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October 2, 2025 • 26 mins

Join us as we begin our Yahweh series on God's Character!

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SPEAKER_00 (00:31):
Well, I remember a few summers back, we were at
church camp in Glorieta, NewMexico, and after worship one
night, one of the guys that I'vereally been walking through life
with and trying to disciple waslike, Hey man, do you think you
can come back to our room aftereverything's over tonight?
Uh, one of our friends whodoesn't usually go to church and
we invited to camp has somequestions about God.
And so I'm all fired up.

(00:51):
I'm like, all right, we're aboutto get homie saved, like this is
gonna be legit, like let's go.
And so I go to the room and heopens the conversation by saying
something to the effect of, Howin the world do you believe in a
God who seems just so obsessedwith controlling people's lives
and then sends them to hell ifthey can't keep them?
It's like, oh, all right, that'sa great conversation starter.

(01:12):
And probably for the next liketwo, three hours till like 2
a.m., uh, we went round andround and round, and I tried to
explain, hey, I think there's alot of things you're
misunderstanding here.
And he would ask questions, andI'd try to answer them, and it
just like didn't go anywhere.
And what I realized is that heand I had very different ideas
of who God was.

(01:34):
Why am I telling you this story?
Well, because the reality isthat many people have different
views of who God is.
There's a lot of people whowould say they believe in God,
but what they mean by that uhcan be very different.
You know, the word God means onething here, uh, it means another
thing in India where it could beone of thousands of gods.
It means another thing in Iranwhere it means Allah.

(01:57):
And even here, right?
In India, they could think aboutall the gods in Dubai.
They think Allah.
Um, but even here in the BernieBubble, some people have
different I views, uh, differentideas of who God is.
Some people think of God as acop who's just waiting to uh
watching you, just here toenforce the laws, waiting to get

(02:17):
you if you mess up or screw upor do anything wrong.
Or some people think of God asthis fun uncle who just gives
you good stuff and never tellsyou no and just disappears when
things get serious.
Or some people think of God as aboss, this distant and demanding
like force who just cares abouthow you perform.
And then even more of us thinkabout God as this therapist.

(02:38):
He's just there to affirm ourfeelings and listen to us, share
about what we're strugglingwith, but he never challenges us
to change.
And none of us would ever say,Yeah, I think of God as a
therapist, but as you look athow we relate to him, it tells
us a lot about how we actuallyview him.
But why does it matter so much,right?
Like just let everybody do theirown thing, you do you, I'm gonna
do me.
Well, because what you thinkabout God will completely shape

(03:01):
your life.
To put it another way, youbecome like what you worship.
I was reading a book on this,and one of my favorite authors
wrote uh something to the linesof this.
He said, if you think God isangry, hateful, or always
disappointed, you're probablygonna live pretty angry,
hateful, and disappointed.
Or if you think God's just atrendy life coach who's there to
make you happy, you're gonnatreat him like a self-help tool

(03:23):
and end up just chasing shallowthings for your entire life.
Or if you uh think God is justeverything that you believe.
He agrees with you oneverything, he he thinks the
same, he he acts the same, hedislikes the people you dislike,
he likes the people you like,you probably made him up.
And you're never gonna becomeanything different than who you

(03:44):
are in the moment.
Because everybody ultimatelylives out what they believe
about God.
And so the question is, are youhit are you seeing him for who
he really is, or just yourcreated version?
Better yet, how do you know whohe really is?
How do I know who God is, whathe's like?
Well, we have to go to thesource.
And that source is actuallygonna be uh for us God's word,

(04:06):
and specifically we're gonna bein Exodus chapter 34, verses 6
through 7.
And this is what our wholeseries is gonna be built around,
because the interesting thingabout Exodus 34, 6 through 7 is
it's the most quoted scripturein the Bible by the Bible.
I've heard some people say thatit's basically like the John
3.16 of the Old Testament.
John 3.16, for God so loved theworld that he gave his only

(04:27):
begotten son.
Everybody knows it, quotes it.
Uh, the New Testament isdrenched in that language in the
same way the Old Testamentwriters quote this all the time.
But why these verses?
What's so important?
Well, these verses are where Godreveals his name to Moses.
Moses uh has actually just had aconversation with God, a whole

