Awakened to God’s Presence | Awakened to Life // Daniel Goulet

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

Good

morning everybody. Doesn't that get you all excited? It sure does for me. Hey, can you help me give a warm welcome to our online family? We're so glad that you are with us as well.

So

as I mentioned, today is Pentecost Sunday, and what that means is that we're commemorating what happened 50 days after Jesus ascended into heaven. His disciples were gathered in this upper room. There's about 120 of them. And what Acts tells us is that something like a mighty rushing wind just blew into that place, and these tongues of fire, they look like fire above each person, rested on each person. And they started to speak in tongues or speak in another language that they didn't know, praising and worshiping God. I mean, how bizarre and amazing is that, right? Pentecost really marks the outpouring

of

the Holy Spirit onto the early church, empowering the everyday, ordinary believer

with

God's power and presence to give it to the world.

So

very exciting. So I've been thinking about Pentecost all week because I knew I was going to be speaking,

and

I started just to think about some of my favorite outpourings of the Holy Spirit. One of them is called the Welsh Revival. I don't know if any of you have heard of this revival. It happened in 1904, 1905, and it's one of those revival stories that has deeply moved me because it wasn't just a bunch of powerful church meetings, which those are amazing. I mean,

I

want to have a powerful one right now, yes, but it was a move of God that transformed their whole society.

Like

bars were emptied

and

churches were filled up. In fact, some bars became church meetings. Now, could you imagine that on Green Street right now? Let's go, Jesus, right? Let's go.

And

people were so enthralled with the Lord that their prayer meetings would last late into the evening. They would spontaneously confess their sins and rededicate their life freshly to Jesus. It was pretty amazing. One of the stories that really stood out to me, though, is what happened among the coal miners. You can see some of the coal miners during the Welsh Revival there. Now, you might notice this kind of looks like one of our worship leaders. He was the host up here. Oh, yeah, there he is.

I

mean,

that's

a revival mustache if I've ever seen one. Yes, okay, you can go back to the other one because I don't want to derail my story. Okay, so coal miners, you're never going to get that out of your head. You're welcome. Thank you, Ethan, for having a

good

sense of humor. Okay, so these miners, they were so transformed that they stopped using profanity.

Now,

the problem was, that's cussing for those of you that don't know. The problem was, the pit ponies were trained to only respond to profanity-laced commands.

So

that means every time they tried to get them to do something, they wouldn't listen because they felt so convicted in their heart that they wouldn't cuss. Like, I can't do it anymore. And then it was mass chaos. So it's kind of funny, but also deeply profound

when

you think about it.

See,

this is what being awakened truly does.

It's

not just a powerful meeting,

but

it changes our language,

our

appetites, our priorities,

how

you work, what you do at home, how you worship, how you live.

See,

when you're awakened,

you

re-center your life around the presence of God,

and

it transforms you.

We're

in a series called Awakened to Life,

and

we've been going through the one-year Bible together as a church. If you're not on that journey with us, we'd love to invite you. We'll give you a free Bible at the lounge after the service. But in the daily readings, we're honing in on the Old Testament. And last week, Julie helped us look at Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel, and he had a bunch of character issues that kept him from being awakened,

really

transformed to lead effectively. And if you look at Saul's life, he had a real calling. He had real opportunity. He had real authority. But what he did was let fear, insecurity, image management,

and

control begin to shape how he carried that calling.

See,

here's what's sobering about Saul's life.

It

shows you

that

you can be called by God

and

still drift very far from his heart.

The

Bible says that his heart was even changed, and yet he still let fear grip him and make his decisions.

So

now, if you're following along in the one-year Bible, we reached a bunch of stories about a guy named David. See, when the Lord rejects Saul, David gets anointed to be king as a young boy. So we read that a couple weeks ago. But get this, it took another 20 years

for

David to be crowned king

after

he was anointed.

Just

a little side note, sometimes callings take a whole lifetime.

So

if you're waiting for something, keep waiting. Now, here's what's interesting about David. David

is

not perfect.

He

actually makes a lot of mistakes, and you've

got

to mention this because, you

know,

some people use David mistakes to kind of condone their actions, so we don't want to do that. But David made some serious mistakes, and he commits some serious sins throughout his life, so that's not good. But there is one big difference between David and Saul.

