We Are Access – Who Needs Church?

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.

Today, we're kicking off a series of messages called We Are Access.

And before we get in, I'd like to take just a moment and let's just pray and invite God.

I also want to take a moment and pray for what's happening on the other side of the world.

Let me say this to you.

I don't know what's going on.

And you don't either.

And you can find news reports on either side of the aisle that have different angles and different opinions.

What I do know is there is unrest and there is war in the world, and I know that it breaks the heart of God.

So we're going to pray together for peace in the Middle East.

We're not praying political, we're not praying sides, or we're praying for peace in our country and peace in our world.

So would you join me in praying?

So, God, we when we don't know what to do, we turn our eyes to you.

I think of David's words in the book of Psalms.

I turn my eyes upward to the hills for where my health comes from.

God, we we don't know and we don't fully understand everything that's going on, but we've understood that it feels like we've started what may become a war.

There's bloodshed, there's death.

God, we don't understand what's happening, but we pray for peace in the Middle East.

We pray for wisdom for our leaders.

God, may this end quickly, may it be resolved quickly, and may there be no unnecessary death.

God, we praise you in advance for what you're gonna do.

God, I thank you that when we don't know what to do, we can turn our eyes to you.

And when the world feels the darkest, thank you that your light shines the brightest.

So, God, in some way, would you get the glory in the season?

We thank you for it, God, in Jesus' name.

Now, God, we invite you to speak to us.

And over these next few minutes, would you challenge us, change us?

God, give us a picture of the way our life could look if we would just fully entrust everything to you.

God, you know I've prepared words, but none of this matters unless you show up and speak to us.

So we trust you and we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's get after it, everybody.

Uh, in the book of Acts, there's this interesting moment.

If you if you've never read the Bible, the New Testament, the first four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are four biographies of Jesus, four accounts of his life.

The book of Acts really is the story of the first church.

It starts with Jesus gathering his disciples and he says, Guys, I love you, but I'm going to leave, but I'm not leaving you alone.

I'm sending the person of the Holy Spirit to be with you.

And then there's going to be an evidence.

When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, their city, Judea and Samaria to the ends, uh, Judea and Samaria, which was their country, and to the ends of the earth, which is the world.

Jesus says, I'm I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit so you can be empowered to live this out.

Then in Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4, we meet the first church.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 4 · chapter mention

In fact, last week I read one of the verses from Acts chapter 4 where it says that these believers, these Christians, this new church that they were forming, were so committed to each other that they prayed together, broke bread together, they met together regularly, and because of their generosity, I love this line, there were no needs among them because they were all sacrificial for each other.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Beautiful story.

And then it's really interesting because all of these new believers, Jesus has come, he's given his life for them, and they're these new followers of Jesus, they're all kind of huddled up in Jerusalem.

They're all just kind of there chilling.

And all of a sudden it says from Acts chapter 4 through Acts chapter 8, all of a sudden a great persecution broke out.

Acts 4 · chapter mention Acts 8 · chapter mention

And sometimes I think Christians today think, oh, we're persecuted, we can't pray in schools.

They were actually persecuted, imprisoned, stoned, beaten to death, all kinds of things.

And a persecution breaks out, and it says that these new believers scatter, and when they scatter, the world is different because of it.

In fact, it is the persecution that leads to the expansion of the church and the spreading of the message of Jesus.

Well, by the towards the end of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 17, there's this interesting moment where Paul and his buddy Silas, they're in a new city, and when they're there preaching, it's like the message of Jesus is so unbelievable.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

It's so countercultural and it's so different that everyone's taking notice, and all of a sudden there started being this like commotion, this noise that's made about these new Christians.

And in Acts chapter 17, here's what's said about them.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

They're talking about Paul and Silas and these new believers, these new followers of Jesus.

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

Like there are some people who are so committed to what they believe, and they're so committed to these teachings of Jesus that it's literally flipped everything we know up on its head.

There are these Christians, there are these believers who are so infilled with the Holy Spirit that everywhere they go, it's like the world gets a little different.

And when I read stories like that, I say, God, may it not just be a story in the Bible, but may it be the story of our church.

May Access be the kind of church that when we go out of here and we go into our jobs and into our neighborhoods and into our communities, that it's like the world notices and there's something just different about the world because the people of Access have been so changed by the power and presence of God.

