Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Inglewood.
Good to see everybody this morning.
I know that some of you are fighting it off.
We've had several reports of folks with flu still and the
weather's weird. Somebody told me some snowflakes
are possible this afternoon. Have you all heard that?
Let's just, let's just cast that off, cast that out, pray against
that or something. But what was it, 75 yesterday
and now we're going to anyway. North Carolina, That's it.
Listen, let me give you an update.
Turn to Nehemiah Chapter 8. I'll catch up to you in just a
second. Let me give you a quick update
on our friends overseas. So our friends in South Asia, if
you're a guest here today, and we do have some guests here,
some friends of ours or even here from another church, we
appreciate you being here and appreciate the rest of you
coming. So, so our friends were facing
some legal issues overseas and they had two legal issues
they're dealing with. I can't go into a lot of detail
about all that. One of the issues was whether or
not they could leave to renew their visa, which was a big deal
there. They had passed the expiration
date on that. And because of some of the other
issues, they didn't think they were going to be allowed to do
that. In fact, when they went into the
judge, the chances of that being approved were very, very low.
Well, they were stunned. We are stunned in the fact that
the judge did approve it. And so, yeah, you can clap for
that. So what that means there's still
some other things that are going on legally there.
But what that means is they're going to be able to leave to get
that visa renewed and they'll be more to that story.
But that's all the part of the story I can share right now in
this situation. So come Wednesday night, and
I'll share a little more with you and I'll keep you updated on
that. But just continue to pray that
the judge hadn't written the ruling yet.
This was done on Friday. The ruling gets written
hopefully by tomorrow. Hopefully nothing happens in
between those two times for that to continue to move forward.
So we've been praying for that and thankful for that.
So there you go. All right.
So several years ago, my oldest son, our oldest son and I were
on a trip to Brazil and we were going through the Miami airport.
And so we had to get to get from Oklahoma to Florida.
We did that part and we're in Miami.
We get on the plane, it's an overnight flight.
And I remember being really happy because we had good seats.
Now that may not seem like a big deal to you, but when you're
shaped like I am, it's a big deal.
And so I was very happy we had good seats.
I was excited. I was telling Josh, I said, man,
this is going to be great. So we're going to go to sleep
because it's, you know, going to be an all night long thing to
get down there. They're about 30 something in
the group I was helping to lead scattered around that airplane.
And so we start to take off. It's night time dark already.
So, you know, just get me in the air and let me go, you know, see
if I can sleep, which I don't ever do on planes anyway, but
we'll pretend like I do. So here we go.
Front of the planes, off it, off the ground.
I mean it's and you're leaning back the front of the planes off
and then suddenly something goes wrong.
It's the only time I've ever experienced this out of I don't
know how many hundreds or thousand flights I've been on.
He hits his brakes, the front of the plane comes slamming down,
and we're kind of skidding down the runway in this big.
I mean, it's a big jet, you know?
And when he did that, one of the tires underneath one of the
wings blew and caught on fire. Now, I don't know if you know
where the fuel tank is on a big airliner, but it's in the wing.
And so now there's a live fire underneath the gas tank on this
airplane. And so today I think the
procedure would have been quite different.
Even though there was a fire and you could see the light from
the, I wasn't on that side of the plane, but some of our group
was and they were expressing to me quite, quite loudly that
we're on fire. Now, I don't know what the
decision was to do this, but we were casually taxiing back to
the gate. In today's world, I'm sure that
we would have been sliding down some slide and they'd have had a
foam truck out there, but that's not the way it was in those
days. So we're we're taxing back the
gate while we're on fire. Underneath the fuel tank, smoke
is visible. Smoke is now beginning to fill
the cabin of the plane. I'm yelling out orders of
everybody grabbed their passport because I knew we weren't going
to be able to grab all our luggage.
But get your passport. You might need that later.
So make sure you get that. People are starting to scream
now. People are starting to panic
now. What?
What are we going to do now? And that was just the beginning
of the journey. Don't you want to go on a
mission trip with me to Brazil in the fall?
No, I heard, I'll come back to that story later.
