One and Done | Pastor Chris Kouba

And it is good to be back.

Been out a couple of weeks, and uh it is good to be back with you and uh to be able to open up God's word together.

I want to before we get going though this morning, uh, one, just celebrate a little bit.

We got some pretty cool celebrations to take place.

Josh Thomas, who stood like right here just a second ago, he got engaged this past week to Lily Velcher up there on the front row.

Uh we are growing the church any way that we can, and sometimes it's by having our staff just get married together, which is just an awesome thing uh for those of you who don't, you get to see Josh a lot, but Lily is the real deal.

All right, that's what we're most excited about.

No question about it, but uh really, really exciting for them, just a big celebration going on in the life of our church.

Uh, but also I just want to mention to you, because we got something really exciting coming up, and that is our Easter services.

You may not realize it, but Easter is like coming around the corner.

I mean, it is literally a couple of weeks away.

It's earlier this year than normal.

And so, whenever you came in today in your seat, you should have seen a little card that looks like this.

And I'm bringing this to your attention, asking you to go ahead and grab this card.

Uh, this is for you to hear the information right now so that you'll know about our services.

First of all, I want to let you know that on Friday night, Good Friday, March 28th, we're gonna be having a special baptism and Lord's Supper service that is different than the rest of our Easter weekend services.

It's one of our favorite services of the year.

We did this a couple of years ago, and it's been a huge hit.

I want to encourage you to make plans to be here.

That is at 6 o'clock on, or excuse me, that is at 6 30 on Friday night.

If you'd like to be baptized, that's a great opportunity to be able to do that.

Maybe family in town, you can take advantage of that.

But that is a time whenever we will celebrate the two sacraments that we have been given as a church to remember what the Lord has done: baptism and Lord's Supper.

You're not gonna want to miss that.

That is 6 30 on March 28th.

And then Saturday night will be our first of four services in English.

We'll have a six o'clock service, and then on Sunday morning we'll have an 8:30, a 10, and an 11:30.

So 6 o'clock, 8:30, 10, 11:30, all four exact same services.

We are encouraging you to attend one and serve one.

So if you can, if you ideally you could go on Saturday night and give us all Sunday morning by serving because we're expecting a lot of guests, we're expecting a lot of folks that are gonna come.

Uh, and ideally, it's gonna be because you've invited them.

So, again, this card is for you to know the service times, but this card is not for you to keep.

This card is for you to give away.

And in fact, in the lobby, we've also got some uh additional cards that you can grab and then you can get uh to let people know about Easter services.

You never know the power of a simple invitation where you simply say these words.

Hey, do you want to go to church with me?

Like I promise you, it can change the trajectory of a family for generations by you just simply inviting them to church where we're gonna celebrate and talk about the hope of Jesus that day.

Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to 1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

I want to take this opportunity to welcome all of the men and all of the women at all of our correctional facilities, those joining on the Pando app, those that are still on spring break, would you just give them a hand and celebrate all of those on the other side of this camera?

I had an opportunity to watch last week and I love the ability for us to stream.

Nothing like being in the room, though, uh, but it was great to be able to still connect with our church family.

Uh and this morning, though, is is uh is we're gonna dive into 1 Peter chapter 4 on what I believe is a this is one of the best days of the year.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

It's selection Sunday.

Do you guys realize that?

Selection Sunday is today.

For those of you who aren't sports fans, you're gonna get an email probably from your employer or from some friends asking you to be a part of some bracket pool, and you're probably gonna be like, oh yeah, I should I should do that.

Because here's what we have discovered, and here's what we found out that March Madness is one of the times when all Americans engage and get involved in a singular event more than any other event that takes place throughout the calendar year.

Hear this.

More people will fill out a bracket for March Madness than will vote in the November presidential election.

How crazy is that?

More people do, and clearly there's not that many basketball fans, but people get engaged in March Madness because I believe primarily of the one and done nature of that basketball tournament.

I mean, there's so much excitement because if you work hard and your team gets into the tournament, anything can happen.

And we've seen that happen over the course of time because, you know, usually whenever you have two teams play against each other in a best of five or a best of seven series, the better team will eventually win.

But it's not about having the best team.

It's about having the best team that night in that location in that game.

And that's what allows you to win and advance or lose and go home.

