Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Good morning.
Forrest: Forrest Coleman, lead pastor here at Multiflop.
Forrest: If I've not met you, welcome.
Forrest: Glad that you're here today.
Forrest: Feel it.
Forrest: Home.
Forrest: We got to celebrate our grand opening last Sunday.
Forrest: Woo! And we are just a month shy of two years old as a church.
Forrest: And I think most of my shoes are older than our church.
Forrest: Um, but all I know is this is that those who come the week after the grand opening, those are the real ones.
Forrest: So you all are the real ones right now for being here this morning.
Forrest: Thanks for being here.
Forrest: I'm excited about uh this is a lot of growth that's happening right now.
Forrest: This in the last three weeks, we have had eight new team members join volunteer teams here at our church.
Forrest: Praise the Lord, which is amazing.
Forrest: And last Sunday, uh, we had multiple people who made decisions for baptism that's gonna be coming up soon.
Forrest: So can we just praise the Lord for that?
Forrest: Woo! Man, um, some of those stories are gonna be great.
Forrest: And I'm thankful this morning to get to uh partner with the Academy with the donations of uniforms.
Forrest: So thank you to you all who are able to do that.
Forrest: And also, it's uh this is pretty neat.
Forrest: Um, on Thursday this week, we're gonna get to partner and partner with Collins Lane Elementary School, that's just Miller Elementary School behind us, as they have their uh cougar caravan that they're gonna be hosting in our uh in our parking lot on Thursday evening as they're gonna give away different resources to kids and families from their school.
Forrest: And one week in, we're being able to partner with two local schools in the last week.
Forrest: Is that amazing or what?
Forrest: And yet to use our space, place, or even our parking lot to be able to be a blessing and encouragement to our community.
Forrest: And I'm just so thankful for that.
Forrest: You can find out more about that on uh the the app that we have, our church center app.
Forrest: Um, you can go to signups and find out about that for for Thursday.
Forrest: Also on the app is a place um and you guys know uh that we're able to do the things that we do and the blessing to the community because many of you are giving right now consistently and generously.
Forrest: So for those of you who are giving, thank you so much.
Forrest: And you can find that on the app as well.
Forrest: Way to easily and conveniently give.
Forrest: As we give and bring our tithes, give our offerings back to the Lord.
Forrest: And I'm just thankful for what God is doing and what he's going to continue to do.
Forrest: And so if you're in the house today, you're new, welcome.
Forrest: Uh, there also in the house today are some uh some crazy people.
Forrest: And uh some of those crazy people, it's okay, there's no judgment zone here.
Forrest: Um, you're welcome here, and those crazy people I'm talking about are people who like to run and jog.
Forrest: I don't know if that's you out there, if you're the 5K person or half marathon, marathon person.
Forrest: All of y'all are nuts that you just want to get out there and just run and run and run.
Forrest: I can't stand that.
Forrest: I my wife is one of these crazy folks who loves to run and do the 5K and the half marathon, all that stuff.
Forrest: And and and it just gets wilder and wobber because you have the 5K, that's kind of for like normal, and then and then you've got the marathon runners, and then you have this really crazy group of people called ultra marathon runners.
Forrest: I don't know if you've heard of them, but they're the ones, the regular marathons, 26.2 miles.
Forrest: The ultra marathons are a hundred miles of running that they do all these different continents, these crazy people who get out there, and the the most extreme of all of these is somebody I've been following for the last year, this guy named Russ Cook, and Russ right now is is running the entire length of Africa.
Forrest: He's been running for uh 303 days uh at an average of about 40 to 50 miles a day.
Forrest: That's almost two marathons every single day that he's running.
Forrest: He's he is thus far in the last 303 days, uh, he has run 8,130 miles, which is the equivalent of running from New York to LA almost three times now in the last 303 days.
Forrest: He's raising money for charity, he's got 51 days left, but it is like crazy to think about what he's what he is doing and running that every single day.
Forrest: And I think about the fact that uh I pulled a muscle sneezing one time.
Forrest: And here this guy is running two marathons every single day.
Forrest: You can you can you imagine all he's gone through of running the entire length of Africa?
Forrest: Don't know what's ever been done before, but uh he'd been robbed, I think, multiple times now.
Forrest: Now they have police escort wherever they go.
Forrest: Their van, their team van was stolen.
