If you're not a Christian basically we here...
We're Christian.
We believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
And, basically, when I was young I didn't believe in it whatsoever.
I kinda...I wasn't raised christian.
I kinda was super against it and stuff. I didn't believe in it whatsoever.
And then I stumbled upon a youth group in a park, actually.
And they were doing a Bible study with free food and dodge ball so I'm like "Yeah, that's sweet."
And I started going to youth group because of that and started...
What's up, dude?
Hey, have a seat!
We're doing a "bibble" study.
We're doing a Bible study.
How are you?
Sit down! Listen! It's going to be fun!
About to tell you the best news of your life!
You guys want to move over there?
Okay!
I didn't believe whatsoever. I was super against it.
I was like "That doesn't make any sense. Like there's God doing all this stuff and whatnot."
And I started going to youth group and started thinking like "Oh, maybe this is real" and stuff.
And as soon as I started giving it a chance and being open to it, it completely changed my life.
And it's pretty much why I do everything I do nowadays.
And I know that's the same for a lot of us over here.
We're kinda just going to do a little Bible study and talk about some cool things that have affected our life through God.
And we're Christians here. We believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
This is Brian.
This is Tessa and Shawna.
And we're...we're just gonna kinda keep it chill over here.
Brian, you want to take it away?
Was there a question (sorry)?
Yeah?
(Can you speak louder so that we can hear you?)
All right.
Absolutely.
We'll try.
I'm just gonna introduce myself and I'm gonna pass if off to Tessa.
If you want to start...I'll introduce you...scriptures...that's cool.
For ya'll that don't know me because I'm not a "YouTuber" my name's Brian Vickers.
I'm a member of a group called Team Impact.
Team Impact used to be called The Power Team back in the day.
We're a faith-based ministry.
We travel all over the world.
We do motivational speaking and bring messages of hope and faith.
We do feats of strength.
We run through walls of ice and break bricks.
We tell people about God.
We're all professional athletes in different sports.
You've got UFC champions, you got professional wrestlers...
Pro Strongmen, NFL football players.
I travel the globe. We're on the TBN network.
We get to go and speak...we see about a thousand-we do about a thousand school assemblies a year.
And then we see about two million people a year.
And it's just...God's laid it on my heart.
He's given me a platform through strength and strength-based sports to get the Word out.
To share my story along with His story with a lot of people which is allowing us to do
this cool thing here with ya'll today.
That's me and that's why I'm here; why I have a passion to be here and set up with Lane and kind
of share it with you guys tonight.
I'm Lane by the way.
I'm a musician.
This is Tessa. She does music and YouTube as well.
And we're just Christian people. And we got some cool stuff to say...a few words and stuff.
Tessa, you want to take it away?
Hey, guys!
Can the people in the back...are you like...can you hear at all?
Come over here maybe more.
So, I didn't grow up in a Christian home either.
In fact I didn't meet any Christians until I met Shawna when I was 18.
And I saw right away that she was very special and very smart, and a critical thinker.
And I remember thinking "Wow, you seem so smart to be a Christian.
And you seem really, like, funny and normal."
I had only ever seen, like, Westboro Baptist Church on the news and, like, a lot of really not great stuff.
So...I guess in 2000...
I met her in 2008 and for the next couple of years I got to witness her and how much
of a light she was in my life when I went through a lot of really dark depression and a lot of self-loathing.
I'm sure things that we all deal with.
And a few other Christians.
I met Lane a couple years later and I just remember thinking there was something different about these people.
And "I don't believe in God. I don't think I could ever believe in God. The world is so horrible."
And I felt like "I don't believe that I deserved to be sent to Hell.
And I don't think a loving God would send me to Hell."
And I remember at one point I asked Shawna about that specifically and she told me
"It's not that the Lord is condemning you.
Instead, what you do ...we're headed there anyway and the Lord is ready and waiting to save you.
And He loves you so much more than you could ever imagine!
And He wants to know you.
And I remember thinking like "Yeah, okay, whatever, ha-ha-ha-ha!"
And then in the year 2001 <2011> I just kind of hit a wall.
I was doing a lot of drugs (Shawna: It's not 2001) and really thinking about...ending it?
And I thought "Well, maybe I can give this Christianity thing a try 'cause, like, I've never done that before, right?"
