“Blessed Days” by Pastor Jelani Lewis

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

How you doing, Church?

Good.

Well, happy Labor Day weekend to you.

And uh, do you want to take a moment and welcome all of those joining us online, our gateway gatherings, our prison campuses, and those of you that may be here for the very first time or here for the first time in a long time, Church, can we just put our hands together?

Welcome everybody connecting with us this weekend.

So glad that you're here.

And as Pastor Mark said, my name is Jelani Lewis, and I have the privilege of serving as the campus pastor here at the South Lake Campus.

But before I get into the message today, I do want to encourage you to come back next weekend.

Next weekend, Pastor Daniel is beginning a brand new series entitled This Is Us.

And he's gonna take four weeks to talk about who we are as a church and really where we feel like God is leading us in the future.

And so make sure you come back for that.

Speaking of series, Pastor Mark just mentioned, but best days has been amazing, right?

It's been an incredible series.

In fact, I love just the thesis of it.

Because what we're essentially saying is that, yes, God has done some amazing things in the past, but our best days really are ahead, amen.

We believe that God takes us from glory to glory to glory, amen.

And so what we talked about the first weekend was really this idea of our best days are our faith-filled days.

And then the next weekend we talked about our healed days.

And then last weekend we talked about our best days being our prepared days.

Well, today I am concluding the series, but before I give you my title, I want you to go to the book of Ephesians, chapter one, Ephesians chapter one, and we're gonna look at verse three really to be a foundational scripture for us this weekend.

Ephesians chapter one, verse three.

When you're there, say I'm there.

If you're not there, say pray for me.

Just kidding.

Just kidding.

Ephesians chapter one, verse three.

Scripture says this praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

I want you to notice just quickly that the word bless or blessing is in that verse two times.

And I know that uh sometimes in church culture the word bless is a loaded word, but let me just tell you it's a biblical word, and it simply speaks of this idea of speaking well of or praising or conferring what's beneficial.

So what Paul says is he says that God has conferred or given to us some beneficial things, and he says that these are spiritual blessings.

And so today, the title of my message is Our Best Days Are Our Blessed Days.

Our best days are our blessed days.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

I pray in these next few moments you'd open our eyes to see wonderful things in your word.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

In 2002, in my opinion, one of the greatest spy movies ever uh created hit the box office by the name of the born identity.

Uh, how many of you have seen The Born Identity?

Show of hands here.

Okay, look at all the real Christians in the house today.

Uh how many of you have never seen The Born Identity?

Would you raise your hand up high?

We want to judge you.

A lot of judgment going on.

Okay, how many of you, be honest, how many of you weren't even born when the born identity came out?

Let me let me see.

Okay, I feel old, feel very old right now.

Uh if you have not seen uh The Born Identity, uh, really the storyline is this it's about a man who has an accident and therefore is left with amnesia.

And he's really on this journey trying to discover his true identity.

And in typical Hollywood fashion, while he's on this journey, he is being pursued by assassins, right?

Well, I love the movie, and there's one particular scene that's probably one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie because it gives really a picture of the entire plot.

It's a scene where Jason Bourne, who is the main character, is in a cafe and he's having a conversation with a lady named Marie, and you can tell that he is downcast, he's distraught, he's not having his best days, if you will.

And truthfully, he cannot see better days going forward.

And what he says to Marie actually gives us a glimpse of what his struggle is.

Here's what he says: he says, I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside.

I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs 215 pounds and knows how to handle himself.

I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside.

He must have been in Texas.

And at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.

Now, why would I know that?

How can I know that and not know who I am?

In other words, I've got ability, but because I don't have identity, I'm in trouble.

I've got talent, but I can't tell you my story.

I've got resources, but I can't tell you my real name.

I've got lots of gifts, but I am lost because I don't know who I am.

Have you ever found yourself asking the question, who am I?

Have you ever found yourself wrestling with identity?

Maybe you lost a job and in losing a job you didn't know you lost your sense of success and significance.

