 Well good morning. Good morning. It's good to see everybody. A couple quick things. Number one our very own Corey Asbury who is one of our worship pastors has a brand new CD that has just come out. Have you guys heard about this? It's called Reckless Love and some of you already know this but some of you may not. Corey in addition to being our worship pastor here is also a Bethel worship artist and his song Reckless Love came out as a single not too long ago and it did something that no other song has ever done. Spotify live streaming the song Reckless Love for a time was the number one most streamed song in the world. Secular or a Christian and so it's unheard of so the guy who owns Spotify is like who's Corey Asbury so he like actually called to find out who the guy was and so it's pretty amazing when you're like Selena Gomez but Corey's above you that's pretty awesome. So his album just dropped on Friday this is a big deal there are so many amazing songs on this CD and I've been listening to it on repeat for the last two days it's incredible we have this in our bookstore the CD so I would encourage everybody because it's family number one because you need these songs they're just really life giving but number two because we want to support Corey as well if you if you have a CD player grab this CD we just have a limited number of them in the bookstore so grab them if you are like more progressive download it on iTunes if you are looking for a cassette tape of the album you're just out of luck they just don't make those anymore and eight tracks I don't even want to go there so so anyways please grab one of these this is mine right there so you can't have it but please grab ahold of that and and then also pray for Corey because this week he's doing interviews on radio and different things like that and so it's a real opportunity for him to express the message behind the entire CD which is about the father heart of God it's just really really spirit soaked and really rich so I want you to know about that and then Wednesday everybody say Wednesday night we're finishing up the fast and we're going to have a powerful time I know John said something about it but we have a guest who's going to be helping us lead worship she's new to our house her name is Davy Flowers and she is an amazing an amazing worship leader she's going to be leading with our team and then there's in addition to the worship we're also going to have a time of ministry for healing and for deliverance for protocols it's going to be really powerful we want you to be here with us and that's going to be at 6 30 on Wednesday night if you brought your Bibles this morning open them with me to Romans chapter 12 this is part four of our series entitled saints and sinners at the very beginning of this year I said that I felt that the Holy Spirit impressed on me that 2018 it was really on God's heart to help you and I more fully understand our identity in Christ who we are what God has done in us who he's made us to be you know we're probably never going to fully understand our identity in Christ what really has happened because of the cross until we see him face to face you know the Bible gives us these promises it says in 1st John it says when we see him here's what we know we know that when we see him we shall be like him isn't that an amazing promise that on that day when you see Jesus face to face you will be like him you will have been changed and transformed that's an amazing promise but I think on this side of eternity it's very difficult sometimes for us to really comprehend and understand what our identity truly is in Christ how things have changed how drastic the change really is and so that's what this series is about today we're going to be talking about the process of renewal of our minds changing the way that we think because how many know that most of our life is shaped decisions that we make who how we see ourselves how we see other people even how we see God is shaped by our thinking whether it's true or false your your thinking your paradigms your belief systems can be very real to you but that doesn't mean that they're true isn't that true right there hopefully that's true because the word of God actually says that it says so as a man thinks in his heart so is so how we think about ourselves is how we actually live out our lives so Romans chapter 12 verse 2 by the way this is my life verse I memorized it was one of the very first scriptures I memorized and it has been a foundation for my life so look with me here at Romans 12 verse 2 it says do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is the good the acceptable and the perfect will of God for your life the good the acceptable and the perfect will of God I don't know about you but that's what I want for my life the good the acceptable the perfect I want the will of God for my life I want to live my life and at the end of it when I see him when this world is folded up and put away like a like a garment in a drawer and I step into eternity and I see God the one who knew me caused me created me the one who has walked with me the one who redeemed me and the one who ultimately is going to resurrect me and give me eternal life when I look him into the eyes I want to know in that moment that I have fulfilled the purpose for which he created me that's my goal it's my goal is not riches my goal isn't possessions in this world my goal really isn't even that people like me it's better when people like you but I can live without people liking me I can live with disappointing people as long as