And I appreciate the rules, if you will.
"I can't believe in God but I'll do that.
I'll go to church.
Sure!"
So, I went to church on a Sunday.
And I was, like, singing and I'm like "This is kinda weird."
And I'm like "Maybe I could try praying. I don't know. I've never done that before."
So I did.
And I was like "Lord, if you are real show yourself to me right now!
And I promise that I'll live every day for the rest of my life for you and I'll never go back.
And I will never drink and I'll never smoke again.
And I'll just live every day for you."
And He did.
And I could feel it in my body and it was the most real thing I've ever felt.
And I remember leaving with feeling like "I am not the person that I was yesterday."
And I'm so excited to know a God that loves me so much and I'm so excited to serve people that He loves so, so much.
So that's my story.
I'm three years deep in my faith now.
I recently moved to Nashville and Nashville is in the Bible Belt, if you don't know.
And I've been dealing with some different things, I guess.
Moving out of a place that has--moving into a place that has a lot of those, so...
I have some scripture today!
Pulling it up!
What verse is it?
Yeah, okay!
I'm gonna read Luke 10:17.
And I'm gonna read from The Message!
I know, I know!
It's easy for me to understand!
Ya'll got the Bible app?
It's free!
Yeah!
So this is right after Jesus has revealed who He is and He says "I'm going to send my disciples
out in two and you're going to work miracles for me and you're going to help people
know me and see how good I am."
Luke 10:17: "The seventy came back triumphant.
"Master, even the demons danced to your tune!"
Jesus said, "I know.
I saw Satan fall, a bolt of lightning out of the sky.
See what I've given you?
Safe passage as you walk on snakes and scorpions, and protection from every assault of the Enemy.
No one can put a hand on you.
All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God's authority
over you and presence with you.
Not what you do for God but what God does for you—that's the agenda for rejoicing."
I find that to be very, very relevant in my own life.
As a YouTuber, and as a person, it's so very easy to get wrapped up in your work and (?) and worldly things.
Especially in YouTube. How many people like you? How many people admire you?
And especially, in a number of places--How many Twitter followers do I have?
Are the people responding well to my art?
And do people recognize that I am creative?
And that passage is about remembering that the Lord loves you
not based on what you do but just on creating you.
Because He loves you so, so much!
And He rejoices when you can do things for His Kingdom.
But whether or not you fail or succeed, His love is not based on that, you know?
And it's easy for me to get wrapped up in, like "Oh, I didn't say what I should have
said to that person but, like, I could have told him about my testimony!
But I was afraid that they wouldn't like me!
And then I feel like "Ah, Lord, I've let you down!
Now I'm not worth as much!"
And that's just not the reality.
And I think it's important to remember that when you feel down on yourself, that you're
not doing enough, that...the Lord still loves you so, so much!
And that is what I wanted to share!
That's awesome!
All right!
I'm gonna stand up 'cause I'm a little bit more animated!
So, one of the awesome things about Team Impact and what we get to do when go speak life into
people that we might normally not cross our paths with is to be able to encourage ya'll.
But, believe it or not, scripture is very encouraging!
The most important thing that God talks about in the Bible is His love!
And if you spend time in scripture you'll understand how important love is to all of us.
So I do want to share a scripture with you.
And, but, I want this to be encouraging to everybody here.
Ya'll understand? Like this is important.
We wanted to do this to be able to share with you guys.
Romans 10:13 is probably one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible.
'Cause Romans 10:13 talks about "anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
It doesn't say "someone," it doesn't say "you know, I'm going to have a select few" but
"anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
That means it doesn't matter where you live, how much money you have.
It doesn't matter what color your skin is.
If you request that relationship with Christ, who's waiting there to accept you in with
open arms, then he's going to accept you.
Now that's like the best news in the Bible.
I'm telling you it's like...it doesn't matter.
There's some people and it might be out here because I was this way one time.
You might feel that you've done something so bad in your past that God can't love you.
Tessa kinda touched on that.
Like you might have felt that you're just, like, condemned.
But let me remind you--everybody knows John 3:16 right here, right?
Raise your hand if you heard John 3:16, the most popular verse in the Bible.
Who's followed it up?
You know what John 3:17 says?
This is the important part.
When you start feeling that God's condemning you or God's a condemning God
and not a loving God it says it right there.
