He did come to free us from the power of sin.

No longer do we have to be underneath sin's bondage.

We can be set free from that.

We can move forward.

We can have his glorious spirit living in us, teaching us the right direction to go.

And I wanna encourage you in that journey, that Christian journey.

You know, the Christian life is all about movement.

It's not about stagnation.

It's not about just sitting still.

It's not about settling.

You know, it's amazing because when you see God working in people's life through the scripture, God always uproots them when they try to settle and just get comfortable with where they are.

And there's nothing wrong with comfort, but the reality of it is, it's God wants to continue to work in us and work through us.

And he's a God that is on the move.

He's a God who is moving his presence in his people and through his people.

He's not a God that just sits still.

He's a God that is a creator and he's created all things to bring him glory.

And the way we as human beings bring him glory is we get on the right track of what he's created us to be and do.

If you have your Bibles, Galatians chapter one, as the writer here addresses the church at Galatia, he says this in verse four.

He says, Jesus gave his life for our sins.

How many of you are thankful for that today?

Come on.

He goes on to say, it was God's plan, just as God our father planned.

The reason he gave his life for our sins is to rescue us.

Everybody say rescue.

Rescue.

To rescue us from this evil world.

Notice he doesn't say out of this evil world.

He says to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.

There's a big difference in God rescuing us out of this world and coming to rescue us in this world from this world so that we can live as the people he's designed us to be.

And so Jesus came from heaven to earth to forgive us of our sin.

The Bible says he gave his life for our sins just as God the father planned.

And the reason was so that he could rescue us from this evil world in which we live.

In other words, he don't want you to stop living.

He don't want you to stop being.

He don't want you to stop doing.

He wants you to keep pressing forward, not underneath the power of sin, but underneath the power of the Holy Spirit and live in this world that has evil in it.

Come on, somebody.

And begin to display God's greatness in your life and through your life.

He didn't rescue us from it so we can continue to be a part of it, but we're living in it and we're actually bringing change to it.

In other words, God is in the transformation business.

In other words, he's transforming us from our old nature into our new nature.

I don't know how long you've been on the journey, how long you've been on the Christian journey, how long you've been following Christ, or you're even following Christ.

But what I am here to declare to you, if you get on that journey, what God's Spirit does is he works the old out and he puts the new in, and he begins to teach you if you're willing to move.

Move with God.

The writer says this in Galatians 5, verse 7.

He says to the people, you were once running the race so well.

You were moving so well.

He says, now who has held you back from following the truth?

In other words, they were being held back from the life that God called them to live because they began to listen to other voices and they stopped moving, they stopped running, they stopped running the race that God called them to run.

I wonder if you've been stalemated in your race.

I wonder if something's got a hold of your heart and stopped you from running the race that God called you to run.

And if it has, I do believe that God wants to speak to you today, that God wants to infuse something into you today, that God wants to help you pick back up and begin to run that race again.

The Bible says this in Galatians 5, verse 25.

It says, since we, we as Christians, we live by the Spirit, the Spirit of the living God, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

The Bible gives this notion here that the Spirit of God is on the move, that it's not stagnant, that he's not standing still, that he's going somewhere, that he's doing something, that he, the Spirit, is moving in our midst to take us on a journey and do amazing things in this earth.

God is at work in this earth.

God is about his people bringing up there, down here, but we can't do it if we're not moving, if we're not participating.

That's why we call you to not just come to church, but let's be the church.

And again, it's really important to come to church so you can be encouraged, you can be infused with the Word of God, and together we can begin to live on this amazing journey.

But so many people are stagnant.

They're like, I don't have any purpose anymore.

I don't feel like I got any fight left in me anymore.

And can I tell you, I get the same way.

In other words, my spirit sometimes gets depleted.

Sometimes when things aren't going the way that I think they should go, I can get depleted.

I can begin to say, God, is it worth all of this?

You know, we bought this property in 2012.

