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

We've been in a collection of sermon teachings, a teaching series that we have titled Bringing Up There, Down Here.

The whole idea of this particular sermon series is when Jesus told his disciples how to pray in the book of Matthew, he says, this is the model prayer.

You know what, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

May your kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven, come on somebody.

And we do believe that we live in the time period where Jesus has come to earth once, he has paid the penalty of sin by giving his life on a cross, he defeated death, he rose from the grave, he ascended to heaven, he sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, and we live in that time period where until he returns, our assignment, as those who have been caught out of darkness, forgiven of our sin, brought into the wonderful light, our assignment is simply to bring up there, down here.

And so we're gonna continue to talk in that vein today.

If you have your Bibles with you, I'm gonna invite you to open it up to Matthew chapter 25.

We'll start in Matthew chapter 24, but we're gonna end up in Matthew 25, and we're gonna look at a story there where Jesus talked a little bit about a man going on a long trip and what he had entrusted his servants to, and what that really means for our life and bringing up there, down here.

But let's start with Matthew chapter 24.

The Bible says when Jesus came the first time, and he was here on earth, some people came to him wanting to know when the end of the world would be, when would his kingdom be in its fullest.

And Jesus spoke there in Matthew chapter 24, and he says, no one knows the day or the hour except the Father in heaven.

And he says, but there's gonna be some things that happen to begin to point to the end of the world.

And basically he says, the world's gonna be a crazy place, okay, come on.

Anybody think the world's a crazy place today?

Come on, yeah.

And he says, the world's gonna be the crazy place, you're gonna begin to see all kinds of things happen, and we've been seeing those things happen for the last 2,000 years, so that just simply means one thing, that it's getting closer and closer and closer.

And the Bible says in Matthew 24, as Jesus continues to answer this question, he says this, he says, sin will be rampant everywhere.

Sin, missing the mark of God's glorious standard will be rampant everywhere.

And the love of many will grow cold.

The love of many will grow cold.

But the one who endures to the end, he says, will be saved.

And so he says, we are to endure to the end, we're to begin to basically begin to get rid of the sin in our life, begin to pray that God works the sin out of our life, and he puts love in our hearts, and keep pushing the love of God forward in this world until he returns, he says, because that is what our hearts should be as a Christ followers.

And then he says this in verse 12.

He says, and the good news about the kingdom, not just about the king, but he says, and the good news about the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world so that all the nations will hear it, he says, and then the end will come.

I find that fascinating because he doesn't only want the nations to know about a king, King Jesus we're referring to today.

He wants them to know the good news about the kingdom, about the kingdom of heaven.

He wants them to understand not only who Jesus is in their life, he's one that came to forgive humanity of their sin, he defeated death, he defeated the grave, he ascended to heaven, he sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty interceding for us, come on.

But the Bible also says this, that he's gonna return one day, and we as kingdom citizens, because we belong to heaven right now, are to simply bring up there, down here, and not lose hope in the process, okay?

And get on with life and hustle about what we're doing.

So today I'm gonna talk a little bit about hustle.

Everybody say hustle.

Hustle.

Look at your neighbor and say, it's time to hustle.

Go ahead and tell them it's time to hustle.

After Jesus talks about when the end of the world will happen, all this chaos, and the good news will be preached throughout the earth, the good news of the kingdom will be preached throughout the earth, he goes on in Matthew chapter 25, and he begins to tell a couple of stories about the kingdom.

The first story he teaches is about, you know, always be alert and be ready, watchful for the kingdom.

Come on.

He says, be watchful and keep your hope.

Keep your hope in who God is.

But the second story he tells is about, don't only be hopeful, but get on doing your assignment and hustle at doing it.

So today we're gonna look at that story about hustle, because I believe that God has called us to have hope in Christ Jesus, but also be about his business in this world, and hustle about getting the good news of the kingdom around everywhere we go as a church, as a people.

And the Bible says this in Matthew 25, the story begins in verse 14 and goes through verse 29, and Jesus tells this story.

