How to Stay on Your Course || Bishop Carl Smith

You know, it is really my privilege to honor a friend of mine,

a longtime friend. His name is Pastor Carl Smith. He has a lovely

wife, Adrian, and he has three beautiful daughters. How many grandkids you

have? Now? Five grandkids? And he pastors a one church up in

Oakland, and it used to be a Catholic church that he renovated. The

Catholic Church sold him the church. So I was there when it was like

a full blown Catholic church, and I could smell the incense and I could

smell you know, I said, give me a time alone. He let

me just walk through the Catholic church just to reminisce a little bit, say

a few hire our fathers, and no I did anyways, but True renovated

and it's just so pristine in a very polished area called Oakland. Pray for

Oakland. And then he has a second church which is about thirty five minutes

away in Pittsburgh, and that's his other location, thriving growing ministry. Just

a man after God's own heart, just somebody that loves his family, loves

his people. His church is twenty five years old. And I'd like you

to stand on your feet and welcome my friend Pastor Carl Smith as he preaches

the good news to you tonight in Jesus' name, Thank your buddy, your

well Amen. As we stand on our feet tonight, can you help me

give the King of Glory your best praise. The God we serve is just

so absolutely amazing, And every time I come to this house, I'm amazed

by God's grace and favor. Thirty years of ministry and excellence. Can you

help me put your hands together and congratulate in honor your pastor, my friend,

Pastor Diego and Cindy Mason. I told your pastor I've been doing this

for quite some time. I hope I don't look like it, but I've

been in ministry over three decades and there's not many churches that impress me.

But every time I walk on this campus, I am so impressed by what

God is doing in this house, what your pastor and your leadership teams are

doing, what you're doing as a church. This isn't happening everywhere, and

so what you have is just so powerful and so wonderful. It's amazing.

I'm so honored to be here tonight. You didn't tell me this is the

first service of Patrion, So I can say I managed that, the first

service of Patrio. Yeah, y'all pray for me. Y'all pray for me,

y'all pray for them. I'm looking for my clock, Pastor, I

don't see it. I'm looking for my clock all my time because they tell

me take my time. So you got that. Don't do that. Don't

do that, don't do that. You know. But it's amazing because I

come up here and I didn't know you all changed your name until I was

on my way up here. So God's done done this Abram Abraham thing with

you all, and it's powerful. It is absolutely powerful. You should be

honored to have such a wonderful community and a wonderful leadership team, a wonderful

pastor, and a wonderful church. He talked. The pastor talked about my

wife and my children and my grandchildren. Man, my grandchildren are amazing.

I know what it means. You can skip the kids and go straight to

the grands. I know what it means. Now. I love my grandchildren

because I didn't have any boys like him. He had three boys. I

had three girls. You get three girls a wife and then they want girl

dogs. It's tough. It's tough. I had a boy dog, but

he died on me. He couldn't hang out. And so I said,

my girls will give me boys. And my girls have given me three boys.

And I'm telling you those are my dudes. And so it's such a

privilege and honor to be here in such a sacred space and the minister the

word of Lord to you. Let's pray tonight. Father, we honor you,

and we bless you. We magnify you the fruit of our lips,

giving thanks and praise because you alone are the redeemer of our life. Father,

is your divine will and your divine plan that you set us on the

right course as we listen to your instructions. Some way, somehow you lead

us down a path of righteousness. For your namesake, Father, tonight,

I believe in my heart there's people that have come here tonight to hear from

you. They need to hear your voice, and they need your instructions.

Father, instruct them in righteousness, align their lives with you to the point

that their lives will give you glory, honor, and praise. Have your

way tonight, Father, and may you confirm every word with signs, wonders

and miracles. Can you say, man, you may have your seas if

you have your Bibles. Turned with me over to Psalms, and let's look

at one hundred and nineteen division of Psalms. I want to read verse one

through four, verse one through four. I'm going to read from my scriptures,

okay, and so in Psalms one nine, verse one through four,

it says you're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road

revealed by God. You're blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best

to find him. That's right, you don't go off on your own.

You will walk straight along the road. He said, you, God prescribe

the right way to live. Now you expect us to live. It is

that powerful I come to realize in life there are many courses that we can

get involved in to improve our lives in order to take our lives to the

next level. As a church, you just move to the next level.

