How Not To Quit - David Weir - October 11, 2026

Welcome to the City Place Church podcast.

My name is Josiah Williams, and here is my challenge for you.

As you're listening to the message, I challenge you to remove as many distractions as possible, to write out a few notes and things that stand out to you, and afterwards, share what you've learned on one of your social media outlets.

We level up by giving a level 10.

Thanks again, and enjoy the message yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you're ready, say let's go.

Let's go.

Today we are highly honored to have, uh, Pastor David and Emily with us.

Uh, I joke about it, but, um, before we ever planted our church through, uh, ARC, the Association of Related Churches, um, one of the things that they do is they make sure that every couple is strong, uh, financially, uh, leadership-wise, and marital.

And Pastor David and Emily, uh, were the ones that did our, our marital interview.

And, uh, really when we stepped in the room, it was like, "Oh, Lord Jesus, we love each other, yes, but these questions are very intense."

And they were, and they were very stoic, and when we left, we literally went, "Those are the type of people that we would love to cover us as we pastor CityPlace Church."

And we had only met that time.

Yeah.

And, uh, I called him out of the blue, and I go, "Pastor David, I know we only did an interview with you, but my wife and I would be honored if you and Miss Emily would consider covering us."

And I don't even know if you remember this.

He literally responded, "Um, my wife and I, it's not like we wouldn't consider that."

And I was like, "What?" Uh, strangers.

And he goes, "In fact, we'd be honored to."

And since that day, they have journeyed with us.

And I try to, and I try to practically tell you that we have people in our life who ask us the hard questions, so that when we ask you the hard questions, uh, you don't stomp your foot like, "Ugh, I can't believe..."

'Cause that's what I do with them sometimes.

But the reason why, um, today is such a high honor for us is because everything that they promised they would do, they have done.

Amen.

Family, marriage, ministry, days when we were like, "I'm done."

He's like, "Okay, if you're done, we'll still be with you.

However..."

And so I want us to know, and I want you to know, CityPlace Church, that if we were to ever mistreat the call of God, you're covered.

Hear me, you're covered.

Amen.

You don't have to turn away from the Lord if we go crazy.

You're covered.

We won't go crazy.

We won't go crazy, I'm just saying.

It's like, what do y'all got planned crazy happening? No, uh, no.

He- here's the thing, is we grew up in atmospheres where there was no covering.

And when situations happened in the church, we were like, "What should we do? What should we do? We'll stay."

Right? It's like, no, from day one, they've been covering us.

And so today we get to celebrate them.

And so would you do us a high honor this morning and stand to your feet and welcome Pastor David Weir from Victory Church, Pell City, Alabama, as he comes to preach the word today? All right.

Good morning, everybody.

You can be seated.

Look, it's always an honor to be here with you.

Um, my side of that story, by the way, I don't think I've ever told it.

But I'm gonna tell it today They gave us, uh, six couples to interview that day and told us we had 30 minutes with each couple.

So I'm like, "30 minutes? I mean, I gotta get to the, the, to the bottom of this quick."

That's why it was like, "Let's go."

Asking the hardest possible questions.

But listen, um, th-the reason why the yes was so easy when you asked if we would serve was because of who we met in the room that day.

And Emily and I knew, uh, just 30 minutes in what kind of quality we had in front of us.

And so look, I know, um, we appreciate, you know, just the greeting, but this, this house is, uh, is full of wonderful, amazing people and, uh, and the Lord sent Pastor Damon and Thaisha to you and, uh, and I'm really grateful that you said yes.

So could we just-- Would you mind standing one more time and just clapping for your pastors? Come on.

We love you.

Love you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for doing that.

Um, all right.

I was just thinking today, it's so sunny in Florida.

I mean, it's n- it's sunny in Alabama, too, but it's sunny in Florida.

Emily and I, uh, took our very first sabbatical this summer after 30-something years of ministry, and, uh, we traveled all over England.

Uh, I'm from England, and, um, we were down in Cornwall on the, on the coast and did not see the sun for six days.

Ooh.

It just drizzled.

It was 62 degrees and just raining every day, and Emily said, "I haven't seen the sun in six days."

And I said, "Well, don't worry, honey, we're going home soon."

"There's plenty of sun in the South."

And so Emily and I pastor Victory Church in Pell City, Alabama.

