“4 Steps to Transform Your Thinking” by Pastor Daniel Floyd

Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast.

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

Good morning.

Welcome to church.

We're so glad that you're here.

And uh what a great season to be a part of Gateway Church, everybody.

Amen.

God's doing some wonderful, wonderful things.

And uh yeah, that's worth clapping for.

You know, a few of you are going to.

Let's uh we're in this series called Built Different.

We're talking about habits that change your life.

And if you're new to church, a series is simply a collection of talks around one common theme.

And we've been basing our theme on this verse found in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7 and 8 that says this do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives' tales.

1 Timothy 4:7

Instead, train yourself to be godly.

Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in the life, in this life and in the life to come.

Physical training is good, but training for godliness is better.

And this whole idea is that in training and godliness, that there's gonna take some discipline, it's gonna take some commitment, it's gonna take some consistency.

Consistency will compound over time in your life if you'll train yourself to godliness, and it will benefit you right now, and it will benefit you in the life to come.

And so we've been talking about week one, we talk about the habit of prayer in our life and the power of that, praying in faith.

Last week we talked about the power of building our life upon the Word of God.

This week I want to talk to you about this habit.

I want to give you four steps to transform your thinking.

Four steps to transform your thinking.

I believe this will be the best year that you've ever had, if it's your best year spiritually.

And it will be very hard for it to be your best year spiritually if you don't learn to get a hold of your thinking.

So we're gonna talk about that today.

Let's pray together.

Father, our hearts and minds are open to you.

Holy Spirit, speak to us.

We believe that we'll never be the same because of it, and we pray this in Jesus' name.

Everybody said a big amen.

Amen.

So a few years ago, Tammy and I, Tammy brought her computer to me, and um, it was broken, which I was shocked at because it was an Apple computer, and they're blessed by the Lord.

This say that for all of our Android friends who calls green bubbles in the group chats.

We pray for you in the name of Jesus.

But uh I opened it up and it wasn't the um, you know, the beach ball of death uh that was spinning, that was something else happening.

So I took it to a friend of mine who's in IT and I said, Hey, can you tell me what's going on with this computer?

And he says to me, he says, Well, the hard drive is corrupt, and so the rest of the computer won't work.

And I was like, Well, what's a hard drive?

Yeah, I'm not that tech savvy, but I was like, What's a hard drive?

And he said, basically, he dumbed it down to it's the brain of your computer, and if that's corrupt, then the computer doesn't operate the way that it's supposed to.

And I thought, wow, is that not describe us?

That when our thinking is corrupt, then the rest of us doesn't live the way that God intended for us to live.

Here's the reality in life: is this I don't know if you ever thought about this, but your thinking is really what drives your living.

That every action you take, every word you speak, um, whether it was an encouraging word or whether it was a word that you regretted, everything that you did, every choice you made, whether it led you down a road that was good or led you down a road that was bad, the reality is that all of our living is the result of how we think.

And our thinking is shaped by so many things in our life.

Our thinking is shaped by, you know, the environment we grew up in.

We all grew up in a family system, and that family system was either healthy or it was unhealthy.

It was either a little bit healthy and a little bit unhealthy.

How many of you know that we all have a little crazy?

Every family, I don't care who you are, um, there's a little crazy in there, and and that begins to shape our thinking.

Your thinking is shaped by experiences in life, it can be shaped by traumatic moments in your life.

Your thinking is shaped by often, unfortunately, the words that have been spoken over you.

And some of you, you grew up in environments and you had a moment, maybe it was in a class where something was spoken over your life.

I remember whenever I was in um seventh grade, I had a math teacher tell me that, Daniel, um, you probably shouldn't think about college.

That moment marked me.

Now, the flesh side of me wanted to go with all four of my college degrees and be like, how you like me now?

But I'm that is not godly.

Don't do that.

That kind of stuff shapes your thinking.

And when your thinking is shaped by that, then your thinking can can be flooded with insecurity, it can be flooded with fear, it can be flooded with anxiety, it can be flooded with all kinds of things in our thinking.

And if we don't learn to control our thinking, submit it to the word of God, then that can begin to prohibit our destiny, it can begin to prohibit great faith steps that God wants to do in and through our life.

We can live below the good and great plans that God has for us because we are so bound by, let me say it this way, stinking thinking.

And it can trap us and it can imprison us, and there is so much more that God has for us, and it's not that God has favorites and God is blessing someone and doesn't want to bless you.

