Trust the Process with Pastor Andrew Richardson

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Awesome.

Well, I am really excited to be here with you, man.

It's so cool to see the amazing things that God is doing.

I mean, there's a new venue opening up that's exciting, right?

Yeah.

Just huge shout out to your pastors, to Pastor Clayton, and just this amazing staff for leading so well.

Yeah, we can give it up for Pastor Clayton, for the staff.

I'm excited to be with you here today.

And one thing about me is I love coffee.

Any coffee lovers in the room?

Oh wow, we really cheer for that one, yeah.

Uh couple people were like, cheers.

I was like, hold on, it's only the 945 service, right?

But I love coffee, and I am one of those people that really love coffee.

I'm one of those people that if you're putting cream or sugar, I will silently judge you.

Anyone else like that?

Yeah?

I've been there, I know there's a grace, right?

No, but I remember one day uh I was talking to one of my friends years ago, and he was kind of in the transition of liking coffee to really liking coffee.

Uh, and he was explaining to me this process of making coffee uh called a pour over.

Anyone familiar with the pour over coffee?

Yeah, some of you are like, yes, it's the best, right?

So I remember I was asking him about it, and I made the mistake of asking him about how the process of that works, because then I had to grab a chair and sit down for the next 30 minutes, right?

So he started explaining it to me, and as I realized and as I understood, I was like, this is the best.

I was like, this coffee is so much better than Starbucks.

Anyone know?

Okay, but I was like, how do you get there?

And he explained it to me, and as I started to understand it, now I am one of those coffee snobs that cannot help but make coffee that way.

And if you were to ask Andrew, how is the process?

How do you make a pour over?

I would say it's not as simple as putting a K cup into the kerag and pressing a button.

That's gross.

But again, no judgment, no judgment here, no judgment.

So if you were to ask me about the process, I'd say, well, it starts making sure you have the right coffee, right?

You have to make sure you have the right coffee that is roasted from the right place.

And then when you get that coffee, don't grind it yet, right?

You take it over right when you're about to make the coffee, then you grind the coffee at the right size.

Can't be too fine, can't be too coarse, right?

And then after you grind the coffee at just the right size, then you have to get your kettle ready.

And the water has to be at the right temperature, and don't use tap water.

Yeah, okay.

Then after you have the coffee and the water, you have to measure the coffee and the water to make sure you have the right ratio.

And then when you have the right ratio, ready to go, then you can actually start.

Then you pour, you wait, you pour again, you wait, you pour again, ah, three minutes later, one cup of coffee.

Is that how does that sound so great?

Yeah, some of you are like, no, I will order Starbucks and be good.

But it is an intense process that to get to that one cup of coffee takes a long time.

And if you're anything like me, though, we live in a world and we live in an environment where we don't want to wait, where we want the best right away.

We want the best marriage right away, we want to get out of debt right away.

We want to have a great family right now.

We want to beat that addiction right now.

We we know the end product, but it's the process that we all just want to skip.

We just want to get straight to the cup of coffee, we want to get straight to the good life that God has for us.

And what happens is we take this into our relationship with God.

We want to experience all of his blessings, we want to experience all of the freedom, but yet it's the process that we just want to skip, that we just want to skip over.

And that is what we are talking about today.

The title of my message is Trust the Process.

We all pray with me.

God, I thank you.

I thank you that you are a God that loves us, that you are a God that is with us, that is present, moving, and working right now, Lord.

And I pray that as we unpack what you have to say about trusting the process, Lord, I pray that you speak individually to each and every one of us.

Lord, we love you and we thank you.

And in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, we're going to look at the book of Colossians.

Now, this was a letter written from Paul to the church in Colossae.

Now, it's during this time that this church was experiencing a lot of people coming into the church and teaching a false teaching.

And it was this false teaching that was coming into the church in Colossae, and what this false teaching was doing is it was distracting from actually who Jesus was.

The church in Colossae had understood, had believed in Jesus for who he is, that he is God, that he is man, that he has come to this earth, that he died on the cross for our sins.

They understood that.

But what the false teaching was doing during that time period is was coming in and distracting them and trying to say as if God, as if Jesus was not who he says he was.

It was questioning the claims of if Jesus was truly God.

And Paul, as he had never actually visited this church, he wrote to confront these teachings.

He wrote to confront what was happening in that time at that church.

And what's so cool is as this was written many, many, many years ago, I think it speaks to where we are today.

