The Ten Commandments Part One - Ben Wade

Hey there, this is Jen Wade, part of the core team here at Springs Church. We just want

to say thank you so much for joining us and listening to our podcast. We are praying that

it encourages you and it inspires you. And if you'd like to find out more about Springs

Church, please visit our website springschurch.co.uk. Here's today's message.

Thank you Lord, you can already feel that you're here with us right now. You might say

that that was your presence with us. Lord, thank you that we have the opportunity to

worship you and Lord, you respond to that. Thank you Lord. In your name, amen. Amen.

Bless you church if you're not already. You may be seated. Wonderful. Cheers Pete. I'm

just going to pop up here for the sake of me walking around and staying still. There

we go. Lovely. Afternoon everyone. You all alright? Welcome to the warmest room in Gornal.

It is officially not snowing in here right now. It is absolutely roasting. We don't have

the camera this afternoon I'm afraid. So if anyone is watching or listening on YouTube,

you won't be seeing how sweaty I am. And so that's probably a good thing there's no camera

this week. For those of you who don't know me, hello, my name is Ben. I am one of the

leaders here at Springs and it's my privilege to this afternoon be able to bring a word

to you, to bring a message to you. And hopefully this afternoon something that I say might

land with us and might help us this week. Maybe God wants to say something to you this

afternoon. Pete last week brought an absolutely brilliant introduction to this series entitled

Written in Stone. If you haven't already listened to that, go to YouTube or go to wherever you

get your podcasts, Spotify, Apple Music and you can listen to Pete's message from last

week which really kind of set up what we're going to talk about over the next few weeks

before Easter. Take a little break over Easter to talk about Easter and then to continue

after that as well. Pete talked about how perfect Jesus was and that love God and love

your neighbour as yourself underpinned everything that Jesus did. So before I launch into what

I want to say this afternoon, let's just pray. Let's just ask God to be with us and be ready.

Lord, I thank you. As we've just said, you have already been here. We have already sensed

your presence this afternoon, whether we recognise that or not. Lord, I just pray that your Holy

Spirit would be here. Would there be something within us that would speak to us, that we

would understand that there's more to life than just this, that there's something out

there that can help us through everyday life. In your name, amen. Amen. My phone has just

buzzed which means there's probably a score in the Wolves game so I'm just going to just

airplane mode that. I won't give any spoilers away. Oh, thanks Phil. So why the Ten Commandments?

Why are we talking about the Ten Commandments? A Sunday school teacher was talking about

the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds and was talking about what we should

do with our lives and she explained the commandment of honour your mother and father. She said,

is there a commandment that teaches how to treat our brothers and sisters? And one of

the boys piped up, thou shalt not kill. Why the Ten Commandments? Well, we're very aware

that there's lots of people in the room that may or may not know about these things from

the Bible. We don't want to assume that anyone has come in and has a full understanding of

what the Bible is and how it works and what it means for us today. So what we want to

do is unpack some things that maybe we think we should know but maybe we don't. Maybe sometimes

we're a little bit too afraid to ask the questions about because we feel like maybe we should

have done it in our re at school at some point. What we want to unpack today and over the

next couple of weeks is what these Ten Commandments mean for us right now in 2023 and what did

Jesus say about them as well. So first of all, I'm going to read to you from the book

of Exodus. It's in chapter 20. Exodus is the second book in the Bible and I'm going to

read from verse one down to six. It says, and God spoke all these words. I am the Lord

your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no

other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything

in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down

to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children

for the sin of the parents, the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but

showing love to a thousand generations, those who love me and keep my commandments. Okay,

we've jumped in deep. Everybody okay? There's a lot of very scary language and words in

there. We're going to spend a little bit of time this afternoon unpacking what that means

and trying to pull down some of the curtains around what that language might mean. But

do the 10 commandments still hold true for us today? I mean, yes, our legal system and

our moral system is based around these 10 commandments that we're going to work our

way through. And what I just read to you was just the first two of those commandments.