He says, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated, everybody say illustrated.

Illustrated.

By the story of a man going on a long trip.

He called together his servants and he entrusted his money to them while he was gone.

He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last.

Dividing it in proportion to their abilities.

He then left on the trip, and the servant who received the five bags of silver, he began to invest the money and he earned five more.

The servant with the two bags of silver, what had been entrusted to him, also went to work and he earned two more.

But the servant who received the one bag of silver, he dug a hole in the ground and he hid the master's money, what had been entrusted to him.

After a long time, the master returned from his trip and he called them to give an account of how they had used his money.

And the servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest and I have earned five more.

Then the returning master was what?

The Bible says in verse 21, he was full of praise.

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities.

Let's celebrate together.

How many of you know that when Jesus returns, it's gonna be a great day, a celebration, come on.

It's gonna be a great day, a celebration.

Then the servant who had received the two bags of silver, he came forward.

Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest and I have earned two more.

And the master said to him, well done, my good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful in handling this small amount during this time period.

So now I will give you what?

Many more responsibilities.

Let's celebrate together.

How many of you know when God entrusts something to you, you have a responsibility and if you're responsible with what he's put in your hands here and now, there will be many more responsibilities in all eternity that will be entrusted into you.

It's gonna be a great celebration and it's gonna be a great time of entrusting more and more to God's people.

And then the servant with the one bag of silver, he came and said, master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate.

I was afraid I would lose your money so I hid it in the earth.

Here is your money back.

Today for this context of the teaching here on this story that Jesus told, that man refused to hustle.

He refused to hustle with what had been entrusted to him.

The Bible goes on to say that the master said to him, you wicked and lazy servant.

If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank and at least you could have gotten some interest on it?

Why don't you just, why don't you do something?

And then he ordered, take this money from this servant and give it to the one with the 10 bags of silver, the one who will leverage it.

To those who use well what they are given, what is entrusted to them, even more will be entrusted, given to them and they will have an abundance.

But from those who do nothing, no hustle, to those who do nothing on this kingdom assignment, even what little they have will be taken away from them.

It's a pretty remarkable story because it comes on the backdrop of some people asking Jesus what are we basically, when is the end of the world gonna be?

And Jesus says, look, you know, the day and the hour is unknown.

But the reality of it is, what you need to do in the process, in the meantime, well how, until that day comes, until the king returns again, you need to have clear hope, story number one, and don't lose your hope.

And story number two, you need to be about the Father's business and you need to get on with what's entrusted to you and begin to hustle, to bring the good news of the kingdom to every tribe, every tongue and every nation, that Jesus has come the first time as a servant and he gave his life on a cross for whoever would believe in him could have eternal life.

They would not perish, but they could have eternal life.

But he also rose from a grave by God's power and he defeated sin, he defeated the grave and he rose and defeated death.

He then appeared for about 40 days speaking of the kingdom of God to his disciples and then he ascended into heaven and he sits waiting to return one day as we, those who have been brought out of darkness into the wonderful light, begin to be responsible with what he's entrusted to us, bringing the good news of the kingdom to all nations.

And so if you have trusted in who Christ is for the forgiveness of your sin, you have a responsibility.

And God has given you certain measures or certain gifts to take that responsibility seriously and begin to hustle in this world.

And really it's a responsibility, but it's also an opportunity.

And see, sometimes we think about leveraging what we have in our life to make the good news of the kingdom known to mankind, we begin to see it more of a responsibility and we forget about the opportunity.

I have a good thing to announce to you today, how you leverage the little you have now.

My Bible says that in the kingdom of God, you will be entrusted with many more responsibilities because you were good with the little you had here.

Come on, give God a hand clap.

This isn't a story about amounts, this isn't a story about amounts.

It's a story about opportunity and will you hustle with the opportunity you have.

But there's one in the story that didn't hustle.

And at the end of the time, the story illustrated here, the man came back from his trip and he looked at the guy and the guy said, look, you know what?

