1. Book Of John - Beholding Christ - JOHN 1:1-5

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As we start launching into this book and I know this will be the first day so you won't

have expectations so I ask that you not allow any annoyances of the flesh with me to

hinder your overall positive attitude this morning. But we're going to introduce a little

movement in our litigee that we have in all ways practice in the past but I think it's

appropriate. Would you all stand with me? As we read our text this morning, both in honor

of the scriptures as God's revelation of himself but also as a remembrance that a lot

of suffering, blood and death had to happen among generations of previous Christians in

order for us to have the privilege to hold this revelation in our hands this morning.

So we're simply going to read the prologue, we're going to read the prologue of the prologue.

We're just going to look at John chapter one verses one through five. In the beginning was

the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

All things were created through him and apart from him not one thing was created that

has been created in him was life and that light was the light of men. That light shines

in the darkness and yet the darkness did not overcome it. These are the Holy Scriptures.

May God bless our study of them this morning. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father,

we approach you with deep humility and gratitude for who you are. Old Heavenly King,

Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Come and abide in us and with us as we open up the Scriptures.

We long to not just be intrigued by information. We want to be transformed by revelation.

And you and you alone can offer us that gift as we not only listen with our physical

ears but we are also attuned to the inner lucidity of the voice of the Spirit as you are

bringing truth to our souls that will empower us to accomplish our call to walk the earth

as the pardon of God in Jesus. They may pray. Amen. So here we are jumping into John.

Here is my overall point this morning that I want to consider and verses one through five.

I am working really hard. I fact the first version of this sermon was verses one through

eight. I just couldn't do it. So I'm going to work hard to get through the book of John

in less than four years. However, there are going to be moments where we need to stop and

suddenly in and just kind of land the plane and look specifically at some of the trees that

we're passing over. And I think the prologue to John is one of those places. Now I will tell

you the title of this series is John beholding Christ. It is rooted in my identity as an absolute

coward. That is why I entitled this study beholding Christ. It was my cowardice because what

I wanted to do, what first built out on that blank computer screen was John beholding the

Christ in you. But I was afraid without explanation that that language might end up being confusing,

but make no mistake. We are studying this ancient writing about the historical Jesus who walked

on earth, who suffered, who bled, who died, who who has raised again to life, resurrection life.

That's what we're looking at. But I'm looking at it for another agenda beyond just looking at that

for the information. It is my hope and prayer after collossions. You understand the life that we

are looking at is your life because Christ is in you, the hope of glory. That my desire is that instead

of information just about the Savior from the past, we take what the past says about Him right

here in the present. And all of us enter into some version of Paul's experience in Galatians

to 20, where we can say it's no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, the life that I now

live, and the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So therefore,

in some sense what is true about Jesus is true about the body of Christ, what's true about

Jesus, it's true of you. So when we look at the historical Christ through the testimony of John,

we are also peering into the mystery and getting to know more intimately the life that is already present

in us. And hopefully it will come back this strange dualistic assumption that exist in modern

Christianity, we're just striving really hard to be something we're not so we can look like

Jesus and honor God. Living like Jesus you will find is the most natural, simple way to live

because you are suited for it. It might come to a surprise to some of us but the truth is living

antichrist is not the life humans were suited for. It's not the life we are created for. Therefore,

I'm not battling with the bad me trying to be like Jesus and I'm engaged in a fight of faith to

actually trust that what He says about me is true. That's the battle of faith. It is not affirming

these things. It's actually having the audacity to believe that you're forgiven, redeemed people,

who house the presence of Almighty God. That is the real battle of faith. So this morning what I

want us to remember is that the Christ who is in you is the living word and the un-created God

who created all that has been created. Therefore we must understand that when we behold Christ,

we are beholding our trueest self for we are the dwelling place of God.

When we behold Christ, we are beholding the life within us, the life that is

residing in the soul of humanity because Christ who is in you the hope of glory is the living

word and the un-created God who created all that has been created. And it helped will

visual feel remember from our study of the book of Colossians which truth be told my agenda and

Colossians had John in my sight. But you remember this from our study of Colossians,

what we're going to read about and this is mystery of the incarnation, the way God works in the

world as He expresses, I mean I love when we hear about miracles, we're God interrupts natural laws

and natural order and He works things that our mind can't get around. But we have to understand

that that is a special way that God works in the world not really the typical way. If we look

at the scripture typically God does not work in the world independently of men and women who are

called to manifest the work in the tangible world in which we live. And so what we're going to

see is the incarnation is that God chose to reside in Christ. This is the model of the incarnation

but the incarnation is not intended to simply be a Christian doctrine that we acknowledge,

but rather it's a paradigm for the spiritual life because it reveals how God is at work in the world.

