Elisha: Ridiculous Faith
- Craig Groeschel
- Jun 26, 2023
- 24 min read
Can you imagine what could happen if we gave control of our life to God? It’s scary, but the benefits are world-altering. The story of Elisha challenges your congregation to answer God’s calling and take the risks that are necessary to do His will. “Elisha: A Tale of Ridiculous Faith” would work well at a retreat or as part of a mission emphasis. It’s time we start taking risks and making decisions the world doesn’t understand. Come see what life can look like when we let go…when we decide to have Ridiculous Faith.
"Elisha", Week 1
Pastor Craig Groeschel
INTRO VIDEO: The leader sent the great messenger, Elijah, to anoint a prophet to follow him. God
chose someone odd. Elijah found Elisha, a nobody, plowing his father's field. And what was Elijah's response?
He burned his plow and left everything to follow God. Elisha, a tale of ridiculous faith.
PASTOR CRAIG GROESCHEL: Hey, welcome today to all of you at all of our LIFE Churches and those of
you in our extended network family. We are also very thankful for those of you joining us everywhere at
church online. Today, we are starting a four-week message series on the life of the old testament prophet
named Elisha. We've subtitled it: A Tale of Ridiculous Faith.
And I want to say, very sincerely, that I believe, for many of you, the next four weeks will be a defining
moment in your relationship with God. I have one goal and one purpose only, and that is to allow the teaching
of God's word to build your faith, to give you a ridiculous amount of faith.
Now, if you're a little bit old school, "ridiculous" is actually good, in this sense. Right? How many of
you notice that there are a lot of words that have opposite meanings? They mean what they mean, and they
mean the opposite. Have you noticed that? "Bad" used to mean bad.
Now "bad" can mean good. If it's like "bad," it's good. If it's "bad", it's not good. "Sick" is the same
thing. Right? Sick is like "sick, like you threw up on me," that's sick. Or if it's really cool, it's "sick." "Sick" is
"sick." "Sick" is cool. sorry, this is how my mind works -- ridiculous is the same way. Ridiculous just used to
mean outlandish in a bad way. But now if the cake is really good, what is it? The
cake is like ridiculous.
What I want to do is look at the life of Elisha and I believe God is going to build ridiculous in the good
sort of way in our lives. Let me give you a little bit of context for you. If you've got your mobile devices, you
can click on"Live Events" and you can follow along with the scriptures
there, or turn in your bibles to 1st King, chapter 19. Let's talk about who he was, then we'll look at our text,
then I'll tell you where we're going in this series, then we'll dive in.
There was a guy by the name of Elijah. Some people get Elisha confused with Elijah. Elijah was one of
the great prophets of the old testament, bold, daring, full of faith. Elisha wanted to be like Elijah and he was
bold enough, ridiculous enough, ask for a double portion of Elijah's anointing. And God, in his sovereign will,
gave Elisha, who studied under Elijah, a double portion of this anointing. And Elisha actually performed more
recorded miracles in scripture than anyone, with the exception of Jesus.
What's interesting about this guy is he was very ordinary. He wasn't the son of a priest, he wasn't a
monk, he wasn't like some sort of outward spiritual giant. He was an ordinary guy who was living at home
with his parents, working on a farm when God called him to do something incredible. The context is he lived
during the 9th century B.C. in a time when Israel was divided.....great tension. Many people were worshiping
the false god of Baal and God raised up this ordinary guy, did something extraordinary through his life.
1st Kings, chapter 9, verses 19 through 21. These are the verses we'll study today. Let's read those
and then we'll break them down verse by verse. Verse 19 says this: "So Elijah, this is the older one, Elijah went
from there and found Elisha, son of Shaphat. He was plowing with 12 yolk of oxen and he himself was driving
the 12th pair."
"Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah.
"Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye," he said, "and then I will come with you." "Go back," Elijah
replied, "what have I done to you?" So Elisha left him and went back, he took his yolk
of oxen -- this is crazy -- and he slaughtered them. It gets even more ridiculous. He burned the plow and
equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people and they ate it. Then he set out to follow Elijah and
became his servant. Somebody say, "That is the beginning of a ridiculous story." [Audience
says it.] That's ridiculous, the way you said that, but I'll work with you. All right.
