Take Back Your Life!
- Levi Lusko
- Jan 12, 2021
- 24 min read
Fresh Life Church | This Is Your Wake-Up Call | Pastor Levi Lusko
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Now I want to start our time today with a question. And the question is, have you ever considered how
different the world would be if Hitler was a morning person?
Now hold that thought. We're going to return to that in a second, I promise. But first, would you turn in
your Bibles to First Kings Chapter 20. And in First Kings 20, I want to give to you a message that I'm
calling "this is your wake-up call." This is your wake-up call.
A soldier is standing before a king. And the soldier is dusty, and he is clearly war torn. The battle has
just finished, and he now is standing before his sovereign. He's got a bandage across his head. His
eye is very clearly puffy and bloody. And a little too soon for me to be talking about damaged eyes,
but this soldier has just clearly been through it.
I mean, he's got filth and blood caked on him. He looks like he's just barely hanging on. And standing
before his king, he speaks to give an account of what he did during the battle. And in First Kings 20,
verse 39, it says the following.
"Your servant went out into the midst of the battle. And there a man came over and brought a man to
me and said, 'Guard this man. If by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you
shall pay a talent of silver.'
While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him, 'So
shall your judgment be. You yourself have decided it.'"
Now, the king was understandably frustrated and really probably confused as to why the man thought
the king would be happy. I mean, it's from the man's own mouth evident that he had failed to do the
one thing that he had been asked to do. He was told, in this battle, you have a job. The job is take this
prisoner. Take this prisoner and watch him. Guard him.
The New King James version that we just read renders it "guard this man." But the more archaic King
James puts it this way, "Keep this man." So guard him. Keep him. Watch him. The point is, don't let him
get away.
In fact, the man was told, if he gets away, your life's going to be required for his life, or you'll have to
pay a talent of silver, which is like-- I would pick that option if it was me. I have to either die or-- but
you have to understand, this is like a half million dollars. And a simple common soldier in this war
would have had no way of paying such a staggering sum of money, so that fine was really just there
to be there because there's no way he's paying half a million dollars.
If he lets this guy get away, he is going to have to die. And he let the man get away. As he gives this
accounting, he says, I watched him at first. I was keeping great care of him. I was checking in on him.
But eventually, the man, I let him out of my sight.
And he's bringing it to the king almost like, what do you think should have to happen to me? Like he's
almost appealing his case to the Supreme Court. I let him get away, but king, come on. I know that
you probably know that I had good intentions and that I tried really hard. And that there was an
enormous amount of time while I was watching where he did not get away.
Sure, there was a five-minute window. But we all know who is perfect. He's saying this to the king
almost hoping for mercy. And what the king says is, you said it. You told me yourself that you were
warned. If you let him get away, your own life would be required. So you've already said your
judgment. So shall your judgment be.
And once the king had said those words, that it was very clear that this man needed to do the time
since he had done the crime, did the man then pull off his bandage and show his true colors. He was
not a soldier at all. In fact, he was a prophet, a man of God sent by God to confront King Ahab with
this made-up story.
Now, I beg you, please read the verses before we jumped in later on this week. Because you will find
out how this man got wounded. He didn't have prosthetics. He didn't stop by a Hollywood studio. He
really did have a bloody eye. He really was beat up.
And I need you to read about how this man got the wounds that tricked the king. Because it involves
a lion. That's all I'm going to say. The Bible is incredible. But the reason this man had told this story-- I
was told to watch a man. I was warned if the man got away, my life would be forfeit. But now that it
happened, I don't like the results and I want someone to do something about it.
He was intended to arouse in the king a revelation that this was a ridiculous thing to do. And so the
king would then speak, the judgment is going to stand because you had your chance. You were
warned clearly. And you failed to do the one job that you were called to do.
And the purpose of this leadership parable, this made-up story-- because, spoiler alert. There was no
POW. There was no soldier. There was no man that got away-- was to show a mirror to Ahab that he
might realize, I'm the man. I'm the man who was supposed to watch the man. I'm the man who had a
job that he was given.
I'm the man who was told, you have this thing to do. And if you don't do it, your life will be forfeit for
your disobedience to God in doing what you were told to do. Now the particulars of why King Ahab
needed this message had historical context and significance with Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, and what
happened in that exact day.
But what exactly the leadership parable meant to him isn't the most important issue to us today.
Because Ahab is dead and buried. In fact, the dogs licked up his blood. That's also in the Bible. The
bigger issue for us is this question. What does it have to do with you, and what does it have to do with
me?