And it clears your mind that God sent His Son not in the world to condemn the world
but that the world through Him might be saved.
You all understand that?
That's telling you right there that you don't have to worry about that feeling of condemnation.
And if you call upon Him He says it.
He will accept you.
But you have to be willing.
Look, every single one of us is a sinner out here.
Nobody's perfect, even the Christians that are here.
But don't get this twisted.
You just--I'm a sinner standing up here just like you are and I'm in the ministry.
But God says "It's okay. I'll love you anyway. I can use you."
Okay?
Understand the power of that.
Understand the power that God uses people that don't think that they're worthy enough
to get His message out there.
Which is awesome! I mean that's total love!
I hope if there's somebody out here that doesn't and has never experienced God's grace...
And if you don't know what grace is it's that unconditional love that you can't do
--like Tessa said--there's nothing that you can do but Ephesians 2: 8-9 says "It's by grace through
faith that we've been saved and not by acts of our own.
So shall no man boast."
It doesn't matter how good you do, how much you...
You know you can spend time in the homeless shelter.
You can give money to different charities.
It's not through your own acts.
It's through faith by grace because God loved us enough to do what He did, which we'll talk about.
Guys, ya'll gotta--I hope if you haven't experienced grace that ya'll are here with an open heart
and an open mind. I really do.
30 years ago...almost 30 years ago...I learned of God's grace.
I'll get kinda--go into my testimony just a little bit.
But I was sitting at Bible class and in a small Christian school and I listened to my
pastor talk about a God who sent His only Son.
Think about that if once you're a parent, or if you're a parent already if you're here,
the sacrifice of sending your son to live the perfect, sinless life that none of us could live.
Not one of us can live it. We're all sinners.
Scripture says we're born dead in our trespasses.
We're all born into sin.
But God also gives us free will.
People mistake that with God condemning us why would he just bear us in (?).
God doesn't make robots.
He want you to want that relationship with Him.
Ya'll understand that?
He wants you to want that.
He's making you free will.
If God just made everybody the same there would be no purpose for the sacrifice He would give.
But I learned that He sent His Son to live that perfect sinless life that we couldn't
live and to die a sacrificial death.
The most brutal death that you could imagine.
But the cool thing is on the third day He proved that He was God
by raising and turning dead flesh into life!
Grasp a hold of that concept, guys.
That's that sacrifice that He made for us.
'Cause He knew we wouldn't be able to that.
Remember, Jesus was the only person who could ever resist any temptation known to man. And He did it.
And that was not for Him.
It was for us.
That's powerful and that's...that's love, guys.
That's that grace! That's that unconditional love!
I hope that ya'll have experienced it.
Because there is that time where, if you are Christian and you do have that relationship...
Tessa went through some really cool stuff too.
I want you all to understand something.
People have a horrible perception of Christians now based upon labels.
But let me explain something to you.
This is religion.
Religion is killing people's view of Jesus.
You know, there's a scripture...there's a story in the Bible where these four men took
their paralyzed friend to Jesus.
Do ya'll remember that?
They used...they harnessed ropes up and cut a hole in the roof to lower him to get closer to Jesus.
At the time Jesus...pay attention, the Christians over here...Jesus was surrounded by the religious
scholars of the day.
The people that knew religion the most.
But guess what, the person needed Jesus the most was being blocked out by those guys.
Those guys wouldn't let him get to Jesus.
That's kinda the way religion has turned in the United States today.
Look, I'm gonna show you something.
Religion's way out here. You hear a lot of people say "I'm religious."
Tessa talked about the Bible saying, you know "You can't do enough good things to earn your way into Heaven.
Okay?
Religion's out here.
I want to tell you something.
There's a lot of "I go to the gym religiously. I eat religiously." This is religion.
It doesn't get you into Heaven. It's like a check list for most people that aren't Christians.
They like "Man, you know I go to church! I read my Bible!" "Do you have Christ in your life?"
"No, but I do good things!"
But there's a lot of people that live their life like that right now.
Religion's here! That's not what saves you!
Relationship saves you!
It's that relationship that God wants to have with you. He's just waiting!
He loves every single one of us more than we deserve!
Let me tell you, a lot of people here that are in the YouTube world have a powerful stance to use that platform...
There's no reason why--there is a specific reason why you might have 100,000 followers,
40,000 followers...even if you had one follower.
