Oh, crossing family, I love you, but more importantly, God loves
you and I am so glad that you are here.
I want to welcome you to all of our different locations, those
of you watching online and those of you who are part of the
crossing inside. This upcoming Tuesday we're
going to have a special event called Watch and Pray and if you
want to figure out how your particular location is
participating, you can go to thecrossing.net/watchand pray.
I don't know if we're if we're going to do this every election
year, but I felt compelled to live out First Timothy chapter 2
verses one through 4, which states I urge then first all
that petitions, prayers, intercession, and Thanksgiving
be made for all people. Who are some of these people you
might ask? For kings and all of those in
authority. Why should we be praying for
these people so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all
godliness and holiness? Why should we do that?
Well, He tells us because this is good and it pleases God our
Savior, who wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge
of the truth. There is no doubt about it, an
intense division in our country. Many people are gripped with
fear about which way the election is going to go.
And I was convicted while I was preaching my own sermons during
the Don't Take the Bait sermon series.
So if you weren't getting anything out of it, I sure was.
And I realized that I don't pray nearly enough for our government
leaders. So you've heard me talk about
all the time that we believe that God's way is the best way
in every area of our life. And if God's way is the best
way, then when God says that we should pray for our leaders so
that way we can live peaceful and quiet lives so that people
can be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, we
should probably believe it's the best way.
And then we should behave like we believe it's the best way.
So we will be spending election night.
And I'm an election junkie. Listen, I've already filled out
who I believe is going to win how many electoral votes they're
going to get. I have it screenshotted so I can
do a victory dance for being right.
I'm a junkie. But instead of me being a total
election junkie, which we will definitely allow me to be a
little bit of an election junkie on that night, but while we're
watching it, we're going to do something else.
We're going to actually pray for our leaders.
We're going to spend time worshiping God, who's on the
throne, who only can get elected into your hearts, but nobody can
elect him out of his throne. And we believe that this will be
a faith motivator and elevator for those of you who
participate. So some of you, you'll be able
to join at a physical location. Many of you, if you want to be a
complete election junkie and cuss where nobody can hear you
as the polls close, you can do that at home and just have us up
on YouTube next to, you know, CNN or whoever you watch.
There'll be more information about this at the close of our
services as they tell you what they're doing at their
particular location. To those of you who are a part
of the crossing and you live in Missouri, I sent you an e-mail
this week regarding amendment three.
If you did not receive it, you can get there is a link to my
remarks that you can find at thecrossing.net slash amendment
3. This is for those of you who
live in Missouri. There is an important thing in
the on the ballot this year and I want to encourage you to
participate. And you might be going, Clayton,
I don't like voting. I don't like any of that stuff.
And you're thinking about sitting this election out.
The last election, 30 million people who would call themselves
Christians sat out. And what I want to encourage you
to do if you live in Missouri is even if you're not voting for
one president or the other, I believe you should show up and
vote no for amendment three. That being said, OK, thank you.
Those are the Missouri people. Everybody else in Iowa and
Illinois are like, what's on? And you can find out if you
want. OK.
Today we are going to continue in our sermon series called
Counterfeit Fruit Establishing an Authentic Walk with Jesus.
Genuine godly character is not just about your outward
appearance, but a heart that abides or gets pruney, a heart
that has wrinkles because of time spent with God.
We look at John chapter 5 or 15 verses one through 5.
Look what Jesus says. I am the true vine and my father
is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me
that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Remain or abide or get wrinkly in me as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the
vine. Neither can you bear fruit
unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the
branches. If you remain in me and I in
you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from Me, you can do
nothing. 4 things to notice here.
Kind of a recap. God expects fruit because he has
saved you, because He has placed the Holy Spirit inside of you.
Fruit should be a part of your Christian experience.
And when he doesn't find fruit, you are cut off.
You might be going, that doesn't sound good.
It's not. Good branches bear fruit, and
even good branches get addressed by the gardener.
He cuts you, prunes you so that you become even more fruitful.
You're like, well, what does that feel like?
When you feel a conviction over sin, When you feel a pressure or
a prompting to do something that takes you out of your comfort
zone, You are being pruned. Remaining and abiding is how the
fruit is produced because you and I cannot produce fruit.
The Holy Spirit produces fruit in us when we remain.