And those are the two that we're going to unpack today in a little bit. Do we still

have to follow the Old Testament law, is what the Bible says, or rules or guidance? Do we

have to follow that if we live under a New Testament grace? So if Jesus forgave us for

everything, do we still have to follow all the rules that were written before him? Well,

we're going to look in the book of Matthew. It's Matthew 5 verses 17 to 20. Matthew was

Matthew 5:17–20

written by a guy called Matthew, there are clues in the name. And this is what Jesus

said in chapter 5, do not think I have come to abolish the law, the guidance from the

Old Testament or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the

least stroke of pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.

Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others

accordingly will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and

teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that

unless your righteousness suppresses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law,

those were the people who were kind of running synagogues and running, I guess, churches,

what we might say in those days, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus was also asked about these commandments, which one is the greatest one? Which one's

the most important one? And later on in the book of Matthew, this is what he said, one

of them, an expert in the law, tested Jesus, tested him with this question, teacher, which

is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, love the Lord your God with all your

heart and all your soul and all your mind. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor

as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. The book of

Mark, which is the book after Matthew, has a slightly different take on it. It's got

a really interesting phrase at the bottom. This is what it says in Mark 12. The most

important one answer, Jesus, is here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the

Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and all your

strength. And the second is this, love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment

greater than these. So did Jesus regard these 10 commandments as important? I think we can

say that yes, he probably did. I mean, it says there in that first scripture that we

read that not the smallest letter, not a stroke of pen from that law will be removed. Jesus

also summarized the 10 commandments in these two comments. He said, love God and love people.

You might have heard us say that a few times before. Jesus was aware that ultimately the

standards that God set are too high for normal human beings to achieve. The standard that

God commands from us is not possible from us who are, the Bible might say, sinful in

nature. That means doing things that are against God. And I don't know about you, but I find

myself on a daily basis doing things that I think, don't know if that would please God.

I don't know if I should have done that. And maybe you find yourself in that boat sometimes

as well. And Jesus absolutely knew that and he was absolutely aware of that. And so what

he did was he put himself upon a cross and the Bible says he did that to atone for the

sins of the world. When we say atone, it means make up for, it means that God doesn't see

our problems and our sins in a negative way anymore, but he sees them in a way that actually

draws us towards him and says, come here, I'll help you. I've got something for you.

Romans 8 puts it like this in verses two to three. Therefore there is now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit

who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. You're set free from messing

up on these things. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,

God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And

so he can condemn sin in the flesh. What the law was powerless to do was because God knew

ultimately we couldn't keep it. There are over 600 laws in the Old Testament and we're

not going to unpack all of them now because that would take a very, very, very long time.

But Jesus knew that ultimately we couldn't live up to this standard and so he came to

be the sacrifice. Really interesting question to ask. Well hang on, if there's these 10

commandments and there's 600 commandments in the Old Testament, which ones do we have

to still follow today and which ones don't count? There's a really interesting YouTube

channel called The Bible Project. The Bible Project have been doing throughout the start

of this year unpicking all of these things. And so if you're like me and you're a bit

of a Bible nerd and you want to find out a little bit more about that, there's a set

of podcasts you can go and listen to there on The Bible Project. When I was doing a bit

of research around this subject, I came across a British pastor from the 60s and 70s called

Alan Redpath. This is what Alan Redpath said about the law. The great message of the Christian

faith is that we are free from the law's condemnation in order that we may be able to fulfill its

obligation by the power of Jesus within. My obedience therefore is not legal but inspired

by love and empowered by God's Holy Spirit. Does New Testament grace allow a lower standard

than Old Testament law? The standard under grace is higher. So I just wanted to set the

stall at early doors to say yes, these Old Testament laws that were given thousands and

thousands of years ago, they still stand for us today. Are they something to beat ourselves

up about if we don't manage to achieve them? Definitely not. The Bible says therefore there

is no condemnation. We just read it in Romans 8. And we actually understand now that Jesus

came to fulfill the law, not to tear it down. And so the standard that Jesus set is even

higher than the Old Testament. But that's not something to tie ourselves in knots about.

