January 21, 2024 / Serve Others

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth

for the life we're searching for. Well, if you have your Bibles this morning, we're

going to talk about serving. And please pick them up and turn to 1 Peter chapter four today,

1 Peter chapter four. You know, a few weeks ago, we began talking to you about four practices

that would change everything in your life. And I always felt like that was maybe a little

bit ambitious in terms of a title or a subtitle, four things that would change everything in

your life. I have people that come to me and say this kind of title about a restaurant.

If you eat there, it will change everything about your life. And when I go, I'll find

out that they've over-promised and under-delivered sometimes. But I'm not going to do that with

you because these four practices that we're talking about do change everything about your

life. The first week we focused on worship, on the importance of knowing God intimately

through worshiping Him. The second week we talked about connecting with others and the

fact that we're not designed to be alone, we're designed to be with other people and

the reason for that. And then we're looking at this week at serving others, serving others.

And we're going to look at 1 Peter chapter four, would you stand with me as we read God's

word together today? 1 Peter chapter four, beginning in verse seven.

Peter is written to a group of people that are facing persecution in their days ahead.

They're not suffering physically yet, but they're definitely being maligned by a culture

that didn't value the gospel of Jesus Christ or the values that He espouses. They didn't

appreciate the church. They didn't understand why these people were following Jesus so wholeheartedly

and why they were living the way they were. And so they're in a place where they have

a lot of persecution and Peter's encouraging them to keep serving no matter what. And here's

what we read beginning in verse seven. He said, the end of all things is near. Therefore

be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent

in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable

to one another without complaint. And then in verse 10, as each one has received a special

gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to

do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies so that in all things God

may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and

ever. Amen. Father, show us the truth of this text to each heart, to each mind. Let us be

able to walk out of here knowing how to serve well in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

I love this text. I love where it's directing us. But when you first read this text, you

see the word serve. Whoever's been gifted by God to serve, then employ that gift in

serving one another. And we missed some of the important details about how to be a servant

of God, to bring glory and honor to him. So here's what I'm going to do today. I'm going

to challenge you with this statement. I'm going to challenge you by saying a commitment

to consistently serve God by serving others will fulfill your life's greatest meaning

and purpose. I really believe that. Now I know that people find lots of meaning and

lots of purpose in all kinds of things. I realize that people feel pretty fulfilled

with certain possessions or certain things that they have in their lives, certain people

that are around them. They sometimes feel like they have fulfilled a certain goal that

they have by accomplishing something in business or sports or something else. Many of us would

feel fulfilled if the Cowboys would ever win a Super Bowl, you know, which they won't

anytime soon. But I'm talking about a whole different level of fulfillment, a whole different

level of purpose. It's purpose and fulfillment that one day lets you stand before God and

hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. And I want you to be prepared for

that. Peter wanted his people to be prepared for that. And part of the meaning and purpose

that God has for you is that God is working in your life so much that you will rub off

on the other people in this culture. Rub off in terms of the things of truth, the things

of the spirit, the things of love. God wants you to rub off with other people and that's

done best by serving. Now if you look at this passage in its length, then you see a bookend.

You see something that precedes everything he says about serving and something that follows

everything that he says about serving. And these are both very important. The first thing

he says is the end of all things is near. Now you may be one of those people that say,

well the Bible says that all the time, that Jesus is coming back soon, the end of all

things is near and yet he's not back yet. And yet everywhere you read in the scripture,

no matter who is writing it, the perspective is you be watching because someday he'll come

back sooner than you expect. Jesus said that. He said, I'm coming back. No man knows the

day or the hour, but I'm coming back. Paul writes that in Romans, the book of Romans

and says, live as though Christ is coming back quickly. The book of Philippians, he

says the end of all things is near. Peter writing in this letter says the end of all

things is near. Be ready for Christ to return. Live with that kind of perspective because

even though we don't know when he will return, he may return for you soon. You may not have

as long as you think on this planet. Live realizing that you don't have forever to serve

the Lord well. Then the last part of that book end, the other side, the opposite side

of the beginning there where he says the end of all things is near is so that in all things,

this is verse 11, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belongs the glory and

dominion forever and ever. Amen. Before he talks about serving, before he talks about

heart, he says live with a perspective, an eternal perspective that says I don't know

how long I have, but I'm going to be faithful to the end. I then live in such a way so that

at the end of all you say and do, Jesus Christ might be glorified through what you do, through

what you say, through how you serve. So live as though God has given you a certain amount

of time and you don't know how long and live in such a way that brings glory and honor

to God. Amen. All right, now the meat of this text tells us how to do that. And I want you

to see three things that Paul says. Two of them, again, are prerequisites to being able

to serve well. And you're going to be surprised that Paul, that Peter says these things first

before he actually gets to the passage or the part that says with all the gifts you've

been given, employ them in serving the Lord. So what does he say comes first? The first

thing he says that happens for you to serve well is to learn to be focused in your prayer.

