Mountain Movers Part 1 | God Has Anointed You with Chris Schlotterbeck

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church.

If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Happy New Year to you.

It's 2025 and I did not give permission for my children to be filmed in those video announcements

including my five-year-old who's slam dunking the offering box.

But that is the Phoenix.

If you're joining us from home, thank you for welcoming us into your space.

Happy New Year.

Shout out to our friends at HHC.

We love you and hope to see you soon.

So this morning is partnership Sunday here at HCV.

Some of you may be wondering what is partnership Sunday?

Well I get asked all the time by those of you that are new or fairly new to our community

of faith maybe six months, eight months, maybe in a year.

Hey, how do I become a member Chris?

Well we don't have membership here.

We have partnership.

And what partnership is is simply a year-long commitment that happens every January, every

new year on this Sunday that says that we are going to commit to being a part of your

community of faith.

Together, including myself, I will sign and date one of these pieces of paper that is

in your bulletin.

And I just want to go over what it looks like to be a partner in our community of faith.

There's three different ways.

First we connect to God.

I will devote myself this year, 2025, to partnering with HCV by actively attending weekend gatherings

and engaging Jesus in worship, which we're doing this morning.

Prayer becoming a regular practice in my life, which it should, and daily Bible reading and

devotions, which we are constantly encouraging you to do.

Number two, we relate to others.

I devote myself to partnering with HCV in 2025 by serving once a month at a weekend

gathering.

I believe that service and giving back to others is good.

No better place to practice it than here, because guess what?

If you can't do it in a church community, you're not going to do it outside of these

walls.

So we challenge you, serve once a month, not every Sunday, one Sunday a month.

Join a community group.

Our community group for the winter will launch in two weeks.

We value our small groups and we encourage you to be a part.

If you discover that there's not one that meets your time, your commitment, your needs,

start one.

We're all about new leaders coming forward and starting community groups.

Participating in other yearly community events at the Hub City Vineyard, we value serving

our community, just like you heard in the announcements at the Reach Cold Weather Shelter,

at Tim Tebow's Night to Shine.

We'll be doing all those things in February and we need your help.

And to go along with that, we want you praying for the leadership and partners, which is

you, of the Hub City Vineyard community.

That's how we relate to others.

And third and finally, we serve the community.

How do we serve the community?

We devote ourselves to partnering with HCV in 2025 by regular financial support to Hub

City Vineyard.

You know we value tithing.

We'd be giving back to God first.

Serving others with my possessions and talents so the kingdom of God can work in our lives

and the community.

We value getting rid of our storage containers and giving it all away.

If you need a storage container, that means you're not going to use it anyway.

Give it to somebody that needs it.

Inviting and including others from our community of faith who share in the life changing truth

of Jesus.

Look, here's the reality.

We believe that you can lead someone into a relationship with Jesus every single day

that you go to work or go to school.

But a lot of times that can be intimidating and overwhelming.

But hey, guess what?

An invite to our community of faith gives people an opportunity to hear the good news

because you know we pray that prayer every single Sunday expecting people to meet Jesus.

Now if you believe you can partner with us in those three different areas, sign that

piece of paper, date it, and put it somewhere that you will see it every single day.

You know why?

Because me collecting them and me keeping them in the big books doesn't mean you're

a member or partner of our church.

You need to hold yourself accountable to committing to our community of faith because that's how

the church works.

And we value that.

So I want you to pray about that and consider partnering with us in 2025.

Now every year as we approach January, I take time to pray and ask God for a word, a scripture

that will define the direction of our year.

I actually received this word several months ago which is kind of unusual.

It seems to me that God always takes me down to the limit.

But actually a few months ago, God put Mark 11, 23 on my heart and it says this.

I tell you the truth.

You can say to this mountain, may you be lifted up and thrown into the sea and it will happen.

But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.

I clearly heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart that in 2025 this is the year of movie

mountains.

Whether it be a mountain in your own life, whether it be a mountain in your family's

life, we believe that this is going to be a year of breakthrough and deliverance.

And I want you to be encouraged that you can do that and we will be doing it together for

the next 21 days.