He is always there every single time we mess up, which I would say is probably daily. I'm

going to dig down now into these two first commandments and then next week we'll unpack

the third commandment and so on and so forth. So we are in Exodus 20 and this is what it

says in verse 2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land

of slavery. See I love this as an opening because God didn't create a moral code in

a way to get a blessing. Let's read what he said there in verse 2. He said, I am the

Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. For those of you who aren't aware of what

the Old Testament story looks like, these laws were given to a man called Moses. Moses

was an Israelite from Israel. But Israel in that time were actually slaves. They were

slaves in Egypt. You may have seen the Prince of Egypt movie and that's all about this

story in the Old Testament. Moses brought the people out of Egypt. Well in fact Moses

led them but God brought them out of Egypt. I love the fact that at the start of the 10

seconds God is already reminding them, I have blessed you. Already at the start he is saying,

I have brought you out of slavery. You see what I tend to do as a parent is I will naturally

say if Caleb says, oh can we go and draw something, his favourite thing is drawing at the moment,

yeah of course we can, after you finish your vegetables. The way round that we do it is

we say, yes we will do that thing after you've done this. But God does it the other way round.

God says, no look what I've done for you. I've brought you out of slavery. In this book

it's saying I brought you out of Egypt, I brought you out of the slavery that you were

in and now look at the freedom I have for you. So already in verse 2 God's already saying

that he does it the other way round to the way that people would do it. Verse 3 says,

you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the

form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. That was verses

3 and 4 there. So there's two commandments to unpack this afternoon and what it would

be really easy for me to do is list a bunch of things off, don't do this, don't do this,

don't do this, don't do this and do do this, do do this and do do this as well. Might be

if you do do do's in there. But I wanted to bring a little bit of sense of the why. I'm

a primary school teacher by trade. I spend my 7.30 till 5ish just in case anyone thinks

we only work school hours. Looking after kids and teaching them and trying to inspire them

in the ways of life. One of the things I do on the first day when I get my new class is

we make a set of class rules. Now obviously there are the school rules like if you punch

somebody, you're going to have to go and be excluded. Or if you mess up in the toilets,

we're going to have to send somebody with you to escort you to the toilets. Did anyone,

was anyone naughty at school and had to be escorted to the toilet? I've got one honest

person in here. But the class rules that I like to make are a little bit more around

the conduct we have in my room. So I'll say one of the ones we've got this year is discussion

is good. Another one that we've got is we don't have to be everybody's best friend,

but we do have to be everybody's friend. We do have to be kind as a choice always. And

so we go through these things at the start of the year, not because I need extra rules,

but because I want to bring a sense of identity to the room. A sense of identity to the children

that are going to be with me for a full year. When we're in this room, this is how we behave

and this is what we do. And this is why we behave in that way. It brings a sense of identity,

a sense of togetherness. We're a team in my room. So if someone's struggling with something,

I know I've got three children that could go and help that person straight away. It

doesn't all depend upon me as teacher. So you shall not have other gods before him.

You shall not make an image of other gods. If there's lots of you shall not, how about

a you shall. You shall have an identity rooted in your love for God. If it says you shall

not make images of other gods, you shall not worship other gods. The you shall is you shall

have an identity rooted in your love for God. Let's talk about this slavery thing that Israel

went through for a minute because Israel was in the middle of an identity crisis. Israel

had been in slavery for many, many, many years. And these laws were given to Israel about

three months after they came out of captivity. Don't know how many major life changes you've

been through, but I would say three months is about the time it takes to settle down.

When we moved house, it was three months until all of the boxes had finally been unpacked.

When we had our first child Caleb and our second child, Evie, it was about three months

before we felt like we could actually get dressed and leave the house at an appropriate

time. Three months is about the time it takes to bed in, I would suggest. Israel had been

in slavery in Egypt. So their identity had been stripped down. They had been made to

serve the Egyptians. They'd been made to worship Egyptian gods. They had been made to worship

Egypt's political agenda, building new cities and new palaces. So when God redeems his people,

he takes them out of the middle of nowhere where they've got no land and no social identity.

What's God trying to do here? Here, he's giving commandments to remake the people. He's giving

commandments that the laws represent the way that Israel's communal identity story, their

values are going to be reshaped. They're going to be remolded. And so when God gives these

commandments, it's not about simulating moral perfection. It's not about a list of rules

that you've got to follow. But what it is about is about creating a lifestyle that reflects

God's image. It isn't about making God happy. It's about showing everybody what this looks

like, what does living in the image of God look like. You see, the book of Genesis says

that there is already an image of God on this earth. It says in Genesis 1, the first chapter

of the Bible. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God. He created

them, male and female, he created them. So there is already an image of God within this

earth. And so what God was trying to do was create an identity that reflected that appropriately.

