WHY WEEK 2 WHY DOESN'T GOD ANSWER MY PRAYERS?

Craig Groeschel

Video: "I'm so sick of this. It's been two years. I just don't get it."

Craig Groeschel: Well, I'm so glad to have all of you with us today at all of our LifeChurches and our Network Churches and our Church Online family. We are in the middle of a series called, "Why". We are wrestling with different "why" questions that so many people ask about God. For example, last week we let God's Word speak to a very common why question that so many Christians have and that is, "Why don't I always feel God's

presence". Next week, we are going to talk about what quite honestly might be the most commonly asked question maybe in the history of the world that pertains to God and it falls within the genre of "Why doesn't God seem fair?" Or some people may ask it this way, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Have any of you ever wondered something like that in your life? All of our campuses lift up your hands, if you have or you know somebody that has, next week would be a great week to bring them to church. And then the fourth week, we're going to talk about, "Why would God use someone like me? With all of my problems, all of my doubts, all of my fears, all of my insecurities, all of my sinfulness, why would God use someone like me to make a difference in this world?" Today though, we are going to talk about one of the more commonly asked questions by those who pray or those who are Christians and that's the question, "Why didn't God answer my Prayer?" If you've prayed a lot, if you're a person of faith, chances are at some point you asked God to do

something that you knew God could, you thought He should, He didn't. And if you're like a lot of people, it rattled your faith and you're wondering, "Why didn't God do what I asked Him to do?" especially in light of some verses in the Bible like this one, John 14:13-14 says, Jesus said: I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. You read a verse like that and you think, "Well, I asked in the name of Jesus and I know God could and He didn't do it. And then I read about other stories in the Bible like Joshua who prayed that the sun would stand still and it did for a day. And Daniel in the Lions' Den with hungry lions everywhere and he prayed and hungry lions went on a diet. And Jonah, who got thrown into an ocean and he prays and God sends a giant fish who swallows him up, carries him safely to shore, vomits him up on the shore and you're reading all of this going, "They prayed and things like that happened and I prayed and nothing happened! Why didn't God answer my prayer?"

How many of you have ever asked a question similar to that at some point in your life? A lot of us have. So often, I tell the faith-building, answered-prayer stories, because God has answered so many prayers that I've prayed and many of you have prayed really in supernatural ways, but I don't always tell the unanswered prayer stories. I'll tell you a couple today, one's not that big of a deal, the other one is more personal to me. One time I got asked to pray for a football game. It was a little private school, a little Christian school. And I just did the prayer before the game, which should have been a really easy prayer for God to answer. It's kind of the everybody prays it you know, "God keep everybody safe and let them play with good sportsmanship..." and on and on and on. And I prayed and the only time in the history of this school before half time, when the field goal kicker was attempting a field goal, a defensive lineman broke through the offensive line, jumped on the kicker and snapped his leg in half. It was so violent that both sides of the bench cleared into this massive brawl.

People even from the crowd were trying to get into this fight! And at this Christian school they had to call off the game before it was even finished. I want you to know that's what happens when your pastor prays before a football game! It's no wonder why I've never been invited back! You know, why didn't God answer my prayer? Something that's a little more personal to me and is kind of annoying, a little more than a year ago, I injured my arm for the first time and then a few months later, I actually ruptured the tendon playing tennis. I've been seeing the best doctors, I've been to the best physical therapist, I've had everybody in the world praying, praying, praying, praying praying. When I preach I don't feel it because the adrenaline goes, but then afterwards it aches and I have to wear a little arm guard. I can't shake hands, I can maybe shake one hand or two, but after that it hurts really badly. I can't sleep at night because I roll over and such. The doctors say, "I don't know why it's not healing, it should be healed, we've done everything we know to get it to heal." The irony is, I can't tell you how many times I've had my little arm guard with

my little pain patches, laying hands on someone asking God to heal them of cancer or something really big, wondering if they're going, "But God didn't even answer your prayer for your little booboo on your arm!" In my mind sometimes I'm asking, "Why God? Why didn't you answer my prayer?" The reality is for so many of you, you've got things much bigger than a football game gone bad or a little sore arm, but you might have prayed for someone that they would be healed of some sort of a disease or illness and then they weren't. And you knew God could do it and God didn't do it. Or you might have been praying for someone to conceive and they still couldn't have children. Or maybe you prayed for your parents not to get divorced, and you just begged God, "Please oh God, let my parents stay together!" And you prayed and they ended up in this brutal, ugly divorce and your life has been complicated ever since. Or may for you, you've prayed for someone to come to know Christ and the harder you prayed it seemed

