Crossing family, it is good to see you.
I want to welcome those of you joining here at 48th St. those
of you at Macomb and Kirksville, 929 Pike County, Hannibal, Lima,
Mount Sterling, Keokuk, Monmouth, Jacksonville, to those
of you watching online, to those of you are part of the Crossing
inside. And I also want to welcome those
of you who are joining us for the first time or the first time
in a long time. And if you fall into one of
those two categories, I want to encourage you to take advantage
of the QR code on the seat in front of you.
It is a great way to get more connected to our church and to
help you take your next steps spiritually.
If you're new to our church, we are in the middle of a series.
Then you can go and watch all of those online under the one
crossing for our YouTube archives, or you can find them
on our website. But today we are in Romans
Chapter 11, and for those of you who have been going through the
Bible reading plan and doing your devotions, I'm just going
to tell you up front. Romans Chapter 11 is a bit of a
hill to climb. It's not necessarily the easiest
chunk of scripture to navigate. However, I think there are four
phrases that will give you clarity on this chapter and also
inspire you to either start a relationship with Jesus Christ
or in increase your commitment to your faith journey.
You've heard us talk about this at the Crossing before.
If you call the crossing home. And that is the spiritual
spectrum, that here at the Crossing we want to help people
find an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And there's some you or maybe you know, somebody who will you
classify or maybe you classify yourself as a -. 5.
Like you hate God. And then there's those of you
who you kind of think you, you know, you are God.
Somewhere in between. Our church exists for all of
those people, and I think no matter where you are on this
spiritual spectrum, one, we're so glad you're here, and two, I
think there is something in here for you.
So this sermon has four phrases, which means if you pay
attention, we get out of here early.
OK. The first phrase is wish you
versus I can turn your neighbor, say wish you versus I can.
Romans Chapter 11 verse one says This I ask Then this is Paul
speaking. Did God reject his people?
By no means. I am an Israelite myself, a
descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin.
This might sound a little weird to you, but if you've been
following during the sermon series, Paul has been taking a
swing at the Jewish nation and the Jewish believers in Romans.
He has been so hard that his listeners might be thinking that
God has rejected the Israelite, the Jewish community, the Jewish
people. But Paul answers this with a
resounding no. Paul's going unproof, and then
he pulls out his birth certificate and reminds everyone
that he is a Jew himself. Paul is saying I'm the proof
that God has not rejected the people of Israel.
And what makes this so beautiful is that Paul has a heart for the
Jewish people, even though he's doing ministry to the Gentiles.
Look what he says here in Romans Chapter 11, verses 13 through
14. I'm talking to you, Gentiles.
Insomuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles.
I take pride in my ministry, in the Everybody say that word in
the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and
save some of them. Paul was a minister primarily to
the Gentiles. That's like you and me, unless
you're a Jew. And he never stopped having a
heart and a desire to reach his own people.
When Paul speaks to Jewish people, he speaks as an insider
to insiders. He knows their struggles, their
frustrations, their objections, their pain.
He knows them because he's one of them.
And one of the things I noticed sometimes in ministry.
And I'm not scolding you. But sometimes you can have a
wish you faith versus an I can faith.
Here's what I mean by wish you you'll call me up.
Clayton. I wish you could talk to my
husband. I wish you would meet with my
friend. I wish you could pray with my
wife. I wish you could counsel my
coworker and hear me hear me. That's fine and we love those
opportunities to opportunities to do that.
In fact, we have capable staff at all of our locations.
We even have a team of people who help minister to those of
you who are watching online that can and will and love to be part
of those moments. However, I don't want you to
ever think that God can do more through us than he can do
through you. Instead of I wish you could
minister to my family. Clayton, I want you to hear me
say you can minister to your family.
I want you to be going. I can minister to my family
instead of. I wish you could talk to them
about Jesus. I want you going.
I can talk to them about Jesus instead of.
I wish you could pray for them. I want you to be going.
I can pray for them. I want you to know this.
When you become a pastor, we don't get like a special phone
number like I don't. You know, you guys are calling.
Like, yeah, we're trying to still.
We're still on hold, waiting for God to give us the extension.
And like we are over here, we just have them on speed dial.
