I'm On It - Mike Saathoff

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Stay in an attitude and an atmosphere of worship before you take your seats.

Because I think that it's it's songs like this that serve as a gentle reminder just at how close the presence and grace of God truly is.

I remember my initial upbringing in the things of God.

I've always thought that the things of God was something that I had to aspire to get to.

And at best, maybe that when I die, I'm on the other side, and that's when I can experience the best that God has for me.

But when it talks about how he's so close, it's the very air that we're breathing in.

The more that I've been walking this walk and having these moments where I have experiences with God, I I realize that that heaven's not this distant place, that wholeness is not this distant place, but it's really as close as the air that we breathe.

That when Jesus died, he restored the access that we have to the presence of God.

He restored the access that we have that was supposed to be in the Garden of Eden from the very beginning.

And I believe this is meant to be encouragement for someone in here right now because if you think about the words of the song where it says that you've already approved of me.

I sense that there's some of us in here that believe that we have to work in order to get the best that God has for.

Maybe if I pray long enough, if I do the right things, and maybe I'll get the breakthrough, but but He's already approved of you.

All we have to do is be standing, willing, available vessels to be the recipients of everything that God has for us.

And my prayer for us right now is that whatever those things are that the enemy has placed in our minds to make us believe that we're not good enough, to make us feel that we're too distant from God.

I want to remind you of this powerful story of the prodigal son.

And it's this beautiful image of how he was broken and so distant and away from the things of God.

But the scriptures tell us that he came to himself.

He that was the biggest journey that he ever could make, is that he came to a place where he recognized that where I currently am is far beneath where my father will have me to be.

He made up his mind, and when he made up his mind, his father was waiting for him, and not only was he waiting for him, he crowned him before he cleaned him.

I want us to know that God loves you so much that he's willing to give you the robe and the crown before you've done anything ever to deserve it because the work has already been completed on the cross.

Be encouraged, my friends.

Be encouraged at home.

The work is finished, you are accepted.

In just a few moments, we're gonna get a chance to hear from one of my favorite preachers in our house, and that's Pastor Mike Sathol.

This is a man of profound faith, a dear friend to me and my family and our church, and has been here from the very beginning.

And I couldn't be more excited than for us to be able to hear this faith-filled word that I think all works together with everything we've been experiencing and seeing.

So, church as a family, will we mind welcoming my brother, Pastor Mike Sathoff, as he comes to prepare the word of the Lord for us?

Wow, wow.

Hey, y'all can take a seat.

Wow.

I'm like still like a little bit in worship mode right now, as you can probably imagine.

I don't know, maybe y'all probably feel the same way.

Um, I was not expecting worship to hit like that this morning.

Can anybody else agree?

Like it like hit.

I mean, we might just sit here.

Does anybody want to stay for three hours today?

Well, get ready, because you know what?

Pastor Keith and Megan said I could preach today, and matter of fact, we're not even in a sermon series, so we're gonna be in, the doors are locked, we're gonna be in here for three hours anyway.

So it's my time.

We're gonna we're gonna get it in today.

Uh just kidding.

Nobody run out.

We won't be here for three hours.

It'll be two and a half.

The um so I'm so excited to preach today, and I'm it's so good seeing everybody in here and all your faces.

Those of you watching at home, what an honor it is to come before you um and just share the word of God um with you and what he's been showing me and dealing with me as I've been studying this week and trying to figure out God, what is it that you want um your people to know?

What is it that you want all of us to know together?

Not just me, you know, saying something to you, but something to where I'm also a recipient because we're a community and if God is speaking, it's not just for one, it's for all.

And so what an amazing thing and an amazing time um that we are in, even in the midst of a pandemic.

What an amazing time right now that we get to be in because it's requiring us to step out on faith greater than we ever have before.

And so I'm so excited to preach, and um that is actually what I want to talk about today is faith.

You know, oftentimes the antithesis to faith is fear, and we're in a time right now where it doesn't take much for us to see what fear can do.

All we have to do is turn on the TV and we can see it.

We can we can we can just look on Instagram and we see it.

We see it from friends who we never thought like, friends who aren't scared of anything.

All of a sudden, there's something that they're now fearful of.

