FC 13th Birthday // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // Sept. 7, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, free Church, man, what a great day to
be in God's house.
Huh, happy birthday, freeChurch.
Some of you may be celebratingwith us for the first time, some

(00:21):
of you may be celebrating withus for the 13th time.
Some of you may be celebratingwith us for the 13th time.
And, man, it's so incredible tothink back, all the things God
has done in and through and forthe glory of the Lord in this
house.
And I just want to just welcomemy mom, who's here with us
today, with us today.

(00:50):
It's not a birthday without mymom around.
She can verify I was born onSunday and in church the next
Sunday and didn't miss a Sunday.
And then to my sister, violetI'm so glad you're here.
Our family is a.
We're a fairly close family andmy sister first my mom, is like
one of the greatest supportersof free church that there is.

(01:13):
I mean, my mom is all in andshe is such a blessing.
She watches every week fromHouston and I'm just so thankful
.
She's a big cheerleader in mylife and, more importantly, I
know she prays for us and forall of you on a daily basis and

(01:34):
I would also bet that.
I bet she outreads all of us inthis room.
My mom has been a lifelongreader and learner.
And, mom, how many times haveyou read the Bible through in a
row?
How many times have you readthe Bible through in a row?
45.
This year it's 45 times in arow this year.
So she's, for 45 years, readthe Bible through from cover to

(01:58):
cover.
Man, can we just how many wantto be that when you grow up?
And then my sister incrediblesupport, just always encouraging
, always helps with the vision,and whenever I feel like I'm
maybe running against a wall, Icall my sister and she inspires

(02:20):
me and gives me a good one-liner.
That just helps me so much.
I love you, violet.
I'm glad you're here.
And then Susan is here.
Susan was on our launch teamway back in 2012.
It's good to see you, susan.
Well, man, I'm ready to preachGod's Word.
Are you ready to receive ittoday?
I don't know.

(02:41):
I had something with me and Iforgot it in my office.
What did I say?
Did I say I'm ready to preachGod's word?
Are you ready to receive it?
The year was 2012.
And it happened to be October.
Somebody needs to get thatphone.
That's important.
Yes, lord, it used to be.

(03:02):
It was 2012, october of 2012,and we were on our second visit
to the Chicago area.
We spent some time here inLabor Day weekend, visiting all
of the areas of Chicago, finallymade it to Oak Park on Tuesday
and right then we knew, man,this is a special place where we

(03:24):
want to be, but we had othercities to check out.
So between Labor Day week of2012 and about the second week
of 2012 of October, we spenttime in New Orleans, dallas,
this little town, little countrytown south of Dallas, mobile,

(03:46):
alabama.
That was just a drive-through.
We literally drove into townand I looked at Urshana and she
said, just keep on driving.
We went to all those cities tobe on-site for insight and in
Mobile we were just like what asight.
We were just like, what a sight.
But in October of 2012, we werehere on our second visit.

(04:08):
My entire family, my siblings,were all here with us.
We walked these streets, welooked at the architecture, we
walked past this building,didn't even know that one day it
would be our building.
That's a flex, and we had suchan incredible time just walking

(04:29):
the streets.
And then our families all leftand Arshad and I spent one more
day here, just kind of ridingaround looking at houses with
our realtor and spent some time,and then we were getting on a
train.
Back in those days there was Idon't think there was an Uber
back then in 2012, and you couldtake a taxi cab to O'Hare
Airport, which would have beenjust fine, but we thought it was
so cool that there was a trainto take, so we would take the

(04:51):
blue line from Oak Park, get onOak Park Avenue blue line and
take that.
We didn't know we were goingall the way downtown and then
all the way back out west againto go to the airport.
We didn't know, but we surefelt like we were cool.

