Send Me

Welcome today to the third week of a series that's actually stirring our church up in a pretty good way. What we are doing in this message series is we're learning to pray some different types of prayers. The prayers that we are praying, they're not predictable. They are not benign. They are not safe. What we're doing is we're learning to pray some dangerous prayers. In fact, I've been really blessed by just what I'm hearing from people who are taking a step of faith to pray some daring prayers.

Week one we learned to pray, "Search me God, know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting." Last week we talked about a very dangerous prayer where we prayed together, "Break me God. Break me of anything that keeps me from being intimate with you." Today we're going to pray what may be my favorite of the three dangerous prayers. We're going to pray a prayer of availability.

Here's what I've noticed, and this is just based on observation, every week many of you will turn in prayer requests, and we love it when you do. We've got a team full of people who love to pray over your prayer requests, but here's what I've noticed quite honestly, and this is just from observation, that most of the time what people apparently want prayers for are things that directly impact them or those that they love. It's, "God, would you do this for me? God, would you heal my grandma? Would you help me get into this school? God, would you help me find a job? Would you bless me as I do such and such?" Absolutely and completely we should continue to pray those prayers; but instead of just praying, "God, would you do this for me?", a dangerous way to pray is, "God, what can I do for you?" Not just, "God, hey. Do this, bless me, keep me safe," but, "God, I am your servant and I want to be available for whatever you might call me to do." I call it a prayer of availability.

Let me tell you, when you pray this prayer, God could direct you in a lot of different ways. He may lead you to go to a different city. He may reveal a calling in your life that you never ever expected before. He may lead you to stay somewhere when you just knew you were supposed to go somewhere else. He may move you to break up with somebody and he gives you an upgrade. Everybody can say, "I'm excited about that!" He might lead you to a different job. He might call you to serve somewhere. He might move you from being a cat person to a dog person. I don't know what it would be, but when you make yourself available to God it's an incredibly dangerous prayer we're going to learn to pray today.

Now, all throughout scripture if you read from the Old Testament through the New, you're going to see that God calls people. What does that mean? It doesn't mean your phone rings, but what he does, it means he speaks to people, he prompts them, he moves them, he leads them to say something, to do something, to go somewhere, to encourage someone, to speak truth. God will call those who know him to do something that he wants done. There are different responses to God's call. I want to talk about those three responses to the call. 2 are not what we want and the last one will be the prayer I am asking you to pray this week.

The first one, if you're taking notes, is this. It is found in Jonah. Jonah responded to God's call this way. He said,

"Here I am, I'm not going!"

Some of you can relate. "Here I am God. I'm not going."

Jonah 1:3 NKJV

But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

What did Jonah do? Jonah ran away from the Lord. He said, "Here I am God. I'm not going." I wonder how many of you have had a similar experience. You've felt prompted to do something. "Hey, I'm supposed to reach out. I'm supposed to say something. I'm supposed to help this person. Here I am God. Not today. I'm not going."

What did Jonah do? Jonah ran away from the Lord. He said, "Here I am God. I'm not going." I wonder how many of you have had a similar experience. You've felt prompted to do something. "Hey, I'm supposed to reach out. I'm supposed to say something. I'm supposed to help this person. Here I am God. Not today. I'm not going."

In fact, me, I am still haunted by a time that I felt prompted to do something. I was sitting there in the waiting room over Vanderbilt hospital. I believe it was the 4th floor. I was waiting with Sheila, to get results for her. As we were sitting in there, a young lady walked in with her family. She was obviously battling as Sheila was. I completely felt impressed and almost even told to go and pray for her. But I was entrenched in my battle. I sat there for at least 10 minutes telling the Lord I wasn’t going to do it. If I am going to pray for her, then you need to heal my wife. If I pray for her then you heal Sheila. Lord if you want me to pray then she will be here when I get back. Etc.

I just drove up to her thinking, "I need to stop. I need to stop. I need to stop," and I'm embarrassed to say I just kept on driving by. I thought I needed to stop and I didn't even do it. I just drove all the way home and didn't even stop to say, "Hey, can I help you? What's going on?" To this day, I feel bad about that. I felt prompted to do something and I didn't do it. I can guarantee you that all of you who are followers of Jesus, there are those times that God prompts you to do something and you think, "I need to. I'm going to. I should. Here I am though, not today. I'm not going to do this." Jonah, "Here I am," say it with me, "I'm not going."

