Fight for Life | Pastor Chris Kouba

It's good to see you.

Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to Psalm 139.

Psalm 139, I want to greet all of those that are joining us at our correctional facilities or those that are traveling or wherever you may be on the other side of the camera.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate all of those folks that are on the other over there.

Hey, it is good to be here.

Thank you again, just for those of you that are fairly new with us.

We are just moved to three services uh last week as we are about to be a big construction project here uh in the middle of our worship center.

It's gonna take most of the rest of the year as we expand and add stadium seating, adding about 375 seats uh to our uh capacity here, which we're really excited about being able to do.

And uh just a reminder to you you've already paid for it.

So I just want to thank you for that.

That's exciting by itself.

You've already, for your faithful ties and offerings, you've paid for it already.

We are grateful though to be able to walk through this.

And so thank you for just the adjustment.

Uh we'll begin some construction in a couple of weeks on the north side of our property, is what we're expecting and hoping.

Uh, I'm not sure what all that's gonna exactly look like, but still it is gonna be an adjustment, and we're gonna be good with it, right?

We're gonna be good, and it's gonna be exciting, and it certainly is gonna be the case.

Uh we are continuing a sermon series that we've started last week entitled Taboo.

We are basically this summer in June and July deciding to kind of go there.

We're gonna kind of poke the bear.

We're gonna deal with some of those topics that you don't normally hear dealt with in church.

Our goal is not to be controversial.

Our goal is not to somehow try to get clicks and to get people to hear about, to divide the church or to get you riled up and upset about stuff.

That's not the case at all, but we do believe that the culture is talking about a lot of things.

And at the end of the day, a lot of these things aren't typically mentioned or brought up in church.

And we talked about last week is that we want to let one of our core values be true that the Bible can speak.

That it can actually have a voice that is louder than all the other things that are out there that are crying for our attention and crying for us to give our allegiance to.

Really, it all comes down to, we talked about it last week, do you believe this to be true?

In fact, the key question would be Genesis chapter 1, verse 1.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God.

Like if you start there, everything else falls into place.

But if you get that part wrong, then everything we're gonna talk about is gonna be, oh, that's just your opinion.

And I would tell you, we're gonna quote from God's word.

We're gonna believe in God's word, we're gonna hear what it says to us because we believe this to be true.

If God is the creator, then God gets to make the rules.

If God is the one who put all of these things into being, then we have to come alongside and underneath what he says is not only best for us, but how we are to deal with things that maybe we don't quite fully understand.

The topic that we're gonna talk about today is a heavy one.

It's one that should hopefully cause all of us to grieve.

It's one that I pray will not just allow us to be able to be more informed, but that will lead us to action.

Would you pray with me?

Father, I pray that you would guide our time together.

Lord, as we hear about some heavy things, as we talk about a topic which has become a political football instead of a biblical theological issue, which it is.

I pray, God, that we would hear it with the gravity that it deserves.

God, it would cause our own hearts to be more grateful for your love for us.

But God, may it also cause us to respond and act in compassion toward those who believe different than us.

I pray these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

As you think about our history as a country, in the American Civil War, there was an astonishing 620,000 American deaths.

World War II led to the death of 405,399 American lives lost.

World War I claimed 116,516 deaths.

The Vietnam War was responsible for 58,209 lives lost, and the Korean War led to 36,516 deaths.

The American Revolution led to the death of 25,000 people, and the most recent and ongoing war on terror is responsible for 7,078 deaths so far.

If you were to add up all of the American loss of life from the wars that I have just mentioned, the total number is 1,220, 268,718 lives lost in defense of our country.

This is tragic.

This is awful.

This is a terrible loss of life.

Recent data showed that in the formal healthcare system in America in the year 2023 alone, there were an estimated 1,037,000 abortions that took place in hospitals and clinics legally across this country.

When you combine the number of chemical abortions and other means of abortion that surely happened last year, the total number of abortions that happened in our country in the year 2023 was larger than the total of all the American loss of life in the American wars combined.

When you think about this issue, it's typically one that is met with immediate passion, immediate apathy, or immediate pain and guilt and shame, depending on your past experience.

My goal today is to consider what God says, for us to consider what the culture says, and primarily for you to walk out of here today knowing that what am I supposed to do about it?

Let's begin reading in Psalm 139, beginning in verse 13.

