Well, Actually I'm a Pastor. (Craig Makes Crashing Sounds!)

TOXIC; WEEK 5 TOXIC RELIGION Craig Groeschel

When I meet people and they ask me what I do for a living, I've got to be honest with you, I often want to lie. I never have, but I have been tempted to so many times, because I could be having a great conversation with somebody, and it's just kind of flowing along and then they say, "What do you do for a living?" I say, "Well, I'm a pastor of a church". Every time I say that, immediately the conversation changes. It goes generally in one of two directions. We could of been talking about just anything regular and as soon as I say that, it turns into this hyper-religious spiritual talk; "Oh! Well praise the Lord, hallelujah, thank you Jesus, glory to God, I'm a Christian too Brother Craig!"

The other way is if they're not a Christian, the conversation just tanks, I mean it just goes south, it crashes! I mean, we're getting along, we're having a good time; "So, what do you do for a living?"

"Well, actually I'm a pastor. (Craig makes crashing sounds!)

I had a guy, that we were just talking, a great time, getting along great. He asked me and I said, pastor. He said, "Oh! well, no offense but I'm not a religious person and I don't really like religious people!"

I said, "That's awesome because I'm not a religious person and I don't really like religious people either!"

He looked confused like many of you! I said, "No really, religious people, they truly drive me crazy!"

He's like, "How can you be a pastor and not like religious people?"

I tried to explain to him what I will try to explain to you. That is, God did not send His Son Jesus, who lived a sinless life, bore the penalty for our sin, bled and died, rose again from a cross; Jesus did not come to make us religious.

In fact, the root word for religion, it literally means a return to bondage. Jesus did not come to make us religious, but He came to set us free. In fact, in its essence, Christianity is not a religion. In its essence it is a relationship with a living God. He sent Jesus to reveal Himself to us so that we could know Him, be transformed by Him. In its essence, Christianity is not a religion, but instead it is a relationship.

Today, I want to talk to you about the danger of Toxic Religion. As we wrap up our series called Toxic let's one more time go over our working definition for the word toxic. What is toxic?

TOXIC: Anything containing poisonous material capable of causing serious sickness or even death.

It's anything containing poisonous material capable of causing serious sickness or even death. If there is anything causing all sorts of spiritual sickness around the world today, it is toxic religion. It's the purity of the message of God perverted and polluted by religion.

In fact let me give you an example; if you have your Bibles with you, or you want to log onto YouVersion to the Book of Galatians Chapter 1, I want to show you one of the most powerful examples of toxic religion. Let me give you the context. The Apostle Paul was in many ways a church planter. He would go into a community, he would lead people to Christ, he would raise up leaders, he would start a church, he would empower them. They would carry on the church and he would go and duplicate what he did there in other communities and he would check on them and write letters to them.

He did this in Galatia, where a great church was born and then he left and behind him came a group of people that were known as the Judaizers. What they did is they basically said, 'Well Paul, you know he's okay but he doesn't understand the whole message like we do and so the Jesus thing that he told you, that's good and everything, but to be right with God you need Jesus and you need to be circumcised.' In other words, you have to still obey the full Jewish law. The Judaizers came and they said, 'Jesus plus men, if you want to be right with Him you need to be circumcised.' This created as you can imagine, a lot of tension for every grown male, non circumcised guy alive! To me, I'm thinking of this from a very practical standpoint, I mean I would just hate to have to introduce that into our church culture. I mean gentlemen let's just be honest, it's really difficult to get most of you to even be baptized! I mean, we are talking you get wet! Imagine at the end of the service today I'm like, "Okay men, you want to be right with God?" I pull out a scalpel, "Come on forward, drop them and I will help you get close to Jesus!" It's a lot of tension!

So Paul is furious and he's unleashing on the Galatians, 'Why are you believing on this false religions?' Here's what he said, Galatians 1:6-7, he says:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:6-7

In other words, 'I'm just shocked beyond words that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and you are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and trying to...' do what? All of our locations help me out, '..they are trying to....pervert the gospel of Christ.'

Now, the Greek word that is translated as pervert, if you are taking notes, it can mean to:

Pervert: metastrepho (met-as-tref'-o); to pervert, to corrupt, to distort or to poison.

