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Experience the life-changing messages from the Church of God’s annual Winterfest youth gathering. These are the sermons, moments, and voices that have shaped generations of young believers — now available anytime, anywhere.
So I'm gonna preach a message today.
I'm gonna call it the God who runs, the God who runs.
And I want you to go with me to quite a familiar story.
You've read it, you've heard sermons on it.
If you grew up in church, you heard it in kids' church.
You've got, you sit under great preaching and teaching
by your youth pastor and your pastor.
And so they've preached out of this parable before.
But Luke 15, it's the story of the prodigal son.
And I wanna kinda, it's a lot of scripture,
but I'm gonna let the word do the work.
So just hang in, there's a lot of verses,
but we'll kinda break it up as we go.
The good news is I only have three points for you tonight.
How about that, three points.
And the more you amen, the faster I preach.
- Amen. - Amen.
- Now we gonna be here a minute.
Come on somebody.
So Luke, there we go.
Luke 15 beginning in verse number 11,
here's what Jesus says in this parable.
He says, "There was a man who had two sons.
The younger one said to his father,
"Father, give me my share of the estate."
And so he divided his property between them.
I'm gonna pause right there for a moment.
I had this thought the other day,
and I don't even think I've ever really seen this before
or thought about it like this,
but if you read first what the younger one said to his father,
"Father, give me my share of the estate."
It had to be the younger sibling.
Where are the younger siblings at?
If you're the youngest sibling, yeah, we see you.
It's y'all, y'all always the problem.
Come on, there's research about the youngest siblings.
Now watch, I'll prove it to you.
Where are the older siblings at?
You would never act like this.
You got your life together.
It's always the younger siblings, you know?
Older siblings, one more time, raise your hand at me.
Keep your hand up, older siblings, if you think,
yep, this is exactly how my younger sibling
would act right there.
They'd say, give me mine, it's always mine.
Give me my portion.
That's why I just had that thought.
Now, a little more seriously here,
the story says that the younger son
asked for the portion of the estate,
meaning he wanted his inheritance.
And this is very serious here,
but in Jewish culture, if you were to ask
for the inheritance before the passing of your father,
like the dad was still alive,
it was a slap in the dad's face.
It was literally saying to the father,
you mean nothing to me.
All I care about is the money.
You're dead to me.
And this is no small offense.
This is a really big deal.
Not only does it dishonor the father,
but a request like that to receive the inheritance
before it's time would dishonor the entire family.
And if you think about it,
I'm not here to do a class on business
and finance and retirement,
but if you think about wealth nowadays
compared to wealth back then,
how we hold our assets is much different.
Now, you're gonna put money in a bank account
or you're gonna put money in crypto
or you're gonna put money in a 401k retirement account,
but back then, their wealth was in land and livestock.
Think about that.
All the money that the family had was in land and livestock.
So when the younger son says, I want my inheritance,
literally the father had to put a for sale sign
on some cattle and on one third of the property.
So this isn't some secret like family drama,
which we all got, come on now.
Everybody's got a little dysfunction in your family,
and if you don't know who's dysfunctional in your family,
(audience murmurs)
it's you, can I get an amen, come on.
The whole village knew what was happening,
because there's a real estate sign in the front yard.
Oh, Sally, the cow's got a for sale sign on her,
because there's a request for one third
of the inheritance to come,
and so everybody in the community
knows exactly what is happening.
Verse 13, not long after that,
the younger son got together everything that he had
and he set off for a distant country.
I'll ask you to repeat a few words along the way,
but I don't wanna lose you, all right?
So if you can do it and hang in there with me, do it.
If you can't do it, 'cause I'm gonna lose you,
don't participate, does that make sense?
So he sets off for a distant country.
Everybody say distant country.
There he squandered everything that he had in wild living.
Everybody say wild living.
Once he spent everything, there was a severe famine
that took place in the whole country.
Tell me that's not like life.
It goes from bad to worse in a moment.
He's got his inheritance, he's got his money,
he's got his cash, and then he spends it all.
He's got no more money, he's got no more friends,
and now there's a famine in the land,
and the younger son is losing his mind.
He begins to be in great need.