As I was praying about this weekend, which actually kicked off last night for those of

you who don't know, we had a community worship night which involved six different churches

coming together to host a worship night with six different worship leaders and we had nearly

600 people here packed the place to worship and declare that 2020-25 was going to be the

year of God's favor over our different churches.

And let me encourage you, that doesn't usually happen.

I had one of the leaders, worship leaders give me a hug on the way out and she looked

at me and she said thank you for opening your doors and welcoming the unity of the body

of Christ to come together right here in this space.

So we are going to continue to do that because we believe that's how God changes communities.

So we already are planning more worship events like that that will involve different worship

leaders.

Be sure to stay tuned because you don't want to miss it.

So as I was praying about that event and also how we're going to kick off this weekend,

God put the word anointing on my heart.

And when I heard that word, just being honest, that's not a typical word that I use in my

vocabulary.

I don't even share it on a Sunday morning.

Not that I have a problem with it, I just believe it's a very churchy word.

And I'm not a big churchy guy so I avoid language that identifies with religion.

So what I did was I began to read different passages in the Bible that connect anointing,

the anointing to our mountain movers scripture.

And what I discovered was that the Holy Spirit was prompting me that in order for our community

of faith to move mountains, we would need a fresh anointing on our lives to increase

our faith and believe in the supernatural power of God.

So I'm going to open our discussion on the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, talking and

teaching on the word anointing.

Again, I had to do a lot of studying, I had to dive into it and see what it meant.

It is all throughout the Bible.

I believe in it and I want to share with you what I learned.

But before we do, I want to open in prayer because I believe the Holy Spirit wants to

speak to your heart.

So Holy Spirit come.

Move in this place, God.

Change us.

Open our ears, our minds and our hearts to receive all that you have.

And God, I pray for a fresh anointing to fall on each and every person sitting in these

seats that they would sense a tingling in their hands or in their arms, that tears would

well up, that they would know that you are with them, that you are here.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So that prayer leads us to our first thought.

See anointing is the power of the Holy Spirit in and on a believer's life.

Anointing is the power of the Holy Spirit in and on a believer's life.

First John 2, 27 reads, as for you, the anointing you receive from Him remains in you and you

do not need anyone to teach you.

But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not

counterfeit, just as it has taught you, remain in Him.

So there's that word anointing.

Now let me share with you the same verse from the New Living Translation which reads, but

you have received the Holy Spirit and He lives within you.

So you don't need anyone to teach you what is true, for the Spirit teaches you everything

you need to know and what He teaches is true, it's not a lie.

So just as He taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

See as the power of the Holy Spirit moves through us, we receive power, favor, gifts

and the fruit of the Spirit, or to say it another way, the anointing of the Holy Spirit

is the difference between the best that I can do personally in my own strength and the

best that God can do through His Spirit.

It's a desire for God's best in our lives.

But here's the reality, when we're in a relationship with Jesus, we become an anointed one.

If you're in a relationship with God this morning, you are an anointed one and God wants

to use us in our gifts to bring glory and honor to His name.

So to further understand this word anointing, we're going to look at two kings in the Old

Testament, King Saul and King David.

The two actually have something in common in that they were both anointed king over

Israel.

Naturally they were both handpicked by God to walk in the supernatural gifts of God.

But their lives had two totally different outcomes.

And let's take a look and see what happens.

First Samuel chapter 10, verses 1 and 6 through 7.

1 Samuel 10:1

Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul's head.

He kissed Saul and said, I am doing this because the Lord has anointed you to be ruler over

Israel, His special possession.

Now please understand, Samuel was a prophet and it was his responsibility to anoint the

king of Israel.

They did this by pouring olive oil over his head as a symbol of God's spirit being poured

over his life, marking him, saturating him, setting him apart for a special service to

God.

Now in the Greek, the word anoint means to rub or to smear.

While in the Hebrew, the word anoint means to pour.

And we can literally picture Samuel taking a flask filled with what scholars believe

is about six gallons of olive oil and pouring it over Saul's head.

Now I was going to do that this morning.

And many of you know I actually would have.

But then I thought about six gallons on the stage.

And I thought about how Rhett and Lauren would soon be ice skating.

Because not only would there have been six gallons, but this gathering there would have

been 12 gallons.