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to pray. It was just that I wanted to dictate to God how and why I would do it. Selfishness was completely the motive. I knew it. But I didn’t care at that moment. I wanted my wife healed and if God wasn’t going to do that, then someone else wasn’t going to receive.

Listen I am not proud of it. I am so ashamed. To this day I know that I will answer for that and I wonder what could have happened if I had done it. Before you all get mad at me, all three of these are just as bad. And I am sure you have been at one of these at some point if not all three.

The second one is Moses, and this is what Moses said. He said,

"Here I am. Send someone else.

Here I am. Send my brother. This isn't my perfect calling."

Exodus 3:10–11 NKJV

Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:10 NKJV

Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Verse 10 of Exodus chapter 3, "God spoke and said, 'Now go. I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'" This is something Moses would have agreed needed to happen, but instead of saying, "Sure God, I'll go," Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Who am I? I'm not good enough. I'm not talented enough. Someone else would be better at this than I am. Here I am, God. Send someone else. I'm not the right person."

Verse 10 of Exodus chapter 3,

"God spoke and said, 'Now go. I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'" This is something Moses would have agreed needed to happen, but instead of saying, "Sure God, I'll go," Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Who am I? I'm not good enough. I'm not talented enough. Someone else would be better at this than I am. Here I am, God. Send someone else. I'm not the right person."

It's so easy for us to do this. "I'm not going to give. They should give. They've got more money to give. I'm not going to go. I don't have as much time. She's a stay at home mom. She's got more time than I do." All the stay at home moms came out with a knife with no makeup on and their hair messed up saying, "You have no idea." That's what we all think. "She can do it. He can do it. They're better equipped. I don't have time for this. Here I am God. Send someone else."

Jonah says, "Here I am. I'm not going." Moses says, "Here I am. Send somebody else." Isaiah though prays a very dangerous prayer. This is the prayer that I want us to pray today.

Isaiah 6:8 NKJV

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

says this: Isaiah says, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?'" Notice what Isaiah said in a prayer response back to God. Before I read it I want you to notice what he did not say. Notice he didn't say, "Where are you sending me? Is the climate nice? What's the cost of living there? What is the pay range? Are there benefits? How much vacation do I get?" Right? He didn't ask for any of that. What he simply did, essentially, is signed a contract that was blank and said to God, "Here I am," somebody say it aloud, "send me. Here I am God. Send me." This is a really dangerous prayer.

Here I am send me!

Where is he going to send you? I don’t know. Well when is he going to send you? I don’t know. Who is he going to send you to? I don’t know. I just want Him to send me.

We just buried my mother in law yesterday Loni Dobbins and I can gaurantee you this was her prayer. She lived this life. From the time she was a kid and was saved, she was poured out for the Lord everyday of her life. Was she perfect? No! But she perfectly lived her life as a servant of the Lord. She would tell anyone about Jesus. Anywhere. because she knew what He had done for her in her life. She also knew what He could do for their life. This woman had a past. This woman had troubles. This woman was broken before the Lord and she remained broken on the Lord. There were close to 1000 people at her funeral. Which goes to show you that her life was spent as a servant.

I want to encourage you this week, and this may become a daily part of your prayer life, when you wake up, I pray my own version of this prayer every day, "God, I give you my mind. I give you my eyes. I give you my mouth. May I speak what you want me to say. May I hear only your truth today and have the wisdom to reject that which is not true. Here are my hands. May they used to be to build your kingdom. Here are my feet God. Lead me to where you want me to go. Help me to do what you want me to do. Essentially God, here I am. Send me."

I want to challenge you, dare you, motivate you to pray a similar prayer. "Here I am God. I'm available. Here I am God. You have permission to interrupt me. God, if you want me to go somewhere, I'll go. If you want me to stay, I'll stay. If you want me to say something to somebody, I'll speak. If you want me simply to be quiet and pray, I will pray. If you want me to give something away, if you want me to use my time, whatever you need me to do, wherever it is God, here I am. I am completely available to you God. I am your servant. Here I am God. Send me." An incredibly dangerous prayer, because when you start praying that I guarantee you God's going to interrupt you, God will prompt you, God will move upon you, and suddenly you'll recognize God has a lot for you to do when you pray, "Here I am. Send me."

