When I'm Confused and Need Guidance

Well, good morning everybody. It's great to have you here whether you're joining us here in the auditorium or watching on Facebook live or watching over in the venue service. I am just delighted to be here too. My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here and I want to invite you to grab the message notes that look like this that came in your bulletins. They're also available on our website and in the TLC app if you're joining us online.

Because we are continuing a series going verse by verse through Psalm 23 that we call Living in the Goodness of God. Today, Living in the Goodness of God when I am confused and need guidance. I won't ask for a show of hands about how many of you this morning are confused and need guidance. But the fact is a sense of confusion and needing guidance is just rampant in our society today.

Check this out: experts say stress from indecision has actually never been higher than it is right now in this cultural moment. Because thanks to social media and instant news and so on, we are more aware than ever of all of the variety of options that are available to us, and we are stressed about making any kind of a choice because we don't want to miss out on a better choice. There's even an acronym for it: FOMO, and that stands for fear of missing out. Right? What if I make a decision that will keep me from some other decision that turns out to be a better decision? So I better not make any decisions.

Some of you right now, as you listen to me, you are facing the stress of indecision. It's no laughing matter for you. Just this week, some of you right here, some of you watching have been facing a choice: Should I hold on or should I let go? Should I move or should I stay? Should I get married or not? Should I try to find a new job? Should I buy a car? Which car? Should I go to college? Which college? Should I retire? Should I keep on working? And sometimes even after we make a decision about one of these choices, we're haunted by, did I do the right thing? And we second guess everything and we triple guess and we quadruple guess.

So is there an antidote to all of this stress over indecision? I can't decide. I'm just not sure. Just kidding. I know there is. I believe there is. We're in this series, we've been immersing ourselves in these classic verses in Psalm 23. They're in your notes. I'm also going to put them on screen. Would you just read these out loud with me? The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

We've covered those verses so far in this series, and here is the next verse, the next line of the song that I really want to drill down into today. Let's read this out loud together: He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. So you see right there in Scripture that the good shepherd not only feeds, he leads. He not only provides, he guides. He not only protects, he directs. That is the promise of the Bible: God promises to guide you.

Now for some of you, just hearing that is just like, yes! That just blesses me. But for others, maybe 50% of you, that is just frankly super stressful and frustrating to hear. Because the question that pops into your mind is, okay, that's a great promise, but how does God guide me? How?

After church last weekend, I was talking with a woman who said, I'm new to my faith and I'm really enjoying coming to Twin Lakes Church, but I got a question for you. I really want to follow the direction of God every day of my life, but how do I know God's guidance? How can I tell when God is guiding me? And if it's God that is guiding me, how can I be sure I'm not following something I think is God's guidance but it isn't God's guidance, and I'm going to make a dumb choice because I wasn't discerning enough to hear the still small voice?

That is a great question, and that is one I personally struggled with for years and years. This morning's talk honestly comes out of genuine anguish that I personally went through as I wrestled with these questions for years. I would look at people, you know the type, who just seemed to know God's direction and often use phrases like, well, the Lord led me to do this, and God led me, and God led me to take this job, and I just sense God's direction to move, and I just said God was just calling me, leading me to call this person up, and sure enough, it turns out they were in need.

I would always ask them over the years, can I just—I believe that God directs, I really do believe it. But how did you know? What's that feel like? How did you know? And honestly, I felt like for me, I never got a very satisfactory answer. I apologize if you're one of the people I've asked, but what I received were answers like, I can't describe it, but just when you know, you'll know. I was like, that might work for you, but for me, that's just frustrating because I feel like I never know a hundred percent for sure. And so every single decision just tortured me.

Some of you have heard me talk about how Laurie and I dated for four years before I decided whether or not to marry her. Now, I loved her with all my heart, and I used to dream about, wow, if I was married to her, what a perfect match we'd make. But how do I know it's God's perfect will? And for months, I struggled even with whether or not to accept the call to come here to Twin Lakes Church. Did you know that 25 years ago when the nominee committee asked me, I thought, I just don't know. I'm tortured. How do I know whether or not I should go? I need to sense a clear calling, and I never did. So maybe I made a mistake. How do we know?

Now, I've done a lot of study and a lot of thought and a lot of reading, but especially reading in Scripture about what the Bible says. So if you're feeling like I just want to do the right thing, but the answer to this question seems to be so hard to find, what I want to do this morning is this: I want to put my younger self in this stool. Not much younger, because I've struggled with this for many years, but I'm going to say that to younger René as older René. What I honestly wish somebody would have told me as I struggled with indecision, because I really believe there are some clues that lead to answers right here in this passage.

