Your Circle | Todd Jones

Well, good morning, church. It is so good to

be with you guys this morning. I wanna welcome

you. I wanna welcome those of you at our Prescott

Valley location as well. Welcome. So glad that

you get to join us this morning. I hope you guys

had an incredible Thanksgiving. I hope you didn't

fight with your families too much. Some of you

laughed because that's not true. That's not what

happened at your gathering. But man, we're just

so glad that we made it through Thanksgiving.

And now I can officially say Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you guys. Some of you, though,

you've been celebrating for a while, right? Because

you break the laws that God set in place that

you're supposed to wait till after Thanksgiving.

And you know my stance on that. I'm not okay

with that. But this year was a little different.

My wife and I decided that this year we were

gonna get our kids for Christmas their very first

puppy. And so we were searching and we're going,

we're gonna find this puppy and we wanna get

this puppy for our kids. And so we finally found

a puppy, but they said, you gotta take it. now,

and so we took the puppy about a week ago, and

we brought the kids together, and we're like,

okay, I know we're not supposed to celebrate

until after Thanksgiving, but we got to break

our own rule. Here's your Christmas present right

now, and so this is what he looks like. This

is him. Yeah, he's absolutely adorable. The kids

lost their mind. They love him so much, and here's

the thing. He's half poodle, half chihuahua,

okay? Like, I don't know how that happened. I

try not to think about it, but so like, That's

what he is. And I don't know what he's gonna

look like when he gets older. And so I had to

Google and I'm like, what's he gonna look like,

right? And so like, this is option one. There's

two very clear options, okay? This is option

one. He could be super cute. And this is option

two. Okay, so like, it's a flip of the coin,

all right? We don't know what's gonna happen

here. Like it could be this mangy little guy

or it could be really cute. You can go ahead

and take that down, man. But you know what? Christmas

is an exciting time, and we love Christmas here

at Heights. Christmas is a big deal, and here's

why, because Christmas is good news. Christmas

is good news. And we get to proclaim that good

news this Christmas. And we're excited about

this good news. So as we walk through Advent,

as we lead up to Christmas, as we lead up to

this good news, we're gonna be talking over the

next couple of weeks about what we as a church

can do to prepare for Christmas, to prepare for

the good news, right? That's what Advent is,

is it's preparing for. what's coming, which is

Christmas, which is this good news that we get

to proclaim. So we as a church get to step into

that and be a part of what God is doing as we

lead up to Christmas. A couple of years ago,

I took my family on a vacation and we went to

Lake Tahoe and Lake Tahoe is beautiful. And we

were so excited about our vacation there. And

as we were coming around the mountain, the last

little dip before you go into Tahoe, our car

broke down. and we're like, this is just wonderful

timing. Right on the side of the road, we pull

over, and we have to call a tow truck that comes

and gets us and takes the car to the shop to

get fixed, drops us off at the hotel, and we're

like, okay, well, hopefully they can fix the

car while we are on vacation at the hotel. So

we went through the week, incredible vacation,

incredible time, and we get to the end of it,

which means the hotel is done being paid for,

but the car's not done yet. And so we're like,

we have a problem because I don't have any money

left to pay for more nights at the hotel, but

the car's not done. And so I called up a guy

that was interning for me at a church that I

worked at, and he was living in Reno, which is

a little over an hour away from Tahoe. I said,

can you come pick us up? So he comes and picks

us up, and we go to stay at his house. Okay,

we scheduled a beautiful vacation in Tahoe, and

I ended up in Reno. Now, I'm not hating on Reno,

but it's not where I originally scheduled my

vacation. You know what I'm saying? It's not

my idea of a nice place to be hanging out. So

as we're in Reno, we're at their house, I have

a choice to make, right? I'm like, I don't really

wanna be here. But the choice that I have to

make is, do I just sit here and waste the time

that I'm here or do I kind of explore? Do I take

the family around? Do we make the best of the

time that we have with where we're at? So I think

the question that I have for you is this. The

question is, what if God has put you exactly

where he wants you for a reason? Wherever you

find yourself in life, what if God has put you

exactly where he wants you for a reason? When

I was in college, if you guys know my story,

I played baseball growing up and I played baseball

at a junior college in San Diego. And when I

played baseball there, my goal was to play at

the next level, to play at a four -year university.