Maybe you lost a loved one and you didn't know that in their passing purpose would pass too.

Maybe life has just life, and you are dealing with the ups and downs and twists and turns, and they have left you disoriented.

What do you do when you're wrestling with identity?

Paul in the book of Ephesians is writing to a group of believers that are surrounded by a culture that is in moral, sexual, and gender chaos.

In fact, in Acts chapter 19, we get a glimpse of the people of Ephesus, and you read a story where they are absolutely confused and in crisis.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And so Paul writes this sixth-chapter letter to the people of Ephesus, and he begins this letter with specifically pointing out that you have spiritual blessings.

And he begins to unpack this thought of who they are in Christ or establishing identity.

And here's why.

When we understand who we are in Christ, we are anchored in crisis.

When we understand who we are in Christ, we are anchored in crisis.

And so I want to give you just three of the spiritual blessings that Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

If you're taking notes, write this down.

And as Pastor Daniel says, if you're not taking notes, write it down anyway.

First Corinthians, or excuse me, the first point is this in Christ we are chosen.

In Christ, we are chosen.

This is Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4, just as Paul just continuing.

Ephesians 1:4

He says, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

Do you remember in grade school, in PE, maybe uh your PE teacher would designate uh two people in your class to be team captains, like if you were playing sports, an activity or something like that, and they would designate two people to be team captains.

The last thing you ever wanted was to be the last person picked.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, like, because here's what you knew.

If you were the last person picked, you weren't really picked.

You were simply placed, right?

If you weren't selected, you were settled for.

In fact, if you were the last person picked, you knew you had the infamous walk of shame to the team.

It was like there was a banner over your head that said, Nobody really wanted me.

Paul, when he writes to the believers in Ephesus, he starts off and he says, You are chosen.

He uses this little Greek word, ek lego.

Ek Lego is translated chose.

Ek Lego, ek means out, and chose, or Lego means I say.

In other words, this word literally means out, I say.

It can also be translated as to be called out, selected, elected, or to personally choose.

It carries with it this idea of a group of people or a person selected for a special or specific purpose.

It conveys the idea of a great privilege and honor of being chosen.

We we see an example of this in Luke chapter 6, verse 12, when Jesus chooses his disciples.

Luke 6:12

Let's look at what it says.

It says, One of those days, Jesus went out on a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God.

When morning came, he called his disciples to him and he chose 12 of them, whom he also designated apostles.

I want you to notice something.

Jesus is very intentional, he's thoughtful, he's careful, he's prayerful.

Why?

Because he's about to select the 12 people that he's going to empower to turn the world upside down.

He is very specific on who he chooses.

And Paul says that's the word that God uses to describe how he felt about you.

In fact, I love the way one theologian says it in talking about this idea of Eklego.

He says, God looked out to the horizon of human history and he saw us.

And when he saw us, his voice echoed from heaven and said, Out I say.

I pick you.

I select you.

I choose you.

And guess what?

What?

You weren't my last choice.

You were my first choice.

Because I actually chose you before I created the world.

I love how Charles Spurgeon says it, thinking about that point of being chosen before God created the world.

He said, It's a good thing God chose me before I was born, because he surely wouldn't have afterwards.

Church, you're chosen.

In Christ, we are chosen.

I'm reminded of an Eklego moment that I had many years ago.

I was an associate campus pastor at one of the Gateway campuses, and the campus pastor at that time I had a quick transition, so he stepped out of the role, and then I was thrust into the campus pastor role.

And truthfully, I needed something to anchor me in that season because what the enemy would love to have done is to bombard me with thoughts of, well, you know you weren't really chosen.

Like you were just next in line, they had nobody else.

You're here because of default, right?

Well, God in his goodness, eight months before, had spoken.

You see, uh, the transition happened in August, but back in January, my mother called me and she said, uh, Jelani, I want to share something with you.

My pastor said he felt like he had a word for you, he had a prophetic word for you.

Now, let me just explain.

When we talk about prophecy, what we're saying is that we believe that God speaks to and through people to encourage us.