I don't disappoint God I want to live my life so that at the end of it I haven't fulfilled other people's will for my life I have actually fulfilled the maker of my life's will that's what Paul's talking about the good the acceptable and the perfect will of God for our lives but notice how he says that we get there he says that we have to go through a process of renewing of our minds therefore that's why he says don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by and here's where he says it the renewing of your mind in other words the way that you position yourself to fulfill God's will and God's purpose for your life is to be renewed changed transformed in your thinking because conforming is a word actually the word conform is used in a couple different places in the New Testament it's used in Romans chapter 12 and it's also used in Romans chapter 8 Romans chapter 12 says right that we just read says that the world wants to conform you and whenever you read the scriptures especially the New Testament it talks about the world it's talking about two different things when John 3 16 says God so loved the world he's talking about the people and how many know that God loves people God is in the people business raise your hand if you know that you need to know that okay but there's also a second use of the word world whenever you in this particular case it says do not be conformed to the world it's talking about a system or a way of thinking it's talking about a paradigm it's talking about a philosophy a grid that we've all been born into educated trained and shaped by and whenever you see that word conformed it's a word that means a mold if you've ever seen what tool and die people do or you know people that make like pottery or different things like this you have a mold and you pour like in a tool and die type of situation you have a mold that you create that is precise so that you can make replicas and then what you do is you melt down either your plastic or your precious metals and you liquefy it to where it's pliable and then you pour it into the mold and when it hardens you make exact replicas according to the mold when paul says do not be conformed to the world what he's saying is the world has a mold that it wants to put you into it wants to make you a replica exactly like everybody else with the same results the same way of life the same perspectives the same hang ups the same limitations and the world doesn't want you to be different the world doesn't want you to transcend the world system wants to keep you as a slave as a prisoner and limited and so it has a mold and from the very beginnings of our life we're poured into it so that we become shaped and conformed but it says in christ god's desire for our lives is that we would actually be transformed changed in other words god wants to break the mold off of your life see if you just live according to the way the world you'll if you if you're happy with that if if you want the results of this broken world all you have to do is just live in this broken world be trained by this broken world and you will replicate this broken world in your inner world there's a broken world out there how many know that raise your hand if you know the world is broken can i tell you the broken world out there is the result of broken worlds in here god wants you and i to be transformed by the renewing the changing the renewing making new our minds our attitudes our thoughts the way that we live our lives so that and then here's the result so that we can prove out that we can actually live out not the world's will but god's will for our lives that's a pretty good deal when god says hey if you will allow me to change the way that you think i can change your destiny if you will allow me to reshape you i can change the trajectory of your life well how does renewal work how many of you have ever watched one of these hg tv shows where they go into these houses that are just trashed out mess or old dilapidated nobody else wants spent off the market for like 10 years and they go in and they turn it into a beautiful wide open floor plan you guys ever watch these shows guys raise your hands because i know your wives make you watch them just like mine does it's like hey baby football is on i want to watch fixer upper marriage credits bam it's like hey and by the way i'm good with like watching one but when it's like 48 hour marathon of it i like chip gains but come on somebody and i'm always amazed though when they go into this house and there's like yeah for about you know 50 000 dollars we're gonna redo the kitchen we'll redo the floors knock out these walls we're gonna decorate i'm like i can't buy doorknobs for 50 000 dollars how in the world are they gonna do all this but they do it and when you know property brothers that's one of the shows that i've been forced to watch and these guys go in there and it's like this house that is all chopped up in the small rooms and they like superimpose their blueprint onto it and said we're gonna knock all these walls out and i'm just thinking to myself i can't see it and then you see it at the end and you're just like wow that is really a cool house knocked all these walls out wide open floor plan what have they done they've gone in and renovated because they were able to see the structure they were able to see and know what their plans were and then execute it you and i are limited we're not experts by the way yesterday i fixed a doorknob in my house it was a banner day like i did it with a screwdriver i like fix this old doorknob and i was so