Steven Furtick - Now Turn North
We are just a few days away from Elevation Nights fall tour. Go to elevationnights.com right now. I want to see you in Miami, Florida; Tampa, Florida; Knoxville, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Lubbock, Texas; Dallas, Texas; or Houston, Texas, October 3-12. We are excited. Clap your hands for Elevation Nights. Ten thousand ladies and I had a good time here Friday night. We heard a word from the woman of God, and she put us on the right path. I told Holly, "I only want to preach to women after being here". I think I'm going to put a "No men allowed" sign at the door. There's just a receptivity and a responsiveness. So, get ready for that. Starting 2026, Elevation Church will be man-free. It's good to see you today.
I have a word. Last week, I preached on He Was the One. Well, this week, there's a Scripture and a story in John, chapter 5, the Lord brought to my mind. I'm going to share this story with you and one other Scripture from the Old Testament to get us ready for what God wants to speak today.
In John, chapter 5, verse 1 (a story that may be familiar to you), the Bible says, "Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?' 'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.' At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked".
Thank God for miracles. Whether you need a miracle, whether you've seen a miracle, or whether you are a miracle, thank God for miracles. Now go to Deuteronomy 2:2-3. "Then the Lord said to me, 'You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north.'" That's the title of my message today: Now Turn North. Oh, yeah. I have a word for somebody. Now Turn North. When you tell me to turn north, it means absolutely nothing to me because I have no sense of direction. Holly and I were on a walk a few months ago, and she thought it was an adventure. We had no idea where we were going. I looked at her. We had turned around about three or four different times. I said, "We need to go back," because we were at that point where we could turn back and I knew where the car was, or if we kept going… Which she thinks is fun. She's like, "No, this is part of the experience".
I looked at her and said… We both laughed when I said this. I said, "Holly, I love you, but I'm not going to be lost much longer. I can't take it". For her it's fun, but for me it's frustrating, slightly fearful, because I have no sense of direction. Me pre-GPS was a very anxious me. I thought about how because she has a better sense of direction than me, she can tolerate uncertainty for a longer period of time. She kind of knows where she is, generally speaking, and it enables her to enjoy the journey more. For me, since I have no clue where I am… I set my GPS every time I'm driving over to the church just in case…and we've been in this building since 2016…just in case I start thinking about the sermon and forget to turn, because I need help.
If the GPS just stopped and said, "Turn north," I'd go, "You've got to talk to me in right or left and show me a picture in real time". But it's not like that for people who kind of know where they're going. I guess this is the principle I'm trying to illustrate to you: like it was for me on the hike and like it is for me in the car, your ability to trust depends on your orientation to truth. We've all heard the phrase true north meant to describe your core values, the things down in you that don't change even though everything around you might. We call that our true north, kind of what we point toward, the north pole geographically, I guess. We have now taken that term to business. "What's the true north for this company"? What's the true north for a church?
A church needs to have a true north. Jesus would be the true north. And each family, each individual…those things inside of you. When you're in situations that are uncertain, how much you can tolerate and navigate uncertainty will have a lot to do with how much truth you've hidden and how much truth you know. Write this down. How much trust you have depends on how much truth you've hidden. If you're having a hard time trusting God in an area of your life right now, it may be a sign that you have not hidden the truth in your heart deeply enough for that situation. When we haven't hidden the truth in our hearts, we always have to cling to traditions and certainties and old ways of doing things, but if we'll be more like Holly and get a good sense of where we're going, we can be in situations that are very strange but still have a very deep, solid sense of faith.
Well, I've already preached a whole sermon today. I feel like that was pretty good. But I want to talk about this man in John, chapter 5, that I read to you about. The Bible says he was hanging out in a place in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate, a pool where occasionally the waters would stir, and when the waters were stirred, there was a superstition that if you could get into those waters before anybody else did, you could be healed of whatever had happened to you. The Bible says a great number of people used to lie…the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. This verse is what really got my attention. In verse 5, it said, "One who was there…" Which made me wonder. Of all of the people Jesus could have healed that day at that pool at that time, why this one? "One was there…"
Last week, I preached on He Was the One. I guess that's what got me into studying John, chapter 5. I wondered, "Why this one"? You know, I'm kind of expecting this great moment of faith, like Zacchaeus, who climbed up in a tree so he could see Jesus, and Jesus was like, "All right. If you're going to go climbing up trees, I'll have lunch with you. Come on down. I'm going to your house". Or like the woman with the issue of blood who pressed through a crowd, even though she was ceremonially unclean, to get to Jesus. Or like those men who stood out shouting, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us"! Like, screaming out of need for Jesus. Since all of those factors were absent from the man in John, chapter 5, it left me wondering, after all week of studying, "Why this one"?