Because what happens when we lose sight of who Jesus is, and we start to forget and lose sight of the fact that Jesus is enough, we need to be reminded, and Paul is presenting them with the clear truth that it is Jesus who has come to this earth, fully God, fully divine, and reigns over all.

That he is the active creator, the one who came to human flesh.

And this proper view of Jesus is crucial for understanding and for pushing past these false views and these false teachings that were occurring.

And it's crucial for us today as we begin to understand what it looks like to trust the process.

He's speaking to those that are distracted from the process, pleading with them to trust in Jesus and laying out what that looks like.

So now we have the understanding, that background.

Let's look here at Colossians 2, verse 6.

Colossians 2:6

So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him.

Just as you have received.

So what does it mean to receive Christ Jesus?

Here he is speaking to the truth of how we are made right with God.

And it's important for us to clarify when we're talking about the process, because so often we live in this culture and we live with the understanding that believing in Jesus is something that we achieve over time based on how good we are.

It's what is known as a works-based salvation.

And it's this view that I also like to call the good enough view.

And it's our belief that if we are just enough, then God will love us.

And what I love about the song we sang Reckless Love earlier is it speaks to the fact that no matter how good we are or not, that we have a God that pursues us, a God that loves us.

And it's this good enough mentality that starts to try to achieve for God so that God can love you.

If I just do enough, if I just read my Bible enough, if I just pray enough, if I just go to church enough, I'll go to every service, three services a Sunday, I'll go to two churches.

God, will you love me if I do that?

If I just am enough.

See, that is how a lot of us believe that that's how we are made right with God.

And what Paul is doing is he is speaking against that.

He is speaking to the truth of how we are made right with God.

And the term for this is justification.

Justification means to be declared righteous or not guilty.

And we need to get this, we need to understand this because if we don't understand this, then how are we going to be able to trust the process?

Think of justification like a courtroom setting.

And it's in this courtroom setting where God, the judge, we're there, and all of our sins, all of the mistakes, all of the not being enough is right there, presented in front of God, who is a just God.

And in that moment, because of our belief in Him, we are declared righteous.

We are declared not guilty, not because of how good we are, but because of belief and faith in Jesus.

That is what justification is.

And Paul is speaking to the good news of how one receives Jesus.

And hear me, this is through faith alone, which means there is nothing we can do to be right with God that Jesus hasn't already done for us.

He's affirming the truth that they have been made justified and believed in Jesus.

And he starts right here not only to encourage them, but to remind them, to remind them of how they received Jesus.

That it was not by their own works, how good they are, but it was by God's grace, which means that he was telling them in that time and us today that we no longer have to go around wondering if we are good with God, wondering if God will leave because his free gift of eternal life is one that he does not take away.

You know that commercial where the guy has the fishing pole and he has a dollar and he's like, should have been quick enough.

Anyone?

No?

All right.

Fine, you can look it up later.

Made me feel bad quoting something no one knows.

Anyways, that's not how God is.

He's not like, oh, should have been quick enough.

You're good for a little bit and not good now.

We see that through the work of Jesus, we are made in right standing with God.

And I want to speak against the lies of those that feel like because you have maybe drifted, because you feel like you know what, actually, I think I got this.

I think I can do this on my own.

And because of that, we feel as if Jesus has left or Jesus is gone.

Jesus is enough.

That I'm not that good at math, I can barely count to three, but there's this equation uh that that has helped me, and it's this it's justification is Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

Justification is Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

What that means is it's not Jesus plus how good I am.

No, it's Jesus plus nothing because Jesus is enough.

So we do not have to walk around wondering if we are still good with God because Jesus is enough.

What he did on the cross is enough.

Jesus is our Savior, Jesus is the one who loves us so much that he died for us.

That is how we are justified, not because of how good we are, but because Jesus is enough.

Justification is Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

And man, there's so much hope in that.

There's peace in that, there's comfort in that.

That is how we receive Jesus.

That is a moment.

Justification happens in a moment when we believe and receive Jesus.

So we had to get that before we move to the second half of the verse.

And it's the second half of the verse in Colossians 2, verse 6, that says, So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus' Lord, here it is, continue to walk in him.

Colossians 2:6

So what does it mean to continue to walk in him?

This right here is the journey.

This right here is the process, and this is a process that we call sanctification.

Remember, justification is to be declared not guilty, to be declared righteous.

Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Christ.

