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

Life has mountaintops and life has valleys.

But the Bible says that our faith in Jesus Christ is to endure until the end.

And sometimes it is very, very difficult to endure to the end.

But I do believe whenever we surround ourself with the right people, God's people, and the right gifts that God has given to his church, then we can keep on keeping on in difficult times.

We are to be here for one another.

And we are doing this teaching series that we have titled Valorous Matters, because in reality, the church matters to all people everywhere, no matter where they are.

And you know what, every community has a local church.

And what a local church is to do is to provide a space and a place for God's people to come in, meet Jesus, grow up in Jesus, and become all Jesus has designed them to be.

We like to say it this way here at Valorous Church.

We want you to know who God is, but we also want you to know who God says that you are.

Come on, yeah.

Because it's really, really important, not just for you to wander through life knowing who God is, but wandering through life with a purpose footed in who God says that you are.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, he says, I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

The church is God's idea.

It's for our good, it's for his glory, and it's to bring hope and healing to a hurting world.

The church, Jesus says, I am going to build a church, brick by brick, day by day, come on.

And I'm gonna build my church, and I'm gonna build it in such a fashion that it brings glory to God.

It's for the people's good, come on, and it is to bring hope and healing to a hurting world.

The church matters in our life, no matter who we are.

And so today, I wanna take a minute and continue in this vein, teaching on why the church matters in our life, because the Bible has a lot to say about functioning as a spiritual community, as a family, as a unit, as a body.

And so we're gonna take a look into that today, and if you have your Bibles with you, I'm gonna invite you to open up to Ephesians chapter two, as we're gonna begin there, and we're gonna begin in verse 19.

As the writer here is writing the church at Ephesus, he is speaking to a group of believers that weren't from the Jewish descent, they were known as Gentiles, and he explains to them who they are in Christ Jesus.

And he says in verse 19 of chapter two, he says, so now you Gentiles, you're no longer strangers and foreigners, because you know who Christ Jesus is, the resurrected Jesus, the ascended Jesus, the ascended Jesus who is gonna come back for his church.

He says, you are citizens, along with all of God's holy people.

You are members of God's family.

Together, he says, together, everybody say together.

Says together, we are his house.

He's speaking of himself, this is the apostle Paul, he was Jewish in descent, and he says, I'm a Jew, you're a Gentile, but together, though we come from different backgrounds, together, we are his house.

Built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.

And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.

He says, we are carefully joined together.

Carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord, a place where the Lord lives and works through.

Through him, you Gentiles are also being made a part of this dwelling, where God lives by his spirit.

So the Bible teaches us that God, through the love of Christ Jesus, brings us together.

In other words, the love that Christ Jesus demonstrated on that cross, and the power he demonstrated in the resurrection, but that's like the mortar that holds us as bricks in the house together.

And it says that he brings us together, no matter what our background is, it's the love of Christ that brings us together.

And whenever we come together, we are to experience God.

We are to express God, and we are to expand God into all the world.

Jesus made this statement.

He said, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you.

He gave that statement to those first followers, and he says, now together, I want you to go out into the world, and I want you to begin to share this love that I've demonstrated to you, the teachings that I've given to you, and I want you to begin to be a part of me building my church.

And as we come along here, some 2000 years later, we're being added to those numbers, brick by brick, day by day, all for his glory, come on.

And so if you belong to the church of Jesus Christ, you have a part to play.

You have a God to be experienced, and you have a responsibility to be a part of God expanding his character into all the world.

From the very beginning, as God created the first man and the first woman in the garden, as they come together as one, he says you are to be fruitful and multiply.

And he says, you know what, what you're to do is you're to govern the world, not let the world govern you.

You're to begin to be an image bearer of me, both male and female in the world, and work together in order to permeate my presence into the world.

Well, that got off track by Genesis chapter three, the first man and the first woman failed at the assignment.

And the Bible says that that's called sin, missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

That's what sin is.

Sin is simply a picture word.

And it means that we've missed at what God's calling is on our life.

And we're to recognize that.

And Jesus came to set right what was made wrong.

He came to forgive people of their sin.

That's what his blood was shed for on a cross, was the forgiveness for you and the forgiveness for me.

