The ROCK | Pastor Dan Stauffer

Want to take a moment before we dive into the Word as well and

want to honor our lead pastors, Pastor Matt and Sarah Keller.

Pastors, we love you so much. Yeah, we're so thankful for the

way that you pastor and the way that you lead us, the way that

you pray, you fast, and you seek God for us.

Thank you for the way that you sacrifice and endure difficult

things for us. We love you and we honor you

today. Come on, Can you share some love

with our pastors as well? For those of us if we have not

had a chance to meet, my name is Dan Stauffer.

I served as one of our pastors on staff here on our executive

leadership team as well as a part of our teaching team.

And just honored to be able to share the Word today.

Excited to be in this series that we're in right now that

will lead us all the way up to Easter.

It's called Jesus the one and only.

He is the one and only. Last week, Pastor Matt opened us

up with this message talking about how Jesus is the Son, He

is the shepherd, and he is the Savior.

And today we're going to be learning and discovering how to

build our lives on Jesus the rock.

Come on, turn to the person next to you and say Jesus is the

rock. Turn to the other person that

you rode with, but you're still ignoring and ask him this

question. Can you smell what that?

Never mind. No, you can't.

I had to. I had to try.

Can you smell the rock? It's cooking.

Hey, Jesus is the rock and he's the rock that we are to build

our lives on. Now, I don't know if you've

built anything lately. If you've had to assemble

something that you ordered, you open up the box and there's all

the parts and all the pieces. And, and I actually used to work

at a Scandinavian furniture store as a general manager for

that wall. Our family, my wife is on the

front row. We planted a church in 2008.

We've been married for almost 31 years.

Everybody come on. Yeah.

And I, I remember, you know, working at the furniture store

and I'd help assemble things and, and learn so much that I

didn't need the directions, the instructions.

I figured out the systems and we would just assemble things

quickly. But recently, just actually a

couple years ago, we decided we were going to remodel our

primary bathroom. And I had this dream, this dream

of these cabinets that were a natural walnut, walnut finish on

the front, the drawer fronts, just beautiful.

And I ordered them from IKEA. And I know what you're thinking.

Dream bathroom IKEA I, I get it, I get it, I get it.

But they're, they're actually the drawer fronts are actually

made in Italy. And I was so excited to get them

and just to save a little bit of money, I decided I'm going to

assemble them myself. I know how to do this.

I did this for years, right? So I assembled the cabinets, but

I, I hired a professional cabinet installation team to

come in, put them along the wall, get them level, get them

all set so that I could have the countertop company come in and

place a countertop. So these guys are in there,

they're getting everything lined up and let to go, and they came

and found me in the garage. I was working on something else

and they asked me a question that kind of stopped me in my

tracks. They asked was your plan for the

drawer fronts to go under the countertop when they close or to

land flush with the top of the counter top.

And I'm like, well, under. And they're like, well, it won't

work. I know.

Hey, right now I'm getting a little bit frustrated and I'm a

little concerned. And so I decided they're from

IKEA. There is an instruction manual,

but I knew all of the parts, but maybe I should open it up.

And when I opened it up, there's there's no words.

If you, if you've ever said there's no words, there's no

written words. There's just a picture of a guy

and I have his picture. He's right here.

Like there's just this guy. I mean, I mean, he seems happy,

right? And I looked at the picture of

him and I and I remember what I looked like and I feel like I'm

way more competent than this guy right here, right?

He doesn't seem frustrated at all until I turn to the next

page and there's another picture of him and it's definitely

revealed me. This is me.

Like that's me. I need some help.

The, the one of the professional, again, quote

professional cabinet installers actually suggested one of their

suggestions was to cut the top inch off of the tror front so

that it would land underneath. And I put a time out.

I said, I don't think that's what we're supposed to do.

Let's dig a little bit deeper into these instructions.

But I, I discovered something that day that I think actually

aligns with God's word in this message for us.

We can build our lives on our own experiences, our own

expertise of what we know, or we can make a decision that we're

going to actually build our lives on the rock, on Jesus

Christ and his word. And I know that's what God's

heart is for us. So our key verse, our key text

is from Matthew chapter 16. This is the the key verse for

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

our series that says when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea

Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, what are people saying

about me? Who do they say that I, the Son

of man AM? So they said, some say John the

Baptist, others are saying that Elijah or, or or Jeremiah or one

of the prophets. And then Jesus said to them, but

who do you say that I am? So Simon Peter answered and

said, you are the Christ, which means the Messiah, which means

the anointed one in his anointing.