So I decided not to do it.

I just thought it was a little too much.

But notice what happened to Saul.

At that time, the Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you and you will prophesy

with him.

You will be changed into a different person.

After these signs take place, you must do what must be done for God is with you.

So please understand, church, the anointing is the presence and the power of God on a

person's life.

It empowers, it fills, and it activates gifts.

Unfortunately, what I've discovered is that many Jesus followers settle for a little dab

or a rub of the Holy Spirit on their lives.

They're intimidated to have it dumped or poured.

But my challenge to you is what if this year as a community of faith we desire for God

to pour out his Spirit on our lives?

Pour out his Spirit on our families, on our workplaces, on our marriages, on our relationships,

for our entire lives.

Because friends, it's the anointing that makes a difference and it's the anointing that is

available to each and every person that's in a relationship with Jesus.

And listen, it doesn't matter your age, your race, your occupation, it doesn't matter your

financial standing, it doesn't matter if you're married or single, man or woman, we all need

a fresh anointing in order to make a difference in the world.

I mean, we read about Jesus being anointed in Luke chapter four, verses 18 through 19.

When he grabbed a scroll from the prophet Isaiah and he read these words, the Spirit

of the Lord is upon me.

Now notice, he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blinds will see, that

the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come.

See, when the anointing is poured out over our lives, we are empowered to live differently.

We will pray with power and authority.

We will go to work or school, young people, expecting to see God move through us to change

the lives of other people.

As we serve, we will serve with joy and excitement.

We will desire to see friends and family plug into a community of faith, experiencing the

presence of God in their own very lives.

The anointing is powerful.

Let's once again look at the life of Saul, 1 Samuel 14 47.

Now when Saul had secured his grasp on Israel's throne, he fought against his enemies in every

direction, every direction, and wherever he turned, he was victorious.

Anointed ones have victory after victory after victory.

And why is that?

Well, it's because God is fighting our battles.

It's because God is staring down our mountains and moving them for us.

And I don't know about you, but I desire to live a victorious life.

I desire to be victorious everywhere I go, everywhere I share.

And what we learn first about Saul is that he was anointed and that God was with him

and he led Israel to victory after victory after victory after victory.

And then it all came crashing down.

Why is that?

Well, that leads us to our next thought.

You see, a believer's anointing can be lost on complacency and compromise.

See Saul allowed success to go to his head.

Saul became overconfident and casual in his relationship with God, which led him to losing

his anointing, 1 Samuel 15, 10 through 11, and the Lord said to Samuel, I am sorry that

I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command.

Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the Lord all night.

Now listen, let me be clear here.

Losing the anointing does not mean that a person loses their salvation.

It doesn't mean they're not saved because if a person confesses with their mouth and

believes in their heart that Jesus is Lord, then they are held tight in God's grace.

But if we become casual or complacent in our relationship with Jesus, we can let go of

God.

We can find ourselves in a place where we have not prayed in weeks.

We can find ourselves in a place where we stop reading the Bible.

We stop desiring change.

We don't want to share the good news.

Church, we can drift and find ourselves distant from God.

And listen, it can happen to anyone, including myself, and it's happened before.

We read this in 1 Samuel 16, 1.

Now the Lord said to Samuel, you have more than long enough for Saul.

I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem.

Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.

When our relationship with Jesus becomes casual and we find ourselves distant from God, the

Bible actually says that we quench or stifle the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Look at 1 Thessalonians 5.

Always be joyful, never stop praying, be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will

for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

And notice what Paul writes, do not stifle the Holy Spirit.

Do not quench the Holy Spirit.

And what does that mean, Chris?

Well, that anointing that was once bright and vibrant and passionate and exciting has

now began to flicker out and is just an ember.

And did you know that when we're just an ember, it grieves God's heart?

That we can actually make God sad when we lose our passion for him.

Look at Ephesians 4, 30 to 31.

Do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live.

Remember, he has identified you as his own.

He has anointed you, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

Therefore, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as

all types of evil behavior.

In other words, stop compromising.

Stop compromising.

God was so grieved by Saul's complaints at the Incompromise, who was a success at 30

years old, but loses his anointing when he's 40, only 10 short years later.

The Holy Spirit is a person.