So just as God was in Christ revealing Himself to the world now Christ resides in His body.

Christ lives in us as the tangible expression of the love, the power and the mercy of God.

And so therefore this principle at the very beginning of the Book of John is of critical importance.

Number one, number two, John is going to reveal some things that might be either difficult

or may be even offensive to some of the ideologies that of which we partake from time to time.

And so I want to say this, if I offend please give me a chance to correct my communication.

Some of you here have been walking with Jesus for the better part of your lives.

But if we are doing our job as a community, hopefully there are those here

that have yet to make the decision to walk with Jesus.

Hopefully there are those here that very zealously chose to follow Jesus.

And after a devastating experience of toxic, church, culture, or toxic theology,

there's still this little shred of belief but there's no motivation to

actively engage in the practice of the Christian faith.

And maybe part of that is you were taught to assume belief rather than work to an affirmation of belief.

And therefore you weren't allowed to believe wrong things and still follow Jesus.

That's it all do respect.

I stupid thing that churches propagate.

Because if you look at the man who walked most intimately with Jesus, they didn't have him figured

out till years even after the resurrection.

It's still taking Peter 10 years after Jesus, he still can't wrap his mind around the fact that

Jesus came for everyone. He has to have a dramatic vision. Therefore, your experience of salvation,

God is not limited to your inability to comprehend or even to agree with a doctrine.

He is just looking for your heart to be open to begin to respond and here's the thing

our faith journeys and our intellectual journeys are rarely on the same path.

Which is why saying a gust and said ours is a faith seeking understanding.

Because there are moments when faith comes much easier than the understanding.

And that is okay.

So you can disagree with the pastor. You can disagree with the elders and the grand elders.

And please hear my heart here.

You can even disagree with what John's writing in the scripture.

Because you might not be there intellectually. And yet you find your heart saying yes Lord,

I would implore you, respond to the spirit and be patient with your intellectual journey.

Now having said that, I also want to make clear that we are building a church community

that sees herself as part of a movement. We are not just an independent church.

We are a community captivated by the call to join the movement to be so rooted in God's love

that we are changing the understanding and expression of Christianity in our generation.

Therefore, it's imperative because you don't have to join the movement to follow Christ.

But some of you who are called the follow Christ will also be called to join the movement

that the spirit is birthing through this community. And if so, it's important that we understand

who we are talking about when we talk about Jesus. And even if you're not there yet intellectually,

we are talking about the eternal, uncreated God. This is what causes our faith to be very different

than other faith systems or expressions. We are not talking about Jesus, the yoga guru that

can just feel me with more peace and serenity. We are not talking about Jesus, the ethical

teacher that can tell me whether or not I'm living a moral life or not. Now all these expressions

are inclusive. I'm not demonizing them. I'm just saying we're talking about something larger than that.

We're talking about even something larger than an ideology to put my hopes and faith into so that

hopefully I address that anxiety of death that we all have as humans because we're not sure what

happens afterwards, which has been the primary selling point of evangelical Christianity of the past

one hundred years. But I'm talking about something way more than that.

I'm not even talking about the Americanized Jesus who's buffed and if you wanted to,

you could just break the cross through the spikes and protect his guns and his money.

I'm not talking about that Jesus. What I am talking about is all those visions being called

to humbly submit to the revelation of Jesus and Scripture who is the manifestation

of the un-created God. That's our starting point with John. So let's look at this prologue together.

John 1, let's look at verses 1 and 2. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God

and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. There in that little section of two

verses, there is a phrase that serves as bookmarks for the thoughts. It's repeated twice and two

verses. I don't think I could help you out any more than that. What's the phrase?

Please. The same phrase is at the beginning and the end and the beginning. Now,

does that even if you're not an avid Bible reader, does that remind you of anywhere else in this

book that we read that phrase? The first opening words of the Scriptures, the opening words of

the Hebrew Bible are in the beginning. In the beginning. Now, do you think that was an accident?

