The God Wink | Pastor Jim Beck | Wednesday Night

FA Admin: Welcome to the Faith Alive Sermon Podcast. This is a replay of a past sermon from Faith Alive Church. Whether you missed it, want to hear it again, or share it with someone you know, we're glad you're here. This sermon is by Jim Beck, care pastor of Faith Alive Church. I picked up a prayer card. If you didn't pick up a prayer card on the way in, if there's any in there, grab one on the way out, even. Fill one out, put it in the box in the back. we're gonna take a minute right now, we're gonna pray over these needs right now. Amen. You know, these people. I always say this is their step of faith. This is their way to touch the hem of Jesus' garment is by filling out a prayer card and knowing, knowing in their heart that somebody is going to take this serious and somebody's going to read it. So I just want to take a few moments and pray. this person here, there's so many times I always said that the crazy thing about the world we live in right now is either somebody has cancer or you know somebody that has cancer. You know, it's just it's so rampant. We're gonna speak against that. We're gonna speak life into these situations right now. Whatever it is on the card you're holding, mine just happened to be somebody that's praying for healing from their cancer. And I'm a believer in that. God still heals today, amen. Jesus is still on the move. The Holy Spirit is very much at work in our lives. So let's take a few moments and pray. Whatever the need is that you have, just if you lay your hands on that card, hold it up to the Lord. if you're like me, sometimes I tuck it in my Bible and I take it home with me and I pray a number of days. And then I I don't steal the cards. I do bring them back and put them back in the the thing in the back. But if that's on your heart, whatever it is you read, every once in a while, something'll really touch my heart. But Father God, we just lift these needs up to you tonight. Lord, we come before you, we come to the altar, Lord. We've poured out our offering of praise tonight. But Lord, we thank you first and foremost that your son, Jesus Christ, poured out his life. For us for the forgiveness of our sins. And he promised to send his Holy Spirit to come and minister to us, to walk beside us, to comfort us, to lead, to guide. And we thank you, Father God, that that same power that rose your Son Jesus from the dead resides in us in the form of your Holy Spirit, Father God. And we thank you that we can come before you with these prayers and petitions. And Lord, we thank you that you hear our prayers and you respond to them. So, Father, we come in agreement right now. For each and every need that's been written down, that step of faith that went out. We come in agreement, and this is a point of contact right here, Father God. And we thank you for this that we can pray and lift these people up to you, these needs, Father, knowing that you hear us by the stripes of Jesus Christ. We are healed. We thank you, Father God, for healing people, spirit, soul, and body. In Jesus' precious, precious name, everybody said. Amen and amen. Well, we're doing good on time tonight. I'm going to get through my notes, I promise you, and we're going to have time to go out and get ice cream later on or make popcorn, whichever one you prefer. Can you say praise the Lord? No, better than that. you guys. One more time. that's more like it. Hallelujah. What we're going to talk about tonight is the God wink. And everybody said, What in the world is that? Some people have heard of it. Some people haven't. I was one of them people that had no idea that the God wink was even a thing. People have written books about it. They've told stories about it. And so I want to talk about it. And if you're thinking anything if your thinking is anything like mine, my imagination takes off when I hear a concept like this. Okay. And that's just what it is. It's a concept. So don't think we went crazy on our theology here. But the God wink in our culture, we have to be careful when we talk about concepts, because in our in our culture itself, a wink. can mean a lot of different things. Commonly, most normally a wink is like when somebody knows something that you're talking about. You know, like I'm I mentioned something and somebody might know and I'll yeah, you know what I'm talking about. You throw them a wink. A wink and sometimes it's a way of saying, hey, I'm just kidding, right? You start messing with somebody, okay, you throw them a wink. You they know they're off the hook. We gotta be a little bit careful. Sometimes it can mean something inappropriate, right? You know, how are you doing? All right. How are you doing? So I gotta be careful with that, right? Biblically, me and a brother were talking about this before service, biblically in Proverbs, it actually speaks negatively about it. And but I never knew that a God wink was a thing. I had heard a Native American telling somebody once that had lost a close family