Worship Breaks Chains

I'm Elon, in case we haven't met, and as Nathan said, Justin is out of town spending some time with his son, and we're really glad for him to be able to do that.

And so he asked me if I would share the message this morning, and I'm so excited to be here and to share with you.

And just so you know, I'm also excited about something else, and that is the fact that I think actually fall is going to stick around.

Yeah, maybe.

I know I said that a couple weeks ago, but I actually think that it's gonna stick around, and it's my favorite, favorite, favorite season of the whole year.

Anybody else?

Woo! Okay, good, good, good.

Okay, well, I love everything about fall.

Everything about fall from the change of the leaves and the colder weather, and I love spicy chili.

Love spicy chili, even pregnant, not a good idea, but I love it anyway.

And um, and my favorite thing is um pumpkin spiced anything.

Pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin spice bread, pumpkin spice candles, pumpkin spice.

If they made a pumpkin spice deodorant, I would use it.

I'd be walking around all day long.

Yesterday I actually had pumpkin spice ice cream.

There is such a thing, and it is really, really good.

I love everything about fall, except one thing.

And I'm telling you, without fail, without fail, every single fall, someone in my house gets sick.

Anybody?

You if you have children, you know what I mean.

It's like the fall comes, and I guess it's the change of the weather.

I don't really know, but it always happens, and of course, without fail, this year it happens.

And I I will go to pick my my daughter up, my oldest daughter, her name is Rachel, she's eight, and I pick her up from school and she does not feel well.

Her throat hurts, and she's saying her head hurts, and so we're in the car and we're talking, and I'm like, Well, was anybody from your class out sick?

And she mentioned her really best friend's name, and they're all over each other all the time.

And she said, Well, she has strep throat.

She's yeah, right.

And she's like, But mom, I I I can't have strep throat.

And I was like, Well, okay, well, why can't you have strep throat?

And she's like, Because I heard that the test for that is awful.

Now, I had never had a strep test, and she had never had one, but she'd heard about it.

It's where they take like this long q-tip looking thing and they like reach like the back of your throat that you've never even touched for a reason.

And and so I'm like telling her, Well, you know, Rachel, you may not have strep.

Okay, let's just wait and see how you feel.

So she goes to bed that night, wakes up the next morning, sure enough, she is just feeling rotten.

She doesn't go to school, and I'm like, we gotta go to the doctor.

So we're in the car on the way to the doctor, and she's like, Mom, can I pray?

And I'm like, of course you can pray.

And all she prayed for was that God would not have her take the strep test.

But God did not answer that prayer.

And so we get to the doctor's office, and the doctor comes in, and he's looking at her ears and her and her and her eyes and her nose and her throat, and he's like, Well, I don't really know if it's strep, but it might be.

We need to rule it out.

So he leaves the room to go get the nurse to come in, and it's just me and Rachel, and her eyes are like huge, you know, and they're already filling up with tears, and she's looking at me and she's like, Mom, I can't, I can't do this, I don't want to do this.

And I'm like, okay, I understand, I know, I know, but let's just think for a second.

If it is strep, this is just gonna be one second of discomfort, and then you're gonna feel better because they're gonna give you medicine.

Would you rather have one second of discomfort or be sick?

Well, she got that, and she's like, Well, okay.

So the nurse comes in with the swab and she approaches Rachel to put it in her throat, and Rachel stiff arms her.

So I'm like mouthing to the nurse, I'm so sorry.

And so we try it again, she's like, no big deal.

So I take my arm and I hold it over Rachel's arm.

So now the nurse goes again, and Rachel puts her feet up.

So I take one arm holding down Rachel's leg, the other arm holding down Rachel's arms, the nurse goes for a third time, and Rachel's like, you know, dodging.

And and so I'm not really feeling very patient at this point because I've had my nice patient mom talk.

And now I'm just like, this is ridiculous.

Come on.

So I have I hop my happy self up on the bench with Rachel, and I take my wonderful eight-year-old and I just leg her across my body, and I'm wrapping my legs over her, and I have my arms on her, and she is like a bucking bronco, just coming off this table.

I cannot get her to hold down for the life of me.

And and all the while I'm looking at her saying, I love you.

And she's looking back at me, not really talking because she's trying to keep her mouth closed, that this is you do not love me.

So the nurse is like, you know, don't worry, this happens all the time.

Give me a second, I'm gonna call and back up.