How do we get there? How do we get to that kind of attitude before God? How do we fully surrender our lives to God? I want to try to answer that. We looked at . I want to look at the verses that lead up to that surrendered prayer from the prophet Isaiah. What do you need to fully surrender to God? Three things, if you're taking notes I hope you'll write these things down.

Number one, you need a genuine experience with the presence of God.

Isaiah 6:1 NKJV

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

Isaiah 6:1

What happened? Isaiah saw the presence of God. He saw him in all of his majesty and all of his glory. The text goes on to talk about these angelic beings named seraphim, and all of these angelic beings were worshiping and praising the living God crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." When Isaiah saw the presence of God, when he experienced the glory of God, it completely transformed who he was. Why is it that you might not be very available to God? Perhaps it's because you have not recently experienced the presence of God.

I was in one of those seasons. I just preached all weekend. I told Amy, I said, "I'm going to go out and just spend some time with God." Our neighbors have a lot of land and I'm allowed to go on it, so I went deep into the woods where you couldn't hear anything or anybody and just decided to spend time with God. It was early in the afternoon, and I just started talking to God, and just talking to him. Before long, I was actually crying to God, desperately needing him. I started to really sense his presence. Then I started crying out to God. I'm not a feely, feely guy at all, but I'm telling you right now the presence of God was so real the only thing I could think is I needed to text Amy and tell her I'm not coming back for awhile so she didn't worry. I did that and I stayed for hours, literally hours. 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, I didn't want to leave.

I have had many of those moments in my life. A lot of them had to do with the same camp that our kids just came from this week. Where the presence of God is so thick and powerful that you just say God I will do anything for you. Others have been in some dark times in my life.

You wonder if you will survive. There have been a couple of times in ministry in which I wonder if I can keep going like this. I have never wanted to quit but those moments have come to which I would say I can’t keep doing it like this. One time I was in my prayer closet. I was there and just crying out to God that I wanted t get closer to him. I just wanted him and his presence so filled the closet that I just knew He was standing there.

The presence of God brought me to a deeper place of real submission. "God, I've just been with you and I am your servant, anything you want of me." Some of you may say, "That's really never happened to me before." I want to tell you right now it absolutely can and God wants to reveal himself to you. In fact, scripture teaches that when you draw near to God, he will draw near to you. You don't have to go in the middle of the woods for this to happen. It could literally be when you're driving down in a car with a worship song on and suddenly you can just sense God is with me, he's comforting me, he's present. It could be when you're praying a goodnight prayer with your 4-year-old and you suddenly realize, "God is with us in this room." When you draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

Why has it never happened to you before? Maybe you're not as available to God as you should be? Maybe it's because you haven't sought after him in awhile, because when you experience his presence you will be transformed. "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His glory was everywhere." What do you need to fully surrender to God? You need a genuine experience with the presence of God.

The second thing you need is a genuine awareness of your sinfulness.

In fact, I'm going to argue that one of the biggest cultural lies that people believe today is this: "I'm a good person. You're a good person. She's a good person. We're good people. I'm a good person." Let me tell you this, without Christ you are not a good person. You are a horrible, pathetic, evil sinner in the eyes of God. Welcome to LifeChurch, where I'm here to make you feel better about yourself. You are. You're wicked. I'm wicked. We're evil. We're sinners. We're despicable in the eyes of God. It was when Isaiah saw the goodness of God he realized the badness of him. I recognize that's not the right way to say it, but that's the way I wanted to say it because it felt right when it was coming out. He saw how holy God was, and in that moment he recognized his own unrighteousness. It was a genuine awareness of his sinfulness.

In verse 5 he cries out, "Woe to me!" He cried, "I'm ruined." Another verses says, "I'm done. I'm nothing. I'm pathetic. I'm a sinner. I have nothing to offer. He's holy. I'm not. He's righteous. I'm unrighteous. He's full of glory. I'm full of sin. Woe to me. I'm ruined, for I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." What does it take to get to a place where you're fully surrendered? "Here I am God. I'm yours. Send me." It takes a genuine experience with the presence of God. It takes a genuine awareness of your sinfulness.

Number three, it takes a genuine understanding of God's grace.

When you understand just how amazing his grace is, it brings you to a point of full surrender. Verse 6 says this: "Isaiah said, 'Then one of the Seraphim,'" that's one of those angelic beings, "'flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken from the tongs from the alter. When he touched it to my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips,'" then read aloud what he said, he said, this is amazing news and this is the grace, "he said, 'Your guilt is taken away and your sins atoned for.'" What happened? He saw the presence of God. He recognized, "I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips."

