Prayer Precedes Power

What I'm going to do now is uh is finish up this series that we've been in for a little while called Never Going Back.

We've been in this series called Never Going Back for the last several months, and today we're gonna wrap this series up.

We're gonna talk about one of the ultimate never going back moments that's ever happened in the history of our faith.

It's something that we find in Acts chapter 2, and so if you have a Bible with you, I encourage you to go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention

We're gonna cover this story.

It's a very important story in the history of our faith as believers.

It's the story of Pentecost, and today just happens to be Pentecost Sunday.

And I'm so glad that today is Pentecost Sunday, because we're actually, as part of this never going back series, wrapping it up, ironically, we're gonna talk about what it means for us to go back to meeting together in person as a church.

And I'm so glad that we're talking about this on Pentecost Sunday because the story of Pentecost is actually going to greatly inform how we want to approach returning to in-person gatherings.

And so as we discuss Pentecost Sunday, as we discuss the never going back moment that this was for the church, what it means for all of us, we're gonna tie that into how we're gonna approach coming back together to worship together, side by side in person.

And I'm so excited about that.

So let's go ahead and just open up to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

I'm gonna start reading in in verse 1.

We'll skip around just a little bit.

But it says this on the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place.

Now, the word Pentecost roughly translates to 50 days.

It was a festival that the Jewish people celebrated, and it took place 50 days after Passover.

Now remember that Jesus was crucified and resurrected right over the Passover holiday.

So this is also about 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus.

At this point in time, Jesus has been raised from the dead, and he's appeared to his followers several different times, and he's spoken to them, and then he's actually ascended to heaven.

And so they were there, they saw him ascend to heaven.

That's that's taken place.

Acts chapter 2, they're they're waiting.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Because Jesus, before he ascended to heaven, told them, Do not leave the city of Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon you in power.

And so now they're just kind of waiting around.

He didn't tell them what that was gonna look like, by the way.

It's one of the things you have to love about Jesus.

He's not really a logistics person.

Very rarely does Jesus give them very specific details or give any of us very specific details about exactly what things are gonna look like.

So the the followers of Jesus, about 120 of them at this point in time, they're like hanging out, going, I guess there's gonna be this moment when the Holy Spirit comes in power, and I guess when it happens, we'll we'll know.

But but Jesus has not given them a ton of logistics, so they they don't really know what to expect.

But they definitely know when the moment happens, and we see that happen right here.

Verse 2, it says, Suddenly there was a sound from heaven, like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.

And then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them, and everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

Now, this is very, very important because Jesus, in the great commission, which was given to them right before he ascended to heaven, he told them that he wanted them to take his message, the gospel, the truth about who he is, who the Father is, what it means to live in relationship with God.

He said, I want you to take this message to the ends of the earth, to all nations.

And you know they've got to be sitting there right now in that moment, going, How in the world can we do that?

How could we go to all nations?

We don't even speak the language.

That is until the Holy Spirit comes upon them.

So they know that this is the coming of the Spirit in power.

It says at the time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem.

And when they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

They were completely amazed.

How can this be?

They exclaimed.

These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages.

Here we are, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and all the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, and we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things that God has done.

They stood there amazed and perplexed.

What can this mean?

They asked each other.

But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, They're just drunk.

That's all.

How incredible is it, especially right now, as we look at all the division that's happening in our nation, how incredible is it that the moment that the Holy Spirit showed up in power, filling all the believers, how amazing is it that that was a moment that brought people from all over the world together?

It brought people from all over the world together.

God cares so much about unity.

That's why Scripture says that because of Jesus, those of us who give our lives to him, there's neither Jew nor Greek, right?

There's neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave or free.

In other words, it doesn't matter where we come from, who we are, what gender we are, what our socioeconomic status is, we are all united by the love that God has for us.

And that's what's taking place right here on Pentecost Sunday.

After this, Peter begins to preach.

Peter's the disciple that's kind of stepped up as the leader of the disciples at this moment in time, and he begins to preach to all these people.

