Using Your Gifts for God’s Glory

Oh Crossing Nation, I love you and I don't ever want to get

over. The fact that we get to be a

part of this beautiful season and mission together in 2025 is

off to an incredible start. I'm already hearing wonderful

stories of people taking their steps of faith in the life

change that comes alongside with it.

You might remember a couple of weeks ago when the roads were

covered in snow and it was really bad weather out and many

of you guys were not able to attend one of our physical

locations. But on that weekend we had 9

baptisms and in fact, we are already at 19 for the year.

And after service, I received a message on our internal comms

system of a screenshot of a person's Facebook message.

I got to read this to you. This is what it said.

Today marked a significant milestone for me.

I returned to church for the first time in 14 years alongside

some truly remarkable new friends who have enriched my

life with their presence. The snow covered roads did not

hinder my determination to open my heart to God's love and

guidance. As I step into 2025, I am

resolute in my commitment to personal growth and self

improvement, and I trust that God will illuminate the path

ahead. I am deep, deeply grateful for

the blessings of life and the opportunity to begin a new

journey. Hashtag Let God lead.

How cool is that? Then last weekend one of our

staff members saw somebody they had not seen in a while and he

asked what brought you here today?

And he said, well, a buddy was helping me lay some flooring and

I asked what I could do to thank him.

And he said not give me 100 bucks, not Take Me Out for a

meal. He said in exchange would you

see me at church tomorrow? And he came and after second

service last weekend, a young girl in our church came up to me

and she asked me what was the first verse that I read at the

beginning of last week's message.

And I said it was John 644. And then she said, is there any

chance you could start your sermon next week with that same

verse? Because I'm going to be bringing

somebody very important to me. And I want them to know that God

has been trying to get back into a relationship with them.

So if I may, I want to welcome all of you joining at our

different locations, those of you watching online, and those

of you who are part of our crossing family.

And I want to welcome those of you who are here for the first

time or the first time in a long time.

And we believe that you being here is no accident.

Why? Because John records these words

of Jesus in John 644, no one can come to me unless the Father who

sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

You are here for a purpose. For some of you, it might be out

of a routine. For others of you, you're here

today because you're just going through something and you need

some help and some hope. Others of you might be looking

for something new and something different.

No matter what's going on in your life, no matter what

brought you in, I know who brought you in.

God is trying to help you begin an intimate personal

relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.

We've been talking a lot about the spiritual spectrum and no

matter where you see yourself on the spiritual graphic, I want

you to know that God loves you no matter where you are on the

spiritual spectrum has nothing to do with your value.

Every person, no matter where they are on the spectrum, was

created by God and loved by God. John 316 tells us that God so

loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever

believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It does not say for God so loved all the plus threes and all the

plus fives. It says for God so loved the

world and that includes you. And as a church, our mission

here at the Crossing is to help people find an intimate personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. And we have a big audacious goal

that we want to make this region where we do life and ministry

the hardest place on planet earth to get to hell from.

In our region alone, we recognize that there are over

450,000 people who do not have a heavenly future beyond the

grave. This must and this should

consume us. But there is a harsh reality.

We cannot create the place we want to create unless we

createspace in our lives to become the people that God

created us to become. That's why we started the year

talking about making sure that we are creating space in our

lives to be committed to the Word of God.

How can we ever expect people to hear the good news about Jesus

if we don't know Him? How can we expect them to live

for Him if we don't know what living for Him looks like?

We don't want to just be people who read the word, but we want

to be people who do what it says.

It is better to live out one word of God than to read 10,000

words and do nothing. So in order to be the people

that God created us to be, we need to have a place and a time

and spend time in our word. Last week we talked about

prayer, creating space in our lives for prayer.

Right before I came out I heard an incredible, powerful story of

the Holy Spirit just working in a persons life to bless

somebody. Billy Graham, one of the most,

well the greatest evangelist that has ever lived, was asked

what are the most important steps in preparing for an

evangelistic revival for a lot of people to come to faith and

his answer was simple. It was prayer, prayer and

prayer. If we were wanting a phenomenal

move of God in the lives of our friends and our family, we must

be a people who are reliant on prayer and the power of God that

is released because of prayer. We want to start our days in

prayer. We want to have a place of

prayer and then we want to spend time praying before we step into

new things, whether that's going into the office or coming home

from the office, whether it is starting a conversation or

stepping into a meeting. We want to be people who are

covered in prayer. And one of the things you could

do, you could start a prayer journal.

