See the Need, Own the Vision

Awesome.

Awesome to be with you guys this morning.

Um, I want to say welcome to Church at the Grove.

And my name is Russ.

If I hadn't met any of you, if maybe today is your first Sunday with us, uh, maybe uh your second or third uh time with us, and we want to say a big welcome.

I want to say a huge welcome uh to our social circle campus that that we're streaming to this morning.

So as I am preaching to you, I'm also preaching to our campus and social circle.

Uh you may or may not know this, but we're one church with two locations, and and we have the same heartbeat, two different communities, and and our expressions are uh you know a bit different in some ways because we we're in two different communities, but but our mission is the same.

And our mission is to uh reach people far from God and to lead them to become followers of Jesus.

And I want to say special welcome to social circle being with us, special welcome to you.

It is a little bit unusual.

This is the first Sunday um in weeks that we've actually had chairs available, and that may be because we're not baptizing today, or maybe it's because it's uh Super Bowl Sunday, I don't know what what it is, but it's it's it's good just to breathe a little bit and excited.

And I love that song that we just sang, God is more than able.

Who can deny?

Who can deny the greatness of God, what God is doing, what God is doing in our midst?

And here's my confession that I have is that I am probably guilty of taking for granted what God is doing in our community, because sometimes where you're in the midst of it, it becomes a bit ordinary, it becomes a bit common, we get used to it, we lose fact, we lose the sight of the fact that God is doing something that is significant here.

Uh we shared a little while back statistically, um, and I can't speak for every denomination, but I know the research from the Southern Baptist Convention that says that over around half the churches in the Southern Baptist Convention did not baptize one person at all last year.

One person, none.

And then 75% roughly only baptized between one and about five people.

And so that that is a uh that is an alarming, alarming and saddening.

That tells me something is wrong.

Something is wrong.

It bothers me.

It should bother me.

It should bother us when we do not see the Spirit of God working in our midst because he is more than able.

Amen?

He's more than able.

And so when we see what's happening in our midst, and so we um, and I and I want to, I want to I want to talk about how God has been good, how God has blessed our our community.

Let's talk about baptism.

I just want to throw some pictures up, and I I'm not real sure, but I hope that social circles can see these pictures of these baptisms.

Uh these this is just a portion uh toward the end of last year and the beginning of this year of baptisms that we have celebrated at Social Circle and at Walnut Grove.

And every one of these baptisms represents a person, an individual created in the image of God, who at some point realized that God is great and God is good.

And he has provided for my salvation.

Yes, yes.

And so you see these baptisms, I love it because you know that there's some younger people getting baptized, and there's some older people getting baptized.

Two of my favorite, one is one Sunday we baptized uh a young man who is 30 years old.

I've known him his whole life, and he has been connected to Church at the Grove his whole life.

And it who knows why the Holy Spirit waited until he was close to 30 years old.

But I know this that God was working the whole time.

And so he, Bruce calls me on a sunny night several weeks ago, and he says, Man, I need to talk to you.

I need to talk to you.

I need the Lord.

I said, Hey, let's are are you available tomorrow?

And and so we met at uh Cosina Fuentes.

That's the that's a that I'm I'm I'm giving them a little advertising um uh you know notice.

You go eat there, you think about the Spirit of God working, right?

Mexican food and God spirit uh work together.

Something's moving, right?

So we we go and so we're sitting at Cosino Fuentes and eat some good Mexican food, and and and he right there at the table, he prays to put his faith in Jesus.

So it is it is something about Mexican food, I think.

And and so, but but you know what?

I know his family, I know them.

I know that that Jill and I have been praying for him.

Nobody gave up on him.

30 years.

Don't ever give up.

And on the same day we baptized the little 10-year-old Sally Moss.

And you know what?

10 years, I know her parents have been praying for her.

They've been raising her, they've invested the word of God in her, they've had her in Kids Grove.

And she walks out in the lobby one Sunday, not too, just several weeks back, and she's got tears streaming down her face, and her daddy's bringing her to me, to Pastor Russ, to tell me she's put her faith in Jesus and she's crying.

She says, I want to be baptized.

And so we we could go on.

I could go on the last few weeks.

I don't know what it is.

I don't know if it's something in the water or maybe the Spirit of God is working, but I've had several men come to me and say, you know what, I've been looking at things I shouldn't look at.