This is what the next level looks like. And when you look at the

next level that you all have all of a sudden turned to chapter two,

a new chapter. You can look around the campus. You can get into

the environment here and you can see things are moving. It hasn't stopped.

There's movement, there's activity to continue to increase what God is ordained. That's

good. That's good. And so when you start thinking about courses in life,

there's race courses. How many runners in the house tonight? There's race

courses. There's leadership courses. Where are the leaders tonight? Say something?

There you go. Everyone should say say something because I believe everyone is a

potential leader in the House of God. And so there's leadership courses I believe

that we should take to be able to sharpen our skills. There's fitness courses.

Where's the fitness GUIDs, the fitness girls where they at tonight? There

you go, There you go. Then there's communication workshops that we can learn

to communicate better. And then there's financial literacy courses that we can take to

be good stewards over the finances that God gives us. All of the courses

I just mentioned are created to help people improve their lives for the better.

Listen to this. As helpful as they may be, they can't compare to

the courses God has planned for us to walk out in our everyday lives.

God has a plan for your life. Can you say that? I believe,

Patrio, the greatest discovery in life is for a person to discover that

God has a divine course already planned for your life, already planned, already

laid out, and everything God does is complete, and everything God does is

perfect. I want to talk to you tonight from the subject how to stay

on your course, not someone else's course, but how to stay on the

path that God has set for you. How to find that path and how

to stay on that path regardless of distractions, regardless of people going off course.

How do you stay on your course and finish the plan, the path

that God has divinely laid out just for you. See, I come to

realize anyone can start self improvement course, but do you have what it takes

to stay on course and finish what you started. I heard someone say that

most men don't finish well, and he was speaking of a man of God.

We were talking about men of God, and we were having this conversation.

This is someone I look up to and someone I call my mentor,

one of my mentors. And he said to me, he said, Carl,

most men of God don't finish well. And when he said that it

hit my heart real sharp, and I made a decision that day that I'm

wanna finish my course. And I just don't want to barely finish my course.

I want to finish my course. Well, you have to make up

in your mind and make up in your heart. You're not just gonna finish,

but you're gonna finish well. You're gonna finish well. Say I'm gonna

finish well. See, once you found the course that God has planned for

your life, you have to do everything in your power to follow God's instructions.

Follow God's directions, and see, God will leads you down a process

that you don't want to go down. For you to get to where God's

plan for you, you can't tell me. Joseph wanted to go through the

process that he had to go through to become what God called him to become.

And so Joseph, we all know the story, we all know the

narrative. He went from the pit, he went to the palace, he

went to the prison, but he became prime minister. Now that's a major

process from going through the pit to prime minister. See, we don't want

to go through the processing of God. But God knows what's good for us.

But all along the while watch this, Joseph kept his course. He

stayed his course, and Joseph finished. Well, now remember the text we

read. It says you're blessed when you stay on the course. God revealed

you're blessed when you stay on the course. So there's a blessing, and

staying on that course, there's increase, and there's favor that begins to come

upon your life when you stay on that course. See, following God's path

and plans for your life requires developing in discipline. Developing in discipline. I

want to give you four points tonight, and the time I have, I

want to give you four points tonight, and these points are gonna help you

stay on course. I could have given you a whole lot more, but

I want to use my time wisely. Number One, Developing discipline. Developing

discipline. When you start to think about discipline, a whole lot of things

begin to go through your mind. Because people know the areas of their lives

that they lack discipline. We know, we know when we like discipline.

We know we hit the snooze button, and we shouldn't have hit the snooze

button. And then you hit the snooze button, and you finally got up

from the snooze button, made your way to the treadmill that's in your house,

not in a gym. You didn't have to drive, it's in your

house. And then you turn on watch. There's a motivational video and it

tells you don't hit the snooze button. And if you hit the snooze button

the next day after the motivational video told you don't hit the snooze button,

it's an indication you're lacking in discipline because that button, when you hear the

alarm clock, you're supposed to get up. Because we shouldn't make plans today

for our lives to become better tomorrow. The apostle Paul said something very interesting

in First Corinthians Turn the First Corinthians nine. Let's look at verse twenty six,

and let's look at verse twenty seven. He said, So I run

with purpose in every step. I I am not just shadow boxing. I

discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.

Otherwise I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified.

Yeah, Paul is saying, if I lack discipline in this area of my

life, I can become disqualified, and I don't want to become disqualified.

