Build God's Kingdom

But I I love uh this series that we've been in.

Uh we've been in a series called Created to Be.

So we're talking about created to be, and we were all created to be something.

God has a plan, a goal for our lives.

And so we went with the first message: believe in Jesus.

We're all called to that.

Believe in Jesus.

And the second one, to belong to family.

This is our family, right here, to get into a group, a small group, and to participate in a gateway group and be around family and friends.

And then last week was become a follower, to become more like Christ, which is the goal for all of us.

And this week we want to talk about how to build God's kingdom.

So the title of the message is Build God's Kingdom.

And all of us can participate in this.

All of us can have a part in helping to build God's kingdom.

It's not something that we just uh think of or imagine in this far-off place.

It's for us right here today in this place.

So I want you to imagine for a moment, I want you to imagine a world where uh disease falls like mist all over the earth.

I want you to imagine a world where there is pain and hurting and strife and suffering.

Imagine a world where greed and consumerism has taken over.

Imagine a world where people find themselves in uh so much student debt or high interest rates that they even consider ending their life because of the pressure and the weight of the debt.

Imagine a world where life is difficult and crooks and criminals will kill to gain on their own.

Imagine a world where things are so difficult and even, in fact, the world has become not only inhospitable towards God, but downright aggressive towards God.

I know that's hard to imagine a world like that.

It's tough to picture a place like that.

But picture we're living in a place like that, and Jesus comes back.

Lightning strikes on one end of the sky, all the way to the other side, and Jesus shows up right here in front of us, and he says, Who wants to get out of this rotten, stinking world?

We're like, that's us, right here.

Right here?

Get rid of church, all of us, we're ready to go.

Let's go, let's move out.

Here we go.

You're you're you're ascending.

You take that moment to take one last selfie, you know.

You're so excited.

You post it to Instagram, hashtag if you can see this, you didn't get in.

Oh, a zinger from the afterlife.

Straight from the afterlife.

You got him good.

You're excited and you go up there, you get up there, and you're like, wow, this is heaven.

I'm so excited to be here.

And then imagine you're you're kind of tucked over to the side and you can hear Jesus approaches God and he says, Hey, need to talk to you for a second.

You're in on it.

You're right there.

You get to hear what he's saying.

Jesus says, I did exactly what you said, Father.

I went down there.

I said, Who wants to get out of this rotten, stinking world?

God says, You did that?

You said just like that?

Yeah, I did.

I did.

And here they are.

I brought them up here, here they are.

And God says, Okay, son, now let's go back down to earth and be with our people.

You see, I'm not telling you the story of the second coming.

I'm telling you a story that illustrates that so often we as Christians have our minds set on this otherworldly place that we want to be at.

So desperate to be out of our suffering, so desperate to be out of our pain, so desperate to be out of this place that's difficult and hurtful many times, and to be in that place where we can walk the streets of gold, and so we imagine it and we picture it, and we so want to be in this place that many times we neglect the earth.

And who are we to judge God's creation?

Who are we to say, this isn't the place I want to be, this is not the kind of place that I want to be around?

See, we're we're like children many times pressed up against the glass inside the house, looking outside, just longing to be out there, playing in greener grass.

And if we could just be out there, if we could just be out there, and the closer we are to the glass, the more our noses press against it, the more aware we are of the barrier that keeps us from being out there.

Our breath fogs the window, and all we can think about is this one barrier that keeps us from getting to that place.

And instead, there's a whole home, a house that God created that He made for us right behind us.

Instead of just turning around and engaging in this place that He created just for us, we just sit here waiting for the day that we die and we get to go to another place.

God hasn't called us to that, He's called us to have a mission right here on earth, a way and an opportunity for us to be involved and engaged in what He's doing right here in this place.

One of Jesus' primary messages was about the kingdom of God.

And so if we want to build God's kingdom and we want to participate in this, we need to first understand what God's kingdom really is.

What is the kingdom of God?

And Jesus seemed to be completely preoccupied with the kingdom of God.

Yeah, I'll show you some of these scriptures, and he says, the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God, and he seemed to be talking about it over and over.

These things are virtually the same thing.

He's just saying these things over and over again.

Let me just show you just a few examples of this.

Matthew chapter 4, verse 17 says, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 4:17

Now in Mark chapter 1, verse 14, it says, Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Mark 1:14

Repent and believe in the gospel.

