(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Today we're gonna talk a little bit about how to begin to live by the power of God.

We've been kind of diving into that over the last few weeks about God's Holy Spirit living in us and coaching us to greatness so he can begin to work through us as a church, as a family.

And I'm gonna kind of continue that thought process a little bit today because I think in these particular days that we live now, it's really important for God's people to step up and be the people he has designed them to be.

There's a lot of darkness, there's a lot of deceit, a lot of depression, a lot of things going on in people's life.

And you know, the Bible says that we are the extension of the light of Christ in this world.

We are a light to begin to shine in that darkness so people can find hope.

And there is hope for people.

How many of you believe that today?

Come on.

And there's always challenges, there's always difficult moments, there's always trouble and things that we're basically up against in the world.

But we know that God is with us in spite of all the darkness that is in the world.

And we believe that there's always hope found in who God says that we are.

And we're encouraging our people to walk in the fullness of who God says that they are.

If you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to open it up to the book of Ephesians.

But first I wanna take off with a verse out of Matthew chapter five, where Jesus said this in Matthew chapter five, verses 14 through 16.

He said, you are the light of the world.

He says, a city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and they then put it under a bowl.

Instead, everybody say instead.

Instead.

You know, there should be an instead in your life.

Instead of hiding the light in a dark world, we should be able to step up with the light as a community of people and begin to shine hope in the hearts of people.

You know, the Bible says something amazing.

It says our fight isn't against flesh and blood, but it's against the powers and principalities in the heavenly places.

It's against the dark powers in the world.

So no matter what human being you come into, they aren't your enemy.

The enemy is alive and well and he's at work in people's life.

However, God is a God that can reach into people's life and we will begin to understand that the enemy is wanting to divide and he's wanting to conquer.

He's wanting to destroy.

And the way he does that, he divides us into certain sects of people.

He begins to make us feel like we're more important than the other because maybe of our gender or maybe of our race or our language or our education.

We fall into the trap sometimes of not being unified around what Christ can do in the heart of a person, but we begin to get in sects of people and begin to think that other people are our enemy when the real enemy is a spiritual battle that's going on and we can come together unified in one accord from diverse backgrounds and begin to see God do amazing things if we will recognize his light that is shining our hearts and we can put our gifts together and begin to shine that into the world.

He says, instead, people don't hide the light, but they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

It can begin to give light to everyone in the world.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and then they will praise your father who is in heaven.

There's a certain passage of scripture that Jesus spoke in a sermon called the Sermon on the Mount or the Talk on the Hill, I like to say, it's one of the greatest speeches ever given.

And Jesus is speaking to those people and he's saying, man, you're like salt and you're like light.

You begin to change society by letting that light shine out of you so that other people can begin to praise your heavenly father who showed you that light.

Today, I wanna talk a little bit about living in the light, living with the light and being who God's designed us to be as a community of people, no matter what background you come from, no matter what your age is, no matter which gender you are, male or female, no matter what background, what ethnic group you come from, the Bible says we can be this amazing, amazing light if we'll come together.

And Ephesians chapter five, verse 14 is our verse today.

And this is what the writer here as he writes to the church at Ephesus, reminds them that they're different, that you know what, they're not like the people who live underneath the powers of darkness anymore, they're different.

Look at your neighbor and say you're different, go ahead and tell them you're different.

Now look back at the person that told you that and say I know that, I know that, go ahead.

But the writer, he reminds these people, look, you don't need to live like a dead citizen or someone who hasn't been made alive in Christ, you're different.

And he says so stop living like you're not different, stop pretending to be asleep when you're really not, stop playing possum with the Christian faith, come on somebody.

And see, some of you don't know what playing possum is because you're not from the south.

But playing possum is, you know, a possum will pretend to be dead when he's really not.

And back when I was a kid, we used to go possum kicking.

And you'd ride down the road and you'd get out of your car and you'd find a possum at night and you'd kick him and you'd see how long he'd play dead.

If he really wasn't dead, but if you began to put pressure on him, you know what, he'll play dead.

You know, I find that simply the case in a lot of believers' life.

They play possum when the pressure gets on.

However, God says, don't play possum anymore.

Step up and be who I've designed you to be.

Live as people of the light.

And he says it this way in Ephesians chapter 14.

He says, for it is the light that makes everything visible.

