Sacred Ground | Pastor Chris Kouba

All right.

Just want to let y'all know y'all sound a whole lot better when he's singing uh over you right there.

All right.

Just it was incredible just to see the response of that.

Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 12 is where we're going to be today.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I do want to take this opportunity to welcome all of those who are joining us online, including uh those who are at our correctional facilities, that we have the unbelievable privilege.

It's crazy that God has opened up doors for us to be able to stream these services and to folks that we routinely meet with uh on a consistent basis, a group from our church.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate.

So grateful for the opportunity to do that to you.

There are certain words that if you're in the midst of a conversation, maybe you're at a dinner, maybe you're with your family, that if you say those words, it derails the whole meal.

Hillary and I were having dinner this week, and we wanted that to be an enjoyable experience.

And so one of the things that we did not mention was the word budget.

It's an immediate fight, it's an immediate conflict.

It's not that neither one of us think it's important, both of us think it's important and we should talk about it, but and we can gear up every now and then to do it, but we wanted to have a good, pleasant evening that had no potential for derailment.

And so, therefore, we knew if you bring up the word budget, it could go sideways.

For some of you, maybe the word is in-laws.

In-laws get brought up, suddenly you realize you got to go take a phone call, right?

You just got to excuse yourself.

Politics.

If politics get brought up at a family gathering, you know that it's just about to blow up.

Or all of a sudden, what you're gonna see is that people are gonna conveniently excuse themselves away, have to go to the bathroom.

There are just certain words that cause there to be tension, and it's not that people don't care about them.

In fact, usually there's an intensity and there's a passion that is very much the case underlying.

But if you bring it up in the wrong setting, then it's gonna cause people to not get along.

For the next four weeks, starting today, I want to talk about those topics.

I want to poke the bear.

I want us to go to some of those things that you normally don't hear in church.

Why?

Because we're just trying to keep the peace, we're trying to keep everybody happy, and if you want to do that, you don't bring up these things.

And what I'm gonna ask is that you will allow the particular topics that we speak about for God to have his say to you.

Today, the topic we're gonna talk about is one that when we talked about this with our team, trying to decide which of the topics we would choose, it caused the most intensity of emotion.

Israel.

We're gonna talk today about Israel.

And what I'm gonna ask you to do is not allow your emotion, not allow your history, the out, like all these various things in the past that you may have preconceived ideas about, but you would instead allow God's word to speak the truth.

Please know that if you allow the cable news programs, if you allow your social media algorithm, if you allow your personal emotions to drive what you think about the topic of Israel, then you're gonna be somebody who reacts more than you are biblical.

And a lot of times what you begin to see when it comes to this issue is one of two extremes.

On the one hand, what you have is that you have this Christian nationalism.

We should basically all support Israel no matter what.

It makes zero difference what it is that we do.

And the thought of anything else means that you're not a Christian.

To overhear, which is why are we even talking about this issue in the first place?

Like, why would you even waste breath bringing up Israel as something that is worthy of us?

It's just like any other country that's out there.

Why should we care?

I'm asking you to let the Bible speak, not just today, but for the next few weeks.

Let me give you a heads up as we get into this text.

It's very important that you see uh that we're gonna approach this very differently, this series, than we did the last one.

The last series was one where we walked verse by verse through the Book of Song of Solomon, talking about relationships and dating and marriage and conflict.

And I tried to make sure that you every single week had actual tangible tools that you could walk away with to be able to implement in your relationships.

This is gonna be a much more academic series.

I'm taking the role of an apologist more than I am a pragmatist.

I'm wanting to be biblical in both, of course, but I'm gonna be teaching you in such that I'm gonna ask you to begin to take notes and to make sure you turn in your Bibles and see and test, because I want to shape your mind so that you know how to think, which then results in how you act.

We'll give you some practical application along the way, but to be honest with you, it's not one filled with a bunch of personal stories and antidotes.

