Summer At Elevation: A Second Surrender| Ps Ben Windle

It is so great to be with you. I'm

grateful today is a cooler day than

yesterday. That's a positive thing right

there. I was surprised flying into

Sydney. I'm like, it's 42 degrees. And I

read in the news it was the hottest city

in the world yesterday. Can you believe

that? The hottest city in the world here

in Sydney. But it is a joy to be with

your church. And u want to say thank you

to your pastor Miles and your your

pastoral team here uh for hosting me.

I've been so looking forward to this. My

first, you know, back on the preaching

deal for the year and I'm like,

Elevation Church Hills, that sounds like

a great way to start off 2026.

Uh, we are going to be talking about

what it means to have a personal Bible

revival. This morning, I want to take a

couple of minutes and just give you a

bit of personal context to my own

journey. As you heard, I was raised in

INC as a child and went on to follow my

parents' footsteps and became a a pastor

and church planter and uh church planted

as a senior pastor for 14 years. And

about four years ago, God gave me a new

assignment to focus on writing books and

creating resources for the church. One

of our very first things we did was

create a video series helping people to

read the Bible for themselves. And a

little while after that, we pulled some

of the the data to see uh how many

people are doing this course. We we were

shocked to see 8 million people had done

that simple video course. And it just

shows there is a real hunger that is

worldwide right now when it comes to the

Bible. And so we're going to lean into

into that today. I have a couple of

books I want to show you today. We're

speaking out of this one. There is a

pink version and a black version. How to

read and study the Bible for yourself.

We firstly printed the black one. And my

wife Cindy said, "We need a pink one."

And I'm glad I listened to her because

the pink one out sells the black one.

Which is always a a good thing as an

author. Uh Bible sales doubled last

year.

an amazing surge in just the interest of

people wanting to return back to the

Bible. And we want to help people learn

how to read the Bible and study the

Bible and apply the Bible in in their

own lives. I recently had a businessman

who had read this book and he he texted

me and said, "It's the first book since

I finished high school that I've made it

the whole way through." I found that

very encouraging. We just had a

Christian school order a thousand of

these for their students. And so I want

to encourage you, sure, grab a copy for

yourself, but really this is a resource.

So if you're a parent, get it for your

kids. We have family packs available. Uh

if you're a grandparent, get it for your

get it for your family. Grab some

friends together. Do it do a study. If

you're a young person, I'll say this,

and we're going to talk more about this.

You can be as passionate as what you

want about Jesus as a young person, but

reading the Bible is the thing that

gives you a solid foundation

in life. It is absolutely

essential. The other book that I have

available is called Good Catastrophe,

the tide turning power of hope. It's a

very personal book to me. It covers some

of the journey I went through with my

brother uh through a cancer journey. If

you know anybody in your life that's

going through loss, grief, cancer, or

hardship, this book speaks about that

very important subject of how is God at

work in the midst of our pain and in the

midst of our challenges. Well, I want to

read today from Psalm 119

Psalms 119:105

verse 105.

And it says this, "Your word

is a lamp to my feet and a light to my

path." We're going to talk a bit more

about this verse as I go on, but let me

introduce this by by saying this to you.

King David, the author of this verse

right here, was a man who when we read

his story in scripture, we know this. He

went through some very dark seasons.

What stands out to me about David is

that he knew where to find light even

when his path turned dark in life. And

my observation is that we have a culture

right now that we don't know where to

turn when life turns dark. So what do we

do? We turn inwards. We end up spending

our day scrolling on our phones. We need

to understand that the Bible is a lamp

and it is a light. And if you need light

within yourself, I'm talking about light

that can shine within your thoughts,

your mental health, your home, we find

it in the Bible, which is why we need,

we desperately need a Bible revival.

We need the Bible more than we have ever

needed the Bible. Trends come and go in

church life. I've been around it my

entire life. Styles change. Color

schemes of auditoriums change. Programs

change. You know what never changes? The

importance of the Bible in the

Christian's life. So we need our lives

to become awoken, aresh to the scripture

because we need to hear from God. How

many believers say, you know what, I

just need to hear from God. We need to

hear from God. Our primary source of

hearing from God should be where our

primary source should be from the

scriptures. This has been a journey for

me and I'll give you a a little story

from my own life that illustrates this.