So she walks out and she comes back in with like this entourage of nurses, and we got one nurse holding down Rachel's legs.

I still got my leg over her.

We've got mama holding her arms down, and another nurse holding her head down, okay?

And then they have the nurse with the swab.

And Rachel's just like.

So I'm thinking, well, what can I do?

All right, fine.

So I look at the nurse and I'm like, can you give me the strep test so that she can see this is not that big of a deal?

And the nurse is like, Well, okay, that's a good idea.

Now I have never had a strep test before, so I didn't know what I was doing.

So I'm like, what do I do?

Just open my mouth, and she's like, Yeah.

So she's like, takes this thing, and I swear she touched my brain.

I am literally like, and my eyes fill up with tears, and I look at Rachel and I'm like, it's not that bad.

And her mouth remained closed.

So I am in a full-on sweat.

I'm trying to protect the baby in my belly, and I'm trying to protect my baby on the on the table, and it's just like this this tug of war, and it's this huge challenge.

And finally the nurse looks at Rachel, dead seriously, and she says, Rachel, if you open your mouth up, I will give you a popsicle.

And Rachel goes, full surrender just opens up her mouth and everything.

She didn't have strap.

Not that I wish she did, but I sort of did.

But it it may it makes for a good story.

Thank you, Rachel.

Right?

You know, I tell you this story, but I'm telling you really from my perspective.

But if we take a second and just think about it from Rachel's perspective, there she is being held down by the person who says she loves her more than anything in the world.

By the person who's looking her in the eye saying, I love you and I'm here for you, you can trust me, and this is really for your good.

But I can only imagine what Rachel felt.

Like, what?

If you love me so much, then why are you trapping me?

Why are you holding me down?

I'm sure she felt scared and confused.

Like, why if you love me so much?

Why would you why would you do this?

And I I think we can all relate to that feeling in our life, whether it's a situation or something we're going on going on in our life, in our in our emotions or in our mind, that we feel like we are trapped, that we are being held down.

And we wonder, God, I thought you loved me.

You say you love me.

So why am I going through this?

Where are you?

Why are you holding me down?

The Bible's so awesome because it gives us really a story for everything that we go through in our life.

It gives us an illustration and it helps us.

And it's no different for this kind of a scenario of feeling trapped.

So we have this story in the book of Acts, and that's a really important book.

All the books in the Bible are important, but the Acts is really important.

Um, it comes right after right after the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts.

And the reason it's so important is because Acts serves as the bridge or the gap, the connector for us between the life of Jesus and the church.

So, really, actually, the reason that we are here together today is because of the book of Acts.

So it's a really important book for us.

And we have these two guys.

There's a story about Paul and Silas, and we've talked about Paul before.

He's the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, and we kind of meet him first under the name of Saul.

Saul was this fiercely intense guy who was persecuting, he was persecuting Christians, killing them, killing them.

He was so violent to them.

He was doing everything he could to hold them down.

He was like the worst Pharisee ever.

And then he comes across Jesus, and Jesus has this moment with him, and his eyes are open and his heart is open, and Jesus saves him.

And now he takes that fierce intensity and he uses it and channels it for the gospel to spread the good news.

He's like the biggest evangelist that ever lived.

And then we have Silas, and we don't talk a whole lot about Silas.

He's not really like the most famous one or the most well-known early missionary, but but he is a hero in his own right.

Because Silas was always up for whatever God was calling him to do.

And he never got discouraged by any of the obstacles that he faced or any of the challenges that he came up against or any of the setbacks really that he faced.

So we have Paul and Silas, and they go on this mission to Philippi in Rome.

And they're on their way and they come across this young girl who is a slave.

Okay, and the Bible says that she has this evil spirit in her.

And she has these slave owners who are exploiting her, okay, and they are they are making her give fortunes, telling fortunes to people, and they're taking all of her earnings.

So they're completely using this poor girl.

So Paul and Silas come up along, you know, up to them, up to the girl, and and Paul, he he, in the name of Jesus, calls the evil spirit to leave her, and it gives her her freedom, which enrages their owner, her owners, because now they can't exploit her anymore.

They can't use her and make money off of her.

So they drag Silas and Paul to the center of the marketplace in front of the magistrates who were the authorities, and they start twisting the story and making all this stuff up, saying that these guys are in town and they're confusing everyone and causing chaos and that they're actually breaking the law.