member. They said, Next time you see an eagle flying, you know, when you're out and about in the woods and you see an eagle fly over, that's God's way of letting you know everything's okay. And in their culture, they believe that, you know. And I heard a pastor giving a sermon. And this is what's sparked my curiosity. He gave us and it's the same story I'm going to use tonight, but he was preaching and teaching about the lady that was brought in before Jesus, and she was caught in the act of adultery. And and of course we know the story and we're going to read it real quick just to review it. But at the end of the story, where Jesus said, go and sin no more He said, I wonder if the guy, if Jesus shot her a wink right there when he said it. And then he didn't expound on it. He just went on with the rest of his message. I'm going, wait a minute. You're you left something out here, pal. He shot her a wink. It's like getting pulled over by the officer and he says, Hey, you were going 15 miles an hour over. But I'm not going to give you a ticket. Slow down. Right? Okay. He ain't going to give me no tickets. So I'm thinking there had to be more to this story here. But so I want to start out. And we're gonna go right into John, the eighth chapter, and start at the first verse, and we're gonna read this passage, and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time expounding on all the different parts of it. It preaches real well. I love telling the story, but I want to talk about tonight about the Godwink. And we're gonna take a look at it here. It says in John 8, the first chapter, 11, and we're gonna go through the 11th verse. Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and he taught them. And as he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd and said, Teacher, they said to Jesus, This woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something that they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and he wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer. So he stood up again and said, All right. But let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. Then he stooped down again and he wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and he said to the woman, Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. And Jesus said, Neither do I. Go and sin no more. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Father God, for your Holy Spirit to illuminate your word to us tonight. Father, we thank you that we will say what you want us to say. We will hear what you want us to hear. But Father, through this story, through this message, Lord, let us be let your Holy Spirit have free reign and minister to your people, Father God. Let the message go forth as you see fit in Jesus' precious, precious name. Everybody said. Amen. Does everybody remember? When we all had the bracelets, the W it was W W D W or W W J W, what would Jesus do? Yeah, how I probably didn't even say that. What would Jesus do? Right? Boy, did I mess that one up? Can can we edit that? What would Jesus do? Did I get it right finally? Okay. Tonight we're when would Jesus wink? Right? Looking at that story, when would Jesus have winked? So I my my like I say, I have an imagination. So I went back and I read through it. When I got to John 8:7, I looked at that and I'm picturing how it's playing out. They're pestering Jesus and He's not having it. They've already interrupted his. Message. He's teaching in the temple. It's very serious. The religious people, they sit and they study, they listen to every word you say, and they will call you out for one little mistake. And now they're calling him out and they're going about it all wrong. You're supposed to bring both people in, right? There's all kinds of things on it right here. So Jesus is very annoyed. Jesus is not even qualified at the time. He's not the one that's supposed to judge her. There's supposed to be a process that happens. And here they are pustering Jesus. Into condemning this woman. Hey, we're supposed to stone her. And I and I looked at John 8:7. They kept demanding an answer. So he stood up again and he said, All right, this is where he threw her a wink. He he was stooped down and they're pastoring him. He looked up at her and he gave her a wink and said, Hey, watch this. Watch this. He said, All right, we'll do this. But whoever here is without sin. Let him be the one to throw the first stone. And he goes right back like a movie scene, kneels down, starts writing in the sand again. And like the story says, they all started walking out until it was just Jesus in her lap. The amazing thing was, Jesus was the only one there that had never sinned. He could have thrown a stone at her. But yet he chose not to. Watch this instead. Threw her a wink. The other place where the wink was thrown in there, according to this other preacher, was John 8, 10 and 11. Jesus stood up again. He said to the woman, Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. Jesus said, Neither do I. Go and sin no