Have you ever wondered what should come between salvation and heaven? How does God want you to live in the in-between? Our heavenly Father designed a unique plan for you before you were even born—and He wants you to pursue it with anticipation and confidence. Dr. Stanley points us toward the principles God established for abundant life as we seek His will, learn His ways, and engage in His purposes.
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Dr. Charles Stanley: I
was twelve years of age.
I always sat on the second
row and the first seat
there on the aisle.
On this particular
Sunday, a lady was preaching.
And I don’t exactly
remember what she said.
In fact, I don’t remember
anything she said except when
they gave the invitation, it was
about seven steps to the altar.
I went straight to the altar,
got on my knees and
asked the Lord to save me.
And before I knew it, I had
five of my Sunday School buddies
around me praying
that I’d get saved.
But I remember thinking, “Okay
now, Lord, I’m saved.
Now what?
And nobody ever said another
thing to me about–anything
about the future, nothing.
Then I began to think, “Well,
Lord, You saved me.
what did You save
me for anyway?”
And then I began to think and
pray about it and I thought,
“Well, Lord, maybe You
have something for me to do.”
Wasn’t very long before I
realized and learned and reading
the scripture, God has a will,
a plan for all of His children.
And if you will turn to
Colossians for a moment,
and I want us to begin reading
in this ninth verse and read
through the twelfth verse.
And I want you to listen
very carefully to this message.
In the ninth verse, Paul
writes to the Colossians,
“For this reason also,
since the day we heard of it,
we have not ceased to pray for
you and to ask that you may be
filled with the knowledge
of His will in all
spiritual wisdom
and understanding.
So that you will walk in a
manner worthy of the Lord,
to please Him in all respects,
bearing fruit in every good work
and increasing in
the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all power,
according to His glorious might,
for the attaining of all
steadfastness and patience;
joyously giving thanks
to the Father, who has qualified
us to share in the inheritance
of the saints in Light.”
Filled with the
knowledge of His will.
When is the last time you ever
thought about that God has a
will, He has a
plan for your life.
You probably were saved at
some point in your life
and thought, “Well, that’s it!”
And you got baptized and joined
the church and you just
sort of been living
out your life.
Has anybody ever told you that
God has a plan for your life?
We’re not like a herd of cattle.
We are specifically
people, singular,
responsible to
Almighty God for our life.
He has a will and a
purpose and a plan
for every single one of us.
The tragedy is that most
people will go through life
and never hear that.
They’ll always think that I’m
just one of a herd of people
that God saved
and I’m on
my way to Heaven and that’s it.
No.
He saved you one at
a time, personally,
because He has a
will for your life.
What is His will?
Listen to this.
I want to be sure
you get it clearly.
That which God approves of
and determines to bring about.
It concerns God’s
choices of what to do
and what not to do in our life.
God has a will and a
plan for your life.
It doesn’t make any
difference how old you are,
where you came from,
what the situation is,
God has a plan for your life.
Don’t ever listen
to someone tell you,
“Well, you’re not important.”
Anytime anybody looks at you
and tells you that you’re not
important, you look
at the Cross and say,
“I’ll tell you
why I’m important.
He died for me.
He not only died for me,
but He died for everyone,
but everybody’s important.”
So, have you ever thought
about the fact that God
has a will for your life?
He knows all about
your background.
All the things that you
would bring up and
say, “Well, God couldn’t use me.
He couldn’t do this,
He couldn’t do that.”
He knows all about you.
He knew about you
before you were ever born.
He has a will and a
plan for all of our lives.
The tragedy is that most people
will never think about that.
They are never told that.
They never thought
about that, that God
had a special plan
for their life.
Yes, He does.
Well, what’s God’s
plan for my life?
Have you ever asked Him?
I’ll bet most of you have never
asked Him because you never
heard the fact that He
has a plan for your life.
You think, “Well, He saved
me, I guess that’s His plan.”
Step one.
That’s step one.
He has a plan for your life.
