Core Values for a Christ-Centered Church

Well, good morning crossing church.

How are you doing? Got to feel pretty good.

You're you're in day What Day 2, day three of leftovers.

It's been awesome. I want to welcome all of our

campuses joining with us all across this region.

If you're inside or online. So thankful for each and

everyone of you. I have a question.

It's got good. How often is God good?

He just is. He's good and He's good all the

time. And we have so many things to

give thanks for. I give thanks for all of you.

You are such a blessing. Ones that I'm looking at right

now. All of the view that I can't

see, but you can see me. So thankful for all of you and

what ground you're taking for God's Kingdom.

Last week I talked about being God's person and I talked a

little bit about what I go through because what I pray

about and the people that I pray for some of their attributes.

I, I know that I'm nowhere near where I need to be, but but God

uses that to sift my heart and to bring the fertile soil to the

surface. And it's so important that we

capture that. But when we, if we can, if we

can try to figure out how to become God's person, and I know

so many of you are on this, on this journey to do that, when we

do it together, we can become God's people, not just God's

person, but God's people, God's church, God's called out

assembly. And there is no stopping that

church. The first time I went through a

study called Experiencing God, it was a workbook and a class.

I had already been in ministry for 15 years.

And I have to tell you, at the time, I really thought I was

doing it right. If someone would have asked me

what my vision was, you know, what's your vision, I think I

could have come up with a passable answer.

But I don't think that outside of like simple obedience and

that there was any particular vision that was driving me.

But as I plowed through that workbook, Henry Blackaby's

workbook, something very personal and very powerful

occurred inside of my heart. And I began to realize that

Christians were going through their whole life and they were

never understanding that they could have an intimate, personal

relationship with Jesus Christ, What that meant.

And those words stuck in my heart, intimate personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. It was before I long before I

came to Quincy, I saw Christian people who were committed to

going through all the right motions.

They were professional at putting up a front, which we are

as well, but missing out on deep change.

That study formed a vision for me to break down every barrier

between every person and that intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus. And I know that it couldn't

happen by doing business as usual.

It required change. And so I I cast that vision

before the elders of the church I was serving.

In that time I said we have to do whatever it takes to help

people find an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. And I remember at that elders

meeting I got pushed back. But that vision was inside of me

and I wasn't going to be able to honor God doing business as

usual. Because if a vision is

revelatory, then nothing will stop it.

I was passionate about, I was emotional, it was personal, it

was preoccupying, it was powerful.

And that's why I came to Quincy, IL And I, I think you can look

around you and you can see what, what has God done with people

capturing that vision of intimate personal relationship?

What is that produced? What kind of fruit has come on

the tree from that? That's good.

But you know, a vision, How does that vision become a reality?

How does it come to life in our church?

What kind of values do we need to have, you know, to make this

fellowship, Christ honoring and not self-serving.

It comes from defining the things that we that are

primarily important to us for us to make that vision into a

reality. It comes from counting the cost

of it and then signing up for it.

And I have to tell you, that's that's what this church did.

That's what the crossing has done.

And I want to go through those core values with you today to be

God's church. Our core value #1 is the outward

value. We will do whatever it takes to

reach people who are far from Jesus.

Media, take that one into your heart.

We will do whatever it takes. That's a lot to reach people who

are far from Jesus. In John 435, Jesus said, I tell

you, open your eyes and look at the fields.

They are ripe for harvest. We focus outward, which means

that our primary concern are for people who are outside our

church walls, who don't have an intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus. So we invest our time and our

abilities and our resources to reach that group.

That's why our locations are where they are.

It's why our buildings are the way they are.

It's why our services and our ministries are designed the way

they are for an hourly focused church.

The competition is not other churches in the area.

I mean, how many churches to grow?

They want to grow from the other churches in the area.

I'll tell you what our competition is at the crossing

every other available use of time.

What could you use this time for if you weren't here in church

today? If you weren't dedicating it to

the Lord right now, well, a lot of other things and the studies

that we did back then with the, the, the Quincy crossing and

then as we started to branch out into these other locations, we

found out that this was generally true, that our

communities tend to be about 80% with no active faith.

The people that live in our communities, 8 out of 10 of us

have really no active faith. So what do we do?

If we want to be an outwardly focused church, we have to get

into that. The shoes of the 80%.

We have to invite the 80%. We have to build relationships

with the 80% because we want them to know Jesus.

