Death, Where Is Your Sting? | Easter Sermon | Pastor Ty Hayes

In this powerful Easter message, “Death, Where Is Your Sting?”, Pastor Ty Hayes unpacks the life-changing truth of the resurrection and what it means for us today. Through the victory of Jesus over sin, death, and the grave, we are reminded that what once held power over us has been defeated once and for all.

This sermon dives into the hope, freedom, and new life found in Christ, answering the question: if death has lost its sting, how should we live now? Whether you’re searching for purpose, battling fear, or needing a reminder of God’s power, this message will encourage and challenge your faith.

Join us as we celebrate the risen Savior and discover how the resurrection isn’t just a moment in history—it’s a reality that changes everything.

Transcript

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I have the great honor and privilege of highlighting somebody that not only means a lot to me, but means a lot to this church. Uh I hate pointing at people, but I'm going to do it. Pastor Steve, could you just raise your hand real quick? Pastor Steve, this is Pastor Steve. Can you guys wave at him? Put your hands together for him. Pastor Steve not only founded this church over 20 years ago, but man, he has been a spiritual mentor to me, somebody that has meant a lot to me over the years, and someone who the Lord has used mightily in this community, not just in this church, but in this community. And the Bible says to give honor where honor is due. And I know that Easter is like a big and bad day, and we got a lot of things, but I'm going to take just a few minutes of my message and highlight, man, how much we appreciate and we love and we are standing on the foundation that Pastor Steve and Sue built for this church. So can we just put our hands together for them one more time? And Pastor Steve, we're still believing with you and we're still believing for you. And we know that God still has amazing plans that He's using in and through you. And so thank you for being here. It is an honor and privilege to be able to carry on the legacy that you've left for this church. So thank you so much for everything that you've done. We love you. We love you. With that said, can you turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15? 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We're going to start in verse 54. If you're there, say there. If you're not, it's okay. We got it on the screen, so we're all there. Starting in verse 54, it says, Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed to the bodies that will never die, this scripture will be fulfilled. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sins its power. But thank God he gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, right now, I thank you for who you are and what you do. God, I pray right now as we dive into your word that God, you would just have your way. That those of us that know you well, God, that we would just leave this place, God, more inspired, more passionate, more like Jesus. Those of us that don't, God, we would come to know you today. That no matter where we are, we would leave different. That we would have an encounter and experience the power of God. We love you. We thank you. Your name I pray. And everyone said, Amen. At the age of 11, I moved to a town called Oregon City, Oregon. How many of you guys have ever heard of there, been there? If you're if you haven't, it's in Oregon. Hence the name. It's really good. Oregon City, Oregon. And I'm sixth grade, 11 years old. I move into these apartments with my mom and my sister. My mom was a single mom, amazing. We move in here and we're starting school. I'm excited because I'm just fresh into middle school. I'm at a brand new school. My mom had to work early, so we got to go to the bus stop by ourselves. And so me and my sister, we would walk with all the other apartment kids and we go all the way up through the apartments and up the driveway and we go stand on the highway. It sounds, I was gonna say it sounds much sketchier than it wasn't, but honestly, it was pretty sketchy. We'd stand on the highway and wait for the bus to come up. And I got to meet a lot of cool people. One of the gals I got to meet, her name was Ashley Pond. Her she was about two years older than me. Um we get to know these kids, and a couple weeks after getting to know them, uh we go to school. Ashley's not there at the bus stop. We don't think much of it because we're like she's probably sick or something. We get home from school, and all over the news, they're saying Ashley Pond is missing. Now, many of us being in a city, we assume she ran away or she did things, so we're not too concerned. But then one day it turns into two. Two days turn into three, and on the third day, they're the the cops are coming to our school, and all of us that ride the bus, they're asking us, hey, you live in the same apartments? Has she mentioned anything about leaving? And we're like, no, not that we can think of. The next thing we know, the news is showing up, and they're filming us at the bus stop, and they're asking us kids, and they're putting, you know, they're they're starting to do candlelight vigils, and then uh a couple days later it's the weekend, and I'm sitting on my apartment in this, in this, uh, on this deck, and I'm looking out, and behind us, because it's Oregon and it's the fall coming into winter, there's just blackberry bushes as far as you can see behind us. And all of a sudden I see the police start going through the blackberry bushes and they're cutting them down and looking through