You are the one that all of these other guys that the people

are saying that you might be, You're the one that they

actually were speaking about, that prophesied about.

You're the Christ, the Son of the living God, Peter said.

And Jesus answered and said to him, You're blessed, Simon, son

of Jonah, for flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my

Father who's in heaven, and I say to you that you are Peter,

and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades

shall not prevail against it. You see, our Heavenly Father has

a powerful revelation for us that if we would build our lives

on him that we will not be moved by the storms, by the pressures,

or by the trials of life. So for the next few moments

we're going to talk about how to build our lives on the rock.

Would you pray together with me? Heavenly Father, in Jesus name,

we invite you into this moment. God, that you would speak to us

and that you would have your way.

God, may we have spiritual eyes to see today, spiritual ears to

hear. God, may our hearts be open to

what you have for us and they everyone of us, whether we're in

this room or at any of our locations or online.

God, may we be open up and changed for eternity because of

you. In Jesus name, we pray.

If you agree with that, would you say Amen?

Amen. See Jesus, he is the rock that

we are to build our lives on. I want to go back to that that

statement that he made when he looked at Simon Peter, Simon,

son of Jonah, he said flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to

you, but my father who is in heaven.

And then he looks at him right? And he says, but you are Peter.

Now when I, when I went and looked that up, I actually

discovered that when Jesus looked at him and said, you are

Peter, he changed his name because his name was Simon, some

son of Jonah, right? He said, but you are Peter now

in the original language, when he was when this was translated,

it was the actual word Petros. It's a Greek word and it means a

piece of the rock that you are Petros.

You're a piece of the rock. You're a part of me, so you are

a piece of the rock. And on this rock I will build my

church. So the next rock, so you are

Petros. But on this rock, when I look

that up, it's actually the Greek word Petra, and it actually

means a massive living rock. So really what this what when

Jesus looked at him, it wasn't saying that on Peter the church

would be built, but he was saying you are a piece of the

rock. You have a part of me, but in

parentheses in the original language if we were to do a

literal translation. And I also say to you that you

are Peter Petros. But on this one rock, this one

Petra, this massive living rock, the revelation that you just

shared that I'm the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living

God. I will build my church on that

revelation and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against

it. So Jesus wasn't saying that

Peter was the rock that the church was to be built on, but

that the church is to be built on the rock of Revelation.

That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

That Jesus is the Savior of the world, That God so loved the

world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever would

believe in him would not perish, but would have everlasting life.

He is Jesus is the rock. Let me let me show you that

Jesus is the rock in another verse.

It's First Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 and four.

1 Corinthians 10:3

So the apostle Paul here is writing to the church in Corinth

and he's explaining to them kind of helping them to see when the

children of Israel came out of Egypt, as they were going

through, God was providing for them.

Look what he says. They all ate the same spiritual

food and drank the same spiritual drink for they drank

from the spiritual rock that accompanied them.

And say this with me, that rock was that rock was Jesus is the

rock. He's the rock that we are to

build our lives on. And Hades or hell, the enemy and

his darkness have no power over us.

When we build our lives on Jesus the rock.

That doesn't mean that storms won't come.

It just means when the storms do come, you are so founded and

established on the rock of who Jesus is, the revelation that he

is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that though there's

wind, though there's rain, though there's trouble, you

shall not be moved in Jesus name.

So this this begs the question then how do, how do we build our

lives on the rock? How do we do that?

Well, I want to take a look at another passage of Scripture.

This is in Luke chapter 6 and Jesus is engaging with another

Luke 6 · chapter mention

group of people, very similar interaction where he's talking

to them about how people are, what they're calling him, what

how people are saying who he is. And so in Luke chapter 6 verse

Luke 6:46

46, it says this. He says, why don't you call me

Lord, Lord? Why don't you call me Lord and

do not do what I say. To call Jesus Lord means that

you are over my life. You are the Lord of my life,

which means whatever your directive is, I am to follow

that directive. I am to obey.

He says you're calling me Lord, Lord, but you're not doing what

I say. As for everyone who comes to me,

hears my words and puts them into practice, I'm going to show

you what that person is like. So he says three things there

comes to me, here's my words, puts them into practice.

And when we do that, something happens in our lives.

Look what he says. They are like the ones that do

that. They are like a man building a

house who dug down deep, laid the foundation on the rock, and

when a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not

shake it because it was well built.