(05:13):
And it was on that train, onthat blue line, on the way
towards downtown, that Arshonand I looked at one another.
We had spent, you know now, twotrips here.
All of our family seemed tosign off on it and they all
promised they would move hereand that hasn't happened yet.
So pray for them.
We, holding hands on that train, took a picture of our hands

(05:37):
being held together and say isthis it?
This is it.
And we were like are you readyto go all in?
And she was like are you readyto go all in.
And she was like I'm ready togo all in, because that means
we're selling our house inHouston, we're moving away from
all of our family.
We're coming to an area that weimmediate area.
We know no one.
My brother and his family wereliving out in South Elgin at the

(06:00):
time.
We were like there's nobody.
That's our family and we'll bewith them.
But as far as Oak Park, wedon't know anybody.
But let's go all in.
And we have a picture of us andI was trying to find it today
and I couldn't find it of usholding hands on that train, on
that blue line, calling thatthis was the place.
And it's the year I learned thatwhen you decide to go all in,

(06:24):
there are going to be costs,there's going to be hard times,
there's going to be situationsthat you probably didn't choose.
But when you decide to go allin on the call that God has on
your life, the reward willimmensely outweigh any of the
labor that you put into it.
So why don't you turn to yourneighbor and just say happy
birthday, free Church.

(06:45):
And to the one you've beenignoring, just let them know,
just say I'm ready to go all inIf you were to ask me PC.
So this is birthday number 13.
We've done this Sunday 13 times.
And what would you tell thechurch on birthday Sunday?
This is birthday number 13.

(07:06):
We've done this Sunday 13 times.
What would you tell the churchon birthday Sunday?
Here we are launching twoservices First time.
We've been back in two servicessince 2020.
It's good to be back.
We had a little bit earlier calltime for everybody.
I was watching the choir andthe worship team.
I was like man, y'all betterslow down.
You got another service left.
Save that voice, that voice.
But no way we're going all in.

(07:28):
And if you were to ask me PC,what would you share?
What would be if I could sitdown with all of you and have a
cup of coffee and talk over whatI think would be the most
incredible journey, from whereyou are today to where God wants
you in the future?
I would say, I would press youand say are you really going all

(07:49):
in?
How's your journey of faith?
How is your?
How are you doing?
How are you engaging?
And I would press you again andagain to say are you all in?
And we find this in scripture,in Jeremiah, chapter 29.
And I don't know if this isgonna be a full series or just a
single Sunday, all in Sunday.

(08:10):
But Jeremiah 29, verse 11, saysfor I know the plans I have for
you, says the Lord, and itdoesn't matter where you're at
today, god has a plan for yourlife and he knows exactly where
you're at and you might not feellike you're in the spot that
you should be, but today you'rehere and we always say there is

(08:30):
no place like this place, nearthis place.
So this must be the place.
And I want to tell yousomething that if you're here,
this is the place for you toexperience the healing and what
God has for your life.
He has a plan for your life andif you feel like you're not in
that place yet, don't give upyet, because God has a plan for
your life.
And look at what this plan is.

(08:50):
It says they are plans for goodand not disaster.
Can I get an amen in the house,thankful that God, a God plan,
is a good plan and to give you afuture and a hope.
And we love that passage ofscripture.
We love man.
I've preached sermons on that.
I've preached all over sermons.

(09:10):
I've preached to students aboutthat that God has a plan of
purpose and hope, not calamityor defeat.
And, man, we love that verse,but there is something required
to experience that plan in yourlife and what I would say is
you're not gonna be able toexperience that plan in your
life and what I would say isyou're not gonna be able to
experience God's best for yourlife until you determine that

(09:32):
you will give God the best ofyour life.
So when you pick it up in verse10, it says then it says this
that back in that verse, go backone more time to that verse.
Then it says this I will, for Iknow the plans I have for you,
says the Lord.
They're plans for good and notdisaster, to give you a future

(09:53):
and hope.
In those days when you pray, Iwill listen.
And then this is where we'regoing to camp out.
Today, If you look for mewholeheartedly, you will find me
.
You want to find God's plan foryour life.
You're going to have to go allin.
You want to experience all thatGod has for you.
It's going to require you tojust take everything at the

(10:15):
table and push it forward andsay God, at this moment I'm
going all in, and there's thisjourney that we begin and I want
to ask about your engagement.
Just what is your engagement?
Like, you're at the 9 o'clockservice, so I know all of you
are engaged.
Those other people are stillsleeping.
I know you're engaged, but whatis your engagement in the

