Another in the Fire | Pastor Chris Kouba

Hell is in the waiting.

It's like we know that something is there.

We know that it is growing.

We know that I have to have a surgery.

But what we didn't know is what would life look like post-op.

In 2008, I was in college working full time and uh noticed that I started losing feeling in my legs.

And after going to a few specialists and trying to figure this out, uh it turned out I had a massive tumor inside of my spinal cord.

And then I was later diagnosed with NF2 or neurofibromatosis 2.

And that set me on a trajectory uh in my life that I never would have imagined.

I went through a few years, uh seven actually, where I didn't go to the doctor and just kind of hiding from my diagnosis and just believing that because I wasn't experiencing any new symptoms, that I was fine.

Ended up going to see this doctor and getting scans done, full body scans, and just to kind of get a baseline.

And turns out I had a tumor inside of my spinal cord again.

This time I had C1 and C2 in my neck that controls your entire body.

And so we went through the process of you know getting that diagnosis and realizing that my life was about to change with my kids and my wife could possibly be affected forever.

So at the beginning of the year, Luke went in and did a scan.

He did find a tumor on the base of his neck.

Wholeheartedly, I believed that this tumor had been there for a long period of time, but when we went in, the surgeon informed us that the tumor had grown.

And not only that, but he highly recommended that we do surgery as soon as possible.

So um, just kind of a lot of information to take in.

It kind of felt like our world had just been turned upside down.

Um, you'd go away believing one thing and you'd get told another.

Uh just a lot of emotions to process.

If we did not operate, uh that things would just continue to get worse.

So we decided in that moment that surgery needed to happen and it needed to happen quickly.

And it was in this time, in this waiting, that we really experienced struggle, we experienced heartache, we experienced questioning, we spiraled a little bit, uh we reached out for help with pastors and friends.

Ultimately it came down to are we gonna believe what we've been taught?

Are we gonna believe uh in our faith in Christ, that he is a healer?

Or are we going to abandon that belief and live in doubt and live in fear?

Grab your Bibles and open them up with me to Daniel chapter 3.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 3 is where we're gonna hang out and spend a little bit of time today.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Uh Luke's condition is called NF2.

Super, super rare.

It basically means that without explanation and without really any warning, tumors just grow in his body.

It's not something that he can just get cured from.

It's basically something that he's gonna have to continue to deal with and continue to address as these tumors show up and as these tumors become a problem.

But while Luke's condition is rare, that feeling that he described is not.

We've all been there.

We've all had a moment where it's just easier to ignore it.

But it doesn't go away.

It's that wrestle that you gotta deal with where it's basically like, okay, here's what I know is true, what I've been taught is true, and here's where I am, and there's a big gap.

How do I reconcile these two things?

We're in a sermon series this month called Divine Encounters.

The whole idea is to try to figure out what God does when he encounters us and where and when does he do that?

We know there are certain times and there are certain places whenever that's the case.

We we in fact designate weekends for that purpose.

We we had a men's night a couple of weeks ago and we had a bunch of men get here in a room and they got away from the distractions of the world and they began to go and seek God.

And every single time he meets us, that's what he does.

He encounters us when we seek him.

We've got a big weekend coming up this weekend.

It's called Encounter Weekend.

It's for all of our youth.

And this is not just a youth weekend, this is a church weekend where we want all of you to participate with us at a minimum through praying and asking that God would do something when a bunch of teenagers get away from all of the distractions that normally fill their lives and they come and seek out.

We know God's gonna meet them.

God's gonna encounter them.

But does God encounter us in the other stuff?

Does he encounter us in the midst of our normal lives?

In this series, we've looked at a story that began to show us how God sometimes can meet us in the midst of trials.

And we admit that God also, in the midst of feeling like he'd been forgotten, we saw that Moses actually had a revelation of God meeting him and showing him, hey, at the end of the day, just because you think that you failed and you think that that's final, that's not what God says.

And God meets him.

Last week we talked about the idea of doubt, and man, I can't tell you how encouraging it has been to hear from so many of you.

And you've all said basically this same thing.

I didn't know you were allowed to doubt.

I've doubted for a long time.

I just never know you were allowed to say it.

And you found freedom in realizing, no, no, no, no.

God sometimes meets us in the miraculous, but God also sometimes meets us along the way, and you can't even tell it's Him.

But He's there and He's walking with you.

Today, what I want us to look at is a passage of Scripture that shows us that God can also encounter us in a fire.

Let's begin reading in Daniel chapter 3, beginning in verse 1.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

I'm gonna be reading a ton of scripture today.

