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

We are glad you joined us here at Valorous Church today.

And we are in the third week of a collection of teachings that we're doing, a series of teachings that we're doing that we have titled, Bringing Up There, Down Here.

Bringing heaven to earth.

Believe in that, you know what?

God wants to work in us as his people, as a church, and bring the attributes of heaven into the earth and fill the earth with the glory and the presence of God.

Anybody receive that in this place today?

Come on.

And again, we wanna encourage you in your faith journey.

We often know that as we face life through the weeks, through the months, that we face difficult moments.

Sin has entered this world, we face difficult moments.

But again, when God comes in to us, he gives us his Holy Spirit, the same spirit that lifted Jesus out of the grave, resurrected Jesus from the grave, is available to you and me, and we can operate in that.

And as we operate in that, it has the ability to bring light into the world and push darkness out.

And we're grateful for that.

You know, the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter one that God created human beings, both male and female, in his image.

And he called us to bring light into the world, to subdue the earth, to operate underneath his authority and power, and push back darkness and bring the presence of the living God into all of the earth.

But the Bible also says that the first woman and the first man, they missed at that.

They gave their authority away in the Garden of Eden, the authority of God in their life.

They gave it away to the enemy, but the Bible also tells us in the New Testament that Jesus came to take that authority back.

Come on, somebody.

He came to give us new life in Christ Jesus.

He's ascended into the heavens, and one day he is going to return.

And so we're learning what it means to be the church in the meantime.

Come on.

We know he's coming back, but in the meantime, we wanna be his church.

If you have your Bibles with you today, I'm gonna ask you to open it up to the book of Ephesians.

We'll start in Ephesians chapter one, and then in a little bit, we'll move to Ephesians chapter four.

And what we're gonna learn today about bringing up there, down here, is how we as a church are to participate.

You know, God's inviting you to participate, not to just be a spectator, but a participator.

And it's great to come into a experience and worship God as a community of believers together.

That's what we're here for.

We're here to worship God, but as we worship God, God's inviting us into the game.

Come on.

God chooses us to be on his team.

He saves us by the blood of Jesus so we can be on his team, and when we become a part of his team, he invites us to participate in what he is doing in the world.

That's what it means to be a part of the local church.

Aren't you glad that God has a plan?

Come on.

And he has a plan for you to wake up to every single day, and whenever you wake up to his plan, you have a life that is filled with purpose.

Now, I don't know if you grew up playing sports at all in your life, but whenever I was growing up, you basically played little league sports, and in order to play little league sports, we went for tryouts.

We would go and we would try out, and then a coach of a particular team would pick us to be on his team.

Come on.

But whenever that coach picked you to be on his team, his expectation wasn't for you just to be on his team to sit on the bench and wear the jersey.

His expectation was for you to get in the game and participate and grow and become a great player and do what you had been picked to do.

And it's really no different with God and his kingdom.

He basically picks us to be on his team, and anybody who would so dare believe in what Jesus has already done on a cross and the power of his resurrection and believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the Bible says you can be on God's team.

That's wrong.

But the Bible also says when you become a part of God's team, he has a particular position for you to play, and he wants you to participate on his team, and the reason for participating is to bring the fullness of who he is into the earth.

We're basically here on earth to bring heaven to earth and not just wait and go to heaven one day with our lives.

So many people think they have been chosen or forgiven or put on God's team, and they're just kind of sitting around waiting to go to this place one day called heaven when God called you to participate and bring heaven to earth.

And so today, we're gonna learn a little bit about what that means to participate.

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter one, verse nine, that God has now revealed his mysterious plan or the mysterious will regarding Christ.

God has revealed, the writer here says, he says, the mysterious will regarding Christ.

In other words, regarding Christ Jesus, there is a will of God.

So the big question is, what is that will of God?

And he goes on to say in Ephesians chapter one, verse 10, he says, well, here is the plan.

He says, at the right time, he, God, will bring everything together under the authority of Christ, everything in heaven and on earth.

And again, we learned a few weeks ago that when Jesus came and he resurrected from the grave, and before he ascended into heaven where he is today, the Bible says he announced to the world around him that all authority had been given to him in the heavens and on earth.

So right now, Jesus is sitting as the authority in heaven.

And what he desires to do is give you and me the authority that we had in the garden of Eden to subdue the earth and push back darkness.

He has given us that authority here on earth to begin to do that.

And we have to understand that all authority has been given to him.