And again, they're all hearing their own language because all of the believers are preaching and they're hearing their language, they're hearing what Peter's saying, and they're they're blown away by it.

Peter preaches for a very long time, and it sort of culminates in verse 32.

He says, God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.

Now he is exalted in the place of highest honor in heaven at God's right hand, and the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.

For David himself never ascended into heaven.

Yet he said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.

So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah.

Peter's words pierced their hearts.

And they said to him and to the other apostles, brothers, what should we do?

In other words, they're saying, I believe this.

How do I respond to this?

It's so important that we make sure that we respond whenever God pierces our heart.

When that happens, when we have a conviction stirring inside of us, we have to respond.

And Peter replied, Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away, all who have been called by the Lord our God.

And then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, save yourselves from this crooked generation.

And those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day, about 3,000 in all.

This is one of the most amazing stories we have in the history of our church.

The movement of Jesus, because of the coming of the Holy Spirit in power, went from being about 120 people to over 3,000, and they never went back.

Within a few decades of this moment, the movement of Jesus had spread to virtually every known nation and people group in the world.

And it continues to spread to this very day.

And all of that is because of the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a gift that God gives to us.

And again, hear Peter's words.

God gave, the Father gave Jesus, the Son, the Spirit, to pour out upon all of us.

When we give our lives to Jesus, it's like the Spirit awakens within us and begins to shape us and to make us into the people that we're created to be.

2 Corinthians 5.17, classic, says that anyone who belongs to Christ is a new creation.

The old life is gone, and behold, a new life has begun.

Well, what is the catalyst for that new life beginning?

It's the Holy Spirit.

But then we have these examples of times where the Spirit comes upon people in power.

And I'd be a liar if I could explain to you the ins and outs of how this works.

One of my favorite pastors to listen to once said that it's really hard to try to make a map of how the Holy Spirit operates, because sometimes the Holy Spirit's in people, sometimes the Holy Spirit comes upon people, sometimes the Holy Spirit surrounds people, and it's like, is it in, on, around, through what?

I don't know.

It's messy, it's mysterious.

Please, please never, never lose wonder for the mysteries of God.

Don't become someone who's so focused on having to have everything answered and laid out and organized that you just miss out on the wonderful mysteries of God.

God is mysterious.

And the Holy Spirit's definitely mysterious, but the Holy Spirit's real and the Holy Spirit's powerful.

And what I want us to all understand this morning is that God to this day still desires to give his church the Holy Spirit in power.

That happened on the day of Pentecost.

And it changed everything.

It changed everything.

It brought people together.

All of a sudden you have these people who, what, before they were Arabs and Medes and Cretans and Elamites and every other kind of ite you can imagine.

But after that moment, those 3,000 that gave their life to Jesus, you know what they were?

They were believers.

Period.

And as we read the rest of the book of Acts, we see that the church spreads all over the place, and the people who used to be outsiders, they're not outsiders anymore.

You know, the Jews were very separate.

And then you have the Gentiles, anyone who wasn't Jewish, and they were on the outside, and God starts bringing the Gentiles to him in massive numbers, and Paul and the other apostles, they get together, they're like, what do we do?

What does this mean?

And they realize that, yeah, this is the fulfillment of the promises that God gave to Abraham.

The very first follower of God, you might say, God gave to Abraham, way back in Genesis, he said, I'm gonna bless the whole world through the nation that your family's going to become.

And that's happened through Jesus.

We are unified by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.

And trust me, church, God wants to do something powerful in his church.

Look at the nation that we live in right now.

Look at the division, look at the pain, look at the suffering, look at the uncertainty, and look at the fact that those who claim to be leaders rarely lead capably.

And so if we're gonna look to politics to bring us together, we're gonna be sorely disappointed.

If we're gonna look to economic prosperity to bring us together, we're gonna be sorely disappointed.

There is only one person who has the power to unite the people of this world, and that person is Jesus Christ.