When I was 18, I moved out of home and

um it scares me. I have a 17-year-old,

15-year-old, 13-year-old son. And here's

what scares me. Do you want to know how

my parents found out that I was moving

out of home? I mean, I think about this

now and I'm like, I must have I don't

know. I must have been crazy. They see a

truck pull up outside the house. I'm 18

years of age. And they say, "What's the

truck here for?" And I'm like, "Oh,

that's because I'm moving out of home

today. My brother and I moved out of

home. We just forgot to tell our parents

that we were moving out of home."

I think my mom is still in shock about

that all these years later. And I I pray

for God's grace that my kids don't don't

do the same to me. I move out of home

and uh we get this apartment together.

It wasn't a great experience. Uh, I got

married at 19 in part because of how bad

the bachelor experience was. Like this

won't do. And I realized very early on

that there were a lot of things that my

my parents but particularly my mom did

for me such as cook dinner every night.

I couldn't cook for myself. Couldn't

cook to save my life. In fact, the first

year I was out of home, I got so sick I

went to the doctors. I was diagnosed

with clinical malnutrition. I was

clinically malnourished. Uh terrible. I

guess you can't survive on two-minute

noodles and cereal for for a year. That

doesn't that doesn't work very well.

And I look back at that and I'm like,

isn't that interesting? Somebody can

bring you a meal and you can consume it,

but there's a difference between that

and and knowing how to cook for

yourself. But I'm using that as a

spiritual metaphor because in our modern

culture, we have more resources

available to us than ever before. More

podcasts, more YouTube videos, more

experts. We are surrounded by what we

could call finished meals. Here's more

content for you. Here's something else

for you to eat. But we are in an era

where we must have the skill set where

we know how to get into the kitchen.

cut up the food, mix the ingredients,

and cook a meal for our selves. What I'm

saying is this. We need to be able to go

to the Bible for ourselves, find answers

for ourselves, hear from God for

ourselves. And we are in a culture that

is spiritually

malnourished.

And I mean, gosh, think about it this

way.

As AI continues to get better, we don't

even know if what we're reading is AI.

And our videos, you're like, is that is

that real? You know, is is is what I'm

watching is that is that AI generated?

If we ever lived in a moment in human

history where we need people to say, "My

faith comes out of a source document

that I read for myself. It's now we need

to have an active Bible relationship.

Unfortunately, the average Bible reader

statistically only reads their Bible for

3.5 minutes a day on average.

But we spend on average over six hours

on social media and entertainment. Think

about that. The average Bible reader,

not the average like non-church doesn't

pick up the Bible. The average Bible

reader reads their Bible on average for

3.5 minutes a day. The same person is

scrolling on social media for six hours

a day. What worldview do we think will

win? What culture do we think will win?

What will influence our mind, our

morals, our future the most? 3.5 minutes

a day compared to 6 hours. The

calculation is this. We are spending

approximately

100 times

the amount of our schedule scrolling on

social media and YouTube than reading

the Bible. I find that alarming. So,

yes, I'm here to stir you a little bit

to say I have a problem with those

numbers because I just don't see how

this can be sustainable and how we can

really truly reach our potential in

Christ without shifting the dial on

these numbers. It ain't that we don't

have time. It's not that we're too busy.

we are distracted

and we need to come back to the

scripture. And so today very

specifically I'm inviting you to submit

your life aresh

to the teachings of scripture. I'm

calling that a second

surrender

because we all must choose what we do

with the Bible. Psalm 119

gives us a twofold picture of what the

word of God does. Remember, your word is

a what? A lamp to my feet and a light

to my path. David is letting us know

that the word of God is a lamp to our

feet. It speaks to our next steps.