And he demonstrated power and the power of God through the resurrection.

The Bible says all who believe in that can become a part of what God is doing in the world.

He wants to dwell in us and he wants to work through us.

We are his house, bonded together, banded together, mortared together like bricks in a wall.

I don't know if you've ever watched a brick mason lay bricks but it is simply fascinating because they work hard but they pay attention.

We have an incredible brick mason here in our church.

He's a part of our church, Mr. Eddie James.

Come on, let's give him a hand clap.

You know where he is at the moment.

He's somewhere in this place, okay.

There he is right there in the back waving at me.

But you know, I don't know if you've ever watched him and his men or those kind of folks lay bricks but it's amazing to watch them, how carefully they lay everything out, how they align everything, how they mix the mortar at just the right consistency to lay on the block or the brick to put them together.

The Bible says you and I are carefully joined together by Christ Jesus.

The Bible says that God gives each brick, each block, which would be you and me, a special gift.

And that special gift is to be basically placed carefully in his house, in his dwelling place.

And that brick is to be joined together by the perfect love of Christ Jesus.

And then together, together we can be his house, his dwelling and express him as the great designer, the great architect to the world around us.

In other words, we're not just the people who just come to church.

We come to church in order to be the church and the world around us each and every day of our life.

But it's the gifts that come together that begin to make this such a place for you to become all God has designed you to be.

And again, we have to commit to be a part of what God is doing, letting God refine us, knock all the rough edges off of us.

And it's a work, it's a work for me and it's a work for you and it's a work that Christ Jesus is doing because he's careful putting his church together so that it can become the light to the world that God so designed it.

But you need to understand there is an enemy that is constantly trying to diminish and destroy the work of God and what God is doing in the world.

But my Bible says that Jesus will prevail because it says he is building his church.

And it says the gates of hell will not, will not prevail against it.

And you know, the key to this is to begin to understand the love of God and understand the gifts that God gives to church and how those begin to get together because it really makes a difference not only for the gifts to be together, but to be bound together by the mortar, by the love of God and who he really is.

As a matter of fact, Colossians chapter three, verse 14 says it this way, above all, above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Isn't that a beautiful passage of scripture?

It says, you know what, we're to bind our shift together, the love of God, because when we do, it becomes a reflection.

It's like perfect harmony going on in a choir or a band and it becomes a harmonized statement or a harmonized voice or a harmonized reflection of who God is in the world.

So the church matters in our life.

Valorous matters in your life if you belong to this local church.

And I've said this over and over again.

You know, we live in a community where there's a lot of people who do vacation in our area here in North Myrtle Beach.

There's a lot of people who come from different backgrounds in our area and they pass through it.

And I wanna encourage you, if Valorous Church is not your church home and you're just kinda attending here today, I wanna invite you to begin to consider to go back to wherever God has planted you and your gift as a follower of Christ and consider the love of Christ that binds you together and begin to apply your gift and put your gift to work and see what God can do through you and the church family that he's connected you with.

But as for us here at Valorous, you know what, we matter.

We matter to this community where God has placed us.

This is the corner of the earth that God has placed us in.

And we do wanna send out disciples and missionaries and all kinds of people around the world and support those kind of ministries around the world.

But we have to apply our gift and bind our gift together with the love of Christ right here so we can be a reflection of who God is to every generation.

And so we're inviting you to not only show up with your gift but to commit your gift and begin to let God work in your gift and through your gift in your life and the world around you.

The church matters because it's a way that we can experience God's love.

God gives gifts to us to be used in his church so that his love can be experienced by us.

Do you know what your spiritual gift is?

Do you know the gifting that God has placed on your life?

Does it bring you joy and help you experience God when you leverage that gift?

In other words, it's a gift to you but it's a gift to be used by you to express who God is through the world.

But a gift can be enjoyed by you if you begin to understand what that gift is to be used for.

But a gift, you know what, it's not sometimes enjoyable if you're not leveraging that gift and using that gift in such a way that it begins to do what it's designed to do.

And I need you to know today, your spiritual gift that God has given to you is for you and you're to experience God with your gift but it is to bring him glory in this world.

The church is God's idea.