This is why it is said, wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

Let me read it again.

Ephesians chapter five, verse 14.

For it is the light, the light of Christ that makes everything visible.

This is why it is said, once he is shining to your life, wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

So if we're really gonna live as people of the light and we're not gonna play possum, the first thing we gotta do is wake up.

We gotta wake up.

You know, sometimes it's more difficult for some people to wake up than it is others.

And again, it's a little bit more difficult sometimes for my wife to wake up than it is me.

And that's simply because normally she goes to bed later than I do and I go to bed before she does.

But sometimes in the morning, some of us just don't wanna get out of bed.

Because maybe we had a stressful day the day before, maybe we had a long night, you know, and what we do is we continue to hit the alarm clock and we don't get up and we don't go out in the world and begin to do something with our life.

And literally what the writer is saying here is he's saying, look, you know, once we were all dead in our trespasses of sin.

However, the reality of it is, he's speaking to this church at Ephesus, he's saying both to the Jew and the Gentile, he's saying God has stepped into your life and revealed the good news of Jesus to you.

And so again, you need to stop playing possum, you need to stop acting like you're dead, you need to understand God reconciled you to himself through Christ Jesus so that you could wake up and begin to make a difference in the world with your life.

And so we all need to learn to wake up to what Jesus is doing.

See, that's why Jesus came.

He came to wake us up.

All of us were spiritually dead, as the Bible says, in our trespasses of sin.

In other words, we were born into a world filled with sin.

We were born into a world that causes us to get off of God's path.

And the Bible says all of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard.

But Christ came into the world to pay the penalty for that sin for all humanity, once and for all on a cross when he gave his life.

In other words, he paid the penalty for sin for everyone.

And to all of those who would believe that that is what God did to reconcile the world back to himself through Christ Jesus, the Bible says in that moment, you will be forgiven and you will be rescued and you will be salvaged from the penalty of sin.

However, you know, again, being salvaged from the penalty of sin is not God's goal for your life.

It's amazing to be reconciled back to God, but God salvages you so that he can put you in right relationship with him so you can begin to commune with him so you can get a download of true light and where it comes from and then begin to live and imitate him in the world and begin to bring light to those who don't know yet in a dark world.

But the powers of darkness continue to hold back people from doing that.

I'm talking people who have been forgiven of their sin.

People who have trusted Christ for their salvation for the penalty of sin.

But the Bible says, you know, what we begin to do as we begin to trust that message, sometimes we can just be lulled to sleep by the enemy and not get up and do something with our life.

And so I wanna encourage you today to listen what Paul tells the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter five, as he sums up everything he says there in verse 14.

He says, wake up, O sleeper.

Let's not be a dead church.

Let's not be a church that's asleep.

Let's be a church that's alive in the community, in the midst of darkness, in the midst of sin, in the midst of a world that's depressed, in the midst of a world that's fallen.

Let's be the light of Christ.

Let's wake up.

Let's not be asleep.

Let's be a city on a hill.

Let's let our light shine.

Come on, church.

Let's be a city on a hill.

Let's not be a church that's asleep.

Let's be a church that's alive in the midst of darkness.

Let's not be a church that's asleep.

Let's be a church that's alive in the midst of a world that's fallen.

Let's be a church that's alive in the midst of a world that's depressed.

Let's be a church that's alive in the midst of a world that's fallen.

Let's be a church that's alive in the midst of a world that's fallen to that cross.

What it should begin to do is it should to, it should begin to set alarms off on us of wickedness of sin, what sin does.

Sin is horrific.

Sin causes death.

Sin causes hurt.

Sin causes pain.

Sin causes disorder.

And Jesus came to take the sin of the world on his shoulders by giving his own life so that you and I didn't have to die in that place missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

We can begin to understand that there's a God for us and he's not against us in the midst of darkness.

The enemy will lie to your soul and say you are lacking something.

My friend, you were lacking nothing when you were reconciled back to God.

It's the first lie in the garden.

Lack.

Lack.

You're not enough.

You're not enough.

There's more.

And the first man and woman bought into lack that there's not enough.

And so then they bought into selfishness.

I wanna taste, I wanna taste what God said don't taste because the enemy says I can be, you know what, more like God whenever I taste this fruit.

I'm lacking something.

They believe the enemy.