God's given you a platform to speak life into other people.
We have a job and a duty as Christians to plant the seed. You don't have to force feed anybody anything.
God's...God is the water to the vine, right?
You plant the seed. He takes it over from there. You understand?
Some people think it's too "I don't know how to share scripture with you. I don't know. I can't speak well."
God's given each and every one of you a platform, whatever if may be, through music, through
strength sports, through whatever it is He's given you the platform.
But He also expects you and you...you should be humbled that he gave you that opportunity,
the talent, whatever it may be, to go and spread His Word.
Everybody look at your thumb. Everybody look at your thumb. What, the planet's like seven billion people now?
Every one of us has...there's nobody that has the same thumbprint as us.
You know that that means? Huh? We're each born with a unique purpose.
Every single one of us has a purpose. Every single one of us has a...I would say an obligation.
Because I'm seriously humbled that the Lord chooses for me, a sinner, to go out and share His Word.
But guess what? I've...anybody that will open their ears us I'm willing to talk to.
And I'm not the best speaker anyway. It's 17 years of being a cop.
I'm more direct!
And I want you to know something. That grace is incredible!
Team Impact...and this will kind of bring it in to some of ya'll...Team Impact, when
we get announced, they start talking about "Your Brian Vickers five time World Power-lifting
Champion and Pro Strongman" they're classifying and labeling us.
We go through life as teenagers, as adults sometimes, we're grasping onto titles.
We're trying to grasp things that don't really matter.
Like, because we're sports driven, when they announce us they're putting all of our accolades up there.
But let me tell you something. Titles don't define my life. And they shouldn't define yours either.
The only title I care about is being a child of God. And that was something that I couldn't earn.
That's something that was earned for me. That price was paid a long time ago for me.
I want to encourage each and every single one of ya'll.
If ya'll haven't...if there hasn't been that finite moment that ya'll remember that Jesus
came into your life and He spoke to you, if there hasn't been that moment that you've accepted
Him in, that you understood that He sent His Son to die for you died a sacrificial death,
and also rose again on the third day proving that He was God, if there hasn't been that
time, let me tell you...now's...we're not gonna let you go...this ain't just an ordinary Bible study.
But in a second we're gonna give you that opportunity. Okay?
Because, guess what, tomorrow's not promised, guys. Next week's not promised. Next month's not promised.
Your next breath...we're living on borrowed time. Your next breath isn't promised.
I mean I could die 30 years from now or 30 seconds from now.
But the good news is that I know when I die, I don't know about you, but when I die I know
I'm going to a real place called Heaven!
Because whether you believe it or not: Heaven and Hell exist.
And I talked to somebody that used to "Well, I can't see it, I don't know about it."
Well, guess what? If I took you...if you told me "Hey, Brian, I don't believe in gravity."
But I took you up there to the top of that building and pushed you off?
Just 'cause you didn't believe in gravity you think that's gonna save you?
You can believe it or not but it's there.
So I would encourage you if something speaks to your heart tonight...
I'm gonna let Lane share a little scripture real quick.
And I want to encourage you, everybody here, to not be ashamed.
I stand before you--and I didn't know if everybody likes to pray--
but I stand before you unashamed. I'll go and spread the Gospel with anybody out there.
Anybody! I don't care if they want to hear me or not.
They're welcome to...(?)...I'm gonna keep going around telling them how great Jesus is.
But I'm unashamed and you need to be unashamed.
If you don't have that...if you don't have that relationship with Christ, you can have it!
We'll give you the opportunity in a little bit. We'll even talk you through it.
And a second after Lane shares I'll come back up and we'll do what's called a prayer of salvation.
If somebody feels--nobody's going to be looking around--we'll all keep it close and keep it tight knit.
But we're gonna give you the opportunity and I and Lane will lead ya'll through that prayer
because we don't want you to leave here and not have that relationship with Christ.
And know that you want that and not give you the opportunity to do it.
And most people don't know how. And then also we'll talk about how to grow in your faith.
I'ma let Lane come up real quick...
Shawna's got something to say. Okay, Shawna, I'm sorry!
Shawna's gonna say something and then we'll kinda wrap it up in a little bit.
Hi, guys! I'm Shawna. I make videos on YouTube under the name Nanalew.