I don't know about you, but when people look at my life as a

follower of Jesus, I want them to describe my spiritual life as

one that is well built on the rock.

Jesus Christ that have built my life.

I've built my family's life. I've built all that we pursue

what we do, how we think, how, what our lives that it would

just say, well built, well done. Thou good and faithful servant.

You have followed after Jesus. You've built your life on the

rock. So for the next few moments, I

want to share 3 directives from Jesus of how to build our lives

on the rock. So, and I'd love for you to take

notes. There's no cards in the seat in

front of you. Whatever location that you're

at, you could take notes with us.

But the first directive is this is that number one, to build our

lives on Jesus the rock #1 come to Jesus.

Now I know that that seems simple, but to truly build our

lives on Jesus, it's not about just coming to church and we're

grateful you're here. We're grateful you're at one of

our locations. If you're online right now,

we're so grateful you are. But it's more our, our lives

will still be shaken just because we come to church, just

because we go through a, a religious motion or action.

Maybe you're, you're listening to messages, maybe you're even

reading your Bible, but you're, you're not truly building your

life on Jesus, the rock. You've not truly come to him

first. You're just doing activity,

spiritual activity. Then your life is not actually

on the foundation of the rock of Jesus.

We have to come to Jesus like Peter did, to have a revelation

from God the Father that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the

living God, that every one of us wherever, wherever you are right

now, that if Jesus was to ask you, who do you say that I am?

What would you, what would your answer be?

Would your answer be? I'm not sure.

Let me go. Let me find out what people are

saying about you. Would your, would your answer be

that? Well, I, I, I, I think you're,

you're God, I, I, but I'm not sure.

Who do you say that Jesus is? Is he just a good teacher?

Is he just a historical figure? Your determination of who Jesus

is determines whether or not you can come to him.

Coming to him as Savior, as like Peter did.

You are the Christ, you are the Messiah, you are the Son of the

living God. You are the Savior of the world.

Coming to Jesus means that I recognize that I am sin

separates me from you and I no longer want to be separated.

Coming to Jesus means that I recognize that all have sinned

and come short of the glory of God.

It says in Romans. It also says that the wages of

the payment for our sin, the wages of sin is death, which is

he's talking about a spiritual death.

Spiritual death is separation from God.

Our sin separates us from God. So to come to Jesus means I'm

recognizing that I'm a Sinner. I have sinned and my sin

separates me from God, but I no longer want to be separated

because of what Jesus did for me on the cross.

Because Jesus didn't just carry our sin on the cross, He was

made our sin on the cross. In a moment, He became our sin.

Everything that you and I have ever done, every human being

that's ever lived on this planet or will come after us, have

sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Jesus became our sin on the cross, and when He became our

sin, the payment for sin is separation from God.

That's why on the cross, when he was nailed on the cross, he

said, my God, my God, he said, Eloi, Eloi llama Shabaksan, I,

my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

It's the very reason that when Jesus was in the Garden of

Gethsemane, the night in which He was betrayed, before He went

on trial, before He was tortured, before He was

crucified, He was praying and sweating drops of blood, not so

much out of the fear and the expectation of the physical

torment, but He knew what would happen even when He became our

sin. He would be separated from His

loving Heavenly Father. And can I tell you today, church

family, He did that for you and He did it for me.

He was made our sin. He became our sin. 2nd

Corinthians 517 says He who knew no sin became our sin so that

you and I could be made His righteousness.

It was a substitutionary act on the cross.

And when we build our lives on the rock Jesus, it means that

I'm taking a step toward him. I'm coming to Jesus as the

Savior of the world, the Son of the living God whose life was

sacrificed for my sin. And if you have never prayed a

prayer or said yes to a relationship with Jesus, I want

you to know the Bible says that today is the day of salvation

and Jesus is waiting for you to come to Him so that He can save

you from your sin, wash you clean, make you new, and you

will never be the same again. Come on, those of you that have

experienced that you know. But if you have surrendered your

life to Jesus, Jesus still wants you to come to him.

Not necessarily just as Savior, but He wants us to come to Him

as Lord, Savior and Lord. You see, you can have Jesus as

the Savior, Sir. You've received him as as the

Savior, washed you clean of all of your sin, but he wants to be

the Lord of your life. That's why Jesus, when he's

talking to them, he said, you're saying Lord, Lord, but you don't

do what I say. You're not following after me.

