Mark 14:66-72 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Aaron Levy

Thank you so much for coveted church who's ready to

squeeze these scriptures. Man, we've been in the Book of

Mark all year. We're already a Mark Chapter fourteen. I'm

so honored anytime I get to be a part of

the rotation. So I want to just bless our lead pastor,

Pastor Adam for and trusted me with this opportunity. You know,

I also want to honor Pastor Herron because every single

time he's preached on the Book of Mark, he has

crushed it. Thank you so much for being a preacher

among preacher. We just got some excellent preachers here, a patriot, right,

a man, a man. So we're gonna be a Mark

Chapter fourteen, verse sixty six through seventy two. And the

way we want to level set is we're gonna think

about a Christian who's had their worst day, a Christian

who's had their worst moment, because that's what's gonna happen

tonight with Peter. We're looking at six verse and in

these six verses are like the worst moments of his life.

Like Netflix can do a documentary on this, the lies,

the betrayal, the rooster crows. You know, it's just like

it could be a whole situation. But as we look

at this tonight, sometimes when we read the Bible, you're like, man,

that's crazy. That's what Peter did. But what I want

us to do tonight is see a little bit of Simon,

Peter and us and see how can we prevent this,

but also see how Jesus responds to our worst day

as well. Amen. So what that said, let's all stand

to our feet. We're gonna be in Mark chapter fourteen,

verse sixty six through seventy two. I'm gonna read from

ESV where it'll be on the screens. And as Peter

was below in the courtyard, one of the serving girls

of the high priest came and, seeing Peter warming himself,

she looked at him and said, you also were with

the nazarene Jesus. But he denied it, saying I neither

know nor understand what you mean. And you went out

into the gateway and the rooster crowed. The servant girl

saw him and begin again to say to the bystanders,

this man is one of them. But again he denied it,

And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter,

certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.

But he began to invoke a curse on himself and

to swear, I don't know what the mouth. Oh wait,

my bue, Okay, I don't know this man of whom

you speak. And immediately the rooster crowed a second time,

and Peter remembered everybody said, remembered how Jesus has said

to him before the rooster crows twice, you will denying

me three times. And he broke down and he wept.

Let's pray as we still stand God, your word is truth.

We're not gonna have a casual approach to your word

because we know that your word can change our lives.

So I thank you that your word tonight will convict

and strengthen and encourage and set us free. I thank

you tonight that it'll feel like we're just having one

on ones somehow, because your holy Spirit will connect with us.

In Jesus' name. Amen, you may be CD, you may

be sedd. Hey, we're gonna look at six verses and

I'm gonna share what I do. When I first look

at a perickopee, a little section of scripture, I start

looking at like key words, key places, key people, et cetera,

et cetera. So there's gonna be some things on the

screens on some key people, terms in places in these

six verses. Let's start with the people. You got, Peter,

you got a servant girl, the high priest, Jesus bystanders

and them. Everybody say them, who is them? Who is them?

We always say, well, they did it, they did it.

You know, we'll come back to that. Now. There's these

terms that stand out, denied, rooster, crowed, and remembered. But

there's three places I want us to center in for tonight,

and those will be the sermon points. We saw that

Peter was in a courtyard. We saw that Peter was

in a gateway, and I used my holy imagination to

say that Peter was at an altar, because an altar

is a place where you remember what God said and

you allow it to change you. An altar is a

place where you go when you hear from God and

it breaks you. So we're gonna talk about three things tonight.

If I were to the scriptures into three categories, here's

what it is. Verse sixty six through sixty eight is

the courtyard. Verse sixty nine through seventy one is the gateway.

In verse of seventy two is the altar, and the

title of this message. Look to your neighbor and say

where are you. Look to the other neighbor. You already

know where they are, You just didn't choose them. Look

to them and say where are you? You know, it's

funny you could be right next to somebody but still

not know where they are mentally, not know where they

are emotionally. So we could sit next to somebody, but like,

where are you? You know. There's an app in my

phone called fine Mine. We have it on Apple phones.