That's about 30 minutes east of, uh, of Birmingham.

We also have a school there, uh, K through 12, and then also a preschool that Emily runs.

We have about 140 kids in the preschool and, uh, 400 and something in the school.

And, uh, we have been there.

We, we met at, uh, at Oral Roberts University as students.

Started dating as freshmen.

Met in a class called Biblical Principles of Abundant Life.

It's a good place to meet your wife.

And, uh, dated all the way through there.

Her dad started our church in 1976, and so our church will be 50 years old next week.

And, um, it's been an honor.

It's been an honor to serve our church all those years.

And, uh, started as a high school English teacher, and, uh, then I was a K-12 principal for 19 years.

And, um, the Lord began to speak to me when I was in my mid-30s about pastoring.

Never considered it until mid-30s and...

But you know, when the Lord asks you to do something, the best answer is yes.

Amen.

It's just pretty simple.

I have this, this, this plan, this strategy for my life, and it's this: Whatever the Lord says, the answer is yes.

I have, I have no grand plan other than that.

Just whatever He says to do, we do it.

And, uh, the Lord's blessed us.

We have a son, Ben, he's 27, and, uh, just got married in April to a wonderful, uh, girl, Merit.

So we have a, a new, uh, amazing daughter-in-law that we love.

Our daughter, uh, Susie's 24.

She teaches fifth and sixth grade math at our school.

And, uh, you know, life is good, and the Lord's been good.

And we've been in, uh, this one church for 32 years that we've been married.

And, and, um, I just can't imagine what it must be like to go through life without a church family.

Right.

And so, uh, it's just, it's just really good to be with you.

Um, people always say, "Uh, you, you're from England?" Yeah, I was, I was born and raised in England.

I left when I was 18, immigrated to America.

Um, and 32 years in Pell City, Alabama has destroyed my English accent.

I mean, what else can you say? I moved here with the intention of being an American.

Um, look, I'm, I'm proud of, of my British heritage.

My dad, uh, my, my granddad, uh, started a church in a small coal mining town in, uh, Scotland in 19, uh, 72, and, um, I'm proud of all that.

I'm grateful for that.

But I'm gonna tell you something, everybody.

I mean, as, as a, as a American citizen and a British citizen and an immigrant, there is no country like America.

And no country's perfect, and we all...

We, we work on our issues, but we-- I am so thankful to be an American.

And I'll tell you something else.

The American church, after pastoring, uh, an American church for years, there's, there's nothing like the American church.

Do you know that 75% of missions dollars still comes out of the American church? Like, uh, a-and every, again, every, every, every...

No church is perfect, but, but I just...

I've been telling people this lately, 'cause I think you need to keep your eyes on the big picture.

God called our nation for a specific purpose.

To preach the gospel around the world.

That's, that is our mission as Americans.

And, um, look, fr-from, from our church in Pell City, Alabama, over the last, uh, 14 years, we have, we have planted over 120 churches around the world, and that includes, by the way, um, 60 now.

60 churches in the nation of Cuba have been financed out of our church in Pell City.

And, and I think, "How is this even possible, Lord? How can...

How...

What kind of a day, Pastor, are we living in when a church in, in, in a town of 15,000 people can impact the world like that?" I'm telling you, we are living in extraordinary days.

And you are in an extraordinary church.

And, uh, and, and God loves the American church.

The generosity.

I'll tell you one more story before I get to the Word here, 'cause I just feel like this is on my heart.

I need to share it.

My dad, my dad got saved in 1955 at a Billy Graham crusade in Edinburgh, Scotland.

I want you to think about this for a second.

Who paid for that crusade in 1955? It wasn't the Scottish church.

It was the American church So grateful To the American church.

And the generosity continues to this day.

So let's make sure that as Americans, that we are remembering the primary call on our lives to build churches that spread the gospel all around the world, that build strong families in our homes, and take that strength outside.

That, I mean, the Lord has been good to us.

Amen? Amen.

Can we just thank the Lord for the church? Come on, just clap and thank Him for the church.

All right.

I got two, uh, passages for you today.

If you have your Bibles or your Bible app, I'm gonna start in Nehemiah, in, uh, the Book of Nehemiah.

I'm reading in the New International Version today.