Some of us have been disqualified, and we know what it's like to be

disqualified, and being disqualified doesn't feel good. You don't just develop disciplined by

mistake. Please write that down. You don't just develop disciplined by the mistake.

No one just so happens to stumble into the gym and lose twenty pounds

on the first day. If you've done that, let me see your hand,

because I need to know your secret, because I had to work at

it. Man, it just doesn't happen that way. You have to be

intentional and you have to be consistent. You have to be intentional and you

have to be consistent. In other words, to develop in discipline is going

to require some level of training. It's gonna require some level of preparation for

a fight. We were thinking about Victory tonight. She got up on the

stage and she says she felt like fighting. Amen, I like a good

fight. David is one of my greatest characters outside of Jesus in the Bible.

And David was a bad dude. He was a fighter. You understand

and so it is preparation. You gotta go through preparation because preparation time is

never wasted time. Preparation time is never wasted time. Anything you want to

do tomorrow, you wanna achieve tomorrow, you wanna accomplish tomorrow, You're gonna

have to begin to prepare today for what you feel in your heart you're supposed

to accomplished tomorrow. It's never wasted time. Pastor and I we were driving

down the freeway today and we drove past a ta a ta Is truck stops

of America. That was my first job I had when I was a kid.

I was a dishwasher, and I was so good washing dishes that they

prepared me to be a prep cook. And so I thought that was so

cool. I was young, and you know, I thought I was cool.

I still have a Jerry Carrow back then and all that. And so

they made me a prep cook. And so I was wearing a hat and

I had to hold get up on and I just feel real good about myself

and being a prep cook. Well, a prep cook prepare food today for

tomorrow. Why do you prepare food today for tomorrow? Because you have an

expectation that tomorrow people are gonna come to purchase your food, and you want

to be prepared. You want to be prepared. There's a prize at the

end of every course, and I believe there's prizes in between. Watched this

the seasons of every course. And if you want to get to those prizes

that God has laid out for you, those promises that God has laid up

for you, then you're gonna have to start preparing and you have to develop

in discipline. You have to develop in discipline. If you want to win

the fight, say I want to win the fight. The first fight is

with yourself. The first fight is with yourself. If you can conquer self,

you can conquer anything if you can conquer self. And that's the first

thing you have to do. You have to learn to conquer self. When

a boxer trains for a fight, he takes his body through strict training.

He can train six months just to fight twelve three minute rounds. Twelve three

minute rounds. The fight is thirty six to forty minutes. When you begin

to look at the time that they're in the ring, it's about thirty six

to forty minutes unless he get knocked out. But the fire had to train

for months to develop the habit of discipline. Right, you don't develop discipline

overnight. A boxer Church knows in order to develop discipline, he has to

place restraints on himself. You have to begin to restrain yourself. Paul said,

he trained his body to do what it should. In order for your

body to line up or align itself with the plans and purposes of God,

you're gonna have to learn to train your body to do what it should.

In other words, when developing discipline, you're gonna have to say no to

some things you don't want to say no to because you're developing a discipline.

And maybe watch it is your discipline. This is a physical discipline, not

a spiritual discipline. Right now, you want to lose weight, well watch

it. You gotta put the family sized bags of Darrito down. You can't

keep eating the Christopy creams. You're gonna have to say no to some things

you don't want to say no to, and then you're gonna have to say

yes to some things you don't want to say yes too. People want the

reward of discipline, but they don't want to do the work it requires to

be disciplined. To be disciplined. It's gonna require work. You're gonna have

to work at it. Yeah, who wants to run three to five miles

or four o'clock in the morning. No one. Sometime I don't want to

get in the treadmullon it's down the hallway from my master bedroom. Sometime I

just don't want to get on it. So no one wants to do that,

just like a boxer who doesn't want to get up early to run.

As Christians, you don't want to get up at four o'clock in the morning

to pray for thirty minutes to an hour. Yeah, you know that three

am? Wake up? You're like, what's wrong? Wow? Am I

up? You know? Uh? Lord trying to say something to you.

Lund time to say something to you. Don't say you didn't hear tonight,

Lord trying to say something to you. Remember, Lord trying to say something

to you. So that three o'clock and if you consistently get up at three

am and four ms, I'm wondering what's wrong to Lord trying to say something

to you. Now there's a reward in both. The running gives the box

of the stamina he needs to go to distance. It requires to win the

fight, because you might not knock him out in the third of the fifth

round. You might have to go all twelve rounds, and you have to

be prepared and watch this, that's when your discipline kicks in. It.