proud of myself i invited jane down i said jane come i said doorknob i fixed it and she's just like you are amazing she totally built me up and it's like you are amazing i was like yeah i had my tool bag and the whole thing like marched it down there i listen an expert's able to look and say i can take this like i know the structure i can change the electrical i can make something beautiful out of this mess can i tell you that god is the master craftsman of our lives you and i sometimes look at our life and go man i got this wall and i got this messed up system and grid and i've got these experiences and my life is little there's no way that things could change and improve in my life like that and god says if you'll trust me i'm already looking at your life and i know exactly what i created you for i know exactly how if you'll let me rewire you if you'll let me change your perspective if you'll let me remove some walls if you'll let me come in and renovate i can take something that is a mess and that you might overlook and i can turn it into something powerful and beautiful that's the art of renovation that's what god wants to do in this that's why renewing our minds is so significant and it's so necessary so this morning let me give you just four things that you need to know about renewal this is going to help you because renewal is something you can know about but never do and i don't want you to be knowers i want you to be doers knowers don't don't experience change knowers experience information but doers begin to taste and see that the lord is good first thing you need to know about renewal is this is that renewal within us comes before renewal through us and god wants to bring renewal to the world through you you are called in jesus christ to be an agent of change that's who you are you've been created in christ jesus to be the salt of the earth to be the light of the world to be leaven of the kingdom but that can't happen until there has been a change that has taken place in you and then will actually change through you because as long as you and i are carrying around the same broken blueprint on the inside of us we'll just we we reproduce on the outside of our lives everything that we believe on the inside of our lives so for example in in my experience in my family um on the coming side especially divorce was rampant my dad was divorced three times my uncle divorced three times then on my mother's side there's massive amounts of divorce and so jane and i've been married almost 26 years now and and for 26 years we got married very young i began to see time released mentalities and attitudes on the inside of me as a young husband that i never knew were there but because of how i had grown up and what i had seen i began to see i i never had a moment where i was like jane i'm divorcing you but i began to see the very symptoms and the things that actually led to dysfunction in my family's marriages that were being lived out on the inside of me like you know walking away or getting angry or holding a grudge or you know i mean those kind of things that were just there that when i looked at my family's life whom i love dearly i just saw these dysfunctions in their lives i would have never said hey i learned from my family to do this and i put it into practice it was just by default so i had to change the way that i thought because my goal was this i want to please god and i want to give an inheritance and a legacy to my kids i want my kids to know that i love their mother for 65 70 years like my grand my grandparents did and my grandparents are celebrating i think 67 years of marriage this year well it's like i want to skip a generation i want that inheritance i want that you know what that requires though a change of mind because how many know your mind does crazy things when you triggers get pushed does anybody have any triggers in this place you could be loving jesus you could be driving down the road listening into corey c g just the never ending reckless and somebody cuts you off and immediately man you you wish you had a 50-caliber turret on the front of your car so that you could like go into terminator mouse pop up up up up up up up up up up up cars rolling all over the red that'll teach you back to my song and less hallelujah it's like where did that come from it's wiring it's how you've been programmed a little trivia question you have to be honest all right because you're in church you can't lie how many of you in raising your kids if you have children have ever heard yourself in a moment say something to your kids that sounded exactly like your parents raise your hand you know where that comes from wiring programming paradigms god wants renewal within us so that there can actually be renewal through us if god can change your way of thinking he'll change your life and when he changes your life he'll change the world number two salvation happens in a moment but renewal occurs day by day salvation happens in a moment and this is where we get hung up a lot of times we look at our lives and we think to ourselves well if I'm really saved then I should be different this is where the identity issue is so important because a lot of times we just settle and we say well I gave my life to Jesus 10 years ago but I still am struggling and I'm still seeing myself and I'm still kind of activating the same way I did before I was a Christian so it must be that to be a Christian just means that my sins are forgiven but nothing's really going to change till I go to heaven but what we miss out is that salvation happens in