like the further away they got from Him. And you end up asking the question, "Why God did you not answer my prayer?" What I want to do today is I want to try to bring some possible Biblical reasons as to why God didn't answer all of our prayers. And just like every week in this series, I have to say very clearly, I can't bring definitive and specific answers to every single example, I would be crazy and borderline arrogant to try to do so. But what I want to do is I want to raise some potential Biblical reasons as to why maybe God didn't answer some of our prayers. So, let's look at four different possible reasons as to why God didn't answer our prayer. The first one is this, you're asking, "Why didn't God answer my prayer?" Well first of all: 1. Maybe it's because you have a broken relationship. Maybe you have a broken relationship. And some of you are saying, "Ha? What in the world does that have to do with prayer?"

Well, let me show you a couple of verses; one that speaks to this indirectly, the other speaks very, very directly. And what we're going to see as we look as multiple different Scriptures and stories is that our horizontal relationships very much matter and impact our vertical relationship. Our relationships with other people very much matter in our relationship with God. Let's look at the words of Jesus in Mark 11:24-25, Jesus said: Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in... What? Everybody let's say it aloud. Whatever you ask for in: ...prayer... So what are we talking about? We're talking about; it's not a trick question, you're like, "Ha? I'm not saying it!" What are we talking about? Come on somebody, we're talking about prayer, the subject is prayer:

...whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it and it will be yours. And when you stand praying... What are we talking about? We're talking about prayer, when you stand praying: ...if you hold anything against anyone... If you've got a damaged relationship: ...you should forgive that person so your Father in heaven may forgive your sins. Now wait a minute, Jesus is talking about you praying and then suddenly He says, 'If you've got a horizontal relationship that's not right, let's deal with that first as you're praying to me'. Where else would Scripture talk about something like this? Well, First John says this, the Bible says very clearly: You cannot say you love God if you hate your brother.

You can't go around giving all of this, "Oh, I love God, I love God and yet, I hate every single one of those no good, low down, pathetic people!" God says your horizontal relationships impact your vertical relationship. Where else does Scripture say it? You can read about this in Matthew Five, Jesus said: If you're going to go to the altar to offer your gift... In other words, you're coming to give something as an act of worship, but you get to the altar and then you remember, "Hey wait a minute! I'm mad at somebody!" If you remember you have something against someone, this is what Jesus said, He said: ...leave your gift at the altar, first go and reconcile the relationship. Make it right and then come back and give your gift at the altar. Because our horizontal relationships impact our vertical relationships. And honestly I don't know how

much, I can't say what level of angry, you know like, "I'm irritated at the jerk at work, does that mean my prayer..." I can't answer that, but I can kind of put myself in our Heavenly Father's position and think to myself whenever all six of my kids are in the back of the Suburban and they're asking for something and yet they're fighting, I don't want to give them what they're asking for, why? Because they're fighting. "Okay, cut that out kids, don't you know...?" Do what my sister and I did, put an invisible force field up between you and then don't pierce the force field, you know just don't touch each other. "Daddy, let's get some ice cream!" And you know, "He hit me! He's touching me!" "No, no, no! I'm not getting the ice cream because you're fighting!" And before long when the fighting continues, I start making threats like my Dad, which is, "Don't you make me pull this car over!" And then if it goes on, I just start swatting! I mean, I don't know whose there, I don't care who I get, just like, give me some

flesh; somebody is going to get hit! You know, a hand, a butt, just give me something to hit! And they're thinking, "We're not getting ice cream!" "... as long as you're fighting!" Because me as the father, I care about how they treat one another. And to some level or another, Scripture seems to be pretty clear that our relationships matter in prayer. Now, those are all indirect examples, let me show you a real direct example. I don't know if you've ever known kind of a mister spiritual guy who acts all spiritual in some places and then is a jerk at home. You know he's all, "Praise the Lord, halleluiah! I'm a Sunday school teacher teaching through the Book of Revelation at my church!" And then he goes home and he's a total first class arrogant jerk to his wife and kids. Here's what Scripture says that kind of behavior will do to your prayer life; Scripture says this, First Peter 3:7:

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with... What? We should treat our wives with: ...respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life... What's one of the reasons? Here's what the Bible says: ...so that nothing will hinder your prayers. Why didn't God answer my prayer? Well maybe you have a broken relationship. Second possible reason if you're taking notes is: 2. Maybe you have the wrong motives when you pray. Maybe you've got the wrong motives. James 4:3 says: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask

with... What? Everybody, let's do it together: ...because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures. Can anybody say lottery baby? Right like, I don't know how many people are praying, "God, help me win the lottery! Oh God, help me win the lottery! Oh God help me, in Jesus' name! If I just win this I'll give ten percent to the church I promise!" And someone else says, "I'll give twelve percent!" Someone says, "I'll give fifty percent God! Oh, think of how much good I could do if I give fifty percent of the lottery to the church!" And God may say, "You're praying with the wrong motives!" The Pharisees did this all of the time, all of the time! The Pharisee would stand out on the street corner and they would go, "Hey," watch this, "Hey Heavenly Father, you're so..." and they would pray long and

loud showy prayers because they were praying for the applaud of people and not for genuine hearts before God. And I don't know how you would do that, but I'll be real honest, when I was in college, I prayed some self-centered, wrong-motive prayers when I was looking for a Christian girl to date that was really cute. And I didn't know any that would go out with me that were really cute, so I just picked the hottest looking, non-Christian girl and started praying for her, "God, just help me lead her to Christ in Jesus' name! Give me the opportunity to.." And so, I went up to her like, "Hey, you want to talk about Jesus?" She's like, "Get away from me you freak!" "God, why didn't you answer my prayer?" Maybe you're praying with the wrong motives! Now you may say, "But my motives are right, my motives are pure!" You know, "I'm playing for my

favorite football team to win that I've got a hundred bucks on and I need them to win!" Sometimes we're not so clear on what our motives really are. Again, I can't judge the motives but God can and here's what Scripture says in Proverbs 16:2: All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but... What is weighed by the Lord? Scriptures says: ...but motives are weighed by the Lord. Why didn't God answer my prayer? Well: 1. Maybe I have a broken relationship. 2. Maybe I have impure motives. The third thing is: 3. Maybe you don't believe God will do it. Maybe you don't really believe that God is going to

answer your prayer. And I want to be real careful dealing with this because I need to be, but I think that we'll make some progress talking about this. Mark, Chapter Nine, is a really important story about a dad who had a son that was possessed with an evil spirit. Now, anyone who is a parent can know just the trauma, the emotional burden this would give them. And so, this dad was like, 'Man, I will do anything!' Jesus comes around and the guy is like, 'Hey Jesus, if you can do anything about this man, please do!' And we see how Jesus responds to this in verse 22 of Mark Nine, the dad says: "...But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." And Jesus seems maybe offended, or perhaps hurt, I'm not sure; but he says: "'If you can'?"...

Everything is possible for whom? He says: "Everything is possible for him who believes." Everything is possible for him who believes. Now, I want to be really careful here and I want to say this, your faith matters when you pray, it does. Over and over again Jesus says, 'It was done unto them according to their faith.' It's impossible to please God without faith. If you have a little bit of faith, you can say to this mountain, "Be removed!" Your faith matters, it matters. The challenge is, there are a lot of people who call themselves Christians who really don't believe God is going to do anything when they pray. It's like the pastor and the bar owner in an old classic story. The pastor was upset because there was a bar down the street selling alcohol, the devil's drink! And so, the pastor had prayer meetings to pray against the bar and prayed against the bar. One day lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. So the bar owner sued the church. And when they were standing before the judge the judge said, "What happened?"