And as we started to do that years ago, you know what we

found out? It was that we had invited about

everybody we know, and there's nobody in the world that knows

the 80% better than the 80%. And when those 80%, those people

that were coming and they were finding Jesus for the first

time, they get so excited about it that they would go invite all

their friends who didn't know Jesus Christ.

And there was this compounding that happened where all these

people started coming who didn't have a relationship with Christ.

You know, a lot of churches, the the the baptisms that you see in

a lot of churches are children that are growing up in Christ.

But our Baptist is we're all adults.

They were people who are for the first time realizing that they

could have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

You know, the unchurched new Christians, they come with a lot

of baggage. Some of you could could go,

yeah, I can give you an Amen to that one.

But you watch a person change right before your eyes as Jesus

touches them and I go, wow, that's my bigger yes, I don't

mind giving up things. If I can watch that miracle

happen over and over. I will give up what is

comfortable and usual for that. Many years ago I was out in this

lobby and there was a lady that came in real diminutive lady

small and she looked troubled. She looked sad and she was very

quiet and our our our people out in the lobby were very outgoing.

But she shield away. She didn't want to be noticed.

She didn't want anybody to see her.

She had a frown on her face. She didn't have a smile almost

looked painful that she was here.

But there were some people that came up closer to her and kind

of wouldn't let her off the hook and just just kept pushing in,

kept trying to understand who she was.

And over a period of weeks, because I'll tell you, after

that first week, that was a huge deal for her to even walk into a

church. After that, she would every week

she would find it just a little bit easier to come to into

church. She would sit in the back.

She didn't want to be noticed, but but she did that, found out

that the reason that she wasn't smiling or talking is because

most of her teeth were gone. Most of her teeth were gone not

from some periodontal disease, but because they had been

knocked out by a man. And so because of the abuse

she'd had in her life, she really, really pushed away from

other people, been very reclusive.

And she didn't smile because she didn't want people to see that.

She didn't talk to people because she didn't want people

to see that. And as she shared that with some

people out in the lobby, some of the guys took responsibility for

it. They said, you know, a man

knocked her teeth out, we need to do something about it.

And those guys, just guys in a church, said we need to take

responsibility for it. So they took up an offering to

pay for her to have implants and new teeth.

And I thought to myself, if that isn't outward, I don't know what

is. And I remember when the that

surgery had happened and she came in and she walked into the

lobby and she had the brightest, most powerful smile I think I'd

ever seen before. She had been transformed and and

it wasn't anything compared to what God was doing in her heart.

And I thought to myself, that's what it's all about, to be

outwardly focused, to see people where they are and to say, you

know what? Jesus can change you.

And even though a smile is a great thing, it's nothing

compared to what he can do in a human heart.

It's our first core value. Our second core value is

downward. We will gladly give up the

things we love to reach a future generation we love even more.

Sometimes it's hard because you know people younger than us,

They like different things than us.

And if we're a consumer in the church, we might want to have

what we want to have rather than focus our attention downward.

Matthew 1914, Jesus said, let the little children come to me

and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to

such as these. We love little kids, we love

teens, we love young adults. We don't call them the next

generation, we call them this generation because they can

change the world. Right now.

We heavily invest in preschool and camp and weekly ministries

to help young people find that intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ. You know, there are elders at

the crossing that came to know Jesus Christ because their

children were in preschool here at the 48th Street campus.

There was someone standing right about here a little while ago.

Beautiful blonde girl and I remember when she was four in

preschool and she went home to her mom and dad, Craig and Julie

Hilbing and began to share Christ with them at 4:00.

Now Craig is an elder. I remember when he started

working with youth after he came to know Jesus Christ and how God

had changed his life. He's here today.

And Julie, she started using her gifts and talents to start a

workout class where Christ is shared with a bunch of the

ladies at the church. Still doing that today.

And then here's a little 4 year old Lydia now leading you in

worship. See, that's what God does.

I could tell you about Chris and Lee McKenzie and their daughter,

their their son Julian, who was a handful back then in

preschool. My wife would tell you and how

God changed their hearts so completely, how he became an

elder in the church and they served here together until they

moved to Chicago for many, many years.

I could tell you about Denny and Lindsay Wagner.

They're here this morning. How they brought their kids,

Olivia, Emily and Haley, to preschool.

And now those three girls are so active in so many ministries.

And Lindsay is in the baptistry more than more, more than most

of our pastors as she's discipling girls.

Then he's an elder. I could tell you about Dale and

Sandy Heniger. They're here today.

They were here from before I was here and their son James, who

was a miracle baby because they were dealing with infertility

and they they had already adopted.