It doesn't work that way. Like, God loves all of us
equally. And so while I have no problem
praying with you and praying alongside of you, I just need
you to know God doesn't go. Oh, now that Clayton's praying,
watch out, OK? Because I'll tell you, I think
sometimes we'd be better off if you just did the praying.
OK, hear me? One of the best ways to reach
people is not an outsider. It's not having the smartest
person. Here's how you reach people.
It's when you put the power of a transformed life right in front
of them, People who are filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit
living out a crossshaped love right in front of them.
When you who you know their struggles, their fears, their
objections, their challenges, you know what it's like to be
them. Because you're one of them.
You get where they're coming from and you go.
I can be a minister in this, in this moment.
I can lead people through this. It's when you take
responsibility. One of the themes in my
preaching, and I hope you're hearing it, is God has equipped
you to be the pastor. Wherever you go in your sphere
of influence, God has equipped you to be the pastor, the
spiritual leader, the minister of your home, your workplace,
your friend group. He's empowered you.
And while I would love to come alongside of you, and while I
enjoy those ministry moments where you're like, hey, I want
you to meet, I love all that stuff.
I just don't want you to ever think that God uses me because
he you think I'm special. I'm just like you.
I put my pants on one sleeve at a time, just like everybody
else. When you when you fall in love
with Jesus Christ, the same power that is in that raised
Jesus from the dead is in you and it's in me.
And together when we go out and we recognize that we are pastors
wherever we go, God uses that to bring about redemption in the
lives of people we care about. I do not want you to be thinking
all the time. I wish I could get somebody else
on the phone. I wish I could get somebody else
in the moment. I want you to realize that I can
lead through this. I can point people to Jesus.
The second phrase that I want you to use to kind of drive
home, this chapter is alone versus surrounded.
Look what it says in Romans Chapter 11, verses 2 through 5.
God did not reject his people whom he for knew.
Don't you know what scripture says in the passage about
Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel?
This is what Elijah said. Lord, they have killed your
prophets and torn down your altars.
I am the only one left and they are trying to kill me.
And what was God's answer to him?
Paul said This is God saying, I have reserved myself for myself
7000 who have not bowed the need to bail.
That was the idol that they were worshiping at the time.
So too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
Elijah was navigating a difficult situation and he was
under the impression that he was all alone.
But God is always drawing himself to people and people are
always responding to God. We had some pastors here from
around the country this past weekend and they saw our baptism
video and I think Brett, our campus pastor from Kirksville,
said it's been 10 years. I think that our church has
gone, hasn't gone a single weekend without a baptism video
being played because all the time there are people coming to
relationship with Jesus Christ. But Elijah was feeling the pain
of being all alone. However, God reminds him that
there are 7000 people around him that he doesn't know, that are
still committed to their faith. Satan would like you to think
that you are alone, that you are the only one, that you are the
only one left navigating A struggling marriage, a bad
diagnosis while still trying to hold on to your faith.
Satan would like you to think that you are the only one
clinging to the promises of God in the middle of a storm.
Satan would like you to think that you are the only one who is
giving and praying and inviting and serving.
Satan would like you to think that you are the only one still
committed to your faith, still standing on biblical values.
I don't know if you're like me, but I can scroll through social
media, or I can scroll through the news.
And I come to this conclusion frequently.
I must be the only sane person left on planet Earth.
Have you ever felt that way? Look around the room.
You're not alone. There are other people just like
you who are pursuing God. Satan wants you to think that
you're the only one, but God wants you to know that you are
surrounded. It may not make the news.
It may not make the headlines, but there are more people like
you than you can possibly imagine right now.
Wherever you are watching from, if you are at one of our
physical locations, I want you to look down your row.
This is just one service out of 26 services at 11 locations in
three states in an area over 10,000 square miles.
There are that does not even include the 3000 people that
watch online and that's just our church.
But in our movement of churches there are millions who are
walking by The Walking the same faith journey that you are.
You can go to any state in almost any town and there is God
fearing Jesus serving Holy Spirit empowered group of
believers that each week are lifting high the beautiful
gospel of Jesus Christ. This doesn't even begin to start
taking into account what God is still doing in Central and South
America. I don't have time to get into
what he's doing in Europe or through the underground church
in Asia. If you want to get even more
impressed, there are moves of God that are too beautiful to
comprehend in Africa. You are not alone.