I don't know if it's on droids because droid phones

are of the devil. But in Apple phones, anybody familiar,

anybody familiar with this app find Mine. So this is

a situation where it could remind us this is how

God always sees us. By the way, but the more

trusted people we have in our circle. Pastor Heron was

talking about this about Burritos in Brotherhood that if we're

going to lead, we got to be open to community.

So we should have some people in our life that

don't have to ask where are you because they already

know where you are. And there's sometimes in our life

that we can be deceived and not know where we are.

So thank God we have community that can tell us

where we are when we're denying where we are. If

you think about Peter what led to him having his

worst moment, it starts we got to look at patterns

in the Bible. It started with Peter disagreeing with God,

and that disagreeing with God caused a distance from God.

And then that distance is where he denied himself with God.

Because if we look at Gin, this is chapter three,

verse nine. This title where are you? Just comes from scripture.

The very first question that God asks in the Bible

is Adam, where are you? Now? Did God know where

Adam was at? So why is he asking the question?

Because God wants to know if we'll be honest enough

to confess where we really are. If you look at Adam,

he disagreed with God because God told him not to

do something. He disagreed caused the distance. Then he denied

the truth to ape the fruit with his wife. And

God is saying where are you? And he's saying that

to us tonight because we're all inside of Patria, but

we may be in different places and we're gonna explain

that by kind of squeezing what happened with Peter. So

we're gonna go to the first point. We're gonna go

to the courtyard, and I'm gonna use a little bit

of context. And whenever we read the Bible, context is

critical because it helps us to learn more. So if

we look at verse fifty four through fifty five, it

helps us to understand how Peter was in the courtyard.

Just a little bit of context. If you weren't here

last week, I would recommend you go on YouTube and

hear Pastor Heron's message. But what's happening right now is

Jesus gets betrayed by Judas. He's doing a mistrial in

the house right now. This is right after Peter tried

to be tough in front of Jesus, try to cut

off Malcu's ear, but when he recognizes it, gets really tough.

Here's the context that we're in. Then they seized him

being Jesus and led him away, bringing him into the

high priest house, and Peter was following at a distance.

And then he had kindled a fire in the middle

of the courtyard and sat down together. Peter said, down

among them Verse sixty six, and as Peter was below

in the courtyard, one of the servant girls the high

priest came and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at

him and said, you were also with Jesus the Nazarene.

But he denied it. Noticed distance came before denial. Now

neither know nor understand what you mean. And he went

out into the gateway, and the rooster crowed, let's talk

about the courtyard. So to make this practical for you

and I, Patriot has a beautiful courtyard. How many of

you guys love hanging in our courtyard at Patria. The music,

we got kombucha, you could get merched, we got coffee,

we got shade, we got fire pits coming. But there

are sometimes where we enjoy the vibes of church instead

of victory in Christ. And I have found myself enjoying

being in the courtyard because I don't have to bring

my soul inside. Sometimes we bring our situation to church,

but our soul stays in the courtyard. So our situation

is bast And now I gotta come to church so

God can fix my situation. But we just stay on

the outside. Let me speak a little further about that,

because we see Peter having Jesus in the house, but

Peter's in the courtyard. So that begs the question for you,

Ae night tonight, are you a courtyard Christian? Because Peter

loves Jesus. Peter's a leader, he's following Christ. But could

it be in certain seasons we've been courtyard Christians. All

we gotta do is look at a couple of verses

and extract the principles so we can get in front

of our face verse fifty four, Following Jesus at a

distance Courtyard Christians. They're following Jesus, but at a distance. Now,

how do we check our distance with Jesus? How did

you start your morning this morning? Did you start your

time thanking Jesus? Did you start your time in Bible study?