Here's what was going on, they were taking the purity of the Gospel and poisoning it with religion, Christ plus something else.

What I want to do for a few moments is talk to you about the two most common ingredients of toxic religion. Any time you see a toxic religion you are going to see these two elements; the first one if you are taking notes, toxic religion, it focuses on the external rather than the internal. It's an outward expression rather than an inward transformation, it's 'Look at how I perform'. Basically what it is is it's an outward effort to close the gap between sinful man and Holy God. It's an outward effort to close that gap. It's reducing Christianity to a bunch of rules. It's bringing Christianity down to just a list of do's and don'ts, and this is so common. It was even very common in the day of Jesus. There was a group of people that were very religious, very outwardly expressive, they were known as the Pharisees and quite honestly they lived a pretty upstanding life. As Christians, we have the 10 Commandments, the Pharisees, they had 613 commands they lived by. They memorized every single one of them and they did their best to outwardly live these commands. But the problem was, it was more of an external faith and it wasn't internally real and Jesus despised this type of religion. In fact, you can see Him unleash on the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25, He unloads and says: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Matthew 23:25

The Pharisees were all about the look. They would pray on the street corners, loud and long; 'Oh dear God! Listen to how righteous I am as I pray!' When they would go to the temple, they would take their offerings and hold it up for everybody to see before they put it at the alter, 'Look at how much money I give!' They would dress in such a way, 'Look at how holy I am!' 'Look at who I don't hang out with! I don't hang out with those people, you see, I am outwardly religious!' Jesus hated this!

In fact in so many ways, Life Church was born out of my reaction to outward religion. I grew up in that kind of external show. In fact, when I was in my early 20's, I was serving at a great church for five years. But because I wasn't the Senior Pastor, I didn't preach on the weekends, so occasionally I would fill in for other friends. I was speaking for a good friend on the south side of my town. Small church and they had two services, one was small and the other one was smaller. So, I did the first message and the place was really just kind of dead. I was telling this funny story, somebody would say, 'Well you think you're funny and you're not!' Point taken! But, this was really funny and nobody was laughing! There was this one guy sitting on the second row and he turned red and I could see this vein pop out! I was like, what's wrong with him? Afterwards he came up and said, 'Young man, that was the funniest story I've ever heard! You almost made me laugh in church!' Why didn't you? We don't laugh here!

So, we got through with one service and the receptionist came up to me and she said, "Oh Craig, this is so exciting! We are going to have a visitor at the next service, we are going to have a visitor!" Which was very rare obviously. I'm like, "How do you know?" She said, "The phone rang and there was this lady and she said she's really hurting and her life's messed up and she felt like she should just go to church and she didn't know where to go and she'd never been! She went through the phone...and she just called us here and we've got a visitor! You better do good!" I'm like, "Okay great!"

So we were standing outside greeting people as they came in. I was with the vein guy who was helping me greet. Sure enough the visitor drove up. You may say, well how do you know that was her? I'm telling you, it was obvious! Everybody else was dressed in church clothes and had their 18 pound Bibles and she got out looking like she'd just come from a very long, hard party! You know, not dressed like a church lady at all. Her body language showed she was nervous and she was just kind of looking up at the church and she was walking toward us. I was about to welcome her and vein guy stepped in front of me and said, "Young lady, at our church we wear our best for God, is that the best outfit you have?"

This lady turned around, got in her car and drove off. I'm telling you, at that moment something snapped inside of me and I promised God, if I ever have a chance to lead a church that will never, ever, ever happen under my watch because Jesus would never turn someone away because of the clothes they were wearing.

I'm telling you right now, if you're not religious, if you are religious; if you've got a lot of money or no money; the right labels, the wrong labels, no labels at all; black, white, yellow, orange, purple skin; highly educated, not educated; you are welcome here, you are welcome here, you are welcome here! No problems at all, all sorts of kinds of problems! You may say, 'Well, I don't have church clothes, I don't have church clothes', we have one dress code at Life Church and that is...please do! Cover your privates up, get yourself in here, Jesus is not about the external, it's all about the internal! But when you slip into a religious mindset, it's all about the show! It's look at me! Listen to me! Jesus hated that! That is toxic religion, and that is turning people away from God, when Christians misrepresent the purity of the Gospel. Jesus hated it and it is destructive.