And specifically, 1 Corinthians 14 talks about how prophecy is for edification, exhortation, and for comfort.

And when prophecy goes forth, it's a combination of it can be forthcoming or forthelling or foretelling.

Forth telling or foretelling.

Forth telling speaks to God speaking right now.

Four-elling is about God speaking towards the future.

And which, by the way, on October 18th, we're gonna have a night of worship and prophetic ministry here at this campus because we believe that God still speaks.

Amen.

So the word that my mother shared with me from her pastor was a foretelling word.

It was speaking to the future.

And here's what she said: she said, Jelana, he told me to tell you this that you're going to get a promotion this year.

And it's gonna look like it was by default, but you need to know you were always God's choice.

Church, no, no, no, no, you have to understand something.

The enemy, the thing he would have brought up was you only got this by default.

But God is so good that before that even happened, he looked out and he saw me and he said, Jelani, out I say.

I choose you, I pick you, I've designed you to lead this campus.

And I tell you that today, church, for this reason.

There are some of you here today, and you have been thrust into a position.

You've got a promotion, you've got a new role in the job, maybe you've got a new business, and the enemy has been pounding you.

You know you're only doing this because there was nobody else.

You know you weren't really picked for this.

You know you're only here by default.

And I just want to encourage you today that as a lie from the pits of hell, God actually chose you, called you.

He looked at it, and he said, Ek Lego, I'm calling you to lead in this time.

There, there are some of you parents right now that you watch today.

You're like, Man, they're dedicating their children.

Woo! Let me just tell you, I feel like I've blown it as a parent.

That the enemy is bombarding you and saying you're a failure.

That God should have given these kids to someone else.

Like somebody else would have done a better job.

And I just need to encourage you today.

The enemy wants you to believe that, but can I just tell you that God was specific in making sure he brought those kids to you and your family and your family dynamic?

Why?

Because he put something inside of you that you're supposed to deposit in them.

And who God places, God graces.

So guess what?

God has graced you to raise the kids that he set in your family, and greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.

You can do it.

God's called you.

I love that God chose us because there are some of us, if we're really honest, we walked into this room today, and the truth is we felt unwanted for most of our lives.

We felt unseen, we felt like a mistake or an accident.

And I just want to encourage you today, you're not an accident.

You were appointed by God.

You're not an outcast.

God has called you out, and he speaks over your life.

In Christ, you are chosen.

We're chosen.

Here's point number two.

In Christ, we are adopted.

In Christ, we are adopted.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 5 says, In love, he predestined us for adoption, to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and his will.

Ephesians 1:5

Have you ever seen a dog chasing its tail?

How many of you have seen a dog chasing its tail before?

It's fascinating to watch, right?

Because you're watching them go around and around in circles, and at first you're going, like, what is the dog doing?

Then you realize, oh, this dog is chasing its own tail, right?

It's chasing what it already has.

In other words, it's pursuing what it already possesses.

Now, this is important because the reason why Paul uses the word adoption is because he wants to understand that as children of God, there is something that we possess that we don't have to pursue.

This is what he says.

He says, you've been predestined for adoption.

The word adoption there literally means placing as a son.

In this particular culture, adoption conveyed full legal standing, inheritance rights, and the family name.

So when Paul says that we are adopted into the family of God, it's communicating the idea that we have status, privileges, and the responsibilities of God's own children.

I love the way some of the early church fathers spoke about this when they said, salvation is not only deliverance from sin, but elevation to sonship.

That you and I are sons and daughters.

Romans says it like this in Romans 8:15.

Romans 8:15

It says, So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you receive God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Now we call him Abba Father.

He says, When you receive Jesus, you receive the Spirit of God.

And you no longer have to be afraid because you're a part of the family of God.

And in fact, he goes on to say, and you actually get to call God Abba Father.

Now, Abba is an interesting word.

We don't necessarily go around calling people Abba, right?

Like, what's up, Abba?

How are you doing, Abba?

Nobody said that in the lobby today, right?