I've been I've been exposing my mind to things that aren't good for me.

And and so they're they're talking about pornography and and and and and exposing themselves to things that they shouldn't look at.

And they said, you know what, I need to get it right.

And they're confessing their sin.

They're confessing because the Spirit of God is getting a hold of their life.

Attendance, new people coming to our church, new people that are coming and becoming a part of our church.

And you know what?

Our community continues to grow.

Our community continues to grow.

I was I was driving out a little road just almost a stone's throw from here called Paul Smith Road.

Paul Smith Road, and I'm I'm got a friend Ronnie in the truck with me.

This is yesterday, and I said, Ronnie, is that a neighborhood going in right there?

He said, 150 homes, Russ.

150.

150 more homes.

And I know there's some of us, some of some of y'all that would say we we don't want progress.

We don't want too many people in our community.

And sometimes we we might can control some of that and sometimes we can't, but most of the time we can't.

And so what do we do?

We can throw our arms up in the air and say, hey, I want to I want our community to maintain this small, intimate kind of feel, and I'm with you on that.

I I love that about Walnut Grove and this part of our county.

But the bottom line is if there's 150 new homes, that that represents 150 new families, out of which I know the majority do not have a relationship with Jesus.

Now, here's what I want you to know.

As excited as I am about how God is working, as excited as I am about how many people were baptized, and we baptized, I think, about 10 people just in the month of January between our two campuses.

So that that over a course of a year, that's exciting, isn't it?

Yeah.

So excited, as excited as I am about all that, there's something that bothers me.

There's something that bothers me.

And it's as excited as I am about how many people are in this building on Sunday, I am more bothered by how many are not here.

There's 150 new homes going on there, going in that neighborhood.

If just a small percentage of those people decide to check out what's happening at either one of our campuses, we don't have room for them.

We don't have room for them.

We don't have room that should bother us.

And we're going to read out of Nehemiah over the next few weeks as we're in this series, Four Generations 2.0, and talking about how God is leading us in this short-term journey.

What we're witnessing, it's something we should not take for granted.

It's something we should be excited about.

We should recognize God is working, but just as excited, just as I am so excited about how God is working, I am bothered by the fact that there are people that aren't yet here that need to hear the gospel of Jesus.

And so it should bother me.

It should bother me when there are empty seats here.

It should bother me when we don't have room for people.

It should bother me when we have an Easter weekend like we've had over the past few years where people pull into our parking lot and they can't find a parking space, and so they just circle on around and they keep going because they see how crowded it is and they think there's no room for me there.

Now, Nehemiah was bothered.

Nehemiah was concerned.

Nehemiah had a burden, and that burden led to a vision that God gave him.

Give you a little history about Nehemiah.

There's two books that are together in the Old Testament, Ezra and Nehemiah, and throughout history, they were one book together.

And later, more in the modern history, those books were separated.

But it was all about God's people who had been, who had been conquered by Babylon in 586 B.C.

A large portion of their people were taken and put in exile in Babylon, which means they had to leave their homeland and travel to a long distance place in Babylon, and among those would have been Nehemiah's family, because he ends up serving Artaxerxes.

So Babylon is conquered, and at this point in the story where Nehemiah is sharing his journey, he is under the leadership of Artaxerxes, and who is a Persian leader and who had conquered the people that had conquered Israel.

And so Nehemiah is serving as a cupbearer, which means he was a food taster, wine taster for Artaxerxes.

And he approaches Artaxerxes, and Artaxerxes can tell he's downtrodden.

He's sad.

Something is bothering him.

There is a burden, and we should all have a burden for the world.

We should all have a burden for the people who are not yet here.

We should all have a burden for the salvation of people that are lost and far from God.

And so Nehemiah is burdened.

He's not burdened necessarily for the same things that we should be burdened about, but he's burdened about the glory of God.

He's burdened about the character of God.

He's burdened about how burned down city gates, burned down and destroyed walls.

And that's the state that Jerusalem was in.

He's burdened on how that reflects on the character and the greatness of God.

He knows that the city walls and the city gates and the state of the physical city is a reflection on their beliefs and their relationship to their creator.

And so Nehemiah is so burdened, and so he all he can do is start with a prayer.

