In the age of artificial intelligence, there is such a lack of authenticity. But we as Christians are called to live authentic lives! Authentic worship, authentic prayer, authentic interactions with each other! Join Pastor Kevin as he teaches the importance of authenticity and true connection as the Body of Christ. This message is part of our “AI: Artificial Interactions” series.
The prayer team, earlier this morning, we were gathered together to pray for you, and one of the team members said that the Lord today is lifting off heavy burdens. So if you came in kind of feeling like this, you get to walk out more like this. The Lord, his own name is the lifter of your head. So I pray today you feel the Lord lifting your head and encouraging you today.
Okay, brand new series today, authentic interactions. We live in the days of AI, artificial intelligence, but what we need is authentic interactions, right? We live in the day of artificial relationships where we get our boosts from our amount of likes or subscriptions in some of that, and people we don’t even know, what we long for is authentic interactions and authentic intimacy with real people. It’s interesting that a couple years ago there were two words that really were not in my vocabulary. A few years ago, now it’s been Covid and quarantine.
Never said those words. I even know what Covid was. I knew what a quarantine was. Kind of when these two words entered into the world, when the whole world entered into those two words, when that became part of the vocabulary, you know what happened? Everything went online.
And so we had, I mean, from school to business, Zoom meetings, to interact between people. It’s group me on liner Chattin and all this happened and it left a vacancy, a hole for authentic interactions. I want you to know this. God wired you. God made you.
God made me. He made us for authentic interactions, and that’s a really big deal. We’re gonna discover that in God’s word today. You get to acts chap after two yet. Okay, you got a couple more minutes just in case you didn’t.
You’ll get there. Doctor Gary Smalley, he was with us a few years back and he told the story that one time he was out turkey hunting with a friend and two guys. They are waiting, they see a turkey come down, a really big turkey, and he gets all excited. He raises up his gun, but he realizes something’s happening and I’ve just lost all my strength. Doesn’t understand why it’s that way.
His buddy looks at him and says, stop breathing so loud. It was really hard for him to breathe. And he ends up lowering his gun, thinking, what is going on? Why am I losing all my strength? And his buddy’s like, come on, shoot.
So he raises up his gun, he takes Aon’s shoots, and when he shot, the turkey fell over. And he fell over. He was having a heart attack. At age 61, he finds himself paralyzed, in pain, having a heart attack. And at that moment, he wasn’t thinking about, excuse me, all the conferences that he spoke at, all the books that he had written.
He was only thinking about one thing, my family. I want to talk to my family. His buddy picked him up, carried him to a truck. Eventually they had cell phone service. He called his wife and said, honey, said, hey, she said, I’m on the phone.
I’m gonna put you on hold.
Said, I’m gonna die on hold. How could this be? Well, he made it through that incident, and he says this. I learned something through that whole deal. I lived through it, but I learned this.
Life is relationships. Everything else is just the details.
For Gary Smalley, it took him a tragedy to cause him to realize, hey, I’ve got to adjust my life. I’ve got to shift my priorities. For a brilliant man, Doctor Gary Smalley, it took a tragedy for him to realize all that really matters is relationships, people. Doesn’t this sound like Jesus when he said, hey, here’s what matters. Love God and love people.
Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. Sounds a lot like Jesus here. I’m here today to tell you it doesn’t have to take a tragedy in life to cause you to begin to prioritize people the way Jesus does. We can begin to do that today. Again, God made you.
He wired you for authentic interactions. This takes us to God’s word because the first followers of Jesus, they got this, in fact, out of honor for God’s word, him speaking to us. Will you stand to your feet just for a moment as we read that in acts chapter two, we’ll start with verse 42 through 44. Kev, why are we standing? Well, when I was a young man, I was taught if you’re like in a waiting room, if a lady walks in, you stand to your feet, give you your seat.
Why? Out of respect. So out of respect for God’s word, we’re to stand into our feet? And here we go. Acts chter two ve 42.