(04:47):
thing with a golden calf thatwe'll get to later.
He's on the mountain with God,and God reveals to him his name.
And not only does he reveal tohim his name, but he reveals to
him who he is.
And so we're gonna spend thiswhole series unpacking what God
has to say about himself.
Because if you want to know whatGod's like, let's go to the
source, Him.
And so we're gonna read Exoduschapter 34, verses 6 through 7,

(05:11):
as we see more about who God is.
And what we're gonna see tonightis that God is relational, that
he responds, and that because ofthat we can have confidence when
we enter into his presence.
So, verse 6.
Then the Lord passed by in frontof him and proclaimed, the Lord,
the Lord God, compassionate andgracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in loving kindness andtruth, who keeps loving kindness

(05:33):
for thousands, who forgivesiniquity, transgression, and
sin, yet he will by no meansleave the guilty unpunished,
visiting the iniquity of thefathers on the children and on
the grandchildren to the thirdand fourth generations.
So there's a lot here that we'regonna spend, you know, the next
six weeks unpacking.
So we're just gonna startsomewhere tonight.
But you probably read this andthink, I don't see any name.

(05:55):
Like I just see him say theLord.
But remember, we're reading atranslation.
This was originally written inthe language of Hebrew.
And that word, anytime you seeit, go ahead.
If you have your Bible and youlike to underlight and highline
or underline and highlight,sorry, words are hard.
Uh go ahead and do something tothat word, the Lord, in all
caps.
And out in the margin orsomething, uh write out Lord in

(06:17):
all caps, and then put a littledash, and then write the letters
Y-H-W-H.
Because the Hebrew word thatgets translated in Lord in all
caps is Yahweh, and that is thename of God.
But why Yahweh?
Like, like what's thesignificance?
Why does God call himselfYahweh, just thinks it sounds
cool?
Uh well, you have to look backat Exodus 3, where God actually

(06:39):
calls Moses for the very firsttime.
Moses has killed a dude, andhe's off basically in his own
self-imposed exile.
He's hiding from God, he'shiding from his
responsibilities, and God comesto him in the form of the
burning bush.
And he says, Moses, you're theguy that I want to bring my
people out of slavery.
And Moses is like, No, I'm not.
And so God has to talk him intoit, and God does, because God is

(07:00):
very good at talking people intothings because he's God, and
Moses finally agrees.
But Moses says, Hey, if I go tothese Israelite people and they
ask me your name, what should Isay?
And God tells him, I am who Iam.
And the Hebrew word for I am isa yeah, and it's the same root
word as Yahweh, if you say themtogether, aye, Yahweh.

(07:21):
And so the only difference is ayeah is in the first person, and
Yahweh is in the third person.
So aye means I am, and Yahwehmeans he is.
And so when we say God's name,we say Yahweh.
He's the great I am.
So that's God's name.
We all learn that.
And at this point, you'reprobably thinking, you might
have made a mistake coming heretonight.
I did not know I was signing upfor Hebrew class.

(07:43):
It feels like I'm at school.
Hang with me, because this isactually super, super important.
Like, why does any of thismatter?
Because in the Hebrew culture,names are a lot more important
than we necessarily considerthem today, right?
If you think about names and whywe name cats and dogs or why we
got our name, a lot of timesit's because it sounded cute or
it was someone in our family.
Uh sometimes they have ameaning, but names, names aren't

(08:06):
like this really, really crucialthing.
But in this culture that theBible was being written in,
names were everything.
It was who you were.
Like your name said everythingabout you and your family.
They had a lot of meaning.
And so when God tells Moses hisname, uh that's why he's not
just saying, hey, this is myname, but he's saying this is

(08:26):
who I am.
Because you see the Lord, theLord, and then he lists off his
characteristics that God iscompassionate and gracious, that
God is slow to anger, that Godis abounding in love and
faithfulness, that God showsmercy to thousands, but God does
not leave the guilty unpunished.
And we're gonna walk throughevery single one of those over
the rest of the series.

(08:46):
But tonight, what I want tofocus on almost as an intro is
why is it so important that Godhas a name at all?
Like why does any of thismatter?
Why does it matter that he tellsus?
Well, there's two things that itreally shows us, and then we're
gonna talk about what it meansto us.
One, the fact God tells us hisname means that he's relational.
And I don't mean that uh he, oranother way to say it is God is

(09:09):
a person.
He's he's has a personality.
I'm not saying he's a person whoneeds to eat, sleep, and
breathe.
He's not a human being like weare, but he does relate.
He has a personality.
We see all throughout the Biblethat God feels joy, he feels
anger, he feels grief, he talks,like he uses language to
communicate things.
God is all about beauty andcreativity.