a moment your spirit you are a three-part person you have a spirit you are a spirit that lives in a body and you have a soul your soul is your mind your will and your emotions when you get saved your spirit gets saved it is it is shaped it looks like Jesus it is never going to be any more saved than it is on the moment that you receive Christ into your life and you are born again but your mind will and emotions your soul realm requires a process of renewal and change because that's where you're struggling most of the time most of the issues in our life have nothing to do with spiritual issues they have everything to do with soulless issues our mind our will our emotions our attitudes who are we going to obey are we going to obey God by faith or are we going to pay attention to our desires what we want or our appetites or our education or the world's consensus because those things have a strong gravitational pull don't they it's like well I want to do that so I'm just going to do it or that's what everybody else is doing so that seems right or that's all I've ever known that's how I was trained salvation happens in a moment but renewal or changing our thinking is something that has to happen over a long period of time that requires day by day change second Corinthians 4 verse 16 says therefore we do not lose we but we want to take okay would you just say it come on man all right all right second Corinthians 4 verse 16 therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man listen is being renewed day by day so our inward man is saved you are saved to the bone you can't get any more saved if if you've made Jesus the Lord of your life you are saved but your thinking your mind your attitude which Romans chapter 6 says that your carnal mind in other words your fleshly mind is unsaved and now it needs to be brought into submission to God's word and God's ways and God's way of thinking and the way that we do that is through renewal and that happens day by day doesn't happen in a moment I wish I could give you a usb you know thing you just and all sudden it just changes the programming the way that you think your attitude I wish you just became a holy saint on day one I wish you didn't struggle with your hangups your fears your insecurities your limited thinking your lack of faith I wish that wasn't the case on day one I wish it was just like osmosis but it's not the way that it happens our carnal mind is at enmity or is hostile against the things of God carnal mind fleshly old you old man like we talked about last week is opposed to the ways of God because it's infected by the Trojan horse of sin the virus that is crept in through sin that has affected us and by our experiences that have created fears and by the the the need for affirmation and approval by the consensus of people that are around us so how do we do that day by day well the way that we do that day by day is the way we do anything day by day if you can't change your attitude in a moment then what do you have to do it's day by day by day by day you are not the result of what you do in one day you are the result of what you do every day how many know you know at the beginning of the year everybody signs up for the gym and so if you go to the gym on January 20th I mean it is the busiest day out of the year it's like everybody's you know they're on the bench press they're pumping they're on this machine they're going over here treadmill and our dumbbell I'll put that one down it's a little too heavy go over here do this one they're getting their drinking fountain they got their earphones in their new workout outfit their gear that they got for Christmas and they're just walking around doing their thing but come back a month later and 50% of all those people are gone and then people wonder well how does that guy who's at the gym you know who's got the shoulders way out to here and he you know he's got the the rip six pack abs and he's walking around and he's got his routine we we show up on January 2nd we look at that guy and go well hook him I'm not looking like that I'm here at the gym but the difference is he got there not by what he did in a day he got there number one because he won the genetic lottery but number two because because he's there day after day after day after day after day after day you want to know how you look like this you go to five guys day after day after day after day after day after day that's what you do and you too it's what we we are the result of what we do day after day after day after day that's how renewal works it works in the faith positive and it also works in the sin negative we reinforce over and over certain patterns when you walk on an area of your lawn in order to shortcut across your lawn you walk across that enough times back and forth and eventually what begins to form a pathway and the grass refuses to grow there because now it's a path you've walked over it so many times we have pathways in our life that have been created by repetition it's like this is what I do when this person does this this is what I do it's my shortcut to get what I want which is the pain to go away the fear to go away or the result that I want we create pathways what renewal is changing our pathways and it happens by day after day renewal number three renewal of our minds is actually a spiritual metamorphosis it there is a natural process of metamorphosis where things change and transform we see it in the in the plant world we see it in the animal world like a caterpillar that goes into a a chrysalis and then comes out a butterfly it's