This sermon teaches the importance of spiritual fitness.

Doyle Jackson: 00:00 Hey, I just want to welcome you, and say thank you for watching online. You know, here at The Church Next Door we believe that your life is important, and that's why we've taken the time to put these videos out there. I hope it's encouraging you, and inspiring you, but why not stop by sometime. Come on a Saturday night, 5:00, join us for worship, or Sunday morning at 9:30 or maybe at 11. Either way, pick a time, and just stop by. Get to know the people of The Church Next Door.
Video: 00:33 (Video Plays.)
Doyle Jackson: 01:45 I love that because it really shows how most of us don't have a good handle on spiritual matters, and the truth is we don't sometimes see how important the spiritual battle that's taking place in the world around us. And so today, that's why we want to talk about being spiritually fit, because that's going to be an important part for us in our lives and our futures. Alight? Would you do me a favor if you would, just put your hands together and welcome those who are watching online right now, here with us at The Church Next Door. Thank you very much. We're glad to have you with us. If you would pull out your worship folders, inside your worship folder, or you can pull up The Church Next Door app, on there are the notes for today. You can follow along that way. We would love to have you do that in.
Doyle Jackson: 02:35 And if you were to open up your bibles right now to First Timothy, chapter four, it begins with a discussion on the world in the last days. This is what it says right here. This is a First Timothy, chapter four, "The spirit clearly says that in latter times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits, and things taught by demons." It goes on to say that you and I need to be careful what we know in the spiritual realm, because in the last days there's going to be this real tense thing, and you don't want to be deceived. If you were to rewind, so to speak, and go back into the gospels. Jesus repeatedly talks to his followers about the necessity of guarding your heart, watching your life so you're not deceived.
Doyle Jackson: 03:30 The issue of spiritual fitness is at the core of this discussion, you and I need to know where we stand spiritually. We have to understand the spiritual implications. See God designed you and I to be a eternal beings, and it's our spirit, which is eternal. Okay? Over the last couple of weeks, we started by talking about balance. And then we talked about the importance of your soul, and how your soul, your mind, and your will, and your emotions are kind of the filter through which your life runs. Okay, and you need to have a healthy soul. And then the next part we talked about your body, how important your body is to that, because you can't really serve God if you don't have the health that you need, and the perspective that you need that comes through that body. Well know we're going to talk about the spirit. Because see, all of this works together, and what tends to happen is this. We began to think, well, you know, right now things aren't so bad. Emotionally. I'm doing all right, and my body, well, my health is good enough, and we'll settle for something less than what's best, right? And we will totally ignore the spiritual realm.
Doyle Jackson: 04:41 Same chapter, First Timothy, chapter four. Paul still talking to Timothy. He's telling him how to lead and guide the God followers at Ephesus. Alight? And he says, you know, in latter days, some are going to be deceived. And just a few verses past that. Look what he says right here. It's an a first timothy chapter four, verses seven and eight. He says, "Spend your time and energy in the exercise of keeping spiritually fit." He says, you need to spend the majority of your time, the best of your time. You need to spend time, okay? Not just catching snatches of it here and there. He said, you need to focus time and energy on the exercise of keeping spiritually fit.
Doyle Jackson: 05:32 Bodily exercise is alright, it's good, we talked about that last week, But spiritual exercise is much more. Say much more. Much more important, and is a tonic for all you do. So exercise yourself spiritually. He's encouraging us. He's encouraging you. He's encouraging me. He's encouraging the people of Ephesus. He's saying, exercise your spirit, and most of us were like, okay, well how do I do that? You know what I'm saying? We're real vague on that. He keeps going here. He says, "And practice being a better Christian. What's a Christian? A Christian is one who follows Christ. Remember Jesus in John Chapter 14, he said, "I Jesus am the way, the truth, and the life." He's saying, follow me. That's the invitation. This is part of the Christian life, to follow Jesus. So it's a real simple scenario. Christians have used it for literally thousands of years. Am I living like Jesus did? When people look at me, do they catch a glimpse of Jesus? That's what it's about, because that will help you not only now in this life, but in the next life too. See the reasons spiritual fitness is important, is you were designed for eternity, and God wants you to experience eternity with him. You are eternal. You have any eternal nature to you. The question is, how will you spend eternity? The question is, will you be spiritually fit for that? And that's what we want to take the time to look at today. We want to help you with that. We want to give you some practical instruction to make that happen.