Uh so please be ready as we walk through this.

Verse 1, King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was 60 cubits, and its breadth six cubits.

He set it up on the plain of Durah in the province of Babylon.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, and the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

He's pretty proud of this statue that he'd made of himself.

Skip down to verse four.

It says, And the herald proclaimed aloud, You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

And whoever does not fall down in worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

Skip down to verse 8.

Therefore at the time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews.

They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever.

You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men, O king, pay no attention to you.

They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

It is a typical story of tattletelling here in the scriptures.

Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought.

So they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?

Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made well and good.

But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.

And he will deliver us out of your hand, O King.

Notice this verse, verse 18.

But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in a predicament, a storm, in their case, a literal fire.

They have a choice to make.

They either bow the knee and go along with the program.

Or they hold true to their convictions, and the outcome is not a hypothetical, it's gonna be a reality.

You're gonna die.

What we find is that because we know the ending of this story, because if you've been around the Bible and you kind of know the resolution, you miss the tension of that moment.

All of us are gonna be faced with a predicament in our lives.

You have chosen to have a life of conviction, hopefully.

And you've chosen to live your life in such a way where you have a guiding set of core principles, a guiding set of what's right and wrong.

Ideally and hopefully, particularly here at United City, you will hear from us that we believe it is God's word that should be the guiding principle of your life, and that you are people who live with conviction.

On the other hand, all of us desire to live a life of comfort, a life where we all get along, a life where even if we disagree, we can disagree civilly and it not cause there to be any problems.

But there will always come a point in our lives when the idea of living by conviction and the idea of living by comfort are not gonna be the same.

And you're gonna have to make a choice.

You're gonna have to choose.

Like Luke said in the video, are we gonna believe this stuff?

Or are we just gonna bail and just basically sit in our own misery, sit in our own fear, sit in our own terror of what could be.

Folks, maybe you've had to deal with this in a situation at the office, maybe you've had to deal with this in a situation in your school where all of a sudden you know if I do what I'm supposed to do, it's gonna cost me.

It's not gonna be free, it's not gonna be celebrated.

It instead is gonna have huge ramifications for where I am and where I am going.

It says that these three men, uh, it wasn't a hard choice, and it was wasn't much of a choice at all.

From this text, what I want to do is I want to give you three lessons that you can learn today for your life.

Three lessons you can learn for your life.

First one is this Obedience can't be conditional.

Obedience can't be conditional.

Do you have a conditional faith?

What this means is that you don't think about God, you don't consider God, you don't really check in with God until you need something.

Then all of a sudden you go to your annual physical and the doctor says, Hey, I need you to get this test, and you go and get the test, and then all of a sudden you've got some diagnosis that now requires you to go to a specialist, and now all of a sudden you're dealing with all this medical stuff, and at that point you went from being, I'm not really thinking about God to, hey, God, if you're real, I need you to help right now.

And in fact, God, I will tell you, if you'll help deal with this ailment that I've got, if you'll help deal with this diagnosis that I've got, I know I've not been a good servant of yours.

I know I haven't made church a priority, I know I haven't really opened up your word ever, but I just want to let you know, I promise you, I'll be all in if you heal me.

Like I will read my Bible, I will go to church, I will do all that I'm supposed to do, I'll do anything you want me to do as long as you'll protect me, as long as you'll heal me, as long as you'll get me out of this situation.

Maybe you got a situation at work and you've got an opportunity that's gonna be a big deal that you have the opportunity to close, or maybe it's a promotion that's gonna give you more influence, or maybe it's gonna give you more money, or maybe it's gonna give you more flexibility.

It's all the things.

How many of you, in the midst of walking into that opportunity or walking into that deal, have said, God, I promise if you'll give me this, I'll give some of this money away.

I know I haven't really thought about that ever.

I've never really gave, but I promise you, I'll tithe if this is if this is the case.

If you give me this job, then I'll go and do this.

If you give me this opportunity, then I'll promise you I won't, I won't do all the perks on me, I'll use it on some of the pastors at the church or some of the folks in the community that need it.

That's what I'll do.

I'll make I'll make myself feel better about it.

And you're making these deals, and here's what I would simply tell you: how do those deals work out?

Have you come through on your deal?

If God came through on his, or how are you doing on yours?

Are you doing what he asked you to do?

Or have you realized that no, this is a whole conditional thing in the first place, where it basically you said, God, I'll do these certain things as long as you come and do these certain things back for me.

These three men though, they showed a different type of faith.

It's a but if not faith.

Let me explain to you what the difference would be.

Uh, for one, a conditional faith says, God, I will trust you if you do this for me.