You're surrounded right now, All across the globe, there are
people sitting in a seat right now just like you, listening to
the word of God being proclaimed.
They're going to respond in worship.
They're going to pray to God. They're going to take communion
just like you. And throughout the week they're
going to open their Bible. They're going to spend time
reading it and being transformed by it.
You are not alone. You are not the only crazy
person left on earth. You are the same one who is
pursuing the same God that they are. .3 I'm moving folks have to
versus get to, have to versus get to Romans.
Chapter 11 verse 5 through 6 says this so too.
At the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace, and if
by grace then it cannot be based on works.
If it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Paul goes out of his way again and again in Romans to let you
know that the way into the Kingdom of heaven is by grace
through faith. It is not based on works because
if your salvation was based on works, grace would no longer be
grace. And some of you, you have the
same struggle that I have that you live in a half two world
instead of a get to reality. You're showing up for church
because you have to. You're giving because you have
to. You might be serving in the
early childhood room, wiping baby butts because you have to.
You're praying because you have to.
Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. If I just give enough, if I just
wipe enough baby butts, if I just pray enough, show up
enough, then eventually God will love me.
I'll do enough stuff to get into heaven.
But I need you to hear me say this.
You don't have enough money to buy Your Holiness.
You don't have enough time to pray, enough prayers to make you
righteous. There are not enough baby butts
in the world for you to wipe, to make you clean.
The dividing line for those who are in and out of the Kingdom of
God is faith and the means of accessing the grace that we're
talking about is through this faith.
It is once you come to the realization that God has
purchased this on your behalf that He has lavished us, poured
out His love on us, that we move from a have to to get to.
In other words, you realize that by God's grace, you get to
serve. You get to give, You get to
love, You get to care. You get to worship.
You get to invite. You get to.
And for a lot of us, we can't wait to.
We can't believe that God took the broken, messed up pieces of
us, wrote it into his story, and allowed us to be a part of his
salvation mandate. We can't wait to tell people
about what Jesus did in our lives because we can't get over
what He did in our lives. Next one, is this.
Used to versus still can? Used to versus still can.
Romans Chapter 11 verse seven through 10 says this.
What then? What the people of Israel sought
so earnestly? They did not obtain.
The elect among them did, but the others were hardened.
We're going to circle back on that one a little bit.
As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that
could not see and ears that could not hear to this very day.
And, David says, may their table become a snare and a trap, a
stumbling block and retribution for them.
May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs
be bent forever. This might sound a little harsh.
That's because it is. It's incredibly harsh because
God doesn't want anybody to leave his family.
God has the heart of a father. But if you choose to walk out of
his house, if you choose to leave what he has for you, he
may harden you in that position. You're going to experience what
it's like with life without God. Those of you who've been around
here before, you've heard this story.
But I know there's a lot of you that are that are new from time
to time. My house does not look like the
godly house that it should. We've been known to have
problems. And one night we were having
problems with one of our kids, and I'm sitting in my chair
eating some ice cream as things are escalating, and he decides
he's going to leave. Leave us.
And he was maybe 6:00 or 8:00 at the time.
And he goes, I don't want to be a part of his family anymore.
I'm out of here. I'm just eating ice cream.
All right. Love you.
And so he's walking to the door, and before he leaves, I go.
Hold on a second. What?
Are you leaving? Yeah, not right now.
Why? Well, those are my clothes.
You don't want to be a thief, do you?
What do you mean? I go.
You can leave, but you got to leave with the clothes that you
bought. Those are my clothes.
So he goes upstairs and I think I can't wait to do the parenting
series at church. He comes downstairs in a towel
wrapped around his waist, opens the front door, leaves the towel
in the house, and shuts the door.
Yeah, so if you'd have driven by the pastor's house, my kid was
standing outside naked. Little bit later, the door opens
and he slams and he stomps up the stairs.
I'm leaving. Just not tonight.
Did I make it easy for him to leave?
If you want to leave my house, you can, but I'm not paying for
your rent in your apartment. The blessings of my home flow in
the direction of obedience, just like they do with God.
God is not going to bless your life.
He's not going to lead you if you step out of obedience.
If you want to experience the blessings of God and life with
God, that happens when you are in the family of God.
