HEART FOR THE HOUSE - Week 01

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

God bless you, church.

Can we give it up for Jesus?

Can we give it up for Jesus?

Oh, and it's so good to worship with every single one of you.

And while we're at it, can we show some love to our worship team?

Thank you guys so, so much.

This sounds way differently than when I'm worshiping at home in my living room.

I just want to let y'all know this is this hits way differently.

So thank you guys.

You guys can go ahead and take your seats.

You can go ahead and give a couple of air high fives and imaginary hugs if you feel comfortable with that.

But but we're we're excited to be back together with us all today.

I want to say it this way, man.

We're back.

We never left, but we're back.

And it's and it's good to be back in the house of God, gathering with the community of God.

And it's a very fitting time, if I must say so myself.

It looks a little bit differently.

It's a new venue, but same God.

It's a different environment, but it's the same God.

I'm excited to know that the God is still with us.

And as Nate said earlier, we are six years old today.

Can we give it up for that?

That's that's big.

Because sometimes church kind of has like the longevity of a of a hot new restaurant.

It's around for a little bit and then it fizzles out, but to be around for six years is a is a big thing.

And then there's a couple of things I want to celebrate, what we've seen in these incredible six years at Celebration Church here in Orlando.

I want to take a couple of moments to highlight some of the things that you guys have contributed to and what you participated in.

We launched in 2014, and in 2014, it shows here that we had 10 decisions for Christ in our very beginning.

In 2015, we've seen 844 decisions for Christ.

In 2016, we've seen 1,559 decisions for Christ.

In 2017, we've seen 2,139 decisions for Christ.

In 2018, we saw 1,600 decisions for Christ.

In 2019, we've seen over a thousand decisions for Christ.

And even in 2020, as chaotic as it has been, we have seen over 230 decisions for Christ.

What I'm saying is, in the past six years, we have seen over 7,000 people say yes to Jesus as a result of being a part of this community.

And here's what I know.

I I realize that this is just the this is just the tip of the iceberg.

We don't only celebrate those who have said yes to Jesus, but we also celebrate those who have made a decision to be baptized and go in public with their faith.

We also are celebrating those who went through the awkward moment of saying yes and going to a small group and meeting with people that you've never met before.

We celebrate all of those milestones because we know all of them are a representation of incredible life change.

And the beautiful thing about all this is that we're just getting started.

We are just getting started.

We are not done yet.

We truly believe that God is going to give us so much more, and we're going to talk a little bit about that in just a moment.

It's also very fitting that as we come back together in community, that we're entering to our heart for the house season.

Now, we talked earlier about how it is good for us to come together and dwell.

I was so glad when we said, let us come and dwell together, come to the house of the Lord.

And it's a season where we get a chance to come together and to meditate and really process through what we've seen God do and pray about what God has for us next, and then really begin to recognize what is it that God is asking us to participate in as we go forward.

I want to recap something because last year for Heart for the House, we had this really robust vision, and that vision was this.

We felt like God was calling us to expand our reach here in our church.

We felt like God was calling us to expand our reach in our community, and also we knew that we were called to make a difference at large, to make a difference across the globe.

That was the vision that God had given us to do some more things in our house.

And part of the things we wanted to do is we wanted to be able to stream services.

We wanted to be able to launch our new podcast called After the Message, basically being able to equip us beyond just coming to church on Sunday within our community.

We knew we wanted to have a more faithful presence in the city, going out and serving and making a difference in our community and abroad.

We knew that God was calling us to connect and partner with churches all across the globe.

And then the pandemic hits.

We didn't see that coming, but somehow God still had a plan.

Because of your faithfulness, because of your generosity, because of your investment in this church, we didn't know that the vision that God had given us was the very thing we needed to sustain us during the pandemic.

So we were able to do church at home because God had given us a vision to have equipment that allows us to do church at home.

And guess what?

We're streaming this service right now.

It all started because a year ago God had given us a vision that we didn't even know that we needed.

We had a desire to make a difference in this community.

And during the pandemic, in just this time, we've been able to feed over 8,000 different families as a result of your generosity in this community right here.

And then lastly, we had a desire to make sure that we made a difference abroad.

And so for our church over in Zimbabwe, you guys were part of raising funds that was able to contribute to helping the people that were experiencing homelessness and loss.

We contributed over$100,000 so that we could feed those who were starving in the country abroad.

What I'm saying to you is this that the seems like the COVID did not stop our vision, it actually accelerated it.