And I want to read that prayer out of Nehemiah chapter 1.

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

Nehemiah chapter 1.

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

We're going to be in Nehemiah over the next few weeks.

And we obviously we can't cover everything in great detail, but we're going to look at a few of the key passages.

Nehemiah 1, we're going to start in verse 4.

And Nehemiah is referring to what?

To the report that he has heard about the state of the city, the walls being torn down, the gates being burned, and the sad state of the city of Jerusalem.

Here's what Nehemiah says.

He says, When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.

I sat down and wept.

You ride by a neighborhood that's close to you.

You ride into your neighborhood day after day.

You go to work week after week.

You encounter the same people.

And sometimes we should be moved emotionally by their separation from a holy creator that sent his son Jesus to die for them.

He says, When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.

For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

Then I said, Oh Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.

And then he confesses.

He says, I confess the sins that we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you.

We acted very wickedly towards you.

We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws that you gave your servant Moses.

Verse 8, he says, Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

And this is what they've experienced.

He says verse 9 But if you return to me and obey my command, then even if your exiled people are the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.

So he's reminding them of the promise.

He says, They are your servants and your people whom you redeem by your great strength and your mighty hand.

He says, Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.

Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.

I was a cupbearer to the king.

Now, chapter 2.

We'll read eight verses out of chapter 2.

He goes on.

He says, In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king.

Now I have not been sad in his presence.

And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing that you were not sick?

Seeing you were not sick?

And he's asking a question.

This is nothing but sadness of the heart.

Then I was very much afraid.

I said to the king, Let the king live forever.

Why should why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire.

Then the king said to me, and I want you to know that Nehemiah is afraid right here for his life.

He is he is there's this idea that you don't approach the king with a sad face.

Your job is to keep the king upbeat and happy.

But he he can't he can't he can't suppress his sadness and and his pain.

And so the king, he doesn't know how the king's gonna respond.

The king might respond by by having him killed, but but instead the king, look at verse 4.

The king said to me, What are you requesting?

Tell me what you need, tell me what you want.

So I prayed to the God of heaven.

So he says, Hey, God, be with me as I share this.

And I said to the king, If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, then you send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it.

And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will you be gone and when will you return?

Give me the details.

So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.

And I said to the king, If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me, to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah.

And a later letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.

And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

The good hand of my God was upon me.

Isn't that what we want?

That's what we want.

We want the hand of God.

So, so so Nehemiah, first thing he says, when I heard these things, I wept.

I heard about the state of the walls, I heard about the state of the city, I heard about what was happening, I wept.

I was bothered.

I was bothered as I drive around this community and I see, listen, I I I'm not gonna tell you to skip church.

You need to be in church.

But if by chance you were not in church on a Sunday and you're driving somewhere, I pray that God will give you grace.

But I want you to pay attention.

Pay attention.

Who is not at church?

Here's what I say all the time.

Listen, if you get out on Monday through Friday, school traffic, work traffic, whether it's local or across Atlanta, it's bad.

Isn't it bad?

How many of you hate sitting and just Loganville traffic?

I mean, we we we we we could go anywhere on any day.

I man, Walnut Grove is crazy.

On Monday morning, all the way through uh the week and the mornings and afternoons.

Um Atlanta, if you're driving across, if you're commuting, it's it's crazy.

You get up on Sunday, you go for a leisurely breakfast, run, there's no traffic.

How many of you had a hard time getting into the in into the church?

How many of you had a hard time driving to church this morning?

Anybody have traffic issues?

How many of you know you're gonna get into traffic tomorrow?

You know why you don't have traffic issues?

Because people aren't going to church.

Very small numbers of people go to church on Sunday in our culture.

Something that that our society felt like was so important years ago, it's not that big a deal now.

And that should bother us when we drive through the community and we know there's neighborhoods and there's people not venturing out to hear the word of God that is given to them, to hear about the message of Jesus that is that where Jesus died for them.

They don't hear it.

So, what is Nehemiah?

What's the pattern of Nehemiah's prayer?

The first first step is Nehemiah, God reveals, he acknowledges that God reveals and we respond.

God reveals.

What does he reveal?

He reveals his character, he reveals who we are.

Who he is.

Nehemiah acknowledges that.

He calls him the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands.

So he acknowledges the character.