Being diligent in prayer helps us as Christians to develop strength. It helps us

develop the strength we need to stay on the course and go the distance to

win this fight called life. When I get to my end, when I

go to heaven, I don't want any problems with God. I want them

to let me in. You understand what I'm saying. I want them let

me in. I don't want to see Abraham first and all that kind of

stuff. Let me see Jesus and all that, and then I want to

see David. Then you know, we can get to the rest. But

I don't want problems at the gate. And I don't want to be sitting

in a waiting section talking about why you're here. You're here too early because

your discipline broke down. Uh oh. Jesus opens in the Book of Luke

in the a chapter. In the first verse, Jesus says, watch this.

Men are always to pray and not fame. It's through prayer, God

reveals his plans that He's laid out for our lives. That's how prayer is

important. And believers, when you look at it, are feigning in the

in the arena of the mind and bearing off course in life because many have

failed to develop the discipline in their prayer life. They fail to develop the

discipline that they should have in their prayer life. You have to be disciplined

to get up and pray every day and pray the word of God every day.

All right, So if you're going to finish your course you start,

you need to be mentally tough. Right, I'm gonna say that again.

You need to be mentally tough. You gotta possess the will to finish,

the will to finish. Point two, develop mental toughness. Develop mental toughness.

Stand on course begins in the mental realm first, long before it manifests

itself in the physical realm. In the mental realm, you'll never stay on

course and finish the things that you start in life until you get focused and

begin to see your self finishing. You have to begin to see your self

finishing. Pastor talked about the cathedral we have in Oakland. What he didn't

talk about is how we had to fight to own it. When we restored

it, they wanted it back. And if we didn't raise two million dollars

in ninety days, they would have took it from us. And you're talking

about being focused to finish something. I had to be focused. It was

my greatest faith fight. But I can honestly say we won. Come on,

we won. Church. You gotta possess the will to finish. And

when I talk about possessing the will to finish, I'm talking about getting focused

and setting your mind and willing your emotions on finishing. You gotta set one

hundred part of your being on finishing what you believe God's called you to finish.

Because a person can try to increase their willpower to accomplish things in life

without any help from the word of God, only to come up short of

achieving their goals, come up short because you're doing it outside of the will

of God. Like Pastor talked about the giving, you figure you know you

can do all this. Y'all don't need God. But you're gonna come up

short of your goals. You're gonna come up short of your dreams. You're

gonna wear yourself out. You just gonna wear yourself out. You'll you'll never

begin to lay your hands on the things that you're hoping for. And now

your hope is deferred and your heart becomes sick because you figured you can do

it without God. Your will power along is not strong enough to help you

stay on course and over come number one distractions from becoming weary, feigning in

your mind, giving up, and quitting. The author of Hebrews writes in

Hebrews twelve, let's look at verse two and three. He says, looking

away from all that distract to Jesus, who is the leader and source of

our faith, giving the first incentives of our beliefs, and also is the

finisher, bringing it to maturity and perfection. He for the joy of obtaining

the prize that was set before him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring

the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of

God. That's his reward. He's seated in a position of absolute power at

the right hand of the throne of God. I want to go back and

touch that in a moment. Let me read the next verse. Just think

of him who endured from sinnered such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against himself.

Reckon up and considering it all in comparison with your trials, so that you

may not grow or losing, relaxing and in your mind, feigning in your

mind, he says. The author says, he for the joy obtaining the

prize that was set before him gave him the ability to endure. My spiritual

nosiness wants to know what was the prize that was set before him that gave

him joy? It gave him the endurance to finish. See that joy that

prize. I believe is that in him dying on the cross for us,

he saw us, why, he says, now having the ability to stay

the course and finish the race that God has set before us. In him

being able to be filled with joy and finished what God had and laid out

for him, he saw us also finishing. I think that's absolutely powerful.

Because men quit in their minds long before they quit in the natural. They

quit in their mind. That's why it says we feign in our minds.

We quit in our minds long before we quit our natural. Now, the

flip side of that statement is men finish in their mind long before they finish.