I was just thinking about what it takes to build.

What does it take to build? You're building something.

You're building a life, you're building a family, you're building a business.

Uh, we're building the church.

Like it's in your DNA to build.

You gotta be building something.

We say at Victory we're building strong families.

It's work.

It's a lot of work to build a family.

Yeah.

It's a lot of work to build, to build strong kids and strong marriages, but, but God's with us.

And so in this chapter, you have, uh, this group of, uh, of, of Jews that are rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem, and they come up against some opposition.

It says, uh, "When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and greatly incensed, and he ridiculed the Jews."

I was thinking, "Why do walls matter anyway?" They already had the temple.

Why do they need the walls? I mean, they already got the place, you know, to worship, but, but here, here's the thing: without walls, there's no protection.

People have no protection.

And so the building of the city, of this city is also about honoring God.

And I think that way about the churches we're building.

Protection for families.

Come on, listen to me.

I think it is the greatest time in human history to be a young family and have children In the church.

I think it is the worst time in human history to raise a family outside the church.

Yeah.

I think in the church, the grace of God is in the church.

Yeah.

To raise your kids to know Jesus today, to know the Word of God, i- is, is gonna set them on a path of success.

To raise children outside the church today is incredibly dangerous, the most dangerous in human history.

And so I think about that.

Why are we building the church? Protection for families, to preach the gospel, to honor God.

All these reasons are, are, are just so worth it.

And so, and verse two says, "In the presence of his associates in the army of Samaria, he said, 'What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish it in a day?'" Look, that's the enemy talking.

"Who do you think you are to build something? How long is it gonna take you anyway?" That's what he's saying when he says, "Are you gonna finish it in a day?" I mean, it's just a sarcastic remark like, "Man, they've been doing that for years.

Why are they still working on that? How long is it gonna take them?" Says at ver...

End of verse two, "Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble, burned as they are? Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side: 'What are they building? E- even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones.'"

You know, just negativity, the accusations that Pastor was talking about just now.

"What do you think you're doing, trying to do that for God? That's not gonna be good."

And so because of the opposition, it says in verse four that the people cried out to God, "Hear us, our God, for we are despised.

Turn their insults back on their own heads.

Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.

Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they've thrown insults in the face of the builders.

So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

But when Sanballat and Tobiah, the Arabs and the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry, and they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.

But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.

Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, 'The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there's n- so much rubble we can't rebuild the wall.'

Also our enemies said, 'Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and we'll kill them and put an end to the work.'

So then the Jews who lived near them came and told us 10 times over, 'Wherever you turn, they'll attack us.'"

You know, sometimes even people in your own camp are negative That's just part of life.

Part of life is just dealing with some negativity.

Verse 13: "Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords and spears and bows.

And I looked things over.

I stood up and I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, 'Don't be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord.'"

Come on, everybody.

Remember the Lord.

Whatever it is that you're building or whatever you're going through, you gotta remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families- That's good your sons and daughters, your wives, and your homes.

That's good.

Listen, everybody, that is the work of the church.

It is to reach the lost.

We're here for the Great Commission, to reach lost people, to find as many lost people as we can and bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Amen? Amen.

And make disciples, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has said.

That's how you make a disciple, by teaching believers to obey the Word, to obey Jesus.

But there's something else we're doing.

We're building churches to protect our families.

We're building churches in order to fight for our families, for our sons and our daughters, for our wives, and for our homes.

And so I've really felt this message on my heart for you.

That, that's what we're doing here in, in Orlando.

We are building a church that will fight for our families.

There's always gonna be discouragement.

Anytime you set out to build something, there's gonna be a spiritual attack.

Yeah.

And there's gonna be discouragement.

I, I was thinking about this.

I have a, a brother-in-law who, who loves to run.

He asked me recently, did I wanna run a 10K with him on Thanksgiving morning.

Yeah.

And I thought, "Hmm, I don't think I'm up for a 10K.

I'll tell you what, d- uh, are they doing a 5K that morning? I think I could run three miles.

You'll just have to keep going without me."

So, so I said, "Okay, I'll, I'll do it."

So I'm, I'm gonna run this 5K Thanksgiving morning.

I hope it's not too cold.

And, um, so I was reading a little bit about runners and, uh, there's a phrase called hitting the wall.

