TRANSCRIPT | Sunday, September 9, 2020 | Your NOT To-Do List 

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Pastor Eric:

You all can be seated. Hallelujah. It's probably dangerous to leave me and [Kurt 00:00:07] alone here together. My goodness. Anybody ever just get homesick for heaven?

 

Congregation:

Yes.

 

Pastor Eric:

Though more lately than previously, right? Amen. I am glad heaven is promised to us. Did you know that this week we got to celebrate 20 years as a church? September the third at 2:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon, our church launched in the year 2000 and... what a ride it has been. I knew so much about church planning that I chose labor day weekend as the launch weekend. A horrible idea. If you ever plan a church, don't do that. I think they have a couple of pictures that kind of show the first facility that we had was a converted truck stop restaurant and that would seat about 85 people. And over to the left was a gas station and anytime somebody walked in the gas station it beeped on our side.

 

Pastor Eric:

One night, there was a man that had stopped to fuel up his truck and when he went to the restroom, the restroom was kind of in a corridor, there left to that entrance door do you see. And he was in the bathroom and the walls were so paper thin that he didn't understand a church was there beside him, but some guy was talking to him about getting right with God. He got saved in the bathroom according to him. It's good times. We had no children's church facility so to facilitate kids' church, we bought one of those $19 Kmart popup tents. And that worked for about two weeks until a kid got sunburned really bad and we had to come up with an alternative plan.

 

Pastor Eric:

In 2010, we were able to, show them the Russell Springs facility. So we first went to that building there on the left. We got in the bottom of that, the basement section of that in 2002, we got in the upstairs section of that in 2004, and then this other facility we broke ground for it completed in 2010. We started that with $9,000 in the bank, No idea how we were going to pay for it. It was over a $2 million project and we knew that we weren't stewarding the people that the Lord was sending us well because we had no place for them. We were doing three to four services a weekend on Sundays and at times people literally stand in the room. And I felt like the Lord said to me, "You're not waiting on me. You're waiting on people." And so we went before the people, we cast a vision and what do you know, the provision was in the room all along. And God provided and God made away.

 

Pastor Eric:

And then in 2014, we got the chance to partner with Living Grace Church. And that church voted 100% unanimously to become a three tree church. It's unheard of, it's a testimony of God's grace and it's got an Acts chapter two feel to it, doesn't it? And that has been so incredible. That is now our largest attended location. It was absolutely packed out this morning, even into overflow and so grateful for that. 2018, we got to come to Columbia. And so it's a fun ride. We're so glad that you're here and we are believing God that there is more that he's called us to do. And in 2020, we launched a thing called Church Online in seven days. Oh Lord. People would not believe this. This is the honest truth. What it takes to pull off Church Online is more than what it takes to facilitate two physical campuses. It is crazy what it takes to do that and to do it the way that we feel like we're supposed to do it. So we covet your prayers as we continue to figure that out.

 

Pastor Eric:

But good things are happening. People are getting saved. We've had some really good testimonies of deliverance. We had three people in the last two weeks testify that they were contemplating suicide, attended a three tree service either in person or online and chose to continue living and give God their lives fully. Come on. It's good, good stuff. Good, good stuff. Look at somebody and tell them greater things-

 

Congregation:

Greater things-

 

Pastor Eric:

... are yet to come. Pray with me. Father, I thank you for our church. I thank you that I get to be a part of pastoring these incredible people. God, we thank you that you are raising up, God, we believe ministries and people and believers and followers of Jesus, God that are going to go into the highways and the hedges and compel the lost to come in. Use us Lord in Jesus name, the church said...

 

Congregation:

Amen.

 

Pastor Eric:

Amen and amen. Benjamin Franklin said that to fail to plan is to plan to fail. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. It sounds like you better get plan. The book of Proverbs says that this way that, "Where there is no vision, people will perish or that they will wander aimlessly until death." The enemy does not want you to have a plan for your life, but according to the book of Jeremiah, God has a plan for your life and what you can do is you can get that download and then you can be a part of this journey of walking out what it is that the Lord has for you as you are equipped by His word and empowered by His Holy spirit.

