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

We are in a teaching series.

We kicked it off last week.

We're going to continue it for a few weeks where we're talking about the glory of God, the glory of God.

And God desires for His glory to work in our life and through our life in this world to really bring His presence into the world and change the world.

What God is going to do in the world, He's going to do through what we know today in this age, He's going to do through the local church.

That would be you and me, those of us who have put our personal faith in what Jesus has done on a cross, His resurrection and His ascension and believing that Jesus is coming again.

But until He comes again, we understand our purpose and God's plan and we live it out each and every day.

And part of that is learning to display God's glory.

But if we're going to display God's glory, we have to have a good working definition of God's glory, a biblical definition of God's glory.

So I want to give it to you again today.

And it's going to come up on the screens and the biblical word for glory, we get our biblical word for glory from a Hebrew word called kavod or kavod, depending on whether you're from the north or the south, I guess you would say kavod or kavod.

But it's not about the pronunciation of the word.

It's more about the meaning of the word.

And dictionaries give us this meaning for our biblical word of glory, says it is a Hebrew word that translates to glory, honor, respect, dignity, or weight.

In a biblical context, it refers to the weightiness, the heaviness, the weightiness, glory, and all inspiring presence of God.

As seen in the cloud that would fill the tabernacle, which says in the book of Exodus, in a broader social and moral sense, skavad signifies a person's inherent worth and the actions that show them respect, originating from the idea that all people are created in God's image and thus deserve dignity.

And so again, that's our biblical working definition for the word glory.

We're talking about God's glory and what God desires for his glory is for his weightiness or his presence or his majesty to work in our life collectively together and begin to shine out in this world and really make a difference as we begin to share the light of Christ that has been shined in our own hearts.

But it's really important for us to understand that this word glory means heavy or it means the weightiness of God.

And what that tells us is that, you know, God's glory is way too heavy for one of us to shine it in the world alone.

That should begin to bring a sense of relief to you, but also a sense of challenge to you.

In other words, God's glory is not just dependent on me doing my part, but it's depending on us doing our part.

And it begins to shine in the world when we work together at shining that glory in the world.

And I don't have to do it alone.

God created his glory to shine through people together.

Even the first man and the first woman that was created and put in the garden, they were created in God's likeness and his image, and they were to work together in order to reflect God's image into the world.

And then we discover that sin entered the world, people got it wrong.

And then we get to the book of Exodus and something remarkable happens.

The Bible says there's a group of people that had been in bondage, in slavery, let's call it darkness for over 400 years.

They're known as the Israelites or the Hebrew people.

And God comes to those people who cried out to God in that darkness.

And the Bible says that God comes to them and speaks to them through this man named Moses.

And it's found in Exodus chapter six, verse eight, God tells Moses, you know what?

I'm going to be your God, these people's God, and you're going to be my people.

I'm going to, with my strong arm, get them out of slavery.

I'm going to get them out of bondage.

I'm going to take them on a journey to this place called the promised land.

And when they get to the promised land, what I'm going to do is I'm going to work in them and I'm going to work through them so that my glory, my light can shine to the nations around the world.

And so based on biblical accounts, their entry, these people's entry into the promised land was meant to shine God's glory through a combination of their faithful obedience, God's miraculous power, and their role as being a light to the nations.

God brought them out of bondage so that, everybody say so that, they could enter the promised land, a land of provision, and begin to know God, experience God, and as a nation begin to shine God's glory into the earth.

And so in order to set up where we're going today, I want you to understand that God used this nation in a powerful way to begin to teach us some things about His glory.

And the Bible says that along that journey from slavery to the promised land, God came to the leader, a man named Moses.

And he says, what I want you to do, Moses, is I want you to set up a tabernacle, a tent of meeting.

And I want you to pay attention to every detail I'm telling you, Moses, found in Exodus chapter 40.

And I want you to set it up just as I would have it set up.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to come and I'm going to dwell among you as a people.

And I'm going to work with you as a people.

And I need you to set up this tent of meeting or this tabernacle for me to come and be in.

This is in the book of Exodus.

And I'm going to work in my people and I'm going to work through my people.

But I want to show you something about God's presence as he has Moses and the people around Moses to set up this tabernacle, this tent of meeting.