See, the enemy's telling somebody that they're lacking in lack.

And you believe the lie.

And because you think you're lacking something, what you begin to do is you begin to fall into depression, begin to fall into sin, instead of trusting your heavenly father to provide all the riches that you need for your inheritance, all the days of your life, all the way into all eternity.

And my friend, you know what, Jesus came so we could understand that there is a God that is for us, he is not against us, he will reconcile us to himself.

I remember the moment I was reconciled to God in 1998, October of 1998, this coming up month, many, many years ago.

And I remember, you know, it was a process.

In other words, I'd gone to church for a lot of my youth and a lot of my life as a kid, had great parents, you know, they took me around to two or three different kinds of churches, you know, we went to a Presbyterian church for a while, went to a Baptist church for a while, went to a church with the good looking girls for a while, you know, all of those kind of things.

And the reality of it is I was hearing all about God in all those environments, and it wasn't that, you know, I was what we would refer to as just a horrible, horrible person, but I was a horrible, horrible person because, you know, I wasn't believing in God for the forgiveness of my sin, I was trusting all kinds of things, you know, in my life.

I was trusting my own merit, I was trusting, you know, what I did, and the reality of it is, you know, I went on that journey for a while, but I woke up in a spot where I was depleted and I was depressed and I was broken, and I began to search again with my heart and with my life.

And what God showed me in 1998 is he began to show me at the age of 32 that I'm real.

And how he began to show me was through another person.

He began to show that through my wife, Kim, and it was a process, but she began to shine the light of Christ in my life.

She began to love me in a very unlovable situation.

And so I began to see the light of Christ through someone who had experienced the light, which was one of his daughters, which was my wife, Kim, at that particular time, and it began to draw me to God, could forgive me, and I could begin to trust him.

And in 1998, I surrendered my life and believed in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to reconcile me back to God.

Nothing I could do, nothing I had done, nothing I would ever do.

Only Jesus and the gift of God and me to put my faith in him, resurrected from a grave, could forgive me of my sin, of my pain, of my hurt.

And the reality of it is I put my faith in him.

That particular day, I was reconciled.

And again, I'm always gonna stay reconciled to God for the penalty of my sin because of my faith in Jesus.

But the reality of it is I come to learn on my journey that God didn't only wanna reconcile me, but he wanted me to be blessed by his amazing blessing through Christ Jesus, and then he wanted me to be a part of blessing the world around me.

And here I stand all of these years later.

Again, still growing in my faith, still growing in who God has designed me to be here in this earth.

But one thing I'm sure of is it's for the light, it's the light of Christ that makes everything visible.

And I woke up on that day in 1998, but I didn't only need to wake up, I needed to get up and I needed to get ready for what God was gonna do.

But what it says, for it is the light that makes everything visible.

This is why it is said, wake up, oh sleeper, rise from the dead.

In other words, begin to participate with God and get ready for what he wants to do.

And in three, see, God wants to use you, whether you're online right now, whether you're sitting in this tent somewhere from the front to the back, from side to side, God wants to use you.

It doesn't matter how old you are.

You're not too far gone.

It doesn't matter how young you are.

God wants to use you and he wants to build you in order to shine his light into the world.

But see, you have to get up and begin to participate and let him begin to teach you how to get ready to shine the light.

See, how do we learn?

How do we learn as children?

And see, we're like little children when God wakes us up.

We're born again is what the scripture says.

We're born anew, our spirit's born alive.

And so what God does is, God in his supernatural power, he places the Holy Spirit inside of us to begin to grow our spirit, that spirit that's been made alive.

And as you, just like a kid, as a kid submits to their parents or their guardians, and that guardian is for them and not against them, as that kid begins to submit, our spirits submit to the Holy Spirit, the great counselor, teacher, the coach, the trainer, I like to call it.

He's the one that will begin to restore us into the right relationship so we can be all God's created us to be.

See, the Holy Spirit is, Jesus reconciles us, but the Holy Spirit's at work in us, restoring us.

You ever renovated anything?

You ever restored anything?

See, when you renovate something, a lot of times you gotta get some of the old, dysfunctional, non-comp, you know, old stuff that don't work anymore.

You have to get that stuff out.

You have to put new stuff in.

And the work of the Holy Spirit is a lot like that.

He's getting the old out and he's putting the new in.