There's no shame, no condemnation, But if you don't start

your day with Jesus, by the time you get started,

it's hard to get reminded that Jesus is present with

you all day. Following Jesus at a distance brings trouble

into our lives. The next one, verse fifty five, sitting

with the wrong crowd, how many times have we come

to church? We get a good word. But we're in

the same text message group that strays us away from Christianity,

sitting with the wrong crowd. The next one, warming yourself.

There seasons in our life forere instead of getting the

warmth of God's love, we're warming ourself with the enemies fire.

Notice with fire he's at He's at the enemy's courtyard,

warming himself. And there are times in our life where

we could be playing with fire, warming ourselves in the

enemies camp. But the only enemies fire is hell. So

if we think about God's love, that's what brings our warmth,

but not out in the courtyard. You gotta be your

soul into the house so you can have the presence

of God. But that includes suffering. Peter wasn't willing to

suffer in that moment. So I'll stay outside in the

courtyard and try to warm myself. What about the next one?

Walk with Jesus in the past. Hey, wouldn't that you?

You're the one that walked with Jesus. No, that wouldn't me.

But there's a double two things in this. Sometimes when

we talk about walking with Jesus, we talk about our

old testimonies from the past. Oh yeah, I used to

walk with Jesus. I used to be an usher at

First Missionary Baptist Pentecosta off of Crenshaw, and we used

to do that back in the day, and I used

to be the head usher in the deacon. But we're

talking about twenty twenty four. What is Jesus doing in

your life today? Not following Jesus from a distance, not

lingering from the old days of how we serve Jesus.

How is Jesus moving in your life today? Next one

may be most important. I put deny Jesus, but I

put here compromise values in relationships, because if we just

look at the fact that he denied Jesus, we would

be like, man, that's crazy that Peter would do that.

I don't deny Jesus. Well, you have freedom to come

to church. You just got to decide if you're gonna come.

Your safety's not in danger at this time. But how

many times have we denied Jesus As it relates to

the relationships we allow in our life. See, he's close

to Jesus. When he's close to Jesus, he's a thug.

I'm gonna cut off Malcou's ear. When he's distant from Jesus.

All it takes is the right girl to ask him

a question, and he asks, like he know, Jesus, how

many times? Men? And this may be you're season now

men where you're coming to church because of the girls

in the courtyard. And that's okay, God made beautiful creation.

But at the same token, if that's your why in

coming to church, we may want to check up on that,

we may want to check up on that because if

you look at Peter could be a church leader, but

see this female in the courtyard, that causes him to compromise.

We better take heed lest we fall. Women, we're not

off the hook. I mean, you're not off the hook. Pausing,

Notice this serving girl. She's serving the high priest. It

doesn't say she's serving Christ. Right, So she's close to

the House of God, but she's not serving God. She's

serving the high Priest. Then she's looking at this man.

She's noticing men in the courtyard. And there are some

times when women are serving Christ not for God, but

to end up with a man of God. So I'm

gonna serve, I'm gonna do the right things because I'm

single and I'm knowing that the God is gonna put

give me a man. So I'm in position and I'm

waiting for a man. I'm not saying this off theory.

I'm just saying this off of pastoring. I remember I

was over a ministry about seven years ago and the

male leader left, and about a week later, I get

an email from the female saying, I'm leaving the ministry

as well. Anybody. Anytime somebody leaves the ministry, I want

to meet with them. Sit down, Hey, what's going on?

What can we learn? How can we grow with blah

blah blah blah blah When we got under the surface,

what ends up happening is she said, Well, I had

a crush on the leader, and now that he's gone,

I know I can't connect with him. So I might

as well not be at this church. And I say, hey,

thank you for your honesty. But Jesus still here, and

thank God she is still serving in this church today.

I just won't share her name. But there are times,

well we may not even know it because we don't

have people that are saying, hey, man, where are you?

Where are you are you serving to get close to him?