He wants to
accomplish something,
and you’re not the
same thing for everybody,
but something for
you personally, specifically.
And I think about
my mom, for example.
She lived to be about
eighty-some years of age.
And she spent her life
working in a textile
mill for forty years.
And probably if you had asked
her, and I–we used to talk
about this, asked her, “Well,
Rebecca, what do you think
God’s purpose for
your life was?”
She’d probably say,
“Well, I don’t know.
I guess it’s just bringing you
into the world and raising you,”
that’s probably what she’d say.
And so, I think about that is
one of His purposes in life.
Don’t ever underestimate what
God can do with a little bit.
And God has a
plan for your life.
And what I want to ask you
to do is to listen carefully,
because there are
three aspects of His plan.
And so, think about
it in this light.
First of all, there’s God’s
predestined will, and that
means He’s referring to those
things that He will do.
His predestined will will
happen and nothing
can interfere with it.
No matter what’s
happening in the world,
He has a predestined will.
Those things He will do.
This is–or His overriding
sovereign will by which He
operates in the world in general
and in our lives personally.
It is irresistible,
unchangeable, and unconditional.
That is, His predestined
will cannot be changed.
No matter what
happens, who it happens in,
through, cannot be changed.
And a good example of His
predestined will is the cross.
He predestined the
death of Jesus before
the world was ever created.
He makes no mistakes.
His predestined will we
can’t do anything about.
We’re just here.
Then there’s His moral will.
Now, watch this.
This applies to every one of
us, and let’s go back to Exodus
chapter twenty, and
you know what this says.
Listen to this, “You
shall not murder.”
Period.
“You shall not commit adultery.”
Period.
“You shall not steal.
You shall not
bear false witness.
You shall not covet
your neighbor’s
house,” and belongings.
That’s just part.
That’s just part
of His moral will.
And then I’ll turn to First
Thessalonians chapter four,
and this is a part of His will
also, His moral will.
Now, listen to this.
The Ten Commandments,
we understand that.
That’s it.
His moral will.
That’s His will
morally for all of us,
for everybody, no
matter who they are.
Well, what does
His moral will say?
And then this fourth
chapter, “Finally then,
brethren, we request and exhort
you in the Lord Jesus Christ,
as you received from us
instructions as to how you ought
to walk and please God,
just as you actually do,
that you excel even more.”
And then listen to what he says.
This is His moral will, “For you
know what commandments we gave
you by the authority of
the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Listen carefully, “For
this is the will of God,
your sanctification,”
to live a holy life,
“that is, that
you,” to be specific,
“that you abstain
from sexual immorality;
that each of you know how
to possess his own vessel in
sanctification and honor,
not in lustful passion,
like the Gentiles,” unbelievers,
“do who know not God.”
Now, this is a part
of God’s moral will.
We have the Ten Commandments,
and specifically he identifies
in this chapter of
Thessalonians, “This is the will
of God, your sanctification;
that is, that you
abstain from sexual immorality.”
That is the law
of the Living God.
It doesn’t make any
difference what you think.
Doesn’t make any difference what
group you belong to or where
you’re from or
whatever it might be.
And it is a moral law of God
for which all of us will give an
account for by the
way we respond to it.
And we have people
today who want to,
they want to defend
all kind of things.
The scripture says, “Abstain
from sexual immorality.”
That each one of us should
know how to handle ourselves,
“not in lustful passion,
like the Gentiles,” like the
unbelievers, “who
do not know God.”
Every believer knows
God through Jesus Christ.
We live under the moral law
of God to abstain from sexual
immorality, which
is a major, major,
major cause of sin,
wickedness, vileness,
and a lot of other
things in this country.
And people can
reason all they want to.
When you go back
to the Word of God,
it is absolutely crystal
clear that it is a sin against
Almighty God, a sin
against His moral law.
Then, of course,
there is one other,
and that is God’s desired will.
Now, we say His predestined
will cannot be changed.
His moral law is a
law we should live by.