See,

David didn't live a perfect life. That's Jesus. Only Jesus did that. But David was known as a man

after

God's own heart.

We

read that

in

Acts 13, and here's one of the clearest differences between Saul and David.

See,

Saul was so consumed with preserving his position,

his

image.

But

David was overly consumed with preserving God's presence,

making

God's presence the center of everything that he did.

Now,

I think this is where a similar tension

can

begin for us.

Because

most of us, if we're honest, will naturally build our lives around preserving ourselves.

Maybe

our comfort.

You

know, preserving our image. You know, we want to look good. I mean, I want to look good. Do you want to look good? Yeah. We want to preserve our image, our comfort, our control, our reputation. See,

we

want God to move in our lives, but we're not so excited when he tries to move us.

Right? We

want the fruit of the Holy Spirit that's peace and joy and breakthrough and healing. But sometimes we don't want to fully surrender to his presence

that

produces that fruit.

All

right, I'll leave that right there. It's a little quiet.

Now,

let me give you a couple quick definitions. A couple pointers. As we read the Old Testament, we have to remember that this is the Old Covenant. Right? This is before the Holy Spirit was poured out. Before Jesus did what he did. And when I talk about God's presence, we also have to remember I'm talking about the Holy Spirit.

But

even though this is the Old Covenant,

we

can still learn a lot from David's life.

He

gives us a very powerful example of what living and awakening looks like

by

recentering

our

whole life around God's presence.

So

let me just pray and invite the Holy Spirit to teach us to be our guide this morning. So would you join me? Jesus, we welcome you here. We welcome your presence.

This

is about you, Lord. So any distractions

that

are going on in our life right now, Lord, would you help silence those so we can hear you more clearly?

We

invite you, Lord, to open our ears and open our hearts to receive from you today.

Come,

Holy Spirit. We welcome you.

Amen. So

as we come into 2 Samuel 6, we actually read that this morning in our one-year reading, which is kind of cool, we see David has finally become king.

This

is a big deal, right? He spent a lot of his life up to this point hiding in caves, running from Saul, who was trying to kill him over and over and over again. You know, Julie mentioned last week that his life did not end well. I mean, I think I read a couple days ago that he killed like 85 priests. I mean, it got really, really dark.

So

David spent so many years in warfare and battle, and now he's finally coming

into

the fullness of what God has promised.

And

what he does first

is

very important.

So

let's read and see what he does first.

Then

David gathered

all

the elite troops of Israel, 30,000 in all. He led them to Bala of Judah to bring back the ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord of heaven's armies, who is enthroned

between

the cherubim.

They

placed the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab's house,

which

was on a hill. Uzah and Ohio, Abinadab's sons, were guiding the cart that carried the ark of God. Ohio walked in front of the ark. David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments, lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and cymbals. Oh, my.

That's

not in there. I just added that part.

I

mean, there's a huge celebration that's happening. It tells you that we can be exuberant in worship, right? Love that.

But

one of the first major things that David does not do is build a palace. He doesn't secure his comfort. He doesn't even expand his own territory, which a lot of kings would do.

David goes

after the ark.

See,

the ark hosted the presence of God among the people. Here's a picture of what that looks like. See, wherever this ark went, his presence went.

And

wherever his presence was, it brought favor, blessing and victory to everybody.

It

was pretty amazing. So what David is essentially saying here, hey, if we're going to be the people of God,

he

has got to be the complete center of it all. That's what he's saying.

See,

this is what this shows us. Awakened people don't just want God's blessing.

They

want God himself.

I'm

going

to

say that again. Awakened people don't just want God's blessing.

They

want God himself.

This

is where David is such a powerful picture for us. Think about this. He waited over 20 years

for

the throne, hiding in caves, running for his life, fighting battles, holding on to promises. And when he finally steps into influence

and

authority, the first thing he does

is

go after the presence of God.

Like

this deeply challenges me. It inspires me, but it also challenged me because, you know, influence,

I

don't know if you've noticed this, but influence has a way of revealing what sits at the center of our hearts.

What

do you do when you get influence? What's the first thing you do? What's the first thing when you have favor in your life?