Forrest: He got separated from his team at one point and ended up deep in the jungle of Congo, like two hours away from his van.
Forrest: Uh he uh they've countless blown tires.
Forrest: Uh they've had all kinds of problems at every single border that they go to.
Forrest: Uh at one point in the very beginning, his body was shutting down and he had to get medical treatment.
Forrest: Nevertheless, here as it's continuing to go and continuing to run.
Forrest: It's absolutely nuts.
Forrest: Uh, anybody ever heard this you hear it all the time?
Forrest: No pain, no gain.
Forrest: Maybe it's on the wall of the gym that you go to or the gym that you went to the first three weeks of January.
Forrest: But what what what does it what does it mean?
Forrest: Well, well, to grow your muscles, you you have to tear them, right?
Forrest: You have to you have to lift heavyweights, you have to do something, you have to have some tearing going on in the muscles for them to build back stronger.
Forrest: And so, in order for you to gain strength, in order for you to have endurance, you have to endure some pain in order to get there.
Forrest: And I think about the endurance that it takes for Russ Cook as he's running all the way across the length of Africa.
Forrest: And there's there's it there's an aspect to our life that as we go through our life, we're gonna experience pain.
Forrest: And not every bit of that pain is bad, but some of that even ends up happening for our good and for our growth.
Forrest: And as we are looking at this new series that we're in called Growing Pains, even in the midst of the hardship and the challenges that we're going through, it's still possible for us to have peace.
Forrest: Now, something that's very popular that I hear right now is people uh that are starting to say this, say, I gotta protect my peace.
Forrest: I need to stop going to that place, I need to get rid of this, I need to do, I need to start, I need to cut that person out of my life, I need to stop going to that church because I gotta protect my peace.
Forrest: But here's the thing, what we know is that peace is not the absence of turmoil, it's God's presence in the midst of it.
Forrest: So even if you're even you're thinking like, oh, I'm gonna protect my peace, you're not gonna be able to bubble wrap your life enough that there's not gonna be at some point some pain, some turmoil, some challenges, some difficulties that you're gonna be walking through.
Forrest: But at that point, are you gonna be walking alone or with the God of the universe?
Forrest: And you get to make that decision, you get to make that choice.
Forrest: And you may even came in the room today and and you've been going through some hard stuff, and maybe even right now, as I'm I'm talking about this, you're starting to think about the different pain points that are in your life right now that you're going through, and and you're wondering what it is that you're supposed to do.
Forrest: My friend Jay, uh, this uh last week, he was here last Sunday, grand opening, and um on he was sitting right here, and on Thursday, he celebrated uh his most recent scan of being cancer free from brain cancer.
Forrest: I was here this last Sunday.
Forrest: He's been cancer free for about a year.
Forrest: He's gone through all the different treatments.
Forrest: And um, I was expecting him to be here this morning, but he uh he he messaged me and said that last night he ended up going to the hospital because he had a seizure in his sleep.
Forrest: And he's not here this morning because he's going through pain.
Forrest: He's going through some turmoil.
Forrest: And as we take a look at the passage of scripture this morning in the next three weeks, we're gonna be walking through uh a book of the Bible of someone who experienced plenty of pain.
Forrest: It's specifically for what he believed.
Forrest: And it's this the New Testament writer of the book of James, the brother of Jesus, Hebrew name Jacob.
Forrest: But we're gonna look over the next few, the next two weeks this morning of out of the book of James as he gives us some instructions about what it looks like for us to grow in our faith with the Lord.
Forrest: And it's at the backdrop of the fact that James is the brother of Jesus, he knows what he's talking about.
Forrest: Uh, you could never convince me that my older brother was the Messiah.
Forrest: I love him dearly, but you could never convince me of it.
Forrest: But James not only was convinced, but then became a leader in the early church.
Forrest: And a few weeks back, we were going through the book of Acts, and actually we came to this point in Acts chapter 15 when James and his wisdom he spoke these words as an encouragement to the Jerusalem church and those outside of Jerusalem, the the believers, and he said, let's not make it difficult for those who are turning to God.
Forrest: And he drops that wisdom them, and then and then in this this whole book that we get from James, it's just it's just overflowing, overflowing with the wisdom of God.
Forrest: It's overflowing, line after line after line.
Forrest: This is how it starts, James 1.
