The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Wow. So exciting to be a part of a church that God is moving in such a powerful powerful way. Well, my name is Glenn and I'm one of the pastors here at a life church and we're going to spend a few moments together in Luke chapter number five. I'm excited to continue our series, Authentic, the unfiltered life of Jesus. This morning we're going to be looking at Luke 5 12- 26. As you're turning there, I just want to say how great it is. I'm so thankful for you this morning being here. You survived back-to- back blizzards here in coastal Virginia two weeks in a row and now you are back in the house. Give yourself a great hand this morning. We are so glad that you're here today. I'm so thankful that you're here. I'm thankful to Pastor Michael and Pastor Megan for the opportunity to be on the team and to share God's word with you this morning. You know, I hear Pastor Michael all of the time saying that we have a great team of pastors and leaders and volunteers. And that's not by accident. It's because we have incredible senior pastors that God has given to us and Pastor Michael and Pastor Megan. And we are so thankful for them this morning. Well, if you have your Bible, go ahead and stand with me and let's read together from Luke chapter number five. We're going to read several verses together. Two incredible miracles today. Luke 5 verse number 12. While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell to his face on the ground and begged him, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them." Yet the news spread about him all the more, so that the crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. One day Jesus was teaching and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village in Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him to the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said,"Friend, your sins are forgiven." The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Only God can forgive sins." Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your heart? Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up and walk?" But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on, and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." Father, we thank you for this passage. We thank you for your word. And now I pray that your Holy Spirit will work in our hearts. Apply the word to our heart today and let us be changed and transformed by it. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated this morning. The translators of my Bible here, the NIV, the New International Version, they help us out and they put some headlines in the text. They put some headings there for us. And in this passage of scripture that we read this morning, they divide it up with two headlines. I don't know if your Bible does this or not, but here's what my Bible says. The first headline is Jesus heals a man with leprosy. The second headline is Jesus forgives and heals a paralyzed man. How many of you have ever understood that sometimes a headline doesn't tell the whole story? Sometimes a headline can be 100% accurate. It can be 100% technically true, but kind of miss the underlying overwhelming story of what's going on in the situation. I mean, take for example if we read a headline in the paper uh decades ago that said something like this. Neil Armstrong walks down a ladder. Now, that would be incredibly accurate, wouldn't it? But what's the real story? Neil Armstrong lands on the moon. Or what if we had a headline that said something like this? Scientist notices mold in petri dish. That's a great headline. But what's the real story? scientist discovers penicellin. Or how about this headline? There's some kind of game tonight. [laughter] 100% accurate. But it's also the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in America, going to be watched by millions and millions of people. Sometimes the headline doesn't tell the whole story, and we have to dig deeper underneath the headline to see what's going on. And these two headlines in my Bible are 100% accurate. Jesus does heal a man with leprosy. Jesus does forgive a man of his sin. And Jesus does heal a paralyzed man. But there's something more going on in this passage. There's something deeper going on. And here's what it is. That when you meet with Jesus, everything changes. >> When you come in contact with Jesus, you've come in contact with God. When you meet Jesus on an ordinary day in an ordinary place, extraordinary things happen. That's the underlying story here is that when we look at this passage, we see more than just a healing and we see more than just a skin disease vanishing or a lame man walking. We see in this passage the unfiltered Jesus. We see in this passage the unexpected Messiah. We see in this passage the surprising and even scandalous son of God. When we look deeper into this passage, we see Jesus combining his authority with his compassion, demonstrating his power with his empathy. When we look into this passage, we see that Jesus changes everything. Jesus changes everything. The first miracle Luke tells us here in this story happened in one of the towns. He says it just happened in one of the towns. Doesn't