Why Your Community Needs a Mission

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

We're in a series called Community.

Everyone say Community. Yeah.

And just to refresh at the top here, we are made for community.

That's why we were made by a community.

That's what we've been saying in the series, The community being

the Triune Godfather, Son and Holy Spirit.

Together they said let us make man in our image, and their

image is a community. And so we are supposed to

reflect that community and we cannot reflect the community by

ourselves. We were designed to live in

community. That's the really the point of

this whole series is to return everybody to original design.

And when we don't operate an original design, the design

doesn't work. It's like putting milk in your

gas can in your car. That's not how it was designed.

It will not work. And the same thing for you, you

may be feeling as you enter here today, Man, I'm a little off.

My marriage is hurting, my finances are hurting, my inner

self is hurting. And it may be because somewhere

the communal part of your life is not operating as it as it's

designed. That's the whole point of the

series. We just want to learn from God

how community works so that we can live in our optimal design.

Do you understand? It's like hitting the reset

button on a, you know, like you got a piece of electronics and

it has that little secret button.

You got to reach a paper clip up in there and press, and when you

press it, it goes back to its default setting.

Yeah, everyone, this is the participation part of the Yeah,

Yep, that's what we're doing. We're saying God reset us to

understand your design as it regards to community.

Last week we talked about the table.

We had a table appear if you were here, and the idea of the

table is that Jesus invites us to the unity of the body that is

his new community of faith. Anyone who believes in Jesus

becomes a part of the faith family forever where he is ABBA

father and we are his sons and daughters.

Amen, heirs to the throne, Amen. Unity also we reveal his glory

together. When the world sees the unified

body of Christ, it it, it beholds the glory of God like

whoa, these people look like, smell like, talk like, act like

together, the body of God, body of Christ.

And then finally, the table we said last week was about

revealing his transformational power, that when we live in

actual community, not doing faith alone in isolation, but

community of believers, the transformation really occurs in

US. And people can tell the

difference. They see it when we live inside

of this community. We said over and over, Jesus is

inviting you to the table. And I want to take it a step

further today and say this. If Jesus is inviting his table,

us to the table, then what should the church be doing?

And I'll put it in this sentence, who are you inviting

to the table? I mean, we just really just stop

there and say that's the message.

If Jesus is the one inviting us to the table and we are to be

like Jesus and to grow up into all things Christ, who is the

head of the church, then we as a church should be inviting people

to the table on the regular. It should be the forefront of

our minds. Today's message is called

Mission Defined Community. Community that finds its

identity based on its mission. You all know this.

People form communities around common interests and hobbies all

the time. Anyone have in their

neighborhood the cycling club, I see these, these people on its

celebrations where we live. They got to they're in their

bikes. These, this club is known for

spandex. That's what they're known for.

I don't wear spandex, so I don't cycle.

There you go. Then you have the runners club

and the idea of the club is that you have community, but running

and having community at the same time is impossible for me

because I can't talk when I'm running.

I can barely breathe when I'm running.

Anybody. Hallelujah.

So like other person's talking, like can we wait until we're

done with this 100 yard run? My dad's in a community.

The people in his community are called Lip Boomer and the

Canadian. These are the people that he

golfs with every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a

bunch of about 20 other guys. They golf all that.

It's just his community. My mom's a part of a community.

It's called the Peacemakers Quilt Guild.

Any quilters in the House wait on it?

Yeah, my mom is an award-winning quilt maker and she made this

community of quilters. There's like a couple 100 of

people in this thing called the Peacemakers Quilt Guild.

My dad says they gather around the F word, which for him is

fabric, fabric, more fabric. Yeah.

So studies show that we are incredibly more likely to form

community friendships around activity more than any other

way. 42% of people find their friendships and their community

at work. If you love your work and the

other person loves their work, then you love working on this.

Like I'm like, we're cast members, we love Disney and

there's interest happens that. Just as an example, 31% of

people find their community based on sports or

extracurricular activities like golf or biking or running, and

17% of the people find their community based on hobbies and

interests like quilting or Pokémon, something like that.

In the 9:00 AM service, I said that and a guy here is like woo.

And he's like kind of funny. So these shared interests, when

we have them, it makes it way easier to form a common bond.