But then here God gives him this baby.

And I remember Allison going, boy, that boy's a handful in

preschool and how God has turned that around.

I was talking to him out in the lobby earlier this morning

because now he's on staff at the crossing that is so usual around

here. I can tell you about Randy and

Becky Drish who got involved do becoming guides at Journey to

Bethlehem. And I remember when I was out in

this lobby and I tapped him on the shoulder to become campus

pastor, starting the Hannibal location and how hundreds and

hundreds of lives have come to know Jesus Christ, not just from

them, but from their kids and them serving as a family

together. Pretty awesome.

And you know, I could keep on telling stories like that.

We focus downward because Christian maturity should be

defined as it's not about us to set our own desires, our own

wants, and our own needs aside. To fix our eyes on Jesus means

to fix our eyes outward and to fix our eyes downward.

In Hebrews 12/2 and three, it says Fixing our eyes on Jesus,

the pioneer and perfector of faith.

For the joy set before him, He endured the cross, scorning his

shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners that you

do not grow weary and lose heart.

Our third core value is to be relevant.

What we say is we'll do fresh things and fresh ways to reach

people that no one else is reaching.

To hear that, to reach people that no one else is reaching.

Second Corinthians 215 says for we are to God the pleasing aroma

of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are

perishing. I have a question for you,

really important, deeply spiritual question.

How many of you have ever eaten at Lambert's?

Oh, there's a lot of hands that went up.

You know the tagline of Lambert's, It's called the home.

Yeah. That's a good.

That's it. The home of the throat roll.

Right. And I remember the first time

Allison and I ate at Lambert's. There's something special about

it. And I don't know, all of our

locations spread out if you've ever had the opportunity to do

it. But it's great because other

than the fact that you're really tying on the feed bag.

Yeah, but. But they make these fresh rolls

that are just awesome. And the smell, the fragrance of

these rolls, it rolls out of the kitchen and they come out with

these huge trays of rolls and they go hot rolls.

And then people put their hands up and they just start grabbing

rolls and chucking them at you. And so rolls fill the air going

in all directions. These ducking rolls, catching

rolls. And then of course, they have

all this stuff on the table to do.

And I thought, you know, that's the fragrance of Christ.

What smells better than fresh bread?

I did a sermon that weekend called Fresh Bread.

I found some people that could make really good rolls.

They made them in our kitchen. This is back when we were down

at the the gym before we had this part of the building at

48th St. and and you could smell it.

People were you could tell they didn't know what was going on

that day, but there was they were getting hungry because they

could smell it. And then here comes these trays

of fresh rolls. And I was preaching this sermon

called fresh bread. And I go, who wants a hot roll?

People's hands went up. We're chucking rolls all over

the place in church. That's relevant.

Man, that's that's crazy. We had Hola carts of apple

butter and regular butter and honey and all kinds of other

things to put on it. All these people listen to the

fragrance of Christ in the sermon while they're munching on

their hot rolls. Pretty awesome.

You see, that's what we want to be.

We want our songs to be fresh, our messages to make sense, use

words that we can all understand in our ministries, touch places

where we live and the challenges that we're facing.

That's why we do uncommon. Uncommon reflects that.

Rise reflects that. Camp reflects that.

Marriage retreats reflect that, as does regeneration or our

thrift stores and our coffee bars and our small groups and

all the other stuff we do. We want to meet people right

where they are and share a Jesus that they can understand.

And we will never compromise on the truth of God's Word, but we

will present it in a relevant way so that people can connect

to it. See, that's what Jesus did over

and over again. Whether you're talking about the

woman at the well or a man let down through a roof, or a woman

who touched the hem of his garment, or the 10s of thousands

that he would heal and feed in in in one afternoon, or the

thousands that were listening to his teaching on a mountainside

and on and on. I want to be a church like that.

Number of years ago at the end of a service someone came up to

me with a box, 1 of the difference makers and they came

up with a box and handed it to me and I opened it up and it was

a wedding set was a woman's wedding set, an engagement ring

and a wedding ring. And there was a note inside the

box that someone, a lady has left it in the woman's bathroom

and she said my marriage is over but maybe somebody could get the

use out of this. She handed that or this

difference maker handed it to me.

I didn't know what to do with it.

What do you do with that? So I put it in my desk drawer

and it sat in my desk drawer for probably 2 years.