Well,

for David, it was God. I love reading the Psalms. Anyone like the Psalms? David wrote tons of Psalms. Listen to what he says in Psalm 27. One thing

I

ask from the Lord, this only do I seek,

that

I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To gaze on the beauty of the Lord

and

to seek him in his temple.

I

want you to think about that.

David, so

successful, full of influence, full of military success, full of power. And when he talks about the one thing he desires the most,

it's

God himself.

I

was thinking about

a

time where God was teaching me this very lesson in a very unexpected way.

Okay,

any of you remember that outpouring that happened at Asbury University a few years ago?

Okay,

a few of you remember this. For those unfamiliar, the Spirit of God moved so powerfully at Asbury University. This is in Wilmore, Kentucky, about five hours from here.

And

man, tens of thousands of people from all over the world flocked there. And what struck me most about this is it was such a simple,

it

was so simple, it was not built

around

hype or personality. It was truly centered around the presence of God.

They

would do a lot of worship. It was mostly worship. They would also have these short testimonies and scripture reading. But then what would happen is these people would just flood to the altar. You can see a picture there. But what was crazy is no one would call them there. They just went.

It's

like God was drawing them. And so I felt compelled to take my two older boys

there

for a few days just to experience what God was doing.

And

we were there one evening and this usher

unexpectedly

came up to me and asked, Hey,

do

you lead worship?

And

I was like, Uh, yes.

How

do you know that? Do you know me? Does someone know me? They're like, I don't know. But the leaders down there were looking around in the audience and you stood out to them. And they're wondering if you would like to help lead worship for this.

And

I was like, how do you know me? Like, I was like so confused. But finally I said, yeah, yeah, sure. I'd love to help out. And they said, well, just go down there and the leaders will talk to you. So I went down there and for two hours I worshiped and everything. I took that picture while I was there because it was taking a long time.

And,

you know, finally one of the leaders comes up to me and says, Hey, we'd like you to lead worship for this.

Uh,

and, but there's going to be something a little different this time

because

we're actually going to close the building and tell everybody to leave. You know, we've been going at it

for

this for seven days, 24 seven, and everybody's really tired, but we want to keep stewarding God's presence through worship. And so we're wondering if you would lead worship overnight.

And

honestly, my first response

was

hesitation

because

initially I thought, wow,

I'm

going to get lead. I mean, I'm going to get to lead worship during this incredible

outpouring. But

then I realized

there's

not going to be anybody there,

no

crowd,

no

moment,

no

one.

And

as I talked with the leader, something just kind of came out of my mouth.

I

said, oh, so it's going to be like leading worship

for

an audience of one.

And

she's like, oh yeah, exactly.

And

she smiled.

And

I just started to wrestle internally and just wrestle with this. And then I,

I

heard this voice in my head.

I'll

be there.

And

I could sense this invitation from the Lord.

Would

you still do this if nobody saw it?

Like,

would you still say yes,

if

the only one that was receiving it

was

me?

And

I felt this like conviction hit my heart. And I was like, yes, Lord, of course I would do it.

And

so I said, yes.

And

at two in the morning,

I

got up

and

I went to the auditorium

and

I worshiped Jesus to an empty hall

to

an audience of one.

See,

what God was doing in this moment

is

he was awakening me and exposing something

in

my heart,

you

know, not just to want his blessing, not just to want his favor, not just to want to be part of revival, but just to want God himself.

Now,

it's not bad to want favor and blessing like God is the provider. He wants to provide our job and finances and all those kind of things, right? Like these are good. He loves to give us those things. But what comes first

really

matters.

See,

this is what we see in David's life.

This

is what it means to be a man

after

God's own heart.

So

let's get back to the story because, you know, David's bringing the ark. There's all this celebration, but then something very unexpected happens. Let's read.

But

when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon,

the

oxen stumbled and Uzal reached out his hand and steadied the ark of God. Then the Lord's anger was aroused against Uzal, and God struck him dead

because

of this.

So

Uzal died right there beside the ark of God.

David

was angry because the Lord's anger had burst out against Uzal.

He

named that place Perez Uzal, which means to burst out against Uzal, as it is still called today.

David

was now afraid of the Lord. And he asked, how can I ever bring the ark of the Lord back into my care?