That's over a decade ago.

It's a long time ago.

And when we bought the property, we planned at that time to build a venue and possibly move into that venue.

We're still not in the venue.

Slap your neighbor and say, but we're gonna keep going.

Go ahead and tell them we're gonna keep going.

And I'm here to share with you some of the things God teaches me personally on the journey.

In other words, it's not always about instantaneous success.

It's not always about just getting there.

It's about remaining faithful as you go there.

Some of us quit the journey because a person says something to us we don't like.

Are you kidding me?

You know, sometimes, you know, people quit the journey of what God wants to do in them and through them because it didn't just show up exactly like they thought in their mind, their own personal made theology.

In other words, you know, again, and we can all come to conclusions about who God is, but I encourage you to not just go off of the philosophies of this world.

I encourage you just not to go off of your own mind's thinking.

I encourage you to begin to dig into what has been written over the ages known as the Bible.

Begin to see who God is and what God's doing in and through human beings' life.

Because the reality of it is, is he's the same God.

Yesterday, today, and forever.

And his purpose for humanity, all of you back there and back all the way to the front hasn't changed.

It's the same.

His purpose for humanity is the same.

And God wants to have a relationship with you as a human being, and then God wants to work in you and provide for you as that human being, and God wants to do mighty things through you in being someone that glorifies him in this world.

God desires to be your provider.

God desires to be your provider.

He wants you to trust him for provision.

He wants you to trust him for every step of the journey.

And so what God, he doesn't want you just to be forgiven of your sins, he wants you to be faithful on the journey and begin to understand his amazing faithfulness to you.

And so today, we're gonna learn how to move with God, how to move with the spirit of God.

Because I don't think that some of us know how to move with the Holy Spirit.

The teacher, that's who the Holy Spirit is.

The counselor, the great coach, the one that empowers you with God's amazing grace, unmerited favor, the one who gives you the spiritual gift he has given you.

Although some of us know how to operate and move with the spirit.

So today, we're gonna talk about that, and we're gonna talk about moving with the spirit of God because he, the third person in the trinity of God, he, the person of the Holy Spirit, is on the move, and he's on the move in his people and through his people, and he's doing great and mighty things, but you gotta walk with the spirit.

You can't just sit still.

You can't just stay the same.

God didn't invite you to stay the same.

God invites you to change, but you know what?

Whenever we invite somebody to change, it becomes difficult.

Most people don't like change.

Because people like to get in a routine and keep doing the same old thing, the same old way, and get the same old results.

But the reality of it is, we have to be observant.

What's wrong with the situation?

What's right with the situation, and how do we adjust to make it do more?

Again, what's wrong with the situation?

Be critical.

What's wrong, why aren't you moving?

What's wrong?

How do I get it right?

Ask God.

Get wisdom from God, and then be willing to take action and adjust, and be willing to change.

Change is the hardest thing for a human being.

It's difficult, because you know what?

Until it gets bad enough, we're not willing to change.

And I wanna invite you in the good, let's be willing to change, let's be willing to adjust, let's be willing to become better.

So how do we move with the spirit of God?

If you have your Bibles, flip over to the book of Joshua, because Joshua was a leader who moved with God.

He led God's people, he's the second leader of the Hebrew people.

Moses was the first, Joshua takes the mantle of leadership, and Joshua begins to take the people who were once enslaved into what the Bible refers to as the Promised Land.

And so God says, Joshua, it's time to move.

And because it's time to move, I want you to take on, you know what, the spirit that I need you to have in order to move forward.

And I do believe this same spirit that Joshua took on for the people, the Hebrew people, is the same spirit we have to take on if we're gonna move with God.

And it says it this way in Joshua 1, verses 6 to 8.

God tells Joshua, be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess the land I swore to give their ancestors, and that I would give them.

He says, be strong and very courageous.

Be careful to obey the instructions Moses gave you.

Joshua, do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left.