That's what I've been doing. In fact, today after a first

server or during first service, one of the things that I've been

praying for is going to get answered and I and just

overwhelmed how good God is at that stuff.

And some of you might want to join me and a bunch of our

leaders at our church who are praying for our Weaver location.

Every day at 3:00 PM, I have an alarm set on my phone that goes

off that just says pray for Weaver.

And what we're praying for is for our Weaver location to have

300 people 4 weekends in a row. And if you're looking for a way

to get out of conversations that typically occur at around 2:55

every afternoon, this is a great, this is a great one.

And it's actually been kind of fun because if I'm on the phone

with somebody, I go, hey, we got to we got to pause.

Or if I'm taking kids somewhere at 3:00 every.

But when the alarm goes off, we could just spend some time in

praying, my boy. We had a chance to unload the

the chairs that those of you and we were sitting in.

And we, we hopefully, well, I don't know if it was hopefully

or not, but we were, I think the first people to ever pray over

those chairs. And it's fun when I have my boys

in the car and we pray for Weaver because they remember

praying over the chairs that the Weaver people are sitting in.

If we are indeed going to make this region the hardest place on

planet earth to get the hell from, we have to Createspace in

our lives, not just for prayer, not just for reading the Word,

but to serve the mission of God. Matthew chapter 18 you guys are

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

2818 through 20 says this. Jesus came to them and said all

authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

You guys have heard this a bunch of times, but we got to do a

quick recap. When Jesus gave the Great

Commission, it was an expectation that there would be

full, active, passionate participation.

This is not something that you and I have the right to ponder,

consider, or evaluate. This is something that you and I

are to do above all else. You and I do not get to come up

with our own mission. Why?

Because Jesus has all authority. If He is the King of our lives,

you and I are bound to be obedient.

We must make His last words our first priority.

So let's put the spiritual spectrum up for just a second.

So when it comes to your participation in serving the

mission of God, what number would you give yourself?

Let's say a -. 5 is someone who just shows up for church and

watches, but they're not leveraging their abilities to

advance the Kingdom. It is as soon as worship's over,

soon as the communion. We've got to get out of here

because I don't want to meet anybody, OK?

And if you're here, we love you. We just hope you don't stay

there. Plus 3 or -3 might be somebody

who doesn't believe that God could use them.

Maybe a -, 1 is somebody who used to be active, but for some

reason or another, they no longer are leveraging the gifts

that God has given. And they're kind of sitting on

the sidelines. They think that they need to

heal or they want other people to have a place to play.

And both of those are ways that Satan uses you to stop using

what God has given you to advance His Kingdom.

Maybe a zero is somebody who is ready to start serving the

mission, but they're not completely sure where they fit

in. Maybe a + 1 would be somebody

who's just starting to leverage their gifts and abilities for

the advancement of God's Kingdom.

A + 3 might be somebody who's God is using them in ways that

they never thought possible. And a + 5 is somebody who has

turned absolutely everything over to him.

They've written God a blank check in their lives.

I will do whatever, whenever, for whoever, for however long

you want me to do it. What number would you give

yourself? Take a second.

What number? I am not as concerned about the

number that you have. I'm more concerned about this

year you moving on the spiritual spectrum from left to right.

So if you're a -, 1, I'm hoping that this year you'll become a

zero. If you're a plus one, I'm hoping

that this year you'll make the moves to become a +2.

And how do we move from left to right in two ways, through faith

and obedience. It is when we believe that God

has called us, equipped us, and step into ministry moments.

It is in that that we realize what God has actually placed not

just in front of us, but in US. I want to walk you through a

really powerful verse. First Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

This is what it says. Each one should use whatever

gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering

God's grace in its various forms.

If anyone speaks, they should do one do so as one who speaks the

very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do

so with the strength that God provides, so that in all things

God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory and the power, forever and ever.

Amen. There's four things I want you

to notice inside of this chunk of scripture.

The first thing is, everyone has a gift.

Every single person that is hearing my voice and every

single person that the people who are hearing my voice will

ever lay their eyes on has a gift.