It's that which is immediately in front

of us. When you're looking for God,

where do I step next? We need the lamp

in our hand. We need to be reading the

Bible, opening the Bible. The Bible

gives us clarity on what we are facing

right now. So if you have challenges in

your life today, not theoretical things

in the future, but you're like, you know

what, right now I need God to show up in

these areas, the Bible is a lamp to your

feet. But David also says this, it's a

light to my path.

It's the thing that gives us direction

in life when we're looking ahead and

we're trying to figure out, God, where

are you really leading me? God, what are

you really doing in my life? I've found

this to be true myself. The Bible gives

clarity to the direction of what God is

doing overall in my life. It's powerful.

It's a lamp and it is a light. But to

access the lamp and to access the light,

you have to turn it on. And that means

we have to read it.

God wants to speak to you.

God is waiting to speak to you. This

book is an invitation to have a God

encounter. God wants to speak into your

life. But we only get it if we dust off

our Bibles that are sitting underused on

our shelves

and we re-engage to become active,

passionate Bible readers and Bible

studyers,

Bible readers and Bible studyers.

For me, this journey started at the age

of 16 and being raised in the church,

raised in a pastor's home.

I was at a point in my life as a

teenager where I was ready to walk away

from the church. I just had I had so

many doubts about God. I had so many

doubts about myself, about the Christian

faith. my dad who would preach and I had

to sit on the front row and he would

say, "It look it looked like you were so

bored in church today. We did have very

long church services." In my defense,

you're all very fortunate. Trust me.

Three hours was multiple services. It

was long, folks. Anyway, um

before I made that decision

to walk away from the faith that I was

raised in,

I decided that I would at least read

this thing a bit myself.

So, in my bedroom

alone,

I began to simply

open the Bible.

No one else around, no other voices,

just reading scripture. And lo and

behold,

wouldn't you believe it?

It was like the light

that David talks about

it. That light got turned on within my

spiritual imagination

and the word of God began to speak to

me.

I started to read it more and more and

highlight my own my favorite verses and

then start to type them out and I would

print them and stick them on my walls in

my bedroom as a teenager.

After I filled my walls, I started to

even stick them on the ceiling in my

room so that every day I'd wake up and I

would see the word of God. What am I

saying? I began to have a personal Bible

revival. The Bible came alive to me. God

was speaking to me directly. I've been

through a lot of ups and downs since

being a 16-year-old

and at times where I don't have any

other answers on what to do in life.

Times where I've gotten myself into

messes where I'm like, I don't know how

to get out of this. times where I've

been through hardship where I'm like

only God can help me. I have been able

to return to this book and find light.

I've been able to go back into the

kitchen, cook a meal for myself, and

find that God wants to grow me and God

wants to speak to me. What about you?

What is your Bible life like?

For me, I cannot separate my

relationship

with God

from my relationship

with the Bible.

Why? Because I gave my heart to Jesus as

a teenager.

Simultaneously,

as a part of that package deal, I

submitted my life to the teachings of

scripture. So I was raised to see that

as a package deal, an inseparable

combination. I'm now a follower of Jesus

and as a result, my life is submitted to

the teachings of scripture. But we are

in a culture that has somewhat pride

those apart where people can say I'm a

follower of Jesus. Or maybe I even like

the the words of red in the New

Testament in the Gospels, but I don't

really the Bible. I'm not quite so sure

about that. Or we pick and choose our

favorite verses, our favorite phrases.

Well, we can do the first and submit our

lives to Jesus.

But we really need to add to that not

for our salvation but for our spiritual

growth

to say I also need to submit my life to

the teachings of this book because we

all must choose what we do with the

Bible. There are three primary

challenges we have culturally with Bible

reading today. The first is this. We are

biblically illiterate. In fact, we are

the most biblically illiterate culture

in modern history. Research by the

Barner Group found that just 9% of

bornagain Christians have a biblical

world view. This isn't again outside of

the church people. This is born again

believers. Only 9% when they're surveyed

have a biblical worldview. A part of the

reason for that isn't that we don't want

to obey the teachings of scripture. It's

that we don't know the teachings of

scripture because we're not reading

scripture. Right. 9% that same

organization, the Barner Group of which

I partner with, did research here in

Australia. And here's what they found.