Focused prayer starts everything. Do you notice what it says in verse seven? Therefore be

of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. Now sometimes we don't

think about prayer as being a prerequisite for much at all, but it really is a prerequisite

for living for God well. He says be of sound mind and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

If I'm going to serve others well, then I need to have my mind on the right things and

I need to have my prayer life in the right order. How I pray, what I ask God for, it's

what I look for in life. And so often sometimes we pray for things that are just for us, just

because we want something, just because we think we ought to be blessed a little bit

more or a little bit bigger in some way. And so Peter's giving us really sharp words to

say something like this. Sound judgment by the word means sane, not insane, and sober

spirit means not intoxicated by everything around us. So basically Peter is saying when

you pray, pray in a sane manner, not intoxicated by the culture that's around you. Well, that's

a different take on prayer. That makes me evaluate my prayer life a little bit more.

In a world where the culture says life is about you, your prayer life shouldn't reflect

that. It should reflect that life is about God and about how you will serve him and how

he will use you. That's a big deal. You know, I read a book a number of years ago by a man

named Donald Miller. In fact, the title itself, it was called Blue Like Jazz. I don't read

every book I come across or see, but Blue Like Jazz captured my imagination. I thought

what could possibly this book be about? And it was about a non-spiritual view of Christianity.

Before he came to Christ, he had written a number of things down and one of those things

that he wrote down and included in his book was this statement that shocked me when I

read it, but also opened my eyes to some things in my own life. Here's what he said. He said,

the most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this, life is a story about me. Life

is a story about me. And this book, Blue Like Jazz, he goes on and describes a movie where

you're watching on the screen, the movie unfold and you in your minds, I have you as a central

character. You're the star of the show. And Donald Miller said, I came to realize that

life is not about me, that I'm not the star of that movie or star of that show. And when

I began to realize that, I realized there was a whole bigger world that God has placed

me in and a bigger purpose for living and for serving. And I believe that's true. I

also believe that when we consider ourselves to be sane in the way of prayer and sober-minded

and focused so as not to be like the culture that we live in, we'll pray in a much more

selfless way. We'll pray less for us and more for God to work in people's lives around us.

I don't know how you record your prayers, if you record your prayers, but I record mine

with bullet points. I write down things that I'm praying about and I know all the words

that are behind the bullet points, so I simply write the bullet point down. And as I continue

on in prayer day after day, I may look back at a certain thing I've been praying for and

I may conclude, because God has not answered it or because God has changed my perspective

about that request, I need to delete that prayer request. And so I just mark it off

and take it off because that prayer request was either so selfish or so centered around

me that God wasn't going to answer that prayer. And he brought me to the place of saying,

don't pray about that anymore. That might be insane. Instead, pray in a sober-minded

way like Peter is talking about. Be focused in such a way where you're praying for something

that God really wants to accomplish in your life instead of just what you're asking for.

I wrote this sentence down last week because it means so much to me in light of what we're

talking about. Since what we ask for is what we look for, be sane and sober about what

you ask God for. Since what we ask for is what we look for, be sane and sober. Otherwise,

you're going to be looking for things that God has no intention of fulfilling in your

life. You're wasting your prayer time. You're wasting your dreams in many ways. Now I'm

not saying that God doesn't bless us in extraordinary ways. Looking back in life, I can't think of

one thing to complain about in my life. God has provided above and beyond in purpose and

meaning and everything I can possibly need. I look back and say, God, I have no disappointments.