Forrest: And he gives this greeting to the believers that he's writing to, which are all these Jewish believers who now scattered all across, not just Jerusalem, but but the different areas uh around the known world.
Forrest: And he says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
Forrest: For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
Forrest: So let it grow.
Forrest: For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Forrest: Verse 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.
Forrest: He will not rebuke you for asking.
Forrest: But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.
Forrest: Do not waver.
Forrest: For a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.
Forrest: Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Forrest: Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.
Forrest: James is already getting up in our business right now.
Forrest: From the very first lines.
Forrest: Because he tells us that we should consider it great joy when we're going through trials and difficulties and tribulations.
Forrest: And I don't always know exactly how to do that.
Forrest: But you think about this writer, James, and he's saying that we should have great joy and struggle.
Forrest: It's at the backdrop of the fact that in 62 A.D.
Forrest: he was martyred for his faith.
Forrest: He was killed.
Forrest: And it endured all kinds of persecution at the time.
Forrest: So as he's writing this, he's saying, consider it pure joy.
Forrest: Consider it great joy, my brothers and sisters, when you go through trials.
Forrest: I think about Paul as he's writing the book of Philippians from jail, and he says over and over and over again, have joy in the Lord.
Forrest: Rejoice in the Lord from a prison cell.
Forrest: And the way that we do that is because for us as believers, our joy is in Jesus.
Forrest: See, joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Forrest: It's one of the, in the, in the line that the Holy Spirit gives and imparts to you when you become a follower of Jesus.
Forrest: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control of those fruits of the Spirit is what your life as a believer should be producing.
Forrest: And so we don't just have a mere happiness as believers that are connected to, well, how do we feel today?
Forrest: What are circumstances like?
Forrest: Is life up?
Forrest: Is it down right now?
Forrest: Instead, we know that we have the God of the universe who loves us and cares for us, and in doing so, will produce a joy out of us that is completely disconnected from our present circumstances, but instead looking forward to the circumstances it will be one day.
Forrest: When in this passage, what James says that if you do these things, then you are going to be perfect or complete.
Forrest: The picture of that Greek word is whole.
Forrest: That you're going to be a whole person.
Forrest: Not divided, like he says, between the world and God.
Forrest: And when we have that divided spirit and divided mind, where we've got one foot in and one foot out of our relationship with God, that that person, when you're divided in that way and you're not fully receiving the joy that God wants to give you, that's the point where you shouldn't even expect for the good things to happen and the blessings to come because you're not there.
Forrest: We talked last few weeks about Esther and all this adversity that she came up against and the adversity that she experienced.
Forrest: And you and I, we experience adversity as well in life.
Forrest: And I wonder what it is, what is supposed to be our response to when the trials and the turmoil comes?
Forrest: What are we supposed to do, God?
Forrest: I don't know about you, but I know for me, many times when things aren't going my way or things aren't happening the way that I want to, or I'll fall into line, or there's big troubles in my life, I'm tempted to say this, God, why me?
Forrest: Why right now?
Forrest: Why this circumstances?
Forrest: Why, why, why?
Forrest: And what we actually in these situations should be asking instead of why is what?
Forrest: God, what do you want to tell me and teach me through this situation?
Forrest: Because I know that trials are going to continue to come.
Forrest: I'm not going to have this carefree life.
Forrest: So, God, what are you trying to teach me?
Forrest: And what do you want to do in me through this circumstance and trial that I'm going through right now?
Forrest: And what James instructs us to do, which is such a gift, is he tells us that our response to adversity is that we get to ask God for wisdom in the midst of the adversity that we experience.
Forrest: We get to ask in the face of adversity for God's wisdom.
Forrest: He said, God, who's our generous God, that if you ask for wisdom, that he's not going to hold it back.
Forrest: But instead, he's going to give it to you.
Forrest: I think it's interesting that the book of Proverbs, which is the one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament, in a lot of ways, I think that James is kind of the Proverbs of the New Testament.
Forrest: It's like every line is something that you can chew on.
Forrest: And the same way, in Proverbs chapter 8, just like the church is is is uh is talked about in the scripture uh as as her, as the church God's bride feminine.
Forrest: For some reason, in in Proverbs chapter 8, wisdom is also talked about in person as lady wisdom.