Only 3% of Australian teenagers are

considered Bible engaged. And again, for

me, that is an alarming number. When you

just think think beyond church for a

moment. Think of just like society,

culture, right? When we have a

generation that is absorbed in Tik Tok

and Snapchat

and only 3%

are Bible engaged. If we don't have a

Bible revival, like literally a Bible

revival in young people, man, like the

future of the church is in peril. And

the numbers speak that to us. Sometimes

we get so complex about this, right?

like what does it take to reach the next

generation? What's the great event? What

kind of music? What kind of social

media? If you want to reach young

people, this is just a little this is a

freebie for you right now. This is a

footnote in my message. Here's just one

thing you can do. Read the Bible with

young people. Read the Bible. I when I

get into moments, I had one this week

with one of my sons where I don't know

what to do as a parent. It happens all

the time. I'm like, I I think I need a

psychology degree to raise kids these

days. Do you know what I do? I sit with

them and I read the scripture out loud

with them. When I don't know what to say

and my wisdom is like maxed out and I'll

say to my wife, I don't know what to do.

Great. Let's read the book of Proverbs.

Son, let's read this proverb together.

What jumps out to you in here? We need

to bring people back to the Bible as the

lamp and as the light. Number two, we've

become biblically skeptical.

Can we trust it? Are the manuscripts

historically accurate? How was it put

together? Do I even really need what it

says? We've lost confidence in the

Bible. People have lost personal

confidence. Many people feeling like I

maybe I need to be like a Hebrew

scholar, a Greek language expert to be

able to read the Bible.

Here's a very important truth to

understand. The Bible

is everybody's book.

It's not reserved for the theologians.

It's not reserved for the preachers. The

Bible is God's book for everybody.

Right? The Reformation and church

history told us that. And in some ways,

we need to relearn that the Bible is not

reserved for the select few. The Bible

is for everyone. And if you've lost

confidence where you're like, I'm not

sure that I can read it and study it, it

it might not be because you don't have

like enough theological qualifications.

It might be that you haven't been given

the tools,

simple tools, simple frameworks to know

how you can read the Bible confidently

for yourself. Number three,

we have become biblically undisiplined.

So, we have a church culture today that

if you put on like a worship night,

people come out to a worship night. You

can fill a room with a worship night.

put on like a Bible study night.

I mean, you in my church, we'd get it.

Some senior citizens come out to the

Bible study night, and young people are

like, "That sounds boring." And it's

like, "But your life is falling apart,

and you can do all the other things to

your blue in the face, but you're going

to have to put in the hard work of

reading this." And make no mistake,

Bible reading is hard work. Like true

Bible reading is difficult. One of the

reasons it's difficult is not just that

it's intellectually hard to read it.

It's more that when you read the Bible,

it challenges you. It's a spiritual

practice. It is not an academic

practice. It's a spiritual practice like

prayer, like communion, like praise and

worship, Bible reading. So, I read the

Bible, but I'm going to bump into things

in the Bible that I don't understand,

>> and I can just either

give up and walk away, or here's a

thought, I can have a belief system that

I can do hard things and I was created

for hard things. And even if there are

challenges within reading a scripture,

it's a worthwhile hard thing.

>> I mean, we don't walk into a gym and try

to lift it and be like, "Oh, it's it's

heavy. I don't think that's worth my

effort. We're like, I'm pretty sure it

is worth the effort because by doing

this, it's going to build strength

within me. It's the same with reading

the Bible. But we have become biblically

undisiplined.

Our brains

chemically have become programmed for

distraction and entertainment.

So, we've lost an appetite for just like

open the book of Matthew and read it.

We're like, but is it a 3se secondond

video?

I actually have to do long form reading

and concentrate and we have become

programmed for distraction. So, it's

going to take some discipline.

It's going to take some hard work. But

out of all of the things you're

committing to as we start a new year,

commit to the hard work of Bible study

and Bible reading. Let me give you a a

phrase here. It's a theological phrase,

and I'll I want to break this down for

you. It's a it is a very important

concept. The phrase is this verbal

plenary inspiration.