And what I love about MetaCurch is that this idea is nothing new to you.

This is what Metachurch is about.

It's a community that not that doesn't just meet together but actually moves together, that grows together, that uses the individual gifts and talents that God has given each and every one of you to go, to make a difference.

That what that is why Pastor Clayton, every single week, tells you that you were made on purpose and with purpose.

So receiving Jesus is how we start the process, and continuing to walk is how we trust the process.

This is growing in Jesus.

This is sanctification, this is the life of a believer.

When we recognize at the moment we are saved, that because of his love and grace, that we continue to move and become more like Jesus, to become more like Christ.

And as we walk in him, we are not doing this alone.

Part of a community here at MetaCurch, it is a safe place for you to wrestle with what you believe, to receive Jesus and to continue to walk in him, to know that there is a community here for you.

Even today, there are new life teams that are launching.

There are people that are willing to walk with you through the process.

So please hear me.

If you're here and you feel alone, like no one loves you, like God is not there for you, and you don't know how you can continue in this process, please do not leave today without connecting with a life team, without connecting with someone.

Don't do this alone.

So now we have the principles of understanding, justification, and continuing in sanctification.

So we're going to look at verse seven here.

Because to understand what this process looks like.

Like how do we do this process?

Verse seven: being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught and overflowing with gratitude.

See, right off the bat we see the phrase in him.

This is the key for us to grow in our faith.

It's to remain rooted in Jesus.

And I love what he is saying here because it sounds encouraging, but the truth is he is reminding the believers and correcting them, because he's reminding them how they were and correcting them to continue in that that they were taught to believe and to receive Jesus, but to continue in that, to remain rooted, and another word for rooted is to remain firm.

It's the reality of being firm in our faith.

Being firm and confident in Jesus.

And just as Paul says, it is all in faith, it is all by faith.

Staying firm and rooted in Christ is to continue to put our faith in Christ, not our circumstance.

The first step to trusting the process is being rooted in Christ, not our circumstance.

And the truth is, this is where many of us are today.

Maybe you were that person who experienced a radical encounter with God.

Maybe you came to a service here or a retreat somewhere, had an encounter, and you were that like annoying Christian.

Like you were that Christian that couldn't stop telling everyone at work about Jesus or couldn't stop posting, and you were always talking about Jesus, and you were on fire, and you were built up and you were rooted in Jesus, and then life happened.

Then your marriage started having problems again.

Then you lost your job.

Then you relapsed on an addiction.

Maybe there was a death in the family of a close, close loved one.

Whatever that is, maybe it was your circumstance that took you away from being rooted in Jesus.

And everyone here has had a moment.

Maybe it's right now.

We're going through a situation that is taking you away from being firm in your faith.

And this right here, this is a moment that is tough.

This is a moment that is difficult.

When we feel broken, when we feel tired, when we feel exhausted, wondering if there is a God that cares for us.

And for those of you here that are in the middle of that right now, maybe you barely got to church today, you got dragged to church because you had that great cup of coffee, right?

Maybe?

Or maybe you tuned in online because someone sent you the link, whatever that is, if you were the person here that the circumstance has been too much, is too overwhelming, and you were doubting and wondering if there is a God that is here for you, He is present.

God is here, He is moving, He is working, He sees you, He loves you, He has not left you.

Paul is reminding the church: stand firm, stand firm.

Anyone a football fan in here?

No?

Oh, yeah, all the jerseys.

That was a that was a dumb question, right?

Everyone with jerseys was like, yeah, that's me, bro, right?

Go cowboys?

No, anyways.

Okay, so you know how in football, oftentimes there are many stadiums that are not indoors, so they are um depending on the weather, like the rain or the snow, you never know what the condition is going to look like.

So oftentimes there's games where you see football players that are running on the field and they're slipping and they're not able to run the route, they're not able to catch the pass, or maybe the quarterback is trying to throw and his footing is off.

And what happens eventually the staff begins to help and make sure that the cleats are good, make sure that they are ready to go in the ideal way to perform, because the circumstances hit, but when they put the cleats on, when they when they change them out, when they get a new pair, it is so they can stand firm.

And what I'm trying to say with this illustration is that in life, when the circumstances hit, when when the marriage goes downhill, when when the family members won't talk to you, when the addiction is back, when you stand firm in Jesus, we can continue in Jesus.

We can continue in this sanctification process, being rooted in Jesus.