happen in a place that we know about. It doesn't say it happened in Jerusalem or Capernium or some other large city. It just happened in one of the towns. One of the towns that Jesus happened to be traveling in. The second miracle, if you look at it here, it says it just happened on one day. Just happened one day. It wasn't the Sabbath day. It wasn't a Passover day. It wasn't a high holiday. It wasn't any kind of special day. It just happened on one day. The first miracle happens in an ordinary place. And a second miracle happens on just an ordinary day. But here's what this passage teaches us. When Jesus shows up, there are no ordinary days and there are no ordinary places >> because Jesus changes everything. When Jesus shows up, Jesus takes what is ordinary and he does something extraordinary. Maybe you're here this morning and you think this is just an ordinary day. This is just another Sunday. May maybe your company transferred you here to this area and you can't figure out why. Maybe somebody drug you to church this morning or you had some desire to get up out of bed at 16 degrees and find yourself in church today. Maybe the army transferred you here or the Navy brought you here. I don't know how you wound up in this place in this auditorium at a live church this morning. It may seem like an ordinary day in an ordinary place, but this morning you can meet with Jesus and he can do extraordinary things in your life on an ordinary day in an ordinary place. Jesus still changes everything. >> This passage, we see the paralyzed man walk. We see the leopard, the leper cleansed. We see a man's sin forgiven. We see shame renewed. We see life restored. We see hope renewed in somebody's life. Why? Because again, Jesus changes everything. And so my question for you this morning, as we look at this passage, we're going to look and we're going to discover how Jesus changed everything for these two men. But my question for us today is, what do we need Jesus to change for us? What have we brought into this room this morning that we need to leave at the feet of Jesus? What do we need to ask Jesus to heal in our lives? What do we need to ask Jesus to lift in our lives? What do we need to let go of and let Jesus take charge of in our lives today? As we look into this passage, we see these extraordinary counters with God. And I understand and I hope you do today that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the same Jesus who healed the paralytic, the same Jesus who healed the leper, he is here this morning and he's ready to do something extraordinary in your life today. How many believe that? Say amen. >> Amen. >> Well, let's dig a little deeper into the text this morning. Let's take a look at this first miracle in Luke chapter number four, verse number 12. Look with me back again at Luke 12. Luke 4:12 and 13. It says, "While Jesus was walking in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and he begged him,"Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." This this this man, the text says that he's covered with leprosy. He didn't just have a little rash. He didn't have a spot here or there. It wasn't the first stage of a case. He was in an advanced stage of this disease. The Bible teaches us. The Bible says his body was covered with leprosy. You know, when this man comes to Jesus, he he finds his way to Jesus. And as he does it, he he comes to Jesus and he looks look at what it says. He he he's this man, he's covered with this leprosy. This this man had more than a skin condition. He had a life sentence. He had more than a medical issue. He had a disease that pushed him to the edges and into the margins of society. Because when the Bible says he's covered with leprosy, it's saying that he has more than a sickness, but it's saying that he is unclean. You see, because of his leprosy, he couldn't hold a normal job. Because of his leprosy, he couldn't worship in the synagogue. Because of his leprosy, he couldn't eat with his family. Because of his leprosy, he couldn't go into the temple. In fact, under the religious rules of the day, he had to stay 50 paces away from everyone else. And so to come to Jesus, he's breaking the law to even get to Jesus because he had he should have been 50 paces away from him. And furthermore, when he was walking into a crowd, he had to shout unclean, unclean so that the people could part in front of him like the Red Sea parting in front of Moses. I mean, how many how many remember what it was like back in CO when you maybe got diagnosed and everybody ran away from you? Co, get away. You know, it was kind of like, get behind me, Satan. Don't don't come near. Go to your room and don't come out for for a week or two. Multiply that by a factor of 10 or 100 or a thousand. And here's the isolation. You see? See, this man didn't just have a disease. He he had a condition that caused him to be socially isolated and spiritually removed from his community. And so when he comes to Jesus, you know, the headline is Jesus heals this man. But when he comes to Jesus, this man is looking more for more than healing. This man is looking for more than relief. This man is looking for a restoration of his life because this disease has destroyed