So all the people in the marketplace they get fired up and they start joining in the attack, and then the magistrates say, strip them down and go ahead and beat them.

I want to pause for just a second because we hear in the Bible a whole lot about beatings.

And I'm not trying to be morbid or anything, but I think it's important we understand that this is worth a pause, because a lot of times we'll read it and we'll flip the page and kind of continue with the story.

But I want to give you a picture of what that looked like in that moment.

See, there was no like humane treatment of prisoners during this time.

And especially in Rome.

In other areas, there were like you could have 39 lashes and no more than that.

But in Rome, it was anything goes for however long you wanted beat them.

And if that person dies while they are under your control, well, oh well, that's a part, that's a part of it.

That's the price that they prep that they pay.

There's no penalty for that person or anything.

Okay, so they take these rods and they bind them together and they strip down Paul and Silas and they take him and they lash them and they lash them on their sides and on their backs and on their legs.

These guys are hanging on by a thread almost to death.

And then the magistrates say, throw them in prison.

In this dirty, dark prison where their wounds haven't even been cleaned, and it's there's no windows and no fresh air and no bathroom, and no hope for escape.

And actually, even worse than that, they throw them in the center of the prison, which was held for the most dangerous criminals.

There's Paul and Silas in the center of the prison, reserved for the most dangerous prisoners.

And to make matters worse, they they put them in these things called stalks.

And stalks were these wooden, it was like a bottom, like the bottom part was wooden and it had these grooves cut out for their ankles.

So they put their ankles inside of the bottom of the stalk, and then they would take another piece of wood, this block, and they put it on top to close over the ankle.

So literally they only have a hole just the size of their ankle going through this stock.

And and they they made those holes just wide enough that it would cause cramps in the legs of the prisoners.

And a lot of times they would put the stalks in their arms too.

So they're like this, and these guys, they're literally about to die in the center of the prison in this dark, cold, nasty place.

Being held captive, being chained.

Now, I I I just I gotta be honest, if if if I were them, I would have been seriously questioning God.

I can I couldn't blame them if they were like, you know, God, I don't understand.

You called us to this.

We were just being obedient.

We're trying to spread your message.

For goodness sake, we just freed a girl in the name of Jesus.

Why didn't you protect us?

And now we don't even know if we're gonna we're gonna live.

We're not even gonna make it out of here.

We're trapped.

I don't I don't understand.

I thought you loved me.

Kind of like how Rachel must have felt when I was telling her I loved her, but yet holding her down.

But Paul and Silas did not do that.

No, Scripture says that around midnight, which tells us that they have been suffering all day and all night, that around midnight, that Paul and Silas started praying and praising God.

Okay, I can understand why they were praying, right?

I've been praying my face off.

But praising?

It says that they were singing hymns.

They were worshiping God.

In the midst of this horrendous circumstance, Paul and Silas are literally thanking God and worshiping him.

And scripture says that suddenly an earthquake comes and it does just enough to break open the prison doors and break off their shackles and their chains, and all of the prisoners around them.

And then it stops.

Do you know what that tells me?

That worship breaks chains.

When we worship God, chains are broken.

Let me tell you something.

Paul and Silas didn't worship God because their chains had been broken.

Their chains were broken because they worshiped God.

That's good enough to repeat.

Paul and Silas didn't worship God after the fact, saying, Oh, well, thank you for breaking the chains.

No, the chains broke as a result of their worship to God.

Now we may not be sitting in a prison right now, physically, having been beaten half to death, chained in the center of a prison in stocks.

But I think we all know that feeling of feeling chained.

You know, that there's something in our life that is chaining us, it's holding us down.

It makes us feel trapped and suffocated and hopeless even.

And some of the things that we have as chains are kind of a little bit more obvious, like you know, addiction or depression.

But then there are chains that are a little less obvious, like anger and resentment and unforgiveness and and lack of self-control and lack of trust and fear.

Those are all chains just as powerful.

But the Bible says that when we become believers, that we that we are free, that Jesus died on the cross for our freedom.

That we don't we don't live in shackles and chains, that we actually have this the power of God Himself living in us, that same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in us when we are believers.

The Bible talks a lot about that freedom.

I'm gonna read a couple verses, just kind of go straight through it, just to kind of illustrate.

So in Romans 8.2, and because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Second Corinthians 3.17, for the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

John 8.32, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 8.36, if the Sun sets you free, you are truly free.