(10:39):
church?
What is your engagement in yourrelationship with the Lord?
And you know, when we get saved,we first get saved and become
part of the crowd and then, aswe are discipled and we're
involved in small groups andwe're involved in developing
relationships and we're learninghow to love the Lord and we're
learning how to serve him, we gofrom a part of the crowd into

(11:01):
being a follower of Jesus.
We're follower of Jesus, but wewant to see wholly committed
followers of Jesus who thenbecome disciples.
And you know that you're onthis journey and so you can be a
part of the crowd and that'sgreat because what a great
experience this is.
And you can be a follower ofJesus because it is the path
that the Lord is calling us todo.
But when you become a disciple,then you start leading others

(11:24):
with you.
So I wanna just encourage youto go all in today, just on this
little birthday message and thetime that I've left and I'll
begin right here.
In Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8.
For it is by grace you havebeen saved, through faith, and
this is not from yourselves.
Everybody say this.
It is a gift of God.

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So you're saved.
There's nothing you did to besaved except believe and confess
.
You can't earn that salvation.
You can't work hard enough tobe saved.

(12:06):
You can't be good enough to besaved.
Some of you are waiting for Godto save you.
When you're good enough, I'mjust going to get good and then
I'll get God.
No, we get God and then we getgood.
My English wants to say getgooder.
I'm making that t-shirt, by theway.
I'm going to trademark that getgooder.
So there's nothing we can do.

(12:31):
You can't.
The reality is you can't evenread your Bible enough to
warrant being saved, becauseyou're saved by grace, and grace
is a gift that you cannot earn.
Grace is receiving somethingthat you don't deserve.
Mercy is when you don't getwhat you really deserve.

(12:52):
Like, everybody wants justice,but there's a price of justice.
Mercy is holding back what Ideserve, but grace is this
overflow of riches that I do notdeserve, and that's what
salvation is.
So you're saved.
Come on, pc, get on with it.
Let's keep going all right, forwe are God's handiwork, created

(13:15):
in Christ Jesus to do goodworks which God prepared in
advance for us to do.
So this is such a powerful ideabecause the Bible says we are
God's handiwork.
In other passages of scripture,other translations, it actually
says masterpiece.
I preached about that a whileback, about being a masterpiece.

(13:39):
Like God has a unique designfor your life and he doesn't
give all of us the same exactpurpose, because he needs us all
to fulfill a purpose within thegreater purpose of his church.
So the whole idea is we don'twork to get saved, we get saved
and we get to work.
We get to work, and not only dowe get the desire to get to

(14:05):
work, but it is an honor and aprivilege to get to work.
Philippians 2 says this dearfriends, you always followed my
instructions when I was with youand now that I'm away, it is
even more important for you towhat's that say Work hard.

(14:26):
But I thought grace andsalvation is a gift.
It is, but we're not.
We're no longer working to besaved, we're working to show
we're saved.
We're working because, man, ifwhat God did for me, I can

(14:46):
extend that to somebody else.
It's worth it.
It's worth being at the 645call time Because it helps
somebody.
It's a value to be able to getup and be at the first team
rally at 820.
It's a value to be able toworship one and serve one and

(15:13):
look what happens, for God isworking in you, giving you the
desire and the power to do whatpleases him.
You might not initially havethe desire, but God gives you
that desire.
And if you don't have thatdesire yet, just keep pressing

(15:36):
in, just keep going all in, andone day you'll wake up and
instead of being like, oh, Ican't believe I have to get up
at this time, you're gonna belike I get to get up at this
time, I'm so thankful.
So what is this all in journey?
I'm gonna give it to you infour simple steps, and some of
you are on this journey indifferent ways.
But the vision of Free Church isthat we know God on Sunday, and

(16:00):
the reality is we need to getto know God better every Sunday.
So where are you at in yourengagement on the journey of
faith Number one?
All of us should.
The first thing we should do ifwe're going all in, the first
chip we put in is this Make myrelationship with God public.
And I'm going to tell youthat's two fold.