The church is God's idea is to bring him glory.

It's for your good and it's to bring hope and healing to a hurting world.

Listen to what the scripture says about our gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, verses four through seven.

And if you're a believer in the finished work of Jesus Christ, the resurrected Jesus, the ascended Jesus and you belong to his church, the Bible says you have a gift.

And there are different kinds of spiritual gifts it says here in 1 Corinthians 12.

The same spirit is the source of them all.

There are different kinds of service but we serve the same Lord.

God works in different ways but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

Help each other grow in our faith and help each other be an expression of our creator in the world.

God created the first man and the first woman and placed them in the garden and says you're to be a reflection of who I am.

So we're to help each other with our gift be a reflection of who God is into the world.

We're to help each other function properly.

Romans 12, verses three through six says this about gifts.

It says, don't think you are better than you really are.

Come on somebody.

Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourself by the faith God has given us.

Just as our bodies have many parts, each part has a special function.

Look at your neighbor and say, I'm special.

Go ahead and tell them I'm special.

So it is with Christ's body.

We are many parts of one body.

We are many parts of one body and we belong to each other.

In his grace, God has given different gifts for doing certain things well.

Certain things well.

Not everything well, but certain things well.

What I've discovered on my journey is many times I don't experience God to the fullest with my gift if I'm trying to do everything that everybody else is supposed to be functioning in.

In other words, am I trying to steal God's glory by trying to be the whole house?

Or do I understand that God loves me enough to give me a part in his house?

Come on somebody.

But he also loves me enough to put others around me.

So together, the responsibility of showing the love of Christ doesn't just belong to me, but it belongs to us as the family.

And we can be here to help each other and we can experience God together.

Sometimes we look at one person and say, well, that person didn't reflect Jesus the way I think that Jesus should be reflected.

And what you're missing is, do you see the body that that person belongs to?

Because the reality of it is this, there's no one person that is Jesus.

And there's no one person who can function in the role of Jesus, but there is a group of people that that person and that gift is to be with.

And then together they can function as Christ in a community.

Come on and begin to reflect God's goodness to the world.

I want you to take the weight off your shoulders.

Your responsibility is to love other Christ followers and to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

But my friend, you know what?

You can't do it alone.

God never called you to be an image bearer by yourself.

He calls us to get together with a body, with a people that have been caught out of darkness into the wonderful light.

It's known as the local church and together, work together to reflect Christ to the world.

And some of us are tired and worn out and we feel like we're just not enough is because we're trying to do it by ourself.

And my friend, God never called us to do it by ourself.

And it's great belonging to a family of believers that can encourage you and that you can spend your time with your gift encouraging.

Nothing charges your gift more than to see somebody encouraged with your gift in their faith and they grow up in Christ Jesus and start doing what they're designed to do.

It can be experienced.

God can be experienced through your gift.

And in your gift, He gives you.

But you have to leverage your gift, use your gift, work with your gift.

And as you work with that gift alongside of others, God begins to do great and marvelous things.

And you know what?

Together, you can experience God.

When we see our part in building up faith in others, we experience God's love through our gift.

We need each other.

Use your gift.

Don't isolate your gift.

Participate with your gift.

So many people say, you know, I can serve God by myself.

And the reality of it is you can serve God by yourself, but it's not God's design for you to do it that way.

Come on.

God's design is for us to put those gifts together, sharpen those gifts up and be binded like mortar mix binds blocks together, binded by the love and the grace of our great God.

And the Bible says that I don't choose my gift, that God's Spirit gives me my gift.

And then I have to figure out and leverage that gift in the space and the place and the people that God gave me to use the gift.

In other words, so many people, you know, want to choose the gift.

And if we had it another way, sometimes we look at another gift and we say, man, I wish I had her gift, look at that.

And again, the reality of it is, it's God gave you the gift.

God chooses the gift.

That's what the Bible says.

It's what the scripture says.

It says the Spirit, one and only Spirit of the living God is the one who gives the gifts.

Come on.

And we invite you to receive the gift and operate in the special function.

But maybe the reason you're not experiencing God in the way that God has designed you to experience Him is are you operating in your gift?

Because that's what God designed us to be and do.