(09:30):
Think about the most beautifulthing you've ever seen, right?
A sunrise on a vacation, um,nature, uh, maybe, maybe it's a
memory you have, whatever thatis, God created that.
Like God loves beauty.
God has a sense of humor.
You see all throughout theBible.
You read it and you're like,God's actually hilarious.
Like some of this stuff isfunny.
And this is important because alot of us, when we think about

(09:51):
God, whether we realize it ornot, we think of him as like
this far-off energy, like someforce in the Star Wars movies.
Like he's there, can't reallyfeel him.
Like I know he's in control, buthe's kind of just this abstract
thing that's out there.
But that's not the truth.
He he is a person, he he feelsthings, he has thoughts,
obviously, nowhere near like wedo, and we can't wrap our head

(10:12):
around God.
He's everywhere, all at once,he's all powerful, he's
all-knowing.
But at the same time, he doeshave a personality.
And not only that, but he wantsa relationship with us.
In the garden, he walked withAdam and Eve.
In this whole passage in Exodus,he talks to God or he talks to
Moses.
He's not hiding somewherewhether he reveals himself to

(10:33):
us.
But why in the world would theGod of the universe, the God who
made all the stars in the sky,the God who made the mountains
in Colorado where we go to camp,the God who made the Great
Canyon, why would that God careto reveal himself to us?
Well, simply put, he wants to.
Like I know that sounds simple,but do you realize how like
game-changing that is?

(10:53):
That God wants to relate to you.
He enjoys you as his creation.
Zephaniah 3.17 says, The Lordyour God is in your midst, a
mighty one who will save, hewill rejoice over you with
gladness, he will quiet you byhis love, he will exult over you
with loud singing.
And God's talking about Israelright there, but it carries on
to us now as his children.

(11:13):
Psalm 147.11 says, His delightis not in the strength of the
horse, nor is his pleasure inthe legs of a man, but the Lord
takes pleasure in those who fearhim, in his in those who hope in
his steadfast love.
Like God actually likes you.
Like, have you thought about howbig of a deal that is?
That the hardest thing to wrapyour mind around is that the God

(11:35):
of the universe loves you, wantsto have a relationship with you.
He doesn't just tolerate you, hecares about you.
And understanding that changeshow you relate to him in so many
ways.
I think back to my last church,and there was a student who
really struggled with fear andanxiety, and she would always
come and share this with us.
And, you know, eventually Iasked her, I was like, hey, have

(11:55):
you ever talked about this withyour parents?
Because she had talked reallypositively about her parents,
like she loved her parents, andshe's like, No, no, I haven't.
And I asked, why?
Like, I know you love them somuch, like, like, why don't you
ever share this?
And she's like, Well, I lovethem, but I don't know how much
they love me.
Like, I feel like I'm just aburden to them.
Like everything I say or I dojust annoys them or stresses

(12:16):
them out.
And that moment broke my heartbecause she wasn't just carrying
anxiety, but she was carryinguncertainty about whether she
was truly loved, and it waspreventing her from coming to
her parents.
And ultimately, her parents didlove her and they wanted to care
about her, they wanted to helpher.
And this is how a lot of usapproach God.
We know he's powerful, we knowhe's big.
We might even believe he caresabout us in some general way,
but deep down we're not surethat he delights in us.

(12:39):
We think that we're a burden,that I've screwed up one too
many times, that he'sdisappointed in me, that our
prayers annoy him.
And so what we do is we neverapproach him, we just bottle
everything up and try to dealwith it on our own.
And it never works out for us.
And we we can't just go throughlife trying to think that we can
do it on our own and just, youknow, let me just try not to
make God mad.
That's not what he wants.

