Amen.

As we welcome our campus family in today, I just can't tell you how excited I am about Easter weekend, and not because of hype, but because I believe in the simple message of the gospel. And that's what it's going to be this Easter. Just the simple message. Bring it up. Release it and live again. Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. And that's all it's going to be. It's just going to be the simple lay my burdens down at the feet of the cross. It's the message the world needs, you need, your friends need. Come on, let's fill this place up with people who need the hope of the gospel. I'm ready for that. Before we jump into the word today, I just I want to celebrate something with you. You know, we're a spiritual family, and our one of our number one passions is to raise up sons and daughters of this house who inevitably changed the world here and around the world. I was reminded of that and the beautiful picture of that in the last few days. Uh, right about a little right before uh Haley and I became pastors here 21 years ago. Uh Brianna's family started attending church here. Um she was maybe preschool, kindergarten age, uh, that time, and so her family grew up in the church. She did, she went to kids' ministry here, she was discipled in youth ministry here, went on missions trips, did all kinds of things here. It shaped her. And in the environment of growing up here, she felt the call of God. She left uh after high school, served in the inner city of Los Angeles with a mission there. God continue to shape her life. Inevitably, she heard a call to campus missions and has served on multiple college campuses. The last little while, she's been serving as a campus missionary at Ole Miss University. And just the last couple weeks, she brought the team of young leaders she is discipling that are students at Ole Miss to partner with her home church, serving our orphan care ministry. They've been serving out at Lonesome Dove Ranch during their spring break, helping us get ready for the summer camps that we're gonna work with, uh, the all-summer with foster kids. They sorted materials, getting like a lot of things that have been donated to serve foster families when they get placements. They went through all of that material. I mean, literally, those kids laid hands on Haley and I prayed blessing and interceded over us. It was really a special time having them with us. After it was over talking to Brianna, she talked about how meaningful it was to reunite her old Miss Campus family with her home church, and that her two worlds collided. And it was one of the most meaningful things she has ever done, introducing them to the place that forged her and shaped her. And can I just tell you, this is what it means to raise up sons and daughters? Because there are spiritual grandchildren being born. There are people coming to Christ through Brianna's ministry at Ole Miss that are coming to faith because of your investment into her life. It's shaping and changing generations. This is a daughter of this house that has been sent out. And now these are some of our family connected through Brianna. I mean, we just made a deep connection with them. Uh, they we fell in love with uh the these kids from Ole Miss. And I just I just want to say thank you for every children's worker, every youth leader, every tither, the the ministries you underwrite are changing lives like Brianna, one life at a time is having a ripple effect in so many different places in so many different lives. And can I just say this? One of the reasons that Brianna is where she is today is because her family served in this church and they brought their kids with them and served as a family, and it shaped something in their heart. When you as a family commit to be planted and you raise your kids in church, it has ripple effects for generations. And so I'm saying, mom and dad, stay planted. Raise your kids in the house of God, be faithful when it's hard, because it will bring ref uh fruit and results in the lives of your children down the road. Brianna's almost 30 years old. She probably wouldn't like me announcing that today, but she's almost 30 years old now. Uh and and and she is this woman of God impacting the lives of kids. And so let me just say this. Um, if it in in two weeks after Easter, we're gonna have a serve day here at North Place, and we do this so families can serve together. We will mobilize hundreds of people on a serve day on April the 18th, and we want to invite you to be a part of it. We're gonna serve homeless shelters, we're gonna pack food for uh the less fortunate among us. We're gonna serve at food pantries, we're working at multiple local schools. There'll be a team serving at Lonesome Dove Ranch. I mean, we're serving all over the place, and this is an environment for your family to serve together and you start shaping and discipling, forming the heart of your children. We're not gonna say a lot about this leading into Easter, but I really encourage you to mark this date on your calendar because it's coming up really quick, and we wanna we want you to