there. And I was like, ask my mom, why are they doing that? And she's like, They're looking for Ashley. And I'm like, Well, don't you think if she was in those bushes, she would have hollered out, like, I'm in here, someone come find me. And she's like, No, like they're they think she might be dead, like they're looking for her. And I was like, Oh. And this was kind of the first moment of my life that death became like a real thing. I was like, oh wow, this is kind of crazy. A couple days later, they're interviewing us again at the bus stop, and a gal named Miranda Gaddis, she's Ashley's best friend. We all live in the apartments together, she's really nice. They're interviewing her, and she's talking about how she's worried and that you know we're not giving up hope. And two days later, Miranda disappears. And I remember we go onto winter break, it's getting around Christmas, and me and my friend are playing basketball in these apartments, and I go to shoot my shot, and I'm just like Michael Jordan. I'm so good that not only do I miss the net, but I miss and go over the backboard, and it goes into the over the fence to the neighbor's house, and I'm just like, man, I'm not good. So me and my friend were doing rock, paper, scissors see who has to jump over the fence and get the basketball, and I lose. And so I my friend boosts me, I jump over the fence, and right when I land, I see my basketball, I go to pick it up, and as I'm standing up, I see the owner of the house, and he's laying down cement in his backyard. And me and him make eye contact, and I've never met him before, and I'm like 11, so this is spooky to me. And he's like, What are you doing here? And I was like, nothing. And I turn around and run and jump over the fence. Me and my friend run to his house, and we tell his parents, they're like, he was laying cement in the middle of winter, and we're like, Yeah, and they're like, that's weird. So they call the cops, and he there the cops come back and say, Well, he's building a swimming pool, and we're like, Okay. Um, a few more weeks pass, and they end up finding out that this man that you know was living next to us was actually the guy that kidnapped and unfortunately murdered these two girls. And it was interesting because we come to find out later that not only was he a serial killer who had abducted and murdered these girls, but his father was actually a serial killer before him. And now his son, who at that time was my age, is now in prison for being a serial killer as well. Now, there's three reasons I tell you this story. Number one, Netflix, if you're watching, I'm ready to make a special, like, let's do this. Just lightening the mood, guys, it's okay. Number two, sometimes it pays to be ugly because nobody's kidnapping me from any bus stops. I'm just saying. But number three, and most importantly, death is a scary thing. And death is something that's real and can grab any of our attention. And today I want to talk about death, where is your sting? Because if we're honest, we all have places in our life, maybe we're not physically dead, but we have places where we're living dead and defeated. See, Jesus removed the sting of death from our life. And here's the truth of Easter. Jesus didn't just deal with death, it says he disarmed it. See, death still shows up, it it but it's lost its power. I want to be very real. I'm not saying that death doesn't exist. We all that have lived know that death exists to some extent. That many of us have been around it, been affected by it, have felt the loss. So when Jesus and the Bible say this, what does it really mean? What's changed? If death still shows up, how can the Bible say it has no sting? If any of you have ever wanted to see a full-grown man hit the notes of a little girl, you should see me around a wasp nest or a beehive. Like, man, you will just, Michael Jackson will come right out of me. We'll be singing to the rooftops. And I remember as like an eight-year-old, I got stung, and it looked like that movie hitched, like my whole face was swollen, and I went to the hospital, and they're like, if you get stung again, then you're most likely gonna die. So ever since then, anytime even someone says a bee, you'll see me like running and screaming as fast as I can. And I remember one time I was sitting in my my mom's boyfriend at the time's truck, and all of a sudden a bee gets in his car and it's doing this, and we're in the front seat, and I am panicking. I'm like, I haven't written my will. Who am I gonna leave my Pokemon cards to? Like, what are we gonna do? And the guy sees me freaking out, he's like, What are you freaking out? I'm like, I'm allergic, and he just looks at the bee and looks at me and just goes and smashes the bee in his hand. But the problem is as soon as he goes like this, the bee starts flying around still. And so I'm panicking, and he's like, Hey, you don't need to panic, you don't need to panic. I'm like, you don't understand. Like, I am deathly allergic. And he says, Look, and he shows me his palm, and the stinger is still in his palm. So even though the bee was buzzing around, the bee had lost its stinger. And many of us, what we need to understand is that that buzzing can be annoying, but it can't kill you anymore. And when it Jesus dealt with death means that death can still fly around, it can still be around you, but it can't take you out anymore. That death may buzz, but it doesn't have a sting. I think a great way to acknowledge this is how many of you guys are like me, and when you think of your work week and you know Monday's coming, Sunday, you're just like the whole time, you're like, I