The Foundation of Righteousness - Pastor Kyle Self

[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message. [00:00:06] All right. Praise God. Well, we will be doing a marriage course soon. Praise the Lord. For you singles, we'll be doing something as well. Amen. Yeah, I'm ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just stop it. Praise the Lord. All right, so this morning, there's a few things I want to discuss with you. For the first time in 20 years, I'll be using a prop next week for a sermon. So last week we talked about the fruits of the spirit. The week before that, we talked about the fruits of the spirit and what they look like. And then we talked about love looks like this last week. And I've got about 35 minutes to run you through 40 minutes of conversation. So I wanna be able to do that with you this morning. I wanna talk about righteousness. Cause some of the things. We're starting a series on foundations. And I found that foundations is probably one of the key things in our faith, that what begins to happen is we build a house. Now, I'm not talking about the house built on sand or a rock. I'm talking about having a good solid foundation, right? That fits the plan. We've got to have the right foundation. And where we got to start in our faith walk is righteousness with God, right? Because sin can become an epidemic. If you listen to the wrong people, they're going to have you so scared you can't even drive 1km over the speed limit or you're going to hell. It's just. It's crazy what people actually say about sin. But what we need to look at is the result of being born again. What actually happened because of the cross. Amen. And so I don't know about you, but I don't know about four or five years ago. I want to tell you a short story. That's what pastors do. We tell you a story before we tell you a point. It's like, it's just what we do. A few years ago, I went to this dinner party, birthday. And you know it's Gold coast, right? Like, you go to everything in board shorts and a T shirt. That's just what you do, right? Am I the only one? Unless otherwise stated, you don't dress up business casual or black suit and tie unless someone tells you to. So I guess I didn't get the memo. Cause when I showed up there I am in shorts and a T shirt, and they're dressed in business casual T shirts. You know, they're. They Got ties on. And immediately I just feel like I don't belong. Anybody know what I'm talking about? It's uncomfortable, right? You. You start adjusting your posture. Like, you start looking for a corner to stand in. You start looking for exits, not because you're traumatized, but you're looking for the fastest way out. You. You. You start getting real quiet. You don't want to engage with. Well, here's the thing. When it comes to your salvation, most people still treat God the same way. We get saved, but we feel like we gotta show up a certain way to be approved of for God. Now, I still believe in the house of God. I still believe in reverence. I still. But I'm not like, oh, you know, this is the holy place. I'm like, this is a holy place. And I represent Christ by how I live and how he leads and guides me. Now, praise the Lord. Amen. But what happens with most people is they immediately they realize they love Jesus. They worship sincerely, but they start thinking about standing before God. And there's still those whispers that say, I'm not sure if I belong here. I'm not sure if he hears my prayer. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Nobody. Just me. Okay. All right. All right. They feel forgiven, but they still feel slightly ashamed. They still feel guilty about the past. They still let memories cause hesitation in prayer. They let this sense of distance not make their distance make their worship not authentic. Because they're still thinking about who they were before Christ instead of who they are now in Christ. Amen. Does that make sense? So they've never really understood the foundation of righteousness, because righteousness changes how you stand before God, right? And when the foundation becomes clear, everything changes. Your prayer life changes, your confidence changes. Your peace changes. Your relationship with God becomes more tangible because you're not thinking, I can't talk to God. Because last night on Netflix, that movie had something in it that I shouldn't have watched. No, you just shouldn't probably have Netflix. Anyway, just. Anyway, let's not go there. So what is righteousness? The word righteousness simply means this, right? Standing with God. Say that with me. Right? Standing with God. Now say this with me. I am in right standing with God. Now, do you believe that? Do you actually believe that? Amen then. Should there ever be a question to you about when you go before God and you go, why are you letting this happen, God? Why is this happening in my life? If you know you're in right standing with God, then you should never approach God with, why you should always approach God with how. Amen. How are we going to get through this? Based on your promises and your word. Now, obviously, guys, I'm seeing people start to rug up, so you can probably turn the air conditioners off. Amen. So praise the Lord, because when we're standing before God, we don't have to get cleaned up to get approved. That's like saying, I gotta be clean before I take a shower. You know what I mean? Like, seriously, do you go to the shower and stand before the shower and say, oh, holy shower, how shall I enter thee? The place in which I become clean, where I am robed with soap conditioner and body lotion, hydration for my face and scrubbies for my beard. Amen. No. You go in and you say, I'm dirty, I gotta get clean. My wife said, I stink. Amen. And that's where we can look at what Romans 3:21 says. It says, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. Amen. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Righteousness is not getting right to be right. Righteousness is something from God for you. Amen. I just don't know what, Pastor. Praise the Lord. I just feel like I still gotta earn it. Because you have a works mentality. You are born in poverty and therefore you still think you gotta earn everything. I know plenty of rich folk and they don't think they gotta earn anything because they know they have what they have and they know what they have. Amen. They know what they can do next. Well, why can't we act that same way when we are spiritually rich with God? Amen. I have all that I need in Christ Jesus. Amen. So notice the language here. It is given. It's a free gift. It is not earned, not achieved. It is given. This is the one and most radical truth of the gospel. Past the resurrection of the dead, past Jesus being born of a virgin, past Jesus being raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and us receiving the Holy Spirit. The next greatest thing is the realization of this radical truth that I am in right standing with God. God is for me. If God be for me, who can be against me? Amen. Religion says righteousness is earned through behavior. I know how you behave this morning. Praise the Lord. I know how I Behaved this morning. I know how some of you drive and wished people happy birthday on the way to church this morning. Amen. You all have a behavior that is of yourselves that is not of God. But when surrendered to God, you realize I can behave differently because of who God has made me. Amen. So religion tells us that righteousness is behavior. Righteousness is not behavior. It is received through faith. Amen. Is that tossing? Is that messing with anybody? No. Okay, so why does righteousness matter? Well, let's look at one thing. Why does righteousness matter now? Because if righteousness is misunderstood, the Christian life becomes exhausting. If righteousness is misunderstood, the Christian life becomes exhausting. Many believers think their relationship with God rise and falls based on their performance. Listen, when I was was not suffering from the disease of alcoholism. No. When I was an alcoholic before Christ, every time I tried not to drink, I would drink because I was thinking about not drinking all the time. And then by the end of the day, I just gotta have a drink because that's all I was thinking about. It was exhausting. It was on my performance. And every time I would try all day long, that tensed, flexed muscle would give in and I would do what the flesh wants. But when you just know who you are. See, when I realized that alcoholism is not a disease, it's a current struggle of crutch and addiction and that I'm free from all that in Jesus Christ, then guess what happened? It was so easy not to worry about it because I wasn't thinking about drinking. I was thinking about worshiping. I wasn't thinking about the bar, I was thinking about prayer. I wasn't thinking about those things because I was thinking about Jesus. Amen. So many believers think their relationship with God rises and falls on performance. But the reality is, if they had a great spiritual week, they feel close to God. If they've had a bad week, they feel distant from God. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Listen, I feel closer when I have a bad week because that's when he is more evident in my life because I'm paying attention to him more. When I have a good week, I don't feel more spiritual. I'm thinking coo coo ka chew. I got this thing figured out. No, man. We need to learn how to be in Christ. Because if we pray, if we think because we pray enough, read enough, serve enough, then we'll feel confident. When someone doesn't appreciate what we do, we'll be looking for someone else, somewhere else to serve. When someone doesn't say thank you or someone asks us to do more, we'll go. Aren't we doing enough? You cannot do what you do because you want to feel worthy. You have to do what you do because he was worthy for you. Amen. He died for you. He made it possible for you. And that's what the Gospel says. Amen. So if I was to look at Romans 8 and 1, it says, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Notice this absolute statement here. Okay. Not less condemnation, not occasional condemnation. No. Well, that means I can just go sin. I can do whatever I want. Heck, let's have a party tonight. No, that is not what that means. Cause the Bible also says in Romans 6 and 1, does grace abound so that you can continue in sin? God forbid. For those who are in the likeness of his death are also in the likeness of his resurrection. You are no longer a sinner. If you identify as a sinner, you will sin. But if you identify with righteousness and Jesus Christ, then this has happened. You will see that. Do you not know that as many of us that were baptized in Christ go back, the first three baptized in Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. So do we continue sinning just because we can? No sin no longer has dominion over us because of what Christ did. He made an atonement. He broke that spell, so to speak, off of us, gave us the Holy Spirit where we're no longer attracted to sin. But if we focus on sin consciousness, we will sin. That's why we need to get the foundation of