This Is How We Do It | Pastor Chris Kouba

All right, 10 o'clock.

How we doing?

Y'all look fantastic, by the way, just up there.

This is incredible.

And but leaders sit in the front.

So well done, you guys in the bowl here.

All right.

Way to go, no question about it.

And I just want to make sure the record has been stated.

I've always untugged my shirt.

All right.

Just throw that out there to your up front, okay?

Hey, grab your Bibles, 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

Excuse me, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

First Corinthians chapter 3 is where we're going to spend some time.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Let me add my word of greeting to Dave's earlier.

My name is Chris Cuba.

I have the privilege of being lead pastor here at United City, and I want to take this opportunity to welcome the men and the women at all of our correctional facilities and those joining online.

Let's give them a hand and celebrate so many joining us.

You know, the video is funny because it is true.

All right?

I don't necessarily know why you chose to come to United City Church.

If this is your church, I can assure you of this.

You had some sort of criteria along the way that you began to ask some questions about and wanting to make sure that the church fits some of your preferences.

Those preferences aren't bad.

All of us have our preferences, but but we know this is the case because every week when we follow up with first-time guests, we get asked about, hey, what do you guys do about this?

Or what do you do about this?

And we know those questions maybe aren't as explicit as some of the ones that we just saw on the video, but they all exist trying to basically determine is this gonna be the place for me?

Maybe some of you have not yet decided whether United City Church is gonna be your church, and you don't like the fact that we have changed where you sit.

All right, we've totally disrupted it, we've moved it, and we're gonna continue to probably do that over the course of the next few months as we continue to grow and expand and do all the things that we're doing here in the worship center.

But you may be wondering, you've kind of maybe we've checked off a few boxes, but we haven't checked off all of the boxes, and the jury is still out.

What I want to ask is this what's your criteria when it comes to choosing a church?

We're finishing up the series we started a couple of weeks ago in called Red Flags.

We've been looking at the first part of the book of 1 Corinthians, and what we're seeing is the Apostle Paul writing to a very young congregation in the city of Corinth, dealing with some problems that had arisen in the course of a time between when he had planted the church and when he had left.

And he starts hearing about some of these issues, and he's like, okay, wait a second, we gotta deal with this, and we gotta deal with this firmly.

And so what Paul does is he writes this letter to the church at Corinth, and the specific topic and the red flag that he's dealing with today is you got a group of people who were preferring the wrong things, thinking that there was another way to do church.

Thinking that there was another way to allow themselves to live out their Christian lives.

Principle that I want you to see from the pastors today is this the cross guides how we live.

The cross guides how we live.

All we've been talking about the first couple of weeks here in the book of 1 Corinthians is the impact of the cross.

How the cross is central to everything in our lives, and we see here that the cross also guides how we collectively live.

I don't say we, meaning to exclude how you live.

This doesn't, it's not like you basically it doesn't matter what you do personally.

We know that we are all individuals, a part of a collective whole.

And so we know that the cross of Jesus Christ is supposed to affect how I live, which then ultimately affects how we do this larger thing called the church.

We know that ultimately it's not just me, you, and Jesus.

Right?

We know that it's not just me and my Bible and Jesus, but instead there's this complex thing called the church.

And because of the church, we know the cross of Jesus Christ speaks into how we are to operate.

Here's what I want to show you from the passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and chapter 4 about how we should live.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

It's gonna tell us that healthy people being led by healthy leaders.

That is what the cross is calling us to do.

Healthy people being led by healthy leaders.

We're gonna see, first of all, what it looks like to be a healthy person.

So that you can evaluate on your own self, am I healthy when it comes to being a part of United City Church?

Am I individually somebody who is healthy as a part of this collective whole?

And then we're gonna look and we're gonna see what the scriptures tell us about what the leaders should look like.

First of all, let's look and see what healthy people should be.

Begin reading with me in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning in verse 1.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

It says, But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you are not yet, for you are not ready for it.

And even now you are not yet ready, for you are even now, or excuse me, you are of the flesh, still of the flesh.

For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

For when one says, I follow Paul, and another I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?

What then is Apollos?

What is Paul?

Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

For we are God's fellow workers.

From this text, we learn a few things about what a healthy person is by seeing what an unhealthy person looks like.

First of all, we see in verse one there an unhealthy person is someone who is supposed to be growing but is stagnant.

It's someone who instead of moving on and moving up, they instead are stuck doing the same things in the same way with the same people.