The Bible says it this way in Exodus 40 verses 33 and 34.

It says, so at last Moses finished the work, finished the work of preparing everything and setting up the tent of meeting.

And I want to show you what it says.

It says, then a cloud covered the tabernacle, and what?

The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Now that's an amazing passage of scripture.

And the reason it's an amazing passage of scripture is because God came and dwelled among his people so that they could be the people he had created them to be.

And God set a place for his presence to come reside among the people.

Now, today we live on the other side of the cross of Christ, the resurrection of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus, and Jesus's life, death, and resurrection made the way for God to not only dwell among his people, but the Bible teaches us that now he dwells within his people and works through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the Bible says those of us today who belong to the church who have been caught out of darkness, out of sin, into the wonderful light of Christ, we have God living in us.

And now we are the tabernacle.

We are the tent.

And so God don't just dwell among us.

He lives in us and he works through us in the world around us.

If we will learn how to display his amazing glory into the world.

So it's a beautiful thing and a very comforting thing to know that God don't just dwell with us, but he lives in us.

Does anybody in here today have the Holy Spirit of God living in them?

Come on.

And the Bible says now we can begin to live out our purpose.

You know, it's really important for you to understand who Jesus is and what he did on that cross and come back to God and know who God is.

That's a really important part of church.

But some of us stop there.

And because we stop there, we miss living the abundant life that Jesus says that we can have in Christ Jesus.

Jesus said with his own voice in John 10, 10, he says, the enemy comes to what?

Steal, kill, and destroy.

He says, but I have come to give them life abundantly, life overflowing, a life that is basically filled with a joy.

And some of us know who Christ Jesus is for the forgiveness of our sin, but we don't know who he says we are.

And though we have been forgiven, just like the Israelite people had crossed over and were on the journey to the promised land, they had come out of that dark place and we have been forgiven of our sin, we're missing so much about the abundant life because we don't live out who he says we are in the world.

And one of the secrets to really experiencing the abundant life that Christ came to give us, the overflowing life, is to know who you are in Christ Jesus.

So in a moment, we're going to talk a little bit about that, but it's not enough if you're really going to experience overflowing joy in all circumstances in this world.

It's not enough just to understand who God is.

You gotta understand who he says that you are.

And again, we're going to get in the word today and we're going to understand who God says we are as a Christ of followers.

And as we begin to understand that, God's going to illuminate some things to us so we can move forward.

Did you know God created you to go forward and not go back?

He created you to leave slavery, leave sin, leave darkness, and move forward with your life.

This was a part of the problem with the Hebrew people on their journey to the promised land.

The Bible tells us in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that we can learn from their journey.

So today, we're going to learn a little bit more from their journey, and we're going to look back at their journey, and then we're going to prepare our hearts to move forward with God.

But what happens in Numbers chapter 11 is remarkable.

Again, God had, let's call it, saved them.

He had brought them out of Egypt with his strong hand.

But along the journey to the promised land to live out who God created them to be, the Bible says that the people began to basically not understand their purpose, and they began to miss so much about their life.

And so in Numbers chapter 11, let's read it, verses 10 through 15.

If you've got your Bible, well, you can pull it out.

It's going to come on the screens otherwise, but we're going to get into God's word today.

And again, I know we read Scripture in this place, and I know you can go read Scripture by yourself, but it's really important for us to set the context as the people of God in a church setting with the word of God, because it is the thing that will begin to help us understand who we are in Christ Jesus.

The Bible says this in Numbers 11, starting with verse 10.

The Bible says, as the people are going on the journey, Moses heard all the families standing in the doorway of their tents, whining, let's call it their houses.

They were journeying together to go somewhere.

What were they whining about?

They were whining about they had to eat this substance that God was feeding them daily called manna.

And they felt like, you know what?

We need a little bit more than manna.

And they were on a journey to the promised land where it was a land overflowing with milk and honey, the Bible says, and all the things that they would need.

But on the journey, they begin to whine and complain along that journey.

The Bible says they wanted to go back.

They wanted to go back to Egypt because they fed them in Egypt.

They were in slavery.

They wanted to go back to Egypt.

Now they're whining and complaining.

The Bible says this, and the Lord became extremely angry.

Moses, the leader was also aggravated.