transformation it's it's a metamorphosis it literally means to change renewal of our minds changing the way that we think is actually a spiritual metamorphosis turn with me in your bibles this morning to james chapter one hopefully you brought a bible it's going to come up on the screens if you didn't but I strongly encourage you when you come bring a bible I want you to see it underline it and it'll help you actually renew your minds so james chapter one I'm going to read from the new living translation this morning it says in verse 21 it says so get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the word of god that has been planted in your hearts for it has the power to save your souls now read on says but don't just listen to god's word you must do what it says otherwise you are only fooling yourselves for if you listen to the word and you don't obey it's like glancing at your face in a mirror you see yourself walk away and forget what you look like but if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard then god will bless what you are doing so it says it starts off the new king james which i memorized scripture as a young man says this it says therefore receive with meekness or humility the implanted word of god which is able listen to save your souls this isn't talking about salvation your spirit is saved when you're born again james is writing to christians they're already saved see after you get saved and receive eternal life now god wants your mind to get saved through the process of renewal because it will actually save change your way of living and your way of thinking and then it goes on and it talks about being doers of the word and not just here is only and it and it illustrates for us what it is what reading the word of god really does for us so i've got two mirrors up here here's what happens the bible says that when you and i spend time in god's word which by the way listen god says about his word that his word is actually like a seed and if you know anything about a seed a seed is a capsule that contains dna genetic code that once it is sown into the right soil the the blueprint the chromosomal information on the inside of the seed gets released and it actually produces what it was coded to do right so you got a kernel of corn that has been genetically modified so that it can resist weeds grow in different temperatures it has been engineered it's like a math equation on the inside of it that corn will never grow until it is received into the soil so you can walk around with a kernel of of corn in your hand or you can plant it and it will multiply and reproduce more of what's on the inside of it god says the word of god is a seed and we can either carry around the word and never get it in here a lot of us are carrying around a kernel of corn going look i got this corn and what we're doing is i'm carrying around god's word but what god is more concerned about is that he gets his word into your heart because if it gets into your heart it begins to reproduce everything that it's coded and how god's word is coded is with life it's with freedom it's with healing it's with deliverance it's with identity it says that you are saved you've been brought out of darkness and delight that your sins have been removed from you as far as the east is from the west it says in Jeremiah chapter one that before you breathe your first breath or we're in your mother's womb god knew you and called you it says that he's intricately wired you it says that you're his workmanship that he has a purpose and a destiny for your life it gives us instruction of how to look like jesus how to act like jesus how to have a life that is blessed and walked walking and step with god's purposes for a life but if all we ever do is carry around the seed in our hand and it ever gets into our heart never changes us so every time we go to god's word and we with humility which means god you're right i'm wrong all the time can we just settle that issue by the way god's right we're wrong if we disagree with this it's not god that needs to change it's us that needs to change and the church would do really well if in 2018 we finally come to grips with the fact as sophisticated and as educated as we are we are not smart enough to tell god he needs to change we need to humble ourselves and repent and change according to god's word we do so well to believe that but it says it's like a mirror when we come to god's word and we look into it it reflects back to us who we are and we see it because it's not obvious to us in the natural when we look into god's word we begin to realize i am blessed look at that i'm blessed as i read the scriptures in psalm chapter one it says blessed is the man when i look into god's word i realize there's mercy when i look into god's word i realize how i deal with situations that are broken in my relationships is through grace forgiveness confrontation turning the other cheek loving our enemies and i realize that and so i realize that my identity is in christ that i'm no longer seen by god as a vagabond wanderer i look into the mirror and he sees me as a son every time i go to the word that's what i see it's accurate it's truthful how many wake up every morning and look in the mirror how many looked in the mirror before you came to church today come on everybody in this room don't lie to me you're all like brushing your teeth and combing your hair or whatever you know ladies putting the makeup on you're staring into the mirror why so that when you leave home you don't look weird because you know who you are listen