Experiencing God: Week 6

You know, we all have our favorite things.

You know, we've got our favorite restaurants, favorite movies, your we've.

Got our favorite books. We've all got like our favorite things.

Uh.

My wife, for example, her favorite food is tacos.

So any birthday, any anniversary, celebration, tacos are always involved in.

Some way or shape or form.

My son, he's nearly two, in his favorite movie right

now is Toy Story, or as he calls it, Toy Toy.

But we've all got our favorite things. And I wonder,

do you have a favorite Bible story? What's your favorite

Bible story? Of all the stories that we read in

the Bible Old Testaments, Like, what is your favorite one?

Somebody might say David and Goliath. I mean, that's a

go to that that is a great story. Others are

drawn to the story of Esther, another powerful story. Uh,

there's Daniel in the lions Den, dramatic story, Peter walking

on water. I mean, think about what's your favorite Bible story.

I'll ask you because I'm excited today, We're gonna look

at my favorite Bible story.

It's actually my favorite chapter in the whole Bible. Out

of all.

Old Testament New Testament, this is my favorite all the

sixty six books in the Bible. This one chapter is

my favorite chapter in all of the Bible. But before

I tell you which one it is, let me tell

you another story from my college days. When I decided

to answer the call to full time church ministry, I

was looking for a college that where I could get training,

and so I was excited to enroll in a Christian

college near my hometown in Ohio. And let me tell you,

this university had a great reputation in Christian ministry training.

They had incredible faculty professors.

Who were published in the world of theology, very talented,

respected professors. Some of the graduates of the school had

become effective evangelists missionaries around the world. And countless number

of pastors came from this school and they pastored faithfully

churches across the country. It's not an exaggeration to describe

this particular university as like a factory of Christian leaders

and pastors.

And so I was excited to get.

Some training there, and I went there for my first

two years of college before I moved out of state

and took a job and transferred.

But I was shocked when just.

Recently, just a few years ago, I learned that that

university had gone bankrupt and closed its doors. I even

know some people who didn't finish their degrees before the

school closed. It seemed like I just closed overnight, And

so I was scratching my head, wondering, puzzled, Like this

school's had a nearly one hundred year legacy tradition of

like excellence, Like what caused it to close? Well, I mean,

there were a lot of symptoms that led to this

school closing, but all of it can be summed up

in one statement, the school lost its way.

Let me explain.

The school started in nineteen twenty four and it had

a very specific mission statement. This is what their mission

was to train ministers, missionaries and Christian leaders for service

in churches. So for decades, that's what this school did.

This was their mission for the entire twentieth century. The

school offered a very limited focused set of degrees, undergraduate

degrees in Christian ministry, theology, biblical studies, preaching, and Christian worship.

Like these were their focused specific degrees, like we're going

to do what we do best, preparing leaders for church ministry. Well,

in the two thousands, the school started to broaden its

offerings and started to offer business programs and psychology degrees

and pre med things and good degrees, but started to

get broad started to kind of stretch to thin, trying

to attract a variety of students. And then the school

also focused on athletics and wanted to recruit student athletes

and offering athletic scholarships to recruit student athletes, even if

some of those student athletes were not pursuing ministry training

for church ministry.

And so the school.

Slowly started to drift from its original mission. It lost

its way very quickly. Enrollment declined, tuition increased, debt grew,

and in twenty nineteen, the school had to file bankruptcy

and completely close its doors because it got off of

its mission.

The school lost its way. I tell you that.

Because it brings me to the title of today's message,

and that is when.

We lose our way. Have you ever lost.

Your way, felt disconnected from God or separated from God,

lost your passion for him. Perhaps there was a time

that you were so passionate about Jesus that you just

had to tell anybody and everybody who had listened about Jesus.

Or there was a time that you were excited to

come to church each week and volunteer and serve and

do the work of God.

Or somebody listening.

You may have grown up in the faith, knowing God,

but now as an adult, it seems like you've drifted

from Him, or he's drifted from you, and you're disconnected

and far from Him. Now, hear me, clearly, I do

not want anyone to feel discouraged today.

I don't want anybody to feel discouraged because we are

all prone to lose our way, We're all prone to drift.

But I want to encourage you today that we can

recover our connection with the Lord. We can reclaim the

path and the purpose that He has designed us for.