God reveals, and we can't help but to respond.

We respond in worship.

We respond in obedience.

We respond in salvation.

We respond in joining God in his mission.

So the first thing, Nehemiah, he responds to the character of God.

He acknowledges it and responds.

What's the second thing he does?

He confesses his sin and he repents.

He confesses his sin and repents.

The second thing Nehemiah did was to repent.

He even says, you know what?

The sins of my father, the sins of my family, the sins of my people, the sins that I have committed, he goes all the way back to his family and into his personal life.

We have fallen short of God's glory.

We have not obeyed his commands.

And so there are personal sins and there are corporate sins.

And listen, I think the church in our country, in our society, there's some corporate sins that we need to repent of.

And sometimes those sins are ignoring the fact that there are people that need Christ.

Some of those sins are sins of just disobedience and self-sufficiency.

And so Nehemiah, he doesn't condemn sinners.

He says, hey, I'm one of them.

And I confess before God the sins of my personal life and the sins of my father's house.

We confess our sins and repent.

Third thing that Nehemiah does here in this prayer, he remembers the promises and plans of a gracious God.

He's reminded of God's gracious promises, of God's goodness.

You know, if you go back to Deuteronomy, and I want to encourage you, read your Bible.

Somebody this week said, Russ, you know, I've been telling you, don't start in Genesis.

Somebody sent me an email.

They were absolutely correct.

They're like, Russ, it is okay to read the whole Bible.

And it is.

It is.

Read through the whole thing.

If you're starting from the never read it before, you know, I tend to encourage people to go to the gospel accounts, but you start anywhere.

Start anywhere.

But if you go back to Deuteronomy, which is it literally means the law given again.

And in Deuteronomy 28 through 30, Moses prophetically outlines the entire history of Israel.

And he says, they will disobey God.

And they will be scattered.

There'll be consequences.

They'll be scattered among the nations.

They'll go in exile.

So Moses prophesies the future scattering of God's people and the consequences they will receive for disobedience.

And so it's important.

Especially when we're struggling with sin and we're struggling with problems in our society and nation, we should focus and remember the promises of God.

He is a good God.

He promises us salvation and he will promise us when we repent appropriately that he will pour out his blessing.

And then finally, what does Nehemiah do?

He boldly requests.

He boldly asks God.

He requests God to provide for the mission to which he had called them to, what he called them to.

He called him to go back, go back.

He asked the King Artaxerxes, can you send me back?

Can you give me a letter to pass through these other countries?

Can you call your buddy who has all of the cedar wood forest and might he donate some wood so we can restore the gates of the city to their original glory?

And so he does not hesitate to ask.

God, would you bless us?

Would you provide for us?

And then he doesn't hesitate to ask King Artaxerxes.

Because the king has shown him grace and acceptance.

He says, King, will you provide me a letter and provide for the physical needs of the rebuilding of the city?

So I'm here today as your pastor.

I'm saying, God, would you provide for us to continue with the plan that you've given us?

Which is to recognize that there are more people moving in our community than we can accommodate right now.

So I don't want to say to those people, you don't matter, I don't care.

Because in an in some essence, and I don't, I wouldn't say this from my heart, but sometimes it might be perceived, hey, you got your own thing going.

Let everybody else go to hell.

And I don't want that to be said about our church.

I want our church to, I want our church to be known as a church that cares about people.

All people, all ethnicities, all backgrounds, all nations.

It doesn't matter what color their skin is, it doesn't matter what language they speak, everybody's welcome.

And everybody needs Jesus.

And so I'm boldly asking God, and you know what?

I am bold asking you.

And God has blessed us.

You have been so generous to provide for the ministries of our church.

Both campuses have been so generous.

But we're not finished with what God's called us to.

We're not finished in Walnut Grove.

We're not finished in social circle.

I'm looking, I think about big pictures.

And I know that one of the next steps we've got to take is to build a facility that will accommodate growth.

I know that that's coming also.

At some point, we're going to have to address this in social circle.

Because God is blessing.

God is blessing.

God is growing.

And so I am boldly asking.

And God promises.

What does he promise?

Paul said, hey, he will do exceedingly, Ephesians 3.20.

I believe this is the that's the right reference.

He will do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power working in us.

He is able.

And he says this.