Okay, so let me tell you where we're going in this series. Next week, we're going to see something that
really speaks to me. So many of us, because our faith is small, we're not willing to dream big. At the same
time we're not willing to dream big, so many aren't willing to start small. We're going to look at a story where
Elisha asks some people to dig some ditches in a valley long before there's any sign of water. God is going to
expand your faith to think big, and at the same time, I believe you'll be willing to start small.
In the third week, we're going to look at a widow who was desperate. Any of you who are going
through difficult times right now and you wonder, "How am I going to make it?" This poor lady was about to
lose her two sons and all she had to her name was a little jar of oil. All she could see was what she didn't have
and God, through the prophet, Elijah, is going to show her that she had everything that she needed to do
everything God wanted her to do. This will build your faith.
And the fourth week, we're going to see a crazy miracle. For those of you, who at one time were more
passionate about the things of God, you were more on fire and closer to God but you lost your spiritual edge,
we're going to look at a miracle where an axehead fell into a body of water, the prophet through a stick, and
the axehead floated again. We'll look at that and apply it symbolically to our lives and I believe God is going to
help you get your spiritual edge back.
Today, I want to show you a ridiculous commitment of faith from the prophet Elisha, and we'll look at
these verses again, and then we'll break them down and apply them to our lives specifically. Let's look at
verse 19 again, the middle of the verse where it tells us what he was doing. Scripture says that Elisha was
plowing with 12 yolk of oxen and he, himself, was driving the 12th pair.
What we'll notice is he was doing the same job he had been doing for a long time. He was working on
his parents' farm, and he was driving the yoke of oxen. Now, I've got a good friend -- if you've been here a
while, you've heard him preach, Pastor Steven Furtick is the pastor of one of America's greatest churches,
Elevation Church -- and he wrote a book called "Greater" on the life of Elisha. If you haven't read that book, I
totally recommend this book. I am bias because I love the Furtick family like my own, but it's really a faith
building book. And in it, he points out something I never thought about. And that is, the monotony of what it
would be like to plow behind a yolk of oxen every single day.
Think about this. What do you smell? Something that's sick, and not in the good kind of way. Right?
You smell oxen residue. What do you see? What is your scenery everyday if you're behind a plow? You're
walking behind oxen. What is your scenery? Oxen rears. Don't say anything bad. Oxen rears. Oxen tails.
Oxen behinds. In case you're having a hard time visualizing this, I gave you something to help you see. [shows
video of oxen facing away from camera} That is your scenery and that is not cool every single day. Now, some
of you may feel a little bit like Elisha. You're not looking at oxen rears, but you're doing the same thing day in,
day out. And it gets really really monotonous. You're going to the same job, working with the same people
and you're like, "I feel like I'm staring at oxen rears." Do not call your coworkers "oxen rears." That is not
what I'm saying. But that's the way you feel.
Some of you, you may be in sales and it's just day in, day out. You make your quota and it starts over
again and you make your quota and it starts over again. You're like, "This is so monotonous. All I ever do is try
to live up to some standard and then it starts over again."
Some of you, you might be students and you think, "What do I do? I study and I work to pay the bills. I
study some more and I work to pay the bills. I study and I work." Oxen rears everywhere.
Those of you that are parents, what do you see all day long? Diaper, laundry and dishes, diaper,
laundry and dishes. And you start to think, "It's incredibly easy to lose your passion when all you see is oxen
rears." Right? All day long.
And this is where Elisha was. But I want you to notice he was being faithful in the task at hand. And I
believe with all my heart that God loves to reward those who are faithful in the little things. When you're
faithful with a little, he can trust you with much. And Elisha, even though it might not have been the favorite
thing to do, even though it could have been incredibly draining physically, emotionally, he was faithful. And in
the middle of his faithful daily routine, God sent something new to take him
from where he was into a ridiculous place of impact. Verse 19, the end of the verse says this -- "Elisha" -- this
was a great man of God that Elisha would have looked up to at the time -- "Elijah went up to him and threw his
cloak around him."
Now, what in the world does that mean? Well, his cloak would have been kind of like a coat made of
animal skin or fur. This was his covering. And what Elijah did was he took his covering, and he put it on Elisha
and basically, symbolically saying, "that which covered me will now cover you. That which was the mantle on
me, will now be the mantle on you. That which I was under, now you will be under. You will be my student; I
will be your mentor. As God has been working through me, now God is going to work through you." And he
put his mantle, or he put his covering over Elisha.
