While You Were Waiting (DawnCheré Wilkerson)
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Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Would you remain standing for just a moment? Because...

I just think this is the right posture. I wanna take a moment to honor this house. I am grateful for the faith of Elevation Church. I'm grateful for the faith of this house that sent ripple, ripple waves around the globe and it's reached our house in Miami. Our church is stronger because of your faith and because of the faith of your leaders, Pastor Stephen and Holly Furtick. How many of you love your pastors? Come on, can we put our hands together for them?

When I think about Pastor Stephen, I think of a pastor to pastors. The way that he has led us, spoken over our lives in so many different seasons. I'm constantly inspired how when it comes to Pastor Stephen's walk with God, there's always more.

There's more. There's more hope. There's more faith. There's more creativity. And it inspires me to dig deep and to believe God that there's always more. But I'm also really grateful for Pastor Holly. Come on. Do you guys love Pastor Holly?

She's one of my dearest friends in the world. And when she preaches the word of God, she preaches with power and authority. Chains are broken, but it's not just what she says on the pulpit. It's the way that she leads her life. It's the way that she leads her family. She's taught me what it means to be a great friend, to stand with people on mountaintops and in valleys. And I just believe the best is yet to come for this house. Come on, if you believe that today, would you put your hands together with me? I believe it with all my heart.

seated, I want to take a moment because I'm fully aware that people walked in this room or are watching online today and you are hanging on by a thread. And I want to speak to your soul today that before we even open up the word of God, if you feel like you are stuck in the middle of a wilderness, if you feel like you don't know what to do, where to go, or how to even express the state of your heart today,

If you feel like for the first time in your life, you wonder if this whole thing is real, I wanna remind you today. I wanna tell you today that God sent me here with a message in my heart and that he brought you here because he wants to meet you right where you are. If anybody can test, come on, put your hands together. We serve a faithful God and he sees you today. Hey, why don't you high five, grab your seat, grab your Bibles.

You can turn with me to Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31. I bring so much love from Miami and a little bit of sunshine for you.

Our church, VU Church, we started it 10 years ago. And God's been doing miracles. But I believe that what God is doing in 2025 is unlike anything that's ever been seen in history. He's doing a new thing. My husband, Rick, sends his love. I've got four babies that I adore. Wyatt, Wild, Waylon, and Wolfgang. Seven, five, three, and six months old. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Oh yeah, big families. We know there's a big party when you're a part of a big family. You may be wondering, where are you actually from, Don Cherie? Because that accent does not sound like Miami. I am from Louisiana. I am a Ragin' Cajun. And you also may be wondering, what kind of name is Don Cherie?

Like, where did that come from? Well, the story my parents tell me is that my dad wanted to name me Dawn. My mom wanted to name me Cherie. And so as they were sitting in the hospital room trying to figure out who is this girl the day I was born, my mom put the names together, wrote a love letter from me and tucked it under the pillow where my dad was sleeping on the couch in the hospital. And Dawn Cherie has been my name ever since.

That same day that they named me is the day that they gave me a life promise. And that's the scripture that I want to read to you today. Isaiah 40, 31. They that wait upon the Lord. Somebody say wait. They shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

I wanna talk to you for the next few minutes from this thought while you were waiting. Let's pray. God, thank you for this moment. Thank you for this house. Thank you, Lord, for what you are doing in our hearts today. We pause. And Lord, just like we sang, we breathe you in. Have your way in our heart, oh God. For you and you alone, our souls wait. I pray that I would disappear. And Lord, that our eyes would behold your promise.

that our hearts would be filled with hope today. We love you, Jesus. We're here for you. Come on, and everybody said. One more time, everybody said amen. Well, earlier this year in Miami, my husband had his birthday. He turned 41, and we had a family dinner, as you do.

We came back to the house after dinner and we set out on our back dock in that humid Miami heat, swatting the mosquitoes, just trying to have a calm conversation. And on his birthday, we usually have a tradition to start telling memories from over the years. And we started sitting on that back deck and we started early in the night and we went late into the night telling memories. And somewhere in that conversation, it dawned on me, Rich,

I think that we celebrated your birthday together 20 years ago. We were in Cambridge, Cambridge University. We were studying together. And I actually think I have a journal to prove it. And I ran inside my house.

