Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Almighty God, you welcome you. Hey there. If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to, so we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church and click on Contact. With all that said, we hope you enjoy the message.
[00:00:34] So if I haven't had a chance to meet you, my name is Harrik. I'm one of the pastors here of Restored Temecula and I want to welcome you to our Sunday morning gathering. Really glad that you are here.
[00:00:44] If you are new.
[00:00:45] The last seven weeks we have basically been going through a series that we call who We Are, and we've explored our values as a church. We have six of them and so if you missed any of those, I highly encourage you to go back and check those out.
[00:01:00] I think every single one is important. Every single one is essential to our kind of DNA as a church. And not just us as a church. Like Mike was saying earlier, we are part of a family of churches. We are part of something much bigger than us. But one of the things that we share in common with the for example, the newest church plant is that we have these values. We have this same heartbeat. And so what I was thinking about at the end of the day, that series, you know, last week we did Give Love, which by the way, thank you so much for your generosity Church.
[00:01:31] Just incredible the ways in which you have consistently and repeatedly really funded gospel work, not just here in Temecula, but beyond. It's really extraordinary. Tom, last week went through all the different years and it's like one year after another after another. It's really cool for me to see because I was there in 2018.
[00:01:49] Actually, that's not true. I wasn't there. It was 2017 when restored Temecula had its Give Love and I was actually knocked out. I had the worst migraine of my life. I was on the couch for like three days. Never had anything like that before, never had anything like that since. But I just remember the beautiful. And I wasn't a part of this church plant at that time. I was living in San Diego. But it's just cool to see that the generosity that started then at that point in time, through people that you guys have, many of whom you've never met before and all of them had not met you, most likely, before. Their generosity helped to fund this local church. And now I get to see this local church extend that generosity out into other people, some of whom you'll never meet, probably most of them. And so this is the gospel. This is the gospel in action. The gospel is the good news about Jesus. What it does is when we receive love, when we receive grace, it ultimately does something in us, and then it does something through us. It goes out to other people.
[00:02:46] And that's really what I want to do this morning, is I want to share with you guys my story of growing in these six values. You might be like, oh, cool, like a pastor's going to talk about himself. I am.
[00:02:57] No shame. I like me.
[00:03:00] I couldn't have told you that 10 years ago. I couldn't have told you that 20 years ago, but I like me today.
[00:03:07] Yeah, I know it's true.
[00:03:10] But more than that, God likes me like he loves me. And I know that because I'm here, not because I'm in front of a stage talking to people. This isn't that. This isn't as glamorous as it appears to be. Actually.
[00:03:23] This is a dangerous thing to do, to get up here and talk in front of people. Very dangerous. You could easily become something that you're not.
[00:03:30] You can easily represent things that you don't actually embody. This is dangerous stuff. So anybody that thinks they want to do this someday, like the scriptures tell us, like, easy there.
[00:03:41] Not many of you should rush to become teachers because you'll be facing a harsher judgment.
[00:03:46] So I'm not telling you what I'm going to tell you today so that you can look at me and clap.
[00:03:51] I'm telling you this because it is proof that God can change people.
[00:03:56] It's proof that there is hope.
[00:03:59] And it's proof that when you stick with something for long enough and you hold on to Jesus, anything can happen. Anything is possible, even stuff that looks impossible at first. And so I'm going to share my story basically with you guys today. Some of you that have been here for a while have heard parts of this before.
[00:04:18] But what I want to do is really give us, like, a retrospective, a way to look at our values fleshed out in a life, a very ordinary life, I might add, one that you didn't, I didn't see coming. So if you'll join me, I'm going to pray right now. Would you pray for. With me and for me in this time?
[00:04:37] Father, thank you for this morning.
[00:04:39] Thank you for Your grace and mercy.
[00:04:44] Thank you for your deep love for us, God, thank you that you sent your son to rescue and redeem us because we needed it.
[00:04:54] I know that's true in my life. That's true for every human being that's breathing and those that have gone before us.
[00:05:01] Every single one needs rescue.
[00:05:04] We all need rescue. And I thank you that you sent your son to do just that.
[00:05:10] And I thank you that your son's work is not in vain and that as we respond to his love, we get to glorify and honor your father.
[00:05:20] When we get to reveal to the world what you're like, even when we mess up, we can still reveal what you're like as we repent and show the world like, my God is a forgiving God.
[00:05:32] My father is a gracious, generous father.
[00:05:37] He's not stingy with his love.
[00:05:41] He loves to pour it out on undeserving sons and daughters as they come home.
[00:05:46] And so, father, may you, in your grace and in your mercy, pour out your holy spirit upon us this morning.
[00:05:53] Would you do a fresh work in us, and would you move within us to bring about your purposes in our lives?
[00:06:00] God, we love you and we thank you. In your name we pray. Amen.
[00:06:05] So as I was thinking about this message, I was taken right back to the late 90s, the Irvine spectrum. I think we might have a picture of it, of what it looked like back then.
[00:06:16] Oh, yeah, there it is.
[00:06:17] Wow, right?
[00:06:19] Who knew a movie theater could inspire awe and wonder?
[00:06:23] It's like art deco. It's like. It's just incredible. Absolutely incredible. There were four different theaters in there. There was like the Egyptian, the Chinese. This is the Irvine Spectrum. Trivia. Do you guys remember the rest?
[00:06:35] Nope. Cool. I don't remember either. Those are the only two I can remember. But going here was an experience for me. And I really like movies. I still do.
[00:06:43] And I really liked them then and I like them now. And so one day in the late 90s, early 2000s, I forget exactly what it was. I was walking up those steps into the Irvine Spectrum. Don't remember what I was going to watch.
[00:06:54] But that is beside the point because as I was on my way into that movie theater, really, it's like a theme park. A movie theater theme park. That's what it was. It's absolutely extraordinary. Can't encourage it enough. Actually, those times have passed. I think they've remodeled it. But the point is, I was going to go see a movie. I was really excited about it. And then outside the theater, there Were some people that were talking to people as they were walking by. They would kind of just talk to anybody that would walk by.
[00:07:19] And so I thought maybe there's, like, they're taking, like, a petition, like, they're getting signatures, or maybe it's like they're raising money for camp, selling something. I don't know what it was. And then I got closer to them, and I can actually hear them talking. And they were talking about Jesus, okay? And they were talking. They were saying things like, salvation is a gift.