And the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us in power, all of those other things melt away, all of those other dividing lines begin to go away, and we have a genuine love for each other.

If we go back to Acts chapter 2, it gives us a picture of the way that the early church lived.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And keep in mind as we read this, these are people from all over the place, people from all kinds of different places.

It says in verse 42, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer.

And a deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miracles and signs and wonders, and all the believers met together in one place, and they shared everything they had.

They sold their property and possessions and they shared the money with those in need.

They worshiped together at the temple each day.

They met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and they shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.

And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

That's what the early church looked like.

It was charming, it was beautiful, it was filled with love.

They served one another, they loved one another, they didn't care where they were from, who they were, they loved one another.

And the world saw that.

The world needs the church to be the Acts chapter 2 church.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And if we're gonna be the Acts chapter 2 church, we need the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

We need the Holy Spirit to fill us with the power to do the things that He's called us to do.

And years ago, I uh I had a pastor friend of mine say something that really stuck out to me.

We were talking about the story here of Pentecost, and he said, you know, every church wants to be an Acts chapter 2 church.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Like, why wouldn't you want to be an Acts chapter 2 church?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Why wouldn't you want to have your your reputation be that reputation that we just read about, sharing together and serving one another, and the whole community just looking at you and saying, wow, that's amazing.

Why wouldn't you want to be the Acts chapter 2 church where the Holy Spirit comes in power and you're doing miracles and signs and wonders?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Like everybody wants to be an Acts chapter 2 church.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

But then he said something that really hit hard.

He said, Very few seem to desire to be an Acts chapter 1 church.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And I was like, well, what do you mean by that?

And let's turn real quick to Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

We're gonna start in uh in verse 12.

Then the apostles, and remember, this is this is shortly before Pentecost happens.

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile.

When they arrived, they went to the upstairs room of the house that they were staying.

Here are the names of those who were present: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James, not the same Judas who betrayed Jesus.

They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.

They were constantly united in prayer.

Now let's remember Acts chapter 2 when it says that they were all meeting together in one place.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

When the Spirit came upon them, what do you think they were doing as they were meeting together in one place?

That's what they were always doing.

They were praying together.

The Acts chapter 1 church was a church that prayed together.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And the power that comes in Acts chapter 2, it's not disconnected from the fact that they prayed.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It's amazing when you look at scripture how often moments of power are preceded by moments of prayer.

In Acts chapter 10, there's this man named Cornelius who has this vision from God, and this vision from God is significant, and it's another kind of never going back moment in the history of the church.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

And right before he has this vision, it tells us that he prayed regularly.

He was a praying man and he experienced power.

In Acts chapter 12, Peter gets arrested.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

And while he's in prison, there's this incredible move of God, and he's freed from prison miraculously, but what we understand is that in the moment that's happening, all the believers are gathered together and they are praying for Peter.

They are praying together, all together in one place.

It's no coincidence that that moment of power that Peter experienced was preceded by moments of prayer.

See, if we want to be a church that experiences the power of God, then we've got to be a church dedicated to prayer.

Because prayer precedes power.

Prayer precedes power, and we have to understand that.

Church, I believe that when we come back together in person, I believe that it's going to be a time of God's power working through us, changing us.

I don't want us to go back to the way things were.

And trust me, I love his hands church.

I've been part of it for a third of my life.

I miss the way things were.

Right now I'm I'm standing in the big room.

And I wish you were all here right now.

I long to go back to the way things were, but at the same time, I recognize that we don't need to go back to the way things were.

We need to go forward into a place that we've never been before.

God does not like looking backwards.

You don't see Scripture have God constantly say, I wish it was like it the way it used to be.

No, he's always looking forward, he's always desiring to do something new.

In church, I believe that when we come back together in person, it's going to be a powerful moment.

And I believe it's going to be the start of a powerful season.

And I'm asking, and I'm asking you to ask that the Father gives us an outpouring of the Spirit that we've never experienced before.

