Great Faith with Pastor Andrew Richardson

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.

Y'all know how, like, when you go to a buddy's house and you just help yourself to the fridge because you're that comfortable, right?

Like that's how I feel here at MetaCurch, y'all.

I thank y'all for always being so loving and supportive, and I love being here.

I love your pastor.

Can we get up for Pastor Clayton all the amazing things?

Yeah.

I don't know if I heard that right, but 68 baptisms, that's a big deal.

Like, that is awesome, y'all.

68 people declaring to the world their faith and trust in Jesus.

That is an amazing thing.

Can we give that up one more time for 68 people?

And I know y'all are a part of this church, you're a part of this movement, but what God is doing here is so cool.

How God is using you, how he's using your pastors.

I mean, you have a lead pastor that can also sing, and then you have a worship pastor that can also teach, and then you have a youth guy who we don't really know what Tony does, but he's here.

Uh love you, Tony, I promise.

Uh no, but y'all, God is using your pastors, using those here.

But here is the thing: he's also using you, right?

Like the church isn't just here, right?

The church is y'all as the people.

It is a body, it is a movement.

God is desiring to use you, and all of these great things are happening.

He desires to use you.

And what happens is we get so caught up in being like, yeah, yeah, Pastor Clayton, Pastor Noel, like they're doing great.

Everyone's doing great things, but like they're doing that.

But what I want to talk about today is how God desires to use you and how you all can have a great faith.

That's the title of my message today.

Let me pray.

God, we thank you.

We thank you that because of what Jesus has done for us, that we all can have a great faith.

And I pray you are with us today as we unpack through your scriptures what it looks like and how simple it can be to show a great faith that God that you desire to use everyone here.

I pray you begin to speak to us so we can hear clearly what you are calling us to take the next step.

God, so we thank you.

We love you.

And in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so who here loves fast food?

You can raise your hand, it's okay.

We can interact in church.

Some of you, like your workout buddy, accountability partner, is sitting next to you, so you can't raise your hand.

You're like, no, I just rice and chicken.

That's all I eat, right?

No, but it's okay.

We like fast food.

Recently, my favorite's been Bojangles.

You'll have one right here.

You're so blessed.

It's so good.

I can't stop eating the biscuits.

But we love fast food.

I don't eat it all the time, I try not to.

Uh, but whenever we talk about fast food, you can't help but think about the two types of people that order food.

Y'all might already know where I'm going with this.

You have the first group of people that are so efficient.

These people, as soon as you tell them where you were going, they already have their order ready, right?

Chick-fil-A, number one, ready to go with the lemonade.

Better than sweet tea.

Uh, but then you have the people who are like, take forever to order.

I mean, like you roll up in the drive-thru, and it's like 20 minutes later, it's like, bro, you you know what the menu is, right?

And then they get, they get to the front and they start ordering, they're like, they're at McDonald's or whatever.

They're like, hey, can I get a McDouble?

But instead of like two patties, can you just put one patty in there, right?

And then um, can you like, can you like put the cheese like underneath the burger, right?

So I can like feel it.

Or then, and then uh I actually don't want the top bun because it's too much calories, so I'm just gonna go one, the bottom bun, and then ah, for size, let me do uh half regular fries, half curly, but can you only salt the curly fries, not the regular fries?

Don't want too much salt, right?

And then to drink, man, I think I'll go a Coke, but can I do like half Coke, half lemonade, but in different cups, but only put the lid on the lemonade, right?

Like people that have the most ridiculous orders.

So y'all ever have it to where like you're gonna go order through a drive-thru and someone's driving, you're like, we gotta switch, because I don't want them to order.

Some of y'all is too real because that person is next to you, so you don't want to get in a fight.

Oh man, that's great.

Yeah, but it's happened.

We overcomplicate things, we overcomplicate orders, and as funny and as relatable as that is, the truth is this begins to happen with our walk with Christ.

How often do we overcomplicate our faith?

How often do we overcomplicate our faith?

And let me be clear, when I say faith here, I'm not talking about the initial faith, right?

The salvation and the security that comes in believing in Jesus.

I'm talking about an everyday type of faith that we as believers show as we walk, the kind of faith that allows us to truly follow Jesus each and every day.

And if we're being honest, right, we celebrate 68 people getting baptized, all of these things are happening, we're on fire for Jesus, and then life hits.