[00:07:41] You can't earn it.
[00:07:43] That's what they were talking about.
[00:07:45] And I heard it. I was close enough to actually hear it. And do you know, my first thought as an aspiring future pastor is like, you guys are nuts.
[00:07:57] That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.
[00:08:00] First of all, we're here for a movie, not a message, which.
[00:08:04] As if movies don't have those.
[00:08:06] Okay? First things first. We're here for a movie. Second thing, you are in the way. Literally, you're blocking access to the Irvine Spectrum, to the movie theaters.
[00:08:18] Third thing, what you're seeing is dangerous.
[00:08:21] This is dangerous stuff. Everybody knows that good people go to heaven.
[00:08:27] Everybody knows that. In fact, if you undermine that, you are undermining the moral fabric of society. You are dangerous.
[00:08:34] Those were my thoughts at that point. So I basically, I saw them, I heard this, and. And I went around them. I absolutely avoided them.
[00:08:43] No way I'm talking to those people.
[00:08:46] And so that, for me, if that can give you a picture or a window into my life around the turn of the century, I thought that grace was the problem.
[00:08:56] And now the grace that I thought was dangerous is the grace that I can't live without, and that I'm actually reorienting my life to help other people experience, too.
[00:09:08] And to you, you might be like, cool, man, that's great, but I don't think you understand.
[00:09:13] I was in darkness.
[00:09:16] I hated God.
[00:09:17] I hated grace.
[00:09:19] I thought it was dangerous. I thought it was stupid. I literally thought, we'll have anarchy if you preach that. Everybody buys it. Society's gonna collapse. That's what I thought the gospel did.
[00:09:29] I thought something that was good was actually. I thought something that is good was actually evil.
[00:09:35] I didn't have eyes to see it.
[00:09:38] And that was me.
[00:09:40] That was me. Those people that were standing there that day, which, by the way, I'm not here to baptize those methods of getting the gospel across. I'm not saying that we. Anybody that wants to share the gospel with people needs to Stand out in front of the spectrum, block people's way as they try to get in to watch a movie. I'm not saying that. I'm also not saying that that's unfaithful either. My point isn't to say one way or the other. My point is that those people that I went around very specifically would have had no idea, none whatsoever, that one day this message that I was dismissing, I would treasure and that I would share it with people, and I would be the kind of person that other people might walk around and avoid in the future.
[00:10:30] Why am I starting off with this? I think some of you, maybe as I was praying and prepping, some of you may need to hear this, like, jesus can change people.
[00:10:41] There is hope.
[00:10:43] Maybe it's for you. Maybe you feel stuck. Maybe you feel like you've been struggling with the same sins or the same patterns over and over again for a long time. And maybe you're here and you're wondering, can I really change?
[00:10:55] Can I really change? Or on the other side, maybe you have people in your life that you really love, that you've been praying for for a long time, that you've extended invitations to that they haven't responded to.
[00:11:09] And as far as you can tell, maybe there's not a whole lot happening, or maybe it looks like nothing is happening. And the truth is, I just can't tell you how their story's gonna unfold. I don't know that.
[00:11:19] But I can tell you that outside that theater, you wouldn't have seen the end of my story.
[00:11:24] There's hope.
[00:11:26] There's hope.
[00:11:27] And so we've spent these last kind of couple of months talking as a church about these values that we have as a community.
[00:11:34] And today, what I want to do really is I want to look back at how these values became something more than just words I agreed with.
[00:11:43] I want to tell you guys the story of how Jesus used people who lived out these values and these truths to change someone like me.
[00:11:52] And hopefully, as I tell you guys my story, you're going to recognize something of your own story.
[00:11:58] For those of you that are disciples of Jesus, the fruit of your faithfulness, you guys, as a church, you are a praying church. We are a praying church. As a church, we're actually together pursuing people that don't know Jesus.
[00:12:12] We're welcoming people as give love indicates. Clearly, we are a giving church. We are giving sacrificially to see other people encounter Jesus.
[00:12:21] As anybody that's part of any serve team knows, we are a serving Church, this, putting this on in a school that we don't actually. This space that we don't actually own. It requires a lot of manpower and a lot of sacrifice. And we're here because of that sacrifice that you guys make.
[00:12:40] And so what we're going to do this morning, I'm going to encourage you to turn over to Ephesians chapter two.
[00:12:45] We're going to read verses eight to ten, just briefly. And we're going to learn from the Apostle Paul, really, what it means to experience the power of Jesus for a changed life that hopefully will encourage and inspire you today to pursue these values that we hold dear. So if you have a Bible, turn over to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 to 10. If you do not have a Bible, we'll have it up on the screen here.
[00:13:10] Thank you.
[00:13:12] Okay. Ephesians, chapter 2, Verses 8 to 10.
[00:13:26] The apostle Paul is writing.
[00:13:28] Apostle Paul, a guy whose life has changed by an encounter with the Lord Jesus. He actually used to be a persecutor of the church.
[00:13:36] He, like, signed off on and applauded the killing of Christians, which is pretty, pretty gnarly if you slow down and think about it.
[00:13:43] There's this kind of checkered history that some people that helped write Bible have, like Moses killed a guy Paul applauded as Christians were being killed and slaughtered. And we're going to read his words right now. That puts it into any kind of perspective for you. God can change people.
[00:14:01] The Apostle Paul, the murderer of Christians who breathed hatred towards them, now writes this verse 8.
[00:14:11] For you are saved by faith, by grace, through faith.
[00:14:18] And this is not from yourselves.
[00:14:21] It is God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast, for we are his. It's God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
[00:14:37] Great passage. Am I right? Those of you guys that have been around the church for a while, you've probably heard this a million times.
[00:14:44] Hopefully it never stops being incredible. Hopefully it never gets old and stale for us to understand what it is that the Apostle Paul is actually saying here.
[00:14:56] And so I'm going to share a bit more of my story. But the Apostle Paul, as you can see, he ties two things together here. One is the work of God to save us. He says, and I quote, it is a gift.
[00:15:11] Salvation is a gift, number one. And then number two, on the other side of that, he says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. And so that word workmanship is Not a word that you probably use often, but it really does mean, like, God's poem, God's masterpiece.