You've been taken out of slavery, you've been taken away from the things that you were having

to worship and having to do, and you were forced to do this. But now, this is how we're

going to be. This is what we're going to do altogether. The 10 commandments are about

bringing identity, both by preserving the sanctity of his own worship and the responsibility

that humans have to bear his image. So when humans, when we make idols or worship things

that aren't God, we're not only investing our time in created things, where the reverence

and the glory should belong to God, we're robbing ourselves of our own dignity as his

image bearers.

When I say this word, idol, that's been thrown about a few times. I did actually talk about

this a little bit two weeks prior. But the word, the word idol may mean something in

the way of God. It could be anything within your life. Maybe a job, maybe your finances,

maybe a relationship, maybe a computer game, maybe something as silly as the way that you

spend your leisure time. But if there's something in your life where you're giving the glory

to that instead of God, the Bible would say that is not a good thing for you. It would

say that that doesn't reflect the image and identity that God has for you in your life.

So when it says, have no other gods before me, a more literal translation would actually

say no other gods to my face. The Bible wasn't originally written in English. The Old Testament

was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. And we've had translations

of that over many years. And our language is very much a language of phrases. And so

instead of saying, I'm angry, I would say, oh, I'm seeing red. Oh, I'm absolutely raging.

We add phrases in English to create new meanings. Whereas in the Old Testament and the New Testament,

one word could have so many different meanings and it was so much richer in terms of words.

And so if this actually means no other gods to my face, well, last time I checked, God

is everywhere. So I think everywhere would be to his face. This means God demands more

than just to be added to our lives. We don't just add Jesus into a life we already have.

We give him our lives. We give him everything, our all. Jesus said this in Matthew 16. Jesus

said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take

up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But

whoever loses their life for me will find it. So if the Old Testament standard was,

do not make idols of another god, the New Testament standard is give me your life. What

about the second part of these two commandments? Sonny said 10. I'm not doing all 10 today.

The second commandment that we're looking at this afternoon is a bit tricky. This is

where some of the difficult language comes in. I want to maybe help us understand this

a little bit this afternoon. Exodus 20 verses four to six. You shall not make for yourself

an image in the form of anything in heaven or above or on the earth beneath or in the

waters below. In other words, don't create pictures and images of things that are probably

not true or helpful. Do you notice every slide today has got a little picture of Jesus somehow?

What the Bible is saying is stained glass windows are wonderful. We don't need to go

and throw bricks through any stained glass windows, please. We're not talking about those

sorts of things. What we are saying is if there is an image or a thing in your life

that is taking worship away from God, that is not a good thing. Then let's read this

little bit here, this tricky bit. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I

your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and

fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of

those who love me and keep my commandments. Just to flick back to images of Jesus, it

might be a personal thing. One of my bug bears in my Christian life is that I have an unhelpful

image of what Jesus actually looked like. In my own brain, because of the books I read

maybe as a kid, Jesus was a white guy with long brown hair and a big long beard and Jesus

looked quite handsome. As the Bible actually says that he was nothing extraordinary to

look at and he was, well, he was from the Middle East. So he wouldn't have looked anything

like you or I or he wouldn't have looked white in any way at all. Jesus would have been,

he was a refugee from Egypt early on in his life. Sometimes the images of Jesus that we

actually have can be unhelpful in unpicking what that might mean for us today. But I don't

want to go into that too much because John 4 verse 24 says, God is spirit and his worshipers

John 4:24

must worship in spirit and in truth. So when we're worshiping God and we're worshiping

Jesus, we're not worshiping a picture, we're not worshiping an image, we are worshiping

in spirit, the Bible says. But verse five and verse six of that verse where it talks

about God being a jealous God, that's a bit sticky. That's a bit tricky because if you

actually know the other 10 commandments, spoiler alert for Lindsay's message when she does

this one in April, I think it is Lindsay, I did write it down, 30th of April you're

doing this one. One of the 10 commandments is do not be jealous. It says do not cover,

do not want other people's things. So how does that marry up? If this verse is saying

God is a jealous God and then five verses later it says don't be jealous, what are we

talking about? Well, again, I'm coming back to that thing of we work in phrases, whereas

the Bible worked in individual words at the time and so the specific word used here in

verse five when it says I am a jealous God, it's actually talking about something called

sanctified jealousy. Sanctified jealousy, a better translation would be zealous love.