This is not accomplished through human effort and #4 we have
absolutely nothing to offer apart from Him.
Many of you, we are trying to live our lives in our own power
and in our own strength. But when we abide, when we get
pruny, we develop a wrinkly heart.
When we spend time in the Word, in prayer, in community, and
operate in obedience, abiding in God produces this fruit.
And you're going, OK, well, what is the fruit?
Well, let me tell you what the fruit is.
Galatians 5 tells us this is what the fruit is, but the fruit
of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
So let's do a little group participation.
I'm going to have you answer on behalf of the person that you
came with today. OK, So husbands, you're going to
answer for your wife. Be careful, wives.
Do whatever you want to do. We get it.
All right? So raise your hand if the person
you're sitting next to wishes that you were more loving.
OK, Raise your hands if you wish your spouse was less loving.
Ladies, raise their hands. I got it.
OK, you're going. Hey, my spouse wishes I was more
joyful. If you're not raising your hand,
your marriage is in free fall. OK, You're like, we want a
grouchier person. If you could dial up Grouch in
our home, that would just be fantastic.
All right, let's try another one.
How many of you are going? My spouse would just.
It would be great in my family if I there was more peace.
OK, how many? How many of you are going?
We wish there were less peace. It's just too calm here.
We need some chaos, you know, like, yeah, I get it.
OK, Here's one. This is my family's going to put
all hands up. How many of you you wish, you
know, someone in your house was more patient?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got an F on that 1F.
It's a sickness. More kind.
They wish you were more kind. I wish you could just be meaner.
OK. More good.
I wish you were bad. Bad to the bone, babe.
All right, let's just skip ahead for a little bit.
How many of you wish that the people in your lives exhibited
more self-control? Yeah.
So these are all things that we need more of, but we can't
produce. The Holy Spirit produces them in
US. And last week, we talked about
how this counterfeit fruit shows up in different areas of our
lives. For instance, we looked at love
and joy, and the counterfeit fruit of love is a love that has
no boundaries, and we learned that love does not equal no
boundaries. We also learned that joy is not
toxic positivity, that you don't have to fake it till you make it
in Christ. Today, we're going to talk about
peace and patience and their counterfeits.
According to Interventure, counterfeit products have
emerged as a booming industry, topping out a $2 trillion
annually in the counterfeit game.
This is up from 450 billion in 2016.
So it is five times up. It is going fast.
Now the most affected industries are going to kind of bump some
of you out. Ready.
The clear leader in the counterfeit market is footwear
at 22 percent. 22% of the counterfeit market of $2
trillion is counterfeit sneakers.
Clothing comes in at 16%, leather goods, 13%, followed
closely behind. This is a little freaky.
It gets worse. 12% of electrical equipment is counterfeit.
So that surge protector that you bought, Probably not as much of
A protector as you thought. It's more of a serger.
OK. Watches are at 7%.
This is the freakiest one. 5% of medical equipment.
Like you thought you got a name brand pacemaker.
You got a pace taker. OK, that's what you got.
Not in the notes. Perfume is 5% of perfume and
cosmetics are 5% of the global market.
Why does this matter? It's because it's used with less
pure extracts and it's used with harsher or made with harsher
chemicals to keep the price down, which means that it can
pose serious health risks. And it's important to note that
the counterfeits are never of the knock off brands.
OK, I'm not trying to throw any shade, so if my jokes hit you,
they're not intended to hit you. But let me give you an example.
It is always like the Yeezys, the Jordans, the Prada, the
Dior, the Gucci and the Rolex that get counterfeited like
nobody. Do you guys remember, is Jordash
still a brand? Yeah.
Have you ever seen someone selling you some Jordash at, you
know, a discount? Like, oh man, I got, I got
Jordash sneakers here for $0.50. OK.
Like they're already $7.00 like we can.
It's always, it's always the high brand stuff.
And so when it comes to your relationship with Jesus, there
is counterfeit fruit. Why?
Because the real thing is so powerful.
Recently I was at Christmas. Somebody gave me a very nice
gift. They bought me some Cologne.
And Cologne matters to me because I'm 6 foot six, 285
pounds, 300 post Thanksgiving. And my my motto is I'm too big
to smell bad. Like if you have somebody this
big, that's like if a small person smells, nobody notices.
But if you, if I give you a hug, you're in my armpit.