So, what a better time than now to talk about faith.

And so um, I'm gonna jump right into it because we're gonna try and squeeze a quart into a pint.

There's so much that I really just feel like God wants us to get today.

Um, and I'm gonna look at a very familiar passage of scripture.

And when we go to it, you're gonna go, oh, I know what he's doing, I know exactly where he's headed, but I bet you don't.

So here's I bet you don't.

So we're gonna go and look in Matthew, the 14th chapter, and starting at the 24th verse.

And it says, It says, Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves.

About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them.

Now, I read that and I said, God, are you trying to say I need to wake up at three o'clock in the morning?

Because I tell you what's not about to happen.

I am not going to wake up at three o'clock in the morning.

I feel so bad for some of you new parents who are waking up one, two, three o'clock in the morning.

But I can tell you right now, Jesus got it.

I'm not waking up at three o'clock in the morning.

Okay?

Jesus came toward them walking on water.

And when the disciples saw him on the water, they were terrified.

In their fear, they cried out, It's a ghost.

But Jesus spoke to them at once, don't be afraid.

He said, Take courage, I am here.

Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.

Yes, come, Jesus said.

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on water toward Jesus.

But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and he began to sink.

Save me, Lord, he shouted.

Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him.

You have so little faith, Jesus said.

Why did you doubt me?

In case, you know, your year for whatever reason stopped back in February, let me just catch you up really, really quick, because we don't have a lot of time.

Let me catch you up.

In case you somehow just like slept, maybe you were in a coma, I don't know what happened, but maybe it stopped in February, and we were all like 2020, year of vision, like you know, everybody was like, man, it's 2020, we can see clearly, all that kind of stuff.

Like, little did we know how clear we were actually going to see.

So let me catch you up.

Back, back, let me just we'll just backtrack.

So the whole world came to a standstill in the middle of a pandemic, all because somebody ate a bat or something with bat.

I don't know.

I don't believe it.

I'm not like, you know, we won't get in conspiracies, but something with a bat, okay?

Which is creepy in itself.

So we stopped, the whole world stops in this track, all because of a pandemic, all because of a sickness, not just something in one country, but something that literally stopped the entire world.

And everybody was nervous, myself included.

What's gonna happen?

What if, what if we contract it?

Like, are we gonna turn into something?

This is it, like The Walking Dead is a reality, like this is happening.

Like, like I don't know what's going on.

But I mean, I'm gonna go raid Costco, and that's where I'm gonna be at.

And to the point that everybody raided Costco, we had a toilet paper shortage, and there was no bread because bread and toilet paper go together.

Like, I don't even know what kind of sandwiches you're making with bread and toilet paper, or I don't even know what you're gonna do with the bread.

I don't even want to talk about it.

But everything was going awry, and as if that wasn't enough, then we actually start to experience, even in our own country, some things as it pertains to civil rights and some things within communities that people are experiencing, and it was so real, and we could see things with our own eyes on a TV screen that we couldn't even imagine was happening in 2020.

Nonetheless, during a pandemic, how could all this happen when we're all at home, right?

Like, what is going on?

And then and then only find out later on we have fires breaking out in California to the degree that it's like Dante's Inferno before our eyes, and we can't even imagine what people are going through as they're hosing down their roofs and and trying to breathe, even.

You know, it's like, you know, you're just like, what in the world is going on?

And we have tornadoes going across the south and hurricanes coming and hitting, and some hitting in the same place.

And even now we just had a storm that came through and it's November.

I mean, we're supposed to be talking about turkeys, not like the next name storm.

And this seems so odd and so weird, and yet all of that takes place, and what do we have?

An election.

It's like as if nothing else can divide us with everything else going on.

We have an election that nonetheless divided our entire nation almost in half, and we still kind of know and don't know what's going on with it, and everybody is, it's like, it's like, thank God we're not dealing with hanging chads anymore.

Because can you imagine if we were dealing with hanging chads on top of this election?

Like, it is crazy that all of these things are happening, and it all boils down to a tactic, a strategy from the enemy called fear.

It is truly the antithesis of faith.

It is fear, it will stop us right where we are.

In fact, fear is truly the grand marshal of 2020.

That's what I'm dubbing fear as.