Listen, I preached from today's passage back in September.
I'm very aware of that. September 14th when I was
introducing the Come Live, the Church's vision series, and I
was talking about our seven essentials of discipleship.
We were talking about how do we engage the Bible with a humble
and teachable spirit out of this passage.
But there's so much here. I need to come back to that and
I will in just a moment. And, and, and, and we've been
teaching the same thing on Wednesday nights about how do we
engage the Bible that now available on podcast.
This Wednesday, we're going to continue what Pastor Charles
started last week. Appreciate Pastor Charles doing
that. We're talking about abiding in
prayer with dependence and anticipation this week on
Wednesday night. We had great crowds on Wednesday
night. Appreciate you coming.
And we're going to talk about why do we even pray?
What, what is why, how does prayer even matter?
And so you need to come back. I'll be sharing about that, but
there's so much in chapter 8. We've got to come back and I
need to share more from a totally different angle than I
did back in September because we need to listen to the learn from
God concerning his restoration. And so God sent Nehemiah back to
build the walls. We've been talking about that
for weeks. He obeys in the face of this
great opposition and and the mission was accomplished, but
now what? So what to what was that
supposed to lead the the walls done.
Now what? Listen, every great calling from
God, every mission from God, every purpose from God leads to
something more, leads to something even greater, leads to
something that lasts. And so this was there was
obviously a very practical side to building the walls.
They needed protection from their enemies.
They also need to create. You needed to create a livable
space for all the people who hadn't come back from the exile
yet. There are a whole bunch of
people still coming, and they needed to clean up the mess.
It was a mess. I mean, there are rocks in front
of the gates, the roadways are destroyed, things are burned
down. They got to clean up that mess
up. So there's some practical side
to it, but there was also this spiritual testimony of what God
promised prior to the exile, fulfilling the fact that he was
going to bring his people back and restore them in the city.
So there's this incredible spiritual dynamic, and God's
promises are always sure, they're always guaranteed.
But now what? Here we are.
We have the city again. We have a temple again, we have
some cool walls. Now what do we do?
Is that it? Is that all there is to it?
Well, quoting the great theologian Andy Griffith, he
once said you don't milk a cow just to get strong fingers.
So there had to be more. There's more to it than that.
What should all of this effort, all of this work, all of this
time, all of this effort, what should this actually produce?
Is there not something that ought to come out of this?
God, I worked hard. I prepared all I can for
whatever you want might want next.
So what's next? If you're at Inglewood, you say,
you know, you sent this crazy preacher who screams at us all
the time about 100% participation.
He talks about the future that that you have for us and how we
move forward. I mean, he's even made me go to
a connect group. And don't you love it?
Thank you very much. I mean, we're seeing people say
we're seeing people baptized every week.
More people are here than there were a year ago on average.
I mean, is that it? Is that all this?
Have we arrived? Surely we can just rest now?
Surely we can relax a little bit.
Surely we can just get comfortable.
Surely we're big enough. We we have enough.
I mean, we have new mission and vision statements, We have cool
wall art, we're making funny videos on social media.
I mean, we got the seven essentials, we got the core 5,
we got 100%. I mean, what, what else would we
want? We're done, right?
Surely this is this. What else could we we seek out?
We've arrived. I mean, the reason you build a
wall is just have a wall, right? So what do we do now?
Well, this is just the beginning of our journey.
Less than a week after they finished the wall, they gathered
the people for their next steps. They they gathered for revival.
And that's what we need to talk about for a minute.
What does that mean? What does it look like for them?
Look at chapter 8, verse one. It says and all the people
gathered as one man into the square before the Watergate.
And they told Ezra the scribe to reading the book of the Law of
Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel.
So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both
men and women and all who could understand what they heard on
the first day of the 7th month. And he read it from, read it,
read from it facing the square before the Watergate from early
morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the
women and those who could understand.
And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of
the Law. Pay attention to that last part.
See the first thing if if we're going to experience revival,
we're going to experience the future that God has for us.
We're going to experience who we're supposed to be.