To get us going today, uh I wanna I want to do something quite intimate for just a moment, okay?

It's weird, and those weird.

I want to take you into my bedroom.

It's kind of weird, okay?

Just chill out for a second, okay.

Chill.

Um, this, my friends, is my pillow.

Anyone have a pillow that you just love?

Anybody have one?

Come on.

And you know, like you travel, when you travel, you go to hotels, and it doesn't matter how nice the hotel is, there is nothing like coming back to your bed in your bathroom, but there's nothing like coming back to your bed because you love your bed.

Anybody else have this experience?

And and and look, my daughter, uh, she has a blanket that she's had since she was like a baby that she just she she loves it.

Everywhere we go, she wants to bring it with her.

I've had this pillow, I'm not kidding when I say uh I just turned 44.

I've probably had this pillow for over 35 years.

This pillow has lived through presidential administrations, it's lived through pandemics, it's lived through all kinds of stuff.

And I'm gonna be stop talking.

If you couldn't hear it, Liz said, burn it.

Okay, um, I'd like to say this publicly.

I've had this pillow longer than my wife.

And um but but I won't have it longer than you.

Okay.

Y'all pray for me.

Okay, um and here's the thing, I I just I need you to see it for just a moment, okay?

I've had this pillow for so long.

This I want you to see this thing, and this feels this feels oh, it feels so weird.

Okay, look, it is what it is.

It is what it is.

All right, welcome to Access, everybody.

Look at this thing.

Now, I want you to notice something.

Uh I I sweat when I sleep.

I don't know if other other dudes do.

I sweat when I sleep.

And I have some pillows that started white and now have like a yellow sweat spot.

I believe this one also started white, but the whole thing has turned a shade of disgusting brown, okay?

And I I love this pillow.

I I I don't know what it is.

I've probably cried into it, I've sweat into it, I've dreamed unbelievable dreams with this pillow.

And here's the weird thing about this pillow.

Um, over time, it got really, really smashed down, it got really flat, and somehow inside of the pillowcase, it turned sideways and got folded over.

Like you could literally make it talk like this.

Just I feel like I'm letting you into my world, okay?

And uh early in marriage, I I slept with this thing every night, and and one day my wife thought she was doing something helpful, and she goes, babe, I washed your pillow.

I'm like, it could disintegrate.

You don't do that, you don't do that.

And then she said something worse, she goes, and I fixed it for you.

I'm like, what do you mean, fixed it?

She literally like tried to unfold it, and I'm like, no, it's meant to be folded, okay?

And and over time, this pillow, which is I I I'm admitting it, this pillow is so old, it's probably got listen, I'm gonna tell you a quick story.

Um my wife names everything, okay?

Like she had a car that was a white car, she named her car Betty White, then she had a minivan, she named it Van Nessa.

Like she names everything.

She named my pillow after a communicable disease, okay?

That's real.

Anyways, um, but but I love it.

And the truth is, like, these days, I just I don't really use it anymore.

I've kind of moved on a little bit from it.

I keep it in my closet.

I refuse to get rid of it.

One time Liz tried to throw it away.

I'm like, girl, I will.

You know what I mean?

Like, like I need this, like I love it.

And this pillow over time, it moved from being like functional and helpful to me to being something that was just comfortable.

I liked it, felt good, had a lot of history with it.

But the truth is, somewhere along the way, this thing lost its effectiveness.

It lost what it was for.

Okay.

I want you to I want to ask you a question, okay?

When you think, oh gosh, when it's not gonna get any worse, I promise, okay.

When you think about the church, not our church, but the church, the church of America.

The picture comes to mind.

I think for a lot of us, the picture we have is that church is comfortable.

Not effective.

It's comfortable, it makes us feel good, but it's not really doing much to change us.

So what we do is we show up and we say, Entertain me, help me learn something new, make me feel good.

Don't step on my toes.

Help me learn something maybe I've never learned before.

But don't push me too hard.

It's kind of it's kind of like this.

It's kind of like the difference between going to the movies versus going to the gym.

Both are good things, they just have different functions.

The the movies are there to entertain you, the gym is there to strengthen you.

The movies are for fun, the gym is for function.