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, and to sharing in meals, including the Lord’s supper and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over all of them.
I pray that even today a deep sense of awe comes over all of us. In September, we are going to start a series talking about the awe of God. What does it mean to live in the awe of God? And I pray even today, a deep sense of awe of who he is and what he’s capable of comes over all of us. And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders, and all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.
Let’s pray.
God, I thank you for your word today. Lord, I know that your word is active. It is alive. It is working in our lives today.
Lord, I pray that each one of us would take another step in our journey closer to you. And that has to mean also closer to each other.
I pray every person that’s caring heaviness today. God, I pray that you would be the lifter of their head today and you would lift off heavy burdens they came walking in with.
I pray their mind would be fixed on you. As a result of that, they would walk out of this house today in perfect peace. I pray that today in the powerful name of Jesus, to everybody downtown here at Christ’s road, if you are watching online, I speak. That is a blessing over you. In Jesus name, Amen.
God bless you. You may be seated. All the believers devoted themselves to this passage has always intrigued me. ##us I get some of it, but I don’t get all of it. All of the believers say all means everybody, right?
Everybody that was a follower of Jesus, a believer devoted, gave themselves to, committed themselves to, gave complete attention to a few things. I get why the apostles teaching the teaching of God’s word, we should give ourselves to this, right? It’s good for us. It’s good for our soul. I get why we should give ourselves to that.
I get why we should give ourselves to sharing in meals. I love to share a meal. I don’t look like it, but I love to eat. I get why you would give yourself completely to eating with people. I get that.
I get why we should give ourselves completely to prayer. Because prayer is the deciding factor in a spiritual conflict. Come on. We learn that prayer is not just one thing to do, it is the thing. It’s the winning factor in a spiritual conflict, all of which we’re in right now.
So I get why you’give yourself completely to that, but why would anybody give them, give themselves to this thing called fellowship? Why is that a big deal? Why is it so important that I commit myself and give complete attention to and pour my life into fellowship? What is that? Fellowship speaks of intimate bonds, authentic relationships between brothers and sisters in the Lord that we’re supposed to give ourselves completely to that, be devoted to that.
Why is that such a big deal? I think there’s nothing more important that I could throw my life into than loving God and loving others again. We were meant to experience, live, walk in an authentic relationship with Jesus. Not a religious experience, but an authentic, intimate, close up, personal relationship. In the old days, Denesis five, they called it walking in close fellowship with God.
I’m made for that. Come on. The whole world can’t contain God, but our bodies were meant to contain him. He would come and live in us, and we’re made for that. We’re also made for close relationships with each other.
You know what I found? It’s really easy to love people out there that you don’t know. It’s when you do know them, that’s when it gets a little bit harder. Anybody say amen? Come on.
But we’made by God for these authentic, really close relationships. And I think there’s nothing more important that I could throw my life into. Jesus said it again. Love God. Simplify it.
Love God and love people. Listen, there’s not a project, there is not a goal, there is not a ministry. There’s nothing better you could throw your life into. Be completely devoted to, other than loving God, knowing him personally and closely, and knowing people, loving them and being close to them. This is what the word of God teaches us.
Why is that so critical to us? That’s what we’re gonna talk about today. Let me give you, simply from God’s word, three critical reasons why it’s so important that we throw our lives into having these close, authentic interactions with people. Number one, being highly connected is a Biblical mandate. Number one, why should we do that?
Pastor? I have all that I have to do. Why should I do that? Because being highly connected to God and to each other is a Biblical command, a mandate. Jesus said in John 13:34, let me give you a new command.
Love one another in the same way I loved you. You love one another. Pause right there. Loving was not a new command. And Moses gave the command back.
The day a guy walked up to Jesus one day and said, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, well, you know the book. What did Moses say? What did the law of Moses require? He oh, I know that.
Because in his world, everybody knows that we’re supposed to love God. All of our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength, everything we have, we love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus said, right, you got it. Do that, and you’re going toa live. So loving God, loving people is not a new command.