My team won the national championship a couple of years ago.

I'm a Baylor Bear, I love Baylor, and we won the national championship in 2021.

It was absolutely amazing.

It was absolutely incredible.

We won six games in the tournament, and we were clearly the best team, and we proved it on the court, and we had the opportunity to go and to celebrate this massive win as a team.

We head into the next year, and I'm telling you, our team was stacked.

We reloaded, we didn't rebuild, we were already back in place.

We were a number one seed going into the tournament the next year.

All indications look like we had the opportunity to go and repeat us national champions, and in the second game of the tournament, North Carolina gets hot from three, and they end up beating us, and in an instant, our season was over.

See, that's the beauty of the n of the NCAA tournament is that your team, if you're in the game, you have an opportunity to potentially pull an upset and you can win and advance.

The difficulty and the struggle is that whenever you are in there and your team is playing, you don't know it, but all of a sudden things could go the wrong way, and in an instant, one and done, you go home.

Here's what I want us to think about today.

What would it look like for you to live a one and done life?

You see, none of us actually know how long we've got.

We assume that we're gonna have forever.

We assume that we're gonna have as much time as we possibly want to have in our lives.

You never think about the fact that with one thing that could take place, our lives could suddenly be over.

And now we are facing our eternity square in the face.

Today is March 17th, 2024.

I want you just to think about this.

What would you do if you knew that in March 17th, 2025 would be your last day here on this earth?

If you had 365 days left to live, if you had 8,760 hours left to live, what would you do?

We're continuing our series in 1 Peter called Nomad, where we're talking about what it looks to live a life where you are not at home, you are on the move, you are on the run, and the idea is that you are to live in such a way where you are to bless the people that you are around, but you're not supposed to make this your home.

In fact, what we see is this book was written to a group of believers who were not celebrated for their faith.

It was written to a group of believers who were marginalized because of their faith.

It was written to a group of folks that find themselves scattered, not being celebrated by having a lot of people around them telling them how great they are and they can keep going, but instead, you see a lot of people who are by themselves wondering, is this worth it to continue to stay faithful and to stay true to what God is calling us to do?

And what we see in this passage today is that we are being told by Peter, it's just kind of like a run-on sentence, if you will.

He keeps saying, thought after thought, whatever comes to his mind, telling you, here's how you are to live when you know you don't have forever.

Here's how to live a one and done lifestyle.

Because these persecuted believers knew this to be true.

They didn't have forever.

The fact that they were persecuted and marginalized, they had no confidence that they were gonna have all of this time to do whatever they wanted.

Instead, they were constantly fearful of knowing, today may be my last day.

How am I going to live if that is true?

Let's begin reading in 1 Peter chapter 4, beginning in verse 1.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

It says, Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do: living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

From 1 Peter chapter 4, I want to point out five ways you can live a one and done life.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

Five ways you can live a one-and-done life.

The first one is this live AD, not B C.

Live A D, not B C.

Today is AD, March 17th, 2024.

That means is that we know this is the way that we indicate time by saying AD.

We assume it now, so we don't have to necessarily say it, but we refer to something that would happen historically in the Old Testament, we would say that happened around 500 BC.

We use the idea of BC and AD to separate time, and the birth of Jesus is the distinguishing factor between these two things.

A D actually stands for ano domine, which is a medieval Latin term, which means in the year of our Lord.

It became widespread use in the ninth century, and it literally represents the timing and the events that took place after Jesus was born.

If we say BC, that stands for before Christ.

If we say AD, that stands for something after Jesus was born.

So here's the concept I want you to see.

Some of you know what your life was like before you met Jesus.

And the idea is that you don't want to repeat that life.

But instead, you want to live as though Jesus was born, he died on a cross, he rose from the dead, and because of that, my life is now different in the way that I respond and react to life.

Verse 1, he tells us one of the ways that we're supposed to live AD is by arming ourselves.

It's the same image of a soldier who would strap on gear for battle.

Meaning that if I knew I only had one year left to live of my life, and I knew that my life could be taken in any moment, I'm not supposed to live passively.

I'm instead supposed to live aggressively, ready for a fight, ready for a war.

Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 13.

Ephesians 6:10–13

It says, Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm.