Because I believe the story as it was told is meant to hit us hard for us to see that we, too, have been
given an assignment. So if you'll permit me, I want us to do what the man of God wanted Ahab to do. I
want us to insert ourselves into the story.
I think it can be very easy to read the Bible and just think, well, that's good for Peter, or that's great
for Esther, or that's amazing for David. What an inspiring story. But I think, like Ahab was meant to
see, no, no, you're the man. This isn't just about them. It's about you.
What are you going to do with what you've been given? I want us to see ourselves in a story about a
man who was given a charge to watch over someone. And the king at some point is going to stand
before us. And we're going to have to explain to him what we did with that one job we were given.
Now you're like, that's great, Levi. I even get what you're saying because we're going to die and stand
before God. And when we stand before God, he is the king. And so we're going to have to answer to
God. But who are we supposed to watch?
The answer is you are meant to watch the most difficult person to babysit on the planet. You're like, I
had a feeling you were going to talk about my husband. No, no, I'm not talking about your husband,
and I'm not talking about your wife, and I'm not talking about your kids, and I'm not talking about
someone on your soccer team or someone you work alongside. I'm talking about you.
The person on this planet most suited to deceit is you. The person on this planet more capable of
harming yourself is you. You and I are, in fact, able to be, like no one else, our own worst enemy. And
the Bible, from beginning to end, warns us about how important it is that we watch ourselves, that we
keep ourselves.
We are the soldier who is meant to guard the other soldier. Only the other soldier we're meant to
guard is us. And that's clearly evident from the fact that if we don't do the job we're meant to do of
keeping ourselves, our lives will be forfeit. Why? Because our life will be snatched from us while we
weren't paying attention. And that is precisely when it happens.
And that's why the soldier says-- notice what he does in verse 40. When did the guy get away? Guard
this man, he was told. Keep this man. Keep this person. Guard this person. Don't let them get away.
And when he finally said, they got away, the king must have been like, well, when did he get away?
How did he get away?
What happened? Did someone bring him a cake that had a file in it? Was it some Prison Break action?
Did he get tattoos on his body with schematics of the penitentiary? Like what-- that is a throwback
reference right there. That's something you're like, what? It was a great ride for a little while, then it
got just out of control, right?
And that's the most embarrassing part. He says, I was busy here and there. Then he was gone. My
friend, pastor Jentezen Franklin, he one time preached this message on this text. And he said that the
man wasn't bad. He was just busy. He wasn't bad. He was just busy.
Is it possible that while you're going here and there doing one thing and another thing, your life is
passing you by? And through your fingers, like water is slipping away the version of yourself you are
meant to be, the version of yourself you're meant to become, the version of yourself that Jesus sees
you are capable of becoming, who you're meant to be, what you're meant to be like as you grow up
in Christ.
You're meant to guard yourself and watch yourself, supervise yourself and lead yourself, that you
might not escape. That you might not slip through your fingers. And you end up stuck immature, end
up stuck selfish, end up stuck with a small mentality, living in self-pity, smothered by anger and
numbing and coddling yourself spiritually when you're meant to rise up in strength and rise up in
power.
This is your wake-up call. You are called by God to guard yourself, to keep this man, to keep this
woman, and to look after yourself, lest you get away. Didn't Jesus himself say that it's easy to chase
after the things of this world and to lose your soul?
Now, when he said that, and my whole life I've kind thought of that as like, oh my gosh, that was
intense. Lose your soul? How do you-- gosh, I need to hang on to my soul. I don't want to lose my soul.
But the words that he uses in that sentence don't speak about losing your soul entirely.
And you can see that in verse 26 of Matthew 16 in the message translation when it says, "What kind
of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself?" To lose your true self, to lose hold of
yourself to let yourself get away. I think what Jesus is warning in Matthew 16 is the same thing that's
in First Kings Chapter 20, that we're meant to not be distracted, and busy here and there, and chasing
after this, and defined by that.
And all of a sudden we got the things that we thought we wanted, but we ended up losing the version
of ourselves that we were meant to become. And on and on, warnings come throughout the Bible
about how easy it is to trick yourself, how easy it is to deceive yourself, how easy it is to let yourself
get away.
Proverbs 4 verse 23, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." There's
no area quite like the heart that's able to control the outcome of our lives. And I think our love lives
are easily able to steer us. We talk ourselves into dating a person we shouldn't date, to being with
someone that we shouldn't be with. It's easy to let the heart-- especially young people, listen to me.