To say that you don't have something to offer is to say

that God is a liar. When God made you, he gave you

gifts, passions and abilities. No matter where you are on the

spiritual spectrum, you have a gift that was given to you by

God. A lot of people are, you know,

one of the, you know, a great chapter in the Bible is Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. And a lot of people remember

like the first 2 verses of Romans chapter 12 where it talks

Romans 12 · chapter mention

about that we're supposed to offer our bodies as a a living

sacrifice to God, which is holy and pleasing to him.

And that in doing so, we're not going to be transformed by the

world, but we're going to be transformed by the renewing of

our minds. And then we'll be able to test

and approve what God's will is, is good and pleasing and perfect

will. And everybody knows that.

But if you keep reading in Romans 12, it actually talks

about all the gifts that God has poured out into his people.

In verse 4 it says for God or for just as each one of us is

one body with many members and these members do not all have

the same function. So in Christ we though we are

many form 1 body, and each member belongs to all the

others. We have different gifts

according to the grace that God has given each of us.

If your gift is prophesying, then prophecy in accordance with

your faith. If it is serving, then serve.

If it's to teach, teach. If it is to encourage, then give

encouragement. If it is giving, give

generously. If it is to lead, do it

diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it

cheerfully. Every single one of us has a

gift. In fact, I'm going to do an

entire sermon on the gifts that God has given us in, I think

October or November of this year.

So don't leave our church yet. Stick around, OK?

I'm, I think you'll love it. Now, second thing, so one,

everybody has a gift. Look at your neighbor.

So you have a gift. Now turn to your other neighbor.

It's not as good as mine, but you have one.

OK, you have a gift. The second one is that we are to

use our gifts in service of others.

Lots of us, we use our gifts to build our own Kingdom instead of

the Kingdom of God. Many of you why you get promoted

at work is because you are operating in your giftedness.

The very thing that is making you successful in the workplace

or successful relationally. More than likely that is a gift

that you have from God and there's nothing wrong with

leveraging that gift for you to get promoted to be successful in

the world. However, that gifts primary

purpose is not to benefit you. That gives primary purposes to

advance the mission of God. Here's the easiest way for me to

describe it. Sometimes when our kids are, you

know, it's a snow day or kids are just being silly.

Do you guys, and you guys probably did this too.

You, you move all the furniture in the house.

You pull all the chairs away from the dining room table and

you get some sheets and some blankets and and some towels and

you made a Fort in the middle of the living room.

And then as soon as they make it, it takes them like an hour

and a half to make it. And they only want to play in it

for like 5 minutes and they want you to be in there for all of

it. And and yet they didn't make it

your size. So like you're trying to get in

there, you throw out your back and now you have to go see a

chiropractor, right? So you're like, OK, OK, I've

been down here long enough this month.

But isn't it crazy then when you say, all right, guys, let's put

it all back, then they're like, no, please, no, leave it up,

please. That's all they want.

They want to make the Fort and then they just want to leave the

mess in the middle of the house. But the problem is, is it's

while it's cute and it's fun that we don't live in this.

This is not how we live. These chairs have a real purpose

and it's not holding up your jank Fort.

It's so that way when we eat cereal, we can sit at the table

and the sheets, they go on the bed.

I you have to be an absolute savage to not have sheets on

your bed. How do you how do you these

sheets are not for a Fort. They are going on the bed

because I'm not sleeping on a bed that has no sheets.

We OK, so we went about a year and a half ago, we went

furniture shopping and the the guy who was selling his stuff,

he's he's good at his job. He has a gift.

If he, if he wanted to use that gift to tell people about Jesus,

it would be phenomenal. The church would be three times

the size because he conned us. He, he, he, he had a bed there

and it had buttons on it and it would move the bed.

And my family fell in love with it.

And have you ever noticed that, like you, they don't let you

spend the whole night in that bed before you buy it?

So you just aren't in it for like 30 seconds.

You're like, yeah, I can spend a third of my life here.

This is fantastic. And so we bought and I don't

want to please don't leave our church, but I got, I want to be

honest. We bought an adjustable bed.

So we're that commercial at like 3:00 in the morning of 2 old

people. OK.

The problem is, is when we adjust the bed too high, I fall

off because half of my body now doesn't fit on.