But what he is doing with his authority right now is he's given that authority to his church, to his people in various gifts, come on, so that we can continue to begin to push back darkness in this earth and be the light of Christ.

It goes on to say there in Ephesians chapter one, verse 14, that he has given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of his promise so that, everybody say so that.

So that we would praise and glorify him.

The Bible says that God has given every believer in Jesus Christ a guaranteed promise.

And it is the Holy Spirit of God.

It is a promise that he gives us.

It's a guarantee that he is gonna do what he says he's gonna do.

But it also says he gives us that guarantee so that, everybody say so that.

So that.

That we praise and glorify him.

So the question is, how do we do that?

Yes, we can do it through songs, raising our hands, getting on our knees, lifting our voices.

But the primary way that we bring honor and praise and glory to what Jesus did on a cross and as he ascended into heaven and poured out his spirit on men and women alike is to operate and participate in our gifts with the local church, being who God has called us to be.

In other words, that's how we really begin to praise and glorify him.

To recognize we have a promise and heaven is ours.

Jesus is ours.

We belong to God because of Christ Jesus.

He's given us that guarantee in our hearts.

But it's so that we will praise and glorify him.

The Bible goes on to say in Ephesians chapter one, verses 22 and 23, God has put all things under the authority of Christ and he has made him head of the church.

And the church is his body.

It is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself.

So the object of what God is doing in this earth is to bring us into a right relationship through Christ Jesus, give us the authority that we gave away in the garden so we begin to fill the earth with who God is and bring him honor and glory by doing so.

Operating in the way that God has designed us to operate, being who God has called us to be.

The Bible goes on to say in Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, we quote this verse often here at Valorous Church, but it says, we are God's masterpiece.

Look at your neighbor and say, we're a masterpiece.

Go ahead and tell them we're a masterpiece.

We love that thought, don't we?

But it says we are a masterpiece created anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the things he created for us to do long ago before the foundations of the world.

What are those things that God created for you and me to do before the foundations of the world?

It's to begin to operate underneath his authority, be in this earth, be a light, push back darkness, subdue the earth and bring the presence of the living God into this earth.

It's what he's created you for.

And now through Christ Jesus, he makes us anew so we can get back to doing what he's assigned us to do long ago, come on church, step into it.

God's created us to participate, to be a part of what he's doing in this world.

And he's inviting you into the game.

Why in the world would you sit on the sidelines?

When you have been given the ability through the work of Christ Jesus on a cross in his resurrection, and your heart believes that he sits right now with all authority in the heavens and has poured out his spirit on men and women alike and given them various gifts to be his people in this earth, why would you sit on the sidelines and just watch?

We are created to win.

We are created to subdue the earth.

We are created to show the world the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the gifts that he has given us and begin to push darkness out.

It's not by our might, it's not by our power, it's not by our strength, but it's by his gifts he has given us and when those gifts come together, God does great and mighty things.

Come on, church, if you believe that today.

But you gotta step into it.

And Paul is inviting this church at Ephesus to step into it.

He's saying, based on what you know about Christ Jesus, based on what you know about who he's called you to be, he says, would you please step into it?

He says, matter of fact, I beg you to step into it.

And he says in Ephesians chapter four, as he's speaking to the church at Ephesus, he writes this in Ephesians four, one through nine, I'm gonna read through it and then we'll talk about it because this is how we begin to participate.

He says, therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, he says, I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

You've been called by God.

You've been called by your creator.

You've been called by your heavenly father.

He says, so I beg you to step into it.

He says, step fully into it.

Always be humble and gentle.

Be patient with each other, making allowances for each other's faults because of your love.

He says, make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

For there is one body, one spirit, just as you've been called to one glorious hope for the future.

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.

However, he says, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.

That is why the scriptures say, he writes, when he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people that were left on earth.

When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.

Notice, he says, in verse nine, that it says he ascended.

It actually means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.

In other words, he was in the heavens before he ever was on earth.

And the Bible says he comes in the form of a human.

We know him as Jesus, and he descended to the earth.

He's making it clear that we serve one God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

And he says, and the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all of the heavens.

Look at this, so that, everybody say, so that, he may fill the entire universe with himself.

That's an incredible statement that Paul writes at the Church at Ephesus.

He says, the whole reason Jesus came was, yes, to forgive people of their sin, passing the mark of God's glorious standard, subduing the earth, bringing God's presence into the earth.

He says, but also, you know what, the same one who descended, he defeated death, he defeated sin, he defeated the grave, and he ascended to the highest of heavens.