God’s desired will is
this, listen carefully,
those things He
desires for us: salvation,
baptism, the fruit of
the Spirit in our life,
service, giving,
forgiving, loving,
praying about everything,
many decisions in our life.
That is, there are
three parts to His will.
His predestined will,
which cannot be changed.
His moral will for
which we are responsible.
God’s desired will is
for our whole life.
Somewhere in
this, you are today.
Most people will go to church
year after year after year and
nobody ever mentioned the fact
that God has a will for your
life personally,
specifically, and you’re
responsible to give an account.
Why all these passages about
judgment and give an account for
our life if we
weren’t responsible.
We are responsible.
And all of us who
proclaim the Word of God,
we are very responsible for
reminding ourselves and each
other that we have a moral law
by which God wants us to live.
We have a spiritual law of
the Lord Jesus Christ who lives
within us to be obedient
to Him in every
single area of our life.
And so here you are
today at this age,
in this place in
time of history,
and you are living out a life,
the life that you feel like at
this point in your
life is the best.
Or maybe you
don’t like your life.
Maybe you’d change a lot
of things in your life.
So, let me ask you this.
What about your moral life?
What about the fact that God has
a–He has a will for your life?
He has a purpose for your life.
He has a plan for your life.
You say, “Well, I don’t
know what that plan is.”
Have you ever asked Him?
Have you ever asked God, “What’s
Your will for my–what am I
doing here anyway, Lord?
What’s my purpose?”
God has a purpose for
every single person.
We don’t understand
all that God does,
but He has a will
for us because listen,
we’re not one of
a bunch of sheep.
Each one of us has a name,
a heritage, a personhood.
We are specific persons made
by Almighty God, and He
has a plan for our life.
They’re not the same.
It doesn’t mean one is
better than the other.
It’s just where we are in life,
and it’s just the fact that God
has placed us here
and given some people
seemingly hard times.
Sometimes it’s easy times.
Watch this, we are morally
responsible to God to live
a moral, obedient life.
And He is responsible for
enabling us, helping us,
strengthening us, giving us
wisdom and guidance in life.
So, watch this.
Nowhere does He say,
“You’re to be like her.
You’re to be like him.”
No.
God has a will for your life.
And He is more than
willing to show you.
And the primary reason most
people don’t know God’s will for
their life is, first of all,
they never even
heard that He has a will.
And secondly, they wouldn’t
know how to talk about it
or what to ask.
I’m simply saying to you
that you are a specific person,
and that God has a purpose and
will and plan for your life.
And He will bless you
according to your obedience
to what you know.
And so, I think about so
many people who live out
their lives, they’re not happy.
They don’t feel fulfilled.
If you say, “If you had another
chance you could start life
again, where would you start.
Would you change anything?”
Most people’d
change something.
But watch this.
Here’s one thing you will
never be able to change.
God loves you perfectly.
He loves you perfectly.
He has a will for your life.
You may be at the point in your
life that you’ve lived half of
your life or three fourths of
it or ninety percent of it,
but God has a plan for you.
Listen to me, life is a jewel,
it’s a gift from God.
And He gives us abilities
and talents and skills to do,
for example, you think about
the people who do things that
absolutely we would have thought
fifty years ago it’s impossible.
There are brilliant people.
They’re so
brilliant in some areas,
they think they don’t need God.
What a tragedy!
We all need Him.
No two of us are alike,
and God loves every single
one of us just the same.
So, let me ask you: Where are
you in light of the will of God?
You say, “Well, I’ve
never thought about it.”
Well, you need to start thinking
about it today because you’ll
have to think about it today
because I’m reminding you of it.
You’ll have to think about it.
That the Holy God, Almighty God,
before whom all of us will stand
one day and give an
account for our life.
Read First Corinthians,
we’re going to give
an account for our life.
And some people will die having
only known the Lord a few days
or a few weeks,
sometimes a few minutes.
So you say, “What
about so-and-so
and so-and-so and and so,
you know, what about–“
Forget so-and-so.
You think about your life.
You’ve heard the gospel.