In the natural, you have to see yourself finishing. You have to

see yourself finishing now. On the other hand, when you submit your will

to the will of God and you are align your soul with God's plan for

your life, what that is when God's help now kicks in. Because I'm

submitting myself totally to what God wants. I'm submitting myself to God's process.

I'm submitting myself to God's plan, and I'm wanting to go through whatever God

need me to go through to get where God has ordained for me to be.

And that's why Paul writes an Ephesians four, verse twenty three, and

he says, be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a

fresh mental and spiritual attitude. Now, you might want to write this down

because they don't have it. And I want to define the word constantly.

When Paul speaks of being constant or constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind,

here's what it means. It means always all the time, the entire

time, continually, continuously prosist persistently repeatedly regularly around the clock without break,

night and day, day and night, morning, noon, night, endlessly,

NonStop. That's what it means to be constantly renewed in the spirit of

your mind. Renewing the mind is a never ending process. It's a never

ending problem. You never stop. The Word of God is the only thing

that God has created to help us renew our mind and change the way we

think, change the way we think. When you have a fresh and mental

spiritual attitude, you can see beyond what is and begin to see what can

be. You'll begin to see yourself finishing. You'll begin to see yourself stand

the course. You have to think you can stay in your course and finish.

You have to believe you can stay your course and finish. You have

to see your self finishing, and you have to begin to speak about finishing

when you talk to people. You gotta tell people, I don't care how

tired you are, how worn out you are. You gotta tell people,

I'm gonna finish. I might be in last place, but I'm gonna finish.

It may be look like somebody's gonna beat me, but I'm gonna finish.

So you gotta tell people. You gotta tell yourself that you're gonna finish,

and low and behold you're gonna finish. The Bible says, out of

the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and so you have to

begin to speak out what's in your heart. Point three, Keep your heart

on course. You gotta keep your heart on course. Tell your neighbors,

keep your heart on course. If you want to stay on course and finish

in life, not only do you need to develop mental toughness, but you

need to set your heart on the course that God has planned for you.

You have to set your heart on the course that God has planned for your

life. Proverbs twenty three, verse nineteen says, my children, listen and

be wise. Keep your heart on the right course. Keep your heart on

the right course. In this verse, Solomon gives one of the most important

aspects of a Christian's life, because the condition of our heart affects number one,

who we are, number two, how we feel, number three,

what we do, number four, and how we live. The condition of

your heart, everything that comes into your life is burthed out of your heart.

It's burthed out of heart. So if you're gonna keep your course,

you have to begin to believe it in your heart, and you're gonna have

to guard your heart. You're gonna have to guard your heart. See guard

in your heart will help you keep from veering off course. Church, your

heart will help you stay on the course that God has set for you.

The Bible says, the eye of the Lord goeth to and four throughout the

earth, looking to find someone whose heart is right towards him, so that

he might show himself strong in them. God wants to show himself strong in

you, but he can't do it if you keep veering off course. He

needs you to stay the course, no matter how hard it is. You

gotta stay the course because pain today is only weakness leaving your body. I'm

gonna say that again. Pain today is only weakness leaving your body. It

may be hard, it may be difficult, but God know that you can

go through it, else you would not be going through it. My final

point, run your own course or run someone else's race. Run your own

course. Be who God called you to be, Do what God called you

to do. You should never question yourself whether you have what it takes to

finish or not. You should never do that. Just because others are quit

quitting running their race doesn't give you permission to quit running your race. I'm

gonna say that again. Just because others around you they have quit running their

race, they're on the sideline, they're on the wayside. It doesn't give

you permission to quit running your race. People, you know, friends,

even family members may start out with you but quit during the process. Some

of you know that's real, Hugh, But listen to you have to be

okay with that. But can you stay focused and finish your own course when

people that are close to you are veering off course and quitting. Can you

stay your course? Can you remain focused? Because this is gonna require you

to stay your course, and it's gonna require you to remain focused. My

last scripture Ephesians, I mean, excuse me. Ecclesiastes nine to eleven.

He says, I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not

to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Neither is bread to

the wise, nor riches to men of intelligence and understanding, nor favor to

men of skill. But time chance happened to them all. You might be

here tonight and you're tired. You had to drive through traffic to get here.

But you put your faith and your hope in the fact that We've just

changed our church name. We just turned the new chapter. We just started

a new beginning. We just moved to the next level. I need to

be present. God knew you were going to be here, and God knew

what you need to hear. You may be tired, but my advice to

you, patriarch, is just keep on going. Just keep on going.