[00:15:30] And so there's two things happening at the same time. One, it's like it's God's radical generosity and grace towards you and me as sinful, fallen people. And then two, he is radically committed to changing us so that we will become more and more like Jesus. And how does he do it? Look at the end of verse number 10.
[00:15:50] Good works, good works. He's got stuff for you and me to do, which is pretty exciting, I think.
[00:15:58] And hopefully by the end of this message, you'll feel the same way. Okay, so let me dive back into some of the things I've been thinking about and sharing from my own life. Just the reflection of what this has looked like in my life and the impact other people have had as they've lived out the values that we've been preaching about the last six or so, seven weeks. And so, okay, so for 18 years, I really did actually believe it or not. Although I was antagonistic and I hated God and I hated grace.
[00:16:26] I actually heard quite a lot about it, in hindsight. I went to a small Catholic Christian school, parochial school.
[00:16:36] And so every single week, I was hearing different. They call them homilies, we call them sermons or messages. Here I was hearing things about Jesus. The Bible was in front of me and kind of opened a fair amount going to parochial school.
[00:16:53] And I was in a Christian. Yeah, Christian kind of environment.
[00:16:56] And so. But here's the deal with this. As I've reflected on my life, it very much was like, in one ear, out the other.
[00:17:04] I don't know if you've ever kind of had that experience where you have somebody's talking to you or somebody's really passionate about something and it goes in one ear, out the other.
[00:17:14] But that is what my experience was like. It just had no impact on me whatsoever. And that is not a slam or a slight to anybody that was involved.
[00:17:23] I actually think that the thing I'm most grateful for, for those folks, those men and women, those people in the parochial school environment and all the things that I was involved in, the thing I'm most grateful to them for is their prayer.
[00:17:39] They were praying for young people, children, to experience the love of Jesus. And they have no idea that those prayers were answered.
[00:17:48] But they sowed them in faith and they've reaped a harvest, as it were.
[00:17:52] And again, this isn't about me so much. It's like I can just point back to God's done something in me.
[00:17:59] But at first, it didn't look like a whole lot.
[00:18:01] When I got to senior year of high school, that's how long it took. I was 18 years old. Some of you in this room are as young as 11.
[00:18:10] You've got a nice head start.
[00:18:14] It wasn't until I was 18 years old that anything really started to change in me. And it actually happened through this remarkable retreat called Kairos. Did anybody go on Kairos when they were in high school? Oh, yeah, we got one.
[00:18:26] Cool.
[00:18:28] So Kairos, or Kairos, as my friend Ryan loved to point out that I mispronounced it. If you want to get really technical with the Greek, Kairos, I love you, Ryan. If you're listening on podcasts, he lives in Portland. Doesn't matter. Kai Ross was this retreat that we, as seniors, got to do at my high school. And so it was, like, a few days away at the mountains in the mountains of San Diego.
[00:18:52] And I remember going up there with really no expectations of anything. I had heard good things about it. I thought, well, you know, other people have been and have said good stuff. So I decided to go. And so it was kind of a different sort of retreat in that it was led by peers. So it was other kids in my school that had been impacted by Jesus, and they helped to put this on. So they would tell stories about how their lives had been impacted by meeting Jesus, getting to know him. And there were also these adults that came.
[00:19:22] They were kind of chaperones, volunteers that were actually also opening up their lives to us and sharing their lives of, like, how Jesus met them through some pretty gnarly stuff.
[00:19:32] Some of them had been, you know, addicts. Some of them had been through terrible losses, divorce, et cetera, just going through terrible things. And they just hear these stories that were honest.
[00:19:43] And it was like, for the first time, I could see, like, oh, this is.
[00:19:48] This is what Jesus can do. Like, this is what Jesus does.
[00:19:53] For the most of my life, it was just, like, stories.
[00:19:56] Just stories about things that happened 2000 years ago. Stuff that seemed fanciful, if I'm honest.
[00:20:02] Miracle stories, healing stuff that just didn't make sense. I'd never seen it before.
[00:20:06] I couldn't really get into that. But I can understand someone who had been through a painful loss and came out the other side with something that resembled a strength of character that looks like endurance and that would take the time to come up to a mountain to tell young people about their experience. They didn't have to do that. They didn't have to be honest. I don't know about you guys, but one of the things that's scariest in life is opening up.
[00:20:32] Anybody else?
[00:20:33] Yeah. Why?
[00:20:35] Why is it so hard to open up?
[00:20:38] You just don't know what people are going to do with that.
[00:20:41] No idea.
[00:20:42] You could open up your heart to someone and they could trample all over it.
[00:20:46] And that's how people get hurt. And then that's where walls go up and we start to protect ourselves and withdraw right when we feel hurt by other people. These people weren't protecting themselves. They were letting their guard down and be like, here's what he's done.
[00:20:59] And the point wasn't like a big paycheck. It was. There was nothing involved, nothing in it for them other than I get to make much of Jesus.
[00:21:06] And I was drawn in. And so a softening started to happen and to take place in my own life and in my own heart.
[00:21:16] But it didn't. It was like a. It was like a spark.
[00:21:20] It wasn't the flame yet, it was just a spark, but. But it was the start of something.
[00:21:25] Fast forward a few months. I am at the University of San Diego. I know we've got at least one Tuaro in the house. Ole.
[00:21:33] And I went down to USD in San Diego and I moved into a freshman dorm. And for me, this was like a new beginning.
[00:21:42] I don't know why. This makes no sense. Maybe this is something that happens here to people who grew up in Temecula, too. That when you're living in a place, growing up in a place, you're like, this kind of sucks, you know? And then you come back later in life, you're like, this is amazing. I don't know how good I had it. Anybody had that experience here? Yeah. Okay. I see some nods.
[00:22:02] I see a hand there. So the same thing happened, you know, this is real.
[00:22:08] This is a real thing.
[00:22:10] And so I ended up moving. I actually don't know where I was going with that. That was really random. I'm talking about San Diego, not Orange county right now.
[00:22:18] This is what happens. I just lost my total train of thought. But you guys are still with me because I see eyes making contact. This is good. Okay. So sometimes we just don't appreciate what we have. I guess that's the point. Until later. Until we have fresh eyes.
[00:22:33] That's actually what happened to me, essentially, is that I didn't appreciate what I had growing up until I had fresh eyes for it. It was like coming back and seeing things afresh. But ultimately I went to USD, to San Diego.