It seemed as if what the enemy meant for evil, God was able to use it for good.

And as I said, we are just we're just getting started.

So as we enter into this season, as we're entering into what does this next season look like for us as a church, I'm excited because I realize that we're moving into a place where God is calling us to do more, go further and faster.

But I'm also aware that we're dealing with some very realistic tension, some opposition that we may be facing.

We have to acknowledge some of the barriers that we are that are right in front of us.

What does it look like to try to move a church forward while you're in the middle of a pandemic?

What are some things that we need to become very aware of?

I I think we have to acknowledge two things that are very default in all of us.

And I want to highlight these for just a moment, so so stick with me.

But there's very two default conditions that's in all of us when it comes to moments where it's about us moving forward and getting out of our comfort zone just a little bit.

Here's the first thing.

We all know that some of us, that default button for some of us is that we are the center of the universe.

We we get it.

I mean, y'all looking at it like, no, not me.

I was born holding the King James Bible.

You weren't.

We all we all have that default mechanism where we believe that we are the center of the universe, that we truly believe that what we think is what should be done.

And and and you see this all across.

I mean, social media highlights this more than anything.

When a pandemic hits, you have people that are saying, you need to be gathering anyway.

Then you have other people saying, like, you don't need to be gathering, and everybody is rooted in their opinion and it's gospel as far as they're concerned.

In the middle of all the racial dynamics, it was saying, Don't you say a word because you don't want to upset people, but if you say something you didn't say enough, so you have this tension, and everybody believes that what they believe is the thing that should be done.

We all have this tendency to believe that we are the center of the universe, and then we live in the West.

And here's our culture here in the West.

We're all familiar with that, and that is just we celebrate radical individualism.

Come on, you you guys know it.

Like when you think about it, we celebrate radical individualism.

Like when when the pandemic hit, we're all at home in the summer.

I loved when they released the The Last Dance with Jordan.

Who saw the The Last Dance with Jordan?

Now, let me just see from this room like who believes that Jordan is the GOAT, greatest of all time.

Who who's in this room?

Okay.

Do we have any LeBron fans in the house?

Jakari.

Okay.

Okay.

I see I see you in the back.

But you you see that watch this.

There's this moment where when we watch The Last Dance, and I was raised on Jordan.

I appreciate LeBron.

So I I love all of it, but it's all about who is the greatest of all time.

How come the discussion is never about who's the best teammate?

Who's who's the best person that contributes to society?

It's always about the personal accolades.

What did that individual do to make themselves ascend to greatness?

It's all about the individual.

But here's the interesting thing.

Have you ever noticed in scripture that it is literally the exact opposite in God's eyes?

It's never about the ascent of any individual, it's always about the community, which is much bigger than you.

Watch this.

Individualism is not the apex, God's will is.

The will of God is the thing that determines our success.

That our preferences are actually secondary, the will of God is primary.

See, the biblical view of an abundant life is not represented in what we accumulate, it's in someone's capacity to surrender.

Y'all remember when Jesus said, Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

It's the ability to surrender what we want to do to the God of the universe.

And I believe that the Bible is filled with narratives and passages and characters that help us to understand what it looks like to truly have a heart after the things of God.

If you have your Bible with you, I want to invite you to join me in Nehemiah chapter one.

We're going to look at four short verses there, and then we're going to pray and jump into some things.

But Nehemiah chapter one, I think this is a beautiful passage that helps us to identify what it looks like to have a heart for the things of God.

It says this starting at verse number one the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah.

Now it happened in the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hananiah, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived exile concerning Jerusalem.

And they said to me, The remnant there in the province who had survived exile is in great trouble and shame.

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire.

As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and I wept and mourned for days.

I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you for giving us an opportunity to engage your word.

And I pray over the next few moments that you give us open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now I I wanna I want to kind of get a sense of who I'm talking to.

Have you ever seen or heard something that that literally like moved you to tears?

And I'm not talking about like bad news.

I think that's kind of like obvious, but I mean like you could just be sitting down watching TV and then a commercial comes on, and all of a sudden, like you find yourself being a lot more emotional about things than you probably would have in the past.

I'm I'm I'm getting to a point now in my age.

Um I'm 45.

In fact, I turned 45 today, church.

So I've I've turned 45 today.

Yes.

We'll have a giving basket at the end of okay, let me just next week.

Okay, but but I'm noticing now as I'm getting a little bit older, I'm a lot more emotional about things than I used to be.

Like it it's it's so easy for me to get emotional when I used to be pretty stoic um amongst my family.