Then what’s new? Oh, this is really important. Here’s the new part. Love one another period in the same way I have loved you. You love one another.
That’s the new part. Loving God and people is not new, but loving the same way that he loved, that’s what was new, a new commandment. This had to be mind blowing to the disciples because they watched the way he lived in that command to its new command to love the same way that Jesus loves.
That happened. It’s in between two significant events. He said that in between two events, the one event was Jesus washing the disciples feet. And then Jesus going to the cross to die, not for his sins, but for our. Here’s God humbling, humbling himself to wash his disciples feet.
And here’s God humbling himself, putting on human skin to take our place. Our punishment, what our sin deserves. God’s a just God, so sin had to be punished. So he said, I’ll take on that punishment in between those two events. He said, make sure you love the same way that I have loved you.
We read about that first event in John, chapter 13. We rewind the story just a little bit to verse one. Let’s read that together. Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he would love them to the very end.
It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and he would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a bas. And then he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with a towel that he had around him. This action of Jesus did not come with all the glamour, in the excitement, in the adrenaline that was there when he raised the little girl from the dead, it didn’t come with all the.
Yeah. When Jesus caused lame people to walk, deaf people to hear, blind people to see. And yet this would be a moment that would be etched in the minds of these disciples. They would never forget the moment for us. Like, if you came with certain.
Washing my feet, I would think, what in the world? I took a shower.
I’m good. Thank you. Yeah. You know. Cause for us, it’s not like a normal thing, but in that culture, it was normal.
When you gather in somebody’s house, what was normal was watch this. The lowest person on the social totem pole would wash the other’s feet. That’s what was common in those days. So the strange. The odd thing that we etched in their minds was, is that when they’re all sitting around already having said nobody would take the lowest place.
Why didn’t the disciples do that? Because they were too busy arguing about who would be the greatest. I’ll be the greatest. No, I wa want toa be the greatest. Can I be the greatest?
And while all that’s going on, Jesus, who is God, God’s son, divine, wrapped in human skin. He looked at that and said, you know what? I’m going toa show them the way love really is. I’m going to show them what love does. Love doesn’t.
You know, being great’s not bad, but how you get to great and what great looks like, that’s what you gota get, guys. And I’m about to show you what that looks like. And so he took on the form of a servant himself, and he took off his row, put on that towel, and walked one by one, began to wash their feet.
What does that tell us? It tells us a lot of things. One of which it tells us that if we’re gonna love like Jesus, we have to be first. He was the first to serve. If we’re gonna love like him, that’s the new command, love like him.
That’s the Biblical mandate. To love like him means I’ve got to be the first to serve. I’ve got to be the first to say I’m sorry. By the way, when you say you’re sorry, you might wa wantn add, I’m sorry. Add this.
It’ll give an extra punch to it. I was wrong because I did this. And by the way, if you ever use the word but in the midst of a sentence of I’m sorry, you just ruined everything. Do you know that I’m sorry, butup, you ve ruined it. Forget it.
It doesn’t even matter anymore. Pre, no, you have to be the first to be humble and say, I’m sorry, I was wrong. Be the first to serve.
Be the first to say hi. Nobody says hi to me. Will you be the first? Why don’t you just be the first to say hi to somebody else? I would say be the first to show mercy.
We learned last week that mercy is more kindness than we deserve. Why don’t we be the first to show mercy? Aren’t you glad that you and I, we get to be recipients of more kindness than we deserve? Aren’t you glad you only get the kindness you deserve? I’m so glad I get kindness that I don’t deserve.
And we should be the first to show mercy, the first to show forgiveness, the first to cover somebody’s sins, not pointed out mercy.
When we love like Jesus, we aren’t looking at what somebody did wrong. We’re looking at what they did right. If we’re going to love for Jesus love like Jesus, mistakes aren’t rubbed in, they’re rubbed out. Did you know that? It’s crazy what the blood blots out.
Our sinful nature wants to point out.
