with it badly. But through the clash of the daddy with the daughters, he's wondering if his wife loves him because they were matchmade, which means when they got married they weren't in love. So he's wondering now, "I wonder if after all these years, she loves me"?
So without the girls seeing it, he goes into the house and his wife's in there, ironing and cooking and stuff, and he shuts the door and it's a musical, so he sings it and he looks at her and he goes to his wife, "Do you love me"? And she sings back, "For 25 years I've washed your clothes, I've cooked your meals, I've milked your cows", like, she does all this stuff she does for him. And she missed it. Because I know what you do for me, but do you love me? And I think the Spirit of God is looking at churches all across, 'cause, like, "God, we showed up". I know you showed up. "But we even gave something in the offering". Yeah, I know. "I gave and served on the services". Yeah, I know but, "Do you love me"? And this is what he wants more than anything. More than your offering, more than your attendance. And he wants your heart. He wants to know if you really love him. And I think it would be the most incredible thing if you just said, "I'm not gonna put it through the filter of what I like. I'm gonna worship God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, because I love him". Let's bow for prayer.
So Father, I thank you for this amazing church and, God, we do love you. But God, help every one of us go to new levels, more expressive worship. Everything that's in us. Lord, may be give you the kind of worship you desire and deserve. We worship you today, God, with our hearts, we express our love for you.
And I want every one of you to make a decision right now what this message is saying to you. And make your decision to go all in with God. C'mon, decide, right there where you are. And with every head bowed, every eye closed, please stay as still as you can at every location. If you're here today, and you say, "Chris, I'm not close to God". Maybe there's some of you, you've never become a Christian. Others, you're a Christian but you've walked away from God. Or you know that your relationship with God is not at the level that it needs to be. And you're ready to rededicate your life or commit your life all over again to God. And you're ready to go all in.
I wanna pray for you at every location today and if that's you, we're not gonna have you stand up or come down to the front. But if you'd like to be involved in this closing prayer, this commitment prayer, you're saying to God, "God, today I'm making the decision to give you all my life", and you wanna be included in this prayer, with heads bowed, eyes closed, if that's you, make up your mind right now. And no hesitation if that's you, put your hand up and say, "Count me in that prayer". Lift it high all over this room. Yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yeah, all over this room. People making the most important decision of their life. Pastor Blake, come lead them in this prayer together today.