serve and be blessed by serving. And I I just want to say thank you for your generosity because it creates the ministries that raise up sons and daughters. And so they're gonna put the ways to give on your screens. If you brought a physical gift with you today, you can place it in an envelope in a seatback pocket and put it in one of the giving centers when you leave one of our campuses today. Lord, thank you. Thank you for the heart of this church that continues to amaze us as elders, at their generosity and their heart for you. They reflect you, Lord, in the way they they give and the way they serve. Would you let that continue to increase so that we can increase our capacity to reach more people and raise up more Brianna's, more sons and daughters of the faith through this house that will go out and change the world. Will you open our hearts to your word today? In Jesus' name. Amen and amen. If you're new to North Place, you may not have had the privilege of hearing from my dear friend Pastor Scotty, but he's been a part of the teaching team at North Place for we've been talking a little over a decade now. Scotty and I have known each other for teenagers since we were teenagers. We went to college together. His incredible family has a great ministry. They're on staff at People's Church in Oklahoma City, but they travel and speak. They also have a marriage ministry. They've done a marriage conference for us. They're coming back this fall. We're gonna have another marriage conference with Scotty and Casey coming up this fall. That's always a blast. Can't wait for that. But I get to be a Christian today and just get the word preached to me, which is a very healthy thing for you. And so I'm excited about receiving today. Would you welcome my good friend Scotty Gibbons as he comes to bring the word today?

We love you too, Brian.

Hello, North Place Church. How are you today? Well, so good to see you. Love coming to this church and feel like I'm part of the family. So it's a privilege for me, Pastor Brian, that you allow me to be a part of the preaching team here. And uh, we always just feel so right at home. I will say this if you're a guest today, bummer for you. So sorry that you came and you're missing. Pastor Brian preaching, make sure you come back on a day that he is preaching, but this is an incredible church. Do you love your church? Can you put your hands together right now if you just love your church? I know that you do, and there is no season like the Easter season. Like this is just special. And uh some of you, you're you're already excited about Easter Sunday. I mean, you're fired up. Even today, like you just you're so excited. Even to get to church today, you got here like an hour early just to sit in the parking lot. You're like, well, I'm just gonna sit right here and worship in my car. I'm just gonna, others of you, you came crawling in today. You're like, you know what? I think that uh we just have evidence there is a God in heaven because I made it today. I know that for some of you, this is a high point in life. Others of you, you might be going through a difficult season today, but I'm here to tell you it's not by chance that you're here. God wants to speak to you today that the resurrection story of Jesus Christ is real and it's not just some holiday that we celebrate, but it's a power that is alive and at work. Do you believe that today? Aren't you thankful for the story of the resurrection? Well, as a matter of fact, why don't you turn to your friend on the next to you right now and just say, Man, I'm so excited about Easter. I'm so looking forward to Easter. I'm so excited about it. Turn to the other person on the other side and look at him, just say, You look like you need the resurrection. You just you kind of have that look like you just need the resurrection. You just gotta have that look. Well, I love the Easter season so much to celebrate, and really the thought for today is how do we prepare for it to be everything that God intends, and and that in my own heart that the celebration is is all that God has for me to experience and to do. So, we're gonna look at the book of John, John chapter one. So if you have your hard copy of God's word, you can open up to John chapter one, or if you use the Bible app, go ahead and uh open that to John chapter one, or you can follow along with us on the Sky Bibles here. The scriptures will be there in just a moment, and we'll look at that. John chapter one, capturing the story of really the announcement of the long-awaited, the prophecies becoming fulfilled of the Messiah, Jesus, the anointed one, coming and making that known to people who have been waiting, longing, and looking for years and years and years for this prophecy to be fulfilled. One of the prophets, John the Baptist, that we'll look at here in this story, was a forerunner of Jesus, the sent one of God, like the Messiah, Jesus Christ the Messiah. John had been saying, Prepare, get ready, he's coming soon. And then when we pick up with a story in John chapter 1 and verse 35, look at what it says. It says, The next day John was there again with two of his disciples when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Look, the Lamb of God, this is huge. You have to understand, instead of saying, Get ready, he's coming, he's saying, Look, there he is. He's saying the Messiah is here. Look at what it says in verse 40. It says, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. Verse 41 says, the first thing, somebody say the first thing. Come on, shout, the first thing. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him we have found the Messiah, that is the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus. So John the Baptist says, get ready, he's coming, get ready. The hope that we've been praying for, get ready, the Messiah that we've been anticipating. Get it ready, get ready, get ready. He's coming, he's coming, he's coming. And then he says, Hey, look, he's here. Andrew's one of the ones who's who hears this announcement and says that he followed Jesus. His life was changed by his encounter with Jesus. And then it says, the first thing that he did. He's like, I gotta go and tell Simon. And so he goes and he tells them. And as you keep reading, not only is his habit to do that or his practice to do that, but it says in verse 43, the next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee, finding Philip. He says to Philip, follow me. Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida, verse 45 says, Then Philip found Nathaniel. And he told him, We found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So you see what's going on here is that Andrew has an encounter with Jesus. He's like, This is incredible. Changed me. I've got to go and find my brother Simon Peter. And then, and then Philip has this encounter with Jesus. And as he's changed, like, oh, I've got to go and find Nathaniel. I've got to tell him about this encounter that I had with Jesus. And what I really love about how scripture keeps it so real is that uh Philip runs and he and he finds Nathaniel. He's like, the Messiah is here, Jesus of Nazareth. And look at what it says in verse 46. You can tell Nathaniel's not quite on board yet. Yeah, he he's got some questions. He says, Nazareth, can anything good come from Nazareth? I mean, that was his response. Which is just so funny, you know, because scripture just I love how it just is so authentic, it's so real. And I not only uh like uh how Nathaniel's responses captured the way it is, but I really love how it records Philip's response to Nathaniel's response. I mean, think about it. He has this encounter with Jesus, he's like, this is incredible. I gotta go find Nathaniel. I gotta go find him, I gotta tell him. And so he gets an attempt. Nathaniel, we have the Messiah's here. I just met him, I just changed. It's Jesus of Nazareth, and Nathaniel's like, Nazareth? Can anything come good come from Nazareth? Now, if I'm feeling all like, bro, I just met the Messiah. We're talking about the Messiah, the anointed one, all the prophecy, and then I came running across town to tell you, and you go say, Nazareth, can anything good come from Nazareth? You know, you've always had an attitude, Nathaniel. You know, just like your mama has an attitude. Now you got an attitude. You've always whole family got an attitude. Cynical, skeptical, like he doesn't start getting offended by Nathaniel's response. He doesn't start arguing with Nathaniel, he doesn't start debating with Nathaniel. Look at what Philip does. I love this. This is so important. This is Philip's response to Nathaniel. Look at what it says. He says, Come and see. Oh, I love those words. I've had an encounter with Jesus. Now I'm going to go not to argue, not to debate, but to tell the world around me, come and see what happened to me. Come and see what he can do for you. This is really the title for today's message. And so if you're taking notes, which I think is really impressive, I just think that's so impressive. If you're taking notes, I think that's amazing. You can just write down at the top of your page the title for today is Come and See. What does it look like to live a life of come and see? If you're taking notes, write it down. Point number one is that found people, find people. Found people, find people. Back to Andrew, just looking at him, says the first thing, somebody shout the first thing. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We found the Messiah. And he brought him to Jesus. The first thing speaks of priority. The first thing that he did speaks of the urgency of it. I mean, there's this excitement, there's this urgency, there's this, I've got to go and share it. And we live in a world that shares everything. You know, this is what I have for lunch. Post. You know, this is how the birthday party went. Post. This is what happened at the game tonight. Post. And then it comes to sharing Jesus. Like, that's personal. I don't talk about that. It's between me and Jesus. I found a great restaurant, I'll tell the world. I found a great movie, I'll tell the world. You know, I found something online, I'll tell everybody. I found the way to heaven.