The first thing we've got to do is connect to and with the word
of God. There's nothing clever about
that, nothing fancy about that. It's just the truth.
All the people came, all, all of them.
Every seat was full, anticipating, eager for what was
next. Notice that phrase in the ears
of all the people were attentive to the book of the Law.
That word attentive means to be toward it, means to be into it.
They were into it. They were toward it.
They were to it. In other words, they were.
They were focused upon it so much.
They were drawn to it, directed to it, focused upon it,
connected to it. They understood it's great
value. They were hungry for it, wide
open for it, desperate for what God would tell them next through
His Word. They'd missed it.
Some of them didn't know it because of the exile.
Some of them need to be reminded of it because of the exile.
Just like maybe some of us, some of you.
So they were mesmerized to hear the truth.
Their attention could not be broken.
I mean, they were as much into something as somebody can be
into something. So focused, soaking, feeding,
being nourished by the word of God.
Nothing fancy, nothing clever, no funny stories, no
illustrations, no fantastic purple shirt.
Just the word. I don't know why you all like
this shirt so much. I get more compliments.
Purple. I don't know what they do.
When was the last time you were that into it?
Starving, longing, listening just for a word from God.
I don't know how you came here this morning.
Are you bored? And with what I would call
static redundancy. Static means there's no movement
redundancy. We're just going through the
same old, same old. We're just running through the
same old cycles. It's it's church.
It's church, check. Sunday, check.
I went to Connect group because I'm scared not to because he
might bite me, check. Just one more thing on the
schedule, check. Just one more choice among 1000
choices, check. Is this all that it has to
become? Or, or maybe that's all it ever
was. Maybe you've been raised in this
your whole life and it's frankly boring.
There's nothing to it anymore. It's kind of like signing up to
be a volunteer at the concession stand at the ball game.
You know, it's something you got to do when you're a parent or
something you got to do when you volunteer.
You sign up to work at the concession stand and and you
enjoy the free snow cone every now and then.
But frankly, you're kind of glad when it's over with.
It's my time. It's our turn to go work because
it's our turn to go work the ticket booth.
It's our turned. It is.
Do we take all this for granted? Do you take Joseph for granted,
his baptism for granted, his life change for granted?
Is this just old hat because it's happening every week?
Are you focused, connected, ready to soak it all up and in?
Are you really ready for His Word to change You, you, us?
Their past was really painful when you think about it.
I mean, they've been through a lot.
Their past was painful and maybe yours is too.
You know, maybe the past is hard.
I, I fight a lot of ghosts from the past in my ministry.
It's a part of it, especially when I come into churches, I
fight a lot of ghosts from the past, but I also know how to
bust ghosts and I know who I'm going to call feed each day on
His word. Take full advantage of every
word opportunity. Take it every advantage of every
word opportunity you possibly can in your life and here at
this church. Be here.
Be engaged in every opportunity you can to engage this word.
His word is alive, it's transformative, it's life
changing. So in your home, in your private
time and your corporate time, unite around it and join others
because of it. Grow as a disciple in it.
Serve because of your obedience to it, because we're all in this
together. And so you find your connection
with the body of Christ. You find your connection with
the body of Christ not, not in a person, not in a performance,
not in a program, not in a perceived past.
You've got to find that connection.
Because of the principles of God's Word and God's will.
People will have good and bad days.
They'll fail you. Some performances will be better
than others. Programs alone can become very
boring and and the past will fade away.
And if that's all you're judging, then this becomes a
competition rather than a commitment.
This one was better than this one, so I'll go to that one.
I like that better than this one.
So. So living for them will become
roller coasters rather than passive righteousness.
There must be more that brings us together and binds us with
Him and His bride. So if you're not experiencing
that sense of awe about God's Word, whose fault is that?
Listen to and long to hear from Him.
The revival of God's people, the movement of God's people,
demands it. It always begins with it.
Look at verse 5 it says and Ezra opened the book in the sight of
all the people for he was above all the people as he opened it
and all the people stood and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great
God and all the people answered Amen, Amen.
Lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worship
the Lord with their faces to the ground.