And the bar owner said, "This pastor prayed and because of his prayers God struck us!" And the pastor's like, "No, no, no, no, no, no! We didn't mean anything by that! It was just a harmless prayer meeting, that's not why lightning struck, it's not our fault!" And the bar owner said, "Yes it is!" And the judge looked and said, "I can't believe what I'm hearing! Here we have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer and a pastor who doesn't!" Right? How often do we have people who call themselves Christians who don't really believe in the power of prayer? The reason I know they don't is because you can hear it in their language. You know, "Well, it's really bad; we've done everything we can do! Now, all we can do is pray!" Oh, it's that bad! Now, you just can depend on God! Man, you're in big trouble now! You've tried

everything that's going to work and they don't really believe in the power of prayer. Now here's what I'm not saying; in the Christian world this won't mean anything to some of you, but some of you it will. There's a teaching that's often been called like word-faith teaching. And that means if you just say the words and you just believe, and if you have enough faith God's got to do whatever you say. For example, if you're a single guy and there's a cute Christian girl and you name her and claim her in Jesus' name, then she's going to say yes to you even if you're really, really weird! Okay, that's what people tend to believe. If I just pray enough and have faith for healing then God's got to do it. Let me just remind you, God is not your cosmic sugar daddy! God is not there to serve us; we're there to serve Him! People get all upset you know, "I prayed for grandma! I prayed and thought she'd be healed and you know, she was 99 and God didn't heal her!" Like, she's 99;

she's got to die sometime! It's been proven, one out of one people die, it's a fact! It's just going to happen! You can do yoga, you can do Palates, you can eat organic food, you're still going to die; you're just going to die with a nasty taste in your mouth, but you're going to die eventually! "And all the people all said this would happen!" And here's what I want to say and I want to be really clear, is that just because you have all this faith doesn't mean that God's got to do it, but at the same time I want to say, your faith does matter. It does matter and I can't explain all of the nuances of that, that's something that only God can. But maybe God didn't answer your prayer because you were kind of half-hearted and you really didn't think He could. Scripture again talks about this in Chapter One of James, verse 6-7. Speaking about wisdom, when a person asks for wisdom what must he do? He must: He must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like the wave of the sea, blown and tossed

by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. Why didn't God answer my prayer? Well, maybe I've got some relationships that aren't where God wants them to be. Or maybe my motives aren't quite pure, or maybe I don't really have faith to believe God to would do it. Now, some of you right now, you're probably doing what I would be doing if I'm listening to this. I'm going, "Okay, at that time I did pray, I think my relationships were good as far as I know. I think as far as I can tell my motives were right on this and I really did believe God could and would do it. Why didn't God answer my prayer?" Well, the fourth reason if you're taking notes is this: 4. Maybe God had something different. Maybe God had something different. And I hope you know that God's will matters more than our will. His

will really matters. Even though we think we know what's best, even though in our mind this is the right thing, God's will matters. And we have confidence in this, First John 5:14-15 says: This is the confidence we have... Those of you who are Christians, when you pray you pray with this confidence. This is the confidence you have in approaching God: ...that if we ask anything... What? Everybody say it aloud, this is important: ...if we ask anything according to His will... Say it again: ...if we ask anything according to His will he hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask we know that we have what we asked of Him. I love this, that we have the confidence of knowing

that if we ask anything according to His will that He hears us and we will have what we ask of Him. We have the confidence to know if we're asking God for something outside of His will; even though we believe it's best, even though we believe it's right, even though we're certain this is what God should do, He loves us enough not to give us something that is not according to His will. And this is huge, this isn't just pastor talk this is absolutely huge! In fact, in the New Testament the Apostle Paul, if you know who He was and if you know his story, he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. If there was anyone that God should have answered all of his prayers, in my opinion it was the Apostle Paul, all day long! One who suffered, suffered righteously and served God faithfully; and yet, if you read his story, he said, 'I had this thorn in my side', and we don't know what it was. Some people guess and have some ideas, but we don't know what the thorn was. And he said, 'I pleaded with the Lord three times..' and what that means is, 'Man, I fought the Lord and I prayed and I begged over and over and again, and God did not do what I knew He could do, didn't do

what I thought He should do.' Instead, God did something different that was not Paul's plan, wasn't Paul's idea, wasn't what Paul would have ever picked, and God said, 'In my sovereignty in this case, I want you to learn that my grace is enough, my grace is sufficient for you.' And in whatever way, that would have done something supernatural in Paul that would have empowered him to become the person that God created him to be. Paul would have not liked that answer, he wanted it healed, but God had something different for him that was in God's sovereign plan and goodness. I'll give you a couple of examples: One is in the early years of the church. We started this church in 1996 with a handful of people in a twocar garage. Then we moved into an elementary school and then in a bike factory. And finally after several years, we like mortgaged our houses and took money out of retirement and we did crazy stupid stuff. I'd never recommend to build the biggest little building we could afford and before long, we were full in three services, then four, then five and then six and