The grand marshal of 2020.

It has led the way of many devastating things.

It's led the way to friends falling out, to family members falling out, to loss of jobs, to all these different things.

Fear has definitely held us and held us tightly and has a grip on us.

But but there is something that we can pull from this text that will help us to step out to where we can look at some things and say, I'm on it.

I'm walking on it.

I want to be like Peter and walk, but not just not just look at what's around me and sink.

But I want to still be able to look at what's around me and still walk and remain on the water.

And so I want to pull three distinct things out from this passage that just caught me, that grabbed me, and I couldn't shake at all.

And I want to talk about how we can apply those things into our everyday lives and not just our everyday lives, but to our journey that's ahead.

Because trust me, there is destiny before each and every last one of us.

And there's some things that will come, there's some storms that will come, but we need to know how to weather every storm.

We need to know how to combat fear that is coming our way.

Because trust me when I tell you, you don't have to trouble trouble to trouble you.

Can I get an amen?

It will just happen, and life happens.

But first, let's pray.

God, we love you and we praise you, God.

God, we thank you for being sovereign.

We thank you for remaining on your throne.

God, even through all the chaos that we're dealing with, you are still faithful.

Even in the midst, God, of what we see, and and maybe at times, God, we may not have what we want to have.

And sometimes, God, we are we're trying to figure out even how to make our needs be met.

But God, what we do know is that you are sovereign.

What we do know is that you still remain on your throne, and what we do know is that you are faithful.

So even when we look at the trials that are in front of us, God, we will forever, God, we will forever acknowledge who you are.

You're not just our homeboy, you're not just a friend off to the side.

No, no, no, no, no.

You are the sovereign God of the universe, and there is nothing that you can't do.

There is, there is, there is no, there is no hill that's too high.

There's no valley that's too low.

So, God, we give you all the praise, the glory, and the honor.

So, God, speak to us clearly that we might be forever changed from what it is that you are saying to us this morning.

We love you and we praise you.

And everybody said, Amen.

So, the first thing that I want to look at and that we see in the text is that we first see that there's an invitation.

You can't go places without an invitation.

I mean, if you do, you're weird and it's rude.

Like if you show up to my house without an invitation, you are not getting in.

Uh, I don't care who you are.

Um, even if you are family, you're not getting in.

Like, uh, good surprise, don't surprise me.

You're not coming in.

But this is an invitation that we see, and and how do we see this?

We see this because Peter looks over, he sees Jesus, and Jesus says, Come.

This is the invitation.

This is the invitation that that many of you may even be feeling right now is this invitation that Jesus is beckoning you to his side, beckoning you to right where he is.

John 10 and 9 says this, I am the door.

If anyone enters me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.

I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

Do not miss this, y'all.

The invitation is critical.

The invitation has already been extended.

There is nothing that we can do without that invitation, but the good news is that Jesus has already made way for that invitation.

We're not just going and walking out on a journey just because, just because we want to.

He's calling us to something, he's calling us to a higher place.

Don't miss out on what this is.

Only Jesus can give us an all-access pass to life everlasting.

Only Jesus can give us an all-access pass to what is called the abundant life.

See, the world will try and show us something that looks good.

It may even smell good, but only Jesus is the one who we can taste and see that he is good.

Only Jesus is the one who can give us something that doesn't decay.

See, the world will give us some things that will decay over time.

It will give us some pleasures that are temporary, it will give us some joys that are just willy-nilly, but Jesus will give us something and put that will be in our graphs that will last for a very long time.

It will last almost as long as a McDonald's fry in the bottom of your car in the backseat.

That is disgusting.

You will not see me eat those fries.

But that is what Jesus does, and he's so good, and only he can give us a drink from a well that will never ever run dry.

So if you ever wondered if that invitation was extended to you, I can tell you right now that it is.

It's extended to you and it's right there in your grasp.

He is clearly saying, come.

Clearly saying, come.

You know, I kind of anybody else like movies?

How many movie fans out here?

Okay, I am a movie fanatic, and one of my favorite movies, and I love it, is Harry Potter.

I know it's like 15 million hours long, but it is amazing.

I love it.

And here's the thing: don't ask me if I read the book because here's my thought.