And he sits there right now, my friend, and the Bible declares in other places that he pours out his spirit on beings who believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ, male and female, and he gives us various gifts for us to carry out his purpose in the world.

And that purpose is simply this, to fill the universe in the heavens and on the earth full of who God is.

That's how we bring God glory, is by participating in his work.

It's not just by coming and sitting and applauding what God does, it's by letting God use you as a vessel as he puts you on his team in Christ Jesus and stepping fully in to his plan and being a part of that in the world.

And so if we're really going to participate, the first thing we have to do, and I wrote it down this way, is we have to take responsibility.

It's your responsibility as a Christ follower.

As a matter of fact, it's why God created you to be a woman, or it's why God created you to be a man.

It's so that you fill the earth with his presence.

And you've been brought back into right relationship with him through the blood of Jesus Christ and his death on a cross.

And you know what, the power of the resurrection is available to you, my friend, whether you're a man in this room or you're a woman in this room.

And the whole reason that the Holy Spirit comes into your life is to guide and direct you and to give you gifts to fill this earth with God's glory and God's honor and God's purpose and God's presence and to fill this earth and be who he's designed you to be.

But you have to take responsibility.

Step into it.

Be who God called you to be in the fullest way that you can be it.

The Bible says in Ephesians four, verse one, Paul says it this way.

He said, here I am.

He says, I'm a prisoner for serving the Lord.

And yes, he was probably a real prisoner in a real prison, but what he's referring to here is once I was a prisoner to darkness, but now I'm a prisoner to serving the Lord because I know who I am in Christ Jesus.

He says, and I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

Paul says, you know what, I'm all in because I know who I am.

He says, I'm on team Jesus because of what Jesus has done.

I know Jesus has given me a gift and I'm gonna use that gift every day I wake up to the fullest of his potential.

What was Paul's calling?

Because my friend, you got one too.

Paul's calling was simply to be a Jewish person that took the good news of a resurrected Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to the Gentile world.

And because he fulfilled his calling and became what we would know as one of the first church planters, taking the church from Jerusalem to other parts, to other ethnic groups, that's what a Gentile would be, taking it to other parts of the world so people could know the greatness of God and what God had done through Christ Jesus so they could get on the team and be who God has created them to be.

It's the whole reason that most of us are sitting in this room today, it's because Paul was all in with his calling.

He became a light into the world.

He knew what God had called him to do and he stepped fully into it.

And you know, here's the deal, I know sometimes whenever we come to Christ, we ask Christ to forgive us of our sin, come in and forgive us of our sin.

We receive what Jesus did on a cross and that amazing love and that incredible power of our gifting, we never put that gift to work and participate so we never discover fully who God has designed us to be.

And so I want you to know there's tools available for you to find your spiritual gift and there's ways to do that.

You can just Google spiritual gifts test, okay?

And you can probably find some, it's gonna ask you a series of questions.

And as it asks you that series of questions, if you answer those questions responsibly and you answer those questions from, as truthfully as you know how from your heart, then it'll probably spit you back an answer and say your spiritual gift is this, that, maybe administration, maybe evangelism, maybe mercy, maybe serving, whatever it be.

It may spit that back at you, okay?

And there's tools for that.

I invite you to go use those tools.

But one of the greatest ways to figure out who God made you to be is to get in the game and begin to participate.

Because let's go back to the Little League.

When I went for Little League tryouts, I might have desired to be a quarterback.

But the reality of it is I wasn't designed to be a quarterback.

And though I thought I was supposed to maybe be a quarterback, you know, I could've pursued that, but my coach would say, well, you're not gifted to be a quarterback, you're gifted to be a lineman.

Maybe you're supposed to block or tackle or something like that because of the way you're kind of made up.

And we didn't discover that until I got in the game.

Because when I read back my, at that time, my left arm, the throw of the football, I probably wasn't quarterback material.

Come on, somebody.

But though I thought in my mind I'm supposed to be a quarterback, it wasn't until I began to participate in it that I figured I could knock somebody down.

And I was big and I could tackle people, all right?

And the reality of that is I discovered that and we discovered that on the journey because I was participating in the game and because I was participating in the game, I discovered who I was supposed to be on the football field.

But see, a lot of people, they never participate in the game because they watch some computer printout and it said you're supposed to be that.

They didn't get in the game to really discover who God said they were and they're missing the mark in who God says they are.

And if they would get on in the game being exactly who God designed them to be, then amazing things would begin to happen in their life.

God has created you for a purpose and he's given you an amazing gift.