It's one that instead is filled with a lot of history and text and what does the God's word say?

Question that I want us to consider this morning is this As a Christian, what should I think about Israel?

As a Christian, what should I think about Israel?

Let's begin reading Genesis chapter 12, beginning in verse one.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

It says, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Oh, bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And then you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

I'm gonna give you four things, four reasons why and what you should care about Israel, and then I'm gonna give you three things to walk away with to do, okay?

Number one, God established Israel.

God established Israel.

What I just read to you in Genesis chapter 12 is what I would call the Abrahamic covenant.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

It's when the Lord established an unbreaking covenant with Abram, who later became Abraham, establishing what he would do through a people that he would later call Israel.

And it's important to note in Genesis chapter 12, there are three key things that describe what biblical Israel is.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Number one, land.

Land.

There are very clear and specific boundaries of land that were promised and given to the people of Israel.

It's further expounded on in Genesis chapter 15.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

What's interesting is that this land, which gets all the talk and which gets all the conflict comes out of, is no bigger than the size of the state of New Jersey.

It's a very small piece of land.

But what I want you to see is that this land, another important thing to see, is that Israel in its history has never fully occupied all the land that God promises to it, beginning in Genesis 12, repeated in Genesis 15, repeated again in Genesis 17.

Second thing that we see mentioned in Genesis chapter 12 of biblical Israel.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Number two, people.

There's land and there's people.

God was going to make a nation, and he was going to do it from Abraham's line.

The promise is that the people would be great in number.

Land, people, final thing is blessing.

He makes it very clear that he will bless those who bless this people, and he will curse those who curse this people.

The goal of their special choosing is that through this distinct group of people that he sets aside and blesses, through them all other nations would be blessed.

So God's plan all along is to bless all nations.

But he's saying that he's going to do that by blessing specifically the chosen people of Israel.

Genesis chapter 17, there's an important distinction about the covenant that is mentioned.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

What you're going to see here is that Abram is going to get his name changed from Abram to Abraham.

We don't have time to go into that, but it's one of the Hebrew things that kind of shows what he's about to do.

And then what we're also going to see is that the covenant of circumcision was also established as a seal of the covenant.

Genesis 17, turn with me over there, and let's look at verse five.

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an underline this, everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for uh underline this, everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

There's an everlasting covenant that was unique because it was ratified in Genesis chapter 15 when Abraham was deep in sleep, meaning this its fulfillment depends entirely on God's faithfulness rather than on human performance.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Think of it this way: whenever you sign a contract with someone, both parties are bound by their performance.

But Abraham put uh excuse me, God put Abraham to sleep and walked through the covenant alone, like signing a contract and then forging the other guy's signature.

The obligation is entirely his.

That's why it still stands.

Land, people, and blessing.

Now let's talk about the important question, which is what is true biblical Israel?

Is true biblical Israel the nation that was established in 1946 that has an identified border and land and a government that's in place?

I wholeheartedly believe that the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 was the partial fulfillment of God fulfilling his long-term, everlasting covenant to the people of Israel.

That being said, it doesn't mean that the current state is biblical Israel, it's national Israel because it's largely secular and in rebellion against Christ, even as God remains faithful to his irrevocable calling.

So I can affirm what God is doing now through the church while at the same time believing that God still has a purpose and a plan for that land a little smaller than New Jersey there in the Middle East, and that God wants to do something specific and special through the promises that he made with those people in Genesis chapter 12 and repeated multiple times in Scripture after that.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Number two, second thing I want you to see about why you should care about Israel, what you should think about Israel.

Number two, our faith is a Jewish faith.

Our faith is a Jewish faith.

One of my greatest joys is taking people to the Holy Land.

I've been three times.

And uh when you walk those streets, scripture begins to stop being just something that's kind of like stories on a page and it becomes to be rooted in real life.

What you see is that our faith is not just spiritual, it's rational.

Like it's birthed in a historical context and time.