Like that's where it starts. OK, So I always have Cologne on
me. And so he bought me this Cologne
and we loved it. We fell in love with the whole
family, loved it. And so they were just squirting
it all over themselves. So I ran out.
Well, we were coming back from a funeral in Chicago and we
stopped at an outdoor mall and they had a fragrance shop in
there. And I've never been to a
fragrance shop, but I walked in there and they had the the
Cologne that I purchased. And before you all e-mail me,
it's called Savage and it's fantastic.
OK, I don't want to e-mail you guys all this week.
Like, what's the what's the Cologne you got?
Because I want to get it for my smelly husband.
It's savage, Savage. And I, I, we buy and we were,
we, everybody bought their stuff.
And when they rang it all up, I got sticker shock.
And usually that's because of something that other people in
my family have purchased. And then I found out how
expensive Savage was and I was not anticipating that.
So I go back to the guy who gave me the gift and I go, I need you
to know, I had to buy a replacement of that because we
went through every and I did not realize how kind of a gift you
had given me. And he said I bought you the
knockoff. I love him so much.
Listen, and I'm just going to tell you the knockoff smells
just as good. But if I die, blame him.
Today we are going to discuss two more fruits of the Spirit,
peace and patience, and their stubborn, tricky, subtle
counterfeits, Comfort and complacency.
Sometimes when we think that we are living in peace and
practicing patience, we are really simply being inactive in
our faith. For instance, peace does not
mean staying comfortable. You see, we tend to view peace
through the context of our circumstances.
If I avoid hardship, If I avoid conflict, If I avoid hard
conversations, if I say no to difficult Holy Spirit directed
tasks and I stay in my comfort zone, then I will have peace.
However, this is never the case. We only grow in our relationship
with God outside of our comfort zone.
And I've talked about this before, but I think it's worth
repeating. OK, if you are not sensing the
power of the Holy Spirit in your life, it might be because you
are not doing anything that requires His power.
Let me explain. The Bible, I'm just going to
list a few, calls us to love our neighbor, seek the lost, pray
for our enemies, seek the needs of others, of ourselves,
sacrifice, be bold in our faith. And those things, just so you
know, are not possible without the power of the Holy Spirit.
And so when we're not doing those things, we're operating in
the flesh. And the Holy Spirit does not
have to empower you to live in the flesh.
You see, peace is not the absence of conflict or a
challenge. It is a position of trust that
God is who He says He is and that God's way is the best way
in spite of the world, in spite of the opposition, in spite of
how the world perceives us. A perfect example of this is
found in Philippians chapter 4, verses 4 through 9.
You guys all know this verse. Rejoice in the Lord always.
I will say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident
to all. The Lord is near.
We're going to circle back to that.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every
situation, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving,
present your requests to God and the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your
mind in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such
things. Whatever you have learned or
received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice
and the God of peace will be with you.
Notice the situation that they're in.
They are in a situation that is causing anxiety and worry.
They are outside of their comfort zone.
How do I have peace when I'm outside of my comfort zone?
Here's what we can take away. One remember that the Lord is
near. God is with us.
He is not distant, nor is he uncaring. 2 Pray through every
situation, big or small. Pray about it all.
Some of us go, this thing is too big for our God.
That's silly. A lot of us think this is too
small for our God, but God pays attention to everything.
When birds fall out of trees, when you lose your hair in the
shower, he knows the number of hair left on your head.
He notices it all. So pray about it all.
Then he says, think about a certain set of things.
Think about true things and noble things and admirable
things and excellent things and praiseworthy things.
Can you? You guys are Christians, so this
is this is not a trick question. Can you think of anybody or
anything that might embody all of those qualities?
I can think of three, Jesus himself, the cross of Christ,
and the tomb of Christ. If you're looking at excellent
and praiseworthy things, I would say Jesus is the most true, most
noble, most right, most pure, most loving, most admirable,
most excellent, most praiseworthy person to ever
exist. And Jesus reminds us that God is
close. His name shall be Emmanuel, God
with us. And Jesus reminds us that God is
caring because God is the God, which we talked about last week
of all comfort. And Jesus shows us that God's
way is the best way. When he's in the garden before
the crucifixion, Jesus himself prays not my will be done, but
your will be done. I can have peace when I know
that I am doing the thing that God has called me to do.