more. I think about that. I think about that. I pictured her standing in like a crowded, packed courtroom, brought in and accused, guilty. Everybody knew it, even her. Everybody knew it. She could have been stoned to death. She could have been condemned that day. But the Godwink says, when he looked up and winked at her there, I believe that God winked said, if no one else here has your back, I do. I do. If nobody else, you know, we think. People, even family members, loved ones, friends, we we we get through go through things and sometimes people don't respond the way we think they should, or sometimes they do respond the way they shouldn't. We turn our backs on one another, right? Jesus said, if nobody else here has your back, I do. That's what the God wink says. I truly, truly believe that. The God wink says, My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect. In weakness. That's Second Corinthians twelve, nine. The real Godwink would say, My grace is sufficient for you. When's the last time that we had an opportunity, you and I, to extend grace to somebody, but yet we chose to go ahead and point out what they did wrong. How many times have we done that? Just to mo if nothing else, to prove maybe we were right. We can't do that. A little grace goes a long, long way. A little grace. When you think about Matthew and Matthew 6, 14, that's not up on the board, but Matthew 6.14, I believe it says, if you forgive others, I will forgive you. If you choose not to forgive someone else, I will not forgive you. That's pretty heavy. That's pretty heavy. You think about that. A little forgiveness will do good for both the giver and the receiver. Amen. Praise God. So I thought about that. So we had the God wink. So I thought, what else we got to work with? How about the Jesus nod? I thought about the nod. I wonder if Jesus ever threw anybody a nod. You know, if you're in West Branch, I learned that the nod is usually kind of like in the Western days. It's like tipping your hat. I believe that's the West Branch nod. If you're driving a tractor through the middle of town that's big enough to crush pretty much every idiot driver that's in front of you. And somebody sees you going down Main Street in your big old tractor and hey, well you don't wave back at like Forrest Gump because you're driving a two hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment. You give a nod. That's cool. You might throw a little wave in there. Right? You gotta give the West Branch nod. Now if you're from Detroit like me, the nod is completely opposite. Hey, what's up? You know I'm saying? That's how my my homies they never called me by my first name. Say, Beck, what's up? I go, This is good. Is it good? Y'all good? I go, it's good. What's good today? It's called good. Sorry, Beck. You alright? So that was the Detroit nod. That was up. West Branch, I believe, is down. Of course we can get all confused if we go both ways, but I think about the boy. I I completely lost my notes on that on So I want to go to the I want to when I talk about the Jesus nod, I thought about the thieves hanging on the cross, right? That were one on each side of Jesus. So let's look at that story real quick. Let's that's in Luke, the 23rd chapter. We're going start at the 39th verse. We're going to talk about the Jesus nod. Luke 23, 39 through 43, another real familiar story. One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed. So you're the Messiah, are you? Well, prove it by saving yourself and us too while you're at it. Now, if you read some accounts of this, both criminals joined in and were were were slamming Jesus. And what they were doing was they were echoing what the crowd was doing. They were joining in like it was going to do them any good. Because they were really good at crucifying people back there. Those two crooks weren't coming off that those crosses alive. But yet they were joining in the crowd and they were mocking the son of the most high God. But all of a sudden, this guy has an aha moment right there on the cross, and his life changed. The other criminal protested, Don't you fear God even when you've been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn't done anything wrong. And then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. What a moment. And Jesus replied, I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise. Wow. Wow. Talk about cutting it close. I'm like, I think about that movie, one of my favorite lines in the movie Top Gun, the original one, where the gal says, although the maneuver worked, we're gonna use it as an example of what not to do. This dude slid in literally under the wire, two seconds before the buzzer. He was he was condemned to die and he was going to hell. Because these guys, it says thieves in the Bible, but these guys were thieves in the Bible. When you study what they were, these guys were what they, I believe they called them highwaymen. These guys, they made a living out of robbing people. And I tell you, in in the course of carrying