I would submit to you it was not an accident. John knows what he's doing when he uses that phrase

to encompass his opening thoughts of his gospel. It's because we're supposed to be alerted.

We are reading about the new creation narrative and he's pulling in that echo of the

original creation narrative. John is going to show us something about Jesus.

What he's going to do is to say in the coming of Jesus, there was a fullness of time where

God was doing something unique in the world. It even divides our Western calendars.

Because God has done something unique because in here it is a re-creation. Think about this.

This is so fascinating to me. In the original creation narrative, humanity is made in the

image of God. In the new creation narrative, divinity takes on the clothing of human flesh.

And that is something that's utterly unique because it's not even mentioned in that first

opening creation narrative. God is doing something brand new in the world that he created.

And look at the metaphors. Notice this. I'm using the word Jesus. The ideas that I want

to look at this morning are that Jesus, the word of God, Jesus, the word of God is the source of

life and Jesus, the word of God is the light of the world. Those are the three ideas we're going

to look at. But what I want you to see is even though I've introduced the word Jesus, John has not.

In fact, it's likely that what John did after he wrote his gospel, he actually went back

after it was written and wrote the prologue, like any good communicator would did.

And he adds this prologue. He's written at the top of the gospel that he's written because

this is the vision of Jesus that he is expressing in the rest of his gospel.

So in the first creation, we have humanity made in the image of God. In second creation,

you have God taking on humanity. And so John doesn't begin with the word Jesus. He brings

that in, Father, down, chapter one. But I think we need to honor the fact because we read this.

And when we read in God, we think Jesus and Yahweh or we might think Son and the Father.

And it's okay. I'm not saying that those concepts aren't present there. But I am saying,

let's honor the fact that that's not John's original go to metaphors. What are his metaphors

for Jesus that he is the word who is with God and who is God, that he is life and that he is

light. These are the metaphors of Jesus with which he begins. And if we want to go full circle,

we can also say John is the apostle who in his epistles gives us one other metaphor for who God is.

Anybody? Oh, thank you, front row. He is the one that's going to say, God is love.

Word, light, life, love. These are the introductory metaphors for understanding John's thinking.

John will show that Jesus is the word, but first has metaphors for Jesus, our word,

life, light and love. And he simply says the word was in the beginning, was in the beginning,

was with God and was God. The unique idea of Christianity is that both

is that Jesus is both human and divine. He is the creator God who chose to become a man

that he might reveal himself to his creation by entering the human experience. The God who is

Spirit takes on the flesh of humanity. And John says this is his word. Now just a brief

parenthetical explanation. Do I have time for that? Maybe maybe not. We'll see the

11th again if I had time for it or not. I think a sense of humor about your past experience is

healthy to grow through difficulties in identifying your own growth of maturity. So sometimes,

I find some of my proclivities and beliefs and habits laughable. But because I'm laughing at my

habit, it doesn't mean I'm laughing at you if you engaged in that habit. I don't intend it to be

a personal insult because the evidence suggests that most of you are way more sincere than I am.

So I've got to take that into account. So I don't care if we use this phrase, but I don't

think it's inconsequential. If our minds replace Jesus as the Word of God to the Bible as the Word of God.

I just want to highlight that in the Scriptures, the Bible is not called the Word of God.

In the Scriptures, the Scriptures are called the Scriptures. Now there's one fundamental reason

for that, which is when most of the women written, we didn't have what we call the Bible.

That doesn't get codified and said, little by little until after the fact that it was written.

No one sat down and said, you know what? Think I'm going to add it after the Bible today.

No one did that. And I do think it's important for us to understand.

The Word of God in Scripture isn't the Bible.

Who, who or what is the phrase Word of God referring to in the Scripture?

Jesus. So for me personally, I'm not saying anyone else is doing this. I realize there's

something of idolatry when I put my interpretation of the Scriptures in my language on equal

par with Jesus. And it creates a weird dichotomy that puts people under strange condemnation

because here's the thing, you can still be faithful to Jesus and have questions about the Bible.

It is okay. It just means that you're creator in dowry with a brain that's going to

cause you to investigate and ask questions that is not being unfaithful to God.

It is honoring him with the intellect that he gave you. Because it's very crystal clear from

these passages that John understands that the Word of God is in fact Jesus.