So let's work our way through this verse. I want to ask three basic questions about the will of God that tie into three phrases in this verse. First, on page one of your notes, let's look at the phrase, he leads me. Now remember, this is in the context of shepherds and sheep. The whole psalm uses shepherd and sheep imagery. So why do sheep need to be led? Right? They're animals, aren't they just fine on their own? Well, shepherds say sheep have very poor eyesight. That's why they look so funny; they're always going up like this. Sheep are nearsighted.

Now, I wanted to know if this was just like an urban legend, right? So I researched it this week. No less than the University of Cambridge just recently did some studies on sheep eyesight. Now, how do you test this? You know, do you have them read eye charts? I don't know, but they tested their eyesight and they found that the average sheep is so nearsighted they cannot focus their eyes on anything further than two feet away from them. That's pretty nearsighted. In other words, sheep have no biological way that their eyes can tell them if a path that they're on is leading off a cliff or if it's leading to more green pastures. They require a shepherd because they are that nearsighted.

How like us! We can't even see 24 hours into the future. And so we need a shepherd to guide us. And also, sheep need guidance because left to themselves, they ruin things. Look at this: Philip Keller, he was the professional shepherd who wrote the classic book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 that I've been quoting a lot in this series. He says a commonly held but serious misconception about sheep is that they can just get along anywhere. The truth is quite the reverse. No other class of livestock requires more careful handling than sheep. If left to themselves, sheep follow the same trails until they become ruts, graze the same hills until they turn to desert wastes. In fact, overgrazing is causing major ecological disasters.

This is really interesting to think about on Earth Day. I read that wild animals often travel on zigzag paths up hillsides to avoid predators. And that's good for the environment because it doesn't give streams a straight way to flow down. Not sheep. Sheep just travel straight up and straight down, and they travel in the same path over and over again, creating stream beds, worsening erosion. Left to themselves, they graze on pasture until every blade of grass is gone, and then they dig up all the roots. Huge swaths of the planet have literally been turned into wasteland by poor management of where sheep are grazing. So a shepherd must lead the sheep because on their own, they will stay in self-destructive ruts and not only ruin their own health but ruin their own environment.

Again, I thought how like us, right? We need a shepherd who will get us out of our self-destructive ruts. This animal husbandry stuff is what David was thinking about when he says he leads me. Sheep are—you can't read Psalm 23 with pride because it's saying we are sheep. We're nearsighted and we get into ruts and we need the guidance of our Shepherd, the good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And that's why there's this promise: God will guide. God has to guide, or we're in trouble.

Now again, some of you are going, well, that's great, but how does he do that then? Because if you can relate to this, I have personally never seen a visible manifestation of God at a fork in the road in my life saying, René, take this path. Now, I'm not saying that can't happen. I definitely believe that God does guide people, can guide people through visions, through dreams. I've heard of it; people I trust have been led that way. Not me. Not me. I've never heard yet an audible voice that I knew definitely was God's voice guiding me in a choice. I wish I had. René, do not root for the Raiders this season. They will only break your heart again. How often must I tell you this? John Gruden is not the Messiah, René. Don't do it. I wish!

And again, listen, I believe God can do anything he wants. So I believe God can and has and does guide in very clear directions that way. But I think those are miracles, and sometimes are recorded like that in the Bible because they are miracles. And miracles are miracles because they are so unique. God can do that. But the question is, how does God routinely guide? And my question in the context of this is, Psalm 23 was written by David, so how would David, the author of this sentence, answer this question? How does God lead? How would David answer that question? Well, David does answer it, doesn't he? Many times through many other psalms that he wrote. Like look at this verse from Psalm 119: Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. His word—that's revealed Scripture. That's the Bible.

You and I need revelation from outside the Bible because we are nearsighted, and the Bible has a much longer view. It has a bigger perspective. So please establish a habit of bathing your mind daily with the truths of God's Word. Every day, like you take a shower, you brush your teeth every day. That's personal hygiene. Practice personal spiritual hygiene because you got to get the gunk off. And I would say memorize Bible verses. David talks about hiding his word in our heart. One of the ways God leads me is through verses I've memorized that pop into my brain. That's one of the coolest things about memorizing the Bible. Years ago, I memorized some verse and it's still in there.