And that's why we're gonna look at my favorite story

in the Bible. It's my favorite chapter out of Old

Testament and New Testament. Out of all sixty six books

in the Bible, this chapter is my favorite chapter in

the Bible, and it's Luke chapter fifteen. In this chapter,

Jesus is teaching and he tells three stories about recovering.

Something that was lost.

Let's take a look at this first part in Luke fifteen.

Starting in verse three, Jesus told them this parable. Suppose

one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one

of them, doesn't he leave the ninety nine in the

open country and go after the lost sheep until he

finds it.

And when he finds it.

He joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says,

rejoice with me.

I have found my lost sheep.

I tell you that in the same way, there will

be more of a choicing in heaven over one sinner

who repents and over ninety nine righteous persons who do

not need to repent. So imagine in this story, at

the end of the day, this shepherd is bringing all

of the sheep in. The sun is starting to set,

and he's counting ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine,

want ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight, And he.

Scratches his head and things then and I start with

one hundred.

He's missing one sheep. He's missing one percent of his flock.

I once led a weekend camp.

Retreat for high school students, the Christian.

Camp, and this campground that we were at was out

in the middle of nowhere, nowhere. It was like the

capital of nowhere nowhere. I mean you had to take

a dirt gravel road. It was surrounded by a state forest.

I mean completely isolated, but also like beautiful scenery. I

mean it was the perfect place for a spiritual retreat

away from distractions. It was also the perfect place for

somebody to get lost. So one afternoon after free time,

all of the students were coming back inside of the

cabins and everybody was accounted for except for Bobby. Bobby

was a ninth grade boy who was pretty quiet, kind

of reserve, kept himself, and so it took some time

for anybody to notice that Bobby was not with the

rest of the group. Now, when you're in school and

you take a test, if you get a ninety nine

percent out of one hundred, that's still an A in

most places.

I mean that's a great grade.

You get ninety nine percent out one hundred, excellent, great,

great job. If you're a youth pastor responsible for one

hundred students, coming home with ninety nine percent is a

total failure. So some adult volunteers went looking for Bobby,

and thankfully they found Bobby pretty soon. Bobby had just

decided to go for a nature walk, very very very

far away from the rest of the group. This shepherd

has lost one percent of his flock, one sheep. That's

not insignificant. In this first century Jewish culture, a sheep

was very valuable wool for clothing, milk, and meat for food.

Sheep were an integral.

Part of the Jewish sacrificial religious system, and sheep were

valuable that they were costly. In fact, around this time period,

a sheep might cost as much of a month's worth

of wages. So this is not nothing losing a sheep.

How did the sheep get lost in.

The first place? Did he run away? Did he hide?

I think the sheep probably got distracted, had his nose

down grazing and didn't pay attention to where he was going,

got curious about something in the in the bushes, and

got stuck in a thorn bush. I think he got distracted.

How do we lose our way? Distraction is one of

the things that makes us lose our way. What distracts

you most often from following Jesus? What competes for your time,

your attention, your focus. A relationship with a boyfriend or

a girlfriend that has not centered on Jesus is a distraction.

People pleasing is a distraction.

Trying to solve and fix and manage everybody else's emotions

is a distraction. Materialism can be a distraction. You know,

the holidays are just around the corner. We're in entering

this holiday season.

You know what.

Another name for the holiday season is the spending season.

If you're like me, do you notice that money is

coming out of the bank account faster than money is

coming in the Materialism can be a distraction. Can I

tell you what the I think is the number one

distraction for Christians? Number one distraction. It's not greed, it's

not money, it's not career, it's not lust or sin

or temptation.

The number one distraction I believe for Christians is.

Christian fads, Christian hype, Christian distraction. I've seen all of

the Christian fads. I mean, I remember years ago a

popular Christian book was published, and some of the Christian

community didn't like the messaging of the book and the theology.

Other Christians elevated this book to like the status of

the Bible.

It's like this book in the Bible, and this author

spoke directly from God like.

We've seen from time to time the popular.

Person emerge who predicts when the world is gonna end

or when Jesus is gonna return. But I've learned that

those folks are more interested in earning above than following

the ways of Jesus. I've seen Christians jump on the

bandwagon of a new Christian podcast or new celebrity pastor,

or politicians or political leaders, and seems like some Christians

are more loyal to these personalities than to Jesus. These

Christian fads, Christian hype is a distraction from the mission

of Jesus.

So ask yourself this question. What distracts me from following Jesus?