Runners who push through the wall don't do it because their legs suddenly find new muscle fibers.

They do it because something convinced them that the finish line was still worth reaching That's how you push through the wall.

That's how-- If you're hitting the wall in life, like you gotta push through it.

A legacy that honors God is what gets a tired person through.

Like thinking about the legacy, when I think about my granddad, a coal miner, never owned his own home.

I don't think he ever drove a car, let alone owned a car.

Started a church in 1972 that stands today.

I think, "How did he do that? Why did he do that?" 'Cause he loved the world, 'cause he loved lost people so much.

And a legacy, a legacy that, that is amazing to me.

I got to preach in that church last year And I, a-a-and look, it, it-- I remember going there as a boy.

I remember hearing about Jesus there when I was a boy.

I remember singing songs about Jesus, and I thought, "What a legacy my granddad left.

What an incredible legacy."

I can feel the generational blessing on our lives because of my granddad, who loved Jesus enough to take a risk and build a church Incredible.

So I don't like to run that much.

I, I, I am in a, in a Peloton small group I lead the Peloton small group.

And, uh, I don't know if...

Is anybody else in here a, a Peloton owner? Anybody? A few, okay.

So I like the Peloton, but, but look, I, I only ride the Peloton to get in shape for tennis.

Tennis is my love.

T- I've been playing tennis since I was 10 years old, and, uh, I, I like the competition.

I didn't get to play football.

I grew up in England.

We played a different kind of football.

I wish I had, but tennis is my thing.

So, so I'm on an over 40s team in Pell City.

We've won pe- we've won six state championships.

Wow.

We have very little facilities.

We have courts.

We just love to go beat all the country clubs.

We never won any state championships in the over 18, only, only, only since we, we got in the over 40 bracket.

We're aging well I said to a friend of mine, "Why, why do we win so many state championships, beating Birmingham and Mobile and Huntsville and all these fancy places and with their, with their expensive fees? I pay $150 a year to be in our club."

And my friend said, "'Cause we're, we're such bad losers."

I may be a bad loser.

I, I, I don't throw rackets or anything like that.

I'm gonna tell you something, everybody.

The church needs to be competitive We're supposed to be winning, right? I don't play tennis for fun.

Sometimes people say, "Have fun."

I said, "Winning's fun."

Winning is fun.

Yeah, I'm a little competitive.

But look, why-- shouldn't we be competitive as Christians? Aren't we trying to win souls? That's right.

Come on.

I get upset if nobody gives their heart to Jesus.

Come on.

We should be winning.

We should be competitive.

Now, we need to be nice to a point.

All right, I want you to listen to this, and, and I'm gonna get to the second passage I wanna share with you.

So I, I l- I did a little re- a little research on my Peloton app.

Uh, when, when I'm riding a Peloton, a 20-minute ride with my small group, with my friends, with my competitors, 20 minutes, um, you, you gotta understand Peloton t-to understand these numbers, but just listen to the number.

215 kilojoules is my average with 20 minutes with friends.

That's 6.74

miles, 300 calories burned.

Praise God.

Now listen, 300 calories burned when I'm with my friends.

When I'm riding the Peloton on my own, the same amount, 20 minutes, 146 kilojoules versus 215.

5.78

miles versus 6.74

miles, and only 199 calories burned What I can accomplish on my own- Yeah.

-versus what I can accomplish with my friends.

Yeah.

Right.

Listen, everybody, your rewards in heaven will be so much greater because you were building with this family.

That's good.

I'm telling you, like this is the truth.

There are so many Christians out there going alone, and they're struggling, first of all, 'cause they don't have a family, a church family to protect them, but also because what you accomplish together is so much greater than what you can do on your own.

Do you know that we're gonna stand before Jesus and He's gonna say thank you one day? I mean, I think about our church, I think I just want everybody to be well rewarded in heaven.

We're gonna do everything we can to please Jesus.

Amen? Amen.

All right.

So here's the second part of this message.

I'm gonna give you a practical, very practical how to not quit Because I promise you the day's gonna come when you wanna quit.

So what are you gonna do when that day comes? So I got really quickly a few points for you out of Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Here's number one.

You start with your faith in Jesus.

Mm-hmm.

You always start with Jesus.

My faith is not in me, it is not in my abilities, it is not in my experience.