I've got a beautiful little niece named Merit, and uh I've got a large family, so in light of that, anytime that Merit is around, there's always a fight over who gets to hold Merit, all right?

Because basically we love this new baby that is now in our family.

And a couple of times I've actually been fortunate enough to fight my way into not only being able to hold Merit, but being able to hold Merit at the time when she needs a bottle.

There's nothing better than feeding a baby, all right?

Uh, whenever you feed a baby a bottle, they just sit there and they're happy and they're taking that bottle and they make those little baby sounds, and you just get to stare at them and look at them, and they're not squirming.

It is the absolute best thing in the entire world to be able to feed Merrick a bottle.

Can I tell you, it would be extremely odd, though, to see someone feeding a bottle to a teenager, all right?

You fast forward and feeding it to an adult, you got something really weird going on here today, okay?

Yet how often do we see people in the church that have been believers for years, that have been believers for maybe even decades, still taking a bottle and we don't act like there's anything weird about it?

Folks, let me just ask you the question.

If I was to say, What is God doing in your life, would you have an answer of something in the last 30 days?

You see, too often, whenever we ask somebody about what's God doing in your life or tell me what God's teaching you, we'll refer back to some event that took place years ago, maybe even decades ago, some camp from two years ago, some conference from a little while back, and all we have is a spiritual activity that, if we honest with ourselves, is from years ago.

Folks, I would tell you that is not at all what God is trying to say, is the mark of a healthy person.

Instead, it is somebody who is progressing, somebody who's moving forward.

Let me just ask you the question on September 29th, 2024, are you further along spiritually than you were September 29th, 2023?

How about September 29th, 2020?

There's been a lot of significant events that have taken place in our region, in our area, and in the world alone in the last just four years.

Are you any closer to the Lord right now than you were before?

It's important that we evaluate our lives and see am I actually growing spiritually?

What does this look like?

I would tell you, I think that the Bible is very, very clear.

This means healthy people are marked by taking continual next steps.

We've had one of our core values at United City Church is even that.

Everyone has a next step.

We believe in every single person that is here, every person that is listening to me has a next step spiritually.

You never arrive spiritually, but you also shouldn't stall out spiritually.

You instead should be moving forward.

For some of you, what this means is that you need to read the Bible for the very first time.

Uh, I've been doing this for many, many years.

I've read through the Bible recap with Tara Lee Cobble, and October 1st, they're about to start the New Testament.

It'd be a perfect opportunity for you to launch and to jump in.

If you've never read the Bible for the first time, take a look on our website, take a look, look up the Bible recap, and you can start doing the New Testament October 1st and read it the rest of the year.

Maybe for some of you, what you need to do, your next step, is you need to get into a group.

You've never been in a group before.

Or maybe you were in a group a while back, but you haven't been in a group recently.

Maybe your next step is to get into a group.

Maybe for some of you, your next step is to get on a serve team.

That would be a massive step for you.

And so I just want to encourage you, take a step out and you get on a serve team.

Maybe for some of you who've already been serving, or maybe some of you that are already in a group, what God is calling you to do is to lead somebody else to be able to take your place or to train somebody up with the knowledge that you have achieved.

We say here at United City that the mark of success is not that you do one job for 30 years.

The mark of success is that you train up 30 people to do your job.

That's what we believe success is.

Because we don't just believe it's about you using your gifts, it's about you teaching others to be able to use their gifts while you use yours.

So therefore, we believe whether you're seven or whether you're 77 or whether you're what 107, God has a next step for you.

If you're not dead, then you are not done.

In addition, healthy people are growing not just in knowledge, but in character.

Of folks who basically bounce from Bible study to Bible study and group to group and activity to activity, but ultimately they're not growing in character, they're just growing in knowledge.

They've been a part of every BSF study that you could possibly ever be, but they aren't any more godly than they were before.

Folks, the Corinthians were fighting here over who has the best teacher, who is the best communicator, and it said that sitting under the best person to speak was the point.

And what he's trying to show them is this that's not the point.

The point is that you grow and bear much fruit.

And it is God who waters, he is the one who bears fruit.

Let it never be said that you get filled with more and more knowledge, but it leads to less and less doing.

The goal is spiritual transformation, not spiritual information.

The goal is not that you can quote more verses or you can uh quote more Bible stories.

The goal is that you look like Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23, which says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Galatians 5:22

Against such things there is no law.

Healthy people are marked not just by activity, but they're marked by evaluated activity.

I have a love-hate relationship with a game of golf.

I love golf.

I love to play golf.

