From A Heart Like God’s series by Clint Byars
We live our lives out of our hearts. It's not just about the external circumstances but what's inside us. When we get squeezed, like just these past two weeks, I received an email from a guy with a terminal diagnosis. He didn’t clearly state what it was, but you could feel the heartbreak he’s going through as he explained his situation. He talked about his children—it sounds like he has young ones—and his wife. He mentioned that he wonders if he’s cursed, thinking he might be cursed.
I’m thankful that I know the goodness and character of God. I’m thankful that I know how to help people turn their eyes to Jesus, anchor their faith in Him, trust Him, and anchor their hope—their expectation—in Him. We fall short, don’t we? We can’t just give answers like “trust God, stop it, obey,” although sometimes we can. But when people are walking through life-threatening, heavy, difficult situations, we must know that God is good and that Jesus is the solution.
I see a lot of people shy away from opportunities to minister to others because they themselves are not fully confident in who Jesus is in their lives and situations. I’m not saying you’re not saved; I’m not saying you don’t know how to pray. I’m just saying that sometimes we entertain doubts and fears to the point where we aren’t truly unshakable. So when someone else brings something to us and we’re a bit unstable, it’s hard for us to be that rock for them and point them to Jesus. But you’re not doing anyone any favors by entertaining their doubt, are you? We’re not helping when people come to us with heavy situations and we backpedal, saying, “Well, you know, I don’t really know.” No, we need to be bold. I’m not saying we need to be offensive or just play church, but we have the solution inside us—Jesus Christ, the one and only true God, the Creator of everything, the One who was dead and now is alive, the One who touches people and sends His word to heal.
Our confidence must be in the character and power of God, and that’s it. If it’s not, then we’ve got some work to do inwardly—not to try to get more faith, not to try to get God to give us something, but simply to look at God and be persuaded of who He actually is, to look at God and rightly respond to who He has revealed Himself to be. If, when we look at Him and our situation, our response is, “Well, I’m not really sure if He’s good, I’m not really sure if this is what He wants,” then that’s a problem.
Some might say, “God did this because now look at his attitude; God did this to him because now look at where he is toward God in his faith.” But that’s such a carnal response. Honestly, to think that God would do that to you is wrong. When Jesus talks about the Father, He says, “You don’t give your children snakes and stones when they ask you for bread. How much more good is your Father?” There’s a fundamental split in the body of Christ over the goodness of God. I remember hearing a preacher say once, “There’s a Civil War coming in the body of Christ, and it’s over the goodness of God. It’s over whether or not God is good and only good.” And it’s true, because who is He but good? We can say that, we can believe that, but where are we in our hearts, in that area where we actually believe from?
I just want to talk about the heart a little bit. You know, I’ve got some interesting information to share. I’m going to give you some examples. I don’t have a whole lot today, so we’re already winding down. But it’s important to know that the heart is mentioned over 800 times in Scripture—more than faith, more than love, more than obedience. I’m not trying to say the heart is more important than obedience; I’m just saying Scripture has a lot to say about it.
For example, “Guard your heart above all else, for out of it flow all the issues of life.” In other words, your heart affects everything. It is with the heart that we believe. Say, “believe.” Believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. But it starts with believing in the heart, right? It’s where God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts; it’s where God’s light is in our hearts. Hebrews 4:12 talks about the Word of God, the Logos of God, the creative essence of who God is that manifested as a human to be Jesus—the Logos of God that goes into our hearts. Jesus teaches in Mark 4 that the receptivity of your heart to the logic and Logos of God determines the degree to which it will bear fruit in your life. It actually says in Mark 4 and Matthew 13 that your heart's response to the Word of God might render the Word of God unfruitful. Wow. It’s a big deal to ensure our heart is in alignment with God.