It could be that fear is trapping you and keeping you from taking a step of faith that would cause you to walk into a blessing that would be more than you could ever think, ask, or imagine.

But because your thinking has trapped you, then you're uh you're afraid to take those steps or to make those moves.

And we've got to learn to capture our thoughts.

We've got to be able to control our thinking.

We've got to be able to allow the word of God to saturate our thinking and teach us how to have, as Paul described in the New Testament, the mind of Christ.

So I want to talk about that today.

I want to build some foundation for it.

Then I'm gonna give you four practical steps on how to transform your thinking, or what we're gonna read, how Paul says it in Romans chapter 12, how to renew your mind.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And your mind needs to be renewed because here's the reality, everybody.

Just because you accepted Christ, raised your hand, prayed a prayer, came however it happened for you, just because you received salvation doesn't mean that all of the thinking from your old life was changed in a moment.

Let me say it this way: just because you came out of Egypt doesn't mean Egypt came out of you.

And so your thinking has to be transformed to get the Egypt out of you.

This is why Israel was delivered from Pharaoh, but still thinking like slaves.

Are y'all tracking with me?

And some of you have been delivered by the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but you're still living as though you were bound because Jesus saved you, but he has this process of sanctifying you, which is simply a word that means he is chiseling away everything that is not of him from you.

And the way that he does that is by transforming or renewing your mind.

If you're with me, say amen.

Romans chapter 12, verse 1.

Romans 12:1

The scripture says this, verse 1 and 2, therefore I urge you, brothers, this is Paul writing to the church in Rome.

The book of Romans is really the cornerstone of the New Testament.

It is rich in doctrine, rich in theology.

And he says this to them I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your spiritual act of worship.

So worship is only partially when we sing.

It's only partially if you lift a hand.

It's only partially.

This isn't it, it doesn't matter how high you can jump in a building.

It's when your feet hit the ground, do you look like Jesus when you are in the coffee shop?

That's worship.

Are y'all with me?

It's your spirit, it's it's I'm gonna give my whole body to this.

And then he says this in verse 2 do not conform any longer to the pattern.

Everybody shout pattern, to the pattern of this world.

So there is a pattern, there's a way of thinking that is according to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So if you want transformation in your life, if you're tired of the hangups and the habits and the issues and re-reoccurring sin and feeling like you're on a merry-go round of life, and the names and the faces change, but it seems like the issues are the same over and over and over, and you keep revisiting these things.

He says, if you want to be transformed, then you're transformed by the renewal of your mind.

And when your mind gets renewed, then you're gonna be able to test and approve what God's will is.

You wanna know what God's purpose and plan for you is?

His good, pleasing, and perfect will?

You wanna know how to decipher that and understand that and test that?

Paul said, here's how.

You've got to present your body as a living sacrifice, and then you've got to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but you've got to let God renew your mind.

How do I renew my mind?

I renew it with the word of God.

So here's the reality is that our ways of thinking are patterns of this world when they are not in alignment with what God has said about us.

We end up in these patterns of thinking.

So we end up in these patterns of insecurity, we end up in these patterns of worry.

Worry turns into anxiety, our blood pressure goes up, we have panic attacks, and it begins for a lot of us.

I'm not talking, there are some things, I'm not against medicine, I'm not against science, are y'all following me?

But there's some things that is because we have old patterns of thinking, and we've allowed what has been spoken over our life, or words of death and not words of life, words of cursing and not words of blessing over our life to then become the pattern, the default in our life.

And so we default back to these when pressure comes on or when life is hard.

We default back to these old patterns of thinking.

It's people call it muscle memory, but it's not really muscle memory.

It's it's when you let me ask, you ever driven home and got there and been like, yeah, I don't remember the last five minutes.

You know, because you just ended up there.

Why?

Because here's what's literally happening.

Can we go to school for a moment?

Okay, we don't have to.

I can just go we go to school.

Okay, here's what's happening.

I I'm not in depth study on this, but I have studied this a little bit, is that there are things in your brain.

By the way, science is finally caught up to the Apostle Paul.

It's amazing when science catches up to the Bible, right?

There are these things in your brain called neuropathways.

Somebody described it like this.

One scientist described it like this.

Your brain is like a forest.

And there are neurons, and when they start talking to each other, they create pathways through the forest.

And the more you do whatever you're doing, the more habit you have in your life, the pathway gets stronger and stronger and wider and wider and clears out more of the trees.