And He gave the gifts in such a way that the gifts are to have an orderly function.

As Paul writes this letter to 1 Corinthians, to the church at Corinth, he speaks a lot about using the gifts, but using the gifts in a manner that brings God glory.

He talks about the order and how to have order with the gifts.

How to come together in a church service with the gifts.

He speaks a lot about it.

But see, what we have to learn to do is to understand that the gift isn't given to glorify our own selves.

And we can experience God in the gift, but the gift is meant to be put together with all the other gifts and bring those gifts together to bring glory and honor to His name.

It's putting our own fleshly desires to the side and say, God, today, I don't feel like standing up and sharing a message with your church.

But the reality of it is, it's God, it's the gift you gave me, and it's the time you put me in, and I'm gonna step in, and I'm gonna do what I can do with the gift you gave me to make a difference.

You don't always feel like using your gift.

But the reality of it is, when God says for you to put that gift with the other believers and work that gift, and you begin to do it in harmony, in concert, in order, because the gifts are to have order, and when you begin to do that, then it begins to sing a song to the world around us, and people are attracted to the song of the living God.

Come on.

He brings us from different backgrounds.

He puts us together, but He puts us together for a reason.

It's so we can experience God, and it's so that we can express God to the world.

The church matters, because it's the church.

Yes, God can be expressed through miracles, through signs, through wonders and dreams, but the church is the vessel, is the people with the gifts collectively together that God has chosen to be His vehicle or His vessel to this world to demonstrate who He is.

So the primary way God expresses Himself, the Creator expresses Himself to the world isn't through creation.

The primary way that the Creator expresses Himself to the world is by bringing people, broken people from different backgrounds out of darkness, out of slavery, out of bondage, out of sin, out of all of this stuff, and putting them together, and when they come together and they understand His amazing love, they begin to reflect Him to the world around them.

Come on.

It's the primary way the Creator works.

We wanna make God work in all kinds of ways, and the Bible says He works in different ways, but are we submitted to His primary way, that He functions in this world, and it's me being brought out of darkness, put in a space and a place with a family together to reflect who He is to the world.

Look what it says here in Romans 12, verses 6-13.

It says, in His grace, God has given us different gifts to do certain things well.

So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out this much faith, God has given you.

If your gift is serving others, serve them well.

If you are a teacher, teach well.

If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.

If it is giving, give generously.

If God has given you the leadership ability, take responsibility seriously.

And if you have a gift of showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Don't just pretend to love others, I love this, really love them.

Hate what is wrong, hold tightly to what is good.

Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.

Never be lazy.

Work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Rejoice in our confident hope, be patient in trouble and keep on praying.

When God's people are in need, be ready to help them.

Always be eager to practice hospitality.

Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 has a lot to say about the spiritual gifts coming together.

And here in Romans 12, it says, you know what?

We are to always bind that thing, those gifts with love, not just pretend to love others, but really love them.

In 1 Corinthians 13, as Paul speaks about the gifts in chapter 12, he goes on to say in verse 13, verse 26, if I could speak all the languages of the earth and of the angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

I don't want to just be a noisy church.

I don't want to be a family, a house, a temple that just makes noise in the community.

We need to make noise, a joyful noise unto the Lord.

We need to be here for His glory and His honor.

We need to keep putting ourself out there so people are attracted to Him.

And let me tell you, when you love others and continue to lay your heart on the altar, your gift on the altar, I need you to know you need a church family to wrap themselves around your gift and together you need to work that gift in the world because the world will begin to just try to destroy that gift.

The reality of it is, the Bible says the church is to love with their gift, put their gifts together and together be image bearers of who Christ is in the world, we are the body, He is the head.

And the amazing thing is, is when we use our gift, we can express God to the world around us, but we can also use our gift and just be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

You ever heard a clanging cymbal?

I've heard a few of them.

And the reality of it is, is when the cymbals are just clanging or the drummer is just playing the cymbals as loud as they can and not keeping harmony with anybody else, it becomes a distraction.

And Paul says, you don't want your gift to just become a distraction, you want your gift to be bound with love and when your gift is bound with love and it's put together with the other gifts, it can begin to make a sweet harmony to the world around us and express God to the world.