And what I'm trying to say to you, if you would participate in the local church, you will discover what that gift is and that gift will come alive.

Come on, somebody.

You can't sit on the bench and figure out who you are.

The reality of it is God has called you to do something amazing with your life.

But you gotta be about kingdom purpose.

Not just purpose of winning a football.

I'm talking about God's kingdom right now.

And Paul says, I beg you, take responsibility and get your gift to work and see what God can do.

It's gonna be an amazing, amazing thing.

Because God will permeate this earth with his presence through his church when his church begins to take responsibility with their gifting.

Use it wisely, use it purposefully.

Bible says there in Ephesians 4, 7, he says he has given each one of us a special gift.

How?

Through the generosity of Christ.

But it's not only the idea of pulling the gifts together, unifying those gifts for the purpose of bringing the presence of God into the earth.

It's also doing it with heaven's attitude and God's heart.

And so if we're really gonna participate, yes, we need to take responsibility with our gift.

But we also, we need to have what I refer to as embrace kingdom attitudes.

Paul writes it out right here in Ephesians 4, 2-3.

He says, always, everybody say always.

Always.

That means always.

It says always be humble and gentle.

Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.

He says, make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

Right here he lays out some major kingdom attitudes.

And he says, with your gift, be humble with your gift.

He didn't say don't use your gift.

He says, recognize where your gift come from.

Be humble before God, but use it brave in the world.

Be humble with your gift and be gentle with your gift.

He says, be humble and be a gentle.

This is kingdom attitude.

The Bible says God opposes the proud, but he gives what?

Unmerited favor.

He gives grace to the humble.

And the Bible says that we are to be humble and we're to be gentle.

We're to bring people along.

That doesn't mean never speak truth to them.

Our world has boiled that down to, you know what, we don't speak truth to people.

No, we speak truth to people with amazing love that comes from heaven through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And we say, you know what, you have stepped out of God's plan for your life and God's will for your life.

But in reality, what God wants to do is bring you back into that right relationship.

And when you figure it out and you repent from your sin, you turn away from your sin.

Admit to God, you know what, I screwed up and turn your heart back to God.

You are fully forgiven for that sin.

Now, you know what, you need to begin to put those things behind you, put on the spirit of the living God and move forward with your life.

But if you're not living a life, we are to humbly approach people, be gentle with people and coach them back into living what we would refer to as a godly life or a kingdom life.

It's not just point our finger at them and tell them they missed.

When they're ready, you begin to coach them back in to doing what God has designed them to do.

You begin to show them with a humble heart what God has designed them to do and preferably using your gift.

My gift might say, hey, God is ready to use you and God wants to get you in the game and it may encourage you that you wanna jump up right now and start using, being involved in God's business.

Now, other gifts need to get around you, come on somebody, and begin to build you back up with mercy and with grace and with love and begin to teach you God's ways and all these kind of things to help you get it back on track with what God wants to do in and through your life.

And he goes on to say here, not only be humble and gentle, he says, but be patient.

I'm a person that wanted it done yesterday, but the scripture says that with my gift, I need to be patient.

I want the world reached yesterday.

I'm ready for Christ to come back today, but I am patient in knowing that he ain't ready to come back yet because there's still some people that need to hear the good news of who Jesus is and respond to that good news.

So I have to be patient with my gifting and my wants and maybe God is waiting on you to invite somebody to come meet Jesus Christ as I'm being patient with my gift because he sits patiently in the heaven and maybe your gift needs to go to work and do what God's designed you to do.

Come on, somebody.

Be patient, he says, and also not only be patient, he says, make room for mistakes because of your love.

Because you recognize the love of Jesus Christ and you've made mistakes in your own life.

Jesus, make room for other people's mistakes.

They're human just like you are, but that doesn't mean condone their mistakes.

Don't misinterpret what God's saying.

He's saying, make room in your heart for people who have made mistakes.

Let my spirit work in their heart, work in their life, get them back on track and you make room for their mistakes too because what I'm about is gifting my people to be my church and bring my presence into the world.

So participate with kingdom attitudes, humble, gentle, patient, make room for others.

And then he goes on to say this, he says, and unify, have unity in the spirit, binding yourself together with peace.

Unify, that's a kingdom attitude.

It's unity, not divisiveness, not coming into the church and trying to divide the church with thoughts and processes that people have been arguing for over 2000 years and beyond.

It's bringing unity together of the gifts and expecting the gifts to go to work and do what God's designed it to do and for the church to bring his presence into the earth.