I just wanna talk to you guys a little bit about sort of shifting directions here.
About how many people would say that right now you're a Christian
or you're sort of feeling out the Christian life?
Let's see those hands. Don't feel bad if you're not! It's okay! I just wanna see hands here.
How many people are making things, whether you're a Christian or not, you're making things?
YouTube videos? Other things? I want to speak to you guys in particular.
Because I'm a Christian and I make things.
And I get a lot of other Christians sometimes telling me that what I make needs to be a certain way because I'm a Christian.
I need to be always explicitly telling people the Gospel and I need to be doing this or I need to be doing that.
And I want to talk to you guys that maybe are in the arts, maybe are feeling discouraged.
I know that Tessa as a songwriter might have felt this way. And we've talked about this before.
Being Christians is to not feel like you're bottled in.
Like your talent has being just shoved into a box.
That you can only sing worship songs or you can only make videos about Jesus.
And I want to tell you that because God is creative and He gave us stories to tell!
Just a view of the world around you, whether you believe in God or not...
Whether you believe in God or not, if there's a God here, we know that he is creative.
'Cause look at the world, look at us, look at the things that are happening and the stories we tell.
And I remember that I was once told by a creative person that "It's okay for you to just be
creative and be the best that you can be and be making good things because that is Christian!"
It's Christian to be making good things!
You don't have to always be whacking someone with the Bible all the time!
That doesn't always get people to feel like they can talk to you about things!
But I think a lot of you guys here who don't know about much about Christianity, maybe
you're here because you've watched Lane, or me, or Tessa, and you felt like "Hey, I can
talk to them and maybe they have something that we can talk about with Christianity because
someone over there likes speaking on a pulpit. I don't feel comfortable talking to them!"
And I feel like that's a big part of my calling as a Christian creator is to make good things
that are infused with the passion that God's given me. And obviously being responsible like
sharing messages that are in line with my faith but not feeling like I have to go and
make videos that are just about the Gospel.
So I just wanted to encourage you guys 'cause I know it's overwhelming and Christians in the arts don't ever hear that!
We don't ever hear that at our church! We don't hear that from our leaders! We're made to regress in arts and not grow!
And I just want to encourage you that that's not Biblical! It comes from a place of love in the church.
They don't understand it. And you just have to live your Christian life as best you can being an example.
Just wanted to say thank you guys for coming today and if any of you guys want to talk
about some of this stuff we'd love to talk to you!
We're gonna have a public Q&A where you can ask questions to us publicly if you want
us to discuss it so it can benefit everybody.
If you want to come to one of us after and talk privately that's totally fine.
And I also wanted to put this out there that if you're struggling with doubt you don't
believe that there might be a God? You don't feel like you could ever believe that like Tessa?
And that's totally fine! That's part of our humanity.
Not everybody hears about God and and can immediately believe it.
You don't have to feel ashamed of that.
He doesn't love you any less because you are confused or you're cynical and I feel like
that's something that people need to be told.
That sometimes it takes a while for you to get to the place where you're ready and that's okay.
You don't feel like you're ready today?
Please don't feel pressured to come up and say "I'll be a Christian"!
You can do your best to feel your way out. And like he said there is an urgency.
We want you to obviously have the chance to experience God's grace.
But we also realize that a lot of people are just learning about it and just figuring it out.
Trying to feel it out. And that's okay.
I grew up in a Christian home. My parents are wonderful parents! Basically had the perfect childhood.
My Dad's a pastor. My Mom would support him through the years. And my Dad became a teacher.
He got his PhD and he's been teaching and preaching ever since.
So I have a very strong Biblical, theological background.
But when it came into...for my life, like, emotionally, spiritually believing that God
was here and able to work in my life that was hard for me.
So I went through a time when in my teens... 17, 18, 19 where I was depressed and I wasn't sure if God existed.
And I was angry at Him for not making this easy for me.
And I was mad at my self because believed intellectually that He existed.
I just want to say that if you're in that place where you sort of feel like maybe intellectually believe but emotionally you don't?
I just want to encourage you and say that God loves you! Outside of that he knows what you're going through.
He takes you as you are! And He wants to use you as you are!
And that's something that has really encouraged me because I don't always know how to share
my faith or how to live or what to do in my career. I don't know what I'm doing!