You figure it out by yourself. I'm gonna tell you what happened to me.

Found people, find people, and there's a sense of urgency with it. He has an encounter, and the first thing they did, I've got to go and find. There's an urgency because that's the plan of God, that's the heart of God. I don't know if you've ever thought about what you'd like to be doing when Jesus comes back for us. That's what the Bible teaches us is that right now, this life on earth, like it's short, the clock is ticking. There comes a point to where life on this earth comes to an end, and we'll spend forever in heaven. Who's looking forward to heaven? Come on, who's excited about heaven? I can't wait for heaven. I'm looking forward to it, but until I'm there, I'm still here. My heart is still beating because there's something that God wants me to do. Now, the question is, why are we still here? Right? Because I mean, I I got a lot of things I'd like to be doing whenever the rapture does happen, whenever we're caught up and Jesus comes back for us. Like, well, there's some things I don't want to be doing, like fighting with my wife. Like, that'd be a bummer, wouldn't it? In the middle of the fight. And let me tell you another thing. Then Jesus comes back, like, oh, hi, Jesus. We were just working through something here. We didn't didn't know you were about to come back, like right now. That'd be a bummer. Slamming a door, you know, road rage, driving. Yeah, get off my bumper. Oh, hello, Jesus. That'd just be awkward. I've even thought about how cool would it be if right when you accepted Jesus into your heart, he changed your life. How cool it'd be if right after you prayed, you went straight to heaven. Come on, wouldn't that be cool? If you're like, come into my heart in Jesus' name. Amen. That'd be so cool. But listen, when I opened my eyes after surrendering to Jesus, I was still here. Have you ever wondered why you're still here? You've experienced the resurrection power in your own life. The story of Easter is personal now. I found Jesus, but I'm still here. Why? Because it's his plan that found people will find people, and there are opportunities all around us. Every single day. You're on mission, you're on assignment. Like you're not getting up tomorrow morning so that you can go to work. You're getting up so you can go and tell one more person about what happened in your life. Why? It's why you're still here. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about starting your day? Well, I got to go to school today, I got to go to my job today, I need to go to the grocery store today. Oh, we got those doctors above. No, no, no, no. That's not why I'm still here. It's not why you're still here. Oh, we might have to do those things, but God's not sending you to that office so that you can get a paycheck, you can have another day at work. He's sending you where you're going because you're on mission. What is it? Found people, find people. So we're watching, we're looking, and I love the passage. We won't turn to it or pull it up, but Matthew chapter 9, where it says that Jesus looked out and he saw the crowds, and it says that his heart was filled with compassion. Something happened on the inside of him when he saw the people because he saw that they were helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. See, when I see a crowd, I see a crowd. When I see a crowd, like there are a lot of people, you're at the mall and look at all those people. Jesus looks at the crowd and he sees individuals, and he sees pain and he sees brokenness, he sees hurt, he sees heartache, and it fills his heart with compassion. When was the last time you were broken over the condition of the people around you at your office or at your school? When's the last time you're like, ah, they need Jesus? They they need to have their encounter with him. Does it do anything to you? Not when you think, oh, I experienced Easter. I'm good. But when it's changed you and you're like, ah, found people, find people. I've been changed. I have to find somebody, I have to go. It changes the way you view going into the grocery store. It changes the way you view today. Oh, I've got to take my son to football practice today. I've got to take my daughter to cheer. Oh, that's not just what I'm talking about what I'm all about. Oh, I'm doing that while I'm doing it. I know God must have somebody He wants me to talk to at the store, at the gas station, at my office, at my school. Found people, find people. It's what the plan of God is. And Jesus looked and he saw the condition of their heart. Why is that so important? Because if not, we'll miss it because we just see the outside. Just the outside. We just see the smiles. We just see because everybody just, you know, in Instagram, we're hello, how are you doing? Great. Everything's great. Everything in my