(16:20):
And you say well, pc, that'stwo things.
Number one it's baptism andnumber two it's testimony.
And let me just quickly talkabout testimony, because the
Bible says that we overcome bythe blood of the lamb and by our
, and I wonder how many of usgive enough testimony to what
God has done in our life thatallows us to overcome.

(16:44):
What's next in my life?
You see, the pattern of victoryin following Jesus and becoming
a disciple is that when youlearn to testify about what God
has done in your life, there'sanother victory right around the
corner that you have a faithfor because you realize what he
did before.
What is the reward forvictories in following Jesus?

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More victories when you have atestimony, because that's how we
overcome.
So we overcome by our testimony, but we also we make our
relationship with God public byour testimony.
I've told this story before, butI remember when we lived in
Houston at the church there bigchurch, growing church we went

(17:28):
from like 500 to like 1,500 inabout a 12 or 16 month timeline,
and so it was just so manypeople coming, and I believe
that for this house, by the way,I believe that for this house,
exponential growth, not becausewe want to get big, but because
people need Jesus.
And so we were growing at arate and we had hired somebody

(17:51):
to help with children's ministry.
We were announcing them onSunday After service.
I saw him talking with somebodyin the audience that had
lingered after service for a bit.
They were talking.
They seemed like they knew eachother.
I said you guys Pastor Mike wasin that You're relatively new,
but you've been here for a whileand you guys know each other.
This is what pastor mike saidabout this guy.

(18:13):
He says, yeah, we've workedtogether for a number of years.
I didn't even know he went tochurch.
Ouch, don't let that be yourtestimony.
We're, we're called to make ourrelationship with god public,
so that's by our testimony.
The other way is throughbaptism, and I want to encourage

(18:36):
you.
I was looking over the numbers.
This year We've had over 115people raise their hand with a
declaration they want to followJesus, which is amazing.
But I want to just compel youif you've never taken your
decision public, it is a part ofyour testimony for victory in

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the future and you need to gopublic with your decision and I
can show you the Bible in Acts 2and 41.
I read about Acts, chapter 2,last week.
It says those who accepted themessage were baptized, and about
3,000 were added to theirnumber that day.
Who accepted the message?
Well, about 3,000 people, andthey were all baptized.
It is our responsibility to gopublic with our faith and that

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step is baptism.
The Greek word for baptism isbaptismo.
Greek word for baptism isbaptismo, and in the English
language for the most part,we've translated from Greek to
English so we can read thetranslation of scripture.
The highly educated they readit in the Greek and that's
amazing.
That's not me.

(19:45):
I need it to be translated andI like Eugene Peterson's message
version because it's eveneasier to understand.
Today's Living Bible helps meunderstand it even more
Sometimes.
The King James Version my dadused to preach from that
relentlessly and I'd be like Idon't know what it means.
Thou thus thee who.
I need the simple English, butbaptismal is one of those Greek

(20:08):
words that we could not find.
There was no translated wordfor baptismal, so they made
what's called a transliterationis one of those Greek words that
we could not find.
There was no translated wordfor baptism.
So they made what's called atransliteration meaning.
They just took the Greek wordand made it English word and
baptism became baptism and itsimply means to dunk, to immerse
, to go all the way under.
So when we baptize you, webaptize you by putting you all

(20:32):
the way under the water and someof you we hold down there
longer.
Parents, you just put that onthe note, but it's.
I read about this idea ofbaptism Ancient days.

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They would give them a whitebaptism garment and then they
would put on them a dark robe,black robe, and then, but they
would cinch everything up,except the black robe would be
loose, and when they would dropthem down and they didn't
baptize like we lay people downin the water and back in that

(21:12):
day they would literally go dunkthem down like this, like a
squat.
By the way, my great, mygrandfather, was baptizing
somebody up in northern michigan, in the upper peninsula, and
they had gone into lake michiganor one of the bodies of water
right there to baptize somebodyand they cleared out some ice
and when they first put the guydown, his head didn't go all the

(21:34):
way down, and so my grandfathertried it again and it still
didn't go down and finally herealized there was still some
ice under there, so he moved himover.
Then he put him down.
Had they been doing it the oldway, they would have made it
without incident.
But what they would do is theywould put that person, they
would put that person squattingdown and while they were under

(21:56):
the water they would pull offthat black robe and that black
robe would go down the river andthey would come up white with
that white garment on, pure assnow, and that's the symbol of
baptism.
We go down as our old self andwe're raised to new life and our
old life is washed away.
And the scripture says why dowe do that?