So that we become a church like we've never been before, more ready, more equipped, more filled with the love of God than we've ever had before.

I believe that God wants to do something new in us.

But that's only going to happen through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And if we want to experience that power, then we need to be a church committed to prayer.

And so, with that in mind, with all these concepts that we've talked about, the importance of prayer and how it precedes power, and at the same time the wonderful unity that God wants us to have, I want us to talk about what it means for us to begin returning to in-person gatherings.

I'm so glad we're talking about this on Pentecost Sunday.

And I'll be honest, I'm actually glad we're talking about this at a time when it's so clear that the world needs something to change.

I want to play semantics really quick as we begin to have this conversation.

This will be pretty quick.

I want to make sure that as we begin talking about returning to in-person gatherings, that we don't use the phrase reopening.

And if you've used that phrase, by the way, I have as well.

Don't beat yourself up, don't feel guilty.

Again, I've used it.

But we're not reopening the church because the church hasn't closed.

It's really important that we understand that.

Church, his hands.

We haven't closed at all.

We haven't stopped worshiping God.

We haven't stopped proclaiming the truth about who Jesus is and what he can do for us.

We haven't stopped opening up God's word and diving into it and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us so that we can grow.

We haven't stopped that at all.

We haven't even stopped serving.

In fact, we have been reaching out and serving our community in ways that we've never even been able to do.

You guys have been so generous, you've been so faithful.

We've been able to say yes, whether it's been our hands-on events, like uh like our food drives.

There's actually one happening right now as I film this.

We have another food drive with Never Alone happening next weekend.

We had one just a few weekends ago where we fed over 400 families.

We've had multiple disaster relief projects that we've been able to jump into.

In the midst of this whole coronavirus thing, there have been several severe weather outbreaks pretty close to us, and we've had multiple events to help people with that.

You guys have allowed us to be able to give financially to some majorly important ministries.

You know, we give every single month to a variety of local ministries that meet incredible needs.

And we're very generous as a church.

But on top of what we normally give, just on top of that, in the last three months, we've been able to give an additional$5,000 to Never Alone, to their food pantry.

We've been able to give an additional$5,000 to uh Encompass Ministries, which is another local food pantry.

We've been able to give an additional$5,000 to uh One Race, we've been able to give an additional$5,000 to the Goshen Valley Boys Ranch and foster care community.

They've got over a hundred families in foster care through Goshen.

That's all just been in addition to what we normally do in the course of the last three months.

What I'm saying is the church hasn't closed, not one iota.

So we are not reopening because we've never closed.

What we are gonna start doing is planning a return, a return to in-person gatherings, and I can't wait for it.

And so I want to give you some dates, and then I want us to talk about the reason that we're approaching it in the very specific way that we are.

And again, much of this is informed by the story of Pentecost.

Just like Pentecost was a never going back moment for the church, I believe when we come back together, it's going to be a never going back moment for us.

And so the first date I want you to know is Sunday, August 2nd.

But then I want to talk about Sunday, July 12th, Sunday, July 19th, and Sunday, July 26th.

Sunday, August 2nd is our targeted, uh, fully returning to normal Sunday morning gatherings, kids' areas and all, our full-blown return.

We have that planned for Sunday, August 2nd.

I hope that doesn't change.

Obviously, right now we live in a time where things seem to change on a daily basis, and if they change, we'll change.

Jesus was incredibly adaptable.

The Holy Spirit is unbelievably adaptable, and a mark of the church should be that the church is adaptable.

Religion is not adaptable.

Religion is like an old wineskin.

Jesus actually said to the Pharisees once when they said, Why don't you want to talk with us more?

Why didn't you you ask us to be more involved?

He said, Well, because you can't put new wine in an old wineskin.

New wine expands, and old wineskins are rigid and they'll just burst.

You put new wine in a new wineskin because it has flexibility.

A mark of the church should always be flexibility.

Because we're new wineskins.

We've got to be able to move and flow with whatever God is doing.

