Overflow: Week 6

Can you think about a time that you got some

really good news, or think about a time that you

got to share some good news. Maybe you got the

good news when you were hired for the job, or

you got the promotion, Like when have you received good news?

There's a two couples in our church who recently just

got engaged and they had some good news to share

with me when they showed me the engagement ring and

they told me the proposal story, like that is really

good news. I remember when I was applying to grad

school and after all the applications and the essays, I

waited anxiously to hear back, and it was good news

when I got accepted to my first choice school. You know,

we have our first choice, second choice, we rank them.

When we put an offer in on our home, we

waited hoping that our offer was good enough. We even

wrote a letter to the seller this is the thing

that you do commonly now, hoping that would persuade them.

And it was good news when they told us that

we bought the house. I remember last year, in May

of twenty three, Lauren and I were driving to Pennsylvania

to visit some family and we stopped at a gas

station in Greenfield there on Ice seventy, just on our

way out of Indy, and we stopped at this gas station.

I went inside of the gas station and then I

came back out to the car and I opened the

driver's side door, and there was a gift bag sitting

on the driver's seat that Lauren had set there for

me as a surprise. Do you want to see what

was in the gift bag? It was this little onesie,

Lauren's way of telling me that she was pregnant with Shepherd.

That was good news, that was great news. And my

life has never been the same since my life changed

one day at a gas station in Greenfield. It sounds

like the beginning of a country song. There are some

good news moments that are life changing. When you pay

off the student loan, that is life changing. When you graduate,

that's life changing for some teenagers. When you get your

driver's license, that is life changing. When you hear the

doctor say I've got good news, you're in remission, that

is life changing. There are some good news moments that

are life changing. And today I've got one main point,

one big idea today, and that is the Gospel changes everything.

That's my message today. The gospel changes everything. The word

gospel is a word from the Bible that simply means

good news. The good news about Jesus changes everything. When

you believe the gospel, your life is never the same again.

And just so I'm clear, if you don't know what

the gospel is, here's what the gospel is. It's the

truth that you and I are sinners, that in our

own ways we've sinned against God, We've broken trust with God,

and because of our sin and our brokenness, we deserve death.

We deserve to spend eternity in hell. But God, in

his grace, sent his son Jesus to save us from

that doom. Jesus gave his life as a perfect sacrifice.

He paid for our sins when he died on the cross.

He paid our debt so that we can be forgiven.

And then three days later he rose from the dead,

securing your eternal life, so that anyone who believes in

Him will be saved. The Bible describes the good news

like this and Second Corinthians five. For God was in

Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's

sins against them, and he gave us this wonderful message

of reconciliation good news. So we are Christ's ambassadors. God

is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ

when we plead come back to God. I wonder if

there's somebody listening today that needs to hear those words,

come back to God. You've walked away from God, you've

run from God. Maybe you're hiding from God, or or

you're pursuing something other than God. And today God is

saying you come back, come back. This is the good news,

the message of reconciliation. And then verse twenty one, for

God made Christ to never sinned, to be the offering

for our sin so that we could be made right

with God through Christ. This is good news. Your sin

is forgiven, your past is redeemed, your hope is restored.

This is good news. Friends. This is good news for

everyone who is stuck, everyone who is broken, everyone who

is hurting, for the person trapped in addiction, for the

person haunted by shame, for the one who is fearful

of the day that you may die. This is good news.

I wonder do you believe the good news? Have you

tried to Jesus? The Gospel changes everything? And so today

we're going to look at Acts chapter ten. In Acts

chapter ten, there's a story that shows us how the

Gospel changes everything. And as I was studying Acts ten,

there is so much content in Acts ten. In this

one phrase kept coming to mind, and it's the title

of today's message. The title is Gospel Lessons from Acts ten.

So we don't have time to waste. Let's look at

Acts ten, starting in verse one. At Cesarea, there was

a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known

as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were

devout and God fearing. He gave generously to those indeed,

and prayed to God regularly. One day, at about three

in the afternoon, he had a vision. He distinctly saw

an Angel of God, who came to him and said Cornelius.

Cornelius stared at him in fear. What is it, Lord,

he asked. The Angel answered, your prayers and gifts to

the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.

Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man

named Simon, who is called Peter. He is staying with

Simon the Tanner, whose house is by the seat. So

the first thing here in actent is we meet Cornelius,

and we learned that Cornelius is a military officer. He's

a centurion. He leads a hundred Roman soldiers. And the

second thing we learn is that Cornelius is not Jewish.

He's a gentile. He's a non jew, likely Italian, part

of the military dispatchment from Rome to occupy Israel at

this time. And this is important because at this point

the Gospel has not really spread to Gentiles. The Gospel

has predominantly been in the Jewish population there in Israel.

Most of the Christians are Jewish, and Cornelius has not

yet heard the Gospel. And we also learned that Cornelius

is a good person. I mean Verse two tells us

that he believes in God, he prays, he gives to

those who are neat. He's a good person, but he's

not a Christian because he hasn't heard the Gospel. He

hasn't surrendered to Jesus. I mean, how many of you

would say that you're basically a good person. I mean,

I think most of us would say I'm basically a

good person. I mean, you try to do the right thing,

you don't lie or steal, you try to be honest,

like you're basically good. Do you know what my standard

for a basically a good person is. It's the people

who when you're entering a building or entering a store,

it's the people that hold the door open for you

to catch up. I mean, that's just basically good human

being practices. But then there's always that like that distance

of judgment, like like you, if the person's too far behind,

then they got to run up to catch the door,

you know what I'm saying. But those people are basically

good people. Well, this is the first lesson from X ten.

The Gospel reveals that being a good person is not

good enough. Being a good person is not good enough.

Even good people have sin problems. I have an acquaintance

whom I'm trying to share Jesus with, and I've invited

him and his family to church. And he's a good person.

He grew up in a family that believes in God.

They kind of went to church growing up. He loves

his family, he works hard, he pays for his kids

to go to private school. I mean, he's a decent person.

He's not mean, he's respectful, and as far as I know,

he doesn't have any felonies. When he's a decent guy.

And the last time I invited him to church, he said, Andrew,

I don't want to offend you, but I'm not really

looking for faith right now. Maybe you can relate to

my friend. You're basically a good person. You try to

do the right thing. You care about the people in

your life. You're a good person. You're here listening to

a message about God. But doesn't it feel like there's

something missing? Don't you know that there is more than

just being a good person. Somewhere on a spiritual level,

something's lacking. And if you take an honest look into

your soul, you know that it's not good enough. So

I'm fourteen, tells us all have turned away, all have

become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not

even one. All of us are sinners. Even good people

have a sin problem. And so when my friend said

that he's not looking for faith, I had this thought.

I had this spiritual thought, God, he may not be

looking for God, but God is looking for him, and

God is looking for you. God is seeking you because

he wants to reconcile you to himself. He wants a

relationship with you. Cornelius was basically a good person, and

God was looking for Cornelius. God came to Cornelius and

told him, go find Peter. He's got the good news.

And so we pick up in verse seven. Here Cornelius

called two of his servants and a devout soldier who

was one of his attendants. He told them everything that

had happened and sent them to Joppa. About noon the

following day, they were on their journey and approaching the city,

Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became

hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal

was being prepared, he fell into a trance. Peter saw

heaven open and something like a large sheet being let

down to earth by its four corners. It contained all

kinds of four footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds.

Then a voice told him, get up, Peter, kill and

eat surely not. Peter replied, I have never eaten anything

impure or unclean. The voice spoke to him a second time,

do not call anything impure that God has made clean.

This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken

back to Heaven. Well, let me explain what is happening

in Peter's vision you've probably heard of kosher food. Kosher

food is food in the Jewish culture that's approved food

for the Jewish diet. The word kosher comes from a

Hebrew word that means fit or qualified or suitable. And

so for thousands of years, the Jewish faith has practiced

these dietary laws that they received in the Old Testament

that God gave to Moses, that he gave to the people.

And the whole purpose of the dietary laws was to

set apart the Israelite nation as an example of what

it means to be faithful and obedient to the Lord.

But then when Jesus came, he fulfilled those ceremonial laws.

So a faithful Jew like Peter has never eaten anything forbidden,

like like pork. Peter's never had bacon, Peter's never had

a port chop, shellfish, crabs, Peter's never had that. He's

never had lobster. I have a friend who through a

big birthday party for their neighbor I mean, the whole

neighborhood showed up for this birthday part. It was a

big party, and my friend was in charge of the

food for the birthday party. And when he went to

the grocery store. He saw that they were having a

big sale on lobster, and so he bought up all

of this lobster and they had this big lobster bake.

