The Great Invite: Go and Tell with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

All right, MetaCurch, how you guys doing?

Yeah.

It's good to see everybody here.

I'm so glad you joined us today.

Uh, whether you're in our Holotus venue online or Petrenko venue, I'm so glad that you're here.

I think it's no accident that you are here.

It is the third and final week of our great invite series.

If you are new with us, my name is Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at Meta Church.

Um, and I want to uh personally invite you to something we call the Who We Are event.

Uh over the next two weeks, we're gonna have this at both of our venues.

So next Sunday, April 6th, we'll have it at our Petrinko venue.

And then on April 13th, we'll have Who We Are out in Helotus.

Whether you are brand new to Meta or have been here for years, if you haven't been to Who We Are, I would love for you to come out because it will answer all the questions that you might have and it will help you determine if MetaCurch is the right place for you to invest your time, talent, and treasure into building the kingdom of God.

Now, uh, if you are new, we're in this great invite series, and you might be here because somebody invited you here today.

And I just want to make it clear as I have throughout the series, uh, this series is not just about inviting people into a Sunday service.

While we applaud that, and that's a really important part, inviting people in to experience the movement of Jesus.

Um, this series gets down to the fundamentals of what church is.

And we have gone through this throughout the years, over and over and over again.

If you're at Meta, you can probably quote my next two paragraphs without me having to say them.

The church is not a building, the church is not a Sunday service, the church is not a pastoral staff.

The church is the ancient movement of God's people.

Everyone who has believed in and following Jesus, we come together because we are better together, we are stronger together, we're more impactful together, and importantly, because scripture commands us to meet together.

But we do not meet together to check a religious box.

We meet together so that we can go out and move together.

And what we say a lot around Metachurch is that the church really starts moving, not when we gather in a building for Sunday services, but when we hit the exit doors of our venues and get out into our mission fields.

And so we're coming to the conclusion of this series where over and over again we have just gotten so clear that the ministry is not something that is owned and operated by MetaCurch Incorporated, a 501c3 not-for-profit organization.

The ministry is something that the Holy Spirit has placed on every one of your lives.

You, as a believer in Jesus, have a ministry, and that ministry is played out in your world.

We're looking at such a key moment in scripture.

It's a very famous passage of scripture, but uh here's what I often find is we just, number one, either don't read scripture, and that always gets awkward to talk about because statistically, like almost no believers in Jesus are spending consistent time in the Word of God.

And then, like, I hear Christians all the time, and they're like, I'm just never hearing from God.

You know, God is never speaking to me.

And I just imagine God in heaven, like, I said a lot, you know, like it's right there.

It's like collecting dust on your bookshelf or whatever.

So we should be reading, and then when we do read, it's like I'm in a hurry, and there's like that internal timer to when your kid wakes up and then your life is chaos until they go back to bed, you know?

It's like, I gotta get through this passage.

So we read really fast, and and I think sometimes we have to slow down, and if we slow down, we can really be surprised and enlightened by the Spirit of God and what it has to say to us.

And so this might be a familiar passage, but we're gonna slow down and try to really soak it in and try to really ask some good questions that will open up the scriptures to us.

And you know, my prayer for us today is that maybe for the first time, like you've maybe you grew up in church, or maybe you grew up in church and you left the church because you got hurt by the church, and now you're back, or maybe you were completely unchurched, and uh and now you're here and you're a part of the movement of Jesus.

Whatever that is, that today, just the scope of what you're a part of would be broadened.

And every time I I go back to studying this, um I experience awe.

Uh, it's incredibly humbling to just see what God's program has been throughout time because of his great love for the rescue and redemption of his people, and that we now get to be a part of that.

And so our role in that, as people who do not live in Israel, where Jesus walked and lived and taught, who, for probably the majority of us, would be biblically classified as Gentiles, that means we are not ethnically Jewish.

Our role in this started in this passage, Matthew chapter 28, we're gonna start in verse 18.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

It says, Jesus came near and said to them, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

My message for you today is go and tell.

Go and tell.

Would you pray with me?

Holy Spirit, we're just leaning on you today.

I'm asking for clarity.

Uh, Holy Spirit, that you would just convict us, you would move our hearts.