I hid your, what you entrusted to me, I hid it in the earth, I wasn't responsible with it all, I was afraid of you.

And this man, you know what?

He didn't receive all that was in store for him.

I want you to know today that you have more in store for you than just salvation.

There's so much more.

And I invite you into that.

Salvation is a gift from God, come on.

Because of what Jesus did on a cross we can believe in that, trust that.

And now, don't miss this, because of what Jesus has done, not because of what I have done, I can come in to the heaven or into the holy of holies, into heavenly places and I can begin to commune with my father who has entrusted something to me because of what Jesus has done.

I can get a download of what's been entrusted to me and what is still yet to come.

And I can begin to bring up there, down here, in the moment, because of what is entrusted to me.

Are you stepping into the throne room of your great God and following through with your assignment?

And my friend, you can't go in there except by the blood of Jesus.

You see, you gotta get the vision in your heart of who God is and what he came to do.

He came to forgive you of missing the mark of his glorious standard, but he also came to restore you in right relationship with him so that as he deposits his spirit in you, the holy spirit comes to live in a believer, that you can begin to operate in this life by his power, with the gifts that he's distributed to you.

And so it's a phenomenal thing to begin to hustle on kingdom assignment and be who God has created us to be.

But if we're gonna do that, we gotta know the vision.

See, the first, or the last servant who didn't invest what was entrusted to him, he had lack of vision.

Because in this day and age, when a man who went on a long trip entrusted something to you, entrusted something to you to invest, that's what he expected was for you to invest because you knew that when he came back, he was gonna ask you for an account of what had been given.

And I really think the downfall sometimes in our life of bringing up there, down here, is we don't truly understand sometimes that Jesus has gone on a long trip and that he's coming back.

And we're like, thank you for entrusting salvation to me, entrusting spiritual gifts to me, but we lose sight that he's coming back and he wants to see what you've done with what he's placed in your hands.

And so what are we to do as a church family, as Christ followers?

Well, first and foremost, we need to recognize we're part of a body.

It's God's vision.

Jesus is the head, we're the body.

We're the hands and feet.

And because we are the body, we're to take the good news of the kingdom as a body into the world, not just as individuals.

But if we don't really understand God's amazing vision of what he did through Christ Jesus, we'll miss the vision.

So I wanna share with you today what God declared through Jesus who is here on earth before he ascended back to heaven, what God's vision for your life is again.

Jesus says it this way in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20.

Jesus came and told his disciples, I now have been given all authority in heaven on earth.

This is after he defeated death and rose from a grave.

And before he ascended back to the heavens, he wanted them to know that the authority that human beings gave away in the garden of Eden, God had given human beings the authority, made them both male and female, and says, what I want you to do is just do the earth and permeate my presence throughout the earth, be fruitful and multiply.

Human beings gave that authority away.

Jesus says, now I have come and defeated sin, rose from a grave, and I've taken the keys of death and Hades back and all authority has been given to me.

Heavens and on the earth, is what Jesus says.

And when he ascends, the Bible says he pours out his spirit in that day on men and women alike, so that we will begin to operate underneath his authority and be the people he's called us to be.

Don't miss this.

All authority, because of who Jesus is, by the power of God, paid the penalty of sin, overcame sin by God's mighty power, sits at the right hand of God, and one day will come back and remove us from the presence of sin.

But he sits in rule and reign in all authority right now.

Don't miss this.

And then he says to them, so therefore, since all authority has been given to me, and now I've empowered you, he says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teach these new disciples to obey the commands I have given you.

And sure of this, I will be with you always to the end of the age.

So that's the vision.

It's where to go and help people understand who Jesus is, fully.

Not just he came as a suffering servant.

John was given a revelation of Jesus in his fullest state when he returns and what things are gonna be like.

It's the last letter in your Bible.

It's called the book of Revelation.

And it gives a revelation of his great return and what the new heavens and the new earth are gonna be like.

But in the meantime, we're to understand what the vision of the church is here on planet Earth.