Forrest: Now, I don't know, guys, if there's a lesson in there for us that wisdom in the scripture is uh referred to as her.
Forrest: Um I don't know, guys.
Forrest: Maybe we should, you know, take a little note from the scripture there.
Forrest: But in Proverbs 8, as it talks about wisdom, it says that wisdom is more valuable than rubies.
Forrest: The wisdom of God is more valuable than priceless jewels.
Forrest: And James goes on to say in the following verses that that riches of this world that eventually they're gonna fade away.
Forrest: The things that we pursue, the riches that we pursue, the career that we pursue, the degree that we're pursuing right now, all those things that they're going to fade away eventually, but that the wisdom of the Lord will remain forever.
Forrest: We get to go to our generous God.
Forrest: And in the midst of our circumstances, ask for him to tell us what to do.
Forrest: And then he actually will.
Forrest: He actually will.
Forrest: You know, the Bible also says that there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors.
Forrest: You know, not everybody should be a counselor.
Forrest: That verse says wisdom, there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors.
Forrest: Not everybody in your life fits the bill of that counselor.
Forrest: The Instagram feed of all the people with the microphone and the podcast that wants to tell you how to live your life and what you to do and tricks and habits and life hacks to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Forrest: Not everybody should be your counselor.
Forrest: But who is it that should be your counselor?
Forrest: It should be a person who knows the wisdom of God, who knows his word and has gone through some things.
Forrest: See, God says that if we ask for wisdom, he's not gonna hold back from us.
Forrest: And James goes on to say in verse 12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.
Forrest: You ever uh heard that verse or you heard the statement?
Forrest: Um, uh God helps those who help themselves.
Forrest: So that's not actually a verse.
Forrest: It's not in the Bible, okay?
Forrest: But this one is, and it says, God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.
Forrest: So that one is just something that's you know, your grandma crocheted onto the thing.
Forrest: But this is actually in here.
Forrest: This is actually in the word, it's actually a verse that says, You're gonna be blessed if you patiently endure testing and temptation.
Forrest: Afterward, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
Forrest: And remember, when you're being tempted, don't say, God is tempting me.
Forrest: God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone.
Forrest: Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.
Forrest: These desires give birth to sinful actions.
Forrest: And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to what?
Forrest: Death.
Forrest: Don't be misled.
Forrest: Don't be disled, brothers and sisters.
Forrest: Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God, from God our Father, who created all the lights in heaven, and he never changes or casts a shifting shadow.
Forrest: James tells us patiently endure, patiently endure the testing and the temptations, the trials that are gonna come.
Forrest: Walking with God in the recognition that every good and perfect gift comes from Him.
Forrest: You know the last thing I want to do when things are not going right in my life is think about all the other things that are going right.
Forrest: God, thank you for the breath that's in my lungs right now.
Forrest: God, thank you for the family that you've given me or blessed me with.
Forrest: Thank you for the children that I have.
Forrest: God, thank you for the employment and the income that I have.
Forrest: God, thank you for the driveway over the steps up to my door.
Forrest: God, thank you, Lord, that I have food to eat.
Forrest: Thank you, God, for the gas in my car.
Forrest: Those aren't the thoughts that I normally have.
Forrest: I'm normally just worried about whatever the things that are not going right.
Forrest: But James tells us to patiently endure and recognize the fact, acknowledge the fact of all the good and perfect gifts that have come from above.
Forrest: And when we do that, we begin to develop this aptitude for gratitude.
Forrest: You've heard attitude for gratitude?
Forrest: It's not just, I'm not just talking about like, okay, I'm gonna choose to like my job today.
Forrest: Okay, we're all here, we're gonna have a great attitude.
Forrest: Y'all have been a part of those conversations at work, right?
Forrest: We're gonna have an attitude, everybody has a great attitude today.
Forrest: No, this is not just like, oh, a fleeting thing that I'm gonna say, okay, yes, I need to be happy right now.
Forrest: I need to, but no, this is like you're developing an aptitude for recognition of the blessing that you're walking in, and in doing so, you're understanding and you're uncovering the blessings that God is giving you that you could be taking for granted right now.
Forrest: You could be taking them for granted presently.
Forrest: But instead, we get to walk patiently, not alone, but with our God.
Forrest: The next verse he says that you are his prized possession.
Forrest: You are his prized possession.
Forrest: And he wants to walk with you.