Now, I know what happens when we start talking about the heart—people often start thinking about denominationalism. Even those who believe that God is good can get sidetracked when you start talking about the heart. Let me just say, there’s so much to say about the heart. I’ve got only a couple of main points to make today, but this is where most people go when they think about the heart. Let me make it clear: I am not suggesting that you “follow your heart”—that’s kind of a big thing in the "woo-woo" world, right? You should follow God, amen? Follow God. But the condition of your heart will affect how you follow God. Are you with me? So your responsibility is to tend the garden of your heart, to ensure that you’re receptive to the Word of God. When you get into the Word and start studying, and you see the logic of God, if you’re living in a way that’s contrary to that, you’ve got to repent—you’ve got to change your mind to get back into alignment so that you are receptive to the Word of God, to bear fruit, and produce transformation in your life. Are you with me?
Unfortunately, Jeremiah 17:9 is what often comes up: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Well, that was true until—say “until”—until. I think the “until” is in alignment with David. You know, David is a man after God’s own heart, and David prayed, and I think we actually get to experience what David prayed for. David looked ahead; David—man, this is like a whole book, really. But David, King David—it says of him, he’s a man after God’s own heart. Many of David’s Psalms are prophetic of the Messiah—not just what he would do, but his inner thoughts and inner feelings and inner turmoil. Psalm 22 is all about what Jesus experienced on the cross, and it’s David prophesying Jesus’s words on the cross. When Jesus was hanging on that cross and said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He wasn’t just quoting Scripture. Are you with me? He wasn’t just saying that so the people around would go, “Oh, that’s Psalm 22; now we know.” No, that’s what He was going through—it came out of Him. But David experienced it even beforehand and prophesied it. It’s an amazing thing.
So David prays this: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Well, that has happened to you. Let me show you—because I know we talk about this a lot, but it’s just where we live. We live from out of our hearts, and the beliefs of our heart, the image we have about ourselves in our heart, the beliefs we have about God—these things are in there. When a shadowy dark figure that represents death or something is standing over your husband, what are you going to do? What’s in your heart to respond to that? Are you going to shrink back and be afraid and think, “Oh my goodness, what lie do I need to rebuke? What Masonic curse do I need to break? Who do I need to forgive? What soul tie do I need to cut? What spear do I need to pull out of this person’s back?” No, you say, “Nope, go in Jesus’s name,” and that’s it. You know who you are in Christ, amen? Amen.
This is the reality for you now, okay? Are you with me? This is Ezekiel 36:26—this is one of the most beautiful promises of the New Covenant, in my opinion. This is the aspect of the new creation identity that we have—this is what happens when God does a spiritual circumcision on the inside of you. This is Colossians 2—you can go look at Colossians 2. It says a circumcision without hands was made upon you, where He removed that body of the sins of the flesh. God removed—this is part of it—this is a prophecy about the opportunity for you to become a new creation in Christ, and this is some of the mechanics of what happens as you become a new creation.
This is Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart”—say, “new heart”—“and I will put a new spirit within you”—say, “new spirit.”
I have a new heart and a new spirit. Now, you could technically say your spirit was dead, but you’ve been made alive with Christ. There are different theological concepts to touch on, but the deal is, you were dead in your sin, and now you are alive in Christ. You were without the Spirit of God, with an old dead heart cut off from Him. Now you are alive in Him. You have been resurrected with Him. You’ve been given a new heart—that deepest part of you that connects to God inwardly is renewed.
It’s as if—an example would be the temple on earth with the Israelites, where the presence of God was and the mercy seat was in there. If that got defiled, they went in and cleaned it out. That’s you now—you are a clean vessel because of the blood of Christ. Because you put your faith in what Jesus did, you said yes to Jesus. The blood of Christ becomes active for you, and what it does is it washes that dead root of sin out of you. Let me just read the rest: “I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” The new heart is programmed to trust and obey God, amen? You don’t have a wicked heart any longer; you don’t have a wicked core on the inside of you any longer. The core of you is righteous—say, “I’m righteous.” Because of the blood of Christ, because of Jesus, you are holy. Are you with me? You’ve got to know that everything revolves around that. Now you live from this new heart.