Zealous meaning passionate love. Zealous means showing great energy or enthusiasm for a thing.

Because jealousy when it's talked about later on in that same passage is actually talking

about wanting or desiring or coveting other people's things, their lives, their relationships,

wanting other people's things and comparing ourselves to them. God has nothing to compare

himself to. He is God. And so when he says he is a jealous God, he doesn't mean jealousy

like we understand it. He means that he is so passionately in love with you that he can't

stand it if you're not there with him as well. 2 Corinthians 11 verses 2 to 3 talks about

2 Corinthians 11:2–3

this as well. So this is written by a guy called Paul and he has an incredible story

in the New Testament, ended up writing the majority of the New Testament. But this is

what it says about this godly jealousy. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

I am promised you to one husband to Christ. I have promised you to one husband to Christ.

Maybe that's a bit tricky to get our minds around today. But the message version said

this, this is a paraphrase of the same verse. The thing that has me so upset is I care about

you so much. This passion of God burning inside of me. That is a really great way to think

about the way that God is jealous of you. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.

The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much. This is the passion of

God burning inside of me. You see the heart of these two commandments is not behaviour

modification. Jesus is not after you changing your behaviour. What he is after is to bring

an identity and a purpose to our lives. So yeah, the two commandments say do not have

idols, do not create an image that is of another god. I think we can probably think about in

our own lives, is there anything that's getting in the way of our relationship with God? Are

there any idols that we may have? Things that take up our time, things that take up our

money, things that take up our thinking space. But I wonder if it's actually more than that.

If it's actually God is after more than just a behavioural code here. He wants to bring

you a sense of identity and purpose and a way to live your life that is fulfilling.

To love God above all else in our lives. That's the heart of these two commandments. Love

God above all else in our lives. This is our primary identity. To be beings that belong

to him. To be beings that love him and therefore we reflect his image out into the world. 1

1 John 4:15–16

John 4 verses 15 to 16, there's a couple of verses here that are going to come up together.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love

lives in God and God in them. Luke 4 verse 8, Jesus answered, it is written, worship

Luke 4:8

the Lord your God and serve him only. And then two beautiful phrases from Psalms that

kind of help us to think about what this love might look like. Whom have I in heaven but

you and earth has nothing I desire besides you. And then the old classic hymn that we

used to sing when I was a kid. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants

for you my God. 1 John 5 verse 2 to 5, this is how we know that we love the children of

1 John 5:2–5

God by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God to keep his

commandments are not burdensome for everyone born of God overcomes the world. There's no

need to beat yourself up if we don't match the standard. This is the victory that has

overcome the world even our faith. Who is it that's overcome the world? Only the one

that believes Jesus is the son of God. So if the world is full of distractions, how

can we live up to this standard? How can we try and fulfill these commands? How can we

love God above all else? As I bring this into land, I would suggest that that probably looks

different for each one of us. The way that you love God might look different to the way

that I do. What I do know is that a continued, a long lasting love is a choice. Feelings

fleet away. Feelings and emotions are not good masters. You may think about it as a

spark that starts a fire, but that fire to be sustained will need to be topped up with

fuel to keep burning. And that is a choice. And so I do believe it would be remiss of

me to give you a list of things that we've got to go and do because that's not the heart

of the 10 commandments. The heart would be love God above all else. Is loving God your

daily choice? Every day we need to choose God. Jesus in the book of Luke, chapter 22,

Luke 22 · chapter mention

at a time of really high anxiety for him, he knew that he was going to be put on the

cross. Jesus cried out these words, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.