You’ve had opportunities, you’ve
had awesome opportunities.
Maybe you didn’t have
too many opportunities.
Maybe you’ve never
felt loved in your life.
God loves you, He has
a plan for your life.
You say, “Well, what about
this at this point in my life?
Listen carefully, He’ll pick you
up right where you are,
right where you are.
He’ll start today
in this minute.
If you said, “God, I never
thought about this before.
I want to do–I want the rest
of my life to be in Your will.
Lord, whatever it
takes, here I am.
He’ll pick you up right where
you are and He, watch this,
He will enable you to do your
best the rest of your life.
But what He needs and is waiting
for is your willingness to
surrender to His will.
Because watch this.
He always has the best.
Does that mean the same?
No.
I don’t understand why He
allowed some people to suffer
the way they suffer.
Don’t understand why people grow
up the way they have to grow up,
situations and
circumstances, but God knows.
And all of His judgments will be
according to His perfect will.
He knows our opportunities.
He knows the things that
people are plagued with.
And He knows the
opportunities He’s given us.
So, the issue is this.
Not what I have I
done or what have I missed?
But, God, beginning today–maybe
you never thought about the fact
that He has a
will for your life.
And you see, watch this,
you don’t know what kind
of influence you have.
Some of you’ve had
tremendous influence
that you’ve not
even thought about.
And some of you
have thought about it.
You have an opportunity.
You have influence.
You have testimony.
You have the privilege of
living a life with God
if you choose to.
Now, watch this.
If you had never heard
before–if you’ve never heard
before that He has a
plan for your life,
what does He do?
I’ll say it again: picks
you up right where you are,
begins to show you His will
from this point on in your life.
Lord, I never
knew You had a will.
Yes.
Well, Lord, I’m–I want
to know what Your will is.
Yes, He’ll show you.
Well, Lord, what is Your will?
He will begin to put
people around you,
in your path,
something, something you read,
something you hear,
message you may hear,
that you begin to realize,
“Well, God, I never thought
about You having a
will for my life.
Well, Lord, I want to
surrender my life to You,
that whatever You
have in mind for me,
Lord, here I am.”
Watch this, that’s
always the place to start.
God, He knows what opportunities
you’ve had and have not had.
And He knows that He’ll take
you wherever you’re willing to
surrender yourself to Him.
He will begin right
there and do what?
Work out the best in your life.
You don’t ever give up.
You never quit,
because God doesn’t give up.
He doesn’t quit on you.
He’ll take you
right where you are.
Some people are brilliantly
brilliant in many areas.
Some people have little of that.
You know what, God takes them
both right where they are,
and when they stand before them,
they will not be judged on the
basis of how smart or
how ignorant they were.
They’ll be judged–we will all
be judged on the basis of what
did we do with what we
knew and what we had?
That puts us all in
the same category.
The smarter and those
who are less fortunate,
whatever it might be, God
has a will for your life.
And when I look at
this, He says that we
“May be filled with the
knowledge of His will,” which
means that God, He, listen,
He’ll give you whatever you need
to begin today if
you ask Him, “Lord,
I missed it
somewhere back yonder.
Please forgive me, but I’m
surrendering myself to You today
that whatever You want to do
in my life, God, here I am.
I probably messed up,
Lord, but here I am.
Will He forgive you?
Absolutely.
Do you have to beg Him to?
No.
All you have to do is surrender
your life at this point.
Lord, I, from this point on, I
want whatever You have for me.
You may be surprised and amazed
at what He does with your life,
even after you’re sixty-five
or seventy years of age.
Remember, we’re talking about
God who knows no limitations.
And some people do their
greatest work very late in life.
God knew what was
inside of them.
Listen, He knows how to arrange
you opportunities you could
never figure out for yourself.
He knows how to
change things that
you think are not changeable.
He knows how to reserve the best
blessings for you later in life.
The issue is: Have you
ever thought about it?
Have you ever thought about
the will of God for your life?
And so, when I think about that
and I think about the fact that
He will show us, it’s consistent
with the character of God to
show you His will.