Unfortunately, because of the way we think, our hearts might become deceived, overshadowed, or filled with new beliefs. But when God makes you new, that heart is the manifestation of David’s prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” This heart that God puts inside of you has His laws written on it; it has His commandments written on it. Why? To cause you to walk in His statutes and keep His judgments—not from an obedience perspective to be righteous, but because you are righteous and new in Him. It is now your nature to desire to follow Him and desire the things that He desires for you.
The conflict for the believer is inwardly thirsting and hungering after righteousness, knowing that we are the righteousness of God, but then in our mind, entertaining doubt, fear, and temptation. These conceive and birth, and then we get wrecked, and it overshadows the power of the beliefs of your heart, amen? Which is what you’re actually living from. You live out naturally, without even thinking about it, that which is programmed into your heart, and that which you’ve put into your heart, and it’s bearing fruit and seed.
Let me just show you some stuff. This, to me, is fascinating—the idea of you having a new heart. Have you ever done any kind of research into actual heart transplants? Y’all ready? Because you’re about to experience a “mind-blown” moment. How many of you have read any research about actual heart transplants and what happens with the donors? It’s really fascinating. You all want to hear some stories about that? Now I’m going to read a couple of things. I want you to keep in mind the reality that you have received a new heart from God, okay? Say, “I have a new heart.” These are stories about actual physical heart transplants. In other words, people who have passed away had their donor cards signed, and their hearts were placed into another person. Now that donor lives with that heart for the rest of their life.
It’s interesting that the heart stops beating when that person’s spirit passes out of their body, but as soon as it starts to mingle with the blood of the recipient, that heart starts beating again. It’s very interesting. So, let me read some of these stories—some of these are pretty difficult, some are interesting, some are heavy.
This is the case of Claire Sylvia, a 47-year-old woman who received a heart and lung transplant. The donor was an 18-year-old male who loved fast food, especially chicken nuggets, and was a beer drinker. After she got his heart, Claire, who previously had no particular interest in fast food, suddenly developed a strong craving for chicken nuggets and beer. Claire also noticed changes in her mannerisms, such as a more relaxed and carefree attitude, which she later learned were traits of her donor. She took on the food cravings of her donor.
You have a new heart—it’s a heart after God’s own heart. What do you think God craves? Now, let me touch on the scientific aspect of it. There’s a whole new field of research called neurocardiology. Your physical heart has neurons—neurons are the types of synapses where memory is stored. They’ve discovered that your heart—your physical heart—has the capacity to think and remember. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Remember, belief is a function of the heart; thinking is a function of the mind, the brain. The heart thinks. There’s a whole—has anyone read the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell? It’s this interesting heart-intuitive thing. I really geek out on this stuff, so I’ll try to summarize. The physical heart has neurons capable of storing memory, and obviously, that stuff gets stored in there. Why in the world would this woman start craving chicken nuggets and beer?
Now, I must warn you—some of these stories are kind of dark. There are kids here, but are they okay? Sure? Sure? You sure? Okay. Just saying.
This is the case of an 8-year-old girl. The donor was a 10-year-old girl—some of you may have heard this story. The 10-year-old girl was murdered; the 8-year-old girl received her heart. The young recipient began to have recurring nightmares about being murdered. The details of the nightmares were so vivid that they eventually led to the identification of the donor’s murderer. The recipient started having dreams of the way the donor was murdered. They went to a forensic artist, got this all written out, did some research, investigated, and found the guy. This is wild—the guy said something to the little girl, and when they were interrogating him, he broke down because they knew what he said. That was part of what caused him to confess. Are you kidding me? I mean, that’s—you know—that’s fascinating. You’ve got a new heart. What does God’s heart on the inside of you crave? You know, let me play with the language a little bit here—I’m just saying this new heart—keep in mind, He said, “I’ll put My Spirit in you, put a new heart in you, and I will cause you to walk in My statutes.” This new heart that’s on the inside of you naturally wants to obey God. Before, you were prone toward sin—you had mere human nature. Now you’ve got a heart that not only has the commandments of God written on it but naturally desires to keep them. You’ve changed. You have changed. Say, “I’ve changed. I am righteous. I desire it.” I’m just telling you, you do.