[00:22:43] And these kids that were on my floor, they opened up their Bibles and they shared Jesus with me, okay? And this time I didn't walk around them like I did the people at the Spectrum.
[00:22:55] I actually stopped and I listened to them because they had something that reminded me of the people on that Kairos retreat, which is that they had a real life lived. They had encountered Jesus and they were like, again, nothing to gain in my opinion. It's not like telling people about Jesus made you popular at the University of San Diego. Do you know what they used to call the kids that did this?
[00:23:21] They called them the God Squad.
[00:23:24] Not a term of endearment, as I found out.
[00:23:29] It was a way to flatten someone into like a two dimensional, that you can just go like this, the God Squad's coming around.
[00:23:40] But it just revealed very similar to me that their hearts were just not ready to receive this message.
[00:23:46] But to the credit of these kids at USD's campus who are Christians, they didn't give up. I'm sure they felt afraid.
[00:23:54] I'm sure they felt like, oh my gosh, we're brand new here at this school and we're already developing a rep, were getting called names and yet they didn't stop.
[00:24:07] They didn't stop.
[00:24:10] And so they set up a time where we could read the Bible together, which I did with them.
[00:24:20] And over the course of time, one of the guys gave me a book called the Purpose Driven Life. Did anybody read that? About 20 years ago?
[00:24:28] Yeah. It was one of the most popular, best selling books in America at that time. Really remarkable book.
[00:24:35] And I read through it. To my astonishment, I actually read it.
[00:24:40] This was before smartphones. Like reading a book from start to finish was actually easier than it is today, I will say. And so I read through it and there was a point in that story, in that book where the writer essentially asks you like, do you want to put your faith in Jesus?
[00:24:57] And to my astonishment, I was like, yes, I do.
[00:25:01] Yes, I do. Like, that really surprised me.
[00:25:05] And so I was, at that point I was actually excited. I was like, oh my gosh, this Jesus person is real. As clear as day. He's been after me. He's been pursuing me through these different people. He sent people my way into my life.
[00:25:19] It started back then, it's been going here today. And he wants me, me.
[00:25:25] And he doesn't just want me for just, just, just to like get me out of here at the end of time or at the end of my life, I get to escape this world and judgment. But he actually was clear even at that point. Like, he wants me to do what's been done for me, which is to say to suffer for the sake of the gospel, so that others might know, suffer the loss of approval, suffer being named, labeled the God Squad.
[00:25:57] Like, taking on that shame, taking on that embarrassment, taking on that, like, reproach for the sake of the gospel.
[00:26:08] Like, I knew that that's what he was calling me to do.
[00:26:12] And so how did I handle it? Not great.
[00:26:17] Not great.
[00:26:19] There were some definite changes that happened in my life.
[00:26:22] I remember I used to watch back before smartphones. I would take my laptop computer into the bathroom, and I would watch through the Back to the Future trilogy, like, one DVD at a time as I was brushing my teeth.
[00:26:35] Brush my gums away. Don't do that.
[00:26:38] And so later, I don't know why I do this in the bathroom, but there was a Bible now, and I was actually, like, reading the Scriptures. I brushed my teeth again. Multitasking isn't a real thing. Just don't do it. It's better to set aside time to do this more intentionally.
[00:26:55] But it was clear that the Bible. That Jesus was entering my life and taking a prominent place even that entertainment and distraction had taken.
[00:27:06] However, I was still, like, so concerned about other things. There were other things that were just way more important.
[00:27:17] At a heart level. I wouldn't have said it, I don't think to anybody. I think I probably would have said, like, yeah, I'm a Christian. Like, this is. This is the most important thing. But in reality, there were things in my heart that were just more important, and they crowded out Jesus.
[00:27:29] And so I experienced, like, messy conflict, a painful relationship ending.
[00:27:35] And I was actually set adrift for the rest of college.
[00:27:39] And within a year or two of graduating and starting to work, I was drifting pretty hard.
[00:27:45] No connection to the local church, nobody speaking into my life. I was just kind of doing my own thing, and it wasn't going well. I think I still would have said, like, I'm a Christian, but you wouldn't have seen, like, any actual fruit. No evidence that this was actually the case.
[00:28:00] The only thing you could have seen was, like, this little longing where I was like, man, I hope someday. I hope someday.
[00:28:08] But I was living a life that was totally and utterly different.
[00:28:14] Why am I telling you guys all this? I think it's important to know something. We started talking about change and how there's hope.
[00:28:20] I think it's important to remember if you're a disciple of Jesus or If you're just even a person who's interested in Jesus, it's important to remember change often isn't a lightning bolt kind of moment. It's actually kind of more like a slow dismantling of our defenses as we engage with people that God puts in our life.
[00:28:40] It's a slow dismantling of defenses.
[00:28:43] And it happened very, very slowly. For me, it took years. And by the way, this isn't to downplay or to minimize when someone does get radically saved in a moment. Not talking about that and saying that's not true. I think it absolutely can happen in some ways. That's how it seemed to me in the moment. I came to a point where I surrendered. I was like, I can't do this anymore, Jesus, I'm so lost. This is such a dark world.
[00:29:11] I don't know if you've ever walked away from Jesus for a season.
[00:29:15] Darkness, there's darkness.
[00:29:21] And here's the interesting part. I walked away from Jesus because there were sources of light that I thought were light that were actually darkness.
[00:29:32] And the darkness was overwhelming.
[00:29:38] What happened to me was that somewhere along the line I came to the realization and awareness that if I don't do business with Jesus, if I don't square things away with him, I'm gonna throw away my eternity.
[00:29:59] Not everybody has to get into that space to come to believe in Jesus. But I just need you to know some people do.
[00:30:04] Some of you have probably heard like some really amazing, like near death experience testimonies. My whole thing is, I don't wanna get into all the details of that. Cause it's a complex subject. But one of the things that is stunning to me when I do kind of research these is how often people have to come to the end of themselves to actually put their faith in Jesus. It's as if the human heart is really stubborn and sometimes God has to bring us to a rock bottom moment. For some people. Again, you can believe this or not, that's fine. You don't have to. For some people, they actually have to die, as it were, flatline like on a stretcher and see their soul leaving their body.
[00:30:46] This sounds really intense. This is what people report.
[00:30:49] I'm not here to tell you that every story you hear is true. I'm just telling you like there's enough here to take some of this stuff fairly seriously. Or at least soberly. Sometimes you need to come to the very end of yourself to surrender to Jesus. And you might be here and that may be where you are today.