Is it possible for those of us that have surrendered our lives

to Jesus Christ that there are areas of our life right now that

Jesus is still not the Lord of our life?

And I think as a follower of Jesus, our church exists.

We exist to lead people to become fully engaged followers

of Jesus. When we say fully engaged, we're

talking that Jesus is the Lord of every area of your life.

Jesus, you're Lord of my time. You're Lord of my talents and my

gifts. You're Lord of my eyes of what I

watch. You're Lord of my ears of what I

hear. You're Lord of my finances, of

what I do with money. God, you're the Lord of how how

my attitudes, of my heart. You're the Lord of the words

that come out of my mouth. You're the Lord of the way that

I drive. Dear Lord, help now that's the

one for me. God help me be the Lord of the

way I drive. Please help me Jesus name.

But we have to come to Jesus if He's going to be the rock of our

life. Number one, you got to come to

Jesus #2 write this down, a second directive from Jesus the

rock as you have to hear His words.

We have to hear His words and not just physically hear His

words. We have to get His word in our

heart, deep down in our heart. I love how David, King David, he

would write these Psalms and we have a whole book of Psalms in

Psalm 119. He's going on and on about God's

Word. He uses different phrases.

If one talks about God's law, talks about God's commandments,

God talks about God's precepts, talks about God's statutes,

talks about God's Word, and he continues to talk about how

powerful your word is. Every single verse in that

chapter, and it's one of the longer chapters, he talks about

the word and the statutes and the precepts and the principles

and and that I'm to build my life on.

And then in verse 105 of Psalm 1/19, he says your word, God is

a lamp to my feet and it is a light to my path.

God, your word is a lamp to my feet and it is a light to my

path. Now David is not saying God, I'm

walking my own path. I'm going the direction that I

want to go and that your word helps to give it light so I can

see that's not what he's saying. He's saying God, your word

lights up where my feet are right now and makes it clear the

direction that you want my feet to go.

And because your word is so true, your word is so pure, your

word is so holy. Your word is gives me strength.

Your word is wisdom and understanding.

It's counseling might, it's knowledge and the fear of the.

That's what your word is, God. So I'm asking for your word to

light my feet and light my path, and I'll step wherever the light

directs me to step. That's what His word will do.

We have to hear His words, and again, not, not just physically,

we have to hear His words speaking to our own heart,

bringing correction wherever He wants to correct, bringing

direction however He wants to guide us.

We're making the decision God, your word is what I want to

light my life and as a follower of Jesus, when we allow God's

word to to truly just penetrate our heart, it becomes the rock

of our life. That's why one of the things

that we do here is is we we provide a soap guide so that as

a church, we're able to read a chapter together as a church

family, every one of us reading the same chapter.

Right now we're in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament.

If you have never read your Bible, this is a great time to

read it. This story is crazy, what God

does with Jonah. But we, we read a chapter a day

and we listed out exactly where it's out.

We've got QR codes on here so you can scan it and it'll take

you to the Bible project and give you a little bit more

understanding of actually the book itself and the author so

that you can grow even more in it.

But we find that one verse within that chapter and we write

that verse out. We, it's soap because it stands

for Scripture. So I'm writing the verse out,

the one verse that stands out to me.

The O is, is what I'm observing in the story in that one verse,

the A is application. I'm I'm literally in my journal.

I'm writing out how am I going to apply this verse to my life

today? And then P stands for prayer.

These are online. You can go to

nextlevelchurch.com. You can find it in the next

steps section on the website, a digital soap guide as well.

But you have we have to hear his word.

If our lives are going to be built on the rock Jesus, then we

need to know what Jesus is saying about our lives.

And so this is a powerful thing. He, David, goes on.

He also said this in verse 11. That same chapter, Psalm 1/19.

He said, I've hidden your word in my heart.

And because I've hid your word in my heart, I might not sin

against you, God, because Your word is in my heart when I'm

tempted, when there's opportunities to get off course,

when there's tempted, A temptation to look a different

direction than where Your light is guiding me.

Your Word's so hidden in my heart, it will help protect me

from the temptations of life and the sin that would be at the

door trying to stop me and prevent me from doing what

You've called me to do. So if we're going to build our

lives on the rock of Jesus, we have to come to Him, surrender

our lives to Him as our Savior and our Lord.