For you formed my inward heart.

You knitted me together in my mother's woman.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you.

When I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance.

In your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me.

And as yet, there was none of them.

David uses the word formed, knitted together, fearfully and wonderfully made.

My favorite, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

One thing I want you to know that is undeniable when it comes to this topic.

In fact, I'm gonna actually personalize it and I'm gonna ask you as you write it down to personalize it as well.

One thing I want you to see what God says about this topic is this God created me.

God created you.

You were formed, knitted together, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

One of the core tenets of the pro-choice movement is to minimize and dehumanize and to devalue what a baby is.

We are told it is a fetus, not a baby.

It is a clump of cells, not a person not according to God.

From the very beginning, God says He created you different.

Genesis chapter 1, verse 26 and 27.

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, including those annoying caterpillars that are taking over our lives right now.

Maybe just at our house.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them.

We're gonna talk about it in a few weeks, the whole idea of gender and how this verse proves right here that God cares about gender and God created gender.

What I want you to see, though, for a second, it is more so I want you to see whenever God made human beings, when God made me, when God made you, he put this stamp that said special.

Because the fact that you are made isn't just like you are like everybody else that was made.

Instead, you were made in such a unique way that you bore the very imprint of the likeness of God.

Let me tell you what that means.

God didn't just create a random group of cells, he created a life that has purpose and meaning.

Let me tell you what he did with this life.

Every second, more than 100,000 chemical reactions take place in your brain.

It has 10 billion nerve cells to record what you see and what you hear.

One square inch of your skin has about 625 sweat glands, 19 feet of blood vessels, and 19,000 sensory cells.

When your skin is working in coordination with your brain, it maintains your body at a steady 98.6 degrees under all weather conditions.

Your lungs automatically breathe in the right amount of life-giving oxygen, which is about 438 cubic feet each day, which just happens to be mixed with the right proportions, about 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen in our atmosphere.

Each of us have a unique DNA, which is our genetic makeup.

Each DNA molecule contains 20 billion bits of information, which is equivalent to 4,000 volumes of a 500-page book or two million pages of printed type.

Scientists have now discovered that the ridges on your feet and the grooves on the bottom of your feet are so unique they can be seen as fingerprints, which can allow someone to identify you if you happen to come up missing.

God has created you.

He has made you.

And because of that, you have value and you have life.

You have meaning.

Look at Psalm 139, verse 1.

Psalms 139:1

Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all of my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high.

Searched me.

Known me.

Discern my thoughts.

Search out my path.

You know when I take a nap, and you know when I'm wide awake.

God knows our being, our actions, our thoughts, our behavior, and our speech.

He knows everything that you do, he knows everything that you think, he knows everywhere that you go, and he doesn't even need life 360 to find it.

No matter where you are, God sees you, hears you, He knows you.

This isn't just true after you were born, this is also true when you were in the womb.

Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5.

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

And before you were born, I consecrated you.

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Even before your parents knew what your name was going to be called, even before your parents knew whether you were going to be a boy or a girl, even before you knew what Enneagram number that you were, which meant this is how you're supposed to act, God knew you.

God put his stamp on you.

God began to set you apart for something significant and something special.

Second thing I want you to see today is this God knows me.

God knows me.

I'm not just a collection of cells going down an assembly line and that comes out with something at the end.

I am created and I am known at the moment of conception.

How do I know this?

Luke chapter 1 tells the story of Elizabeth, who was pregnant, and Mary, her cousin, comes over to go and visit.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

In Luke 1.41, it says, And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

The word baby there is the Greek word brevos.

It's the same word that's used one chapter later in Luke chapter 2, verse 12, which tells the story now of Mary having delivered her own child, the baby Jesus, and in verse 12 it says, And this will be a sign for you.

Luke 2:12

You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

What you see is the very same word brevos is used there in Luke chapter 2, verse 12, which was also used in Luke chapter 1, verse 41.

Luke 2:12 Luke 1:41

In both cases, they are said to be a baby, yet one is in the womb and one is outside of the womb.

What does this tell us?

From the very beginning, God is pro-life.

Not just life for the born, which is for sure the case, but he's also for the unborn.

Let's consider briefly, though, what the culture tells us, because some people may deny the creator, some people may deny the designer, some people may suggest that this is not an issue that has anything to do with God whatsoever, instead, it has everything to do with me.