Where are you are you just coming in the church

to check this out? Where are you. And Peter in

this moment, has no one around him to ask him, Hey, bro,

where are you? Remember Peter, you say you was willing

to die for Jesus? Where are you? So? Now he

has roosters crowing in his background. And see, that's when

we know that we're you're a Christian when we're doing

these things that we're not supposed to be doing. But

in the back of our mind, in the pit of

our soul, we have roosters crowing, reminding us that this

ain't right. I should break up with him. I just

stop going there. I'm warming myself with my ex boyfriend

instead of warming myself with the presence of God. But

where are you? Say, where are you? So? Notice this,

he's not in the house with Jesus. He's out in

the courtyard. And out in the courtyard is where he

denied Christ. He hears the rooster crowing. And when the

rooster crowing, it didn't cause him to run into the house.

It caused him to stray further from the house and

he ends up going to the gateway. Now, if you

look at our courtyard, if you zoom out, you're gonna

see a beautiful gateway at Patrio. I mean, if you

guys love our new logo and love our gate, love

our resources at Patriot. There's been many times in my

life when I first started coming to Patrio, where I'll

be coming to to church holding my wife's hand and

feeling guilt in the gate Am I the only one?

I remember telling my leader, Pastor Lacrease Steve Segovia, the

leader over youth at that time, Hey, I'm not mature

enough to serve in this season. I'm gonna spend some

time prioritizing my wife and my kids, but I will

walk in the gateway and I will feel so guilty.

I should be doing more. I should be, But I

didn't have anybody in my life saying, Aaron, where are you?

Where are you? You're fine, You're running the right play

guilt in the gate There's been times in my life

where I've come up to gates of churches listening to

little Wayne in the background and not enough courage to

come into the church because I had guilt in the gateway.

I may not be the only one. Because Peter, as

a church leader, doesn't find himself in the house, doesn't

find himself in the courtyard. He finds himself in the gateway.

Let's look at verse sixty nine. And the servant girl

saw him and began to say to the bystander, this

man is one of them. But again he denied, and

after a little while the bystanders said again to Peter,

certainly you're one of them, for you are a Galilean.

But he began to invoke a curse on himself and

to square, I don't know this man of whom you speak,

And immediately the rooster crode a second time. This is

how life works. Peter is warming himself at the enemy's fire,

does something he shouldn't do, shouldn't have, has no business

doing with a female, and that female tells bystanders, and

now bystanders are at the gate confronting Peter. That's what

we're seeing on social media. That's what we're seeing with leaders.

That's what we're seeing with celebrities. Had a bad moment,

but this moment is spreading. And now these bystanders, aren't

you one of them? Aren't you supposed to be a disciple?

Are Why aren't you next to Jesus? You was with

home chit? And what happens when all these bystanders are

describing us, and these females are describing us, and we're

nowhere near Jesus. This is where Peter is right now.

This is where some of us may be right now.

Guilt in the gate and you know what it reminds

me of tailgating. I took a picture, but I use wisdom.

I've been married seventeen years now. I had a picture

of me and my wife when I took her to

a Raider game, and I said, now, I'm a chill

because like, she'll be mad at me if I show it,

because no, we didn't. We didn't look our best, like

have you ever? So I was looking at the picture

earlier and I was like, why didn't my friend tell me, like, hey,

y'all look whack? Like why did nobody told us? So

I was like, I'm not gonna show that picture, but

I do want to give love to Sean Singleton because

you're the one that sold me those raider tickets, the

one I took my wife to the game. But what

ends up happening. We go and we see the tailgating

and there's a map that shows how orchestrated and now

organized the tailgating is at a Raider game now now look,

can you guys see where the game is at? What's

bigger the tailgating or the actual game. There's so much

more opportunity to teilgate than to actually be in the game.

And is it that how life works? And sometimes that

is creeped in the church where we have so many

people outside of the gate and never getting in the game.

If we look at these two pictures right here, which

ones are the Raiders like? They're both dressed to play football.