Verbal plenary inspiration. It comes out

of 2 Timothy chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

But here's something very interesting.

Often we are very articulate

at describing our differences

as churches or denominations or streams

of the church. And we know what makes us

different from another church. We know

what makes our stream a different style

or expression than somebody else. But

have you ever asked what do we all have

in common? If you take away our styles

and our emphases and our distinctives,

what unifies us? Well, there's a handful

of things that unify us. And one of the

most important things is this doctrinal

statement right here. That's why if you

go and look at church's statement of

doctrine, belief documents, whether

people are Presbyterian, reformed,

Baptist, evangelical, Pentecostal,

they all believe this. So if this is

something that is widely believed and

has been throughout church history, then

it should be something that we

understand today. Verbal plenary

inspiration or what is it? Well, it

comes out of 2 Timothy chapter 3 and

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

verse 16.

This verse is historically very

important within the church. It says

this, "All scripture

is inspired

by God

and is useful

to teach us what is true

and to make us realize what is wrong

with our lives. It corrects us when we

are wrong and teaches us to do what is

right.

God uses it to prepare and equip his

people to do every good work. The word

verbal means this

every word in the Bible matters.

God inspired the actual words that were

written. Plenery means this that the

whole of the Bible is the inspired word

of God, not just select parts. It's

become a little bit repopularized of

late that if you're a follower of Jesus,

you can just have the New Testament and

you don't really need to worry about the

Old Testament. The God of the Old

Testament is different to the God of the

New Testament. That is not a historical

understanding of how to approach the

scripture. A historical understanding of

the Bible is this. The Old and New both

matter. The whole of the Bible is the

inspired word of God. The word

inspiration,

all scripture is inspired by God. That

word means in spirit. It's telling us

that the author of the Bible. This is

what the church, the capital C church,

has believed for hundreds of years. that

the Bible, the author of the Bible is

not a man or a woman, but that God used

humans to write his words. It is the

inspired word of God.

Let me back up and say that again.

For hundreds of years,

Christians have believed that this is

not just a human document,

but it is the living, active, inspired

word of God. If that's true, then when

we're reading these words,

this is a spiritual God encounter. If

you're bored when you're reading the

Bible, there's a good chance it's

because you approach the scripture

seeing this as just a chore or a dead

document. But when I approach it with

the recognition of

this is the word of God, God used humans

to scribe what he wanted to say. It

changes

everything. It is the inspired inspirit

word of God. Don't you think having

considered that that just maybe

we have lost some of our reverence

for the Bible in today's culture, we

treat it casually,

flippantly.

It's like an accessory. If I get around

to it, I'll read some of it. If I think

that kind of lines up with my ideas,

then maybe I'll do some of that.

The Bible should not be that which bends

around our beliefs

and our worldview.

It shouldn't be that I'll read the Bible

until such time as which I find

something that my lived experience says

I'm not sure if I believe that and then

I'll try to find another verse and I'll

ignore that part of scripture that I'm

not too comfortable about that.

True Bible study

should start with a conviction

that whatever my limited human brain can

think about a particular subject, I tell

myself this all the time. I tell my

brain, you're not that intelligent.

You're not that smart. You're not

divine. You're not all knowing.

So when I encounter the word of God, I

make a preemptive decision that I will

bend

my world view around scripture, not the

other way around. If I approach the

Bible and I read something and I'm like,

"Oh, I'm not sure I agree with that."

I've already made a decision.

When that moment arises, I side with

scripture over my own thoughts.

>> That's called being a Christian.

I will preemptively decide

to allow this book to take its rightful

place. Even when I find moments where

I'm like, I'm not sure that I can even

understand that. I'm not sure that I

agree with that. I'm not sure if that

lines up with my experience in life.

This becomes that which is unshakable,

immovable. It's the foundation to our

Christian faith.

Are you hearing me today?

There's a more candid way of putting it

and it's this.

The Bible is not a book about you.

It's a book about God.

But the paradox is this.

The more you understand about God, the

more you understand you.