It's the third person of the Trinity that connects with our spirit, spirits and desires,

and God's best for us.

He convicts us, corrects us, encourages us, teaches us, but we have to be open to receive

God's best.

So God removes the anointing from Saul and sends Samuel to Jesse's house to anoint the

next king.

Jesse had seven sons and Samuel had them come out to participate in a sacrifice so he could

identify who God desired to be the next king.

Eliab, the firstborn, strolls out, he's tall, handsome, muscular, strong, full of vitality.

Samuel knew this was the next king.

God said no, and he would say no to all the brothers that were in the house, leaving Samuel

confused.

So he asks Jesse, is this your only sons?

And Jesse responds that his youngest son is out in the fields caring for the sheep.

Samuel requests his presence, so David walks in, the youngest, not fully developed, a simple

shepherd boy.

And God tells Samuel this is the one which leads us to our next thought.

You see church, a humble heart releases a fresh anointing.

A humble heart releases a fresh anointing.

First Samuel 16, 7, and 12 to 14, but the Lord said to Samuel, don't judge by his appearance

or height, for I've rejected him.

The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the.

So Jesse sent for him, he was dark and handsome with beautiful eyes, and the Lord said, this

is the one.

Anoint him.

So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took a flask of olive oil, he had brought

an anointed David with oil, and the spirit of the Lord, notice, came powerfully upon

David from that day on.

So Samuel anoints David, the next king, but again pouring oil all over his head, and you

can picture his hair just being wet and it's going down over his beard covering his clothes,

and the Bible says the spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David from that day on.

Please understand the anointing has nothing to do with your position, has nothing to do

with a title, it has nothing to do with your age or your experience, has nothing to do

with how many likes or followers you have on Instagram or your YouTube channel or your

podcast.

God doesn't care about a platform.

Think about David, he was a simple shepherd boy living in the fields hanging out with

sheep.

And I want to challenge you this morning, ask yourself, which person do you identify

with?

You desire a personal intimate relationship with Jesus, a humble heart that receives the

Holy Spirit, puts others first, desires God's best for your life, or do you find yourself

in a place of complacency, of compromise, of questioning God's call on your life?

And I want to encourage you, if that's you, God is inviting you back.

God desires an intimate relationship with you.

God desires an anointing to flow through you so that you can once again walk in victory.

I mean, we see the anointing in the lives of the disciples when we read in the book

of Acts, Acts 4 13, the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of

Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training

in the scriptures.

They also recognize them as men who had been with Jesus.

See, even their greatest critics had to admit that Peter and John's behavior, their speech,

their boldness, their power was tangible evidence of the time they had spent in close relationship

with Jesus.

And many of you are thinking, well, Chris, of course, they walked with Jesus.

They talked with Jesus.

But yes, remember, they also denied Jesus when they walked and talked with Jesus.

They didn't live this way until the Holy Spirit fell and empowered them to live as bold followers,

just like you and I.

So we can't just throw off, oh, of course they were with Jesus.

No, they were filled with the Spirit.

They were filled with that boldness.

See, the Spirit's anointing rubs off, if you will, onto them.

Our English expression to rub off means to have an effect through close association or

contact.

We all know what it's like to paint a fresh door, only to be cleaning up and bump into

it.

That paint quickly goes where?

Onto us.

Jesus' attributes, that anointing, it rubs off onto the disciples, right?

Their close contact and being filled with the Spirit changed them forever.

And this can be your experience this year in 2025, which leads us to our 21 days of

prayer and fast focus, becoming mountain movers.

For the next 21 days, I want to challenge you to fast and pray.

Now some of you are sitting there thinking, well, Chris, what does it mean to fast?

This is my definition of fasting.

Fast simply means to give up something in your life and replace it with God.

Give up something that is stealing your time and your focus.

It could be social media, all the scrolling.

It could be an app that is distracting you.

It could be breakfast.

Maybe God is calling you to replace breakfast with an infant time with Jesus.

Maybe it's a habit you've been trying to break.

You know, this is the New Year's and there's a lot of New Year's resolutions and here's

the problems with New Year's resolutions.

You try to do New Year's resolutions in your own strength and they never work.