My mom was raised in a very strict environment. She was adopted at age nine, and her adopted family was just very strict. And she would say, dad, come. Her father would come home from work and he would put on a white glove to go check to see if they dusted good enough. Did they get everything?
Crazy, isn’t it? You didn’t do this right. Listen, we would be so better off if we’point out what somebody did right, not what they did wrong, what they got right, not what they missed. This is probably why my mom was so lenient with us. She had three berry boys and, I mean, doing family chores was.
She’d make it fun, sweet. The living room. Okay. I get a vacuum. She throws money all over the.
Oh, okay, sure. Yeah. What else? Sweep. Anything else?
Maybe it’s ca becausee things were so strict where she was. I don’t know. But I know this. To love like Jesus, we’re quick to show mercy, more kindness than people deserve.
Your marriage, every relationship you have could go to a whole new level. If you grab onto just this one thing, I’m gonna be the first to serve everything. Go to a whole new love. You grab on just that one thing. Galatians 5:13 14 says, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
For the whole law can be summed up into this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. I wonder what was it like for Jesus to wash the feet of Judas? You ever think about that? It doesn’t say he wased specifically Judas’speet, but he does say he wased all the disciples.
And Judas was there.
It seems like as he was wased, when it comes to Jesus, it seems like he would have said, why? What’s wrong with you? I can’t believe you do that. He knew that Judas was a thief. He knew the Judas was gonna betray him and that betrayal would lead to the crucifixion.
He wased his feet. Well, it doesn’t say that he took, like, a scrub brush, Brillo pad. Clean the your feet. Does it say he did that? Just says more kindness than he deserved.
He picked up his feet, watched him.
One Corinthians 14 one says, let love be your highest goal. Let love be your highest aim. In the context, apostle Paul is talking about spiritual gifts, how we should eagerly desire spiritual gifts. And I thank God that we had to experience spiritual gifts in this house and among this family. I thank God for an outbreaking of miracles, signs and wonders that we get to hear stories about all the time.
But I want to remind you, church, family, that God has God of order. And the order goes like this. First comes love. Let your biggest goal be love.
Okay, number two, three critical reasons why we should throw ourself into loving God and loving each other deeply. Number two is being highly connected is key to your personal growth. Did you know that? Being highly connected is key to your own growth. I was flipping through my phone the other day looking at pictures, and I found some of my old school photos.
Everybody remember picture day? I never liked picture day, but I remember when I was young enough that I didn’t care. Cause I didn’t think there’s a day we didn’t think about what we looked like. Who cares? Whatever.
So that’s kindergarten. And then. Then first, this is my worst first grade. Like what happened in first grade. I have teeth.
They’re just jacked up, like they’re in there, but they’re just all a mess. And then that had to be second grade or third. I don’t know where we’re at now. Maybe that’s third. And then I began to be more human and more normal.
Isn’t this crazy how we all go through an awkward stage? Aren’t you glad we don’t stay in the awkward stage of life? Come on. We get to grow out of the awkward stage. And I’m telling you today that God designed you.
I’ve said it so many times, we’re not meant to just grow old. We’re meant to grow up. And the big thing about you growing up in the faith, that scene in how you love, and we’re never meant to just grow old, but never grow up. We’re meant to grow up to get out of the awkward stages of life. And again, our spiritual growth is seen in the way that we love.
We see this in God’s word, Ephesians 4:14 and 15. God wants us to grow up to know the whole truth and tell it in love, like Christ in everything, so that we will grow up healthy in God. Here it is. Robust in love. Robust in love.
So my question is, is your love for others increasing? It’s not increasing. You have a growth problem. Because as we groww up in Christ that s seen in our love for other people, specifically those that are closer to us. Again, it’s easier to let people out there that we don’t even know.
Right after Jesus told his disciples about this new commandment to love in the same way that I have loved you, you love that way. He then said this, your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
Your love for one another will prove to the whole world. Our love for each other is supposed to be so radically different from the rest of this world that it stands out as proof that we are Jesus followers. It should be such that man only Jesus followers love that much. They only forgive that much. They only show more kindness than has deserved that much.