And the way you find out whether or not you are in the family of
God or not is through faith. We God saying everybody can come
in, but he's not going to handcuff you to the banister and
never let you out. He hardens you so that way when
you leave, he's going, listen, I want you to know what it's like
when you're out there. So that way you want to come
home. And the story of the prodigal
son, the father allows the son to leave, but he doesn't make it
easy on him. He doesn't keep him out of the
trophy, doesn't keep him out of the hard work.
And eventually he comes to his senses because it's hard and he
comes home. Look what happens in Romans
Chapter 11, verse 11 through 12. Again, I asked did they stumble
so as to fall beyond recovery? Did they screw up too bad?
Did they make too big of a mistake?
Did they run so far away that God can't bring them back?
The answer is not at all. Rather, because of their
transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make
Israel envious. But if their transgressions
means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the
Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion
bring? No one, no one, no one, is too
far gone from God's redemptive work.
God doesn't want anybody to leave his family and the
parable, the lost son. Not only does he allow him to go
through what he's going through, but when the son returns, while
he's still a long way off, the father comes running.
If you want to know the heart of God, he is waiting for his lost
children to come home. And the moment they decide that
they want to come home, he comes running.
God is so good and so powerful that he can redeem any
situation. This is what he's unpacking in
Romans Chapter 11. This is what he's saying.
God used the Jewish people to bring Jesus Christ into the
world. Then the Jewish people, because
of their hard hearts, they crucified the very one that he
sent. They crucified Jesus Christ, but
through their sinful act of crucifying Jesus, he brought
salvation to you and I. He took the very mistake that
they made and turned it into a beautiful mystery that you and I
can be included into the household of God.
If God can redeem the dying of a son, he can redeem anything
that's happening in your life. There is nothing and there is no
one better at restoration because God doesn't want anybody
to leave his family. He keeps unpacking this in
Romans Chapter 11, verses 17 through 23.
This is what he says. If some of the branches have
been broken off and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been
grafted in, and share among the others, now share in the
nourishing SAP from the olive root.
Do not consider yourself to be superior to those other
branches. If you do consider this, you do
not support the route, but the route supports you.
You will say. Then branches were broken off,
so that I could be grafted in. Granted.
But if they were broken off because of unbelief, and you
stand by faith, do not be arrogant but tremble.
For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not
spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness
and the sternness of God, sternness to those who fell, but
kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness,
otherwise you also will be cut off.
And if they do not persist in unbelief, if they don't keep
running away from Him, they will be grafted in, for God is able
to graft them in again. Here's what he's saying.
You and I must persist in our faith.
We must continue in our faith because those who are in and out
of the family of God are identified through faith.
Let me unpack it a little bit this way.
Here is a here is a big old tree.
And this grass line represents here's the Old Testament and
here's the New Testament. And what God has always been
doing is he is making a family tree.
This is what it is. And he's talking about the root.
And he's saying if the root is holy, everything's holy, and the
root supports you. You do not support the root
saying, here's the Jewish people, when you're reading in
your Old Testament, you're reading through all the
genealogies. He's he's telling you about the
root. And out of this root came Jesus,
and the root of this tree are the patriarchs like Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob and David, these people.
But then here in the New Testament, God's making a tree,
a family tree, and some branches have been grafted in, been added
to it like you and me. And the way you become a part of
God's family tree is through faith.
And some of you, you've fallen off.
You didn't continue in your faith.
You didn't continue in your belief until we cut you off.
He hardened your position and a desire that you turn around and
then God would graft you back in.
He would bring you back into his fold.
I was working on this sermon and my boys came and were asking me,
I was working in my Home Office and they asked me if they could
borrow my my loppers because they were going to do some some
landscaping stuff. And I I they assured me that it
wasn't going to be a big deal. And I, you know, I believed
them. And but over the course of like
3 days, they were just outside for hours on end and they were
sweating up a storm. And when I was outside my house,
I after they were all done, they were talking about how cool what
they had made was. And every time I looked at my
house, it didn't look all that cool.
In fact, I'll show it to you. I was like, okay, That's where
they're at. This is all that this was
supposed to be put in the trailer.
They didn't put it in the trailer, but that was all they
did. And I'm like, that's not three
days worth of work. I'm like, what did they do?
And so I'm here on my property line and I'm like, what are you,
what do you got going on here? I'm trying to see it.