But we're just easily relate because we have a shared

identity. You find 2 guys who like the

Minnesota Vikings, they've never met each other, but all of a

sudden they're friends. Pastor Kim got Heather there.

Yeah. So when we have identity like

this in a community, we say things like this.

We are bikers, we are runners, we are golfers, we are quilters.

But what about the church? What are we churchers?

If you ever go to Cracker Barrel and you're sitting there, no,

wait. Just like, how do you all know

each other? Like, oh, we're churchers?

Like what in the world is a churcher?

I have no idea. So what is the common interest

of the church that we form our identity and we bond around?

Everyone's saying Jesus, I got a question for you.

What about the Father and the Holy Spirit?

Would you agree with me that the interest of Illuminate Church is

the Lord our God? OK, y'all aren't ready, I'm

gonna go over here. Would you agree with me that the

interest of the highest nature at Illuminate Church is the Lord

our God? Mezzanine, do you believe us,

the Lord our God? Y'all want a second chance?

Do y'all believe that the common interest of Illuminate Church is

the Lord our God? Whoa, bring that energy the

first time. Come on, I love that.

I would say that I agree with you that God is our common

interest because that is how we all begin in the faith.

It is God that draws us by His Holy Spirit, by his own grace as

love, as mercy. We come with need.

I'm hurting, I'm alone, I'm bound in sin, I feel doomed for

destruction. So I've come looking for a

Savior. And when you walk into a church

that preaches the gospel, you'll find the Savior.

His name is Jesus and respond to him.

He is the head of the church. We are the body from which His

glory is derived. He is the head.

And so if you say that the Lord our God is our common interest,

that we're looking to the Lord, I would say you are correct.

But here's the thing that's distinctive about this community

called the church. Once we receive the love of God

and salvation and faith in Jesus Christ, we immediately begin a

maturing process. Our faith grows so that we get

to this place where we don't walk into the church all the

time saying, God, how I need you.

Instead we say, God, how do you need me?

There's a flip that happens in the mind of the maturing

believer that says I'm no longer coming here just for myself.

I'm coming here to see what God wants me to do that's

distinctive about our community. How can I respond to your heart,

Lord? How can I match your heart?

How can I be part of the solution that reaches out to

others? As we we grow in our faith, in

our minds, our, our, our mindset should transform into this kind

of thinking. Here it is because God is our

interest. Our interest should be God's

interest. And my wife doesn't love golf,

but she's interested in it because I'm interested in it.

So occasionally when I come home from a round of golf, not

because she really cares, but she knows what cares to me.

She said, How was your round? Tell me about your scores, what

you do. I'm like #1 in the water #2

triple bogey #4 I quit. We do this with people that we

are interested in. We make their interest our

interest because it matters to them and they matter to us.

And so as we mature in the faith, we move from thinking

about only our interest to now what's God's interest?

And God's interest is people. His interest is people.

Just look John chapter 3, verse 16.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world. The world is a bunch of people

that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in

him shall not perish but have eternal life.

You've heard this verse, but let it sink down into your soul.

How much God loves people took his one and only Son that he

would suffer through an impossibly torturous death just

so that you and I could feel the love of the Father.

John chapter 10, Hallelujah indeed.

John 10 · chapter mention

John chapter 10, verse 10. The thief comes only to steal,

John 10:10

kill and destroy. But I have come, Jesus has come

that they, the people may have life and have it to the full.

God is crazy about people. People are His interest.

And because people are His interest and God is our

interest, people should be our interest.

In fact, God gave us marching orders.

He gave us a command. We called the Great Commission.

Matthew chapter 28, That Jesus said to them, all authority in

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

heaven on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go make disciples of all nations.

Nations are full of what are you all here?

Nations are full of what? Yeah, people baptizing them in

the name of the Father and the Son 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.

God says in the Great Commission, go and be interested

in people to the extent that those people will fall in love

with the Father. And after they fall in love with

the Father, they'll care about what the Father cares about,

which is people. And then they'll lead people to

the love of the Father and tell those people raise up in the

faith, and they realize what the Father's heart is about.

And they'll match their heart to the Father's, and they'll lead

other people. Do you understand what I'm

saying here? It just goes on and on and on.

We are standing in this space today because of the

faithfulness of other people to be interested in us.

Somebody was interested enough in you to lead you to the love

of the Father. That's God's interest, needs to

be our interest. Then what?