Galatians 5.13, you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters.

Galatians 5.1, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Ephesians 3.12, in him and through faith in him we may approach God with a freedom and confidence.

And Psalm 119, 45, I walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments.

You know, I gotta be honest for a second because I read that and I believe it.

I believe it to be true.

I do.

But the reality is that sometimes you don't feel that freedom.

You know?

You feel chained up, you feel like something's holding you back, you're struggling with something.

You don't feel free.

So it's like, how do how do we take this freedom and actually live it out?

How do we access this freedom?

Well, the Bible talks about how when we become a believer, that we literally get a new heart.

Do you know what I think happens?

I think sometimes, even though we're free in our heart, that our chains they linger around in our minds for a little while.

And so it's like, okay, well then how?

How do I experience this freedom that is obviously mine that I believe is there?

How do I live that out?

Well, Paul and Silas showed us.

It's worship.

It's worship to God.

And you know, we don't really talk a whole lot about what that looks like.

Because if you're like me, the first thing that you might think of is worship is singing.

It's not singing.

Worship is not singing of songs.

Singing of songs is an expression of our worship.

But true worship of God, it goes way deeper than that.

And I found a really great explanation of it in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Verses 1 and 2 say this.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.

His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Okay, so we're gonna keep that up for a few minutes, because this is actually our answer.

And I want to unpack it for us, but we're gonna kind of do it in a reverse order.

We're gonna start at the end and work our way back so we can understand what this really looks like and how we can access it for our lives and really experience that freedom that we all want and that God wants to give us.

So look at the last line.

It says, Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Now I have never met a person who doesn't want that.

If you want God's perfect will, raise your hand.

Right?

It is perfect and it is good and it is pleasing, and I want that for my life.

How?

How?

Well, if we look up a line, it tells us do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Okay, the renewing of your mind.

What does that mean?

Well, there's lots of strategies for renewing your mind.

You know, the first thing is we can really be mindful about what we're watching on TV, what we're looking at on the internet, and what we're listening to, you know, in the car.

Because I'll just say, you know, garbage in, garbage out.

Like a lot of times we we don't even realize that we're consuming all of this negative stuff, and then we wonder why we're down and depressed.

That's not a judgment, by the way, it's in my own life too.

I'm just saying that that's part of renewing our mind.

You know, renewing our mind could be just analyzing, well, who are who am I in a relationship with?

Is it healthy?

Because if it's not, you're not gonna have a renewed mind.

You know, we could take Paul's advice, he talks about it in Philippians 4, and he says, fix your thoughts.

So focus on things that are true and lovely and worthy of praise and good and kind.

So we could do that, and that works.

Or one of the things I do, I do this almost every single week because it seems like every week I hit a roadblock at some point, you know, mentally.

And so I just stop and I literally think about what I'm thinking about.

Like I literally am like, okay, I don't feel great today.

Well, what am I thinking about?

Okay, well, that's really negative, so pluck that right out and throw it in the garbage can.

You know, it's it's thinking about what you're thinking about, and that's renewing your mind.

But at its core, at the very, very core, renewing our mind is actual worship, it's it's worship.

That is how we renew our mind.

Look up the next line.

In view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

So this is saying that in view of God's mercy, so he paid it all for us.

So, in view of that, we should give it all back to him and give our lives as a living sacrifice.

And then that is actual true worship.

Well, sacrifice does not sound like any fun to me.

Sacrifice?

That's painful.

Just ask Abraham.

You know?

He'd been praying for the son, he got this promise he's gonna have this son in his old age, and he gets the son, and it's like his prized, like the answer to his prayer.

And then what does God ask?

For him to put him on the altar.

But we see that God really moves and does incredible miracles in our lives when we actually give him everything that we have.

Just to kind of illustrate this and share a little bit about my story with you.

So I, before I came to his hands, I worked in education for 10 years.

And um, even those 10 years that I was teaching, even before that, really the seven years before that, so 17 years, I really felt God calling me and preparing me to teach, yes, but to teach about him, to speak about him, to communicate him, to do this.

You know, but I I didn't have any training, I didn't even know how this was gonna happen.

And and And so I just kind of was doing my thing and just trying to listen to him, but I was praying all the time.

But 17 years, if you've ever waited on God for anything, and I'm pretty sure you have, one thing you notice is he's not in a rush for anything.