But you also very clearly see that Jesus was born into a culture and a people who rejected him, and that rejection became the very means by which me as a Gentile gets offered and brought into his salvation.

I want you to know this.

Our faith is a Jewish faith, and we owe Israel an immeasurable debt.

The connection between Christians and Jews is undeniable.

We possess a Jewish Bible written by Jewish authors, and when we preach from the Old Testament, we're reading the same text that the Jewish people still study today.

In addition, we serve a Jewish Savior, Jesus Christ, who was born in the lineage of David and the lineage of Abraham.

When you read the book of Matthew, it was primarily written to show that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Jewish Messiah.

It shows at the very beginning in the genealogy, literally, it walks you through and shows how Jesus came from the flesh, all the way down from Abraham and from David.

He is the greater Moses, he is the great high priest.

Every time you read the New Testament, you cannot read it without seeing so many of the promises about Jesus that are fulfilled in him that are given in the Old Testament that are ultimately from the Jewish people.

The church began as a Jewish movement before spreading to the Gentiles in Acts.

And God's desire has always been to bless the whole world through Israel.

John chapter 4, verse 22.

John 4:22

You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

When Jesus came as the fulfillment of the Jewish Messiah, he became the blessing that would be available to the whole world.

This means that we have an innumerable and immeasurable debt to Israel because our hope is found in a Jewish savior, Yeshua, who is called Jesus.

A big reason why you should care about the nation of Israel is just our proximity and relation to them.

Like literally, we are not who we are if it wasn't for the Jewish people.

And so, in light of that, we should definitely care because we also see that God cares greatly about it.

Third thing I want you to see.

Know about Israel that shapes how we should think about her.

Satan hates what God loves.

Satan hates what God loves.

One thing is undeniably clear when you read our Bible, and that's that God loves Israel.

He not only loves her because he established her, he loves her because he has a very special and unique relationship with her.

Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 6 through 8 says it so clearly.

Deuteronomy 7:6–8

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession.

Out of all the peoples you were on the face of the earth.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

Psalm 134, or excuse me, 135, verse 4 says, For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession.

God very clearly loves Israel.

It's found over and over again throughout the work the scriptures.

But one thing is also very certain.

There's a lot of people, there's a lot of groups, there's a lot of nations who hate Israel and specifically hate the Jewish people.

One of the questions that super perplexed me all along, I really didn't get clarity on it until I actually went to Israel.

Was why is everybody fighting so much in this land?

Like it's the size of New Jersey, it's not like it's that big.

Like, why are we getting so worked up about it?

Like, like, you know, why can't you go to your corner and you go to your corner and God just be like, well, hey, if you guys are fighting over this thing, it's mine.

All right.

You go over here, you go over here, I'm taking it back.

We see very clearly, turn with me to Genesis chapter 16.

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

I want to show you exactly why there's so much turmoil in the Middle East.

Genesis chapter 16.

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

Let me give you the context.

God had given Abram and Sarai the promise that they would be a father of a great nation, he would be the father of a great nation, that he would have this land promise, and that he would be a blessing.

They're now finding themselves many years after this promise has been given, and they have no kids.

And they're getting up to the point where it's like not making sense for them to have kids anymore.

And so therefore they start to grow impatient.

And look at what happens in verse 2.

So this is Sarai speaking, said to Abram, The Lord has kept me from having children.

Go sleep with my slave.

Perhaps I can build a family through her.

And Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

So Abram, the man that God had personally chosen and personally gave the promises to, took matters into his own hands.

And from this relationship that he had with the slave woman, he ends up having a child named Ishmael.

Let me just stop right there.

Anytime you take matters into your own hands, it's never gonna go well.

It's never gonna go well.

You may feel like God is late.

Make no mistake about it, he is right on time.

And because of their impatience, they had a child, which here's the description of this child, verse 10.

The angel added, I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.

The angel of the Lord also said to her, You are now pregnant, and you will give birth to a son.