righteousness to become a consciousness so that we sin less and we realize that sin is no longer a part of our identity. Amen. Is that good? So why is there no condemnation? Because the believer stands before God in the righteousness of Christ. You're not right by what you do. You are right because of Christ. That's it. So this sin, some sin? Less sin maybe? Am I right? No. Your righteousness is as filthy rags, the Bible says. But his righteousness sustains you and gives you the ability to stand before God. Amen. Praise the Lord. Timmy, some of my scriptures aren't there. It is so. If I was to look at this scripture. Hebrews 10:14 says, for by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. So by one offering he dealt with sin altogether. It says more than that. By one offering, He. He has perfected forever those who have been set apart, who are being set apart. Okay? So are you sanctified? Okay. Five of you, are you sanctified? Okay. Why are you sanctified? What he did for us. What else? His death and resurrection. His righteousness. So are you sanctified because you chose to be a part separated from the world? No, he chose you. You didn't choose him. He decided to die for you. You didn't decide to die for Him. You actually are a living sacrifice that keeps trying to crawl off the altar. Amen. Hallelujah. You get what I'm saying? They got it. Obedience is better than sacrifice, guys. I'm gonna tell you that right now. So here's the thing that we gotta look at here. If that is the case. This verse is incredible. This verse tells us that. Let me just put it back up there. It tells us two things at the same time. We're still growing, but in Christ, we are already perfected. And in our standing before God. Two significant points here. Before God, you are standing in Christ, but you're still growing while you're in this world. That means you gotta become spiritually mature. This gift doesn't give us the ability to do whatever we want. This gift gives. Gives us the ability to serve God and to stand before him perfectly. Not because of our perfectionism, but because of what he did perfectly for us. Is that good? Come on, somebody. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. Did Tiger woods this putt or something? Amen. Which means. So here's the key thing, right? God is not waiting on you to become righteous. Get that? God is not waiting on you to become righteous. He made you righteous because of his son. I just need to have more faith. I just need to pray more. If I'm going to get God to move, maybe 40 days will get him to move. Maybe if I don't do chicken and dairy and I'll get off social media for seven days, that'll get God to move. No, you have everything precious from God right now. You just gotta believe that you do. Amen. So through Jesus, we're righteous. How was righteousness given? That's the next biggest question. Well, I'm glad you asked. Amen. Cause this is where the gospel becomes breathtaking. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God at the cross. Something extraordinary happened. Father, we thank you for their healing and their safety. Amen. Be careful, people. There's children up there. All right, Second Corinthians 5:21 says, For God gave us. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. All right. So this is how it happened. On the cross, something extraordinary happened. Jesus took our sin. Okay? And we received his righteousness. The great exchange. You gotta get that. I just don't deserve it. None of us did. Our guilt was placed on Christ. Our shame was placed on Christ. Our sin was placed on Christ. He gave us beauty for ashes, dancing for mourning. He exchanged something useless and dirty and filthy. Not me. I'm not a worm. I'm God's precious jewel. Sin. He took on sin, guilt, shame and death for me. Amen. Come on, somebody. The only person who ever lived perfect life took a penalty for every imperfect person so that imperfect people could receive his perfect standing before God, who stood before angels, who could enter boldly into the throne room anytime now. You remember the story of Esther, right? Y' all remember that Bible story? Who doesn't know the Bible story about Esther? Raise your hand. It's okay. Okay. Sweet Esther in the Bible, this is where we get Purim. Purim is a feast of sweet treats. And so the Anonites, Ananites, Amorites, Amalekites, so many amicilians. All right, those people had set out before the king. What was his name? And I can never say his name, right? Yeah, that guy. No, I'm just being funny. So many people had basically convinced Xerxes that you should kill all the Jews. They became enslaved. And Esther decided to change her name. She worked herself. She ended up being chosen like Daniel, to become Xerxes, one of Xerxes wives. So when she knew the plan for all the Jews to be killed, she entered into the throne room where the king was, which was not allowed for her to do. But she knew she had a right before God that superseded any king. She knew she could boldly go in there and share and show and expose the plan to have all the Israelites killed. Right? Now, here's the thing. God had positioned her to be able to enter boldly in a throne room in a place where she shouldn't be. Christ has positioned you where you can come before the host of heaven asking whatever you need at any time, even though you don't think you belong there. Amen. So no matter the circumstance, no matter what, you have the right, as the Bible says, to go boldly into the courtroom of grace. Amen. Is that good? So then that brings us to the robe of righteousness. We