Right?

He's not in a rush for anything.

You know why?

Because he's not in a rush for anything.

Because it's God, because he has his plan and he is sovereign and his timing is perfect.

But the problem is when we feel like we have waited longer than we should, we, our minds, we start to doubt.

We're like my Rachel looking up at me, like, what?

You say you love me, but it doesn't feel that way.

We start to doubt, and I was doubting big time.

You know what my chain was?

My chain during that time was fear.

It was fear that I actually didn't know God's voice, that I had misheard him all these years.

And let me tell you, there's nothing scarier to me in my life than thinking that I actually don't know the sound of God's voice in my life.

And I was doubting big time.

I felt trapped, I felt stuck, I felt like time was running out.

I know I'm not old, but but at 35 years old, starting your career over into something you have no experience or any formal training doing, it's a little freaky.

But I knew that's what I was supposed to do, but God, He wasn't showing any open doors, and I was confused.

And I remember I was on my way to work one day, you know, just feeling the weight of all of that, and just feeling anxious and overwhelmed and burdened and questioning and confused, and I'm on my way to work, and this worship song comes on the radio.

And I literally, I just started crying out to God.

I was just worshiping with my whole heart, just giving him everything in that moment.

And I remember saying, God, all I want to do is serve you.

All I want to do is serve you.

I'm not looking for any fame or any status or any money or anything like that.

I just want to serve you.

And y'all, I promise you, I'm not making this up.

It's not like I heard an audible voice, but I heard it in my heart.

I heard God in that moment say, Well, Elon, if you truly want to serve me, then serve me where I have you.

And stop judging where I have you, because by the way, I'm God.

And when I want to move you, I will.

And if I have you where you are, I have you there.

So serve me if you want to serve me.

And I'm telling you, every chain and shackle, it just broke free.

And I went into this uncontrollable sob.

It was this sobbing, and it was a mixture of like what sacrifice feels like.

You know, I just let my 17-year-long dream go.

Because that's what surrender is, by the way.

That's what sacrifice is, worship, it's all the same thing.

I just gave it everything to him, and I just said, okay, well, if you want me to be here, then this is what I'll do, and I'll do it wholeheartedly.

I trust you, God.

And I gave it to him.

But I was also sobbing because I had this incredible joy.

Because I was free.

I was free for the first time, truly, truly free.

And it all resulted back that I was worshiping him, saying, I will be a sacrifice for you, because I trust you and you are good.

And I know this is exactly what happened.

I know those chains came flying off of my wrist because I parked my car that morning and I walked into that building.

This was two weeks before school let out for summer, and I was excited.

I was excited for the next year, and teachers work on a contractual basis.

So I had two weeks left before I was gonna do this a whole nother year.

And I walked in and everybody else is burnt out and they're ready for summer.

And I'm like, woohoo, this is gonna be awesome.

I sit down at my desk and I start planning out the next year, and I'm telling you, it was it was genuine.

I had enthusiasm and I was excited.

Now, right before this happened, I had been praying for for a long time, a very specific prayer that I never shared with anyone.

I didn't even share it with my husband.

It was just me and God, but it was very specific.

And my prayer was always, God, please, please send someone in my life that believes in me.

Because remember, I had no experience.

I didn't know how this was gonna happen, I had no resources.

God, please send someone in my life who believes in me and wants to come alongside me and invest in me and believes I have a have a great potential and wants to help me.

Okay, so then so then I have my surrendering experience in the car, and ten days later, two days before school lets out for summer, I get a call from Justin McTear.

And church wasn't even, it wasn't even on my radar.

And he calls me on the phone and he's like, Elon, you know, I know this might sound like out of nowhere, but I believe in you and I want to invest in you, and I believe you have an incredible potential, and I want to come alongside you and help you.

He literally took those specific words, right?

He literally took those specific words that I had never shared with anyone, and he said them.

And he said, And you know, we could really use you here at the church, so what do you say?

And it was like God Himself reached his hand down and signed his signature, and my husband felt it too.

And it was like this wasn't even something we had been praying about that that would happen.

I it wasn't even on my radar.

And yet I knew, I knew that this was the path.

And it's crazy because there's no doubt in my mind, I am 100% positive, 100%, that none of that, none of this would be happening.

It wouldn't.