You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.

He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.

So here's the prophecy.

It indicates that conflict would characterize the relations between the descendants of Ishmael, who became the Arab people, because Ishmael settled in the Arabian Peninsula and all of his brothers.

The next chapter, Genesis 17, we see God coming yet again to Abram.

He changes his name from Abram to Abraham, he changes her name from Sarai to Sarah, and he gives them a child, the child of promise, which would be the one who the lineage would be built through, and that was the child Isaac.

So we see promised in Genesis 16 that Ishmael would not get along with his neighbors and would not get along with his brothers.

And then we see the promised child, which is uh uh Isaac now born, and you can see there's a lot of tension.

Folks, if you thought that you've got sibling tension or sibling beef, you got nothing on this family, all right?

Nothing.

What you instead see is there's great tension, and here's how that begins to play out.

Let's talk about this.

What does this look like today?

Islam is a religion that credits its founding to the same piece of land and to the same family as Christians and Jews.

In fact, if you go to the Holy Land today and you go to the Temple Mount, there are three different distinct areas.

There's the Christian section, there's the Jewish section, and there's the Muslim section.

The Muslim section says that Ishmael is the actual true descendant of God through the lineage of the promise, and so therefore, all of Ishmael's descendants are the ones who are to be blessed.

They also reject Jesus as the Messiah and just call him a prophet.

And instead, they would say that Allah is the one who they are to follow.

And so you can imagine what we are seeing here is not just people fighting over land.

We are having a spiritual battle take place for who is actually God and what does he actually say?

Because the Jewish people would say that the lineage comes from Abraham, and we now, as Christians, believing in Jesus, who is the also from the lineage of Abraham, would also believe that Abraham, that Isaac was the true descendant, not Ishmael.

So then the question becomes well, why is there so much fighting over there, folks?

It's because it's ultimately declaring what did God say?

Like it's all more than just I've been taught to hate you.

It's instead very core battle of being, which is what does God's word actually say?

Galatians chapter 1, verses 6 through 9 says this.

Galatians 1:6–9

I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all.

Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let them be under God's curse.

Don't miss those words.

If some other religion comes in, some other angel and preaches something counter to what God's word said, what does he say?

Let him be accursed.

As we have already said, so now I say again, if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse.

I want to be clear.

I'm not saying that every person who follows Islam is without value or beyond the reach of God's grace.

We absolutely must go after them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That being said, at its doctrinal core, any system that denies the lordship of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus is not a different path to the same God.

It's a counterfeit.

And what does God's word say about counterfeits?

They're cursed.

Satan has always hated Israel because she's the mother of the Messiah and he couldn't get to Jesus through her.

Now his target is twofold.

One, it's the church.

Because we are living out God's expression here on this earth, and so therefore, they want to go against everything that we are and everything that we stand for.

But please also know this is also why there have been so many attempts throughout history to remove and eliminate God's chosen people.

If you remove the Jewish people, then you remove God, and that causes you then to go and serve what they would say is their true God.

Whether it was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Caesars of Rome, Hitler in Germany, or Hamas, Hezbollah, and all of Iran today, what is their state of?

Go.

Take out Israel and remove the Jewish people.

Why?

Because here's what the Christian scriptures say: Romans 9, verse 4 and 5.

Romans 9:4

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen.

Satan can't stand that.

He wants Jerusalem destroyed because he knows what God promises in here will take place.

Satan hates what God loves, and God loves Israel.

Final thing I want you to see about what you should think about Israel.

Number four.

God still has a place for Israel.

God still has a place for Israel.

I believe in the priority and the preeminence of the church that's made up of Jews and Gentiles alike who've received the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ by grace through faith.

The church is the hope of the world.

It's God's primary expression on the earth today.

However, I do not believe that the church replaces Israel and the promises that God has given to it.

Many of the promises found in the Old Testament have been fulfilled and are completed in the person of Jesus.