Was just in there and I had a guy that was coming to me and he

came for counseling. He had a lot of addiction

issues. The woman that he was living

with also had addiction issues, but they were coming to church

and they were hearing about Jesus and it was challenging

them and he wanted more of his questions answered about that.

And as we were talking together, I said, you know what?

You're living with that girl, but you're not married to her.

You need to marry her. You need to do it.

What do we say? We need to do God's way?

Because God's way is the best way.

And he only told me, well, I'd like to ask her to marry me, but

I can't afford a ring. True story.

I went really well. God bought you a ring.

He's like, what? I go, yeah, it's right here in

my desk. He goes, what are you talking

about? I pulled that out.

I go, here's the ring that God bought for your girlfriend.

And he looked at it. He was out of excuses.

It was pretty wild. I go.

But you know, if you're going to get married and God expects you

to be the spiritual leader of your family, you need to lead

this woman in the direction of Jesus Christ.

You need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Are you ready to do that? He goes, I think I am.

So that weekend came to church in that baptistry, both he and

his girlfriend came forward to accept Jesus Christ.

Oh, that's not even the good part of the story.

And they got in that water together and I baptized them

both into Jesus Christ. They came up out of the water,

and guess what He had in his hand.

So in that baptistry, he asked her to marry him and put the

engagement ring on her finger. Everybody was clapping.

Knew what I said. Since it was the end of the

service, I go, everybody just stay here.

And they came right down here and I married him at the end of

the service. How's that for relevant?

How's that for doing fresh things in fresh ways to reach

people nobody else is reaching? Our 4th core value is we'll take

big faith filled risks and never insult God with small thinking

and safe living. In Acts 429 to 31, after

apostles had been beaten for their faith, they prayed this

prayer to God. Now Lord, consider their threats

and enable your servants to speak Your word with great

boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal

and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy

servant Jesus. And after they prayed, the place

where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled

with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly.

Traditional churches could easily be defined as places of

small thinking and safe living. This is certainly not the case

about the church that we read about in the book of Acts.

The early church was an extreme church.

The very first sermon, all the listeners were accused of

murder. I mean, that's what Peter said.

God has made this Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and

Christ. And instead of picking up rocks

and stoning Peter and the rest of the apostles, they were cut

to their heart. And they said, what do we do?

And he said, repent and be baptized everyone of you in the

name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and

you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And 3000 people were baptized that day.

That is an extreme church. It's also a very risky message.

It wasn't long before the apostles were being hauled in by

the authorities. They were first threatened, then

later beaten. That's pretty risky.

Not long after that, we read about the first martyrs, Stephen

and James. Definitely extreme.

Not too long after that, the church's number one enemy.

It became his greatest evangelist.

What kind of risk was it not only to forgive a man who had

brutalized and killed church members, but to unleash him to

be the international spokesman for the movement?

But that's what happened with the Apostle Paul.

I think you get the point. The church was designed to be a

risk taking enterprise. Risk is resisted in the church

because we fear failure. I find it interesting that the

church can become so adverse to failure when, in my mind,

failure is essential for doing anything great for God.

The only time I've ever really been concerned about the

crossing and its future is when we've decided it's time to slow

down, take a breath, and get our bearings before moving forward

again. And I'm amazed how quickly we

can become sedentary and neglect the urgency of our mission.

You see, debt is risky, hiring is risky.

Change is risky, eliminating programs is risky.

It's all risky. Risks are worth it, though, when

you're doing them for what you know to be the right reasons.

And even if they're the right reasons, there's going to be

times when stuff's going to blow up in your face.

Regardless of success or failure, though, God is still

God, and we're still serving it as pleasure.

And it hasn't stopped us. So we keep taking risks, resting

on our faith in Jesus to build His Kingdom, learning from our

mistakes, adapting our approach to take new ground.

We often consider the risks of trying something new, but fail

to consider the risks of not trying.

See, we considered an insult to God to remove our faith and

trust in Him by only doing things that we believe we could

accomplish without Him. Our fifth core value is we make

leaders. We will make leaders who honor

God and inspire people and they will change the world.

Second Timothy 322 says, and the things you have heard me say in

the presence of many witnesses and trust to reliable people who

will also be qualified to teach others.

Think about what Jesus accomplished through 12

committed guys more than he did with any large crowd that he

attracted. And in order for a real

discipleship to happen, three things need to be there.

An intentional leader, and Jesus was certainly that.

A relational environment where you actually are getting to know

others and a reproducible process.

And that's critical for every ministry.

At the Crossing, we encourage everyone to find their

replacement to build up the next leader of that role.