 

Pastor Eric:

My myself, I'm fairly analytical. I tend to be really interested in strategy. I like to have a plan. I like to be flexible, but I like to have a plan. And I've kind of found that when my life is probably functioning at its best, I need a certain rhythm and I need a certain intentionality associated with that rhythm. And I don't know if you've noticed or not, but it's really hard to get a rhythm lately. I mean, sometimes you can't even really figure out what day it is. And so it makes it even more important that you be intentional about having a rhythm that unfolds a plan in your life. And so for me, what works well, I like to go to bed 9:30, 10 o'clock at night, I like to get up at 4:35 o'clock in the morning, I like to give that first hour of the day to the Lord, to seek God and pray and look at the word, see what God's saying to me.

 

Pastor Eric:

And then I use a thing called Google Calendar. My whole life is pretty much laid out in that. And I'll start looking at my day, I start looking at my week and I start praying through. Do I have the right thing on the calendar? Am I scheduled to be in the right places today God? Is there anything you want me to change? Anything you want me to do differently? And then our church staff uses a thing called Asana. It is a software platform that helps us to keep up with all the tasks and all the assignments that we have. Friday afternoon, I had 66 to do things, task in my to do list.

 

Pastor Eric:

And so each morning I'll try to take three to five of them prayerfully and I'll kind of put them to the front of my list and realize, "Okay, these are the three to five things I have got to knock out today if we're going to keep moving this church forward and will keep being the husband I need to be and the dad I need to be." And so I'm very familiar with to do list. To do list are something that I basically start every single day of my life with. Some of you may be familiar with to do lists. In fact, right now you may be making out your laundry list. During COVID, you may have been making out your honeydew list for before all this transitions you're going to get some things done around the house. To do list.

 

Pastor Eric:

I wonder though, do you have a, not to do list? Some things I'm never going to do. I've found that it can actually be beneficial to have a, not to do list. Billy Graham, who is one of the most successful evangelist of all time and one of the reasons is because of the integrity that he's been able to walk out. A lot of it has to do with four or five things that at the beginning of his ministry, even in the 1940s, he drew a line in the sand and he said, "There's some things I'm never going to do."

 

Pastor Eric:

Did you know that one of the most famous lists of all time is a not to do list. It's found actually in the Bible, Exodus chapter 20:1-17. It says this, "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. Thou shalt not make any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Honor thy father and mother. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet." That is a not to do lists. Can I get a witness?

 

Congregation:

Amen.

 

Pastor Eric:

Not to do. And what happened is, God actually downloaded this list with His own finger. He invited Moses into a mountaintop experience with Him and there God give him the 10 commandments, 8 of which are specifically about things you are not supposed to do. Moses came down the hill, carrying these tablets written by the finger of God and saw the people doing the stuff that the commandment said not to do. He gets so mad that he literally breaks the tablet. He breaks the not to do list, has to go back up the mountain and explain to God, "Hey, Lord, in the midst of getting upset of them about they were doing something they were not supposed to do, I did something I was not supposed to do." And the next time he has to write out the not to do list.

 

Pastor Eric:

And then for thousands of years, Hebrew people set themselves in an attempt to not do these things. And by the time that Jesus shows up, there's a real issue at hand. Because they have been so focused on what they are not supposed to do, that they don't even realize what they are doing. And in the process of that, they even lost the context for why God had given them a, not to do list to start with. And so when Jesus begins His preaching ministry, the first sermon that we have recorded by Jesus is in Matthew chapter 5, chapter 6 and chapter 7. It's known as the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus is barely out of the introduction before He is addressing the not to do list. And I want you to see it. It's in Matthew chapter 5:21.

 

Pastor Eric:

Jesus looks at them and He says, "You have heard it said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment." But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to counsel and whoever even call someone a fool will be liable to the hell of fire. You have heard, it said, "You should not commit adultery." But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Again, you have heard it said to those of old, "You should not swear falsely, but you shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn." But I say to you do not take an oath at all, either by heaven for it is the throne of God or by earth for it is the footstool of God. Do you see what just happened?