If it's a good book, it's got a movie.

And all I'm saying is, I watch a lot of good movies.

So if it's not a good book, it probably doesn't have a movie.

So all I'm saying is, that's what it is.

I digress, I will move on.

Do y'all remember in the first Harry Potter movie where uh Harry is expecting, he's getting this invitation to go to Hogwarts and post comes.

It's kind of like what the British say, it's like the post.

Uh the mail, the mail comes.

I sound a lot smarter, Pastor King, when I say post.

So when the post comes, then it's it's it's in the mail, but he can't even open it.

His uncle takes it and hoards it and is hiding all the mail that's coming in, and then all of a sudden, that invitation just keeps on coming.

And coming to the point that it's overwhelming everybody in the house.

Overwhelming the uncle to cause a hilarious scene that makes you just go, that is exactly what y'all get.

I mean, it's just overwhelming that he finally opens it up and realizes he has an invitation that he never expected, but would surely blow his mind.

This is what Jesus does.

He is constantly, it starts off with a slight little nudge.

Maybe some of you all experience that nudge today.

Maybe you experienced that nudge years ago, and it's just a little nudge.

But then it starts happening more frequently, and he becomes bombarding you with this notion that you are invited.

You are invited to him, you are invited to come and sit with him, you are invited to come and dwell with him, to be one with him.

This is the beauty of Jesus.

This is the beauty of the gospel, is that all are invited.

Every woman, man, boy, and girl is invited to be right there with Jesus.

Right there.

Every last one of us.

And here's the great thing: it doesn't even matter where you've been, what you've done, or how you did it.

He is right there saying, Come, come.

In fact, he goes on to say, Come who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest.

Rest in what?

Rest in the king of peace.

Rest in the one who is, was, and always will be.

Rest in the one who changes lives.

Not just situations, but changes lives.

A situation can change in an instant, but for a life to be changed will last forever.

And that is what Jesus does.

This is the invitation that we see.

And so once you have this invitation, you start to realize, man, he really wants me to, he really wants me.

Like, like this is, he wants me to be, he wants to come into my life and be a healer.

He wants to come into my life and be a redeemer.

He wants to come into my life and be a friend.

He wants to come into my life and be my savior.

What beauty is that?

What beauty is that?

And now that we have this invitation, we move on to understanding that Peter, we see it with him.

He has this expectation.

So now the second point that I have for you is expectation.

See, when Peter said, Hey, is that you?

Jesus said, Yeah, come.

His expectation was, okay, if that's Jesus, he's telling me to come, I can surely step over this boat.

He had this expectation that you know what, if Jesus is real and that is him, then if he's calling me, then surely I can do whatever it is that he is asking of me to do.

Now, I can't help but wonder how is our level of expectation in this room?

Has our year of 2020 caused us to look at the year and go, we have no more expectation.

We have no more hope.

Our faith is being crushed.

Every time we look at something, every time we talk about something, another friend is getting laid off, and or another friend is being furloughed, or or what is going on when we see more people hurting other people.

And it is terrible, not just by words, but with by being physical as well.

But we must maintain a high level expectation.

We gotta be pretty much like y'all remember the woman of the with the issue of blood.

I mean, she had this blood issue for 12 whole years.

And here was her expectation.

If I can just get to Jesus and not even touch his skin, if I can touch something that is connected to him, then I will find my healing.

What does that look like for us in this room?

If we can just get close to Jesus, to something that is holding on to Jesus, we will get exactly what we need.

What does that look like if we have enough Jesus in us that maybe a coworker may not ever come to church, but just gets close enough to you that their whole life changes?

That is our level of expectation that we have to have.

That's the level that listen, we got Thanksgiving coming.

Family is coming.

Hi! No, we got family coming, and even the crazy uncle is coming too.

And maybe you might be the crazy uncle.

I'm the crazy uncle, I eat all the food in the house.

Nobody's going home with leftovers, that is for sure.

But let me tell you something there should be something in you that will cause some family members to be.

Able to hold on to you and get just what they needed, especially now.

Especially now, especially when you have already received this invitation, that expectation must follow that all people need to do is bear witness of the Jesus that's inside of me.