And so we've been able to do that so far.

I feel really good about the 2nd of August, but if if that is something that has to change, then great, it'll change.

And maybe it needs to change to a later date, maybe it needs to change to an earlier date.

We'll just we'll go with it.

But right now, Sunday, August 2nd, 9:30, 11.15, like normal, we are gonna be gathering together in person again.

We're not gonna stop our online gatherings.

His hands online, there's a reason we're launching this.

So next Sunday we'll give you a taste of what that's gonna kind of be like, but we're gonna keep his hands online going in perpetuity.

So if you're not able to be back with us on the 2nd for whatever reason, whether you don't feel comfortable or medically you have a reason you can't be, just know that we are never going to stop doing our online gatherings.

That that's something that we've made a commitment to, that we're gonna do online gatherings from this point on.

So those will not stop.

But I also had some other dates for you.

I know some of you are hearing this and uh and you're really, really frustrated that maybe it's the second.

You think that's too far away.

And by the way, if that's you and you've already typed a comment that you're mad, I forgive you.

I forgive you.

But just stay with me.

If you're going, oh man, I wish it was sooner, well, we've got some things for you to sink your teeth into a little bit sooner than that.

On Sunday, July 12th, Sunday evening, we're gonna have a gathering here at the building for prayer and for worship.

There will not be child care for that event, but it's a time of dedicated prayer and worship as we begin to return, as we believe that God is gonna do some new things.

And we wanna be open to Him to do those new things.

And then on Sunday evening, July 19th, we're gonna have another gathering for prayer and worship.

And then on the 26th, Sunday evening, we'll have another gathering for prayer and worship.

All of that building up to the second.

Why?

Because power, moments of experiencing the power of God, those are preceded by prayer.

And so before we return to in-person gatherings, before we we fully return to having everyone here in the building, we want to get down on our knees and we want to spend significant time in prayer.

Because moments of power are preceded by prayer.

And we're gonna have a little bit of a different focus on on each of those each of those prayer nights.

This is so much more than just.

To return.

This is a chance for us to reassess.

This is a chance for us to reflect.

This is a chance for us to really realign and make sure that we're together and united as a body.

It's a chance for us to rejoice.

And so each of those prayer and worship nights is going to have a little bit of a different focus, but all of it's building up to this incredible return.

And guys, I'm so excited about this.

But I do want to ask for a few favors.

Just a few quick favors as we close.

Number one, begin to pray now.

Pray specifically for our staff and our leadership.

Pray for me if you don't mind.

I don't really ask for that very often, but uh I've never been a pastor in the midst of a global pandemic.

Um, and you know, it's a first, and so the whole process of us going completely online that was really new, but the process of returning in some ways is more complicated.

And there are a lot of strong opinions out there.

And trust me, plenty of people have have voiced those, and I appreciate that to a certain degree.

I really do.

But but please understand that I don't make decisions based on what our church is going to do by the reaction of the people around me.

I've learned long ago that if I'm going to lead a church, if we're, and this is for really all of us, if you're gonna be a person that really does what God wants you to do, your primary reaction should be always to him and not to what's happening around you.

So I've taken into consideration all the opinions that have been shared.

I've prayed a lot.

We've met with a lot of other churches.

In fact, um, chances are if there's a church that you know of that's meeting right now in our community, I've met with that pastor and talked with him, and we've talked together, and all of us have agreed that you know every church is a little different, and uh and we're a large church.

You know, his hands, we're a large church.

And so if we were meeting right now together, we would be like the biggest in-person gathering that's happened uh so far, maybe in America, like as far as a planned event kind of thing goes.

And so it's very important that we do this right.

So pray and ask God to give me wisdom as we continue to make these decisions.

Also, pray for our staff.

Because our staff's gonna have to rethink a lot of things.

Even when we get back together, no doubt we're gonna have to have some things operate a little bit differently.

And so we've got to rethink, we've got to reassess, re-evaluate, restructure, we've got to retrain our volunteers and all of that, and that's gonna be a lot.