But I know that I can trust God and follow His scripture and rely on Him to work in my life.
And He has worked in my life so much!
No matter how many times I've doubted Him,which is basically EVERY time, He comes through
and He works in my life and He lifts me up every time I ask! So I just wanted to tell you guys that.
I wanted to tell you what a blessing He's been in my life and encourage you to think about it!
Because He has saved me from so much self-loathing and has lifted me up and allowed me to create
things and do things and that I could never do by myself!
So when I stand up and say that God has worked through me and it's by God's power that I
can make anything it's absolutely 100% true!
And I'm so excited for some of you, or all of you, or even one of you to experience the
love that He has and the peace that you can have!
An unshaken peace that cannot be touched by anything anybody says about you or by what you say to yourself!
So I'm just going to invite Lane now or anyone who wants to stand up just to continue.
And again if you have any questions to be thinking about that and we'll see if we can answer publicly or privately.
If you want us to pray with you we'd love to do that and I think we're gonna pray together as a group as well after.
Thanks, Shawna.
I'm just gonna keep it short. For those of you guys that might not be Christians.
If you give it a chance, if you are open to it like "Hey, maybe this is possible" I promise
you, I give you my word as a man, it will change your life completely!
Like I said I used to be completely, 110% doubtful of it. Didn't believe it whatsoever.
Soon as I started giving it a chance I started seeing things and understanding more and
if you give it a chance it will change your life completely. I promise you! I promise you!
I just want to...Romans 1 is, like, my favorite verse. I just want to say it real quick.
Actually...
...better version on the app.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
My favorite part is that "do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
A lot of you guys are at the age, I mean we all are really, that you kinda decide what
road you go down, who you're gonna hang out with, what kind of stuff you're gonna get into.
Whether that's--
...the road you want to go down it's going to be awesome. That's all I have to say.
And it's gonna be sweet! Take my word for it! Give it a chance! Check it out!
Brian's gonna say a prayer real quick if that's cool with you guys.
And, seriously, thank you guys all for coming! And we'd all love to talk to you after too. God bless you guys!
Alright, so one more time.
Just because I kind--normally with the Bible study you wouldn't get this...
in depth with what we're about to do but I kinda felt it--I told Lane that God really laid it on my heart
to give the opportunity. I think we need to.
'Cause there might be somebody here that God spoke to right now.
That might be that moment that God, like everybody's here not by accident.
Everybody's here because there's a purpose.
And God wants you to hear the words that the people have shared today with you guys.
What I'm gonna do is I'd like to offer the opportunity if there's somebody here that's
never accepted Christ I'd like to offer that opportunity to them.
And it's not from us. It's not from Lane. It's nothing that we can do 'cause none of us can save you guys.
And I want to tell you something that I always tell people that it doesn't take a real man
to pull a truck and break baseball bats like we do at Team Impact.
But it takes a real man to and woman to stand up for God. Especially nowadays.
And, like I said, this whole thing we wanted to be encouraging to you guys.
But what I want to do is kinda offer the opportunity...Now I understand that the first thing ya'll are gonna do is be like
"Oh, well I don't want nobody to know that I don't have a relationship with Christ."
Well, right now it doesn't matter what an...It never matters what anybody else thinks of you.
The only thing that matters is how you're living your life in your relationship with Christ.
'Cause you're gonna go through life and not everybody's gonna like it. I hate to give you all that bad news right now.
But the good news is that Christ is there waiting for you to have the personal relationship with Him.
So in a second I'm gonna ask ya'll to bow your heads. I kinda want to get a--and nobody's gonna look around.
I'll make sure of it because you know if anybody looked around I'd pop 'em on top of the head!
But I would like ya'll to bow your heads and I'm gonna ask one thing.
The thing I'm gonna ask is before we say this prayer I want you to slip your hand up if
you don't have that relationship with Christ but you want it. Do you want that opportunity now?
You remember what I said is "Our next breath isn't guaranteed."
Don't leave here if you feel God's speaking to you and you want that relationship.
You don't have the relationship with Him? Don't leave now! Now's the perfect time! Better than ever.
'Cause like I said you're...we're living on borrowed time. There's no guarantee in our lives.
I've sadly seen people pass from my life that didn't have the relationship with Christ.