Is this interesting or what? Now, here’s another one—this is the case of Sunny Graham. The donor was Terry Cottle—another heavy one, but it’s interesting. Terry Cottle committed suicide; Sunny Graham received Cottle’s heart. After the transplant, Sunny developed a strong emotional connection to Cottle’s widow and would eventually marry her. Then, he took his own life in almost the same way that the donor did. He had never struggled with any of that kind of stuff before.
Here’s another one—a young man who was a vegetarian and a jazz musician. A middle-aged man received that heart. There were dietary changes—the recipient, who had previously enjoyed eating meat, suddenly found himself repulsed by it and adopted a vegetarian diet. The recipient, who had no prior interest in jazz, developed a strong appreciation for jazz music and began listening to it regularly—a sharp contrast to his previous preferences.
Here’s another case of a middle-aged woman—a young man who loved biking and was very athletic. The recipient was a middle-aged woman who received the heart. The recipient, who had previously been somewhat sedentary, began to feel an increased energy level. You’ve got a new heart—you’ve got the energy level of the Spirit of the Living God on the inside of you, hallelujah! Are you with me? The recipient developed a newfound love for physical activity, particularly biking. She became more adventurous and outgoing, mirroring the donor’s athletic and dynamic personality.
There’s another one I thought I had in here—this woman received a guy’s heart who loved football. This woman was docile, quiet, hated violence, and saw football as violence. Her husband would watch football, and she’d leave the room. Guess what happened? He started watching football afterward, and she was like, “Yes, we all want our wives to get new hearts now,” [Laughter]. After the heart transplant, this woman started loving football, and it’s funny, but she’d be in there yelling and cussing at the TV just like any dude would over football—not any dude, but you know what I’m saying.
So it’s like not only do you get the heart—and I don’t—you know, this is kind of cutting-edge science, but it’s undeniable that these things have happened. There are so many cases where the recipient meets the donor’s family, and they know things about each other, and it just goes to show that even just the physical heart—
what’s encoded on it—starts to drive the desires, behavior, personality traits, and food cravings without that person even trying to do that, without trying to entertain that.
You think it’s hard for you to not sin? Well, that’s because you’re fighting to sin because this heart on the inside of you is hardwired to resist it. This heart on the inside of you is hardwired to resist sin, to resist temptation, to feast on the grace and power of God—not just for strength over sin, but to actually not even desire it any longer. What if—let me just say this—think about your favorite sin, think about what you don’t like about yourself, and what if that got taken out and something got put in you that just naturally desired exactly the opposite, that glorified God? And it just became easy for you to not even want it anymore—what was I thinking? That’s transformation. That’s what the Spirit of God does on the inside of you. Your new heart is wired to do this.
Now, how do you get your head out of the way so that your spirit and God’s Spirit on the inside of you, bearing fruit through this new core heart on the inside of you, manifest out into the rest of your being? I’m glad you asked. It’s really very simple. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may prove out the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Your mind must get into agreement with what is in you in spirit, and then the fruit bears. That’s the last frontier—the final frontier for the believer is to get your mind right, get your mind in agreement with what God has done on the inside of you, and then it bears fruit after its own kind. You don’t even have to try to make it happen. Did you know that the Word of God on the inside of you is seeking to bear the fruit of patience and joy and peace and gentleness and meekness and self-control and all that stuff? The Spirit of God on the inside of you is there desiring these things through you because your spirit is now intermingled with Him, and you only must get your mind into agreement that that is who you are now in Christ.