And sure enough, I went through all my bookcases and I found it. And I came running back out on the deck almost near midnight. I said, I found it. And we started to open it up. And I had so many different memories. But as I started to read this journal, I was laughing at the frame of mind of my 20-year-old self.

I got to the end of the journal from Cambridge and I was coming back to Louisiana for the summer and I had made a list of 20 things that I wanted to accomplish over the summer. I mean, I brought this journal all the way from Miami. Is anybody, would anybody wanna know what a 20-year-old college student wishes to accomplish in one summer? You wanna hear it? Okay, this is about to blow your mind. Things I wanna do this summer. Number one.

read the entire Bible. Mic drop. Number two, learn Spanish. Now, God was trying to prepare me for Miami. Number three, go to all the boys games. Now, by boys, I mean my brothers, and that may seem like an easy feat, except for I have five brothers. That's a lot of games in the summer. Number four, become a domestic goddess. A popular gay that had just been released.

Number five, read an etiquette book. Number six, have a good job. We don't want an ordinary job. Can I get an amen? We want a good job, right? I want a good job for the summer. Number seven, visit my best friend from college. Number eight, exercise. Dash, arms defined.

Number nine, sing in the choir. Number 10, get involved with youth ministry. Hello. Number 11, record a worship album. Yeah, let's throw that one in. Yes. Yes.

Number 13, surprise mom and dad on their 25th anniversary with a love song concert with my brothers. Number 14, interview my grandpa and my grandma about their life story. Number 15, hang out with my great grandfather and my great grandmother. Number 16, go to the hospitals with my papa to pray for people. Number 17, make a scrapbook of the summer.

18. Can I get a drum roll, please? We've got none other than orthodontists. Figure out a way to straighten teeth without bracket braces. Pretty good list. Impressive list. Friends, what was I thinking? That is a setup for disappointment.

18 things that you want to accomplish in one summer, that is not a list for a summer. That is a list for a decade. 20 years later, to the year, I am just now stepping into some of the things that I put on that list. I'm just now stepping into them. And friends, I don't know if I'll ever be a domestic goddess.

Like everyone's story, mine has involved years and years of waiting. I know that you have your list too.

We all have our list of what we are waiting to step into. Waiting not just to step into, but what we're waiting to finish. And when we look at the story of God, we see that God uses large spans of time, not just a single summer, to accomplish his will in his people and in your very life today. Come on, if you believe it today, why don't you put your hands together? We serve a God that is faithful everywhere.

the way. And Isaiah prophesies, they that wait for the Lord, they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. This is not a birth verse. This is a life verse because I need the promise that as I wait upon the Lord, he will renew me, not just to start the journey, but right there in the middle of the journey. And until I see him face to face, and I don't know

but I'm right there in the middle. I turned 40 this year. You know, scripturally, 40 represents trials and testing. Oh, praise God. What a great word to speak over my life this year. That's exactly...

was going for. But you look throughout scripture and you see 40 represent trials and testing. You can look at the life of Moses. You know, Moses spent 40 years in Egypt. Then he spent 40 years in the wilderness. And you may think he was at the end, but he has a burning bush experience that then catapults him into the most important 40 years of his life as he leads God's people. And you may be like, Moses,

at the end. The great things of God are behind me. When you have no idea, you're just about to step into the very calling and purpose of God that he ordained for you before your life began. You have no idea what he's prepared for you. He prepared it for you. Or maybe you know good and well that you're in the middle.

You know that you are right there in the middle of the story. And friends, you are miserable. Can I tell you today that I operated with this perspective for many seasons?

life, moving to a city where I didn't know anyone, walking through eight years of infertility, starting a church. There've been many seasons of waiting that I just wanted to fast forward through, that I just wanted to get to the side, though I may not have admitted it or even been able to articulate it until God got a hold of my heart with a game changer. Waiting is not a season.

Waiting is life. So the question you and I have before us is this. Will we live in the wait? Because there is life and life abundantly. Not at the finish line. Not 10 years from now. But right here, right now. If you believe it today, somebody give God praise in this house. We can live while we wait. Waiting isn't a curse.