What gets the most of your energy during any given day?

Where do you give your attention? Is it something godly

or is it something worldly? Is it something that's helping

you grow closer to Jesus, know Jesus?

Or is it a distraction?

Jesus continues in our text, after the story of the sheep,

he tells a second story about losing something valuable.

Take a look with me at verse eight.

Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one,

doesn't she light a lamp and sweep the house and

search carefully until she finds it.

And when she finds it, she calls her friends and

neighbors together says, rejoice with me, I've found my lost coin.

The same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in

the presence of angels of God over one sinner who repents.

This woman started out with ten coins and she lost one.

That's a ten percent loss. The shepherd lost one percent.

See how it's gradually increasing in the story, has lost.

Ten percent one of her coins. This is valuable.

This makes me think of I have a certain number

of vacation days allotted each year, paid time off, and

I don't want to waste a single vacation.

Day, you know.

I want to maximize my vacation days, and I work

with my wife and our family to strategically plan when

we're going to use these vacation days. In this culture

in the first century, one of these silver coins was

worth a day's wage, So losing one of those coins

was like losing a day of paid time off or

losing a day of work. It's valuable, it is, it matters.

So how did this coin get lost in the first place.

What's the parallel for how we lose our way. It's carelessness.

A coin is small, it's tiny and carelessly.

It can fall out of a pocket carelessly and get

bumped off a table, roll across.

The floor and under the furniture and be lost. Carelessness.

Remember that story about losing Bobby at that campground, Well,

that campground, that event was in the middle of winter January,

and so snow was covered the entire campground. And during

free time, the students had sleds and snow tubes and

they were sledding down this massive hill covered in snow,

about twice as long as a football field.

This was a lot of fun.

And then after dark, everybody was cold and shivering, and

coats and boots were soaked from the snow, and everybody

came inside for dinner and hung up their coats and

tried to get warm.

And the warmest place.

In these cabins was actually inside the bathroom because there

was this like propane or gas heater right on the

wall in the bathroom, just heating up that whole room.

After dinner, two of the adult leaders were sitting around

talking and one.

Of them started to sniff the air. He said, do

you smell that?

The second adult leader said yes, smells like something's burning.

They followed the smell to the bathroom, and when they

opened the bathroom door, smoke came pouring out of the

bathroom because this propane heater was on fire.

And they started shouting fire, fire, fire.

And everybody scrambled and panicked and ran out of the building.

I think somebody opened a window and jumped out the

window to get away.

But those adult.

Leaders grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the fire

and nobody was hurt. So what happened, Well, a ninth

grade boy, not Bobby, somebody different, had taken his wet,

snow covered coat and put it right on top of

that heater to dry.

And it dried out alright.

It caught on fire and burned a hole right through

the coat. It was careless. If you're not careful, carelessness

will move you away from God. Let me say that again.

If you're not careful, carelessness will move you away from God.

Now I want to emphasize that word I just.

Used, careful. Careful.

Now, when we think about the word careful, we often

think of, you know, handling something that's delicate, something that's fragile,

that could break easy.

We want to be careful with it, and that is true.

But we should look at this word for what it means.

Careful means full of care.

So on one hand, yes, you want to be careful

with something that is easily breakable fragile, but you also

want to be careful with something that's important. Something that's

valuable may not be breakable, but something that's important. Philippians

four says give careful thought to the paths of your feet,

and be steadfast in all your ways. Proverbs twelve twenty

six says the righteous choose their friends carefully. So you

should be full of care with what's important. Full of

care in your relationship with Jesus, not because it's delicate

or fragile, but because it's important. It's like, you know,

I care for my mental and emotional health. I don't

think I'm emotionally fragile. Maybe I am don't know it,

but it's important to me. So I meet with a

Christian counselor regularly to process to grow more resilient and

obedient to Jesus. Because I want to be careful with

what's important to me. So ask yourself this question, how

do I care for my relationship with God?

What are you.

Doing strategically and intentionally to know God more, to connect

with him, to get closer to him. Are you following

Jesus full of care or are you careless?

Another way to put it, are you just casual?

Recently I was driving on four sixty five, which is

something you should never do casually or carelessly. But it's

driving on four sixty five and my check engine light

came on. This is a big warning. You know, what

do you do when your check engine light? When your

dash lights.

Up like that?