Then I can turn myself and I can look at the cross of Christ to
find peace. I when I think about that
because it is excellent and it is praiseworthy because the
cross reminds me that God can turn absolutely anything around
at a moments notice. You see, God took an instrument
of torture, the cross, and He used it to write every single
one of our testimonies. It began at the cross when He
redeemed us and He began to make us new.
And when I look at the cross, it reminds me that no matter what
situation I'm in, God can redeem it.
God can repurpose it so I can have peace that what I'm going
through will not be the end of me.
I can look at the tomb of Christ and I can remember that God is
undefeated. Not once has he ever taken a
loss. He went into the grave, He died,
and then he came back out overcoming death.
Overcoming sin, overcoming guilt, and overcoming shame.
Which means that those things are no match for His power, His
mercy, His grace. Which means when I'm in a
situation, I have a God who can turn everything around and a God
who is undefeated at that very task.
If I have those two things going for me, 6 of you are awake.
God bless you. You got an extra hour of sleep
and you're using it in here. What When you come into a
relationship with Jesus Christ and you find yourself in a spot
and you start thinking about all that you have going for you in
Christ, That's what gives you peace, not the situation.
He's what gives you peace. And then pay attention to this.
Paul, thank you. You guys are trying to turn it
around. God bless you.
OK, we're going to try and get peace in the sermon.
I don't at all of our other locations.
They're standing and cheering. 48 streets drunk.
OK #4 Paul says whatever you have learned or received, put it
into practice. Faith in Jesus is active.
When we do these things, God promises to be with us.
Let me explain this. There is a difference between
comfort and contentment. You will be in situations where
you will be uncomfortable. Through God's help, you will be
able to be content in being uncomfortable.
I'm going to take you to a verse that everybody knows and I'm
going to help you realize what that verse is really all about.
Philippians chapter 4. We're in the same chunk of
Scripture. We've been in verses 11 through
13. I am not saying this because I
am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the
circumstances. I know what it is to be in need,
and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every
situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty
or in want. I can do all of this through
Him. Who gives me strength.
That's what Philippians 413 is about.
It's about making you undefeatable because no matter
what circumstance I'm going through, I'm going through.
Paul is not comfortable. He's content.
He's able to be content in any and every situation because of
the power of the Holy Spirit through Christ who gives him
strength. This is not the strength to
reach your Max deadlift. This is not the strength to help
you get the promotion, win the game, get the girl to marry you,
break 100 on the golf course. It is none of those things.
It is about something much deeper and something much
richer. It means crossing family when
the hardships of life come knocking at your door, when you
face opposition for doing the the very thing that God has
called you to do, when you experience deep hurt
relationally, you can get through because God is with you.
You have something that cannot be taken from you because when
you have an intimate personal relationship with Christ, you
have been made right with God through the sacrifice and death
and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And since Jesus is alive and God is undefeated and the Holy
Spirit is available, I can be at peace while I'm going through
things in this this life because I know I'm going through.
In other words, the storms can come, the winds can blow, the
waters can rise, but my spiritual house will be standing
after the storm because it's not built on me.
It's not built on the foundation of my family, the foundation of
my finances, the foundation of my status.
It's built on the rock solid foundation of the teachings of
Jesus and the power of his Holy Spirit.
Now the second area, OK, we got to move quick.
The second area where this manifests is in the spirit of
patience or the the fruit of patience because for a lot of us
patience has become complacency and those are two different
things. It happens over time.
Over time we can just slip into complacency in our walk.
It takes zero effort for us to develop a lazy faith.
However, James warns us in James chapter 2 verse 26 as the body
without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
If you are not walking by faith, you don't have faith.
James makes this point really, really clear earlier in this.
This is what he says, hey, you believe in God, great.
Even the demons do that. So if you're here today and
you're going, I believe in God, I just want you to know right
now you are on par with demons. Turn to your spouse and go you.
No, don't do that. What separates us from the
demons is when we put our faith into practice.
Our beliefs must be married with action.
We know this is true in every area of your life.
It is not enough to know how to eat right, you actually have to
eat right. Right, some of you.
How many of you guys have a Peloton or a rower or a
treadmill at your house that you guys use to hang your laundry
on? Yeah, having it.
If if owning equipment made us skinny, we'd all be skinny.
If knowing we should work out made us skinny, we'd all be fit.