And then you will be successful in everything you do.

He goes on in verse 8 to say, study this book.

Study this book of instruction continually.

He says, Joshua, what you need to do is you need to take courage in order to move, have courage in order to move forward with me.

Be strong and courageous.

Says it three times in this passage.

Be strong and courageous.

So if we're gonna move with the spirit, we have to have courage.

Everybody say courage.

Courage.

We have to be infused with courage, the courage that comes from God.

To go where God is going and where God is moving.

And the thing is, is we don't always know all the things about God, but we gotta be willing to follow and we gotta be willing to trust.

And if you're gonna trust, you gotta have, if you're gonna trust God, that means you gotta have courage, because God is usually taking you into uncharted waters.

Into unfamiliar places.

Into greater things that you've never experienced just in your flesh.

The spirit of God is taking us higher.

He is taking us to greater understanding of who God is.

And as he begins to help us understand more about who God is, the same spirit is challenging us to rid ourself of the old and put on the new and go with the spirit, begin to move with the spirit, walk with the spirit and go in the new direction.

And as we begin to move in that new direction, you know, then we have to make a decision to keep on keeping on, keep on following.

So again, let's talk a little bit about how do we gain courage.

The Bible says this in Romans chapter 12, verse two, it says, don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Here in this passage in Joshua chapter one, verses six to eight, what God says is Joshua, be strong and courageous.

What you need to learn to do is stay in God's word and listen to him.

And when you do that, you'll begin to have the courage to take the next step that you need to take.

You know, courage is an interesting thing.

Practically, how do you gain courage?

I believe courage takes three principles that you may wanna jot down.

The first one is trust.

You gotta begin to trust in order to take courage.

Courage takes trust, courage takes time, and courage takes testing.

Let me say those three again.

Courage takes trust, courage takes time, and courage takes testing.

Let's say you're gonna crawl to the top of a ladder.

And I know some of you, you know, have been to the top of a ladder a million times, but maybe some of us don't have the courage to step on the first step.

So how do we begin to go up?

How do we begin to rise with the spirit of God?

How do we begin to climb that ladder?

We have to trust.

We have to begin to trust that that first step is gonna hold us.

And so we have to begin to get an aptitude that that step gets me higher.

And then we got to begin to let that transform us, and then we gotta take action and take that first step.

We gotta trust and take that first step.

Some of us are not willing to step with God because of what people think.

Or with some old school thinking that we have in our own mind.

Of what somebody's gonna say.

I invite you to trust God.

God's on the move.

I invite you to read the word of God and begin to trust the word of God and see what God wants to do in your heart and through your heart.

God has taken you on a journey.

But you gotta trust and take that first step.

And not only do you have to trust, sometimes it takes a little time.

In other words, because you take the first step, it may take a little bit as you trust that first step to believe that the second step's gonna hold you too.

Because now there's getting to be more inches between the floor and where you're going.

And so the risk becomes more as you climb.

And so the trust has to be developed as you climb up the ladder.

The trust has to be developed as you trust in the living God as he's taking you higher.

But not only does trust, it's over time that you begin to trust God either more or that trust begins to be depleted.

And the reality of it is I'm trusting God for who he is, the creator of the universe.

And I'm trusting him for what he wants to do in and through me.

Then over time, I get more courage to keep moving forward.

And also there's testing.

God always tests what he wants to develop in you.

God's about testing our faith, testing us on the journey.

Not so much for him to understand who we are, but for us to understand who we are.

And so God will begin to test our faith on the journey.

And so courage is built through trust, through time, and through testing.

And so here, Joshua, he had courage.

God tells him, be strong and courageous.

This is a big step, Joshua.

I'm getting ready to make you the leader of all of these people and take them into the promised land, what I promised years ago to Father Abraham.

I'm getting ready to use you, Joshua, and I need you to be strong and courageous.

Have the courage to step into it.