And Moses said to the Lord, he's the leader, he's going.

He says to the Lord, why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly?

Have mercy on me, he begs God.

What did I do, he says, to deserve the burden of all of these people?

Did I give birth to them?

Did I bring them into the world?

Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a nursing baby?

How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors?

Where am I supposed to get the meat for all of these people?

They keep whining to me, saying, give us meat to eat.

I can't, Moses says, I can't carry all these people by myself.

See, Moses didn't understand his purpose.

Moses didn't understand how God would work through him and all the people.

Moses was trying to do the ministry alone.

He was trying to carry the weight of God's glory in his own hands.

So not only do the people misunderstand God's glory, Moses misunderstands God's glory.

And I don't want us to misunderstand God's glory because God's glory is too heavy for one.

Look at your neighbor and say, God's glory is too heavy for one.

Now look at your other neighbor, if one's sitting beside you and say, we got to do it together.

Look what Moses says.

He says, the load is far too heavy.

Look at the scriptures.

If this is how you intend to treat me, speaking to God, he says, just go ahead and kill me.

I'm miserable in ministry.

If you are miserable in ministry, I invite you to listen up because God never meant for you to carry his glory by yourself.

And maybe your misery is you're trying to do something along and you're trying to do what God has never created you to do.

But Moses says, hey, do me a favor and spare me the misery.

And so then God speaks back to Moses in Numbers 11, 16 through 17, and this is what he says.

The Lord said to Moses, here's the deal, Moses.

He says, gather before me 70 men who are recognized as elders and leaders of Israel.

Bring them to the tabernacle.

Where does God's glory reside in this context?

In the tabernacle.

Bring them to the tabernacle to stand there with you.

I will come down and talk to you there.

And I will take some of the spirit that is upon you, Moses, and I will put the spirit upon them also.

That's very important.

I'm going to take some of the spirit I put on you, Moses, and I'm going to take some of that spirit and I'm going to put it on these 70 others.

They will bear the burden of the people along with you so you will not have to carry it along.

Again, this is a foreshadowing of God never intended for one person to carry his glory into this earth by themselves.

And now we live on the other side of the cross of Christ, the forgiveness of the sin that Jesus offered on that cross in his resurrection.

We live on the other side of the ascension of Christ and we live in a day and age in a period where Christ has poured out his spirit.

The Bible says, O men and women alike.

And we're to do something with the spirit that he's poured out into our life.

We're to begin to move forward and share his glory.

God's glory is way too heavy for one of us to carry into the earth by herself.

And some of us are trying to do more than we're created to do.

And some of us are just sitting, soaking and souring and not experiencing the abundant life because we're not participating in carrying God's glory into the earth.

And you know what's happening to us?

We're becoming miserable.

And if we're not careful, some other spirit besides the Holy Spirit will get into us and we'll want to go back.

And that spirit begins to thwart the plan that God has for you and me and the church and working together, shining God's glory into the world.

So again, all this foreshadows who we are as a church today.

And God now lives in us, not just among us.

The Holy Spirit, which the word holy means the set apart spirit, the Holy Spirit of God lives in you.

If you're a believer in Christ Jesus, do we have any people in here today that the spirit of the living God is in you?

And what the Holy Spirit will do is prepare you for shining his glory in this earth.

And the Holy Spirit will speak to your spirit and grow you up so you can be exactly who God's created you to be.

And so Paul unveils this to the church at Corinth in the book of first Corinthians and chapter 12.

And I'm going to read some portions of this today, because you know what I want you walking out of here, knowing who you are in Christ Jesus.

And I want you to understand exactly the part he created you to be.

I don't want you to be confused at all in what your purpose is in life.

And what we're going to learn today is how to live in that purpose and really walk in that purpose.

You don't have to be confused.

The Bible says the enemy is the author of confusion.

He's the father of lies.

And if you and I will pay attention to the Holy Spirit, everybody say the Holy Spirit, then he'll lead us on the path and on the journey to be exactly who he's designed us to be all the days of our life.

So Paul sets the context here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and he says this to the church at Corinth.

He says, now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about special abilities the Spirit gives us, he says, I don't want you to misunderstand this.

He goes on in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 4 through 11, and he says, there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all, the Holy Spirit.