Verse number 15 says that he goes and he hires himself out
to a citizen of that country.
And the job that he was hired to do was to feed the pigs.
But not only was he feeding the pigs,
but he was so broken and he was so poor
and he was in such great need
that not only did he feed the pigs,
but verse 16 says that he longed to fill his stomach
with the pods that the pigs were eating,
but no one gave him anything.
Let me pause right there and give you the first point
of these three points.
This is very, very elementary,
but I believe that we gotta deal with some stuff tonight.
You ready?
The first point is this, sin never ends well.
Sin never ends well.
Now I wanna be honest tonight,
and this may be my last invitation
back at Ozark Winterfest.
They put me on the schedule for some others,
so hopefully they'll keep me on those rosters,
but this may be my last opportunity here,
so I'm just gonna be honest with everybody, look at me.
The enemy knows what he's doing
packaging sin. He knows what he's doing when he's packaging sin. Sin is fun. Sin
is enticing. Yeah, I'm not a fisherman. Anybody go fishing like you like to fish.
I'd rather watch paint dry on a wall than go fishing. But people love it. They love
going fishing, man. And you know what you do? You put bait on a lure and you throw
it in. Why is it called a lure? Because fish like shiny things and so do we. And
little shiny things in front of us to entice us,
to bait us, to lure us.
And let me tell you, the enemy would love for you to know
how fun sin really is.
But here's the thing about sin,
even though it's enticing, and even though it seems fun,
Romans tells us exactly how it will end.
For the wages of sin is death.
That's the outcome.
That's the outcome.
Because sin never ends well.
Write this down if you're taking notes.
If not, take a picture on the screen.
Sin always promises way more than it delivers.
I'll say it one more time.
Sin always promises way more than it delivers.
A little crowd participation here.
Has anybody ever ordered something online before?
Maybe you had your mom or dad order something online
and it's something that you really wanted,
like a new pair of shoes or some new clothes
phone anybody ever order something online and and and you got the tracking number of the package and
So you're like stalking that delivery truck and I don't know what is up with Amazon lately
But we're praying for Prime and we're not getting it in two days. I
Don't know what's going on. I took care of my wife
I was like get our money back because it's like two weeks or three weeks and man when you really want that thing
You will stalk that that truck you'll put in the tracking number and there's part of you that thinks I can get to the city
the truck is in, faster than the truck can get to my city, so I'll just go get my
package and you're just waiting. Man, I don't know, some of you, you've
pretended to be sick to stay home from school because you knew the package would
come that day. Some of you take a work from home day and then you're just
waiting. You're waiting all day for the Amazon driver to show up and then finally
they pull up in the truck and you're like, "Dear Lord, this is it. I've been waiting on
this thing," and they ring the doorbell, they put the package there, and then you
grab the box, you run inside, you rip the thing open, and inside of it is bubble
wrap and you pause for a moment because it does not matter how old you are you
must play with bubble wrap come on somebody so you just take them up you're
excited about what's inside but you take a moment pop pop pop pop come on six
seven pop pop you're just saying and on and then and then what and then there it
is here it is and you take it out of the package and you open it up and you go
tell me you've never had this experience before you open and you look at you go
The heck is that? That is not what I ordered. Am I the only one that's ever
happened to? Yeah, you take it out of you've been waiting for weeks and it
shows up you're like that is not what I ordered. I think I got the perfect
example for you to see and it's called Team Moo. Team Moo. These are real
purchases from Team Moo. How many of you know Team Moo? You got me? All right, Team
Here's the first one here, bruh.
Graduation is tomorrow morning,
I'll never order off Teemu again.
Come on now, that's funny, I don't care who you are.
Try to fit in that, come on now.
Here's another one, Smack Snug.
This is my favorite one.
I'm never buying a TV off Teemu again.
All right, before they put the next one up,
I don't think this is a real purchase on Teemu,
but it's too funny to pass up.
How about this Cybertruck?
when you order your cyber truck off Teamu, right there,
there it is right there.
That's awesome.
I think they live in my neighborhood.
Pastor J, see, what are you saying?
I'm gonna tell you what I'm saying.
Sin is like Teamu.