Forrest: And he loves you.
Forrest: In the midst of the trial, in the midst of the challenge, in the midst of the adversity.
Forrest: God cares for you and what's happening in your life.
Forrest: And wants you to walk patiently with him.
Forrest: He goes on.
Forrest: Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters.
Forrest: You must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Forrest: I think that verse is for all the men in the house, me included.
Forrest: Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.
Forrest: So get rid of the filth and the evil in your lives and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
Forrest: Verse 22.
Forrest: But don't just listen to God's word.
Forrest: You must do what it says.
Forrest: Otherwise, you're only fooling yourselves.
Forrest: And then James gives this analogy of someone who goes and looks in a mirror.
Forrest: And as soon as they walk away from the mirror, they forget what they look like.
Forrest: You ever been searching high and low for your sunglasses only to realize they're on the top of your head?
Forrest: You ever been tearing up the house, looking for your keys only to find them in your pocket or in your purse?
Forrest: Not being patient enough and slowing down enough to pay attention to where it was the last time that you put them or where they are.
Forrest: And God is saying, don't just read these words and let them go in one ear and out the other ear, but instead know them so that when you walk away, they're still in your mind and still in your heart and still overflowing out of you that you're going to produce the desires that God loves.
Forrest: He goes on to say.
Forrest: Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God, the Father, means caring for orphans and widows and their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
Forrest: Set your heart, set your eyes on God's word, what he says, what he teaches, and in doing so, it will set you free.
Forrest: And it will lead to you being blessed.
Forrest: And so as we are following God's word, we're going to be walking in his way.
Forrest: We have to align ourselves with God's way for our lives.
Forrest: See, we need it to know it.
Forrest: And so I over the next couple of weeks, I would love to encourage you that as we're going through the book of James, I would love for everybody who's in here over the next couple of weeks to read the five chapters of James with me.
Forrest: Okay?
Forrest: You have to grab a Bible, you know, you may have to get on your Bible app on your phone, the New Testament, the book of James.
Forrest: And over the next couple of weeks, as we're going through this, I would love for you to be reading it along with me because here's just some of the things that we're going to look at and that he talks about in those five chapters.
Forrest: And this is just dripping with this wisdom from God.
Forrest: Favoritism versus love, genuine faith, the tongue, condemning others, telling the truth, the arrogance of wealth, the danger of wealth, patience and endurance, faith-filled prayer, true versus false wisdom, a divided heart, and restoring others, just to name a few.
Forrest: And I'm I the way that I think that a lot of folks approach God's word.
Forrest: Oh, but I don't like that.
Forrest: And you know what?
Forrest: I'll take this verse right here on the menu, and I'll take a slot of that, but broccoli, no way.
Forrest: Not eating that.
Forrest: Can you change out the asparagus to something else?
Forrest: Going through the menu.
Forrest: Just picking and choosing what you feel like that you like.
Forrest: But what God's word, what it's actually like, is like a manual.
Forrest: See, uh uh a few uh a few weeks ago, I went out in the morning to get my car, and you've had this experience before.
Forrest: I turn my car on and it doesn't turn on.
Forrest: Battery's dead.
Forrest: So there's something, I'm like, okay, what am I gonna do?
Forrest: Well, I'm gonna call my friend Dave.
Forrest: So Dave rolls up into the driveway.
Forrest: I'm like, hey, can you jump the car?
Forrest: Something's going on.
Forrest: Uh radio, it's not turning off.
Forrest: And so it's it's it's run my car battery down.
Forrest: I'm beginning to calculate all the time.
Forrest: The car's gonna have to go to the shop.
Forrest: So I'll be there a couple days.
Forrest: I've been calculating all the hundreds of dollars that it's gonna cost to be able to fix.
Forrest: And then Dave says, Well, give give me the manual.
Forrest: I was like, you know, the what?
Forrest: He's like, yeah, the manual that's in your glove box, that's in all of your glove box that none of you know is in there, but tells you every single thing about your car.
Forrest: And I'm like, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Forrest: So I get get the manual, and we go through, we're we're we're looking through there, and we find the fuse for that, and we're looking at the manual, and we we pull the fuse out, and then we we put the other fuse in there, and voila! It was fixed.
Forrest: And I say we, it was more Dave who was doing all that.
Forrest: But what was crazy is that the fuses literally come with the car.