then seven. I was preaching seven times a week and I was worn out. We were turning people away and I kept praying, "God, give us the resources to build a big enough building!" Everybody in town, they're doing like one or two services, we had all of these people and we had people with resources and ability. And the more I prayed, the more it was obvious that God wasn't going to do it. "God, just a big...you know, it would solve so many problems! God, please! This makes sense! You don't want us turning people away!" I begged, I pleaded, I prayed, I fasted and I prayed. We were sacrificing big time and God obviously wouldn't do it and I was so upset. As I look back now I'm like, "Oh God! I see, because you said no to that, you forced us to ask the question, "What if we did church in two locations instead of one!" And that "No" back then empowered us today to do church in dozens of locations, literally hundreds including Network Churches in places all over the world. That wouldn't have been possible if God had given me exactly what I knew He needed to do. That is a gift; I can look back and see with His hand and His love, that in His mercy He said no to

something I knew He should have done so I could see something I wouldn't see otherwise. I thank God for His love to say no. Now, I'll give you a more personal example. About nine years ago, my wife, her brother David was 34years of age at the time, Christmas Eve went into the hospital for a real serious sickness that he had. We prayed and prayed like crazy, prayed and prayed like crazy, prayed and prayed like crazy that God would heal him and we saw God heal people in much worse condition than David was. About three weeks later God didn't heal him according to the way we prayed and Amy's brother died at the age of 34. Honestly, it's almost embarrassing for me to say, but I thought, "Okay God, after all I'm doing for you, why wouldn't you just do that for me?" That's embarrassing to say, but that's kind of what I thought. You know like, "If you're going to do it for anybody, you can do it for those who are really trying to make a difference for you. What's up with this God?" As best I could I went and helped with the funeral

and I invited people to know the Christ that had set David free from his sinful lifestyle and be transformed. So many people came to Christ, it was stunning, it was stunning! One of them was Amy's uncle, who we had prayed for for years and there was no sign. He was miraculously transformed and is now a very active part of our church, a strong Christian. I mean, I'm talking about, how in the world did God change so many lives through this one 34year old kid, I have no idea. I asked Amy, several years went by, I said, "Hey babe, if you could undo all that God did to have your brother back, would you undo it to get him back?" She didn't even hesitate, she said, "No, no, no, no, no!" She said, "We'll be together in heaven again before long, this life is a blink; after all God did, there is no way I would undo that to have my brother back." I just remember, it just hit me again like it has a million times before, no matter what I want God is still good, He really is, He really, really is. I'm telling you, He really, really is. You're hurt and you're

disappointed, I understand. Okay, I do, I understand and I'm here to tell you, He's good, He's good. Let me summarize it this way and then we'll pray. What do I believe about prayer? Let me just tell you what I believe about prayer: Prayer reminds me that I'm not in control and it keeps me close to the One who is. Baby that was good preaching! I'm going to say it again, okay? I want you to hear this: Prayer reminds me, I'm not in control, and it's not about me. I'm not in control and it keeps me close to the One who is. Prayer is not so much about my wants as it is God's will. It's not, "God, do what I want, do what I want, do what I want, do what I want!" as much as it is getting to know God. I mean the fact that the God of the universe gives me access to Him. To know Him through prayer is one of the most difficult things even for my finite mind to even comprehend.

Anytime that I pray and something doesn't go the way I want, or there's a big prayer need that I have, I try to think of this story and maybe this will speak to you. Daniel, Chapter Three talks about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Three teenage boys that stood before the evil King Nebuchadnezzar; he said, 'Bow down and worship my god, renounce your God from throwing you into the fiery furnace.' And these boys facing death, okay, we're talking real problems; not a sore arm, we're talking real problems, here's what they said, they said: If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is... What? I want everybody to say it aloud: ...the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He... What? He: ...will rescue us...

He is able and He will. He is able and He will! He is able and He will: ...But even if he doesn't, we will not serve your gods. So, you want to know what I believe about prayer. Every time I pray to God, write this down: I believe God can; I believe all things are possible with God and He can answer my prayer. I believe God will; I believe He is a good God who desires to bless His children. I believe He can, I believe He will; but even if He doesn't, I still believe. Even if He doesn't, I still believe. I thank you for that kind of polite clap from a third of you or so. The rest of you, when you know Him like I do, you'll stand up and worship Him because I'm telling you, He is that good. He is that good, He is that good! I believe, I'm telling you, you pray big, I believe He can. And I believe He will and even if He doesn't, oh my goodness, I still believe!