Just like the athlete being firmly placed in Jesus, we can persevere through trials no matter the condition.

And so often Christians pray, God, take this away.

And oftentimes God says, you know what?

I'm just gonna be here with you.

We so often want all of the horrible things in life to go away so it can be great and no issues.

But what if we as Christians, what as we as followers of Jesus, what if we as those that are walking in this process and trust in the process, say, you know what?

I know that the circumstances might not go away, but I know of a God who is here.

I know of a God who is present, I know of a God who is with me.

I will stay firm and trust in Christ, not my circumstance.

And this is what Paul is saying to stay firm and stay rooted, to continue to put our faith in Jesus, not our circumstance.

Let's continue in verse 8 and see what else we can learn about trusting this process.

Verse 8 be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.

So remember who Paul is speaking to.

He's speaking to the church that is having those that are trying to creep into the church with false teachings.

And here he's attacking those false teachings.

And what I love about the scripture is that while it was written many years ago, it speaks to us today.

It teaches us how we can trust Christ over culture.

And I've been serving in youth ministry for uh many years now, and what I've seen is I've seen student after student that loves Jesus, that pursues Jesus from elementary all the way up to high school, and then go off to college.

And what happens, this is why I tell anyone, not just students, that your faith has to be your own.

That your faith cannot be your parents, your grandparents, your siblings, your sisters, your coworkers.

Your faith has to be your own because what happens is just as the circumstances in our life don't go away, culture and the philosophies and the different views don't go away as well.

So if we are not rooted in Jesus, then we can easily be swayed away from these other views.

All you have to do is go on TikTok for a little bit.

Anyone tick tock?

No?

Okay, some of you right now.

I see you put your phones away, right?

No.

All you have to do is go on social media and see, and you're like, that sounds kind of nice.

And you actually unpack it and you're like, what are they saying?

We have to be able to stay rooted, to trust in Christ, not culture.

And what I'm not saying is, please don't misunderstand me.

What I'm not saying is that we can't go into the world, go to college, and really see these beautiful things that were created, like music and art and all of these things that God has used in created.

What I'm not saying is that we can't enjoy those, but what I am saying is we have to be careful.

We have to go into the world and remain rooted in Jesus.

So that we seek Jesus over culture.

Imagine it like a GPS.

Anyone here use GPS all the time?

No?

Wow, a bunch of liars.

Oh my goodness.

Come on.

I use GPS to get here this morning and I've been here before.

I don't even come on.

So I want to be embarrassed.

Oh my goodness.

Right?

Using GPS is kind of how we see here.

So imagine you're using GPS and you're trying to get somewhere, and then all of a sudden your phone starts messing up, it happens, you the battery's getting low, whatever it is, so your GPS starts messing up.

So then It's taking you one way and all of a sudden it's taking you the other direction.

But because we've trusted so much and where it's taking us, we often uh just lose sight of being led the other direction.

And that's kind of what we see here is trusting and then being led astray by a faulty GPS.

And what Paul is saying is to remain rooted.

Just as we wouldn't trust a GPS that's taking you the wrong direction, we shouldn't trust worldly ideas that pull us away from the foundation of Jesus.

We have to remain firm.

We have to remain in Jesus.

And speaking to those that are maybe in the moment where you're like, Andrew, I don't know about God right now.

I don't know what I feel about this.

I want you to know that this is a safe place for you to wrestle with the philosophies, to wrestle with what you believe about Jesus, but knowing that there is a God that is here with you, that loves you and welcomes your questions.

So trust in the process is following Christ, not the culture.

Which sounds great, right?

But then the question comes, how?

How do we do this?

How do we how do we trust in Christ and not the culture?

How do we remain rooted in Christ, not our circumstances?

I mean, you're probably like, Andrew, is there a a 10 10 item list that helps me uh be able to do this?

Is there something that can give me a 10-step process on how to become a better follower of Jesus?

A checklist of do's and don'ts?

Is there something that can help me to really trust the process?

Well, we get something significant from Jesus himself.

And Jesus in the book of John is talking and chatting with his disciples before he goes off to the cross to die for us, to die for you and me.

He has this conversation with his disciples and he helps them understand how they can move forward in life, how they can trust the process.

He says this, John 14, verse 4 through 5.

John 14:4–5

Abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine.

So neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

What I find so interesting here is Jesus is speaking to his disciples.

So if Jesus was to have a conversation and to really lay it into the disciples, hey, you be better, you stop being annoying, you smell a little bit, right?