Let me tell you two of the most common categories that I see people begin to talk about this particular issue.

First of all, they would say this is a political issue.

This is a political issue.

We are in a political season.

They're gonna do everything they can to appeal to you, the voter, to begin to pick their way of America.

And in the midst of this election, it has been made clear that this is going to be a primary issue for the Republican Party and for the Democratic Party.

Gonna hear about a pro-life agenda, gonna hear about a pro-choice agenda.

Part of the problem, this is a warning we need to all hear when it comes to an election season, is when a Christian aligns themselves with a particular political party, is that your beliefs become encompassed with the political party platform instead of biblical conviction.

We are now seeing that neither party holds a biblical position when it comes to the issue of life.

Democrats would be pro-choice, saying this is a healthcare issue and all about a woman's right to choose.

Republicans celebrate the overturn of Roe versus Wade, which allowed abortion at the federal level, and put it back into the individual state's decision to choose.

So now, ultimately, it is up to the states to decide what is the definition of life.

Let me make this clear.

This is not a political issue, it's a theological issue.

Even if Republicans change their opinion on what it means to be pro-life, and even if the states vote that it allows there to be abortions up to a certain point, God has not changed his mind.

And we must be people with biblical conviction rather than blindly following parties which will lead us away from God's truth.

The goal is not that getting an abortion is illegal.

The goal is that getting an abortion is unthinkable.

This is why we want to uphold the value of life, the sanctity of life, the way that we think about life, regardless of what the Republicans or the Democrats say.

Culture would also not only tell us this is a political issue, it would also tell us, second, this is a private issue.

This is a private issue.

In fact, they would look right now, maybe you are today, right now, looking at me, and you're thinking, how arrogant that a white man is telling me what to think about what to do with my body or somebody else's body.

I would tell you this.

I actually sympathize with that.

I get that.

I can understand why that would be the case.

However, based upon what the Bible says, if it is true, that is not something just in you.

This is another person who also has rights, who also has value, and who also needs to be protected.

This is a person who will one day not be in you, but will be in its own, be its own person.

Because of this, the size of the baby isn't what gives it its value, nor the location of the baby is what gives it its value.

The fact that God created it, that's what gives it its value.

You will hear this issue debated about whether a woman has the right to choose or whether a woman has rights to control her own body.

We don't actually believe that you can't legislate the rights of certain people, nor do we actually believe that your rights are absolute always.

You can't just say I have the right to put whatever I want into my body whenever I want, otherwise, drugs would not be illegal.

The reason why drugs are illegal is because of the harm it does to the individual and because of what it then causes there to be an issue of safety for the rights of other people.

And so, therefore, if there's a conflict between my rights, which can then impede on your rights, then it is not crazy for us to begin to legislate saying that you are not allowed to use your rights if it's going to harm someone else.

The same way, if someone decided that they wanted to, it was their body and their rights, and they wanted to stand out in the middle of 1960, take all of their clothes off, and stand there in the middle of traffic, besides the fact that that would be very odd and very weird, they would be immediately arrested for indecent exposure.

Why?

Because just because it's their right doesn't mean they get the right to do it.

If it causes and causes harm to other people.

Because we understand this, we know that there is a reason why we need to defend the rights of those who cannot speak up for themselves.

Another argument you're going to hear is that you can't legislate morality.

We can't tell people what they can do and what they can't do, and that's also totally false.

As a civilized society, we celebrate the fact that we legislate against murder and against child abuse and against incest and rape and assault all the time.

We have laws meant to help uh eliminate sex trafficking.

We also make sure that you are not allowed legally to own another person.

And for the good of society, we uphold and protect the civil rights of all people.

These are all made for the good of society and to promote honor and life.

In the same way, because of what God says about the unborn, we have to seek to protect the most vulnerable among us and to make sure that they have value and to make sure that they have life.

The question then becomes what do we do about this?

In light of what God says, how do we respond?

First thing that I would tell you, this is so important, is to pray.

Notice I didn't say post.

Because that's what we want to do.

That's what's easiest to do.

But we need to make sure that we are a people who have less polished arguments and more worn-out knees.

Because this is not an issue that is going to be won over intellect.

This is a spiritual issue at the core, and we must fight it or the battle is actually taking place.