Now, you might say, okay, well, where specifically do you go in the Bible for direction? Well, I'm glad you asked, young René, because on page four of your notes, I put some ways the Bible contains God's wisdom on life. These are some places to start, right? About some common areas that people need guidance on. But look up here for a second. Look at these on your own time, man. I've only got a few minutes left. Flip back to page one because what I have to say next may surprise you. And if young René was sitting here on the stool, he would be shocked. He would take issue with what I'm going to say next, and it's this: the words of the Bible are not enough.

I would say, young René, at times the church that you were raised in came perilously close to making the Bible an idol, to using the Bible as a substitute for God. But you didn't receive the Bible into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior; you received Jesus. And Jesus said that he would send something to guide us. At his ascension, he said, I will send what? The Holy Spirit. Because think about it: God's will is not just about what you do, but how you do it, the spirit you do it in, right? Haven't you ever met somebody who knows the Bible ten times better than you do, yet they're the most insensitive, arrogant, judgmental people you know, right?

Because the Christian life isn't about being like the Bible Answer Man; it's about being like Jesus. And how does that happen to us? We must have not only revelation from outside the Bible, we must also have transformation from inside, the Holy Spirit. The word and the Spirit team up to transform you. In fact, you can't even really understand the full depths of the Bible without the Spirit. And what happens is the Holy Spirit gradually shapes your values so you're making wise and loving choices.

So David would answer the question this way because he answers the question this way many, many times. He says meditate on the Lord's Word, hide the Word of God in your heart, study the law of God, the Word of God, and say, seek me, O God, and see if there is any wicked way in me. Holy Spirit, cleanse me and renew me. David would talk about the Bible, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. Now, there are a couple of cautions here. First, don't be guided by feelings alone. That's not what the Bible means when it says the Spirit leads you.

I've heard people tell me the Spirit is leading me to—and use a feeling to justify all kinds of just wackiness, not to mention wickedness. Not every impression you get, not every thought that is fleeting across your gray cells is from God. Maybe you just had a bad burrito, you know? Feelings are highly unreliable. I would say some people are in danger of being mastered by their emotions, manipulated by their moods. And I would say to young René, I think you're in danger of that happening because you want so bad for God to lead you through an impression. You're making every little impression that you feel into God's leading, and when you don't feel anything, you are becoming a slave to your own emotions, and that's clearly not what God wants for us.

And the second caution is this: God's will never contradicts God's Word. God will never tell you to do something with a feeling that's clearly against what God's Word says. Now just look up here for a moment. Don't turn your notes over or something because this is so important for me to communicate to you, especially if you are in the place of young René, imaginary young René sitting here on this stool. I believe in the guidance of the Spirit a hundred percent, a hundred and ten percent. But let me tell you something that I think I was messed up on for so long.

The Bible actually never says the Holy Spirit guides in ways you will always perceive at the time. We just expound on that before you jot something else down. Look up here. I have been paralyzed—my younger self was paralyzed at times by indecision because I was waiting for a sense of peace. I was waiting for information in my spirit. I was waiting for some distinct calling, which at times I didn't get. Now, why was I waiting? Well, I thought the Bible promises God will guide. The Bible promises the guidance of the Spirit, and it does. But I believe what I was misunderstanding was what the Bible means when it says the Spirit will guide us.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit will guide you—absolutely count on it, count on it. But it does not say he will guide your steps in ways you will always be able to perceive at the time. Let me explain it this way. Look at this verse: Proverbs 16:9: We should make our plans counting on God to direct us. For a very, very long time, I was caught up in a way of thinking that said unless I sense God directing me, I should not make plans. Look at this, look at the screen. It was—I was living as if the verse said we should make no plans unless we first sense how God directs us. But that's not what it says, is it? It says make our plans counting on God to direct us as we move forward. He's going to open and close doors. He's going to direct even if I don't perceive this.

What it's saying is don't be paralyzed into indecision. When you can't sense the direction of God, make your plans, move forward in what seems to you to be a wise and loving way, trusting, counting on God's sovereign direction. Let me just put your mind at rest, young René. Haven't you ever spoken to older people who look back on their lives and say things like this? You know, when I look back on that period when I was sick or my spouse was sick or that period when everything seemed like such chaos, everything was falling apart in my life, it all seemed like it was upside down at the time. But looking back, they often say, looking back, I can see how God was providing and guiding the whole way.

Haven't you ever heard somebody say that? It seemed like chaos at the time, but now, 20, 30 years later, looking back, I can see God's sovereign direction. At the time, not so much. This verse means—and this may blow your mind right now—your goal is not trying to understand God's plan. God never asks that of you. Did you know that? God never asks you to understand his plan or even discern his plan. He asks you to trust him, the Good Shepherd.