Um, I love to read about golf, I love to watch golf, um, I love to practice golf.

The problem is, the reason that it's a love-hate relationship is because my handicap is no better right now, despite the fact that I have played more than I ever have played in my life than it was three years ago.

Uh and that's frustrating because at the end of the day, if I'm gonna spend as much time and energy and effort into something, I want to see improvement.

And if you looked at the algorithms on my social media, it would suggest that I watch a lot of golf videos because it recommends every single training A that ever has existed, up to me, that this is something that I would be interested in, and I absolutely, every single time, and I finally went to someone and I was like, hey, what's the deal?

Why am I not getting any better?

And they said, Chris, your issue is not your desire.

Your issue, in fact, isn't even the fact that you don't practice because you practice a lot.

Your issue is the fact that you're doing the same thing over and over again and you're expecting different results.

He said, You gotta take a step back after every shot and you gotta evaluate.

You gotta take a step back after every round and you gotta evaluate.

You gotta take a step back after you've been practicing and you gotta evaluate.

It's not just about hitting balls at the range, it's about evaluating is what I'm doing leading me towards what I ultimately want to see happen.

I think sometimes we get in a rut spiritually as well.

We basically find ourselves to where we're not quite feeling it as much as we want to, where we find ourselves not being able to respond and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our life, and so maybe we just default to what we know, to default to what we grew up with, or default to what we see others do.

And so you have one of two personalities.

Maybe you try it for a little while, you find that it's not working, and so you just throw it out and say, Well, it doesn't work for me, or you got my personality where you just fight through it and you just grit through it and you just assume, well, this just must be what it's like to live spiritually, is just to have to grind all the time.

I just don't think that's what the Lord wants for us.

Instead, what I think he wants us to do is take a step back and say, Hey, what do I need to change?

What do I need to adjust?

What is God maybe speaking and saying to me?

And it's okay to maybe sometimes color outside of the lines because ultimately God is doing something in and through me, and I need to be sensitive to that and be aware of making adjustments that's an evaluated practice.

Let me give you a couple questions you should ask.

Ask this question Is there a sin in my life that I need to confess?

Is there a sin in my life that I need to confess?

Maybe some of you, the reason why you're not healthy and growing is because you've got this blatant blind spot that at the end of the day your wife knows, your husband knows, your kids knows, and your boss knows, but you're the only one who doesn't know.

And because you're not asking that question, you're not allowing God's gift of conviction.

I read about it this morning in my time with the Lord in 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

It talked about the gift for godly grief leads to repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief leads to sorrow.

That was the verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 10.

2 Corinthians 7:10

Reflected on that, realizing God, the conviction of the Holy Spirit is a gift to me.

It's gonna reveal things in me that at the end of the day, you want to get out of the way so that I can experience growth.

Another question you should ask: Is there a habit that I need to change?

Is there a habit in my life that may not be bad in and of itself, but it's not helpful?

We're gonna see that later on in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Another one you could ask, is there an area that I need to yield to the Holy Spirit?

Is there something where I need to stop fighting it, but I need to give into it?

Maybe you hear this appeal for a group or you hear this appeal for a serve team, and instead of giving me the reasons why you can't, maybe you actually do what the Holy Spirit's prompting you to do.

And you just see God work and you see God move.

It's not going to be immediate, rapid change, but you seek evaluated experience leading to healthy people.

Look at verse 4.

Verse 4 tells us about how they're fighting again over what preacher that they follow.

It shows that healthy people don't let their preferences dominate.

They aren't highlighted by what they want, by what they desire, by what they think is best.

Can I confess something to you?

As the pastor of this church, I've been here for five and a half years.

There are certain things that we do as a church that annoy me.

Like there's certain things that we're involved in, or there's certain things in the way that we do them that I just I don't love.

Like it's not my favorite.

There's certain things along the way that I just wish were tighter, or I just wish it was cleaner, or I just all of those things.

But I would tell you what I have grown to discover is that wisdom and maturity would not tell me that I need to make the church all about what I want.

And treat it like it's a cruise ship designed to serve my every need.

Instead, what I've discovered is the fact that things annoy me sometimes about our church could be the very thing that attracts someone else to our church.

And so, therefore, the fact that I'm annoyed isn't that big of a deal.

I can get over it.

At the end of the day, I'm a part of this larger thing called United City Church, and I don't have to necessarily treat it like church hunters, and I'm gonna say, this checks this box, this box, this box, and this box, but it doesn't check this box and this box, and so therefore I'm upset.