And so I'm inviting you not to just have a gift, but wrap that gift in God's amazing love.

What does love look like with the gift?

It tells us right there in that passage of scripture, it says, love is affectionate, love honors.

It says, love is hardworking, says love is enthusiastic.

It says, love is rejoicing.

It says, it rejoices with hope.

It says, love is one that perseveres.

It says, love is one that is prayerful.

It says, love is one that is helpful.

It says, love is one that is hospitable.

It says, love has a rhythm.

Come on somebody, it's not just noisy.

It's not just noisy, it has rhythm.

Over and over and over, it keeps the beat.

Honoring, hardworking, it keeps on persevering.

It keeps on being helpful.

It keeps on doing what it can do in the midst of challenges, in the midst of all the storms of life, and it has a rhythm.

Let's be a church that our gifts come together, bound together with the love of Jesus, and we have a rhythm.

We recognize our part, we recognize all the parts, and we recognize every part together is really what reflects God to the world.

Bible says that God pours out His Spirit in these last days, the last days of after Jesus resurrected from the grave and He's ascended to heaven, and before He returns for His church, the Bible says God has poured out His Spirit on men and women alike, so we can harmonize and be these image bearers.

Together with the various gifts that God has given me.

I'm so thankful that God has given me a spiritual gift, but I'm also thankful He didn't give me all the gifts.

Because I'm not big enough to shoulder the load of all of what God wants to do through His church, and you're not either, but be grateful and thankful He's made us a part of it.

It's an amazing thing to work together with a body and not be worried about whether you're an eye or a tongue or the butthole or the arm or the leg or the fingertip or whatever else.

It's all got to function in order for it to work together and bring harmony to the world.

And you know, I do believe the calling on our life is simply to encourage each other's faith.

Figure out what it is that God has put in you to encourage others around you.

Sometimes I can be discouraging to people if I'm trying to operate out of my gift mix, and recognize that you can too.

So just recognize what your part is, step into it and play it, and then when it ain't your part, if you need to, step up and do all you can do in the moment, okay?

If it ain't your part, step up and do all you can do, but be looking for the other brick in the wall.

Come on, and hand it to the other brick.

You need to understand this church is full of gifts and full of people who want to help build our faith.

But again, it's not just you reflecting to the platform and what's on this platform, it's helping the platform reflect to you what's available to you.

And let me tell you what's available to you.

It is a group of people who will pray for you daily.

It is a group of people who will help you.

It's a group of people who will hold your hand through a crisis moment.

It is a group of people who will begin to encourage you all the days of your life.

On the mountaintops, they will celebrate your gifts.

In the valleys, they will hold your hand and uplift your arms.

There is people here who want to come alongside and help you become all God has assigned you to be.

But you have to become a part of what God is doing.

You have to step into it.

God is to be experienced by us, to be expressed through us.

And the last thing I wrote down, He is to be expanded with our gifts.

What the scripture says, I'm gonna read it in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 5-15.

The Bible is crystal clear that God's church added to their number daily after it started in the book of Acts.

God's church is clear.

Jesus says, go into all the world and make disciples first.

You know what you need to do is be my witnesses in Jerusalem, then Samaria, the next place over, and then Judea, the next place over, and then to the ends of the earth.

He says, you need to carry this message throughout the earth.

He says to be fruitful.

He says to be multiplied.

He says to make disciples.

He says to keep on keeping on expanding the church.

If you study the scriptures throughout all of the New Testament, as the church was birthed, what you begin to see is this great expansion happening.

The church starts in Jerusalem.

And then it burst out of Jerusalem and it begins to expand around the world to various places as these apostles and these missionaries begin to extend this church to other cities, other places, other countries.

You see the church being birthed in those areas and those churches birthed churches into other areas and those churches birthed churches into other areas.

We call it the ministry multiplication cycle.

Otherwise, you're not just to come to church, you're to be the church.

You're to grow up and be the church and you're to send out missionaries and people around the world, expand the church.

Some people are called to stay and root themselves down in a house, but others are called to go out with their gifts and begin to be a part of another house.

And what we have to begin to do is expand that, recognize that, help that happen.