Didn't happen.

Abba is an Aramaic term for father.

It's this idea of a real term of endearment.

It's this combination, in fact, in our vernacular, we would liken it to saying daddy or or papa.

It's this combination of warmth and honor and respect and relationship.

It's what my 12-year-old daughter uses to get her way with me.

She actually looks at me with those big, beautiful brown eyes, and she goes, Daddy, please.

And it breaks me down, church.

She gets me every time.

But it's this term of endearment, and God says, we're so deep in the family that we don't just call him God, we get to call him Abba.

That he is our Father.

I love as the verse continues, though, if we skip past verse 16 and go to verse 17, Paul's not done with this thought.

He says, and since we are his children, we are his heirs.

In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.

But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his sufferings.

Now, I want you to notice the progression here.

Paul starts off and he says, We're children of God, so this is who we are.

Then he says that we are also heirs, so we have an inheritance.

That means there's something that we have.

Then he says, and we share in the glory and the suffering, which means there is something that we do.

Now, Paul is intentional about this progression because he wants to change the way in which we think.

See, the reality is that slaves, fearful slaves, think like this.

They think in this progression.

I do, therefore I have, therefore I am.

I do, therefore I have, therefore I am.

In other words, I do something, I perform, I produce, and therefore I have money, I have uh a position, I I have finances, I have status.

And then it goes on, and because of that, I am significant.

I do, therefore I have, therefore I am.

But that's not how Paul said it.

Paul reversed that because he says, listen, you're not fearful slaves, you're uh sons and daughters.

And here's how sons and daughters think they think like this I am, therefore I have, therefore I do.

I am a child of God, I am a daughter of the Most High, I am a son of the King of Kings, and guess what?

Because of that, I have a family, I have a father, I have an inheritance.

And then guess what?

Because of that, I do the will of my father.

I am, therefore, I have, therefore, I do.

Let me just ask you today how you thinking.

Are you living from a place of performance or living from a place of position?

For some of us, in order to rewire the thinking, we need to memorize Romans 8, 14 through 17 because we need to be reminded I'm a child of God.

For some of us, it's time to get into a small group.

We need to leave isolation and get into community so we can be surrounded by a bunch of brothers and sisters that can help us learn what it's like to be sons and daughters.

For some of us, we may need to start praying consistently the Lord's Prayer out of Matthew chapter 6, because it begins like this our Father.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Our Father reminding me that I'm a son, not a slave.

I'm a son, not an orphan.

I'm a son, not just a servant.

I am God's child.

My son Jaden, he's 10 years old now.

He is remarkable.

But when he was five years old, he needed Jesus, church.

He needed Jesus.

And I remember one day we were leaving one of his soccer games, and I was driving, and my father was in the passenger seat, and my son was sitting in the back seat.

And as we're leaving his soccer game, out of nowhere, he just says, Dad, I scored a goal today.

Now the problem was is that I was at the game and I didn't see him score the goal.

So so I said, You scored a goal today, Jaden?

He said, Yeah, I did.

I said, Well, like I didn't see it.

And then I looked at my dad and he's like, he didn't see it either.

And so I said, I said, okay, um, I said, Jaden, are you sure?

He said, Yeah.

I said, well, none of the parents came up to me and said, You scored a goal.

He's like, No, I scored a goal.

I said, Okay, Jaden, let me ask you this one more time.

I said, I want you to tell me the truth.

I said, Jaden, did you score a goal today?

And he dropped his head and he said, No.

And so then I said, Okay, I want to ask you one more question, Jaden.

I said, I want you to tell me why you told me you scored a goal today.

And he lifted his head up and he looked at me and he said, Because I wanted you to be proud of me.

And so, church, on the outside I held it together.

But on the inside, I was crushed.

Because I knew what had happened.

I knew he had heard me talk about his older sister and how many goals that she scored.

And I knew he had connected that if I want dad to be proud of me, I need to perform.

And I was crushed because I never wanted him to feel that way.

And so I said to him, I said, Well, let me tell you something.