The the movies are for snacks and laughs, the gym is so you can live a long life and play with your grandkids.

They have entirely different functions.

I think if a lot of us were to define the church, I think we'd be more apt to think of the church kind of like a cruise ship when it was really intended to be a battleship.

It's there to like make us happy, make us feel good, to entertain us and engage us, but not to fight the battles in the world.

And here's the thing I need you to know.

Like, I love the church.

Like, like, like I'll go out with pastors, and Liz will have to like stop me from talking to them because not only do I love the church, it's like my only hobby.

Like, I love I love the church.

I want to see the church grow.

I want to see the church reach people, I want to see the church be the most effective.

In my free time, I dream about the church.

I dream of ways to do church that no one else has thought of, and I grew up in it and I love it.

I really love it.

But I just got to admit something for a moment.

I grew up in a church, if I could be real, that was kind of weird.

I I grew up in a church that really like it had its own language, had its own culture.

It was church that was really for insiders, it was church that were for people who were already there.

And if I could just be honest, it was kind of uh kind of a church that I really didn't ever feel comfortable inviting friends to.

Because for them to come, they'd have to speak the language, they have to understand the culture.

If I could summarize it, I might say it like this.

I might say that it was church, but it was church for church people.

Church people.

Some years ago, before we started Access, this really awesome church offered Liz to me a job.

And in terms of first jobs, it would have been one of the best first jobs ever for a young, aspiring pastor.

And we go and the service happened, and I'll be honest with you, it was church for super churchy people.

And Liz and I sat through it and I leaned over, I was like, I don't, I can't even imagine working here.

I could never invite friends to this church.

And then that night they had a gathering because they they wanted us to start a young adult service for their church.

And so all these young adults showed up, and just randomly my college roommate went to church there, and we show up, and it was hard because the morning felt like it was so for church people.

But we get there that night, and there's like a hundred or a hundred and fifty awesome young adults, and I'm like, this would be a killer place to start in ministry.

And and my college roommate Matt was there.

I said, Matt, this is awesome.

He goes, Yeah, it's awesome.

Let me ask you a question, Matt.

Said, how many people have you invited to church in the last year?

And Matt goes, you know, I haven't thought about it.

I none.

And it hit me.

I I could never move there, I could never be a part of that church.

It's a wonderful church, but it was a church for church people.

And here's the thing I need you to hear, church fam.

If we're not careful, we'll create a church culture just for church people.

And I love church people.

If you're a church person, I love you.

I'm so glad that you're here.

But we have to remember something that's really important.

It's if the message of Jesus is for everybody, the church should be for everybody.

Okay, let me say it one more time.

If the message of Jesus is for everybody, the church should be for everybody.

Okay, if it's real that God sent his one and only son into the world, that Jesus came and laid his life down sacrificially for your sins and for mine and for the sins of the world, if that's true, then the church should be about everybody.

Everybody.

I have this um, I have this verse framed in my office.

Here's what's happening.

I told you earlier that the the church spread because of the persecution, and then there was this problem in the church in the book of Acts.

The problem was there were these Jewish people who felt like God's chosen people, and then there were Gentiles, which was just a fancy word for saying non-Jewish people who wanted in on the following of Jesus thing.

And so there was this religious council that got together in Jerusalem, and they're all fighting over.

They're like, what should they have to do?

What should they have to do?

What sort of ceremony should they have to go through?

What religious activity should they do for us to allow them to be in on our faith?

And James, who was the half-brother of Jesus, one of the early leaders in the church, here's what James said, and I love this.

Acts chapter 15, he says, It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Like, in my opinion, this should be the statement of almost every church.

Like, there are people who are far from God, and the church should never make it hard for people to come to faith and to follow Jesus.

So here's the thing, and like I'm gonna I'm gonna give you two thoughts kind of separated.

I'm gonna start with this first half of the message.

I want you to hear this the church does not exist solely for the sake of the people who are inside, but for those who are not yet inside.

And some people are like, Amen, preach it.

Some people love this, some people love being a part of a church that's consistently growing and consistently reaching people.

Some people pull into a church where the parking lot is full and they say, Thank you, Jesus, for a church where it's hard to find a parking spot because people want to come and hear the message of hope, the message of Jesus.