But if not, faith though, says, God, I will trust you even if you don't do this for me, and I trust that you know what's best for me.

God, I love you and I will do this, but if not, then then but God, I love you and I will do this as long as you come through.

Uh uh, but if not, faith says, God, I would love you to do this, but if not, I still believe that you know what is best for me.

God, I will follow you because I believe that you know what I really need.

One says, God, I will do what you ask of me as long as I don't have to face any type of opposition.

The other one says, God, I will do what you ask of me, even if the worst possible outcome and consequence actually comes to bear.

That's what happened for these three guys.

Maybe this is the problem for some of you, the reason why you haven't had a divine encounter with God, because you're wanting to seek God.

He says you find him by seeking him through prayer and fasting, and you're saying, God, I want to seek you.

I just don't want to have any consequences or have it be hard for me.

Maybe some of you are saying, God, I want you to show up in my life and I want you to speak to me.

Yet all along he's already shown up in your life, he's already told you what you should and should not do, and you've ignored that.

And so you think the problem is God is silent, and the reality is you just didn't listen the first time.

And so, because of that, God's not gonna speak and tell you even more when you're not even doing what he's already told you.

And so, for some of you, you're blaming God when the reality is you and your obedience and your lack of and your conditional obedience is the problem.

Some of you are wanting and needing a miracle, and he's saying, Look, I'll show up and I'll meet you in your life, but it's only gonna happen if you hold true to your convictions and you do not forsake your obedience.

I'm not trying to say what I'm telling you is easy.

In fact, it is extremely hard.

But if you want to have an encounter with God, then you have to have a faith that isn't filled with conditions.

I find comfort in this that even Jesus wrestled with this, but ultimately chose a but if not type of faith.

Look at what it says in Luke 22, verse 41.

Luke 22:41

This is right as he is about to go and be handed over to be crucified.

It says, and he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Translation, God, I don't want to do this.

If you could change it and do it a different way, like now would be the time to do it.

And he says, Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

And there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Some of you may be in this exact spot where you are grinding, you are struggling.

You know what needs to be done, but you don't know if you have the courage to do it.

I would tell you to stay grounded, to stay rooted, to stay with your convictions.

Let's keep reading the story, begin in verse 19.

It says that Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.

And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace.

Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

Here's a second lesson I want you to learn from this passage today is this sometimes God saves you in the fire, not from it.

Sometimes God saves you in the fire, not from it.

You want to know what we do with those types of stories?

Where people go into the doctor, they get a diagnosis, the diagnosis said you've got stage four, whatever type of cancer, and that basically you only have a few months to live.

And then you are sort of reeling, and you're just, you're just, you're just, you, you don't know how to respond to that.

And so what do you do?

You go and you only think you know what to do is you begin to pray, and you get other people to pray, and you begin to ask for healing, and then you doc you go into the next follow-up appointment, and the doctor says, I don't know how to explain this, I don't know what to tell you, but all I can say is this it's gone.

We stick those people up on a video and we highlight it and we say, There is hope in the midst of your situation, and we are inspired by those stories.

Please hear me.

Even if God doesn't choose to heal you or your loved one or your family member or your friend or the person in your life or the situation that you're dealing with in that way, it doesn't mean that these two things are not still true.

God is good and God is sovereign.

Because sometimes what God chooses to do is to deliver you from the fire.

And sometimes what God chooses to do is to let you fall into the fire.

And in the middle of the pain and the difficulty and the struggle, what you begin to discover is not that God is absent or uncaring, but that He is there.

That He is with you.

We shouldn't be surprised by this.

1 Peter chapter 4, verse 12 and 13.

1 Peter 4:12

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Look, we're gonna be a church that is gonna preach the prayer Jabez, but we're also gonna be a church that is honest with you to tell you, and suffering is also real.

Both those things can be true.

And we want to make sure that we don't forsake one for the other.

We don't want to preach all about deliverance and God rescuing you and God doing these things, because he can and he does and he will, but guess what?

God also may choose to do that by you experiencing loss and hurt and trial.

It's almost like a promise you don't want.

You will get thrown into the fire.

You will experience loss.

You will experience disappointment and trouble.

You will be in your 30s, healthy, and be told that you have a tumor that could possibly cause you to not be able to function at the end of the surgery.

And everything changes in a moment.

Romans chapter, or excuse me, James chapter 1, listen to this, verses 2 and 4 through 4.

James 1 · chapter mention

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials.

I hate this word of various kinds.

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

I love verse 4.

But it seems to suggest in order to get to verse 4, you gotta go through verse 2.