This is why you can drive home and not remember how you got there because you've done it so many times and the neurons have talked to each other so many times, it's created a deep pathway in your brain.

Are y'all following me?

The same is true with your negative thought life.

The more you have that thought over and over and over and over and over and over again, the more you believe I'm not enough, I'll never be enough, I can't measure up, I'm not skinny enough, smart enough, strong enough, I'm always angry, my dad was angry, my grandfather was an angry person, I'll always live with angry outbursts.

That's just the way it is in our family.

The more you reinforce that neuropathway, the more that it gets stronger and stronger, and then you default to that, and so somebody offends you, and then you blow up on the family, and then you have to come back around and apologize.

And it's like, well, this cycle seems to never end.

Why?

Because you never rerouted the neuropathways with the word of God.

Because the word is alive and active and powerful, and it can transform your thinking.

Matter of fact, listen to this.

It says the dynamic nature, the dynamic, that means the changeable nature of neuropathways is reflected in their ability to reorganize.

In other words, you don't have to live bound.

You don't have to live the way that your dad did, and your grandfather, and your grandmama, and your auntie, and your uncle.

You don't have to live in those same cyclical patterns in your life, what Paul calls the patterns of this world.

No, because you have this scientific thing called neuroplasticity.

Some of you are like, I didn't come for science class.

No, this is theology.

Neuroplasticity, listen to this, enables these neuropathways to be altered and to develop new networks.

In other words, you don't have to live with stinking thinking.

Because the word of God can transform your thinking as you renew your mind.

The word of God.

It is alive, it is active, it is sharper than a double-edged sword, it is powerful, and it can literally transform the way you think, which will transform the way you behave, where religion gets it wrong, is that we say, behave, behave, behave, but the Bible says, transform your mind, your mind, your mind, and your behavior will end up changing.

This is what God wants to do in your life.

And here's where the frustration comes in is that we get to a new year or season or a moment, and we're like, I'm gonna turn over a new leaf and I'm gonna do better, or we have a moment in a worship night, and we feel God in the moment, and the presence of God, and all that is real.

And then we go back and we get out of the service, and then we wonder why we're back in old patterns of thinking.

Because you had a wonderful moment, but out of the moment, you've got to have the habit, the spiritual discipline.

We don't love disciplines.

You've got to have the spiritual discipline to take these four steps I'm gonna talk to you about today.

And it will renew your mind if you'll apply these in your life.

If you're with me, say amen.

Alright, four things I want you to write down if you're the note-taking type.

If not, go ahead and write it down anyways.

It may help you one day.

2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 3.

2 Corinthians 10:3

Paul writes this.

He says, For though we live in this world, we do not wage war as the world does.

Now let's time out.

Paul's right here for a moment in our Bible study.

Paul is assuming we all understand we are in a battle.

He says, we don't wage war as the world does.

So he's just he's making the assumption we all understand that we are in a battle.

And he says the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

So we don't fight with guns and bows and arrows and tanks.

He said, on the contrary, a matter of fact, he says just the opposite.

They, being the weapons we fight with, have divine power to demolish strongholds.

Now, what's a stronghold?

Well, he goes next and tells us we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

So what is a stronghold in your life?

It is it is a pretension or a something that is setting itself up against the knowledge of God.

In other words, it is a lie that is trying to get you to buy it as truth.

Let me say that again.

A stronghold is a lie that is trying to get you to buy it as truth.

And can I tell you something?

No matter how much something is a lie, if you buy it as truth, it has now become reality in your life.

And you will begin to live as though it's true, even though it's not true.

So he says, we take, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and here's how we do it we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

We take captive every thought.

Let me say it this way.

You don't have to think every thought you think.

Write that down.

But let me say this.

You do need to think about every thought you think.

Just because a thought comes through your mind doesn't mean that you have to dwell on it.

Doesn't mean you have to embrace it.

Doesn't mean you have to take it on as your own.

Just because a negative thought comes through the screen of your mind doesn't mean that you have to embrace that.

You don't you don't have to think every thought that you think.

But you should think about every thought.

Because you need to have, number one, write this down, you need to be able to recognize.

First, you have to recognize, Paul goes, I'm gonna take thought, I'm gonna take captive every thought and bring it in submission to Christ, make it obedient to Christ.

What is he saying?

I'm gonna evaluate every thought I have and see whether this is from God or not from God.

In other words, is this blessing or is this curse?

Is this positive?

Is this negative?