God never asks you to understand his plan; he asks you to trust him. How? Through simple daily obedience, right? We can only—we're nearsighted. We can only live one day at a time anyway, so live one day at a time just through simple daily obedience. Really, listen. Here's your options: many times in life, your options are move forward, deciding prayerfully with good counsel, in wisdom and with love, trusting God is going to work his sovereign plan, or live paralyzed by anxiety because you make no decisions until you sense a clear leading, which usually leads to an overemphasis on emotional decision-making. Usually, those are your options, or often I would say those are your options.

Let me put it this way: what's impossible is that fail-safe decision, that elusive guaranteed good choice that some of you have been paralyzed because you're not sure if it's door number two, door number one, door number three. And so you're not making that elusive fail-safe choice. It's not possible because there's a lot of factors in life that conspire to create all kinds of random chaos. What's possible is trust in a fail-safe God, a God who will use everything, including all your failures, including all your missteps, including other people's failures, ultimately for his plan. And if you've been wounded and if you're hurt today, he even uses your wounds. I don't believe he wounds you, but he will even use your wounds. He will even use your hurts for his plan.

If you don't remember anything else from this message, remember this: let me just add this real quickly. You are not the sum total of your decisions. You hear people say that all the time: life is full of choices, and what you are, you're the sum total of your choices. That's not true. You are much more than the sum total of your choices because things happen to you that weren't a result of your choices. You get some illness or you get some blessing that wasn't because of one of your choices, right? And God is working in your life to produce someone who is much more than the sum total of your choices. He is the potter forming the clay, and he is going to make you into a Christ-like being and transform you and glorify you. That is his sovereign will; that is what's going to happen to you. You are going to be far more than the sum total of your choices.

But I was taught that for so long that I was paralyzed, paralyzed to make any choice because if I'm only the sum total of my choices, then I'm petrified about making any choice. What you are is the sum total of what God is doing in your life, and guidance is not about every little minute choice. It's about trusting in the guide because he is going to fulfill his plan.

Okay, what's his plan? What's his plan? Well, the next phrase in this verse says he leads me in paths of what? Righteousness. That means holy living; that means character growth. It doesn't say he leads me in paths of clothes buying, or he leads me in paths of car choosing, or he leads me in paths of college selection. He leads me in paths of righteousness. The book of James in the Bible says the wisdom—it says ask for wisdom, God's going to give it to you. What kind of wisdom? Well, the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, sincere.

In other words, when you pray for wisdom from God, what you don't always get is wisdom about what choice to make. What you do always get is wisdom about what character to have: peace-loving, considerate, full of mercy. Those are always God's will for you, always. And we get so hung up on choices that we end up having a character that's not Christ-like because we're so irritable about deciding on the choices when most of the time God says, go where you want to go to college. You know, go where you want to retire, but be who I want you to be wherever it is that you go.

Watch this: I actually did a word search on the phrase God's will. Of the 25 times that the phrase God's will is used in the Bible, approximately 25 times in our English Bibles, 22 of the 25 are references to developing righteousness. It's God's will that you be merciful. It's God's will that you pray continually, that sort of thing. Three times are references to the sovereignty of God, like God's will will be done; his sovereign will is going to be accomplished. Zero times does it refer to God's revealed will about the details of your life. Zero! Not one time!

But we almost have this fortune-telling view of discerning the will of God. But never once in the Bible did people pray, Lord, what chariot should I buy down at Romulus's Chariot Mart? God, guide me! That never one time! Because what God's concerned about is their character growth. I mean, let me put it this way: think about your own children. How many parents do we have here? Go ahead and raise your hand, or grandparents. Think about your own kids or your grandchildren. My grandson Freddy, for example, just as an audio-visual aid. You know, Freddy's almost two years old; that happened fast. But what if Freddy comes up to me, Gipa—that's what he calls me, grandpa—Gipa, Gipa, what Hot Wheels car should I play with? Should I play with the red hot rod Hot Wheels or should I play with the firetruck Hot Wheels? Guide me, Gipa!

I would say, well, let me see these cars. Oh, this one's cool; this one's cool. Which one do you want to play with, right? My concern is Freddy's character. I want Freddy to have a heart of gold. I want Freddy to have a sound mind. I want Freddy to be a man of peace. And of course, your Heavenly Father feels the same way about you. God's will always has more to do with my character than my circumstances, more to do with how I live than where I live.