So

David decided not to move the ark of the Lord into the city of David. Instead,

he

took it to the house of Obed-Edom of Gath.

The

ark of the Lord remained there in Obed-Edom's house for three months.

And

the Lord blessed

Obed

-Edom

and

his entire household.

It's

kind of a sobering part of the story. A little shocking, a little uncomfortable,

but

it is in the Bible for a reason.

You

see, David had the right desire, but he had the wrong method.

See,

this was about obedience to God's ways. And what scholars believe here is that David was copying the customs of the Philistines.

You

know, the Philistines had just stolen the ark, right? And they were using a cart. And so instead of following God's instructions, he did it in an easier way, right?

God

had already instructed the Israelites that it didn't need to be carried by consecrated priests. It needed to be carried on poles, on their shoulders, not to be transported casually

on

a cart, not to be treated like cargo.

See,

God's presence

was

meant to be carried personally

and

reverently.

See,

now we have to remember this. This is the old covenant, right? So this is before Jesus came. See, under the law, the law is like the Ten Commandments and laws like these. God

was

continually revealing his holiness and showing humanity that humanity needed a savior.

And

so this is what not to get from this story. The point of this story is not now be terrified of God because he's going to strike you down if you make a mistake.

That

is not the point.

The

point

is

that God's presence is holy.

It's

not something to treat casually.

See,

sometimes we need to remember that he is our best friend, but he is our holy friend.

He

is the Holy Spirit.

Now,

so every time we read a verse like this, we do have to put on our sunglasses. You guys remember that phrase? Look it through the lens of Jesus, S-O-N.

And

so we have to know

because

through Jesus, we don't have to be afraid to approach God, right? I love how Hebrews says this. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. So we can boldly approach his throne. But even grace

should

never make us casual about his presence.

See,

David, this was a divine realignment moment.

And

initially,

he

backs away. He gets angry.

He

starts to experience his emotion. He starts to get afraid of God. See, I think it's important to note this, that sometimes when we experience something costly,

confusing,

or messy around the things of God,

it

can make us pull away.

You

know, maybe we pray for someone

and

they still pass away.

Or

maybe there's a big misunderstanding that you're having with someone and you still haven't found resolution. Or maybe,

you

know, there's something in your life that's getting exposed, right? Instead of pressing into the presence of God to be transformed, we back away. We're like, I'm done.

This

is too much.

See,

sometimes there's real loss. There's heartache.

And

you can think, man, is this even worth it?

Is

it even worth it to follow God?

See,

these emotions that David is experiencing are very real. And we need to acknowledge it. I mean, it was so important to David that he named the place. Like it was a memory marker for him.

But

we can still learn from how he ultimately responded. You see, even though he was angry at what happened,

even

though he experienced fear,

he

didn't give up.

He

didn't reject God. You see, David didn't let his emotion become rejection of God.

Right? He

didn't let correction push God away. He actually realigned himself. And he, maybe more importantly, humbled himself.

And

it says three months later, he gathers his community together. Now, it's important to know, three months is not a short amount of time.

This

stuff is an instant.

Sometimes

you just got to feel the emotion,

but

then you got to gather a community around you and go after God's presence together.

Right? This

is what David does.

So

David went there and brought the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with great celebration. After the men were carrying the ark,

had

gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.

And

David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment or his underwear. Some translations kind of say that.

How

about that? So David and all the people of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of ram's horns.

But

as the ark of the Lord entered the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window.

When

she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him.

They

brought the ark of the Lord and set it in the place

inside

the special tent

David

had prepared for it. And David sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. See, David was learning to carry it

God's

way,

not

his own way. And you would think,

you

would think that,

you

know, with all that had happened, he would carry God's presence with fear. Like, oh gosh, any time he's going to come. What if this happens again? But it was exactly the opposite. He extravagantly worships the Lord. Extravagant, leaping and dancing before the Lord. Even after six steps, he stops, he worships,

he

sacrifices. See, it shows what kind of heart David has.

See,

it's not just the big things that matter. Every step matters.

Do

you know God cares about every step

in

your life? They matter, every single step.

See,

when you're awakened by God's presence,

you

reach a moment where doing what pleases God becomes way more important than preserving our appearance.