Waiting is an invitation. It's an invitation from the throne room of heaven. Charles Swindoll once put it like this. We don't like waiting, but that's when God does some of his best work on our souls. Some of his best work. Hold up. Wait, are you serious? God does some of his best work while we wait? Well, if that's the truth today,

then how do we actually wait? How do we live in the wait? How do we embrace the wait? And if waiting is truly life, then how do we live right here, right now? Back in Louisiana, I grew up with bonfires. Now, I've had to explain this to the people in Miami because bonfires are illegal in Miami, but I have hope in you today.

I believe you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say a bonfire. This is my favorite Friday night pastime. We would pull the trucks up. We would pull the chairs out. You get a lot of wood. You light that thing. And that bonfire is the center of attention. Everyone is facing the fire. And as it burns, you make memories and you don't want the night to end because you've been looking forward to Friday night week long.

Can I just tell you today, we are conditioned in culture to live for the bonfire moments. We are conditioned in culture to wait for the bonfire moments that say, oh, I'm just going to wait until I get to the other side of this trial. I'm just going to wait until I get through this wilderness. When my life is a bonfire, when I'm blazing with the glory of God, light me up.

but friends, what if your walk with God was purposed to look more like smoke than a flame? Because you see, I grew up with bonfires. I love bonfires, but my husband, when I met him when we were 17, he loves to burn incense. Incense in our house. My home to this day, and the first thing they say, they don't notice the furniture. They don't notice the decor. They say, what is that smell? What?

It's not what they, it's what they sense. It's not anything that they notice with their physical eyes, but it's a fragrance that is intoxicating. They can't even find out where it is or where it's burning, but they notice it from the moment they walk through the door.

You know, the word incense comes from the Latin word incendere, and it simply means to burn. Do you know that incense is found throughout the scriptures? That in the very beginning, that God speaks to Moses in the books of Exodus, and he tells Moses, he says, I want you to set up an incense altar in my house. And every morning and every evening, I want you, Aaron, the priest, to bring an incense offering. So every morning...

There would be an altar in the holy place. And in the holy place, Aaron, the priest, would bring the incense and he would pour the incense on the altar. And as he poured the incense on the altar, on the heat source that is the altar, an amazing thing would happen. A fragrance would begin to rise. Smoke would begin to rise.

And Jewish tradition tells us that this smoke didn't just fill the holy place, but it filled the entire surrounding area up to a quarter of a mile. The smoke was so thick

that every single person who came to worship God, as they worship God, the fragrance would soak into their clothes and they would go about their daily duties carrying the fragrance of God. The smoke represents the worship and the prayers of God. Sending to heaven every morning and every evening that as you laid down your little, what you

Doesn't have any worth. What you think. Bonfire. Blazing with the glory of God. I've got news for you today. All he asks for you to do is release what is in your hand. And it becomes a fragrant sacrifice. That permeates the air. Touching everything in its midst. You have the ability today in the weight. To bring your little. And you can watch it rise.

The priests would set their incense on the fire, and when they did, it would release an aroma, and the smoke would lift high towards heaven. Scripture tells us that our life is like a vapor. It's a vapor. It's here today. It's gone tomorrow. A lot like the smoke of incense. Here's the invitation. Bring what you have to God in the wait, and watch as he transforms it.

Because the powerful thing is that incense, it is not the fire. But when it's placed on the heat source, the very chemical components of what is laid down transforms into completely different things.

You are looking at your little in the wake going, this is all I'll ever have. God is going, will you release it to me and watch what I can do with it? Because they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. And Romans reminds us, therefore I ask

you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your body as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. You're a living sacrifice. Know how to live in the weight. You got to lay your life down as a sacrifice because it's so

you become a sacrifice that you actually live. You see, we want the fire, but God says, I want the surrender. We want to receive, but God says, first, you've got to lay it all down. We want to see the end of the story, but God says, will you see what I want to do right here, right now, and through you? Everybody's got to pray. Why don't you lift up a shout of honor to God?

He's here right now. He's here in the wait. He's here in the wait. It's a slow burn for those that wait. I grew up celebrating the 4th of July with a million fireworks. My brothers and I, we'd jump in the car, we'd drive down the street, stop at a little setup on the side of the road, buy everything that we could afford, come back to the house and set those babies off.