You know you've got some choices, and yes, one of

those choices is you can ignore it. That would be careless,

but you could ignore it, you go, oh, look, pretty lights.

While I was still driving, I.

Called my mechanic and told him what was going on,

and the next day he checked it out and thankfully,

it wasn't very serious, just a computer glitch and something.

That could be repaired really easy.

But these warning lights, check engine lights, they tell us

something's not working right, something is broken or needs fixed.

I believe there are four warning signs that we've lost

our way, for indicators like dash indicators that we've lost

our way.

One of those is listening less to God.

If you notice that you're hearing from God less and

less and maybe a sign that you've lost your way. Distractions,

carelessness can block God's voice in our lives.

I want to.

Encourage you to regularly consistently pray this prayer, pray these words.

Pray God. I want your voice to be the clear

voice in my heart, in my mind.

Listening less to God is an indicator that that something's

gone wrong, that you've lost your way. Another warning sign

is a loss of joy. You know, Joy is different

from happiness. Happiness is a feeling that comes and goes.

Happiness is a feeling that depends on happenings. Joy is

an attitude. Joy is a choice. James one two says,

consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you

face trials of many kind, even in trials, even in suffering,

even in pain, we can still choose joy.

We can have an attitude the choice of joy. You see.

Losing joy in your life is a warning sign.

It's like the gas light coming on on your car

dash that the low on.

Fuel, the empty is telling you, hey, you need fuel.

If you don't, if you don't stop at a gas station,

you can't keep going. Joy is what keeps us going

through life, through the pain, through the difficulty, through the

ups and downs.

It's joy.

And so if you notice that you're losing joy, you

notice that you're chronically angry, consistently cynical, you may have

lost your way. A loss of joy is an indicator.

Joy is a fruit of the.

Spirit, God's spirit working in our lives.

Galatians five says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self control. You know, if you're in your car

and you see that tire pressure light come on, you

know that you've got a flat tire or a tire

is low on air, and you're not gonna be able

to drive very far until you fix that. The fruit

of the spirit is what inflates our lives with the.

Spirit of God. You know, the spirit of God is.

Often in the New Testament referred to as the breath

of God, the wind of God, the air of God.

Just like air inflating our tires, is the spirit working

in us. If we're in sync with the Lord, these

qualities will grow. So an indicator is lacking spiritual fruit

when you see a diminish of gentleness, kindness, patience in

your life. It's a warning sign. It's an indicator that

you may have lost your way. When we lose our way,

we're an easy target for the enemy. Onetpeter five says,

your enemy, the devil prows around like a roaring lion,

looking for someone to devour. So that fourth warning sign

is lacking spiritual victory. Have you found yourself more prone

to the enemy's attacks, more prone to temptation, giving into

sin more easily?

Has he the.

Enemy attacked your relationship with others? Are you holding on

to bitterness or resentment? Are you treating others harshly, holding

withholding forgiveness? It might be a sign that you've lost

your way and the enemy is getting more.

Victory in your life.

Lacking spiritual victory is a sign that you've lost your way.

Let's return to our text in Luke fifteen and the

story about the sheep, we learned that distraction makes us

lose our way, and the story about the coin, we

learned that carelessness will make you lose your way. And

then finally in Luke fifteen, Jesus tells one more story,

maybe the greatest story in this chapter, and it's the

story about the lost son.

Let's look at verse eleven.

Jesus continued, There was a man who had two sons.

The younger ones said to his father, father, give me

my share of the estate. So he divided his property

between them, And not long after that, the younger son

got together all he had and set off for a

distant country, and there squandered his wealth and wild living.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine

in the old country, and he began to be in need.

In this story, what we see is deliberate disobedience.

The son deliberately.

Chose to leave the father, to disobey, to go another way.

See in the story the son he didn't really love

the father. He loved what the father could do for him.

He wanted the father's stuff. He didn't want the father.

The son and the father had a transactional.

Relationship business only once a year.

I meet with my insurance broker. Actually we don't even meet.

We just talk on the phone. He helps me find

the best rates and coverage for my cars in my house.

And it's a transactional relationship. It's a business relationship. I've

never invited my insurance broke over for dinner. He's never

sent me a Christmas card. I mean it's a transactional relationship.