his entire life. And he comes to Jesus. Look at what he says. He says, "Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me what?" >> What's it say? You can make me >> clean. That's an important word. He doesn't come to Jesus and say, "Jesus, you can make me better." He doesn't come to Jesus and say, "Jesus, you can heal me." He says, "Jesus, you can make me clean." He says, "Jesus, you can take my life that's been lived on the outskirts and you can bring me back in. You can take my life that's pushed me away, that's kept me from worship, that's kept me from community, that's kept me from engaging with other people. You can take my life that has been marked by shame, and you can bring me back in. You can do more than give me relief, Jesus. You can give me restoration. You can do more than give me healing. you can give me my life back. That's incredible faith that this man has, isn't it? This man comes to Jesus covered in leprosy. Somehow, even though he's on the edges of society, even though he's on the margin, even though he's tucked away in some ordinary town that we don't even know the name of in some backwater place, somehow he hears about Jesus and he makes his way to Jesus. And when he gets to Jesus, he says to Jesus, "Listen, Jesus, I know if you are willing, you can make me clean. You can restore everything. Jesus, you can change everything." Look, look at it again. He says, "When Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came to him covered with leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, what does he do?" The Bible says here, "He falls on his face to the ground and he begs. He falls on his face to the ground and he begs. He begs Jesus. He He He He I can just see the scene now. This man has made his way to Jesus. He has broken the law to get to Jesus. He comes to Jesus and he throws himself on the ground and he just doesn't politely ask, "Lord, if you can, if you're willing, you can heal me. if you if you're willing, you can make me clean. But I can imagine he's there. He's crying. He's weeping. He's begging. Why? Because this man is desperate. This man is at the end of the line. This man has nowhere else to turn. He has no other source of hope. He has no other place to go. And he goes to Jesus with this incredible desperation. How many of you have ever been in a place of incredible desperation when there's nowhere else to turn? And but here's what I found out. When there's nobody else to go to, when there's nobody else to call, when there's no other place to be, the feet of Jesus is the place to be at. It's the safest place that we can be. And he throws himself at the feet of Jesus. And he begs Jesus. And he says, "Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean. You can restore what's been robbed me." There's incredible faith in this man's desperation. There's incredible faith in this request. He doesn't say if you're able. He just says if you're willing. He believes in his heart that Jesus can do it. He believes in his heart that Jesus has the ability. He's heard the stories about Jesus. He knows that Jesus can heal him. He knows that Jesus can restore him. He knows that Jesus can cleanse him and bring life back into his his death, to bring light back into his darkness. But here's what he says to Jesus. He says, "Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean." He says, "I know you have the power to do it. My only question is, will you use that power on somebody like me?" Will you use that power on somebody who's been pushed to the edges like me? Will you use that power on somebody who's been left behind by everybody else? Will you see something inside of me? Have you ever felt like that? You look and see Jesus moving in other people's lives and you say, "Jesus, will you do that for me?" Here's what I learned from this passage. That Jesus meets desperation with compassion. Jesus sees this man's desperation and he doesn't say, "Hey, I'm in a hurry. I've got to get to my next place. Hey, I'm in a hurry. I got to sign my book deal. Hey, I'm in a hurry. I've got to go feed 5,000 more people. But here comes this man who interrupts Jesus on his way to somewhere else. He falls at his feet. He's begging. He's pleading. He says, "Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean." And what does Jesus do? He meets his desperation with compassion. Now, here's what I know. There's the man. He's at his feet covered with leprosy. He he uh when you were a leper, you had to make yourself just look even worse so that everybody would know to avoid you. When you're a leper, your disease announced it. I mean, when when you're a leper, if your disease didn't announce you were a leper because you had to make yourself look so horrible and the disease destroyed you so much, you had to be yelling all of the time, you're unclean, you're unclean, you're unclean. And so, here is this man. Get this picture. And he looks horrible. He's cast himself at Jesus' feet. He says, "If you're willing, you can make me clean." And Jesus response to him is so incredible. Jesus could have just looked at him. He could have told him to stand up and he could have just said to him, "I'm willing. You're clean." He could have just spoken a word over