Acts 17, 24 says this He is the God who made the world and everything in it.

Since He is Lord of heaven and earth, He doesn't live in a man-made temple.

And human hands can't serve his needs, for He has no needs.

He himself gives life and breath to everything and satisfies every need.

What is our level of expectation that Jesus can meet every need?

I may not be where I want to be, I may not have what I want, but I tell you one thing, he will meet my need.

I don't know how he's gonna do it, but my expectation is it will be done.

I have had many a times, and I can talk from experience.

I've had times when I would be fasting, and thank God that it was it was, you know, at a moment when I didn't have anything.

I mean, I had an empty refrigerator and it wasn't by choice, but I was actually fasting by choice, so it just kind of worked out.

But I believed God to fill that fridge, and He did.

Look at me.

I'm trying to decrease the fridge.

You know what I mean?

It's like, okay, I prayed, bless me, God, but I didn't mean like Krispy Kreme all the time.

You know, it's just calm down, God.

But that is the expectation.

What is your expectation?

Raise your level of expectation that you can begin to see that Jesus is not just with you, but he's for you, and that you can do all things through Christ, who's truly is strengthening you.

So just look at somebody and say, I'm on it.

That's right.

Look at somebody else and say, I'm on it.

What are you on?

I'm on everything that was supposed to crush me.

I'm on everything that was supposed to take me out.

I'm walking on the very thing that doesn't make sense for me to walk on.

People wonder why you're smiling and you're furloughed.

People wonder why you're smiling and you're kind of wondering if you're gonna be laid off.

People are wondering why you're smiling.

Well, I'm not smiling because it's something that my job gave me.

I'm smiling because there's true joy inside of me that the world didn't give, and the world surely can't take it away.

Come on.

It's a true joy.

It's a true joy.

But that comes from our level of expectation.

So now that we understand that invitation leads to expectation, we can't miss out on the thing that matters even more than all of that.

And that's demonstration.

That is demonstration.

You can't just have the invitation and have expectation and not demonstrate what it is that God is doing in you.

See, here's what I've always noticed and come to learn even at a young age, is that if God can get something to me, he should be able to get it through me.

So, what am I saying?

I'm saying that it is critical for us to demonstrate what is in us, to demonstrate what's already been deposited to us, either by listening to the word of God, by listening to amazing worship, or even just by being around family members who have had intimate moments with Jesus.

We have to demonstrate it.

We see this with Peter.

We see that Peter has this invitation and then he has this expectation that, oh yeah, Jesus called me, I can get to him, and then he demonstrates it how?

By by walking over the boat and onto the water.

This does not make sense by any means.

It does not make sense, but isn't that what it is to follow Jesus?

Is that it will oftentimes not make sense.

It will not make sense, but here's what the Bible says it says that God will use the foolish things to convict the wise.

So allow God to use you to convict some people who are around you.

Notice I said convict and not condemn, but to convict them that there is one who loves them, that there is one who is greater, that there is one who has power in his hand, and that is Jesus.

See, we have to be willing to demonstrate what it is that is inside of us, all that he's put in us.

You know, how we treat people matter, how we talk about people matter, how we fight in prayer for each other matters.

I mean, do we really go to war for one another when we pray?

Or is it one of those things where somebody's like, hey, I got a doctor's appointment, can you pray for me?

Oh yeah, I'll pray for you.

And then you're just like, hey, how'd your doctor's appointment go?

And you never really did a prayer, you just kind of just went on your day.

I mean, how many of us at times have asked people, hey, uh, you know, do you need prayer for anything?

But then we kind of fail to pray, or if somebody asks you, usually it's when somebody asks you, hey, can you just pray for me?

And we just let it fall to the wayside.

We've got to be able to demonstrate those things, to be able to speak life into situations, to be able to go to war and go to bat for one another.

It is critical, and how we do that matters.

It absolutely matters.

Now, the reality that Peter was experiencing, I've got to tell you about this.

The reality when it comes to demonstration is that not everybody is going to see what you see, they're not going to be able to do what you do, and they're probably not going to be able to go where you're going.

And there's going to be times that, because think about it.

All those disciples were on the boat, and the Bible only said that Peter was the one who walked out.