In fact, if you go on to read about this guy, he had a very damaged past. He had a little bit of a… I don't want to say this in a bad way that makes you think the things we go through are always the result of the sins we commit, but he had something to do with his illness, because Jesus, when he tracks him down a little later, tells him, "Hey, you need to stop sinning or something worse is going to happen". Even in the passage… If you read this, when Jesus asks, "Do you want to get well?" the guy kind of comes back at Jesus and doesn't really answer his question. "Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes ahead of me".
So, he's kind of blamey. It's not like he threw himself at the feet of Jesus when Jesus said, "Do you want to get well"? and said, "I'll do anything. I'll worship you, Lamb of God, Son of David". None of that. So, why this one? Last week, I shared that there are two lies the Enemy tells you. These are not the only two lies. The Enemy is the Father of Lies, so he has a lot of babies. The Enemy has way more than two lies, but there are two I want to deal with today. I dealt with them a little bit last week. He'll try to tell you two things sometimes: "You are no one," and, "You have no one". Either of those two things, if you begin to believe them deeply in your heart, will keep you stuck in a belief of insignificance or a state of isolation.
Watch how they work together. "I am no one. I have no one. Since I am no one, I have nothing to offer. They wouldn't want to hear from me. They wouldn't want to be with me. They wouldn't want to do that with me. They wouldn't want to accept me. I am no one. I have no one. I am no one. I have no one". In walks Jesus to one of the festivals and finds a man. The Bible simply says about him, "One who was there…" That's the only label. Well, his other label is he couldn't walk. He was one who was there who couldn't walk. He was one who was there who had fallen behind. He was one amongst many who could not do what other people could do.
Why this one? We've already examined that it was no great faith that he exhibited or demonstrated. We've already examined that there are probably things that would have kept the other people from thinking he was worthy of help. Why this one? And you wonder that about yourself sometimes, huh? "Why would God use me when there are so many people…"? I love what the man said because we think about this sometimes. He said, "Every time I try, someone else gets ahead of me". This man is prone to comparison. This man is prone to excuses.
The Bible says in verse 5, "One who was there…" Jesus didn't stay and heal everybody at the pool that day. Jesus didn't call for a line of people. This is a particular miracle Jesus performs at a particular time for a specific person…one who was there. Now touch your neighbor and ask them, "Are you the one"? It's the obvious question. "Are you the one"? There are a lot of people in church today. There are a lot of people online today. But what if you're the one? Ask them. "What if you're the one"? What if you're the one who needs to hear this message today more than anybody else in the room? What if you're the one God gave Pastor Steven this message for? What if you're the one who takes this word and walks out of here different than you came in?
Ask them again. "What if you're the one"? "One was there…" He was there in a place he didn't want to be. He was there in a place where he probably had contributed to being himself. A lot of times, we think God will get us out of situations if we didn't get ourselves into them. This is a miracle that should encourage all of the ones who have done dumb stuff and need God to deliver you from your own hand, your own decisions. Clap if you've screwed up a time or two and you need God to do something about the situations you created. (I love y'all. Y'all are such a real church. I said, "Clap if you screwed up". That was the loudest you clapped all Sunday. I pastor Elevation Church.) He was the one who was chosen out of all of the others. But there is one little detail in this verse that stood out to me as being maybe a little irrelevant at first.
Then I realized God doesn't waste any words. So, I found why he was the one in the same verse that said he was the one. Verse 5: "One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years". How many think that's a long time to suffer like that? Thirty-eight years. How many think 38 is old? The Bible doesn't say he was 38 years old; it says he had been in that state for 38 years. The crazy thing about it is when Jesus heals this guy… You expect people to be happy when God does something in your life. You have to understand that, sometimes, people want to think they're God and they should get to decide who God blesses and how God does things.