Henry Cloud said, the soul cannot prosper without being connected to others. And here’s my prayer for you today. It’s found in one thessalians, chapter three, ver twelve. And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. May he, as a result, make your heart strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God or Father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again with all of his holy people.
So I pray that your love for each other and all people, it would grow and it would overflow. And did you catch this?
And may he, as a result, may God as a result, make your hearts strong.
Did you know that the way you love people is connected to your own heart being strong?
Research shows that there’s a part of your brain that receives love and gives love that is actually tied to your physical heart. Tied to your heart is how we give love and how we receive heart. Receive love that affects our physical heart. There’s no such thing as a neutral relationship in your life. Your friendships are either nurturing growth or a weakness in you.
I say it like this, relationships are like elevators. They either take you up or take you down, but they’re taking you somewhere, right?
Tomorrow Renee and I are gonna head off to Ohio. We’re gonna go to Skivby, Ohio. No, it’s not sc skib, Ohio. It’s haocking Hills, Ohio. If you don’t know what ScIb is, just, you know, that’s okay.
Just hang with me. There’s a place called haockking hills, Ohio we’re gonna go to. And we’re taking a couple of bigs with us. It’ll be family time. And this is a big deal because you know what we’ll do at some point?
We will sit down at a table and have a meal together. Did you know that for largely what used to be called a kitchen or dining room table, where we would have authentic interactions, that’s been replaced by a couch and a tv. So now, instead of sitting and actually having authentic interactions with each other, people sit on a tv and watch artificial interactions. It’s not even a real story. We’re missing the story of our own families.
So whether it’s sitting at a table or whether it’s sitting around a fire, we’re going to enjoy some authentic interactions. And this is good. It helps us grow. It’s part of the way we grow is by having these authentic interactions with godly people. Number three, three critical reasons we should throw our whole lives into loving God, being highly connected to him and highly connected to people.
Number three, being highly connected is the prayer of Jesus for you. Being highly connected to God and each other. That’s a prayer, the prayer of Jesus for you. We read about it in John 17, verse 20. Jesus said, I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
I pray they will all be one, just as you and I are one. As you are in me, Father, and I’m in you. May they be in us. So the whole world will believe that you sent me there. It is the prayer of Jesus, God’s son, for you.
So I’m praying not just for the disciples. Right here. I am praying for all those that will believe out there in the future. They’ll believe their message. That’s us.
And the prayer is that we would be one, just like God and Jesus are one. I want them to be one with each other, just like that. The Lord knew where there’s greater unity, there will be greater anointing. You can read about it in Psalms 1:33. It’s a place that God commands a blessing.
The Lord knew with greater unity that our burdens would be lighter, that where there’s proper relationships, where we are living, connected.
Galatians six two says, share or carry each other’s burdens and in this way obey the law of Christ, that if we live closer, come on. We are going to carry somebody else’s stuff and make their whole life lighter.
Have you noticed that we don’t ask each other for help? Enough. I was talking to a friend on Friday and said, hey. I said, who’s lived in a different state? I said, who’s your friendship circle?
Who’s near you that you can ask for help? I don’t want to ask people for help. So how will they know you need help unless you ask them? Why don won’t we just ask for help?
I remember years ago, I was changing a light fixture in our dining room, and I’m not a master fix it, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, right? So I just have to do this and hopefully I won’t electrote myself. And I got all this stuff there, and I got the thing up there. I’m standing on our dining room table, and I’ve got the light fixture up there and it’s almost screwed in. I’ve got one more screw to go.
But the screwdriver’down there, how am I going to get that? I can’t reach down caus I got to hold that thing up or that will fall down. And so I took. I didn’t have my shoes on, so I took my toes, I grabbed that screwdriver.
Renee was in the. All I had to do is say, renee, will you help me? Why not? Why do we do that?