I mean, there was this lobster coming out of people's ears.

I mean, there's so much lobster. Everybody was full of lobster.

And then the next day, one by one, people from

the party started to get sick. Everybody at the party

got sick, and my friend learned there's a reason that

lobster was on sale that week. Now, Peter wouldn't have

got sick because he ate kosher. This was a Kosher diet.

But Jesus fulfills those ceremonial laws. Jesus fulfills those ritualistic laws.

The Gospel changes everything. And this is the next lesson

from Acts ten, that is, the Gospel removes barriers, because

Peter's vision is less about food and it's more about

spiritual barriers. It's more about removing barriers so that all people,

non Jews, gentiles can receive the good news of Jesus.

Because for a faithful Jew like Peter, associating with a

gentile was considered unclean. Visiting the gentiles home was unclean.

Eating or touching, embracing a gentile that was forbidden, that

was unclean. But here the gospels removing those culture barriers.

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I traveled

out of town for a week. It was a Sunday afternoon.

We had a flight scheduled at Indianapolis Airport, So as

soon as church was over, we got in the car

and we drove to the airport and parked the car,

and then we had to navigate some barriers. One of

the big barriers when you're traveling by plane is the

security checkpoint. I mean, you just don't know how long

is the security line gonna be, how many people are working,

how picky are they gonna be, Like it could just

last forever, it could be really short, Like it's a barrier.

But Lauren, she has a secret superpower. When she gets

to the airport, she has tsa pre check, which means

she's done all these background checks and paperwork, and she

can walk right through the express line. She doesn't have

to take her shoes off, she can just go right through,

breeze through, no barriers for her. However, I did not

have TSA pre check, So when we got to the airport,

Lauren and Shephard ditched me and they went through the

express line, and I had to wait in line with

the common people. I mean, but that's okay, because I'm

a man of the people. I don't need no special treatment.

But I made it through, and we got on our flight,

and we made it. Some of us believe that there

are bear barriers to faith, like a security checkpoint. I've

seen people at those security checkpoints get turned away because

they don't have the right ticket, they don't have the

right identification, They get sent to the back of the line,

or they get pulled out of line randomly searched. Some

of us feel like faith is a checkpoint like that,

Like you gotta have all the answers, you gotta have

a clean life, you gotta have good works, you gotta

have these religious qualifications. And there are some who live

with a low grade fear that you're not gonna go

to heaven because of the sin in your life. But

I'm here to say that the Gospel changes everything. The

Gospel removes those barriers. When I was at the airport,

I saw something different than tsa pre check I saw

something greater than tsa pre check. I'm talking about the

flight crew, talking about the pilots, the flight attendants. When

they get to the airport, they have no barriers. They

walk right through the security free hassle. Because of who

they are. They are qualified because of the Gospel. You

are qualified. Because of who Jesus is and what he

has done. You can come to the Father. You can

be forgiven. This is good news. The Gospel changes everything.

So we pick up our story in verse nineteen, while

Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said

to him, Simon, three men are looking for you, So

get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go

with them, for I have sent them. In verse twenty three,

The next day Peter started out with them and some

of the believers from Joppa. The following day he arrived

in Cesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together

his relatives and close friends. Let me pause for a moment.

So Peter was in Joppa. Everyone say, Joppa, Joppa. Peter

lived in Joppa, and Jappa was about thirty one miles

from Cesarea. But it might as well have been on

another planet. That's how different these two cities were. You

see a good faithful Jew like Peter would avoid going

to Cesarea. Cesarea, the name was named after the Roman Caesar.

The city of Cesarea was the garrison for the Roman

army of Judah. More gentiles lived in Cesarea. There was

a temple for worship pagan worship in Caesarea, So no

Jew would want to go to Cesarea. It was unclean

to go to Cessarea. Peter going to Cesarea would be

like if me or Pastor James stood up here and

announced to our church that God has called us to

start a church in the Red Light district of Amsterdam. Yeah,

that would raise some eyebrows given its reputation. Cesarea had

that type of reputation. But let's keep reading. In verse

twenty seven, when Peter arrives at Cornelius's while talking with

him Cornelius, Peter went inside and found a large gathering

of people, and he said to them, you are well

aware it is against our law for a Jew to

associate with or visit a gentile. But God has shown

me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.

