We Are Access – Fully Devoted

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason and Liz Burns in Access Church in Lakeland and Bartow, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Let's get after it in our series called We Are Access.

If you missed week one, it was two Sundays ago.

Here's what I said.

In the book of Acts, the message of Jesus was taking off.

It was spreading like wildfire.

And it spread far away from where it started in Jerusalem.

And some people in the book of Acts said this.

They said, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

I had this thought.

Like, this is a big deal.

Like if the message of Jesus spreads, the culture and the world around it should stand up and take notice of it.

And I just had this thought.

Like, if Axis is going to be the kind of church that actually matters, like if we're going to be the church that actually makes a difference, this should be the kind of stuff that's said about us.

That when you go to your jobs and when you go to your friends, they should know there's something different about you.

And we said this on week one, if the message of Jesus is for everybody, the church should be for everybody.

This is a big deal to me.

For 19 years this week, we have made this decision that we're going to live in this beautiful tension.

The tension is, is church just for Christians?

No, but we should grow Christians.

Like if you're a follower of Jesus, every single week I want you to encounter God, grow in your faith.

I want you to learn something new.

I want your faith to be stretched.

But also I know that every week dozens of people make the decision to follow Jesus at our church.

And we will never grow tired of joining Jesus on the mission to seek and save the lost.

That's a big deal to us.

Today, I want to talk you through another aspect of what it means to be a part of our church.

And now that I've preached this one one time, I know this is one of those like step up on your toes kind of messages.

So I need you to put your big boy pants on, I need you to get ready because we're gonna go after it, okay?

Um, about a million years ago, I remember my first day of going to college.

If you've gone to college, if even if this is your first year, do me a favor, try to remember back to your very first day.

First day I was nervous, the school was a lot larger than the school that I went to for high school, and I was nervous to meet people, and my first day I was standing in line and I met a guy, his name was Mike, and Mike was a few years older than me.

He was not a traditional 18-year-old freshman, but he was already married and had a son, and we just became good friends.

Both of us had dads who were pastors.

We we both loved sports, and we just hung out.

Any chance we could get, we would hang out.

Well, Mike and I, we had one class together, and it was our speech class.

And um, speech class was awesome for me.

I like talking in front of people, but a lot of people just get really nervous about it.

And I'll never forget, I'm in speech class with my friend Mike.

Five or six weeks of classes go by.

Mike and I are hanging out, throwing a football any chance we get.

And it's it's the day of Mike's first speech in front of the class.

Everybody's nervous.

I'm like, Mike, you ready for this?

He goes, I'm ready for this.

And we get to talking, he's got his notes, as the teacher's going through the opening things, he's like going over his notes, and he's just getting ready, and you can tell he's nervous.

And the teacher says, All right, our first speech today is gonna be from Jay Graham.

And my friend Mike stands up and walks past me in the row, and I looked at him, I said, sit down, Mike.

He goes, My name's not Mike, my name is Jay.

And he goes and gives his speech, and the whole time he's talking, my face was like this.

And he came back and sat with me.

I said, I thought your name was Mike.

He goes, I know.

I said, Why have you let me call you the wrong name for six weeks?

And he said, I just like having someone to talk to.

Super awkward.

Did you know this?

This is interesting.

You can know somebody and not know them.

Do you know this?

Like you can you can know about someone without knowing them, you can know lots of facts, interesting details about them without knowing them.

And we live in a culture that's obsessed with like celebrities and athletes and musicians, and we know a lot about them, but we don't know them.

A few years ago, my boys and I went to Oxnard, California for the Dallas Cowboys training camp.

We had this amazing thing happen where we got to meet so many of the players, and we got so many autographs, and it was unbelievable.

And I would talk to the guys about themselves.

I'm talking to the players about them.

You went to this college, you had amazing stats last year.

I was talking to them about them, and I knew about them, but I didn't know them.

This is important for you to hear.

I think America is full of Christians who know about Jesus.

But don't really know him.

Like you can read the Bible study, you can go to school and study theology, you can learn all the facts and figures about the life and ministry of Jesus, you can know about him without actually knowing him.

And today I'm not letting you leave without confronting the spirit of people who say, It's just enough for me to know just enough about Jesus to get myself into heaven, but I don't want to change any part of me to actually know him.

