Be Filled-Capacity Unlimited

Father in heaven, thank you for your word.

Thank you, Lord God, for just what you're doing in your people, Lord God, and what you want us to be doing.

Father, you love us.

You love us so much that you sent your one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.

And God, let us not take for granted the grace poured out upon us that we might pour it out upon others as well.

But God, you are a great God, you are a good God.

And we're thankful.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So today's message is titled, Be Filled.

Capacity unlimited.

Be filled.

Capacity unlimited.

Now, when we start talking about capacity that we have, if you think about the capacity for you to retain information, it might be because you've got all sorts of other things going on in your mind already, all sorts of other distractions.

If for some reason you can't find time to read the Bible, maybe your capacity to read the Bible has everything to do with all the other stuff that's filling your life.

Amen.

You know, uh there's this uh this um this one thing that Stephen Covey that I repeated often about priorities and schedule.

Stephen said, instead of prioritizing your schedule, only schedule your priorities.

That way, everything on your schedule are the priorities.

Amen?

But the truth of the matter is oftentimes we fill our lives, we fill our space with things that are not priorities, things that are not important, things that are not the main thing.

And there's this old saying, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Who is the main thing?

The main thing ought to be our life in Christ Jesus.

So if the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing, then Jesus ought to be the reason why our lives are full.

I heard a small shh.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

I might step on toes today.

That's all right.

I've already stepped on my own.

I stepped on my own when I first started talking, even from the scriptures I just read.

Amen.

But you know, when you preach the word of God, just because you got to preach it don't mean you sidestep it.

Did y'all know that when we preach, God's already preached it to us?

We can't preach to y'all unless we've studied it and the word of God has preached to us too.

So I'm not preaching to something, preaching something to you that has not touched me and convicted me first.

And if I preach it with conviction, it's because it hit me good.

Amen.

So Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 through 21, talking about being filled.

Ephesians 5:15–21

Being filled with what?

Being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, there are some people who have a lot of different thoughts, perceptions, understandings of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

If you're in some churches that are more charismatic, it might be speaking in tongues, it might be falling out on the floor, it might be running around the church, it could be a number of things.

But we're going to talk about what it really means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Because that's the the truth of the matter is if you give your life to Jesus Christ, you truly give him your life and you allow him to come into your heart, the Holy Spirit already indwells in you.

You don't need to be looking for something more, something extra, or something that people can see on the outward appearance of you that will validate whether or not the Spirit of God lives in you.

Now the question is: do we grieve the Holy Spirit?

Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work that He wants to do inside of us?

Or are we just saying, God, I don't like that.

I think I'm gonna do what I want to do there.

I think I'm gonna do it my way.

God, give me a justification for that.

But let's look at Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 through 21.

Ephesians 5:15–21

It says, Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, which is behavior which shows lack of concern or thought.

It's just, you know, for any consequences or any actions, it's simply being senseless, reckless in our lives.

It says, but be filled with the Spirit.

And I'm gonna put in front of that the Holy Spirit.

That is capital S, which is referring to the Holy Spirit.

So be filled with the Holy Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence or respect for Christ.

There's a whole lot packed into that.

And this is for those of us who call ourselves a part of the church.

Those of us who have decided to give our lives to Jesus Christ, surrender our lives to Him, these are the things that we ought to be doing.

Now, we're gonna get into some other scriptures that's really gonna lay some things out on the line for us as far as what God expects for us.

But you do know that after you get saved, we can talk about the gospel over and over and over again.

But to a room full of people who say they are saved, it's sometimes time to move on to the more weightier matters.

Sometimes it's time to move on to the Christian maturity because there's some things that we just have to grow in.

We can't stay babes all the time.

Amen.

When we give our life to Christ and we become saved, we're supposed to produce some fruits.

Yeah.

And you hear people talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, yes, everybody needs that, but what about the people who have already received it?

We got to go on to some other things, y'all.

We're talking about capacity unlimited.

If you let me say this: if every person in here goes and shares the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone, if only half of you had those people come here to become a part of Lake Church, do we have the capacity to even house them?

But if we were all sharing the gospel and bringing somebody to church, we wouldn't have a seat empty in the house.

If we were doing that.

And within the church body, we have unlimited capacity because we have the power of the Holy Spirit working with us.

Amen.

Doesn't mean that we won't suffer some persecution as the apostles did, but God will give the increase.

Amen.

So what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Here's number one whatever fills you takes control of your attitude and actions.

But you gotta let the Holy Spirit have it.

For example, people filled with the Spirit, blessed, they praise and they thank the Lord, boldly proclaim the word of the Lord and give to others and experience joy.