It promises way more than it actually delivers.
Oh, it entices us and it pulls us in
and it makes all of these wonderful promises,
but the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
And this is not, look at me, this is not some game.
This is not some game.
We've turned it into a game.
We've turned church into a game.
We've turned Christianity into a game.
But this is not a game.
The enemy is seeking whom he may devour
and the end game for the enemy, for your life is death.
To leave you beat down, broken in some pig's pen
with nothing and yet he lures us in
and we take a bite of the sin
and we think this is gonna be wonderful
but at the end of the day, listen to me,
sin never ends well.
Why?
Because sin will separate you
from the things that you love most.
How do you know this, Pastor JC?
Because I've been there and I've done that
and I bought the T-shirt.
The Bible says that the prodigal son
went off to a distant country
and that's what sin does.
Sin separates us and takes us to a distant place
Sin separates you from the things that you love the most
and from the people that you love the most.
And sin will pull you away from relationships that matter.
Sin will drag you away from your family
and the covering of your mother and your father
that pray for you all the time.
And sin will pull you away from the church body
and the youth group and the people that really
are there for you and sin just drags you away
from all of those different things.
The enemy will you send to drag you away from your purpose
and to pull you away from your calling
and to strip you and rob you of your identity.
And the biggest one is this,
the enemy will you send to distance you from God.
The most important relationship,
to pull you away from God.
The other thing is this,
is that sin will cost you more than you think it will.
There is a cost to the consequences of our decisions.
Listen to me.
The Bible says that this prodigal son squandered everything that he had in wild living.
And he doesn't just lose the money, he lost what the money represented.
Opportunity, security, future, trust.
And yet instead of investing his life in wisdom, look at me, I'm not some old guy, but your
whole life is in front of you.
Your whole life is in front of you.
And instead, this is what we do,
instead of investing what we have in wisdom and purity
and the things of God, we invested into wild living
and partying and alcohol and drugs.
And I'm not gonna stand up here and give you a laundry list,
but that is foolish things of the world
that never end well.
They never end well.
I've been in ministry 26 years now,
and I have counseled hundreds and hundreds of couples
and individuals, and I have never one time,
Pastor Kevin, I can say this about your ministry as well,
I have, look at me, students, never once have I sat down
with a person and listened to their story,
and then them say, oh, but then I started drinking,
and everything got better.
Oh, but then I tried drugs and my whole life turned around,
and thanks be to God for drugs.
Wrong.
We sit there time and time again because they took the bait.
And they didn't realize the cost to the consequence of giving in to the temptation.
I know I'm not preaching like you want me to, but
I believe this is the word that God put on my heart.
Here's the other thing, is that sin will ruin your identity.
Genesis 1, 27 tells us that you are created in the Imago day.
You're created in the image of God.
fearfully and wonderfully made.
Here's what I believe, this is my theology.
I don't believe that God created you
and then he gave you a purpose.
I think God had a purpose and so he created you.
And he created you on purpose, for purpose,
with gifts, talents, abilities, anointing,
call, destiny, and all of that.
And so it's the enemy's heart.
It's the heartbeat of Satan to rob you of your identity.
That's why, look at me.
That's why there's so much craziness
around identity right now.
Because the enemy wants people to think
that their identity in Christ is not their true identity.
Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And so the enemy will use sin to rob you of your own identity.
The Bible says the prodigal got a job feeding pigs
and he wasn't just feeding the pigs,
he longed to eat what they ate.
He was a Jewish boy.
And for a Jewish boy to be around pigs
and to eat what they ate, that was rock bottom
because pigs were unclean.
Pigs were unthinkable.
Pigs were humiliating.
But look at me, that's what sin does.
Sin lowers your standards.
And here's what happens.
The things you once said, I'll never do that.
I'll never do that.
Now those things start to feel normal and comfortable
Because sin reshapes how you see yourself,
how you view yourself, how you value yourself.
And listen to me, and if you stay there long enough,
you don't just forget who you are,
you forget whose you are.
Sin never ends well.
Let's go back to the story, verse 17.
This is one of my favorite parts of the whole story here.
It says, "When he came to his senses."