Nothing about what I just read suggests that we should be passive, waiting for life to come to us.

It says that you have an enemy who is actively against you, wanting to trip you up on a constant basis, and that you are to wake up every day, put on the armor of God and stand firm because you got a battle that's coming your way.

Folks, I think one of the biggest issues that I see, particularly in the area of men, is passivity.

They don't put on their gear and fight.

They don't hold their sword ready for battle.

And what God is calling us to do is to live a life that says, because Jesus has declared war, and yes, he ultimately has won the battle, but we will not see the completion of that until we get to heaven.

I'm gonna stand up strong and I'm gonna fight.

I'm gonna fight against the schemes of the devil.

I'm gonna fight against the enemy.

2 Samuel chapter 11, verse 1, it talks about the story of David.

2 Samuel 11:1

It says, In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel.

And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.

What does this say?

At the time when the kings go out to war, at the times when the kings put on their battle, at the time when the kings go out and they fight, it says that David delegated it and was like, nah, just take it easy.

I've worked hard, I don't need to worry about that anymore.

Two verses later in 2 Samuel chapter 11, it says that he walks out onto the roof, he sees a beautiful woman named Bathsheba.

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

It led to a series of choices that forever changed the trajectory of his life.

Why did that happen?

Because David wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing in the first place.

Let me just tell you something, folks.

Part of the issue that you're gonna have is if you continue to live your life as though you've got forever and you've got all the time in the world, you're gonna be passive instead of realizing, no, I gotta maximize every day, putting on the armor of God, fighting against the schemes of the devil.

We don't need to be fearful of what the enemy can do, but we need to be aware of what the enemy wants to do.

We need to live our lives in such a way where we are gearing up, ready to take on and to battle.

Verse 2 outlines the choice.

I can live for the will of God, which according to Romans 12, 2, is good, pleasing, and perfect.

Or I can live for the will of the flesh, which verse 3, that's a pretty good list.

Like that's some pretty good stuff.

Like that's a lot of things that basically describe Northeast Houston.

Like that's a lot of activity that my guess is some of your friends actively did last night.

It's a list that honestly is not so repulsive, it is actually attractive.

But what I want you to also see is that it also leads to problems, short-term thinking, and stupidity.

I cannot tell you how many times I've met with people who are living their lives so carelessly and free, and they begin to say things like this.

I've talked to young adults, for example, and they'll say, Well, I'll just I'll just get serious about my faith whenever I'm in my 30s.

Let's get serious about my faith whenever I'm in my 40s.

And I can't tell you how many times I look out and I see 40-year-olds and I see 50-year-olds and I see 60-year-olds who are living like their children.

Who are still doing an adult version of what they did in high school, who are still living for the same accolades of what they did whenever they were a junior in high school.

I can't tell you how many times I see people who will say things like this, Oh, I'll get serious about my faith when the kids grow up.

I'll get serious about my faith when the season, that baseball, that volleyball, that basketball, that whatever season is over.

I'm just in a season right now.

I'll get serious about my faith whenever things settle down at work.

Only to look up.

And man, it's years ago when you said that, and it's never settled down at work.

Folks, we gotta understand something.

We have an enemy who wants to just basically numb our minds so that we're not actively engaged in the battle that God has called us to.

Because here's what happens when we begin to numb our minds, we miss out on this important reality, which is this you may not have tomorrow.

You're not promised to do whatever you want to do as long as you want to do.

I think a lot of us here believe that Jesus is gonna come back.

We just hope it's not today or next week or a couple of months because we got a trip that we want to go on.

Because we got an activity that we want to go and do.

And instead, we got to understand Jesus could come back at any moment.

Look at what verse four says.

That we are to live our lives with such a victory, faith-filled, holy lives that according to verse four, that people may look at you and they may say, This, hey, why aren't you doing what everybody else is doing?

Hey, why aren't you drinking like everybody else is drinking?

Hey, why aren't you partying like everybody else is partying?

Hey, why aren't you looking at what everybody else is looking at?

Students, adults, hear me loud and clear.

Leaders do hard things.

And sometimes they gotta do it alone.

Just because you're outnumbered doesn't mean you're wrong.

We are to live in such a way where people look at us and are like, why aren't you doing what everybody else is doing?