I mean, it looks like they opened up a little bit of stuff
down here, which these trees are dead.
They need to come out anyway. But Okay, that's a little bit
weird. Okay, that's a little bit more
serious. What do we got now?
We're on the neighbor's property, Okay.
So there's where some more of the branches are that they've
piled up. What do we have going on here,
Okay? We've got some benches.
We've we've got a blanket. Okay.
This is a little bit more than I was anticipating.
Where where are still all of these branches?
OK, the Oh my goodness, what have they done?
Well, come over here. Turns out they're listening to
praise and worship music and they were building a church.
This is the foyer. This is where you hang out and
get your coffee. And before church starts and
then in Gandalf's house that they created over here they've
got a cross and this is where the church is.
My boys made a church in the neighbor's yard, and we're going
to, we're going to take up an offering because they don't come
to our church and they may never will, because I'm going to have
to figure out how to fix that. Here's my devotion.
If my boys can make a church out of the neighbors shrubs, what
can God do with you? Some of you listen to my voice.
You used to, you used to come to church.
You used to come to church in person.
You used to come regularly. You used to serve.
You used to give, You used to pray.
You used to make a difference. Some of you, you might know
someone who used to lead you used to sit with you and some of
you listening to my voice, you're going, yeah, I still
believe in God. But I have a hard truth for you.
A belief in God that does not transform the way we live our
lives. A belief in God that does not
order our priorities is not a true belief in God.
The bottom line is, is some of you, if you were to be honest,
you know you've been cut off. You know you've fallen off, and
you find yourself on the ground wondering if the nourishing SAP
will ever run through your branches again.
You're wondering, can I ever come back because of all that
I've done? You might be thinking, I'm here
on the ground and there's no way I can come back to this church.
There's no way I can start praying again.
Some of you, this message isn't for you, but it's a message that
you have to carry. Because what are the chances
that the people who need to hear this part of the message the
most are actually in this church right now?
But you as a pastor, you can carry this message that they
might be stuck and used to, but they still can.
They used to be one of the branches, and by God's grace
they still can. He can graph them back in at a
moment's notice. God can put them back together
again. And this church won't be
frustrated when you show back up.
This church won't be frustrated when you start to give and serve
and love and care and minister and invite.
In fact, this church has been waiting on you to come back the
whole time. Final message or final point is
better than versus Same as Romans 11 versus 18 through 21
says this. Do not consider yourself to be
superior to those other branches.
If you do consider this, you do not support the route, but the
route supports you and you might be tempted to say then branches
were broken off so that I could be grafted in.
I'm in ministry now because somebody else quit being in the
ministry, granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief.
Here it is again. And you, you and I, we stand by
faith. Don't be arrogant but tremble.
For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not
spare you either. This is the sternest part of my
message. But I'm just choosing to believe
that you know I care about you. There are some of you who maybe
you've been tempted to become arrogant and prideful about how
good of a Christian you've been. You see some of the other people
around you. You know all of the used two
stories because you've been here for so long and unlike them, you
have not left your post. You're still holding on to your
faith, and you might be tempted to think that you're better than
them. You might be tempted to think
that you're more loved by them. You might be tempted to think,
Boy, I'm so glad that I'm like me and not like them.
I'm better than them. God loves me more than them.
Look at how good I've been. You might even be frustrated
with when some of the used to people start showing up and they
sit in the seat that's was supposed to be your seat.
And you're like I've been sitting in this seat ever since
you left. And now you come back and think
you get a sit right here. The back rows reserved for me.
I'm better than you. I'm better than you.
Because I serve more than you. And I give more than you.
And I pray more than you. I'm better than you.
And I'm here to tell you you're the same as, you're the same as.
You're not better than, You're the same as.
And I'll tell you why You're the same as because it was the same
God who created you that created them.
The same God who sent Jesus to the earth to die for you, died
for them. It was the same nails, same
spirit, same faith, same baptism, same cross, and the
same blood that covers you, covers them.
And if we ever forget that message, we will never be who
God created us to be. We're moving to a time of
decision. There are some of you in here
who have never started an intimate, personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, and I'm here to tell you you don't have to
wait any longer. You can be grafted into God's
family tree because of the grace of God that was leveled out
through Jesus Christ on the cross.