gotta work tomorrow, and it's kind of hanging over your head. And in fact, I'll set my alarm and my wife's not in here so I can lie a little bit. You know, I wake up between 4 and 5 a.m. every morning because I'm tough. It's more like, you know, six, but it's all right. Um and uh and every morning my alarm will go off, and the same thing happens. I wake up, I look at it, I roll my eyes, but I get up and I start doing things because there's work to be done. Now, on days that I really enjoy, it'll be a Saturday, and that same alarm will go off at the same time, and I'll get up and I kind of roll my eyes, but I open up my phone and recognize that it's Saturday, and I get to just hit the snooze button, tell my wife, good luck with our baby, and roll over and go back to sleep. Now, other than proving that I'm a mean husband, why do I tell you that story? Because death is just like that. Although death is real, just like your alarm is real, it has no authority because you've been set free. See, Jesus took the sin or the sting of sin so you don't have to. The Bible says that the sting of death is sin. And that the real power behind death isn't just dying, it's that separation from you and God, that eternal death. Because sin separates us, and that separation leads not to just death in this life, but death in the next, and that death has a claim on you. In the Bible, it makes it a very legal term that death has a legal right to you because of your sin, because of the mistakes and the evil that you and I have done. But it says Jesus stepped in and said, I will take the consequences of that. So I want you to picture Jesus is nailed upon the cross. He's wearing this crown of thorns. There is darkness over the land, and every bit of that sting of death, that punishment of justice from God, every ounce of it and every weight of it is Jesus absorbs it in that moment. And so the sting doesn't just disappear, but it changes targets because Jesus takes that sting for me and for you. See, the resurrection proves that the sting is gone, because if Jesus were to stay dead, we'd stay stuck. But the fact that Jesus rose from the grave is proof that death has failed. The stone was rolled away, the grave was found empty, and Jesus is alive today. Amen? Come on. See, death gave its best shot and it lost. I remember as a college student, I watched one round of UFC on TV and I was like, man, if they can do it, I can do it. I paid no attention to the don't just try this at home. And so I signed up from an MMA gym and I'm in it less than a month, and I'm like, I'm ready for my amateur bout. And I go to sign up and they're like, Are you sure? And I was like, yes, and they made me sign extra waivers just to make sure how sure I was. And I get into this first round and I'm like hyped. There's a crowd of, you know, dozens of people. We're in this cage, and I'm like, man, I'm gonna be, you know, the master of disaster. I'm gonna change the world with my fighting prows. And I get in there, and me and this guy are going, and I like lock up with him, and I go to hit him, and I hit him as hard as I can, and he does not budge. And he looks at me. And when you hit a guy as hard as you can and he doesn't seem to feel any effect, you get pretty scared pretty fast. Next thing I know, he's wrestling me down, and I'm on my back and he's choking me out, and I'm flaying around like this, and I'm trying to like grab his hands and hit his legs, and nothing's working. But I was even though the crowd is laughing and the referee's like, What are you doing in here? And everything, I refuse to tap out because that would be embarrassing. And next thing I know, my vision's getting blurrier and blurrier, and I'm I pass out. And I wake up to the guy like standing up in the ring, going like this, and the ref smacking me in the face and putting salts in my nose, and I stand up and he's like, Man, you have been knocked out. On that Friday, Jesus is killed, and his followers think the story is over. They've been following Jesus for years, and they walk away and they go their own separate ways, and they're thinking, Can I get back into my family business? Where can I live? Where can I go? I've got to change my life as I know it. Saturday comes and nothing gets any better. It's called silent Saturday, nothing changes. And they probably felt stuck and hopeless because the Jesus that they followed, the Messiah they believed in, was dead. But on that Sunday morning, Jesus got up and he conquered death. He knocked it out cold, and even though death gave its best shot, Jesus got back up. And here's why I tell you this today. I don't want to tell you this just to tell you a spiritual lesson or inspire you, but I want you to live differently. I want you to live differently in a practical way because of what this Bible says, because what Jesus has done. See, here's where this gets real for me and you that if death has no sting, why do we still live like it does? So these are three areas of your life I think that we all struggle in, living in a reality of victory, knowing that Jesus has conquered death. The first area is fear. And I think we've all, if we're honest, have experienced this in some way. That most of us we we are controlled by fear. Fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of the future. But can I tell you that if death is the worst possible outcome and Jesus has defeated it, what are we so afraid of? Why do we live in so much fear? In fact, in Matthew 28 uh 10, 28, Jesus says this do not be afraid of those who want to kill your body. They cannot touch your soul. Jesus saying they might be able to wipe you out of this life, but they can't affect the next. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body. When we begin to trust Jesus, we begin to understand that death has lost its power, that fear should lose its power, that everything compared to death should shrink. Because if death is the worst thing and it's lost its power, everything else is inconsequential. How does this apply to me? A few months ago, some of you might have noticed that have been here that I was preaching strapped. I was like ready to go. And I'll tell you the reason that this happened is because a few weeks before that, someone online had made a couple of threats against me, like for violence and to kill me, and it was weirding me out. And so my first response was, if you want to get ghetto, let's get ghetto. So I'm coming to church strapped, I'm like, I'm ready to fight for the Lord, like, let's do this thing. And I I'm preaching and I feel emboldened. I'm kind of like a you know, standing like this, like a cowboy when I preach, watching the door, I'm like, any minute now, I'm ready to go. And a member of our safety team ended up sending me a text a few weeks later that's like, hey man, I just worry that if people are coming after you because of your faith in Jesus, because of the the preaching the word, and they're saying they're going after you, and your first response is to get locked and loaded and ready to fight for yourself. I think we've missed what the Bible teaches. And he's like, We're we're called to trust God in those moments, and we should prepare our souls more than we should prepare ourselves. And I felt gutted and convicted. And so I looked at the safety team and said, Hey man, Monday through Saturday, I'm ready to roll. Sunday, I'm trusting the Lord and I'm trusting you. I want you guys to know that I'm not just saying these words, but these are things that I've had to walk through myself. That fear is a real thing that we can all struggle with. But if we really begin to trust Jesus that he is who he says he is, that we can live more free than ever before. Everybody say two. The second thing is that we can struggle with shame and guilt. See, fear affects our past. But if we're not careful, some of us we're not afraid of our past. We're afraid of our mistakes, and honestly, sometimes we're afraid of our regrets, our weaknesses, and ultimately maybe even the future. Pastor Kyle calls me Tyler a lot, and I laugh because he's like, hey, sorry, sorry, I mean, I mean Ty. And it doesn't affect me. We've been friends for a long time. He he knew me as Tyler. And I got saved a year and went straight from a year of being saved to going to Bible college to become a preacher. And so to say that my walk with Jesus was messy was an understatement. And I remember when I first started going to Bible college and getting opportunities to preach, at first I was really excited, but after a while I like did not look forward to it. It was challenging to me. That there there were moments when I would start to preach that I felt like the enemy was like, Who are you? Who do you think you are? Why do you think you get this opportunity to do this? And I'd just be reminded of the person I was and the mistakes that I had made and the shortcomings that I had felt and think, man, God, I know you saved me, but I don't think you can use me. In fact, it got so bad that I had people from my past life texting me saying, Man, I'm gonna show up at your church and tell these people who you really are, because you're messed up. And in that moment, I wanted to shrink back and say, God, you can't use me. And God reminded me that if he says that I'm forgiven, if he says that I'm changed, then I'm changed. And the same is true of you. That man, you don't you you might not need to change your name because that's a bit extreme, but you need to remind yourself that if God has forgiven you, that if God has called you, that if God has gifted you and given you a purpose, that it doesn't matter what other people see, it doesn't matter the mistakes of your past, that God has made you a new creation and you can be used by Him. Amen. See, you're most of us we struggle because we feel like we're fighting for our freedom, that we somehow have to earn our relationship with God, the blessing and favor of God. But if you are a believer in Jesus, you are fighting from it. That you are already changed, God already accepts you, God already blesses you and gifts you, and you get to simply act within that. The third and final area that I want you to change is playing small. See, many of us we struggle because we want to live safe and we want to live comfortable, and we live a pretty predictable life. A few weeks ago, I took some of our staff, there's about 10 of us, and we went to, we took a van down to Nampa. And if, man, you don't think our staff knows how to pray, you just let me drive you in a van all the way to Nampa and you'll pray. Like they they had faith after that trip, and let me tell you what. And we get there and we're in this leadership seminar, and the speaker's talking about different kinds of leaders, and he's you know, talking about like, you know, there's stronger leaders, there's weaker leaders, and then he has us take this test to say not only what kind of leader we are, but how strong of a leader we are. And I'm in there and I'm like, man, they don't have a test good enough for me. Like I'm gonna be off the charts. Like, Jesus, the way that you've gifted me, they're not even gonna be able to recognize how good it is on this chart. Like it's gonna, they're gonna have to write new books about this. And we go and we take the test, and I get