To experience Jesus is to know the life of God in the human soul.

And again, when we call it the Bible, we're looking for principles for living.

When we call it Jesus, we're looking for a person whose presence is real.

And it's not the exact same thing. So to follow Jesus is not simply to align myself with the

principles of the written Word, it is to give myself to the presence of the living Word.

That's what we are talking about when we talk about following Jesus, which is why

we have the unique honor of being part of a community that's not going to hold your faithfulness

to Jesus to affirmations of the body of doctrinal belief statements. We're all here because of the

revelation of Jesus drawn by the Holy Spirit and we may all have very different beliefs about

doctrine and how we interpret the Bible. You know what? That can be difficult if we're not

following the Spirit, we can be really mean with one another because of that. Or in humility,

we can recognize that this diversity is a beautiful tapestry that God is weaving together.

And we understand, I can't do this on my own. I need the gifts of the body of Christ in order to be

healthy. And in order for me to be open to the gifts of the body of Christ, my criteria cannot be.

I'm only going to listen to those. I already know previously, agree with my interpretation and my outlook.

We actually get to enter into that diversity and realize it's a more faithful expression of the

nature of God than homogene. Sameness. So number one, Jesus, the Word of God, is God. We are talking

about God and clothing flesh. Number two, Jesus, the Word of God, is the source of life,

and light for everyone. The other thing I want to challenge you in is that we are taught to read the

scripture as if the truth it extoses is primarily for Christians. And the Bible never puts

those parameters around itself. We are talking about the uncreated God. We're not just talking

about the intellectual property of organized Christian religion. Hopefully it's an organized

Christian religion is informed by that, but our history shows us that it has not always been.

We are talking about the revelation of God to humanity. And this is what John cares about.

So he uses the Word of God for Word. Because the Word of God would have been something that his

Jewish audience, which he is primarily writing for probably, his Jewish audience would have heard

that and they would have recognized this concept already. Because they already had this idea that

there's the Word of God and then there's the logo of God. The logo is the way God gets communicated

and works in his world, which is why you'll see often references in the Old Testament to the Word of

God. It's not void the Word of God. It's going to accomplish whatever he intends for it to.

And if you go to the Book of Proverbs, it gets a little closer to what John's talking about,

because in Proverbs it's called wisdom and wisdom is personified, not as an attribute of God,

but as a living entity that was there with God at the beginning of creation. So as he says,

it was the Word through which God created everything. Proverbs is going to celebrate that it was

wisdom that was there at the foundation of the world. So that idea is already there in Jewish

thinking, but also the Greeks, this Word of God, it also was essentially first principles

of Greek philosophy. So they too would have had a reference point for what Paul, for what John is saying,

as he approaches his gospel, totally different than the other three gospels, because his

end is intended to have a larger, more universal appeal. So John, unlike the others, he doesn't

begin with genealogy. That would have been important if only Jews were reading the gospel,

but for a gospel that has universal appeal, he's not going to begin at genealogy,

because that's to begin with the earthly origins of Jesus. And John doesn't want to do that.

John wants to begin with the heavenly non-orrogens of Jesus, because he was never created.

He just always was existing as the Word through whom all things were created. And John celebrates

this. So the Jesus we're seeking to follow is the uncreated God who is the source or creator of

life and life for everyone. Look at how he very simply says it in verse three, all things were

created through him. And apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created. In him

was life and that life was the light of men. Paul will go on to celebrate in that great

him of Christology in Coashins 1, 15 through 17. Christology is just the body of theology that

deals with the study of Christ. It means nothing but man, it's really cool to say, isn't it?

I certainly felt smarter immediately whenever I said the Word Christology. Anyway, in that great

him of Christology, founding Colossians, chapter one, verses 15 through 17, what is Paul

Rod? He says he, in speaking of Jesus, is the image of the invisible God. He is the image

of the invisible God. He is the first born of our old creation. Why? Verse 16, for everything was

created by him. In heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or

dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him.

He is before all things and by him, all things hold together.

Even those who deny him, even those who fail him, even those who betray him, even those who

want to live as if there is no reality of a creator. Your creator is so loving and gracious

that he holds those in defiance of him together. That's the life that's in you.

My inability to forgive is a bit of an illusion of my ego because the truth is,

there's a life in me that holds his enemies together because of love and mercy.