We've taken a king size bed and we've made it this and the

problem is, is I'm so big and the slope is so high that the

the top part of the fitted sheet is just hanging on for dear

life. We got to put ratchet straps

underneath it. And so sometimes I'll be

sleeping and it'll come flying off and I'm trying, I'm trying.

I'm I don't have sleep apnea. I'm being strangled to death by

the fitted sheep. Now listen, even with me, the

fact that I'm alive is a miracle.

And even under all of that, do you?

I'm still putting a sheet on my bed because I would rather get

suffocated by a rogue sheet than sleep on a bed with no sheets.

Because sheets have a purpose. Therefore, when you are going

out and using your gifts, talents, and abilities, hear me.

When you are using the sheets that God gave you to build forts

in your living room, while it may be cute and fun, it is not

why they are there. They are there for you to do

something magnificent for the cause of Christ.

Third thing, it is through the power of God that we are able to

do more than we think, for longer than we think, because

God is the one who supplies us with the strength that we need.

And even when we don't feel like leveraging our gifts, God

promises that He will come through and use it for His

glory. His strength will overcome your

feelings of inadequacy. His strength will overcome your

tiredness and your fatigue and your willingness to participate

#4 so that God gets the glory. When you and I use our gifts for

our own glory, we have received our reward.

But when we do things for God's glory, God promises to reward

us. How many of you you married a

good gift giver? Yeah.

Raise your hand, Jenny. OK.

How many of you didn't? OK, Right.

OK. You'll love this.

So I was joking with my kids all leading up to Christmas.

That was going to give them a big lump of coal because

apparently I make jokes like an 80 year old man.

And I think most of that is because I have an adjustable bed

that is built for 80 year old men.

Like it comes with a bedpan. It's a pretty cool bed.

And like the nurse comes standard, you know, press the

button and the they come into the room.

Anyhow, I sleep in a hospital. Anyhow, so I was telling my kids

that they were going to get a lump of coal and I kid you not,

for Christmas, both of my boys bought me a lump of coal and I

was like, OK, well done boys. Anyhow, look what it says in

Second Corinthians chapter 5. So we make it our goal to please

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Him, whether we're at home, in the body, or away from it.

Second Corinthians 5 Finding 10. Let's keep going for that.

We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ so that

each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while

in the body, whether good or bad.

God is a gift giver and God is going to reward you for the

things that you have done. The word here for the judgment

seat is the Bema. The Bema seat, it is a raised

platform where you would give out an awards after an athletic

competition. Think of the Olympics for a

second where you have first, second and 3rd and it's the

Olympics. It's us, us and you know some

other country because we dominate.

And we when they step onto the platform to receive their reward

for what they have accomplished. When you and I are before God,

we will there will be two judgments.

One of the judgments is the Great White Throne.

This is where you and I will be asked, what did you do with

Jesus? And the correct answer is this

is all about salvation. The correct answers, I made him

my Savior, I turned my life over to Him.

He saved me, He rescued me and my life was covered in Him and

now it belongs to him. However, the second judgement is

this Bema seat where we are rewarded for the things that we

did for the cause of Christ. This question is in light of my

son Jesus. What did you do with what I gave

you? This is not about heaven or

hell. This is about what heaven will

be like for you. This question is all about

lordship. Did you just receive a salvation

and say yes Jesus, you can be my savior, but I'm going to do

whatever I want with my life for the rest of my life.

A person like that has a cold hearted view of God.

They're completely self-centered.

I just want the good of God, but I don't want to be a part of

other people having what I have in Him.

This is about what did you do with all of your time and all of

your talents and all of your abilities.

It will be about how you leveraged your money, how you

opened your home, how you used your time.

It will be about how you purposed your gifts and whether

it was for your glory and your mission or God's glory and God's

mission. I know that for some of you,

this might be kind of hard to take in, but if you start

reading your Bible, you're going to see that this shows up over

and over and over again. For instance, when Jesus is

telling us how to pray, he says, hey, don't do all of your

prayers out in front of everybody.

So everybody thinks you're spiritual.

Well, when you pray in a bunch of hope in front of a whole

bunch of people and everybody thinks you're spiritual, guess

what? You everybody thinks you're

spiritual. You have received your reward,

but Jesus is going to a room where nobody sees you, and your

Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Hey, when you fast, when you decide to say no to eating so

that for a time dedicated to the Lord, don't walk around telling

everybody about it. Oh, man, I am hungry.