And so the staff is actually beginning the process of coming back into the office, and there's a lot to do over the course of the next couple of months.

So pray for the staff, support the staff.

If you're a volunteer, reach out and let that team that you're volunteering on know that you're here and you're you're here to help however you can.

There's a lot to do, so please pray.

Pray right now.

The second thing is this on top of prayer, be committed to love and unity.

Guys, right now, the church does not need to be divided.

There is plenty of division for everyone right now.

The last thing that our world needs, that our community needs, is for the church to be divided.

And so I want you to understand this.

It doesn't really matter, and hear me out on this, please.

It doesn't really matter in the long run if we come back together for the first time on the 2nd of August or the 28th of June or the 19th of July, a year from now, when we're looking back and we're thinking about this season, none of us will have this mentality, like, oh man, if we would have opened up one week later or two weeks earlier, that would have really changed everything.

No, no, no, no.

That doesn't really matter.

What matters is the manner in which we return.

All of us probably have really strong opinions on how things should have been handled uh nationally with all the lockdowns, a lot of opinions on that.

I have strong opinions on that.

And a lot of us have very strong opinions on how things should should operate as far as moving forward and reopening.

Everybody's got, I'm again, reopening, I'm talking about the lockdowns in our community, not the church.

The church isn't reopening because we haven't closed.

Everyone's got strong opinions on that, but look, strong opinions are not the same thing as vision.

And that's a lesson God taught me several years ago that I've held very close and very dear.

There's a difference between a strong opinion and vision.

And we might all have strong opinions, but sometimes we've got to put those opinions aside and ask the Lord to give us a united vision for how we're going to move forward as a church.

And what I'm praying for right now is that we are united together in our vision to return in love, to have grace for one another.

We've got these four words that guide our church so often.

It's love, accept, agree, and endorse.

And I'm not going to go through each of those, but one of the main things about it is look, we can love even when we don't agree on everything.

Even if we don't endorse a certain way, we still love.

We love each other.

His hands, we love each other.

We love this community.

So when we come back together, come back in love.

Come back in love, committed to unity.

Knowing that the people around you probably have different perspectives, different ideas.

But we're coming together to love.

So I'm excited about this plan to return.

I believe it's the right plan.

I believe it's very important that we spend significant time in prayer, asking God to speak to us, asking God to do work within us.

Those prayer nights are gonna be powerful.

Come ready to pray.

And we pray and we worship.

God's gonna speak things to us.

I believe that.

I'm very excited about that.

I think it's necessary for us to spend significant time in prayer before we return fully to in-person gatherings.

I hope you can make those.

But when we come together, we've got to come back together.

The power of the Holy Spirit unites us.

I know we've we've talked about a lot.

I actually can't remember a message that I've given that I've had so many uh things to cover.

But that's just the way life works sometimes.

The Holy Spirit's gonna give us everything that we need.

The Holy Spirit's our guide.

I trust that.

I can't wait to be back together worshiping in person with you.

I'm really tired of being in an empty big room.

I can't wait till we can come together again and be his hands.

We're the body.

He's the head.

Jesus is the head, we're the body.

That's what Scripture says.

And hey, our name is His hands, so that should that should make a lot of sense to us.

We're gonna come back together as a unified, aligned body, ready to do the work that God has called us to do.

In the meantime, pray, pray, pray, and commit yourself to love and to unity.

Don't forget, next week, His Hands Online.

That launches.

We'll talk about all that.

Just be on the Sunday stream next Sunday, 10 o'clock, don't miss it.

And please, please, please, tomorrow, 1 p.m., set a reminder on your phone, pray for the One Race gathering happening at Assembly Hall.

Pray that God really moves and that that moment is something that that brings healing because there's there's tremendous healing that needs to take place.

Pray for that.

Go to oneracemovement.org to learn more about that.

But please pray for that.

That's a really, really important thing.

I'm so proud that we get to stand with them.

They're amazing.