This man (verse 9) is cured. "He picked up his mat and walked". But look at verse 9, part B. "The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, '[You can't do that!] It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.'" "The law won't let you do that". Not God's law…their law. There's nothing in the Bible that says you can't carry your mat after you get healed on the Sabbath. That's just something they added to it after the law came through Moses. Do y'all remember Moses? He's the one who brought down the Ten Commandments from the mountain. Yeah, he was the one. He was the one who came down with the tablets from the mountain, and one of them was to honor the Sabbath, to honor that God rested from his work by resting from yours.
There was no part of that commandment, no clause of that commandment that said, "If you are healed from a crippling disease on the Sabbath, don't carry your mat around". That's just stuff they added on later. It was their law. So, now we have an interesting dilemma going on in John, chapter 5. It is their word versus God's word. It is man's law versus God's law. They said to the man, "You can't do that. The law forbids you from doing that on the Sabbath. You can't carry your mat. You can't do that". I love verse 11, because the man looked back at them and said, "That's nice to hear what you think I can and can't do.
But there's one thing I've noticed every day I've been coming to this pool. I've been coming to this pool every day for years now. I've been lying in my spot every day for years now. I've been asking for help every day for years now. I've been waiting for a change every day for years now. I've watched these festivals come and go every day for years now. I've watched pilgrims stream in and out of Jerusalem, in and out of the temple, for years now, and for every day I sat here, for every year I came here, for every prayer I prayed here, and for every request I made here, you never told me to get up and walk. So guess what. If you don't have the power to give, you don't have to give the permission for me to do it". I love it, because watch this. He said (verse 11), "The man who made me well said to me…" "So, I hear what you're saying to me, but I know what he did for me".
Now watch this. "What you said I can't do is in conflict with what he told me I could do". I hear God saying, "Take it up with the one who made me". I see in this text every person in this room in a certain situation in your life where the law is powerless to raise you and effort is powerless to raise you and people you have depended on have been unable to raise you because they're human too. So, I'll tell you what let's do. Let's take a moment, just about 15 seconds, and see if we can worship the one who said, "Let there be light," and there was. Let's see. Can we worship the one who was there? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God".
Everything that was made was made through him. If he made it, he can change it. If he made it, he can raise it. And if he made it, he gets to label it. Thank him. He's the one! I love this word. High-five five people and say, "Get up right now". You've been lying down long enough. All right. Everybody still sitting, you've had 15 minutes to write notes. Get up and give him praise! You've got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up! That's what he said. "The man who made me well said I could do it". So, you have to get this attitude. Right? Like, I hear my fear saying I can't, but the man who made me, well… If it's a conflict between the people who didn't make me and the man who made me, well… Is that what he said? The man who made me, well…
Have you heard about the woman at the well? She's in John, chapter 4. This is John, chapter 5. Reflect is over, Holly. This is the man at the well. By the way, I'm not talking about the well he thought he needed to get to to get well. I'm saying you have been lying here long enough. How long is long enough? It depends on what you're talking about. If you're talking about a sermon, you're probably like, "You're probably good right now, Pastor. You probably can just wrap it up and send us home right now. About long enough". How long is long enough? When Jesus learned he was lying there for a long time… I wanted to use a familiar text this week, because even though everybody hasn't heard it, a lot of people have.
Last week, we were talking about a very obscure king you might never have heard of named Uzziah. He was the one who rebuilt and restored, and he was the one who took Philistines down, and he was the one… As many times as I've heard the story in John, chapter 5, I never knew why he was the one Jesus chose. It mystified me, because I don't even like the guy. He didn't say, "Thank you". I don't even like him. Do you know you don't have to like people for God to lift them? You don't have to like me for God to lift me. If I humble myself under his mighty hand, he'll lift me in due time, and he'll give me everything I'm supposed to have and everything I'm supposed to be. Just so you don't run around trying to win popularity contests with people and find out they don't have a prize to give.
Wouldn't it be bad to win a whole popularity contest and there was no prize? When we read about the one Jesus chose to heal that day, and the Bible says he was 38 years old and that the religious teachers said, "You can't do that; the law forbids you," it was not the law of Moses that was recorded that forbade the man. A lot of the things you accept as limitations come from man, not from God; come from flesh, not from spirit. So, it's a good thing to ask every once in a while, "Is this limitation self-imposed? Is it socially imposed"? Is God saying to you what he said to Moses in Deuteronomy 2:2?