One has the things, the block, the eyes, that got

shoulder pads, they got the right colors, they have jerseys.

But sometimes this is how we look at the church

as a church. Me and my wife when we came

early to that game and we're all in the in

the tailgating and seeing what was going on. I looked

over to my wife, I said, they ain't making it

to the game. They ain't making it to the game.

And how many times in the gateway we're trying to

look like we're in the game, but we're only in

the gate. And that begs the second question, do you

have a gateway gospel? See what the difference between being

at the gate and being in the game is. The

coach has to let you on the team. And there's

so many people in the gate but aren't in the game.

And here's how we know that we have a gate

way gospel when people complain at the gate but never

get in the game. See Jesus would flip tables in

the game. We have people on the outside at the

gate saying which tables need to be flipped? Please stop

complaining at the gate, get in the game. There are

so many people. This is what the church should do.

This is what the pastor should do. This is what

patriot kids should do. Whatever area that you may be

complaining may be an area that God is calling you

to lead in. I'm only saying that from experience, because

I'll go on a run complaining about my wife. My

wife do why should you do it? To God? You

need to talk to my wife God, And he said, well,

that's a product of your leadership. God. I repent and

I hope you forgive me. Leadership starts with a problem.

So if you're the person that sees the problem, that's

an opportunity to lead. But if we're complaining at the

gate and not getting in the game, maybe there's a

gateway gospel or I don't have to go through the

coach to get on the team. Second thing, we have

a gateway gospel if we fear the booze from bystanders.

You see, that's what was happening with Peter. The reason

why he denied Jesus is because he was afraid of

what the bystanders would say about him. And that's what

happens sometimes in this social media world where we look

for the approval in likes of strangers. I post something

who liked it, who shared it? Who didn't know where

the comments? And I don't even know who four or five, six,

I don't know who these people are. But it's so

amazing how bystanders can have an influence on my soul.

The next thing, I value how I look more than

how I live. We see these people in the gate man,

they looking good man, they got the right colors, they

got the schemes, they got the right music. They focus

on how we look, But the gospel is really supposed

to be focused on how we live. The last one

is consume more, the contribute. That's why Pastor Daniel, I.

Give you my money sometimes, you know, because he felt

in the room as soon as I'll give you my time,

my heart, Yeah, give you my money.

Everybody like, hands down because there are time. Oh just

think about as simple as social media. Raise your hand.

If you ever go on social media, okay, cool? Do

you look at other people's post more or do you

post more? Which one? Do you consume or do you contribute?

We consume, consume, consume, consume, consume, consume, and then maybe

put a selfie out there and then consume, consume, consume,

and in that consumer lifestyle that's creeped into the church.

Unfortunately who's preaching were already singing that song again. Okay,

this is what we need to change. Why is the chury?

I liked it, but because we're just used to consuming

instead of contributing. So a gateway gospel is I don't

have to be in the game. I could just share

what y'all need to do. But until I get in trouble, Hey, God,

can you help me? Let's not have a gateway gospel.

You know, there was a there was when we were

launching Pomona. There was a gentleman that didn't have his

best day and he got arrested and he called me

from prison and everything like that, and then he was

like pastor, when I took my mug shut. I forgive me,

but like I have my Pomona Launch Team shirt on.

When those are just bad moments and how you're treated

in those moments matter. I coulda been like, wait what,

wait what? Or bro, God loves you as is, God

loves you as his if you got the courage to

call me, let's walk through this together. So he's in

He's in the gate, just like some of us have

been in the gate. It's when we're outside of the

will of God, we're not contributing to the things of God,

and he's in his worst moment. But that's why the

last point is altered. But before we get to alter,

we got to ask ourselves, how did Peter get here?