I'd be the Brad Pitt of preachers, right?
We we both have shoulders Like it's a start.
OK, Godly Patience, hear me, is waiting is waiting for an
opportunity. Complacency is avoiding an
opportunity. And here's what I mean.
So many of us in an effort to like, try to be godly, we go.
I just don't want to get out in front of God.
We've forgotten that we are as people to be on the move with
God because God is always moving.
For instance, let's just say in your life that there is somebody
who is close to you and they are far from God and you've been
going, man, I need to talk to them.
I need to invite them. I need to have a conversation
with them. But you haven't yet.
Why some of you go, I just don't know what to say.
OK, I got a question for you. How long have you been stuck on?
I don't know what to say. That's complacency.
That's spiritual laziness. You've you've identified a a
deficiency, a challenge, a hardship.
I don't know what to say. And for weeks, months, years,
decades, you've been stuck on. I don't know what to say.
That's lazy. Complacency is never working to
figure out the right thing to say, or complacency is not
trusting that God will do what He promised in His Word He would
do, which He would give us the words to say when the moment
comes about. In other words, complacency is
saying I'm going to talk to them next week, next month, and how
many next weeks and how many next months have come and gone
and nothing has changed. Patience is not waiting for a
door to open, but for the door to crack.
Let me give you 3 cracked doors for those of you who are going,
hey, let's just figure out how to put this into practice.
If you're around somebody and you hear these three statements,
this is the door cracking. This is a Holy Spirit
invitation. If you hear somebody talk about
loss, unexpected change or struggle, that is, in my
opinion, a Holy Spirit invitation for you to step into
them with the love and the word of God.
When somebody goes, I'm dealing with loss, somebody has died,
they're going through a divorce, their marriage is struggling,
that's an invitation. When there's an unexpected
change, they had a change in their job or a change in their
health or somebody else's health.
When there's a struggle with kids or at work, when you hear
those things, that is God showing you this person is
hurting and I'm the God of all comfort and I want to use you to
comfort them. And faith is stepping into that
moment, trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide you and give
you the words to say so that person can be saved.
But patience is even more than this.
The Hebrew word for patience was made by slamming 2 weird words
together, long and nose. Patience in the Hebrew
Scriptures is long nosed. Like a big old honker, like just
a big bird. You know why?
Because when you're not patient, you're in a rush.
But a person with patience is calm under pressure.
They're not reacting, they're responding.
They're long nosed about things. They're breathing deeply and
calmly and just waiting it out. In the New Testament, they did
the same thing. They took 2 words and they
slammed them together to make the word.
Patience. Long sold, long hearted that
you're dealing with the situation and you've just got a
little bit of endurance in you. You're long sold about it when
things are not going the right way.
We are long nosed. We're long sold about it when
our kids are difficult. We're not complacent and just
assuming that it's going to figure itself out.
Oh no, we are very active. And so we step in to make sure
that they don't act a fool, but we don't respond in anger.
We're a long nosed about it. We don't give up on them because
we're long hearted about it. We realize that we are in it for
the long haul. We have patience.
There's a cool story in ancient literature about when Carthage
in North Africa and Rome and Italy were at war with one
another. And the in the year 215 BC, the
general Hannibal was conquering cities and he came to this one
particular city called Castilium, and it was being
defended by just 600 soldiers. And Hannibal noticed that these
soldiers were protecting it, just 600 of them, that they went
out in the daytime and they started to plant turnips outside
the city walls. And it caught him off guard
because he was going, these 600 soldiers actually think that at
some point in time they're going to end up winning and they're
going to want something to eat. These people were so long sold,
long nosed about the war that they're going.
One of these days this war is going to be over and I'm going
to want some turnips. And in a couple of months this
will all be over and we're going to need something to eat.
They had not given up one bit. They were long nose.
They were long sold about it. And so when you think about
those two things, when you find yourself in second Peter chapter
3 verse 9, you find out something about our God.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand
slowness. Instead, he is long nosed with
you. He's long sold with you, He's
long hearted with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but
everyone to come to repentance. God is far from complacent.
He is long sold with you and I so that we can be saved from our
sins through repentance. In other words, why does all
this matter? Because the gospel of Jesus
Christ only advances when we are outside of our comfort zone.