Come on, we can’t carrybody else’s burden. Unless, if we don’t know about it, it’s okay to ask for help. It’s great to give help. The Lord knew we would thrive in an environment with close relationships with God and with each other. We will thrive there.
That’s why we have life groups, it’s why we encourage you, man. You want to get connected, that’s why we have growth tracks. So that is your on ramp to being connected at Mount Hope. We want to connect you in a relational environment where you’re going to have community, friendships, family. Get to know the family of God.
So important. I hope some of you would consider in this season, becoming a host of a life group. See, I don’t know if I can do that. If you can open up your home, if you can love on people, you can so do that. Why don’t be part of.
Listen, if God has lifted your burden, why don’t be part of lifting somebody else’s life by simply open up your home and make a space for authentic interactions to take place.
This amazes me. Jesus said, I want all this unity and oneness so that the world will believe you sent me.
Jesus hinged the whole world knowing that he was sent by God on the unity we walk in. What a big deal. The lost believing in our behavior is connected. Let me wrap up with a story. When 911 happened, this terrorist attack on american soil killed thousands of people for the most part, unless you lived in New York, you didn’t think about the New York fire Department.
But suddenly, the New York fire Department became headline news.
Somebody put a big sign of thanks, a big banner across the fire department of New York, and it said this said thank you. When others ran out, you ran in. When others ran out of the towers that were burning, you guys ran in. And I’m here to tell you, friend, we’re meant to be the people in somebody’s life when everybody else ran out, we’re the ones that are supposed to run in when they feel like I’ve got nobody and I’m abandoned or whatever it is. Like we’re the ones that get to run in.
Is this not what Jesus has done for us? That when we could not help ourselves, he didn’t run away from our mess. He ran into it. He ran into the fire of our lives to give us a whole new life.
So how about we go and do that? Come on, let’s go do that today.
Let’s pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word today.
God, I know that your word is active. It’s alive inside of us.
Lord, I ask that you would pour out, God, would you pour out your love into our hearts and our lives today? That we would. Even as we experience water baptism today, I pray we would be totally immersed in the love of God today.
Lord, I pray you would give us wisdom. As we enter into this whole new series. Like today, we get the why that matters. God, throughewout the rest of the series, teach us how. How do we do that?
How do I slow down life to grab ah, hold of that?
How do we shift our priorities to make your priorities, our priorities to make what matters most to you matter most to us. And I pray for every person at the sound of my voice, God, I pray you would take each one of us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with you and with each other. And God, we would feel your pleasure in the midst of that, if your eyes closed and nobody looking around, if you would say, pastor, God, will you pray for me? Because I want to know that my sins are forgiven, that I’ve made my peace with God.
Listen, for you, your next step is having that authentic relationship with God. It’s not enough to know all the right things about him. You have to receive. There has to be a moment where you receive what Jesus did for you. He died in your place, and you have to receive.
And the Bible says to as many as received him heave them the power and the right to become God’s children. So if you would say today, Pastor Gab. I need to receive what Jesus did for me. That’s your next step right now. If you would say pray that Perth with me, Pastor Kev.
Whether that’s downtown campus online or right here at Christchield, if you would say pastor, pray for me. Been waiting for this moment right here. So if that’s you, I’m gonna come to three. When I say three, I’m gonna simply ask you, shoot your hand up and wave it at me so I can see who you are and pray with you. Are you ready?
Without any delay, here we go. One, two, three. If that’s you, shoot your hand up and it’s waving at me so I can see you. Yep. I got you, friend.
Thank you and thank you. Thank you. I see you. Thank you. Any more real quickly to help me.
If you wayigh but help me see you. Thank you. Gotcha, gota, gotcha. Got you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
In balcony okay, I didn’t okay, for those that I saw and those that I didn’t see, the Lord saw that. He sees your heart. You know more than he sees our hands. Wayit. He sees your heart.