It's easy to let the issues of your heart steer you away from where God wants you to go. Jude says in
his little book, verse 21, "Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God. Expect and patiently wait for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Jeremiah warns the same thing when he says, "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who
can know it?" So our hearts are able to steer us. Our hearts are able to trick us. We have to guard our
hearts. We have to guard our spirits. We have to guard our devotion. We have to choose to do the
hard things, to watch after ourselves, to be checking in with ourselves, to be asking the question, hey,
time's passing.
How am I doing? Am I getting better? Am I staying the same? Am I coasting? Am I fighting? Am I
advancing? Am I becoming a kinder husband? Am I becoming a better father? Am I becoming a more
patient manager?
Your heart's tricky. Your heart will talk you into doing things you shouldn't do. The lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, the pride of life-- these things will all deceive us. We have to guard ourselves. We
have to keep ourselves. You can't just be cruising through life doing what you feel and going along
with what's easy.
Broad is the path that leads to destruction. Narrow is the road that leads to eternal life. And few are
they who find it. Why? Because it's so easy to let yourself get carried away, to let your heart pull you
in a way you shouldn't go, to fall for the lies that the devil tells.
You have to be actively involved, vigilantly involved. He said, guard this man. That's active. You can't
guard him only a little bit or guard him most of the time. You've got to keep watch. I'm telling you,
you've got to keep watch over yourself because yourself is tricky. You will talk yourself into things you
shouldn't do.
Jesus said in Mark 14, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak." If you know you're weak, you make it easy on yourself to do the right thing with
guardrails. You make it easy on yourself to do the right thing with accountability. You make it easy on
yourself to do the right thing with systems, with trellises to let the vines grow.
I think about what you can intentionally do for spiritual formation, like being in a small group of
Christians who are praying for you weekly, holding you accountable. So that as you come and go in
the world-- because we're meant to be in the world. We're not meant to create a Christian subculture
we exclusively live in.
Because we need to live among people of this world so we might show the light and be that salt and
be testifying for Jesus of his goodness. If there's not people in your life who don't know Christ, if
you're not eating and breaking bread and doing life with people who are Christians, though, it's going
to be easy to give into those around you.
So we build systems around ourselves. We know that our flesh, indeed, is weak. So what do we do? We
watch and pray. Otherwise we will enter into temptation. That man, that woman that you're meant to
grow up into will slip through your fingers.
First John chapter 5, verse 21. "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." It's easy to give into
valuing things, because that's worship. Worshipping idols is valuing something above God. The Bible
says honor God as the highest. Honor God. Give him your worship. Give him the glory. Let him be the
most important thing in your life.
There are so many things that compete. And the human heart, it's been said, is an idol factory. It can
value anything above God and churn out a new idol every day. So you have to keep yourself, meaning
it will be easy and automatic for your heart to gravitate to other things as more valuable than him.
That's why the Bible says we have to seek ye first the kingdom of God.
Every single time I get paid and I give the first and the best to God, what am I doing? I'm seeking to
keep-- I'm trying to keep myself from idols. I know it's easy and automatic for my heart to gravitate to
things. But I have to keep myself-- I have to keep this man. I have to keep my heart pure. I have to
keep myself away from pornography that would diminish my love for my bride and enjoyment of the
relationship of love and intimacy that he wants from me.
It's not easy to do. I have to be actively aware that the lust of the flesh is trying to bombard me. I have
to keep myself strong. I have to keep myself reinvigorated by spending time alone with Jesus. It's so
easy to give in to the weakness of the flesh. But you have to choose to keep yourself.
I wanted to preach this message today because I wanted to issue a wake-up call like you would get in
a hotel room. This is your wake-up call. Your life is passing you by. You need to keep this man. You
need to fight to guard over the version of yourself that you are meant to be.
Otherwise, here and there, your life will pass you by, and you'll wake up one day with regret. You'll
wake up one day with heartbreak. And ultimately you will stand before God to give an account of
what you did with this life, and with regret you'll go, I don't even know. There was a point when I
heard his voice. There was a point when I sensed his spirit.
I knew as I read his word there was something to it. I knew I needed to get around to that. You kept
saying to yourself, yes, that is dragging me down. That is toxic. That is unhealthy. Yeah, I shouldn't
really be doing that. Yeah, I shouldn't really be-- and you rationalize, and you justify.