The Gospel removes barriers. Now, remember where was Peter living

when Cornelius sent for him? Say Joppa, Joppa. This is

not the first time that we've read about Joppa in

the Bible. Seven hundred years before Peter, there was a

Jewish prophet named Jonah who lived in the city of Joppa,

and you can read the whole story of Jonah in

the Old Testament. But basically, God calls this prophet Jonah

to lee Joppa and go to the pagan city of

Ninevah to gentiles, non Jews and preach the Gospel. But

Jonah doesn't want to do that, and so he gets

on a boat in Joppa and he tries to sail

thousands of miles away. But eventually, after a long story

and then a big fish and all this, Jonah changes

his mind. He gives into God and begrudgingly he goes

to Ninevah. And when Jonah gets to Ninevah, he preaches

the worst sermon ever. Look at it. I'm not kidding.

This is what he says. He gets to Ninava and

he proclaims, forty more days and Ninevah will be overthrown.

It's the worst sermon. I mean, I'll give you a

church would be a lot shorter if I just stood

up here and said you're all doomed good luck. That's

what Jonah did. No hope, no redemption, no no forgiveness.

But what happened Ninevah repented, the king repented from sin.

They turned to God. They called on God for mercy,

and God relented, and God spared the city. And how

did Jonah respond? And Jonah for it? Says to Jonah,

this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed

to the Lord. Isn't this what I said? Lord? When

I was still at home? Where was he at home?

He was at Joppa. That's why I tried to forestall

by fleeing to Tarsish. I knew that you are a

gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love,

a God who relents from sending calamity. He sounds like

a terrible God. Now, Lord, take away my life. It's

better for me to die than to live. Jonah complains

about God's mercy. I call this attitude a Jonah's spirit.

The Jonah's spirit was in Jonah because Jonah did not

want to see non Jews turn to God. Jonah did

not want to see gentiles come to faith. Jonah did

not want the enemies of his he saw Ninevah as

his enemies. Jonah would rather die than see non Jews

come to God. Jonah is what some scholars refer to

as an Israelite nationalist, and we see in Second Kings

that he promotes the advancing of Israel's borders, the expansion

of Israel's territory. He's an israel first mentality, israel superior mindset,

and so he'd rather die than see gentiles come to God.

This is the Jonah spirit. The Jonah spirit is judgmental.

The Jonah spirit is self righteous. The Jonah spirit is

morally superior. And after Peter visits Cornelius, he goes back

to tell his friends and he encounters the Jonah spirit.

In Acts eleven, it says, the Jewish believers criticized Peter,

you entered the home of gentiles and even ate with them.

That's the Jonah's spirit. Not only is a Jonahs spirit

racial prejudice, it's moral superior, it's a judgmental attitude. It's

a critical spirit. You see, a Jonah's spirit says you've

got to vote a certain way to be a Christian.

Jonah spirit says you have to support this candidate to

be a good Christian. The Jonah spirit says that a

good Christian always goes to a Christian college or this

denomination or that tradition. That's the proper way to worship.

You see, a Jonah's spirit says you are unacceptable because

of where you grew up, because of the accent in

your voice, because of the color of your skin, because

of the country you immigrated from. That's the Jonah spirit.

But the Gospel redeems a Jonah spirit because seven hundred

years after Jonah lived in Joppa, seven hundred years after

Jonah ran from the Lord, God returns to Joppa and

he calls another Israelite to preach the good news to gentiles.

The Gospel redeems a Jonah's spirit. And do you know

what Peter's full name is? You know what Peter's given

name is. His given birth name is Simon, son of Jonah.

That means his father's name was Jonah. It's possible that

his family lineage goes back to Jonah, or at the

very least somewhere his family admired the prophet Jonah and

what he stood for. But here is God, seven hundred

years later, redeeming the Jonahs spirit. Sadly, I've seen Jonah's

spirit even among Christians. I remember many, many, many years ago,

when I served at a different church, there was a

young man in our church. It was a good Christian.

I knew him well. He had strong character, of good integrity.

He was a faithful Christian, and he was dating a

young woman in the church. And this young woman her family.