What was once so simple, what was once so pure, we begin to overcomplicate.

It leads us into a continual state of striving.

Maybe you feel like the fire you once had was gone.

You used to spend hours reading the Bible and praying, and now you just can barely get yourself to do that.

Maybe coming to church on Sunday morning was just your favorite thing ever, but now you're just dreading to step foot into church.

Or maybe you feel like you're constantly facing challenges and setbacks, and you're looking for things to improve and change, but they don't, or maybe you see others in life succeeding, and maybe y'all believed and stepped into your faith of Jesus around the same time, and they're over here doing things, and you feel like you're not going anywhere, like you're stuck, like God has forgotten about you, or maybe you've entered into a good enough mentality.

How you feel like you can then be good enough to do all of these things, no matter what it is, no matter what we struggle with, we all have that feeling that maybe your faith isn't enough anymore.

That after that amazing experience with God, after that baptism, after that moment where it clicked, that moment where you believed in him, we start to ignore the power of Christ, and we start to do everything ourselves.

And today we're gonna look at the least likely guy in scripture who had the biggest faith, and we're gonna look in Matthew 8.

So if you have your Bibles and wanna look on the screen or follow along, we will be in Matthew 8, starting in verse 5.

Let's go ahead and start.

When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him.

Lord, my servant is lying at home, paralyzed, in terrible agony.

So here, the centurion goes to Jesus.

This is him talking to Jesus, he's pleading with Jesus.

And for context, because we always need to see what is happening in the time period when this was going on, is we know not too much specific details about the centurion man, but we do know that this was a Roman officer who was in charge of around a hundred people, and they weren't Jewish, which means they were Gentiles who were outside of the cultural circle that Jesus was primarily interacting, as we see in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And at this time, Rome had conquered that part of the world, and the Jewish people were held captive by the empire.

That meant that the Centurians were the bad guys.

Jesus' followers hated Romans and saw them as unclean and saw them outside of God's grace.

And the Jewish people followed a very strict law of over 600 rules and regulations, and the Romans did none of that.

The people with Jesus in this situation, as a centurion man is approaching, and all these things are going on in culture between this, the people with Jesus probably were very curious to see what's gonna happen.

You ever been in this situation where someone walks up and you're like, What's about to go down?

Right?

Let me take my phone out.

Let me see if I can get can record this, right?

So they were probably interested in what was going to happen.

Would Jesus help an agent of Rome?

What would happen here?

So, what I love within the first two verses, and I think it's something we can learn a lot from this centurion man, is we see that he went straight to Jesus pleading of him.

Other translations say imploring of him, and this took extreme humility.

Just as we said, he was a Roman soldier, and he was that means uh he was superior to the Israelites, and Romans called the Jewish people dogs and also treated them as such.

But the centurion man came to Jesus pleading.

And how often do we have issues, do we have things going on?

We have a situation that is horrible and we need it to go away, but the first thing we go to is our addictions.

The first thing we go to is a broken relationship.

The first thing we go to is shopping, trying to spend enough for it all to go away.

But aren't we called to go to Jesus?

See, we can go to Jesus no matter what is going on in life.

And the beginning of having a great faith, as we're talking about, is knowing that you can go to Jesus.

Please hear me, Metachurch.

We must stop being a we must start being a people that go to Jesus.

When life is good, go to Jesus.

When life is bad, go to Jesus.

When the cowboys keep losing, go to Jesus.

Like we gotta we gotta do something, right?

At least there's hope with the spurs.

I don't know about the cowboys, but and we go to Jesus and we do this through prayer.

And I think maybe we have this idea that God's too busy for us, that like we pray to him and he blocks us or ghosts us or doesn't respond to us.

But he is available, he is never too busy for our prayers and our requests.

And as a centurion man went to Jesus physically, we can go to him in prayer, asking of him whatever is going on in life.

And what I love is it's so simple.

So, how often have maybe y'all been in situations where there was like a big prayer going on, and maybe it was a prayer group or a circle, and y'all have y'all ever been part of that where someone starts praying and it's these crazy big words?

Like they start saying head of protection, and you're like, What?

What does that even mean?

Or all these big words, and you're like, I don't know.

Like you're just over here like googling these words so you feel like you know what's going on.

Or then when it's your turn, you're like, ask ChatGPT to write you a really fancy prayer.