But if I base my feeling on all the things I've prayed about during the year, I would

have to say there's some things that I just didn't get that I asked for, and that was

for the best. Be sane, be sober, be focused on what you're asking God for. Ask God to

glorify himself through your life. Now let me just say this ultimately. Serving is something

people do who know that life is not about convenience and it's not about pleasure. It's

about something much higher. And that is serving is about bringing honor and bringing glory

to God, his purpose and his plan for our lives. So be focused in prayer. The second prerequisite

before we even get to serving is equally important, and that's what I call forgiving love. Forgiving

love. Notice what it says in verse eight and nine. Peter says, above all, keep fervent

in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. And the word fervent

means stressed out and intense. Now the word for love here is the agape word. It means

unconditional love. And Peter say, in this unconditional love that you are to be expressing

to other people, let it be stressed out as far as it has to be in order to reach those

people with a love that God has loved you with. Now by the way, sometimes people read

a verse like this and they say with a little bit of confusion in their life, so if I love

someone well enough, does that mean it covers a multitude of my sin? I mean the world thinks

that today. They think if you're kind enough, if you're loving enough, if you're accepting

enough, if you're tolerant enough, then that's good enough for God no matter what else you

do in your life. But that's not what the gospel says. The gospel, the good news of Jesus that

you find all the way through the pages of the New Testament and the Old Testament looking

ahead to it, the New Testament fulfilling it is, you could never do enough, you could

never love enough, you could never be good enough, sincere enough, religious enough,

you could never avoid the bad things enough for you to be justified in God's eyes. It

took Jesus Christ dying on the cross and His blood covers all of our sins and the sense

of forgiveness. You're not saved because you love people well, you're saved because Jesus

loved you well. You're saved because He loves you enough to die on the cross and that's

really important to point out in a world that doesn't see it quite like that. So what's

Peter saying? What's Peter saying if he says love covers all transgressions or all sin,

and then multiply to defend? What is he actually saying? Well, basically he's saying that we're

to love one another in spite of their sin. We're to love one another in spite of their

sin. Someone has said this, that this verse says love covers the sins of others but hatred

uses the sins of others to attack them. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 12, hatred stirs up strife

Proverbs 10:12

but love covers all transgressions. Well, love doesn't cleanse sin but it doesn't go

around talking about sin either. That's why gossip and slander are so odious in the eyes

of God. You can never serve God with a right spirit when you're always harping about somebody

else, always blaming somebody else, pointing out somebody else's fault, or in some ways

not forgiving others. Instead, we're to have forgiving love. Listen, when you have forgiving

love, when you love the way Christ has loved you, when you forgive the way Christ has forgiven

you, you are primed for serving other people like Christ served us. So it's important for

us to have forgiving love in our lives. Matthew chapter 18 verse 21 is one of those great

Matthew 18:21

passages where Peter, the author of this letter as well, has an encounter with Jesus and everybody

knows about this story. Peter goes to Jesus and he asks this question, this big question

about forgiveness. Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

Up to seven times? Now you've got to keep in mind this is the pre-filled with the Spirit

Peter, right? This is Peter when he was still putting his foot in his mouth, Peter when

he was still anxious and panicky, he was still violent in so many ways. This is the Peter

that Jesus rebuked and said, get thee behind me Satan. This is Peter raw and unplugged

before he really was filled with the Holy Spirit and became the Peter that we know of

today who wrote 1 Peter and 2 Peter. So he's asking Jesus how often shall my brother sin

against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times. Now if you know the mindset of the

Peter before he was filled with the Spirit, you would know the Peter saying, I've forgiven

this brother enough, don't you think so? I mean I've forgiven him seven times and I

think I've had it with him. I'm tired of him being around, I'm just going to take

care of him Jesus. Can I do that? Jesus, can I do that? Now it's sad to say that many of

us have the same kind of perspective of people in our lives that have offended us over and

over and over. Jesus, could I take care of them? Now maybe we may first be spiritual

enough to say, Jesus will you take care of him? And then when Jesus doesn't do it we

ask for permission that we can take care of him. How many times should I forgive? And

Jesus said, no, not seven times, not up to seven, but seven times seventy. And then Jesus

tells one of the most riveting stories in the whole New Testament. A certain king he

said had servants who owed him money and he called them to account. And one came in who

owed him ten thousand talents, so much it would be virtually impossible for him to ever

repay. And he said, I can't repay you. And the king said, then I'll sell you and your

family into servitude until this debt is paid. But the servant fell on his face and said,

have mercy on me king, oh king, oh Lord, have mercy on me because I can't pay this. And

the king had mercy on him and forgave him what he owed. Now that same man that had been

forgiven went off to someone that owed him money and said, pay me now or I'll sell your

family into prison, into servitude to pay back my debt. And the king found out about

it and said, oh you wicked slave, you wicked servant, you were forgiven of so many things.