Now, I want to apply this story to your life and show you two principals of ridiculous commitment and
watch how the ordinary man responds to this extraordinary call. Two principals if you're taking notes. The
first one is this: God is going to call him to follow Elijah and he's not going to know all the details. Number
one, if you're taking notes, write this down: You don't have to understand fully to obey immediately. When
God calls you to do something, you don't have to understand all the details to obey immediately. You don't
have to understand fully to obey immediately.
Verse 20, here's what happens. First Elijah puts the cloak around him, then in verse 20, Elisha then –
what did he do -- the bible says he left his oxen and then what did he do? The bible says then he ran after
Elisha. He simply said, "Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye and then I will come with you." Notice
this: He didn't have to pray about it. Oh, did a pastor just say that? He didn't have to do a list of pros and
cons. "Here's the reasons why and I should;" "here's the reasons why I shouldn't." He didn't have to consult
his counselor. All he did was said, "God, I believe you're in on this." I don't know the details but since I believe
you're in on this, I will obey immediately.
You don't have to understand fully to obey immediately.
Now, if I can take a quick rabbit trail down a leadership thought, I want to give this to you because this
could apply to some of your life as leaders. People ask me all the time "Craig, what's your five-year plan for
the church?" And I love strategic planning. I think it's wise to think ahead but my answer has changed. In the
past, I used to always have a five-year plan but what I noticed is the world is changing so rapidly, so quickly
there is no way for me to project ahead five years all the divine opportunities God is going to send our way.
So I have totally and completely stopped making five-year plans. I honestly don't plan more than 18 months
out in advance for the church.
Instead of planning for the future, what I do is I plan to respond in the present. I want to be
immediately able to respond to the voice of God, to opportunities that I am not smart enough to predict.
Therefore, as a staff, we always want to have financial margin to seize opportunities that we did not plan for. I
want to have margin in our leadership and margin in our times, and margin in our family so we can jump on
divine opportunities that we are not smart enough to predict.
I don't know how this would speak to you but I believe with all my heart if you will get in a posture of
spiritual readiness, you can't plan what God might do a year from now, but if you're ready, you can obey
immediately even if you do not understand fully. That's some good teaching if anybody needs to get into it,
you can anytime you want to. I wanted to be ready to say "yes" immediately.
And here's the way God will lead you. God will rarely give you details. I believe God is often
strategically vague in his directions. You want details, and I believe God would look at you often and say, "You
can't handle the details. If I showed you everything, you wouldn't show up. I'm just showing you the next
step." God often will guide even with just one word. I love the power of this. Just one word sometimes is all
God will give, and that needs to be enough to go on.
In the Old Testament, whenever God was giving Moses direction, you could summarize the directions
in one word. "Moses, go." "Go." "Abraham, go." "Go." "Go to the land I will show you." Peter, in the New
Testament, Jesus was walking up on water. Peter was like, "Hey, that's ridiculous.
The dude's walking on water. Jesus, if that's you, tell me to come." And Jesus gave him one word.
What was the word? He said "come." One word. One word. I don't know the details, but you follow; one
word, "come."
Some of you, you may hear one word from God; I don't know what it will be, but in your
marriage, maybe you're struggling right now and you're thinking about cashing it in, and you hear one word
and that one word is "stay." And you don't have to understand completely to obey immediately. You stay.
Some of you, you might have a health situation and it doesn't look good, or maybe it's for someone you love,
and God gives you one word and it's "trust," and you hang on that word and you obey. Some of you, you've
got an idea, some business idea or a ministry idea or a book idea and you're like, "how" and "when" and "how
are we going to pay for it", and "I don't understand." And God gives you one word and that word is "start."
You don't have to understand immediately.
Some of you, you've been hanging around the church for a while and you're kind of starting to grow
with God but you're still observing. And God may give you one word, "commit." Commit. Don't just watch
what God is doing, get involved, commit. Some of you may be praying about the future of your family and you
hear the word "adopt" or "foster".
You're like "wait, wait, what age and from where, domestic or international? Boy, girl? I don't
understand." You don't have to understand everything to take the next step.
There may be a great single girl right now and you know you're dating a jerk, loser, punk. Everybody
knows it and God may give you one word and when he does, you obey. What is God's one word? "Break up
with the jerk." Five words but maybe you need to hear five instead of one because you are too special to
settle for a fixer upper punk like that. Break up. Well, who am I going to marry? What if nobody else better
comes along? You can't marry a cherry limeade when you're drinking a slush. I don't even know what that
means but it might mean something to you. You don't have to understand everything to do what God tells
you to do. Right?