Why aren't you participating in what everybody else is participating?

In fact, I would even suggest this if no one is asking that question about you, you might want to ask, how am I living in any way different than everybody else?

We're supposed to be so distinctive that the world notices, why?

Why are you doing that?

Why are you not doing that?

Look at what the text says in verse 7.

Kind of moves on to his next thought.

He says, the end of all things is at hand, therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

Second way to live a one-and-done life is number two, pray, don't panic.

Pray, don't panic.

My experience personally has been devastating news or really difficult, tragic things don't usually come with a warning or an email that next week you're gonna have this come up.

When a diagnosis comes in, when a relationship abruptly ends, when trust is forever altered and broken, when a loss of a loved one actually takes place, even if you knew they were sick, the fact that when the finality of it actually happens, it carries a heaviness and a weight that can be disorienting, that can cause shock, that can cause us to be surprised, and it leaves us with a choice in the moment.

Am I going to give in to the fear and the anxiety and the worry that can lead to panic?

Or am I going to allow the truth of what 1 Peter 4 says to be true that I have the ability to bring these things before the Lord in prayer, and even if the thing doesn't change or improve, I can at least know this God will be with me.

Let me just go ahead and give you some personal experience.

I've discovered in my own life, panic doesn't work.

Like it's never helped.

I've tried it.

Something all of a sudden comes up, or there's an unexpected situation at work, and there's some kind of tragic loss, and I begin to analyze it and I begin to think about it, and I begin to talk about it, and I begin to go it over in my mind.

I make a pro-con list, and I go on and on and on.

I lose sleep about it.

I'm constantly thinking about it.

And at the end of the day, after doing all of those things, nothing has changed.

Except for the fact that I'm more anxious, I'm more fearful, I'm more worried, and I find myself at a place where I don't know what to do.

Which sets me down a spiral that makes it even worse.

On the other hand, I would tell you this there have been times when even though I don't understand or agree with what God is doing with me in that moment, I have trusted what his word says.

I've brought that to him in prayer, I've laid that at his feet, and I've just felt different.

I'm not gonna tell you that it was all better, I'm not gonna tell you that it was all fixed, I'm not gonna tell you that everything magically improved.

What I am gonna tell you is this I've just felt a presence that I can't really explain.

What I can tell you is this is that I felt a peace that doesn't quite add up to the situation that I'm walking through.

Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 and 7.

Philippians 4:6

Listen to what it says.

It says, Do not be anxious about anything.

But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.

I promise you, I'm not trying to say that this is easy.

But I am telling you it is necessary.

And when you pray, you're either informing God so that one, he can change the circumstances, which he absolutely, powerfully, in his great might can, or you're informing God so that even if he doesn't change the circumstances, he can change you.

Verse 7 tells us here that we can be sober-minded and self-controlled for the sake of our prayers.

I'm telling you, whenever devastation and when difficulties and seasons of suffering come up in my life, I am not thinking clearly because I feel as though things are out of control.

And what this tells me is that whenever I pray, it allows me to begin to process this thing clearly and allow me to be able to realize these two things can be true at the same time.

One that God is good, or excuse me, one that God is sovereign and he is in control.

And the second thing that I can realize is this is that God is good and he can be trusted.

So that even when I don't understand how these two things go together, I can instead rest in him and say, God, I don't get it, I don't like it, and I don't want it, but I'm gonna give this to you and I'm gonna trust you.

Because I believe you're in control.

You're gonna help me to pray, not panic.

Look at the next verse, verse eight.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Again, he just kind of bounces from topic to topic here.

The third way to live a one and done life is to rally in love.

Is to rally in love.

This is so counterintuitive.

Most people that I know, if you were to give one year left of your life, you would begin to immediately start to plan out vacations that you would take.

You would experience you would talk about the experiences that you would want to experience.

You talk about people that you want to go see or concerts that you want to go to or whatever it may be, you'd want to go do what you possibly could to maximize every single moment that you have left in the rest of your life.

And if you live for this world, I get it.

That's what you should do because you're trying to milk everything you can out of the world that you live in.

But here's what we talked about this entire series in the book of 1 Peter.

This is not your home.

Can I tell you how freeing it is to realize that you don't have to live for all that the world has to offer, but instead you can be freed to live for others?

Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 through 5, it reads like this: do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Philippians 2:3–5

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

This is what makes you different.

When you know Jesus, then you're freed from this idea that it has to all be about you.

This is why when people go on a mission trip like the group did this past week to Vegas, or the group people go on a mission trip like they're about to go this coming week up here in Fort Worth, they get there and they realize all the things that seem most important aren't that big of a deal.

You want to know why?

Because they realize I get to serve.

I get to love others.

This is why we want you to get on a serve team.

This is why we want you to go on a mission trip, because it reorients your mind in such a way where you begin to realize I can rally through my suffering in love towards other people.

Because I realize one, somebody's always got it worse than me.

But two, I can also know this is that there is something freeing.

I don't have to think about my problems and my issues and my struggles and all of my things, but instead, I in love can begin to show hospitality towards one another.

Look at verse nine.

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Whoever speaks as one speaks to oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Fourth characteristic of a one-and-done life is serve the church.

Serve the church.

When you don't make it about you, but you realize that you can serve, you can care for, you can host, you can give, you can love, and genuinely help others, that is when the church is the best reflection of the future.

We talk about this all the time that everyone has a next step.

We believe that no matter how long you've been in church, if this is your first week, or whether you've been in church all your life, that you have a next step.

And part of that next step is getting involved by serving in the local church.

This means not only serving in a capacity that helps us pull off the weekend gathering, but serving in such a way where you can see how the gifts that God has given to you can be used and multiplied for the sake of his kingdom.

I love verse 11.

It says that you do this in the strength that God supplies.

You see, some of you may think, well, man, I don't I don't have the capabilities, or I don't necessarily feel it, or I don't necessarily know what I would be able to do.

And I would simply tell you this you go to growth track, you get, you get become a member of our church, and you get involved and you serve, and what you'll begin to discover is that there is nothing greater than being able to use the strength that God supplies to serve his church, a place that the Bible says is the bride of Christ.

It's not perfect by any means, but it is the place by God, which God decides to use to be able to bring himself glory as we together, a group of people who have no business being together on a normal basis, all come together for a single purpose, which is to worship God and to serve Him.

Folks, there's nothing in the world that can make you that promise like the promise of the church.

Church is the hope of the world.

Your business that you give all of your time and your energy to, even your family, as important as that is, is not greater than the church.

I would in fact argue your family will be strengthened when the church is primary.

That is how much I believe in the church of Jesus Christ.

And I believe that is the case because whenever you use this for God's varied grace, what you will begin to discover is that He begins to do something in and through the church, which is the collective mercy and grace here on this earth.

And so if you have one year of your life left, you should be at the church more, not less.

You know the biggest problem when you start missing church is eventually you stop missing the church.

At that point, you begin to have all that the world can offer you, and you begin to discover.

Look at verse 12.

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

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's suffering.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed.

Because the spirit of glory and of God rest upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer as a meddler.

And if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed.

But let him glorify God in that.

Final advice for a one and done life.

I wish so badly that I had different easier.

If I could be one of those health and wealth and wrong everything, some of you are walking through.

Some of you are walking.

You just struggle.

You can't really put your finger on it.

You also can't seem to get over it.

Maybe you're in a marriage.

At the end of the day, you would have never signed up for this if you knew.

Maybe you find yourself addicted today.

You've made a thousand promises over and over and over again.

This is my last time.

And you did it again.

Some of you have done things in your relationship that have caused you to be so intimately tied together, you can't break off what you know is wrong.

What I want you to know is this God's word tells us that the bitter cup that we have to endure and to drink in this world is meant to remind us this is not our home.

Revelation chapter 21, verse 4, here's what it says.

Revelation 21:4

It says that he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

This is what we have to look forward to.

And so what we can do now is we can choose hope over heart, knowing that one day we will be able to be in his presence, and one day he will make all things right.

And so we've got to ask him and beg him and plead with him to help us endure and persevere until that day.

First Peter chapter 4, verse 19.

1 Peter 4:19

I want it to be like a theme verse for us today.

It says, Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.

Church, it's gonna be hard, but choose hope.

But God is faithful.

It's gonna be tough, but God can care for, nurture, and watch over your soul.

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

If you're joining me online, I want to invite you to do the same wherever you're hearing this message.