The gym will be empty in two weeks and I will celebrate that day.

But I believe if you have a habit you're trying to break and you made that a resolution, don't

make it a resolution.

Make it a fast.

Because when you replace that habit, say nicotine or vaping or a diet.

When you replace that habit, like overeating with fasting and with Jesus, that's when Jesus

breaks it.

When you try to do it in your own strength, you might as well just walk in circles because

it's not going to work.

But Jesus can break the habit, the addiction, whatever it may be, but you have to choose

to lay it down.

Then once you've determined what you're fasting, you replace it with prayer, read it in the

Bible in time with God.

And I believe these 21 days can be a special time of receiving a fresh anointing from God.

Because see, we need that anointing in order to move mountains.

And some of you are thinking, well, Chris, why would we want to move mountains?

Well, notice our first truth.

Mountains can cause us to question our faith.

I'm going to be jumping into Matthew 17.

Jesus had just climbed Mount Tabor, taking Peter, James, and John with him.

While they're up on the mountain, Jesus was transfigured, which simply means his face was

shining as bright as the sun, similar to what happened to Moses when he encountered God

on Mount Sinai.

Now while on the mountain, Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah, and this encounter caused

the disciples to be fearful.

And then Jesus encourages them, and then they move from fear to wanting to build memorials.

And they want to build these memorials to the three men so they can remember what had

just happened when in reality, those three disciples just got a glimpse of heaven.

What will all get to see if you're in a relationship with God?

And that's why Jesus said, no, we have to get back down the mountain to assist your

other disciples because they've kind of run into a problem.

And that's where we jump into Matthew 17, 14 through 17.

At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them.

A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, Lord, have mercy on my son.

He has seizures and suffers terribly.

He often falls into the fire or into the water.

So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn't heal him.

Notice what Jesus says to the disciples, you faithless and corrupt people.

How long must I be with you?

How long must I put up with you?

Bring the boy here to me.

See, mountains are situations that we experience in this life that are too big to overcome

in our own strength.

It could be a health crisis.

It could be a financial concern.

It could be a job related.

It could be a broken relationship that you see as unfixable.

And those situations, which Jesus told us we were going to have trouble, it wears on

us.

It brings us down.

It causes anxiety and stress and depression to reign in our life.

And I believe that's the exact place we find the father in this story.

Notice the man came, knelt before Jesus and said, have mercy on my son.

You can hear his heart breaking.

He has seizures.

He suffers terribly.

He falls into the fire.

He falls into the water.

Have mercy on my son.

You can hear the desperation in his voice and the context behind this mountain, this

trauma.

The father is unable to help his son and he's watching his son experience this pain.

And as I was reading that this week, I pictured Jesus kneeling down, making eye contact with

the father, then looking at the son, desiring to set him free.

I believe we can all relate to this father, all of us.

Again, like I said earlier, it doesn't matter if it's a health struggle, cancer, a family

member that is struggling with an addiction or infertility.

It could be death.

It could be grief of a loved one that has passed and you can't get over.

It could be your marriage that is not where it should be and you're fighting against counseling.

See, mountains cause pain and mountains can cause us to question our faith.

Notice Matthew 17, 19 through 20.

Where the disciples asked Jesus privately, why couldn't we cast out that demon?

Jesus says, you don't have enough faith.

See, mountains, if we're honest, they block our view.

They're big.

They're overwhelming.

The stress, the anxiety, we have no clear vision or plan for the future.

There's no hope.

It's as if it's always going to be this way.

And we settle for less.

And my question to you this morning is what is your mountain?

And if you're thinking you don't have a mountain, let me define it better for you.

What is causing you anxiety, pain?

What is keeping you up at night?

And whatever you answer to those questions is your mountain, which leads us to our next

truth.

There's good hope and news.

Jesus moves mountains.

Matthew 17, 18, then Jesus rebuked a demon and the boy, in the boy, and it left him for

the moment the boy was well.

And as I was reading that this week, it's like, could you imagine the reaction from

the father?

I believe he would have leapt for joy.

He would have had gratitude toward God, celebrating the healing of his son.

And what does it mean for us?

What does that mean for us?

See, when we're in a relationship with Jesus, here's the reality.