I instead can be totally fine that two of my boxes aren't checked.

Because I'm a part of something that is so much greater than me that I know God is using this larger thing called the church, and this is how we live, and so therefore, I can say this God has given me gifts, and God has given me the ability to serve and to go and to give my life and lay my preferences down so that I can plant seeds, God can water, and we can see this thing grow.

So let me just encourage you, your preferences aren't bad, but your preferences should never dominate.

Healthy people don't let preferences dominate.

Paul continues in shifts.

I said, healthy people led by healthy leaders.

Let me talk to you a little bit about now me and leaders of our church and leaders of life groups and leaders in the church.

Let's talk about what it means to be healthy leaders.

Pick up with me at the end of verse 9.

It says, You are God's field, God's building.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation.

And someone else is building upon it.

Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest.

For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Paul shifts, and he's talking about the leaders in the church and what their message is and what they're building on, and the idea is very clear.

Healthy leaders make much of Jesus.

You need to find a church, stay at a church, worship and serve at a church where the leaders make a big deal out of Jesus.

He says that is the foundation.

Everything else that you build on top of that is merely building material, and it will be burned one day, and you will determine how well it stands up in the fire.

But if you build it on anything else other than the firm foundation of Jesus, then ultimately what you're gonna see is you're gonna be exposed.

Folks, you have a unique opportunity right now because of the now the middle is opened up.

You're gonna be able to see literally in real time how the sides are gonna be built in the next two weeks.

You're gonna begin to see some framing that's gonna be put in place as the underground work of the new risers that are gonna be put in are gonna be put into place.

And what you're gonna see is that you're gonna you're gonna start to see all this foundational material that's all gonna go there.

What we love is the fact that now the carpet's in and now the seats are there, and now the paint is there.

That's all the finishing touches, but ultimately, what really allows the fact that you're sitting up there and you're safe and secure where you are is because of the foundation that is underneath it.

Folks, so often you know what leaders try to do in my position and others is they try to build their ministries on the finishes as opposed to building their ministry on the foundation.

What they'll do is they'll begin to say stuff like, Man, it's my goal to make sure that I am relevant.

It's my goal to make sure that I'm I'm contemporary.

It's my goal to make sure that you're impressed by me.

Or this is a prime one right now in the midst of.

Political season, you've got some who built their entire ministries on being the political preacher, and so therefore they're gonna be all about it right now, talking to you about all the things that you should do and all the reasons why you should vote for whatever particular candidate, and they're gonna be all about politics.

Others have built their ministry on end times, and so everything that they do is all built around how everything that's going on in history and everything that's going on in our current days all relates to the end times.

Others pride themselves on whether they're a topical preacher or whether they're an expositional preacher or whether they're a verse-by-verse preacher.

None of those things are bad, but none of those things must dominate.

Because at the end of the day, everybody's gonna be have all of their works exposed, it's gonna be burned up, and ultimately we're gonna see what was the foundation that it was built on.

Folks, my goal is never to bore you, but man, it is a dangerous thing if my goal is to impress you.

Because I would tell you, whatever shock and awe that I use to get you is what I'm gonna have to use to keep you.

And so, therefore, let it be said about me and every single other person on our preaching team that is gonna stand up here and preach to you that we're gonna do the exact same thing in the 110-year history of this church, and we're gonna preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

We're not gonna deviate from that, we're not gonna change that.

We're gonna stay in that.

James chapter 3, verse 1 says this not many of you should become teachers, my brothers.

James 3:1

But you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strength.

There's a high accountability for leadership.

And I think that's a good thing because it says here that we have to use the right materials, otherwise, our works will be burned up.

The only foundation that will last is Jesus.

It's not about platform, it's not about fame, it's not about notoriety, it's about Jesus.

1 Corinthians chapter 4, look at what it says in verse 1.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found in faith.

The word steward is a perfect image.

It means the leaders are just the messengers, but they aren't the message.

Let me tell you why this is important.

First of all, because there's been a lot, like a whole lot in the last few months, of prominent, well-known national Christian leaders and pastors who have fallen morally.

It's been very devastating.

It's been very, very difficult to see, and so many that I have looked up to and found great respect and help from their ministry.

But I but I think it's a dangerous thing if maybe you've walked through something like that or you've been hurt or burned by that, to somehow use this excuse.

You know, I'm just out on the church because so-and-so fell.

I'm just out on the church because so-and-so messed up.

One, you don't do that in any other area of your life.

If you go and eat a bad plate of Mexican food, you aren't out on Mexican food all all altogether from that point forward.