Now, of course, I'm not saying God never guides when it comes to specific decisions. He will guide sometimes clearly; sometimes you'll only see it in retrospect. But God's overarching purpose for your life that never changes is for your character to become like Christ. When Jesus died on the cross to pay the hundred percent of the penalty for your sin, he didn't give his life as a ransom so that you'd know whether to buy the Honda or the Toyota. He died and rose again so that you could be transformed.

And you know, this really feeds into something I want to get to—a little sidebar before we wrap up this morning—the box at the bottom of page two: why do I get so stressed about decision-making? Why does decision-making stress me out so much? And if I was talking to younger René, I would say this: I would say, in my observation, it comes down to two things, honestly. First, you think God might trick you. Right? Sometimes I think God might trick you, like, aha! I made it seem like that was my will, but really I tricked you and this is my will over here. I fooled you.

I don't even know whether I should admit this or not because it's so stupid, but when I was wrestling over whether or not to accept the call to come here as the pastor at Twin Lakes Church, wrestling, and Laurie was trying to help me make the decision, and she's like, well, tell me about your decision. I said, well, it's a place I've always loved since childhood. I just love the Monterey Bay. I love Santa Cruz. I love the culture there. I love the sense of kind of like if I'm a Christian there, I'm in the minority trying to persuade people who don't have that Christian worldview. I love that. I love the church Twin Lakes; just so much potential. It's like the sky is the limit, and I think there's a need, and I'm at a point in my life where it'd be good. She goes, so well, why don't you want to make that choice? I said, and I said this, and I'm just being totally candid with you. I said to her, what if Satan is trying to trick me? And Laurie goes, yeah, because that's the devil's strategy: he tempts us with ministry opportunities, you idiot! Just choose Twin Lakes, right?

But we overthink everything. I think God might trick me. Where did we get that idea about God? It comes from Greek mythology, right? Not from the Bible. In Greek mythology, Roman mythology, the gods were tricksters, always trying to trick people. And that's sometimes my image of God. But like we sang today, he's a good, good Father, and he loves you so much he won't trick you. And did you know Jesus addressed this? People 2,000 years ago had the same thing. So Jesus said, you parents, those of you who just raised your hands, if your children asked for a loaf of bread, you give them a stone instead? Or if they asked for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?

So stop thinking of him as a trickster. He's a good, good Father. But I would say to young René, there's a second reason that you're uptight about decision-making, and that's this: I think God's will is a dot. You've heard me talk about this before if you've come here any length of time. And here's what I mean by this: I get this idea that there are all these options out there, just a field of dots. All these things I could do, but only one—only one dot is God's perfect will for me. He only wants me to marry this person and go to this college and work at this place and buy this kind of a car this year. And if I mess up, I'm out of the dot. I'm out of the perfect will of God.

Now, there's a lot of things wrong with this idea. It doesn't make sense, really, but also it's not scriptural. Is this how God leads people in the Bible? At least three times in his letters to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul advises them on decision-making. Now I want you to look at the advice he gives them. Look at 2nd Corinthians 9:7: Paul's talking about how you decide how much you're going to give to the Lord. And he says, everyone must make up his own mind as to how much to give. He goes, make up your own mind. This isn't some cult. I'm not going to tell you; make up your own mind.

And look at 1st Corinthians 10:27: If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever's put before you without raising questions of conscience. Does Paul say, if an unbeliever invites you, pray about it, and if you get a clear leading, then go to dinner with them? No! He goes, do you want to go to their house? Like, do you like them? Do you want to go? Then go! And if you don't want to go, then don't go! No duh, right? Very practical.

And look, this is about a major thing. 1st Corinthians 7:36: He's talking about marrying a longtime fiancée. If anyone thinks he's acting improperly toward the young woman he's engaged to and feels he ought to marry, he should—what? He should do this. Does he say he should pray for God to write his fiancée's name in the sky in the shape of clouds like I actually prayed? He says, no! Do you want to get married to her? Then get married!

This is so important because people think I missed the dot, and therefore for the rest of my life, I've got to settle now for second best. With all my heart, let me tell you that that is a lie. There is a lot more freedom regarding God's will than most of us realize. God sets up parameters in the Bible, moral boundaries. But within those moral boundaries, we have so much freedom to choose.