And as you go, preach, this is in Matthew 10, verse 7, as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 10:7

I don't know about you, but it sounds a little bit to me like uh Jesus was the crazy guy in the street corner with the megaphone who's yelling, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

You know that guy.

He's the guy that you casually walk to the other side of the street so you don't have to encounter him, you know.

That's that guy.

That might have been Jesus, and that's on you.

You carry that with you.

It might have been Jesus right there.

You just, whatever you, however, you need to deal with that.

But that's what Jesus kind of sounds like to me.

He's just, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And he's saying this over and over again.

And we've so completely misunderstood these passages.

We've so thought of this as just this far-off place that we'll experience at one point.

And Jesus is saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is right here.

It is at hand, meaning it is within your grasp.

It's right here.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We've taken this to mean that there's judgment coming.

Watch out.

You've been bad, and and Jesus knows, and he's coming back, so he's gonna get you whenever he comes back.

Watch out.

He's got a list, he's checking it twice.

Watch out.

He's coming back, and don't let him be angry whenever he shows up.

We've totally misunderstood what he was talking about.

We need to remember what Pastor Robert tells us that that Greek word there for repent is meta neo.

It means to change your mind.

To change your mind.

Confession is great, it's needed.

We need to confess to God, but this is simply to say, change your mind.

And he was asking us to change our mind about where the kingdom really is, to change our mind about how we would participate in the kingdom.

Change your mind.

The kingdom of heaven is here and it is now, and you have the opportunity to participate with God in building the kingdom.

He has chosen to partner with you through this time.

What is the kingdom?

What is it all about?

Where is it?

Who gets in and who doesn't get in are questions that we've been preoccupied with and questions that we don't need to be asking?

It's about right now, it's about this place right here.

We desperately need to change our minds on this subject.

So we're we're saying now that the kingdom of God is here, it's here for us and it's here for us to interact with and be a part of.

Wouldn't it be great if there's a scripture where God just explain this, just give it to us, clear.

What is the kingdom?

Well, I'll show you in Luke chapter 17, verse 20, uh, they were asking him about the kingdom.

Luke 17:20

And so it says, now when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, See here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you.

It's right here.

It's right now.

It is within you.

And you won't say, See here, I see it coming now, here it is, arriving.

It will be within you.

And he has chosen for it to be there and for it to live there and for it to grow inside of you and for you to be able to make an impact on the people who are around you.

And so we want to look at three different ways that we ourselves can partner with God to build the kingdom.

Uh, this is not the only three ways, but it's three ways that I wanted to highlight for us different ways that we as a church body can participate in building the kingdom.

The first is that we build the kingdom with prayer.

We build the kingdom with prayer.

Our prayers matter, our prayers are important.

We must be vigilant in our prayers.

One of the examples of this where we talk about building the kingdom with prayer can be found in exactly the spot where Jesus taught us to pray.

You know the prayer very well, but I'm gonna read it to you.

It's the Lord's prayer, the one that he instituted, and it said, pray like this.

So it starts in Matthew chapter 6, verse 9.

Matthew 6:9

It says, In this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Right from the start, we start off by acknowledging God and saying, hallowed be your name.

And then the very next thing that we pray is, Your kingdom come, your will be done.

The very next thing we ask for, God, let your kingdom come.

Let it be in this place.

You say, Well, you're telling me that the kingdom is already here.

Why would we then pray for the kingdom to come?

When you look at this word here, this means that it would be ever growing, ever expanding, blossoming within you.

This word we say, God, let your kingdom come.

It says, Let it grow, let it flourish, let it expand in me.

This is what we're praying for.

Jesus was using these types of examples whenever he was talking about the kingdom.

These growing examples, he would say, the kingdom of heaven is like, and it would be uh the wheat and tares, the mustard seed, the leaven.

It's growing.

It's in a process, it's growing and expanding.

And God put that process into motion.

When Jesus came, he died on the cross and he set his kingdom back in place here on earth.

And we have the opportunity to pray that in, to allow it to grow in this place.

We pray that our prayers matter.

We can see multiple, many, many instances in the word where people, godly people, prayed and God moved.

He acted.

That their prayers were given consistently and they weren't given up, and they were given over a long period of time, and it moved God to action.

We see this over and over in scripture.

It reminds me of uh the story that I heard.

Um, it's a story of a little boy who desperately wanted a little sister.