But do you understand the time, the trust, and the testing that was put into Joshua to get him to that space, to take that amazing step?

It was over a period of time.

It was over a journey.

It was a journey walking with Moses.

It was a journey of God working through the leader Moses, and all along that journey, God's preparing Joshua.

And what Joshua does is he gets underneath the leadership of Moses, and he's willing to be shaped by God.

See, that's the reality of it is, do you know what's best?

Are you willing to be shaped by God?

Are you willing to begin to let God give you, to change the way you think and change your aptitude about things?

And I think all of us can answer this question, because if I'm willing to go higher with God, the question is this, what am I really giving my mind to?

And the Bible says that we need to give our minds to, let our minds be like Christ-like, give our minds to Christ.

But what dominates your mind?

What dominates your thinking?

What dominates it, is it the things that you're doing every day, or is it really God?

And if you really want to change, and you want to be courage, and you wanna change the way you think, you gotta change what you watch, you gotta change what you listen to, sometimes you gotta change your environment, you gotta be willing to change.

Yes.

Are you willing to have the courage to go higher with God, and move with God?

God's doing great and mighty things.

God's reaching into people's heart and life, at different ages and stages of life.

He's reaching into young people's life, he's reaching into old people's life, he's reaching into not just good people's life, but he's reaching into all kinds of people's life.

And if we're gonna continue to be a part of what God is doing in this world, we have to understand who God is, and what he's doing in our own life, and we gotta understand what God's about, and God's about rescuing people in this sinful world, not just taking us out of this world, but rescuing us from sin.

So understand, it's probably none of us in this room, or watching on camera, is God has chosen yet to take us out of this world.

So we have to have the courage to live in the world.

We have to have the courage that comes from God to live in the world.

Because evil is in the world.

Sin is in the world.

But God has given his spirit, so that, everybody say so that.

So that.

We can overcome the sin of this world.

Doesn't mean you're perfect.

Doesn't mean you just stop cussing.

Though that would be probably a good thing if spirit's been working on your heart and tell you to quit cussing.

But the reality of it is this, is some of us, you know what, we're not even willing to listen to the spirit in that area of our life.

Spirit's working on some of our hearts, saying you know what, you need to stop using that language.

Stop using that coarse, that sarcasm.

And we're not willing to do it, because we need to cover up who we are by our sarcasm.

And the reality of it is, is God's like, listen to me.

He says, I want you to have the courage to be who I called you to be.

Stop trying to cover up things, you know, with all of this stuff, worrying about what everybody else is thinking.

Begin to understand who I say you are.

Rise up, have some courage, get on board with what I'm doing in this world.

It's amazing.

Changed the way you think.

And the way you change the way you think is you begin to listen to what God's saying.

Joshua chapter one, verse eight says this.

It says, meditate Joshua.

Meditate on it day and night.

Reflect on it.

Study the book, meditate on it.

Begin to listen to what I said through Moses as Moses was talking to you.

Begin to think about it.

Have the right, have the right understanding, have the right attitude towards what I said.

I understand.

Sometimes I have stinking thinking too.

I'm with you, man.

I get it.

Let God shift our attitude.

Let God shift our attitude about what he's doing in the world.

I've come to the conclusion is really nothing is easy but eating chocolate cake.

In other words, you know, it's easy to do sinful things.

My pleasurable things are the things that feed my flesh.

It's easy to do those things.

Easy just to step into them.

And do them.

But it takes courage.

Everybody say courage.

Courage.

It takes courage to follow God in a sinful world.

In a microwave world.

In an easy world.

Takes courage.

That means we gotta have some audacity and we gotta believe that God is on the move and God's doing greater things than we can just see with our eye.

And we gotta be willing to step into that.

If we're gonna move with God, we gotta have courage.

We gotta begin to not only change our aptitude, our thinking, our attitude, but I love what Joshua 1, 8 says.

It says if we're gonna have courage, that means we gotta take action.