And it's simply to go and make students, go and make learners, go and make disciples of all that Jesus commanded and taught until the end of this age.

Come on, and he's gonna be with us always to the end of the earth.

That means that if God gives me a gift, I'm to use all the gift to begin to, begin to leverage it for his kingdom's sake.

Now, again, so many of us miss the vision, but I wanna be clear with the vision today.

We're a church that believes fully in the word of God.

We're a church that believes that we're not just here, that we're here for a purpose.

We're a church that believes that the same Jesus that came the first time, that he's gonna come back again, come on.

And he is going to do what he says he's gonna do.

And all my encouragement to you is look, in the meantime, let's be about the Father's business.

Let's take what he's entrusted to us and begin to leverage it to make a kingdom difference.

And so that's the first thing we gotta grab hold of is the vision of God.

But we also need to understand if we truly wanna hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, come on in with many more responsibilities, we have to make a difference with what's been entrusted to us.

Make a difference with what's been entrusted to us.

See, I think sometimes we don't leverage what's been entrusted to us because we think somebody else may have been entrusted with something a little bit more.

And the reality is this, the story is about a master entrusting three different amounts to three different people based on the abilities that they had in order to do something with what they were given.

And the Bible says that the one that was entrusted with the five, he didn't just invest 1.5% of the five.

He leveraged all fives of the bags of silver that he was given and he multiplied it and he says, here is five more.

In other words, he was all in.

The one with the two was all in.

But the one with the one did absolutely nothing and hid it in the earth and waited on the master's return.

And you know, I have to believe that maybe he got caught up in the comparison game.

Well, shoot.

The one with the five, you know what, I only got one.

And the one with the five, he can take a risk with one of his five and see if it's really gonna make a difference, but I'm just gonna hang on to my five.

See, or to my one.

And the reality is because the man was just hanging on to his one and hid it in the ground, waiting for the return of the master really demonstrates something.

He didn't really trust the master's vision and he really didn't trust that the master was a good master and wanted him to succeed with his life.

See, a lot of times we hoard the gifts God gives us.

Instead of leveraging them in spite of who we are and our surroundings, what happens is because we hoard it, it's really demonstrating something, God, I don't really know if I'm really entrusting you to empower me to do this.

And I'm here to declare to you today, if God has given you a spiritual gift, a gift from the heavens, and he put it in your life, it is there for you to leverage.

And if you're leveraging it for the kingdom to bring up there, down here, to begin to demonstrate to the nations what the kingdom of heaven is all about, you know what, that gift that you have is more than enough for you and it can begin to be leveraged in the moment you're in.

Again, it's not about how many gifts we have.

Oftentimes I think, we think, well, shoot, that person's so much more gifted than me.

Look at their personality.

Look at them, they can do this and they can do that.

Maybe you're more like me.

You know what, you don't have really that great of a personality.

Maybe, you know, and again, it's not to knock that, but maybe, you know what, you're a little bit more personal than I am and I can begin to get jealous because you're more personal than I am and really miss a lot about what God wants to do through my one little gift.

And again, that's what happens.

Well, shoot, let's just leave it to somebody else.

And God says, no, no, no, make a difference with what you have now.

Don't be comparing what you have to somebody else.

I divided it in proportion to their abilities.

And I gotta believe that God knows exactly why He gave me the gift He gave me.

And I gotta believe that God knows exactly why He gave you the gift He gave you.

And I gotta trust that we're to pull those gifts together to make a kingdom difference so we can make a difference in this world.

I think about, you know, whenever we first, when we first started this church, it's amazing.

I mean, we didn't have this fancy arena we're in.

We didn't have this property, we didn't have all this.

You know what we had?

We had a living room over in a little community called Barefoot Landing, had a living room.

It's all we had.

But God says, look, start.

I think some people say, well, I'll start when I, when I get here, when I get that.

No, no, no, we started with a living room.

We were sent here by a few folks out of Columbia, South Carolina, sent here, went into a living room, didn't have relationships, but the reality of it is, we leveraged what we had in the moment.