And again, it is to use your gift in such a way that God is made known in all the earth.

Bring them in, build them up, train them, send them out.

It's the model you see throughout the New Testament.

Ministry multiplication, churches that start churches, disciples that make disciples, growth.

And again, we see it over and over in the Bible.

But what we also see is it's always for God's glory.

And I wanna show you this today in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 5-15.

It says, after all, Paul here, some people were fussing about which church they belong to, which body they belong to, who baptized them.

I got baptized by Paul, I got baptized by Apollos.

I got baptized by Pastor Richard, I got baptized by Pastor Clay.

Who cares?

That's what Paul says.

He says, after all, who is Apollos and who is Paul?

We are only servants through him you believe in the good news.

Each of us did the work that the Lord gave us.

Paul says, I planted the seed in your hearts and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.

It is not important who does the planting or who does the watering.

What's important is that God makes the seed grow.

The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose.

And both will be rewarded for their hard work.

For we are both God's workers, he says, and you are God's field, you are God's building.

He goes on to say, because of God's grace to me, I've laid the foundation like an expert builder.

Now others are building on it, but whoever is building on the foundation must be very careful.

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we've already laid.

And it's Jesus Christ.

Anyone who builds on this foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.

But on judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done.

The fire will show if the person's work has any value.

If the work survives, the builder will receive a reward.

But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss.

The builder will be saved like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

My friend, I wanna encourage you today, use your gift.

But be like an expert builder, use what you have.

The Bible says you can build with a variety of materials to build God's church.

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.

Understand, don't lay anything other than the foundation that was already laid.

His name is Jesus.

Build everything on that name.

Let Him be the chief cornerstone.

Let Him be the one that everything aligns with and is built on.

And as you build, build it for God's glory.

Work together and let's keep expanding the good news of who Christ Jesus is around the world.

God has given us some incredible tools in this day and age.

We have the internet.

It can be used for good, it can be used for bad.

He's given us all kinds of special instruments and things to do life with, function in this world with, but let's use them for His glory.

We've invested in a lot as a church, but we've invested for His glory and His honor and to begin to make the name of Jesus famous in the world.

Man, we have the ability to leverage what God has placed in our hand, but let's be at the end of our life.

Let's hear this, well done, my good and faithful servant.

Come on in and enjoy all that I have in store for you.

Don't you just come up in there like someone barely escaping the flames because eternity is real and God does reward the faith of those believers as those believers have invested their faith in the world to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

And my friend, I'm inviting you to consider eternity, not just go there and be with Jesus, but go there and be with Jesus and who Jesus is designed you to be for all eternity.

Starts here, starts now.

You are a human being, but you are a human being that has been birthed by the Spirit of the living God and you are to carry that Spirit in such a way that that Spirit grows and that Spirit begins to be renewed and that Spirit does great things for the kingdom.

And my friend, as you continue to live on forever and ever and ever, understand you are building something great on the foundation of what Jesus Christ has already done.

The church matters.

It's God's idea.

It's for His glory, our good, and to bring hope and healing to a hurting world.

Let me pray for you today.

God, you're an amazing God.

I pray for every gift here.

I pray for every person, every vessel that God brick by brick, day by day, you keep building your story.

Grace to grace, God, strength to strength, all for your glory.

May we build on the rock of Jesus Christ in such a way, God, that it begins to be a church that reflects who you are.

God, I know there's a lot of challenges.

I know there's a lot of things coming against your church and your people, but God, I pray that we would bind ourself together, we would reflect your love, your goodness to the world around us, and God, we could begin to be overcomers in your name.

God, help us operate in the gifts.

If there's a person here today that has never put their faith, their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, may they recognize He came to give His life on a cross to forgive them of their sin.

May they repent of their sin.

May they say yes to Jesus for that forgiveness and that life that He came to give them, and may they believe that He resurrected from a grave to empower them to walk in this new life.

My friend, if you've never done that, simply submit yourself to the Lord.

Say, God, today I repent.

Today I turn my heart towards Jesus.

I believe that He died on a cross for me, resurrected from a grave to empower me to be all He has designed me to be.

God, thank you for the gift.

We pray this by faith in Jesus' name, amen.