you know who you are and you know who you are at your best but you know that life happens and so before you leave what do you do you look in the mirror and you make adjustments because things get out of sort your hair gets all like tilty you got mascara running down your face because ladies you don't want to wash your face before going to bed last night you got like a little blemish here you shave you don't want like patches of whiskers all over the place and so you make adjustments because this is true so you come to this and mirrors don't lie so you look into this mirror and you make adjustments now here's what happens most of us most of us the only mirror before coming to Jesus before being given god's word the only mirror that we have is a distorted mirror it's the mirror of the world it's a mirror that has been it's a reflection of an image that is not true it is deceptive and so we've grown up all of our lives coming and looking in the mirror of the world I look like a meerkat I got like two inch long legs and an eight foot torso and I'm looking at that if all my life this is the only mirror I've ever looked at then I'm going to live my life walking around thinking this is who I am this is who I am I keep coming back to it year after year it's like okay there I am that's all I've ever seen but this is perverted distorted and twisted what if we've lived our whole life looking in this mirror looking in looking at ourselves through the lens of the world our dysfunction our brokenness what other people have told us about us our worst fears and this is who we think we are but in Jesus he says to us and by the way there are a lot of churchgoing god-loving Christians who still live their lives loving Jesus but coming back to this mirror and that's why they say well this is just who I am this is just how I am I can't change because every time I come back to the mirror this is what I see but God says shift gears come over to my mirror and for the first time we see ourselves as we really are in Christ and it's shocking it's like whoa this is not what I'm used to this is not what I've been told this is not what I believed it says lest we look in the mirror see ourselves and walk away and forget who we are you want to know how you renew your mind you renew your mind by building a database daily in your life of God's word allowing the Holy Spirit who's in you to speak to you every time you go to the very words that he inspired to be written in our Bibles when you go here and you read the Bible day after day after day after day after day what you are doing is you are building a database that eclipses and supersedes the former database that the world put on the inside of you because the world does you think about how many hours of television how many songs how many movies how many experiences how many hours in school how many experiences of being bullied how many times sitting around the dinner table how many times the enemy has whispered and brought fears and deceptions and distortions and lies in our life accumulate those hours upon hours and experiences upon experiences and is it any wonder that by the time we get to adulthood we're messed up we're staring in this mirror and we think this this is true but then we come into Christ because we hear the good news and we say yeah I want that I want to live like Jesus I want to be victorious I want to be a child of God and we get saved on the inside but our mind still goes back to that mirror and Jesus is like switch mirrors change mirrors oh I can't go to that mirror it's too hard I don't like to read then get it on tape or I mean or download you version and let it read to you but get it read it in Braille I don't care what you got to do hire somebody to read the word of God to you but get a hunger for the word of God because we need a daily database of this because when you take this in and you read it and you meditate and you think about it what happens is day by day by day you begin to experience change in your thinking and your perspective every situation and temptation you find yourselves in instead of thinking to the old way the Holy Spirit brings up and says remember what the word says and oh yeah that's right I'm not supposed to cut this guy off on the highway and throw him down into the ditch I should turn the other cheek which in this means switch lanes okay wow it's amazing we would have less road rage and less Christians in jail you would be living a much happier life number four to the degree that you're thinking is renewed in an area of your life is the measure of how much of God's perfect will and purpose you're able to walk in so think about an area of your life family finances career sexuality children think about how you handle your money think about friendship all these different areas of your life God's word speaks to every one of those areas of our life and when we begin to be renewed in all those areas to the degree that we've received we with meekness God's word and it's changed our way of thinking is the degree that we're able to walk in the good the acceptable and the perfect will and purpose of God for our lives so if you struggle with an addiction well you know this is this is who I am no the Bible says in Christ you are a new creation you are not defined by your temptation or your hang up that's not your identity you may struggle with that but that's not who you are you're a child of God when my kids come into the house I don't care what kind of mess that they're going through that's not who they are they bear the name Cummings they are my son they