Let's go back there for a moment. After they had wandered in the wilderness… Does anybody remember why the Israelites ended up wandering in the wilderness for decades? It was not that they couldn't go in; they wouldn't go in. Moses sent a delegation of spies in to check out the land. They came back, and they were very focused on what intimidated them, so they did not receive the promise. After their wilderness period had ended and all of that generation that had doubted and not believed had died in the wilderness, Moses is recounting in Deuteronomy 2:3. He says that the Lord said, "You have made your way around this hill country…"
Now wait a minute. Who said that? Go back to verse 2. "Then the Lord said to me…" I want to give you a Scripture memory verse for this week. Deuteronomy 2:2: "Then the Lord said to me…" I want that to be the thing that becomes your true north this week. We live in a time of a lot of noise and not a lot of signal, a lot of static and not a lot of song. So, if you can get a Deuteronomy 2:2 frequency going this week… "Then the Lord said to me…" This is what the Lord said to Moses: "You have made your way around this hill country long enough…" I hear God saying, "Long enough". "…now turn north".
The wilderness of Kadesh Barnea where they made a bad committee decision to stay in what was comfortable but miserable to them instead of progressing into what was uncertain and full of battles… That decision was made in a southeastern part, and God said to Moses, "Now turn north". I think that until what God speaks to me becomes my true north, I will always be lost in my life. "The law forbids you to carry your mat. You can't do that". Your anxiety is always going to tell you what to do until God's Word becomes your true north so that you realize he's greater than any storm of fear you feel.
Is your true north your feelings or is your true north your faith? We live in a time where people do not know the difference between truth and belief. Belief is not necessarily truth. When you say the phrase "That's my truth," you would be better served to say, "That's my belief," because it might be your belief, but it might just have been what you believe based on… Did you notice what the Bible said about the man who was lying down on his mat? It said he had been lying. Had been. Past tense. His situation changed. So can yours. His perspective changed. So can yours. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone; the new has come".
Part of belonging to God and part of becoming what he has called me to be is realizing that sometimes I have circled around something so long it seems to me like my natural habitat. The wilderness was not meant for you to live in; it was meant for you to pass through. There come moments in your life that God will call you out of wilderness thinking, out of wilderness living, out of isolated patterns. You had to do that for a season. Let's praise God for what he gave you to survive in the wilderness, but then God will speak to you and say, "Now turn north". Whose word is this today? God is saying, "Where I've had you is where I've had you. Where I put you is where I put you".
Thank God that you made it as far as you did, as long as you did, without what you had. But what the man said in John, chapter 5, "I have no one to help me," is no longer true. It had been true for 38 years. For 38 years, all he could do was wait for somebody who never came to help him. That's all you can do with the law. You fall; you get up. You fall; you get up. You fail. You feel ashamed. You try to make it through another day. You cope. You hide it. You numb it. You do whatever you can to get through it. That's all you could do because "I have no one to help me". Moses can only take you so far. The law will always have its limits. That is what the man in the text did not realize. While he was saying, "I have no one" and feeling like, "I am no one," standing right in front of him was the one who singled him out, who picked him out, who of all of the people…
Now, you have to get this. Of all of the people God could have put in that family, in that business, in that job, in that role, in that season, in that church, in that ministry, in that seat… Of all of the people God could have put there, you were the one he put there. Yeah. That is my true north: I'm called and chosen by God regardless of what I feel. "Now turn north". That's the direction of the Promised Land. You've circled around this long enough. You have convinced yourself that you are alone until your loneliness has become a lie. I know the feeling of loneliness is real, but sometimes, just like the man in John 5, you can't see what's right in front of you because of pain you carry inside of you.
Jesus, when he learned it had been 38 years… I think he took a survey. I do. I think he asked around. "How long have you been sick? How long have you been there? How long"? "Seven years". "Not long enough. How long"? "Ten". "Not long enough". "Eighteen". "Not long enough". "Twenty-five". "Not long enough". "Thirty-two". "Not long enough". "Thirty-seven". "Not quite long enough". "Thirty-nine". "Too long". It had to be 38. It had to happen right when it happened. It had to happen right where it happened. It had to happen through whom it happened. If you read down to Deuteronomy 2:13, Moses goes on. Somebody say, "Now turn north". "And the Lord said, 'Now get up and cross the Zered Valley.' So we crossed the valley".