That's what we do.

And from Acts chapter 4, verses 31 through 37.

Acts 4:31–37

I'm gonna walk through these and then I'm gonna throw in some explanations in between.

It says, and when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

When did they do that after they were filled with what?

The Holy Spirit.

And continue to speak the word of God with boldness, so they prophesied.

Some people say, oh, prophesy.

You know, prophets didn't do anything but say what God said.

You realize when you prophesy, all you're doing is speaking what God has said.

When you speak the word of God, that's a form of prophesying.

You're saying what the Lord has said.

You're not foretelling anything, you're not trying to tell somebody about their future.

But whenever we speak the gospel of Jesus Christ and what God has done, we're just simply prophesying the word of God.

We're speaking what God has already said.

They witnessed the gospel of Jesus Christ is what they did there.

In verse 32, it says, Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.

They were on one accord, y'all.

The believers were on one accord, they were in agreement with one another.

And no one said that any of the things that belonged to them was his own.

Wow.

I'm gonna come back to that.

But they had everything in common.

They shared their possessions with those, even within the community, who were in need.

I'm gonna let that settle for a minute.

I often say that, you know, we are people who have more than enough.

More than enough.

I'll repeat it.

We go to our refrigerators, we have food in it.

We go to our pantries, we have food there, and we still choose to go out to eat and pay somebody else to cook our food.

And it costs a whole lot more for them to cook it and serve it to us.

We have those kinds of choices.

Amen, church?

I'm not trying to guilt trip anybody, but this is just the truth, amen.

We have more than enough.

So there ought not be anybody, certainly nobody in the church, who's in need and their needs are not met.

There's too many of us in here for somebody in this church, and I don't know if there is anybody in the church, there's too many of us in here that know how to do stuff, that have resources, that we can get things done.

Amen.

Thank y'all.

Verse 33 says, and with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So they were testifying and sharing the gospel with those in the community.

People had their knees met, and the church was sharing the gospel.

And great grace was upon them all.

Great grace was upon every one of them.

When the church starts being the church, the people around us will be blessed as well as us.

You know, I've said this here before, and I've said it in other places where I've preached.

Prayer means something different to me now than it did a few years ago.

It used to be easy for me to just say, hey, I'll pray for you.

Now God says, Do you have the resources to help?

Can you be the answer to that prayer?

And many of us can be the answer to the prayers that we pray for people.

But we're comfortable with just saying, I'll pray for you.

God is saying, Well, how do you think that blessing is coming?

They don't fall out of the sky.

God says, I use my people to bless my people.

I use my people to help the people who are in need.

Because those that are hungry don't need me preaching to them.

They need some food.

Amen.

Then they'll be able to hear the gospel.

Amen.

They need needs met, they need to be around people who they know, love them, care for them, and will step out and help them.

That's who we are as the church.

And that's what the Holy Spirit does.

He lives inside of us.

And if we, if the Holy Spirit is living inside of us, but we can't find the room to be used by God, then we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

We are disobeying the word of God.

I'm just going to ask you this question.

I know who, I do know who brought somebody to church this morning because I met them.

First time visitor.

Amen.

I met him.

When's the last time you brought somebody to church who didn't know Jesus or who was unchurched?

Now just let that settle.

All right?

I ain't picking on nobody.

I'm just preaching as the Lord gives me the words to preach.

Amen?

So this grace is what the church pours out upon the people who need to be ministered to.

We find that in Acts chapter 11, verses 19 through 24.

Acts 11:19–24

It says, Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, or Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Serene, who on look coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

And the hand of the Lord was with them.

And a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord.

Because of the grace that they administered to the people.

As they proclaimed the word of God.

How much more grace can we administer to our community?

How much more grace that God has given to us that we can give to others who are in need right now?

How much of that grace?

What does grace look like?

Grace is welcoming.

Grace is opening up our doors and opening up our hearts to the community.

It's going out saying, hey, our church sits right here, right around the corner from you.

I don't know if you're churched or unchurched.

Will you come?

Let us love on you.

Let us show you the love of God.

Maybe we need to consider ourselves.

Maybe we need somebody pouring out grace upon us.

Because maybe we've been so hurt that we can't find a place to pour out grace.

Because you know people in church still need grace too, amen?

All of us still need grace.

But the reality is this, church.

If we're gonna have the Holy Spirit inside of us and be filled with the Holy Spirit, we've got to be filled with what the Holy Spirit calls us to do.

And that filling within is an outward expression of the actions that we do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter 4, verse 34 through 37.

Acts 4:34–37

I know y'all didn't think y'all were gonna have this many scriptures, but I don't have to preach hard if the word of God says it.