See,

this is the place

where

David stops caring what people think.

It

doesn't matter what it looks like.

It

doesn't matter what it feels like. Even if he looks foolish.

See,

there's an important part of the story that I want to go to.

See,

when you make God the center of your life,

not

everyone celebrates.

Let's

read in verse 20.

When

David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him.

She

said

in

disgust,

how

distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do.

David

retorted to Michal,

I

was dancing before the Lord who chose me above your father and all his family.

Getting

a little spicy there. He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord. So I celebrate before the Lord. Yes, I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes.

Man,

that's quite a response.

I

was a little bit shocked when I read this story, right? Because I'm like, that's his wife. What's going on here?

Let's

see, there's an important truth here.

When

you truly make God the center of your life,

you

will experience pushback. Sometimes even from people closest to you.

You

know, it's actually a promise from the Lord in this world, we will have trouble.

But

take heart, he has overcome the world, right?

See,

what happens to me when I get pushback now, it actually strengthens my resolve.

It

starts to help me. Okay, what do I really think about this? What do I really believe? Am I willing to put my reputation on the line? So pushback can actually be helpful.

See,

when we surrender to Jesus,

when

we make him the center of everything, to the world,

it

looks foolish.

I

was remembering a story of the main leader of the vineyard movement, John Wimber. Some of you know who that is. But he was, he talks about this first time coming to Jesus

and

the foolishness that it meant to follow him.

So

I thought I was going to retell it, but we got a great video of this, of him telling this part of the story. So let's watch this clip of him sharing.

And

so I went down there to find my friend who I knew would have some money, because drug dealers always have money. And I needed some money.

I

wanted to borrow some money from him. And while I was waiting for him, it was kind of a miserable day, kind of rainy and everything. I was waiting for him to come. And here comes this guy walking along, and he's got one of these signs, like an Edith Joe's type of sign, you

know,

front and back. And on the front,

it

said, I am a fool for Christ. And on the back, it said, whose fool are you?

Well,

when I saw it at the time, I thought, oh, weird, religious weirdo, you know, you went by. But here I am, all these years later, I'm kneeling on my friend's living room floor. I'm sobbing. I'm suddenly realized that I'm making a complete fool of myself. And I said, and I remember that thing.

I

thought, that's it. That's it.

I'm

going to be his fool. That's it.

And

I resolved in my heart at that moment, that from that point out,

I

was going to do the foolish thing

in

the eyes of the world.

I

didn't know it was going to be the foolish thing in the eyes of the church, too.

I'm a fool for Christ.

Whose

fool are you?

You

know, we're going to be a fool for someone or for something.

Whose

fool are you? I mean, it's kind of a challenging thing. This is our legacy as a vineyard.

You

know, it doesn't matter what it looks like.

It

doesn't matter what it feels like. We're going to be undignified

before

the Lord, even if it looks foolish. I love David's response here. He's like, you think this is a lot? I'm willing to look even more foolish than this, even be humiliated in my own eyes.

Think

about the resolve in his heart to say something like that. Oh, you think this bad? Watch this twirl. Watch this leap, right? He's settled. His heart is settled on the presence of God, right? God, you are the center now. It's not my image. It's not people's approval, right? It's not my comfort. It's not even my dignity. It's just you.

You

are the center.

See,

this is what the awakened life

looks

like.

It's

a life that's so centered on Jesus. It's so centered on his presence that even if it looks foolish, even if there's pushback or you have misunderstanding, you're still willing to live fully surrendered to him.

See, I

believe

that

God is asking us this morning to recenter our lives around him, not just add him on

to

our already busy lives, like to put him in the very center of it.

And

you might ask like, well, how would I even do that?

Well,

it's interesting. As I was reading about the Welsh revival that I talked about at the beginning,

Evan

Roberts, who was the main leader of that revival, he noticed some major markers

of

what was happening to the people when God moved. It wasn't like these are a set of rules or things to make a revival happen. It was more like these are a set of responses I'm noticing as people are making God the center of their life.

And

the first thing

he

said was

confession

of sin.

People

just started confessing

their

sin.

And

then the second thing he noticed was the removal of what he calls doubtful things.

People

would remove places of compromise, things that they were going to instead of God, like they started removing those things.