Yeah, I they're like, eat something.

I can't. I'm fasting.

I'm saying no to food because I'm a hyper spiritual person and

it's important for me that you know that I am a hyper spiritual

person and you and people around you go, that is a super

spiritual person and you will have received your reward.

But Jesus says, hey, when you fast, take a shower, put some

makeup on if you're a girl, don't put some makeup on if

you're a dude and comb your hair, put some gel in it, spray

yourself with some Cologne and walk around like nothing is

happening and your father perceives what is done in secret

will reward you. First Corinthians chapter 3

1 Corinthians 3:8

verse 8 says the one who plants and the one who waters have one

purpose and each one will be rewarded according to their own

labor. When you stand at the Bema seat,

the right answer for you is I gave my life as a living

sacrifice to God to bring God all the glory to love my

neighbor, to reach the lost, to disciple the save.

I took all of my talents that you gave me and I use them to

serve people and to point them to Jesus.

I took the money that you gave me and I use it to advance your

mission and build your Kingdom. I use my time and I invested in

people and Kingdom causes. I took my words and I use them

to pray to you and to pray for for other people and that God

would open doors to share the good news about his Son Jesus.

And Jesus is very serious about this.

Look what it says in Revelation chapter 22.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

This is Jesus talking. This is like a cosmic Santa

Claus watch. Look, I am coming soon.

My reward is with me and I will give to each person according to

what they have done. Do you not see Santa Claus all

over this? Except now it's instead of like

a fat white dude in a red jumpsuit, it is the King of

Kings and the Lord of Lords, which is actually tattooed on

his thigh with a sword coming out of his mouth, wearing all

white, carrying his gifts with them.

And according to everything you have done, you will be rewarded

by him. In other words, what you and I

do in this life matters in this life and in the life that is to

come. Two ways you can serve.

The Mission 1 is in the community.

We should be the best at mowing widows lawns and shoveling their

drives. We should be the best at going

to schools and helping the teachers.

We should be the very best at coaching kids teams and

ascribing value to the kids that are entrusted to our care.

We should be the most committed, the most dependable people that

anybody ever interacts with. And as a church, we want to come

alongside of you and help you to leverage your gifts and your

passions and your abilities to meet the needs of the community.

However, unless you tell us that you are ready to make a

difference, how can we help you start making a difference?

One of the gifts that God did not give church staff members is

the ability to read minds. You have to take your step of

faith and obedience and say, put me in coach, I want to play now.

You are not responsible for doing everything I just listed

on that list because each of you has a different gift, but you

are responsible for making sure that the gift that you have is

leveraged in your community to point people to Jesus.

The second way you can do this is in the church.

It would blow you away how many people serve or God uses to

serve every single weekend to make our ministries happen.

If you like kids, I want to encourage you to serve in the

kids area. If you like technology, join us.

If you're like, I like technology, but I don't

understand technology, we'll help you learn it.

We can teach you. If you like music, join the

worship team. If talk to our staff, show up

early and greet people at the door.

Every person has smile muscles here at practice.

OK? Some people have better smiles

than others. Like I lose my eyes when I

smile. They're just gone.

I mean, it's like Clayton, open your eyes.

They are OK. You either get teeth or eyes.

You can't get both. OK, So just tell me which one

you want and I'll deliver. When people show up at our

church, they should be greeted by the most friendliest people

on planet Earth with the best smile on planet Earth.

Every single person who steps on the campus at one of our

locations deserves to be treated with dignity and kindness and

respect. When I retire from ministry, if

I don't go to some mission field, I'm going to take over

the parking lot team and I'm going to run that parking lot

ministry like a dictator. OK?

Only savages need apply because we are going to dominate the

parking lot. You want to know why this might

be the most important role in our church?

Because surveys show that people make the decision about whether

or not this church is for them 7 minutes after they pull into the

parking lot. This is before they ever hear a

sermon. This is before I ever frustrate

them with a joke. This is before they ever realize

they don't like or they do like the worship. 7 minutes.

It starts in the parking lot. So to all of you out there that

are wearing your city gear and you're driving golf carts or

you're greeting people outside, God bless you.

Because people are making the decision about our church when

they see you, not when they see me and hear me.