Amen?

It says, There was not a needy person among them.

Oh my goodness.

Needs were met, there was equity within the local economy.

I'm gonna read that again.

Y'all see that on verse 34?

There was not a needy person among them.

You know, and and I'll I'll I'll make this a little personal.

Uh I will.

I have a different perception of how to use the resources that God has given me.

There was a time when uh uh me and my wife would be challenged to do something, and I'd I'd take it and she'd be like, What?

Like, well, you know, hey, this is just kind of the way I see it.

But now when people are in need, we don't go reaching out to somebody else.

If we can help, we just go ahead and do it.

And let me tell you, we've never lacked anything.

Because even when we actually sacrificed, when we kind of you know, when it's kind of like that, and you know God is saying, do it.

You do it, and you next the next thing you know, God provides, and he provides even more.

So we just learn to trust him.

We just learned that we weren't saved just to say we're saved and just to pray for people.

God's told me, why are you praying for them?

Look at your own resources.

Do you have it?

Then do it.

I was like, all right, Lord, I can't do anything but trust you.

And church, I want you to know something.

We might be a small church, but we got big potential.

If seven people can hold on and trust God to where we are now, shame on y'all.

If y'all can't bring us to a place where God wants to abundantly bless this community, because if seven can multiply to this, how many of us can take it even further than that?

Oh, y'all ought to give God some glory on that.

Amen.

So for as many as were owners of lands or houses, oh my goodness, sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.

Oh, it got real quiet right there.

Greed had no place.

Everybody pitched in to help y'all.

And here's what the Holy Spirit gave me when I was going through this.

Because I got some stuff I need to get rid of too, and we do.

Um, but I don't take my stuff to places that's going to resell it to somebody else.

I think we all probably uh do some cleaning around the house and that sort of thing, you know.

And sometimes uh, you know, when we got extra, sometimes we can find people who could use that extra.

Sometimes, even if you decide to do a garage sale and it's just extra, sometimes you can take that and give it to someone in need or bring it as a designated fund for benevolence, however the Lord puts it on your heart.

But here's what they did in the church, y'all.

When they had extra, they looked out and saw the needs.

They didn't say, Hey, call the pastor and ask if the church can help.

Call the pastor and ask if we can help with this or that.

The church themselves said, Hey, I've got a little bit of this.

How about I sell this and give that?

How about I take this and give that?

We as the church, when we think like the church is supposed to think, when we act the way that we're supposed to act, because the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us tells us the things that we ought to be doing, but sometimes we grieve him because we just disobey and we just push him to the side.

God is saying, I want you to see the example of what the church is.

For as many as were owners of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had needed.

Need.

So the resources were given to people with needs and not those with greed.

Not those that just wanted extra.

The goods were distributed appropriately.

And at the end of the day, as the church, whatever resources Lake Church has, or whatever you give, you ought to be willing to give to a church because you trust the church.

If you don't trust the church, then you need to find you a church that you trust.

Amen.

And so as the church, we're not preaching about money, we're not preaching about tithing or all of that.

This is just what people were doing out of obedience.

They had it, they gave for the glory of God and for the good of those in need.

Amen.

I don't want to come in here Sundays when I have a chance to preach and just preach to people if we're not grown.

Hard thing to do.

He makes it look easy.

But understand something.

You keep showing up because there's something about Lake Church that you believe in.

There's something about Lake Church that you trust.

So how about we do some more in being the church and making a difference throughout this community, making a difference with the gospel message and loving on people in the community and showing them the grace of God.

How about we show some of that to ourselves?

Because we got some people here that when it's time to serve, it's the same people serving.

And we can wear people down that way, but they're gonna be faithful.

Oh, Miss Tammy is always all over me about the stuff that we're planning to do.

Put me to the side this morning.

I need to talk to you about, you know, this.

I love it.

But Miss Tammy ain't the only one in here.

Amen.

Everybody needs to pitch in.

That's what the church does.

That's what we're called to do.

That's what the Holy Spirit tells us to do, that's living inside of us.

And sometimes we have to be reminded of who we are supposed to be and what we're supposed to be doing.

Amen.

Amen.

Don't y'all get mad at me.

I don't preach that often.

It'll be all right.

Verse 36.

Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles, Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

So we hold on to things and throw away things with value when they could be sold to bless others.

Amen.

Is the Holy Spirit speaking to you in some different ways that you could be blessing the church and blessing the community right now?

Is he showing you some things that you hadn't perhaps thought about on how you can further build the kingdom of God?

Because this is not just about doing things, it's also about sharing the gospel.