And I had the opportunity to sign with a four

-year university. And when I did that, I'm like,

man, I arrived, I made it. I've been working

towards this my whole life and I've crossed the

finish line. I've done it. I've made it. And

what I was sorely mistaken on, what I did not

understand is that that's when the real work

started. I didn't cross the finish line. That's

not when it was over. I didn't arrive. That's

when I actually, the real work started. And I

think for some of us, when it comes to our faith

journey, for some of us, when it comes to our

faith journey, we put our faith and trust in

Jesus and we crossed the finish line because

we were now a child of God. And we've made it.

We gotta get into heaven free card. And we've

made it. We've crossed the finish line. And what

you need to realize is you just crossed the starting

line. That's it. When you said yes to Jesus,

when you became a part of his family, you didn't

arrive. You didn't make it. You just began the

journey. You just entered into the mission that

God has given you. This is when the real work

starts. It's not just showing up to church. It's

not just coasting through. It's saying, man,

yes, I'm a follower of Jesus, which means that

I've been put on mission. All right, here we

call it kingdom mission. It's living out kingdom

mission wherever you find yourself. That's what

you've on. That's where when you said yes to

Jesus, yes, Jesus, I want, because of your death

on the cross, I wanna be a part of your family.

And you've been adopted into his family saying,

awesome, you're now on kingdom mission. Kingdom

mission is finding yourself wherever you're at.

It's loving the people around you, man. Would

people around you say that you're loving? All

right, it's serving. Are you serving the people

around you? Are you taking your time and saying,

hey, I wanna serve others with my time, right?

It's giving. We just talk for weeks about the

generous life, your time, your talent, your treasure,

your finances to say, hey, I wanna give these

things because that's what kingdom mission does

is it gives, it's giving, right? It's sharing.

Are you sharing Jesus with the people around

you? Because if you're on kingdom mission, you're

sharing Jesus, right? It's inviting. It's saying,

hey. Would you come check it out? I wanna invite

you to my church. I wanna invite you to check

out what Jesus is doing. That's what kingdom

mission is. And that's the mission that every

single one of us has been called to. If you're

a follower of Jesus, you haven't crossed the

finish line, you crossed the starting line and

it's your job to live on kingdom mission. It's

your job to push the mission forward because

wherever you find yourself is an opportunity

to fulfill the mission. If you're taking notes

today, write this down. Your circle. is often

your assignment. Your circle is often your assignment.

We're gonna be in the Old Testament today and

we're at the time of Xerxes who ruled over 127

provinces. A massive rule for King Xerxes at

this time is he's over 127 provinces. He had

a lot of power. And at this time, the Jewish

people, they're in captivity in Susa. under King

Xerxes. Now, King Xerxes, with all the power

that he has, King Xerxes can do kind of whatever

he wants. And so one day, King Xerxes, he summons

his queen. His queen, I'm gonna summon you. And

the queen goes, no, I'm not going. I don't wanna

come see you. And so this made King Xerxes pretty

upset because he's like, you don't know who I

am. I'm King Xerxes. I'm over 127 provinces.

I said, come, you come. And she's like, nope.

And so he's like, we got a problem, right? So

he got his wise counsel together. Okay, I say

wise counsel because all this dude did is all

he did. He brought his boys together and he was

like, hey, we got a problem. All right, like

I picture it like this. He's in the garage with

a pack of Coors Light, right? And he's like,

hey, come on over. We need to talk. All right,

we need to talk. He got his boys together, right?

He gathered as many idiots as he could to come

up with some great ideas. And why I say that

is this, Esther chapter one, verse 19. It says,

therefore, this is their great advice, ready?

Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue

a royal decree. and let it be written in the

laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed.

No one can take this away. That Vashti, right,

the queen Vashti, is never again to enter the

presence of King Xerxes. Also, all right, I see

him like take another sip, and he's like, also,

let the king give her royal position to someone

else who is better than she. All right, I can

picture him in the garage. He like punctuates

it. He throws the dart at the dartboard, and

he's like, give it to someone else, right? And

the king, obviously, he's sitting there with

his boys. He called all the idiots together and

he's like, I love that idea. That's great, get

rid of her. And then he's like, now I'm kind

of lonely. I don't know what to do now. So you

know what he did? He called the boys back together.

He's like, boys, I need another brilliant idea.

Come get me something. I got another 30 pack,

come on over. All right, so he gets there. And

Esther chapter two, verse two, it says this.