And sometimes we become disunifying because every person hasn't always been brought up and from our background or maybe our denomination and it's hard for us to unify.

We say, well, we'll unify with those, you know, praise and craze people or we'll unify with those frozen chosen people.

And again, or we'll unify with that people, but when we can't unify with that, do you know that God has got some praise and craze people, that God's got some frozen chosen, that God's got some people in the middle, that God's got some people to do work everywhere and we're to unify those things together and bring his presence into the earth.

Why in the world would we divide over personal preferences?

And again, the truth of the matter is that's what we do sometimes.

And I believe that God is calling his church and I mean his church globally to unify.

And one of the greatest ways for his church globally is to unify, is to start right here on this plot of ground in the local congregation that you belong to and put the gifts to work and let's see what God can do and let's unify in that and begin to believe God.

We're here for one purpose and that purpose is to elevate the name of Jesus Christ and announce to the world that he came to save people from their sin, he came to deposit his spirit in them so they could get back to the business of what God has designed them to do and that's to bring his presence into the earth.

And my friend, I don't believe we do that apart from the local church because what it says in the scripture, it says that Jesus is ascended, he's given his gifts and he has created his church to be his body and do amazing things in the world.

We have to embrace kingdom attitudes.

We have to, you know what?

We have to take our responsibility serious and then the last thing I wrote down is we have to expect things to change.

We have to expect things to change.

I believe because of his church, things in the world are supposed to change because the Bible says that he reunites us through Christ Jesus with himself so that his presence can fill this universe and when his presence fills the universe, guess what happened?

Darkness has to flee.

And the reality of it is, it's why the church is here.

I ain't talking about a physical building.

Though we meet in a physical building, the reason we are here is to bring up there, down here and by faith, use our gifts and begin to watch God do the miraculous.

It is his power, not our power.

And the reality of it is, we have to embrace that.

Do we want to see an all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-at-one-time God doing supernatural things that we can't do in our own flesh?

Do we really want to see that?

We got to embrace that he can do that.

And what I mean by that, he can change things.

He can change things in a moment.

He can change things over a period of 10 years.

He can change things over a period of 70 years but we have to have faith and keep on believing.

You know, there's a famous verse in the Bible that a lot of people like to quote.

You've probably seen it on a plaque somewhere and the Bible says in Jeremiah 29, it says, Lord, I know the plans I have for you.

It's the plans to prosper you.

And that's a good plan, okay?

But the verse right underneath it says, but what you're going to do is, to that group it was written to, you're going to stay in captivity for 70 years in Babylon and then my plan will begin to take root and take place.

So you got to wait on my plan for 70 years.

You got to keep putting faith in my plan for 70 years.

And what's amazing is we give up on faith when God doesn't do everything in a moment but God can do everything in a moment and maybe he wants to do everything in a moment but maybe it's 10 years, maybe it's 70 years, maybe it's 700 years but I got faith to believe that God's going to do through his gifts and through his church what he says he's going to do and he's going to fill this earth with his presence.

We can expect things to change.

Look what it says in Ephesians 4, eight and nine.

It says, the writer goes on to say, this is why the scriptures say, when he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.

Notice that it says, the writer reinstates, he ascended.

This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.

And the same one, the suffering servant who gave his life on a cross and who descended is the one that defeated death, sin and the grave and ascended higher than all the heavens.

Look what it says, so that, everybody say so that.

He might fill the entire universe with himself.

He ascended and he pours out his spirit and he pours out his gifts on men and women alike so that he may fill the entire universe with himself through his church, through his people.

What God is going to do in the world, he is going to do through the local church when we participate with our gifts again to see the power of God show up.

It is not by my power, it's not by my might, it is by the power of the living God working through the various gifts that unify and come together that God does these amazing and miraculous things.

Yes, God could have called a legion of angels to take Jesus off the cross to keep him from being nailed to the cross, but Jesus was committed and responsible with his calling to go to a cross, to die for humanity's sin, to defeat death and rise from a grave because he was fully committed to do what God had called him to do.

But he came with a humble heart, he came with amazing love, he came with a spirit of wanting you on his team and figuring out who you are and he ascended into the heaven and he sits at the right hand patiently waiting right now for every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, every tribe, every tongue, every people of the earth to respond to his amazing grace.

But the church needs to be responsible with the gifts and pour out who he is in this world.

He's a great and mighty God.

And I believe fully that we can expect things to change.