whole life is great. I'm great. I'm blessed. Man, my wife loves me. She thinks I'm my kids, they adore me. Everything's going great. Our bank account exploding. It's great. Like over the top. Like everything's great with me. Nobody comes out with a sign to just walk into the office and they have a sign that says, sinner. Lost. Broken. No, they don't do that. They don't do that. No, you just see it in their eyes. You hear it in their words. You see there's this sense of hopelessness, or they're trying to mask, or they're trying to cover up, and they're just have you noticed that people who are away from Christ tend to act an awful lot like people who are away from Christ. Because there are some people, when you go to your work, you get mad and offended. Jesus sees that and gets broken and burdened. We see it like, man, he's got such an attitude. Where's that attitude coming from? There's hurt, there's Brokenness. When you go to check the mail in that grumpy neighbor across the street, like oh man, no eye contact. It could be that the reason you're in that neighborhood is your own mission. Yeah, but they're cranky. Well, why are they cranky? Showing love. You know, the people next to me, they seem to be doing okay. I mean, I guess they're right. They seem to be happy. Listen, when you go to check your mail and they're checking their mail, they're not looking at you going, hmm, just won't admission. I'm fighting with my wife, looking like divorce. Okay, thanks. Have a good day. They don't say that. They don't want to announce it. You see to be like Jesus, you gotta look past the everything's great. I'm being mean, you gotta see the heart of the issue. Why would you and I live like that? Because found people, find people, is what we're all about, and there's an urgency. And if I'm being honest, a lot of times I get caught up in the chaos, the activity, and all the busyness, and I lose my sense of urgency. It's why you're still here, it's why your heart is still beating. Not so that we can just have another fun weekend at North Place on Easter weekend. Oh, let's celebrate it again. Oh, this is just this is just fun. Let's remind ourselves about what no, no, no. It's to be enjoyed and celebrated. But I'm still here because God wants me to bring somebody else into his fame. That's what found people do. Here's the second thing. Number two, we're called to come and see by telling the story. We got to tell our story. Says the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon, and he told him, here's what he told him, we found the Messiah. That's what he shared, that's what he said. My question would be what is the story of your life telling the people around you? What's the story of your life? Like, what's the message of your life? What are you communicating to those around you? Uh just by show of hands, where we're the athletes in the room. What wait, former athletes in the room. Wave at me if you you watch sports on TV from time to time. Just wave at me, okay? Anybody growing up playing ball, and you ever have just like one of those crazy coaches? Anybody ever have a crazy coach? I feel like if you played sports, you had at least one crazy coach. At least one. We we had a coach, man. It was just, you never knew what was going to happen, you never knew what he was going to say. But out on the field, coach would just get really, really mad at you if you ever messed up. The problem was, coach would get a little confused on his right and his left, like what play he called, and so he'd call a play, and when you'd run it, he'd get mad at you because he feels like you messed it up and ran the wrong play. But really, the truth is, coach didn't know his left from his right sometimes, and so it would just get a little confusing. And then here's what would happen when he'd mess up, he'd be screaming at you, he'd be yelling at you, and he'd run towards you and tackle you and take you down to the ground, grab your face mask, hitting you upside the head. Listen, some of you younger generation, you think I'm embellishing this. You're like, there's no way he would go to jail. My mom would lawsuit. I just let me tell you something. How many of you know? Back in the day, come on, how many of you know? Coaches be going to town on next time I say run to the left, you run the left, you do. Then he'd get up, you know, the whole team, nobody making eye contact, and you're getting up. And this is where it got weird. You're like, it's already weird. Hey, it gets even stranger. He'd turn around, he'd look at you, go, hey, you look up and he goes, I love you. It was always so weird, you know. He was like, Man, if that's love, I don't want it. You know, just keep it. And we'd mess with each other in it. Literally, you do this in locker room. We'd mess with each other. Like, coach is gonna love on you today. We just we just say