Are you a new creation, or are you not? Are you with me? Now, for the purposes of this, to just put some boots on the ground, I was praying through this, and it really stood out to me: What are the things we can put our attention on in our mind to start to let the Spirit that’s on the inside go into a receptive heart and then bear fruit? It just came to me—I really felt like focusing on the idea of faith, hope, and love.
Do you want to get in alignment in your mind so that the Word of God bears fruit through a receptive heart into every area of your life? Be in faith. What is faith? Faith is a response toward God. Have hope. What is hope? Hope is a confident expectation of good things—that’s a big one. I think next week I’m going to talk more about hope. A lot of times we’re not in hope. You know, doubt is kind of the opposite of hope—doubt is kind of shaping up the negative thing, like, “Well, you know what? I’m going to trust God, but I’m probably going to experience this.” Faith, hope, and love all mixed together must be our perspective. Where are opportunities for you to have faith, like the hardest things you’re facing right now? Do you have hope in those areas? Do you have faith in those areas? Because if you can get your heart and your mind in alignment with what God is doing on the inside of you, that seed will produce and bear fruit. But you’ve got to get your mind right. I’m not talking about denial—I’m not talking about “fake it till you make it.” I know people say that, and I’m not saying it’s a bad phrase, but I’m just saying to a point where you’re not faking it. I understand the idea, but it’s like, “No, this is my reality. It may not be manifest yet, but this is what God says.”
Are we more convinced of the promises of God or our physical reality in the moment? Which one is more real? Which one is more true? I’m not denying our physical reality, and for some of us, our physical reality might not ever even change. But the spiritual dimension is more real and more true, and whatever state you’re in in that dimension is what’s going to be your state forever. And it just so happens that we can experience some of that in this life. I mean, why would Jesus pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”?
So I’ve got a couple more passages about faith, hope, and love, because this is what I want you to walk out of here with—the idea of where do I have the opportunity to have faith? So when you face your challenges over these next few weeks—and really, for the rest of your life—ask yourself, “Am I in faith? Am I in faith here? In other words, am I responding to who God has revealed Himself to be as it relates to this situation?” Because faith is not what you do—listen, faith is not what you do to get God to move. Are you with me? Man, I’m telling you, us charismatics love to think that we can sit down, lay down, and travail all night long, and that’s somehow going to convince God to move. God moved in Christ. He’s given you all things that pertain to life and godliness, amen? You’re not waiting on God to move—it’s been planted on the inside of you.
Man, the charismatic world has been run through the wringer, and the devil sits back and laughs because we’re jumping from one revival to the next move of God, the next move of God. I know I’m stepping on some toes, and I’m not saying God’s just sitting there on His throne doing nothing, but all this hype about revivalism and the things of, “Well, there’s this, now let’s go over there and do that, and now there’s this, and let’s go over there and do that.” Well, that didn’t work. Well, I know what we need to do—we need to pray, let’s get down and pray as hard as we possibly can. Is He moving, or isn’t He moving? And it’s like, no—the Spirit of God is on the inside of you. You want to see an awakening? You want to see a revival? You do whatever it takes for you to radically experience the power of the Living God on the inside of you, then you grab hands with another believer who’s doing the same thing, and then people start to join hands, and you watch it work from the inside out.
I’m telling you, Chris nailed it with the picking of these songs—this is how it happens, from the inside out. God has done the work on the inside; we’ve got to let it out. And then even Tori quoted, “We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” You’re saved—say, “I’m saved.” But that salvation needs to bear fruit, right? And we’ve got to get our minds in agreement and alignment so that it can bear fruit.