How did he get here? He's a leader. Well, if

you look at his story in John chapter one, verse

forty two, when Jesus meets him, he says, you are Simon,

you shall be Peter. And Jesus has the patience to

walk with Simon Peter. That's why all through the New

Testament he would say, Simon, Peter, Simon, listen, Peter rock

Simon Peter, meaning all of us we have who we're

called to be in Christ. But we still got that stubborn,

selfish nature in us. And what happened was there will

be times in Simon Peter's life when he thought he

knew what was best, and he would disagree with God,

and he would distance himself from God. And now he

feels like he's the farthest he's been from God. And

now he hears the rooster crowing second time. And I

think these are the worst moments in a Christian's life

because now he has to deal with the booze from

the crowd and the rooster crowing external and internal. What

do you do when you hear the rooster crow and

it reminds you that Jesus was right. I'm not the

man I thought I was. I do need some growth.

I can be a little stubborn. I do still struggle

with this fear. And the bystanders are reverberating, and they're right,

aren't you a Christian? Yeah, I'm supposed to be a Christian,

but I can't get the ringing of the rooster crowing

out of my soul. Anybody been there where things have

gone wrong and you know it's your fault. And now

I got a little too public and you can't control

the narrative, and now you just stuck in the middle

of it with shame. That's where Simon Peter was. That's

where I've been, and I would venture to say that's

where we've all been at times. What do we do

when we hear the crowd and the crow. We get

reminded that Jesus is merciful, We get reminded that Jesus

is faithful. We get reminded that Jesus loves us in

spite of our worst day. But how do you do that?

You go from the gate all the way to the altar.

If we go to verse seventy two, it says, and

immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Peter remembered how

Jesus had said to him before the rooster crows twice,

you will deny me three times. And he broke down

and wept. Can you picture, Peter, Can you picture your

I know if picture seeses in my life? God, you

are right. I am selfish. See Peter's lies turned into Christ.

Couldn't hide no more. This is who I am. I'm

the person that was supposed to be the leader, and

I deny Jesus, and all I could do at this

moment is come to the altar and accept the truth.

And see that's confession. And that's all God was asking

Adam to do in Genesis three, where are you? If

you read Genesis three yourself, you'll notice that Adam dodged

the question. He did everything except answer the question what

about you? God is asking you where are you? And

Peter will be at the altar, and as the rooster's crowing,

it's reminding him of the truth of Jesus. So if

the truth is, if Jesus is right about the truth

of my failure, I also have to conclude that Jesus

is right and the truth of his grace. And that's

what Peter decided. But the question is, when is the

last time you've heard the truth of the gospel and

it broke you down to tears? When's the last time

you heard the truth about yourself and it allowed to

break you down. See when it says that he wept bitterly,

Peter was bitter with himself. And when we were singing

withholding nothing, Sometimes we need to stop with holding in

our tears because our tears release our bitterness with ourselves.

Sometimes we can receive the forgiveness of Jesus. We can

receive the forgiveness from our spouse, we can't receive forgiveness

of our self. So in this moment, he breaks down

and he weeps bitterly because you know what, the servant

girl was right, Jesus was right, the bystanders was right.

I'm not in the game right now, and I told

Jesus I would be right there by his side. And

the reason why we look at these stories is not

to be like dang Peter, that's crazy. No man, where

do I do that? Where do I act tough with

my talk? But when it comes to really walking out

this Christianity, I'm at the gate. See, Peter would need

these moments in his life because Jesus was preparing Peter

to be a pastor. And it's hard to be a

stubborn pastor because you don't give grace to others. But

Peter didn't know how to give grace to himself. So

here's what happened. Jesus. You have to read it yourself,

Luke twenty two. Peter, you're gonna fail. I just pray

your faith doesn't fail. And the reason why I'm saying

this is because I've sense that there are people in

this room that are grappling with their failure and don't

know what to do next. Let me tell you some

more of the story and hopefully give you some encouragement. Peter,

he weeps bitterly, and in this moment he's at his worst.

He says he's going to go back to being an entrepreneur.

I failed, I missed it. But as he goes back

to his fishing business, guess who meets him again, Jesus.