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

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

There you have the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

He goes on to say, a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can what?

Help each other.

Help each other.

Do what?

I put in context today, shine the glory of the Lord in the earth.

He goes on to say this, to one person, the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice.

To another, the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.

The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else, the Spirit gives the gift of healing.

He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy.

He gives someone else the ability to discern, the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

It is the one and only Spirit, here's the real important part, who distributes all of these gifts.

It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes all of these gifts.

He alone decides which gift each person should have.

That should be very comforting to you.

The Holy Spirit will help you and me, as Christ followers, understand what part we are to play, and He chooses which gift to give each one of us.

I know we like to set the stage and say, hey, you know what, volunteer.

And all of volunteerism is really is to set the stage in the acts of service for you to figure out who God says you are.

But know this, if you begin to engage in volunteering in the local church, God will show you exactly what part you are.

And then He will begin to put you in your rightful place in space.

So together, we can shine the glory of the Lord in the world.

In other words, it's very comforting to understand, I don't choose the part God does.

So technically, speaking from the Bible, you don't choose the part you are.

God already knows the part you are.

And if you would so dare commune with Him, He would tell you exactly what part you are and put you in the rightful space and place.

So together, the church could live out in the world exactly what God says we can do and display His glory.

And let me say this, it's very comforting to me that I don't have to decipher who I am based on my broken self.

See, this is what people do.

Well, God wants me to do this ministry or that ministry because I came out of this brokenness or that brokenness, and God must really have this ministry for me because He helped me over this ministry, and maybe so.

But let me help you understand something today.

You better talk to the Holy Spirit, the set-apart Spirit, and let Him speak to your spirit because oftentimes we'll confuse ourselves about what our job is and what our assignment is in this earth by our broken past, and we'll be on a journey doing something God never designed us to do because of our brokenness.

Stop trying to figure out who God says you are looking back at your past.

The Israelites were trying to do that.

The Bible says they did circles in a desert for 40 years and that generation never entered the promised land simply because they weren't being the part God called them to be.

They were trying to look back and figure it out.

We're all broken people, including your pastor.

We're all broken.

The Bible says that sin has screwed us up, messed us up, and because of our brokenness, we as human beings, we try to figure out the part we're playing by looking at social media, by looking at the media, try to listen to everybody else around us by trying to say, well, this happened to me.

It must align like the stars and do this.

And we're all listening to this brokenness.

We're trying to define who we are in Christ Jesus based on sometimes our political party, sometimes our skin color, sometimes the language we speak, sometimes the nationality we are.

And you need to understand this today.

God never tells you who you are based on your brokenness and all of that information.

He tells you who you are through the power of the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit who lives on the inside of you.

And you need to stop looking through the broken lens, trying to figure out who you are and look at the all powerful, all knowing, everywhere at one time, God who knows exactly who you are.

It's a comforting feeling for me to be able to come to God and say, who am I in Christ Jesus?

And Paul says, you know what?

It's God who chooses the part.

And then he goes on in first Corinthians chapter 12 and verses 12 through 27.

And he begins to compare how God's putting us together as broken people to shine his glory into this earth, being the part he's created us to be, to body parts, to the human body.

And you know, chances are he is in a very occult, occulted society where there's all these statues of things like something with multiple hands and multiple feet and squirrely things coming out of their heads and all kinds of stuff.

And Paul says, no, no, no, no, it ain't that.

It's like a human body that God's designed to function.

And Jesus is the head of the church and we are the body of Christ.

And if we would learn to get in our rightful place in space and live out the part that God has created us to be, things would begin to change.

He says there in verse 18, he says, just like our bodies have many parts, he says, God has put each part just where he wants it.

Wow.

That's pretty remarkable.

God put your finger exactly where it needs to be.

He put your toes where they need to be.

He gave the body a tongue.

He gave the body a rear end.

And the reality of it is, as he says, you know what he's setting up this family, this church to display his glory, just like the human being body.

And he puts every part just where he wants it.

And then he finishes all of this analogy in verse 27, he says, all of you together are Christ's body.

All of you have come out of darkness and believe in Christ Jesus.

You're a part of Jesus's body, Christ's body.

And each of you is a part of it.

Again, that is incredible within itself.