We've not not only do unite around the world the Word, but
we've also got to respond and worship with all and surrender.
This is actually one of our seven essentials of
discipleship. We got to respond in this kind
of worship, to focus and to connect, to truly listen to God
will lead us to acknowledge who God really is.
Ezra gives praise. He gives thanks.
Notice the phrase to the Lord, the great God, and the people
bowed and the people praised him and worship.
This isn't just some God. This is just not another God.
This is not just the God we happen to choose to serve today.
This is the Lord, the great God, the one and the only, no one
else. Nothing is greater.
No one is greater. Literally.
He is both Jehovah, the Lord, and he is God, Elohim.
He is both. He is great.
He is literally higher. He is literally more.
He is literally mighty. There's nothing that compares to
him, nothing that can compete with him, but he'll guide you
and direct your steps if you'll listen to Him.
So the people respond with the only appropriate response.
They cry out, Amen, Amen. So be it.
Yes, yes.
Turn to somebody and say so be it.
They reached their hands up. Notice what they did.
They reached their hands up and they bowed their heads down,
both honor and submission all at once.
Overwhelmed, they continued to worship that way with their
faces on the ground. That's how they worshipped.
Have you really biblically, honestly worshipped yet today?
Or if you just kind of gone through the static redundancy?
We sang a song like that one, like that one better than the
last one. They sang that one better than
they did the other one. Can't believe he's wearing that
purple shirt again. AW, Tozer once wrote, Keep your
feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will.
Refuse to be average and to surrender to the chill of your
spiritual environment. When we're prepared to
acknowledge and hear from God, our response is going to be this
teachable and reachable spirit. It's amazing that it's ready to
have communion with Him. Are we ready to hear?
Are we ready to respond or, or do we just take it all for
granted? I went to church today.
Didn't get much out of it. Well, that's the wrong question.
How much did you put into it? Did did you come with yourself
sitting on the throne of your life, hoping to be pleased?
Well, I liked that part. Didn't really care for that
part. He just preaches the same thing
every week. I don't know why he didn't do
something different. Or or or or do you come
submitting yourself completely, desperately?
Listen to these words desperately, passionately to the
one who really sits on the throne, hoping to best learn
from him and to actually please him instead of yourself.
Where are you? They were hungry, they were
starving, they were seeking. Look at verse the second part of
verse seven. I'm not going to read all those
names today. I did that back in September,
and I heard your judgement. Hebrew names, the Levites help
the people to understand the law.
While the people remained in their places.
They read from the book, from the law of God, clearly, and
they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.
We got to unite around this word.
We've got to respond and worship to Him, but we also need to help
one another with discipleship. We're in this together.
They helped one another to understand.
And I talked a whole lot more about that in September.
But sometimes the church and even the Bible uses terms or
images that are hard to understand for some people.
For some, they can't understand them yet because they're lost.
They have spiritual blindness and they need the Holy Spirit to
help them even understand some of these things.
Others are new believers or have never been exposed to to
discipleship or taught about some of the churchy theological
words that are used. We mean we must never assume.
It's fascinating to me with these midweek studies, how often
somebody comes up to me after whatever we've done, whether
it's theological triage or it's a, it's a doctrinal study or
it's a practical discipleship study that we're doing.
And people will come up to me and say thank you for doing
this. Nobody has ever taught me this
before now. Maybe they haven't, or maybe
they have, but for some reason it's sunk in this time.
Never assume. Never take anything for granted.
Teresa will tell you, and I've mentioned her vaguely to you
before, but in one of the early churches I pastored, we had an
older lady named Renee Douglas. She's passed away now, but Renee
lived up on the mountain, and Renee had no electricity.
Renee had no running water, and she had dirt floors in her home
and she sat right there. And whenever I preached on
Sunday morning, I often thought to myself, can Renee understand
this? Can she relate to this in any
way whatsoever? We must never assume a healthy
disciple of Jesus is going to engage the Word of God humbly,
personally with a teachable spirit, as we've been discussing
in our midweek and in our podcast, etcetera.