 

Pastor Eric:

Jesus has come on the scene, He is beginning His public communication, His public preaching ministry, He has got perhaps thousands of people gathered around Him on a hillside and He knows that these people are totally focused on what they are not supposed to do. It's all they've heard taught, it's all they've heard preached, it's really all that they have any focus on, is we're not supposed to do this and we're not supposed to do that. And as long as we don't do this, and as long as we don't do that, we're okay with God. And then Jesus begins to talk to them. I know you've heard it said that you're not supposed to do these specific things. He says, "But I say to you, there is something beyond just not doing it."

 

Pastor Eric:

What Jesus seems to be implying, if you really hear what He's saying to His audience is that just because sin isn't in your hand doesn't mean it isn't in your heart. And they had thought so long as I don't commit the action of sin with my hand, I'm okay. And Jesus shows up and He says, "That was never what this was all about. What God wanted first and foremost was your heart." And so what Jesus begins to show them is that some of you think because you've never taken your hands and murdered somebody that you and God are in good standing. But the truth of it is, if in your heart you're contemplating how much you hate them, how bitter you are, how vindictive you are, how you want to get back at them, you're contemplating in your mind that you wish they would have demise, you wish harm would come to them... That Jesus says is just as wrong...

 

Congregation:

Amen.

 

Pastor Eric:

Just as wrong as committing the action of murder. Hate and anger that is vindictive, Jesus says "Just as sinful as murder." They thought that just so long as they did not commit the action of adultery, that just as long as they did not reach out with their hands and take hold of something with lust, that they're okay. And Jesus says, "If you are spending your time fantasizing about someone that's not your spouse or that is the spouse of someone else, if you are spending your time processing thoughts of lust and being sexually perverse in your mind and in your heart," Jesus says, "You are just as guilty as the person who has committed the act of adultery." He then goes on to talk to them about the subject of lying and even how that they were to go about taking oaths, et cetera. The list goes on as you read through Matthew chapter five, chapter six and chapter seven.

 

Pastor Eric:

Jesus is trying to point out to them, you've heard it said that everything is to be focused on what you're not supposed to do, but I say to you, God wants your heart. In fact, in the middle of all this, Jesus makes a profound statement. It's recorded in Matthew 5:8. He says, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." Think about that for a minute. That Jesus Christ is the son of God made manifest and He is with these people and they can't even see that He is God present with them because their hearts aren't pure. You got to get this. They're missing a move of God that is happening in their streets, in their highways, in their communities, simply because they're so focused on what they don't do, that they're missing what God is doing.

 

Pastor Eric:

And this result is that they can't see it. They can't see it to the point that they crucified the move of God in the earth. I don't know about you, but I want to make sure that I never find myself in a place where I'm aligned in tearing down something that God is building up. Amen. I want to be a part of whatever it is that God is doing in the earth. And I know you do as well. And so when you think about this, that Jesus is trying to get the point across that just because sin isn't in your hand, it doesn't mean it isn't in your heart. It brings us to the realization that sometimes Jesus corrects the wrongfulness of our approach by confronting the false hoods of our appearance. He corrects the wrongfulness of our approach by confronting the falsehoods of our appearance. That's why the word is a mirror.

 

Pastor Eric:

The brother of Jesus is James and he writes this in James 1:23. He says, "For anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who takes his look into a mirror, he intently takes his natural face and sees it in a mirror for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he looks like." So when we have an encounter with the word of God, what scripture tells us is that, in and of itself is meant to be like a mirror to where that we see ourself and we see where that we don't line up, we see where that we are failing God. And I want you to understand it's not just about getting the outside fixed it's about getting the inside fixed. And what the word of God wants to do is to give us a mirror of what's going on inside of us.

 

Pastor Eric:

Please hear me, before most of you came to church this morning, you got in front of a mirror and you were combing this and spraying that and shaving and doing all kinds of stuff and spraying the cologne and spraying the perfume. And you maybe even look to somebody besides you and said, "How do I look?" I had to do that before I went on stage this morning, Campbellsville. I had no idea what I drag out of the closet. I looked at the guy who was backstage, I said, "Does this match?" He says, "I think so." I looked at Dawson, I said, "Does this match?" I don't know. So we're going for it. Style is not my thing somebody pray.