You're like, hey, I need a prayer that has at least five big words that no one else knows.

And it's like, here it is, right?

No, but you've probably been in a situation, so maybe that's the view that you have on prayer.

But what I love in this interaction with the centurion man and Jesus is he shows how simple it is.

How he just goes to Jesus, taking the fears, taking the situation of what's going on with the servant.

He goes to him no matter what is going on in life, and he knows he can go to Jesus.

And that is what it looks like for us to go to him in prayer.

So maybe you just got baptized last week or or you believed in Jesus for a while, but you still don't understand prayer and what prayer looks like.

It's as simple as just talking to God, right?

So on your way to work, on your way to school, whatever that looks like, maybe put some worship music on or or or just start talking and praying to God.

It doesn't have to be crazy, it can just be what is going on in your life, doesn't have to be perfect, but we can go to Jesus because here's the thing when we go to Jesus, we can trust him and know that he can do what only he can do.

Jesus has that power and he desires, and God desires to hear from his children, right?

He desires to hear from us, and then here's the fun part listen.

Listen, Linda, right?

No, but like listen.

Because oftentimes we pray and we're talking, we're talking.

Y'all been in a conversation where it's a conversation, but the other person talks for an hour, and you're like, that was great, right?

No, but it happens, but with God, we have to listen.

Prayer is a conversation.

Sometimes we're so busy that we don't listen to what God is saying.

So the centurion man went with a confidence pleading of Jesus, but he waited and he listened.

So not only should we go to him and ask, we should be ready to receive, ready to listen for what he is saying.

That's what the centurion did.

He asked and then he waited for Jesus to respond.

Sometimes that wait is difficult.

Sometimes that wait takes a long time.

It takes a couple days, months, or years.

But it's in that time where you can hear from Jesus.

Let's continue on and see what happens in verse 7.

He said to him, I will come and heal him.

Alright, now I've read this a couple times, but this like really stood out to me because, like, shouldn't it shouldn't we be done here?

Like, cool, Jesus is gonna go and heal him, right?

But this statement is crazy.

If you remember the context of what's going on, what he was saying in one statement, it didn't matter that the centurion was a gentile, that he was an agent of Rome, uh, or that Jesus was just going to the Jewish people in that time, right?

What this statement would have meant, it would have transformed everything.

Us today would read this, if it just ended there, we would read it and we'd be like, man, Jesus shows that he is for all people, he shows that he is there for the centurion man, no matter what is going on in culture.

From our perspective, that's cool, right?

Like Jesus, like he said he would go, he would go heal him.

But then we keep going.

Verse 8 Lord, the centurion replied, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

Wait, wait, wait.

So Jesus was like, All right, bet.

I'll go to your house and I'll heal and I'll do that.

I would have been like, sweet.

I would have been like, come on, Jesus, let's go.

Let's go, let's go stop and get some coffee on the way too, because I know you're gonna do some great things, right?

But the centurion man recognized who Jesus was by saying Lord, and then explaining how he isn't worthy.

See, this man does something so unique here by saying Jesus is Lord and going to Jesus for help, he recognizes who he is.

While he was a Gentile, he knew that Jesus was and is Lord.

It is that one statement, that one explanation of who Jesus is that he is making clear that he knows who Jesus is.

And here's the thing when you recognize who, you are able to go to.

When you recognize who, you are able to go to.

And by calling Jesus Lord, he focuses on who Jesus is.

He has a confidence.

There's a confidence and there's a clarity that he has that he's able to approach Jesus.

That's why he's able to plead with him because he has that confidence and clarity of who he is.

For example, I used to have this job where I would go to high school basketball games and it was super cool.

I would I would watch the games, I would send out updates, kind of like a media coverage thing.

It was super fun.

I would go to gyms all around San Antonio in different areas as well.

And I remember uh when I first kind of started, it was difficult because I'm supposed to sit by the scores table, which is kind of where the bench is.

Um, and so I would sit there, but it was difficult because uh not a lot of people let some random guy just walk up and sit at the scores table, right?

Like it's kind of weird.

Like sometimes I sound like people like, Who are you?

And I'm like, Oh, you'll know.

Anyways, but I remember and I started to catch on pretty quickly, is that I would contact the head coach before the game.

So when I got to the gym, I would go directly to the head coach, and the head coach would make sure I could have that spot at the table.