With one touch from the goodness of God, his sins were forgiven and completely atoned for. You can only imagine this. Your lying lips, forgiven. Your lustful attitudes, forgiven. Your self-centered thoughts, forgiven. Your dangerous outbursts, forgiven. Every secret sin you've never told anybody before, but God knows them all, covered by the grace of God.

When you understand the grace of God, it transforms everything. The same way that coal that touched his lips removed his guilt, the blood of Jesus covers our sins.

We recognize that we don't bring anything, but Jesus brings everything.

When we sense God's presence, when we're aware of our own sinfulness, and then we experience the unmatched, undeserved grace of God through Jesus Christ, our only reasonable response, everytime, "Here I am God. Send me. It's not my life. It's not my desires." One of the most dangerous prayers you can pray, "God I'm all yours anywhere, anytime, anything."

This prayer is sometimes looked at though i think the way my kids used to look at church and probably some of you look at church. Sunday morning would come. I would go in and wake the kids up. Sometimes I would be nice, sometimes I would just flick on the light. But I would go in to wake them up and say its time for church. Their response would be do I have to. The answer was always no you don’t have to. You get to. That is this prayer right here. You get to pray this prayer. How cool is it to realize that the God of the universe is wanting to use you, to expand his kingdom. That he is wanting to use you to see people saved, healed, and come to know him.

Here's the best part: This isn't a one time decision. This isn't like, "In 1996 I prayed that prayer and I surrendered it all to him on that day, and ever since then ..." No, it's not a one time decision. It's a daily decision. It's a daily decision. The reasons it's daily is because if you have been born into God's family, in other words if you have called on Jesus and have been transformed, here's what happened, your spirit came to life. From that moment on, there is a war going on inside of you. There is a war because there is a flesh side of you, is what the Bible calls, it's not your skin, it means your own selfish desires, and there is a spirit side of you. Your flesh is at war with your spirit. Your flesh wants to do what you want to do. "Here I am. I'm not going! Here I am. Send somebody else." Your spirit wants to do what God wants you to do. "Here I am God. Send me."

How do we learn to daily choose to die to our flesh so our spirit would live? It's simple. What we feed grows and what we starve dies. It's that simple. If we feed our flesh, "Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. It's all about me, me, me, me, me. I'm not going to do that. My life is too important. I'm too valuable. I don't have time to make a difference. Somebody else can do that. I love Jesus and everything, and I'm going to heaven, but I'm not going to do anything about it." That's feeding the flesh.

Instead, if you deny your flesh and feed your spirit, "I'm in the presence of God. I'm seeking God. I'm in his word. I'm growing spiritually. I'm in a Small Group where I'm connecting with others in Biblical community. We're sharpening one another. I'm using my spiritual gifts. I'm in the church. I am the church. I am the church in the world. I'm showing love," then your spirit is growing, and your flesh is dying, and you're closer to God, and you recognize him. "I'm available, and because I'm available, God's asked me to do more. Whoever is faithful with little God will trust with much." Why is he trusting some people with much? They were faithful with a little and he gave them more.

That's why the apostle Paul said this: He said, "I die daily." What does that mean? Like, "Pow! I die daily." No, it doesn't mean that. It means that I am dying to myself every single day so that Christ will live through me. He said, "I am crucified with Christ, but nevertheless I live." He said, "It's no longer I who lives now. It's Christ who lives in me." That's the point to which we grow whenever we experience the presence of God, when we're aware of our own sinfulness and when we experience the glory of a God who forgives us and we didn't deserve it. Then our response is, "Yes, I'm in! Please use me! I want to be your hands and I want to be your feet. I want to show the same love that you've shown to me all over the world. Here I am God. Send me."

Why is it that more Jesus followers don't pray this prayer? It could be because they haven't thought of it maybe. I'm thinking it's probably because they're afraid because it really is a dangerous prayer. "Break me," dangerous. "Search me," dangerous. "Send me," dangerous. My theory is, I can't prove this, but just from talking to people, I think many people are afraid that God is going to make you sell everything and go be a missionary in Africa, and never use a real toilet again as long as you live. What you need to know is that may happen. He may call you to be a missionary in Africa.