And then there's some cruise ship Christians.

And I know I'm stepping on some toes, but there are some cruise ship Christians who are like that, they treat church like the pillow.

It's comfortable.

I love it.

It's for me, it makes me feel good.

And so, what we do is we create a church that's really nothing more than a Christian country club.

And what it does is it fills your calendar with things to do, it gives you lots of activities, and you get to spend so much time with your Christian friends at the expense of actually living in the world, ministering to people who are far from God.

So, what is the point of the church?

Well, well, to get us there, I want to take you to the book of Matthew.

Here's what's happening: Jesus is traveling with his disciples.

And and there's this interesting detail that if you just read the Bible quickly, you miss it.

Let me show it to you.

Matthew chapter 16, verse 13.

Matthew 16:13

It says, When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, pause.

Like if you were just to read it, you would just skip right past that.

But I need you to understand what's happening.

If you lived in the ancient world, like in the first century around when Jesus lived, and you read that Jesus takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, you'd be like, whoa! No, no, no, no, no.

Jesus wouldn't do that because no good Jewish leader like Jesus would ever take his boys, like his disciples, to Caesarea Philippi.

It was this evil place full of debauchery.

Like their motto was what happens in Caesarea Philippi.

Some of you have been there, stays in Caesarea Philippi, right?

Like, it was this evil, wicked place.

And to give you some context for what happens in Caesarea Philippi, I got to go there a few years ago.

It's this beautiful valley region about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.

And it was it was this um big ritualistic place set up to worship the ancient Greek goat god Pan.

Pan was this half-goat, half-human god that they worshipped.

And there was all kinds of like weird sexual, religious sacrifice and all kinds of disgusting things that happened here.

And there was a place at Caesarea Philippi called the Valley of the Gods.

You can literally go there today where you walk into a valley, and there are these like mountains and cliffs all around.

And what the ancient Greeks would do is they would literally take stone and carve out of them these idols or these statues to their Greek gods, and they would put them up high on the mountains.

So when you come, you were standing in the presence of the valley of the gods.

Okay, so so no good Jewish boy would be there.

On top of that, there was this place that was like a cave or a crack in the ground where natural gas from the ground would flow through it.

And those ancient Greeks believed that this place was called the gates of Hades or the Gates of Hell.

And the belief was that there where these natural gases came up was the place where demons would enter and exit like from hell or hades to here on earth, okay?

So Jesus takes these boys to like the most disgusting place full of debauchery, evilness, and wickedness.

So Jesus came to the region of Caesarea, Philippi, and everybody would be like, What's he thinking?

And he asked his disciples this question: Who do people say the Son of Man?

He's talking about himself, who do people say that I am?

And the disciples replied, Well, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

And then Jesus hits them with this six-word question that is it is confounding.

In fact, I think you should wrestle this question for yourself down to the ground.

Here's what he says, but what about you?

He asked, Who do you say I am?

Let me ask you a question.

Who do you think Jesus is?

Who is he?

And Simon Peter responds, and he said, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

And then Jesus is gonna say something that to this day sends chills up my spine.

Standing amongst the valley of the gods, on the rock known as the gates of Hades or the gates of hell, Jesus makes this declaration that should be a rally cry for our church.

Jesus says, Then I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Jesus says, Look, I'm building something so special.

It's so alive, it's so beautiful.

I will build my church.

And I want you to understand this.

When we think about church, all of us have a different picture of it.

The word that Jesus uses was not a new word, it was an old word.

The word he uses for church is this word ecclesia.

Ecclesia literally is combined, it's two words combined, ek, which means out of, and keleo, which means to call out.

It's this group of people called out to do something.

This was a word that was used for political movements in Jesus' day.

And Jesus says, no, no, I'm calling together this group of people who are called out from the outskirts into some sort of a new movement.

And over time, the word has kind of morphed.

This word ekklesia means a gathering of believers, and it means a movement.

It means people who are committed to some sort of mission together on purpose going after it.

And I want you to see this.

Jesus predicted a movement, not a monument.

I think a lot of people settle for a monument.

We have this picture of what church should be, so we like want to freeze it in time.

We think churches like where I go to get spiritually fed, it's where I go to get filled up, it's where I go, and everything's about me.

And I love it.