Then the king's personal attendants proposed

this. Let a search be made for beautiful young

virgins for the king. Let the king appoint commissioners

in every province of his realm to bring all these

beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel

of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of

Haggai, the king's eunuch, who's in charge of

the women. And let beauty treatments be given

to them. Then let the young women who pleases

the king be the queen instead of Vashti. And

you know what the king did? He's like, brilliant

idea. I love that. All the beautiful women of

the town, that's amazing. Of the whole province,

everywhere we find them. He says, this advice

appealed to the king and he followed it. No,

duh, he followed it. Did you hear the advice

of the boys? They were like, hey, go find all

the pretty ladies, every one of them, and then

you can pick the one you want. He's like, great

idea. Of course he followed it. He's like, that's

brilliant. So at this time, there's this guy,

his name is Mordecai. And Mordecai, he adopted

this lady named Esther. And Esther became his

daughter. And Esther became one of the people

that was in this beauty contest, right? She was

a very attractive young woman and she became

a part of what they were doing. And so King Xerxes

was like, okay, this is a part of the lineup

of people I see. And this is what we see in Esther

chapter two, verse 17. Now the king was attracted

to Esther more than to any of the other women.

And she won his favor and approval more than

any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown

on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

She wins the beauty contest. And Esther goes

from just being Mordecai's daughter, just a Jewish

person living in this community, remember living

in captivity, to all of a sudden being the queen.

And so during this time, then Mordecai, I heard

dad, Mordecai gets into some trouble, right?

But not some bad trouble, some good trouble.

I mean, the consequences are bad because he was

gonna get killed. But the reason he got into

trouble is because he wouldn't bow down to the

second in command, whose name was Haman. Haman,

who's the second in command, goes, hey, you gotta

bow down to me. And Mordecai's like, hey, I'm

not gonna do that because I worship God, I don't

worship you. And so the second in command guy,

he gets a little upset. He gets a little upset

because he didn't do what he asked him to do.

And so he goes to the king and he goes, Xerxes,

we got a problem because this dude over here,

Mort, right? Mort didn't bow down. And he's like,

so I wanna kill Mort, but not just Mort, I wanna

kill all of his people too. The Jewish people,

aka God's chosen people. All right, so now we

got a problem. And so Mort is going, okay, we

got a big problem here. Not only do they wanna

kill me, but they wanna kill all my people and

we gotta do something about it. And then he remembers

what Esther's position is. So he goes to Esther.

He goes to Esther and he tells her all about

the problem and he's going, hey, the second in

command wants to come kill me and I don't know

what to do because now he's gonna kill all of

God's people and we gotta do something about

this. And she goes, hey, hold up. Dude, what

am I supposed to do about it? Do you remember

the last queen who just didn't come when she

was called and all of a sudden she was gone?

Like, how am I supposed to stop this big deal?

And so Mort gives her a pep talk. He's like,

okay, yeah, this isn't gonna work. Let me give

you a pep talk then. Okay, and this is what he

says. In Esther chapter four, verse 12. When

Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he

sent back this answer. He said, do not think

that because you are in the king's house, you

alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you

remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance

for the Jews will arise from another place, but

you and your father's family will perish. He

says this, and who knows, but that you have come

to your royal position for such a time as this.

For such a time as this. Man, that's important.

I want you to remember that. For such a time

as this. And so Esther, she goes to the king.

She goes to King Xerxes and she tries to set

up this banquet with him and the second in command,

right? This Haman guy, this guy who's a mess.

I know there's a lot of details that go on in

this story that I would love for you to read.

You can go to Esther and you can read more about

it, but I got like 15 minutes to unpack the entire

book of Esther. So you can read the details for

yourself. There's some more things there. But

she goes and she asked for this banquet to happen.

And so this banquet happens with them. And when

Esther is there, she asked for her people to

be spared. She says, this is the decree that

went out. This is what Haman tricked Xerxes into

to send out to kill all these people. And she

goes, can this be repealed? Can this be taken

away? And so he takes away that. He spared her

people. And then the second in command, Haman,

the bad guy, he got what was coming to him. Again,

there's a lot of details there that you need

to go read, but he got what was coming to him.

He got what was coming to him instead. And this

is what it says in Esther 8, verse 11. The king's

Esther 8:11

edict granted the Jews in every city the right

to assemble and to protect themselves, to destroy,

kill, and annihilate the armed men of any nationality

or province who might attack them and their women

and children, and to plunder the property of

their enemies. He's going, hey, you can defend

yourself. If these attacks come against you,

you can defend yourself. He's saying, you don't

have to just roll over and take it. You don't

just have to be killed. He issues this decree,

but that's not all. Haman, the bad guy, he takes

his position away and then he gives it to Mordecai

instead, right? This is what it says in Esther

Esther 8:15

8, verse 15. When Mordecai left the king's presence,

he was wearing royal garments of blue and white,

a large crown of gold and a purple robe of fine

linen. And the city of Susa held a joyous celebration.