And when we are out of our comfort zone, all we're going to
want to do is get back in it. But when you have the fruit of
the Spirit that is peace and patience, you can remain outside
of your comfort zone where the power of the Holy Spirit does
His most work so you can have the greatest possible impact.
And while you are outside of your comfort zone, you will have
a peace that surpasses all understanding and a patient
endurance to stay there until He's done with you.
That's why Second Corinthians chapter 4 says this.
We know that our light and momentary troubles are achieving
for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
When you and I are long nosed, long sold, and at peace, we are
reaping an eternal reward that outpaces our present suffering.
Why does this matter? Because if people are going to
find the Lord, it is going to require people like you and me
to step out of our comfort zone. And with the real fruit of the
spirit of peace and patience, we can do that.
We're moving to a time of decision.
If you are in this room or you are watching online and you
don't know God, you don't have peace yet.
In fact, the Bible kind of sets up this imagery of you are at
war with God. Your bitter enemies hear me, not
because of what He's done, but because of what you've done.
But I have great news for you. The war can come to an end
today. This God that you're at war with
loves you so much that before your war with Him even started,
He provided for you a way out. The Bible tells us that He sent
his Son to die on the cross for our sins, for your sins, to ease
the pain, to bring about a peace that can only be granted from
Him. But it comes after your
surrender and when you come into a right relationship with Him.
The Bible says that God goes from being your enemy to being
your friend and you become a son or a daughter.
And when you become a son or a daughter, you become an heir to
the promise and an heir to the Kingdom of heaven.
And if I could tell you anything, I would tell you this.
Don't put it off any longer. And you might have been sitting
in here for weeks, some of you months, sometimes it's years.
It's crazy. There's stories that get written
here. And the voice of comfort and
complacency has won at every single one of these moments at
our church because you know that there is a thing that you're
supposed to do. And you've said, well, maybe
next week I'll talk to somebody. You have questions, you know,
maybe next week I'll ask them. And next week has come and gone
over and over and over again. And maybe today, through the
power of the Holy Spirit, you'd be willing to step out of your
comfort zone and into a conversation that could bring
you a peace that surpasses all understanding.
What I want to encourage you to do is in just a few moments, the
people around you are going to stand and sing.
Some of them are going to come to the steps and pray.
And I want to encourage you to take what might be the scariest
walk of your life that leads to the greatest relationship you've
ever had and walk right over there underneath that screen
next to the baptistry. And somebody would love to talk
to you about what you're going through.
If you're watching online, somebody's already populated it
in the chat. And if you click on that, you'll
have a private window where not everybody can see what you're
talking about. And person will individually
meet with you and talk with you and answer some of the questions
and help you get connected to a church to make some of the
decisions that you need to make to the rest of you in the room.
To those of you who already know Jesus, it is time for real fruit
to be produced in our lives. Not the counterfeit stuff.
Our comfort zone, our complacency are robbing the
people we love of a relationship that they desperately need with
Jesus. I'm praying that as a church we
would step out and we'd allow God to do what only He can do
through His power and His strength in our lives.
Here's a tough question for you to wrestle with.
When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone
for the cause of Christ? Sometimes when I'm talking to
people, they'll tell me their testimony of like when, when was
the last time they'll be like, well, when I was in high school,
when I was in college a couple years ago, I deep down inside,
don't you want to be a part of a church where our story of the
last time we stepped out and the last time the Holy Spirit
empowered us was yesterday, last week For God, just keep writing
these stories. So then let me ask you a tougher
question. When will the next time be?
And I'm going to encourage you to spend some time praying about
that. Would you guys stand with me?
Heavenly Father, I want our church to be addicted to Your
Holy Spirit. I want us to crave Your
direction and Your power in our lives.
We want to be blown around by You like sailboats in the wind.
We just want to be ushered along by You.
Take us to places we wouldn't normally go.
Take us to places we could never go on our own.
Now, there is nothing that we do as a church that has any power,
any validity, any excellence without your Holy Spirit at
work. And God, I believe there's
nothing off limits to you. And so I'm asking that right
now, not just at this location and not just online and not just
at our other locations, but God, that every church that gathers
today, that every person. Would get a clear prompting of
what it is that you are asking them to do, asking them to stop
doing, asking them to start doing, and that you would give
us the strength and the patience and the peace to do it.
In your name, I pray. Amen.