And the part that I don't like about verse 2 is not so much the fact that I'm gonna have trials.

Okay, that's fine.

But as long as it's counted, I'll join, my brothers, when you meet known trials.

I'm good with that.

I can gear up.

I can man up.

I know this is going to be a hard season.

I'm going to put my head down and we're going to get through it.

I know how long it's going to last and we're going to be able to get No no no no.

He says, Count on all joy when you meet various joy.

A various kinds.

Like the stuff that you're not prepared for.

The stuff that you weren't expecting.

The stuff that you didn't see coming.

The stuff that totally derails and throws you off.

He says the way you get to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing is by going through that stuff.

What does this tell us?

These men had a but-if faith, but they had to experience the other side of the if in order for them to see God.

Don't think that just because you're in the fire, that must mean that God hasn't, or God won't, or God doesn't want to, or desires to encounter you.

Instead, what you may discover finally is that you are now in the place where God actually has you, where he can encounter you.

In the midst of the fire.

You may not like it, you may not understand it, and you probably don't agree with it.

But you can hold tightly.

God is good, God is sovereign.

He has not left me or forsaken me.

Some of you in the midst of the fire right now, you're thinking, What did I do?

What did you deserve this?

You're in the midst of the fire, and you're somehow thinking, why is this evil all around me?

And what I want you to see is this is that it may not be evil or it may not be judgment, it may be God's will.

Romans 8 28 says this, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his Isaiah chapter 48, verse 10, Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver, I have tried you in a furnace.

Isaiah 48:10

Suffering is real.

Suffering.

He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?

He answered and said, But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace.

He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here.

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

The satraps, the prefects, the governors, the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men.

The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own God.

God meets you in the fire.

The appearance of the fourth person is a Christophany or Theophany, which is one of the many physical appearances of Jesus prior to his time here on earth.

No one could have predicted this is what would happen, but in the middle of the fire, God met these men and he saved them and delivered them.

Isaiah chapter 43.

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

Verse 1 says, Fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel.

And he saves the crushed spirit.

When the Lord meets you, he gives you peace, even if he doesn't remove you from the fire.

When the Lord meets you and encounters you, he gives you strength to endure.

When the Lord meets you, he gives you his presence, even when the circumstances get worse than the Lord meets you and encounters you, he sustains you, even when you don't feel like you can keep going.

And as I woke up, I realized that I couldn't feel my left side of my body.

Felt uh like pins and needles and and heavy.

And I just remember thinking, oh my god, I it happened.

My wife comes into the room.

My first words are, I can't move my left side of my body.

And the the miraculous thing that I found out, my wife sent out a this chain text that said that he can't move the left side of his body.

And she was uh she's a worship leader, and they were in the middle of rehearsal when she stopped the rehearsal and said, We have to pray.

And from the time that I woke up, I remember waking up to the time that they began to pray was about 26 minutes.

And in that 26 minutes, all of a sudden, I'm able to move a little bit of my hand and I'm able to wiggle my toes, and it was like all of a sudden there was an instantaneous healing that was began to take place in my body.

The doctor said that they lost signal to the left side of my body during surgery, and they weren't sure if I'd ever be able to move again because of prayer, because of people gathering together and believing in God, believing in his power, that all of a sudden just movement began to come back.

Let me see you move your last arm.

The next day after surgery, I'm still in the ICU.

More feeling is coming back, more more sensation is coming back, and I'm able to stand for the first time.

Now, when I when I was told about this surgery, I was told that I should expect at a minimum to be in the hospital for three weeks.

One week in intensive care, um just recovering from the surgery, and then two weeks in inpatient physical therapy.

And the fact that I was able to stand up assisted on the second day is a miracle.

By day three, I was sitting in a chair, feeding myself with my own hands.

Day four, I was able to walk with a walker around the hospital.

And each and every day I was getting stronger.

The feeling in my left leg came back a hundred percent.

The feeling in my left arm is still not a hundred percent.

My dexterity is still not all there.

I'm able to hug my kids, hug my wife, enjoy life.

The miraculous part of this is day five, five days post-op, I was told by the doctors that there's no reason that I should be in the hospital anymore because I've gotten so much better.

I'd healed so much quicker than they could have ever experienced, that I walked out of the hospital, and then I walked into my home unassisted five days after a major spinal force surgery.

We just found out we are going home.

Only five days.

Four days ago, I couldn't feel the left side of my body.

And in that, all I can think of is that I'm not done yet, and that there's more to it, and that there's more to my story that God has, that he's not done with me, and that I can continue to live life for him.