(13:00):
He wants a relationship with us.
And I know that's hard for us tograsp because some of us,
unfortunately, and hear myheart, like that is your
relationship with your parents.
And hear me, I am sorry, butthat is not how God treats you.
God is not asking you to performfor him.
God does not view you as aburden, God does not view you as

(13:20):
a mistake or a mess up or ascrew up, a disappointment.
He loves you.
He made you in his image.
And yes, he loves you enough notto leave you where you are.
He doesn't just let you off thehook to do whatever you want, he
wants you to do what's right.
But at the core, he loves youand he cares about you and he
wants a relationship with you.
And when you understand that,not just in your head but in

(13:41):
your heart, it changeseverything.
And so the question is, how do Iget that into my heart?
Like all of us can sit here andsay that.
I can sit here and say that, butat the end of the day, what
happens when I screw up and Ineed to confess to God, and
still deep down I feel like Idisappointed him?
Like it's one thing to say it,it's another thing to actually
live it.
And as crazy as it sounds, likeso much of it starts with

(14:01):
meditating.
And I'm not talking about likesome weird yogi like voodoo,
like, oh, like that meditating.
But Christian meditating is notjust emptying your mind, but
it's filling it with somethingelse.
And so meditating as a Christianis going somewhere that's quiet,
removing all of the hurry,right?
So clear your schedule, right?
Either say I'm committing to notworking on homework until after

(14:22):
this, or I'm gonna do it aheadof time, right?
Remove yourself from noise,right?
Get rid of your phone, uh, gosomewhere where where not only
like audible noise, but justdistraction is gone, and just
sit there and think about howGod loves you.
And I know what you're thinking.
It's like, just think about it.
Yeah, just think about it.
Let's be honest.
When was the last time we satdown and just thought about

(14:43):
anything?
Like we live in a world wherewe're so distracted, we're so
hurried, we're so on our screensall the time, we're always
overstimulated.
It's like consume, consume,content, content, tick tock
after TikTok, after real, afterreal.
When was the last time we justsat down and thought?
Much less, when was the lasttime we sat down and thought
about God and that He loves us?

(15:04):
And maybe you don't have a greatrelationship with your earthly
parents.
Think about what that would belike.
Like, think of the best versionof a relationship with your
parents that you could ever hopefor, and then multiply that by a
million, and that's how Godfeels towards you.
And as you do that, you will betraining yourself to think about
and to know and to believe thatGod loves you.

(15:25):
So practically, next time youhave five to ten minutes, just
sit down.
Right?
Sit in the fact that God lovesyou.
Like let those words turn overin your mind over and over
again.
And then ask yourself if this istrue, if God really loves me,
then how does it change my life?
If nothing can separate from me,if nothing can separate me from
his love, then why do I keeplive living like I need to prove

(15:48):
myself or like I need to earnhis favor?
Or if he loves me and herejoices over me, like maybe I
can stop viewing myself as aburden.
And as you do, you will openyour heart up to God and you're
gonna allow him to teach you howhe feels towards you.
And as you do that, you're gonnarealize it's important because
God inviting us intorelationship is not just this
mushy gushy-feely thing.

(16:09):
We kind of talked about this onSunday in big church, but he
also invites us in to play arole.
We talked about this in the lastseries that we are his image
bearers and that we get toco-rule and all those sorts of
things.
And so that brings us to oursecond point.
One, God giving us his namemeans that he's personal, he
wants a relationship with us.
And two, it means that Godresponds.
And I don't mean that God'snature or his character changes.

(16:32):
So Malachi 3:1, God says, I amthe Lord, I do not change.
Even this name, I am, is justthis permanent, like God is who
he is, he doesn't change.
So God's not gonna have a badday one day and decide to smite
some people and then move on.
Or God's not gonna go back onhis promises.
God's not fickle, he is perfect,he is unchanging.
Uh, but because he is personal,he also responds to us.

(16:55):
He interacts with humanity.
All throughout the Bible, Godinteracts with his people.
For example, uh, when Israel isin the desert, we talked about
this earlier, this actuallyhappens right before Exodus 34.
Uh, Moses goes up on a mountainto receive the law from God.
What happens when he's gone?
The Israelites who literallyjust walked through an ocean
that split open and escaped fromthe most powerful country in the

(17:17):
world and saw a pillar of fireand smoke.
Like all those things, they'relike, you know what's a good
idea right now?
We're gonna make a golden cow.
And we're gonna worship thatsucker.
And that's what they do.
And God's like, all right, I'mdone with these people.
I'm gonna take them out.
We're gonna start over with you,Moses.
Let's go.
And Moses begs, God, don't dothat.
Like, like, I don't want the theEgyptians to say, oh, like God

(17:39):
brought them out in the desertto like like God, it's not
gonna, like, God, just pleasedon't destroy them.
And what happens?
He listens to Moses.
God doesn't.
And now there's other timeswhere this happens.
God talks with Abraham overSodom.
God is ready to destroy Sodom,and Abraham's like, what if I
can find 40 righteous people?
He's like, sure, if you can find40.
Abraham thinks about, what if Ican find 30?