I used to watch this show called This Is Us.

Anybody ever watched the show This Is Us?

And I found myself like gearing up.

I got to a point where I'm like, this is terrible.

Why am I putting myself through this emotional roller coaster?

I'm not I'm not doing this anymore.

Like I just it just it just took so much out of me as a man to continue to watch it, but it seems like I can't escape it.

Like things that you think that typically wouldn't generate tears are generating tears for me.

I watched Taken with Liam Neeson last week and it moved me to tears.

Now, I've watched that movie countless times.

I love every aspect of it.

The part where he says, I don't have any money, but what I do have is a certain set of skills.

Like I love that scene.

I love when a guy says, good luck.

Like all that stuff, it was really good.

But now the 45-year-old version of Keith, I'm literally emotional thinking of this poor man who just wants to do everything he can to get his daughter back.

I'm just thinking about what I would do, and don't let me start talking about finding Nemo.

My God.

I I can't get through the movie without crying because all I'm thinking about is a father who just understands the limitations of his son, and he's just trying to do everything he can.

I'm about to cry right now.

Like it just gets me all emotional, it just gets me all caught up in my feels.

I mean, I was even watching the other day, and this is a little bit more serious, but the other day, Meg and I are watching um ESPN and we heard uh uh one of the gentlemen on there talk about his bout with depression after losing his mom.

And ordinarily I would watch that and I'm like, okay, man, that's bad.

But I I found myself crippled, sitting on the bed, listening to this man in despair and the emotions that he was talking about, and I was so deeply dialed in.

I didn't know what to do.

I'm getting emotional.

I really just kind of wanted to change the channel.

Isn't that an interesting reaction that when you're getting overwhelmed by so much that we just feel like I just want to I want to change the channel?

Because the truth of the matter is we live in an information age where we have so many things at our disposal, so much information at our disposal.

We're told that we have to care about everything, and then eventually we end up becoming these people who are suffering from compassion fatigue.

We we just we just want to turn the channel.

We we almost stop caring.

But the but the prayer of my heart is this I never want to become indifferent about the things that God's not indifferent about.

I never want to become numb to the things that God has a heart for.

I I want to make sure that my heart is sensitive to the things of the kingdom, to make sure that even though we live in a world that is full of brokenness and struggle and suffering, that I never get to a place that I become indifferent about the very things that God sent Jesus here to die for.

Here's a couple of things that I think we see in Scripture that is evidence of God's desire for his people.

Luke chapter 4, verses 18 and 19.

Luke 4:18

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

He has anointed me and proclaimed me to proclaim the gospel of the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set liberty to those who are oppressed.

What we're seeing here in this passage of scripture is that these are the things that God has a heart for, that Jesus came with this focus in mind, that he has a heart for people who are poor, he has a heart for those who are captive, he has a heart for those who are blind, he has a heart for those who are dealing with oppression.

I don't want to find myself in a place where I'm indifferent about the things that God has a heart for.

Here's what I want us to write down and take this with us.

That whenever God stirs your heart, it should challenge us to activate our hands.

That when something begins to stir your heart, that God is compelling us to activate our hands and ask the question what part do I play in all of this?

So as we find ourselves looking at this passage of scripture, I want to give us some context and some background so we know how we arrived at this point where we're now sitting in Nehemiah's living room.

Let's back up a little bit.

The children of Israel were set free out of Egypt.

They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

They finally make it to the promised land.

Moses dies, Joshua leads them in, and while they're there, they discover that we want a king because the other nations have a king, without realizing that the very idea was them rejecting God as king.

So they were looking to man instead of God.

That's the message I could preach about.

Looking to man instead of God.

And so now God gives them a king.

The man Saul, he stood tall, but he fell short.

David becomes king, and David does a great job.

And even though David is full of mistakes, one of the characteristics that set him apart from everyone else is the Bible said that he was a man after God's own heart.

See, the criteria for favor isn't perfection, is having a heart to seek after the one who is.

So even though that David was full of flaws and we're familiar with his story, God's favor still rested on him because he had a heart for the things of God.

His son Solomon then takes over and he builds the temple to God, and it's a beautiful thing.

But now Solomon is at a point where he's nearing the end of his life and he's aware that it's about to get chaotic.

So when Solomon dies, the kingdom is split.

And so now we have the northern kingdom, which is all of the tribes of Israel, and the southern kingdom, which is just the tribe of Judah.

The kingdom is now split in half to kind of give us an image.