Doubt has to go.

Doubt is not allowed in the presence of faith.

Doubt is a lot like a plane that is delayed due to inclement weather.

When there's doubt, that flight is grounded.

It doesn't take off.

Our faith is grounded with doubt.

It doesn't take off.

It doesn't move mountains, and prayer is essential for a follower of Jesus.

But it's rendered ineffective when we bring doubt into our prayer life.

We can pray about the mountains, and then after praying in Jesus' name, if there's

doubt in our mind or our heart, gone.

Might as well not even have said it.

Therefore it's time to make a decision to believe in God.

And in order to accomplish this, I want to give you four questions to ask yourself.

And you can just ask them in the quietness of your heart when it comes to faith.

Question number one, is God able?

Ephesians 3.20, now all glory to God who is able, through his mighty power at work within

you to accomplish infinitely more than you could ever ask or imagine.

Number two, is God effective?

Isaiah 55.9, for justice to heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than

your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Can I trust God?

Jeremiah 17, but blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope

and confidence.

They are like trees planted along a river bank with roots that reach deep down into

the water.

Such trees do not bother by the heat or worry about long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.

And finally, number four, do I trust God?

Part 9.23, what do you mean if I can, Jesus said?

Anything is possible if a person believes.

And see if your answer is completely yes, then you need to be praying bold prayers,

because those prayers move mountains.

But if for any reason you answered no to any of those questions, why?

Why?

Because a no to any of those questions is a lack of faith or doubt.

And listen again to what Jesus came to do.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the

poor.

He has sent me to proclaim the captives will be released and the blind will see and the

oppressed will be set free.

And at that time, the Lord's favor has come.

See he desires to set us free from our doubt and for us to move in power, which leads us

to our final truth.

Only Holy Spirit-empowered prayer releases the supernatural.

And I believe God is calling our church to pray this way.

You don't have enough faith, Jesus told them.

I tell you the truth, if you had faith, as small as a mustard seed you could say to this

mountain, move from here to there, and it would move and nothing would be impossible.

And the funny thing is, I have a mustard seed in this jar.

I actually have five or six.

And I'm going to lick my finger and put one on the end, because that's the only way it

will stay there, because four will fall and one, there it is, will stay.

I'm going to hold it up for you.

And you can't even see it with the camera.

It's impossible.

You can't see it.

And see Jesus is trying to get us to see the difference between the seed and our mountains.

Because when you compare the two, the mountain is huge, so much larger.

But this mustard seed has so much more potential.

A mountain can't grow, but this seed of faith can explode into plants in six short days

and eventually grow into a tree.

I learned this, that a mustard seed has every nutrient we need to survive.

A mustard seed is loaded with vitamins, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc.

And because of the high concentration of antioxidants, mustard seeds can help prevent diseases like

cancer, arthritis, asthma, and hypertension.

So if we're going to understand faith, we have to understand this seed.

It's packed with power.

And our faith in Jesus, our relationship with God has power.

How do you know that, Chris?

Well the one living inside me is greater than the one living in the world.

We can do all things through Jesus who strengthens us.

Nothing is impossible with God.

We are more than conquerors through our relationship with him.

And I wonder if Jesus, when he held up the seed, challenged his disciples, he knew that

these simple men would be the ones that one day spread the good news about Jesus to the

ends of the earth.

I mean think about this.

The reason we are sitting here today is because of this seed that was planted over 2,000 years

ago and now accounts for more than 2.5 billion people being a part of the kingdom of God

in a relationship with Jesus.

That is faith with power.

In Mark 9, 29, Jesus says it this way, this kind can be only cast out by prayer and fasting.

And that's why I'm challenging you, the church, to make faith an action verb, to step out

believing that God wants to move through you and in you so that you can see the miraculous

not only in your own lives, but in the lives of others.

Which leads us to our simple action step.

Pray.

Church, we need to start praying.

And we need to start praying prayers of power and authority.

Look at James 5, 16.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so you may be healed.

Therein is prayer of a righteous person, has great power, and produces wonderful results.

Prayer moves mountains.

And every morning for the next 21 days we'll gather right here in our cafe at 6 a.m. to

pray for our church, our community, our nation, and the world.