Now, the scariest thought is when you light a firework and then you step back and you're waiting for that thing to pop off and you go, is that thing lit? And what do you do? You don't run up, you tiptoe up because you know it may be a slow burn, but it is burning towards an expected outcome that is gonna change everything. I wanna speak faith through your heart today. Your life, your faithfulness,

Your perseverance, your trials, your wilderness is not the end game. You are burning towards an expected outcome. God has already authored the end of this story. And you don't have to wonder if he's going to carry it through because he comes through a single time. But maybe today you're tiptoeing forward and it's not with expectation. It's with a heart.

that has become disappointed in the way. Have you ever wondered if your faith was still ignited? Have you ever wondered if you actually have what it takes to get through the wilderness of the wait?

To get through the slow burn when life seems to be crawling and all you want to do is accelerate and move forward. I've got good news for you today. You may feel burned out. You may feel like you don't have what it takes. You may be asking yourself today, is my faith still lit? Good news for you today is you're not the fire and you can get reignited every single minute.

the journey. All you got to do is get back to that altar and lay your life down once again, and the ignition is on. The fire starts to blaze. The fire starts to rise. Today, God says, I want to light the fire within you every moment of the slow burn. Come on, give him praise in this house. He's with you. He's with you, with you.

You don't want to be the fire. Then the pressure is on you to sustain it. No, we're not the fire. He's the fire. He's the all-consuming fire. We just bring our little every morning, throughout the day and every evening, and we watch as he transforms it. They that wait again and again and again and again.

As you find yourself surrendering to him, you will renew your strength. But what is this offering that we bring? I think it's interesting what God tells Moses to bring. Exodus chapter 30 verse 35 speaks very specifically of what our offering should be. The fragrant sacrifice of incense was to be three things.

salted and pure and sacred. Friends, if God said the offering should be salted, pure and sacred in Exodus, it's pretty incredible that today that's what our very lives should also be. That our very lives, our offering is sacred, friends.

one blend that was allowed in God's house. You couldn't burn it anywhere else. If you were burning in your house, you got cut off. But I know when it comes to my offering for God, there's a piece of my heart that only belongs to him. He is the central focus of my life. That sacred space is reserved for him and him alone. And in the weight, I keep him front and center. It's not just sacred, it's pure.

See, our offering to God, it isn't a supplement in the slow burn. It's not just a piece of encouragement or a crutch. No, friends, this is pure and complete surrender to God. This is not Jesus plus horoscopes, Jesus plus this or Jesus plus that. It's Jesus and all

Jesus that breaks the chains, that creates the community of life, that frees me from my bondage. It's a pure sacrifice, but it's not just sacred and it's not just pure. It's salted. Somebody say salted. Salt is actually the ingredient that allows it to keep on burning. It's a preserver.

The salt keeps it as a steady slow burn that lasts and elongates the fragrance impact. God says that we're the salt of the earth. Oh, I feel like I've lost my saltiness. How long salt lasts? In fact, let me ask you, when does salt expire? Have you ever Googled it? Never. Never.

Salt never expires. You think you're past your prime? You're just getting started. You're going to be fresh at 20, fresh at 30, fresh at 4, fresh at 50, fresh at 6. Every season of your life, your offering is going to bring a freshness to the world. You were created to last because your very life is a preserver.

And as you lay it on the altar, the fragrance is released. Friends, I came to encourage you in the slow burn of life. While you are waiting right here, right now, there is a fragrance to your faith. Smell has staying power. It has an aroma. Did you know that your nose has the ability to decipher over one trillion different scents?

And that scent is most closely tied out of all your senses to your memory. So God was doing something, wasn't he, with that incense offering. Every time you smell that aroma, you're going to think of the worship of God. Every time you smell that aroma, you're going to think of the prayers and the dependence upon the Father. There is a fragrance today to your faith.

This past month, I had some interviews in Nashville. I wrote my first book. It's called Slow Burn, and I had the title over 10 years ago, but I've been waiting because it was in the waiting that the message was actually written. And I was in Nashville doing some interviews for Slow Burn, and I brought my youngest son, five months old, with me, and we got to the...

and I had rented a car and I went to pick up my car. It was gonna be a nice car. As I opened up the car, all of a sudden, this fragrance hit me. As an incense. I'm like, oh my goodness. Try to get in that car. Maybe you cannot smell this. Straight from the airport to the interviews. So I cranked the windows down and I'm driving down the street here for this interview. They're gonna smell me. And I'm on my new book. It's called Slow Burn. Sitting in my car.