And I’m gonna ask you do one more thing. Bible says that Jesus died publicly for us and we’re to make a public confession of our faith in him. And we do that through what we saw today. Water baptism also can be a moment like this where we publicly say Lord publicly. I’m making it public that I’m receiving Jesus today.
So if you rose your hand and said, I wanna pray that prayer with you. Pastor Calv, I’m gonna ask you to do one more thing. Would you please, just so I will be able to see you eyeball the eyeball and pray with you, not from a distance, would you please stand your feet and come on down here so I can see you eyeball the eyeball. We’ll pray together. Come on, give them the head as they come.
Come on, stand up and come on down. We’ll pray together in just a minute. Thank you. Thank you so much. God bless you.
Thank you, thank you. God bless you. What’s your name? God bless you. Congratulations.
God bless you. See you. Sw. Love you. All right, here we go.
Thank you. God bless you and we all. Help me. Do me a favor, will you please? And everybody asks the person on your right and on your left Belalcon to do this too, will you?
And they say, do you need to be down there and pray with pastor of covvenant? They say, yes. Say, I’ll go with you. Y’all do that right now. Come on, everybody do that.
You’re right in your left. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, sir.
God bless you. Okay, let’s pray. Come on. Here’s the deal. Jesus did all the heavy lifting.
We’re simply receiving what he did for us right now. Okay, so will you pray this with me? Say, say something like this. Say father in heaven. Say it again.
Father in heaven, I thank you for your son, Jesus. I believe that he died, was buried, and he rose from the dead. Jesus, I thank you that you gave your life for me. And now I give my life to you. Everything that I am and allth that I hope to be, I belonged to you.
And I thank you, Jesus, that my sins are forgiven. I’m turning from sin and I’m turning to you, Jesus, thank you that I’m adopted into your family and I have a brand new start in life, and that starts right now. Amen. Come on, give the Lord a shout of praise than you. Thank you.
God bless you. Hey, let’s do this. You know, we clap and we celebrate, because the Bible says when one person does exactly what you did today, all of heaven goes bananas. They start throwing a party. Woo.
So we’re just joining in this celebration, right? I want to encourage you, all those of you that pray with me, everything that you did wrong in the past, it’s in the past, completely done. God doesn’t remember it. He cast it as far as the eastis from the west, so you don’t have to bring it up. You’re not try and drag that stuff around anymore.
Let him, from this moment on, begin to untangle all the messes the life has made. He’ll start to untangle all that stuff. Okay, I have a book that I want to give you. It’s a gift from me to you. And can I ask you to do this, if you will?
Chris, can you walk? Walk. If you would walk out this way. I simply want to put a gift in your hand. If you want further prayer, pray with you.
If not, you can come right back in with everybody else. Will you please just go this way, grab that gift, and then you’ll come right back in, give them a hand and say go. Will you please? Thank you so much. Bless.
Tired? Be sure. Bet you are, girl. God bless. Good to see you.
Okay, would y’all stand to your feet? Pleased, Lord, I thank you. Forgive us. An example of what it looks to love like you, from a servant washing feet to a servant dying.
God, how could we ever, how could we ever love like you unless you put your love inside of us? That’s what we’re asking for today God. That’s what we’re asking for today.
Lord, give us divine appointments between us and other people you have arranged.
Let us be the people that are running into somebody’s world this week.
God, I ask this. I pray for your smile of favor to rest on this family. I pray that your hand is on this family. I pray that you take everything the enemy meant for their bad and you would turn it all around for their good. For this family, I pray this in the powerful and name of Jesus Christ.
Amen. Let’s go love some folks. God bless you. We’ll see you. Hello and thank you for joining us.
I hope you enjoyed that message of hope and have been encouraged in your relationship with Jesus Christ. What is the next step God’asking you to take? I would encourage you to check out growth track. It’s our delight to come along your side and help you reach your full kingdom potential to give. Now you can simply click give on our website or text any amount to 84321.
It is your faithful giving that allows us to continue to preach the gospel and make disciples from our neighborhoods to the nations of the world. Thank you and God bless.