So don't be too eager when you read the

Bible to insert yourself as the main

character in everything you read. This

is about me and God speaking about me.

I'm learning about God.

>> But as I learn about God, I start to

understand myself.

Jesus is the main character

of scripture. In John chapter 14, he

John 14 · chapter mention

said these words.

Verse 23,

anyone who loves me will obey my

teaching.

Anyone who does not love me will not

obey my teaching. I mean,

the most challenging parts of scripture

are the clearest, most obvious.

Following Jesus was my first surrender.

Submitting to the Bible

was my second surrender.

We often want the first. I'm a follower

of Jesus,

but not the second.

But Jesus himself debunked that as a

plausible belief system that we can say

we follow him, but we don't submit to

his teachings.

I want to make it crystal clear when I

talk about this phrase second surrender.

I'm not talking about a second

conversion. It's found in salvation in

Christ alone, not your Bible reading

habits. That's not what I'm talking

about here.

But there is a second movement.

There's a secondary decision, but it is

crucial. We receive Christ and then we

submit our lives to the teaching of this

book. We have conversion but we need

submission. Now again I was raised where

those were linked but over time we've

seen a drift between these two to the

point where there's a whole generation

when I preached this. This is a whole

new idea of like oh I didn't know that.

No one's told me that. I thought I could

follow Jesus and the Bible is such a

great book of wise sayings and it's

really helpful to me. It's like hang on

a second. We're talking about something

much deeper here.

We're talking about one of the most

important decisions you can make in your

life. A second surrender, a surrender, a

submission to scripture.

Conversion

without submission

is like starting at the starting line of

a race and the starting gun goes off and

we just run.

We don't know where to run. Sometimes we

follow the crowd. We don't know where to

turn. Like that's conversion without

submission.

Submission

is not just that I've started this race,

but I'm going to run this race according

to the map and the route that is laid

out for me. I'm submitted to the way.

The way of Jesus. It means I submit

myself to the Bible's teachings.

My moral code in life comes from the

Bible.

To have a second surrender means I

follow Jesus as its central character.

It means I live under its authority and

I expect it to transform me. This is a

hard teaching.

I'm telling you as someone who has

attempted to do this for many years,

it's difficult. It's difficult.

And I can also say this, it is life

transforming.

It is lifegiving.

We don't need new opinions.

We need God's timeless truth.

So what's your response when you read

second Timothy? All scripture is

inspired by God.

Not what's your response 30 years ago,

but like literally now in your life. Do

you have an active Bible life? Can you

really say, you know what,

when I wake up in the morning, I am

surrendered to the word of God. Well,

today is a day where we're going to pray

a special prayer together to make that

heart level decision.

One of the people that has inspired me

in my life is a man by the name of

Reverend Billy Graham. It's a great

evangelist in the 20th century. Became

famous for mega crusades. Came to

Australia and

had massive gatherings.

Thousands and thousands of people. You

can see these old photos famously of

Billy Graeme opening this big

leatherbound Bible and preaching the

gospel.

You can see old videos where when he

gave the call to salvation just

thousands

thousands would would come and respond

to Jesus.

But like all great public figures, this

man had a personal journey as well. And

before the great success that he saw in

his ministry, his ministry was

struggling. He considered it a failure.

He wasn't getting the results that he

was hoping for. People weren't

responding.

I'll read in his own words. In August of

1949,

I was so filled with doubts about

everything

that when I stood to preach and made a

statement, I would say to myself,

I wonder if that is the truth. I wonder

if I can really say that sincerely.

My ministry

had gone.

I then took the Bible up into the high

Sierra Nevada mountains in California.

I opened it.

I got on my knees.

I pled, "Father, I cannot accept many

things in this book. I cannot come

intellectually all the way but I accept

it by faith to be the authorative

inspired word of the living God. This

man found himself at a crossroads.

Life wasn't quite working the way that

he hoped. He reached a point where he

recognized, I need to make a decision.

He made a second surrender. In his own

words, he didn't have every question

answered.

And my journey of faith, I feel like I

have even more unanswered questions,

more doubts that I still wrestle with,

more uncertainties than what I did 20

years ago, they don't go away.