First of all, I am so sorry.

And I said, Secondly, let me just tell you, I am going to be proud of the things that you do, but here's what you need to know, Jaden.

I was proud of you before you ever did anything.

I was proud of you simply for the fact that you are mine.

Can I tell you today, guys, that God is proud of you, not because of all that you've done, but because you are his child.

And he has adopted you into his family.

Here's how J.I.

Packer sums it up.

He says, Adoption is the highest privilege of the gospel.

The traitor is forgiven, brought in for supper, and given the family name.

To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.

In Christ, we are adopted.

Here's point number three.

In Christ, we are forgiven.

In Christ, we are forgiven.

This is Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7.

Ephesians 1:7

It says, In Him we have redemption through his blood.

We've been bought back through his blood.

The forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

He says, We have forgiveness.

I was looking up some things on forgiveness and I found a couple of funny quotes.

It's interesting to hear how people think about forgiveness.

I want to read you two of them.

Here's one.

It says, I practice radical forgiveness.

I forgive you and then change my number.

Here's number two.

I forgive people by forgetting they exist.

Works 100% of the time.

Forgiveness is letting go, it is releasing.

It carries with it this idea of a cancellation of a debt.

The reason why I say cancellation of a debt, if you think about it, the way that Jesus even talks about forgiveness, he says in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Or when he gives us the example of the parable in Matthew chapter 18 of the king settling accounts with his servants, he says he forgave their debt.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

So there's a sense of the cancellation of a debt with forgiveness.

And here's why that is.

When someone wrongs you, it's as if it creates an inequity or an imbalance in your account.

There's a disparity created.

It's like they took something out of your account.

Now, we actually know this intuitively because we say things like this if somebody wrongs us, we will say, they owe me an apology.

We will say, if we're vengeful, I'm going to get even.

Or we'll say, I'm going to pay them back.

In fact, that is what Joseph's brothers were afraid of.

Pastor Daniel talked last week about Joseph.

And when Joseph's father Jacob dies, listen to what the brothers said.

This is Genesis chapter 50, verse 15.

Genesis 50:15

It says, But now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became fearful.

Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him, they said.

So they sent this message to Joseph.

Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you, Please forgive your brothers.

What are they saying?

Cancel the debt, Joseph.

We've wronged you.

It's created a deficit.

Can you cancel the debt?

Now here's why I tell you that today.

The reality is that the Bible says that we've all sinned.

And because we've sinned, there was a debt.

And there was a debt that we could not pay.

And so what God did in his goodness is he sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to come to the earth, to live a perfect life, to die, be buried, and resurrected on the third day, so that the debt could be paid and you and I could be forgiven.

Colossians chapter 1, verse 13 says it like this: for he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his dear son, who purchased our freedom and forgave us.

Colossians 1:13

Psalm 103, verses 2 through 3 says this Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits, his spiritual blessings.

Psalms 103:2–3

And listen to the first one who forgives all your sins.

But Gelani, Gelani, now hold on.

That's good to hear, but you don't know what I've done.

You don't know my past.

You don't know the mistakes that I've made.

And you're right, I don't know, but I love how D.O.

Moody says this.

He says, the voice of sin is loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.

He's actually echoing the words of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24, when the writer says this.

Hebrews 12:24

He says, To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkle blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Now, why does he say better word than the blood of Abel?

If you remember in Genesis, we have the story of Cain and Abel.

Cain kills his brother Abel.

And the Bible says that Abel's blood cried out from the ground to God.

And it actually cried out for payback and vengeance.

And what this scripture says is that Jesus' blood also speaks.

But Jesus' blood speaks a better word.

And so instead of saying payback or vengeance, Jesus' blood actually speaks paid for or forgiveness.

That his blood declares over you and me today, you are forgiven.

I love this thought because guess what?

The enemy continues to bombard us.

And he whispers lies to us, and Jesus always comes back with a better word.

That your future is secure in me, that I have a plan for you, that greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world, that you are more than a conqueror, that you are God's workmanship, that he declares life over you.