You just aren't.

If you have a bad date, you're not out on dating altogether.

You're just not, all right?

You you instead recognize that there could be a bad apple, and it doesn't necessarily indicate that's the case.

And so please hear me.

If that's your story today and you are burned by the church, please hear me.

Don't apply the standard to the church that you don't in any other area of your life.

You instead need to know this.

Leaders are gonna let you down.

You just need to know that.

But it doesn't change the message that they give, it doesn't change the words that they deliver.

Right now, we're in the midst of a season at our house where I've got a senior in high school and now I've got a junior in high school as well.

So it's like college season, all right?

So we're my my oldest daughter's applying to colleges and and all of that.

She's been accepted to a few already, which has been super, super exciting and kind of neat.

Uh, but she also gets routine uh letters or routine uh postcards or things that are appealing to her from colleges wanting to have her apply to their school.

And so it's kind of neat the fact that you know these people want her to be a part of their school, but not one time in the midst of getting the mail and seeing an acceptance letter to a college or getting the mail and seeing an appeal asking her to apply to their college, have we ever sat around the table and said this, man, the mailman crushed it today?

Like he nailed it.

It's unbelievable.

I mean, it was unbelievable the way in which he gave it was just it was just incredible.

Like it was just so good.

I'll be honest with you, I don't even know who our mailman is.

I don't even know if it's a male man or it's a male woman.

I don't know which one it is, all right?

I have no clue.

I'm sure they're nice, I'm sure they've got a great family, and they're really good at what they do, I have no doubt.

But at the end of the day, we don't talk about the mailman, we instead talk about the male.

We're excited about the male.

We're excited for my daughter because of the acceptance that she got in the mail.

Please hear me.

Leaders will let you down, but don't let that affect the mail.

Understand this.

I'm just a mailman.

And one day you're gonna get a new mailman.

And you need to make sure that that mailman uh delivers it with enthusiasm and with excitement.

But at the end of the day, if he ever trades the mail out for some other mail, you need to get a new mailman and get a new church.

But if you've got a mailman who's given you the same mail that the previous mailman gave you, and the previous mailman before that gave you, and the previous one before that gave you, then you need to celebrate the mail, not worship the mailman.

That is the mark of healthy people following healthy leaders.

Now, I'm not trying to say it doesn't matter what they do.

Look at what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 in verse 14.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Paul says, I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many followers.

For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

I urge you then to be imitators of me.

That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ.

As I teach them everywhere in every church.

Healthy leaders set an example.

I want to make sure you understand.

I'm not trying to act like it doesn't matter what the leader does.

I am instead trying to tell you that the accountability goes for me, but it also goes for every single leader in this church.

If you're gonna step into leadership, which I've encouraged all of you, are leaders in some capacity.

The bar is high.

Don't lower it to meet that standard.

What this means is that leaders should live in such a way where it matters what they eat and it matters what they drink.

Leaders should live in such a way where it matters what they watch and it matters who they watch it with.

Leaders should lead in such a way where it matters in terms of how they live.

The accountability for leadership in the church is very high, and it should be.

1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 2 and 3 say this, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

1 Timothy 3:2

A husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

This doesn't mean that they have to be perfect, nor are they expected to be.

But it does mean that they're accountable.

Pastoral leadership and church leadership.

Meaning the pastor and the preacher at the church, meaning the person who leads your life.

There's a different bar.

And we should both live our lives in such a way where you can be so bold as to say, like Paul, follow me as I follow Christ.

This is how we must live.

And ultimately it leads to the truth of 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 20.

1 Corinthians 4:20

The kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

Throughout this series, we've said the power doesn't come from leaders, it doesn't come from presentations, it doesn't come from the church, it comes from the message.

The message is God sent his one and only son Jesus down to this earth to live a perfect, sinless, obedient life.

He sacrificially gave his life as a sacrifice on the cross.

He rose from the dead three days later, and if you place your faith and your trust in him, you can be bow your heads and close your eyes with me all across this room.

Do the same online.

Receive him as your Lord, as your Savior.

I'm not sure what brought you to United City Church, but I assure you, God wants something way more than for you to find a church.

He wants you to find Him.

Give your life to Jesus today.

Our team is gonna be down front, gonna be on the sides.

Today you want to receive Jesus.

You have questions, you want to get answered.

I want to ask that you come forward today.

Let one of our team members walk with you so that you can have a relationship with him.

Others of you need to get healthy.

At the end of the day, you're not healthy.