Doyle Jackson: 07:30 So today, if you've got your notes, okay, I want you to open them up. I want you to look at them because there's a practical thing you can do, and if you're watching online, get out a piece of paper. You can do this right there with any blank piece of paper and a pen. What I did was this. I want to ask you two questions. First, when have you felt closest to God? When in your life did you feel the closest to God? Can you just write that down, up in the upper right hand corner of your notes there somewhere. So you know I felt closest to God when? You know maybe it was summer camp as a kid. Maybe it was a mission trip you took. Maybe it's when you were living with a certain person. You know the summers I spent at Grandma's house, different things like that. It can be different times in our life. When did you feel closest to God?
Doyle Jackson: 08:16 And the second one? When have you done your best spiritually? When do you know you were on your A game when it came to your spiritual life? Write those factors down. Now, begin to review your life. Make a list of all those kinds of things in your life, and then take that graph on that piece of paper, and think about it in terms of the years of your life. Write down those events over the years. Well, this took place in this year, and this in this year, and then give them a grade on a scale of zero to 100. As you plot those points, they're going to begin to appear on your scale. On the sample that I gave you in your notes today, it's over the last 16 years. I realize some of you are older than that, and some of you have had a spiritual connection with God longer than that, but let's just look at the last 16 years. Okay? What has happened when you begin to connect those dots, this is what happens. You get a graph of your spiritual life. Why is this important? Because if you can get a handle on when I'm doing well, when I know what spiritual health looks like in my life, if you can do some reflection on that, you can repeat it. If you know something, you can do it again. Now, what I've also found is this, this same technique is very powerful when you want to share your faith with somebody. Let's say you're sitting at Starbucks with a friend. You've decided just to hang out, and spend some time with them, and in your conversation they bring up, you seem to be doing really well right now. You say, yeah, I really feel close to God, I feel like I've got my spiritual game on. They said, well, how do you know that? You get out a napkin, you draw on there this. And say, let me show you my spiritual life, these are the ups and the downs. Back here when you look at mine, well, this is when I lost my grandmother in 2017, and it was really hard for me to get over. But this is what I did, I found a place where I could worship God. I made some friends. Maybe you want to, if you've been to grief share here, this is why we do grief share. This is why we do our divorce care. This is why we're constantly providing things to help you in the practical areas of your life, that impact your spiritual life. Sometimes you'll say, I really turned a corner when I got a part of this small group.
Doyle Jackson: 10:46 You can then say to them, hey, how would you graph your life? What's your spiritual life look like? Some of us, we had to hit rock bottom, before we gave God attention. It was in the midst of an AA meeting when we finally hit bottom, and we said I needed God, that was my turning point. And not everybody's graph is the same, but if you'll take the time to graph your spiritual life. You can then begin to say, what do I want 2019, what do I want 2020 to look like? And we can give you, we can give you some things to shoot for, to help you grow spiritually. We can give you practical advice from Christian history, and experience that will show you if you will do this, if you will do that, it will begin to change your life spiritually. And that's what we want to talk about today.
Doyle Jackson: 11:45 Here at The Church Next Door, for years, we've talked about this concept of being spiritually fit. And that everybody is on a spiritual journey. Everybody, everybody's on a spiritual journey. Whether you've chosen God or not, the truth is, everybody's on a spiritual journey. Now, this has been a part of Christianity literally since the beginning, because Jesus said, I'm the way, come follow me. So Christians have always used the journey, or a pilgrimage, or some kind of language, that you are a traveler on the Christian life. To kind of illustrate the fact that Christianity is a journey, but it's not an end. Okay? What happens is this. We have this tendency, it's our nature as human beings to say, well, I've done that, I've accomplished it. So we do things like this. Well, you know, I accepted Christ back in and we name off some date, and we say some event, maybe it was at a youth camp, maybe it was a worship service at a church, and so I've done that and we think we're done. Not true, it's a journey, it's just one of the steps along the road. And see we've learned, if we can talk to you about this in terms of, it's our desire that each person who worships with us experienced growth in their relationship with God. Christianity is not a destination, but the building of a relationship with God. There are some identifiable milestones which we believe are an integral part of this journey, and this relationship.