(22:19):
It's not what's saving you, butit's a cleansing of your life
and it is a declaration.
We're baptized number one, toshow that there has been a life
change in our life.
Look at the scripture Inbaptism we show that we have
been saved from death and doomedby resurrection of Christ, not

(22:42):
because our bodies are washedclean by the water, but because
in being baptized we are turningto God and asking him to
cleanse our hearts from sin.
So we're doing it to show achanged life and then we're
letting the world know we belongto Jesus.
Whoever acknowledges me beforeothers, jesus said, I will

(23:03):
acknowledge before my Father inheaven, but whoever disowns me
before others, I will disownbefore my Father in heaven.
Baptism is a way ofacknowledging that Jesus is your
Savior.
And if you'll do that on apublic scale, your savior Jesus
will do that in front of hisfather in heaven.
And so I know you say, well, pc,that's so elementary.
But some of you have never beenbaptized and I want to ask what

(23:27):
are you waiting for?
Go all in.
Let's make this the number 13.
From this point on, we go allin.
And if I the number 13, fromthis point on we go all in.
And if I've never been baptizedor maybe I was baptized as a
child and I didn't understand it, or I've lived a lot of life
that maybe I need to rededicateand go all in again that baptism
is for you.
In fact, next week we'rebaptizing in the 11 o'clock

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service and I would encourageyou.
You can just register forbaptism by just simply sending
Renee a DM of forward slashregister and then select baptism
, sunday baptism service andwe'll get you.
We got everything ready for you, we got a t-shirt for you it's

(24:09):
gonna be great, and if youdecide to do that in the service
next week, that's great too.
But we want to see you takethat step.
Show us you're all in.
Make your relationship with Godpublic.
Number two spend time with Godevery day, every day, every
single day.
Spend time with God, and I willtell you this God wants to
spend more time with you thanjust one hour on Sunday.

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Even if it's only five minutesa day, every other day of the
week, God will take that.
But he wants more.
He wants you to spend time withhim every day.
How can you do that?
Listen, psalms 5 and 3.
In the morning, lord, you hearmy voice.
I lay my request before you andI wait expectantly.
It is something about startingyour day off in the scriptures

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and I would encourage you if youcould give your first 15
minutes every single day to theLord in the next 30 days.
If you'll give, commit 21 daysto it and then go 90 days and
then just keep going after that,and pretty soon you've got 45
years of reading God's wordevery single day.
Applause, applause, five.

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First 15, five minutes ofreading God's word, five minutes
in worship and five minutes inprayer.
Wanna start to your day.
Spend time with God everysingle day.
The third thing, if I were totell you to go all in, is number
three choose the rightrelationship.
We say this, it's not just whatwe say to students, it's for

(25:36):
all ages, every life age, everylife stage.
It is this you show me yourfriends, I'll show you your
future.
Proverbs 13, 20 says walk withthe wise and become wise, for a
companion of fools suffers harm.
You want to be wise?
Hang out with wise people.
If you're the smartest personin the room, go to a new room.

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Get around smart people.
You'll become wise.
You want to follow Jesus.
Get around people who arefollowing Jesus.
You want to do better in yourfaith and your disciplines for
the Lord.
Get around people.
If you wanted to go to the gymbetter, you would get a gym
companion.
Somebody go to the gym with.
1 Corinthians, 15, 33 says thisdo not be misled.

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Bad company corrupts goodcharacter.
My dad used to say it this waydon't let your good be evil.
Spoken of man.
That just sounds smart, butit's true.
And I would ask you in thesethree areas of your relationship
number one, your relationshipwith the church.
Number two, your relationshipin a small group.