TOXIC RELIGION FOCUSES ON THE EXTERNAL RATHER THAN THE INTERNAL.

The second thing it does if you are taking notes is this, it also:

PROMOTES SPIRITUAL PRIDE.

Doesn't it? It makes us feel like we are better than everyone else; we are right and everyone else is wrong. And again, Jesus despised this. In fact, He told a story specifically for the benefit of those people who were proud of their religion and righteousness. Here's what He said, Luke 18:9 and following, he said:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector...."

Now, if you don't know about tax collectors in this time, they were the most despised people in any community. They were known as the most corrupt. In fact, they basically had a license to steal. Let's say you owed $1,000.00 in taxes, well the way it was set up, if they could come and tell you that you owe $1,300.00 and convince you that you did, they could take and pay the government $1,000.00 and keep $300.00 for themselves. And that's what they did all of the time. So they were hated, they were very corrupt and very unrighteous. So you've got this Pharisee religious guy and this very corrupt tax collector.

"...The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get'." Luke 18:9-12

In other words, 'I am right and they are all wrong!' It's this religious, spiritual pride, 'I've got it figured out!' The problem with spiritual pride is it's almost impossible to see in the mirror because when you are convinced you're right, that everybody else is wrong and it's so easy to look down on everyone else. It turns people away from God all of the time.

I will give you an example; this guy one time came and just knocked on my front door. I opened the door and he was there to share his faith in Christ with me. I thought, that's pretty cool, I've never seen anyone do this so I will just give him a shot and just see how good he is.

He started in telling me about Jesus and finally I felt guilty and I said, "I've just got to interrupt you, I am sorry, I just thought it was cool you were here!" I said, "I'm a very committed Christian!"

He's like, "Oh, praise God that's awesome!" He said, "You've got to come to my church, my church is the best church in town! It's the best church!"

I said, "Man, I would love to come to your church, but again, I've got to be honest, I'm pretty involved in my own church!"

He's like, "Well, that's cool. What church do you go to?" I said, "Well, I'm actually a part of a church called, Life Church." And when I said this, his countenance changed and he got this concerned look on his face.

He looked over his shoulder and he said, "You go to Life Church?"

I said, "Yeah!"

He said, "Well, my pastor says your pastor doesn't preach the truth!"

I said, "Tell your pastor he needs to be circumcised and I volunteer to do it!"

I didn't say that okay, but I wanted to! And again, why is it that so many nonreligious, non-christian people despise Christianity? One of the reasons is, because Christians can't even get along with each other and then they look down on everyone else! It's this hypercritical, hypercritical, joyless, cynical, we are right, everyone else is wrong! I just want to make a very public statement to our church, that we are for other churches! If they criticize us and they will, don't defend anything. We don't have to justify and defend anything, we are just going to be for other churches. As long as they teach the Gospel of Christ, believe God's Word, it doesn't matter about style, stupid! I mean he's like, "Well our pastor is an expository teacher, that's the way to do it!"

No it's not! Jesus didn't do that!

"Well, our pastor is topical, that's the best way!"

No it's not! That's just a way!

"Well, we have organ music, which everybody knows pleases God most!"

No it doesn't!

"Well, we have smoke and fog and that's the best way!"

No it's not!

"Well we dress our best!"

"Well we dress casual!"

"Well, we do communion every week!"

"Well, we speak in tongues!"

You know, it's you're wrong and we're right!

"We are Catholic and do this..." Get over style! Get over style! Style and packaging doesn't matter, it's the message! Don't look down on anybody, don't have religious, spiritual pride! If you believe in what God is doing here, great! But, don't you dare think it's the best or only way to do church! It's just a reflection of who we are and who God has called us to be and we are for other churches, we are not against them!

Religion, toxic religion, it puffs up and makes you spiritually proud. We are better and they are worse. The non-Christian world looks on and goes, "Why would I want to be a part of such miserable, joyless, hypercritical people?" Because Jesus didn't come to make us religious, He came to set us free, full of joy, full of life, full of victory, unity, love, compassion for one another. Toxic religion, it poisons, it destroys.