He

noted that they were immediate obedience to the voice of God,

like

they would immediately respond. And then the fourth thing he noticed

was

that they would share Jesus everywhere they went. They would just share what Jesus was doing.

Now,

these things aren't formulas. They're more like fruit.

They're

more like postures of the heart. They're ways that we can respond

as

we put God's presence in the center.

And

so maybe for you this morning,

maybe

there is a place

that

you need to confess. Confess it to God.

I

mean,

by

the way, he already knows

what's

going on.

Just

so you know.

But

confession has powerful. If you read James, it says confess one to another. It has powerful, powerful results.

There's

healing and freedom

when

we confess. Maybe there's something

that

you're hiding

or

you're trying to hide. And God is saying, just let it out.

There's

freedom there.

Maybe

it's the second thing where you're removing places of compromise, things that you're going to instead of God.

Those

things that make you doubt,

that

numb yourself.

It

could be that.

Or

maybe it's obedience to the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you, I argue with Jesus so much. He's like, do this. I'm like, no, no, no, not right now. I'm tired. I'm busy. I'm going to, you know, it's like, ooh, Lord, help me.

Let

me be so filled with your spirit that when I hear your voice, I just do it. And I don't even think about it.

I

just do what you say. Right?

I

think for many of us, though,

it

can be that fourth thing

where

we're sharing

about

Jesus. We share what Jesus is doing

in

our lives with other people,

people

that are around us.

You

know, that's probably one of the most foolish things we could do

from

the world's sake. Right? From the world's perspective.

It's

kind of where the rubber meets the road for many of us. You know, we're entering summer.

Thank

God for the warm weather. Let's go, Jesus. Right? Yes.

You

know, we're going to be at barbecues and cookouts. And we're going to be hanging out with friends and neighbors and all of those things. And even co-workers all throughout the summer.

You

know, this is an opportunity to just share what Jesus is doing. You know, one little hint I love to give people. You know, many people will ask, hey, so what did you do this weekend? And the answer is, just don't lie to them.

Right?

You're like, well, I went to church on Sunday and Daniel preached this amazing message. No, I'm just kidding.

Just

kidding.

But

just don't lie about what you're doing. Hey, what are you doing this weekend? Well, I'm going to go to church and then I'm going to do this and that. You know, like,

isn't

it amazing what God is doing at this church? All these people getting baptized. You know, you could share that stuff. It's like amazing. Like even first service. I was praying for a woman. She had plantar fasciitis. Right? It was like a level seven.

It

went down to a five. Went down to a two. And she walked out. I can't believe it. I'm healed. I'm like, you know I'm going to share that testimony. Come on.

You

just share what Jesus is doing

in

your life. Even if it looks foolish. You know, someone might have a headache. And let me tell you, better than ibuprofen is the power of God.

Right? Why

don't you say, hey, I got ibuprofen over there. But let me just try this real quick

and

see what the Lord wants to do.

Will

it look foolish? Maybe. Or

maybe

the Lord will show up in so much power that they realize he's real. He loves them. And he's pursuing them. Right?

See,

awakened people stop building

their

lives around themselves. And they begin reordering everything around the presence of God.

And

here's what I love.

Here's

what the wonderful thing is.

We

have something that David didn't have.

See,

we have the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us. To give us power to do what we can't do. Right? To help us stay connected with him. This is who we're called to be.

And

so I just want to invite you to stand as we move into a time of worship.

I

want you to put your hands on your heart. Jesus,

I

thank you for

the

new hearts that are all throughout this room.

Jesus,

you say that when we say yes to you, you give us a new heart.

And

so, Lord, this new heart needs to receive some things from you this morning.

And,

Lord, right now, I just ask for your power to come in this room.

Lord,

as we worship you, as we put our attention, our affection, as we recenter our lives around who you are,

Lord,

we ask you to come. And whatever

issue

that we're dealing with, maybe it's an addiction. Maybe it's something, Lord, that we need to give our life fully to you. We need to get baptized. Whatever surrender looks like, Lord,

we

ask for the power

to

do what we can't do on our own.

That

it might look foolish to the world, but to you,

it's

worship.

So

we invite you as we worship you. In Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. Amen.