get a robe. Yes, we do. Think about this with the prodigal son. The prodigal son. Does everybody know that story? So the prodigal son decides he wants all of his inheritance. Now he's gonna go out and live his best life. Ends up in a pig stable thinking, I'm not even worthy of wearing my father's robe, much less eating the food of servants. I should only be allowed to eat the food of pig. That's how low he got. And his father stood every day looking for his return. And once he saw him, he ran to him, gave him a kiss, gave him his ring, and said, bring my best robe. Before the son even had an opportunity to say, I'm not worthy, he restored his identity. Every time you come before God and say you're not worthy, he kisses you, gives his authority, and robes you and restores your identity before you can even say a thing. Amen. Oh, man. God is good. So Isaiah 61:10 says this. Wait a minute, 54 and 14. I'm gonna go to 61:10. He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. I willingly, greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. For he has clothed me with the garment of salvation. He has covered me with his robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself out with ornaments. Yep. As a bride ordains herself with her jewels. I have been robed with not just a shepherd's robe, I've been robed with something worthy of a wedding gown. Amen. I've been robed with something beautiful that the price was paid for it with his son's life. Amen. So think about this. A robe of righteousness. Not something you stitch together yourself. Not something you earned. Something God placed on you. I'm gonna put on my robe of righteousness. Coo coo, ca choota. You think you're that special? No. You didn't put anything on. God put it on you, and there's nothing you can do for God to take it off of you. The weight of that. The weight of what God's placed on you is what convicts you, not condemns you. The weight of what God has done for you and this immense, overwhelming love convicts you and makes you want to change. Instead of feeling guilty and hope that you can change before you get judged. Does that make sense? Tap your neighbor with a high five if you believe what I'm saying right now. Five people gave a high five. Let's work on the rest of the congregation, or y' all just ain't Good at high fives. I don't know. When you came to Christ, God did not just forgive your sin, he clothed you with the righteousness of Jesus. Which means when God looks at you, he does not see your past. He sees the righteousness of his Son. So what do we do with sin? Well, quit talking about it like it's an addiction. That's one thing. Quit preaching it like it's an addiction. Quit reading it like it's an addiction. How many of y' all believe in healthy foods? No fragrances and all that healthy stuff? Yeah, all the people have been throwing away my smell. Good stuff in the. In the toilets. That's okay. We found you out. Amen. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Caitlin comes over the house, she turns off my plug ins. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Where's Caitlin at? She's gone. Praise God. I'm safe. Tina, we're changing our ways, but no, here's what I want to say to you. I believe in that stuff. My daughter in law's starting to convince me. It's present, it can be purchased. I don't have to partake of it. It's in this world, it's available to me, but I don't have to go looking for. Can present itself to me and I can walk away because I have that power in Christ. It is not an addiction. It is now a choice. It is a choice to believe I am the righteousness of God. It's the devil's ploy to. To make you believe that you can't stop sinning. To convince you that you are addicted to your sin, whether it be pornography, alcohol, smoking, overeating. God help me. Whatever it may be, it is your choice. It is not. And it's like, okay, what do I do about my trauma? Your trauma is still something that does not have control on you. If you choose Christ, and if you want to do something about your trauma, go sit with somebody and learn some tools in your psychology, which is still a part of this world. Your soul to help you with your emotions so that you can begin to look inward to who Christ has made you. Amen. Am I making sense? Praise God. I'm glad everybody got that. Amen. So what do we do with righteousness? Okay. In righteousness, you shall be established. You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, it shall not come near you. Righteousness. The Bible gives us three ways to understand righteousness. One, to approach God with confidence. Hebrews 4:16 says something very simple. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. Confidence does not come from perfection. Confidence comes from righteousness. My confidence in Christ, how many can really be confident in yourself? I mean, Krispy Kreme, that light turns on back home. I'm telling you, I'm eating some donuts. No matter what diet I'm on, you put the right dessert in my house. I don't care if I'm on a diet. I'm gonna look at it and go, hmm, that's what I want. Just saying I'm not confident. I don't have confidence in me. I have confidence in Christ. Thank God with my diet, I have a Tina, what you eatin'? Amen. Confidence comes from Christ. When you know you are accepted in Christ, you stop approaching God with hesitation. You come boldly, not because you performed perfectly this week, but because Jesus and his righteousness never changes. You want to change your life. Every time you go to do something wrong, just say, I'm the righteousness