And while your servant was busy-- not bad, just busy. Here and there, [SNAP] life ended. Now here am
I to stand before you. I let him get away. I let her get away.
Two things to be on guard against as you keep this man, you keep this woman. First is giving in, giving
in. It's so easy to give in, in our world that we live in, to culture's distractions. We carry around with us
at all time-- at all times a device that can simultaneously feed and nourish your spirit. Many of you
are watching church right now on your phone. You're watching church right now on a laptop, on a TV.
It's good that's coming in, streaming in. It's God's word. It's milk. It's food. It's wonderful. But then on
the same device, you can be conflicted. I mean, you could even push me to the background on
YouTube and be doing something distracting to your soul while you're trying to spiritually multitask.
How conflicted is that?
And we live in a day when it's possible to make mistakes digitally, to be distracted, to be on it too
often, to be glued to these things, to mess up the wiring of our brains and our souls to be perpetually
dissatisfied, never able to be present where we are because we're looking at where we wish we were,
what we wish we were doing, the life we wish we had.
It's easy to give in to distraction, to give in, secondly, to lies. Lies like, I'll always be this way. Lies like,
I've tried to change before, and it didn't work, so why would it work this time? We give in to lies like,
it's OK that I'm this way because I know other people who need to take back their life more.
Listen, there will always be someone in your life more jacked up and more broken than you are. And
we kind of almost sometimes like to keep some deranged people in our lives just so we can feel good
about ourselves a little bit, quite frankly. This, by the way, is why any time that we take steps to better
ourselves, there will be people in our lives who kind of push back like, oh, you've changed.
And I'll be like, hey, first of all, that's the point. I would hope so. I don't want to stay the same as I was
at 20. I don't want to be the same as when I was 34. I want to change. I want to grow. I want to
improve myself.
But if you try to start changing and someone in your life pushes back and tries to hold you back,
guess what? You were their hold out. And they're only angry because they're now realizing if you
change, they're going to have to change. So they don't want you to change because you make them
feel good about themselves.
And so what we need to all do is realize we don't want to give in to other people's plans for our life.
We were called to guard this man, not them. Your sister's not going to stand before God accountable
to him for what you did with your life. But you are going to stand before him for your life.
They have their own day in court. All of us need to know, we've got to guard this man. We've got to
guard this person. We can't change anybody else. But we can and must change ourselves.
Jesus modeled this for us in John chapter 6 when, after feeding the 5,000 and everybody is super
pumped on all the Krispy Kreme donuts they were eating that day, he then became very popular. And
everyone wanted a piece of him. Everyone wanted an autograph. Everyone wanted a selfie. Everyone
wanted something.
It says, verse 15, "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him King by force, he
withdrew again to a mountain by himself." What does that tell you?
That tells you, number one, that if you take the steps to better yourself that you need to, meaning
you don't give in to other people's plans for your life, there are going to be lonely moments in your
life. Sometimes you'll feel lonely. But that loneliness for Jesus was not a liability. It was an asset. It was
there that he was refueled. It was there that he was strengthened.
He wouldn't let them take him by force to make him a king. He went to be alone with the Father, who
was able to remind him, you already are a King. You see, many people, if you give in to their plans for
your life, they will try to get you to leave what you have to get what is already yours and can't be
taken away. But they'll try to give you an imitation substitute version of it that's always less than.
So Jesus didn't need to go with these people who were going to try and make him a king because he
was already a king. A king not meant to wear a crown of gold, but one who was sent to wear a crown
of thorns. A king who would not sit, at least on the first coming, on a golden throne. But a king who
would be stretched out as a suffering servant upon a wooden cross.
But by remembering who God said he was, he was able to combat the patient to give in to who
people wanted him to be. And I want to let you know something. You cannot take back your life if you
live for the approval and pleasure of other people.
Living to please people will keep you from pleasing God. So don't give in. Don't let anyone turn you
into a king, turn you into a queen. You are already a son or a daughter of the King of kings. You don't
need to approve yourself to anyone.
The second temptation will be to give up. Giving up is a very real temptation. Giving up control of
yourself to a substance. Why do they say under the influence? Because while you give yourself away
to a drug, while you're high, while you're drunk, you're not in control of yourself. You don't have your
wits about you.
That's why Ephesians says being drunk with wine is like being filled with the Spirit, different but like.
You're under the influence of alcohol while you're drunk. You're under the influence of the Spirit when
you yield yourself to God. For some of us, we've made the mistake of giving up control, and we need
to take back our lives from the things that we have willingly submitted our lives to.