[00:31:06] Just so you Know, you can be in church for a long time and not be in Christ, never actually having put your faith in Jesus, or you may be here and you love someone who's in this space. And I just want to tell you how much now, in hindsight, I appreciate the love and the prayers and the pursuit and the persistence of the Christians in my life.
[00:31:28] It kind of means everything now to the point where I've gone back and like emailed a lot of them, message them, thank them, because I know it didn't look like much in the moment. In fact, it looked like darkness.
[00:31:40] Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 4 to 5.
[00:31:45] Listen to this.
[00:31:47] But God, the two best words in the English language, whatever your story is, you can fill it out just like I did right now. And then you can pick up this verse right here and say, but God, who was rich in mercy because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace.
[00:32:13] The very grace that I resisted was the very grace that I needed, that I resisted at the Irvine Spectrum was the grace that met me in San Diego as a 22, 23 year old young adult.
[00:32:27] And so my hope got flipped around in life.
[00:32:34] It was one of those moments where I realized, like, oh, the big story isn't what I've done. The big story is what Jesus has done.
[00:32:43] And that took years.
[00:32:45] And I made so many poor choices, so many bad decisions.
[00:32:49] I don't have time to list them all. It wouldn't even be appropriate to get into all of them.
[00:32:53] Just know it was bad and it didn't look good.
[00:32:56] But that was what the Apostle Paul was describing. Dead.
[00:33:00] Dead in trespasses and sins.
[00:33:03] And so I just, again, for the sake of anybody in this room that may be in the same space that I was in, or anybody that's hearing my voice, man, like, But God are the sweetest words in the whole English language.
[00:33:18] The because what you've done, what's been done to you, the ways you've responded to life, are not the end of the story.
[00:33:24] They're actually the setup.
[00:33:28] They're the setup for the punchline. But God, and he packs quite a punch. In fact, his grace flattened me, if you will.
[00:33:39] I don't know if you've ever gotten knocked out by somebody.
[00:33:42] It's probably. Some of you probably have. Some of you have probably knocked other people out.
[00:33:46] But there's a really strange experience when you get punched and you go down. It's like you start to see Things, it's like you see, like I saw stars and it was like dark, like darkness, but then on the other side, light, and you see again. And then for a while it might be fuzzy and kind of blurry, but man, it's a really nice feeling when you come out of that and you start to stand up again.
[00:34:14] The grace of God knocked me out.
[00:34:19] Knocked me out. And when I came to, I saw for the first time clearly.
[00:34:25] And again, you wouldn't have known this if you were the kind of people that were in my life pointing me to Jesus. And so again, for you guys that are here who are following Jesus or have for a long time, I want to encourage you. You just have no idea what kind of an impact you can have on someone's life.
[00:34:44] You just don't know.
[00:34:46] And some of you who have put your faith in Jesus more recently, there have been faithful men and women who have been praying for you, sharing with you. Like, you may want to go back and thank them because you just don't know where they're at today and how much they might need that reminder of your life matters.
[00:35:03] Your life really does matter.
[00:35:05] Now fast forward.
[00:35:08] I really experienced. I've only gotten into one gospel, one, two, really like two values so far, which is gospel, this good news about Jesus, about his grace and his love for us. The second one is mission. I was the mission field.
[00:35:24] There were people who were after me because God was after me.
[00:35:27] But here's the cool part. When gospel and mission get together, they have a baby, right? A convert. That's a weird analogy that I'm not going to use again.
[00:35:38] But I think you know what I mean.
[00:35:41] You have babies, you have children in the faith.
[00:35:45] And do you know what babies need?
[00:35:48] Families.
[00:35:50] Yes, babies need families. Babies are really adorable.
[00:35:58] They may start off kind of weird looking, but they become very adorable.
[00:36:04] Heads are deformed and misshapen. But man, the love that you have for your child, deformed head and all right, like, imagine the love that God has for a newborn baby.
[00:36:17] Newborn in the faith.
[00:36:20] Babies love them. Beautiful.
[00:36:23] You know what? Babies do a lot of.
[00:36:27] Yeah, I was gonna say crap, but cry works.
[00:36:31] It's both nap crap and cry.
[00:36:36] And that is exactly what I did as a newborn baby in the faith. I made some messes. Some of you were there for that.
[00:36:45] There's people in this church that have known me long enough to know I made some.
[00:36:50] Some big messes as I got started.
[00:36:53] But it was real. I was a real. I took on the family name. I'm a Part of this thing. God is my father, brothers and sisters everywhere.
[00:37:04] And it was. It honestly was beautiful. It was like a homecoming.
[00:37:08] And I got connected to a community.
[00:37:11] I got connected to brothers and sisters that helped walk with me through my stuff. I got to experience church as family, which was beautiful. That's one of our values, is family. Babies can't grow up without a family.
[00:37:24] Could you imagine if you had a, I don't know, two year old that was like, I got it, mom and dad, I'm good.
[00:37:31] What would you. What would happen to that baby?
[00:37:35] I don't know, because it's so ridiculous. I've never seen it. Right. It's an absurdity, but it is possible, especially here in the West. I don't think in other parts of the world, the Christian community struggle with their own things, but one thing they would never struggle with, probably over there, or very rarely, or it's almost inconceivable to them because they have such a strong sense of church's family, is a baby going out on their own.
[00:38:02] Like tying a little baby with a stick. And at the end there's a little thing where it's like, what do you got back there?
[00:38:09] Binkies.
[00:38:11] I got my binkies, my formula.
[00:38:16] I don't know where I'm gonna find water, but I'm gonna find it.
[00:38:19] Onward.
[00:38:20] Like it's impossible. It's ridiculous. It's an absurdity.
[00:38:25] But in kind of a modern Western church, we could have orphanages where babies don't get care or they just kind of. They just kind of go off on their own.
[00:38:38] It is possible to never really truly grow up in the modern Western church. We need family.
[00:38:46] We need big brothers and sisters, moms and dads that help us to grow.
[00:38:51] And that was my experience.
[00:38:54] I remember at one point, again, babies make messes. Babies cry, nap and poop.