But nowhere is it more critical than the highest levels of

leadership. Why?

Because leadership isn't about winning a popularity contest.

It's about providing for a new generation the most rock solid,

biblically grounded, vision minded leaders to move Christ's

church forward. You know, our elders do that

whenever we have new elders come on, they, they spend a year in

training, They have a mentor elder.

They attend elders meetings, don't speak in those meetings.

They ask questions of their mentor and anytime in that

process they can say, you know what?

I just don't think this is for me or the existing elders can

say, I don't know if this is for you.

That's important. I remember doing this with

Clayton. It started 11 years ago when I

told the elders to be watching and praying for two years about

the possibility of Clayton being the next senior pastor.

And that's what they did. For two years they watched and

prayed, and after that two years, they agreed it was a good

idea. Clayton and I were in New York

when I told him. I also told him he'd be waiting

for six more years. He took that in stride. 3 years

ago this weekend, I announced that he was taking that role.

I can't. Amen.

Praise the Lord. I cannot tell you how many

leadership transitions in churches are Greek tragedies.

They're absolute disasters. But our church never lost a

step. As a matter of fact, it gained

some. And that's the way God intends

for it to be. Because we need to make leaders.

Our 6 core value is growth. We will never stop measuring,

changing and moving for growth because nothing matters more to

God than people. Acts 247 says the Lord added to

their number daily those who are being saved.

You know, last weekend we had 7635 people in person at our

locations. That means we had 7635

opportunities to share the gospel and we had 4693 people

online. That means we had 12,328

opportunities just last weekend. And I don't want to waste even

one. Not even one sometimes, and you

all know it, you only get one. I was talking to someone

Wednesday night in the lobby and they that person told me that

they had been inviting the same couple for 10 months and it was

Wednesday night that they came. Sometimes you only get one.

And we want to present the gospel with the greatest

excellence, even though we are as imperfect as we are.

See, we know that growth was important in the 1st century

because it was written about constantly.

On the day of Pentecost, someone counted the number of baptisms

3000. The word added described the

growth of the church in its early days.

We read about the number swelling to 5000 in the and then

in the book of Acts, the word added is changed to the word

multiplied, which is what happened when we went to

multiple locations, multiple services.

While some might resist counting or attendance numbers, it seems

like the early church considered it very important.

We also measure baptisms. I was talking to Clayton earlier

this week, and we're on schedule to go over 900 baptism this

year, 900 of them. And Buddy.

Yeah. Yeah.

Do you think that Clayton was thinking about that, or was he

thinking about how do we get to 1000?

I'll give you one guess. And then I told him that the

best we ever did as a church was 1011.

And you know, he wants to beat that one.

Yeah, I would too. But you know what?

That's all because you God's people are sharing your faith

with others. We have all sorts of metrics

that we use. We want to know how many people

go to our church in any given community, and we divide it by

the amount of people that live in the community.

And you know, the goal that we have is at least 10% of 10% of

the people that go to a particular church in a

particular community go to our church.

And we use that as a measure of influence.

How do we influence that community?

We make it count by measuring, setting goals, evaluating

processes and programs, and changing accordingly.

But listen to me, we're not who makes the church grow.

Only God makes the church grow. We plant, we water, we

cultivate, we harvest, but the miracle is the growth that only

God can do. Growth is the fingerprint of

God. Finally, our 7th core value is

oneness. The church is the hope of the

world and we can accomplish infinitely more together than

apart. In John 17, Jesus high priestly

prayer, the night before he was crucified, he prayed this.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will

believe in me through their message that all of them may be

one. Father, just as you are in me

and I am in You, may they also be in us, so that the world may

believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that

you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I and them

and You and Me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them

even as You have loved me. Few years ago Allison and I were

at a a conference meeting and we had a day off and we were in

California, Central California. And so we had a rental car and

we drove to a place called Big Basin State Park in Central

California. For one reason, neither one of

us have ever seen the coastal redwoods.

Now, coastal redwoods are something amazing to behold.

I mean, they are so massive. I remember being in that, in

that forest and it was, it was like being in Jurassic Park.

I was waiting for like AT Rex to come and attack us.

It was super quiet because of all the of that foliage.

It was actually amazing how huge they are, how tall they are.

And when I was reading about them on the signs that were

there, you know what it said? It says that their root system

is actually very shallow. You'd think with these towering

trees that they would have to have super deep root systems,

but they don't. Here's what they do have.

Those trees never grow alone. They grow in circles.

And you know what they call those circles?