Um, God, even in this moment across our venues, to people watching online who may have joined with a heart of stone that you would break through.

For all of us who have built walls to keep you out, built walls of self-protection, that you would tear down our walls.

Wherever we're at, we thank you that your movement is available to anyone, that it's a movement where you can belong before you believe, you can ask the tough questions.

I just pray we'd be humble enough to lean in and to seek you, God, and I believe we will find you.

And so we love you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

And if you're ready to go and tell, say amen.

Amen.

We're gonna slow down.

Uh, this is called the Great Commission.

As believers in and followers of Jesus, this is our commissioning.

These are our marching orders.

And the church, this movement that has been around for almost 2,000 years now, this is where it started.

Right here.

There is no church before this.

Now it starts, and it is this new, unique mystery, this collection of God's people from every walk, from every race, from every nation, from every background, from every socioeconomic stratus.

It is this unforeseen thing, this movement, unlike anything that predates it.

And it starts our passage by Jesus saying this to his followers.

Jesus came near and he said to them, All the authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

This is why we have to go slow.

Because if you're reading slowly, and if you're reading inquisitively, you're you're like you're reading and you're seeking.

You're like asking the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to something, to teach you something.

Then this very well-known verse might just strike you as odd.

If you're new to the faith, or or maybe you're still skeptical, not a believer yet, um, one of the things we believe is that Jesus is God.

We have a God who operates as one God, but in three persons the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus is 100% God, and he was incarnate as 100% man.

So you got the only like 200% person, right?

That's who Jesus is.

But if Jesus is God, then doesn't he automatically have all the authority?

All the authority in heaven and all the authority on earth.

Like what is this statement and why is he saying it now?

Now that he's died for the sins of the world and now that he's resurrected from the grave, proving to anyone who would believe in him that he can deal with death.

Death doesn't have to have the final word.

Now he's got all the authority.

All the authority now has been given to me.

And so I don't know if you've ever watched uh uh a Tarantino movie.

I know we're like in Sunday service, so you're like, I would never, bro.

I would never.

So many potty words, I would never, you know.

Um, but you know, maybe like before Christ you watched one.

Oh, you know, um I like Tarantino, he'll do this thing where the first scene of the movie will also be the last scene of the movie.

And he just throws you into the end, and it doesn't make any sense.

And then it's like 10 years earlier, you know?

And he takes you back to the beginning, and then he walks you back up to that moment so you can understand it with context.

And so maybe you've noticed, if you have a physical Bible, I know a lot of us are on apps, and that's fine, you know.

Do not disturb first, so you're not Instagramming in the middle of your gospel.

But you might have noticed that Matthew is the beginning of the story of Jesus, but it's like dang near the end of the book, which means there is an entire testament of context.

And we call it the Old Testament.

It's a good name for it.

It's older, you know, it's the Old Testament, and it's more accurately called the Jewish Scriptures.

And some people don't like calling it that, but I don't care.

That's what it is.

It's literally the Jewish scriptures.

They believe the Old Testament, they just get lost when you get to Jesus in the New Testament.

And this moment is hard to understand the grand narrative and the scope of the program that God is playing out throughout history if you don't have some context for it.

And so I'm gonna try to go through like the entire story of the Old Testament in 10 minutes for you to give you the context you need.

Because if not, then what we tend to do is we start from today.

And it's like, yeah, well, I mean, I go to church, I you know, I go to that building, I go to the church, and I sit in the seats and we do the thing and we sing, and then there's a message, and then and we don't understand the legacy and the scope of God's plan of rescue and redemption that we have, the unbelievable privilege to be a part of.

Jesus says, I have all authority, I have it in heaven and I have it on the earth.

And we're gonna see what he's really meaning there, but we have to go back, and I mean quite literally to the beginning, the the first chapter of the first book of our Bibles.

And you might know this, this is the creation narrative, and God is creating, and everything's good, and he creates and it's good, and he creates and it's good, and and then he creates humanity, and it is a completely different process.

It starts with God deciding to make mankind in his own image, and we are called in Hebrew the tselem of God, the tselem, the image of God.

But the word seleim, the Hebrew word, everywhere else it is translated in the Old Testament, it is translated the word idol, including in the Big Ten, where God says, Thou shalt not make any idols of me.