So you've got to be willing to go.

I might look crazy, but I'm going to take my step.

I might look crazy, and all of you all think that Casper's out on the water, but he said it's Jesus.

I believe it's Jesus, and I'm going out there, and he called me.

And I have this expectation that if he called me, he'll get me to him safely in one piece.

Is there anybody in this room that knows that God may call you to some scary things, but he'll get you there in one piece?

It may not happen overnight, but he's gonna get you there.

There's a journey that we're on.

This thing is it's not like a race, it's a marathon.

This thing has some distance.

There's something that we've got to learn, there's something that we've got to grasp, there's stuff that he's trying to get in us so that way we can be able to help others who are also on their journey.

All of our journeys may not look the same, but I'm telling you right now that demonstration is critical because just get out the boat.

Just step out of the boat.

If he's calling you, do it.

Don't worry about how.

Just know that he's got you.

Just know that he's got you.

Because even now in this pandemic, like we could really just let fear hold us tight.

But there's something that I'm I I cannot, I cannot close without actually mentioning this part.

And that is when Peter started to sink, it wasn't because he took note of the fear and everything else, it wasn't because he didn't believe in Jesus completely.

It was simply because of one thing.

It said that he saw wind and waves.

Oftentimes when we are stepping out and doing things for God, we start to see the chaos, we start to see all the hard things, we start to see all the trials, we start to see all the what-ifs, and we start to see the reality of what makes things difficult.

And what happens is when we put our focus on that, when we start believing more in what bad could happen and what could hinder us, then we've got to understand no, no, no, no, no, no.

Something great is on the other side of this.

If Jesus called me, then he's gonna get me there.

See, what happened with Peter was that Jesus even said, he said, Why did you doubt me?

Why did you doubt that I would not have you?

Why did you doubt?

It had nothing to do with him keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus.

It had everything to do with what was going on internally.

See, we've got to always make sure that we are checking our mind to make sure that the negativity and what the world is saying is not leaving deposits in our mind that's gonna cause us to doubt God, that will cause us to doubt what he can do.

We've got to still be able to walk out this thing of demonstration.

This is the plan of the enemy to distract us so much so with fear that it ends up abolishing the plans that he has for us.

See, here's what's something that I want you to realize.

We start off with an invitation, I, an expectation, E, and D demonstration.

When I look at that, I see it's IED.

Now there may be some military vets in this room, but in the military, an IED simply means improvised explosive device.

Now imagine this.

Jesus is calling us because we are his IED in the enemy's camp.

And if you are really filled with him and if you are on mission for him, you need to understand that you gotta demonstrate this thing in a way that you are the one who's going to push the enemy camp back.

You are the one that's gonna build the kingdom of God.

You are the secret weapon of heaven.

It is you, and you didn't know it this whole time.

It is why the enemy desires to what did he say to Simon?

He says, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired that he may sift you as wheat.

And what did Jesus say?

But I prayed for you that your faith fails not.

See, this is why it's so important that we don't let our faith be abolished, why our faith can't be destroyed, because we are truly an IED to go into the enemy's camp, to take ground, to put bombs off where there is no hope, to put bombs off, where there is just hopelessness, where there's hurting.

We are to be that.

We are to be the tools of God to be used throughout our lives, in our communities, on our jobs, in our neighborhoods.

That is who we are to be.

We are to be that light.

We're not to hide it, we're to be that.

See, the enemy knows how destructive we really are.

This is why life and death lies in the power of our own tongue.

We can speak to things and he knows that.

So he gets us to shut our mouths up and know that's not me talking about wearing masks.

I'm just saying he will always get us to shut our mouths up because if we are fearful of what to say, if we are fearful of those things, then he's got us right where he wants us.

He's got us right where he wants us because we don't do anything and we become very inactive.

And God is calling us to be active, to be active participants in what it is that he's doing, to be his IED.

See, when he comes in like a flood, see, listen this.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord raises up a standard.

Who is that standard?

We become that standard.

We become a standard to the point that we are the ones that's holding the line.

We are the ones that's making it to where we're going.

You know what?

I see what it is, but I'm praying against it.

You know what?

I understand what that is.

I don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but I do come against every spirit.