So, take a step back. We are not going to embrace toxic religion. Instead, what we are going to do is sell out to the purity of the Gospel. The word Gospel, it literally means Good News. It is the best news that you will ever hear. Some of you, you grew up around the church like I did and you never understood the Gospel like I didn't. Others of you, you're not a churchy person at all and you don't quite understand what's going on. I want you to hear as clearly as I can present it, the purity of the Gospel, why God sent Jesus; not to make us religious, that's a return to bondage, but instead to set us free.

So, we will look at three verses and then I will unpack it in three very simple, easy to understand thoughts.

Romans, Chapter 3:20-22; my favorite and most simple verses to understand the Good News. Paul said:

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His (God's) sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known...This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe...Romans 3:20-22

Let's break it down. Three things:

1) Understand...YOU CANNOT EARN GOD'S ACCEPTANCE BY OBSERVING THE LAW.

You cannot work your way to God. Religion says you can please God by your external works. You are right with God by what you do or you don't do. 'I don't drink and I don't smoke and I don't chew and I don't run with girls who do! I must be right with God!'

'I don't go see rated R movies, I read my Bible, I give money, I don't cuss unless I hit a bad golf swing, but I am right with God by what I do, that's what religion says.

Romans 3:20 says this, help me everybody aloud:

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His (God's) sight by observing the law...Romans 3:20

You can't do it, you cannot work your way to God! Then, why the law? Why do we need the law? Thought number two:

2) THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW IS TO SHOW YOU YOUR NEED FOR A SAVIOR.

That's why the law is there. Romans 3:20 again: ...no one will be declared righteous...by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Romans 3:20

Let's just take the 10 Commandments. Have any of you ever told a lie? Guilty, if you are not raising your hand you are lying! Anybody ever lusted? Jesus said that if you lust you commit adultery in your heart. Anybody ever coveted something? Envied something? Wanted what your neighbor had? Anybody ever put something ahead of God? Idolatry, the number one, what does that do? Then you go, 'Oh, I've done all of these; check, check, check, I'm good enough!'

What the law does is it says, I am bad, I'm a sinner; it shows not that you need religion, it shows that you need a Savior. The law reveals your need for a Savior. You cannot earn God's acceptance by observing the law. The law shows you your need for a Savior.

Number three, and here's the Good News:

3) RIGHTEOUSNESS WITH GOD COMES BY FAITH IN CHRIST ALONE.

It is Christ plus nothing! Not Christ plus circumcision, not Christ plus church membership, not Christ plus how much money you give, not Christ plus how you behave; righteousness with God comes by faith in Christ and Christ alone. Romans 3:22:

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe...Romans 3:22

Does all include a doubter? Does all include a bad sinner? Does all include someone who really messed up? Does all include someone who grew up in church? Does all include someone who didn't grow up in church? All includes anyone who puts their faith in Christ, they will receive the righteousness of God and they will be totally forgiven. Righteousness with God comes through faith in Christ and Christ alone.

Let me explain it this way; for five years before starting Life Church, I had the honor of serving at one of my favorite churches in the world. It was a very traditional church, but very Biblical. So, because it was traditional, we had up front, maybe some of you have seen this, where the pastors would sit, they had thrones. Anybody ever see the thrones? They had four of them, they had two in the middle that were king-size thrones; big honking, important looking thrones! Then, on both sides they had junior thrones; little bitty thrones for junior pastors! If you were ordained, which I told you last week I was not ordained, I did not glow in the dark! I do now! But, at the time I didn't! If you were ordained, you got to sit in the king-size throne and you got to have a robe with ordination stripes; cocky, beautiful, holy looking ordination stripes! If you were not ordained as I was not, we had these dirty looking, old, pathetic, stripe-less robes! They looked like 40-year old choir robes! And so, I wore my stripe-less, dirty, choir robe, was sitting in the junior throne, while the important guys sat in the other place.