And that is in the principalities of the evil of the world, the prince of the power of the air is what Ephesians chapter 2 says.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Therefore, we must pray that this issue of life would not be seen as political or private, even a personal issue.

This would be seen as a gospel issue.

Pray for those who have been affected by abortion.

Pray for those who have participated in it.

Pray for those who have profited from it.

Pray for those who are considering it.

Pray for those 1% cases.

So much of the argument that's a lot of times used around the issue of abortion says the well, what about this?

Or what about this situation?

Those represent 1% of the total number of abortions that take place.

That being said, we must pray, because those are difficult situations that are very complex.

And we need to pray that God's grace and mercy would show up and be real in the midst of the messiest of situations.

First John chapter 5, verse 14 and 15, and this is the confidence that we have toward him.

1 John 5:14

That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him.

This is not only inviting us into the throne room of God and to pray, knowing that he will hear us, what the Bible tells us, that if we actually pray in alignment with what he says that he wants, that we can guarantee it'll be heard.

This is not an issue where we have to wonder what God thinks.

This is an issue where God has been abundantly clear.

So let us as his people come boldly to the throne, praying and asking God, God, would you intercede?

God, would you allow our country, those that are around us, to respect, honor life.

Pray for legislators and government officials to promote and uphold true pro-life positions.

Pray for you personally to have a heart for life.

One of the biggest things I constantly see in the Church of Jesus Christ in the midst of my time in ministry when it comes to the issue of life is apathy.

They are informed but not engaged.

Pray and see how God would desire for you to take a step to be able to be engaged in this issue.

Not just one that just knows the talking points, but instead uses your time, uses your resources, uses your gifts to serve those who need to uphold life.

Number two, point of application is support pro-life causes.

Support pro-life causes.

We as a church have recently begun a very strategic and exciting partnership with CareNet Pregnancy Center.

CareNet is a national organization.

It's had a couple of locations in the Houston area, in Cyprus, as well as in Champions area, and felt a need because of an under-resourced area, identified the northeast area of Houston as an under-resourced area when it came to the issue of pro-life, the pregnancy centers.

So in January 2nd of this year, they opened up a brand new facility.

It's not a brand new facility, but it's brand new to them, but a brand new location here in the northeast area of Houston.

It's located on Will Clayton Parkway, right diagonal from Turner Stadium in Umble.

Used to be the old Gallagher Insurance Building, if that means anything to you.

This is an incredible state-of-the-art facility.

And God is able to do some amazing things in and through this place.

Flora Lopez is the director.

She is actually out in the lobby.

I want to encourage you to make sure you go by and talk to Flora.

You go and find out how you can be a part of this ministry, how you can serve in this ministry, how you can come alongside of this ministry.

Let me tell you a little bit about how God has already been answering our prayers.

They've seen 247 clients come to the center since January 2nd when they opened.

They believe that the reach of this one single location can be up to a million people that can be served with pro-life resources.

What I love most about this ministry, though, is that it's not just pro-life in the sense that they're gonna try to encourage you towards adoption or encourage foster care or encourage you to be able to take a baby to term, but they also are all about the most important thing, which is how you can experience eternal life.

It's Christian through and through.

And they've already seen so far this year, 50 people have given their lives to Jesus at the Karen Hat Friday State Center.

Let's praise God for that.

She graduated from the training, which is very extensive.

She's now able to see clients on her own.

She'd love to talk to you about this.

Flora would love to talk to you about this.

Let me just encourage you.

I firmly believe if Jesus was to come back and he was gonna hang out for a little bit and check things out before he took us all up to heaven with him, I think this is where he would hang out.

I think this is where he would be.

I think this is the type of frontline ministry that Jesus would be all about.

And I want to encourage you to give to this ministry.

I want to encourage you to serve in this ministry.

I want to encourage you to pray for and with this ministry.

Don't let this just become something where we're really glad people have an option if we ever need it.

But instead, may we be a people who support these life-giving ministries with all of our attention, with all of our resources, with all of our service, and with all of our support.

I pray they find in United City Church the greatest supporting church they could possibly ever have.

Because I firmly believe this is the type of ministry that God has called us to not only be informed about, but to be engaged with.

Denise Sauters is over this ministry.

It's a Christian-based ministry.

It's designed to not only help those who are looking to put their children up for adoption, to assist them on that side of things, but it's also meant to help alongside families who are desiring to adopt a child, to be able to be placed with a child.