it. It's just so weird because he's doing all that, but you're going, hey, I love you. Words. I love you. I'm like, man, I wouldn't feel in love. Like that just didn't feel like I didn't feel I hear what you're saying, but what you did, I hear you're talking, but what you did, and there are a lot of us who I encounter God. Let me tell you about it. Let's talk about it. What's the story of your life communicating to the people around you? A lot of times it's difficult for us to have and uh uh uh lead somebody to Jesus because when we go to work, we're just as miserable as they are. We go to work, we're just as grumpy. He's smiling and we're getting there and we're going, would you like to have you like Jesus like me? You can do you can have this. You want you to like to invite you to north place, you can you can be as miserable as me. We we meet Sundays at seven, one to come, like I'm good. I'm good. Like, what's your life communicating? I work hard, a spirit of excellence. I'm kind, I bring peace. I'm not talking about being fake. I'm not talking about like super spiritual, blessed, highly favored. Everything's good in my life. I'm the head, not the tail. I'm coming in, I'm not going out, I'm I'm a winner, not a loser. And and you, I'm not talking about little catchy little things. I'm not talking about being weird. Don't be weird. How many of you know we have enough weird Christians we don't need any more, right? We do not need any more weird Christians. So if somebody comes up to you and says, Is that is that saved? I don't want you to say, Don't worry about the chair. The question is, are you saved? Like, I don't want you to do that. I'm not trying to get you to be weird. I'm just saying, what is your life saying to the people around you? 2 Timothy 4 2 says, Preach the word of God urgently at all times, whenever you get the chance, in season and out, when it's convenient and when it is not. Is that what I'm doing? Oh, I can't wait for Easter. It's gonna be awesome, it's gonna be great. Listen, we got so much to celebrate. But the question is, is my story telling a life to where people around me are like, there's something about you. Oh, you gotta come and see. It will make sense to you. You gotta come and see. 1 Peter 3 15 says, Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks you why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. See, we gotta be intentional about the way we live because our lives are telling a story. Third and finally, you gotta be a bringer. Found people, find people. We spend our days with our life saying, Come and see. Let me tell you what happened to me. Come and see what God can do for you. And then you're a bringer. Bringing people, bringing people. Why am I still here? Why is my heart still beating? I have resurrection power in me. My story is I've met Jesus. Question is who am I bringing? Who am I bringing so that they can experience that? It's estimated that less than one out of ten Christians have actually personally led someone to the Lord. Think about that. The pattern is they met Jesus. They said, I gotta go tell somebody, bring them to Jesus. Statistically speaking, about 90% of those who have an encounter with God never bring somebody else to him. And if you haven't ever done that before, the goal is not to shame you or for you to feel guilty, but it's to bring to your attention, ah, that's not the plan. The plan is spend your life here on earth, bringing somebody else while there's time. How do I do it? Just a few ways. One is you bring them to Jesus through prayer. Don't underestimate this one. Who are you praying for this Easter? And you're believing for them to have an encounter with God. Ian Bounds says to talk to man about God is a good thing. But to talk to God about man is greater still. It's a spiritual battle. You're not trying to debate somebody into the family of God, argue them into an encounter with Jesus is a hard issue. The battle's one in prayer. Who are you praying for? That's how you bring somebody to Jesus. You bring somebody to Jesus through serving. What do you mean through serving? Did you know that when you're out in the parking lot, people pull up and you're smiling, you're waving, come on in. You know, you're doing, you're bringing them right into the presence. Lord, so glad you're here. When you're greeting, when you're on the hospitality team and you're opening the door, welcome to North Place Church, you're bringing people to Jesus. When you're serving in the kids' area and a family comes in and you're able to say, hey, this is a clean environment, this is a safe environment. We're so glad they're here. Hey, come and see what it looks like to have an encounter with God. Oh, you're bringing people to Jesus. When you're giving, when you're making more space, you know what you're doing? You're bringing people to Jesus. Practically