 

Pastor Eric:

But you find yourself looking in that mirror and you're trying to get everything just right, because you want to go out with the best appearance that you can offer. When you go into the word of God, it's not showing you what you look like on the outside, it's showing you what you look like on the inside. It's helping you to realize, "My hands have not committed the act, but there is something in my heart that I'm seeing." And so scripture says, "To hear the word and do nothing with it is the same as to look into a mirror and not fix what's wrong with your appearance."

 

Pastor Eric:

So when the word reveals something to you that needs to be fixed, it is time to make that part of your heart available. And that's what Jesus is trying to get across to His audience is that these things that were on this not to do list, were supposed to reveal to you some stuff that was going on in your heart and you're just not getting it. To the point that people had been arguing over what was the greatest commandment. Which is the most important thing for us not today? They've been arguing about it for thousands of years. If we had to do one of the two, which one should we go for? They're arguing over this stuff.

 

Pastor Eric:

They try to bring Jesus into debate. The storyline is recorded in Matthew 22. Jesus is asked like, "Jesus, what do you think is the greatest commandment?" Nobody's been able to answer this for thousands of years. They think they've got Him tied up. They think they're going to expose Him to His audience as finally not having an answer for something and so here's the way it unfolds. Matthew 22:36, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment." And Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and all the prophets. You know what Jesus did, He took their not to do list and transformed it into a, to do list.

 

Congregation:

That's right. Come on I agree with you, that's right.

 

Pastor Eric:

All these things, you're like, well, as long as I don't murder somebody, I'm not as bad as that murderer. Well, as long as I don't make a graven image, I'm not as bad as that person who's got adultery in their life. And Jesus is like, "Wait a second. For a minute, let's just stop focusing on what we're not supposed to do and let's just focus on what we are supposed to do." And He says, "Love God, love people." You know what's amazing, is when you take the 10 commandments and you break them down. The first four are all about loving God and the last six are all about loving people. And what Jesus is showing them is that if you will just love God and love people sometimes you won't have to worry about what you're not supposed to do, because you're going to find yourself doing exactly what you are supposed to do. Just by loving God and loving people.

 

Pastor Eric:

And so you can sit there and look down your self-righteous nose at somebody who you see having more outward sin than you, but if you have not allowed the word to show you what's going on in your own heart and you yourself may be are failing to love God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul, maybe you yourself are failing to love your neighbor as yours...

 

Congregation:

That's right. Come on.

 

Pastor Eric:

Then what Jesus says is that to not do these things is just as big of a failure as to do these other things. I want you to just look at somebody and tell them, love God-

Congregation:

Love God.

 

Pastor Eric:

... love people.

 

Congregation:

Love people.

 

Pastor Eric:

Is there anybody that would agree with me that that would solve most of the world's problems?

 

Congregation:

Yes.

 

Pastor Eric:

Love God, love people. People are waiting for some kind of ideological revelation. They're waiting for somebody to drop some philosophical bomb that's going to be able to just be packaged in some tweetable form and cause everybody to like and comment on their status updates that they finally solved the world's problems. Love God, love people. Four words will solve the problem. And Jesus said it. Thousands of years, people had been trying to figure it out and they were still missing the move of God in the earth. And Jesus said, "Just get it straight. Love God above everything else and love others more than yourself. And we can fix this thing. Love God, love people. Love God, love people." You know the issue though, the reason that we fail to love God well and the reason that we fail so often to love other people more than ourself is because we've never started at the right place with our love.

 

Pastor Eric:

1 John 4:19 says this, "We love because He first loved us." If you approach loving God and loving people as just another list, you're probably going to fail. But if you can get the revelation that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life, then you can love well. The issue is we have heard it said until we are numb to its meaning, the issue is we've quoted it for so long and heard it tossed around in Christian circles to the point that it is a casual statement. God so loved the world that He gave His son. Do you understand what that means? That God had wrath stored up for sin, wrath that is beyond anything that we can wrap our natural minds around, wrath that is so intense that it culminates in a place called hell. That is a place where worms do not die and torment is beyond mental comprehension. And ultimately that is picked up as those that are within it are chained and cast into a Lake of fire.