Doyle Jackson: 13:25 I'm going to outline for you just a few of these milestones that we talk about in this place. Okay? Because we think they're key milestones. Alight? The're really important. The first one is conversion, or initiation. What that means is you remember a time in your life when you finally said, this is not working. I've tried to manage my life, and my leadership is not working. Jesus would you come in, and be the Lord of my life, the leader of my life? I can't fix all the problems I have, Would you be my savior for my sin? When you do that, you're inviting Jesus into your heart, and making him the lord of your life. Now what the scripture teaches us, is that is an invitation for God's Holy Spirit to come into your life. In John chapter twenty, around verse 20, it says that, "Jesus breathed on the disciples, and said, peace be with you and receive the Holy Spirit." Okay, so that's, that's the conversion, and the initiation part, that's when you welcome the spirit into your life.
Doyle Jackson: 14:33 Then we talk about water baptism. Because in the New Testament, the word baptize means to dunk. Now, some of us, myself included, alright, came from a family tradition where they sprinkled the infants. And I appreciate my parents prayer over my life in doing that. But there came a point in time in my life when I wanted God to know, and I wanted me to know, that I was all in for Jesus. That I wanted God to cover my life from head to toe, and I said, no offense, mom and dad, but I want to be baptized for me. That's what we practice in this place, that's what we encourage in this place, and we challenge you to take that step. If you've never had that step, you ought to do that. And some people have come to me, they say, well, I was baptized when I was 12, and all my friends did it, but I didn't really mean it and it wasn't a spiritual experience. Would you be offended if I came to be baptized, I said, I'm not offended at all if you want to do that, but baptism isn't something we do every six months or every two years. It's really meant to be an initiation of God, I want to be a disciple, more than just name only. More than in name only, but a covered life.
Doyle Jackson: 15:52 Then we talk about an acquaintance with the Holy Spirit. Well, why is that? Because the New Testament, and Jesus taught, that the Holy Spirit would be a comforter, a counselor, a helper, a friend, and that the Holy Spirit would remind us of all things. And he said, I'm going to go to the father, and send you the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit is going to empower you to be my witness. And so Jesus identified the Holy Spirit as working in your life, separate from just the Holy Spirit that made you feel conviction to come to him, and the Holy Spirt you invited in it. Salvation. The Holy Spirit also has a function of being a your guide through life, and you're in empowerer to be a Christ follower. And so in this place we teach you an ongoing acquaintance with the Holy Spirit, and his leadership in your life. Okay? Basically what that means is this, you're not done having a relationship with Jesus and God's spirit after you accept him, okay? There's more to come.
Doyle Jackson: 16:53 And then next we talk about small group involvement. Because we believe that everybody needs to have this fellowship and relationship. In Acts 20:20, it says, "That they met together publicly, and from house to house." You might notice it's on the inside of your worship folder. That's how important it is to us in this place.
Doyle Jackson: 17:12 Next is generosity and stewardship. Now this is a really important point, because until you engage in generosity, in giving financially to the Kingdom of God, he's not really Lord of your life. And you may say, yeah, but I'm skeptical. I get that, you don't have to give here, but you do have to start giving, because he gets to control your purse strings. But that's different from stewardship. Stewardship implies that my time, my talent, my energy, and the years that I have left, are Gods, and I have to manage that. That's why last week we talked about our bodies. We have a responsibility to give our bodies the best possibility, so that we can give God the most of our life, because he's given us eternity.
Doyle Jackson: 18:06 Okay, and then we also talk about service in sharing your faith. What do we mean by that? Well, everybody needs to serve God, and God has given you spiritual gifts, and your spiritual gifts are best utilized for his kingdom? And so if you have the spiritual gift of hospitality, or the spiritual gift of teaching, or the spiritual gift of evangelism, you want to use those. So we encourage you to get to know those. Then we also talk about sharing your faith, that's separate, okay? Because see, I can be serving God, but never share with somebody how God has transformed my life. And we want you to do that, that's why in this place we're constantly telling you that inviting is exciting. We're constantly telling you, you need to invite someone to the Kingdom of God. It's totally different when you invite somebody you don't know to the Kingdom of God, and when you invite somebody you do know. Because when you invite somebody you do know, there's greater integrity there, right? Because you're being fully known, and they know it, and so we invite you to do both of those. This past week, the outreach team went out, and they gave away Oreos, and they helped people in a laundromat, and they had some great conversations. Will help you learn how to do that.
Doyle Jackson: 19:23 Today, when you leave, you'll note that we have mugs on your way out. That's because we want you to take a mug, and give it away. We want you to take a mug, you can take two, you can take ten if you can carry them. Alight? And take these, it's got coffee in it, and an invite in it. Because we want you to learn the joy of sharing Christ. Okay? Now we know these are cool, and you may want one. So if you do, we're going to have them for sale at the Resource Center, over the next couple of weeks. So if you decide, you've got to have one, they're going to have that setup in the next week or so. Okay? But today we want you to take them for those people that you know, need that touch of God's love in their life. Okay? And I think they're cool if I do say so myself. Okay? Alright.