Everywhere in here we see that they shared the gospel.

They preached the word.

They went out and shared with others who were in need, not just of having their physical needs met, but also spiritual needs.

Spiritual needs.

People who are capable of teaching, who could teach.

People who are capable of serving, who could serve.

People that can get in rotation and assist.

I'm just gonna make mention of this.

And in 2 Kings chapter 4, uh Elisha went to this widow's house and she needed some help.

2 Kings 4 · chapter mention

And uh Elijah says, first of all, well, let me just read it.

2 Kings chapter 4, verse 1.

2 Kings 4:1

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord.

But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.

Elijah replied to her, and I love this.

This is from the NIV version.

Um He says, How can I help you?

How can I help you?

Simple.

Elijah simply told her.

She said, All she had was one flask of oil.

Elijah told her, go out to the neighbors and gather as many containers as you can and bring them back.

Come in here and close the door.

Start pouring oil in.

And she only had one flask with oil in it.

I don't even know if it was full.

But all that they could gather up, she poured oil and filled every one of them.

When he asked, Do you have any more?

She said, I don't have any more.

The oil stopped flowing.

A miracle.

To provide a need.

And when he told her, take it out and sell it.

And when she sold it, she had enough to pay off her debts and enough to live off of.

But it started with, how can I help you?

Sometimes, how can I help you?

That miracle to help a person pay off their debts and take care of themselves is you out of work?

Well, I don't have much for you to do, but I got some leads for you.

Or if it's maybe a young person that needs some help, hey, you know what?

I can afford to pay you to cut my yard.

Hey, you you have this skill set?

Well, maybe let me take that little bit that you got so that you can take that and use that to grow more is let me, young man, teach you a skill.

I do carpentry work.

I don't.

I'm just saying in as an example.

I do, but it ain't that good.

But maybe some men that know that have some special skills that you can teach some of our young men a trade.

Those that don't want to go to college don't feel like they're fit for college.

Maybe you can give them an edge and teach them a skill set and give them some direction in life so that now that one thing they can take and multiply it into a career where they pay off their debts and they got some extra to live off of.

As the church, when we read the word of God, we ought to ask God to show us, reveal to us, to do what his word says.

But number two is this be filled with the Holy Spirit means to possess the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

And from Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 24, I'm going to read those.

Galatians 5:16–24

It says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sexuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So if we're walking by the Spirit, then we're living by the fruits of the Spirit.

And if we see someone who's not living by them, then the Holy Spirit that lives within us ought to help us hold them accountable.

Because being filled with the Holy Spirit is possessing the fruits of the Spirit.

So when people are judging us, are they judging us on the works of the flesh?

Or are they judging us on the fruits of the Spirit?

So being filled with the Holy Spirit looks like.

Walk by the Spirit.

Stop doing what you want to do and start doing what God wants you to do.

We deny and we denounce the works of the flesh.

And we be led by the Spirit.

See, we ought to greatly desire the fruits of the Spirit.

And Psalm 1 and 2 says, Delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night.

That's how we get there.

Delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night.

In our men's group, we're going through those times where we sit and spend time with God, meditating on his word, growing in the word of God.

And not just that.

James 1 and 22 says, don't just hear the word, do what it says.

So it's great to meditate on the law of the Lord, but if we're not going to do what it says, then we're not gaining ground.

So this, why do you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

It's simply because God commanded us to be.

Therefore, do not grieve the Holy Spirit, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

That's Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30.

Ephesians 4:30

And oftentimes that's what happens in our lives.

We grieve the Holy Spirit.

God tells us, don't say that.

Don't do that.

Ask that person for forgiveness.

Call them up and tell them you forgive them.

Make right that relationship.

Do the right thing.

But then it's an obligation and not an option.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not an option.

Not only that, but we have a reminder to repent.

The Holy Spirit is that reminder.

That's the beautiful thing about having the Holy Spirit inside of you is that you can't just go do wrong and not know you're doing wrong.

He's going to convict your heart.

And he holds us accountable for our actions, and without him, we won't change our will to God's will.

We'll just decide to go on and do it our way, each and every time.

So how to be filled with the Holy Spirit is one, don't hide your sins, but confess your sins.

From Proverbs 28 and 13, it says, Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper.

But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

I don't know where you are in your walk with the Lord.

I don't even know if you have a walk with the Lord.

But if you confess today your sin and you receive Jesus Christ according to 1 John 1, 9 through 10, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

So if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, even if you question whether or not you really did, maybe you thought you did some time ago, but it didn't feel like it now, because of the way that you've been living, I would not leave here today without having that conversation on where you are spiritually with the Lord.