And so the enemy comes and speaks negative words, and Jesus' blood declares, I have a better word.

You are forgiven.

One of the greatest examples in my own personal life of this was uh shown to me really through my relationship with my wife Aaron.

So uh I like to say like this my wife was like Mother Teresa growing up.

Okay?

She just never did anything wrong.

Me, on the other end, I made some very poor choices, and specifically in relationships and in the area of purity.

And so when we met and we started dating, uh, the Lord had done a tremendous work in my life, but uh I felt like, because we knew we were headed down the direction of marriage, I felt like I wanted to share with her everything, like she needed to know the story.

And the truth is, I was afraid.

I didn't know how she was gonna respond.

And I just remember we were sitting in the car, I was in the driver's seat, she was in the passenger seat, and we were divided by the console, the armrest, and I just began to tell her my story.

And I'll never forget, church, as I'm sharing with her, she just burst into tears because she was heartbroken.

And then to be honest with you, I was heartbroken because I realized I had hurt her.

And so we talked for a few moments, and I'll never forget, she took her hand and she reached it across the console, and she grabbed my hand and she said to me, I forgive you, and I'm not going anywhere.

I tell you that because whether you feel like you've lived like Mother Teresa, or maybe you've made some terrible choices, we were all sinners.

And here's what God did: He refused to be separated from us, and so what he did is he sent Jesus Christ to come and to die.

And he reached his hand across the chasm or console of sin, and he grabbed your hand, and he grabbed my hand, and he said over us, I forgive you, and I will never leave you nor forsake you.

I'm going to walk with you, and my blood will wash you as white as snow.

You are forgiven.

And 1 John chapter 1, verse 9 says, It's actually easy to receive forgiveness.

1 John 1:9

The scripture says this, but if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When I was a kid's pastor, I used to teach him this.

I would say, confess up when you mess up, and God will clean you up.

The more we focus on who we are in Christ, the less it matters who we were.

We are forgiven.

In Christ, our best days are our blessed days because we know who we are.

And when we understand who we are in Christ, we are anchored in crisis.

You are chosen, you are adopted, you are forgiven.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes.

Because these are the spiritual blessings available to those in Christ.

And so my question for you today is are you in Christ?

Well, what does that mean, Jelani?

Paul went on to say it in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13.

Ephesians 1:13

He said, You became in Christ when you believed in Christ.

Here's my question for you today.

Have you believed in Christ?

I'm not asking, do you go to church?

I'm not asking, are you a good person?

I'm talking about have you placed your trust in the work of Christ?

Have you admitted that you're a sinner?

Have you believed that God paid for your sins and have you chosen to make Jesus the Lord of your life?

If you haven't, I want to give you an opportunity to do that today.

I'm gonna lead everyone in a prayer.

But if you've never made that decision, or maybe you made that decision many years ago, but you know you're not walking with the Lord, or maybe you just need a fresh start.

I want to pray for you and I want to pray with you.

I want to lead you in a prayer of becoming in Christ.

And so, with every head bow, every eye closed, nobody looking around, if you'd say, Jelani, include me in that prayer.

Today I want to be in Christ.

Today I want to recommit my life to Christ.

Today I want a fresh start.

You don't need to be embarrassed, but I just want to ask you to raise your hand right now because I want to pray with you.

Just raise your hand up high.

You don't need to be embarrassed.

Best choice you'll ever make.

Today I want to be in Christ.

I want to give my life to Jesus.

Amen.

I see you.

I see you.

Anybody else?

Today, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

Today, I want to be adopted into the family of God.

Amen.

I see you.

I see you.

You can put your hands down.

Church, I'm gonna lead everybody in a prayer, and I want you, uh, the entire church, to pray with me for the benefit of those that raised their hand and said yes to Jesus.

Would you just pray this?

Just say, God, thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sins so I could have life.

I confess I'm a sinner, but I believe you forgave me, and I choose to give you my life.

Change me in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

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We hope you have a great week.