For the Jews, it was a time of happiness and

joy, gladness and honor. See, Esther, Esther

found herself in a place. Esther found herself

in a position. Esther found herself around people

where she had a choice to make. Do I just float

through or do I use where God has put me for

his purpose? And Esther in that moment realized,

man, the place that I am. The position that I

hold, the people that I'm around. You guys have

places where you're at, right? Your job is a

place where you find yourself. You find yourself

in this place. That's your job. That's where

you find yourself. Some of you, you find yourself

at a school. Your school is where you find yourself,

right? Your neighborhood is where you find yourself.

It's the place you're at. Some of you parents,

you find yourself at school pickup and it's not

where you wanna be. Like this place is terrible,

but that's where you're at. You have positions

that you hold. Some of you, when it comes to

your employment, you have positions that you

hold within your job. Some of you, you hold positions

like you're the HOA president, right? If that's

you, you need to chill out. I'm just telling

you right now. If that's you, you need to chill

the heck out, especially if you live in my neighborhood.

Just chill out, all right? I mean, some of you

hold positions and maybe you're a coach. I don't

know what position you hold, but you hold a position

and God has put you there for a reason, right?

You are around people. There are people that

you rub shoulders with, whether it's just the

other parents on the soccer team, whether it's

the people that you work with. Your neighbors,

wherever you find yourself, you are in a place

and I need you to know that you are there for

a reason. Just like Esther said, man, where I'm

at, where God has placed me is exactly where

God wants me. And you know why? Because you are

the only one that can do that mission. The place

that you've been put, that's your mission and

only you can live that mission. When I was younger,

I worked for an excavation company and when I

was working for them, there was different positions

and I was a laborer, which meant that I held

a shovel while everyone else got to do cool things

in giant machines and got to do cool things in

the great equipment because they were certified,

because they went through the training. And I

would be there with my shovel and I would look

at their cool machinery and I would be like,

man, just walking close to it and my foreman

would come over and he's like, uh -uh, I don't

think so, buddy. You pick your shovel up and

get back over there, right? I'm like, but I just

wanna be there. I just wanna do that. And he's

like, no, that's not your job, man. This is your

job. See, I think some of you, when it comes

to you living on kingdom mission, you look at

other people's positions and you go, but if I

was in their position, I could really make a

difference. But if I lived their life, then something

could actually happen. And listen, you need to

understand that God has put you where he's put

you for a reason. That's your job and no one

else can live it. What I mean is this, I can't

walk into your work or your job and start sharing

Jesus with your coworkers. You know why? That's

weird. They'd be like, listen, get that bald

guy out of here. That's weird. What's he doing?

But you can do that. Just like you guys can't

go hang out with the whole Embry -Riddle baseball

team, but I can because I coach there and that's

my job. That's not yours, that's mine. Just like

your mission is not my mission. God has put you

on a mission and he's put you around people and

he's given you a position and he's put you in

a place for a reason. And here's the thing, you

might not even like where you're at. You're like,

I don't even know how I ended up here. I don't

wanna be where I am. You might not even like

where you're at, but I know why you're there

for such a time as this. You know, we live in

a time and a generation where people are coming

to Jesus more. than we've seen in hundreds of

years, where people are open to the gospel. Where

people are coming, and this is all across the

country, where people are interested in it. We're

seeing people influential on social media, on

TikTok, on Instagram, that were living a very

public, sinful life that are now going to Jesus,

that are now opening their Bible, that are reading

to their millions of followers and saying, hey,

I think Jesus is the answer. It's not the parties,

it's not the sexuality, it's not the things that

I've been chasing, but Jesus is the answer, and

that's the time that we're living in. You've

been put where you're at for such a time as this.

That's why you're here. That's why you exist

is for the kingdom mission that God has put you

on and your circle is yours. It's only yours,

which makes what you do in your circle, which

makes what you do with your opportunity so important

because it's only yours. If you're taking notes,

write this down. God often uses natural relationships

to create spiritual impact. God often uses natural

relationships to create spiritual impact. We

like to think of people that are in the position

they're at like they've always been there. We

don't remember their past, right? We think of

athletes and we're like, you've just always been

at a professional level. And there was a process

before that. We think of that when it comes to

Christians, pastors on stage, or even famous

Christians. The most famous Christian probably

of our generation is Billy Graham. Billy Graham

would pack out stadiums and he would preach the

gospel and hundreds of thousands of people came

to Jesus because of Billy Graham. Billy Graham

wasn't always a Christian. He was a farm boy.