out their crimes, they more than likely took a few lives. So they weren't just thieves. These were some bad dudes, right? They didn't nod at Jesus like that. They're like, hey, Jesus, what's up? You know, they gave them that kind of nod, right? These guys were bad, and Jesus, this guy has a moment. He gets a nod from Jesus despite living a life of crime. He gets the the Jesus nod. How does that even work? I don't recommend trying out that theory where, you know what, I'm just gonna do what I want and I'll just accept Christ right at the very end. Well, how do you know when the end is gonna be? If this was a three-point message, that thief on the cross nailed it. He nailed it. He recognized, right? He recognized his need for a savior at that moment. It took being tied to that cross, and who else, who knows what else he went through, but he had a moment. He knew, wow, I've been on the wrong road all these years. And he repented. At the very last second, he turned. From his life. He turned from everything that he believed in and everything he had followed. All of a sudden he turned away from that and he turned to Christ. He repented. And then he received. He received that free gift of salvation that only Christ could give him. That Jesus nod at that moment, he nodded to that thief and he said, You ain't never too far gone that I won't take you back. No, that's not good English, but I love the way it came out. You ain't never too far gone that I'm not going to take you back. I'm not going to pull you in. I'm not going to receive you under me. Christ said, all we need to do is recognize we need to repent. And then we need to confess him as our Lord and Savior. And that thief did this at the very last moment. Jesus doesn't close that door. When you're witnessing to folks and and they tell you, There is no answer for this. There's no way out. There's no end. Jesus doesn't slam the door on people. We close those doors. We do it. And we we we gotta let people know that Jesus will never. And that Jesus nod is gonna say, The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. His mercies are new every morning. It's in Lamentations. 322 and 23. The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. His mercies are new each and every morning. Every day. Hit that reset button. Start fresh. No, whatever it is going on, I'm going to turn it over to Christ. It's never, never too late. We serve a God of reconciliation, folks. You know, we talked about forgiveness and things. And If we serve a God of reconciliation, He's a God of second chances. We need to learn to extend that kind of grace and those mercies one to another. So what I say when it comes to what that thief did on the cross, I goes, I would never I don't I don't don't push your luck, man. Don't push your luck. Don't ever tempt the Lord your God. Says so right in the scriptures, right? Praise God. Well, we talked about The God wink, the Jesus nod? Where we go from here? How about the Holy Spirit nudge? Huh? The Holy Spirit. Anybody ever been nudged by the Holy Spirit? Yeah. Well, you wonder what does it take to get us to respond? Huh? Some of us it takes like a little more than just a nudge. Some of it's like a shove, like a push, like a from a linebacker or something, right? I think about the real easy one to preach on is the The Saul to Paul conversion. The Saul to Paul conversion. And I look at the story in Acts, the ninth chapter. Here we just went through Acts and we just we dissected it. It was good stuff. And here we want to talk about in Acts 9, starting with the first verse. Saul's conversion. This is a great story. Saul's conversion. Here we are, Acts 9:1. Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath. was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest and he requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way that he found there, because he wanted to bring them in, both men and women, bring them back to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on his mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. And the voice replied, Well, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now get up, go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone's voice, but saw no one. So Saul picked himself up off the ground, and when he opened his eyes, he was blind. The God, the Holy Spirit nudge. And I gotta admit, that's a pretty drastic example of a nudge, right? We think of a nudge, it's a little more subtle. You know, we I I don't if I've told you this story before, I apologize if I bore you with it again, but it's a it's a simple story where I I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit. One time I was I was buying it well just a simple purchasing a bottle of pop at at a little store. And when I went to hand the clerk the couple of bucks, my money clip had a hundred dollar bill in it. Now I'm not one that just walks around carrying a hundred dollar bills. I'm I'm Jim Beck, not Jim Rockefeller, right? And and when I went to peel the the ones out, God