 

Pastor Eric:

God doesn't like sin. In fact, He says that if someone does sin, the wages of that are death. And the death that He is talking about is eternal damnation.But God also loves humanity. And even though all the way back to Adam, man chose to ignore the list. Man proved he couldn't live out the list because he kept making it about the list instead of the giver of the list.

 

Pastor Eric:

And ultimately what happened is God intervened. He sent His son and the Bible teaches us that He put His son on a cross and then the Bible says, "He forsook His son." In other words, He takes away the favor and the protection that would have been given to His son and all this wrath that He had for sin, He pours out in one moment on His son and now scripture tells us that we have the opportunity that if we have sin in our life, we can pray and we can confess that sin and God causes the angels of heaven to pick that sin up off of our life, to take that sin off of the record books that are against us in heaven and put it over onto the cross of Jesus Christ and the blood of our Lord becomes like a great eraser and all that stuff that was meant for us goes away simply because it went to Jesus.

 

Pastor Eric:

And the only way that we can still wind up experiencing eternal damnation, torment, hell, et cetera, call it whatever you want to call it, the only way we wind up there is if we don't allow the work of Jesus Christ to be processed on our behalf. That's how much God loves us, that He gave His son. And we are so conditioned to violence we don't even understand the cross. We are so conditioned to seeing humans going through pain, through Hollywood scenarios, et cetera, the stuff we see on the news that we don't even understand how bad the cross really was. Beaten as though a man had never been beaten, every joint out of socket though not a bone was broken 9 to 10 inch nails in His hands, in His feet, He is pierced, He bled, He died for you and for me because God loved us.

 

Pastor Eric:

So when we quote John 3:16, we're saying, He crucified His son. And when you get the revelation of this is how much God loves me and this is how much my sin cost heaven, it changes the way you love. So my issue was, I grew up in somewhat of a legalistic background. We didn't know we were legalistic we just were. And we had this whole thing of stuff you're not supposed to do, really long lists. And we honestly felt pretty good about ourselves as long as we weren't doing those things. I really want to start calling some of them off because you wouldn't believe the list. What a list. But as long as we didn't do those things, we were feeling good.

 

Pastor Eric:

And then when we did make a mistake and we did something we weren't supposed to do, we kind of had this ideology, "Okay, I need to spend some more time not doing something I enjoy so that God will be cool with me again." So I've always had a little challenge with my temper and God has done an incredible work in my life in that regard. But one day I got word that one of my really good friends had died. He was traveling and a flash flood overtook his car. The baby was in the back seat. He got out to rescue the infant and the flood took both of their lives. I had just gotten that news. I walked into an auditorium where someone was installing a fire alarm system for us and I saw that a mistake was being made and I shared with the guy he needed to do it my way, he let me know he was going to do it his way and the next thing I knew I was headed up a ladder.

 

Pastor Eric:

And I heard my father's voice, the same one that paralyzed me at 12 years old, "Eric." And it was the only thing that brought sense back to me. But when I came to myself, I was so embarrassed, I was humiliated. I thought, God will never be able to use me again. I don't know if I can ever be anointed to preach again. I can't believe that I'm a pastor and I just behaved this way. This is ridiculous. And so what I decided to do is that I was going to fast for 10 days. I was not going to eat anything. I was going to push back the food and I'm going to just get myself right with God. And at the end of the 10 days, I had scheduled a time to go to a mountain down in Tennessee, a little cottage I would go to pray and I knew that I'd be arriving just as the 10 days of fasting was ending. So now I'm walking into the cottage and as I open up the door, I verbally said, "Okay, God, I'm ready to talk about it."