Three passages, real quick. I love this—“Now hope does not disappoint.” Have you ever felt disappointed? Well, then you’re not in hope. Do you ever feel disappointed? Then you’re not in hope. Should I say it one more time? I’m not saying you’re never going to be disappointed. I’m not saying there’s something wrong with you. I’m just saying, are you hopeful? Are you looking at whatever area of disappointment that you have and then having hope again? We’re going to go into hope next week, but hope is a confident expectation of good things—the good things that you should be expecting are the things that Jesus died for you to have, amen? There’s a legality to His sacrifice for you to experience these things.
Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Man, I love that—I love that the Holy Spirit has poured out the love of God in our hearts, so hope doesn’t disappoint. If you’re disappointed, hey, it’s an opportunity to open up and have some hope. And what is hope? How do you have hope? Go ahead and do some research on hope for the upcoming week as you’re putting this into practice too.
So again, faith, hope, and love—these aren’t in the exact order, but this is talking about love. 1 John 4:16: “So what we’re talking about here is this: How do you position your heart to let the Word of God bear fruit in your life? You’ve got to get your mind in alignment, and then the seed produces after its own kind. Are you with me? Do you see that? So, look for opportunities to have hope. Look for opportunities to be in faith, such as watering the Word of God on the inside of you, not constricting the Word of God, tending the garden of your heart to be fruitful. Look for opportunities to be in faith, look for opportunities to have hope, look for opportunities to walk in love. This will teach your inner man to let the Word of God grow because you’re tuning your mind and heart to how God thinks.
This is not something you can do by force. This is not something you’re going to take a course on and learn the details of, and because you mentally understand it, you’ll have transformation. Faith comes from the inside out; hope comes up from the heart
; love comes up from the heart. So it’s like you’re tuning and getting in alignment deep from within, and it’s from a space deeper than the level of your thinking, understanding, and intellect. It’s deep down in here. If you’re having trouble being hopeful and experiencing God, you’ve got to make that deep decision to change your attitude—this is how we’re going to think, this is how we’re going to make this decision, this is what we’re going to do, because this is what the Word of God says.
“We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.” And this is the last verse—this is Galatians 2:20. Again, we’re talking about the idea that you’ve got a new heart, and God is trying to live through you. In fact, God is desiring—what kind of food does God desire out of this heart that’s been put on the inside of you? If a physical heart can do things like that through you, how much more can a new spiritual heart do things through you? Are you with me? What kind of food does He want? What kind of music does God listen to? What kind of thoughts is God thinking in His heart? You put yourself in alignment to walk in faith, be in hope, walk in love—it starts to tune the inside of you, to transform the inside of you, to be in alignment with it. It’s just how you do it, but you’re in charge of this.
Unfortunately, a lot of us just sit back and pray, “Well, God, if you did it all, then do it all.” You might as well be shaking your fist in His face. It’s not that He’s withholding because of that attitude—it’s just, where are we in our hearts? “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live. Yet not I—I don’t have that old heart, I’ve got the new heart—not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” These people that get these new hearts—they live by these new desires of the donor. You have the faith of Christ on the inside of you. Some translations say “faith in Christ”—that’s important, but you have the faith of Christ. You have Christ’s capacity for faith in you, seeking to make choices and live and desire to flow out of you, right? Just like people who get those new hearts want new things, you want new things. How do you let Him desire things through you? You’ve got to commit to walking in faith, hope, and love. Are you with me? Do you see that?
Now, for you, where the rubber meets the road—there are things happening in your life where it’s very difficult to be in faith, very difficult to love that other person, very difficult to see a positive outcome. But that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to do whatever it takes inwardly to turn and shift—that’s where you go to the Word of God, and you put things in your mind and your thinking so that you bring hope alive on the inside of you. You stir up faith. It’s easy to just sit back and wait for God to do something and then respond to it, but no—you’ve got to stir that stuff up. It’s in you. Look for opportunities to walk in faith, hope, and love. By doing this, you’re watering the Word of God on the inside of you, which will bear fruit, but you’ve got to make those choices. Are you with me? Will you do it?