What does it mean to know Jesus?

Well, this is important for you to understand.

Only five times in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, does Jesus say things like, I want you to believe in me, only five times.

But twenty times in the Gospels, Jesus says, I want you to follow me.

This is important because there's a big difference between knowing about Jesus and actually following him.

I want you to think about some of the words that churches use, and maybe you grew up in church and you've heard these before.

Churches will say, pray a prayer and accept Jesus into your heart.

I want you to believe in Jesus as if that is the gold ticket to get you into heaven.

Jesus said, It's not enough to pray a prayer and not never change your life.

He says, I want you to actually follow me.

So, what I want to wrestle with today, and I'm gonna get all up in your business, is how do we follow Jesus?

Like, how do we actually do this?

And today I want to give you a word that I believe if we can get a hold of this, this will change everything.

Today I challenge you.

If you're gonna be a part of access, you need to know we are access and we are fully devoted followers of Jesus.

This means he's our priority, he's our number one, and nothing else competes for number two.

He is literally our number one.

How do we follow Jesus?

Well, from the very onset of his ministry, Jesus was going around.

He's gone through all the school, all the teachings, he's learned all the stuff he needs to learn.

And he's about 30 years old, he's launching his public ministry.

And here's the thing he did before he started what he would do is he found some young men and he invited them, not just to know him or to know about him, but to follow him.

The book of Matthew records it like this Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

It says, as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers.

Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen.

I've always thought this was like the school of redundancy school.

They were fishing because they were fishermen.

And I want you to see what Jesus says.

Three words.

He says, Come, follow me.

And here's what I'm gonna do.

I will send you out to fish for people.

Jesus says, I want you to follow me, and I'll take that thing that you do, and I'll flip it upside down, and I'll give you an eternal redemptive perspective on what I'm calling you to do.

Now I want you to play along with me, okay?

Imagine tomorrow you go to your work, you go to your job, you are there working, and all of a sudden some religious figure shows up.

It could be a pastor, it could be a preacher, it could be an Instagram influencer, but someone religious comes up to you and they say, Um, hey, I want you to leave your job of bookkeeping and follow me.

What would you do?

I would follow them to the front door, push them out and lock the door and go back to my job.

That's what I would do, right?

And Jesus shows up to some boys who are out fishing for their job, and he says, Come follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.

And look what they did.

At once, they left their nets and followed him.

Why?

Because there was something about Jesus that was so alluring.

They didn't just want to know about him, they wanted to be like him.

This next verse literally goes on.

It says, Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee and his brother John.

By the way, if you have a boy, if you're pregnant with a boy, that's a boy's name.

Consider that, Zebedee.

It says, they were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, preparing their nets.

And I want you to see this.

Now try to get this in your mind.

You've got the first story, you've got two guys out fishing, and Jesus calls them.

In the second story, there's two boys and they're literally with their dad in the boat.

Like it's one thing to leave your job.

It's another thing to leave your dad.

And they're preparing their nets.

And Jesus called them.

I want you to think about this moment.

They're literally fishing with pops.

They're doing the family business.

And Jesus called them and it says, and immediately they left their boat and their father and they followed him.

Just imagine this moment.

They're like, Dad, kiss mom for us.

Hopefully we'll see you around the holidays, but we're with Jesus now.

And they literally leave to follow him.

It's like following Jesus has a cost to it.

You're gonna have to push back from the world and separate yourself from things that maybe felt common to you if you're gonna take hold of the life of actually following him.

Somewhere along the way, think many people, and I hope this isn't true for you, but many people have not, they've never attained what it means to follow Jesus.

If they've settled for a counterfeit, and instead of being a follower, I believe that many people settle for being a fan.

What is a fan?

A fan is an enthusiastic admirer.

Okay, if you know me, you know I'm a fan of the Dallas Cowboys.

I love the Dallas Cowboys, which means I love suffering.

That's what I mean, everybody.

And um, every time the Dallas Cowboys come anywhere near here, my family goes to the game.

So a couple seasons ago, they played the Bucks.

We decked out in silver and blue, we sat among this sea of ugly red Buccaneers fans, and I mean ugly uniforms and probably ugly people, whatever, and we're there.

And I need you to know this about me.

I need you to know this about me.

Um, my wife and I, God built us different.

Okay, my wife lives at 100 all the time.