But they're also going to long to sit under teaching.
And that's why you need to take advantage of every word.
Opportunity. Don't take each other for
granted. We're always intended to be
together, and so we have to help each other grow in our personal
discipleship. And one of the questions is
whether you're growing or not, why or why not?
But another question for some of you who have been Christians for
a long time. Who are you personally
discipling right now? Who are you discipling?
Who are you helping along the way?
How are you helping your family? How are you helping your
friends? How are you helping your
neighbors? How are you helping your
coworkers? How are you helping your
classmates to listen to God and to learn what He wants from
their lives? How are you helping the next
generation? We've got brilliant workers in
leadership who work in our preschool and children in
student areas, and they're teaching.
They're not babysitters, they're teachers.
They're disciples of the next generation.
How are we helping them to hear? We must help others to
understand and to observe all that He has commanded if we're
actually fulfilling the whole Great Commission.
This isn't about just making converts.
This is about making disciples. So revival demands an
acknowledgement of this truth. It demands the recognition and
submission to the proper person sitting on the throne of your
life. So some of you might need to
give up a seat and let the Lord, the great God take his proper
place in your life, that that might be what you need to do
today. Because some of you may have
been holding him in arm's length, thinking somehow you're
in charge of something, thinking that you own something, thinking
that something's yours when nothing is.
Life belongs to Him. Your heartbeat belongs to Him.
Your ability to breathe belongs to Him.
Listen to verse 9. It says, and Nehemiah who was
the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the
Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, this day
is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep for all the
people wept as they heard the words of the law.
Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat, drink sweet
wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this
day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of
the Lord is your strength. You ought to know that part.
So the Levites calmed all the people saying be quiet, for this
day is holy. Do not be grieved.
Notice how many times they proclaim that day is holy.
Because the fourth thing we just need to recognize in order to
move forward, in order to be the people He wants us to be, in
order to expense the revival and restoration and transformation,
we've got to understand what conviction, confession,
repentance, and rejoicing look like.
The people are overwhelmed. The people are just overwhelmed.
God pierces their hearts and souls with the truth.
They couldn't. They couldn't and they wouldn't
deny it. Taking nothing for granted this
time, no false throne claiming at this point this was
authentic, this was real. This was as clear as it could be
be. It was honest.
I remember years ago being in the Cayman Islands.
Now we're originally from Oklahoma.
We don't have ocean in Oklahoma, so going to the ocean was a big
deal. And I remember being in the
Cayman Islands and I remember standing in water up to my chin
and I remember being able to look down and see my toenails
and I thought to myself, I've never seen water this clear in
my entire life. Went scuba diving in the Caymans
and came nose to nose, face to face with a 300 LB grouper at
about 60 feet down. That was exciting.
He also made me hungry. But that level of transparency
was amazing. That's what he's calling for.
No pretense, no pride, no ego, no more worry about what
somebody else is going to think about me.
How do I respond? Honestly, authentically,
transparently before the Lord God?
They wept over their sin. I don't know the last time you
ever wept over your sin. They wept over their sin.
They wept over the things that they had done they shouldn't
have been doing and the things they should have been doing that
they weren't doing. Honest recognition, honest
conviction. This was necessary for his
restoration for revival to take place.
It's not always pleasant. It's not what we want.
It's not what we look forward to.
It's not what I thought was going to happen to me today.
What in the world's happening this morning.
But when the Holy Spirit strikes, confession and
repentance are prerequisites for His new movement in your life.
So they were confronted with the truth of God's perfect holiness.
Honestly saw themselves. They saw their sin.
So they surrendered their self-control.
They surrendered their self determined directions and
destinations. They surrendered any other
definitions or opinions of what they thought was right.
They surrendered their will to God's will.
And that is a much bigger deal than you might think.
Never, ever take the residual strength of your own will and
how it might hold you back from being fully His for granted.
It's a powerful thing when you're confronted by the
holiness of God's Word. Listen to Him speaking to your
heart and soul and humbly submit to Him, because that's when
revival is moving closer. Englewood The day was holy.
It was holy. It was holy.