Every week I'd sit there and as our pastor would preach, I would do kind of what our campus pastors probably do. I mean honestly, they will hear me speak 6 times on the weekend, and probably the first two or three they are kind of into it, four or five, they've heard that story, they are probably texting their wife, 'What's for lunch today?' That's kind of what I was doing! I had heard it several times. I'm sitting there, leg crossed listening you know, and I'd say, "Amen! Good preaching!" At the right time, because that was my job! But, I noted my leg started to fall asleep and so I thought, that's kind of cool, never happened before. So, I just tightened my grip around and I thought, 'I'm going to see how asleep I can make this thing!' It started getting that tingly feeling like needles shooting through my butt, you know, it's like asleep, asleep! Wow! That's awesome!

Sure enough, Pastor Nate, my pastor; in five years of working with him, he never did this before and never did it since. In the middle of my whole butt and leg being asleep he said, "Hey Craig, would you stand up for a second?"

So, I'm standing up and he's like, "What are you doing?"

I'm like, "My leg is asleep!"

He's like looking at me funny and he said, "Here's what I want you to do" he said, "Can you tell me, is your robe nice looking?"

I said, "No!"

He said, "Is your robe dirty?"

I said, "Yes!"

He said, "Is my robe nice looking?"

I said, "Yes."

He said, "Is my robe beautiful?"

I said, "Yes."

He said, "Let me show you what Christ did for you." He said, "Take off your dirty robe."

I unzipped my robe and took it off. He took his beautiful robe and he said, "When Christ died for you, He clothed you with His robe of righteousness." He put His robe on me and said, "This is how God now sees you, He no longer sees you as dirty and filthy and a sinner. Because of your faith in Christ, He sees the robe of righteousness, He sees the righteousness of Christ surrounding you."

It's not based on what you do or have done, it's based on what Jesus did. Christ's righteousness has become your righteousness. You are clothed with the robe and the righteousness of Christ when you believe. That's why it's the Good News. That's why it's not religion. Jesus did not come to make us religious, where you return to bondage. Religion, it's all about me! Relationship with Christ is all about Christ! Religion is all about my external works, relationship with Christ is all about His perfect work! You could spell religion DO, it's about what you do. Relationship with Christ is spelled DONE, He did it all! It's been paid for! Relationship says, I obey God because He loves me! Religion says, If I work hard and perform for Him, then He might love me! Relationship says, I am who I am because of His goodness. Religion says, I'm trying to prove who I am by my performance! Now, some of you I know what you are going to think; well if you just tell people that they're right with God by faith in Christ, then they can do whatever they want to do. No! That's missing the entire point. When you realize who He is, the Son of God, and what He's done for you, that He was without sin, that He bore the pain of our sin, that He became sin, that He shed His blood and died and rose again. When you realize what He has done and who He is, your only reasonable response is, take my whole life! Take my whole life! Not out of a religious effort to please Him, but out of a response to His goodness, His holiness and His love. People hate religious people, holier than thou, hyper-critical. It's all an outward show. The Pharisee said, 'Look at me, look at how good I am! I thank my God I am not like him!'

The tax collector, you know what he did? He did what I hope you do, where you don't think you're something hot and special, but instead you realize, "I am messed up!" And you're authentic and transparent of your deep and genuine need for a Savior. And here's what He did in His humility, verse 13-14 of Luke 18:

But the tax collector stood at a distance....

He didn't get up close, he's hanging back at the back.

....He would not even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner....'

Here's what Jesus said, check this out:

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God..." Luke 18:13-14

This man (the tax collector), rather than the other (the self righteous, hypercritical and religious Pharisee); this man, the tax collector, the sinner, went home justified before God because Jesus did not come to make you religious. He didn't come to take you back to a performance bondage. He came to set you free. Christianity in its essence is not a religion, it's a relationship with a living God, through His Son Christ, empowered and made alive through the Holy Spirit. When you get that, you will never be the same.

All of our locations praying together; Father, would you pierce us with the truth of your Gospel and clear our minds of the pollution of toxic religion.

As you are praying today at all of our locations, I am just curious and be really honest, how many of you at some point have maybe been hurt by toxic religion, judgmentalism, hypercriticalism, or maybe by a church or Christians? How many of you would say, "I've been hurt by that?" Raise your hands up right now, raise them up. A bunch of you.