In other words, We’re talking
about beginning right now.
We can’t change the past,
but here’s what we can do.
We can say, “God, I blew it.
I–if I’d-a had another chance,
I might have done something
else, but I’m asking You to
forgive me for my failures,
forgive me for my ignorance.
Maybe I didn’t pursue it, Lord.
Asking You to forgive me.
And Lord, just enable me
from this point to walk in Your
footsteps and to
follow Your will.”
Listen, all of us
have had second chances,
third, fourth, fifth, sixth, how
many chances all of us have had,
the grace of God,
the love of God.
Listen, God isn’t up
there trying to judge you.
God wants to live His life in
and through you, and He’ll take
you wherever you’ll
surrender yourself to Him.
You can’t do better
than having Jesus,
the Lord, the second
Person of the Trinity,
living His life in you and
picking you up where you are and
taking you on to what He
had in mind to begin with.
The will of God, the purpose
of God, the plan of God.
And it’s out, listen, it would
be out of God’s character to
refuse to hear you.
Somebody says,
“Well, I’ve been so bad,
God can’t hear me.”
Listen, anytime you
think about that,
think about the Apostle Paul.
He’s killing Christians,
murdering Christians,
taking away
everything that they had.
And God reached down, blinded
him till he couldn’t do anything
but say, “Lord,
have mercy upon me.”
Listen, nobody who
ever prayed, “God,
be merciful to me,” God
never turned a deaf ear.
If He could use a fellow
like the Apostle Paul,
who spent most of his
life destroying Christians,
and then look what happens.
Every time I open this Book
and I turn to one of these books
like Colossians and I
think about the Apostle Paul,
people hated him and they
were scared to death of him.
Look what God did with him.
Watch this carefully.
Are you listening?
Say amen.
You can’t be so bad
that God won’t save you.
You can’t be so evil
that God can’t change you.
You can’t be so bad, so wicked,
so vile that He can’t make
something out of you
that’ll amaze you.
Don’t give up.
Don’t quit.
And don’t think that God
doesn’t care about you anymore.
And when I think
about God, hallelujah,
you can use anybody, if
we’re willing to let Him do it.
So where would you consider
yourself to be as far as the
will of God in your life?
Maybe you’ve said,
“Well, I never even
heard about it before.”
Oh, I knew about it, but I was
too busy doing my own thing.
I knew about it, but I
had something else in mind.
And here you are this
morning and you’re
hearing about it again.
I pray that you won’t ever have
to hear about it another time
before you surrender your life
to the Lord Jesus Christ and see
what He’ll do in your life.
You say, watch this,
here’s the problem.
Satan whispers in our ear.
You can’t do that.
Who do you think
you are going to be?
Don’t listen to the devil.
Listen to the Spirit of God who
will take you right where you
are, forgive you, cleanse you,
fill you with the Holy Spirit,
and do more through you and in
you than you could ever figure.
Listen, if I should ask
you: Would you like to
have a second chance?
Most people would.
There are some things
in my life, if I had
a second chance,
I’d change a few things.
And I think all of us would.
That’s not the issue.
The issue is: Lord,
here’s my life today.
Whatever’s left, God,
here’s my life today.
Look, you don’t look around to
watch what other people do and
you look up to say, “God, here
I am at this point in my life,
at this age or this
scope of my life.
God, whatever You want
to do, I’m offering
You what’s left, Lord.”
God can do an amazing work in
what’s left because He loves us,
because He knows
exactly what we need.
He delights in showing
us His will for our life.
And I want to read you
three passages of scripture,
so, let’s turn to Psalm sixteen,
and it is the eleventh verse
of the sixteenth Psalm.
Listen, “You will make
known to me the path of life;
in Your presence
is fullness of joy;
in Your right hand there
are pleasures forevermore.”
Look at that, “You will make
known to me Your path of life.”
Will you have to be
a certain age or
much ability, talent, and skill?
No.
You ask Him.
So, watch this.