Right.

I, I am experienced.

I've got 30 years of ministry, but if I rely on my experience in ministry over my faith in Jesus, I'll fail.

Come on now.

That's good.

Because everything has changed.

2026 is not 2020.

That's right.

Thank God.

Yeah.

And it's not 2015.

It's not 2016 when the church started.

It is not the same, and so my experience helps me, but it is not what I rely on.

It's my faith in Jesus.

Romans 5:1, "Therefore, since we've been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

Romans 5:1

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege, where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory."

Verse three, a verse we don't love.

"We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance."

All right, here's number two.

Comes right out of that verse.

Whatever the trial is that you're in, you gotta see it as an opportunity to build endurance.

The way you see the trial matters.

If you look at the trial and think, "God, why is this happening to me?" that's not the right posture for a Christian.

That leads to failure.

It leads to giving up.

You don't say, "Lord, why is this happening to me?" We're living in an evil world.

We have an enemy.

You see the trial as an opportunity to build endurance.

Right.

How you see the trial matters.

I'm gonna have to trust God in this.

Yeah.

I'm gonna have to call on God.

It's not, "Why me, God?" You know, I, I, I went through a really difficult time.

I was running the school.

I was a K through 12 principal, and I had become the senior pastor.

I don't recommend that.

But I had to do that for about four years while I waited on the Lord to send me the right person to take over our school.

I love our school, and I couldn't just pass it off to someone who couldn't build it.

And so I was really struggling, and I, I wanted to walk away from ministry.

And I was complaining to the Lord one time, and He asked me a really important question.

He said...

I mean, I can hear His voice right now.

He said, "Do you want me to call you to do something easier?" He didn't say this is easy.

He sa- he didn't say I was, I, I-- that I was, m- you know, make, making it up that it was hard.

He said, "Do you wanna do something easier?" Yeah.

I took a deep breath that day and said, "No, Lord, I'll do what you've asked me to do.

I'm gonna need some more grace."

You know, that's a, that's a, an attitude adjustment Romans 5:4: "Endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."

So here's number three You gotta believe that endurance is gonna create character You see the trial differently.

I'm looking at the trial as an opportunity to, to not give up.

I'm looking at the trial that I'm going through as an opportunity to build endurance, and I believe that that endurance is gonna create in me character.

Here's Proverbs 24.

I'll come back to Romans in a second.

Proverbs 24: If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small If you give up in the day of trouble, you get weaker.

Are, are y'all listening to me? Yeah.

If you ho- But, but the opposite is true.

If you hold on and you stay firm in the day of adversity or trial, you get stronger.

Why? Because the endurance creates character.

Right.

But if you give up when you're having a hard time, th- then, then you actually get weaker.

You are more likely to give up again the next time.

That's right.

I have been an educator since the '90s, and I remember in the late '90s going to a, a workshop where a Christian lady was, was trying to help us understand parenting in the '90s.

And she said, "Parents of the '90s are trying to smooth out the road, smoo- prepare the road ahead for their kids instead of preparing their kids for the road."

Mm.

You see the difference? Yeah.

Uh, we're way past that now.

Yeah.

So what I'm telling you parents is, I'm not saying you should never step in and fix anything.

I'm saying you gotta be really careful about trying to smooth everything over, because to develop character, you gotta go through something hard We, we were talking about the Carolina Panthers before church Anybody know why? Oh, yeah.

All right.

I'm proud of that quarterback 'cause when they benched him, he had a good attitude.

Now look at him.

He went through some, some adversity and didn't give up, and came out the other side with some character.

What's the rest of Romans say? It says, "Character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."

If I don't quit, I'm gonna get stronger.

And then here's number four.

So listen, church, you gotta let hope protect your mind Some- sometimes we misunderstand hope and faith.

Faith is in the heart.

Faith is I choose to believe.

I'm making a choice to believe.

If you're here today and you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, it begins by saying, "Yes, I believe."

Faith.

You have to believe that Jesus is who He says He is, that He's God's Son, that He lived a perfect life, and that He went to the cross for your sin.

Like, faith is in the heart.

It is I have made a decision to believe something.

You have the power to believe.

Like, every person in this room has the ability to believe.

I mean, I believe in things that, that, that are way less important than my faith in Jesus.