And so he kept telling his parents, I want a little sister, I want a little sister.

And the parents finally said, If you want a sister, you need to pray that God will give you a little sister.

So he said, Okay, I'm gonna do it.

I'm going to pray every single day that God will give me a little sister.

And so the parents said, Okay, great, no problem.

Well, it came along, time passed, and the the mom did get pregnant.

And then she had the baby, and so the father brings the son over and he says, Son, I want to I want to show you something.

I know you'll be excited about this.

I want to show it to you.

I'm really excited.

And he pulls the curtain back, and there's a little baby sister.

He says, Meet your baby sister.

And the boy says, Oh, great, daddy, I'm so excited about this.

And the dad says, Wait, wait, wait, though, there's more.

And he pulls the curtain back a little bit more, and there's two baby sisters.

He says, Two baby sisters, look at this.

Can you believe it?

And the boy's, oh, I'm so I'm so excited.

Double the blessing, daddy.

This is amazing.

And the father says, No, no, no, wait, there's a little bit more.

He pulls the curtain back, there's three baby sisters there.

And the boy goes, Oh, this is wonderful, daddy.

He says, The dad says, Your mom had triplets, and now you have not just one baby sister, but three baby sisters.

He says, Son, aren't you glad you prayed?

And the boy goes, I am, daddy, but aren't you glad I gave up after three days?

So we gotta stick with it.

Our prayers matter.

We gotta pray and believe that God will show up and that He will move in us.

The second way that we can partner with God in building the kingdom is to build the kingdom with giving.

We build the kingdom with giving.

This is our time, our finances, giving of our heart, our resources.

This is giving in a way that would impact the community, the body of believers around us.

And so I want to read to you a passage of scripture.

It's a little bit long, but I want you to see the whole story.

It's a story that you're familiar with, but I want us to be able to read it and then to be able to talk a little bit more about what's really going on here in this passage.

This is found in Mark chapter 10, verse 17.

Mark 10:17

And you can follow along on the screens with me, but this is a story of the rich young ruler starting in verse 17.

It says, Now, as he was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

And so Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good that is God.

What he's saying here is he's calling out something that he sees in this man.

You'll see in just a minute that this man thinks of himself as very good also.

And so God questions him here on what his definition of good really is.

But then in verse 19 he says, You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.

And he said to and he answered and said to him, Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.

And then Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

And he said to him, One thing you lack, go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come, take up the cross and follow me.

But he was sad at this word and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How hard is it for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God?

Now, to be honest with you, there's been times that I've read this scripture without a full understanding of what Jesus is talking about here.

And uh not that I should be worried so much about having so much money as the rich ruler did, but in this instance, I go, What what does this mean?

The the rich young ruler comes to Jesus and he says, How do I have eternal life?

Which here in our Western mindset basically sounds like, How do I get to heaven?

How can I do that?

How can I get to heaven?

And here Jesus says, Well, what you must do is sell everything that you own and give it to the poor.

And so there's been uh a lot of confusion on my part in understanding this scripture, but there's a couple things that we need to understand.

This first century Jew comes up to Jesus and he says, Uh, How can I experience eternal life?

You must remember that anytime you see eternal in the Bible, most likely what was there is ages and ages.

And that's the word that is used there.

And any first century Jew, their perspective would not have been the same as ours in the same way.

How can I make sure that I get into heaven one day when I die?

Here's what he would be asking.

How can I enter into your kingdom in this age and in all the ages to come?

That's what he was asking.

Right now, today, how can I enter into your kingdom in this age and in all the ages to come?

And Jesus clearly is talking about the kingdom of God that is right here on earth because it's the way that he wraps it up.

He says to the disciples, he's been talking in a whole series, all these passages before and after are talking about the kingdom of God that is right here and right now.

And he says to them, How difficult is it for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God?

So uh one of my favorite authors uh and New Testament scholars, N.

T.

Wright, uh, has this story that he equates to this passage.

It's the story of uh how people in other countries will use a method to catch a monkey.

Maybe you've seen this, maybe you've heard of this, but basically what they do is they take a jar and they attach the jar to a large rock or to a tree or something like that, and they put something that's very enticing to the monkey inside the jar.

And when the monkey comes along, he'll take his hand, he'll place it inside the jar, and he'll hold on to this.

And as soon as he makes a fist, he's no longer able to get his hand out of the jar.

And the monkey will stay there, caught, trapped in this.