God is not engaged in a cultural war conflict that some unfortunately of his fathers get

followers get preoccupied with. There's no conflict with the one who holds everything together.

He'll go on to say in Colossians chapter 3, in Christ there is not Greek, in Jews,

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

circumcision, an unsurconcision barbarian, schithian, slave and free, but Christ is all and

Christ is all and in all. Now that may be theologically disturbing. It's okay.

That's why there's coffee and rubins and good pipes to backo and if need be a $30 hour and a half

cigar so that you can engage and leisure and contemplate theology. That's what it's intended for,

but we can still begin with, man, I don't understand how all that works. In fact, it creates a lot of

questions for me because it doesn't quite drive with the simple formulas I was given and yet even though

I don't understand it, I trust Christ enough that I can look at the scripture and say, I choose to have faith

that that's true. He's holding everyone together. He's present in everyone, even those who follow a different

religious structure are those who deny his existence altogether. It's a beautiful thought here, isn't it?

That there is something of Christ nonetheless still saturating what seems at times to be a God

for second world. It's the very opposite of God forsaken my friends. It is a God saturated

cosmos in which we are living. Jesus abounds. Finally, he says that Jesus the Word of God

is the light of the world who will always triumph. Here's how he says it, verse 5.

That light shines in the darkness and get the darkness dead not overcome it. Love wins.

Love always wins. Love will always win. Put down your weapons, your noble calling

is not that of a culture warrior standing in antagonism to the world that God wants to taste his

grace and forgiveness. He can't use you for that mission as long as you want to be a soldier for his

ideology. In the mission of God only wounded humbled lovers will do because that is his

posture and you don't have to combat because he wins. If you believe that the school system in

America was handed over to the sovereignty of nation whenever a law was passed that there

couldn't be organized prayer. Then may I humbly as your friend suggests, your God is too small

and it is not the God celebrated by the prologue of John's gospel. Because that God

didn't give up because some puny Americans passed a law. He didn't decide, well I'm no longer

going to be on the present. I can't. I've been able to cleverly overcome the oppression of all

the other countries throughout history until I didn't see them coming. You got to states they

passed a law against me. Guess I'll back away and encourage my followers to become known for their

fear mongering and withdrawal instead of engaging the darkness because we know that darkness

will never ever overcome the light. Law will always win. In fact there is a vision that the

apostle Paul articulates and I really hate the way it's been treated because when we read this,

we read into it things that are not there. We are going to read into the scripture that I'm

about to read. My guess would be you were taught to read it in a weaponized way and I would

implore you to take a moment and not read it as a weaponized threat but read it instead of potentially

beautiful and glorious future from humankind that's birthed out of the power and grace of God.

Because instead of being a culture warrior Paul gives us a different vision it's in Philippians 2

Philippians 2:9–11

verses 9 through 11 for this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above

every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. It doesn't say so at the name of Jesus

every Christian knee will bow. That's the hotwood it said for one thing the Christianity that you and I

know and practice did not exist when Paul wrote this letter. He's talking about something that

predates organized Christianity and he says so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and

heaven on on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father. Now I don't pretend that I have a sophisticated doctrine that I've

organized out of that revelation. All I can say is this the scripture's point me to a world view

full of optimism because it says there will be a time when all those who experience Christ as

hidden from their view will one day see him as he is. That one day everyone will recognize

Jesus Christ is Lord and will bow the knee before his sovereignty. This is the vision that is in my heart

it is not about the destruction of America. It is not about the doom and gloom prophets. It is

I believe in my heart that God is working this dream to fruition where there is a time when every

knee is bowed and every tongue confesses and I just want to be part of that mission right now

that great revealing that great unveiling of who he is. So how do we respond

in mysteries as magnificent as these? Man I spend a lot of time in turmoil this week

so you can see those five verses carry with it so many different ways that we could go and we could think

and even thinking about the application I started in one area of thought at the beginning of the

week and it just grew over time but I think for this morning we're going to do something that's

a little out of the norm and I want to end this sermon with a call for every individual

if you are not already to become a follower of Jesus or if need be to renew your calling to follow

Jesus. Become a follower or if need be renew your calling to follow him. How do you do this?