When I just met Amy, I was 22 years of age, graduating from college and I was blessed to have two job
offers. One was in Houston in management, in kind of the field that I'd always wanted to be and the other
one was kind of an embarrassing job that was where I lived in Oklahoma City. And one of my life goals was get
out of Oklahoma City. I didn't have a love for the city like I do now. And I just met Amy and I was praying,
"God, what do I do? What do I do? Good job, good salary, bad job, bad salary, good city," all this stuff. And I
heard one word. One word. And that word was "stay." And I was like, "But what about, what about, what
about?" "Stay."
And on that one word, I stayed, and it's incredibly emotional for me to think about number one, what
God did through that one-week relationship; I just met Amy and then he multiplied us into a family of eight.
Wow! That's what God does.
And that one job led me to the church I went to where they helped me to get in ministry and helped
me start. So everything I'm doing at this moment is the result of ridiculous obedience that made no sense
whatsoever, on one word. Some of you, you're going to hear one word from God and you're going to be crazy
enough, ridiculous enough to say, "I don't know all the details but I don't have to understand fully to obey
immediately." Thought number one is: You don't have to understand fully to obey immediately. Thought
number two, and I love this with all my heart: Those God uses the most are the ones that hold on to the least.
This is going to speak to somebody; those that God uses the most are the ones who hold on to the least.
Watch what Elisha does in verse 21. "So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yolk of oxen."
Okay? These were the animals that brought about his livelihood. And what does the bible say he did with the
oxen? The bible says he slaughtered them, he killed them, dead. Then what did he do with the plows?
Scripture says he burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people and they ate. He
made a bonfire out of the plowing equipment and cooked steak for his buddies.
Then he set out to follow Elijah and he became his servant. That is ridiculous through and through.
Okay? God is calling me to go and follow this prophet, become a prophet, become like him, maybe even
become greater than him. So what do I do? I kill the cows and burn the plows. That's what I do. That's
ridiculous. Now, you can kind of see "kill the cows" because symbolically, whenever God did something,
people would make a sacrifice, like when the prodigal son came back, the father killed the fatted calves and
said, "How do you like yours? Medium rare." You know, "Whatever, let's party."
You can kind of see, but he goes and burns the plows. It's almost like he's saying, "I'm burning plan B.
There is no plan B. There's only 'obey God.' There's only plan A." And I've just got to tell you, as a dad, if my
kids come home with that plan, I'm kind of saying, "Hey, you know, I'm proud of your faith and everything and
go serve God, but let's keep our options open." Right? I mean, that's honestly what I'm thinking. Let's use
our minds here; there's no reason yet. You know, "Go follow God but keep the cows and plows because you
never know when you might need to use them."
But what you're going to see in scripture is there are often times when people are so moved by God
that they do ridiculous things to follow him. Whenever Jesus encountered Peter for the first time in Luke,
chapter 5, Peter was having a bad fishing day. And Jesus came up and said, "Throw your nets on the other
side." Peter was like, "You don't know what you're talking about." Jesus said, "Just do it." And he did it and
caught so many fish, the nets started breaking. He's like, "Woe, who are you? This is amazing; I am a sinful
man. You're the Lord," all this stuff. And Jesus looked at him and said, "Hey, from now on, you don't have to
just catch fish. Now you can fish for people. You can be a fisher of men."
And scripture says something that is just as crazy as the "Burn the plows and kill the cows." The bible
says that the disciples left everything. Okay? We can just read by that and not even think about it. You
contextualize that to your life. Leave my job, you know, I trained for this; I got a major in college for this. You
know, leave my comfort, leave my family, leave my neighborhood, leave my church. They left everything to
follow him. There are some of you that God is going to speak to you at some time and give you a plow burning
faith. And let me just say, and qualify, make sure God is speaking to you; you don't just go in and say, "I'm sick
of my job," walk in and say, "I hate you all," and burn the building down. Okay? That's not what I'm talking
about. I'm talking about when you know that you know that you know that God is calling you to leave where
you are and go where he wants you to go.
There are sometimes when you're so convinced that you just burn the bridge back, because you're not
turning back because something has happened in you and you're never going to be the same. You can't go
back because God is calling you forward. There are some of you, God is going to give you a plow-burning faith
where deep within, you're willing to do whatever it takes to follow God to the next place.