You may not have realized this, but one of the reasons that with the one true God, we don't produce any idols, is because God already put his idols upon the earth.

We don't make images of him because he already created his image and placed it in us.

It's an amazing idea, and because we were so unique among creation, and because we bear the image of God, he gave us dominion over the earth.

He set humanity in the world he created to rule and reign over it as kings and queens of it.

So we have this incredible role and we have this incredible responsibility.

In Genesis chapter 1, verse 28 says God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.

Genesis 1:28

This is called the creative mandate.

It's like this is your job as humans, this is your job as my sons and daughters.

Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it, the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, every creature.

You have rule, you have reign, you have dominion under the power of God.

And it is only our connection and rightful worship of God that gives us this right on the earth.

And as you probably know, while God was lavishing his kindness on us, we chose rebellion.

There was only one rule in the garden, and humanity was deceived and thought, we don't want to just be image bearers, we don't just want to be God's idols, we want to be gods ourselves.

You probably know the story, they ate of the forbidden fruit, and sin entered into the world, and sin took hold very rapidly.

It's like one chapter later, brother is murdering brother.

Two chapters later, the world has grown so wicked and so evil, it's in such active rebellion that there is only one righteous family, and God is going to start over with them.

And so he rescues Noah and He rescues his family, and the flood is the judgment, and the ark is the salvation.

A question you would ask if you were reading slowly, and you're really trying to pay attention.

And yeah, look, here's the advantage you have that I'm your pastor.

The advantage you have that I'm your pastor is not that I have like any fancy degrees, because I don't, all right?

I barely got the degree I got, and there's nothing above it for me.

The advantage you have is that if you go here, you will start upping your shoe game.

That no, that's not the advantage.

The advantage you have is if I can get it, you can get it.

The advantage we all have is that God doesn't just commission the qualified, he qualifies all of us that he commissions.

And all I'm doing is going slow, and all I'm doing is seeking wise counsel, all I'm doing is a little back-end work, all I'm doing is pulling up some resources and seeking the Lord, and you can do that too.

And if we were going slow and we were paying attention to the narrative at the beginning of the Jewish scriptures, we would notice that God placed his image on the people and the people rebelled against him.

And you might ask the question because of our rebellion and sin entering the world, do we still bear the image of God?

And remember, because Adam and Eve were image bearers, they were given a creative mandate.

And you actually get an answer to that question post-flood.

You see, you have the first fall, and that happens in the garden.

You have the second fall, and that happens in the flood.

And as Noah and his family exit the ark, here's what God says to them in Genesis 9.

God blessed Noah and his sons, and he said to them, This is no accident.

These words are not incidental.

Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.

God does not use words haphazardly.

He is reinstating the creative mandate to Noah and his lineage.

He is assuring us that while sin has come and its consequence has been monumental, we still bear the image of God.

And we still are given dominion.

And we still have work to do, and that work matters.

Most believers aren't reading the word, and those who are reading the word are a lot of times reading it very quickly.

And so we miss this.

Uh, if you went to Sunday school, I was a Sunday school kid.

If you went to Sunday school, you learned about the fall of Van, and there was one fall, and it happened in the Garden of Eden, and it happened with the forbidden fruit.

And when you slow down and read scripture, there's actually this stair step, and we see like a tripart fall, and every one of them has devastating consequence.

We see the garden, and we see the flood, and then we see the tower of Babel.

And what you'll notice is all through these first 11 chapters of scripture, God is working out his plan of rescue and redemption because of his incredible love for his people, and he's working that plan out through all people in all places.

However, the creative mandate is to fill the earth, to take the image of God to all places.

It's to spread out, to travel.

If you remember the story of the Tower of Babel, there was new technology, and new technology can get us in a lot of trouble.

We've seen that in our time.

And they figured out how to make wood-fired bricks, and so instead of having to roll rocks around and make everything out of rock, they could make bricks, and this was revolutionary.

They could now build things that reached up into the heavens.

And they realized, you know, this whole thing God told us to do where we have to spread out over the whole earth, sounds really inconvenient.

Sounds like a lot of work, you know?

Sounds like a lot of walking.

We don't really, I don't love walking, you know.