As I move hurriedly to a close, we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior from Romans 10, 9 through 11.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.

And everybody who's accepted Jesus Christ probably know these scriptures, but if there's somebody here who doesn't, there it is for you to read it for yourself.

That's the reason why it's there.

Because those people who say they're saved, they understand this already.

But the Holy Spirit said, show it to some people.

Because not everybody in the house may understand it or may not know it.

And you know, church, there are people that come in here, sit down, hear a message, and walk right out the door the same way.

Let that not be today.

Next point we all must present ourselves to God, whether saved or unsaved.

It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter if you've been saved for 30, 40, 50 years, or if you've only been saved for three days.

We all must present ourselves unto God.

Romans 6, 13 and 14 says, Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace.

And that's good news for somebody who has not confessed Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are no longer under the law, but you are under grace.

So if you didn't understand why you need to be saved and you don't understand why you can't follow all the rules, you now you understand you don't have to follow all the rules perfectly because we are wrapped in this flesh and we're going to make mistakes.

That doesn't mean that we don't try to do the right thing.

But you need to know that the grace of God is the only reason why we can have God's goodness and the reason why he sent his son, because of his love and he poured out his grace upon us that we might be saved.

And the last two points as the worship team comes.

Maintain a life focused on Christ.

Those of us who are saved, those of us who desire and need to be saved, our focus has to be on Christ.

Because sometimes we can get so far away from that, to the point where churches start trying to figure out how to reach more people, but it's not for the cause of the gospel.

It's just to grow the church.

And sometimes we can we can be about going out and talking to people about Jesus so that we can check the box.

We gotta live in church, we gotta maintain it.

And it's easy to start out, not been there.

Start out with that quiet time, waking up early in the morning, and sooner or later it dies off.

Because we don't maintain.

And God's saying, I don't want a relationship with you sometimes.

I want a relationship with you all the time.

I don't want to just hear from you sometimes.

I want to hear from you on a consistent basis.

I don't want you just following me sometimes.

I want you following me all the time.

Because he desires that relationship.

So we need to be obedient to God's word.

The place we give God's word in our lives measures our willingness to let the Spirit fill us.

The Holy Spirit has opportunity to fill us when we let God's word richly dwell in us, according to Colossians chapter 3, verse 16.

Colossians 3:16

So, church, what do we need to do?

We need to invest time in the Word of God.

We need to empty ourselves of the distractions so that the capacity for all things that are kingdom related can be increased in us.

What is God speaking to your heart?

What is God saying?

You can do with the capacity that He's given you.

What is God saying?

He's already opened the door and given you the opportunity to do it.

But he's waiting on you to say yes.

He says he's already put his spirit inside of you.

You may be afraid because you can't come up with the words to witness to somebody.

But if the Spirit of God lives in you and you spend some time in the Word of God, God will bring back to your remembrance the things that you need to be saved because it ain't about you anyway.

If God brings you before somebody who he wants to be saved and he wants to use you to do it, he's gonna give you everything that you need to do and everything that you need to say.

Sometimes we try to make it so hard because we think we gotta we gotta say it perfectly.

We gotta put all these words together.

Sometimes all people need to know is that you were a sinner and you needed saving and you didn't quite understand what that meant, but one day you just said, I'm gonna try it out.

I'm gonna surrender.

Your testimony might be just like mine.

You knew it and were led in it, but it didn't it didn't hit your heart.

You understood it in your head, but when when it came to the heart, you didn't feel it in your heart and it didn't stick.

So you couldn't maintain.

And somebody needs to know that.

Somebody needs to know that being a Christian is not just saying yes and all of a sudden you're changed.

They need to know that there is a walk, they need to know that there has to be some consistency, they need to know that they need some help, they need to know that they need to get into a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church.

They need to know that along the way they're gonna stumble, they're gonna fall.

But God loves them.

Never leave them.

They need to know that.

They need to know our struggles since we've been saved.

They need to know that we still mess up.

They need to know these things.

They need to know that every day we experience the grace of God.

And if it wasn't for his grace, we couldn't call ourselves saved.

We weren't fit to die, weren't fit to go to heaven.

But thank God that he was patient with us.

Patient with us.

So as the worship team sings, this song.

Make room, make room for God in your life, make room for the Holy Spirit to open up your mind, to open up your heart, to open up your thoughts.

Give thanks to God right now for his patience with you.

Give thanks to God.

Because when he could have destroyed you, he chose to save you.

Mr.

Worship team says.

Let us stand and worship those who desire prayer.

We invite you to come to pray.

That's that's brand decision partners for coming.