If you left church today, you
went home and you got in your
bedroom, you got on your
knees or sat in your easy chair,
whatever, and you
said to Almighty God,
“Lord, I heard it.
I’ve messed up badly, but today
I’m surrendering my life to You
that for the rest of my life,
I want You to have
Your way in my life.”
You will be shocked
at what God will do.
Let me give you another verse:
Psalm thirty-two verse eight.
And you’ve heard me
talk about this verse,
probably several times.
Listen to this
verse, Psalm thirty-two,
“I will instruct you and teach
you in the way which you should
go; I will counsel you
with My eye upon you.”
Listen to that, “I will
instruct you and teach you
in the way which you should go.”
Is that by a certain age?
No.
Certain person?
No.
That’s His offer to all
of us who are willing
to listen to Him.
You may think, “Well, I’ve
really blown it in my life.
I really messed it up.
I wish I’d done better.
But Lord, today
whatever’s left, here’s my life.
What will You do with me?”
You will be
surprised at what He’ll do.
And so, when I think about these
verses and think about how many
times, Proverbs
three five and six,
for example, one of
my favorite passages,
“Trust in the Lord
with all your heart,
lean not to your
own understanding.
In all your ways
acknowledge Him.”
And what’s His promise?
“He will direct your path.”
Just trust Him.
See what He’ll do.
So, there are things that often
hinder us from discovering and
doing the will of God, and I’m
going to give you a little quick
list of them, because oftentimes
we come to a place of decision
and we give God some excuse.
So, think about this.
Things that hinder us
from discovering
the will of God for our life.
Number one, self-will.
We can’t get all over
what we want to do,
how we want to do it.
Secondly, the
influence of other people.
We let other
people influence us,
“Oh, that won’t work.
Well, why would you want to
try something like that?”
You’re talking to God
who works the impossible.
Ignorance of the Word of God,
think about all the promises He
gives us about answered prayer.
And then doubt, “Well, I
don’t think God could do
that in my life.”
Listen, the God who created this
world can do anything He chooses
to do, no matter
what’s been in the past.
That’s who He is.
Feelings of unworthiness, “Well,
that may work for somebody,
but not for me because
I’ve really blown it bad.”
God is willing to
love you, forgive you,
cleanse you, and give
you a new beginning.
“Well, I’m too
busy to deal with that.”
Listen, you don’t want to die
having rejected Jesus Christ.
Do you think God is
going to accept an excuse?
Well, I would have, but
I just didn’t have time.
There are people who are
so foolishly busy, they
don’t have time for God.
Listen, fear, “Well, I know
that’s what God wants me to do,
but I just don’t
think I could do that.”
Probably every preacher who’s
ever stood in a pulpit has told
God at first, “Ohhh,
I couldn’t do that.
I couldn’t stand in
front of all those people.
Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.”
You can’t deliberately,
willfully choose to disobey God
and be happy with your life.
And there are a lot of
people because of their money,
they can cover up
a lot of stuff.
But you can’t cover up
a disobedient heart
if you’ve got millions.
You can’t cover up disobedience
to God no matter what you have
or who you have or
whatever it might be.
God has a will for your life.
He loves you.
He desires the best for you.
And if you’ve missed it so
far, start today and tell Him,
“Lord, I don’t know what You
can do with what’s left over,
but God, here I am,
take me like I am.”
He’ll forgive you, cleanse you.
Let me tell you
something God
won’t do, you want to hear?
audience member: Yes!
Dr. Stanley: Well,
somebody does.
One thing God won’t do to
you, He won’t bring up the
past and say, “See there.
I told you.
Mm-hmm.
See, you–mm-mm, yeah, mm-hmm.”
He doesn’t throw up the past.
He brings up the future
of what He’s able to do
and can do with you.
It may be late in
life or early in life,
but one thing for certain,
He’ll take you where you are.
And you’ve got willful, known
sin in your life, maybe.
Now, watch this one.
God speaks to your heart this
morning in the worship service.
And He already points to you.