We've been made anew in Christ Jesus, we're born anew.

But see, just like a kid, the trainer has to come into our life and begin to teach us the things of God and what it's all about to be a human and what it's like to live in a dark world shining the light of Christ.

And so the Holy Spirit becomes our teacher, he becomes our trainer.

Just like you teach a kid how to walk.

You have to let the kid crawl first.

Usually the kid'll crawl and then you get over to the coffee table and he'll fall down a couple of times, hurt himself, skin his knee.

God's gonna let you skin your knee every now and then, it's all right.

But the reality of it is he'll begin to help you get back up so you can begin to walk, so you can begin to run, so you can begin to do what he's designed you to do.

Understand the power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life, it's the power of God.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you is what the scripture says.

And see when you, when your spirit begins to submit to that amazing power, that power becomes alive and that power begins to work, and that power begins to coach, and that power begins to show, and that power begins to affirm you as a child of God.

He affirms you.

See some of you have never been affirmed before and you don't think you can.

But the reality of it is, is God, your heavenly father, affirms you through the Holy Spirit and he will begin to say, you are my child, you are my daughter, you are my son, I am for you, I am not against you.

In this dark world, I will build you up and I will teach you how to walk.

I will teach you how to live.

I will teach you how to partner.

I will teach you how to share.

Wow.

You know, it's amazing because typically, that's what we have to teach kids, isn't it?

It's how to get along with other children, how to not be selfish and share.

We all know that kids are like, it's mine, it's mine, it's mine, until you begin to teach them, no.

Share, you know, there's more where that came from.

But if a kid just gets a blessing and all they do is hoard it and they never share it because the good parents, the good guardian is not continuing to supply the love that's needed and everything that's needed, then the kid just gets more and more selfish.

I'm here to declare to you today that our heavenly father is not like that.

He doesn't hoard his blessings.

He gives his blessings so that you can begin to shine the light of Christ in the world.

So how do you get ready?

How do you get dressed?

Again, you have to teach a kid how to get dressed.

One leg at a time.

You put them in your pants or your underwear or whatever else, right?

You put on one sock at a time.

You put your shoes on one at a time.

You tie your shoes.

You make a bow.

You don't run around with your shoelaces undone.

You're gonna trip and you're gonna fall.

You have to teach them all this stuff.

And sometimes if you have kids or you've ever had kids, you're like, I keep saying the same thing over and over again.

Are you stuck on stupid?

And I really think that's what God feels like sometimes.

And you know, I really think that's what God feels like sometimes.

I keep telling you the same thing over and over again.

And the reason I'm telling you is because if you will live this way, you'll begin to understand some amazing power that's available to you and you'll begin to exhibit it to the world.

So how are we to get dressed as believers in Christ, as a church family?

So I want you to get ready because the family is getting ready to explode.

It's getting ready to grow.

We're getting ready to have some more family members.

In other words, it's not just us.

You know, there's some young families in here.

They're getting ready.

They've had a couple of babies, but they're getting ready to have some more.

And again, they better get ready, but they better get them kids ready too.

Because now you're getting ready to have some little brothers or sisters.

And when you have little brothers or sisters, it gets real messy up in here.

And so what I'm trying to do is get the brothers and sisters ready in the family to let you know there's gonna be more that's coming.

Because as we're sharing the light of Christ in this community, it is gonna grow and it's gonna build.

And you gotta get ready and you gotta learn how to live by the power of God.

We've gotta learn that, people.

So how do we get dressed?

Colossians 3, verses 10 through 15.

The writer here says, put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and you become like him.

So this is how you do it.

Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and you become like him.

In this new life, it doesn't matter if you're Jew or Gentile in this particular season, whether you're circumcised or uncircumcised, whether you're barbaric, uncivilized, a slave, or free.

He says, Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us.

That's amazing.

God chose you to be a holy, set-apart people he loves.

You must clothe yourself, here it is, get ready.

You must dress yourself with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Make allowance, make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you.

Wow.

Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Above all, clothe yourselves, get ready with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule, rule, the peace from knowing Christ and knowing God through Christ Jesus.

Let that rule, nothing else dominate.

Let that rule your hearts.

As members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always, slap your neighbor and say, always means always.

Always means always.

Be thankful.

Have a heart of gratitude.