Set apart for God. What about right now?
Is this a holy moment for you? Is this moment his separated?
Set apart for him? Not about what's for lunch, Not
about what's on, What's the weather?
Not about His is it for Him. You're ready to receive Him.
You're ready for joy to strengthen you, His joy to be
your strength, right? So God wasn't done with him.
He does. He's not done with us.
They were giving one more opportunity.
So are we. We don't ever take that for
granted. Surrender control, surrender
pride, surrender ego and receive His joyous strength in your life
to transform you. Now that should sound wonderful
and freeing. Many of you may be here and
you're broken. You need restoring, you need
healing, you need empowerment. So, so surrender and prepare
yourself for revival to join Him and His grace and His
forgiveness and His purpose for you.
Grace gave them this moment to recognize and receive Him.
But the story wasn't quite overlook at verse 12, it says.
And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send
portions and to make great rejoicing because they had
understood, Don't miss that they understood the words that were
declared to them. On the second day, the heads of
the Father's houses, of all the people with the priests and
Levites came together, came together to Ezra the scribe in
order to study the words of the law.
And they found it written in the law that the Lord had commanded
by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths
during the feast of the 7th month, and that they should
proclaim it and publish it in all their towns.
And in Jerusalem go out to the hills and bring branches of
olive, wild olive, Myrtle, palm and other leafy trees to make
booths as it is written. And, and the fifth thing we see
here, we see action. It's simply this.
Now go live it. Now I, I described this feast
back in September. I'm not going to do that now.
I just want to talk about the people taking action.
They rejoiced, they met each other's needs, they worship,
they understood the word of God. Don't miss that.
They actually got it and it changed them and it changed
their actions. Listen, learn and live.
See, they realized they needed to take action and do more that
they'd not been worshipping or obeying the law.
Well, they knew that. And, and, and, and maybe you're
here and, and you feel like maybe you've been in a spiritual
exile yourself. Distant prayers, not getting
past the ceiling, Word of God just seeming like words.
Maybe that's who you are knowing there are things that you should
not be doing and things that you need to begin, listen, learn,
and and live. Look at verse 16.
So the people went out and brought them and made booths for
themselves, each on his roof and in their courts, in the courts
of the House of God and in the square at the Watergate and the
square at the gate of Ephraim. And all the assembly of those
who'd returned from the captivity made booths and lived
in the booths. For from the days of Yeshua the
son of Nun to that day, the people of Israel had not done
so. And there was very great
rejoicing. They applied what they
understood. They put it into action.
True surrender led to true obedience.
And the people lept to this new obedience.
They lept to this new action. They were ready to do that.
They were more excited to do that.
They were willing to do that. And if and if we do not move
forward in some new ways, I promise you we will not only not
move forward, we will not stay the same either.
There will be static decline that happens.
It's common in church life. Interesting quote that this
brought to my mind was from a very interesting person, Abigail
Adams, the wife of one of our early presidents.
She was speaking to her husband, the president at the time and
she said to John, she said you cannot be, I know, nor do I wish
to see you an inactive spectator.
We have too many high sounding words and too few actions that
correspond with them. Healthy discipleship is an
authentic, progressive, dynamic life.
It's a life that matches our words.
It's an incredibly exciting life.
It's a life that the enemy will have to challenge, but a life
fully surrendered to him and part of the problem out here in
the world. This is not a guess.
This is what the world thinks of the church in our culture today.
They don't see, they hear our words.
They they hear what we say. We believe.
But then they watch our lives and they watch our actions and
the things don't match. We live just like they do.
They don't see a difference in many of our lives.
They see our hypocrisy. And so the people recognized and
celebrated the blessings of God and the opportunities that were
ahead of them. They saw this.
They celebrated restoration and revival and so this eternal God
was still at work on His people's behalf.
He saved and sustained and called for surrender and service
and absolutely nothing has changed.
Look at verse 18 as we close, it says in day by day, from the
first day to the last day. He read from the book of the law
of God. They kept the feast 7 days and
on the 8th day there was a solemn assembly according to the
rule. Listen, when true revival comes,
you can't get enough of it. You, you, you.