And the reason I share that is because when I had clarity on who had authority, when I had clarity on who was in charge, I was able to go directly to and have confidence that I would be taken care of.

And in this world where there's so many things going on in social media and just all over the place, what happens is what was once simple, our view of Jesus, which was so pure and simple, becomes overcomplicated and we start to over-complicate it.

And what we see here in this passage is Jesus has not yet gone to the cross and died for our sins, but we still know that he is Lord.

We know that he has power, and we know that he would go to the cross and die for our sins and die for you and me.

We know that Jesus has power.

What he showed is his power.

And the flip side of recognizing who Jesus is, he also explains that he isn't worthy.

And just as we talked about earlier, a Jew entering a Gentile's house just didn't happen.

But he kept thinking, the centurion man kept thinking about others, about Jesus.

His view wasn't on himself, instead, he submitted to something greater.

He submitted to authority.

Let's keep reading and see in verse 9.

For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command.

I say to this one, go and he goes, and to another come and he comes.

And to my servant, do this, and he does it.

So what he's saying is he understands authority.

He recognizes what that means.

He recognizes that Jesus has authority.

And let's be really clear here is that Jesus still today has authority.

We see all throughout the scriptures Jesus' authority.

Jesus, the one who silenced the wind and the waves.

Jesus, the one who defeated hell, death, and the grave.

That is the Jesus we know that has authority.

That is why we gather here weekly, is because we don't serve a dead God.

We serve a God that is alive, a God that has power, and a God that has authority.

That is who we serve.

And another way to think about him submitting, right?

Another way to think about that is that is his great faith, but it's that great faith that is a confidence.

It's that great faith that is a trust, it's that great faith in being completely confident in who Jesus is.

And we gotta spend a little bit of time here because this is so important.

I think what he recognizes here is something that we so often forget.

Is that because Jesus has all authority, he is the focus.

But how often do we lose focus?

We take that initial step of believing in Jesus and getting baptized and doing all of those things, but then we're like, appreciate you, Jesus.

You did great.

Like you got me out of some tough things.

I'm gonna go over here, right?

And we begin to lose focus.

We begin to feel as if Jesus, you got me out of this situation, you saved me, but I got this now.

And then that's how we go into the good enough mentality of now, I'm gonna be good enough, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do all of this by myself in my own control, and then we become the ones who are in control.

And then what happens if you're not careful is that feeling makes you equate what you do for God on how much God loves you.

You feel as if I do this much for God, then God loves me this much because you've left Jesus over here and put yourself over here.

Then our works become what we feel makes us right.

And I want you to understand so clearly is that Jesus is enough, and because he is enough, he should be the focus.

See, the Jewish people were looking to their own self, they were looking to their own works to be right with God, but not the centurion man.

He didn't follow the law, he probably had a lot of issues himself, not saying he was perfect, but he did one thing right by putting his faith in Jesus.

Y'all, I know this world is tough, but can we just take a second to thank God that he is enough, that he is the focus, that no matter what is going on in the world, our God is still good, our God is still in control.

And what we can see here is that this great faith recognizes submission.

Another way to think of that is that.

It submits to or it yields under the authority of Jesus.

So to be really practical here, right, of what it looks like to practically yield to the authority of Jesus.

Maybe if you're a note taker here, you're like, yes, Andrew's gonna write me a 10-step plan on how to practically submit to the authority of Jesus.

I love it.

I can follow it every day.

Yeah, you ready?

You ready for it?

Take a note.

Obedience.

There it is.

It's one word.

I can't count very high, but I can count to that, right?

Now, hear me, this might have a negative connotation, a feeling of being forced to do something, but it's this obedience that means you are taking what you have learned, what you have heard, and then applying it.

And I love your church and your pastor and how y'all are so very clear that what happens here cannot stay here.

What happens here needs to lead to transformation.

It lead needs to lead for us to go, for us to do something about it.

Because a great faith is not stagnant.

A great faith has movement.

My challenge is for y'all keep coming to church, keep being here, right?

Worshiping together, doing all of these things, but also join a life team.

Have people around you, have people that keep you accountable, have people that help you understand what it looks like to pray and read throughout the throughout the week because it can't just be here.

God desires to do something in you and through you, and it requires your yes.

I want to say that again.

God desires to do something in you and through you, and it requires your yes.

Chances are there's some people here that you feel like God's been telling you something.