said, Give that girl that hundred dollar bill. Well and I'm like, What? I didn't hear that. And so I made my transaction and I put my money back in my pocket. I walked out. And as I'm walking out, here comes a little more of a nudge. I notice her car sitting there. It's this old beat up Buick. And of course then there's a child seat in the back seat. And I get in my car and I take off down the road. I'm heading in here. I think I was heading in for a rehearsal or something and I didn't get a mile down the road. I didn't get a mile down the road. And God's didn't I tell you what to do? I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. So I pulled over and I prayed real quick. And it wasn't going to go away. So I turned around. Well, now I've, if you know me, I threw a fleece out there. And if a fleece is like, God show me a sign, right? So I wheel around, I head back to the stores. Now now I'm dealing with God. And I said, okay, if I pull in there and that Buick is still sitting there, it tells me that was her car. And if there's no other cars in the parking lot, I'm making it good. I'm really throwing it out there. Then that tells me that that is definitely her car because nobody else is in the store. I'll go in there and I'll do that. So I pulled in, and that Buick was the only car in the apartment lot. So I walk in and I, the girl, like, can I help you? You know, because now it looks like I was casing the place and I waited for it to be empty. And I said, Hey, I was when I was in here a minute ago, I was supposed to give this to you. And she goes, Why? I goes, I believe God told me to give it to you. So and it was it was that time of the year and I said, Merry Christmas. Cause I was reasoning it out thinking, well, that was just my emotions at the 'cause of the time of year. No, it was God giving me a nudge. It was God giving me a nudge. And I'm gonna tell you, so that's usually when they come in, you know, don't wait for the Saul nudge, right? I don't shouldn't have wanted to be driving down the road and have God crack me up back of the head like my mama would. Didn't I tell you, boy? You don't listen well. What's it gonna take to get through to you? Don't wait for the salt nudge. Let's respond to the subtle nudge. That's what God wants us to do, that still small voice. He don't go around demanding and throwing lightning and striking us down like Saul. Thank you, Lord. Saul got knocked off his high horse, was blinded for a number of days. That's a nudge. That's a nudge. But the more when you think about it, the more that we are intentional about responding. Those small nudges, the easier it's going to be for God to speak to you to do these things. When you get that nudge, when you may be standing in Walmart or at the tractor supply, I've prayed for people on the loading dock over here at the at the mill. When God gives you that nudge, respond. When somebody's telling you, I've got to go have surgery on my back, I'm gonna be off of work for months, God. God wants you to do something. He's having you tell that person tell you that so you can respond. God honors that. And I tell you, the more you do it, somebody's, I I used to say, somebody's giving me all, you know, a whole litany of things going on in life. I'll pray for you, sister. I'll pray for you, brother. No, God said, Why aren't you praying for them right then and there? When they need it, right then and there, right now. They're telling you, they're pouring their heart out to you for a reason. You respond like that Holy Spirit's going to move. He's going to touch their life. That person's going to go home and say, my goodness, I was telling this guy that I don't even know. And he all of a sudden started praying for me. How cool is that? That's the nudge that God wants us to respond to. And the more we're willing to respond, the easier it's going to be. And then when God starts working with you, He don't matter where you're at in your walk, He can use you and He will use you. So when those nudges come, jump on it, respond to it. The Holy Spirit nudge says, just like mom, hey, I'm talking to you. Right? It's that simple. He says, I'm talking to you. I'm telling you to do something. And we gotta move. It's like the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Use it or lose it, right? God puts it on your heart to do something. God puts it on your heart to move in a certain way with a certain gift. Use it or lose it. And each time it'll become easier and easier. And we call that. Flowing with the Holy Spirit. We start moving with the Holy Spirit. Come up, you're going to pray a certain way. You're going to pray for somebody a certain way. You're going to meet a need a certain way. You're listening to the Holy Spirit and responding in kind. And God honors that. In John 14, 26. John 14, 26, it says, But when the Father sends the advocate, this is Jesus speaking to his disciples, when the Father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit. He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything that I have told you. He will remind you of everything that I have told you. The Holy Spirit nudge says: whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way. Walk in it. Take that scripture to heart with a teaching like this. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. The Holy Spirit, one of his jobs, we heard the whole list Sunday, one of his jobs is to lead and guide. He's not going to tell you to do something and then say, you're on your own. He's going to tell you to do something and he's going to make the way. He's going to equip it, equip you to do it. It's going to happen. It's not that one relationship, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, it's not that one relationship is more important than the other. But what it is with the Trinity, it's that this is where the church is right now. Not that we don't have a relationship with the Father, we do. It's not that we don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We do. Father, Son, the Holy Spirit are all one. But this is where the church is right now. The timing of this, this, this teaching on Acts and the Holy Spirit couldn't have been better. God could not have played this out better. The church is in a position right now, we're in a place when God decides there's going to be revival, He has to have people equipped to do the job. We are here to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. That's why we have such good attendance on Wednesday nights because you folks are so hungry. You are the eyes and ears, the feet and the hands of Jesus Christ. And you are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do each and every task that he sets you out to do. It doesn't mean you're up like running a crusade or anything like that. It could be as simple as picking up some elderly person and driving them to church to hear the word. It could be witnessing to your neighbor, whatever it is, whatever it is your world that you are operating in, that is your ministry. That's your mission field. And it's awesome. I I went through a couple of weeks and and I'm gonna purpose to do this again soon. But I'm always one, I don't, how do I put this? I don't solicit counseling. I don't go to people and say, hey, you need counseling, come see me. Hey, you I think you need some counseling. Let's set up an appointment. I don't do that, right? That that wouldn't be right anyway. But when people come to me, I respond. Okay, I'm the kind of person who's got to look at me and point at me and say, Jim, I need you to do this. I respond. So I made it, I purposed in my life for about two weeks. No matter who said what to me, they were going to get a prayer. Yeah, my back's. I'll pray for you, brother. Don't even know the guy, right? You just met him. And it and it and I'm telling you, God honored that. It was so cool and it felt so right. We need to have that mindset that I'm gonna respond to what God says. He wants me to do. I'm going to move in what God wants me to do. The Holy Spirit nudge, whether you turn to the left or the right, you're going to hear that voice. This tells us no matter where you are at in your walk, no matter where we're going to experience God. When you experience the God wink, we experience God's love and God's grace. And the reason for that is He wants us to extend that love and that grace to other people. We are the extension of God the Father. Believe it or not, Jesus Christ is not an extension of God the Father. He's the Son of God, He's the second person of the Trinity. He is God. We are the extension. We are the reflection of God. So when He extends us the grace, He intends for us to extend that to our fellow brothers and sisters. When we experience the Jesus nod, We've experienced our salvation. That's my theology tonight. But I believe it makes sense. Along with that, we are experiencing his mercies. And his mercies are new each day. The Bible says his mercies never end. The proof of that is. The scriptures say when Christ poured himself out, he poured himself out for us. Well, in the Old Testament, when you poured out a drink offering, there was no taking it back. I love in the song we sing, we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise. We're sending it out with expecting nothing in return. We are giving it and it's not coming back. We are sending it to the Father. When Christ poured himself out, there was no turning back. No turning back. That's how he wants us to extend our mercies to others, just like he extended to us. When we experience that Holy Spirit nudge, we will experience an opportunity to be the extension and the reflection of the Father God to a fallen and broken world. People are seeking truth right now like never before. They are so sick and tired of watered-down sermons. People that are Compromising the truth just to pack seats, that's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. It's gonna fail miserably. When we speak the truth and we do it in love, and people are fed, that is what's gonna take