We need to guard this person. We need to guard ourselves to not be under the influence, to be
controlled by a substance, to be controlled by emotions, to just do what we feel, to let our anger
overtake us, to be controlled by habits or patterns of thinking. We need to fight against. We need to
keep ourselves and guard ourselves with all diligence from the mistake of giving up.
But not just giving up control. Also the temptation to just give up because it's hard. Come on, is it--
anybody like 19 months into this thing? Is it feeling hard for anybody else? I mean, and that's just this
season. But all seasons have difficulties to them.
I know it's easy to idealize, oh, if we just get through this, it's going to be great. Remember back in
2019 when everything was perfect? Oh, yeah, really, back in 2019 when all of us complained all the
time about something different, right?
So if it's not this, it's going to be something else. The reality is life is hard. And the reality is that
following Jesus is difficult. But here's the good news. Our God is a God so good that he is able to bring
honey out of rocks. That's what he says in Psalm 81 verse 16.
He says, "But you would be fed with the finest of wheat. With honey from the rock I would satisfy you."
I love that verse, and I feel like for weeks God's just been strengthening my heart with it. Because
what David's doing is he's sampling a line from a song Moses wrote back in the Old Testament book
of Deuteronomy, where he praised God saying, you're a God who brings honey out of rocks.
And I love it because, as I have thought about it, I've realized it's impossible. You don't get honey
from rocks. And that's exactly why it's so powerful. Tim Keller says God uses our troubles to show us
where true joys are to be found. He gives us-- listen to me-- unlikely food from impossible places.
What he wants to sustain you with, the honey, might just have come in a strange wrapper called
COVID-19, or called the loss of a job, or called a messy divorce, or called a challenging circumstance.
But it's in that rock that you've been handed that God wants to squeeze honey out into your life. So
don't give in, and don't give up.
Now you're like, Levi, that's amazing, and I want to take back my life, and I want to guard this man.
And I can't believe I let myself get away. But what about Hitler? That's what you're probably
wondering. Because you brought him up like it was so natural.
But June 6, 1944, 76 years ago this summer, was D-Day, the most decisive event in World War II, the
battle, the invasion that really turned the tide. D-Day is incredible for so many reasons. Largest
amphibious assault in history. Largest deceit, most incredible deceit since the Trojan Horse.
160,000 troops coming into France to take it out from under Nazi controlled forces, just absolutely
astounding. And the fact that they managed to completely deceive the whole Axis army about where
the landing was to take place.
Now they knew when it was coming. You don't get to mobilize that many people without them being
aware it's going down. So Eisenhower, the supreme commander, knew that the Nazis knew when they
were going to be coming. But they didn't know where.
You see, there was this whole Atlantic Wall that Hitler thought was impenetrable that ran from the
Arctic down to basically Spain. And he thought this massive stretch would-- as he made sure there
was guns and pillboxes and barbed wire, that he would just watch it all.
And so the Allied forces basically tried to trick Hitler into thinking they were going to land in the south
of France because it was the closest from the nation of England just across the channel, the most
shallow depth. And so they did some incredible things to make them think that was where the
invasion was going to take place.
Like the morning of D-Day, they rained out paratroopers who were actually mannequins all over the
south of France. And these mannequins, some of them were rigged with explosives so as they landed,
there would be bombs going off. They covered the area adjacent to where they were trying to make
Hitler think they were going to land with inflatable tanks so they would think that they were amassing
a massive force.
Because in aerial reconnaissance photos, it looked like there were so many tanks there in the south
of France, but they were actually just literally dummy balloon tanks. And meanwhile, of course, the
real invasion was happening at the five beaches of Normandy in central France, where 5,000 ships
were going to quickly come across these man-made ports that created harbors.
And they were going to storm the beaches there, and they had hoped all the gun stations had been
taken out. But of course the Omaha ones weren't taken out, which is why it was so terribly bloody and
devastating at Omaha.
And the reason this whole thing worked-- one of the big reasons that this massive turn the tide event
happened in this war was because Hitler was not a morning person. You see, he liked to sleep in,
sometimes as late as noon. And on D-Day, when this actually was happening-- and remember, he
knew when it was happening. He was so overconfident that even that morning, he slept in.