It's almost as if if the south would have won the civil war, the south would have been known as something, and the north would have been known as something else.

That's the visual of what's happening here with the nation of Israel.

For the northern kingdom, they they always sought after king after king that did wicked things, and so eventually they ended up getting pulled away into captivity by the Assyrians.

The southern kingdom, they ended up lasting a little bit longer because they have some good kings, but eventually they end up getting pulled away by the Babylonians.

And then the Persians come in, and this is what's important.

The Persians come in, and the Persian king, God puts it on his heart to send some of the people of Israel back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

So you may be familiar with the book of Ezra.

Ezra and Nehemiah are happening at the exact same time.

But did you hear that?

That God pressed on the heart of this pagan king to go back and to build the temple.

Please don't tell me that God can't use someone who's away from him to do some things that'll activate the kingdom of God.

Don't tell me that God can't move on your boss to help you do some things that God is calling you to do.

You keep praying, you keep trusting, you keep interceding, and watch what God will do for a person that is in your life that he knows that it's going to be used to fulfill the kingdom it's in his life.

So we see this moment where he is activated, and now we find ourselves at Nehemiah where he receives word back from his family members.

He receives word of the condition of what's happening to his people.

And what we find here is that the Bible says that in verse number three, that when he finds out that the remnant there, the province that has survived the exile, that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates were destroyed, that Nehemiah's response was that he broke down and he cried.

Like he was wrecked.

He was he was undone.

He was unhe was incapable of moving forward.

He literally cried for days.

Now let's let's look at this for a moment.

Nehemiah is literally living 800 miles away.

He's living in a palace.

He is literally the embodiment of living his best life.

He is eating the best foods, he is drinking the best drinks.

But when he hears about what's happening to his people 800 miles away, many of which he never even met, the Bible says that he is wrecked.

He is literally undone.

It makes me wonder is that the expectation that God has for all of us when we hear about the broken condition that other people find themselves in?

Like, is this descriptive or is this prescriptive?

Descriptive meaning that there's moments in the Bible where the Bible describes something, and it doesn't mean that we're supposed to do it, it's just helping us to understand context.

But then it's prescriptive when it's telling us what you see here, I want you to do as well.

Let me give you a little bit of a distinction.

There was a moment when David went out to battle and he fought the Philistines and he killed the Philistines and he came back with 200 foreskin.

That was descriptive.

That was a description of something that was done.

That is not a prescription for us that whenever we go into battle, that that is what is expected for us to do.

That's a description of something that was done.

You see the difference?

Descriptive, prescriptive.

What are we supposed to do?

But we see here that Nehemiah had this response, and I began to ask myself, God, is the expectation that when I hear about the brokenness that is happening in communities right down the street, when I hear about what's happening hundreds of miles away from me, am I supposed to have the same response?

Is that a description or is that a prescription?

Are you instructing me to do it?

As I began to ask this question and I find myself finding these solutions in scripture, I found that more often than not, that this is not a description, but this is a prescription.

This is a response.

This is how you have a heart for the things of God.

That we see in scripture that there's these moments where the Bible tells us for us to live lives of submitted compassion and generosity.

I'm going to read a couple of passages to us to help us to pull it all together.

Deuteronomy 16, verse 17.

Deuteronomy 16:17

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessings of the Lord that God has blessed us with.

That we are called to live well under the blessings of God and steward what we have with radical generosity.

Zachariah chapter 7, verses 8 through 10.

And the word of the Lord came to Zachariah saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, render true judgment, show kindness and mercy to one another.

Do not oppress the widow, widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, the foreigner, the poor, and let none devise evil against you in your heart.

Matthew 7, verse number 12.

Whatever you wish others to do to you, you should also do unto them.

Colossians 3, put on then, as God's chosen one, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

We see here in Galatians number six.

Bear one another's burdens so that we fulfill the law of Christ.

What I'm saying is we could see throughout the course of Scripture that Nehemiah's case is not descriptive at all, but it actually becomes a case study of how we should respond when we hear about the struggling and the burdens of others.

We are not called to radical individualism.

We are called to care about the least of these and do everything we can to make people experience the blessings of God.

See, when we look around in our community, the desire can be for us just to turn the channel, to shut it down, to experience compassion fatigue, but God is saying, don't become indifferent about the things that I'm not indifferent about.

We as a community are called to gather around and do our best to make a difference.

About a year ago, um Megan and I we were actually in Zimbabwe.

Remember that?

We're in Zimbabwe a year ago this day.