Like she wakes up, feet hit the floor, 100 all the time.

But when we are at sporting events, something in us flips and she gets quiet, and I lose my ever-loving mind, okay?

And I need you to hear this because this is important.

When I go to the games, I yell at fans, I yell at the referees a lot, and then I sometimes yell my opinion to what the team should do.

Do you know what's never happened?

They've never run the play I yelled.

They've never listened to me, they've never consulted me.

Jerry Jones, the team owner, has never once called me for my opinion on who he should hire as head coach.

No one listens to me because I'm just a fan.

I admire them, but I have no voice in what they they do.

Here's the way you can know you're a fan.

This is important.

Here's the question.

A fan asks, what's in it for me?

What am I gonna get out of it?

And I think this is where a lot of American Christians are.

They want to follow Jesus for what's in it for them.

They want the blessings of God, they want the miracles, they want the healing, they want all the benefits of following Jesus without also carrying the cost of actually being a follower of him.

Let me say this though.

I do think that every person who follows Jesus started as a fan.

I do think everyone who follows Jesus started by admiring what he does, being curious about how it might change their life.

And there's nothing wrong with starting there, but there's something tragic about stopping there.

Jesus invites you to actually follow him, to stop asking what's in it for me, and start asking what I can do, Jesus, to follow you, to serve you, to become like you.

I need you to see this.

In the book of John, chapter 6, there's a moment.

John 6 · chapter mention

We actually preached this story just a few weeks ago from a different one of the Gospels where John chapter 6 records the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, which was really over 20,000 people.

John 6 · chapter mention

And I want you to see the beginning and the end of the story, okay?

It says this, John chapter 6, verse 2.

John 6:2

It says, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.

What is this?

Fans.

They want to see what he's going to do.

They wonder what's in it for them.

Maybe he'll heal my bad back.

Maybe he'll pray, and those migraines that have plagued me for years will go away.

Maybe my mom, who has been sick for 20 years, will get close enough to Jesus where he'll heal them.

They ask what's in it for them.

And then Jesus does the miracle.

Feeds the 5,000, which is really 20,000 or more people.

Everybody has enough food until their stomachs are full, and they're like, wow, what an amazing miracle.

And if you skip down 64 verses, here's where it picks up.

It says, From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Why?

Because the show was over.

Because the miracle was done.

They weren't really interested in following, they were in it for what was in it for them.

Jesus said, You don't want to leave me too, do you?

He asked his 12 disciples.

Like, like this is a big deal.

And I think if we're not careful, a lot of us will live there.

A lot of us will live in the I'll serve Jesus as long as I'm getting what I want out of it.

I'll show up to church as long as it's convenient and I like the topic they're teaching on.

I'll follow Jesus as long as it doesn't cost me my opinion or my political standpoint.

Like I'll follow Jesus as long as I'm in control.

But you can't follow someone and be in control at the same time.

You have to make this decision.

And look, this is this is an awkward message, but I want you to hear this.

You can't follow Jesus and be in control.

You can only follow Jesus and obey him.

Let me show you four of the most confounding verses about Jesus and from Jesus.

The book of Luke, Jesus says this.

Jesus says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord?

And do not do what I say.

That's a tough one.

Here's another one, Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Like somewhere along the way, we bought into this convoluted view of Christianity that you can show up on a Sunday, pray one prayer, and live as if nothing has changed in your life.

Like you can show up Sunday, have a moment where you encounter heaven, but you live like hell the rest of your life and nothing has actually changed.

And we think to ourselves, well, I'm in because I prayed a prayer.

If that was the case, I would raise a trillion dollars.

I would get on the radio and TV all over the world and say, Everybody, pray this prayer with me.

It's like a fire sale that'll get you out of hell.

But according to Jesus, that's not what it means to be a devoted follower of Him.

You need to pray and you need to change.

You need to pray and you need to obey.

Let me show you one of the most troubling verses in the Bible.

This is Jesus again.

This is Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Jesus says, If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, what?

Wife and children, huh?

Brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life.

Such a person cannot be my disciple.

What is that?

Like, what does that possibly mean?

It's like if we're gonna love Jesus now, we have to hate our parents.

That's hard for me because I love my parents.

If we're gonna be a follower of Jesus, we have to hate our children.