We have to hear His word. Let His word become the

foundation for our lives. And then #3 #3 you got to do

what He says. It's one thing to come to Jesus

and recognize that my sin separates me from God and I no

longer want to be separated. Some of us, you know, it's, it's

been described as fire insurance, that if hell is real,

you don't want to. And hell is a lake of fire.

It's a it is a literal place that we see in Scripture and,

and if that's real, I don't want to go there.

So I'm, I'm going to make Jesus my savior just in case that hell

thing is real. I don't want to go there, right?

Fire insurance. It's like, I don't want to go

there. And that's where we stop.

But we have to build our lives on the rock.

He's the Savior of my life, but he's also the Lord of my life.

I'm coming to Jesus. I'm hearing this word, not just

physically, but I'm allowing his word to get deep in my heart.

And the way that we do that is, is through, you know, observing

what's in it, of figuring out, praying out how to apply it to

our lives. And then #3 was we do what it

says. So Jesus here back in Luke

Luke 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, he's having this conversation with these guys and

saying, you're saying Lord, Lord, but you're, you're not

doing what I say. Verse 49, he says, but the one

who hears my words, because he told the story, right?

He talked about the, the guy who built his house, dug deep, laid

the foundation, and that house was well built.

It was able to deal and and endure outlast the storms of

life. But he says, but the one who

hears my words but does not put them into practice is like a man

who built his house on the ground.

Matthew, when he was recording this, wrote it out that Jesus

said sand, build his house on the sand.

I actually think that Jesus was standing in a place where he was

actually able to point to two different houses.

Just the way that it's written, the way that he talked about it,

it's as if he's pointing to a house, this house right here.

When they built this house, they took a little bit more time.

They got down to the rock, dug through the ground, got to the

rock, laid the foundation. We have to do that here in Fort

Myers because everything is sand everywhere we go.

So if we just build our houses just on the ground, this looks

like a good piece of ground. This looks good.

That house looks good there. Or why don't we just put our

house here? We do you know what they did to

make sure that that house stood the test of time and storms of

life? They dug deep.

So Jesus saying you can, you can build a house, but if you're

just putting it on the ground without a foundation, the moment

the torrent, because look how he says the moment the torrent

struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete

again. See, can you picture Jesus

pointing at one house that was well built, pointing out another

house that's destroyed and just laying on the side on the beach

or on the ground. He's saying this house they dug

deep, this house, they just, they didn't do that.

And here's what he says. He says they, they heard it, but

not doing it. Whoever, I'm sorry I got lost

here in my notes. The moment the torrent struck

that house it collapsed and it's destruction was complete.

And then James writes it this way.

James chapter one verse 22. James is the half brother of

Jesus and he says this. Do not merely listen to the

word. When we just hear it in our

physical ear and we don't do what it says, we actually our

self deceived. We deceive ourselves.

No one's deceiving us. We're deceiving ourselves.

I'm hearing God's word, but I'm not acting on it.

I'm, I'm hearing what my pastors are saying, but I'm as they're

sharing God's word, but I'm not acting on it.

I'm, I'm reading the soap and I'm, I'm, I'm finding the one

verse and I'm, I'm writing out how I'm to apply it to my life.

But then I just close my Bible and I close my journal and I go

on with my day and I'm actually not applying it.

Then this is what happens. I'm self deceived.

So then James says this. He says do what it says, do what

it says, Whoever looks intently into the perfect law, God's word

that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they

heard, but doing it. James uses the same phrase next

that Jesus used with Peter. What did he say to Peter?

When Peter said you're the Christ, the Son of the living

God, and build my life on you? He said, blessed are you, Simon,

son of Jonah. James says the same thing that

happens for us when we build our lives on God's word and we're

not forgetting what he says, but we do it.

They will be blessed in what they do.

Can you put that verse back up one more time, that James verse?

They will be blessed. There's a blessing for us when

we build our lives on the rock, when Jesus is our Savior, when

he's our Lord, we come to him. We hear His word, we let it get

deep in our heart. We let it guide our lives.

Whatever your word says, God that I will.

In other words, Jesus, you are the rock that I'm building my

life on. You're the rock.

That day in my garage when the cabinet installers gave me that

suggestion of cutting the top lip of my cabinets off, I could

have done that. I could have done that.

I've I'm an experienced builder, the furniture, I know and I

could have done that. I'm experienced in life.

I've done it this way before. I can figure things out.

We'll we'll make it work. But something said, double click

on that, open up. There's not words in IKEA

instruction books, but there is a phone number.

Thank God there's a phone number.