I pay him, he gives me insurance. Some Christians have

a transactional relationship with God the Father. They want to

ensure that they go to heaven, so they do the

right things, the good things. As long as I believe

in Jesus, that'll keep me out of hell. It's like

fire insurance. It's a transactional relationship. But God desires so

much more than a transactional relationship with us. God the

Father desires to be our father, to know you, to

be connected to you, to guide you, to leave you.

It is a love relationship, a connected relationship, not a

transactional relationship.

So ask yourself this question.

Have you heard from God about a specific assignment but

ignored obeying him?

Have you heard from God.

To take this step, to do that, to stop that?

Have you heard from Him but chose to ignore it?

See the young man in the story, he wanted the

stuff of the Father, but he.

Didn't want the father. Deliberate disobedience.

I knew somebody who was making a decision, a big decision.

And there was a clear right and wrong.

There was an obedient decision, and a disobedient decision. And

if this person obeyed God, they would have to admit

some things, be embarrassed.

Some of that.

If they disobeyed God, they could keep it hidden and

wouldn't be embarrassed. They even asked for some advice from

a few close, trusted people, and everybody told.

Them, obey, obey, obey.

Well, this person chose to disobey and not obey God.

And let me tell you what I watched happen. Slowly

after that decision, I saw this person attend church.

Less and less until not at all.

I saw this person slowly withdraw from Christian friends.

This person became isolated.

The burden of disobedience isolated them, just like the son

in this story separated from the father. Let's keep reading

what happens next in verse fifteen. So the son went

and hired himself out to a citizen of that country,

who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He

longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the

pigs were eating. Deliberate disobedience lands us in the pig

pens of life. It lands us in brokenness. Disobedience lands

us in separation from God. It lands us in shame,

in addiction, in guilt, in loneliness. Deliberate disobedience shuts us

off to the voice of God. This son and the story,

he was physically removed from the Father and spiritually removed.

He could not hear his father's voice.

When we deliberately choose to disobey God, we will hear

him less and less frequently.

But God does not give up on you.

Even if you have walked away from him, He has

not given up on you. God does not reject you,

even if you have rejected him. He is seeking you,

and he loves you, which brings us to the next

part of the story. In verse seventeen, when he came

to his senses, he said, how many of my father's

hired servants have food despair, and here I am starving

to death. I will set out and go back to

my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned

against Heaven and against you. Look at the first thing

he says here when he came to his senses. Man,

sometimes we need a wake up call. Sometimes we need

God to get our attention. Sometimes we need God to

grab us by the shoulders and say I love you, Return,

come home, Come back.

We need a wake up call.

Remember I told you at the beginning that this is

my favorite story, that Luke fifteen is my favorite chapter

in the entire Bible.

Out of all Old Testament and New Testament, out.

Of all sixty six books. And Luke fifteen is my

favorite chapter. And now I want to read my favorite

verse from my favorite chapter.

It's verse twenty. Read this with me. So he got

up and went to his father. But while he was

still a long.

Way off, his father saw him and was filled with

compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his

arms around him, and kissed him.

This is the gospel. This is how God treats you

and me.

Did you notice how long was the son away from

the father?

How long was he away? Was it a week? Was

it a month? What does it say? What was it

a year that he was away?

It doesn't say, And that tells me it is too

late to come home to the father. It is never

too late to return to the father. You are never

too far gone, You are never too lost, You are

never too broken, You are never too addicted or too

covered in shame to come back to the father. The

text says that the father saw his son, that means

he was looking for him. He never gave up hope

that the son would return. And then it says that

the father ran to the son. He did not wait

for the son to enter the house, but he met

him on the road.

He met him where he was.

He did not demand that the son paid back what

he took. He loved him with compassion and embraced him

and kissed him.

This is the gospel. God meets you where you are.

Because every single one of us can relate to this son.

Whether we've been distracted, whether we've been careless, whether we've

deliberately disobeyed, we've all been separated from God.

We've all lost our way.

But God is seeking us to restore us to relationship

with him. God, the Father loves you so oh much

that two thousand years ago he sent his son Jesus

to be a sacrifice for our sins. When Jesus died

on the cross, his death paid the price for our sins.

He became guilty for us.

And then three days later he rose from the dead,

defeating death, defeating the power of sin, so that we

can be forgiven and so that we can have eternal life.

This is the good news. Have you trusted Jesus as

your Lord and savior. The Father is always eager to

welcome us, He's always seeking us.

Earlier in this text, in Luke fifteen, Jesus says a

word two times, uses this word twice. I want to

draw your attention to what Jesus says in verse ten.