Come on, help me preach that.
How many of my father's hired servants have food to spare
and yet here I am starving to death.
When he came to his senses, this is a moment
that everything started to change for the prodigal
because it was a turning point in his life.
It was a turning point in his story.
It was an awakening.
He realizes, he's like, wait a minute, I'm broke.
I'm hungry.
I'm lonely, but I don't have to live like this any longer.
Look at me, I'm getting ahead of myself, forgive me.
There is always a way out.
There's always a way out.
The enemy would love for you to think
there's no way out of the life that you're in right now,
the trap that you're in right now.
There is always a way out and his name is Jesus.
I need 300 people to put their hands together,
come on, and give Jesus glory and honor.
There is always a way out.
And I know it's Friday night, but listen to me.
I think one of the most spiritual things
that could happen to you at Ozark Winterfest this weekend
is if you just wake up.
If you just wake up, if you just come to your senses
and you realize that while sin is trying
to destroy your life, you don't have to live
like that any longer.
There is always a way out.
Look what he says in verse 18.
He says, "I'll set out and I'll go back."
Somebody say go back.
He says, I'll go back to my father,
I'll go back to my father,
I'll go back to Jesus,
I'll go back to God,
I'll go back to my family,
I'll
I have sinned against heaven and I have sinned against you.
I am no longer worthy to even be called your son.
Make me like one of your hired servants.
And look at verse 20.
So he got up and he went to his daddy.
Got up and he went to his father.
Here's the heart of the message.
This is the second point of three.
You ready?
It doesn't matter where you are
and it doesn't matter what you've done.
Grace is for you.
Grace is for you.
I like to preach it like this.
If God can save JC Worley,
with the mess that I was in and the trap of my life
and the addictions and the strongholds and the bondage,
if God can save me,
Students, God can save anybody.
If God can offer me grace, God can offer anyone grace.
But we've all heard the lies of the enemy
about all the bad things that we've done
and that we can't go back to the Father
because He won't extend to us grace and mercy.
But I want you to see something here
and this is really important.
And I'm watching my clock.
I've got just a few minutes left.
Hang in there.
'Cause back in verse number 18,
the prodigal says these words.
He says, "I've sinned against heaven
"and I've sinned against you."
You know what that is?
That's actually a prayer.
And it's a prayer of repentance.
And I know that your pastors teach you this,
but I wanna teach this to you as well,
'cause I don't want you to miss it.
Repentance isn't just feeling bad for what you've done.
We always feel bad for what we've done
because we've got ethics and morals and convictions now.
We don't always live by them,
but we know right from wrong.
So we always feel bad,
but repentance is not feeling bad for what we've done.
Repentance is changing direction.
Look at me.
That's what this weekend has to be about.
That when you leave this place, you change direction.
You don't walk back into the old life,
the old habits, the old relationships,
the old sinful behaviors.
You change direction.
Father, I have sinned against heaven,
And I've sinned against you, I repent of my sin
because I wanna be made right with God.
And here's the prayer, watch.
It's vertical, everybody point up to heaven, come on.
It's vertical, 'cause here's what he says.
God, I've sinned against heaven and it's horizontal.
Now point to somebody near you and I've sinned against you.
'Cause watch this, sin always affects the people around you.
It always impacts the people around you.
Sin would be one thing if it only messed up your life.
But the power of the stronghold of sin
messes up everybody's life around you.
So the prodigal says first, vertically,
I have sinned against heaven,
I have sinned against you, oh God,
and that's important because, help me, Holy Spirit,
one John one nine says, if we confess our sins to God,
vertical, then He is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, come on.
But then he says, so I want, I want,
I wanna confess and repent to God
because God is the only one who can save me, deliver me,
and set me free.
But then he says, but I've sinned against you.
James 5, 16 says, now if we confess our sin one to another,
we shall be healed.
Not saved, 'cause people can't save ya.
No, no, only Jesus can save you.
He says when we confess our sin one to another,
now we get healing, we get wholeness.
And look at me, I'm going somewhere.
I think for many of you, you get caught
in the undercurrent of sin, you confess your sin to God,
and you get grace and he forgives you,
but you don't have accountability in your life.