You guys, band, come on up here. We’re going to end with a song—faith, hope, and love. And I see a new baby—my goodness. Yeah, show some love for the baby. Stand up—show that baby off. Turn around—how old is she? Seven weeks. And what’s her name? Baby Grace. Well, praise God. How are you doing? We’re good. You’re good? Yeah, we missed y’all. Missed you too. Thank y’all for the gifts—thank you so much. So, if you don’t remember, this is the couple that we posted about in the Facebook group, and a bunch of y’all sent things for all kinds of stuff. You can sit back down, man—thank you. You’ve got to stand back there so we can all see the baby.
Praise God. I love watching them—I get distracted looking at these babies. So, did you get something out of that? I mean, honestly? Let’s stand up and put our attention on the Lord. If you need to go, God bless you. Don’t forget about the Williams family—an opportunity to sow into them. I mean, honestly, let’s just take care of that today so they don’t have to worry about it—one less thing they’ve got to worry about. Sound good? And then think about, as we worship our way out of here today, where in my life can I express the opportunity of faith? Where can I stir hope back up? Where can I walk in love again? We’re going to unpack this for the next couple of weeks and just kind of camp out here, but I want you thinking that when you face life, ask yourself, “Am I in faith? Am I hopeful? Am I experiencing God’s love, and am I walking in God’s love?” And then you do whatever it takes to wrench the inside of you until you are in that space, amen? Father, we trust you, we love you, we praise you, Jesus. We lift you up in this place. We magnify your name. Would you put up that last slide?
And if you’re in this room today and you have not yet said yes to Jesus, or you’re watching online and you’d like to, this is it right here—Romans 10:9: “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Amen. So, let me just say, is there anybody in the room today for the first time who would like to make that decision? You’d like to say yes to Him and confess Him as Lord? Just lift up your hand where I can see you. Jim, you getting saved today? Oh, okay. So maybe there’s somebody online—we actually have a video that will come up and walk you through this process. And also, let me just say, you know, it’s touching to see this family—we’re continuing to pray, praying for baby Grace. But is there anybody else that needs prayer? I’m not going to ask you to come forward, but do you need some prayer in your life? Just lift up your hand—there’s Sarah, gather around her. Anyone else need prayer? And as we’re worshiping right up here, Elizabeth, would you slide out here, and Linda, would you come over here? This hand here—anybody else? You just need prayer. We just want to stand with you and agree with you. Anybody else? Am I missing any hands? Y’all wave at me if I’ve missed any hands.
Yeah. Father, we trust you. We thank you. Just set your attention on Him. [Music]
Jesus said, “You must be born again to enter into His kingdom.” He’s done everything to provide eternal life for you, and you only receive it by grace through faith. We want to help you be sure of your salvation. Maybe you’re new to Christianity, maybe you’re discovering things about God for the first time in your life, and you don’t really know what it’s all about. I’ve been there—trust me. I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, I didn’t know anything about God when I got born again, and tried to approach the Bible—it didn’t make sense to me. So we want to help you. If you go to forward.church and click on “Who is Jesus,” we have a simple article on there that explains salvation, everything He did for you, how to begin to read the Bible, and start to live a Christian life and incorporate His principles, and how to engage the Holy Spirit for empowerment. You know, His grace wants to transform you—His love wants to make you whole. And we want to help you. If you’ve made the decision to be born again today for the first time, or maybe even a recommitment and you’re just not even sure what to do, how to approach the Bible, reach out to us. Email us at info@forward.church or call our office at 770-828-5800. Go to our website, find the article on “Who is Jesus,” and get started. He loves you, He’s for you, He will lead you and guide you, and we want to help. [Music]
This message and article are from “A Heart Like God’s” series by Clint Byars. Click to read all the articles and watch the sermons in this series from this series. Or watch this series on YouTube.
➡️ Help me reach more people! Give a One-Time or Recurring Donation
➡️ Become a Member to Download ALL my Series and Meditations