What can we say is our communal interest to Illuminate Church

that defines us as our community?

These words won't surprise you. It's on the wall in the lobby.

We help people find abundant life in Jesus.

This is what Jesus came to do, Amen.

This is what Jesus came to do. This is the Father's heart to

help people find life. And so it's our heart to match.

It's hard to say this is what we're going to do too, but how

do we do it at Illuminate Church?

Great question. We make disciples.

We fulfill the Great Commission because it's disciples who

experience abundant life. It's disciples.

How do we do that? Well, four ways.

Meet God, discover who you are in Christ, Become more like

Jesus and lead others to do the same.

Meet, discover, become. Lead.

You say it. Meet, discover, become.

Everybody says it me. Discover, become, lead.

This is the mission that defines us.

This is what identifies us here as illuminate church.

Who are we? Are we churchers?

So who are we? People of God.

People of God, Yes. Oh, somebody went to the 9:00

AM. We are disciple makers.

It's all right. They just studied for the test.

We are disciple makers. So if I ask you, who are you, I

would hope that as part of your identity that you would speak to

me. You would say I'm a disciple

maker and I'm a part of a community that makes disciples.

It's who we are. It's what we do.

It's our identity. We're not politicians.

We're not activists, we're not doctors or teachers.

These are all great and noble professions.

But as this community stands together, when we gather and

we're out in the world, what we do is make disciples who make

disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

Confusion arises in the community that doesn't know who

they are. When there's a void of identity,

whoever is the strongest mouth in the room will stand up and

say this is who we are, this is what we do.

And when there's confusion or an absence of clarity, division

arises. And when that division arises,

there's usually factions and rivalries and it ain't pretty.

Case in point, if I were to ask you the question, don't answer

out loud on this one. What is an American?

What's the identity of an American?

What's the mission of American? Because there's confusion.

What you have in the world is factions and divisions and

bitter rivalries that are trashing each other on social

media. Unless I'm the only one who's

seen it. But Jesus has been so kind to us

so that no man has to have an opinion.

No woman has to think about it. It's clear from the Creator what

our mission is as a church. This is what we do, he says.

This is who we are as his body. You wouldn't join a softball

team and try to teach them all hockey.

It confuses the mission, confuses the identity.

What are we, softball people with hockey sticks?

You wouldn't join a business leaders group and try to teach

them guitar. It's it's mission confusion.

Like what are we actually here to do?

Play Axel Rose? Like, dude, what?

Somebody just found their church?

Yes. You wouldn't enter a church and

try to change the mission either.

You wouldn't want it to be confusing.

You'd want to find out what is it that we do?

And now I'll let myself align to it and become part of the

community. The mission unites us.

The mission identifies us. We are disciple makers.

In this series, we're inviting you to community, which means

we're inviting you to the mission of the community as

well, to be part of what's happening in the Kingdom.

Here at Illuminate Church in Central Florida.

We are disciple makers. That's the point of the church,

to grow the Kingdom, the community of believers.

You may say, well, I thought the mission of the church was

healing. Didn't Jesus say himself, the

blind will see, the lame will hawk, though the lame will walk,

the death will hear. Is it the mission of the gospel

to bring freedom to people through his blood?

And I would say this to you, and I submitted to you gently that

healing is on the way to mission.

It is not the mission. Healing is on the way to

mission. It's not the mission.

You may have come to the day or come to this church anytime

because you need the healing, spiritual, emotional, physical,

financial, relational, and I want to tell you came to the

right place. Healing is in God's house.

Healing is the children's bread. It's meant for His body.

God is concerned about healing, but healing is not the end of

the game. Healing is not the only thing.

We come here for me like I got healing so I'm good, I'm done.

And we said back, God brought you here not just for your

healing, but that you would join the communal mission to expand

the Kingdom of heaven. Genesis chapter 1, God says be

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

fruitful and increase in number. He's not just talking about

procreation. He's talking about replicating

the community on the earth. Matthew chapter 28, we just read

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

it. The Great Commission says go and

make more and more, not Christians, more and more

disciples, people who follow me. A Christian believes A disciple

follows Acts chapter one verse 8 says when the Holy Spirit comes

upon you, you will be my witnesses.

You're going to go tell the world in Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, the ends of the earth. All of these scriptures, Old

Testament to New Testament to the birth of the church, all

pointed to the same thing. I'm creating you with a mission.