I'll give you some stories of people that I know that had plow-burning faith. I've got a friend whose dad
was very successful in the fast food industry and so his dad generously went to pass that on to his son. The
problem is his son didn't like the fast food business. But his dad said, "I can make you rich" and the dad would
have been right. But my friend, all he wanted to do was teach junior high and coach boys' basketball. And so
his dad gave him this business and he tried his best and he was successful but he was miserable because he
wasn't called to make money, he felt called to invest in the next generation. And so he very respectfully went
to his dad and said, "Dad, I love you. I honor you. You're one of my heroes but I can't do this anymore." And
he, in a sense, burned the bridge and said, "I'm giving all this back," and he left a tremendously lucrative
career to go and teach junior high and coach boys' basketball. And to this day, I don't know a happier married
man and guy more fulfilled doing what he was called to do. He had to burn some plows to leave where he was
so he could go to where God wanted him to go.
I know a family that's really on fire for God, they're really strong Christians, but quite honestly, in the
summer, something changes. They are so in love with the lake that we don't see them between early May and
early September and they disappear completely every weekend, and it's all about the lake. And don't let
anybody hear that I don't like the lake, I like the lake. If you have a lake house and want to take me once or
twice a year, I will go with you. Okay? I like the lake. But it was so severe that this guy's nine-year-old
daughter, one day said, "Daddy, why is it that we love God all year long but we don't love God in the
summer?" And when he heard that, he realized what had happened. They loved God but their lives said
something different, that God goes on hold. They didn't serve anybody in the summer, they didn't make a
difference in the summer, they didn't worship in the summer. In the summer, it became all about their
enjoyment. And when the dad realized this, he said, "I can't have that," and so he burned the plow. He sold
the boat, sold the lake house, and this wouldn't be for everybody but this was for them. He said, "I'm not
going to let something send an example to my-nine-year-old that God is not important to us all year long."
I've got another guy who was struggling again and again, addicted to pornography. And he was able to
overcome it for a while when he got his computers monitored, and then the mobile phones came out and he
got his butt kicked every single day, and we tried to block things and block things and block things. And then,
he'd find another way around and another way around and another way around, and he couldn't seem to get
over when there was an open door anywhere, he'd go through that door and look at things that were hurtful
to him and his faith. And so we talked about it, said, "What do you think we should do?" And he said, "Well,
the only thing I can think of to do is get rid of this phone, but you've got to have this kind of phone." And I
said, "Do you? Did people survive for like, you know, thousands of years without it?" And the lights came on.
And so symbolically, he decided to get rid of his new iPhone and took it and went up to a high place and he
crushed it, saying basically, "I'm burning this plow. I'm not going to let it take me down." And now he uses a
little flip phone, a little stupid flip phone. He hates his flip phone but he loves his purity and I admire a guy
who would say, "I'm not going to let something keep me from being the man that God wants me to be."
I know a lady that lives in another part of the world who got saved, transformed, made new in Christ
through church online, totally and completely born into the kingdom of God, her sins forgiven. She started
serving at church online. The problem is all of her friends still did drugs and as hard as she tried to get away,
she kept slipping back into the drug lifestyle, slipping back into the drug lifestyle. And so finally, she decided
to burn the plow. She moved away, quit her job, moved to another city where there was a LIFE Church so she
could make brand new friends, get into a Christian community because she said, "My faith in God is worth it,"
and she burned some plows to leave where she was to go where God wanted her to go. Would you look at
the person sitting next to you and say, "Maybe you need to burn a plow." Go ahead and go right now. All of
our churches, come one, all of our churches, just lean over. Now look at the other person on the other side
who was your second choice, and tell them, "Maybe you need to burn a plow." I don't know what it would be
in your life, but if there is anything keeping you from serving God, you're going to burn that plow. If there is
sin holding you back, you burn that plow. If there is a doubt in your life, you burn that plow. If there is a
relationship holding you back, somebody's going to burn that plow. You're not going to let anything keep you
from following God because you don't have to understand fully to obey immediately. Those that God uses the
most are those who hold on to the least.
Some of you, you're like a little kid holding onto your blanky. "I got my blanky." I want you to know, I
didn't have a blanky. I had a "Bobby the bear." And God is my witness, I took "Bobby the bear" to college with
me. And I realized it was time to hide "Bobby the bear" under my bed if he was going to be in college with me.
I didn't burn Bobby but I had to leave him behind. Some of you, you're holding onto something that keeps you
secure. Never ever forget this: To step towards your destiny, you have to step away from your security. God
is going to speak to somebody and give you the faith to believe that he's calling you to something new.