The fact of the matter is that my diagnosis of NF2 doesn't really have an end.

Um there are tumors in my body right now that I know of.

Probably tumors that I don't know about.

There will be more surgeries, there will be more that I have to face.

I think for me it's in these moments, knowing what God got me through, the suffering that I went through, but the fact that he was with me in the suffering, that he was with me in the valley, gives me the faith and the courage to know that if he was with me then, he'll be with me again in the future.

And I know that as I go through this and as I continue to face the trials that I have to face with this diagnosis, that he's not done with me yet.

Would you bow your heads and would you just close your eyes all across this room?

If you're joining me online, would you please do the same?

The ultimate way that God meets you is through his presence that only comes through a relationship.

Luke would be the first to tell you his story's not over.

He's got tumors in his body right now.

He's probably got tumors he doesn't know about.

NF2 is something that's not going away.

So while he gives God all the praise and all the glory and all the right that is due to him for the miraculous healing that took place in his life, he walks every day, not in fear of what could be next.

But instead, he walks in confidence, knowing this the God who was there before is gonna be the God that's gonna be there in the future, and he's gonna be the God for this day.

Because Luke's got a relationship, and this relationship with Jesus has so radically changed his life that it doesn't mean that his diagnosis has to be changed in order for that relationship to be good, but instead, God can use even a tough diagnosis, a rare diagnosis like NF2 to be the vehicle by which he shows, look, I got you.

I'm gonna walk with you, I'm gonna be with you.

Do you know Jesus like that?

So that no matter what may come your way, no matter what comes up in your path, no matter what happens, you know this.

While I don't know what's gonna happen, I do know who I'm gonna do it with.

So Jesus, He longs to have that type of relationship with you.

Luke would tell you this: what he wants you to walk away from this service today is not being able to praise God for the miracle that took place in his life.

He instead wants you to experience the miracle in your life of the relationship with Jesus.

For you to come to the end of yourself and to realize that God made a way for you.

And not only does he want to save you from the fire, he wants to save you from your sins.

He died on the cross, he rose from the dead, and he overcame the power of sin and death, and he now invites you to receive him, to leave the comforts and to leave the things that you put your trust in.

At the end of the day, when it comes down to it, it won't hold.

Instead, for you to lean on the firm foundation of Jesus.

In just a moment, what we're gonna do is we're all gonna stand up, and I want to just give you a heads up.

If you've been a part of a church that has what we call an invitation, this is not that church.

This isn't the transition time at the end of our services where we kind of just gather our stuff and get ready to kind of move on for the next thing.

This isn't just sort of like the tag on because this is what the church has done for a whole lot of time.

This is the most important thing we do.

We gear up for this moment because we believe in public next steps.

We don't believe in public inspiration and then walking off and be like, that was cool, and do nothing about it.

We instead want to be doers of the word.

We want to allow God's word to pierce our hearts and cause us to make commitments and decisions that change us.

So, what I'm gonna ask you to do is if God is leading you to himself into a relationship with him, in just a moment, we're all gonna stand up.

And if that's you, I want you to step out from where you are, and I just want you to go find one of the folks that are gonna be at the bottom of the steps or gonna be at the front of the stage.

Just simply tell us and let us have the opportunity to walk with you, to pray with you, to answer questions that you may have, so that you can know with certainty you have a relationship with Jesus.

Others of you need to come and join United City Church.

God is leading you to let this be your place, a place that's gonna hold up the full counsel of God, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and show you that God is faithful both places.

God's leading you to be a part of this church.

Would you come and lead the way?

Maybe others need to be baptized.

We've got somebody that's gonna be baptized at the 11:30 service who decided they were gonna do that at the 8:30 service.

Maybe that's you in the 10 o'clock.

You need to get baptized.

We will accommodate and make that happen today, or we'll schedule your baptism for a later date.

Maybe some of you need prayer.

What I'm gonna ask you not to do is to dishonor those around you in this time by slipping out and leaving early.

There's just nothing worth it.

Because this is such a sacred moment.

We want to see God move in your life, the lives of those around you.

So if you're a believer in Jesus already, what I'm gonna ask you to do is pray.

I'm gonna ask you to sing, I'm gonna ask you to worship, I'm gonna ask you to engage, asking that God would move in those all around us.

Father, we come before you in these moments.

In Jesus' name, we ask God that bold next steps would be taken.

You would lead people to respond to you, to give their lives to you, to experience your presence, to join this church, to receive prayer, to be baptized, whatever God you may be leading them to do.

I pray God you'd give them boldness to do it in these moments.

So in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espignol at 1 o'clock.