But I do not believe that the everlasting covenants given to Abraham and are negated by the arrival of Christ.

I believe they still have a future fulfillment waiting to be fulfilled.

Romans chapter 11, verses 1 and 2 says this.

Romans 11:1

I ask then, has God rejected his people?

By no means.

For I myself am an Israelite, the descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

The rest of Romans chapter 11 begins to explain Israel's current state and God's future plan for them.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

What he's saying is that they've rejected the Messiah.

They've rejected who Jesus is.

And so now there's this season where the Gentiles are able to be grafted in and brought in, but it doesn't mean just because they've rejected the Messiah that God has no future plans for them.

Romans chapter 11, verse 11 says it this way.

Romans 11:11

So I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall?

By no means.

Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.

We've been grafted in as Gentiles into the salvation available through Jesus, and ultimately the Jews will still have to come to the Father through Jesus.

There's not another way.

But we must recognize that it doesn't mean that God doesn't care about what happens in Israel or care about the Jewish people.

I believe instead he still has future plans for them, specifically those promises of land, of seed, and of blessing.

Let me close, give you three things to do in light of this.

Number one, let the Bible be the foundation for your politics.

Let the Bible be the foundation for your politics.

One of the main reasons Israel is such a taboo topic is the idolatry of politics in our culture.

I'm told that if I support a political policy, then that means I wholeheartedly endorse everything associated with that party or with the extreme version of that political agenda.

But as Christians, we must resist the all or nothing categories that politicians so often try to put us in.

Meaning, I can believe that Israel has a right to exist based upon biblical promises.

But it does not mean that we wink at injustice or approve of every action taken by the secular Israeli government.

This doesn't mean that we support Israel blindly, but in the same way that we don't agree with everything our own government does.

Today you are told that you are not allowed to vote for a policy, but not like the person.

You are told it's all together.

And in light of that, it has caused us to begin to allow politics to shape how we read the Bible instead of letting the Bible shape how we see politics.

People say, Oh, great, here we go.

The church is getting too political.

Please hear me.

I am not getting political, I'm getting theological.

The politics has gotten theological.

That's the problem.

So, in light of that, I've got to know I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

I'm gonna read my Bible and then I'm gonna vote and I'm gonna stand for things that are in light of that.

And it doesn't paint me into a corner that means that I believe every bad thing that every politician and every party's ever done.

But on the other hand, we sometimes allow the barrage of politics to lead us to check out and become extremely apathetic on things that God cares deeply about.

Please hear me.

We're in a situation right now.

Let me just speak to one of these specific issues where neither party is truly biblically pro-life.

What we are seeing is a political expediency.

And please hear me.

I could care less how much of a football that that particular issue is in terms of getting people elected or not elected.

That being said, God cares about it, so we should care about it.

We should stand up for it, we should support life in all ways.

Because God says a lot about it in the same way.

Do not allow the noise of politics to make you check out on this issue of Israel, because God cares about Israel and we should too.

We should have a biblically formed view that allows us to begin to process how we watch the news so that we put our filters on instead of letting that filter tell us how we're supposed to read the Bible.

Number two, speak up for righteousness.

Speak up for righteousness.

Part of speaking up for righteousness involves calling out evil.

We have a moral obligation to speak out against the irredeemably evil and genocidal aims of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas in Iran, whose charter literally calls for the destruction of God's people.

The just war principle that military force is justified when it's defensive and aimed at protecting innocent lives gives Israel, the nation, a clear moral right to defend itself against unprovoked attacks.

In the same vein, we also must call out evil when it arises out of national Israel.

We must not be cautious about calling out evil and remembering the biblical mandate to rescue those who are being taken away to death and to rebuke the wicked.

We also must speak up for righteousness and praise those who are living out God's calling to love and to serve people of all nations.

Final thing.

Pray for peace.

Pray for peace.

This is a touchy subject, but one thing that everyone can agree on is our need to pray.