my results, and man, I was embarrassed. And I wanted to keep my results to myself because I went and I talked to Pastor Bambi, and Bambi gets uh this great uh they called it two-dimensional leader, two second-level leader, where she is not only just good with stuff, she's very organized, she's good with budgets and the items and stuff, but she's also really good with people. People really like her, they see her as a pastor. And then we get over to like our one of our interns, the Don, and they're like, Man, you are the most people person ever. Everybody loves you, they're just thankful to be around you. And then I'm thinking, well, maybe me and Pastor Kyle will be similar, and I can have someone in the trenches with me. And we get to Pastor Kyle and he's like, I'm good at everything. That's literally what the test said. They're like, Jesus is here, Pastor Kyle's right there, and I'm like, what the heck? And then we get to mine and I tell him what my results were, and he's like, We're praying for you, buddy. And I'm just like, man, what is happening? And it literally says in the test that if I don't work on myself, that I'm just kind of a one-trick pony. That you know, I'm not always great at being organized, I have good intentions, but things drop. I'm not always good at relationships because man, I'd rather preach at you than sit in the trenches with you sometimes. It's one of my struggles. But that the thing that God has gifted me with is they call it visionary, which means that when I read this Bible, that I just believe what it says and I want others to also. And that even though I was stuck on my shortcomings in that moment, thinking, God, why did you choose me? This makes no sense. God reminded me that if I will just be faithful with what he's put in my hands, if I will just say this is what the Bible says, and tell you guys, let's go after Jesus together, that Jesus will take care of the rest. And so here's what I want you to know. Maybe you're like me and you look at your shortcomings and you think you have to live your life differently because you're not the same as so-and-so. You can't lead worship like Shay and Tony, you can't preach like Pastor Kyle, you can't, you know, run sound or do these things. Can I tell you, no matter how the Lord has gifted you, no matter your personality, no matter what the charts say, that if you are faithful to God, He'll be faithful to you. Amen. See, if death is defeated, you guys were about three seconds too late. I love it though. Come on. If death, if death is defeated, you are free to go all in. That you don't have to hold back, that you can start that business, you can start that thing that the Lord has put on your heart, you can share your faith boldly, you can lead with passion, you can love fully because you know that Jesus has your back. Can I tell you, people who aren't afraid are dangerous to the kingdom of darkness because they can stand boldly before the Lord and say, the worst you can do is kill me. In 1 Corinthians 15, 58, finishing the next verse that from what we read, it says, So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Also work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing, catch this, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. Can I tell you in my life I felt like I've done some pretty useless things? I'd do something like, Why did we do that? That seems pointless, that seems meaningless. But what I want you to remind you is that this scripture tells us that anything we do for the Lord, whether we give or we serve or we come to church or we become godly parents or godly spouse or we coach or Kids, sports, or whatever we do in the name of Jesus. That God never waste it. And man, there are some things that we do that we feel like where are the results? But can I promise you that if you lay your life before the hands of Jesus, that he will make much of what you feel like is nothing, that he will make ministry out of what you feel like is mundane, and he will use your life like crazy if you will just let him. One of my favorite questions and quotes Who's the most dangerous man in the world? The soldier who already consider themselves dead. Somebody that's all in on the mission. And man, if we would have that same approach of our faith, of like, we know that the Lord's got us, we know that it's already going to come through. What would we do if we believed that God would do it? What would we pray for? What would we believe for? How would we step out in faith if we believe that the Lord would do it? So I want to give you this moment to respond. I want to ask you again, if you really think about this, where are you feeling the sting in your life lately? Maybe your sting is fear, maybe it's anxiety, maybe you struggle with sin and addiction, maybe you struggle with feeling hopeless or lost. And I want you to imagine that thing that you're struggling with in your life. And Jesus walks up, and just like that man smacked that bee, Jesus walks up and he sees your problem, he sees your fear, he sees your anxiety, he sees your shortcomings, and he smashes it. And just like that thing, the bee was buzzing around, that thing may buzz around, but you can look at the palm of Jesus and realize that he has already taken the sting and the punishment for you. To bring it back to our scripture, it says, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Can I tell you that's not denial, that's a declaration of the truth and reality of God. That although death tried to define you, Jesus redefines you. Although death tries to hold you back, Jesus will set you free. And although death tries to end your story, Jesus will rewrite your story with you if you will simply trust him. The grave is empty, the stone is rolled away, and the sting is gone. And the victory is yours if you will simply trust Jesus. Now in the 8:30 service, I went to use this awesome illustration, and I walked up, and I again I wasn't strapped, so I went to pull out a bullet out of my pocket and I realized I had none. So then all the men of our church came up to me and threw bullets in my hand, so I have plenty to choose from. And man, I think what I'm gonna choose is let's go with this 45, but I think I'm gonna go with the hollow point over here. Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate it. Many of us, when we think of death and we think of our sin, we think of something scary like a bullet. And man, if this bullet is in a gun and it gets pointed and shot at you, that is scary. But right now, when it's just in my hand, when it's outside the gun, how scary is it? It's not very powerful. Some of you might think I'm, you know, like a great baseball player. I'm not. So if I threw this at you, I ain't gonna do much of anything. The reality of our life is we look at our sin, we look at death as something to fear. But when Jesus took the power from death, it's like Jesus took the bullets out of the gun. He took the gun away from the bullet, and you're looking at it, and it still seems scary, it still seems like we need to be afraid, but guess what? It has lost its power. And in this life, I want you to recognize that reality, that same reality that when Jesus steps into your life, all those, all your shame, all your sin, all your fear, all your anxiety has been wiped away. See, this Easter, we're not just celebrating that Jesus is alive, we're celebrating that because he is alive, that you can be alive also. In fact, repeat this after me. Say, Death, where is your sting? Let's try that again. Death, where is your sting? Can I tell you, it is gone in the name of Jesus, that it is gone now because of Jesus, and that so can be your fear, so can be your sin, and so can be the things holding you back. And if you're ready today to live a life resurrected in power, that you don't want to just believe the Bible, but you want to walk it out and you want to stand for Jesus and you want to be bold in your faith, would you just get on your feet today? I want to end by asking you this question again. If the sting is gone, why are we living defeated? If the sting is gone, why are we living defeated? If I could have every head bowed and eyes closed, I just don't want you to be distracted in this moment. I want to ask two questions for two different groups of people. And the first one we ask every single week, because it's the most important question, and that's this are you not following Jesus and today you want to? Are you here today and you hear about Jesus and you like the idea of Jesus, but you have not followed him and today you'd like to? I want to give you that opportunity. On the count of three, I'm gonna have you raise your hand and we're gonna pray a prayer with you as a church. One, this is the most important decision of your life. More important than who you marry, where you live, what your job is, your relationship with Jesus is everything. Two, many of us think that we have all the time in the world, but can I tell you we don't actually know how much time we have? We don't know if we can wait until next Easter, next year, even next week. We don't know how much time we have. Get right with the Lord today. Three, if that's you and you want to begin to follow Jesus, would you just raise your hand? I want to pray with you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Church, would you pray this prayer with me to say, Dear Jesus, thank you for saving me, for loving me. God, make me bold, make me powerful, make me loving. Help me to follow you all the days of my life. Amen. The second question I want to ask is maybe you're here and you've known Jesus a long time, you've been going to church for a while, but you've noticed that there's a disconnect. That although you read the Bible, you believe what it says, you have not been living like you believe what it says. And you're ready to be more bold, you're ready to step out, and you're ready to say that God, if this what the words you wrote are true, I want to live like it. I want people to see it. If that's you and you'd like me to pray for you to have more boldness so you can live a life of power and victory, would you just raise your hand? I want to pray for you. God, right now you see these hands and you know these hearts and lives. I pray right now that each and every one of us would feel emboldened, empowered, God, and we would be more passionate. That God, we wouldn't be held back by the things of our past, we wouldn't be held back by the fear and anxiety of the future. But God, we would walk boldly saying, if Jesus did it before, he'll do it again. That if he did it for them, he can do it for me. That God, if he can build a church with Pastor Steve, he can build it with my life. That if he can pray like that through through Miss Jeannie, he can pray like that through me. That if you can heal others, you can heal me. That if you can set others free, you can set me free. God, that we wouldn't be held back, we wouldn't look at these stories and feel ashamed, but God, we would look at them and be reminded of hope. That no matter how far gone we are, if we come back to you, you change it all. God, allow us to live a life different. Allow us to be true believers. God, we thank you and we love you. It is in your precious name we pray, and everyone said.