 

Pastor Eric:

And I felt like the Holy spirit whispered back to me, "Eric, the same blood that is going to take to deal with this today was available 10 days ago." And for the first time in my life, I really began to realize how much sin cost heaven. And for the first time ever, I believe I gained a better understanding of what it means to boldly come before the throne of grace. And now when I mess up and I sin, and we all sin, I fail more than I would like to, but I've found I don't try to put off that conversation with God. Just as soon as I can, I try to get a private place and I just go before, I envision myself going before the throne of God and I got all this mess on me and I got all the shame of that sin and I realized that God has to revisit the cross of His son to fix me. And it changes the way that I envision sin.

 

Pastor Eric:

Sometimes when you're getting ready to go into that sinful moment and you're getting ready to let your flesh have its way, there's something about realizing how much he loved us that causes you to say, "Today, I'm going to love God instead of lust for the world. Today, I'm going to love people instead of lust for more for myself."

 

Pastor Eric:

I heard the story of a lady who was a prostitute. It took place in the 16th or 17th century. There was a man that was walking by and he saw her and he was just overtaken with her beauty. He was in love at first sight. He went to her and he communicated that he believed that she was the one that he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. And in that he refused any advances of lusts from his flesh. He spent days trying to win her attention. She felt shamed. She didn't feel worthy. And finally, as the relationship began to develop somewhat he actually paid for her freedom and bought her out of the slavery of prostitution in that time. He made her his wife. He gave her a life unlike anything she had ever known before.

 

Pastor Eric:

He happened to be a preacher. He spent his life sharing the good news and giving the gospel to other people and this woman is being loved in a way she's never been loved. Her heart is overwhelmed with gratitude and this relationship is continually developing until one day an official in the region decided that he was going to put a stop to Christianity. Her husband was seized and the announcement was made that on the next morning at the sounding of the bells, he would be publicly executed for his faith. She was heartbroken. The man that loved her, like she had never been loved before, the man that gave her a hope when she was hopeless, the man that had paid the price for her redemption, and now he's going to be killed.

 

Pastor Eric:

The next morning they went to ring the bells, but they wouldn't sound. As they began to investigate what was going on, they look up tens and tens of feet up into the air, in the middle of the night, this woman had risked her life to climb this bell tower and she had leaped out and grabbed a hold of the middle of the bell and wrapped her body around it and all night long she had hung there. And when they began to try and ring the bell, her body was absorbing the sound. They ripped her down from there and as they brought her into the official's office, her hands were cut and her body was scarred and she was bruised. And the official looked at her and said, "Why did you do this?"

 

Pastor Eric:

She said, "You said, when the bell sounded, my husband died. And I've never been loved the way he loved me and this was all I knew to do." And the official actually released her husband because of the love that she had displayed in return. Have you ever seen His love for you? Because when you really see His love for you, it changes the way you love Him back. And when you let that change take place, I'm telling you it's going to change the way that you love other people. And it becomes not just about, "I'm not going to do these things. It's that I am going to love God and I am going to love people and it's going to start from the heart inside out." Listen, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, then you need to get love God and love people on your to-do list. But it will never work unless you start at the cross and see how much that He loved you first.

 

Pastor Eric:

There's a lot of change that needs to be brought to our world and I believe that God is looking for His people to once again to give Him our heart. I'm slow, but I'm worth waiting on. In fact, I'm going to ask them to come and just begin to play softly and as they do, I want you to think about for a minute, have you been so focused on, I don't do this and I don't do that, that maybe, there's been a little bit of self-righteousness that's come into your life, maybe there's a little bit of religious entitlement that's come into your life and you find yourself, maybe even unintentionally, just feeling a little bit better than a few other people, because at least you don't do that.

 

Pastor Eric:

That happened in the ministry of Jesus. There was a man who was so focused on the fact that he didn't do what somebody else did that he thought he was okay and God had to let him know it was him that had the issue. You see, it's hard to think about sometimes, but we all need a heart check. And I think if America has missed anything over the last few months, we have made the focus about so many different things. And I believe what God wanted all along was just point blank, repentance. And I wonder if that could start with me and you in our own lives. Is there something we've heard said but now we hear Jesus saying and it becomes like a mirror to our heart? That's what He did that day with those people in Matthew chapter five. They had heard all this stuff said and then when Jesus starts talking to them, He says something and it became like a mirror to their heart beyond what they were doing with their hands.