And God began to do more and more through us.

And look, now there's thousands of people changed, buildings, all these various things.

But again, it's all about getting the good news of the kingdom out around the world.

Come on.

Our story started with something called a flavor wave oven and a big, fat pancake.

And what I mean by that is we were given a little thing called a flavor wave oven, a little electric flavor wave oven.

And my wife, you know what, being in her younger years and all of her and everything else, she took that flavor wave oven, and with the gift of hospitality that God had entrusted to her, a little small gift with some blueberry pancakes on a flavor wave oven, she began to invite our neighbors over and say, look, we're here simply, but not because, you know what, we're elegant in speech and all that, but we can show the love and kindness of God through our flavor wave oven.

And that began to build what you see today.

Come on, church.

It's a gift, it's a gift, it's a gift.

It's a gift from God to get the news of the kingdom out around the world.

And see, maybe you're like us.

Maybe you've just been entrusted with a little bit, but I wanna encourage you today.

The little bit we've been entrusted with, let's begin to make a difference with it.

And let's begin to do it for his name's sake and for the sake of the kingdom to get the good news that Jesus is coming back all around the world.

It's one thing for people to know who God is when he came the first time to pay for their sin, but it's another thing for them to discover who he says they are in living in the kingdom.

And you know what, God wants to work through amazing people.

He's working right now.

Come on, not just in this room, but I need to tell you this.

He's working right now over at a campus.

We started, you know what, many, many years ago in ESwatini, and there's a campus meeting there today, right now, down in Swaziland.

They're six hours behind us, you know what, they are meeting, or actually six hours ahead of us, they're meeting in Swaziland today, right over there, and Pastor Ma Jehovah, he's been on the ground there 12 years, ministering to orphans, ministering to families, using what's in his hand, a building that we help resource them with.

They are leveraging every ounce of that, planting gardens, doing crazy stuff, serving the world with water.

Come on, using what's in their hands.

We've got LoveGod, one of the guys you see on the worship team, he's over in Nigeria right now.

Actually, he's online right now.

Hello, LoveGod, how you doing today?

Come on, yeah, and here's the deal.

I need you to know that he's leveraging what's in his hand.

Many of us have entrusted financial resources to him, but you know what, he's doing a work.

He's grinding it out.

I was on FaceTime with him this week.

He took me into a community that has absolutely nothing, but he's preaching the word of hope in that community.

He's bringing it down.

He's leveraging what he has, and we're seeing something come alive.

Come on, somebody.

Use what you have.

Use what you have.

Make a difference.

But again, if LoveGod can do it, we can do it.

If I can do it, you can do it.

It's about bringing the gifts together.

You know, I see many people in this room right now.

I had the opportunity to go with our prison ministry this past Thursday night and just speak to the guys there in the prison.

They go there every single Thursday night.

They drive an hour from Myrtle Beach to Whiteville, South Carolina, go into the prison.

A team of people from our church using their time, using their energy, using their resources, and they go there every single Thursday night, walk the walk with those guys.

And I can tell you, some of them are in there.

They're locked up for life, but they're believing on the name of Jesus, and they're realizing that God can use them right where they are.

It's an amazing thing.

Speaking a word of hope into people.

Speaking a word of hope into people.

Using what you have to make a difference.

Church, we're all about doing it.

We don't have to be the one with the five bags of silver.

All we gotta do is use the one we got and begin to leverage it, and watch God do something amazing, which leads me to the last point of bringing up there, down here, and beginning to have kingdom hustle, is I gotta continually develop the relationship.

Develop the relationship.

You see, the one that was entrusted with the one bag of silver, he didn't have the right relationship.

It's really easy to get on this journey, receive the forgiveness of sin from Christ Jesus, and be put in a right relationship with God, but then begin to let that relationship begin to fade.

And I just wanna renew your mind today of the relationship that Jesus came to give you.

It's amazing.