They were all church attenders, faithful to that church. And

this young man came to me troubled and he shared

that he's day his girlfriend and his girlfriend's father kind

of mistreats the young man, doesn't respect him very much

and treats him a little bit poorly and gently. I

ask this young man, is it because you're black that

he treats you like that? And with tears in his eyes,

he said, yes, he's dating a young woman who is white.

Her white father's mistreating him because of the color of

his skin. That's what a Jonah's spirit looks like, even

in a family. Now, that couple eventually got married and

now they're raising a beautiful family. Because the Gospel redeems

the Jonah's spirit. The gospel changes family trajectories, the gospel

changes and heals what a Jonah's spirit has done and

I've lost tracker, lost contact with that family so many

years since then. But I can only hope and pray

that God has done a work in that entire family

to redeem that type of attitude. You see, the Gospel

redeems a Jonah's spirit. The Gospel changes everything. And when

Peter is speaking to Cornelius, he says this in verse

thirty four. I now realize how true it is that

God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation

the one who fears Him and does what is right.

You know, the message God sent to the people of

Israel announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ,

who is Lord of all. The Gospel is good news.

The Gospel changes everything. It says right here. God does

not show favoritism. God receives everyone who believes in Jesus.

God does not show favoritism between light skin and dark skin.

God does not show favoritism between male and female. God

does not show favoritism between American citizen and immigrants. God

does not show favoritism between wealthy and those living paycheck

to paycheck. There's no favoritism between private school or public

school there's no favoritism in the Kingdom of God, because

the Gospel redeems us. All celebrate and thank God. If

you believe that there is no favoritism, the Gospel changes everything.

We are all sinners, we all need forgiveness. Only Jesus

can save us. The Gospel changes everything. I also want

to point out that there might have been something going

on deep inside of Peter that was very personal. Do

you remember what Cornelius's job title was in verse one,

He's a centurion, He's a Roman soldier. Can you think

about the last recorded example of Peter interacting with Roman soldiers.

It was when Jesus was arrested and crucified. It was

Roman soldiers who beat Jesus and flogged Jesus. It was

Roman soldiers that shoved the crown of thorns on his head,

the Roman soldiers that drove the nails through his hands

and his feet. And so I can only imagine that

Peter has some baggage, that Peter's got some hurt and

some fear connected with what Cornelius represents the Roman Empire,

Roman soldiers, And I can only imagine that Peter's had

to deal with some resentment. But here In this story,

we see Peter loving Cornelius bringing the Gospel to Cornelis.

Because the Gospel changes everything, sometimes that Jonah's spirit can

be a spirit of resentment against somebody who's hurt us.

There was a time that I was holding onto some

resentment and a person in my life had hurt me.

They had said some hurtful things to me and kind

of treated me unfairly, and I was wounded. And thankfully

we were able to talk about it, and we worked

through some of that, and we even prayed together, and

and it was good, and I forgave them, and it

was good. But days after, weeks after, I still felt

this this resentment in my heart and in my mind.

See in my brain, I knew that I'd forgiven, but

in my heart and my spirit, I still felt this resentment.

And so one day the Lord just gently showed me

that I was holding on to a spirit of resentment.

He showed me that there was a spirit of resentment

taking root in my heart. And so I had to

confess that to the Lord and ask for his forgiveness.

And he healed that, and he transformed that. Because the

Gospel changes everything, a Jonah's spirit can be resentment towards

somebody who's hurts you, the cod were who's manipulated you.

It's the boss who pushed you to tears. It's the

family member who took advantage of you. It's the person

who lets you down. It's the neighbor who mistreated you.