Build a community, draw people in to the faith family.

This is what we do that all of this comes from Jesus heart.

Jesus is heart of what's is what forms our communal mission.

You've heard me say before that what should the body of Christ

be doing what we should be doing what Christ did while in his

body and I want to show you we finally got to Matthew Chapter

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

9. You've been so patient Jesus

heart. You can see it displayed in a

few short verses. Verse 35, You ready?

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their

synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing

every disease and sickness. There's a distinction here

between the good news of the Kingdom and healing is every

disease and sickness. They're both important, but

they're distinct. When he saw the crowds, he had

compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like

sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,

the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers

into his harvest field. You get the essence and kind of

see the pattern and cycle of what I'm speaking about right

here in this short passage about Jesus.

We have healing and then we have harvest.

Jesus has a pattern. First he touches the physical

need. Then he draws attention to the

spiritual need, the physical. Followed by the spiritual, the

temporary, followed by the eternal, the healing, and then

the harvest. That's why we do things here to

illuminate church, like our food pantry every month, supplying

for physical needs of people. It's why we partner with the the

Beyond Pregnancy Care Center, which helps women and family in

their most crucial needs regarding their pregnancies.

It's why we have our Thrive ministry, which reaches those

with special needs. Amen.

It's it's incredible. Boo, I see you.

These are all needs that people have that the church should

address. The local church is the hope of

the world. But the end game is not just

that we meet the physical needs or the emotional needs of

people, but that we spiritually see the issue and respond to it

with the gospel. This is what Jesus is doing here

in Matthew Chapter 9. He sees and then he responds.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

Read it with me. Jesus sees and Jesus responds.

Was it up there one more time? Jesus sees and Jesus responds.

In between Jesus scene and Jesus responding is this one thing.

It's called compassion. It's a difference between

driving by somebody who's got a flat tire on the road and seeing

it and keep going, or seeing them sitting there stuck and you

have compassion and you pull over.

That's convicting, isn't it? I got things to do, I'm busy.

I got my own tires to worry about.

Compassion makes you stop and respond.

The first part, though, is maybe where the church is already

failing. We cannot respond unless we see.

Ask yourself this question. Do I see what Jesus sees?

You cannot solve the problem if you don't see the problem.

And when I say see, I don't mean you visually see it, although

that could be the case. It's not just visually seeing

it, but it's comprehending, appreciating, understanding

what's going on in somebody's life.

So you see the problem and then like Jesus, your heart breaks.

You're moved with compassion. How can I leave this person in

this state and do nothing but by compassion I will respond to

them? We have to see the hurting in

order to see the mission. Our community is built on the

heart of Jesus who sees and then he responds.

Glory to God. But notice what he does when

Jesus responds. He doesn't start running up and

down the streets and trying to help every person that he can

with their spiritual condition. Instead, he says this.

The world needs more harvesters. Jesus's strategy is to multiply,

to share the burden of the compassion that he feels.

There are so many people here in need that we need more and more

people to go and help the sheep. Come on, I hear you, William.

Jesus says that the people are harassed and helpless.

Can you visualize these words? Visualize them harassed and

helpless sheep without a shepherd.

Sheep, actual sheep, have their shepherd for a lot of reasons, a

lot of great benefits. Number one, they provide

protection. The shepherd's legs work just

fine. He doesn't need a cane, but he

carries a stick. The shepherd's staff is for

defense of the sheep. It's also for the rescue of the

sheep, the crook, and where they can pull them out of thorns and

thistles and then the little crevices that they fall into and

then get back right in again and pull them out again.

The sheep also are led to provision by their shepherd.

The next field with the grass. They won't go there naturally by

themselves because sheep are dumb, So the shepherd leads

them. The shepherd also gives him his

fellowship, little affection, pat on the head, squeeze of the

wool, running the hand over the back.

There's caregiving, there's connection.

All this comes to the sheep who has a shepherd.

And Jesus says all these people, no protection, no provision, no

fellowship, no caregiving. They are harassed and helpless,

which means they're hurting and have no hope.

It means they are cursed and there is no cure that they are

receiving currently. When I think of the words

harassed and helpless, I think of flailing, not failing,

flailing, a life that is flailing bodily.