Is this faith-filled or is this faithless?

I'm gonna recognize the thoughts that I have.

I'm not just gonna let my mind run wild and let the enemy run wild in the playground of my mind.

I refuse to do it, which means first, I've got to recognize the thoughts that I'm having that are not from God.

I've got to be able to, I've got to recognize whenever the enemy's trying to sell me a lie, that my life won't become everything God's.

No, I've got to grab that and go, I'm taking that captive.

That is not of God.

I've got to take captive the thought that says that God can't use me, that I'm too far gone, that that I've done too many things and made too many mistakes for the hand of God to be.

No, I've got to learn to take that thought captive.

I've got to learn to take the thoughts captive that says you'll be lonely forever or no one's ever gonna love you.

You'll not be accepted, that if you're honest and transparent, that people will reject you.

I've got to take those thoughts captive.

I can't let it just run wild in my mind.

So first I've got to be able to recognize the lies.

But I can't just stop at recognizing it.

Number two, I've got to be able to replace.

That's word number two, replace.

What am I gonna replace it with?

I'm gonna replace it with truth.

I love what the psalm says.

I've lost it.

Here it is.

It says, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or set in the seat of mockers.

But listen to this.

But his delight, what he loves, is in the law of the Lord.

And on his law he meditates day and night.

And because he does this, listen to the stability that is in his life.

He's like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.

Listen to this, whatever he does prospers.

How many would like that to be the story of your life?

It says he meditates.

That idea of meditating is um it's the idea of chewing on it for a while.

It's not just I heard it, but I'm I meditate it.

I want it to get so down into my soul.

I want it to be absorbed into every area of my life.

The word meditate really, not I don't want to be gross to you, but it has the idea of chewing the cud.

If you didn't grow up around farms like I did, you may not know what chewing the cud is, but it's it's where an animal has two stomachs.

Is this too much?

On a Sunday morning.

Has two stomachs, it eats, digests, it regurgitates, and chews some more.

I know that's completely disgusting, right?

But that's the that's the idea, is that I'm not just gonna read a verse and let it go by.

No, I'm gonna I'm gonna chew on that verse.

What is that saying?

What is God saying?

What is the truth in that?

How does that apply to my life?

And I'm not just gonna do it once, but I'm gonna I'm gonna meditate on day and night.

I'm just gonna let that that word permeate my life because it is not enough to re recognize the lie.

I have to repeat.

The lie, but I have to replace it with a greater truth.

Now, I said greater truth, and I want you to understand this because whenever you bought a lie, you believe it is truth.

Which means you have to introduce a truth that is greater than the lie you've turned into a truth.

Are y'all tracking with me?

You've got to introduce a greater truth, and the greater truth is always the word of God.

This is what Paul's saying in Romans 12, too.

Be renewed, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

How do I renew my mind?

Will I recognize the lies that are coming into my mind or the old patterns of thinking or the ways that I have believed that are not accurate and do not line up with God's word, I replace that with God's word, and I then begin to let the word of God permeate my heart and my mind.

And you know what will happen is these neuropathways will begin to fire new ways of thinking.

And as I do that over and over, then all of a sudden it becomes my default.

So whereas once anxiety would riddle me and my heart palpitations would go through the roof, now my mind has been trained to go, no, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

No, he has good plans for me.

They're to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a hope and a future.

And it doesn't mean that the enemy won't attack me.

It's just now I have the tools and I've strengthened myself in the Lord, and I'm taking on the mind of Christ, that now I know how to combat the enemy so that when hell comes against me, I come at hell with the word of God, and the word of God always wins.

Are y'all following me?

I have to replace it.

I can't just white knuckle, stop thinking about it.

Let me illustrate it to you.

All of us, every campus, um, just get in your mind a beautiful pink zebra.

You know, white stripes, pink body, not like girly pink, more like a manly pink.

You know, just standing out in the safari in Africa.

We're all there together.

It's beautiful, right?

Pink zebra.

You're like, wow, pink zebra.

Never thought about that.

In Africa, you're amazed.

You're taking pictures, you got the iPhone out, seeing the pink zebra.

All right, everybody stop thinking about the pink zebra.

Like right now, just stop it.

Just stop, just stop.

How ridiculous is that?

And that's how some of us approach the battlefield of our mind.

Just stop being anxious.

Really?

Just stop being fearful.

Stop it.

Stop being fearful.

No, it doesn't work that way.

I have to capture the thought.