They're moving forward into the Promised Land now. They've been in the wilderness for so long. They've been in the wilderness a long time. They've been living off of manna and water from rocks for a long time. They've been bitten by snakes for a long time. They've had shoes that didn't wear out but never got replaced a long time. It has been a long time. How long? Verse 14: "Thirty-eight years passed from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Zered Valley".
Thirty-eight years passed. Jesus walks up to the pool and says, "I need somebody to use as an illustration of what I came to do. My people are lost in a wilderness of religion, and my people are paralyzed under what the law is powerless to do. They keep trying and falling short and trying and falling short. They are slaves to things they are supposed to rule over, and they are servants to things they are supposed to be masters over. So, I need somebody I can use as a tool to show what I came to do. How long"? "Thirty-eight years". "You're a perfect illustration, because I'm about to show you what I can do to bring you out of a wilderness with one word…get up. With one word…pick up your mat. With one word…walk".
I came to declare when God gives you one word, you can walk in it for the rest of your life. One word from God can get you up. One word from God can make you whole. One word from God can turn it around. "Now turn north". The man was lying there one moment and walking the next moment, and the only difference was what he looked to. As long as he was looking at what was around him, he stayed stuck in what he had. But now turn north. "I lift mine eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth". So, God is saying, "You've turned to everybody. You've turned to everything".
You've turned to drugs. You've turned to sex. You've turned to compulsive work ethic. You've turned to success. You've turned to status. You've turned to buying stuff you don't need to impress people you don't like who aren't paying attention anyway. You've turned to everything else. Now turn north. You've turned to self-help, and you couldn't help yourself. If you could have helped yourself, you would have been in the pool by now. But I see you trying to get to the pool, and you couldn't get to the pool. So, I have good news. Summer is over, but the pool is coming to you. The pool is open. You can come to this water and drink from this fountain. I don't know who needed to hear it, but your wilderness season is over. Turn north! Come on. Lift your hands and worship for 20 seconds. Now turn north! I release you from regret in the Spirit. I release you from the bondage of yesterday's decisions. I release you from inferiority caused by the patterns of sin. I release you. Now turn north!
I'm not going to be lost forever. God gave me grace to get up. Now turn north. I'm telling you, while I was praying, God showed me somebody. You are going to walk in a completely different direction and manner of life because of this word today. Something interesting happened when Jesus healed that man. The religious leaders didn't like it, and the man didn't really even understand it. The Bible says that when they asked him (John 5:12), "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?" the man answered, "I have no idea," for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd. Sometimes God is trying to bring you back to your north, and you don't even know it. You don't even know it's him. God uses certain seasons in your life, even certain setbacks in your life, and, yes, certain blessings in your life so that you will know your north.
So you won't be like me with no sense of direction, just going through your life. I'm grateful that Jesus didn't just let that man walk away, because it was one thing for the man to see Jesus, but it was another thing for the man to see why Jesus had seen him. Look at verse 14. "Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, 'See, you are well again.'" "I gave you a second chance". I'm going to give you five seconds to praise God for every second chance he has given you in your life. "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you". I love that the passage didn't end when the man got up and walked. I love that before Jesus let him go, he told him why he raised him to begin with. He told him, "You were lying in your excuses, and now you are risen by my power. Now that you know the truth, now that you know your north, I want you to head in the direction of your future and never come back to your past".
Who's this for? You can't go back. I don't want you to hear a word from God that turned a direction in your heart, and then you just go right back to the same patterns of sin and isolation you came from. That's why Jesus told him, "Take up your mat". I want you to make a statement. "I won't be back". Turn north. Everybody gets discouraged. Everybody has moments of believing lies. "I am no one. I have no one". Even the great prophet Elijah one time… He had seen a great revival and an outpouring of the demonstration of God's power. Because of a threat he received from a woman named Jezebel, he ran 40 days and 40 nights south to the mountain of God and hid in a cave.
The word of the Lord came to him in a cave, like the word of the Lord is coming to you today in your situation. He told Elijah in a whisper, "Leave here and go back the way you came". You've gone so far south you have forgotten who you are and have lost yourself, but when the word of the Lord comes and says, "Now turn north," you turn. I want to say to somebody who feels like, "This word can't be for me because I don't deserve it": God did not pick the person at the pool that day who deserved it the most to do it for. He picked the person that he could use what they had been through to demonstrate what he could do.