Many families in our church have used AIM, this incredible ministry, this matchmaking ministry to be able to see families brought together and for God to be honored.

In addition, there's a ministry in the lobby that helps with foster care named Arrow.

I want to encourage you to go and to visit that.

Foster care is an area that if we want to help alleviate so many of the problems that exist when it comes to the issues of pro-life, then we've got as a church can't just vote and can't just post, but we've also got to help with foster care.

If God has not personally called you to foster another child, let me encourage you: if you know somebody that he has, you bless the heck out of them.

You give them resources, you go and watch their kids, you go and give them groceries, you do whatever you can so that we are active participants in helping.

Whether God has called you to personally do it, or whether God has called you to support those who do.

I want to ask you to put your phones out and take a picture here.

We did this last week.

I want to encourage you to do it again.

This is a QR code.

This QR code is gonna let you kind of double-click on some of these resources that I have described to you.

It's gonna give you some additional articles, gonna give you some additional books that you can look at.

You can get a little bit more information related to this issue.

Of course, I'm not gonna be able to cover all of this in a single message, but I want to make sure you also, in the midst of taking advantage of this, get to see CareNet Pregnancy Center.

You're gonna get to see the information for Arrow, you're gonna get to see the information for AIM, you're gonna get to see the information about some post-abortion recovery classes that we want to highlight.

You're gonna get to see some resources that can help you no matter where you find yourself as you approach this very important topic.

The final thing.

This issue is not a taboo one just because of the politics.

This is instead a taboo one because of how close it is.

Some of you in this room have either encouraged someone else to have an abortion.

You've done nothing.

Maybe you're a dad.

Maybe you're a dad.

I want to ask that you be honest.

That you get real.

My name is Paula McFarland.

So I accepted Christ as my savior when I was 19.

Uh, but unfortunately, when I moved out on my own, I started making really bad choices.

And I ended up getting pregnant, and I felt just so much shame.

I didn't want to tell my Christian parents the lifestyle choices that I had made.

And so I chose an abortion, and the shame that I felt beforehand was nothing compared to the shame that I felt afterwards.

I had a really hard time with relationships and um just with my self-esteem.

I didn't really like myself after I had done that.

It was traumatizing.

Uh, I remember just right after the abortion, going up into my apartment and just putting on my pajamas and getting under the covers.

And I just never talked about it after that.

I stuffed all those emotions down, and um then many years later I had renewed my relationship with God, and I was doing good, and and um I was got married to Hugh, and um and then we had our first child.

I just didn't feel forgiven.

I asked God all the time to forgive me, and I never felt forgiven.

One day I was at church, and um I had a woman got up and told her testimony about how she had abortion, and I ended up going into the class, and we talked about all the stages of grief, and as we did that, I realized that I had just stuffed all of these emotions, and I was finally able to accept God's forgiveness, and I finally realized that He loved me, and um and I was healed from depression and anxiety.

Well, now I my heart is for other women who've gone through this, and I just want them to feel that same forgiveness that I felt.

I want them to go through the grief process and be healed.

Call someone who's had an abortion.

Uh, tell them your story because there's something freeing about bringing this out into the light.

Paula now leads a post-abortion recovery class through Lifeline.

Uh, it's gonna be meeting in September.

Uh it's on the QR code that we had asked you to check just a second ago.

If you would like more information about that, please contact us.

I know Paula would love to talk to you even long before then, but invite you to be a part of that class and experience healing.

Paula's story is all of our story.

Maybe your specifics are different.

Maybe for some of you, though, your specifics are the exact same.

We've had people all morning long who've come forward and one and one of the services just said, it happened a long time ago, and that's all they could say.

And what we got a chance to do was just to put our arms around him and say, Jesus loves you, he knows you, he sees you, he created you.

And for some of you, your story is this: you feel like all you can possibly do because you know enough about church and you've been around church that you can get like a seven out of ten.

But you can't get any further than that.

And it's like you got a lid.

And God wants nothing more than to be able to show you his mercy and to be able to show you his grace and to be able to show you his kindness to you.

But it can only happen when you do exactly what Paula said at the end of that video, which is to let the things in the dark come out into the light.

For some of you, if that's your story and your story is one of abortion, I want you to know this.

You're not the only one.