We read it a moment ago.

Jesus says, I tell you there is rejoicing in the

presence of angels of God over one sinner who repents

this word repents. Jesus uses this word repent throughout Luke fifteen.

Repent means to turn away. It's what the son did

in this story. He turned away from disobedience. He turned

away from the pig pen, and he returned to the Father.

That's repentance, returning to the Father, and the angels celebrate

when the lost come home. Repentance returns us to the Father.

It's never too late to return to the Father. Do

you need to repent? Turn away from sin, Turn away

from the pig pen that you're stuck in. Turn away

from the shame, Turn away from the lust, the greed,

Turn away from the addiction. Turn away from those relationships,

those friendships that are dragging you away from God, turn away,

repent and come home, returned to the Father. I have

a dear, dear friend of mine who received some devastating

news a few years ago. I mean, just terrible news.

My friend was broken, he was angry, he was sad,

and that day he told his wife that he was

going to the driving range to hit golf.

Balls and blow off some steam.

Instead, my friend wound up at the bar and he

drank and drank and drank, and later that night the

police found my friend in his car, unconscious after he

had wrecked into a neighbor's car on the street on

his drive home. And thankfully nobody else was hurt, but

my friend was rushed to the hospital with a fractured neck.

I mean, this was rock bottom for my friend. And

if you know what rock bottom feels like, you know

that you've got two choices.

You can give up or you can start over.

And I remember seeing my friend shortly after that accident,

just days after that accident.

He had his neck brace on.

And my friend really didn't say much, but when we

saw each other, he just wept, just sobbed, just just wept.

And he kept repeating, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

He lost his driver's license, he was put on probation.

He feared that he might lose his job from this.

I mean, this was rock bottom. But my friend made a.

Choice to turn away from all of that and turn

back to the Lord and repent. He faced his legal problems,

he started working things out with his wife. He started

going to Christian counseling, and started to dig into things

that from his past, from his childhood, started to get

healing where he needed it the most. And today he

and his wife have welcomed their first child. They're raising

their child in church, their attending church, or following the Lord,

because that's what repentance does. Repenting returns us to the Father.

It restores us. And I was texting my friend. I

told him that I'd like to share this story, and

here's what he texted me this week. He said, it's

amazing to see God's work. It was one of the

worst times, but I'm grateful for the timing and the impact.

On my life. It's never too late to return to

the Father.

I wonder, if you're here listening right now, have you

lost your way? Have you drifted afar from the Lord,

have you deliberately walked away from him? Do you find

yourself in the pig pen of life, in the mire,

disappointed and angry and frustrated or full of shame? Today

you can decide to return. Today the Lord is inviting

you to return to the Father.

This is your opportunity, and so that's why I want

to take a moment.

For us to respond to what we've heard today. Would

you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

And I want to extend an invitation if anyone here

wants to put your faith and trust in Jesus as

your savior and repent of your sins. I invite you

to simply pray this prayer after me, say, Dear God,

I admit that I'm a sinner and I need your forgiveness.

I believe Jesus died for me and rose from the

dead to save me. And today I confess Jesus's Lord God,

I invite your Holy Spirit into my life.

Amen.

I also want to extend an invitation for anyone here

who would like to.

Meet with the Lord in prayer.

We're going to have an opportunity here in a moment

if you'd like to pray with a prayer partner or

receive anointing. We have prayer partners who are trained and

would love to pray with.

You and to anoint you.

The Bible says that if anyone is sick or in

need to have the leaders of the church anoint them

and pray for them.

There's nothing magical or superstitious.

About oil, but it's a sign of God's blessing and

God's presence. So if you are sick and would like prayer,

if you are hurting and would like prayer, if there's

anything in your life that you would like to receive

prayer from somebody, you're invited to do so.

And so here's some instructions I'm gonna give.

I'm gonna as all of our prayer partners to be

on this side my left, and so if you would

like to receive perth a prayer partner, just come down

the middle aisle and Jenny will help you connect with

a prayer partner. And on this side on my right,

if you'd like to pray by yourself, there's a couple

of altars here. There's something you need to confess and

repent from. If there's something that you want to talk

to the Lord about You're invited to come here and

pray and meet with the Lord. But let's go ahead

and stand together.

Because we continue in this next song.

If you'd like to receive prayer, you're invited to come

forward now