Look what it says there.

Meditate on it day and night.

And so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.

Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

In other words, do what it says.

Take action.

Be a doer.

I know everybody tells you to be a leader, not a doer.

But be a doer and then when you become a doer, then that'll bleed out of you and it'll begin to transform other people around you.

Do what the word says.

That's what obey means.

It means that even though, you know what, my flesh don't wanna do it, I do it anyway.

And again, the spirit of the living God is a lot like a trainer or coach.

They make you do, he makes you do things you don't think you can do.

By coaching you, by encouraging you, by infusing courage in you, helping you do more than you can do on your own merit and your own power.

A personal trainer will say, look, you don't think you can give me another pushup, but you can give me another pushup.

And the personal trainer will prod you into doing that next pushup.

If they're a good personal trainer.

In other words, you know what, I don't care if you throw up when you're running win sprints.

The reality of it is when you get in the fourth quarter, Colorado, Deion Sanders theology here, okay.

You're gonna win.

Because I made you throw up in practice.

I made you do something you didn't wanna do.

I made you become better.

And again, the reality of it is when you step into the game, then you have the courage to do what you need to do because you've been working with the spirit and walking with the spirit and the spirit's been training you up to do things you never thought you could do.

Come on.

Be willing to do the word of God.

Do the things God says.

Have changed the way you think, your aptitude.

Change your attitude towards what God says and change, you know what, your actions and begin to gain courage.

You can't get to the top of the ladder without taking action, without doing something, without taking the steps.

And again, I'm scared to death of heights so I'll probably never get to the top of the ladder.

But the reality of it is this, is you know what, if I wanna go higher, I have to be willing to do something sometimes I don't wanna do.

The enemy is into discouraging you, my friend, not encouraging you.

The enemy wants you to be fearful.

The enemy wants you to be filled with shame.

The enemy wants you to be filled with guilt.

The enemy wants you to be filled with pride.

The enemy wants you to be filled with I know it all.

The enemy wants you to be filled with all these things and we need to understand all of those things are for discouragement and not encouragement.

I wonder when the last time you prayed to your creator, not for deliverance, but guidance.

See, there's a big difference in talking to God about guidance and deliverance.

And a lot of us use prayer like a spare tire.

God, I'm in trouble, I got a flat tire in my life, I need your deliverance.

Can you come to my rescue and give me a new tire, give me a tire change?

Where God's like, no, no, no, I wanna be like the steering wheel, I wanna guide you so you don't have the flat tire and we'll go somewhere if you'll learn to seek me for guidance before you begin to ask me for deliverance, I'll begin to do amazing things in your life.

See, when we talk to God, we need to be asking a lot more about guidance.

God, what you want me to do in this situation?

But as a pastor, most people come to me with prayers of deliverance and not guidance.

I need God to deliver.

I need God to deliver this or deliver that.

I need God to do that.

And instead of saying, you know, I wanna know God's will for my life.

I wanna take some action and step into it.

I wanna be trusted, I wanna trust God.

I wanna be willing for God to ask me to do something my flesh isn't willing to do.

And I wanna see how God guides me in that and begins to help me overcome that.

I wanna see how God puts me up against the test so I can begin to show that he remains faithful and I am faithful because I trust him all the way along the journey.

God, I need your guidance in this.

God, I don't know how in the flipping world we gonna get that building built, but I need your guidance here.

I don't just need the building built.

I need your guidance here, what you wanna do in somebody's life in the process.

All right.

See, see, again, courage.

Courage is walking with God.

It's a lot like climbing a ladder.

It's a lot about like us of following.

And again, the word of God begins to give this notion that God's moving.

And I think the reason some of us feel stagnant and feel like God's not moving in our heart and our life, is because we don't have the courage to walk with him.

And what he's doing in the world.

And what he's doing in the world.

He's doing things greater than we can do.

He's doing things greater than one.