Well, tough luck, because I love my kids and I love my wife and I love the people in my life.

What is Jesus talking about?

Let me try to show it to you the best way I understand it, okay?

My wife and I have two dogs.

I brought a picture of them.

These are our dogs.

This is Gus and George.

And um, we have two dogs because my wife likes dogs.

Everybody understand this?

Like, my wife loves these dogs like so much.

And I I like dogs, like a normal amount.

My wife extravagantly loves dogs.

Like we will be out in public, and my wife will walk up to complete strangers and just ask, Can I pet that dog?

I have seen my wife lay down on the ground in public.

I'm like, there's people around.

What are you doing?

Like, she loves dogs.

And I'm gonna be honest, there are times when I even get a little jealous of my dogs.

Like, I'll be downstairs, sitting in my living room, working on something.

My wife will come into the house through the garage door, and the dogs will be there waiting for her.

And she she raises her voice to this beautiful high pitched.

There's my kings! Oh, look at my fluffy boys! Like she loves the dogs, and then she'll walk right past me and go, Oh, hey.

Okay.

And here's the thing, I want you to hear this.

I I actually love our dogs, but Liz loves our dogs so much that in comparison to Liz's love for the dogs, my love seems like I hate the dogs.

Are you with me?

Here's what Jesus is saying.

He's not saying don't love other things.

What he is saying is, I want you to love me so much, be so devoted to following me that your love for me makes it look like you don't love anyone else.

Like this is what it means to follow Jesus.

All right, one more, and this one is like all up in your business, ready?

Luke records this.

Then he, Jesus, said to them all, Whoever wants to be my disciple, and disciple is just a student or a follower, whoever wants to be my disciple must.

And I want you to see this before I even tell you what Jesus wants you to do.

He says, whoever, and whoever means anyone, and anyone means everyone.

That following Jesus is not really reserved for just people who were already in the club, already followers.

He invites everyone to follow him.

He says, Whoever wants to be my disciple must, and I want you to see what he says, they must, oh, this is tough, deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me.

And can we be honest?

I don't like that verse very much.

Because it's uncomfortable.

And I wish following Jesus was as easy as like, follow me, and I'll just provide for you, and I'll make sure you have plenty of food to eat, and I'll make sure you sleep good at night, and I'll make sure you're always healthy.

Follow me, and it'll be the best joy writer of your life.

And it doesn't always work like that.

Jesus says, I want you to follow me.

And if you're gonna follow me, you have to deny yourself.

I want you to see this.

When he says deny themselves, he means total surrender.

Whatever I ask of you, you do.

This is what it means to follow Jesus.

It means to totally surrender.

He said they must deny themselves.

Take up their cross daily, which means you're going to die to yourself every single day.

Here's a weird thing.

As a pastor, I get the best moments and the worst moments with people.

I have done roughly 150 to 200 weddings, and I've done a couple dozen funerals over the years.

And I've done some, I did one one time that was one of the most awkward moments of my pastoral career.

Uh, the the person who passed away was lying in a casket at the foot of the stage, like a lot of funerals.

And I did my part and I thought it was really beautiful and honoring.

And then they had three friends come up and share stories.

The first one did a good job, the second one was really emotional and it was beautiful.

Then the third one got up and he tells a story, and it was one of the most awkward moments ever because he tells a story and it's really funny, and the whole room just bust out in laughter, and it was great.

He goes, You think that was great?

I've got one more.

And if he knew I was telling this story, he would kill me.

But what's he gonna do, right?

And I'm standing in the back and I'm like, huh, huh?

Okay.

Anybody watch The Office?

You know when Jim looks at the camera, it kind of felt like my brother was in the back of the room, and I was like, what?

I don't know how to follow that.

But I thought about it, and I was like, it was probably poorly timed, but he's right.

Because what's he gonna do?

Because dead people don't have opinions anymore.

Dead people give up the right to be angry, dead people give up the right to be bitter, dead people are just dead.

And Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.

I want you to see this.

This is very important for you to hear.

Uh, before we started Access, I worked in marketing and design and graphics and stuff.

And I've thought people don't understand what it means to have a brand.

So this will be fun for just a moment.

Like, think about publics, okay?

Publics where shopping is a pleasure.

It's a pleasure.

They never promise it's cheaper.

In fact, it costs a lot more, right?