And you would think, just let it go.

Let go of whatever it is.

You don't want to be trapped right there.

Do you know what they're gonna do to you when they get you?

Just let it go.

It's as simple as that.

They just put something that the monkey really desperately wants in there, and he grabs hold of it and he will not let go.

No matter how trapped he is there, no matter how hard he tries to pull his hand out, he's completely trapped there.

And so you go, what is this passage that Jesus is talking about?

Is this true?

Is this the only way to get into heaven is to sell all of your possessions?

Here's what exactly was going on.

God noticed, Jesus notices right here in this moment.

Here's a guy who is keeping the law, here is a guy who loves God and Jesus loves him.

But what he notices is that he has his fist wrapped so tightly around something that it's keeping him in bondage.

His fist is wrapped so tightly around this thing, and he may feel like he's experiencing life because he's still alive, but the truth is he can't leave what he's attached to.

Life is happening all around him, and here he is attached to this because he's got his fist so tightly wrapped around this item that he wants so desperately.

The story is not about whether this person will make it into heaven or not.

The story is uh uh uh is and can be used as a teaching for us today to say, what do I have my fist wrapped around?

Something that's holding me back, holding me back from being able to experience life that's all around me.

And the only way to be released from that trap is to let it go, is to give it away.

Is to know and understand.

I may not get it, I may not receive it, I may never have it.

But it's more important to me that I live right here in the kingdom of God than to stay here trapped by this one thing.

So, whatever it is, if it's status, if it's a certain position in work, if it is money, finances, whatever it is, allow God to break our hearts for the things that hold us and keep us from experiencing his kingdom, to call those things out in us so that we can let it go and then move on to experiencing life with him and to build the kingdom.

The third way that we can partner with God in building the kingdom is to build the kingdom with serving.

To build the kingdom with serving.

We want to be servants in this house.

We want to be servants to the people around us, servants to our community, to our church, to our church body.

And there's a passage of scripture, again, it's uh it's a little bit long, but again, I want us to see the whole context of this story.

And I think it hits right at the heart of serving and exactly what Jesus was talking about.

So uh in Mark chapter 12, starting in verse 28, here's the story.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

Then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he, Jesus, had answered them well, asked Jesus, which is the first commandment of all.

And Jesus answered him.

The first commandment is, and this is where Jesus breaks into song, if you don't know that.

If it was a musical, he would just start singing right here.

Because for some reason he goes, Hear, O Israel.

It's like a small group of people gathered around him.

So it's probably a little bit awkward that he was like, the first commandment is, Hear, O Israel, and it's like nobody can hear you.

We're all right here in front of you.

Hear, O Israel, he says, The Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

This is the first commandment.

And then he says, And the second is like it.

In many translations will say, equal to.

It is at the same level, and it is this that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other greater commandment than these.

So the scribe said to him, Well said, teacher, you have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but he.

And to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

And watch this.

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God.

You get it.

You understand, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

You see, the answer, the question that the scribe asked Jesus was a question that the scribes had been asking themselves for many, many years.

There were 613 commandments in the law.

613.

248 of them were positive, 365 of them were negative.

And they'd been asking this question over and over.

What is it?

I mean, some of these are important, sure, but what would be the most important one?

What would be the most important one that we could possibly, if we could just elevate just one of them, if we could raise it up to that level, what would that one be?

The important one?

What would that one be?

And they'd been asking this question.

The the reason I was joking a moment ago about Jesus saying, Hero Israel.

The reason that he answered that way is because when he answered, he answered with something called the Shema.

The Shema was where.

Where uh all the scribes, Pharisees, all the Jews, Orthodox Jews would quote every day, they would pray from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4, every single day, and it was called the Shema.

Deuteronomy 6:4

The Shema, Shema means to hear.

And so at the beginning of it, they would say, Hear, O Israel.

And so Jesus is repeating this and reciting it to them.

And no one there would have been surprised in any way at all that his answer was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.

No one there would have been surprised by that.

They prayed it every single day.

It was the Shema, it was something that was done regularly.

But what would have absolutely shocked them.

What would have absolutely blown them away is when he says, Here is the greatest commandment.

And then out of nowhere, he pulls this one up.

Also, equal to love your neighbor.

A law that was buried in Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18, it was buried in there.

Leviticus 19:18

No one would have ever called that the greatest commandment.