In time, you're gonna have your chance. Hear what I say. In

time, You're gonna have your chance. But watch this. You gotta move

all the excuses out of the way. No more excuses. It's time for

you to align yourself on the course that God has divinely laid out for you

and divinely planned for you. Because you'll never finish anything in life, making

excuses why you did not finish. Someone was faster than me, that's just

an excuse. Someone was wiser than me. That's just an excuse. Someone

was stronger than me, that's just an excuse. I heard someone say,

excuses are the crutches for the uncommitted. You have to be committed to finishing.

You have to make up in your mind that it's time for you to

live above that. If I would have could a syndrome because some people,

that's all they do. If I would, if if I'd had to support,

if I'd had the research, if I would, it's just an excuse.

You had to live above that church, right, because it's not about

being the fastest, nor is it about being the strongest. It's not even

about being the wisest. It's about being disciplined and having the will to stick

with the process and run your own course until you finish. You have to

know that. You know that, you know, deep down in my heart,

I know I possess what it takes to stay my course, finish and

finish well. Tonight you're here, you say, passed the carl. You

hit it on the head. I'm tired, and I believe there's people here

who you veered off course. I'm gonna pray for you tonight, while every

head's bow and every eye's closed as we say the Saints of the Lord praying.

I needed this message tonight. It's lit a fire under me. I

believe I can get back in, get back on course, and finish that.

You raise your hand. There you go, you veered off course?

Could you raise your hand? You say I didn't even know that scripture was

in the Bible that God has a course already planned for me. That's you

raise your hand. There you go. I want to pray for you tonight,

my next call. You're here tonight and you're not sure if something happened

to you when you walk out this door, that you would be in heaven

with the Father. You're not sure, you say, Pastor, you talked

about being on course. I've never really even started with God, and I

want to start tonight. I want to be a part of God's family.

Is in beautiful. Your church name is Patriot means family, and the logo

is an olive tree. The roots are going deep. I want to be

a part of God's family. If that's you, could you raise your hand,

get up so I can see it. Lights a little dimn I need

to see them. I's see your hand's going up to become born again.

Look at that. Look at that, you say, Pastor, you talked

about veering off course, and now you're talking about salvation, being part of

the family of God, being a part of the family of God. But

somewhere along the line, I begin to live this up and down roller coaster

life. And I've been more down than I've been up. I just simply

need another chance with God. I need to get back on track. I

need to get back on course. I need to run my race. That

you raise your hand wherever you are, whoever you are whole. Hands are

going up, hands are going up, hands are going up. It's beautiful.

Father, tonight you saw their hands, whether they raise their hands because

they've veered off course, or whether they wanted to find the course that you've

planned for them, whether we want to be a part of the family of

God, or rededicate their life to you. I pray for them tonight.

You say specifically in your word, you are blessed when you stay on the

course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. Father. You have

a course, and you have a road. You have a plan for them.

I ask you tonight, would you reveal it to them whatever you have

to do, Father, whereas through prophetics, Lord God, someone speaking a

word to them, whether you show them in their dreams or they just come

into contact with the right person, help them, Father, get on the

course that you have so wonderfully designed for them, encouraged them and help them

in the areas that they need help in in their life. Help them become

discipline. Lord God, send them the help that they need so that they

can walk out your plan that you have wonderfully laid out for them. I

pray, Father, they begin to become mentally tough in the mind. They

will not become weary even though Lord God, the enemy comes up against them,

as distractions comes at them. Lord God, they will be mentally tough

to stay their course. Father touched them in their hearts tonight, and give

them a heart that's pleasing none to you, a heart that pursues you,

a heart that longs for you, a heart that's right towards you. Father

and Father, help them tonight begin to run their own course and finish and

finish. Well. You're here tonight, and you said, I want to

be a part of the family of God. I want to be a part

of family God, and I want to rededicate my life to the Lord.

If you could say with me, dear Heavenly Father, I acknowledge my transgressions.

But you said in your word, if I confess my sin, you're

faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I receive

your forgiveness, and I forgive myself. Thank you for forgiving me. I

believe in my heart confess with my mouth. Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus.

I welcome you into my heart to be my Lord and my savior.

Thank you for saving me.