You all know how much I struggle with formulaic simplicity and yet I felt the gen overview

of the Lord this week that perhaps I've over communicated that this day and I want to be as

practical as I can this morning number one learn more you you don't have to believe like us

to be our friend and to entraveling companion. Most churches are built on the assumption

that you must believe in order to belong. God has called us to a different mission to create space

where you can belong before you believe. So you are welcome here with all your doubts

insecurities and vehement disagreements it's okay that's part of the process of learning.

Jesus himself said even the builder considers the cost before building. Learn learn by being with us

by worshiping with us learn by sitting with us at our potluts where we can share our lives together.

If you're a podcast person learn by asking about podcast books that you might read that have been

helpful to others but what I am saying is the approach in the Bible is to welcome space for you to

grow not threaten you with imminent dangers of hell if you don't make a decision by this second.

I don't see that in the scripture. I see Jesus creating place to say consider

the cost learn more but then at some point in that learning it has to coalesce with this in goal.

Believe in Jesus the Son of God the Savior of the world the Lord of life.

Align yourself with him this is so critical there is a false ideological religion out there

that says transformation comes from affirming information. This is a lie it isn't true that is just an

invitation to ideology that becomes idolatry because it's a replacement for Jesus because our faith

is in what we believe about Jesus not in the work of Jesus and this is a mistake from which we must

repent. So align yourself with him repent of the sins that have harmed yourself and others when

you were not following the way of Jesus. So many times evangelists insert a false human motivated

guilt and shame over our sins. I will not do that. If you're not aware of how living anti-Christ

is bringing chaos and destruction then you shouldn't be pressured to change your way of living.

You shouldn't be pressured to have to live a different way. What I'm talking and that's what causes

a false repentance because I'm repenting over the sins that you're mentioning not my own.

Repentances when you recognize the flow of your life that is anti-Christ and self-procupied

has caused a way of thinking that is harming yourself and the people around you that you love.

It's called the consequences of sin. It's the consequences of living anti-Christ and when you can see that

you can come to Jesus and be liberated by that shame and that guilt because he extends for

given this. So repent of the sins that have harmed yourself and others when you were not following

you. Ask Jesus to empower you to follow him with your life. Pray. Ask Jesus to be your life

and your Lord and to fill you with this power so that you can become a manifester of his love in the world.

And then it's crazy but I think the first couple centuries of the church had the right idea.

Instead of decision cards and follow what phone calls get baptized. That's what this whole thing is about.

It's not a shrink it, it's not a gimmick, it's not something cute to put in a photo book,

it is a declaration that I realized I no longer live, I have died with Christ, I was buried with him

in the consequences of death and with him in that place I was made to life again by the resurrecting

power of the life giving spirit that rose Jesus from the dead and so I come out of the waters

in the numerous of resurrection life intent on following him all the rest of my days.

It's this public declaration the former is passed away the new has come.

In fact the early churches you went in the waters without clothing. When you came up they wrapped

a robe, a white robe around you. I am not suggesting we return to the practice

this. Particularly in the close quarters of the baptismal state but I am saying that we appreciate

the imagery that they were going for because you do go into the waters naked and you rise

symbolic the fact that you are a man or a woman forever clothed in the righteousness of Christ

never needing to doubt his love acceptance or grace be baptized my friends as an affirmation of your

faith. That was the universal appeal bear with me for one more and if you're here this morning

if you're connected to this community it might mean that the way you're going to walk that journey

out is it with this community and so I would consider you I would suggest that you consider

joining the movement to be a community so rooted in God's love that we are renewing the

understanding and expression of Christianity in our generation. With the worship team come forward as

we get ready to come forth and take communion. As you seek the Lord I'm not going to tell you to

repent to repeat a prayer after me pray your own prayer it'll be way more meaningful but

if we can be part of your journey and you want to talk about baptism and getting plugged into the

movement here call us make an appointment I would love to sit and talk with you I would love to

as long as it's helpful to you to be present in your journey to serve you in any way that I can

until such a time as my service is less than what you need for your next season of growth.

I would be happy to walk with you. Let us know if the spirit called you to say your own prayer this

morning. So everyone stand it was become to the Lord's table I'm asking you to discern where the Holy

Spirit is causing you to act to believe or to renew to align through repentance to pray or to

time to be baptized or as it time to recognize the futility of a missionless life and may be

joined the movement to live the love. Create some space, respond to this.