speaking, you want to know a really practical way, is when for Easter weekend you go, oh, I got resurrection power inside of me. I've been changed. So much so to where my desire is to spend my days not living for me, but living for him. So I'm gonna come to the Saturday Easter services instead of the Sunday Easter services, and I'm gonna some of y'all be like, hey, I love Jesus, but now you're stepping all over my toes. I don't know about that. Ah God, whatever you want to do in my life and through my life, I'm not mine, I'm yours. I just want to bring somebody to Jesus. You bring people to Jesus through serving, then you finally you just bring people to Jesus through an invitation, through inviting. I love the resource that North Place is using to invite somebody to come. Just a ticket, just a tool, just a way of saying, hey, I was thinking of you and wanted to invite you to come. As I get ready to close in prayer, I just wonder who's gonna be on the other side of your invitation. Who could end up being at Easter at North Place simply because you chose to bring them through an invitation? Who could end up spending eternity in heaven instead of hell because you said, Come and see? Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? I want you to think right now just about who God may be speaking to your heart about. Who is it that the Lord is bringing to your mind? Could be friends, could be family members, could be a neighbor. But what if we all just take just a minute to pray? That God would speak to our hearts and He'd burden our hearts. Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would give us compassion, a heart for those who have not experienced you yet. And that you would use us to go to them and say, Come and see. And Lord, I pray that they be changed by your love. Heads still bowed, eyes still closed. Last prayer I pray be for anybody and everybody who says, Scotty, I need that in my own life. I need to have my own encounter with God. Today I want you to know it's not by chance that you're here. God brought you here because he loves you and he cares about you. He can give you a fresh start, a clean slate. Because Jesus paid for your sin and mine on the cross. We just have to receive it. Surrender to him and say, from this moment on, I will follow Jesus. So I'm gonna pray. And if you say, Scotty, that's me. I want to commit or recommit my life to Christ. I today want to decide I'm gonna follow Jesus. If that's you, would you slip up your hand? Come on, all over the room, just raise it up. After you raise it up, you can put it down. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Anyone else? Thank you, thank you. Let's all pray this prayer together. Dear God, thank you for your grace and your mercy. Thank you for not giving up on me. I ask you to come into my heart and be Lord of my life. From this moment on, I've decided I will follow Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, Amen. Let's thank the Lord for saving souls today.

Every time I come to a moment like this right before Easter, I can't help but think of Oscar and Isis Perez. They lived in this community almost two decades ago. Somebody handed them an invitation to a North Place Easter service. God met their family in a real way changed their life. They've started serving in our church. A few years later, we hired them on staff. They became pastors a little while later. And then some time ago, we sent them out to plant a church in Plano, and today they're pastoring a church, getting ready for their own Easter services where people will come to Christ. And that whole process started with a simple invitation for Easter to North Place. I don't know who's on the other side of that little card for you or the digital invites that we have available, but whole stories can be rewritten because God is using you in his story. Would you stand with me across this room and across our campus family, prayer teams at every location? Would you make yourself available today, regardless of your needs? If you're wanting somebody to agree with you and pray over somebody in your life you're wanting to come to Christ, if you need a miracle, I prayed to somebody in the last service, just got diagnosed with cancer. I don't know what you're battling today, but that's what this moment is for. We're here to pray with you. If you prayed with Scotty a moment ago and you made a commitment to follow Jesus, the Bible says if you confess him before men, he'll confess you before his Father, which is in heaven. Tell somebody, and this would be a great place to do it today. So, Lord, would you bless them and keep them? Would you make your face shine down upon them? Would you be gracious to them? Would you turn your countenance, their direction, and would you give them peace? In Jesus' name. Amen. These altars are open. God bless you.