Doyle Jackson: 20:14 Last one, a commitment to discipleship. The reason we want you to share your faith, because that's part of the discipleship process, but it doesn't end there. Once someone gets engaged with Jesus, they need someone who's going to coach them on the next steps. Remember all the questions you had when you first came to know Jesus? Well, we want you to become effective at helping coach other people through the process to maturity.
Doyle Jackson: 20:38 In a spiritually fit person. Okay? Has begun to build all these in their life, and they're not one time things, these ongoing things. It's exciting to me today, every time I lead somebody to Christ. It's exciting to me today, every time I engage someone in saying, Hey, what if we met together kind of regularly, and we talked about your spiritual life, and how to keep this going. And I love that, because I'm still serving God, I'm still being generous, I'm still looking at this, I'm still involved in a small group, I'm still acquainted with the Holy Spirit. See, some of these are initial events, but most of these are reoccurring things. It's not done, that got the tee shirt. What God wants us to be, is people that worship him, and live for him every day. And a spiritually fit person understands that their spirit is engaged in this spiritual reality, this spiritual battle you might say, and we need to be ready for it every day.
Doyle Jackson: 21:44 So today I want to give you four. Alight? Four things you can do, to stay spiritually fit. Now you need to know, I got to be fully honest with you. When I wrote this sermon out, I had 12. Alright? So because I'm a type A personality, and I like everything to go well, tonight, I'm going to give you the other eight. Okay? I'm going to do that at Deeper Life. It'll be on Facebook live, you can watch it. But truly I want you to know, I've pulled out these as the top four. Because I think if you'll get these going in your life, it'll help you stay spiritually fit. Okay?
Doyle Jackson: 22:21 Number one, you need to renew your strength through worship. You need to renew your strength through worship. There's a guy that's part of this church, he works two jobs right now, I've known him to work three jobs. And I've watched him over the years. He has really taken on the worship aspect of his life, and he truly, he's had some challenges. I've watched him raise teenagers, I've watched him go through the weddings of those teenagers, I've watched him grow and mature in the Lord. And over the years, I want you to know something, he's put his A game into worship. He has a job where he's a delivery man, and so the whole time he's driving his truck, and delivering. He's listening to either the word of God, or a Bible teacher, or he's singing and worshiping God. Okay? He helps us out here at the church, and he'll come over. And while he's working here, the whole time, he's listening to worship music. He's the most upbeat person you'll ever meet. He's always given people high fives, and he just has this ability to find the good in life. Okay? Doesn't mean he's not concerned about life, he is, because he'll tell you that too. But he says, I know it's going to be okay because he's got this down, he has got this. And this is what the scripture says. Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles. And you and I have to be like that, we have to choose to put a lot of time everyday into worship. Sometimes we think worship is only when were with gods gathered people. That's important, and we want you to gather with God's people to worship. But you also have to learn how to worship on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. See tonight, tonight we're going to have a concert with Mark Townsend, you ought to come, get your worship on, get your celebrate God on. That's free, it's free, it's a free date, guys. You need to wake up and buy a vowel. And how often do you get that? And I promise you we will not take up an offering. Alight? We are not going to. I do not like that when they have a concert, and then I show up, and then they sideswiped me with an offering. Okay? We will not do that. They will have material if you want to buy his stuff. Okay? I've got to move on, I'm running out of time.