No, I'm kidding.

But this would have been the opportunity for him to really just give the list to the disciples, but instead he says, Abide in me.

Abide in me.

Abide in me.

And what this means is to remain in him, to live or to dwell in him.

And Jesus is using this as a command for how we are to rest in him, to remain in him.

And he uses the illustration of vine and branches.

And maybe for the younger crew, right?

I want to kind of use another illustration, right?

So think about it like this.

You ready?

An iPhone and a charger.

Yeah?

Anyone get that?

Okay.

Hopefully you know what an iPhone and charger is.

If not, prayer team, we'll we'll cover that.

But imagine, wait, hold on.

First, how many of you are the type of people that don't let your phone get below 50%?

Anyone here?

No?

Wow.

There's more.

Wow.

945, y'all are great.

Y'all are awesome people, right?

How many of us, if we're being real, are the people that that phone gets to 1% every day, baby?

Anyone?

Yeah.

Y'all cheat.

Some of you, and what I love about those people is it's always the same excuse.

It's always, it's in a charge last night.

You know.

You know you were on, you know you're on Facebook all day, right?

But imagine imagine the iPhone and a charger.

So so we're we're walking, and we all understand that it needs to be charged, right?

We all get that.

We can nod.

Okay, cool.

Imagine you're walking one day and you have your phone and you pull your phone out and you realize it's about to die, it's on 1%.

And you pull it out, and a little notification comes up and it says, low battery, please charge.

And then imagine underneath that it says, Don't worry, I got this.

I'd probably throw the phone, that's creepy, right?

Because the reason that sounds ridiculous to us is because there is no way that the phone away from the charger can be charged.

There is no way that the phone away from the charger can operate for very long.

But what begins to happen is we have Christians walking around like a phone only on 1%.

Wondering why we can't find freedom.

Wondering why this process is so hard.

Wondering where God is.

Because we're not plugged into the source.

And meta church, can I say that I know who the source is?

His name is Jesus.

Jesus is the source.

This is where we find ourselves trying to grow, trying to find freedom over the sins that hold us back, trying to trust the process, but we're doing it away from Christ.

We're not rooted in him.

We're oftentimes rooted in our own control.

And the truth is what Jesus is speaking to is to be plugged into the source.

It's in that moment of abiding where there is true rest in Jesus.

And this, as he says, is where we bear fruit.

And the fruit that he's talking about is as the life of a believer.

We are connected with him.

We start to experience these fruits, these joy, peace, all of these things that only can come from God.

Which is great, right?

Like we would all say, I want to experience fruit, I want to bear fruit in our lives, I want to find victory over the sins, over the things that are holding me back.

So what we know is that we need to stop trying to take things in our own control and our own efforts, but abide in Jesus, understanding that believing in Jesus, being saved, being justified is in a moment of faith, is that what happens is we get that, we understand that, but we say, Jesus, I'll take it from here.

I've believed in you for justification, but I got this for sanctification.

I I believed in you to save me out of the mess I was in, but I'm good now.

What we learn to trust the process to is to abide in Christ, not our own control.

See, we went so badly to charge our own battery, to pave our own paths, to ensure our own success.

But what Jesus is saying is that the only way to experience that, the only way to experience, to truly thrive in this life, is to abide in Jesus.

And if we don't, Jesus in this illustration of the vine and the branches says we will eventually wither and die because a branch cannot bear fruit if it's not connected to the vine.

So you might be thinking, Andrew, how?

Like, how do I do that?

How do I abide in Jesus?

First thing, simple, just talk to Jesus.

My challenge for you this week is to create a time.

Maybe it's on the way to work, maybe it's with your spouse, with your family, where you just talk to Jesus.

You just get real about what is going on.

We don't need a bunch of fake Christians.

We need those that get real with Jesus, that get real with what is going on in our lives and bring it to Jesus.

If you think it's too much, it's not.

Jesus can handle it.

God can handle it.

Next, after talking to him, is listen.

Listen to what he's saying.

Spend that time praying, but also spend that time listening.

Listening to what God is saying, listening to what that next step is.

Now I want to look back on our verse here.

Colossians 2, verse 6.

Colossians 2:6

It says, So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him.

Remember, receiving Christ is simply putting our faith in Jesus.

That is what starts the process.

That is justification.

Continuing in him is trusting the process, and that is sanctification.