Maybe you've had a couple people in your life that have randomly come up to you and said, Hey, I think you should do this, or I think you should do that.

And you're like, God, how are you?

You're working all these things, or maybe a job opened up, or or you're a high school senior trying to figure out what school you're gonna go to, or if you're a young adult who's really looking for a significant other so you can get married, all these things, and things are starting to fall together, but you just don't, you still don't feel like God is speaking.

Maybe he has spoken so clear, it is your time to step in obedience.

It's your time to walk in the obedience of what he has called you to do, to step forward.

There's some people here that already know what it is they need to do.

You know the person you need to forgive, you know the family member you need to talk to, but have you walked in obedience?

Yielding to the authority of Jesus, understanding what he says through his teachings, and then submitting to that, walking in obedience.

And here's something that we can't we can't misunderstand is that oftentimes Christianity is viewed of this you have to religion from a perspective of like you have to, someone just hitting you with a whip, like you have to go and do something.

But we do this not from a I have to, but from a I get to mentality.

We get to serve Jesus, who gives us the option to put our faith and trust in him.

We get to have the opportunity to come to church, we get to have the opportunity to join a life group, all of those things.

And I do believe that when we do, our life actually gets better.

Now, maybe not all aspects of it, there are some difficulties that still come, but it gets better because Jesus is with us.

So, quick recap from what we've seen from the centurion man is he has pleaded with Jesus, he has implored of Jesus, and then he recognized him as Lord, and then not only did he recognize him as Lord and understand who he is, he then submitted to the authority.

That's the obedience piece that we just talked about.

So let's look in verse 10 and see how this continues.

Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith.

So think about this statement that Jesus just made.

That he has not seen faith like this anywhere among his own people, among God's chosen people.

Imagine if you're with Jesus and you were like, Jesus, I think you forgot what I did yesterday, though.

That was pretty cool, right, Jesus?

Like, I think, I mean, you say you gave me a high five, right?

Like, maybe they were like, Jesus, what?

They probably thought this guy, this centurion man, didn't even follow the Old Testament.

He didn't even follow all of the rules, he didn't even follow all of the laws.

He was ceremonially unclean in like every possible way.

He worked for the oppressors of Israel.

How can he have more faith than us?

And it's because his faith was not in a process or a result that he could get, his faith was in a person of Jesus.

Let's say that again.

His faith was not in a process or a result of what he could get, but his faith was in the person of Jesus.

Because our faith was if if our faith is rooted in a result, it would go up and down.

But it's in understanding, like the centurion man, who Jesus is.

That's where his faith is.

Y'all, our faith cannot be in our in our bank account.

Because right before payday, we don't have a lot of faith, right?

But when payday hits, we got faith, we go in the restaurants, what you want?

Right?

On me.

Right, no kidding, no, no kidding.

I didn't say that, but that's how we feel, right?

But then a couple days before, you're like, oh, I don't know what's gonna happen, how we're gonna pay for this, right?

If our faith is in circumstances, it'll go up and down.

But if our faith is in Jesus, not a circumstance, it does not change.

Because we serve a God, Jesus, who defeated death, hell, and the grave, a Jesus who loves us no matter what you have been through, done, or experienced.

We can put our faith in Jesus that says, I know what you've done, I know what you have been through, I know, like this interior man that you don't follow all of these rules, you don't follow all these laws, but you can come to me because in Jesus is where our faith rests.

That is great faith.

It is in a person, it is not in a result.

Verse 13 gets me even more hype, so here we go.

Then Jesus told the centurion, Go as you have believed, let it be done for you.

And his servant was healed that very moment.

Let's go, that fire gets me gets me ready to go.

This man had boldly approached Jesus, had submitted to his authority, and as a result, Jesus said, Go, and his servant was healed in that moment.

Y'all remember what happened earlier in the passage when Jesus was like, yo, oh, I'll go over there and we'll do it.

No, Jesus was able to do it in that moment because the centurion man recognized his authority.

And why this passage specifically is talking about Jesus healing this man, what we can see, what we can get and understand is that it is the power that Jesus has and how we are called to submit to Jesus.

I'm gonna be honest, submitting to Jesus is not easy.

Walking in obedience is not easy.

Things will not always go as we hope they do, but our trust is in him.

And when we talk about submitting to the authority of Christ, one piece that we can't miss is what he said here to the centurion man is to go.