I had mercy on you. Why did you not have mercy on the one who owes you? And in the story

Jesus said, you'll be turned over to tormentors until such time as you understand. That's

a strong story from the lips of Jesus Christ to emphatically say to Peter, Peter, you better

learn to forgive. It's going to be around for a while. And people who offend you will

be around for a while. And if you're ever going to serve anybody else, you've got to

have forgiving love. You've got to have it. Amen? You've got to have it. If you've ever

been on the other end of that forgiveness, you'll realize how precious, how powerful

it really, really is. Now in the context of 1 Peter, when we're hurt or we're wronged,

when we're misunderstood, when we're maligned, when our faith is mocked, when our Lord is

mocked in some ways, we practice servitude by forgiving as we've been forgiven. Otherwise,

there's no hospitality, which is in the next verse. There's no serving, which is on the

following verses. You don't serve until you forgive. Now we're in this really interesting

age of the church today. And it's really kind of hard to describe what age we're in, but

it's an age where so many people are so hurt by somebody in the church that they reject

the church as a whole. This movement is called the de-churching movement. And when you dig

into it, people ultimately say, well, I love Jesus. I just don't love his church. Well,

you probably shouldn't say to me, I love you, John, but I don't love your wife. It's important

for us to understand the relationship between Jesus and the church and honor that. But they're

saying this because somebody in the church offended them. Somebody hurt them. Somebody

somehow misrepresented Christ to them. And as a result of that, they say, I can't forgive

that. I won't look past that. I'm going to let that be a barrier between myself and the

church of Jesus Christ. That's the era we seem to be living in. And I'm here to say today

that forgiving love is the answer to that. Forgiving love is the answer to that in your

life. Being able to forgive others, even though you may not understand what they did or why

they did it, forgiving them, letting it go is what Christ did for you. And it's what

we are to do for others. And if we can't make it in an age that's reasonably friendly to

us as Christians, how would we make it in an age where Christians are always maligned

and persecuted? How can we possibly do well in an age like that? Forgiving love is a key

to be able to serve others. John Maxwell is a long time author and in many ways a leader

that many church leaders have looked to in some of his applications of leadership. And

the other day I watched him on a video and he said some incredible things that I want

to pass on to you. John Maxwell again I quote said, my father taught me to take the high

road. And the high road is basically that you don't treat people as they've treated

you. You treat them better than they've treated you. He used to say travel light son, travel

light. He said look beyond people's dysfunction and give them the benefit of the doubt and

the second chance and don't carry baggage. If you carry a grudge against someone and

they've done something wrong to you, just understand that while you're nursing their

hurt feelings, they're out dancing. It doesn't bother them at all. Don't let them control

your life. Don't let them control your emotions or your decisions. Travel light son, travel

light. That's good advice. How do you travel light? You have forgiving love. You forgive

people. I don't know what you may be carrying today. I don't know what might be in your

baggage. I don't know what someone has said to you or what's happened to you at some point

in your life. I don't even know if you are carrying any baggage but my encouragement

to you is don't carry the baggage in the same way that Jesus forgave you, forgive them,

whoever it is. However hard it is, take the high road that Jesus charted for us, forgiving

more than seven times, more than seven times, seventy times, forgiving like Christ forgave

us. If you learn to pray wisely in a focused way, if you learn to have forgiving love,

you're ready to serve. You're ready to serve. And that's why Peter finally comes to this

idea of serving and I call this faithful serving. It's interesting. He has us clean up our prayer

life. He has us taking care of our love life before we're ready to serve. And I think part

of that is because serving is not just doing, serving is who we are as we do what we do.