And trust me when I tell you, it is real, but we've got enough in us to be able to combat it.

So when you go home today, make sure that you look everything in the face.

Be bold about it, and you walk right on it.

You sit there and you say, There's an attack on my family, but I'm on it.

There may be an attack on my job, but I'm on it.

There may be an attack on my finances, but I'm on it.

I'm still on mission.

I'm still on target.

I'm gonna do what it is that he's called me to do.

And the band can come up as I close right now.

Just to recap, maybe you've never had that invitation from Jesus.

Maybe you're in this room and you've never really felt that invitation.

My hope and my prayer is that you feel that, that you understand that nudge, that it's just a gentle nudge.

And after a while it becomes more and more aggressive, but it's a gentle nudge.

It's an invitation that He's extending to you.

An invitation that will lead to expectation.

Expectation to do what?

Expectation is to blow not just your mind, but to truly move everything from one generation to the next forward.

There's power in you.

You are the one.

If you ever wanted, if there's anybody in my family who can do something, well, it's probably because you are the one to do it.

It's probably because you are the one to stop every generational curse in your family.

Don't listen to what people say you can't do.

Know that God says you can.

You can do it, you can push through, you can complete college, you can start that business, you can go all the way with me, you can love me and tell people you love me.

Because it's not just good enough for us to say that we are something, we've got to be that.

We can't we can't no longer just say we're Christians, we've got to be it.

We've got to be followers of Christ, we've got to step out of the boat, which is why we have to also demonstrate it.

So, in just a few moments, one of those demonstrations is just receiving Him, receiving that invitation.

But also for all of us, when we leave here today, we need to understand where we are, we need to we need to understand that we're invited and that we can raise our level of expectation because ultimately he's calling us to demonstrate what it is that he wants to do in this world, to demonstrate his love, to demonstrate his kindness.

That is the gospel.

Trust me when I tell you, the best sermons ever preached are never even spoken.

The best sermons to ever be preached are your actions and how you do what you do when you do what you do.

And people will see it and they will recognize it.

You could be an extreme introvert, but you can still showcase the grace and the ability of Jesus, his ability to do any and everything.

Nothing is too hard for him.

So if you want to receive Christ and all heads can be bowed, eyes can be closed, I want to offer up this invitation that Jesus gives.

It's not my invite to give, but it's one that Jesus is offering even now.

An invitation to come to him, to come to him with all of your problems, come to him with all of your burdens, and to lay it at his feet and to receive him and accept him as your Lord and your Savior.

To know that he is real, as the song says, that he is closer than our skin, as he is closer than the clothes on our body, he is close to us and he desires that relationship.

So if that's you, you can lift your hands.

If you want to receive Jesus, you can do that.

And if you're at home and you want to do that, you can do that as well.

And I'm gonna just pray for you right now.

God, we love you and we praise you, God.

God, your word says that all we have to do is believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that we are saved and we will be saved.

So, God, I pray for each and every person right now, God, that wants to receive you into their heart, God.

God, that not only will they be saved, because they are and they will be, but God, I also pray, God, that you will equip them, that you will put people around them, God, who will be able to help them along this journey.

That they will have the right people in their boat, God, that they will have some people who will push them to be able to walk, that they now receive this invitation, but they have an expectation that you will do something incredible to blow their mind.

And God, I pray that you allow them to demonstrate who you are to them every day of their lives, God.

This is the best decision that they can ever make.

So, God, I pray for them, God.

And everybody in this room, God, I pray for them right now, God, that as we leave, God, as we prepare to leave, God, that we receive the word that you deposited in us, God, to understand that God, we are explosive.

God, that we are explosive, that we can do some incredible things for you, and we can push the kingdom forward, we can move it forward, and we can take back territory that the enemy has taken.

So, God, I pray right now, God, that you strengthen each and every person in here to know that they are the IED for you, God, that they can go into the enemy's camp and they can cause damage and that they can bring back, God, those who were held captive.

That yes, they can do it, God, that yes, we can advance the kingdom and tell people about your goodness and that they can know the truth of the gospel that is for every woman, man, boy, and girl.

So, God, we love you and we praise you.

Come on, church, let's stand and let's worship God one more time.