And I want you to know this, though, God desires to bring a healing and a process to your life, but it can only come whenever you're honest.

And so I just want to ask, I know this is a huge, bold request, but this is part of the application, is confess and be restored today.

Confess and begin that process.

Do exactly what Paula did when she heard somebody else do it and be like, oh, that's me.

Some of you though, your story is not that you've had an abortion, but your story is that you got something.

You got something in your past, you got something you did last night, you got something you did a couple of weeks ago, you got something that you did 10 years ago, you got something that happened to you when you were a child, and you've never talked about it before, and it wasn't something that you did, but somebody did something to you, and it has forever shaped how you view God.

It's a seven out of ten, it's the best I could do.

And you've kept it quiet, you've kept it secret, and you've wanted nothing more than just to make sure everybody else thinks you're good and nobody thinks that you're bad.

And I instead just want to beg you to confess and be restored.

There is freedom that comes.

And you bring those things that were in the dark and you bring them into the light.

It's painful and it hurts, but God is a master.

And not only intricately weaving us in the depths of the earth, but also putting back the broken pieces together.

If today you need to experience the freedom that comes with knowing Jesus, by confession, would you do that today?

Maybe others are here today and you need a relationship with Jesus.

You've got a God-sized hole in your heart, and you've been trying everything that you possibly can to fill that, trying to do your own thing, or trying to be religious, or trying to just lean on yourself, and you just know all you've discovered is that you're just not happy.

You're just not satisfied, you're just not whole.

And that's because you were made for a relationship with the one who made you.

And he desires to have that with you, but he can't because of your sin.

But he sent his one and only son, Jesus, to make a way when there was no way.

He died on a cross for you, he rose from the dead, and he invites you to not only receive the cleansing power of his salvation, but he also invites you to come into a relationship with him where he knows you.

He's proud of you, he wants to be with you.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes all across this room?

If you're joining me online, let me invite you to do the very same thing.

I want to just plead with you.

If today you need to know Jesus, let me speak to you first.

I want you to pray this simple prayer.

It's going to change your life.

Just say these words, dear God, I want to know you.

I believe that you died on a cross for me.

I believe that you rose from the dead, and right now I receive the sacrifice of your son on my behalf.

I ask that you come into my life to be my Lord, to be my Savior, to save me, to forgive me of all of it.

I commit right now to live for you.

Continue to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

If you're here today and maybe God is leading you to join United City.

In just a moment, what I'm gonna ask you to do is to come forward and let that be your way of identifying with us through formal membership.

Others of you need to be baptized.

This is your next step, and you know it.

I mean, this is gonna be an invitation for you to come and let us schedule your baptism.

But if you just gave your life to Jesus, I'm gonna ask you to just step out from where you are.

Our team's gonna be up front and on the sides, and I just want you to tell them, I just pray to give my life to Jesus.

For some of you, you need to confess and be restored today, just like we saw.

Man, it was hard to watch.

It was difficult, not because, not because of the tears that came, but because of the fact that knowing they've been, they've been they've been holding that for so long.

God desires that he would meet your tears today with his goodness and his grace.

Would you maybe give him the opportunity to do that today?

You come forward here in just a moment and and let us know.

Let us pray with you, let us hug you, let us come alongside and show you the love of Christ.

Others of you maybe are here today and you need to you need to seek prayer on how do I get involved.

I don't just want to be informed, I want to be engaged.

What do I need to do?

Maybe for you, you need to come and pray about that.

Maybe you've got another need, something else weighing and pressing on your heart.

I want you to know you've got a God who knows you, a God who sees you, a God who created you, and he wants to hear from his child.

So maybe for you today, you just need to come and pray.

Our team would love nothing more, and just to pray with and to pray for you.

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments left together.

Thank you, Jesus, for your salvation and your friendship.

The fact that you love us, care about us, and desire to be with us.

I pray, God, that you'd move in these moments we have left together.

It's in Jesus' name that I pray.

Amen.

Wow, what an amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh, new way.

Hey, if you made a decision today to follow Jesus or a decision for Christ, we would love to process that with you.

And so, text the word next to 55498, and someone from our team will be more than happy to reach out and process that with you.

If you missed the message or you missed a note or two and you want to go back, don't worry.

We've got the option for that as well.

It's going to be available on Spotify as well as Apple Music.

This has been an amazing morning.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you next week.

Bye.