This is why you're not whole and healed.
This is why, look at me, I've got enough gray in my beard.
I've been in rooms like this for a lot of times.
This is why, this is why your Christianity,
you gotta live it from winter fest to winter fest.
From altar call to altar call, from youth camp to youth camp.
'Cause you don't have accountability in your life.
You don't have people that you can sit down
and go 110% with and say, these are the areas of my life
that I'm struggling with, but I need to confess them
to God for forgiveness, but I need to confess them to you
because I want healing.
And some of you, help me Lord, is this okay?
everybody good? Because it's the only sermon I've got so we're in it now. Some
of you are living in generational curse and bondage. Lake, where are you? Where is
he? Lake, run out here. Come here. Come here. Hurry. Hurry, you handsome thing. You
look just like your father. Look at me. One of the things I often
tell Lake, I often tell him, and I'm not embarrassing him. He'll go off stage in
just a moment is that the generational curse of alcoholism
and drug addiction, it ends with me.
It stops with me.
Laitland won't walk in that curse because it ends with me.
It stops with me.
Come on, I've put my foot down with the enemy.
I've stepped into a new covenant with Jesus Christ.
And what happened with my great grandfather,
what happened with my grandfather,
what happened with my father,
that by the time I was 19, I was living in a pig's fin,
But when I woke up and I came to my senses
and I realized that His grace is sufficient
and His mercies are new every morning,
the generational curse has been broken
over the worldly household
and now Lakeland gets to walk in freedom and victory.
Come on and give Jesus praise over your family,
over your family tree, over your future.
Come on, you better clap better than that.
You are free.
You are free.
Now you'll have to fight some own battles.
You'll face some own devils.
But Lakeland, you hear me, you walk in freedom for whom the sun, there is an anointing on
your life, young man.
There is a call on your life and the enemy would love to steal that from you.
But sin never ends well, Lake.
But grace is always available for you and for you.
One more time, give Jesus glory.
Come on, I need you to shout better than that.
Anybody thankful for grace?
Woo!
I'm gonna give you this verse.
This has been my prayer for days.
Hebrews 12, 15.
Forgive my emotion, but this is my prayer for you, Winterfest.
See to it that no one misses the grace of God.
It doesn't matter how low you are, how broken you are,
how dirty you are, how nasty you feel.
Don't miss the grace of God.
It's hands up, hearts open, surrendered to Jesus,
and in a moment of confession and repentance,
his grace is there.
I found that grace in that cemetery many, many years ago,
and his grace changed my life.
His power changed my life,
And I don't want you to miss the grace of God tonight.
Let's finish the story and I'll be done.
You can come to the keys, all right?
Here we go, verse 20.
While he was still a long way off,
his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.
And he ran to his son and he threw his arms
around his boy and he kissed him.
And then the son said to him,
"Father, I have sinned against heaven."
Here's that prayer.
"And I've sinned against you.
"I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
"And I can only imagine because I am a dad
The father was like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
none of that matters.
None of that matters, son, you're home."
The father said to his servants, "Quick,
bring the best robe and put it on him.
Put a ring on his finger and put Birkenstocks on his feet.
Come on, church.
Bring the fatted calf.
Come on now and kill it.
Bring the A5 Wagyu filet mignon, it'll taste so good.
You don't need A1.
Bring the stake baby because we're going to have a feast and celebrate for this son of
mine who was dead is alive again.
Oh, I feel like preaching that.
This son of mine was lost, but now he is found.
And let me tell you, if you're dead, you can live again.
If you're lost, you can be found.
And so they began to celebrate.
Here's the third point of three points of this sermon.
You can always come home.
(congregation applauding)
Come home.
Yeah, but you don't know what I've done.
I don't.
Yeah, but you don't know where I've been.
I don't.
Yeah, but you don't know how messy my life is.
You're right.
But I'm telling you, as sure as I'm standing here,
God is not a closed fist, God.
God's arms are not crossed, and God is not angry at you,
And God is not out to get you.
The day of judgment will come,
but today is a day of grace.
Today is a day of salvation.
His arms are open wide and you can always come home.