him. How many times have we read in scripture that Jesus spoke a word and because of the word that Jesus spoke, somebody was healed? I mean, you remember the stories. I mean, one time, remember the centurion that came to Jesus? He says, "Jesus, I I've got this person sick." Uh, and Jesus like, "I'll go to the house and and I'll I'll heal him." And the guy says, "No, don't even come to my house. You can speak the word from here and the healing will happen all the way over here." Jesus could have just spoken a word and cleansed the man of leprosy. But what does Jesus do? Notice the order of what happens in this passage. He says, "Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. And he said, "I am willing." Before he healed him, he touched the man with leprosy. See, what we have to realize here is this man, it had probably been a very long time since anybody had touched him. It had been a very long time since anybody had held his hand. It It had been a very long time since anybody had held him and hugged him because he's a leper and he can't be touched. He can't be held. He can't He can't be hugged and anyone who touches him becomes unclean themselves. Jesus made himself unclean so that he could cleanse the man. Aren't you glad we serve a God who didn't say that earth is too bad for me? I'm staying in heaven. But he considered equality with God not something to be held on to. But he took on the form of a man, becoming a servant, dying a death, even death on a cross. He took our place so that we could go to his place. He became like us and he bore our sin on his shoulders on the cross. >> The same hand that reached out and touched the man was stretched on the cross and nailed for you and for me. This is the compassion of Jesus >> that meets our desperation. Every time he meets his desperation and he reaches out and he touches him. This man who was known by by the name leper. This man who is no longer known as father or son or brother or friend. This man who was known and recognized by his disease. this man who was pushed as far away from society as he could. Jesus reaches out and he touches him and he says, "Be healed." You're here today and you think everybody else has forgotten you. You think everybody else has left you behind. You think everybody else has pushed you to the side. Today, the hand of Jesus wants to just reach out, touch you, cup your face, and remind you that the God of heaven loves you. that you are his and he can be yours. That he can not only heal you of your disease, but he can restore your very life to you. You know that headline says Jesus heals a man with leprosy. He did so much more. He didn't just heal him from leprosy. He gave him his life back. >> That's what Jesus does. Before he healed him, he lifted his shame. Before the man ever felt the power of Jesus, he felt his compassion in that touch. Jesus is here this morning in this ordinary place on this seemingly ordinary Sunday. And he's here to remove our shame. He's here to free us from the sting of our sin. He's here to break the shackles of our addiction and the fear of our future. He's here today to meet our desperation with his compassion. You see, the Bible teaches us over and over that Jesus is compassionate. Exodus reminds us in Exodus 34:6 that the Lord is compassionate. Look at what the verse says on the screen. If we could put it up there. The Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Lamentations verse chapter number three, verse 22 and 23. Here's what the Bible says. The Bible says this, that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. God is a God of compassion. And in Mark chapter 1 verse 41, Mark's telling of this story, Mark just lays it out there and he says this about Jesus. He says, "Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him and said, I am willing be healed." Whatever you've come in here that's covered you, nobody in this room is covered with leprosy, but there are people covered with shame. There are people covered with regret. There are people covered with our sins. There are people covered by our past. There are people covered with fear. Here's the word of the Lord for you this morning on this ordinary day in this ordinary place. The extraordinary grace of God is here today to cleanse you and to restore you and to give you your life back today. That's the message of this miracle this morning. Second miracle here. Second miracle here. Jesus forgives and heals a paralyzed man. Look with me back at verses 17 through 20. One day Jesus was teaching. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village in Galilee from Judea, Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They tried to take him to the house that lay him before Jesus. When they couldn't find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof. They lowered him on his mat, threw the tiles to the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. Here's what I find interesting about this miracle. It doesn't tell us how or why the man was paralyzed. We don't know if he was paralyzed from birth. We don't know if he had lived a long life and there was some kind of a accident that left him paralyzed. We don't know. We don't know how it happened. We don't know why it happened. But here's the one thing we know about this guy. He had good friends. >> How many are thankful for good friends? Say amen. That's why you need to get in a small group. That's why you need to get in a core because we need good friends to make it through life. Have you noticed that? >> Life is a team sport. And this guy has some good friends. and they hear on one day Jesus is teaching and they're like, "You know what we ought to do? We ought to take him to Jesus." And so, let's walk through this. They get the man on the map. They pick the man up on the mat. They carry the man on the mat all the way across town to the house that Jesus is teaching in. They get to there and the whole purpose of getting the man on the mat, carrying him across town, is to lay him before Jesus. He and his friends understand if we get him to Jesus, something can happen. You listen, listen to me, parents, we, you know, we had three kids and here's what we knew. We We wanted to get them to their basketball game. We wanted to get them to ballet practice. We wanted to get them to their baseball games. But more than that, we wanted to get them to Jesus because when you get them to Jesus, extraordinary things can happen. >> So, they're like, "Let's get him to Jesus. Let's lay him before Jesus." They get there and they're shocked because there's a crowd and the crowd's so big they can't get him to Jesus. And so they have a brainstorm session or as the young people would say they workshop the idea for a little bit. After about six or seven minutes they they come up with a plan. They say, "Let's work it through the crowd. Let's go up on the roof." So they work through the crowd. There's a ladder. This is very common. There's a ladder on the outside of the house. They take him up the ladder. It's a flat roof. Luke says it's tiles, tile roof, mud roof, all that kind of stuff. The the passage says this, once they got him on the roof, the the Greek literally means they unroof the roof. They unroof the roof. So they tear a hole in the roof and they lower him right down through the roof to Jesus. Now imagine you're in that room and it's probably dark because people are crowded around the windows. They don't have lamps. They don't have all these bright lights. And all of the sudden, you're standing there and you feel a little something fall on your shoulder. You're like, "Oh, that's a little bit of the mud from the roof coming down." And you're just still listening to Jesus because he just keeps on teaching and then you feel a little more and a little more and all of the sudden [music] you see a little bit of shaft of light coming through the roof. And then that shaft of light [music] gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And now, right while Jesus is teaching, imagine some guy just comes lowered down on a mat, paralyzed [music] right in front of Jesus. And there he is. He's paralyzed. Everybody can tell that. And so there they are. The man is paralyzed. And everybody's waiting [music] to see what Jesus is going to do. So Jesus looks around. He starts his teaching. And he he sees [music] the man. He sees the friends up on the roof. He sees the hole in the roof. And he looks and what does he say to the man? He says, "Your sins are forgiven." Now, of all the things Jesus would say to that man in that situation, I know what I would have said. [music] Who's paying for the roof? I would have been having a lot of thoughts. Does insurance cover this roof? Is there liability for [music] this roof? Is the roof going to fall down? Does anybody need my business card in case there's a further accident here? Then we can bring a claim against the owner of the house. Maybe it's a faulty roof. I'm not sure. These are thoughts that go through my mind. Maybe not yours. I'm sure the thoughts going through the friend's mind is, "Hey Jesus, we really appreciate you forgiving his sin." [music] But our dude can't walk. That's what we were bringing in him for. And then the Bible tells us what the Pharisees [music] and the scribes, the teachers of the law are thinking. They're thinking, "Who is this man who says he can [music] forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins." Jesus is blaspheing. And here [music] here's the big thing I learned from this passage. Guess what Jesus is saying? He's saying, "You're exactly right." Jesus is saying, "Guess what? [music] I am God." He says, "Let me give you a riddle. Which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk? Think that [music] through. If angel here is brought to me and he's paralyzed, it's a lot easier to say your sins are forgiven because none of y'all can tell whether they are or not. But if he's [music] paralyzed and I say, "Rise up and walk." And he just says, "Sitting there, guess what? We all figured out. I don't have a lot of power." And so they're trying to figure out this riddle. And then Jesus interrupts them and says, [music] "Watch this. Here's what we're going to do, fellas. just to show you that the son of man has [music] power to forgive sin, that Jesus is in fact God. Take up your mat and go home." And the man who came looking for healing, carried into the presence of Jesus by his friends to find [music] healing, picks