(17:59):
And that keeps whittling down.
Or God relents from judgment.
In Nineveh, the story of Jonah,God is uh going to judge
Nineveh, and so he sends Jonahand he says, Hey, preach to them
the message of repentance, andif they repent, I'm not going to
destroy them.
And ultimately they repent, theydon't destroy them.
God changes when he told KingHezekiah about the timing of his

(18:20):
death.
Right?
He lets Hezekiah live 15 yearslonger.
So God himself is not changing,but there is some sort of
flexibility in his plans that'skind of hard to wrap our heads
around.
And this doesn't mean that Godis wishy-washy, but remember,
we're his image bearers andwe're invited in to co-rule with
him.
He gives us a part to play.
He's still completely sovereignand completely in control.

(18:41):
His plans, his big plan, hisultimate plan always comes to
class.
Nobody's going to uh nobody'sgonna mess up his plans, but God
has flexibility with how he'llallow them to play out.
This is not a greatillustration.
I hope it works.
This is a really hard topic toillustrate, but imagine it this
way.
Uh, and if it doesn't makesense, then just forget I said
any of this.
But my love towards my daughter,Leighton, is unchanging, right?

(19:05):
It I love her.
Like, regardless of what happensor what goes on, I love my
daughter Leighton.
But that love can be expresseddifferently depending on the
situation.
When she's doing great and likeshe's she just knocked it out of
the park, right?
She said her ABCs, like, comeon, like you're a genius, you're
gonna run run the world in a fewyears.
Uh that shows up as praise andencouragement.

(19:27):
Or when she's sad or scared orafraid, my love shows up to her
as encouragement, right?
Like, hey, it's okay, baby,it'll be all right.
Or when she's disobedient, whenshe's rebellious, that love
might show up in discipline.
Now, it might not feel like lovein that moment, but the only
reason I'm disciplining her isbecause I want what's best for

(19:47):
her.
I want her to grow up and toknow how to respect people and
to treat people well and tohonor God.
It's the same love, butdepending on how Leighton acts
or interacts, like it changeshow that's expressed.
And that's not a perfectillustration because God's love
is perfect and I'm a brokenhuman being, and I do change,
God doesn't change, buthopefully you can see like kind

(20:09):
of a picture there.
But moving past that, what doesthat mean for you?
How does this play out in reallife?
Well, one thing is that itshould change how you pray.
A lot of us struggle to praybecause our view of God is just
this, you know, He's goteverything set up, nothing's
gonna change, no matter what wedo, and we just pray because God
tells us to the end.
And yes, God tells us to pray.

(20:31):
And no, our prayers are notalways answered with yes, but
God actually responds.
Like God interacts with ourprayer.
He doesn't just ask us to prayso that we do, but he asks us to
pray, and sometimes how we praychanges things.
Dallas Willard, who's atheologian, has this quote and I
kind of reworked it, but he saysthis God doesn't play pretend
when it comes to prayer.

(20:51):
He doesn't act like he'slistening while he really just
does whatever he wants, anyways.
What you pray about actuallymatters.
Your prayers really can changewhat happens.
If we believed everything wouldhappen the exact same way,
whether we prayed or not, prayerwould feel completely pointless.
It's just this dead ritual.
And God doesn't respond to thatkind of empty prayer, just like

(21:11):
we wouldn't want to respond tosomeone who's just going through
the motions.
And so when we pray, we can havethe confidence knowing that
prayer does work.
Like prayer does change things.
Not always.
We're not always gonna get theanswer yes.
Sometimes it's a maybe,sometimes it's a no, sometimes
it's a not yet, but it doeschange things.
You you see God in thescriptures say, hey, if you

(21:32):
would have prayed or if youwould have done this, then
things would have gone this way,but because you didn't, things
went this way.
And so how often have we notprayed, just thinking God's not
gonna do something when he'sjust been wanting us to respond
and wanting to see that?
And so the idea is that we canpray like it works because it
does.
We can have a confidence.
And maybe you hear that and youyou think that feels big and

(21:54):
scary.
Or maybe you think, who is Godthat he wants to listen to me at
all?
Like I've made so many mistakes,I've screwed up, I've done all
these things.
Like, why would God ever care tolisten to me?
Like, what do I have to comebefore him that he would listen
to me?
How have I earned that right?
Well, the thing is you haven't.
But God sent his son Jesus.
We were created in God's image.