I believe the Dallas Cowboys will win a Super Bowl again one day, Damon.

There's not a single Cowboys fan in this room, is there? There is.

There is.

Okay.

Man Let me get us back on track here Faith is in the heart.

You can choose today to believe that Jesus Christ died for you, that God loved you enough to send His Son.

You can be saved today by believing.

It's not by being a good person You gotta let the inside work happen first.

I promise you the Lord will work on the outside, but you have to believe.

Hope is in the mind.

Mm-hmm.

Hope you put on like a helmet.

Hope protects your thoughts.

Yeah.

Hope is the confident expectation of the goodness of God.

I think something good is gonna happen to me.

It protects my thoughts.

Hey, this is not a good day.

This is not...

Things are not going great today, but God loves me, and something good is gonna happen to me.

Come on.

That's hope.

Yeah.

And you have to say it.

You have to say it out loud.

You have to believe that, that God is a good God- Yeah and something good is gonna happen 'cause He's planning something good for you.

That's hope, and it protects your mind.

And in the day of adversity, if you're going through a trial, if you're dealing with a sickness, if you're, if you're struggling with a, a son or daughter that's, uh, that's far from God, hope is what will protect your thoughts.

Yeah.

And hope is, is expecting something good to happen.

Yeah.

Everybody, I want everybody in the room say this after me.

Say something good.

Something good.

Is going to happen.

Is going to happen.

To me today.

To me today.

That's hope.

Yeah.

And it protects your thoughts.

And so you've gotta understand the difference between faith and hope, and let hope protect your mind.

When you're going through a bad day, you just keep saying, "No, something good's gonna happen And it's gonna happen today 'cause God is planning something good.

That's right.

Listen, church, God has a call on, on you, on Cityplace Church.

I can feel it in the room.

I could feel it during prayer this morning There's a lot of people that need Jesus in this city.

And here we are with the answers that they're looking for But if you think it's just gonna be easy, you're gonna be disappointed.

Nothing's easy How do you handle adversity? Don't give up.

Get stronger.

Just keep getting stronger.

You know, I was sitting with a man in our church a couple weeks ago.

He said that he came to church and for the first time heard that it wasn't about being a good person He said, "I always thought I, I could go to heaven if I was a good person."

And he said when he came to Victory, it was the first time anybody told him it wasn't about being good.

It was about putting his faith in Jesus Christ I just keep thinking about that man.

Grew up in the Bible Belt, and nobody ever told him You have to put your faith in Jesus Christ Call on the name of Jesus to be saved.

If you're in the room today and you don't know for sure that you're saved, you can be 100% sure.

Did you know that? 'Cause Romans says very simply, "If you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you will be saved."

Do you know what I think's amazing? God makes it so simple to be saved.

Jesus did all the hard work on the cross I want, I want you to think about something.

In case you grew up in a very religious atmosphere, a very legalistic atmosphere where everything about being a Christian was hard, let, let me just ask you a question.

If God so loved the world that He sent His only Son and let His Son go through that excruciating death on the cross, the Bible says they beat Him so badly that He didn't even look like a man.

Now, why would God let His Son go through that if He was gonna make it hard for you to be saved? It's about your faith.

Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus is God's Son? Do you believe that He lived a perfect life, that He went to the cross and paid for your sin, and do you believe He's alive today? And if you believe it, there's another step.

The step is to give Him your life To call Jesus Lord means my life belongs to you, and to the best of my ability, I'm gonna do what you say.

There's the pride problem But the best life you can ever live is a life where you say yes to Jesus, whatever He asks you to do.

It's the best life.

So you're not even really losing anything Pray for you.

Would you bow your heads? Father, I just wanna thank you for this church family.

All the joy that I feel in the room, the faith that I feel in this room is special Father, I'm asking you to bless everything they put their hands to do Holy Spirit, that the favor that's on this church would be felt in this city, that people would be drawn here Drawn here to, to be saved, drawn here to be healed, drawn here to build marriages and families Thank you for a church that's willing to fight I just speak blessing over City Place today.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you've been encouraged by today's episode, and we have one final challenge for you.

Take something that you've learned today or something that stuck out to you and share it with a friend or a loved one.

Spread a little of what I like to call that wisdom wealth with someone else.

Wherever you are, I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day.