And the unique thing is, it takes us coming alongside of each other in order to experience God the way God wants to be experienced.

It takes the other gifts of the church to feed us and encourage us.

And what's interesting is God wants to take us all on a journey, but we gotta be willing to follow.

And not only do we need to have the courage, I wrote this down in my journal, we also, we need to find momentum.

You know, I didn't grow up in the North, so I don't know a lot about snow.

But I did watch Frosty the Snowman.

And I know if you wanna make a big ball of snow, that you have to start with something little.

You have to start rolling around in the snow and it starts collecting more snow and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

And then you just push it on the hill and if it gets big enough and weighs enough, it'll just get momentum and roll down that hill.

And it's like a snowball, you know, just getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

What is momentum?

Momentum means, you know what, it starts out, you know, it's kind of drudgery and a little bit slow, but eventually, you begin to get that momentum, that drive around you and you begin to move quicker, faster, swifter, you'll be able to do more.

And not only if we're gonna move with God, do we need courage, we also have to have momentum.

I think the verse, after verse 25, where it says, keep in step with the spirit, could be one of the most important verses in beginning to move with God, that is seen in all of scripture and it's verse 26 in Galatians 5, it says this.

After it talks about the spirit of God changing us, putting old stuff out, putting the new stuff in, keep in step with the spirit, it goes on to say, the writer says, let us not become conceited or provoke one another or be jealous of one another.

In other words, it says, let us humble, encourage and be proud of what God is doing, doing through other people.

See, you wanna begin to gain momentum, what it literally means is team up with God's people.

Other words, don't just be someone that's conceited and don't provoke each other, but don't be jealous of each other, but be proud of what God is doing in his people and through his people.

Man, this is a church, this is a people that is full of God's miracles.

And we need to be celebrating every time God makes a person come alive in Christ and we begin to see that person walking in the right direction, having the courage to walk in that right direction and then we need to surround ourself with that group of people.

Because it's gonna take others to take you to where God's gonna take you to be.

It's not just you and God, it's about God's created us to be in relationship with others.

What's unique about Joshua is, look what it says in Joshua chapter one verses 10 and 11.

It says, Joshua, after God said, be strong and courageous, and he tells him to get the people together.

The Bible says, Joshua then commands the officers of Israel, go through the camp and tell the people to get their provisions ready.

Tell everybody to get their stuff ready.

In three days, you will cross the Jordan River and take possession of the land the Lord your God has given you.

In other words, Joshua is saying, we're going together.

We're using the gifts and the talents and the provision God has given each of us.

Joshua's like, I'm not going without you.

Joshua's like, I can't go without you.

And what's so unique about this is, God had taken Joshua on this same journey once before with the wrong people.

In other words, this wasn't Joshua's first rodeo with beginning to step into the promised land.

But God sent him out with a bunch of spies before and the majority of the spies came back and said, we can't do what God said.

That was the wrong people.

And it took 40 years for God to begin to rid all of that crowd from around Joshua, but he had the audacity to stand and believe God.

And God says, this time, Joshua, you be strong and courageous.

You go tell this group of people that we're getting ready to cross.

And Joshua believed, you know what, that that group of people could begin to be the people that God was gonna use to help him with the momentum to enter into the promised land.

And the reality of it is this, is we have to understand and we have to be for people and be people's cheerleaders.

But at some point in time, the Bible says to dust off your feet and keep moving.

I am for you and I am for the next person.

And I am for sharing the goodness of God and forgiving seven times seven and all of that good stuff.

But I'm also here as a person underneath God's authority and God's leadership.

And I understand that God wants to move in his people and for his people and God desires to leave no person behind but you have to be willing to change.

You gotta have courage, you gotta step into it and we gotta go together.

Come on somebody.

We gotta go together.

Get your provisions ready.

Get your stuff ready.

God's ready to do great and mighty things.

And again, he don't have us just running around in a circle.