You don't want to put His word down.
You don't want to stop singing. You don't want to stop praying
and praising. You don't want to stop loving
one another. Your world views changed, your
goals are different, your aspirations focus on Him and not
yourself. And narcissism will find it's
pure and true revival. Comfort and complacency,
believing you're already OK and you don't need any of this will
dissolve in the wake of true revival.
Nelson Mandela once said this. He said it's not our deepest
fear of inadequacy that frightens us.
I'm going to say it again. It's not our deepest fear of
inadequacy that frightens us. It's our fear of reaching a
potential beyond our wildest dreams.
We're scared to become who God wants us to become.
And I'm just going to challenge you to put up yourself, friends,
and catch the blowing, soaring wind of the Holy Spirit because
he, he's blowing right here in Rocky Mount, and he wants you to
catch him. Well, I obviously got off that
plane. It was a mess.
It was not an orderly exit. It was chaos.
Now, remember, we'd already flown from Oklahoma to Florida.
We'd already waited at the Miami International Airport and the
International Terminal of that airport, where English is not
the first language. So now we've got off the plane
and and after 13 long hours on the tile floor of the
International terminal of the Miami International Airport, it
was time for us to board another plane.
I had to coax a few people to get on board that next plane.
They weren't all that excited about going on that trip
anymore, but we got them on board.
We'd already been through a lot, but we weren't done.
We were just starting the journey.
We had to get to our proper destination.
We had to feel the actual purpose of the entire journey.
So after another overnight flight, an hour drive, and a 14
hour boat ride through the night up the Amazon, we finally made
it to Boa Vista de Homos, where people needed Jesus.
They heard about him, hundreds were saved.
A beautiful little church in Boa Vista de Hamos today because God
had a plan, just like here, just like in your life.
And so I just invite you to join, to join us on the journey.
It's just beginning. Father, we thank you.
We thank you for the privilege of joining you on this journey
called Your mission. It's not ours, it's yours.
And Father, I pray this morning, Lord, we've been praying all
morning, Father, for somebody who needs to be saved.
Don't know why I felt that so strongly today.
But Father, whoever that person is, whether they're here
physically or listening online, I pray right now that You'll
Pierce their heart, their soul with the truth.
I pray, Father, that they'll recognize that and and they'll
even pray to you a simple prayer, prayer like this where
they'll say, Lord, I know I'm a Sinner.
I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin.
I trust in Jesus as my Savior. I trust in him as my Lord.
I want to serve him in the church, Father.
Something that simple to get them started.
Father, I pray that if they're here that they'll come in just a
moment and take a pastor by the hand or go to our Next Steps
room and share with one of our counsellors about what they
prayed. For others who are believers,
Father, they recognize there's a next step for them.
For some of them, that next step may be baptism.
They see the testimony of Joseph today and they say that's
something I need to do. Maybe the next step is church
membership. Maybe the next step is prayer.
Maybe the next step is who can I disciple?
Who can I help to understand? And so, Father, I pray that as
we sing that Lord, you would Pierce our hearts.
Father, even as we take up the offering, Lord, that I pray
you'll bless so it'll be used to your glory.
But Father, I pray that that the primary offering today won't be
something we can even put in a plate.
It's something from our heart, something from our soul where
we're offering you us completely authentically.
Honestly, maybe someone needs to come and confess and repent,
whatever it is. No more pretense, no more
hanging on to a throne that does not belong to us, but surrender.
So, Father, bless us, lead us, convict us, inspire us right now
as we worship you in Christ's name, Amen.
I'm going to invite you to stand.
Our worship team is going to lead us.
There'll be some pastors here. You don't have to come talk to
us. You can go right to that room
over there where there's some wonderful counsellors who would
love to have a private, discreet conversation and prayer time
with you. You can come and pray at these
steps. You can come talk to one of us.
There's also a next steps table in the lobby.
Whatever angle you need, I just pray that you'll respond.
Thank you so much for listening today, and I also hope that
you'll go to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.