I'm like, I don't even know the person who is in this car before me. I've never even seen them. They're not even with me today. And yet their life is getting on me. And today, all of us, we can look at our own life and we carry the fragrance of generational trauma, of labels that people have placed on us and circumstances that we're falling

control and our life anymore but the fragrance the fragrance remain but I'm so grateful today that we too can say like Paul thanks be to God who always leads us to triumph and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere

Because it's at the name of Jesus that old things pass away. Let me say it this way. Fragrances pass away. Old labels pass away. Old generational curses pass away. And at the name of Jesus, you're a fragrance of faith, of joy, of peace, forgiveness, of long-suffering, and

you've got a sweet fragrance of the strength of Almighty God. Oh, somebody praise Him in this house. You are marked. You are marked because Jesus, He paid the ultimate sacrifice. You see this picture of the incense offering in Exodus? It's just a parable of the reality of heaven because Jesus 2,000 years ago came to this earth. He laid His very life down. He didn't

for instance, he offered his own blood in the Holy of Holies. And when he said is finished, we know that for every person who puts their faith and trust in Jesus, that our life is marked by the very fragrance of God. And when you lay down your little on the altar, when you surrender your life to him in the slow burn, in the wilderness, in the waiting, while you are waiting, a beautiful exchange happens.

He will give you beauty for your ashes. You feel burned out? He wants to give you beauty for your ashes. He will give you the oil of joy for your mourning. He will give you a garment of praise for your spirit of despair. If you just say, all I have are tears today. He says, those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. His name is Jesus. Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name. You're my master, my savior. Like the fragrance after the rain. Oh, Jesus, he's my Jesus. He's your Jesus. Let all heaven sing.

You see, it's going to be what you wear that people say there's something about her. Be your house or the car you drive goes in front of your name.

People are gonna look at you and say, there's something about her. There's something about him. I can't see it, but I sense it. Because you carry the fragrance of the risen savior. And with that word, you are drawing people to the faith that you have found. Praise in this house. Something about that name.

Something about that name. Today, you can make an exchange. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. When you lay it down, you rise. When you lay it down, you rise. I'm reminded that he says like an eagle. Why does God say like an eagle? The regal king of the skies.

When you study eagles, it's really interesting.

that they've got one of the largest wingspans out of all the birds, but they don't use those wings to keep themselves up in the air for five to eight hours without touching down. Yeah, the littler birds can just beat their wings trying to stay aflight, but the eagle catches wind. The eagle soars, and you will rarely see an eagle beat its wings because it utilizes the wind to carry it. I'm talking about the

the breath of God, the wind of God, the Ruach, the Pneuma. I'm talking about the wind that visited the upper room 2,000 years ago and ignited the local church that fills you and I today that we don't have to strive. We don't have to work our way into the power and the authority of God, but we can wind. Come on, give him praise in this house.

He says, I will give you rest, but I'm not giving you rest by grounding you. I'm giving you rest by lifting you. I've got a wind that is about to sweep into your spirit and lift you up to a higher ground for a higher view. So you're not looking up at your mountains any longer. You don't feel like a grasshopper looking up

Holders of life. But rather you're looking down. Going the things that used to be big. And intimidate my life. Oh now they're small. Because I can see the land. And the land is mine. You promised it. I'm going to take it. Oh come on if you'd say I'm taking it. Why don't you give a wave in this house. He's going to lift you. He's going to lift you. They that wait upon the Lord. Wait upon the Lord.

In my waiting, eight years of infertility, in the middle of my waiting, someone spoke a word over me. They said this to me. They said, I was in an atmosphere of faith just like this. I was seated in one of the rows and a woman I'd never met sat next to me. And in a moment of prayer, she grabbed my hand and she whispered in my ear. She said, you are gonna travel the world preaching the gospel with a baby in one hand and a Bible in the other. Amen.

and take a pregnancy test and find out I was pregnant. I carried that word in my heart for years. I tucked it away. I didn't know what to do with it. Said, God, I'm gonna keep trusting you. For years, I walked through the weight, wondering, God, is this going to happen? And eight years in, eight years in, God did a miracle. God gave me my first son, Wyatt Wesley Wilkerson. But he didn't stop there.

because then God gave me a second son. Then God gave me a daughter, Waylon Wesley, the joy of my heart. And this year at the age of 40 friends, I got the shock of my life because we serve a God that redeems time. We serve a God that is not confined by time. It's a tool that he uses. He created it. It's his. He can do anything that he wants anymore.