And his men were so afraid-- all of his generals were so afraid of waking him up that even once they
f
igured out that it was raining mannequins in the south of France and that was now where the
invasion was happening, when they finally figured out it was actually happening in Normandy and
they needed his explicit permission to move the elite SS panzer divisions of tanks-- Hitler had to give
personal approval to allow the rerouting of all the tanks from the south of France up to Normandy.
And the speed of reinforcements was everything in battle, is everything in battle. And it could have
actually changed the outcome of the D-Day invasion in favor of the Nazis. But because he had to give
permission himself, and because he was asleep when the battle took place, when he finally woke up
11:00 or 12:00, it was too late, and they already got a foothold on the beaches of Normandy that led
to them taking France back. And it was the event that turned the tide in World War II.
Now, I'm not saying that if you're a night owl, you should change your ways and become an early
bird. What I am saying is you can't win a war while you're sleeping.
And Romans 13 puts it this way. I'm going to close with this. "To live like this is all the more urgent, for
time is running out, and you know it is a strategic hour in human history. It is time for us to wake up,
for our full salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
Night's darkness is dissolving away as a new day of destiny dawns. So we must once and for all strip
away what's done in the shadows of darkness, removing it like filthy clothes. And once and for all, we
clothe ourselves with the radiance of light as our weapon.
We must live honorably, surrounded by the light of this new day, not in the darkness of drunkenness
and debauchery, promiscuity, and sensuality. Not being argumentative or jealous of others. Instead,
fully immerse yourselves into the light of the Lord Jesus. And don't waste even a moment's thought
on your former identity to awaken its selfish desires."
Church, this is your wake-up call. You have one life, and it will soon be passed. And only what's done
for Christ will last. So keep this man. Jesus, thank you for this time and your word. Thank you for every
single person whose heart is being stirred by your Spirit, realizing the need to wake up to what's really
happening, wake up to the lies and deceit of culture, waking up to the deceitfulness of sin, realizing
things in our lives that we need to jettison if we're to become who we're meant to be.
And I pray that even now, as you are ministering to people's hearts, that you will stir up not just a
prick of conviction, but a resolve of decision and a time for action. If, as we're praying, if you would,
just say, Levi, I resonate with this. God's touching my heart. I want to guard after this woman. I want to
guard this man.
I want to take ownership of myself and leadership of my own heart to keep myself in the love of God,
knowing that he is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. Can I just ask that you would just raise a hand? Right there at your
watch party, right there in your car, right there in your living room or on that elliptical.
Just grab the bar with your other hand. But raise up a hand just to say, God, I hear you, and I want to
take a step to take back my life. Thank you, Jesus, for the way you're pouring out strength into so
many lives.
You can put your hands down. And I want to give a quick invitation to anybody who's never made the
most important decision, and that is the one to give your heart to Jesus as Lord and Savior. If
watching this message you're like, man, I see so much in my life that I want to change. The first and
most important is to receive new birth.
Outward modification will never change a dead heart, a dead soul. But God can do that because of
what Jesus did hanging on that cross 2,000 years ago. And here now, in this moment, all around the
world as his spirit brings the gospel to people's hearts and lives, he can do that work of changing your
heart today.
If that's you and you would say, I need to be born again. I need to be saved from my sins, saved from
this crooked and perverse generation. I want to become a child of God. I want to go to heaven. I want
to live forever. I want his spirit to live inside of me.
If that's you I'm describing, right now, pray this prayer with me. Say this. Say, "Dear God, I know that
I'm broken. I'm a sinner. I need your help. I need your healing. Please come into my heart and make
me new. I give myself to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen."
Amen. God bless you. God bless every single one of you making that decision. And we would love to
resource and encourage you. So please shoot a text message to 97000, and put the words Fresh Life
in your text message so we can send you a link to resources that are going to help you grow in this
relationship with Jesus.
And would you join us on this 40-day journey to take back your life? In the Bible, the number 40
speaks of testing. I talk a lot about that in the book. And I find it very interesting that 2020 is 40 if you
add it together.
So perhaps in this year of testing and time of testing, like never before, there is a need for us to rise
up and become who we're meant to be. So I hope that not only would you come back for the weeks
of this series, but that you'd grab a copy of this book and we could all, together, see God do brand
new things in our lives. Amen.
The person on this planet most suited to deceit is you. The person on this planet more capable of harming yourself is you. You and I are, in fact, able to be, like no one else, our own worst enemy. The Bible warns that it is essential that we watch ourselves, we keep ourselves. Ahab didn’t learn that lesson, and his life was snatched from him when he wasn’t paying attention!
Preached at Fresh Life Church.