I want to challenge you.

Show up.

Show up.

Well, that's too early.

Maybe that's your fast.

Maybe you need to set the alarm a little earlier.

Be a part.

Now listen, tomorrow there's a blizzard coming, if you've heard.

It's Washington County.

There's a blizzard.

We may get three inches of snow, according to the meteorologists.

But there's a small band coming through that could produce 28 inches.

It could hit us.

So if schools are closed or delayed, we won't have prayer tomorrow morning.

Making it simple.

We'll start on Tuesday.

Deal?

What's a good goal for people showing up to pray for 21 days?

20 people?

What's a good goal?

What do you think, Nate?

40?

What do you think?

Rick?

100.

They're not my words.

50?

100?

It's up to you.

I'm not going to make you come.

I'm not going to bend your arm.

Make you feel guilty.

It's got to be in your heart.

You got to want it.

If you want life change, we got to go on the offensive.

We got to believe, oops, see it's gone.

That that little seed that's in us, I can't even get it to stick now.

It's the power to change your life, the lives of others, and the tri-state area.

That's how we move mountains.

We get on our knees and we pray with authority and boldness and watch God do the rest.

But it all starts with your passion, your excitement, and your desire for more.

Will you stand with me?

We're going to close this gathering with communion.

So if you didn't get an element, put your hand up.

Our people will come around.

Here they come.

They're running.

One hand up.

If you need gluten-free, put two hands up.

You say, Chris, why are we having communion?

Well, this is an activation moment.

This isn't just something we do at church.

This is an encounter with God.

I did a series on communion not too long ago.

You can go listen to it on our YouTube channel if you want to understand it.

But basically, this is an encounter, an activation moment with God that can supernaturally change

your life.

The bread is a reminder of Jesus' actions on the cross, his broken body.

The juice is his shed blood for the forgiveness of sins.

So every time we have communion, we're going to pray a simple prayer because we believe

there's people here that are not in a relationship with Jesus.

And listen, I don't want you to take this if you're not a believer because basically

you're spitting in the face of God.

So get real and identify where you are in your heart.

So we're going to pray a simple prayer.

We pray it every week because we know that there's people in our midst, whether you're

far from God, walked away from God, or have never met him.

Jesus, I'm broken.

I'm full of doubt, shame, regret, sin.

Change me.

I believe you're God's son.

I believe you died for me.

Make me new.

Set me free.

Fill me with your spirit.

Help me, God, to serve others in Jesus' name.

So Holy Spirit, search our hearts.

If there's anything between us and you that is causing a separation, a brokenness, may

we lay it at your feet now.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, He broke it, He gave it to His disciples and

said, take eat.

This is my body which is broken for you and do it in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, He took the cup of wine.

He said, this is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Drink it often and do it in remembrance of me.

Let's drink.

And that proclaims the mystery of faith.

Christ lived, Christ died.

Christ is born again.

And we thank you, God, for moving our life in Jesus' name.

So if you prayed that prayer, listen, we're having baptisms next week.

I got about 40 people signed up.

So you want to see a big party come to our third gathering.

We're only having baptisms at our, say it again, third gathering.

So we'd love for you to come and celebrate with the 40 plus people that have declared

and want to make that outward public commitment that they are now in a relationship with Jesus

and if you want to be a part of that, please sign up.

It's real simple.

If you just said that you gave your life to Jesus, get baptized.

We want you in the water.

Prayer starts tomorrow morning.

At what time?

And one person believes that 40 is a good number, 50, and another person believes 100.

Not Chris.

Say again?

Okay.

Unless it's nose.

Unless it's nose and the schools are canceled or unless.

A few words of knowledge.

If you're struggling with digestive tract issues, you have right shoulder pain.

You have muscle or nerve pain starting six inches above your left ankle that goes up

into your lower part of your leg.

You have left inner ear infection.

You're struggling with stress or anxiety.

Or this is mine.

You need to receive a fresh anointing.

We want to pray for you.

Our prayer team will be here on my right.

There will be plenty of people there so make your way there.

I'll pray for you out in the cafe.

I don't really care.

But here's the reality.

There's no impossible I believe that you are working now.

Pour it out.

Oh, pour it out.