We see it in a baby when the baby comes out of the womb where

they've been nice and cocooned, you know, And then they come out

like what? And their feet, they don't know

what to do with them and their spastic with them.

And then what do you do? You swaddle them, take a

blanket, wrap them up and hold them here.

And they just like, yeah. Do you see anyone in your life

that's flailing? And how can you respond?

I got my buddy Ronnie here. I just want to give you a visual

image. Would you give two claps to

Ronnie Antoine? Come on.

Ronnie's been on Sav with us now 2 1/2 years.

The shepherd extraordinaire, my brother, how are you?

Good to see you. So let Ronnie represent your

neighbor who's just have a loved one die or a Co worker who just

can't figure out the finances and constantly is stressed out

about paying the bills, barely making ends meet, asking for

money. I don't know what the case may

be. How about Ronnie represents to

you the friend who cannot get out of anxiety?

They're constantly struggling just to make thoughts exist.

What all of these circumstances and millions more, the people

are flailing, they're harassed, they're being tormented

internally, externally, spiritually, and their spirit is

like this, right? And Jesus says send harvesters

in the field to harvest them. What I imagine the people doing

is saying, hey, come with me into the basket.

Let me harvest you into the community where God's peace

reigns and let me take you from flailing like a child or an

adult in your spirit and wrap you up.

I have this here way to blanket. Anyone here have a way to

blanket there's science on these guys?

This is what I want you to see that harvesters do.

A man who's hurting and broken, a woman who's hurting and

broking, and you walk with the gospel of Jesus Christ and you

simply go like this. Hey, you're going to be all

right. Wear this here weighted

blankets. The science on it is called deep

pressure stimulation. It's like a hug.

Does a hug make you feel better? A weighted blankets like a all

night long hug. The body responds incredibly

positively to evenly distributed pressure upon it.

And that's what's happening with the weighted blanket even.

It means it's like a hug. It's like a papoose for a baby.

It's like the womb. And do anyone here remember when

you were in the womb? Me neither, but I do remember

the effects of what happens to a child when you return them to a

womb in the swaddling. And we're all children of God,

and what we're doing in harvesting is swaddling some

people. 65% of people who put on weighted blankets feel better

when they have anxiety. 60% of people with ADHD have positive

response when they put on a weighted blanket.

It's just a way to illustrate what we're doing when we're

harvesting, taking a person who's flailing around with their

life and covering them with the love of God, harvesting them in

to the community. I want to send you on a mission,

Ronnie. There's somebody here who's

going to be bold enough to raise their hand in a second who says

I need that hug of God today. It's why I came here.

And Ronnie is going to give you this blanket.

You can take it home and keep it for you.

Who is it? Anyone need that today?

Oh, my goodness. Good luck.

He's got you. Let let me show you what this

looks like in a true story that happened just a month ago or so.

There's a woman here in the church, good friends of ours,

who's sitting at home at our house, and all of a sudden she

hears a crash outside in the neighborhood.

Car runs into some sort of truck, delivery truck, big

truck, and then there's the sounds of the people from the

accident. And it turns out there wasn't a

lot of bodily damage. It was more like trauma of the

wreck. I don't know if you've ever been

in a wreck. It's scary.

So this woman goes out of her house hearing the sounds, just

responding. So she saw it.

She has compassion, she's responding.

And she goes and sits with this girl, this young girl who's been

in this accident. And she sits waiting for the

cops to come, waiting for the family to get there.

And she sits and she sits an hour and a half sitting with

this girl who's flailing, traumatized you following me

says, can I pray? I felt like I can.

I pray for you. Girl says yes, prays with her,

said here's my number. Do you need anything?

Just just text me. I live right there.

Like right there. You need a bathroom?

Come on. You need water.

Come on. A friend that showed up.

She wasn't abandoning her. A friend that showed up.

She's like, I'm going. She goes to the house.

Eventually the the the wreck gets taken care of.

Everything you know that they do the next morning she gets a text

from the girl and it's this text of Thanksgiving for being there,

being a weighted blanket in the middle of my trauma.

And then inspired of the Lord. She says, hey, we're having a

morning to worship at church tomorrow.

I know we just met through an accident, but would you consider

coming to church? And that Sunday morning, just

like a month ago, we had the morning worship.