My friends, if I were you and I was a child of God and I wanted to get ready to live by the power of the Holy Spirit, I would underline those six verses in my Bible, Colossians chapter three, verses 10 through 15, and I would begin to memorize those verses and I would begin to repeat those verses and I would begin to examine myself with those verses.

You may not be there, probably not.

I'm not there yet either, but the Bible says, this is how we're to get ready.

This is how we're to clothe ourselves.

We wanna begin to see God's power at work in our lives and through our lives in the world.

This is how we get up.

This is how we get ready.

We begin to extend this hospitality, this kindness that God has showed us to other people in the world.

It's very difficult because the world's dark.

The world that we live in, it's every person for themselves.

It's a place where we learn selfishness.

We don't learn the art of gratitude in this world.

We don't learn the art of forgiveness.

We don't learn the art of caring for each other.

It's every person needs to be for themselves.

But I do believe whenever we have a heart of gratitude, a heart of generosity, and again, we're not there yet.

I'm not there yet, but when we begin to exhibit this character, God's power goes to work.

And if we're bound together with the love that comes from God, his power goes to work and is unleashed like we've never seen it before.

And so I'm encouraging us as a family, as a children of God, as people that have been brought out of darkness into the wonderful light to begin to wake up and begin to recognize that Jesus has reconciled us, begin to be restored by getting ready and getting dressed and letting the Holy Spirit work on us and work in us and work through us.

And again, God works through his people too.

The reality of it is it's the Holy Spirit at work in others that's at work in you.

It's the same Holy Spirit.

And he's the greatest teacher of all.

He's amazing.

He begins to really, really begin to teach you the things of God.

And again, it's a lifelong journey.

It's not like you just go to the first grade.

It's like you go to graduate school, then the PhD school and everything else.

It's just God continues to develop you, but you have to be a good student.

The teacher is only as good as the student's submission.

And again, I can be the greatest school teacher in the world, but if my students aren't submitted and they don't wanna learn, then the chances are they're not gonna learn.

See, God's trying to break you.

And again, he will sometimes allow things to come into your life to shake you, since you will wake up.

And when God makes you alive in Christ Jesus, then he wants to move in, he wants to get the old out, the new in, and he wants to coach you to greatness.

But not only does he want us to get up and get ready, he also, he wants us, I wrote it down this way, he wants us to show up.

So again, Ephesians chapter five, verse 14, it says, for it is light that makes everything visible.

This is why it is said, wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

So we need to not only wake up, get up, get ready, but we need to show up.

This is amazing to me, because Christ is shining on us.

Us as a family, us as together, when we get together, it's like this big light in the community.

It's like God is doing some amazing, amazing things, but when the light of Christ shines on you and begins to work in you and work through you, really, it's the reward.

See, the reward is seeing God lift you up out of darkness, out of the pits, out of the ashes, whatever you want to call it, seeing God do that.

And it's amazing to have that connection to your heavenly father.

But when that connection begins to shine, the light of Christ shines, and then you begin to see other people drawn to the heavenly father that brought you out of the ashes, and he gets in their life.

It's like a reward.

It's like an amazing thing for God to work in you and work through you and work in somebody else's life and then work in their family and then work in their kids and then work in their grandkids and then work in the next generation.

And the church is being built on the earth.

And see, that happens when we choose to show up day after day, week after week, dedication, hard work, believing, never quitting, never laying down.

See, that's what it means to show up with the God that lives in you.

It means, you know, yeah, I know we need a break, but we're alive in Christ to live.

Offer up your bodies as living sacrifices.

This is truly the way to worship God, is what my Bible says.

We're created to live.

Your spirit is to live, it's alive, it's eternal.

Your spirit is eternal, it's alive.

And it's never going to be extinguished.

Let it grow up, let it live, let it shine.

And eventually, you know what?

God is going to come and rescue us all from this evil world.

It is gonna be finalized.

But here and now, we're here.

And God's here too.

He's building us into eternal beings to do eternal things, to be a family in all eternity.

It's not just gonna be you and God in heaven.

It's gonna be amazing.

It's gonna be people from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation.

It's gonna be people you didn't like.

It's gonna be people you didn't understand, but God did, and God shined on you and shined through you, and you showed up, and they came to know the heavenly Father and now you sit around the table as one big happy family.