And I remember while we were there, being able to go and be in a community and be a part of the feeding sitters was so powerful.

But one of the things I was looking forward to is like we have these down moments where they actually let you like go to like this sanctuary and you can actually like walk with lions.

I was living on the edge.

I was 44 then.

45-year-old version of Keith wouldn't do that.

But 44-year-old version of Keith was definitely all about walking with some lions.

So we get to this sanctuary, prepare to walk with these lions, and they say, like, hey man, like you're actually one week short.

The lions are actually too old for us to introduce a new human being to them because now you're at a point where you're just food.

I'm like, I'm glad that you guys' calendar is on point because that one week could have made a big difference.

So they said, but hey, we got something else that we're gonna allow you to see.

We're gonna actually allow you to go out and watch the lions hunt.

So we're on this giant truck and they let these lions out.

First of all, these lions, like Lion King does a terrible job.

These lions are a lot more ferocious when you see them in person.

But but when these lions come out, these ferocious beasts, and we just are following them, and they're literally in the process of hunting down anything they could see, whether it be a zebra or a gazelle.

So there's a part of me that's literally interceding and hoping that the gazelles and the zebras survive, but the other part of me is like, man, I'm already here, I want to see something happen.

So I'm I'm I'm kind of conflicted.

But there's this moment where you see these zebras off in a distance, and their instinct for the lions is they get in position, they fan out, and they begin to kind of stalk and hunt the prey.

So there's like this moment where like wow, I'm really about to see National Geographic right in front of my face, like this is awesome.

And then they go, and so they lunge and they grab a hold of this one zebra, and I think that it's over, it's a done deal.

I'm about to watch it.

He he clips it, he can't get it down, so the zebra now is running off, he's he's wounded, he's hurt.

He he you know that it's it's only a matter of time before they hunt him down.

So I'm watching and waiting to see what's gonna happen.

But something interesting happened.

The other zebras, when they saw that that zebra was injured, instead of them looking at it and saying, like, bro, we told you to stay with the pack, it's on you.

What they actually did is they slowed down and they surrounded that zebra.

There was a bigger zebra that actually was a barrier between them and the lion, and they walked that zebra to a place of safety.

The instinct in the animal kingdom is that when one is injured, they surround it to make sure they can nurse it back to health.

What would that be said if the kingdom of God operated the same way?

That when we looked out and we saw that when someone was injured, when someone was hurting, we didn't try to find ways to justify why it's okay for us to ignore it, but we began to become the people of God that surrounded around them and said, How can we nurse you back to the place that God is calling you to be in?

My prayer is that we never become indifferent about the things that God is not indifferent about.

My prayer is that we can be the type of people that can surround those who are hurting around us and nurse them back to health and get them to a place of safety.

We are not called to be indifferent, we are called to make a difference.

That when something stirs our heart, it should activate our hands.

I believe that there's three things that we see in Nehemiah.

And what I hope is that over the next couple of weeks, as we unpack more about Nehemiah and his journey to kind of restore the brokenness that was experienced with his people, that it will stir us up.

But here's the first thing I want us to do.

Nehemiah's first response was to pray.

Here's what I want you to do: pray about it.

Pray about the things that you're seeing, pray about the things that God is revealing to us.

Pray to create that sensitive space so that you can recognize those moments that God wants you to literally begin to intercede for those who may be struggling amongst us.

Here's a second thing.

Do your part.

All of us can't do everything, but everybody can do something.

What is the part that God wants you to play in advancing his kingdom?

For some of us, it could be getting involved on a serving team, for some of us, it could be participating in a group.

For some of us, it's gonna be able to share our generosity.

Whatever that looks like for each of us, what is the part that God is asking us to play?

We're gonna unpack that some more in the coming weeks.

And then here's a third one: trust God.

Trust God with the results.

Because it's it's possible that when God begins to soften our hearts to do something, we begin to take inventory of what we have and we find justification of why we shouldn't do it.

If there's anything that I've learned during this pandemic that all of us have a lot more than we need.

Here's what I mean by that.

When a pandemic first hit, I had way more toilet paper than I needed.

Every time I went in the store, let me get another one, let me get another one, let me get another one.

I still don't think I use toilet paper that I've had for three months ago.

But our desire whenever we see something is to grab everything and hold it close.

But what if we began to say, God, what part do you want me to play in releasing what you've given me to be beneficial and blessing to others?

Let me trust you with the results.

As I close, I want to take a moment to recognize what today really does symbolize.