that he wants and let me tell you as you wait upon the Lord he's still doing me he's still healed he's still restoring he's still bringing new life I have to stay true to my testimony I came here to declare to you that God has not forsaken you he has not left you he has not forgotten you his eye is always on you while you were waiting he's been working

While you were waiting, he's been lifting you to see a higher view, not just your own life, but to see the story that he is telling throughout history. And little boy, this is your testimony already. They that wait upon the Lord. It's my life first passed down from Isaiah. And now I pass it to you. Wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will master

with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Come on, if that's the promise for your life, will you give God praise? The truth is today that some of you in this room, you're going, Don Sheree, but that miracle hasn't come to pass for me. Well, I want to tell you,

that I didn't have the revelation of living in the weight once I held my son for the first time, but he met me right in the eight years of waiting, and he showed me what living looks like. He showed me that I have a testimony far before I hold my baby in my arms, but just like the matriarchs and the patriarchs of our faith, that they greeted their inheritance from afar, that they died while still believing, that they did not

Verse 1.

but those arms that are empty, they make great hands of worship to wave through the lens of faith and say, you've lifted me high enough, not just to see this life, but there will be no tears.

met longing in my life because while you were waiting he was renewing you and while you were waiting every step of the way towards eternity you were being lifted on the wings of eagles while you were waiting you would run not grow weary while you were waiting you would walk and not faint

Today the Spirit of God says to you, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. You bring your little to me, and you watch me transform you right here, right now. Somebody give God praise in this house. He's faithful. He's able. Would you just stand to your feet in this room and bow your heads? Close your eyes. There are people in this room that would say,

Don Cherie, I'm in the way. You're watching online today. Don Cherie, and it feels like I'm in exile. It feels like I'm in a wilderness. I'm barely holding on. I don't think I have the strength. You're right, you don't. But he does. And he has brought you to this moment because he adores you. Before your life began, he ordained you.

to be filled with the wind of his spirit, to be lifted to a higher view above your obstacles and impossibilities, and to know that as his child, he will faithfully lead you every step of the way until you are face to face. Today, I wanna pray first of all for people in this room who it's, you're just weary. You're watching online and you are exhausted with life. You've been beating your wings. You've been giving it all you got.

but today you're gonna catch wind. If that's you, I wanna pray for you. Would you just lift your hand if you'd say, I need the renewal of the Spirit of God. Right there in your car, in your home, in your workplace. Just acknowledge God's presence that is there with you right now. If that's you, just lift up both of your hands. Lord, today we surrender our lives. Lord, thank you that every day, every moment, morning and evening and throughout our days, we can come to you.

the all-consuming fire. And God, when we feel like we are at our end, Lord, I thank you, God.

That you don't snuff us out, but Lord, you light us once again with your faithfulness. You fill us with the power that conquered the grave, the power of your spirit, the power of God. Lord, I thank you that right now as people have their hands raised, Lord, you're meeting them right where they are. Lord, you're renewing their dreams. You're renewing their heart. God, you're giving them a higher vision of the situation and the season of life they are in.

And Lord, through the lens of faith, we wave to our inheritance from afar. Lord, we know that we will see you face to face. But while we've been waiting, you're shaping us. You're forming us. Lord, you're transforming us by your grace. Also, I'd love to give an opportunity for people that don't know Jesus. If you're watching, you've never made Jesus your Lord and Savior. You're in this room and

You have some other things that have first priority in your life, but you say, today I'm making Jesus my King. On the count of three, I'd love for you to raise your hand. One, this is between you and Jesus. Two, don't put off a decision for tomorrow that God, He brought you to this moment today to make. Three, would you lift your hand? You say, I'm choosing Jesus. I'm choosing Jesus. I see your hands. I see your hands. Wherever you are as you acknowledge that, God sees your heart.

You know what? All of us are going to come around. We're going to lift our hands together and surrender. Would you pray this prayer with me? Say, Dear Jesus, today I choose to throw my life into your hands. I'm celebrating your rescue. I believe you died for me, that you rose again. Forgive me of my sin. Wash me clean. I want to walk with you. I want to talk with you. I love you, Lord.

In Jesus' name. Come on, and everybody said, give God a shout of praise. God bless you.

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

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