I take it captive according to what Paul wrote in Corinthians, but now I've got to meditate on something that is a greater truth.

So I don't just walk around going, stop being fearful.

No, I have to take a greater truth that says I haven't been given a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.

I have a sound mind.

I don't have a mind that is riddled by fear.

I have a sound mind because I haven't been given a spirit of fear.

God is not the author of fear, but of power and love, and I have a sound mind.

That's what I want those, I want that to be the pathway, not the pattern of this world, but I want my mind to be renewed with that truth.

So I have to replace it.

So here's the practical step you're gonna have to have in replacing it.

You're gonna have to go identify the lies you easily believe.

You're gonna have to pen the paper.

What are the lies I easily believe?

Then you're gonna have to go to the Word of God and find what is the greater truth.

What does God say about this?

And every time that lie comes up, every time, you're gonna go, nope, not today, devil.

And you've got to replace it with God's word, but not just replace it, number three.

You've got to recite what God says.

The power is in you declaring it with your mouth.

You gotta recite it.

Here's what I would encourage you to do is from God's word, write one statement, one declaration that is rooted in Scripture, that you declare over your life whenever the lies of the enemy come in like a flood on you.

We're gonna practice it right now, okay, everybody?

I want to help you practice this.

I want you to, we're gonna all read this together, every campus, prison campuses, gatherings, online, right there in Starbucks.

Just tell people you're at church.

So let's read this together.

I am blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

If God is for me, who can be against me?

I have the mind of Christ.

I am chosen by God.

I am holy and blameless.

I am redeemed through the blood of Jesus.

I have the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

I am an heir of heaven.

I am seated in heavenly places.

I am God's workmanship.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Say like you believe it.

I am a new creation.

I am a citizen of heaven.

I am rooted and grounded in love.

I am more than a conqueror.

I am an overcomer.

I am healed.

I am free.

Lord, everything you say about me is true.

Amen.

Amen.

How would it change your life?

How would it change your day if every morning you woke up and you had some declarations rooted in God's word that you declared over yourself?

Listen to me.

This isn't self-help.

This isn't, I'm a good person and everyone likes me.

I don't know if everybody likes you or not, but I know God loves you.

And I know his word is true.

I'm not declaring I'm a nice person and I'm gonna be better today.

No, I'm declaring what God has said, and there is power in the word of God.

Well, Pastor, I don't feel like saying that.

What does that have to do with anything we're talking about?

Feelings are indicators, but they are horrible masters.

If you put feelings in the driver's seat of your life, there's no telling what ditch you'll end up in.

Are you all with me?

You can't let feelings drive your life.

You have to let the word of God drive your life.

You have to let wisdom drive your life.

Feelings are good indicators, but they're horrible masters.

You can't let them master your life, whether you feel like it or not, whether it's I am I am a child of God, I'm a citizen of heaven, I am blessed coming in, and I'm blessed going out.

I've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place.

I'm not talking about making up things that you want to say.

You know?

I'm talking about rooted in God's word.

I am driving a Mercedes.

I am living, I don't know.

No, I'm not talking about, don't get crazy.

I'm talking about rooted in God's word.

Are you following me?

You're gonna create new patterns in the way that you think.

And guess what?

You do that consistently over time, day by day, moment by moment.

That's the journey of faith.

There's great mountaintop moments, but can I tell you, that's not where you live.

I'm not trying to discourage you.

But the reality of life is it's day by day walking with Jesus.

It's moment by moment.

I promise you, you apply this, you'll get to the end of this year and not recognize yourself.

And you will have victory over some areas of your life you've been wrestling with for a long time.

Some of you are thinking, there's four, Pastor.

You said four.

My OCD will not let me complete my notes.

Here's the fourth one.

It's simple.

Repeat.

What do I repeat?

Recognizing the lie, replacing it with truth, and reciting what God has said.

I'm gonna recognize the lie, I'm gonna replace it with truth, and I'm just gonna recognize what God says.

I'm gonna do that.

How many times?

I don't know.

A thousand?

Ten thousand every day.

Maybe every hour until you get victory.

That's how long?

Until you're winning, until you got freedom.

Until you're no longer bound by thoughts that are not from the Lord.

That's how long you're gonna do it.

I had a mentor in college that taught me this.

I was a 19-year-old, highly insecure young man.

Highly insecure.

Didn't let anybody in.

Because I was sure if someone knew the real me, they would not like me.