We're gonna close our services a little bit different than normal.

Through a season of prayer.

I've got to believe that in a room as full as this one is, that there are so many people that are in a season of suffering right now.

It doesn't necessarily matter how your season of suffering stacks up to somebody else's for you, it's a season of suffering.

You've got a loss, you've got a pain, you got a diagnosis, you got a heaviness, you got a broken relationship.

If you were say right now that you're in a season of suffering, no one looking around, would you just lift your hand up high so that I can see it?

Just raise your hands up really high.

All over the place.

I want you to know you're not alone today.

Just keep your hands up.

Raise your hands, you're in a season of suffering, literally all over this room for people.

You can put your hands down.

I'm gonna ask you to do something I want you to know up front, you're immediately gonna push back on.

The Bible tells us that the prayer of a righteous person availeth much.

And what I wanna do in the rest of our time together is I want to pray for you.

But I don't want to do the one that prays.

I want instead to allow the body of Christ to come alongside and to pray with you.

So, what I'm gonna ask you to do, if you just raise your hand, would you stand up to your feet?

Would you stand up to your feet?

If you raised your hand, would you just stand up?

I promise you you're not alone.

I promise you you're not alone.

Literally, folks all over the place that are standing.

Here's what I'm gonna ask you to do.

In just a moment, we're gonna have folks that are around you pray for you.

So, what I wanna ask you to do is just in one small quick phrase.

You don't have to go into detail, you don't have to share your life story, you don't have to give all the specifics.

What I just want you to simply do is say, hey, I'm walking through a loss, I'm walking through grief, I'm walking through a financial trouble, I'm walking through a relational challenge, whatever it may be, is something as simple as that.

What I want to ask in just a moment is for you just to simply say that out loud.

And what we're gonna do is the body of Christ is gonna pray for each other.

So I want everybody to look up at me.

I want you to look and you can see those folks that are standing up around you.

And what I want to ask for you to do is right now, whoever's near you, that you would just simply get up, go over to them, let them share briefly what's going on, and then let's just put their hands on them and let's pray for them right now.

Father in heaven, we have hurting people all over this room.

Father, we have some.

I know after the last service, we had a bunch of people that came up to me that just simply said, man, I didn't I didn't want to stand up, but man, that's me too.

Father, I pray that you would be near to the brokenhearted and that you would save the crushing spirit.

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble, and those who know their name but their trust in you, for you, oh Lord, will not forsake those who seek you.

And so, Father, we come and we seek you.

We don't understand and we don't even like what we've been given.

But Father, we submit these things to you and we ask, Father, for your healing and for your mercy and for your grace to be upon us.

Father, your word says that you are a strong tower and the righteous can run to you and they can be safe.

So, Father, I pray for the one who is afraid today.

I pray, Father, for the one who is scared today.

I pray for the one who is overwhelmed today.

I pray, God, for the one who is anxious today.

Father, that you in your name of Jesus, Lord, will be the strong tower in their life.

God, that you would fill them with your spirit and that you would help them, that even if their circumstances don't change one bit, that Father, they can lean upon you and find you worthy, find you trustworthy, find you faithful.

Father, I pray that you would bring healing.

I pray, God, that you would help us.

Help us to trust you, help us to lean on you, help us to press in on you.

Father, we just thank you that you are a God who allows us to come before the throne of grace, so that we might find grace and mercy to help us in a time of need.

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

If you're here today and you don't know Jesus, let me just tell you something.

The reason why we're so passionate that even in the midst of our suffering, that there is hope, is because we know that ultimately Jesus has defeated death and he has defeated the grave.

Our hope is not in ourselves or our circumstances or wishful thinking.

Our hope is in Jesus.

And if you don't know him, we want to invite you today to have a relationship with him.

And so in just a moment, we're all gonna stand up.

And what I want to ask you to do is like we had multiple people last service come forward and they gave their lives to Jesus.

Let one of our team members in the front or on the side pray with you so that you can know for sure you have a relationship with Jesus.

Others, if you need to come and join United City Church, I'm telling you, we're gonna be a church that's gonna be honest.

Honest about the struggles and the difficulties of life, but also honest about the hope in the midst of those struggles.