Can God use you? We all have a mat, we all have a mess, we all have a mistake, but God can work through that too. I want to pray for you right now, because God is saying, "Now turn north". He's saying to obey what he's speaking. You know, you might have to do this sometimes many times a day, because I think… I don't know about you, but my soul can get southbound really fast and pulled down to the level of feelings, preferences, and offenses. So, I just want you to hear the voice of the Lord, like Moses did. "Now turn north". One greater than Moses is here. His name is Jesus. Every time you look to him, there's living water. Every time you drink from him, you will be filled. "Now turn north". Do you see it? He is the higher power. He is the one who gives permission. He is the one who is present in this moment. He is the one who was there.
Father, I pray over every stigma, every insecurity, over everybody who's in this room wondering either, "Why am I the one going through this hardship"? or "Why am I the one chosen for this pressure"? You know, we come from many different directions, but we all need the same thing. Spirit of Christ, I thank you for opening my eyes to the mystery of 38 years this week when I studied. I realized that what the man did at the pool when he got up is what Moses did in the wilderness when they got up and crossed over the valley and faced forward into the promise. We thank you for your exceedingly great and precious promises toward those who believe.
In this house today, I proclaim those promises over your children. I thank you that we are citizens of the kingdom of light and not darkness. Now we turn north. I thank you that we are shielded from the fiery darts of the Wicked One, and when the Enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard. We turn north. Our eyes are on you. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. We will be worshipers in this battle. We now turn north. You take what the Enemy meant for evil and turn it for good. We now turn north. We don't look to the east or to the west for where our help comes from.
Our help comes from the north. Our help comes from the Lord. Our help comes from the maker of heaven and earth, and we give you praise, honor, and glory. We make a declaration to the places where we've been lying. We will not be back. We will not revisit these things over and over again. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". Now turn north. As we clap our hands and celebrate your Word, we expect a visitation of power at the Pool of Bethesda this week, power and grace under the five covered colonnades this week, power and a demonstration of your authority. You are God, and we have the grace to get up.
In this house today, I proclaim those promises over your children. I thank you that we are citizens of the kingdom of light and not darkness. Now we turn north. I thank you that we are shielded from the fiery darts of the Wicked One, and when the Enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard. We turn north. Our eyes are on you. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. We will be worshipers in this battle. We now turn north. You take what the Enemy meant for evil and turn it for good. We now turn north. We don't look to the east or to the west for where our help comes from.
Our help comes from the north. Our help comes from the Lord. Our help comes from the maker of heaven and earth, and we give you praise, honor, and glory. We make a declaration to the places where we've been lying. We will not be back. We will not revisit these things over and over again. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". Now turn north. As we clap our hands and celebrate your Word, we expect a visitation of power at the Pool of Bethesda this week, power and grace under the five covered colonnades this week, power and a demonstration of your authority. You are God, and we have the grace to get up.
High-five everybody you can reach and say, "Get up by grace". Thank you, Jesus. Come on. Clap those hands and celebrate his Word. Clap those hands and celebrate! Heads bowed, eyes closed. I want to lead somebody into a relationship with Jesus right now. The Bible says that if you will confess with your mouth and believe with your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. That sounds like turning north to me. The word repent does not mean to feel bad about what you've done; it means to turn and change your mind. It means to come back to your Father.
For somebody who has been going south today, and God is turning you in a new direction, I want to remind you that the cross is the turning point of human history. The resurrection was the proof that Jesus was God's Son, and today will be the defining moment of your new life in Christ. With heads bowed and eyes closed all over this room, all of our campuses, and watching online all over the world, I'm going to lead you in a prayer. This prayer is not magical. It's a connection point for you and God. If you will mean this with your heart today, God will hear from heaven, heal you of your sin, forgive you and redeem you for your wrongs, and give you a new beginning. Repeat after me:
Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Today, I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
On the count of three, if you prayed that, shoot your hand up. One, two, three, all over the room. Put it in the chat. "I received Jesus". We're celebrating right now every turned-around life. Come on. Celebrate every new beginning, every new future.