It's the church member who gossiped about you and you

thought you could trust their confidence. It's that one person

in your life who has these really high expectations for

you and you can't meet them, and so you feel

all this shame and resentment toward them. But you just

release that resentment, bring it to the Lord. Release that

resentment and receive his healing. The Gospel changes everything. Let's

finish our text. In verse forty three, one more lesson

from x ten, Peter continues, all the prophets testify about Jesus,

that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins

through his name. While Peter was still speaking these words,

the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

The Holy Spirit came. The Gospel changes everything. And this

is the final lesson we learned in this passage, and

that is the Gospel reconciles us to God. The Gospel

reconciles you to God. What happened. The Holy Spirit came

on all who are listening. When you turn to God,

when you repent of sin, when you put your faith

in Jesus, God's Spirit comes into your life. God reconciles

you come into relationship with God. You're forgiven and you're

changed because of the Gospel. And the last thing that

Peter says in verse forty six, Peter said, surely no

one can stand in the way of their being baptized

with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as

we have. So he ordered that they be baptized in

the name of Jesus. Baptism is a demonstration of your

reconciliation to God. When you go under the water, the

old you, the sin, the rebellion, the shame, all of

that is washed away. It's buried, and when you come

out of the water, you are clean, a new life,

reconciled to Jesus. One of the greatest honors I've had

in my life is baptizing my good friend Dale. Dale

had been sprinkled as an infant by his parents, and

as an adult he wanted to reaffirm that faith and

be baptized as an adult. And so he and I

and the whole group of us were traveling out of

state on a mission trip in upstate New York, and

we baptized Dale, and we baptized twenty eight more people

from our group on that trip who wanted to demonstrate

they were reconciled to God, that they believe the Gospel,

that the Gospels changed them and they're never the same

again because of Jesus. So if you have not been baptized,

I've got good news. You can be baptis next week.

We have a baptism service schedule next Sunday. If you

want to learn more about this, you can go to

the church website. You can sign up, you can learn

more if you want to demonstrate your faith in Jesus

through baptism. Earlier, I asked how many of us consider

ourselves basically good people. If you knew me in middle school,

high school, as a student, you would say that I

was basically a good person. I went to church, I

tried to do the right thing. I even gave money

and volunteered. I was a lot like Cornelius, basically a

good person, but I had hidden sin in my life.

I was far from God I was addicted to pornography.

I was angry. I had bitterness and rage inside of me.

I was angry at my parents. I lied, I deceived.

I just had all these heart issues. Bottom line, I

was very lonely and I was far from God, and

I feared that God was angry with me. I was

afraid that God judged me and wanted to condemn me,

and that I would have to earn God's love again.

Maybe you can relate. Maybe you feel far from God.

Maybe there's something that's happened recently, even this week, that

you're ashamed of and you think, oh, my God must

be angry with me. I want to tell you that

whatever sin is in your life, you can be forgiven

because of Jesus. I still remember when I was a

high school student. One weekday, afternoon, alone in my bedroom,

I cried out to God. I said, God, take control.

I surrendered my life to Jesus, and God took control,

just like the Holy Spirit came to Cornelius that day.

God's Spirit came into my life. God changed me and

I have never been the same since. The Gospel changes everything.

Do you believe the Gospel? Have you put your faith

in Jesus. I want to invite us to respond to

what we've heard today. Would you bow your head with

me and close your eyes with me. This is a

moment of response. And first, if you are listening and

you want to be reconciled to Jesus, you want a

relationship with Jesus, you want to come to God. Now

I invite you to pray this prayer to God in

your heart. Just repeat after me, 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. I confess Jesus is Lord of my life.

I believe the Gospel, and now for all of us,

Would you take a monk moment right now and ask

the Lord is there anything from his word that we've

heard today that he wants you to walk away with?

Is there a gospel lesson from Acts ten? Just just

ask him, Lord, what are you showing me? What are

you revealing to me? If you need to confess something,

you can do that. If you need to make a change,

just take this moment. Amen. I'm gonna bite you to stand.

We're going to enter into a time of prayer and anointing.

Today we said that the Gospel changes everything. That means

that there is nothing off limits for the power of Jesus.

When he rose from the dead, he conquered all evil,

all power, and he is seated on the throne of heaven,

and there is nothing that he cannot do. There is

no miracle that he cannot do. So I'm gonna invite

our prayer partners to come forward and prepare. If you'd

like to receive prayer and anoint and you come down

the middle, Aisles and tim will help direct you to

a prayer partner. But we practice prayer and anoint it

because the Bible says that if anyone is sick or

in need, come to the church leaders and have them

anoint you and pray. We believe that God can change

anything because of the Gospel. And so if you need

healing in your own body, come, we want to pray

for you. If you want to stand in proxy for

somebody close to you, a family member who needs healing

or needs a miracle, we want to anoint you for

them too. If you've got other needs, if you've got

a relationship need. I wonder if somebody here is struggling

with friction in a relationship or mistrust in a relationship. Come,

we want to annoint you and pray for that. If

you're about to be married, I mentioned couples who are engaged, man,

we would love to anoint and bless your marriage. If

you have a need and you want more of God, come, Come.

You're invited to come.