And Jesus gives Peter another opportunity to follow him. And

Jesus is giving you an opportunity to follow him. He's

not asking for a whole account of what you've done

for the last seventeen years. No, that's the rooster crowing

in your own mind what Jesus is saying. From now?

Are you ready to have a from now on moment

with Jesus. I'll share this and then we'll pray. Peter

would need this moment in the Gate because there will

be a future season in his life and acts chapter

three where he wouldn't be at the Gate. He wouldn't

be at the courtyard, he wouldn't even be at the altar.

He would be on stage. He would be on stage

leading prayer meetings. I don't have time to read it

for the sake of time. But in Acts chapter three,

verse one through eight, Peter is on his way walking

to the prayer meeting, and on his way he sees

somebody at the gate. And see, that's the test of

you and I today that are in a Peter season

of being restored or encouragement for us if you're that

person in the gate right now, because Jesus allowed Peter

to fail at the gate so he can help someone

who fails at the gate. If you look at Acts

chapter three, verse one, there's a man who's laying. Peter

has to be somewhere, he has to lead prayer. But

as he's going on the way to prayer, he stops

and sees someone and has the same compassion on this

man that Jesus had on Peter. And he looks at

that man and he says, silver and gold I don't have,

but what I do have is the name of Jesus Christ. Rise,

I'll walk with you. He brought that man into the

prayer meeting. You're not gonna stay at the gate. You're

not gonna stay at the courtyard. You're gonna come with

me to the altar because I know my God is faithful.

I know my God is merciful, I know my God forgives,

I know my God moves forward. So you're gonna get

up with me. And that's why God allowed a seizon

of failure for me so I could be a living

testimony to help others. All of us need. Community of

us need to remember what it was like when we

were at the gate, and some of us need to

have encouragement because you're at the gate. So I want

to pray for you. If when I was talking about

the person that had a Gateway gospel, you're like Bruh.

And the reason why I felt that because that's how

I would feel that church when I would sit way

in the back, pastor Diego will be preaching, I'll be

like yo, but thank God for his mercy man. And

I'm a living witness to share it with you. If

you're in the gate, I just want to grab you

and tell you how good God is at the altar.

If you look at Psalm one hundred, verse four, in

verse five, it says we give him thanksgiving at the gate.

In this course, we give him pray. But some of

us never make it into the House of God. In

the House of God, that's when we learn that he's good,

and he's faithful and he's merciful. My plea to you

is get out the gate. My plead to you will

stop chilling in the courtyard. My plea to you is

come hang at the altar, because at the altar is

where your life changes. Here's the truth. Jesus loves you

as is. You don't have to change anything about yourself

to be loved by Jesus. But jesus love is so powerful,

and it's so influential and so compelling. It just influences

you to surrender decision by decision for him. You don't

have to think about all your decisions. You just got

to think about your next decision. Are you ready to

be forgiven? Are you ready to be free? Are you

ready to get out the gate? I would ask everybody

to bow their heads and close their eyes. If you're online,

I asked that you lock in with me. Jesus loves you,

he misses you. He wants a relation and ship with you.

And I want to lead you in a prayer. And

it's not this prayer, it's not this moment it's not

this music in the background that's going to save you.

It's this tingling feeling you're feeling your soul that you're

craving to be free, You're craving to be loved, and

Jesus will warm your soul right now. So I'm going

to ask all of us as a community to repeat

this prayer to encourage those that are praying the prayer

for the first time to give your life to Jesus

or rededicate your life to Jesus. If you don't agree

with the prayer, stay silent. But if you agree with

this prayer, you declare it out loud, say, dear Lord Jesus,

I believe that you died on the cross for all

of my sin. I receive your forgiveness. I receive a

fresh start from this moment forward. You are my savior

and my Lord. Teach me to trust you, teach me

to include you in my decisions. I rededicate my life

to you. Thank you for freeing me. In Jesus' name,