He says, no, no, no, I'm putting the right people in the right place to do the thing I wanna do.

It has to be a people that have the courage to step into what God wants today.

And my friends, again, it's about being a part of a team that believes God.

It's about being a part of a team that believes that God and his powerful spirit is in love with humanity and wants to reach into anybody's heart and transform them.

In other words, if you keep working and doing the same thing over and over again and it's not of God, we're inviting you to change because God's inviting you to change.

It's not that we don't forgive you but let's let the transforming power of God step into our heart and our life and let's move forward.

We can't be stagnant.

We got to do something with God's spirit and do something for God.

And I love this in Hebrews chapter 12 and chapter 10.

I read this often but I like this passage of scripture.

It says, let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm in Christ Jesus.

For God can be trusted to keep his promise.

He can be a trusted God.

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

That's the ministry.

Get motivated and let us not neglect our meeting together.

Some people do but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

That right there is spoken to the church.

Spoken to the Hebrew people in the Bible.

That's spoken to the church right here in 2023.

And again, we have to be people that believe God, trust God, keep on keeping on, don't give up.

The enemy tells you to quit.

You know, the enemy says, again, I've been watching a lot of Deion Sanders.

I don't know why but he's just been exciting over the last three or four weeks leading the Colorado team, Colorado, Buffaloes, Buffalo, Buffalo, whatever it is.

I've been watching him.

And he's been doing the unthinkable.

He recruited his team.

And nobody believed that they could go to a team like Colorado and begin to win and do what they've done up this thing, they've won three games.

But last night about 1.30 our time, they were in a game and it went into overtime.

And then it went into the second overtime.

And you know, if you just watch that team play together as a football unit, they're infusing courage in each other.

Some of them's good, some of them's not so good, all of those, but they believe.

They believe and they're working together in order to win games.

Now, will they win every game?

Probably not.

But the reality of it is, is something got in them.

And you know, I believe that God wants to get in us and do the same thing.

He don't want us just to be stagnant and sit still.

I wanna win for God's glory.

I wanna be the greatest thing.

I wanna be a city on a hill, a light to the world.

I'm not building that facility up there so you can look at my chandelier.

That's a tool for the glory of God in this community.

This is a 60 acre piece of property that needs to be his for his glory.

We need to be cutting the grass with scissors.

Needs to be fantastic.

Needs to be amazing.

We don't need to give up, we don't need to quit.

We don't need to pull over to the side.

He is not second best, he is the best.

Come on.

And I'm inviting you, with your own personal life, have the audacity, the courage to step in to what God is calling you to.

Surround yourself with the right people, and let's gain the momentum that God desires, and begin to see him do great things in and through his people.

Let me pray for you today.

God, you're an amazing God.

And God, I thank you so much for your love.

God, I thank you so much for Jesus, the one that came to rescue us from this evil world that we live in.

The one who came to forgive us of our sin.

The one that came to impart the spirit of the living God in our hearts, in our spirits, in our souls, so that we could begin to become the people you desire us to be.

So we can live in this world, and not be so troubled by this world, but begin to move forward with the good things of God, with valor, with bravery, and begin to see the world changed.

God, I pray we'd be your people, we'd trust you, we'd walk with you, we would take action and do what you've asked us to do.

And God, if there's a person here today that hasn't put their faith in Jesus and let Jesus make that connection with God, so they could have new direction in their life, my friend, I invite you to put your faith in Jesus today.

I invite you to trust what he did on that cross as he gave his life's blood, so that you could have a connection to your creator.

I invite you to trust him for the forgiveness of your sin.

I invite you to trust him for the power of the Holy Spirit to come into your life and transform you into a new creation.

I invite you to begin to walk with the spirit and see what God could do.

I invite you to not be stagnant.

But be a faithful servant and see what God could do.

And God, if there's a person here today that needs to start that journey by trusting the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, God, I pray that they would be the day of their salvation and they would begin to move forward.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.