Because we ultimately believe that there is hope in Jesus, and so therefore, our message is one of joy in the midst of suffering.

If God's calling you to be a part of this church, I'm gonna ask you to lead the way today.

Others of you need to be baptized, like these five that we saw earlier today.

What an unbelievable testimony of God's provision and grace.

Maybe that's your next step when you come forward today.

Maybe others just need prayer.

Whatever God is leading you to do, I'm gonna pray.

And I'm gonna ask everybody to stand whenever I say amen.

And as God is leading you to respond, you do so.

Father, I pray that you would move in these moments we have left together.

Thank you, Father, for the fact that we can call upon you.

You hear us, respond.

I pray for those that need to make a decision today.

Lord, give them boldness, give them courage to respond in the name of Jesus.

I pray.

Amen.

You would you all stand, and as you stand, you come right now as God is needing you to respond.

Come on.

Keep coming, we'll wait for you.

Come on.

Praise God for how He moves.

I want you to know this.

If you're struggling today, if you're dealing with unrepentant sin, one repent.

That's your answer.

You don't need to pray about it.

You need to repent.

But if you're in a season of suffering, I want you to know this.

You're not alone.

God sees you, He hears you.

Your church is for you.

We're going to come alongside and we want to help you.

We want to preach the whole counsel of God because it'd be so much easier just to preach all the passages about how the joy of the Lord is your strength, and it's true.

But we also know life's hard and life's tough and life's difficult.

And even in those moments, the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Hey, like I said, I want to encourage you to make sure that you invite someone to come and be a part of Easter services.

Folks, we are growing.

This is spring break week.

The weather was terrible this morning.

We were really slammed at our 9:30 service.

We are absolutely packed here at our 11 o'clock service.

You've heard me mention that we are going to be going through a worship center expansion in the coming months that you're going to hear way more about in the days ahead as we begin to prepare for future growth here at our church.

Just know that we're going to move to three services.

Probably by the summer, we're going to be in three services, 8:30, 10, and 11:30.

And here's the bottom line.

I mentioned one of the things today was if you had a one-and-done lifestyle, you serve the church.

We are in desperate need of preparing for that growth by people serving.

The first thing you need to do is you need to go to growth track.

If you've not gone to growth track, it's at 10 o'clock in the growth track room, and that is the place that you can go in order to go and be a member of our church to go and to serve.

It's a way that you can find out your spiritual gift.

It's a way that you can find out about a group.

It's a way that you can find out and ask questions about what we believe and what we're all about.

That's the very first thing that you should do is go to Growth Track.

I would encourage you to do that.

If you've been through Growth Track, we need you to serve.

I promise you, one of the best things that you can do is to get not just participating in the ministry here, but engaging through all various ways.

Let me tell you three specific areas.

We're going to need a ton of new serve team members in order for us to grow like we hope we're going to grow.

First is our first impressions.

We're going to need more and more people to help us out in that ministry area.

Josh Thomas is your guy, the guy that just got engaged, the guy that was singing right here.

Where's he at?

Josh is right there.

You can talk to Josh Thomas.

He'll tell you about being in first impressions.

Second area is our kids' ministry.

We need a ton more folks to help us serve in our kids' ministry.

In order for us to go to three services, that's going to be the biggest area of need is our kids and our preschool ministry.

And let me just tell you, Easter is a great opportunity for you to begin to serve in one of those areas and for you to be onboarded so that you can begin to see what it might look like for you to help us going forward as we expand, move to three services, and go from there with our worship center expansion.

Just, and we encourage you, church, don't limit the growth of this place simply because we don't have enough serve team.

Instead, let you be all in in every way, and it's going to be exciting to see how God's going to be moving in the days ahead.

Thank you guys so much for being here.

We will see you next Sunday.

Have a good one.

Wow, what an amazing message we got to hear this morning.

I hope the Lord showed himself to you in a fresh, new way.

Hey, if you made a decision today to follow Jesus or a decision for Christ, we would love to process that with you.

And so text the word next to 55498, and someone from our team will be more than happy to reach out and process that with you.

If you missed the message or you missed a note or two and you want to go back, don't worry.

We've got the option for that as well.

It's going to be available on Spotify as well as Apple Music.

This has been an amazing morning.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you next week.

Bye bye.