Forrest: There's extra fuses in the car.
Forrest: The fix was free.
Forrest: The fix to my car, it was free, and in the same exact way, the fix that God wants to produce in your life right now, it is completely free because of the finished work of the cross and Christ Jesus and what he did for you.
Forrest: The fact that he died, and three days later he walked out of the grave alive, and we know him, can walk with him, experience him now.
Forrest: 2,000 years later, the fix is free.
Forrest: And and and James tells us right here be careful, but set your face on God's perfect way, and you'll be set free.
Forrest: You'll be set free.
Forrest: So for the person who's walked with God for many, many years, know his word to be set free.
Forrest: And for the person who's come into the room today, and you come in this morning and you don't know, uh, you don't even know anything about this church deal.
Forrest: It's like, I'm just gonna try this out.
Forrest: I don't know if this is really for me.
Forrest: I want to tell you right now that there is a fix that Jesus so desperately wants to give you right now and walk with you in all the trials and the turmoil and the challenges that are gonna happen in your life, that it's gonna produce a wholeness that one day that you're gonna walk into eternity with Jesus, and he's gonna receive you because you have taken the free gift that he gave you and received it and asked for forgiveness from what you have done and sinned against him that he bought for you on the cross.
Forrest: For you.
Forrest: Today can be the day that you ask Jesus to save you, to set you free, to cleanse you, that you can walk in unity with him.
Forrest: That can happen for somebody today.
Forrest: I pray that it does.
Forrest: And for those of you who are in the room, who you've done that, you did that maybe a few weeks ago, a few months ago, a few years ago.
Forrest: I think we all should anticipate some growing pains so that others, more people, can get free as well.
Forrest: That what we have, that we're willing to show it, we're willing to share it.
Forrest: We're willing to say, hey, will you come with me?
Forrest: Will you be a part of what's going on here at this place?
Forrest: I have a conversation with you about how life is going and the difficulty you're going through right now.
Forrest: Let me tell you, the fix it's Jesus.
Forrest: So if you would bow your heads with me right now, all across the room, God, I pray right now for people who are following you, who, God, are walking with you, Father, that Lord, right now, God, that you would, in the midst of whatever pain that they are experiencing right now, Holy Spirit, would you, just as you've promised, would you comfort them?
Forrest: It may be a loss, it may be a health situation, it may be things aren't going right in school, career.
Forrest: God, I pray, Lord, for every person right now who's walking with you, that God, they would have a daily request for your wisdom.
Forrest: God, we know you're not going to hold back.
Forrest: And Father, right now I pray, God, all across the room, anybody who's come into this place today, who has not received you as Savior, who's not received the free gift that you purchased for them on the cross, has not received salvation from you.
Forrest: That today would be that day, that they would not wait another day to begin to receive the fix that's free to them.
Forrest: That Lord, as they walk with you, God, that you will change them, change them to be God more like you, one day ultimately be with you.
Forrest: Today, all across the room, if you're in the room today and and that's you, that you need to receive the free gift of salvation, I ask you right now to pray to God, pray, God, save me.
Forrest: Jesus, I believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sins, and that you are raised to life.
Forrest: Forgive me, cleanse me, so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: All across the room, nobody looking around.
Forrest: Today, you prayed that to receive salvation, to walk with God today, is your moment that you did that.
Forrest: I'm gonna ask you to so that I can see you and acknowledge you.
Forrest: For just I'm gonna count to three and for you to raise your hand if you prayed that today, and I can lock eyes with you as a sign of your decision and what you've said before the Lord today.
Forrest: If that's you today, raise your hand in the count of three.
Forrest: Ready?
Forrest: One, two, three.
Forrest: Anybody in here today to receive Christ as Savior?
Forrest: Father, we thank you, God.
Forrest: We thank you, Lord, for the work and the power of your salvation.
Forrest: God, that your free gift that you've given to us, God, that today, Father, that Lord, we receive it, we we we experience it, we take it, and God, that we live it.
Forrest: And so, Father, I pray all across the room right now, Father, that you would do a mighty work in and through us.
Forrest: Father, we would be the ones who carry your name from these doors out into the world as your faithful followers.
Forrest: In the strong name of Jesus.
Forrest: Everybody said, Amen, amen.
Forrest: Church, will you stand together as we sing?