What completely blew them away is he said, just as important as loving God is love your neighbor as yourself.

It's just as important to me that you love your neighbor as yourself.

That whoever it is that is within your grasp that you love them.

Whoever it is, whoever it is that you can wrap your arms around whenever they're experiencing sadness and help them feel joy, that's who I want you to love on.

Whoever it is that is in the hospital and you and your gateway group can go there and you can visit them and you can pray for them, that's who I want you to love on.

That's one of the ways that you love God.

Whoever it is, your coworkers, your family, whoever, whoever it is that's within your reach that you can love on, that's who I want you to reach out to.

That's who I want you to love on.

He so desperately wanted us to understand the power and the priority of serving.

And so he places it on the same level of importance.

This is what I want you to do.

Serve the ones who are around you, to reach out to them, to love them, to care for them.

I was uh uh one of the things that we like to do with my family is that around Christmas time, we want our kids not just to receive gifts, but to be able to give back also.

And so I don't know if you know what we do here at Gateway, but every year around Christmas time, we do a Christmas party for single parents.

And the parents can come and many of you gave uh gift cards, and it's important for it to be gift cards, not toys, because what happens then is the parents get these gift cards and they get to go pick out what their child asked for instead of just whatever gift was given.

And they take these gift cards and they go to the store, and while they're at the store, we are back here at the church taking care of their kids.

And we set up a store right here in the church, and we set up this store, and the kids can come in and they can choose a gift that they want to give to their parent.

And so we we told my kids this year, we're gonna go to that party and we're gonna serve and we're gonna be up there and we're gonna we're gonna help serve these kids.

And I was standing at this table, I was working with a guy right next to me, his name is Michael Marciante, and he's a member here at the church.

And I said, What are you doing here?

You know, you're you're married, you have kids.

What you know, what brought you here?

And he said, You know what?

Me and my whole gateway group, we got together when we heard about this party, and we decided every single one of us was gonna come here and serve.

There was a guy standing next to him that was dressed up in a costume, I couldn't see his face or anything.

He was like, This is my friend, he's working with me.

Out of nowhere.

He wasn't a children's worker, he wasn't working in that department.

He put on a costume and he sweat all night in this thing.

And you should have seen them down on their knees loving these kids.

And I was so proud of our church for doing this, for loving our neighbor, for reaching out.

Every single weekend, I work with amazing volunteers here at this campus.

I used to be at the North Fort Worth campus.

Hey, and uh, and I love them.

There's so many amazing volunteers there, and they're I it's amazing to watch what we do when we come together and we reach out to the community and we love the community.

This is our place, this is our belonging, this is our place to plug in and to reach people.

And we can do that.

We can do that as a body.

We can love the church, we can love the people who need to be in the church, we can be the ones who call them into this place and bring them into this place so that they can hear the truth of God and so they can be impacted by Him.

I used to work on this uh conference that we do called the Gateway Conference, and uh that's what it's called now, and I used to oversee certain little sections of that conference, and one thing that became painfully obvious is that we really needed a great piece of software to do registrations for.

And we needed this desperately.

We we needed a really good piece of registration software, and the one we had wasn't working very well for us, and so I said, you know what, I don't want just another piece of registration software, I want the best.

And so I started calling all over, literally all over the world.

Conferences that happen in Australia and everywhere, and I was calling them, I was just saying, what software do you use?

I'm taking a poll.

What software do you use?

And an overwhelming majority of people use this certain specific piece of software, and so I said, That's what I need.

I need that software.

And then I started thinking, you know, I got concerned because churches sometimes have a target on their back, and I thought, well, I don't want to go with somebody who doesn't love the church and love God and and and and want to care for us and help us do what we need to do.

And so, you know what?

I want to I want to meet whoever the guy is that owns this company.

I want to meet him.

So I I knew it might not be possible, but I just I picked up the phone or sent an email and I called the the the uh the company and I just said I want to talk to the owner.

And they said, All right, hold on just a second.

Oh, okay, that was easy.

And uh so he goes, hello.

I'm like, hey, uh my name is Josh Morris, and I work at Gateway Church in South Lake, Texas.

And um, you know, I I've heard from everybody that your software is incredible and we want the best.

We want the best software.

But before we decide whether we're gonna go with your company or not, I'd love to be able to meet you.

I don't know if you're ever in our area of town or if I could do a Skype call with you.