up his mat and walks home, not only with his body healed, but with his sin forgiven. Aren't you glad God doesn't just give us what we want, [music] but he gives us what we need? >> [music] >> He walks home [music] healed. He walks home free. He walks home forgiven. You see, that man thought his problem was his legs. But his problem wasn't his legs. His problem was his heart. You may have come in here this morning thinking your biggest problem is your bank account. that your biggest [music] problem is your kids, that your biggest problem is your marriage, your biggest problem is something [music] in your past or some fear of your future. But just like me, your biggest problem is sin. Because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us. And we make God a liar. We are lying. And so, [music] here's what I know. Our biggest problem is sin because sin separates us from God. And that separation from God is cemented in eternity because of [music] our sin. And so Jesus looks at this man. He sees the faith that he has, the faith that his friends have, and he says, "Your [music] sins are forgiven." Aren't you glad that Jesus didn't come to condemn us? Jesus didn't come to heap guilt on us. Jesus didn't come to pile more shame on us, but Jesus [music] came to give us life and life to the full. Jesus came to forgive the sin of our past, to give us hope [music] for the future, to remove our shame, and to give us a life that is [music] worth living. This is who Jesus is. This is what Jesus does [music] for this man. Two things I learned in this passage. Number one, I learned that Jesus is God. [music] Hebrews chapter 1:3 says this, that Jesus is the radiance [music] of God's glory, the exact representation of his being. When you have seen Jesus, [music] you have seen God. When you have encountered Jesus, you have encountered God. When you've been forgiven by Jesus, you have been forgiven [music] by God. This is the good news of the gospel. The second thing I [music] notice in this passage is there's three miracles. First miracle, the leper is [music] cleansed. Second miracle, the paralyzed man's sins are forgiven. Third miracle, he walks home. On an ordinary day in an ordinary place, one man leaves cleansed, the other [music] man leaves whole. But when I think about it this morning, I think that really there could be four miracles [music] in this passage. And the fourth miracle is the one that can happen in you this morning. That you've come here desperate for Jesus. You've come here desperate for relief from something. You've come here covered [music] by something. You've come here paralyzed by something. You've come here with sin that's not been forgiven. See, in this ordinary place, [music] on this ordinary day, you can have an extraordinary encounter with God. Jesus changes everything. You can meet his grace this morning. Let's pray [music] today. Father, I pray for every man, every woman, every student in the room. Every person who needs an encounter with you. Every person who needs sin forgiven. [music] Every person who needs to be cleansed and restored. Every person who needs to be healed. I pray whatever they have come into this room with today that they would have an encounter with you this morning. As your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed. Let me just ask you this morning. You know, the greatest miracle [music] is that miracle of our heart being changed, of our life being restored, of our sin being forgiven. You're here this morning [music] and you know that you're away from God. You know that you're not serving God. You know that you know that you need him in your life. You say, "Glenn, just include [music] me when you pray. I want my sin to be forgiven. I want Jesus to to restore my life. I want Jesus. I want to make [music] sure my heart is right with God." Maybe you've never prayed and gone allin with God [music] before. Maybe you've prayed, but you've walked away, but today's the day you want to come back. I believe you're not here by accident, but by divine appointment. If that's you, would you just say, "Glenn, include me." When you pray, [music] just just slip up your hand right now. I'm going to count to three, and you just slip it up. Ready? One, two, three. Lift it up. Yeah. Yeah. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Oh, a dozen, [music] 20 hands up all over the room. Would we all just stand together this morning? And you can put your hands down, but would you just pray [music] after me so that nobody prays alone this morning? Would you just pray this prayer? Let's pray it loud. Let's pray it strong. Let's say, "Dear heavenly father, >> Dear Father, >> I come to you today. >> I come to you today >> in need of forgiveness. >> I thank you for your [music] compassion. >> I thank you for >> I thank you for your mercy. >> I confess my sin. >> And I ask you to forgive me. I declare today I declare [music] >> that Jesus Christ >> Jesus Christ >> is the son of God. >> Son of God. >> That he died on the cross. >> He was buried in the tomb. >> But on the third day, [music] >> he rose from the dead. >> And now he lives in me. >> And I will never be the [music] same >> because of Jesus. Jesus changes [music] everything.