the gospel out to the others. And we need to be that person. We need to be that extension. We need to respond to this by being aware of the presence of. Of God in all of our affairs. We're born-again spirit-filled people, folks. When you accept Jesus Christ, the word says the Spirit of God comes and dwells within you. I don't care what name it is you put on your church, I don't care what religion or denomination you claim. If you're a born-again believer, you have the Holy Spirit in you. And it's gonna, it's gonna be great. The Holy Spirit for born-again believers empowers us. Empowers us to carry out God's mission and accomplish his world, his will. And that is to get the gospel out to the world. So it's time now that God's church started to act like it and start living it out. Can I get an amen? Let's pray. Stand to your feet, please. Let's pray. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Father God. thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father, first and foremost, for your Son Jesus Christ, for the work on the cross. We thank you, Father, that your son was willing to pour himself out, to pour himself out like the final drink offering. When we didn't deserve it, he came and forgave us of our sins and saved us from death in the grave, from hell, from eternal, eternal separation. We thank you that you have saved us from that. Father, your word says that when your son went to be with you, he sent his Holy Spirit, the Advocate, to walk alongside. To lead, to guide, to illuminate our path, to illuminate your word, to empower us to be witnesses. Father, we thank you that we have the opportunity to be your ambassadors, to preach your gospel to a broken and fallen world that needs you so desperately, Father. We know we can do nothing without you. So we pray, we pray for just a fresh infilling of your Holy Spirit to flow through your church. Through the entire body of Christ, we thank you, Father God, that people will respond. People will hear the word and they will respond. They will know as it is spoken in love that it is truth. We thank you for that opportunity, Lord. Let us not ignore the nudge that you have for us, Father, the direction that you'd have us go. we just praise your holy name. Thank you, Lord Jesus. we glorify you, Father. We glorify you. Thank you for this word tonight, Lord. We pray right now for the opportunities to just work this out as we work out our salvation, Father God, with fear and trembling, as we move personally ourselves from glory to glory, growing in you. That Father God, you give us the opportunities to be witnesses, to share your word, to share your love, to pray for those that need it. Father, let there be opportunities for us to share your gospel. Thank you with nothing else but just to say a kind word to someone, do a kind deed. I will open the door to be able to share you. We thank you for this, Father. And as always, Lord, everything that we accomplish in life and in ministry, may you receive all honor, all glory, and all praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Wow. God is good, isn't he? And all the time. Right on. I got I just had a vision of and I'm only gonna take one minute. I went out west on a on a guided hunt one time and we had to go on horseback and believe me, I'm not a person that I've rides horses. So they suggested we take lessons before we go. So I did. I I did what I was told. And it was really cool when riding on a horse, I learned the horse knows if you know what you're doing. I learned that real quick. But what was cool is I'm like I'm trying to drive this horse like John Wayne. I'm throwing the reins this way and that way. And I found out a well trained horse, you just you could just kind of like move your body a little bit like like like like a knee, like nudge. And that horse responds. You don't have to kick him in the slats or whatever they call it. When a well trained horse, it's just it almost like it knows. What you're asking it to do, and that's how we're supposed to respond. The Holy Spirit don't have to kick us in the slats, just give us that little nudge. You know, maybe we can just lay the reins sometimes. When the horse would not cooperate, they taught me that I was supposed to put the reins to him one day. I'm up at 10,000 feet and I put the reins to this horse, and right when I did, the guide said, But be prepared for his response. It was too late. Praise God. God bless you all. I pray a blessing over the God's church. I thank you, Father God, for just a great night. And Lord, I just pray that we have a great week. And I look forward to Sunday. Can you say amen? Amen. Go in peace. Get some ice cream or some popcorn tonight. Thanks for listening to the Faith Live Sermon Podcast. We hope this message encouraged you. If it did, be sure to subscribe or share it with someone else who may need it. If you want to get connected or reach out to one of our pastors, go to our website. At faith alive dot church, we'll see you next time.

John 8:7 John 8:7 Acts 9:1