Doyle Jackson: 24:43 Number two, you need to deepen your peace of mind through prayer. You need to deepen your peace of mind through prayer. This week I had somebody drop in on me, and they were having a meltdown. They'd taken their car to get it repaired, and they'd gotten it back, and it was smoking and sounding bad. And they're like great, I cannot afford, I cannot afford. I said, listen, hang on, God has got you covered. You just need to relax, and say Lord, I trust you. And say a prayer, and look to him, look to him. Yesterday they said, you're right. I took it back, they're going to totally fix it, it's not a problem. Everything's going to be just fine. And see, you and I have a choice every day, are we going to live our life in connection to God and the spiritual realm, or are we only got to look at life from the physical realm? Are we going to let our wounded souls be the evaluator of life, or are we going to look at life from a spiritual level. Where God says, I will never leave you or forsake you, I will take care of you, I am your father who loves you. And that's what prayer is about, prayer is engaging God every day. Everyday we're saying, God, I'm looking to you. Don't worry about anything, say anything. But in everything, by prayer, present your request to God. And the peace of God, the peace of God, will transcend all understanding. Does not matter what your soul is telling you at that point, you'll say, okay God, I know you got this. It will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the one that gives you access to your father, and that's why you can go to him, and that's why it's all covered. So I challenge you, it's why every week we say, please give us your praises, and your prayer requests. Because we want to know what God did for you this last week, because we're expecting you every week to be praying, to be trusting God. And you will have a praise every week, but it doesn't mean you don't still have a need. Doesn't mean you will not still have daily bread. Doesn't mean you still won't have life, that's why we pray every day. If you'll begin to engage God, worshiping God regularly every day, and then you'll pray every day, it will keep you going. Okay? Deepen your peace of mind through prayer.
Doyle Jackson: 27:15 Number three, strengthen your commitment through fellowship. Strengthen your commitment through fellowship. In my life it is the relationships with the people that have helped me go the distance. It's because of the relationships, the people in my life. And I can go over again and again and again at every stage in my life, God has brought the people into my life. That's why I encourage you to be in a part of a small group, guys I'm going to keep telling you that, until you make that step. I had someone recently say, yeah, I've been coming here for a while, and I finally decided I would go to a small group. I actually had a guy come up to me last week, it wasn't last week, it was couple of weeks ago. He came up to me and he said, you know, I accepted Christ, and I was baptized here about 10 years ago. And he said, I know, I know the Lord, and I've got all that going. But he said I was really resistant to God and in like three areas of my life. And he said, I went to my small group, and he said, my small group leader gave me this book by Tony Evans called Kingdom man. And he said I was starting to read it, and then I would set it to the side. And he said, I actually had this for a couple years, couple of years. And he said, just a couple of weeks ago, I got the book out and I finally read the whole thing all the way through, all the way through. And he said, I felt such an awareness of God's Holy Spirit, I got on my knees in my kitchen, and I began to cry. And I said, God, please forgive me, I said, God, I am so sorry. And he said, I listed off these three areas of my life. And when that happened, that something broke in my life, and it totally turned things around. That week someone walked into his office and they had a problem. And he said, I just finished Kingdom Man, I said, well, God's brought him here. He said, I look across my desk in my workplace, in my office and said, would you be okay if we prayed about that? And the person's like, that would be great. You know? Then he invited them to come to church with him the following weekend. And he said, I want you to know, thank you for being patient with me. And I don't know where you are right now, but it was the fellowship of that small group. It was the challenge of that relationship, and the consistency, that got him over the line. And you may be there today. You may be holding back in three areas, and we want you to know we're here for you, and we're saying to you, give it all to Jesus. Give it all to Jesus, Jesus is the answer, Jesus will cure that, Jesus will heal that, Jesus will work in your life. Jesus, we are promoting Jesus in this place. Jesus is the Lord of life. It just keep that clear in your life. Okay? Jesus is the answer. Okay?
Doyle Jackson: 30:04 Last one, number four, big. Oh, fellowship, do not give up meeting together, but let us encourage one another. Alight? Practice your love through giving. Giving is so important to your spiritual life, and the reason is this, we tend to think we can afford to give. What I would say to you, is you can't afford not to give. Remember Jesus, Jesus is watching as people are going to the temple, and they bring their offering. And he looks at all the people, but he points out the one person who had the least ability to give, and actually gave a tiny amount. But for her, that widow, those two copper coins meant the world. And the reason you and I need to give, the reason we need to give, is because we need to tell ourselves, I'm not trusting in me, I'm trusting in Jesus. See, the reason giving is important is it reminds us, and it's not a onetime thing. See, well, I gave back in 1978. Yeah, right. Okay? I used to tithe, I've heard people say that. You know what I'm saying? And I'm telling you, it is a constant relationship. It's just like having service on your cell phone, giving reminds you, you're trusting, he's always there, he's got you covered. Look what it says