She showed up, the girl showed up with her parents at church,

and then the dad of this family sign up and came to men's

conference. All because one person saw and

responded. All because one person was

prayed for by Jesus long ago. Say, Lord, would you send

harvesters into the field? And the Lord sent this woman

into the field. I believe Jesus is still asking

us to pray this prayer. Father God, the field belongs to

you. The harvesters belong to you.

Will you send your harvesters into the field who care about

what you care about, who see what you see, and will respond

the way that you responded with compassion?

I don't feel like we need to ask the Lord to send harvesters into

the field as much as I need to ask you, will you be the

harvester that God prayed for so long ago?

Will you identify yourself not as a churcher or a Christian,

but as a disciple maker? Because that's who Jesus was,

that's who Jesus is, and that's who his body should be.

I'm going to give you some ways to do that.

How can you be a harvester #1 practical, not going to leave

you, like, yeah, I want to do that.

What do I do #1 invite somebody to your table between now and

Easter, getting really practical.

Will you look with Jesus's eyes at work, in your neighborhood,

in your family and say, I see a need, I'm comprehending what's

going on in the heavenlies, the spiritual realm, and I'm going

to invite this person to my house and we're going to break

bread. We're going to share life.

And if the Lord opens the door, I'm going to say, I hear what

you're going through. I've been there too.

Let me tell you what made a difference in my life.

One thing, not a thing, one person, Jesus Christ.

And I just submit that to you. And if the Lord gives you extra

grace and you say, hey, come with me to Easter, Come hang out

at Illuminate Church. Let's go and hear the good news

together. We're going to talk about

forgiveness on Easter. I can't wait.

I guess I have to. I can hardly wait.

Invite somebody to your table in just a moment.

We're going to pray and I'm going to ask the Lord to give

you a name, you as a harvester, who's the fruit that you're

supposed to go pick #2 Jesus calls them harvesters that

Illuminate Church. We call them Dream Team.

The Dream Team are the people at this church who serve as

volunteers because they see and they respond.

They have compassion and say God, I'm going to do whatever I

can to help harvest. One more person here at

Illuminate Church to bring them into the communal family.

I'm a serving kids. I'm going to sweat out in the

parking lot, be here Sunday night with the youth, Monday

night with the young adults, soon to be Thursday night with

the young adults, All sorts of ways that dream Team members

serve. And they're all harvesters.

They're they're the answer to what the Lord prayed.

Well, would you send more harvesters?

And the dream team said, yes, I'll be a harvester.

I'll go do it. So invite somebody to your

table. Join the dream Team, whether

it's in the church, in the region, or in the world.

And here's the last part. I just can't help but think that

there's somebody here today, somebody's you're like every

time you talk about the harassed and helpless in the sheep

without a shepherd, I feel like it's me.

I feel like you're talking to me.

I feel harassed and I am the flailing 1.

There's no condemnation of that. It's really wise for you to

understand this is what I think my condition is.

I would say to you this Jesus is the healer that you've been

looking for. Jesus is the binder of wounds

that you've been looking for. Jesus is the one who makes

possible what feels impossible to you.

It's the blood of Jesus that heals every disease.

It's the blood of Jesus that heals every sick sickness that

comes from sin and the brokenness of the world.

What you've been looking for, you found his name is Jesus.

You don't have to be a sheep without a shepherd.

All you need to do is say yes to his invitation.

And I want to give you an opportunity to do that right

now, to come into the family, to be part of the community of

faith. It's a simple prayer Church, we

pray this prayer a lot. I, I hope you never tire of it.

Hope you never say we're praying that prayer again.

You're like, yes, you would say, we're praying that prayer again,

right? So if you would bow your heads,

close your eyes, let me give one last instruction.

We're going to pray this prayer so that anyone in here who feels

like they don't have a shepherd, you would receive him as your

shepherd right here and right now praying together with me

saying, Father, come on church, Father, in the name of Jesus.

I recognize that I am a Sinner in need of a savior, a sheep in

need of a shepherd. So I confess and I believe that

Jesus is Lord, He is my Savior, He is my shepherd.

I receive him into my heart today.

And I ask you, Jesus, to live your life through me all the

days of my life. Somebody in here is praying that

today for the first time, and I would just want you to take your

take your moment, talk to Jesus, say yes to what I'm believing.

I'm coming home be my shepherd. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to

407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.

Have a great week.