You see, in on the Jewish calendar, today is Rosh Hashanah.

That is called the Feast of Trumpets.

And I know for some of us we're wondering, okay, why does that matter?

Why is that significant to us in any way whatsoever?

Well, I want to give you context because our faith is rooted in remembrance.

Everything about our faith is connected to remembrance.

Remember, as Jesus is with his disciples, he says, Do this in remembrance of me.

Remember what I did on the cross.

Create a pattern in a rhythm where you remember the activity of God.

Every year for Christmas, we pause and remember the birth of Christ.

For Easter, we remember the resurrection of Christ.

It's already rooted in the fabric of our spiritual DNA that we pause and remember what God is doing.

And so we look at scripture and we are able to identify these powerful moments where we can study the faith of people in the past to anchor ourselves in the present to inspire hope for the future.

So when we look at what the feast of trumpets represents, it's a representation of new beginnings, it's a representation of the new year, it's a representation of a fresh start.

It's not missed on me that today is our sixth anniversary.

And I found a passage of scripture that I believe ties it all together as it connects to the Feast of Trumpets and the sixth year.

Leviticus 25 says this I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.

I will command a blessing on you in your sixth year, so that it will produce a crop that is sufficient for the next three.

There's something about this idea of this season that we're entering into, not only the season of the Feast of Trumpets, this idea of a new beginning, this idea of us entering into our sixth year, but this idea of knowing that God is calling us to have a fresh start.

The scripture says, I'm going to command a blessing on you that's going to be three times what it has been in the past.

What I truly believe for us as a church celebration is that we are in our sixth year.

And what the Bible says is that He's going to command a blessing for us three times beyond what it has been in the past.

So if people ask me, Keith, is the church the same that it was six years ago?

No.

Because God has increased our capacity to love, God has increased our desire to reach people, God has given us more capacity to go out and reach the lost in our community.

God has given us more resources to reach those who are away from Him.

No, we are not the same church.

Why would we ever desire to be the same?

The only thing that stays the same are dead things.

But because things are growing and evolving, yes, God has caused us to change.

Yes, God has caused us to evolve.

Yes, God has increased our capacity to reach the lost at any cost.

We are not content with sitting in our palaces, but when we see the brokenness of our community, our response is the same as Nehemiah's.

God help us, God give us vision, God give us wisdom.

We can be comfortable in our seats.

We'll be content with singing three songs of worship, wrapping up with a prayer and going back home.

But God, we're not content with that because as long as we know that two miles from here, there are people that don't have electricity, as long as we know that two miles from here there are people who don't have food in their mouth.

We're never gonna be a church that's comfortable with that.

We're gonna be a church that gets out into the community, we're gonna be a church that reaches the lost, we're gonna be a church that does everything that God has called us to do.

We will never be indifferent about the things that God is not indifferent about.

That is the heart of this church.

That is what it means to have a heart for the house, and that is my prayer for every one of us.

Father, I thank you.

I thank you, Lord, that you've given us a vision that goes beyond us, that you've not allowed us to be comfortable with where we are, but you're calling us to do more, to go further, to go faster.

And your word declares that in this year that you are going to command a blessing that exceeds what you've done in the previous.

If you're with us today, and maybe you know that your next step is simply to say yes to Jesus.

I'm aware that I'm in a room right now full of people that are invested who are on our serving teams.

But many are watching online, some could be watching later and listening on a podcast.

But this is a moment that I believe our church has been conditioned for to create a space for you to feel loved and welcomed to be able to say yes to Jesus.

So if that's you and you know that your next step is simply to say yes to Jesus, I want you to respond where you are.

You can do it by raising a hand just as an act of saying that I'm surrendering in this moment.

Even if you're in this room with us today, if you know that your next step is to simply say yes to Jesus, I want you to respond with a raised hand.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna pray for you.

We're gonna pray for you, believing that God is with you, that God is for you.

So if that's you and you're ready to take that next step, I simply want you to repeat this after me.

And as a family and as a community, I want us all to pray this prayer together.

So, all of us all together, repeat this after me.

Lord Jesus, I give you my life.

I repent of my sins.

I believe that you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead.

And it's because of that belief that I am saved.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Church, can we celebrate with those who have made that decision?

Many and some are even in this room with us right now.

Here's what I want us to do: I want us to close out this service the same way that we started by singing worship to God.

So let us all stand on our feet.

Let us all enter into God's presence with a heart of thanksgiving and praise.

And let's worship together one more time.

Thanks again for listening.

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