[00:39:00] And so I was in between some like, cry fest and pooping. I don't know what it was exactly that I was going through, but I got really into theology, which is not bad, by the way. And if this is your first time here, you're like, you could use a little more of that, pal. You've just been talking about yourself all morning. Cool, I hear you. I got it. This is a different kind of morning. Okay?
[00:39:22] Tom will be back on Sunday, he will preach and then, you know, we'll be good.
[00:39:26] So I got really into theology, which is not a bad thing. I needed it.
[00:39:34] But I got into theology in a way where I ended up elevating myself above other people. Because of what I knew.
[00:39:47] Okay, for some of you, this is not your struggle. For some of you, it might be.
[00:39:52] You've probably met someone like this. Some of you knew me.
[00:39:57] And what ended up happening is I really hurt people that I was called to love and care about.
[00:40:02] I developed such strong convictions. Again, a two year old with strong convictions about, you know, I don't know, food.
[00:40:10] It's like, just eat, man.
[00:40:13] You know, I hope this makes sense. I developed such strong convictions about how church should be done, and I'd use those as a sledgehammer, knock people out. The person who had been knocked out by grace was now knocking people out through their pride.
[00:40:31] And there was one day when a pastor who knew me pulled me aside and said he saw it. He saw that I was hurting people with my opinions. I didn't contribute at all at that time. I wasn't doing anything other than sharing my opinion, airing my opinions, which is what fools do according to the Bible. So I become a bit of a fool, thinking that I was wise.
[00:40:55] And this pastor comes up to me and he says, very lovingly, very gently, he says, your knowledge exceeds your obedience.
[00:41:04] I was like, oh, you're my. You know, I didn't attack him at a heart level. I wanted to, but I didn't attack him.
[00:41:13] And here's the thing that the guy was right.
[00:41:17] The guy was right.
[00:41:20] And it taught me something really important that I've seen play out here in the restored family of churches. It's that family, like having a real community around you that knows you, loves you, and is completely willing to call out your blind spots is necessary for you to actually grow.
[00:41:38] It is absolutely necessary for you to grow.
[00:41:44] Babies don't know what babies don't know.
[00:41:48] Teenagers don't know what teenagers don't know.
[00:41:52] Adults don't know what adults don't know.
[00:41:56] Don't think of age here.
[00:41:58] Think maturity.
[00:42:00] And so God was revealing to me this need for family. Like, you can't grow up outside of being a part of a family.
[00:42:07] And we see this over and over again in the scriptures. So thinking about this morning, there's this beautiful line in Hebrews. You don't have it back there. There's this beautiful line in Hebrews where the writer of the Hebrews says, exhort one another daily so that you will not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Did you guys know that Christians sin?
[00:42:27] I know. Crazy, right? You can be a Christian and you could be hardening to some degree because of sin that's in your life.
[00:42:39] And so What I needed was someone who could look to me in the eye with love and say, I'm not going anywhere. I'm here for you.
[00:42:48] Here's how we experience you. And it's not okay. What are we going to do?
[00:42:53] What are we going to do?
[00:42:56] And so this precious man, along with others, they challenged me and they said, you can learn. Even if it's not your style.
[00:43:07] You can learn. Anytime someone opens up the word of God to you, even if it's not your particular style or your preference, you can learn.
[00:43:16] And you know what? That was a word that I actually took to heart.
[00:43:19] And the next season, things started to change for me.
[00:43:22] Things started to change. But I wonder sometimes, like, what would have happened if he had never opened his mouth and told me what he really saw.
[00:43:28] It's kind of scary to think about that because it was a word of grace.
[00:43:33] And I just need to say this.
[00:43:36] As far as family goes, if we want to experience true biblical family, which I think we do actually here really well in so many ways.
[00:43:43] One of the things that does not come naturally to anybody, I don't think if it comes naturally to you, I'm going to encourage you to pump the brakes a little bit. What I'm going to say.
[00:43:56] Sometimes we have to say things that hurt someone else's feelings to love them.
[00:44:03] It may not be what they want to hear.
[00:44:07] Again, if you're like, yeah, The pastor said I could, and I said, no such thing.
[00:44:23] I'm just telling. I'm encouraging us as a family.
[00:44:27] Can someone say a hard word to you without you taking offense?
[00:44:34] Can someone say a hard word to you without you becoming defensive? I gotta be honest, guys, this ain't easy.
[00:44:40] I don't find this to be easy at all.
[00:44:45] But in my own life, this has happened time and time again where someone that really loved me came up to me and said, this is what I see in you.
[00:44:56] I love you. I'm not going anywhere.
[00:45:00] What are we going to do about this?
[00:45:02] Totally normal Christianity.
[00:45:06] And so I needed that so, so badly. And that is a part of how God established me in a family.
[00:45:14] Starting to see the church as a family.
[00:45:17] Fast forwarding a little bit.
[00:45:20] I'm running out of time Gospel mission family.
[00:45:28] When my wife, I got married, which is cool.
[00:45:32] You're welcome, Josh.
[00:45:36] I got married.
[00:45:38] I dealt with some of my own stuff to the point where someone would actually marry me.
[00:45:42] It was great.
[00:45:45] And we joined a church plant called restored uptown in 2012. It was the very first restored church plant.
[00:45:53] And what I realized at that point in time is just how badly I needed to grow myself in all of these different values that I had experienced. And as a. As a child in the faith, as a baby, somebody gave me J.D. greer's book, Gospel. Anybody read that book before? A few of you guys have. It's a great book if you're looking for, like, a read, just something to like, to minister to your heart. J.D. gospel. J.D. greer's book, Gospel was so wonderful for me.
[00:46:26] And what it did was it really fleshed out Ephesians 2, 8, 9, the verses that we talked about earlier this morning, where we've been saved by grace through faith. It is God's gift, not a result of work. So that no one may boast.
[00:46:40] And he used this analogy. I think we might have a slide for it. The pool.
[00:46:46] The pool. The diving board and the pool.
[00:46:48] I made a mistake in my life repeatedly.
[00:46:52] And JD Greer basically says that we can make this mistake as Christians, where we think of the gospel, this good news about Jesus as the diving board, into Christianity, when it's actually the pool itself.
[00:47:06] It's actually the pool itself. It was time to get back into the pool of grace. And so when I started with Restored Uptown, I realized, like, I need to go back to the basics.
[00:47:17] It started with the gospel, and it started to deal with my pride, which God had been chipping away at for a long time. Which, by the way, I'm not here to tell you that I don't have it anymore. In fact, pride is. I think somebody put it this way, pride is like that booger that you have no idea is there.