And I don't know, maybe it's 'cause I'm a dad of two kids,
but the image of this father running to his son,
it just always grips me.
It always gets me.
Picture it.
You've got a first century Jewish father
who would wear a long tunic robe.
And for him to run would mean that he'd have to pull it up
and expose his legs, which was in that time,
humiliating for a man of high honor.
But dignified didn't run, children ran, servants ran,
but the father did not run.
But Jesus told us this story.
He gave us this parable and the imagery
of this father running to his boy
because he wanted you and I to know
that there is a God who runs.
A God who runs.
Why?
Why does God run?
Have you ever heard of kazaza?
On the count of three, everybody say kazaza, one, two, three.
(congregation laughing)
Kazaza is not in the Bible.
You won't find that word in the Bible.
It doesn't appear in scripture,
but it's a practice that is well documented
in Jewish culture.
I'll give you a definition here,
but kazaza is a Hebrew word that means cutting off.
It means cutting off.
it refers to an ancient Jewish ceremony of rejection.
Bring me that son, if you can.
I'll show it to you in real time.
So if a child who was living in a home in first century
were to leave the home, they would become a prodigal,
a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter
and they would maybe perhaps they took all the wealth
and they wasted it in foolish living.
Sound familiar?
Or maybe they married outside of the covenant
or perhaps they rebelled or they left the land.
And so they're living far from the family
and they wanna come home.
Everybody in the community, because remember,
this family drama was not a secret.
Everybody knew about it.
They would all come to the edge of the village.
I'll do it here.
They would come to the edge of the village
because the prodigal son or daughter was coming home
and they would take clay pots like this.
And they would wait for that prodigal son or daughter
to come right to the edge of the village,
right to the property line.
And in unison, almost on the count of three,
everybody in the whole village would lift a clay pot
and they would smash it.
And they would shout, "Kazaza!
Kazaza!"
Meaning this, and here's what the saying was.
May God do to you what I just did to this clay pot.
May he break you into a thousand pieces
and may you never be put together again.
You're not welcome home.
Stay out there.
You left be gone.
Kazaa, you're cut off.
Oh, Jesus, help me preach this.
This is why the father ran.
Because he had to outrun Kazaa.
He had to outrun the condemnation from everybody else.
He had to outrun the rejection of the enemy.
He had to outrun the ridicule from the enemy.
And listen to me, and that's what happens.
The moment that you realize you can come home,
Kazaa comes and the enemy, he puts ridicule on you
abandonment and all these thoughts but yet you serve a God who runs and he outruns
kazaza because his forgiveness always outruns ridicule his grace always
outruns judgment are you hearing what I'm preaching you can come home and
before before you step up out of that seat you stand up out of that seat and you
make your way to an altar the God who runs is already running towards you
because he's outrunning kazaza because the enemy wants to do everything he can
and to prevent you from taking that step
back into the covering of home.
And so he runs, kazaza.
Let me pray for you.
Heads bowed, eyes closed.
Thank you, Lord.
For this moment, it's a holy moment.
It's a sacred moment.
Listen to me, your hearts are open,
but your eyes are closed.
So this is homecoming.
This is homecoming.
Some of you, for the very first time,
you're gonna ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart
to forgive you of your sin and to wash you.
New and plain for some of you, it's a recommitment
because you've just drifted.
That's what sin does, sin just causes us to drift,
and one day we look up.
I've been there before, it's my story,
and I thought, how did I end up here?
I never wanted to be here.
How did I end up here?
And yet the enemy just keeps pulling and sin just keeps dragging.
So I don't know where you might see yourself in this story tonight.
Maybe you've wandered off.
Maybe you've taken some wrong turns along the way and maybe you've made some choices
that you wish you could undo.
Maybe you're wondering, can God really allow me to come home?
Would God actually welcome me after everything I've done?
Let me tell you, yes, a thousand times yes.
'Cause what can separate you from the love of God?
Nothing.
God loves you unconditionally and you can always come home.
Stay into your feet real quick.
The worship team will come.
Youth pastors can move if you wanna pray.
I'll count to three.
They'll dim the lights,
but it doesn't even matter if people see you.