But like you're gonna have a good time spending more money.

That's what they say.

And I've always thought, like, what if brands had honest slogans, right?

Like, let me show you a couple for fun.

Hot pockets.

Anybody ever have a poor season of your life?

Hot pockets, right?

Here's this will be their honest slogan.

Every bright bite is a different temperature, right?

How about this one?

WebMD, you ever get some symptoms and you put it in WebMD?

This will be the honest slogan, you're gonna die.

Here's another one, Target, minimum of$50.

You will not get out for under$50.

Here's another one.

Nature Valley Crunchy Bars.

Come on, you have these.

This will be the slogan, crumbs everywhere.

Crumbs everywhere.

Alright, ready?

If Jesus had an honest slogan for his ministry, what would it be?

It would be Jesus come and die.

And it's not that exciting.

But this is what it means to actually be a follower of Jesus.

You you make this decision, Jesus, I come to you.

I lay down all of my selfishness, I lay down all of my desires, I lay down all of my sin, and I'll do whatever you want me to do.

And I want you to hear this.

Jesus isn't saying, don't have any other desires.

My wife said recently to me, she goes, My favorite time of the day is at night, right before I go to bed, because right before I Asleep, I think, mmm, just a few hours till I get a cup of coffee.

Like she desires coffee, right?

I desire a great steak.

I there's things we desire, but I want you to see this.

In 1 John chapter 2, John says this he says, the world and its desires pass away.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

But whoever does the will of God lives forever.

This word in Greek for desires is this fun word, it's the word epithumia, which literally means hyperdesire.

And here's what Jesus is saying, and I want you to get this.

He's not saying I don't want you to desire other things.

I just want to make sure you put all of those things in their proper place.

Nothing wrong with loving a cup of coffee, nothing wrong with enjoying a good meal, nothing wrong with enjoying sitting at the beach and hearing the sound of the waves crashing around you.

Enjoy all those things, but none of those things come before me.

This is what it means to follow Jesus.

I'm gonna get all up in your business and ask you three questions and then we're gonna go home.

We're gonna be people who are fully devoted followers of Jesus.

We need to wrestle with these questions.

Question number one: why are we here?

Like honestly, why are you at church today?

There's 168 hours in a week, and you give one of your hours to church, why would you do that?

Well, here's the thing.

I think it's possible for us to have a wrong picture of why we come to church.

One of the ways you'll know if you're coming for selfish reasons is when you get in the car after church, you think to yourself or you say out loud, what'd you guys think about church today?

Was it funny?

Yeah, fun.

Did you have a good time?

I don't know.

I didn't really like that second song we sang.

It was kind of weird.

I didn't really like it.

We're not singing about you or to you.

What about that sermon?

Ah, it really wasn't for me.

I didn't really agree.

I didn't like the topic.

He's usually funnier, distractingly handsome, but he's usually funnier, you know.

Like when you start asking questions like that, here's what it reveals it reveals that you're in it for you.

It's about you, it's about what you can get out of it.

And I want you to hear this fully devoted followers of Jesus don't ask what I get, they ask what can I give?

How can I serve?

What can I bring?

Second question.

Are we all in?

This is a big deal.

Uh statistically, it's like something like 64% of Americans today would call themselves some sort of Christian.

But if we could somehow really dig into that number and extrapolate the people who are actually following Jesus, I think the percentage would be mind-bogglingly low.

Are we actually willing to do what Jesus said?

Are we actually willing to be a follower of Jesus?

Let me give you one example, and this frustrates me so much as a pastor.

We live in a culture that wakes up on Sundays and says, Church, we went last week.

Church, I could I could just use a soul care kind of day.

Church, there's a 30% chance of rain outside.

I heard one pastor say a 30% chance of rain in America means a 70%, some people won't come to church.

Like, are we all in?

You need to understand church and attending church isn't about me, it's about you.

And if it's not about you, it's about what can you bring to bless somebody else.

Are we all in?

Final question, and this one is the hard one.

Have we made it our own?

Have we?

Heard a story this week, and I got emotional in first service telling it.

Heard a story this week about in the mid-1800s, a massive revival broke out in the country of Wales.

And it was such a big deal.

And one of the things you need to know about revival is revival isn't about what happens in the room with a bunch of Christians, revival is about what happens after the room and how it spreads to the world.