here, it says this, "See that you excel (Say excel.) in the grace of giving, to prove the sincerity of your love." Let me tell you a story. A young lady in our church, she's a newlywed, she's very young, doesn't have many resources, but she serves on the grounded team. Alright? And recently she had a birthday, and someone gave her a little bit of extra for her birthday. And she took that extra that she had from her birthday, she went to the Christian bookstore, and she went and bought a Bible verse cards for some of your kids and she passed them out to the teenagers, and she was so excited. She came running to Jennifer, she said, I'm so excited, I bought these cards for these kids. That's what giving will do for you, it'll give you a vision for the Kingdom of God, and it will change not only your life, you will change the life of the other people that get touched. And you need desperately, and there are people in this place, we've this line. And we're just inviting you, come on across, come on across, it will change your life. But once you cross it, I'm wanting to tell you something, stay there. Don't stop being generous, because I've watched people stop, and it doesn't help them. It says, in your notes, I put this from First Corinthian. On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a sum of money you have earned, and give it as an offering. Why? He says, this needs to be a regular habit. It needs to be a regular habit in your life, because it will transform your life,
Doyle Jackson: 33:11 If you will begin to practice these four simple principles in your life, of worship, of prayer, of fellowship, and giving, it will begin to increase your spiritual health. Because those relationships, and those activities, will constantly keep you in check. And you'll know your spirit's important to God, and you, okay, and that will change your life. If you want more, come tonight, watch online, five o'clock. Okay. Now before we close today, I've got to address something. Because I don't know that everybody has crossed that line of initiation, of inviting Jesus into their heart. So in your notes, I wrote it this way. If you look at the bottom of the notes. It says, if you've never invited Christ into your heart, make a simple commitment right now and say, Jesus Christ, please come into my life, make me the person you want me to be, help me to become a spiritually fit person with your help and with your strength. Now I know that the moment I say that, and if you know you're in that condition right now, you feel real tense inside. You're like, oh, please don't make me stand up., please don't make me raise my hand, please don't make me come forward. Please, that would be too much for me. I get that. I get that. But what I do want you to do, is I want you to recognize that's where you are. Okay? And do you want to cross that line? Do you want to say this prayer with me today, and do you want to change the direction of your life? Because that's all it takes. Now, others of us in this room, you need to know right now, we're ready to say that prayer just to go along with you. That's our way. We've said this prayer so many times, every time pastor offers us the opportunity to invite Jesus into our heart, we're like, oh, please me one more time. You know what I'm saying? Because this is what we know. If we'll say it right along with you, you'll be encouraged. But there's another group of people in here too. Okay? We've said this prayer before, but we really feel a low point on our graph. We've spent this past several weeks or months or maybe even years, and we've kind of neglected our spirit. Just say this prayer, with us, right along with us right now. And leave behind that dark, low point, just leave it right here, leave it on the altar. We have a team, they come sweep that stuff up, and they throw it in the trash because that stuff can be gone today if you want it to be. It can be gone, it's all you've got to do.
Doyle Jackson: 35:38 So we're going to just read this prayer. We're going to start at the word Jesus, if you're looking at the wall, and we're just going to say this together, if you would, okay? All who want to say it, if you don't, you don't have to. Okay? Here we go. Jesus Christ, please come into my life, make me the person you want me to be. Help me to become a spiritually fit person, with your help and your strength. Amen.
Doyle Jackson: 36:01 If you would stand, I want to say a prayer over you, and you will be released. I want you to know how much I appreciate you, how much I love you, and how good it is to be with you every week. Alight? If you just, if you have something you needed to give to God, hold out your hands like this and just imagine he's taking it from you while I'm praying. And if you need something from God, just keep them out and just say, Lord, I receive it from you right now, okay, while my hands are out. Lord, we come to you today with our hands up, and we just want you to know we give everything to you. All those dark moments, all that past, all those wounds, all those habits, all those things, Lord that have held us back. We give them to you. God, would you just place it into our hands some of your love? God would you send your Holy Spirit that brings comfort, I need some of that right now. God, would you send to me hope, and new life? And God, I really could use some fellowship, I'm good with that, would you bring some people into my life? God, would you teach me to pray? God, I want to be a person that worships you every day, help me to be a cheerful giver. That's what we're saying right now, God. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Doyle Jackson: 37:27 If you want to talk some more, there's always a team that will pray with you, they'll be down here. Have a great day. Alight?
Doyle Jackson: 37:37 Hey guys, if you've enjoyed what you've been listening to, and been encouraged in your faith, or somehow God has answered a prayer from being a part of The Church Next Door online. Do me a favor, shoot me an email to pastor@tcnd.org, just pastor@tcnd.org, or like me on Facebook, send me a message. God bless you. Have a great week. Hope to see you soon.



Recorded in Columbus, Ohio.