[00:47:33] Everybody else can see it, right? Sometimes you can see it from, like, the back row. And maybe I have one right now. I don't know. But you need people to say, like, hey, man, or whatever signal you would respond to.
[00:47:47] What does this mean?
[00:47:51] Like, COVID test.
[00:47:53] Oh, everybody's got a immediate reaction.
[00:47:58] That was really unhelpful. I'm sorry. That wasn't a statement on anything. It's just swabbing. I can't think of anything else to use swab for.
[00:48:06] We were all there. We lived through 2020.
[00:48:09] You probably made the line, too, and you had to wait. Whatever you needed to do that to go to Hawaii. If you went to Hawaii, you know you won whether you thought you needed it or not. Okay, back to this.
[00:48:20] You can't see it, right? Like, it's just there, but it's totally hidden to you. And when I started with the restored family of churches, it was like that pride was there. And I just didn't see it because it can mutate and morph into different forms.
[00:48:36] And so God took me back to the beginning, to the pool itself. And he reminded me like, I still need to repent as a Christian. I still need to learn all kinds of things in order to be the kind of person that I can, that God can work with and through. And so I learned some stuff, guys. I learned confession, I learned repentance.
[00:48:58] I learned that I'm never going to outrun God's grace, but that I was never going to not need to confess my own failures and flaws.
[00:49:07] And that it is a part of this is the part of the process where the apostle Paul, when he talks about we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That is how this happens. It is as we experience the gospel in fresh ways that we are prepared for good works. Because the gospel softens us. Some of us, if we are honest today, we are probably a little bit hardened.
[00:49:32] Sin does that.
[00:49:34] Sin is deceitful. How do you know? When was the last time like you cried in the presence of God?
[00:49:42] By the way, this is coming from a non crier.
[00:49:46] When was the last time you were broken in front of God's word?
[00:49:50] Reading it, when was the last time you were just overcome with gratitude?
[00:49:57] If the answer to these things is it's been a heck of a long time, dog.
[00:50:01] It's like, I'm not your dog, I'm your friend. Maybe we might know each other, we might not. I'm here for you though.
[00:50:10] You might need that reminder today.
[00:50:12] That was a weird dog.
[00:50:14] I called people dog all the time. That was totally unnecessary.
[00:50:18] Back to the point.
[00:50:20] Tenderness.
[00:50:22] Tenderness, gratitude.
[00:50:26] Do these things. Would the people closest to you say this marks you?
[00:50:30] The answer is probably not.
[00:50:32] You might actually be more in need of not just the diving board but the pool of grace to swim in again.
[00:50:39] You might need to break to be like God.
[00:50:42] I'm so far from being grateful.
[00:50:48] My field of sight is filled with the pain and suffering and sorrow and regret and sin of other people and what they've done to me or what I've done to others that I no longer see you.
[00:50:59] That may just be for some of you what you need to do today. Because I am telling you that life in Jesus is actually joyful, it's fruitful.
[00:51:10] And I'm telling you this as a struggler.
[00:51:13] This year has probably been the hardest year that I can recall actually in my ministry life.
[00:51:19] And I have hit Some new bottoms, I guess. Don't think scandalous sin, think discouragement.
[00:51:29] Think, like, do I want to keep doing this kind of honest conversation within myself?
[00:51:35] Yes.
[00:51:36] We're just ordinary people like you pastors. We struggle with, like, calling. And we struggle with, is this what you have for me, God? We even doubt it's a real thing. It happens.
[00:51:49] And what I've had to go back through this year is this reminder.
[00:51:54] It's three words.
[00:51:57] It's worth it.
[00:52:02] Why?
[00:52:03] Because of everything I've just told you.
[00:52:06] God has overcome sin, rebellion, stupidity, foolishness, pride in my life, to reveal his love to me.
[00:52:18] Other people need that, too.
[00:52:20] And so I don't get to just be like, nope, I'm gonna do something else. I went to business school. I can do X, Y, or Z.
[00:52:28] They probably wouldn't want me in the business world at this point.
[00:52:32] Well, then maybe they would. I don't know. But the point is, I'm putting that aside because that's not what I'm called to.
[00:52:39] I'm called to this.
[00:52:42] My story belongs within God's larger work of forming a people in Christ.
[00:52:47] And it begins with me. He's forming me.
[00:52:51] And so family, gospel, mission, dependence, really fast. Another one of our values. I don't have time to get into it because we're almost out of time. But you just gotta know that I believe the reason I'm still here. It's the work of Jesus through the saints that ultimately are praying for me. And there's one more who prays for me.
[00:53:14] His name is Jesus.
[00:53:16] In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer of the Hebrews tells us that Jesus intercedes for the saints, which means that Jesus prays for you and me.
[00:53:30] I don't know if you've ever had anybody in your life that loves you deeply and they're praying for you. And sometimes they're praying for you without even telling you.
[00:53:38] Like, they're not looking for recognition. They're just, like, quietly praying.
[00:53:44] Or they tell you because they want to encourage you.
[00:53:47] You're seen, you're loved. God is for you. I'm praying all these things for you.
[00:53:53] That, to me, is one of the most tangible expressions of love that exists in this world.
[00:54:01] And I just want you to know that those people, when they're praying for you, they're putting flesh on Jesus so you can see him, because he's praying for you all the time.
[00:54:13] All the time. I wouldn't have made it this far without God's people and the Lord Jesus intercession, because I'M not strong enough, capable enough or good enough to do this.
[00:54:25] And I'm saying, this is a flawed person. I have so much more. I'm going to cut just a ton of stuff. This is really two messages. I'm trying to do it in one day. It's impossible. It's fine. I get one shot.
[00:54:36] And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask Everett to throw up that slide, the last one that I sent to you guys this morning.
[00:54:44] I want to put this in front of you guys to set up kind of a time of response.
[00:54:50] These values, the way that we grow in the Christian life. It looks something like this.
[00:54:56] We have to receive God's love for us in Christ.
[00:55:00] And I shared kind of my story of doing that and how that's happened over the years. There's a lot more I could say, but I'm just going to, for time's sake.
[00:55:08] Some of you, this morning, you desperately need to just receive the love of God for you again.