 

Pastor Eric:

Is there prejudice in your heart? Is there bitterness in your heart, anger, hatred? What's in your heart? David had messed up, sinned pretty good little deal. You can tell he's broken. He realizes it's not just in his hands it's in his heart. Here's what he says in Psalms 51:9, he says, "Hide your face from my sin. God, blot out my iniquities, create in me a clean heart, oh God and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy spirit from me. Restore to me, the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit." The center of that prayer, create in me a clean heart, renew within me a right spirit.

 

Pastor Eric:

I want every single one of us to take a moment and just say, "God, is there something you need to clean in my heart? Is there something God that you need to reach deep down into the vessel of my life and just scrub on a little bit. God, is there a spirit that I've given place to in my life that Lord, I realize it is not of you? God, I thank you that right here, right now, there is the chance for redemptive power. God may we see the events of the cross. Even today, God, let us see the nails a little more clearly. Let us see the crown of thorns a little more clearly. Let us see the cross with a more vivid understanding of what it was that you did on our behalf and God today we thank you that redemption can belong to us. May we see your love towards us in a way that maybe we've never seen it before so that God now our love might be set ablaze for you and for others. And as we gauge our life, God, and we're setting our plans may everything that we do be filtered through loving you and loving others. As we understand how much you first loved us.

 

Pastor Eric:

God may be somebody under the sound of my voice today needs that moment with you for the very first time, maybe they feel far from you, maybe they feel distant from you, maybe they feel like their heart is a thousand miles away from you. God, I pray right now that your Holy Spirit would draw them near and that heaven you would begin to be made manifest in the hearts and the lives of your people. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, let's just say a little bit of that softly and give folks a chance to just continue to worship the Lord.

 

Speaker 3:

(singing)

 

Pastor Eric:

Come on, would you stand with me to your feet and say...

 

Pastor Eric:

(singing)

 

Pastor Eric:

Come on, receive His love, see His cross.

 

Pastor Eric:

(singing)

 

Pastor Eric:

Thank you, Jesus. Sing.

 

Pastor Eric:

(singing)

 

Pastor Eric:

God we worship you.

 

Pastor Eric:

(singing)

 

Pastor Eric:

This is what I want you to do. I want you to think about somebody that you know that desperately needs the love of God. And if that's you then have your moment with God, for sure. But maybe you're at a place where you've got some understanding of that, you've got some clarity with God in regards to the cross, His grace, His love. I want you right now to intercede on behalf of somebody. Somebody, you know, like, I see they're making bad life decisions. I see that they're just kind of headed down a track that it's like, the rails are coming off and right now, you know that they need in their life the love of God. I want you to pray that God would minister to them, move in their life maybe even through you or through somebody else that's able to expose them to His love.

 

Pastor Eric:

Father, right now we call out the names of sons and daughters and people we really love and people we really care about, maybe even people we work with. God, people that maybe we've even overlooked and God some people that we've thought about they're an enemy and we don't even really want to be close to them or have anything to do with them. That God, we thank you that right now, we get to pray a blessing over their life, we get to invite you to speak to us about how that we could show love to them, about how father you're going to use us in the highways and the hedges to find needs and to meet them and to display love in a way to which that God coincidence will never be able to take the credit for the things that you do in the lives of others.

 

Pastor Eric:

God, there are some people that are so caught up in the condemnation of their mistake, they're so caught up in the guilt and the shame of their personal failures that they don't even feel like it's possible to truly know love anymore. God, I just ask you that you would reveal yourself to them and that they would be able to find themselves singing with true authenticity, "He loves me. Oh, how He loves me. He loves me. Oh, how He loves me." God, I thank you and I praise you in Jesus name. Give us souls Father, give us souls. Jesus name this church said... Come on, give God praise one more time. Just thank Him for His love. Let it really mean something. God we thank you for your love. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your love. I got plans to love God and love people. Anybody going with me, come on, we're going to love God, we're going to love people.