It's more likely though he's going to call you to be a missionary where you work because that's holy too. It's more likely that he's going to call you to serve the people that are in front of you, to be faithful with what he's already given you. A lot of times people go, "God's going to call on me to la, la, big, big, big, big, big, big, big.!" A lot of times God calls you to stop and listen to someone who's hurting. God, a lot of times, will call you to just reach out and give something to someone who's in need. God may call you to buy lunch for $8 for a single mom with four kids, and you may say, "That wasn't a really big thing," and she would say, "No, that really was a big thing," and God would say, "That was a big thing because you were faithful and obedient to me."

When you do enough little things and are faithful to God, you may wake up one day and realize that the little things were actually the big things because you've been faithful to God day after day, day after day, day after day; and when you've been faithful in the small things, he trusts you with even more big things. One day you're excited. "God, I will go wherever you want me to go." He may prompt you to serve somewhere in the church. He may prompt you to serve in the 2-year-old room, which is like going to Africa because they don't go in toilets either. He may call you to lead a Life Group. He may prompt you to foster. He may prompt you to give above your tithe. I don't know what he's going to prompt you to do, but when you truly start saying yes to Jesus, you're going to recognize he's calling you to do more, and more, and more because you are his hands and you are his feet in the world. "Here I am. Send me. Here I am. Send me. Here I am God. I'm yours anywhere, anytime."

Play Music “Speak”

I want to close out with this story, and then you get to pray a dangerous prayer. At some churches this probably still happens. At the churches I grew up in, they had one door. Everybody would come in the door and they would go out the door, and it was really cool if you were the pastor because at the end of the church service you would stand by the door. Who remembers this? Everybody would have to walk by and shake your hand and say, "Good sermon Pastor. Good sermon. Good sermon Pastor. Good sermon." I wish we had one door and all of you could come by and say, "That was amazing. I loved your sermon. Oh, that was a amazing. God bless you. Thank you." Wait a minute.

A pastor stood at the door one day and this guy walked by in the line and said, "Great sermon Pastor." He was very emotional and he said, "Pastor, what you need to understand is my life has been transformed. The answer is yes! Now, what's the question?" The pastor's like, "Thank you. God bless you, and next," and went on down. Like, "That was odd. That was weird." The next week the pastor preached again and the same guy walks up to him and says, "Pastor, Pastor, oh my gosh. God is so good. God is amazing. I just want you to know the answer is yes. Now, what's the question?" The pastor's like, "I don't know. I'll get back to you on that. Thank you. Have a great week." Third week comes by, the same old guy gets up there and he's all emotional like, "Oh my gosh, I just can't believe I get to be here. Pastor, the answer is yes. Now, what's the question?" The line's long and the pastor's like, "I'll tell you what. Can we get together for coffee this week? We'll talk about the question." He was curious.

They're over coffee and the pastor's sitting down going, "What's this whole question/yes answer thing?" The guy just got really emotional. He said, "Pastor, what you need to understand is that I was really, really messed up." He went through the whole list. He was addicted, he was neglecting his wife, his kids were in really, really bad shape. He said, "I came to church one week." He said, "You preached on this message, and when you did it's like God just opened up my eyes. I saw it. I called on Jesus." He said, "I'm a new person. Everything's different. Everything's different. Nothing's the same. Ask my wife, she'll tell you. Ask my children, they'll tell you. Everybody. I am a different person because of Jesus." He says, "Pastor, what I need you to understand is this, the answer is yes. Whatever you need, 2am mow the yard, go visit somebody, pray for something, give to whatever. Pastor, God is so transformed my life, I am all in. The answer is yes. Now, what's the question? Completely available, anywhere and all the time."

How do you get to the place where you have the courage to pray the dangerous prayer? "God, I don't need to know the details. All I need to know is that you're calling me. If you're calling me, the answer is yes." How do you get there? You truly experience the presence of God. You truly recognize your own sinfulness. You truly experience the grace and the forgiveness of our savior Jesus. When that happens, you don't just try to, you get to give your whole life to God. Some people will say, "God, here I am. I'm not going." Some people will say, "Here I am. Send somebody else." You are going to be different because you are going to experience him. When you do, you can't help but say, "Here I am God. Send me."