And you know, if you go and you study the Old Testament, God gave the people a way, in the Old Testament, as they came out of bondage, came out of slavery, came out of Egypt, God gave them a way to come into communion into his presence, to remember who he was.

And the Bible says he gave instructions, detailed instructions.

Every detail matters.

Detailed instructions to Moses, the leader, about building something called a tabernacle, a tent of meeting, where God's presence would come and reside so the people could commune with God.

And the Bible says that whenever he gave him those instructions, basically, you know what, there was a door, one door, not a front door and a back door and a side doors.

There was one door to go in to the outer courts of this place that eventually you could go into something called, you know what, the holy place, and eventually a person could go into something called the Holy of Holies, where there was a mercy seat and God's law was under the mercy seat and a priest could go in there on behalf of the people, you know what, basically once a year.

And an amazing thing is, but nobody could come into the presence of God except through the way that he provided.

You know that Jesus declared, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And no one comes to the Father except through me.

He says, I am the door.

So today, I want you to know, you can't come in to God's presence unless you come through Christ Jesus and who he is.

And again, this isn't like saying, look, I'm trying to say, you know what, I'm just trying to be clear today.

There's one way to God.

And it's through the way he offered.

And God said, if you want to come into my presence, here's how you come into my presence.

It's through the blood of Jesus Christ.

And so I don't come into God's presence based on my good works.

I don't come into God's presence based on who I think I am.

I come into God's presence simply because of the blood of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus.

And what's amazing is when you come in to that outer court, there was a place for a sacrifice to be made.

And then there was a place for you to wash your hands.

And then there was a place for you to go into and begin to see the light of Christ, the bread of life.

There was a place that you went into for there was some incense of prayer into this holy place.

But to go into the most holy of holy places, what you had to do is you had to pass through all of those things.

And I'm inviting you today into the holy of holies of God, trusting Christ fully for who he is.

Enter into his presence.

It's not by my sacrifice, it's not by your sacrifice, but it's simply because of his sacrifice.

We can go in there and develop the relationship.

But I think, I think some of us are trying to develop the relationship without coming through Christ Jesus.

And so today I wanna show you here Matthew 25, verses 24 and 25.

The Bible says this about the one servant.

The one servant with the one bag of silver came and said, master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant gathering crops you didn't cultivate.

I was afraid I would lose your money.

So I hid it in the earth.

Look, here's your money back.

He didn't trust.

He didn't trust what the master had entrusted him with.

He didn't have the proper relationship with the master.

And my friend, just because we have come in to this presence of God through the blood of Jesus, I'm trying to help us understand we have to continually come in through the blood of Jesus.

He hasn't, he doesn't have to get back up on that cross over and over again.

Well, his shedding of blood was good for once in all sin, but stop thinking you can come into the presence of the living God.

You know what, based on what you have done, trust him and what he's entrusted to you and come into his presence and see what he wants to do in you and through you.

Come on.

Yeah, come on.

And so again, this is something that we would call prayer in our society today, because the Bible calls the church, those have been caught out of darkness into the wonderful light.

They call it, the Bible calls us a priesthood of believers.

What is a priesthood of believers?

What did a priest do in this Old Testament?

A priest was simply go into the presence of God and talk to God about people and then come out of there and begin to talk to people about God.

And so when we're a priesthood of believers, we're to carry our gifts into the presence of the living God through prayer.

Talk to God about people, people everywhere, lost people, hurting people, broken people.

You know what, talk to God about our own needs.

Come into there with thanksgiving for who God is, but then we're to talk to God about people.

And when we come out of that, we're to be in continual prayer and we're to go out into the world and serve people with the love of Christ and talk to people about God, because this is how God begins to flow into the world.

Come on, it's a heart of prayer.

It's a house of prayer.

It's not just an individual of prayer.

And so what I want you to know is some new things that God is doing in our family, in Valorous Church.

Again, we have prayer teams, but God is birthing in our heart to not just have prayer teams, but to be a house of prayer.

In other words, all the parts are praying, working together to hear from God through the various gifts, so we can put those gifts together and come out in the world.