Thank God they answer. When I called them, they walked

me through. They said, well, where are you

in the instructions? I'm like, well, I'm just, I'm at

the cabinet, the drawer furnace relations.

They said, Sir, there's three different ways that you can

install the the drawer fronts. I'm like three-way to make it

easy. Thank you three ways.

So they said, So what you're wanting to do is you're wanting

to go to this page here and you're going to just shift

everything down just this like all of the holes are there and

that like they were right. If we build our lives on our own

ideas on our own experience, on our own expertise, we will

always find ourselves shortcutting and find things

will not be established. They won't be strong, but when

we build our lives on Jesus the rock, everything is established,

firmly founded so that when the storms of life come, we will not

be moved. I want to pray for us today and

I want to give us an opportunity.

Wherever you are, whether in this room here at our Fort Myers

location or you're at one of our locations, Cape Coral, downtown

or East, or you're online, I want to pray for us.

And I would love just in the sanctity of this moment for you

to just bow your head, close your eyes so that you're not

distracted looking around, just between you and Jesus right now.

If you have never said yes to a personal relationship with

Jesus, I want to lead you in a prayer.

I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to have you stand

up. Are the location pastors at your

location? They're not going to have you

come forward, but simply right where you are in this moment.

If you would say, Pastor Dan, I recognize that I'm a Sinner and

that my sin is separating me from God, but I no longer want

to be separated. And you would say that you want

to receive Jesus's sacrifice for your life so that your sins can

be washed away, removed as far as the east is from the West

that you want to make Jesus your Savior and your Lord today I

want to pray for you. And on the count of three, if

you would say include me in that prayer, I want you to just slip

your hand up. Whatever location you're at, you

slip your hand up. If you're online, you can let

them know in that chat. I'm saying yes to Jesus.

I want to pray that prayer. Include me in that.

On the count of three, wherever you are, I want you to raise

your hand. And all you're saying is pray

for me. I want to receive Jesus as my

Lord and Savior On the count of 3123, slip your hand up.

Slip your hand up. Thank you, yes, today's my day.

Today is the day of salvation. Jesus, be the Lord of my life.

Everybody, wherever room you're in, I would love for you to join

with all of us, those that raised their hand and pray this

prayer together. Would you say it out loud with

me? Would you say, Heavenly Father,

thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending your Son

Jesus to die in the cross for me.

Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you pay the

price for my sin, that you died for me and you rose again for

me. I ask you to come into my heart,

wash me clean of all my sin and make me new today.

Now say this boldly. I commit from this day forward

that I will follow after you all the days of my life.

Thank you for loving me and thank you for saving me in Jesus

name, Amen. Just a moment, our location

pastors are going to come out at all of our locations.

They're going to give you very clear next step.

We've got a Bible that we want to get in your hands.

I really encourage you make sure you do what the location pastors

are directing you to do so you can get that Bible.

We can walk with you on this journey of Jesus becoming not

just your Savior, but your Lord. And for the rest of us right now

that have prayed that prayer before, maybe you've it's been a

long time since you've been in church.

Maybe you've used to follow God and he was the rock of your

life. But at some point you stepped

off the rock, stepped off the foundation of Jesus.

I want to pray for us in this room today that wherever you are

on your spiritual journey, whether you have been faithfully

following Jesus all your life or there's been ups and downs.

Maybe you're in the midst of a struggle right now on a storm

and you're you're struggling to keep your feet surely

established on Jesus the rock. I want to pray for us and I want

to pray that you would make a shift, that each of us would

make a shift even just slightly in our heart to say, Jesus,

you've been my savior and I've allowed you to be Lord of some

of these areas, but I've not allowed you to be Lord of all of

these areas. I think in this moment, right

now, Jesus wants to become Lord of every area of our lives.

Can I pray for us right now? Father, in Jesus name, You know

where each of us are at. You know the areas of our life

where you are not truly Lord God, we ask that you would just

knock on that area of our heart. Would you lead us to that place?

God, I pray that you would guide us to a place of repentance, of

confessing of our sin, of true surrender to You as not just

Savior, but Lord, Lord of our bodies, Lord of our thought

life, Lord of our finances, Lord of our time, Lord of our

talents, God, we call you, Lord of all God, thank you for saving

us. Thank you for the freedom that

we have in you. We surrender our lives to you

afresh. In Jesus name we pray.

If you agree with that prayer, would you say Amen?

Come on, can you celebrate God together with me?