How many of you would say maybe you grew up like I did? I was always afraid I'd never be good enough. In the church world, we call it a works righteousness. We think if we work hard enough we can be righteous with God. I always felt very unworthy, I felt unloved, I wondered where do I....and I was always afraid, I never quite knew where I could stand with God. If that's you, just lift up your hands right now.

God, I pray for these two groups. God, first for those who have been hurt. God, I know so many people will reject you because they've been hurt by those who call themselves your people. I pray God, that we could separate the hurts from a church or from people, separate that from you and realize people are not you.

God for those who have been hurt, I pray for healing. And God, I know as imperfect as I am in the church, I know I've hurt people, I know people have been disappointed in me. God, I know it's so easy to get hurt by those who call themselves Christians; a business deal didn't work out, or someone didn't keep their word. God, keep us from rejecting you because of what someone did. Bring healing in our hearts.

God for those who are stuck in a performance mindset, in legalism, in a works righteousness, I pray that the truth of your Gospel would penetrate our hearts and we would never ever be the same.

As you keep praying today, I want to talk directly to you. Everybody listen carefully. Nobody moving around, nobody looking around. There are many of you, you've wondered your whole life, "Am I good enough for God?" "Where do I stand with God?" "Have I done enough good things and not done enough bad things?" "Am I okay because I go to church every now and then, I try to help people, I'm not as bad as so and so?" And the answer is no, you're not! None of us are good enough for God. You have to recognize that. The purpose of the law is to show you that you need a Savior. None of us are good enough for God!

So we often think we will clean our lives up and we'll try harder and we'll hope for the best and we'll hope God grades on a curve, He doesn't! If we fail at any part of the law, we are guilty of wrecking the whole law! We are guilty! That's why we need a Savior. That is the Good News, that God so loved you that He sent Jesus, His only Son, who was without sin. He became sin for us. He was the Lamb of God. He was the perfect and final sacrifice. He shed His blood so we could be forgiven.

Many of you, you've doubted your standing with God for years. Some of you, you are like a wild party person or you're not religious at all, but right now you are being drawn to God. You wonder what that is, that is the Holy Spirit of God, that is why you're here.

And guess what, today no matter where you've been, how you've grown up, what religion you've followed or thought might be right; today, you're hearing truth and you're being drawn to it and what you're going to do is you're going to surrender, you're going to call on Jesus.

Others of you, you grew up kind of around the things of Christianity like I did, but you've always wondered, you've always doubted, you've always feared. Today, you are going to settle the issue. Here's the Good News, you can't earn it! You can only receive it and today you're going to call and you're going to trust in Jesus, and Jesus alone and you are going to be saved. Every sin you've ever committed is going to be forgiven. The Bible says that you are a new creation, all of the old is gone and behold the Bible says, "Everything becomes new!" That's why you're here today!

All of our locations, those of you who would say, "Yes, I want to settle the issue, faith in Christ and Christ alone, I call on Him! Take all of my life! My only response to your goodness is to give you my whole life! Save me, I give it to you!"

If that's your prayer today lift your hands high now! All over the place, lift them up, leave them up high! Lift them up, leave them up! I want to see you face to face! All three of you right here, praise God for you! Both of you here together, thank you God! Sweetheart, right there, sir right here, I want to see your eyes! Right back over there, God bless you as well. I want to see you. Right back over here sir, praise God for you! Right back over here toward the back, let me see you, I want to welcome you! All three of you right here, ladies, praise God for you! Sir, right here, I surrender! Right back here in this middle section, both of you, welcome into the family of God! Both of you right back over here, welcome into God's family. Both of you right over here; thank you, Jesus for your work, your forgiveness.

Others of you, right here in the middle section. Take it all Jesus, take it all Jesus, take it all Jesus! Right back over here, right back over there, both of you toward the back saying, "Yes, I surrender!"

Would you all together as the family of God pray with those around you, just pray aloud pray; Heavenly Father, take all of my life, I am a sinner, I need a Savior. Jesus, save me. I believe you are enough. You died for me and you rose again so I could live for you. Fill me with your spirit, my life belongs to you. Thank you for new life, now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray!

Life Church, go a little bit crazy worshiping the goodness of God through Christ! Wow!