I don't want to go and do this. And yet he says, probably one of the most powerful verses

in the Bible, yet not my will, but yours be done. Jesus knew that at that very moment,

he was going to be taken across to be crucified, an incredibly painful death. But what Jesus

said in that moment is not my will, but yours. What a wonderful thing that at that moment,

Jesus chose, he chose to follow God. And so that would be my prayer for us as I bring

this into land right now. And we're going to have the band come up and maybe we need

to think about a little bit of what our idols may be. If we need to take some time to ourselves,

is there anything that's in our lives that is in the way? But if you take one thing away

from this afternoon, what I would love for that to be is that the 10 commandments are

not about behavior modification, but they're about bringing us a sense of identity and

purpose in our lives. John 14 verses 15 to 17, if you love me, keep my commands and I

John 14:15–17

will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows

him, but you know him for he lives with you and he will be with you. The Holy Spirit is

here right now to help us with our lives, to help us keep these commands so that our

identity is rooted in God. It's not about trying to change people's behavior from the

outside in, but it's about God changing us from the inside out. So we're going to have

a time in a moment in time right now where we're going to hear some songs and sing some

songs. Maybe in this time you don't want to sing a song. Maybe you just want to take a

moment to reflect upon something that God said to you this afternoon maybe. God's been

tugging at you to say, this is in the way. This thing in your life is in the way of me

and you and I want to remove it. I believe God wants to remove those things right now,

but he also wants to take away any sense of guilt that we can't reach this standard and

what he wants to bring us is a sense of identity and purpose. So I'm going to pray two prayers

to close. The first prayer is for anyone in the room that maybe feels like something's

connected this afternoon and maybe there is an idol in your life. There is something that

God wants to pull down. Maybe you've struggled with this sense of guilt and God wants to

remove that this afternoon as well. So I'm going to pray that prayer first and then I'm

going to pray a second prayer and this second prayer is maybe for someone who maybe you

wouldn't call yourself a Christian. Maybe at the moment you're thinking that you would

like to make that decision. Maybe you want to say a prayer to welcome God into your life

and so that was going to be the second prayer that I'm going to pray. Maybe just have a

think about if that's for you right now. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you that you did not make

a list of rules for us to have a guilt trip over. You didn't make a list of things that

we have to follow and have to obey otherwise we're not good people. No. What you did was

you paid for all of that on the cross and then you said come to me. Lord, I thank you

that there is no condemnation in you. There is no guilt but Lord right now if there is

something in our hearts that's in the way, Lord I pray right now that you would help

us remove that. Would you help us Lord identify what that thing is that maybe is in between

us and you. I believe right now that thing can be taken down by the power of God. In

your name. Amen. And as we keep our heads bowed and we keep our eyes closed I'm going

to pray a prayer for someone this afternoon who wants to commit their life to Jesus, to

accept Jesus, to welcome him into their heart. At the end of the prayer I'm going to ask

you to do something really brave. So at the end of the prayer if everyone's eyes are still

closed and their heads are still bowed I would just ask that if you say this prayer could

you look up and make eye contact with me. We don't want to make a big scene of it. We

don't want to embarrass you but at the end I'd love to just come and say hello to you

and give you a Bible and maybe talk about what that meant for you. So we're going to

pray this prayer right now. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm sorry for the things that I've done that

were against you. Maybe I knew they were against you and maybe I just didn't know that that

was not what you wanted for me. I'm sorry about that Lord. Lord please come and help

me. Come and live in my life. Come and save me from an eternity without you and bring

me into an eternity with you. Lord thank you that because you ask, because I ask, you're

able to come and help me. Thank you that you are the Lord God Almighty. Amen. If everyone

keeps their head bowed for another second or two I would just ask if anyone prayed that

prayer would you just look up and make eye contact with me. I'd love to come and have

a chat at the end. Amen. Amen. Wonderful. Thank you Lord. Hey church let's spend a bit

of time responding to God. Maybe there's something in your heart that you know you need to remove

or you need to pray about. We're going to have a chance to sing some songs but let's

reflect upon what's been said this afternoon. Bless you.

Thanks again for listening. To hear more of our messages make sure to subscribe to our

YouTube channel and our podcast channel for past preachers. If you feel like you've got

something out of today's message why not share it with your friends and spread the good news

of Jesus. We are praying for you. We love you. So please if you need anything at all

check out springschurch.co.uk. God bless.