Psalm 122 tells me to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

And that those who love her will be secure.

We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

We need to be in prayer for the Middle East.

We need to pray for the salvation and the welfare of the Jewish people.

That they would come to see Jesus as the true Messiah and come to faith in him.

We should pray for the Arab believers and the innocent Palestinians who are caught in the crossfire of the ongoing conflict that takes place.

We should pray for the growth of the church throughout the Middle East and within Israel, where the gospel is moving forward many times underground, and people are coming in great number to faith.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me?

Let's pray right now.

Father, we pray for that peace.

Pray that you would work, that you would move.

We pray God for the churches and the believers that are in this land.

That you would mobilize them and that you would use them to share the gospel.

We pray God for so many believers who are under the threat of persecution.

That you would help them persevere.

We praise you for so many reports of Muslims who are seeing dreams of a savior and coming to faith in him.

We pray for more of that.

We pray for the Arab believers, for the innocent Palestinians.

Pray, God, that not only would they come and see you as the Savior, but God, you would protect them and their families.

Father, we pray for us.

Help us think wise.

Help us think biblical.

Help us let the Bible speak.

Let us not be a group that is apathetic.

But let us instead respond as you lead and as you guide us to do so.

Would you continue to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed?

We're praying for national peace in this area.

But here's the question that I want to leave you with.

Do you personally know the Prince of Peace?

Yeshua Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

And he offers you deep personal peace right now.

If your life is filled with chaos and brokenness, you can experience God's peace today.

Jesus fulfilled the law's requirements that we never could.

Satisfying God's righteous demand for perfection through his own sacrifice for you and for me.

Some of you are living in strife right now because you, just like Abraham, took matters into your own hands.

And now you're living with the consequences.

Today you can find rest in God's grace.

It comes when you submit to the King of Kings and you follow him with all of your heart.

In order for you to make Jesus your king, you have to turn from your sins and your own way of doing things.

Realize that he died on a cross for you, that he rose from the dead.

And he has the power to change your life if you'll receive that gift that he's offering to you right now.

If you've never received Jesus, if you've never made him the king of your life, in just a moment, I want to ask that you come forward.

Let us talk with you, let us pray with you so that you can leave here, knowing with certainty that you have a relationship with Jesus.

Others, if you need to come and join United City Church, God's leading you to make this your church home.

We're not a perfect church, but we are a church that wants to be faithful to the Word of God.

God's leading you to be a part of that, to join with us in our mission.

To reach Northeast Houston and beyond across every divide to live united in Christ, would you come and lead the way today?

Others of you need to be baptized.

This is your next step of obedience.

To give public testimony of what Jesus has done privately in your life.

Would you come and let us schedule your baptism?

Maybe others of you need prayer.

If you have a need today, we don't want you to walk it alone.

Come pray with us.

In just a moment, I'm gonna pray.

When I say amen, we're all gonna stand.

That's gonna be your cue to come forward.

We'll have folks at the bottom of the steps.

We'll have folks at the front of the church.

I'm gonna ask that you respect this time.

Please, no one be moving.

No one trying to get out early.

Unless you're coming forward to make a decision, would you just be in prayer for those that are around you?

Maybe you can worship along with the song that's gonna be sung.

This is the most important time of our service.

Let's respect it.

Pray that God would move.

Honor him as he does.

Father, in Jesus' name, we pray for boldness and courage for those that are gonna respond to you.

I pray that you would move.

I pray that you would call people to yourself.

I pray God for those who have needs that today they could be prayed over and prayed with.

Father, we praise you for what you're gonna do.

It's in the name of Jesus that I pray.

Man, what an amazing time that we had today.

Hey, if you know of someone that needs to hear this message, we'd love for you to share that on socials.

We'd love for you to actually go and check out our socials so you can stay up to date on everything happening in the life of United City.

And if you need to take the next step, we'd love to help you do that as well.

Love you guys so much, and we'll see you next week.