Serving with the right heart, serving with the right mindset. So here's what it says

in verse 10. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as

good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Notice that Peter doesn't say if. He's not

saying if you serve. Notice he's not recruiting. He's not saying please serve. He's saying

employ your gift. Put it to work. In the original language it's in the tenses that we call present

tense, active voice, and it is plural. Basically it means that you are to be doing this in

the sense of serving and employing your gift on an ongoing basis. It means you are the

active one in this. Nobody puts you to work and you don't wait for anybody to put you

to work. You actively do that. And the plural sense is all of you or y'all or you all. In

the Greek you pronounce this you all. Don't look it up. It doesn't really say that. But

I thought you would understand it better. And so if I were to word this in the way that

this language dictates it would be I want you all to be pursuing the calling to serve

one another. I want every one of you that have been born again that have the gift of

the Holy Spirit inside of them that have been gifted with spiritual gifts and that's all

of us to be pursuing the calling of serving one another. I want you to have your prayer

life right. I want you to have your heart right. I want you to forgive other people

but I want you to put that gift to work because I've called you to it. Now the scripture lists

seven motivational gifts and multiple manifestations of the Spirit. It's not my purpose to go through

those multiple combinations. There's probably 35 different combinations of spiritual gifts

and manifestations that we could list today. Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12. You can go and

look at all those things and we've done that before. But Peter doesn't name all those things.

In fact Peter boils it all down to two different things. I think what he's doing is the focus

is not on which spiritual gifts you have but the focus on how you use your spiritual gift

whatever it is. So he gives us two phrases here. Whoever speaks and whoever serves. And

he says each one of you fall into at least one of those two categories. Whoever speaks

and whoever serves. So notice verse 11. Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking

the utterances of God. The word literally means, the word speak means talk of any kind.

It's not necessarily preaching or teaching although it can include that but it's talk

of any kind. And his heart is in this passage. Anytime a follower of Christ indwelt by the

Holy Spirit speaks he or she is to speak with the utterances of God reflecting the truth

of God and what they say. You say well what else would they reflect? Well they would reflect

their own opinions or their subjective perspective on things instead of the things that God has

shown us is truth. I sometimes have people come to me and they say pastor I know the

Bible says this but and they go on into something diametrically opposite to what the Bible says.

Or I know you believe this or I know I've been told this in the Bible but I believe

this. Something again on the other direction. I'm usually like really you're going to start

with the word but and you're going to say all the things that you want to say now that

are opposite God's word. What Peter is saying is there are no buts in the Christian life

when it comes to serving God with your mouth. You speak the utterances of God and not anything

else. Your opinion and your perspective is not what serves others best. God's perspective,

God's opinion is what serves others best. We're to speak the truth in love. We have the heart

of love, the forgiving heart but we're also to speak as it were the utterances of God.

So it makes me say this before I open my mouth it's what I'm going to say going to reflect

the utterance of God or the utterance of me. And if it's the utterance of me I back off

until I can know the utterance of God because my opinion doesn't serve God well but his

word does. So whoever speaks. Speaking can be one of manifold kinds of things teaching,

encouragement, counseling, leading, singing, praying, welcoming, conversing. Whenever you

open your mouth be sure you speak the utterances of God. And in the context of being persecuted

somewhat Peter is saying in a hurting, painful, enemy filled world where believers may be

being persecuted and ridiculed make sure your speech reflects God's truth instead of your

pain or your frustration or your fear or your panic or anything else that you've gone through.

Speak the utterances of God. Now that you know what that says unleash those words. Say

it. Say the goodness of God to people. Speak the mercy of God to people. Speak the gospel

of Jesus Christ to people. Speak the truth, the right and wrong of the word of God to

people but do it in a loving way, in a prayerful way, in a way that adequately represents Jesus

Christ but let loose your word. Give the utterances of God to people who only hear the diametrical

opposite in this culture. Speak the utterances of God. Recently this past week my wife's

mother passed away into eternity. Her name was Dixie. She lived with us for the last

six years of her life and she's with Jesus today and we're really excited about the fact

that she's with Jesus today. She served for 40 years in her church in Irving, Texas as

the four year old Bible teacher for 40 years. Can you imagine teaching children for 40 years

who are four years old? I mean as parents we get to go through that stage right and

get out on the other side. She was perpetually in the four year old stage. Forty years. Can

you imagine the number of people that she steered towards Christ speaking the utterances

of God? Whoever speaks speaks the utterances of God. After that she spent about 10 years

being a greeter at the door welcoming people that came in with a smile and pointing them

to the places that they needed to go. Her mission was when I opened my mouth I want

to say things that attract people and draw people to Christ. That's a great mission isn't

it? And when you look back on life and you have had that kind of mission where whatever

gifts you're given if you're speaking you're speaking the utterances of God what an incredible

reward awaits you some day. And how many amazing lives have been changed as a result of that?