So let's bring this in for a landing. He leads me by his word and by a spirit primarily in paths of righteousness, righteous living, character development, and third, page three, for his namesake. And this answers the question: why does God lead me? Well, for his namesake. Ultimately, it's about God. It's not about me. In the fortune-telling mutation of Christianity, the question is, what decision will make me happiest? What decision will be the luckiest? What decision will bring me the most pleasure and the most success? But actually, God's will is not for your happiness' sake and not for your pleasure's sake and not for your success' sake. He leads for his namesake, for his glory.

Because that's the solution to all these problems that we sheep have is that we follow the shepherd. And in practical terms, this means act in a way that when people see you conduct your affairs, they're drawn to God. This doesn't mean that you're perfect, but it means that they are drawn to God. Some of their defenses go down. People see you not necessarily making bulletproof successful choices all the time in business or finances or whatever. They see you through all the ups and downs of life, all the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the good choices and all the choices that didn't work out so great for you.

But they see you, even if you're honest about your frustrations and anxieties, they see this bottom-line sort of foundational bedrock low-level background hum of confidence in God's sovereign will and that God is a good God, a good, good Father, a good shepherd, and he is ultimately taking you someplace good. There's nothing else in the world that gives people that sense of long-range confidence, and people will notice that when you say, hey, listen, God ultimately, he's going to lead me in paths of righteousness for his namesake, for his glory. I believe that a hundred percent through all the ups and downs. And when people see that, they're drawn to it, and they think to themselves, I don't even know if I believe in God, but if trust in Christ produces that kind of serenity in the sovereignty of God, that I think I might want to check out this Jesus stuff a little bit more because you're living for his namesake, not just for your happiness' sake.

So we've been talking about making decisions. Let me wrap up by talking about the most important decision you can ever make if you're looking for guidance from God, and that is to trust the guide. Does that make sense? Look at the last verse in your notes: Proverbs 3:5–6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. What does it mean, lean not on your own understanding? It means you don't have to figure everything out. You don't have to figure everything out.

In times when the future looks so cloudy and you really are aware of your nearsightedness, and you want so badly to be able to predict the future, you don't have to figure everything out because you can trust in God. And in all your ways submit to him, and that's like in recovery when they talk about turning it all over to the control of God, where you just say, God, here I am. I just want to follow you a hundred percent, and I am going to listen for the guidance of your Holy Spirit, and I'm going to hide your word in my heart. But I trust that even those times when I do not perceive your guidance, I trust that you are there and you are good and you are guiding.

So here I am, take my allegiance. That is the most important decision I can make: to trust God with my whole life. It's really ultimately not about the guidance; it's about the guide. It's about sheep following the Good Shepherd. And as we wrap up this morning, I want to give you a chance to tell God this: I trust you with my whole life. I'm going to ask Elizabeth and the band to come back up, and Elizabeth is going to lead us in singing a very beautiful, simple song that Elizabeth wrote as her own prayer of surrender to God. I want to invite you to make this your prayer this morning too.

And I really want to make this a very sacred time. We actually took the offering earlier so it wouldn't be a distraction from this prayer in song. And so let's just bow our heads and close our eyes and just prepare our spirits for this. And let me just address three groups of people with our heads bowed. This is going to be a sacred moment for many of you. First, some of you, you have been like sheep going astray, and you've been away a long time. And in this moment, you're saying, good shepherd, I'm back. I want to follow. Help me out of these self-destructive ruts.

Second group: some of you are in the flock, but like me, you've been tortured by indecision. And I want you to, during this song, just be praying, God, I want to be led by your Spirit, but I want to be not manipulated by my moods. So Lord, today, I'm telling you I just want to be led by you and simply trust your Spirit's guidance for the rest of my life. I am listening every day for your guidance, but even if I don't understand it or even perceive it in the moment, I'm telling you yes in advance, knowing you will guide me even if I only perceive it later.

And then the third group of people: if you've never invited Christ into your life, you've been thinking about it, and you decided yes, I want to make this deeply personal moment of surrender. If that's you, then you can just say, Jesus, come into my life right now. I want to have a relationship with you. Thank you for making it possible on the cross. Help me to understand the fullness of that more and more, and I pray this humbly in your name. Amen.

Oh, oh, we are, we are. Oh, to your power. No, to we are. You're the living. So we are. Holy Spirit. Oh, we are listening. We are listening. Oh, so half holy. Oh, Holy Spirit. Oh, so we are to your power. Oh, and we surrender to your power, to your spirit. Oh, we surrender to your power. That's the feeling we have to your power. You're a good, good Father. Oh, to your power, to your power. Oh, have you, Holy Spirit? Come. You're a good Father. Oh, have you, have you, Holy Spirit? Come. You're a good Father.