And that is what great faith does.

Great faith approaches Jesus, pleads of him, understands he is Lord, submits to the authority, and then great faith goes.

It is not stagnant, it keeps moving.

There's a passage that we know as the Great Commission.

It's in Matthew 28, and it's Jesus specifically talking to his disciples.

But I love this passage, and we're gonna read it, is because Jesus is charging his followers to go to do something.

This is Matthew 28, verse 18 through 20.

Matthew 28:18–20

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

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and remember, I am with you always to the very end of the age.

So if you're here waiting for God to do great things, for people to come in your life to have great faith, the answer is God's calling you.

If you have a situation in your life and you're like, man, if there was someone that came to my life and would just pray for my brother or for my sister or for my child that has gone away from Jesus, if someone could just come with great faith and pray for him, God's saying you can do it.

Therefore, now go, make disciples, teach others, show that great faith.

It's not just up to your pastors or leaders or people here at Metachurch.

No, God is calling you, and you can have a great faith just like the centurion man.

It's not complicated.

We don't have to overcomplicate it like the anointing person in the drive-thru.

It's a simple faith.

It is going to Jesus, and it's just imagine the impact that y'all can have if everyone here steps in great faith.

If you walk to your job tomorrow in confidence that God can move and work, if you go talk to that family member later today in confidence that God can move and work, imagine the impact.

Y'all, this is so clear.

God is calling all of us to go, to make a difference.

Not just some people, but all people.

So, what has he called you to do?

What is that step of obedience?

And are you trusting in Jesus or are you just trusting in the result?

Because things will change, but Jesus will not.

Y'all, God wants to use you.

Y'all, God is already using you here at Metachurch, but imagine the continued impact that you can and will have.

So we're gonna spend these next couple moments reflecting, uh, reflecting on what we've talked about.

So if you could just everyone can just bow their heads, just bow your heads as we reflect in this moment.

For some of you, you've already believed in Jesus.

Maybe you've believed in him, but you just lost the fire that you once had.

Maybe you're just now relying on your own works.

You're the person that just feels like you're just still trying to be good enough.

Keeping up with him, always constantly not knowing if you're good enough.

But Jesus looked at the centurion, the enemy of his people, and saw great faith.

It was not the centurion's work or his righteousness, it was simply his faith expressed and coming and submitting to Jesus.

You can do that.

So if that's you, if you're the person who has slipped back into the idea, feeling like you could be good enough or that you're not good enough, focus yourself right now on the person of Jesus, on the great faith in Jesus.

And then I also wonder if there's anyone in here who has never put their faith in Jesus, who has never trusted in Jesus and who he says he is or what he has done.

And if that's you, and if God is stirring something inside of your heart right now, and you've seen all these things happen, you heard the message on Easter, you saw the baptisms last week, and you're still not sure, but now you're ready to put your faith and recognize Jesus as Savior.

He healed the centurion servant, but more importantly, he comes to offer us salvation.

If that's you with no one looking and your heads bowed, if that's you and you're ready, just raise your hand.

To just trust and believe in Jesus for the first time.

Just raise your hand.

Let me help you acknowledge that the faith decision that you made is that you're secure in the hands of the Father.

And we're gonna say this prayer all together for the believers and those that just put your faith in Jesus.

And this prayer just helps us uh to pray together on what it looks like to believe in Him.

So if you everyone could just repeat this after me, Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

Thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

I believe that you are God, that you died for my sins, and I believe that you rose again.

Thank you for a new life.

Let me just pray over everyone, God.

I know that you have called each and every person here for a specific purpose.

God, I pray that no one leaves here without understanding and being confident in who you are, Jesus.

That we can leave here and we can make a difference and make an impact.

That it's not just certain people that have great faith, God, but we have the opportunity, as normal, every day, followers of you, Jesus, to show and to display a great faith.

Lord, I pray for all of the different spaces that everyone will be going to later this week.

Back to home, work, all the things, sports teams, schools.

God, I pray that there is a change in their lives that impacts and affects others.

God, that your spirit will move and work, that you can bring about a confidence and knowing who you are, Jesus, for everyone to understand who you are and that they can go to you, and that great faith is in the person of Jesus, not in the results or the process.

God, I pray that you do what only you can do, stirring and working in the lives of your people.

We thank you.

We love you, and in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

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.

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