I told you a story a couple of weeks ago about a man who entered into a courtroom and as he entered into the courtroom, he sat on one side of the courtroom, he looked across the courtroom and he saw another man paralyzed and in a wheelchair.

And God placed it on the man who wasn't in the wheelchair's heart, you need to go over and pray for physical healing for that man in that wheelchair and you know what, I'm gonna show my glory through him and do something amazing.

And the man, scared out of his own skin, was kind of being a little bit reluctant about that because he didn't know this person in the wheelchair.

But after the courtroom session was over, he made his way over to the man in the wheelchair and he looked at the man and said, God wants me to pray healing for your life, physical healing for your life for you to get up and walk.

And by faith, I believe that's what God wants to do in your life.

And the man, he said, can I pray for you?

And the man reluctantly looked at him and said, what if it don't work?

The man that God told to pray said, well, what if it does?

And the man had the courage enough to pray with the man and miraculously, the power of God showed up and healed that man physically and he got up and walked.

Come on.

Is that to say every single time that that man ever prayed for somebody physically to get up and walk, that they got up and walked?

But no, he acted by faith in what God told him to do.

He went across the room.

The man become in agreeance with him in what God wanted to do by faith that he wanted to show his glory through that miraculous healing.

And God did what he said he was gonna do.

My friend, this is what it means to be active by faith.

It doesn't mean that we hit or bat a hundred every single time, but if God puts it on your heart to pray with somebody for mental healing, you better do it because God's about to do a miracle and he's about to do something miraculous to show you his power and his glory.

And I'm a church and I'm a person that fully believes in healing.

I believe in the healing of spiritual lives, that God penetrates people's heart, makes them whole again spiritually by bringing them to the good news of his son, Jesus Christ, died on a cross in place of their sin so they could come back and write communion with God and live everlasting life with God.

I fully believe in spiritual healing.

I fully believe in mental restoration.

I fully believe in emotional healing.

I fully believe in the healing of the body.

I fully believe that if we don't box God in, God can do whatever he wants to do because he's an all-powerful, all-knowing God and we're a church that wants to participate and believe God for what he says he will do.

I don't know if you got that kind of faith, but I'm trying to muster up that faith to believe that God, in a moment, does what he says he will do.

Come on, church.

And you don't have to do it on Sunday mornings.

That's why we're doing this first Wednesday service throughout the end of the year, first Wednesday of every month, 6.30 p.m.

We're doing a service where God's people can come together.

We can worship together.

We can believe together.

We can pray together.

We can take communion together as God's family, commune with God and commune with each other and begin to really worship God and seek his face.

I believe that God can do some supernatural things in this meeting.

I believe that God can do some supernatural things in your small group.

I believe that God can do some supernatural things by the pot.

I believe that God can do some supernatural things in your living room.

I believe he can do it in your bedroom, wherever God is and we believe, I believe that God can do it.

But we have to trust it with our heart.

And God's inviting you to participate with your gift.

The question is, is will you step fully in to what God's inviting you to do?

And do you really believe what the scriptures say that Jesus wants to fill this universe with the presence of the living God, the heavens and the earth.

God is at work in his people through his people.

He wants to bring up there, down here, but we have to submit ourself to his authority.

Let me pray for you today.

God, I thank you so much for doing what you're doing in the life of our church.

God, may we expect the world to change.

May we expect things to be different because of who you are.

Not because of who we are.

God, it's because we unify with our gifts and agree by faith that you are who you are and you do what you say you're gonna do.

And God, that we see you begin to shine your light in our community, around our community, and around the world and push back darkness.

God, we wanna be an obedient people.

We wanna be a responsible people.

We wanna be a people that have humble hearts.

People who love like you love, God.

People who are patient like you're a patient, God.

People who exercise the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, but also expect your power to show up in the middle of that.

God, may we be a church that believes you.

God, if there is one here today that hasn't trusted the finished work of Christ on the cross and the power of his resurrection, may they begin to come to understand who Jesus is.

He's a God who wants to fully forgive them of their past, present, and their future sin.

He's a God who wants to bring them to himself through what Jesus did on that cross and then to turn away from their sin and become all that you've designed them to be.

And my friend, if you've never made that decision to follow Christ, maybe you say, God, today's the day I'm gonna start following Jesus.

And today, I'm gonna trust what Jesus did for me with that cross.

I'm gonna believe in the power of the resurrection.

And I'm gonna begin to connect with his church and walk fully in it and bring up there, down here.

Tell God, thank you for the gift of salvation.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.