This isn't about them, this is you and Jesus.
If you've got unrepentant, unconfessed sin in your life
and you've been a prodigal, you've been running,
but you're ready to come home,
you find yourself in an altar.
The space here is small,
but there's aisles there on the outside
and through the middle, you ready?
One, two, three, come home.
Come on, every hand lifted in this whole room,
every hand lifted, eyes closed.
Can we sing for a moment?
Let's go, they'll sweep the stage,
don't even worry about that.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you, Jesus, thank you, jesus.
And here's what I want you to do.
Ask the person right beside you.
If you need me to walk with you, I'll walk with you.
If you need me to walk with you, I'll walk with you.
Come on, let's worship for a moment and I'll lead us in prayer.
Thank you, Jesus.
Go ahead, that's fine.
Come on, come on.
Thank you, Lord.
Come on.
He's stirring hearts.
That's okay.
Keep pressing it, come on.
Keep pressing it.
(Singing in tongues)
I'm going to pray for you.
I'd actually love if everybody were to pray this prayer together.
Now look at me, especially those of you that, oh, let me talk to you as a father just for
a minute.
Look at me.
I'm not your dad, but I love you.
I'm so proud of you.
I'm so proud of you because this moment for you is a moment where you listen to the voice
of truth louder than the voice of the enemy.
You said, although I'm in it right now, I can come home and I can receive grace and
I'm so proud of you.
Can we say a big God bless you to those that said, "I'm coming home"?
Come on, put your hands together.
I think it's wonderful.
Hold on one second.
Just one second.
Now look at me.
This prayer, this prayer is just language for you as you begin to learn how to pray
to your heavenly Father.
Simply repeating a prayer that I pray for you is not what saves you.
But this is just words, this is language that will help you as you invite the Lord into
your heart and you receive His grace, His mercy, and His forgiveness.
Does that make sense?
Okay, so I want everybody to pray it and I want you to take your hands, palms up towards
heaven as if God were depositing a gift because he is. It's the gift of salvation.
It's the gift of eternal life and I don't want you to look at anybody. I don't
want anybody on their cell phone. I want every person really. I want you to close
your eyes and I want you to get a picture of the heavenly Father. Get a
picture of Jesus if you will and I want everybody to pray this prayer and I want
you to do it with the most sincerity, humility, a spirit of repentance and
confession and invite Jesus in. You're ready? Here we go. Dear Father, I'm asking
you right here tonight to come and live within my heart. I'm asking you Jesus to
forgive me of the sin within me. I not only want to be forgiven, but I want to
be free. I'm asking you, oh thank you Lord, I feel this students, I'm asking you to
make me a new person, to wash me clean. Thank you God that you are a God of
second chances, third chances, fifth chances. Your grace never runs out and
And I'm so grateful for grace.
I want you to really say this, come on, Jesus, I love you.
I love you with my whole heart.
And I know it's not about perfection.
But Lord, I want my name written in the book of life.
So I say yes to you, Lord.
I accept you as Lord and savior.
And I commit my life to you.
I believe you are who you say you are.
I believe you died on the cross.
You were buried in a tomb, but three days later, up from the grave you arose.
I believe that right now you are sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and you're
praying for me as I pray to you.
Oh, I love you, Jesus.
And I say yes to you.
me in mercy and give me new life as I go all in. And Lord, I don't want to be
ashamed of what you're doing in my life. Fill me with the power of the Holy
Spirit to give me boldness, to tell others about your grace and mercy. I want
to be a witness to my family, to my school, to my community. And it may be
be with words but let it be with my life. May they see the difference within me
because of what you've done. I'm going all in with you Jesus and I love you in
your name I pray and everybody said amen and amen. Come on and give them all glory
and all honor. I don't know how many students are in the altar but all of
heaven is rejoicing let this room rejoice too come on now to God be the
glory
all right we're gonna worship for a moment I'm gonna come down I'm gonna
pray for some of you put my arm around you now you're very look at me your very
next step when you get back is water baptism get baptized go public with this
decision that you made let the whole world know that Jesus is alive within
you you ready you want to worship for a moment all right hands up hearts open
Let's worship loud in Jesus' name.