I just want to be super clear about this.

While we are excited that you are serving alongside of us, if

you are serving so that we will say thank you, you won't get it

as often as you would like. And I'll there's a theological

reason why we are thankful we get to serve alongside of you.

But when we start saying thank you, you might think that you're

doing it for us. And if you think you're doing it

for us, the thank you you get from us will be your reward.

But if you do it for him, it doesn't matter if somebody says

thank you because you're doing it for him.

You're stepping into your purpose and God promises to

reward you for the things you have done.

Crossing family. We must be in the corner of the

person who invited their friend that they have been praying for.

We got to be in the corner of the parent who's praying for

their their child to one day return to their faith.

We need to be in the corner for them in the parking lot and we

need to be in their corner at the door.

We need to be in their corner in the line for coffee.

And if you bring some for the first time, you have my

permission to cut all the way to the front and say this is their

first time. And if somebody who gets

frustrated that you are cutting in line doesn't like it, I will

find them some other way to spend their Sundays than ruining

our coffee line by being upset about people who are coming to

our church for the very first time.

And you might think that is a bad strategy to grow your

church. And listen, we love you and

we're super thankful for you. But our church is so stinking

serious about people finding an intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus Christ. I pray that one day there is no

room for Christians to get coffee because lost people are

filling our coffee lines. Do you hear what I'm saying?

We got to be those kind of people.

There needs to be people in their corner when they're

checking in their kids areas and to take them on a tour.

We need to make sure there are people that are making sure that

we are helping make sure the place is clean and that it

smells good. We need to be in their corner as

they walk into the auditorium and how the lights are

programmed and the music is mixed and the music is played

and the songs are lifted to heaven.

We got to be in their corner. Look right now, wherever you're

watching me, look around and make eye contact with like three

people in this room. The people you are making eye

contact with have people that they want to know Jesus, and we

need to be in their corner and we need them to be in ours.

We need to make good on a promise that if you bring

somebody that matters to you that is far from God, we will be

in your corner and we will be ready and we will take

everything we have and we will leverage it for God's Kingdom

causes and God's glory. We need to be the very best that

we can be so that God will entrust us with even greater

ministry effectiveness. There has to be a place that is

committed to helping people who are lost find their home in Him,

and it will not happen unless you and I leverage the very

things that God has blessed us with to be a blessing to others.

We're moving to a time of decision.

If, if you don't have an intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ, you, you got to kind of wrestle through the

1st judgment. And when you stand in front of

the great white throne, you can either stand on your record and

what you have done, or you can stand on the record of Jesus.

I'm going to unpack a ton of this next week, so I'd encourage

you to come back. But you can stand on your record

or you can stand on Jesus's record.

And I'll just tell you, no matter how good you have been,

your record will not be good enough.

But through God's grace and His mercy, He provided a way in

Jesus for you and I to be saved. And if you were here today or

you're watching online and you have never started an intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I just want to encourage

you, don't put it off any longer.

And in faith and in obedience, make a step today to draw closer

to Him. Maybe while the people in the

room are standing and singing and some of them are coming to

the steps and praying your step, your next step of faith and

obedience would be walk over there underneath the screen next

to the baptistry and talk to one of our staff members or or going

by the new here booth before you leave today.

Maybe it's turning to a person in your row or a person who

brought you and saying, hey, I got some questions and I need

some answers. Don't put it off to the rest of

you in the room. To those of you who do have an

intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Serious question. What is going to be your answer

when you are standing at the Bema seat?

What is going to be your answer to what you did with all that

God gave you? This region needs us lost People

need us to use the gifts that God has given us to help them

find their way home, and we have got to be in their corner.

We've got to show them that God loves them and that His people

love them. If you're here today and you are

not leveraging your gifts for His glory, change can happen

today when you take a step of faith and obedience.

Would you stand with me, God? I'm so hopeful.

I believe that any moment you could stir something mighty and

powerful in this church. So many people are desiring to

do things for you and they just, they're just stuck on go.

They want to do something. They just have a hard time

taking that next step. God, I pray that today you'd

give them the courage and the strength to do it.

That the lies of Satan would be silenced.

That the people listening to my voice would hear your voice the

loudest. That you would make it clear to

them what it is that you are asking them to do, and that

you'd give them the courage to do it.

Your name I pray. Amen.