of God. Just say it. Spirit of slap comes on you, I'm the righteousness of God. Argument gets in your relationships, I'm the righteousness of God. You go to do some other form of sin, I'm the righteousness of God. The more you begin to lean on the confidence that Christ can sustain you in every moment, you'll stop giving excuses for your poor mistakes and choices. Because we are spirit led beings, not flesh led beings. Is this good today? The second thing that righteousness does is it rejects condemnation. Condemnation is one of the enemy's favorite weapons. You ever had somebody come up to you and say, I know what you did. I've had that spiritual person, man. There was a lady in church a long time ago, guys, I was afraid of her. I'm gonna tell you what it's like. If you came up to her, she'd be like, look into your soul. You know, it's like she knew what you did last summer, not just yesterday. Not meaning to give a movie reference there, but I'm. I avoided her. I'd see her be like, yep, going this way. Amen. Because of the condemnation belief I had and her operation in what she called the Spirit, every time I saw her, she just bring out some sin in my life. And when I realized that God doesn't do that, that the enemy is the accuser of the brethren, I stopped listening to people that were condemning me and trying to expose my sin. Because I want to be like David with God's heart. Instead of like Saul, trying to hide my sin. Amen. Amen. So righteousness rejects condemnation. It reminds you. See, condemnation reminds you of your past, your failures, your weaknesses. Romans 8 and 33 says, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. If God had declared you righteous. Amen. No accusation can overturn that. The enemy can accuse, but he cannot cancel what Jesus has accomplished. Well, man, I can go rob a bank. Praise God. I'm not a bank robber. No, that's still gonna have a result in the natural. But while you're sitting in prison, Jesus still loves you. Amen. This does not give you the right to break the law. This gives you the right to follow Jesus, who would not tell you to rob a bank. The third thing that righteousness does is live. Listen to me. Live from your new identity. Righteousness is not just how God sees you. It becomes a foundation of how you live. Amen. So just to bring that back up there, in righteousness, you shall be established. It's a place that we live from, not just accept as a gift. Does this make sense? You stop living from guilt. You stop living from fear. You stop trying to earn God's approval. Instead, you live from an identity God has given you. You are a new creation in Christ. Well, Pastor Kyle, I knew who you were. Good. You knew what I was? Well, I saw you last year. You were doing this, you were doing that. I've seen you angry. You ain't that special. You saw me angry? Then you don't know how God has grown me since then. So here's my thought. Church. The gospel is not that we are trying harder to become righteous. The gospel is that through Jesus, we've been made righteous. This is the first foundation. You gotta understand, God has clothed you in the righteousness of Christ. You belong in his presence. You belong in his grace. You belong in his family. And when that truth settles in your heart, everything, I mean everything, everything changes. Prayer becomes confident. Faith becomes bold. Peace becomes real. Because your foundation is no longer based on your performance. Your foundation is in Christ. And that foundation cannot be shaken. Amen. Life can isolate you. It can cause you to step away. It can cause you to step back. Righteousness gives you the ability to stay moving forward. Does that make sense? Righteousness gives you the ability to stay moving forward. Honey, I don't care if you were an alcoholic. So was I. I don't care if you were an addict. So was I. I don't care if you beat the brakes off somebody. So have I. I don't care if you've had the brakes beaten off of you. So have I. Your past is your past. That is not the foundation of your faith. And the more you keep trying to figure out God instead of figuring out who he's made you, the more confused you're going to be. Amen. And the more people that come at you. And, man, I'm going to tell you what, you look for God here, you're looking in the wrong place. I'm not looking for God in you. I'm looking for God in me. And I'm living from that place. And if we want to share that space, we can live together. But I'm not saying, you know, what if JoJo would have just made one more extra coffee, that would have been the key to the service today. That would have got Sister Susie so hypenated that praise the Lord, she'd have worshiped in such a way. Hallelujah. You know, if Brian would have just lifted his hands or prayed a little bit more, spoke in tongues or something like that, we'd have had just a very special service. Hoo lalala. You know, come on, man. I believe in speaking in tongues. I'm not mocking the spirit. But quit trying to fit God into your terms. He's not your checklist. New Age taught you how to have a checklist. I do these things and I'll be able to have this. I do this and go before. And they align my chakra and, you know, step on tables. Amen. You know, wave their hands over me and feel the energy, praise. I know all about it. It's just a checklist with Christ. The checklist is over. It's just live for him, from him. It's that simple. Amen. But you know why I love people that come from New Age. We got a lot of y' all in here. And I used to probably feed half the drugs y' all used to do back when I was a drug