He’s already said to you,
“But you know you’ll
have to correct this.
You know you’ll
have to stop this.
You know you’ll
have to change this.”
And you’re
sitting here thinking,
“Oh my goodness, God.
What am I going to do?”
You let God take you where you
are and watch Him do what He’s
able to do in your life.
Listen, if you wait
till you figure it out,
you’ll never do it.
It takes surrender.
God, I’m not coming
to You claiming
that I’m worthy of anything.
I’m coming to You saying,
“Lord, I’ve messed it up.
I’ve blown it.
I’ve sinned against You.
No more toleration of excusing.
I’m just laying it
before You, God.
Whatever You can do with
my life, God, here I am.
Lord, whatever You
want to do, here I am.”
What do you think God will do?
He’ll amaze you.
First thing He’ll do is
give you this awesome
sense of peace, forgiven.
Forgiven, forgiven,
forgiven, and then watch
Him work in your life.
Watch this, you’re
not waiting on God,
God’s waiting on you.
He’s waiting to
give you His best.
The past, He
forgives and He forgets it.
And He gives you the opportunity
to start all over again.
That’s the
awesome, indescribable,
eternal will of
God for your life.
And the question is: Are you
willing to be–are you willing
to say to Him,
“Lord, if I’d only known.
God, I’m ashamed.
God, thank You for
giving me one more chance,
and Lord, here’s my life.
I want to see what
You’ll do with me.”
Now, watch this carefully.
The devil is
going to say to you,
“What are your
friends going to think?
Who do you think
you’re going to fool?
Well, how can you
overcome your past.”
In other words, you
don’t listen to the devil.
Watch this, you listen to
God, who created this world,
who created you, who’s
given you the opportunity,
who works miracle after
miracle after miracle,
who does the impossible.
You surrender your life
to Him and watch Him work.
Watch Him work.
Now, I know what a
few people are saying.
You’re saying, “But you don’t
know–” I can hear this now.
“If you only knew me.”
I don’t have to know you.
God already knows you.
And you know what,
He knows all the secret
things you’ve ever done,
and you know what He says?
Forgiven.
All the places you
did it, forgiven.
In other words, God is a
wonderful, giving God.
Here’s the battle.
The battle you’re having right
now is: Will He forgive me?
Watch this, when you
put it in that light,
that’s an act of pride.
Here’s your opportunity today.
You came to church today.
Here’s your opportunity.
Before you walk
out of this place,
here’s what you can do.
You can say, “God, I don’t even
know how to confess all of my
sin, but I’m
saying to You, Lord,
that I know I’ve
blown it lots of times.
I’ve sinned against
You, haven’t taken
advantage of my opportunities.
I’ve overlooked Your
goodness and love and mercy
and forgiveness toward me.
But today, as best I know
how, I’m asking You
to forgive me of my sin.
I’m surrendering my life to You.
I probably won’t do a
very good job of it.
I’m surrendering my life
to You and I say to You,
Dear Father: forgive
me and here’s my life.
I want You to govern my
life from this point forward.
Here’s my life.”
If you will surrender your life
to God sitting right where you
are, you don’t have to
give Him any details.
He knows all the details.
All you need to say to Him
sincerely with all your heart:
God, I’ve messed up,
I’ve blown it.
I’m sorry, I’m ashamed,
I’m asking You to forgive me.
And Lord, by Your
help, by Your strength,
by Your wisdom, by Your
grace, by Your goodness,
by Your love, Your mercy, I’m
willing to start all over again.
Think about how awesome God is,
that He’s willing to forget your
past and only
remember the future.
Amen?
Father, we couldn’t even begin
to describe how awesome You are,
what grace really means.
When we think about all
that You forgive us for,
all that You’re willing to
do in us and through us,
we pray that the Holy Spirit
will do His work right now,
and that every single one of us
will take a fresh look at our
life and surrender
ourselves totally to
You again if necessary.
We love You and we praise You.
In Jesus’s name.
Amen.
[congregation applauding]