And listen to me, I hope you love it.

I hope you love this church.

We try to work really hard to create environments that you will love.

But I want you to understand this.

Jesus predicted a people, not a place.

Jesus predicted a people, not a place.

This word church throughout time, it started with that word ecclesia, but in like the fourth century, the word that was used to replace the word for church was literally, it meant more like a place we go.

So we would say, I went to church, or I loved my church.

It's like a place that we visit.

And this has never been the intention.

It was never a building, it was never a nonprofit, it was never just a social club or a 501c3.

Jesus predicted a people on mission serving together.

And I want you to see his words again.

Jesus said this He said, I will build my church.

Now I want you to get this.

The church doesn't solely exist for people who are here, and I love that you're here.

We also exist for the world around us.

So may we never forget that there are people who are far from God.

Who every single week will come into the doors of our churches.

May we never forget that every single week there are people who will be far from God who at the end will raise their hand and say, Jesus, I surrender control of my life to you.

May we never forget that.

But also, I want you to see this.

That's half the message.

Here's the other half.

May we never create a church that is comfortable to people but uncomfortable to Jesus.

And for years I taught the first half of that.

May we remember that there's people far from God.

May this church not only exist to help us grow, but also to reach people far from God.

But may we never create a church that's comfortable for people.

Jesus feels like an outsider.

So what does Jesus care about?

Luke chapter 19, Jesus said, for the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Okay, so if we're gonna meet the things and meet the needs that break the heart of God, let's start here.

Jesus cares about the law.

So you and I we better care about the loss of people who are around us.

Here's another thing that Jesus said.

John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

He says, by this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, my followers, my people.

If you love one another.

All right.

Put your big boy pants on for a second.

How are you doing at loving one another?

What does your social media say about the way you love one another?

You ask the world around us, what is your picture of the church right now?

And it's people who are politically aligned to one thing, bickering about another thing.

This was never the message of Jesus.

Sure, you should have a political opinion and sure you should vote for biblical values, but that was never the recipe.

Like what we've settled for is this like religion where we take our Christian values and our national beliefs and we put it into a cocktail shaker and we shake it up and we pour it out and we're like, this is what it means to follow Jesus.

And I think Jesus would say there's no truth to that at all.

At all.

Listen to me.

The church should be known for its love.

The church should be known for the way it reaches out.

The church should be known for the way it serves and blesses and meets the needs around us.

And if you go back to the very first church, here's what you would see.

The primary activity of the church was one anothering.

One another.

That's a weird thing.

Like, what does it mean to one another?

Well, Jesus just said, we just read it.

You will know you're my disciples by the way you love one another.

I want you to see this.

I'm going to show you a list of a bunch of one another's, and I want you to write these down.

For the sake of time, I'm not going to read all the verses, but I put them in your message notes for you.

Because I want you to understand if you're going to be a part of our church, we're not settling for country club Christians.

If you're going to be a part of our church, we're not settling for just show up if it's convenient.

Serve if you feel like it.

Give if it's convenient.

We're not settling for convenient Christianity.

We are access.

And we exist to reach the world around us.

And we exist to one another one another.

Let me show you what this looks like.

Scripture teaches us that if you're gonna be a Christian, you have to number one, forgive one another.

There's a there's a verse that if I had time today, I would read to you, where Jesus said, Don't come to church and pray if there's unforgiveness and bitterness in your own hearts.

So so we're the most forgiving people.

Number two, we accept one another.

Like all different people, all different stories, all different backgrounds.

Doesn't mean we turn a blind eye to sin.

Everyone's welcome.

It means we care for one another.

People will listen to you when they know you care for them.

Your message gains strength and clarity when the recipient knows you care about them more than you care about making a point or being right.

Here's another one.

As believers, we are to encourage one another.

Come on, somebody, the world is full of cynics and critics and haters.

The world exists to tear you down.

Not Christians.

We're build builders, we build each other up.

Here's another one, we submit to one another, which means we put the needs of others above our own.

In a world that's a race to the top of the pile, we get we get in the back of the line and we serve one another.

Here's another one we bear with one another.

What does this mean?

It means like there's just some people that grind and grate on you, don't they?

And it means we show grace to them.

Here's another one, we restore one another.

Let me say this to you.