are my daughter and I love them and I will go to bat for them I just want them to overcome it you are not the sum total of your temptations whatever they are your hangups you are not that you were created in Christ Jesus for good works not for bad works but in order for us to walk into good works we have to be renewed in the spirit of our minds I want everybody if you would stand up with me worship team you guys can come on out switch mirrors that's the invitation this morning is that you would make the decision to switch mirrors and to let God renew you in your thinking change the way that you see yourselves see other people you know there's this story in the book of numbers but the children of Israel about ready to go into the promised land and you might remember the story joshua sends the spies 12 spies into the land when they came back they had seen giants in the land they came back and 10 of them gave a negative report here was their report there's giants in the land and when we saw them we were as grasshoppers in our own sight and so were we and theirs did you catch that we were like grasshoppers in comparison to them in our own sight and so were we in theirs there were only two of the spies Caleb and Joshua that eventually went into the promised land because they were the only two that said we are more than able to go in and conquer them let us go up at once and take the land bible says that there was a more excellent spirit in them a different spirit one was a fear-based distorted mirror that said i'm just a grasshopper these guys are just gonna squash me and the other mentality said you know what they may be taller than us but they're nothing in compared in comparison to the size of our god and if god says he's with us if god has told us that that land belongs to us what are we waiting for let's go up right now and let's take what's ours those guys man there we're gonna eat them for breakfast because god is with us in your life there's a promised land there's an inheritance but if you see yourself as a grasshopper you'll never go in and possess it you need to change the way that we see ourselves not because we're we convince ourselves that we're something that we're not but we allow god to convince us of who we are in him that's my prayer for us this morning would you buy your heads with me all over this room today without anyone looking around i want to ask you a question and this is a very important question the question is this what is the holy spirit today today highlighting in your life what area is he saying to you i want to change the way that you see this i want you to change i want there to be change transformation in your life so that you can step into this if there's an area if there's something that today you sense that the holy spirit is highlighting as i've been speaking god's been speaking and if there's something the holy spirit's been highlighting in your life i just want you to raise your hand all over this room just something that you specifically just feel for you and put your hands down today maybe you haven't felt a prompting or felt anything but as i've been talking there's an area in your life or a challenge that stands before you where you're saying god i want your help i want to change i don't want to be like i've been i want to change i want to i want to obey y'all want to serve you in this area help me if that's you you just raise your hand all over the room thank you thank you i want to invite our prayer partners if they would make their way down to the front and please remain in an attitude of prayer because i'm going to pray a prayer over us and then when we dismiss here in a moment here's what i'm going to do if you raised your hands or maybe you know that you needed to i'm going to ask that if you really if you really want to see today become a demarcation of change transformation i'm going to ask you to do two things number one i'm going to ask you in your heart to go ahead and make a commitment say god today i make the commitment that i'm going to i'm going to pursue you i'm going to pursue your word i'm going to pursue kingdom understanding i'm not going to look in the old mirror any longer i'm going to begin to come back and live constantly in your word until my mind and my thinking has changed in this with the help of your holy spirit i will be different that's first commitment the second commitment is this so i'm just going to invite you if you if you would like that when i pray and dismiss in a moment that you just come come down and receive prayer ministry down here in the front by our prayer team because sometimes we just need a tipping point breakthrough we just need a prayer we just need to take a step out of our normal and ask for help or or do something that's out of our comfort zone that begins to just kind of break the ice and open up the ground for the seed to be received into our lives there is power and change that happens in prayer it's it's the beginning stage it's like the plow going into the soil breaking up the fellow ground so that the word can come behind it and be received lord today i pray for each of us that change and renewal would begin today lord that we would we would begin to see roots and shoots that lead to fruit coming out of our lives because the seed of your word is deeply planted in us lord we want to walk in our full identity as saints sons and daughters lord help us to do that holy spirit meet us in this place and as we leave today pray lord that we would be agents of change because change has come to us we pray this in jesus name amen