If I hadn't surrendered that day, if I hadn't said, take this most important thing to me that I'm holding on to, that has actually become my God, by the way.

My career, what I realized had become my idol.

I wouldn't have told you that because I wouldn't have believed it, but it was true.

It was so important to me that I was holding on to it so tightly that I was afraid to let it go even to God.

But see, God loves you and me way too much to let us have what we're holding on to if it's not Him that is our true affection.

But I know that in that car I was truly worshiping.

And listen, it had nothing to do with the song I was singing because P.S.

I don't even know what the song was.

Because it wasn't about the song.

Worship is not about the song, it's about the attitude of our heart.

And there in that moment, I gave everything to God.

And I don't know what your chain is.

I don't know if it's something that's just really important to you, that you want to see get better, but you're afraid to let it go.

Because I was afraid.

I was afraid if I let it go, then God wouldn't give it to me, that He would think I didn't care anymore.

So I don't know if it if it's if it's that kind of a chain for you, or if your chain is fear or anger or or addiction.

But if you just give it to God, give your marriage to God, give your children to God, give your future to God, give every struggle to God, give your past to God, give your worries to God, give your struggle with self-control, give it all to God and just say, hear, hear.

And it's not in a way of like apathy, like I don't care, or I'm gonna be lazy and I'm not gonna do anything.

It's not that.

It's a surrendering, it's actually a worship that says, God, you are good, and your plan is good and it's perfect and it's pleasing, and I want it, and so you can have all of me.

And I give you my life and I sacrifice it all.

And yes, it hurts for a second.

And then there's freedom.

It's freedom that you can't explain.

And I think that this is the secret, that this is actually, it's not a secret, that this is this is the thing that's holding a lot of us back from the breakthrough that we are wanting, that we are craving, that we are praying for in our lives.

It's full worship and full sacrifice and full surrender of that thing.

And so ask God this week, well, what is it that I need to surrender?

Because I didn't know what that even meant.

I thought I had surrendered it.

I had said, yes, I give you everything, God.

I I'm doing this for you after all.

Like I don't understand what does that mean?

So I asked him, what is surrender?

So ask him, and we're all made so differently, and he knows each one of us, and he will speak to you in just the right way, so just you understand, and he'll show you in the most amazing, loving, gentle, precious way that he does.

Just give it to him.

Listen, it was God who broke the chains off of Paul and Silas.

It was God who broke the chains off of me.

And you better believe it is going to be God who will break those chains off of you.

And then we'll get to experience that freedom that belongs to us.

Let's pray.

Jesus.

Oh, God, thank you so much.

Thank you for paying the ultimate price.

You surrendered.

You surrendered and sacrificed your life for us.

So that we could fully live.

God, let us just the very least we could do is to offer that sacrifice back to you.

But sometimes, well, no, all the time, God, it's hard.

It's hard and it's scary.

And God, so I just ask for your help.

I ask for your help today, for you to just show us, first of all, what it is we need to surrender if we aren't already aware of it.

God, and then I ask for you to show us how.

How do we surrender that?

Speak to us.

Speak to us in a very personal way, in a way that only we understand.

Show us, God, what it means to surrender.

Help us, hold our hand along the way.

And then, God, give us courage.

Oh, God, I ask for courage.

Give us courage to just give it to you.

To say, God, no matter what you do with this, you are good.

And I trust you.

Help us to let go.

God, we want that freedom.

We want your will in our life.

God, help us to know what that looks like.

How do we worship you?

How do we surrender you?

Hold our hands through that this week, God, and as we continue in this journey, because it's hard, and you know that.

No one gets that more than you.

But nobody is more worthy of our worship, Lord, than you.

So I just pray, God, that we will let go this week.

We will give you everything, every part of us.

We will trust you, God.

You are you are so good, and you're such a gentleman.

And you wait on us.

But please speak to us.

Please give us the courage that we need to let go.

Lord, and we want to go ahead and thank you in the name of Jesus Christ for the change you're gonna break, that you are gonna break, that no man can ever put back on us.

We want to thank you, God, for the freedom that you say is ours.

We want to thank you for that superpower of your Holy Spirit that lives in us when we accept you as our Lord.

You promise us great power with your Holy Spirit, and I'm just asking for you to help us to access that today.

Help us to be bold.

Help us to give it all to you, God, over and over and over again.

We thank you.

We thank you for what you're gonna do.

Because you are good.

And we love you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.