This means that there is no amount of distance that you can run from God, that God's love can't find you and bring you back into relationship with Him.

And if God's love does that, the church better do that.

Hey, here's another one.

We carry one another's burdens.

Come on, the world's lonely, the world is longing for meaningful relationship.

How do we do this?

We we literally support each other.

Here's another one.

We love one another.

We just read this.

Jesus said, You will know you're my disciples by the way you love.

Okay.

If I were to write this sermon in a sentence, it would be this.

The church was God's idea.

Jesus said, I will build my church.

The fun thing is, he's the one who's doing it.

We get to be a part of what he's doing.

So what does it mean?

It means, first of all, that if Jesus came to seek and save the lost, we need to remember that the church doesn't exist only for us.

Yes, it exists for you.

I hope you love it.

I hope your kids spend their whole from birth all the way through college.

I hope they spend every year in this church.

I hope your families are so much closer to God because of this church.

But one of the ways you'll know you're closer to God is when your focus isn't on you, but when it's on the world around you.

Second thing is this, but may we never settle for a church that just makes us comfortable, but makes Jesus uncomfortable.

A church that makes Jesus comfortable, a kind of church where Jesus Himself seems to show up is the kind of church where we exist to reach people who are far from God.

Jesus said the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost, and by the way that we throw our arms open to the city around us, and we love those around us.

So here's my question.

This is what I call a spacemaker message.

Because if you want a church that's just for you, if you want a church that just exists to fill up your calendar with all kinds of events and things to do that pull you out of living a life around people who are far from God, you're gonna hate this place.

But if you're willing to fight for a parking spot, if you're willing to inconvenience yourself, if you're willing to roll up your sleeves and actually serve each other, if you're willing to live in Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 4 kind of life where it's like we give sacrificially, so there's no needs among us.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 4 · chapter mention

If you're willing to do that kind of life, you're going to love this place.

But like if you find yourself on baptism Sundays going, you're gonna hate this church.

But if you're the kind of church who can get it, if you're the kind of people who realize that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, so if lost people are found and if found people come home and if found people get baptized, we better join heaven and throw a party.

You're gonna love this church.

So look at me.

We are access, and we are the church that I believe Jesus had in mind.

We will do everything we can to reach the world around us, and we will do everything we can to love and change our cities.

If you're with me, I'm gonna ask you to bow your head and close your eyes all across our churches.

Let me pray for us.

God give us courage.

Again, one of those messages that's so much easier to say and it's so hard to live out.

God forgive us for the times that we've made church all about us.

Forgive us for the lies that we bought into that church, just exists to keep us happy and to fill our calendars and to fill our schedules.

Forgive us for that.

May we be the kind of church that Jesus imagined when he said, On this rock, I will build my church.

Jesus, we we want to join you in your pursuit of the world around us.

May we never get too comfortable.

May we never think it's all about us, may we remember it's about you.

Thank you for that, God.

With your head still bowed and eyes still closed at all of our locations.

Maybe you've heard me today talking about people who are far from God, people who feel lost and separated from Him.

And as I've talked about what the church should be, maybe you thought to yourself, that sounds like me.

I don't know if I'm right with God.

I don't know if Jesus has saved my life, but today I'd like to leave knowing that Jesus has saved me and changed me and made me new.

If you would like to start or restart following Jesus, would you just raise your hand right now?

No one's looking.

This moment's for you.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, buddy.

See you right there.

Thank you.

So cool, thank you.

This is awesome.

Thank you, Jesus.

I get choked up in these moments.

May we never get calloused to it.

Listen, at all of our locations, if this is you, it's the most important moment of your life.

It's giving your life to Jesus.

And if this is you, I want you to pray this prayer out loud.

And we're not gonna let you do that alone.

No one stands at access alone.

We're gonna pray all together at all of our locations out loud as you make this decision to follow Jesus.

Come on out loud, all of our churches say, Jesus, I give you my life.

And today I make this choice.

Save me, change me, and make my life new.

Jesus, I believe that you're the Son of God.

I believe you gave your life for me.

Today I make this choice.

I receive your gift of forgiveness and salvation, and from this day forward, I choose to follow you.

Jesus, I love you.

I give you my life for the rest of my life.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, church, let's celebrate those.

Who made that