MCWC. Forty almost 50,000 women have heard of the gospel. Almost 40,000 babies have been

born as a result of the counsel or the utterances of God given to them in those counseling rooms.

Can you imagine that many people? This is a 3,000 seat auditorium. It was filled up

13 times. That's how many people those babies that are born represent. That's a whole city.

That's a whole town. Can you imagine how many people's lives have been impacted by those

who are serving God by speaking the utterances of God? In a world filled with anger? In a

world filled with sarcasm? How important is it for us today to have that amazing word

from God that He gifts us with as we serve with our speaking? And then finally, whoever

serves is to do so as the one who is serving by the strength God supplies. Some gifts are

speaking gifts. Some gifts are serving gifts. Let others see Jesus in you the way you pray,

relate to them, serve them, help them in any way. You may not know this, but there are

700 volunteers at Cross City Church every Sunday morning, whether they're teaching

or if they're at a door or they have opened the building to set up chairs, whatever it

might be. At our satellite, our north campus, for two hours before the service, they're

setting up chairs. For an hour after the service, they're tearing them down. They're serving

with their hands with the strength that God supplies so that the gospel can go out to

people's lives. We partner with kids' beach clubs and after school Bible programs. It

takes strength to do that. We work with Six Stones and rebuilding homes and providing food

for people. It takes strength to do that. You look at your neighbor across the street

that needs your energy to help them with something they can't do. You're serving the way God

wants you to serve. Peter says, as you serve, do it the way God is calling you to do it

with the strength that God supplies for you. Look around you. Find a way, do find a way,

to put the words that you know are God's words and the strength that you know is God's strength

to work in serving others for the cause of Christ. If you'll ask Him, He will show you

your God-given opportunities. What's my part? It's one of the greatest questions that we

get asked. What's my part in this? What's my part in impacting someone else's life?

Here's what I'm going to tell you. If you do that, you'll find your niche, your place,

your role in speaking or serving in some way and you'll fulfill one of life's most important

purposes for you. One day when you die, there's this obscure verse in the scripture that we

all quote when we think about death. We'll stand before Him and we hope to hear, you

know what it is, don't you? Well done, good and faithful servant. We just need to say

that together. Are you ready? Well done, good and faithful servant. I want to hear that

one day. I know I'm going to heaven when I die because of the gospel of Jesus but I want

to also hear, well done, good and faithful servant. I want to serve Him well in the amount

of time that I have on this planet and so do you. In just a moment, we're going to have

a prayer and I'll close our services with that prayer. I'm going to give you three invitations

today that are very important. First of all, I invite you to stop by a decision station

today and talk to someone about your relationship with God through Christ. We talked about the

gospel today, about the fact that gospel is all about Jesus dying for our sins, paying

for our sins, His blood, His love covers our sins. It's the only thing that will. It's

the only thing that will make us right with God. And if you've never made that decision

to allow Christ to do that for you, let us explain that to you and help you in that decision.

Decision stations are manned by our counselors that will be there. Secondly, I want to invite

you to our guest reception right outside the center exit doors and across the hallway as

a glassed in room. I'll be there to answer any questions you have about our church. Love

to visit with you further about Cross City Church. Thirdly, I want to invite you to come

back next week and bring someone with you. Bring someone who needs to hear the word of

God, who needs to be around people like you, who will feel the love of Christ and sense

the movement of the Spirit in this place. Bring them back with you. And as you leave

today, stop by MCWC and the booth that they've set up in our Commons area. Would you stand

with me as we close in prayer? Father, I am so grateful for every person in this room

today. Thank you that you stirred them today, that you moved them to be here today. They

took the time to address, to come to work, to worship today and to open their Bibles

and their minds to what you say to them. Lord, I know in every mind of this room there

has to be the question, am I serving God well? Am I serving him well? Lord, help them answer

that question. Show them what their part is. Whether inside the walls of a church or outside

the walls of a church, serving you is priority. Help them see the meaning and the purpose

for serving you well. For those that have questions about their spiritual life, help

us to bring answers today. You, Holy Spirit, show them their next step. Thank you so much.

As we leave today, we leave serving you for your glory, for your honor. In Jesus' name

we pray, amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful Lord's Day.