And the same blood that covers me can cover you and you might
be tempted to think so You've got to get it all dialed in
first. I keep saying the same thing
during invitations because that's what Romans keeps trying
to drive into our hearts, that you don't have to get it all
figured out before you start your relationship with Jesus
Christ. If you could figure it out, he
wouldn't have sent his son. But we go to him and we give him
our lives and he gives us his spirit and he figures it out and
we obey. And if you're here today and
you've never started that relationship with Jesus Christ,
my encouragement to you is don't wait, don't put it off.
If you're going. I still have some questions.
Then ask the questions to those of you watching online right now
in the chat, someone just put up an opportunity for you to click
on a button and they'll take you into a private chat so they can
talk to you about specifically what you're going through.
And there's a team of people, and we'll either get you
connected to people here at our church or to one of the partner
churches we have around the country.
So you don't have to do life alone.
But to those of you who are in the room right here at 48th St.
in just a few moments, the people around you are going to
stand up and they're going to start singing.
Some of them are going to come to the steps and start praying.
And I would encourage you to go right over to the Baptistry.
If you came here by yourself, that's fine.
Maybe you came here with somebody.
Maybe they'll come with you. There's going to be somebody
right over the baptistry who would love an opportunity to
talk with you about what it means to start an intimate,
personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I do this every so often at our church if you're new here, but
it's because sometimes I think that you might be tempted to go,
yeah, well, that's that's true for you, Clayton.
It's just not true for normal people.
So I'm just going to. I'm just going to show you
something. I know in my experience that the
greatest decision I ever made was making Jesus Christ, my Lord
and Savior to starting an intimate, personal relationship
with him. And if you would say that that's
your story too, Would you raise your hand?
See, it's not just me. Alright, I got another question
for you. I know in my life my biggest
regret is that I didn't start that relationship sooner.
You see, I knew about God from a pretty early age.
I even had moments where I trusted God at a pretty early
age. But the amount of damage I did
between the time I knew about God and the time I believed and
followed God, I caused a lot of pain.
I endured a lot of hardship. My biggest regret is I didn't
start that relationship with Jesus Christ sooner.
And you know what? I don't think I'm the only one.
If that's your story too, would you put your hand up just so
they know I'm not crazy? All right, you guys, put your
hands down so you don't have to believe me.
Believe your row. Believe your section.
They're telling you what I'm telling you.
That the best decision they ever made was a Jesus decision.
And the biggest regret was putting it off.
We have these crazy stories in our church.
They drive me crazy, but I love them.
So I don't want you to not make a decision because you're like,
I don't want to make Clayton mad.
It makes me happy. I just don't understand.
Sometimes you'll. I'll be talking to somebody
before they get baptized. Like, yeah, we've been coming
here for like, 6 years. Six years.
How'd you hear about this for six years?
And wait it off. But Satan's crafty.
He'll get you to wait. He'll get you to hold off all of
Satan's replies that you are not now.
And God's answer is always right here, right now.
The only thing keeping you from starting the relationship that
you are destined to have is you making a decision right now to
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God, and that you want him as your Lord and Savior.
And if that's where you are, where you are today, in just a
few moments you can walk over there and talk to somebody and
start that path forward to the rest of you in the room.
To those of you here at 48th St. want you to hear me?
We have to get our hearts right before God.
We have to live the life that he's calling us to live, not
better than other people, but on behalf of other people.
Man, we can't keep showing up and doing all the things we do
trying to earn our salvation. That's not the kind of spirit
that is going to grow a church and reach the people around
them. It's going to require a bunch of
people who can't wait to be a part of what God is doing.
And so maybe as we go into this invitation time, you would spend
some time on your knees or maybe over where you're at in your
chair. You're going, God, what kind of
work needs to happen in my heart today to make a difference to
the people that you've put around me?
That you would actually be the pastor to the people that God
has put around you? Because chances are I'm not
going to your workplace tomorrow.
Neither's our staff, but you are.
You are God's appointed messenger to make a difference.
And how could we not? Would you stand with me,
Heavenly Father? I'm asking you to do a work
right now. God, wipe away the excuses.
Fire up our passions. God, help us to be the people
that you have called us to be, to reach the people you've
called us to reach. And your name, I pray.
Amen.