And so what we're getting ready to do, this upper room, we're getting ready to finish it out.

We're getting ready to basically have a place for prayer.

But our goal isn't just to have a place of prayer every now and then, it's to have a place of prayer for us, his family, to go in 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Come on, it's what our vision is.

Because we wanna be a house of prayer, a people of prayer.

We want hurting people to be able to come there at 2.30 in the morning, to be able to be prayed over.

And so we want it to be open.

It's not open yet, 24 hours a day.

We don't have all the pieces put in place, but we're believing God and we're gonna start today and we're gonna believe that God's gonna do what he says he's gonna do.

And if we simply each would do our part, what amazing things could God begin to do?

Because I don't only believe that when you go in communing on behalf of people, on behalf of people to God, I believe that God speaks to you about people.

And what God's gonna reveal to you if you become a part of this house of prayer, is God's gonna begin to reveal to you how you can be a part of changing the world, bringing up there, down here, through the gifts he has given you.

So let's be all about what God's about and it's a house of prayer and it's believing that God will do what he says he's gonna do and he's gonna bring hope and healing through his church, come on.

And again, maybe you've only been gifted the ability to go in that room and pray for 30 minutes.

I don't know what it is.

We don't have it all organized yet, okay?

But the reality of it, maybe you're like me and you don't have the endurance to be the 24 hour person up there all 24 hours a day, but what if, what if we come together as a body?

And you pray 365 days a year, seven days a week, because each part was doing its part in talking to God.

What could that look like?

Instead of piling all the responsibility on one or two people, but if we would leverage our time, energy and resources and come before a God and commune with him as a church, how many miracles would begin to happen in this world?

Come on.

Yeah, so I'm inviting you to consider what God's calling you to do of being part of a house of prayer, because we wanna commune with God.

We wanna believe that he's deposited things in us to invest in this world and bring people to him by the good news of who Christ Jesus is, and we're inviting you into it.

So if God is moving it in your heart to be a part of that, let somebody know you're gonna be hearing more about this over the next couple of weeks.

And again, we don't have all the pieces in place yet.

I'm just announcing today from my heart, what I believe that God is wanting to do in the life of our church is going to be absolutely a miracle.

Come on.

Let's step into it, let's believe.

Let me pray for us today.

God, I thank you so much for entrusting to us the responsibility of bringing up there, down here.

God, I thank you for the various gifts in this room.

God, I thank you for entrusting us with so much responsibility.

As we put those responsibilities together, God, we begin to see you do amazing, amazing things.

God, I do believe you wanna work in this world through your church.

We are your body.

Jesus, you declared that, you know what, there would be greater works done through your people that believed in you and trusted you.

And God, we wanna be a people that believe that you're gonna come in and begin to do amazing things in our life.

You're gonna begin to heal our hearts, and we're gonna begin to take this good news of who a resurrected Jesus, an ascended Jesus, and a Jesus coming back to the rest of the world.

God, we wanna pray for those right now on the outside that they would step in and become a part of the inside by trusting Christ.

And my friend, if you've never trusted the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin, this is the way in, the way to begin to see what God wants to do in you and through you.

It's a way for you to have holy communion with a great God.

And I invite you in on behalf of my Savior and many other people's Savior.

His name is Jesus, and because of what he did on that cross.

The Bible says, if we turn from our sin, repent of our sin, and turn our hearts towards Jesus, we will be saved.

And so maybe today you need to trust Christ for the first time so you can come in to the tabernacle, so you can come in to the place and begin to worship God and get a download from God.

And if that is you today, just simply say, today I turn away from my sin, Jesus, I trust what you did on that cross, and I trust the power of your resurrection, and today I want a relationship with you, God, and I come into that relationship based on who Jesus is, and I trust him for forgiveness, I trust him for salvation, I trust him for my future, I trust him with what he has in store for me and my church.

God, I thank you for the gift of salvation that comes through Christ Jesus, and we pray it in his name, amen.