He said, while God's power is technically measureless, he said the prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse of God's omnipotence and omniscience.

Omnipotence is all-powerful, omniscience is all-knowing.

And he says, he gives us a picture of that by comparing them to the size of the universe.

And he says, the distance between his wisdom and ours, his power and ours is likened to the distance from one side of the universe to the other.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55, 8 and 9.

And he says the universe is so large that it requires an awfully long take measure.

The basic unit of thoughts, the universe, the basic unit of measurement is a light year.

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, which is so fast that in the time it takes to snap your fingers, light circumvents the globe half a dozen times.

To put the speed of light and the size of the universe into perspective, the sun is 94.4 million miles away from the earth at its farthest distance from us.

If you could drive to the sun traveling 65 miles an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take you more than 163 years to get there.

And all of you would say, Oh.

Yeah, I mean, you just jump in anytime.

The light that warns your face on a sunny day, on the other hand, left the surface of the sun only eight minutes ago.

So while 94.5 million miles may seem like a long distance by earthly standards, it's our next door neighbor by celestial measurements.

The sun is the nearest star in our tiny little galaxy known as the Milky Way.

There are more than 80 billion galaxies in the universe, which for the record equates to more than 10 galaxies per person.

I don't think you have to worry about running out of things to do when you get to heaven.

It's an awfully big sandbox.

In one minute, light travels 11 million miles.

In one day, light travels 160 billion miles.

In one year, light travels an unfathomable 5 trillion 865 billion 696 million miles.

But that's just one light year.

The outer edge of the universe, according to astrophysicists, is 15.5 billion light years away.

If that seems incomprehensible, it's because it is virtually inimaginable.

Yet God says this is the distance between his thoughts and our thoughts.

So here's my thought.

Your best thought on your best day falls 15.5 billion light years short of how great and how good God really is.

Even the most brilliant among us underestimate God by 15.5 billion light years.

God is able to do 15.5 billion light years beyond what you could think or ask.

So when he says he will do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think, just think about what I just shared.

And so that's what I'm asking.

And so there's this tension that we have between what we know God can do and what we are called to do practically in our life.

And so, listen, if I could, I would go and mix cement and I would pour a foundation and start laying block if I could.

I can't do that, but I know there's a lot of y'all that know how to do it.

But what I can do is I can give of my resources to see that happen.

Because I believe that God will meet me in my obedience, and He will do far more than I could expect or imagine or think.

So is it all is it all me?

No, it's it's it's it's me being obedient.

It might be one stone that I can bring.

Some of you can bring a pile of stones.

There's a few of you that could that can make most of that building happen.

But here, that's not, I'm not, I don't want you to get caught up in that because we got two more weeks.

You got to come back.

You got to come back.

And so I want you to understand that God will blow our minds if we step out in obedience.

God will blow our minds with his blessing.

Listen, our identity is solidified in how we advance the gospel of the kingdom.

That is our identity.

Our identity is not how many people gather in this room.

Our identity is how many people are living sent out from this room.

Sky Justani is a writer.

He writes a story about being in India.

He's in India and walking the streets of New Delhi, and a little boy approaches him, and he was skinny as a rail, barely had clothes on.

You can imagine some of you have been in third world settings and you've seen situations like this.

He was physically impaired, and he's on the streets begging.

This is what you see in a place like New Delhi, India.

And he approaches this group that's walking and visiting the city of New Delhi.

And he is, he he says, one one rupee, one rupee, please, one rupee.

And he's asking maybe for like uh you know a quarter or or a nickel.

I mean, just just just one.

He he know he does his expectations are so tampered down.

He he knows he he shouldn't ask for more.

Um and so and so he he he goes to these people, and so um Scott Giffani, who wrote the book, he says, My father says, What do you want?

He asked the little boy, what do you want?

He says, one rupee, sir.

What one one coin.

And and and the the father kind of giggles and he says, What if I give you five rupees?

So what what if I give you five dollars?

What if I give you five quarters?

And so the boy's countenance suddenly became defiant.

He he's mad because he thinks this man is making fun of him.

He's making fun of this little boy, and and and he says, and he he retracted his hand and he stares at him with this ugly look on his face, and he begins to shuffle away in his disabilities because he knows that they're they're making fun of him, they're not going to give him anything.