Whatever it would take, I'd really love to meet you.

And he goes, Well, let me tell you, I would love to do work with Gateway Church, and I'm a member of your church, and I'm a deacon.

Blew me away.

I searched all over the world for the best, and he was right here the whole time.

He was right here.

His name is Stan Coker, and and he probably has helped you find your seat one weekend or or or been the worst person baptizing out in the lobby.

He helps in so many different ways.

He might be the one who visited you in the hospital, and I took him to lunch, and I was like, man, it's so crazy that you're right here in our church.

And he goes, you know what?

It's crazier on my end.

And I go, What do you what do you mean?

What are you talking about?

And he goes, When we came here, I knew I had this piece of software and I knew that my company could help.

And he said, You know what though?

I just told God, I said, God, if you ever want my company to be of service to Gateway Church, you work that out on your own.

But as for me, I will serve this house.

And he just got involved.

He just plugged in and he said, I'm gonna do whatever it takes, I'm gonna help, I'm gonna serve, I'm gonna be in this place, serving this body.

And I said, Stan, now I know I can trust you.

And he's been working with us ever since then, and it has been amazing.

And there are so many people like that who say, you know what, I've got a busy job, I've got a lot going on, but I want to get in this place and I want to serve.

I want to be a part of this, and I want to help build God's kingdom.

You can do it.

You say, Well, I don't have a very consistent schedule.

It doesn't matter, we'll take you whenever you can be here.

You say, Well, it's a long process to get through.

Just do it anyways.

It's not that difficult.

We can be here, a serving body right here in this place.

I want to be serving with you at this campus, and I know every single campus pastor at all the campuses wants to serve with you, and we want to go out in this world and make a difference.

And we can do it.

It's as if when Jesus died and rose again, the earth and heaven became so close together that now it's simply a thin veil that separates them.

And then God gave you a sword.

And he said, I want you to go out now with this sword, and I want you to poke holes in the veil, and every time you do, the light of heaven will shine through on you and everybody around you.

And we have got to get out of the phase where we come into church with our shiny swords and say, Pastor, sharpen it more, put a finer edge on this.

We ought to come into this place with battered, beaten, and dull swords from going out all week, punching holes in the veil, and seeing the kingdom of God come in this place right here.

And that's when we come in and say, now let's sharpen our swords because we've got a lot of work to do this week.

What a hard-fought week.

What a difficult battle.

But our job is to punch holes in that veil until kingdom completely collides with this earth.

Like that's you to bow your heads and close your eyes, if you will, with me.

And at every campus, I want to make an offer to you that we want to pray with you today.

Maybe you've had a stirring in your heart towards wondering, God, what is my ministry?

What am I supposed to do to reach out in my church or in this body?

What am I supposed to do to reach out in my community, in my neighborhood?

God, where do you want, what do you want me to do?

Let us pray with you today.

Let us agree with you in prayer.

And also I want to encourage you at every campus, we're making it as easy as possible for you to sign up to volunteer.

When you're leaving today, you can get information, you can go on the website and you can look at that.

But we don't want to do, as a pastoral staff, I'm speaking for all of us, we don't want to do ministry alone.

In just a moment, the the worship team is gonna come out, we're gonna sing one more song, and there's gonna be altar ministers here lined up across the front and at every campus, whatever your need is.

Maybe your need has nothing to do with that, but you just say, I need to agree with somebody in prayer over my job, over my finances, over a situation in my family.

We want to pray with you today.

So, whatever it is, in just a moment, I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna stand up and we're gonna have a time of prayer and worship.

And if you need prayer for anything at all, we want to pray with you today.

And now I'm gonna close out this time with a prayer, an ancient prayer that I've prayed over the South Lake campus before, but I want to pray over every campus as well.

God, would you bless us today with discomfort?

Would you bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships?

Would you bless us with discomfort in staying right where we are and not moving forward with you?

God, would you bless us with anger?

Would you bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, exploitation of people, God?

God, we know that hurts your heart and it should hurt ours just as much, Lord.

Let us be the ones who work for justice and freedom and peace.

God, would you bless us with tears?

Would you bless us with tears that we shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

God, would you bless us with a holy naivety.

A holy naivety that causes us to believe that we can make a difference in this world.

So that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to a hurting world around us, Lord.

God, let us take our swords and let us go punch a hole in the veil, and may we see the kingdom of heaven right here on earth in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.