Father, I pray that you would build the faith of your church today. God, I pray that we would seek you in prayer. God, that our faith would grow and God, for those who are hurting over some disappointment, I pray there would be healing in their hearts today. As you're praying at all of our churches, I want to see a show of hands honestly, of those who prayed for something and it didn't work out the way you thought it should and it rattled you. Would you lift up your hands right now, just lift them up. Man, there's so many. I want to see the hands of those of you who are praying for something significant right now in your life and you really want to see God act. Would you lift up your hands right now, lift up your hands. I hope every Christian has a hand raised, because we should always be praying big. God, I pray for the first group; God I know that there are so many that are hurting or are confused or disappointed because you didn't do what we know you could do and thought you should do. And God, I

pray for some that had the gift of I've had of looking back over the months or the years and say, "Oh yeah, I wish it hadn't gone that way, but now that it did God, I see your hand in it." And God, even if we never see that gift of perspective on this earth, God I pray that we would know your goodness, that we would trust you. God no matter what I pray that we would trust you. God, I pray today that for those who have a significant need, a challenge, a burden, I pray God as they lift their hearts to you in prayer you would build their faith. God, I pray for miracles and physical healing. God, I know you're a healing God, I pray for healing in relationships God. God, I pray for spiritual breakthroughs, I pray for salvations of those that don't know you. God, I pray that as we're a praying church that our faith would grow. And God we would believe you can, we do God, and we believe you will. And God, even if you don't do what we think you should do, God we still believe, we still believe. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, I'm guessing there are a lot of you that at

some point in your life you prayed for something and it didn't happen and that kind of in a way built a wedge between you and God and spiritual things. You're like, "I'm not sure I can trust this, I don't know." And since then, you haven't wholly put your trust in God. I want to tell you I'm really glad you're here today, because I believe it's in the heart and the purpose of God that you're here, because I believe He wants to do a healing work. Some of you, that hurt has kept you from fully trusting in God. Right now, you may be even aware of that, and I want to tell you about a prayer that God always answers. When you seek Him, when you ask Him to show Himself to you, He always will show Himself to you. When you pray to Him for forgiveness, He will always forgive your sins when you call on His Son Jesus, who was born without sin, who became sin for us on the cross, who died and rose again. When you call and ask Him to save you, He will always hear your prayer and forgive your sins and make you new. I believe there are those of you, you may have been hurt in the past or disappointed in some way, but you're here today because it's time to trust Him, to

trust Him with all, to trust Him with forgiveness, to trust Him with your past and your present and your future, to trust Him with your whole heart, to give your lives wholly and completely to Him and that's why you're here. All of our churches, you know it, you sense it, it's time to call on Him to forgive you, He will. To give your heart to Him, you can trust Him, to surrender your life to Him; He is a good God who wants to guide you and to bless you even when you don't understand it. All of our different churches, those of you who would say, "That's why I'm here! I'm ready; I'm ready to give my life to Him. I need His forgiveness, I need His grace, I want His presence; it's no longer about me, today I give my life to Him. If that's your prayer would you lift your hands high right now, just lift them up high all over the place. I just want to see your hands, both hands right here in this middle section, right here God bless you guys. Right back over here, over here on this side section right up here; sweetheart, God bless you. Right back over here on this edge, sir right here. I don't know how you guys are being quiet right now, right here ma'am,

right here as well. You guys at Church Online you click right below me, back here in this middle section, back here. Both of you here in this section, say "Yes, Jesus take my sins, save me, make me brand new." Way back over here and right back here toward the back. Praise God for all of you. Would you all just pray aloud with those around you? Everybody join your voices together. Pray Heavenly Father, save me from all of my sins. Make me new. I believe Jesus died for me so I could live for you. Today I give you my life, all of it; my past, my present, and my future. Thank you for new life; it's my honor to give mine to you. In Jesus' name I pray. LifeChurch, would you take a moment, would you celebrate, would you worship God? Thank Him for new life in Christ.