And this revival spreads to the world, and and something happens.

A man that was touched by God in those meetings moved to the northeast part of India, to this area called the Kashi Hills, the Kashi region of India.

And he was so moved by the message of Jesus that he begins to spread it everywhere he goes.

And all of a sudden, all these people from the northeast corner of India begin following Jesus.

Well, in those times in the mid-1800s, there was probably some sort of leadership for the country, but the truth is, for all practical purposes, it was ruled by tribal leaders in different tribes in the country.

There's this story, a story, it's a legendary story of a tribal leader who found out that one of the key leaders in his community had made the decision to listen to this missionary and follow Jesus.

And so he so he did.

Tribal leader didn't want anything to do with this because this is disrespectful.

This this dishonors his leadership and the gods that he wanted people to worship.

So he calls this man, has him arrested, and has him strapped to a tree.

And he has mercenaries stand a few feet away with bows and arrows pulled.

They said to him, Rumor on the street is that you've decided to follow Jesus.

Is that true?

He says, Yes, I have.

She just watched the murder of her own children.

They brought it, brought her next to her husband.

Said, Question one more time.

If you don't renounce your faith, we're putting your precious wife to death.

And he said, The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back.

And they put her to death right in front of him.

One more chance.

He said, I have decided to follow Jesus.

And they gunned him down right there as well.

The story of this spread through India like wildfire.

People began to use this as a way to share their faith.

People began to use this in song.

And in fact, in the mid-1950s, I think it was like 1957 to 1959, this song and these words made it to America.

An American man took the words and they translated it into English and put it to the song that we now call I Have Decided.

Billy Graham heard it, made it popular, spread it all over the world.

And to this day, hundreds of millions of people have heard the song, and lives have been changed because the person was willing to say, I'm not in this for me.

And I don't care what it costs me.

Alright, let me let me get real for a moment.

I told that story in first service.

And how my daughter walked backstage with me.

And she goes, She goes, Would you would you do that to me?

Shaken by the story.

And I said, Sweetie, how dare you sweep?

We don't have to worry about that.

We live in America.

This is what a gift to live here.

And I hate you.

And I whispered a prayer from God, thank you, that that's not a reality before me.

The question is though, if you had to make a decision like that, what would you say?

We live in a culture that is consumed by comfort.

Consumed by getting your way.

I just want to say this.

Following Jesus is the antithesis of the American way.

What would it look like?

If you and I just made this decision to say, I'm done being a cultural Christian.

I'm done being a comfortable Christian.

I have decided to actually truly follow Jesus.

No turning back.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes at all of our church locations right now?

God give us courage.

Courage to actually trust you.

Courage to actually follow you, Jesus.

Courage to push back against our opinions, our political ideologies, or the things that we think and the ideas that we hold to be true above what your word says, God.

God give us the courage to actually follow Jesus.

If we're gonna be an Acts 17 kind of church that says these who have turned the world upside down have come here too, we're gonna have to actually know what it means to actually wholeheartedly follow Jesus, which means to obey everything he says as true.

God, give us the courage and forgive us for the times that we've made following Jesus about us.

God, may we understand what it means to follow Jesus.

No turning back.

No turning back.

With your head still bowed and eyes still closed.

If you're at church today at any of our locations, even if you're joining us at church online and you know that you're not following Jesus, look at me.

I don't know what that means.

That might mean that you just never made a decision to follow Jesus, or you would identify as the comfortable cultural Christian who's just in it for you.

You're just the fan.

But today you're done.

Done with that.

And today's the day.

You're gonna say it was March 15th that I decided to follow Jesus.

If that's you, in either case, would you raise your hand high right now?

Come on, have a moment of courage.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yep, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Wow, thank you, thank you, thank you.

If this is you, I want you to pray this out loud with me and our church family who's sitting all around you.

We're gonna pray it out loud with you because no one prays and no one stands alone in Access Church.

Come on, at all of our locations, everybody pray this with me.

Say, Jesus, today's the day I choose to follow you.

Jesus, today, I give you my life.

Save me, change me, make my heart new.

From this day on, I choose to follow you.

Whatever you say, I'll do.

Thank you for dying for me.

Thank you for giving your life for me, and today I give you my life in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen, amen.

Come on, church, let's celebrate the girl.