[00:55:13] It's been a while since you've been tender before God. Maybe it's been a while since you've been grateful before him. Maybe it's been a while since people were people sized and God was God sized.
[00:55:26] And maybe you just need, like God, I need that flipped around right side up. I want you to become big in my life and I want everything else to be put in the right perspective. You might need to just receive his love today. By the way, if that's you, you're not in a bad spot. You're just saying jumping off the diving board into the pool.
[00:55:45] And I'm going to swim because it's hot out, as we'll be reminded of in about 20 minutes. It's really hot out there.
[00:55:53] And life is like heat. The heat of life and pressure, it bears down on us. And we might need to swim in a pool for a while.
[00:56:01] When we receive, it does something in us. It actually helps us to grow.
[00:56:08] We might need to receive the love of Jesus in ways that frees us from the approval of man.
[00:56:16] We might need to receive Jesus love in ways that free us from the need for control, to have outcomes, go, things go the way we want them to.
[00:56:25] We might need the love of Jesus to free us from a whole slew of things. You might be addicted to different things, whether that's the approval of people, substances, relationships, power.
[00:56:41] Some of us are addicted to control.
[00:56:44] And we might need today, this morning, to receive the love of Jesus, where he says to you in personal ways, hey, I get it. But remember me on that cross, I lost all sense of control.
[00:56:57] And it was the darkest moment in history that brought out the most amount of good.
[00:57:02] Because when someone trusts in the plan of God, it leads to freedom.
[00:57:07] It brings in his kingdom.
[00:57:09] So some of us, we just need to receive this morning.
[00:57:13] For others of us, we have received and we're still receiving. We never stop receiving, but we have received to the point where maybe somebody has pointed out things to you that it's like, it's time to address those things. It's time to grow.
[00:57:27] Maybe you're becoming aware of things that are just areas that need attention in your life.
[00:57:32] And it is time to, like, take a step, to be like, I'm going to bring this out into the light. I'm going to confess. I'm going to repent of something this morning.
[00:57:41] And then for others of us, it might be time to consider how God would have us to step up into something new.
[00:57:48] I'm going to invite you to stand up.
[00:57:50] I'm going to call the band up to the front.
[00:57:58] If you wouldn't mind just leaving that up for just a couple. A few more seconds. Thank you.
[00:58:05] I didn't get a chance to share this.
[00:58:07] I'll do it really, really fast.
[00:58:09] All that receiving, all of those opportunities to grow, which I handled very imperfectly, all of it led me to step up into opportunities to trust Jesus.
[00:58:23] You may already be aware of this, you may not know, but God works through people.
[00:58:28] He can. Absolutely. We have stories of this around the world where Jesus is meeting people in dreams, right?
[00:58:33] In countries where they don't have gospel, where they don't have men and women who are just there to share the gospel with Jesus, of Jesus, with people.
[00:58:41] Jesus actually sometimes, like, meets people in dreams.
[00:58:45] It's something that doesn't probably happen here a whole lot because there's Christians everywhere that are there to share the gospel. But in some places that's not what it is.
[00:58:54] But under ordinary circumstances, the way that God typically works through people works is through people and people who step up, who have experienced healing, who are growing and who are saying, God, I'm available.
[00:59:09] Send me.
[00:59:11] One of my favorite stories is actually Philip. Do you guys know that story of Philip in the Eunuch, where in the.
[00:59:19] In Acts of the Apostles, there's a guy who's reading his Bible in a chariot and he doesn't know what he's reading.
[00:59:29] And God sends Philip to him.
[00:59:32] And Philip's like, what are you reading? And he's like, this scroll of the Bible.
[00:59:38] Do you understand what you're reading? No.
[00:59:41] And then Philip is there to share the gospel with this person, and they receive Jesus.
[00:59:48] Philip baptizes him, and then Philip gets translated up out of there.
[00:59:53] What does that mean? I have no idea.
[00:59:57] No clue. Why do I share this story with you guys?
[01:00:01] Philip had to actually step up. The Holy Spirit nudged him, and he was like, yes, what do you want?
[01:00:08] Some of you, you have spent the last several years receiving and growing, which is a gift, by the way.
[01:00:17] And the Holy Spirit's now like, okay, I got something for you.
[01:00:22] Maybe it's like a conversation with somebody that you've been avoiding.
[01:00:26] Maybe it's a mission field, an opportunity to actually share the gospel with kids on your campus or to step up into some kind of leadership. Or maybe it's none of those things.
[01:00:39] Maybe for you, your next step as far as stepping up is if you're an adult in our church, you're not part of a gc. Maybe it's just joining a gc. Like, you need to experience family.
[01:00:50] For you, it might be something totally different. I don't know what it is. But I'm gonna invite you to close your eyes for a second.
[01:00:55] Put your hands out if you can do it.
[01:01:02] It's not to be super spiritual, just a posture of receptivity and say, holy Spirit, what do you have for me?
[01:01:10] Is there something that you want me to receive this morning?
[01:01:14] We're going to give the Holy Spirit 15 seconds to speak to you.
[01:01:18] Spirit, is there something that you want to give me this morning?
[01:01:27] Spirit, is there a growth area that you want to highlight to me?
[01:01:32] Is there an opportunity that you've put in front of me that you want me to take just a few more seconds?
[01:01:46] I'm gonna pray for us.
[01:01:50] Spirit, thank you for this faithful little church that punches above its weight in the kingdom.
[01:01:58] Thank you for the ways that this church is already embodying. These values that I've talked about and the ones I didn't cover.
[01:02:05] Would you help us to become increasingly free from those things that would block, obstruct, or otherwise trip us up in the direction that you have for us.
[01:02:18] May you encourage every person. May you speak to every person, and may every person respond to the love of Jesus in ways that lead to a transformed life.
[01:02:29] Not a perfect life, but a faithful life.
[01:02:31] Thank you, Father, that this is all only possible because of the but God grace that you've shown us.
[01:02:39] We love you and we thank you. It's your name we pray. Amen. Okay, I'm gonna hand it off to the band here in a second. Can I call the prayer team up to the front? If you're on the prayer team this morning, would you come up to the front, man? What is it for you?
[01:02:55] What does God have for you?
[01:02:57] If there are things that are going to get in the way of that, I'm going to invite you to come and get prayer. Or if you are struggling in any way and we can pray for you, we'd love to do that. Got a few minutes left before we come up and close, so enjoy this time.