Because, you may be looking at oxen rears today, but in your faithfulness, God may call you to do something
even greater for his kingdom. You have to have the faith to go and you don't have to understand fully to obey
immediately. Because those that God uses the most, are those who hold on to the least.
"Father, we pray that you would build faith in this church, God, corporately and individually, that we
would recognize it is impossible to please you without faith and we want to follow you and do what you are
leading us to do." As you pray today at all of our network churches, all of our LIFE Churches, I'm going to ask
you just a couple of questions. The first one I want you to think about really really seriously before you
respond, and then I want to pray for you. I want to ask -- and think about this, don't just -- don't just respond;
think about it. I wonder how many of you who are followers of Christ want so much for God to stretch your
faith that you are willing to look ridiculous to leave things that you thought were important your whole life, to
not let anything hold you back from living the perfect will of God for your life.
All of our different churches, that's a big place to be and so think about it before you respond. But I
wonder how many of you would say, "I don't want anything to hold me back. I want ridiculous faith to obey
God. Even when it doesn't make sense, I will trust him." Would you lift up your hands right now, just all of our
different churches? Hands going up everywhere. Man, thank you for those of you who want that kind of
faith. I would even say "thank you" for those who are honest enough to say, "I'm not ready for that yet."
"Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would do a work in us. Over the next four weeks, God, as we look
at the your word of this ridiculous faith, I pray that through the hearing of your word, you would build our
faith, God, that we would not just believe in what we can do but we would believe in who you are. And when
you call, we will obey, God, even if it's just one word. I pray, God, for those who have made a decision to
move. I pray, God, that they would hear you. I pray, God, that they would search for your will in your word."
"God, I thank you that so many are in a community with other believers, that they can hear your voice,
even confirm from those around."
"God, I pray that we would be surrounded by those who would build our faith. And God, when you call
us, give us the faith to obey even when we do not fully understand."
"As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, there are those of you right now, even as
we are in this time of prayer, you recognize that you don't have that kind of faith. You're not fully following
God. You would even say, "I'm not a fully devoted follower of Jesus." And if I asked you why, you'd have any
number of different reasons. Some of you would say, "Well, I don't believe that stuff." Some of you would say,
"Well, that's just kind of a legend." Some of you would say, "Well, I think there's lots of ways to God." Some
of you would say, "Well, I'm not good enough yet." Some of you would say, "After all I've done, I don't know if
I could ever be forgiven by God."
I want to say very very clearly that there is a God, he does love you, and if you're feeling drawn toward
him today, there's going to be a million reasons why you don't take the step of faith. But there is one reason
why you should and that's because God loved you so much, he sent his son, Jesus, who was without sin to
become sin for us, to die and be raised again so that anyone who calls on his name would be saved. The
moment you call on the name of Jesus, all your sins will be forgiven. "But I'm not ready." I don't care.
"But I've still got questions." I don't care. "But I've still got" -- I don't care. The time is never going to
be just right where you have everything. At some point, you have to take a step of faith. Scripture says you're
saved, not by works, but you're saved by grace through faith where you believe in the perfect work of Jesus
was enough.
And at that moment, you become a new creation. The old is gone and behold, everything becomes
new. And that is why many of you are here today. By faith, you give your life to Christ.
At all of our churches, those of you who would say, "That's me. I need his grace. I needed forgiveness.
I turn toward him and I trust him." Would you lift your hands high right now? Just lift them up and say, "Yes,
that's my prayer." Right over there, sir, God bless you. Both of you in this section, both of you right here.
Praise God for you. Others of you? Here in the middle section towards the back. Right up here close to me.
Praise God. Both of you right here. Bless you. Wipe those tears away. Right back over there. God bless you.
Others of you who would say, "Yes, that's me." Right over here in this section, and way back here towards the
back. Others of you? Church online, you click right below me. Bless you. Others of you who would say, "Yes,
that's my cry." Would you pray with those around you who, by faith, are believing in the Lordship of Jesus.
Pray, "Heavenly Father, forgive me of my sins. Make me brand new. I believe you died for me and you rose
again so I could live for you. Fill me with Your Spirit so I could follow you for the rest of my life. Thank you for
new life. Today, I give you mine. In Jesus name, I pray." Somebody go crazy, worship God, welcome those
born into his family. (End of sermon)