Maybe for some of you, you need to make a commitment today.

You know, I'm gonna go to a group.

I'm gonna start growth track next week.

I've been putting it off.

I keep hearing about it.

I know it's something I'm supposed to do.

It's not something that I've ever actually done.

It's time to do it.

Maybe some of you you need to get on serve team.

Maybe some of you need to open up and read God's word for the very, very first time.

I promise you this.

Talked to a couple just a few weeks ago, did it for the very first time after having been walking with Jesus for many years, and they said it has changed our life.

Did you make a commitment today to do the very same thing?

Whatever your next step is.

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

This is the place that God doesn't want you just to be a consumer, He wants you to be a contributing, committed believer, helping us advance the mission of the church.

If that's you today, would you lead the way?

Others need to be baptized, like these three that we saw this service, the four that are getting baptized next service.

God is doing something and he's moving in the baptism waters of this church that is unlike anything I have ever experienced or seen.

For some of you, God is calling you to take your public next step of faith by being baptized.

Would you come forward?

Let us schedule that.

Maybe some of you need prayer today.

We want to pray with you.

We want to pray for you.

Bible says the prayer of a righteous person availeth much.

Let us pray with you today.

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments we have left.

Lead people to respond to you today.

Thank you, Father, for the fact that you allow us to know what it looks like to be a healthy person.

I pray that we would not push aside the prompting of the Holy Spirit that is leading us right now to take a step.

But God, we would be responsive to you.

Father, I pray your protection on the leadership of this church.

For every life group leader, for every small group leader, for every kids and youth leader, I pray, God, that you would protect our pastors on our team.

That God, you would go before us.

You would deliver us from the evil ones.

Father, I pray your blessing on our families.

God, I pray that you would go before and that you would allow there to be a leadership at this church that is able to say, follow me as I follow Jesus.

And that God, it would be so obvious we're all looking at the same place, at the same way, running hard after you.

Pray your blessing upon this church.

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

Amen.

Would you stand up and as you stand, our team is ready to receive you?

You come forward right now as God is leading you to respond.

Come on.

Oh my god, you're so big.

Hey, do me a quick favor, you can take a seat.

I want to give you one quick thing just as we close.

It's gonna be a special treat for you.

You came in today, you probably noticed in the lobby that we've got a setup there of friends of mine, the Nissan brothers, Nissan brothers.

These are guys that are in Bethlehem that are believers in Jesus.

I've been to their factory and seen how they make some of these Christmas uh ornaments and carvings and things like that that you'd be able to see, but you can imagine.

I was there in 2022, uh, but I and I've been there before, but it is uh trips aren't going to Israel.

Uh, and there is a lot of tension that is taking place in the midst of that location.

Uh, and so we want to make sure, see here.

Yes, you are.

There you go.

Come on over here.

Uh, this is Chris Nissan, and uh what I want him to do is share just a little bit with you about the need one for us to pray for Israel, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, but also just for believers specifically that find themselves in uh the holy land, and then I want you to bless us by doing something that I'll never forget that you did by closing out in the Lord's Prayer in Jesus' original language.

Man, it is good to see you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, thank you.

Good morning, everyone, and uh again thank you and thank Pastor Chris for hosting us.

It really means a lot to us, especially in those difficult days.

I just want you to know that unfortunately Bethlehem, the birth time of Jesus, is still under siege since day one.

We're talking about almost a year now.

We Christians become less than 1%.

We are trying our best just to remain there.

And I want really to encourage every one of you, whenever possible, please do come and visit the Holy Land.

We don't only like to see you there, we need to see you there.

Because you might be with your presence there, part of the solution.

Today I'm among you.

We brought with us those beautiful religious articles made by the local Christians of Bethlehem.

All what we are asking, not much.

We're trying to get our daily bread and dignity.

Next door is Christmas.

So if you like to get something from the Holy Land, it's right out there and on the other side without noticing your supporting.

In the end, as a blessing from Bethlehem, I would love to end this blessed service by offering you the Lord's Prayer in the mother tongue of our Lord Jesus.

Here is the Lord's Prayer.

If you wanna record it, you can do so.

Abunit Pashmayo Nut Khadah Shishmo Tithem al-Kuthohnew Sabyono.

I can utmayo farohablan, lahmutasongola niomono washbuqlan how ban wahthokhayin.

I can it to fahnan isbakal hayobain.

Lot alan ilsion, um and be show me tool, di lo him alkutho, hi lu tishbahto, well all am almen.

Amen.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Thank you, thank you, Pash.