So insecurity caused me to live with a real facade, but thankfully I had a mentor in my life that could see through that.

And he pastored a church I was attending, and he said, uh one day he said, Daniel, you got a lot of insecurities.

I was like, thanks for the encouragement.

God bless you.

It's just wonderful.

You don't really know if you have a mentor, by the way, until they cross you.

How you respond is whether or not they're a mentor or not.

If you're willing to submit to hard things.

I ended up in Ephesians chapter 1 that I've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places that I've been predestined before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of his son, that that's my identity.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And he goes, I want you to put a sticker on your watch.

Before we had smart watches, they were all dumb back then.

In the 1900s.

I got a little red dot and I put it on my watch, and it was my reminder to every hour on the hour check my thought life.

Every hour on the hour.

And so every hour I it would hit eight in the morning.

I'd been up about an hour and I'd be in class and I would go, in the last hour, did I believe a lie from the enemy?

And I would find one I did, and then I would declare God's word.

That's a lie.

This is what God says about me.

And then at nine o'clock, I would do the same thing, and then at 10 o'clock, I'd do the same thing, then at 11 o'clock, and then 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock, all the way till I went to bed, and then I'd do it all over again the next day.

And I'd do it all over again the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and then that became a month.

And then after that, I found myself less through the day did I need to capture those lies and less throughout that.

And then it became several times a day, and then several times a week, and several, and then it became less and less, and I won the battle in that area of my life.

Now, does that mean the enemy doesn't still attack?

No, it does not, but I know how to win the battle because I have renewed my mind, I've transformed my thinking and transformed my living.

So now you don't get the insecure, Daniel.

You get a very secure one that whether you clap or not, I'm good.

I'm not trying to live for your applause.

I'm trying to live for the applause of heaven, and I'm very rooted in who God says that I am.

I don't need you to tell me.

I love you.

I'm grateful when you do, but I don't need it.

Are you following me?

Now, are the other things God's working on me about?

Absolutely.

I'll preach on those in about five years.

But this one we got some victory on.

And I don't know what it'll take for you.

It may take every hour on the hour.

But if you'll put in the work, then you'll experience John 8.32.

Then you will know the truth.

And the truth will set you free.

And man, that's what I want for you this year.

I want you to live in freedom in every area of your life.

I truly believe it starts with transforming your thinking.

And you receive the word of God today.

Come on, you receive it in your heart.

Let's pray together.

With every head bowed, every eye closed across all of our locations and all of our extended family online.

You know, I never like to end a time together without giving you the opportunity to give your life to Jesus, to make him the Lord and Savior of your life.

And if you've never taken that step, then I hate to tell you, but you'll never win the battle of your mind because you don't have the power on your own.

You have to have the person of the Holy Spirit.

And he says he'll come in to your life when you receive Jesus, when you surrender your life to him.

And we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead.

That act of faith gives us right relationship with God.

And so maybe you're here today and you've never taken that step, you've never surrendered your life to Jesus.

You've never said yes to him.

Or maybe there was a moment where you felt like you were walking with God, but you strayed away.

Then today I want to give you the opportunity to take that step to make that decision.

In just a moment, we're going to pray together.

There's nothing magical in the prayer.

It's just me helping you express to God that you need a fresh start in Him.

You need a new beginning.

And I just think when you shoot your hand up in a moment, that that's your step of faith.

That's you saying, God, that's me.

I need that.

I want to know that I'm in right relationship with you.

I want to know that heaven is my home.

More importantly, I want to know that I'm walking with you every day in the here and now.

And so if that's you, I'm just going to count to three.

And when I do, I want you to shoot your hand up.

You say, God's speaking to me, and no one's going to come to you or embarrass you.

I just, I want to see the pastor at your campus will see.

And then we're going to pray together.

But if that's you on three, you just shoot your hand up high, and then we're going to pray together as a church.

One, two, three.

You just shoot it up high.

God bless you.

Keep it up.

Keep it up.

I see you.

It's beautiful all over the room.

Most importantly, God sees you.

That's what matters.

You can put your hand down.

Church, will you pray this out loud together for the benefit of those who just slip their hand up?

Just say, Jesus, I thank you for the cross.

Thank you for dying for my sins.

I believe you died for me.

I believe God raised you from the dead.

Today I make you my Lord and Savior.

Thank you for a brand new beginning.

I give my life to you.

In Jesus' name.

Everybody said amen.

Amen.

Come on, can we celebrate those who made that decision?

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.