So a quick recap of what we learned is that trusting the process is being rooted in Christ, not our circumstance.

Trusting the process is following Christ, not the culture.

And trusting the process is abiding in Christ, not our own control.

We see the common theme, it all comes back to Christ.

It all comes back to Jesus.

In verse 6 again, it says, so then, just as you have received Christ Jesus.

Just as you have received Christ Jesus.

In other words, the same way you received him, which is through faith, is the same way we continue to trust the process.

It's through faith.

Justification by faith, sanctification by faith.

The reality is the whole time I've been saying trust the process, but to trust the process is to trust the person, and the person is Jesus.

To trust the process is to trust the person, and the person is Jesus.

Because when our trust is in the person of Jesus, we can find rest.

How many of us here need rest?

How many of us here need hope?

How many of us here need that peace?

Trusting the process is trusting in Jesus, not focused on the end result, but focused on the person of Jesus.

Imagine if we as followers of Jesus said, No, I know the world is difficult.

I know the circumstances are tough.

I know it's hard to not be persuaded by culture, but I know of a guy named Jesus that is here, that loves me, that cares for me, and I can stay focused on him.

He is the one that has saved us, and the one that saves us is the one that sustains us.

He is the one that is there.

And my encouragement for you is to keep going, to trust the process.

This process is not easy.

I'm not gonna be up here and act all fake.

No, this process is quite difficult.

But it's Jesus who is there with us.

We must remain rooted in him so we can continue in life knowing that while the struggles and the trials are not going away, our God is still in control.

Imagine if we left today, meta church.

If we left today truly knowing, understanding, and walking in the truth that it's Jesus that helps us grow.

It's Jesus that helps us trust the process because it's in the person of Jesus.

And what I love about Jesus, he is the victorious one.

He is the one that has already defeated death, hell, and the grave.

And trusting the process is trusting the person of Jesus.

It's trusting in the fact that he is the victorious one, that he took the penalty of sin that we deserve.

This is the good news.

That over 2,000 years ago, our sin, which has separated us from God, God sent Jesus to the earth and said, I see the brokenness.

I see you right now.

I see what you're going through.

I see what this sin has caused.

And Jesus says, I'll take that on the cross.

And as he went to the cross and as he died for our sins, and everyone abandoned him.

Three days later, he rose again.

Three days later, he defeated death, hell, and the grave.

And what that shows us is that putting our faith and trust in the person of Jesus is believing in what he has done for us, believing in the good news, believing in the gospel.

And for some of you here today, that that truth is new to you.

You don't quite understand, or maybe you haven't made that next step or made that decision to trust in Jesus.

You're hearing me, and you're like, okay, I get this process is difficult, I know that, but what has Jesus done?

And the truth is he has died for you, he loves you, he cares for you.

And today can be the day that the Holy Spirit's probably working in you right now, leading you to understand what Jesus has done for you.

So, what I want us to do is if everyone can just bow their heads, close their eyes.

And if that's you, and today, after hearing this message and hearing the truth of who Jesus is, if you are someone that says, I want to put my trust and faith in the victorious one, Jesus, without anyone looking, could you just raise your hand if that's you?

I see you.

I see you.

And if that is you and you have put your faith in Jesus, you're saying, Jesus, today is the day, now is the moment, it's in this moment that you have been justified, that you have been made right with God, that your sins, past, present, future, are made right now with God because of the work of Jesus.

You're saying by raising your hand, which many of you have, that you've put your faith and trust in Jesus.

So, what I want to do is I want to say this prayer, those that just raise your hand and those that are here as well.

If you've said this before, we're gonna say this together.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe that you are God.

I believe that you came to this earth, that you died for my sins.

I believe that you rose again.

I thank you for loving me.

Thank you for forgiving me of my sins.

Let me pray over you.

God, I just thank you.

Thank you that right now in this moment you have set some people free.

That you have set us free from the sins, the temptations, the hurts, the pains that have been holding us back, or maybe set many people here free from the thoughts of feeling like God is gone.

Lord, I pray that we can continue to walk in this sanctification process, that we can continue to trust the process because it is not of our own self.

God, I pray over everyone here, over those watching online as well.

Lord, I pray that you, your spirit empowers them, guides them, and leads them to operate and work in a way that others can see, that others can see you, that you are glorified, God.

Lord, I thank you for what you are done.

I thank you for what you are doing here at MetaCurch and in the lives of many others.

Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you.

And in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.