Call to altar and submission

Well here we are. It is that time of the message where it falls back to you. Are you ready to make this decision. We have heard some great testimonies this morning of the teens from camp. What about you. Are you ready and willing to pray this prayer? Please understand what I am saying. This is a sacrifical prayer. LIke David, you will not be called to do something which cost you nothing. But the reward far outweighs the cost. God is not a one who holds back the reward to His children. I mean a life in which you are completely sold out to God. Here I am, send me. Use me. I don’t want anyone else to do what I need to do.

At all of our churches today, again, I'm going to ask if you'll be willing to pray this prayer. Just like the other weeks, what I want to encourage you do to is not to lie. Don't feel pressure, don't feel manipulated, because quite honestly some of you are not yet ready to pray this prayer. If that's where you are, I'd rather you be honest about it than to say something that you don't mean.

God I don’t need to know all the details. All I need to know is that you are calling me. My answer is yes. I havent been as engaged in our relationship as I need to be or would like to be. I am sorry. My answer is yes. I don’t want to feel like an outsider at church my answer is yes. I don’t want to feel as though I am watching everyone else participate in your kingdom. My answer is yes. Even as I am standing here today, His presence is here. You want to know his call to you. Today is your day. Because the presence is here right now. It isn’t foreign and He isn’t far.

At all of our churches, those who would say, "You know what? I really am not as engaged with God as I could be. I want to be even more so," would you have the courage to make a part of your prayer life for the next 7 days and maybe even beyond that a prayer of availability however you want to pray it? "God, because of your goodness and your grace, I am completely available to you anywhere, anytime. The answer is yes God. Now, what's the question? Here I am. Send me." If you'll pray that this week, at all of our churches, would you just take a moment and raise up your hand. Say, "Yes, I will pray this prayer of availability." Oh my goodness there are a lot of you. Get ready.

Father, I thank you in advance for all the ways that you're going to speak, and I pray God that when you tell us to stop and help someone on the side of the road that we will be obedient to you, that we will be faithful in the small things, and God that you will trust us in the big things. Here we are God, your church, ready to love this world, ready to serve in the church, as the church, to show the love of Jesus. Here we are God. Send us.

Pray right now here I am send me. I am open. Don’t pray send someone else. Don’t pray I can’t go. Pray for the Lord to give you a direction and then go after it. Never holding back. don’t allow sin to control you. don’t allow the devil to speak doubt. Here i am Lord Send me.

As you keep praying today at all of our churches, nobody looking around, there are some of you right now, and this is just how it happens, you're going to become aware right now that you've done some things wrong before God. How do we even know that? Because I believe God put a conscience within us. God created this void where we cannot fill it with anything else. It drives us to him. We know we need forgiveness. We know we can't be good enough on our own. This is the amazing thing about the grace of God is that God loved us so much that he became one of us in the person of Jesus, who was without sin, lived a perfect life, died the most brutal death for our forgiveness. Why? So that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name would be saved, transformed, and forgiven.

Listen don’t feel pressured to pray this. I don’t want it forced. Don’t lie either. If you don’t believe it, don’t pray it. If you don’t want it, don’t pray it. I don’t want something that is fabricated.

Even right now, as we are in the presence of God, some of you are recognizing, "I need forgiveness. I have sinned. I need forgiveness." I remember for years feeling the weight of my sin. Could God ever love me? Could God ever forgive me? I had no idea how vast and available his forgiveness was through Jesus. When I called on him, I became a new person. The old was gone. The new was there. My only reasonable response was, "Here I am. Send me." At all of our churches today there are those of you that God has brought here specifically for this moment. You recognize you need him. You need his grace. You need his forgiveness. You need Jesus. At all of our churches, those who would say, "Yes, that's me. Today by faith I turn from my sins and I turn toward Jesus, and I say, 'Take me life. Here I am. I give it to you,' save me from my sins and be the Lord of my life. Here I am Jesus. I give my life to you." That's your prayer today.

At all of our churches, would you lift your hands high right now and say, "Yes Jesus, I surrender to you." Lift up your hands and say, "Yes, I completely surrender to you." At Church Online, if that's your prayer, just click right below me. At all of our churches, as people are coming to Christ today, would you join your hearts praying with those around you? Pray, "Heavenly Father, forgive me of all my sins. Make me brand new. Jesus, I believe you loved me. You died for me. You rose again so I could live for you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can follow you every day of my life. I believe you have forgiven me, so here I am. Send me. I belong to you. My life is yours. Use my life to bring you glory. In Jesus' name I pray." All of our churches, would you worship loud? Welcome those born into God's family.