We don't really know where we're going.

There's dangers, there's animals, there's the unknown, I've got to travel with my in-laws.

Like there's just a lot, you know.

What if, you know, we got these bricks now.

What if we just built some high-rises?

And check this out, we could just stay here.

And so the sin of the Tower of Babel is not just that they were so prideful to build something into the heavens, like you might have learned growing up.

The sin was direct disobedience to God's creative mandate for his image-bearers.

This was like the final straw, as God is trying to incorporate all people in all places into his plan of redemption.

In Genesis chapter 11, we see the results of this.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

It says, So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city, and therefore it is called Babylon.

For there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth.

And this is the moment that we're broken into nations.

And this is the moment, and look, you can't understand the Old Testament if you don't understand this moment.

This is the moment that all the nations of the earth are temporarily disinherited by God.

God's not sending another flood, he's already said, I'm never doing that again.

But he has tried and he has tried and he has stretched out his hand and he has lavished his kindness and he has given them the most immense opportunity, and still they rebel.

And God's heart is for his people, and God will do whatever it takes to get his people, including one day stepping out of a perfect heaven and down into the midst of our brokenness.

And God has a plan.

And so in chapter 11, the nations are divided and disinherited.

But watch what happens in chapter 12.

It says in 12:1, the Lord said to Abram, who would later be known as Abraham, go out from your land, from your relatives, from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation.

I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt.

And here it is.

And all the peoples on earth, one day.

Everyone on earth, one day, all of the nations that have rebelled, one day, all of the disinherited tribes, one day, everyone will be blessed through Abraham.

Abraham, of course, becomes the father of the nation of Israel.

And Israel has its own problems, and the rest of the Old Testament tells the story of this one nation.

And they are God's chosen people, but they are chosen for that specific promise.

They are chosen, they are protected, they are given the guardrails of a very strict and stringent law.

They are under consequence from God when they rebel, they are under blessing from God when they obey.

This is the story of the Old Testament.

That one day, through that lineage, the door would be reopened to all people in all places.

The problem was no one quite understood exactly how extraordinary that would be.

After the Old Testament, you go into the Gospel of Matthew.

That starts the New Testament, or it's probably more appropriately called the Christian scriptures.

This is the story of Jesus being introduced in our world.

And Jesus is the promise that was given to Abraham.

Jesus is the means by which all the peoples on earth will be rescued and redeemed.

However, his own people couldn't quite see it.

They nailed him to a cross, they killed him, they Loathed him, they rejected him, and yet he came.

And God's plan was executed to perfection.

That while the wages of our sin, the sin of the world, was meant to result in death, Jesus took that death on for us.

He paid that price for us.

He resurrected three days later, assuring you that he can also overcome death in your life, that he can give you eternal life with your heavenly Father.

Not only that, which is future, but today he can give you the life of purpose and power that you were created to live.

So, what did Jesus mean?

When he said that all authority, now that he's died, now that he's resurrected, now he has all the authority.

We're gonna look at one more passage.

In Matthew chapter 10, while Jesus was on earth, you need to understand this.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

While Jesus is walking and living and teaching and preaching and healing, while that was happening, the other nations were still disinherited.

You see, Jesus even told his closest disciples in Matthew 10, verse 5, Jesus sent out the 12 after giving them these instructions.

Matthew 10:5

Here's their instructions to go and spread the news of the kingdom.

Here's what Jesus says: don't take the roads that lead to the Gentiles.

That means non-ethnically Jewish.

Do not enter any Samaritan town.

Those were people who were only half Jewish.

Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

In order to adopt all people in all places back into God's program, it required the death of Jesus.

It required a sacrifice monumental enough to rescue and redeem all people in all places.

In Matthew 28, where we get our great commission, all that was prophesied to Abraham has now been fulfilled.

And Jesus says, All authority has been given to me.

All authority in heaven, all authority on earth, I have it all.

Matthew 28, 18, I have it all.

Here's what is so interesting.

Now that we know the context, now that we've seen the grand narrative, now that we understand God Himself stepped out of heaven, was incarnate in the person of Christ, went to the cross to pay the price, not just for the sins of Israel, but for the sins of the entire world.

We understand that this is the moment where Jesus claims supremacy over everything.