You know, John chapter 11, the Bible says, Jesus raised a man named Lazarus from the dead.

And there was some, Lazarus' two sisters, Martha and Mary, they were very upset with Jesus because they called Jesus to come and heal Lazarus when he was sick, and Jesus didn't show up.

But they didn't really understand what God was doing.

And maybe you don't really understand what God is doing.

Because sometimes you feel like God is showing up late when he's really showing up on time to do something amazing in you and through you.

And Jesus says something remarkable to one of the sisters that says, Jesus, if you'd have just come earlier, our brother wouldn't have died.

And Jesus says, well, you know what?

He had to die for the glory of God.

For God's glory to shine in this moment and shine through this moment.

And for you to begin to believe and really understand the power of God.

The Bible says Jesus, he goes to the grave and he's a bit perturbed with everybody because no one would really trust that he was a God in the flesh and that he could supernaturally raise anything from the dead.

But Jesus says, roll the stone away, Lazarus walks out of the grave.

And then Jesus says in John 11, verse 44, he says, unwrap him and let him go.

He was wrapped up in grave clothes.

Jesus says, unwrap him and let him go.

Because now it's time for him to show that he's been made alive by my power.

And as he shows that, many more people are gonna come to know who he is.

In other words, I didn't create him to stay wrapped up dead in a grave.

I created him to be unwrapped and live life for my glory in this world.

Let me say this to you today.

Your spirit is not meant to stay shut up in a grave.

It's meant to be made alive in Christ Jesus, unwrapped.

As God begins to coach you by the power of his Holy Spirit to still be unwrapped, so that you can begin to shine the light of Christ in the world around you.

But you gotta be willing to show up.

You gotta believe God.

You gotta trust God.

You gotta get up and you gotta get ready.

And you got to show up, believe in God can use you.

You know, I'm a pastor of a church, obviously.

And week after week, month after month, year after year, now, decade after decade, I meet with God.

I try to study and get passages ready and teach the scriptures and inspire the people and preach sermons.

And I put all of this energy into my ministry and I put all of this energy into getting ready for God to do amazing things, and he does.

But what I have found in my life is when God really, really uses me to speak into someone's life in a powerful way is in a moment that I'm not prepared for.

He may give something to me in my spirit that I'm gonna encounter somebody, but I'm not prepared for that moment.

And then in that moment, I speak into their life on behalf of God, speak some God words into their life, and you know what, their spirit begins to be renewed.

And I think about that oftentimes.

Like, God, how in the world, you know, but what it's a revelation to me about is it's not by my power, it's by his power.

It's by his calling that gives me those encounters.

I can't prepare for them, but he's always prepared for them if I'll submit to him and begin to see him work in me and work through me.

Again, the Bible says none of us need to boast about what God's doing through us.

And you can't boast about what God does through you in those unlikely moments, in those unlikely situations where he begins to shine bright in the world.

My friend, God's inviting all of us into those situations.

I declare this week you're gonna have some of those encounters.

I declare this week you're gonna come face to face to someone who needs to see the light of Christ in a dark situation.

And I declare that, you know what, if you'll begin to live by the power of God, you wake up, you get ready, you get yourself up, and you show up that God is gonna show up in people's life and the unleashing of the Holy Spirit is gonna be on this world like you've never seen it before.

Let's keep ourself in tune with the power of God.

Let us live by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let us be reconciled by belief in Jesus.

Let us begin to stay in tune with our Heavenly Father and let's see what God can do.

Let me pray for you today.

God, you're an amazing God.

I thank you for your people.

Thank you for your church.

God, I thank you for those of us who have been woke up by Jesus.

Jesus, thank you so much for stepping into our life.

Thank you so much for reconciling us to our Heavenly Father.

God, I pray today that if we're slumbering, we're lazy, we're down, we're out, that we begin to be attentive to your spirit.

We begin to be coached by you.

We begin to be trained by you.

We begin to learn by you.

And God, if we don't get it right the first time, let us not give up, let us not quit.

Let us continue to get back up and let you build us into what you have designed us to be.

And God, I pray today that you'd work by your power.

We'd be a light into the world.

We'd begin to let the light of Jesus shine in our heart and shine through our lives and be a community that really begins to reveal heaven here on earth.

We pray all this today in Jesus' most holy and precious name, amen.