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And last week we launched SmallGroup Sunday.
Almost 100 people last weekregistered for our small group
already.
All through the week peoplehave been registering.
But downstairs in the lobby wehave a table set up for you to
find a group that fits you.
Every life age, every lifestage Bible study, fun women men

(27:05):
, online prayer there's a groupfor you.
Young couples, young adults,students there's a group for you
.
And I would just encourage youif you weren't here last week,
stop by the table.
They'll help you get throughinto Renee to figure out how to
follow up and find a group thatwill fit you.
Get involved in groups.
Most of those groups some starttoday, some start this week,

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some start in the next 10 daysor so, but we're starting this
season.
I want you to find your wayinto a small group.
How are we going all in?
We're going all in.
Number one we're making ourfaith public.
Number two we're spending timewith God every single day.
Number three, we're correctingour relationships.

(27:46):
And number four, we're making adifference in the lives of
others.
And I would just say how we dothat at Free Church.
And making a difference in thelives of others is through our
dream team.
It's through serving.
You're like PC.
This seems like an elementarysermon.
Well, you know what?
It's?
A 13th birthday.
I don't know if you've everbeen around a 13-year-old, but

(28:08):
if you tell them one time, yougot to tell them a thousand
times.
And so I'm telling you we arein this space and we're only as
good as we are is because of allthe people who have served to
help us get to this point.
But if your engagement hasn'treached the level of serving on
a team, I wanna compel you tofind a team to serve on.
It's that Ephesians 2.10, forwe are God's masterpiece.

(28:32):
He has created us in ChristJesus so we can do good things
that he's planned for us to dolong ago, and I would just
encourage you to find a team youcan serve on.
I was thinking about all my boys.
The twins are in college rightnow, and so I love them telling

(28:52):
me about their classes and howit's going and what they're
studying.
They're in just the first fewweeks of it, so right now
they're just basically writingpapers about themselves.
Remember that you had to writea bio of yourself every first
class, of every class you takein college, and that's where
they're at now.
But I remember studying Maslow'shierarchy of needs, right,

(29:17):
remember it.
Remember the first one, thefirst one man, I don't know them
all, but there were originallyfive.
There were five of them and itwas safety end.
That was the tip.
If you could get to a spotwhere you had really walked

(29:45):
fully in your purpose, you hadreached the pinnacle of of of
this hierarchy of needs.
And but before he died he wentback and assessed it all again
and he realized he missedsomething and he removed that
top, they moved everything downand he put one more up there,
and it was not selfactualization, it was self

(30:06):
transcendence.
And he said that really, youfind your greatest amount of
fulfillment not just when youwalk in your own purpose, but
when you live a life for othersthat goes beyond yourself.
And so in his last days herewrote the entire thing to show
that there was one more levelof reaching that hierarchy of

(30:28):
needs and it was when you livebeyond yourself for the needs of
others.
And that's what we do when wemake a difference.
Listen, you don't solveproblems in your world by trying
to solve the problems.
You solve problems in yourworld when you reach into
something that's much greaterthan yourself, and so sometimes
you get to the space and you'reserving a God who's so big, and

(30:49):
when you worship and when youserve which serving is worship
it causes you to elevate yourlife to a spot where now, your
problems even seem smaller.
I want to encourage you to signup for a team.
Our goal is to have another 50people serving on team in the
next 90 days.
That's by Big Ask Sunday, andwe're already on our way.

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But there's a way to do that,and that would be number one go
to Freeway.
If you've never been throughthe Freeway, or if maybe you
need a refresher, freeway takesplace on the 21st.
We'd love to see you there tobe a part of that and help us be
a part of the team.
And if you've gone throughFreeway it's been a minute since
you've been on a team you justsimply DM Renee forward, slash,

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serve, and she'll give you alist of teams that we are
looking to add to, and that ishow you can go all in.
Go public with your decision tofollow Jesus, spend time with
God every single day, work onyour, choose the right

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relationships and then make adifference in the lives of
others.
Can you receive that word today?