As a matter of fact, the Gospel of Matthew is originally written in Greek, and so part of the question we can ask is the people who were standing on the hillside with Jesus in Matthew 28, what would they have heard?

Another common translation for the word authority is all jurisdiction.

In other words, there's now nothing off limits.

I know previously I said, look, the Gentiles, let's stay in house for now.

Let's stay in Israel for now.

Now the message is to go.

And this program is like nothing the world has ever seen.

It was made up of Jews and Greeks and Romans and Europeans and Asians.

Eventually it spread its way even across the oceans.

We now are a part of this movement because Jesus said, I've got it all.

All authority, everything now is under my jurisdiction, and you, as my movement, will not cease until every person on every nation has heard the good news of what I have done.

This is an incredible moment, and this is our lineage.

It gets us to the heart of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 19.

He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And kind of a side note, on April 27th, we will be baptizing here at Mediturch at both of our venues.

And if you've put your faith in Jesus and you've never been baptized, I hope that you will be obedient to what Jesus has asked us to do, and you will go to connect and get signed up and get baptized on April 27th so we can celebrate and support you as you're walking out, following Jesus, and walking out your faith.

But look, here's the command: go make disciples.

You know, this is one of the favorite verses for like overseas missionaries.

Go make disciples of all the nations.

And that is what we are called to.

And at a church, a local church our size, meeting now in two venues, hundreds and hundreds of adults who come here to Metachurch.

I have no doubt that God either has called or will call some of us to overseas missions.

He's been doing that for thousands of years.

He has not stopped giving people that call if we are listening, if we are paying attention.

I have no doubt that God is going to call some of us here at Metachurch into full-time ministry, pastoring and preaching and teaching and equipping the saints.

And that is true of this verse.

However, the danger is it has become a bit of an excuse for everyone else.

It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, the disciples, they need to go.

The missionaries, they need to go.

You know, they need to go to Africa and Asia and Europe and South America and Central America.

Yeah, well, the the preachers, they need to go.

You know, they need to like go get their sermon ready and go like patch other people.

But what we've learned throughout the series is that because you have put your faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit has sealed you, that's what Ephesians says, you are sealed until the day of redemption, until Christ comes back for you.

You have a ministry on your life.

And so, what would you have heard if you were a first century follower on the hillside with Jesus in Matthew 28?

That participle go.

What you really would have heard is something like as you are going, make disciples.

This isn't a call just for someone who's going to get on a plane to fly somewhere and do ministry.

This was unmistakably a call for every single person who bears the name of Christ.

You have a circle of influence right where you are.

And so the call is as you are going.

What have we seen in this series?

As you are going, open your eyes, look for the divine appointments all around you.

As you are going, invite people to come and see.

Come and see how Jesus could change their life.

Come and see what we're up to at Metachurch.

Come and hear your testimony.

What have we seen in this series?

That those of us who have put our faith in Jesus, we were lost.

We were estranged from our Heavenly Father, and we have now been found and biblically found people always and without exception, go and find other people.

As you are going about your career, as you are going about your cubicles, about your work site, as you are going through your children's school, as you are going on the field trip, as you are going in your gym, as you are going to your grocery store, as you are walking through your everyday rhythms of life, your call and your commission is to make disciples.

And there are not exemptions.

And there are not exceptions.

And every exception that is like swirling through your inner narrative right now is a lie from the enemies of God.

Well, I'll do that, you know.

But like Pastor said, I don't really read.

I'm not really reading the Bible yet.

When I start reading, then I'll make disciples.

I haven't been to Meta Academy yet.

When I go to the academy, I'm not on a life team yet.

Maybe if I get on a life team, I'll, you know, I still I'm working on it.

I still got these habits, you know.

If you have been rescued and redeemed by Jesus Christ, there are no exceptions, there are no exemptions.

Paul, the greatest of the apostles, said, I don't boast about my strengths.

I will boast gladly about my weaknesses.

All of those things that are disqualifying you from being a part of this movement, from having a ministry in your own life.

Those are the things Paul said, I'm going to brag about those things, because it is in my weakness that others get to see just how strong my God is.

We keep saying in the series, revival is what we're seeking.

It's what every generation of Jesus followers should be seeking.