And so the father actually reached in his pocket and pulls out all these coins, and the little boy can hear the jingle, so he stops and he turns around.

And so the father's holding five, five rupees, and and the boy didn't know how to respond, and the man begins to walk to him and hold him out.

The boy takes him and immediately turns and he begins to shuffle away, and he stops, and he turns around and yells, Thank you, thank you, thank you, bless you, and so he he he races after the this group, he runs to them instead of away from them.

What does he do?

He doesn't hug them, he falls down at their feet, and he continues to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

And he tries to hand some of the rupees back.

That's all he knows to do, is because of their great kindness, he wants to show them back some of the kindness because he's overwhelmed.

And this is sometimes how I imagine that God is with us.

We we say, God, and we give him our request.

God, I I need you to, I need this, whether it's a job, or whether it's uh uh uh income or whether it's uh ability to pay your rent or whether it's healing for your physical body or whether whether it's a relationship that needs um needs rec you know reconciling or well you whatever your need is, we we hesitantly approach God.

I know I shouldn't be asking.

And God says, Oh, you want that?

Well, I've I've got this.

And he and he's saying, I got this, oh, oh, and I got this, and I got this, and I got this, and he is he is blessing our socks off.

And yes, yes, and so what is it?

What is our response to the generosity of God?

It's it's yes to say thanks, but but sometimes we find ourselves coming back.

God, I want to give you back a portion of what you've given me.

And it's not under compulsion, it's not the law, it's under grace.

And listen, so here's my prayer.

Here's my prayer.

Is God, would you work in the context of our church?

Continue to work, see people saved, see people come know Jesus and prepare us for the future.

And listen, I know that God, God is just waiting to pour out his blessing.

He's waiting.

But you know what?

He might want us to carry one stone, and that's what we're capable of carrying.

And he wants, he said, hey, if you will give, if you will participate, if you will join in this venture.

And this is what we've asked for last year when we started four generations, 1.0, we said, we want a hundred percent.

I'm not asking you to give all of your money, I'm asking you to give a portion, but I'm asking for a hundred percent participation.

Everybody plays a part.

Some can do more than others, but everybody plays a part.

Everybody plays a part, and the kingdom is advanced, the gospel is shared, and that neighborhood of 150 people, I claim it in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

I claim it in the name of Jesus.

So would you pray for me?

We're gonna sing a song here in a second that says, Who else?

Who else?

Who else is worthy?

Who else can we go to?

Who else has the character?

Who else has the power?

Who else has the ability?

He is worthy.

He's worthy of our obedience, he's worthy of our generosity, he's worthy of us.

He has put us in a community to be a part of a move of God.

Amen.

Now there's a lot of stuff that's gonna be happening really, really fast.

It's already kind of taking place.

We're gonna see some things happen, and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna put dates out there because they they could change a little bit.

But I'm telling you, the next couple of months, we're gonna we're gonna see, we're gonna see some activity, and and listen, it's gonna it's gonna get us excited.

And it just when you pull out your wallet or your checkbook or your app or your give online, whatever, just keep it out because you're gonna be so excited, you're gonna just want to keep giving.

And you laugh.

I'm not kidding.

So, can we just join Nehemiah?

And let's pray.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Let's pray with Nehemiah as he prays.

God, we acknowledge that you are great and you are good.

You are worthy of our praise.

You are worthy of our activity, you are worthy of our obedience.

So, God, we ask that you would work.

We confess our sins to you.

We admit, God, we fall short of the glory of God.

We pray that you would work and pour out your grace.

Save us who need it, God, and we repent.

Those of us that are saved but have been walking in disobedience, we repent.

God, we know that you have plans and promises that you are good for.

You, you, you um, you, your plans are beyond what we could even imagine or think.

And so, God, we ask for your plans to come become a reality, and we boldly approach you to ask you to meet our needs and to exceed our needs, and we trust you.

We trust you to take part in helping us advance, advance the kingdom, advance the gospel.

And so, God, we pray that you'd pour out your resources and provide, God, move among your people, bless us so we can be a blessing to our city and to our community.

God, we love you.

We love, we love you, and we say, who else?

Who else but a gracious and good and powerful God is worthy to be praised.

And we praise you right now.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

And everybody said, Hey, would you stand with me as we sing?