Families and there's a mom tree and a dad tree and the mom tree

and the dad tree are surrounded in this circle by all their

children. And the reason that those

coastal redwoods don't fall down is because all of their root

systems entangle in one another and they hold each other up.

We did a, an album, our worship ministry.

The first album we did, it was called together as one.

And the front of that picture is a, the front of that album was a

picture Allison took of those coastal redwoods.

Because that's what we believe that we're stronger together

than we are apart, that God has used the strength of our

relationships to take new ground that we could have never taken

by ourselves. You know that 48th St. was is

kind of the mom campus to all of us and yet they only account for

about 35% of our tenants. 65% are all the other locations.

See, God never intended for us to do anything alone.

That's why the name that God gave for the church, Ecclesia,

is a word for assembly that's been called out, sanctified for

his purpose. We were intended to work in

unity. Those are the core values that

we hold tightly onto in order to reach people that don't have a

relationship with Christ to present to them an intimate,

personal relationship. I believe in this generation.

I believe that we can have an influence far greater than we've

had in the past, by far. And you know what?

I want this generation's joy, their team spirit, their

willingness to learn and share, their non judgmental attitude.

I want their leadership and their fresh new ideas of Gen.

X and Gen. Y and Gen.

Z and whatever Gen. number letter they have now.

So much of Jesus is reflected in them.

I want that millennial generation, their desire to hear

everyone, to be open, to learn and try new things.

I want the Gen. Xers where they see Jesus in

that small band of brothers and sisters and the mission of

living. I want the baby boomers that see

Jesus in his optimism building, his mighty church.

The traditionalists where we see Jesus in his loyalty, his

tenacity and his self sacrifice. We make it count when it's not

about us, and we capture the power that comes from unity when

it's not about us. And I want you to consider that

as we move to a time of decision.

And some of you might be listening to me going, OK, I

just heard a sermon about the church or about this church.

What difference does it make? Listen, it makes all the

difference. It makes all the difference.

God never sent you out to do that work alone.

He never said that I'm going to give you all of the gifts,

everything you need to do everything.

He made you intentionally to not be able to do everything so that

you would need the person sitting next to you or behind

you or coming to a different service or a different campus

than you to accomplish what you couldn't accomplish.

It's only happening when the Holy Spirit of God works through

His people as a church, as a body, as a community to change

the entire context around them. And God has done that, and He'll

do that through you. But you were never intended to

do this alone. You were intended to do it with

other people just as messed up as you, just as fouled up as

you, that all of us together would become this beautiful

thing. I'm going to ask, I didn't tell

you to do this for can tech people turn on the light, the

baptistry? You see the scripture right

there says first Peter 25. You see that?

I wonder how many of you've ever looked that up.

Do you see what looks like stones suspended in the air?

And have you ever noticed that if those stones were to go down,

they would complete that wall? And if you look up first Peter

25, you'll understand what that means that you and I, as living

stones were designed. To build a royal house, but it

won't be complete until God completes it.

And there's some of you here today that have never made a

decision to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and

Savior. To come into an intimate,

personal relationship with Jesus Christ because something is

missing in this church and it will continue to be missing

until you are part of it. God isn't finished.

He is not finished with this community.

He's not finished with this church.

He's not finished with this region.

He is not finished. And God is calling on you to be

a part of it. And if you are here and you

don't have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ,

there's nobody standing in your way except for you.

There's going to be somebody right up there by that

baptistry, right next to that Scripture, who would love

nothing more than to talk to you about your next steps with Jesus

Christ. And if you have accepted Christ,

these steps are for you. Now, I don't know what you might

think when you come up to these steps, but when I've knelt at

these steps, the thing that's most important is the same thing

that's important for a person who's receiving Christ for the

first time. And that is Lord, Get Me Out of

my own way so that God can do something in me unhindered by

me. I don't know what it is that God

wants you to do, but I want to ask you a question.

Is your heart available? Is your heart available?

Why don't you let him know that today, on your knees at these

steps, my heart is available for you.

Would you stand with me and pray with me?

Jesus? We pray in Jesus name, Heavenly

Father, that you would take this moment, that it be a moment of

clarity for us, that instead of a stronghold, that our heart

would be wide open, all the doors, all the windows, wide

open so that a fresh wind and a fresh fire can flow through us.

Your Holy Spirit, so that we might smell the fragrance of

Christ and be changed. Because like you Father, we want

to have a heart like you and we want to be here for your lost

children so they find their way home in Jesus name, Amen.