For the Spirit of God to just get a grip on our city, on our neighborhoods, on our families, on our schools.

But revival never comes because someone preaches well enough or because people sing well enough.

Revival never happens because of what happens on stages.

It always happens because people who sit in the seats decide to pick up their calling and pick up their commissioning.

And as they are going, they begin to make disciples.

And you matter to God and you matter to the social circle where you find yourself.

And if you will ask the Spirit of God to open your eyes, you'll begin to see divine appointments.

And if you begin to lean into the Spirit of God, you will have courage enough to do something about it, and revival happens one person at a time.

Some of us think like, you know, in very truncated terms.

It's like the church is happening right now, and that's true.

And it's like, I guess the church has happened for a long time, and that's true.

And I guess it goes back almost 2,000 years to Jesus, and that's also true.

But what we have seen today is that God's plan of rescue and redemption of his world that he loves, it has been happening since the beginning of time.

And you are called into that.

And it is humbling and it is awe-inspiring, and it should be taken seriously.

And if we become people who take our calling and our commissioning seriously, nothing can stop revival from breaking out.

There's one last verse.

This is how Matthew closes his gospel.

He says this, you're gonna baptize them and you're gonna teach them to observe everything that Jesus commanded.

And then Jesus gives the ultimate comfort.

And remember that I am with you always.

You have been commissioned when you put your faith in Jesus into the movement that has shaped our world from the beginning.

And that can feel like a daunting task, but you need to know you are never alone in your call.

You are never alone in your commissioning.

If you've put your faith in Jesus, Jesus has got you.

And we will not see revival because of our own power, our own talent, or our own status.

We will see revival when we honestly get out of the way and allow Jesus to move powerfully in our lives as we are going.

Would you pray with me?

Right where you're at, across our venues, if you bow your head and close your eyes, something magic about that.

I want to speak specifically to anyone at our venues who has never begun a relationship with Jesus.

There's never been a point in time where you have made a conscious decision to believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be, God in human flesh, and that he actually did what he claims to have done to lived a perfect life, died for the sins of the world, and risen again three days later.

If that's you, here's what I believe.

I believe that as we open the word of God, and as you are among spirit-filled believers, I believe that the Holy Spirit has gotten hold of your heart.

And if he has, it is unmistakable.

The grand narrative of scripture is heartbreaking in one sense because God just lavishes his love and we reject and rebel and spit in his face and try to be our own gods.

And he just keeps pursuing us, he keeps executing the plan.

All the way to the point that God would step out of perfection and into our brokenness, take our burdens on himself.

If you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you need to know what he offers you is not a basic religious template.

This isn't a God who's distant and throws a ladder down for you to try to climb your way to him.

What Jesus offers is relationship, and he proved his desire for that relationship, not by throwing a ladder down for you to climb, but by coming down to us.

Scripture says God proved his love, that while we were still in rebellion, he gave his life for us.

So if you're at our venues, you've never had a moment in time where you've put your faith in Jesus, and you're ready to do that today, with everyone's eyes closed, I want to ask you right where you're sitting to just raise your hand in the air.

This is a symbolic gesture.

By raising your hand, you're saying, Today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

For those who raised a hand, I can say with confidence because of God's word, that he sees and accepts your faith, which means your sins have been forgiven, all of them forever.

It means that God has adopted you into his family, which means you have been given eternal life, a gift that no one and nothing could ever take away from you.

So here's what I want to do.

For those who raised a hand, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer, just to acknowledge this moment.

I'm gonna ask that you repeat this with me, and I'm gonna ask across our venues that all believers will pray this out loud as well.

Let's pray like this Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God, that you died for my sins and rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

And let me pray over you, Jesus.

We come to you in awe of the plan of rescue and redemption for your people that you have been executing since time began.

We are humbled to be a part of that.

And I pray that while we may not have all of the resources we think we need, we may not have all the education we think we need, God, that we would realize that if we just take our faith seriously and trust you with it, that you can do wonders through this movement.

One person at a time, one act of obedience at a time.

Holy Spirit, I thank you for those who you called into relationship with Jesus today.

For lives made new, eternities changed forever.

We give you all of the glory and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Give the Lord a hand.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

And I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.