And one of the farm hands on his farm invited

him to church, and that's where he met Jesus.

C .S. Lewis, one of the greatest minds of our

generation or of any generation when it comes

to Christian thought, C .S. Lewis wanted nothing

to do with Christianity, wanted nothing to do

with God, but he had friends that were persistent

with him. In fact, his quote that C .S. Lewis

says, He says that I was the most reluctant convert

in England. He's like, you can't get me. But

he had a bunch of friends that were persistent,

that wouldn't give up. And he met Jesus. There's

a guy named Craig Groeschel and Craig Groeschel

was a college athlete and a frat guy. And he

was friends with a sorority girl and the sorority

girl invited him to church and he met Jesus.

And now currently, right now, as we speak, he's

a pastor of one of the largest churches in the

world. Because their friends decided that their

circle, that their natural relationships could

have spiritual impact. They said, hey, I'm just

gonna invite you. I'm just gonna have you come

check it out. I mean, I love this when Jesus

is walking around and he's calling his disciples.

He's calling his disciples and he's like, hey,

come follow me. Hey, come follow me. And he meets

this guy named Andrew and Andrew starts following

Jesus. He starts hearing about Jesus. He starts

staying with Jesus. And then immediately, this

is what it says he does. In John chapter one.

Verse 40 says, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother,

was one of the two who heard what John had said

and who had followed Jesus. And then it says

the first thing Andrew did, the first thing Andrew

did, he didn't go to church and go, I'm just

gonna sit here. I gotta make sure I know everything

first. I'm just gonna wait. I just gotta check

it off my list and go to church every Sunday

for the rest of my life. No, no, no, what do

you do? What do you do? What do you do? First

thing he did was he was to find his brother Simon

and tell him we have found the Messiah that is

the Christ. We found him. I love that. And then

what does he say? And he brought him to Jesus.

He's like, hey, we found him. I'm gonna tell

you about this and then I wanna bring you to

see him. I wanna invite you to come check him

out. This is what he does. And what he does that

I think is so beautiful is Andrew's ministry.

He meets Jesus and then immediately he starts

in ministry, right? Because when you meet Jesus

and you're put on kingdom mission, and when he

was on kingdom mission, what did he do? He didn't

start with strangers. We have this weird picture

of evangelism. We gotta go to a street corner,

right? We gotta get our box. We gotta set our

box up and we gotta get on our box and make sure

our sign tells everyone they're going to hell

and we gotta get a bullhorn and we gotta yell

at everyone, right? Because that's evangelism.

And that's a picture we have in our head. All

right, sometimes we think it's a program. We

go, no, listen, you need to do evangelism. How

come this church doesn't do evangelism? We need

to go out onto the Prescott Square every Friday

night. We need to go have random conversations

with people because that's evangelism. No, it's

not. No, it's not. Yeah, that's telling people

about Jesus, but you need to understand that's

not what evangelism is. If it starts with the

natural relationships that you have, what did

Andrew do? He went straight to his brother. The

natural relationships you have can have spiritual

impact. Who has God placed next to you? It's

important, and here's why, because 75 to 90 %

of Christians say that they came to faith because

of a friend or family member. That's almost all

of them. That's almost all of you in this room.

Think about it. You came to faith because of

a friend or family member. That's why you're

where you're at right now. The statistics are

in our favor. This is crazy. 80 % of non -churchgoers

say that they would go to church if someone that

they knew invited them. We're afraid to invite

because we're like, what if they say no? But

the statistics say that eight out of 10 of them

are just waiting for you to invite them. Eight

out of 10 of them are going, man, if someone

that I know invites me, yeah, I'll go. But here's

the sad part. Church, this is not okay. Is that

most Christians don't know anyone who's not a

Christian. Our statistics say that 27%, that's

one out of four of us, one out of four of us,

say they don't know a non -believer at all. And

the statistic goes even further than that and

says 80 % of Christians say that they don't have

a close relationship with non -Christians. They

don't have a close relationship with non -Christians.

We insulate ourself, we isolate ourself, we go,

okay, the world is so bad, I gotta insulate,

I gotta isolate, I gotta move away from, and

then we don't know anybody that we can shine

our light to because there's nobody around us.

He said, you are a light. Don't hide your light.