(22:14):
We were made to have arelationship with him, but we
couldn't because of this thingcalled sin.
Sin is anything we do that,anything we say, think, or do
that displeases God.
It's trying to make ourselvesking.
It's saying, I'm gonna do it myway.
And that's evil and it has to bepunished because God's perfect
and He we want God to punishevil.
We want the bad guys to face theconsequences of their action,
but the problem is we're all badguys.

(22:37):
We've all lied, we've allcheated, we've all stolen.
So if your question is, whathave I done to earn God's
listening to me?
Nothing.
But Jesus, God sent his sonJesus, he lived a perfect life.
He did earn heaven, he did earnfull access to God.
He was God.
God the Son, God with flesh on,Yahweh come to earth, and he
lived a perfect life.

(22:57):
But at the end of his life, hedied on a cross on the side of a
road.
The most painful, terrible deathyou could imagine.
And it wasn't by accident, butit was so that God could make a
way.
Because even though our sin hadseparated us, God didn't want us
to stay separated.
And so on that cross, Jesusbecame our sin, and all of the
anger and the punishment and thewrath we had earned got put onto
him so that we could get thereward that Jesus earned.

(23:19):
And so now we can stand inconfidence knowing that our sin
was not just swept under therug, but it was paid for, that
God chose to pay for.
It was an intentional thing.
He did it, it's finished, it'sdone.
Jesus didn't stay dead either.
He came up out of that grave onthe third day to show that death
could not claim him, and deathcan no longer claim you if
you're his child.
And so now we can haveconfidence when we come before

(23:40):
God that I'm not approaching himon anything I've done, on how
many times I've gone to church,on how many Bible studies that
I'm a part of, but I come to Godbased upon what Jesus has done
on my behalf.
That he lived a perfect life,that he died the death, he lived
a life I couldn't, and he diedthe death that I should have, so
that I can have full access toGod.
And so we pray in Jesus' name.
And how many times have we saidthat, like it's just something

(24:02):
that we repeat on autopilot?
It's not.
Praying in Jesus' name.
One means praying in line withhis character, right?
I'm, you know, you can pray fora Ferrari or a Maserati, uh, but
are you really praying that inline with Jesus?
You know?
But also praying in Jesus' namealso means that we have full
access to God.
Like Jesus is our go-between.

(24:22):
We don't have to pray to apriest, we don't have to get
somebody else to do it on ourbehalf, that we have been
welcomed into his family, right?
Scripture says that if you haveplaced your faith in Jesus, you
will be saved and you will beadopted into the family of God.
And think about who has totalaccess to me, right?
Like you guys, I love y'all.
Y'all can text me, call me, butthere's even gonna be times in

(24:43):
my life when you guys don't haveaccess to me, right?
I'm gonna turn off that phone,I'm spending time with my wife,
whatever.
But you know the people who havedo have full access to me?
Like if I'm up here on stage,the one person who could run up
here and I would give them myattention, it's my kids.
Because I love them.
And they can always come to me,they can always talk to me, and
that's how God views you.

(25:04):
And so you can have confidenceknowing that you have full
access to him, that he lovesyou, that he wants a
relationship with you, and thatyou know his name if you're his
child.
And so I do have to say, we'reabout to close here in a minute
and go to small groups.
That is only available if youhave first placed your faith in
Jesus, right?
None of that matters unlessyou've made that decision to

(25:24):
say, I'm no longer trying to dothis thing on my own.
I'm gonna lay it down, Jesus.
I confess that I'm a sinner, Ineed salvation, and I'm gonna
make you my king and I'm gonnafollow you for the rest of my
life.
And that the moment you makethat decision, you are saved.
And then out of that, you becomea child.
And so if that's something youhaven't done yet, get that right
with a leader tonight.
When we go to small groups, I'llbe down here, leaders will be

(25:45):
around.
Like have that conversation.
I don't want you to go one moreday without that getting figured
out.
But on the other side of that,if you do, you can leave here
knowing you are not a burden toGod.
That you're his child who heloves dearly.
You can be encouraged by that.
You can have hope.
Even if you don't feel that herefrom your earthly parents, you
know that you have a heavenlyfather who is perfect and he is
for you.

(26:05):
So let's pray, and then we'regonna move to small groups, all
right?
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