dealer. You know why I love y' all is because you are searching. Because you are looking. Is there more? I'm telling you today, the more that you've been looking for has been answered in Christ believers. You've been going to Bible college. You've been going to church for 15 years. I'm going to tell you something. You've stopped looking. You need to realize what you have. You need to look in the mirror and realize what Christ has made you. You need to put them hands out in front of you. But you know what? Every time I pray, Jesus is on the inside of these Hands. We need to get hungry for who Christ is in us. Amen. I'm not here to condemn, but God knows I need to be hungry more myself. How many times you turned on again? I'm not on Netflix. I'm just using it as an example. You went to Netflix, searched for hours for something to watch, can't find nothing. Cause Jesus is talking to you the whole time. And then you start that movie, the next thing you know, he's talking to you through the movie. You could have just started with talking to him in the first place. Amen. Father, we thank you for this righteousness that we now have in Christ Jesus. Father, we thank you for this beauty we now have in you. And Father, in a moment, as we pray together for each other, shoulder to shoulder, neighbor to neighbor. Father, I ask that you establish that righteousness is a free gift. It's not earned. It was given and it was a beautiful garment that was placed on us. The only garment you asked us to put on is the garment of praise. That is something we have to do ourselves. But everything else, every mantle, every calling, everything has been put on us. So, Father, I thank you that right now, in Jesus name, as we all stand to our feet, Church, I'm going to give you a. Suggestion. I'm not going to call it a warning. The world out there today will get you believing that so much more you got to do. Even some podcasts and YouTube videos inside of our own faith would make you believe that you probably could possibly even get possessed by a devil being saved. It'll get you so sin focused that you'll be afraid that there's a devil in every bush. This righteousness gives me the confidence like Paul when I go into the city. I know evil's present, but it can't touch me. You can put me in the ground, I'm going to heaven. You can place me in prison, but I won't be enslaved in my heart, no matter my circumstances. God, you are with me. I'm not looking for the result anymore because the result has already happened on the cross. And this life that I live is laid down for you. So, Father, right now, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if there's someone here that doesn't know you, who wants to get to know you, just bow your head, close your eyes for me. Folks, let me and Michelle be the only ones looking. If you don't know Jesus, could you just lift your hand right where you are and say, I want to know Jesus. 100% confidence in who he is, in My life. Amen. Thank you for the hand. Maybe you're here this morning and this righteousness that we've talked about this morning is something new to you. And you want to say, I accept this righteousness over my life. Will you just lift your hand right where you are? Thank you for the hands. Thank you for the hands. So then, Father, we thank you for those that wish to reassure their salvation that this is the one time, the last time, that they have to ask to be saved. It is not something that is retracted. It is a gift. It's yours. And for those that lifted their hands for this righteousness and say, I want to establish myself in this. I want to live this way. It'll change your language, it'll change your thinking. It'll change the way you live. It'll change how you treat people. Father, I thank you for those hands. I thank you that in the mighty, matchless name of Jesus that we pray today. What a wonderful service. What a wonderful God. What a wonderful name. The name of Jesus. And we all say, amen. Come on, give the Lord a hand clap of praise. If you would just place your hand on your neighbor. I'm just going to borrow three more minutes of your time before we go outside to eat. Hospitality team, if you need to get outside, you can. We're praying for you as you fix us some gorgeous, amazing food. So as you lay your hand on your neighbor, Father, I thank you for this person next to me, this person I have my arm around, this person that I'm praying for. I thank you that for our sons and our daughters. Come on up here, Lisa. Never mind. I'm going to come to you. Y' all got hands on each other. I'm going to come there. Praise the Lord. I thank you right now in the name of Jesus, for every person here. I thank you right now for every person that you've blessed. I thank you, God, that we continue to pray for each other because we can come boldly before the throne room for each other as well. And so, Father, I thank you for this resting place you've given us. I thank you for not a way of always escape like we believe, but a place to land and rest in you to be in our Goshen while Egypt goes through its plagues. Thank you, God, for your righteousness. Thank you, God, for your love. Thank you for everything that you're doing in our family. Thank you everything that you're doing in our kids. Thank you everything that you're doing in our grandchildren. We thank you, God. It's in the name of Jesus, we pray and we all say Amen. [00:44:04] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers.life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team, and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.