Go shine your light. Go tell people about Jesus.

But if you don't know anyone who doesn't know

Jesus, you can't tell them about Jesus. Listen,

I'm not telling you to get in with the wrong

crowd. I'm not telling you to be influenced by

them. I'm not telling you to be dragged down

by them, but I'm telling you this. If you don't

know anyone who's not a follower of Jesus, you're

not living on the kingdom mission that God has

put you on. I'm gonna say something that's gonna

make some of you pretty mad. If that's you and

you don't know anyone that's not a follower of

Jesus, You're living in sin. I know that upsets

some of you, but here's the truth. Sin is disobeying

what God has said. And when God has said, go

and make disciples, when God has said, hey, listen,

I want you to be a light, when he said, hey,

use your natural relationships to make spiritual

impact, he's saying the people in your circle,

the people around you are people that you can

go and use your influence with because your influence

is strongest with those who know you, with those

you know. That's where your influence is the

strongest with those that you know. And for some

of you, just that sentence freaks you out because

you're like, uh -oh, if they know who I am, they're

not gonna wanna come to church. Then you probably

need to change the way you live. If you invite

someone and they go, oh man, if you're a Christian,

then I don't wanna be a Christian, then you probably

need to change the way you live. Because the

truth is, is that your influence is strongest

with those who know you. So are you living in

a way that those who know you want what you have?

Are you living in a way where they see your light

and go, man, I need some of that light? Okay,

Todd, I get it. We're supposed to invite people,

but why does it matter so much? Why does it matter

so much? Here's why. Because we have good news.

Not just good news. We have the greatest news

the world has ever heard because these angels

showed up. And these angels announced that this

baby was born and it was a party and it was incredible,

but that baby did not stay a baby. That baby

grew into a man who never sinned, who did what

you and I could never do. We mess up daily. We

mess up hourly. Some of you have sinned 10 times

just sitting here right now. Jesus never sinned,

but Jesus willingly went to a cross for you.

And he said, I know you can't do it on your own

because of your sin, but because I've never sinned,

I will go on a cross for you. And he stood in

my place and he stood in your place. And Jesus

died on a cross for your sin. And that is good

news. But just dying on a cross, there was a

lot of people that died on a cross. Jesus didn't

stay dead. Jesus rose from the dead. And when

he rose from the dead, he conquered sin, he conquered

death, and he made a way for you to have a relationship

with God forever. And that is good news. That's

why this matters. That's why where you have been

placed matters. That's why your circle matters.

That's why wherever you find yourself is so important

because we have good news that we wanna share

to the world that desperately needs it. And church,

you have been placed wherever you have been placed

for such a time as this. So who's in your circle?

Who's in your circle? As you leave today, you're

gonna be given this. It looks like a Barbie newspaper,

right? My kids are gonna play Barbies with it

later. It says Heights Church News. It says good

news. And then there's lines here. What these

lines are, are for you to write names of people

that are in your circle that God is bringing

to your heart, bringing to your mind, that is

your mission to bring with you to Christmas.

This is your ticket out. You can't leave today

until you get one of these. They're gonna be

at the doors. You're gonna get it on your way

out and you can't leave until you get one. And

I want you to take time to think through who

is God putting on your heart? Who is God placed

in front of you? Because of the place that you're

at, because of the position you hold, because

of the people you're with, who has God put on

your heart that you're saying, I'm gonna write

their name down. I'm gonna pray for these people.

I'm gonna invite these people. I want you to

write their names down. I want you to keep it

in front of you. I want you to put it in a visible

place in your house, in your car, where you see

it, where you are reminded that this is your

mission and God has put you where he wants you

for a reason. For such a time as this. Let's

pray. God, thank you so much. God, that you choose

to use us. God, you don't need us, but you choose

to use us, God. God, thank you that you sent

your son, that we celebrate the good news of

your son coming this Christmas, but God, there's

so much more than that. It's that you sent him

to save the world. Lord, we thank you. We praise

you for that. God, we are so grateful for salvation.

We're grateful that you allow us to be a part

of your story. God, I pray that you would give

us courage, that you, through your spirit right

now, would lay names on our minds, God, that

you would lay the people on our hearts that you

want us to reach out to, that you want us to

participate in mission with. God, that you would

give us boldness to live on kingdom mission.

We praise you, Jesus. We are so grateful for

everything that you've given us, everything that

you've blessed us with. God, I pray that we would

be generous with it. We love you, Jesus. We pray

this in your name. Amen.