And I don't want ya'll to be not afforded the opportunity to do it and so I'm gonna
count to three in a second but I want everybody, if you can right now, just to bow your heads. Close your eyes.
With nobody looking around please--only me--I would ask if there's somebody out there in
this group, and God's speaking to your heart, and you've been able to be touched by His
grace, and understand He just wants a relationship with you, that you know that you're worthy
and He loves you, and He's just waiting for you to come home to Him, if that person's
you and you want us to say that prayer with you I want you to slip your hand up when I count to three.
Please don't be ashamed. Nobody's looking around. It's just me.
One...two...three.
Amen. Thank you, thank you so much! Ya'll put your hands down. Wow! There was quite a few!
So just so they don't feel out of place everybody else if ya'll would join in.
Now listen, guys, the ones that raised your hands...ya'll keep your heads bowed.
The ones that raised your hands there's no special words or power in these words that I'm saying.
But if they do represent the cry of your heart and they do represent you wanting that personal relationship with God and that's all He asks.
So what I will, just so we can encourage the ones that raised their hands, if everybody
together will join in with the prayer to encourage 'em.
So I'm gonna go ahead and say the prayer. If everybody will kinda join in:
"Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I ask you into my life. I realize that I'm a sinner in need of a savior.
Lord, I thank you for sending your Son to die that sacrificial death and cleanse me of my sins.
Lord, I believe on the third day that you rose Jesus again proving that you are God.
Lord, I love you. Lord, I thank you. I ask you to come into my heart in Jesus' name. Amen."
Everybody give the Lord a round of applause!
Alright!
Now...(?)...there were some hands up.
And I'm so thankful that we were able to come and share this with you guys!
Now I'm gonna ask you to something a little bit--I'm gonna ask you one more thing--for the ones that...the ones that raised your hands.
I truly believe that if that meant, if that was the cry of your heart, you meant those
words, that you now have have a place in Heaven for your eternal life. That's amazing!
And I'm so proud of each and every one of you that raised your hands!
But I kinda want to do something!
I'm gonna ask again, the ones that raised your hands, and remember we're all family
here, but I'm gonna ask you on the count of three I want you all to come forward and I'm gonna tell you why.
I know you're going "uh." I see some people gripping that grass real tight.
But, listen, this is the only time in scripture that...the only time in the Bible that scripture
says that there's rejoicing going on in Heaven.
So let me tell you something: The angels are partying big time right now!
Because I saw a lot of hands! Okay? But what I would like to do and let me tell you why.
Jesus wants me to accept Him into our life because He expects us to take that public admission of faith.
It takes faith to take that step forward in front of your peers. It's not easy. But, guess what?
If that really was the cry of your heart, you meant that prayer, then I believe that
a team of wild horses would not hold you back from coming up here!
And the only thing that I want to do in bringing you up here is I want everybody to clap for you.
I want you to know that now you're comforted! Now there's nothing that life, that the devil can throw at you.
God is better! God is bigger and God's stronger!
The devil's already defeated and he knows that! So he's trying to take as many people with him as he wants.
But, guess what, I want to encourage you to come up here because I'd like to pray for ya'll specifically.
That would mean a lot to me.
I want to be able to see that ya'll are willing to take a stand because if you can't take
three steps out here for God then how are you going to take one step out there when
you get away from the people that are encourage you and they care about you?
Plus I kinda want to talk to you about how to grow in your faith.
Little three things that will kinda encourage you to do because now's the greatest day of your life!
Now's your spiritual birthday...the guys that raised their hand and said that prayer.
So I'd really like to encourage you to come forward. They're just gonna clap.
Please! I encourage you to please do that! Okay?
And, so on the count of three everybody's trying to kinda come give a round of applause.
I'm gonna let them come up here and then we can pray for ya'll together as a group.
And I would like ya'll to come up here. It's just, it's very important to me.
I want to encourage you. (And me!) Nobody's gonna make fun of--yeah.
But nobody's gonna make fun of you! Trust me! Nobody's gonna make fun of you 'cause I'm here.
But on the count of three I want to invite you up with us. Let us pray for you 'cause there were a lot of hands, guys.
Please don't be embarrassed to come up here. Look at me! I'm standing up here proud and unashamed.
So on the count of three I want everybody else to give a round of applause.
I want them to come up here and we're gonna pray for you real quick. Okay?
One...two...three!
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