But I can relate to what this man said

that in the midst of that, not in the

absence of every question, not at a

point in your life where you're like,

"Oh, everything about the Bible makes

sense now. I get everything now. No. In

the midst of your humanity to say it is

a faith decision to accept this as the

word of God. You're like, "Oh, did you

know everything about the ancient

manuscripts? Did you know everything

about the canonization process of this?

Do you know everything about all the

different modern translations? Just

do your research. Great. But

put it all here.

I'm talking at a spiritual level where

people say in the midst of all of that

ultimately I came to a point where I'm

like this is the word of God in my life.

From that point God blessed his

ministry.

From that point when he opened the Bible

he opened the Bible with conviction and

the Holy Spirit anointed his words. Why

was the fruit of his ministry there? Now

when he would read about the teachings

of Jesus and present the cross and and

present saving grace, why would people

stream? It wasn't because he was just an

eloquent speaker. It was the power of

the word of God when it reaches the

human heart. There is power in the Bible

and it's available to us. We need it

desperately in our homes. We need it in

our marriages. We need it in our mental

health. We can't do it without the power

that comes alive to us through the Holy

Spirit when we read God's word. Would

you stand to your feet this morning?

This second surrender prayer is

something that's very

meaningful to me.

And I've been praying this prayer with

groups and congregations like this all

over the place

to bring people back to this place of

re-elevating the Bible in their lives.

And I'm telling you, this year,

if this prayer becomes truly a heart

conviction for you, your your spiritual

growth and the strengthening of your

foundation will just be at a whole

different level.

This prayer is very simple, but would

you take a moment and with me what I'd

like to do if if if your heart resonates

with mine as we're talking about this, I

want you to pray this out loud with me.

Let let's pray this prayer. Dear God,

and let's pray it together. I'm ready to

make a major life decision, a second

surrender. It's much more than

committing to a good habit.

Of course, I need your help to form a

consistent habit.

>> I now make a three-fold decision. First,

I receive the Bible as the inspired word

of God. Second, I choose to obey it.

Thirdly, I want to be formed by it. I

bring my life under submission to your

word. I don't understand everything

about it. I have doubts. I have

questions. But this moment is an act of

faith. I choose to receive the Bible as

the authority over my life, my future,

my decisions, and my family. As I go

deeper in my Bible study, I pray you

will meet me there. Let something spark

every time I open its pages. Let the

words come alive to me. Shape me into

the person you created me to be in

Jesus' name. Amen. Would you close your

eyes, Lord? We thank you this morning

for your word. And we pray that indeed

we would have a Bible revival, a Bible

revival in our homes, in our families,

in our lives. Let your word come alive

to us in a way like it never has before.

And let our hearts be like fertile soil

ready to receive the seed of your word

right now as every head is bowed, every

eye is closed. If you're in this place,

you might say, "Ben, I've never made a

decision to follow Jesus." Maybe you're

here and you need to rededicate your

heart to him. I want to pray for you.

Ultimately the Bible has a central

message and a central character. Central

message is called the gospel that in our

sin in our brokenness.

God loved us enough to send his son

Jesus to die on a cross to pay the price

for our sin. That saving grace is

available to every one of us at the

point of repentance where we say, "I'm

done living my way. I'm turning to

Jesus." And I want to pray for anybody

in this room today that would say, "Ben,

that's me. I want Jesus to be Lord of my

life." Or, "That's me. I want to

rededicate my life to him and come

home." If you're in either of those two

categories, we're going to pray a prayer

together. But if you're in either either

of those two categories, would you let

me know and just quietly slip up your

hand so I can see who I'm praying with

today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We thank you right now for people in

this room that are saying yes to you.

We thank you for your saving grace.

We thank you for your redeeming power.

We thank you for fresh starts,

second chapters.

We thank you that your grace is able to

reach into every human heart and bring

about complete transformation. And this

morning, we thank you for your goodness.

We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for

the cross. We thank you for salvation.

and we give you all the praise in Jesus'

name.