And what that tells me is I am not only a part chosen by God, but I'm also a special part designed by God.

And again, God knows exactly where I belong.

But if I continue to look at life through my broken lens, and I'm trying to figure it all out, and I don't become who Christ Jesus says I am in Christ Jesus and let the Holy Spirit speak to my spirit, I just wander around and I never become that part.

It's very comforting to know that you don't have to choose which part.

And it's very comforting to know that God already knows exactly what part He is choosing us to be, and we can walk fully in it.

That's a comforting thing to grab hold of today and let God comfort you in that.

But it's also very challenging because again, we begin to begin to let everything else define the part we are, instead of going to God and letting Him define who we are.

So I want to spend the next few minutes helping you understand who you are in Christ Jesus and what part He has designed you to play.

Because I do believe that God speaks through His Word to His people.

And I do believe that God speaks through His Spirit to His people.

And if you will begin to take these particular application points and apply it to your life, I do believe God's going to tell you exactly who you are in Christ Jesus.

And I do also believe that you're going to be able to walk out of here and begin to experience the presence of the living God in your life and also begin to experience a peace beyond your human understanding and begin to walk in it in its fullest potential and experience the joy of the Lord all the days of your life.

And so let's make some application points here.

How can I figure out who I am in Christ Jesus and what part He's calling me to play?

Well, you can take a spiritual gifts test.

They're all over the internet.

Churches offer them all these kinds of things.

And by the way, this list here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is not an exhaustive list of spiritual gifts.

It's just an example.

But we can take spiritual gifts tests that can help guide us.

But again, and it's great for that help to be available to us.

But I'm inviting you to do something else today.

To not just go take some spiritual gifts test to decide who you are.

I'm inviting you today to begin to follow this process to decide who you are.

And number one, it is this.

You must first surrender your life to Christ.

If I'm really going to know who I am in Christ Jesus, he's got to become the Savior, the rescuer and the leader and the head of my life.

And again, he has to be my Savior.

Listen to what the Bible says.

And he has got to be my head.

He is the one that is the head of the church.

Not Pastor Clay.

I want to make that crystal clear today.

And not anybody else.

Christ is the head of the church.

And the body is to function in sync with Christ.

Yes, I am the leader of this congregation because God gave me that gift and put me in place to lead people.

But in reality, have you surrendered your heart to Christ?

Listen to what it says in Colossians chapter 1, verse 18.

Christ is the head of the church, which is his body.

He is the beginning supreme over all who rise from the dead.

So he is first in everything.

Does that describe your relationship with God through Christ Jesus?

Is he supreme in everything?

Have you just received him for the forgiveness of sin and what he did on that cross as a suffering servant?

And if you have, thank God you've done that.

If you have not, I invite you to do that.

But you need to understand he resurrected from the grave to pour out his spirit on men and women alike in this age.

And some of us are not walking in the fullness of who God says we are because we've just received the forgiveness of sin and we've been miserable ever since.

And we're sitting in church just waiting to go to heaven.

Are you kidding me?

God created you for so much more.

And if you surrendered your life to Christ for the forgiveness of sin, you need to understand he wants to do so much more.

And if you're just miserable sitting in church waiting on heaven, you know what God is wanting to come in you and work through you to do exactly what you as a human being are designed to be and do all the days of your life.

As if you've got a breath in your lung or a heartbeat in your chest, and it is simply to shine his glory in this earth by you being in the rightful place in space and being the peace he's designed you to be.

But have you surrendered your life to Christ?

I can't answer that for you.

You have to answer it for yourself.

Have you put your faith in Jesus?

Here's the second one.

If you're really going to live out and be the peace that God has created you to be and display in his glory, his majesty to the world around you, we have to commune with God.

That would be something called prayer.

And I don't know how often you are communing with God and how often you are praying or what you're praying about.

But some of us, you know what, God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food.

And that's the prayer where we commune with God.

I tell you something, God wants to provide so much more than a plate in front of you and you just to say a blessing over your food.

God wants to bless your life and change your life.

Are you seeking him for who he says you are?

And are you communing with him through prayer?

See, again, this is what God's word says in Philippians chapter four, verses six through seven.

We have to surrender our life to Christ.

We have to commune with God.

And it says it this way in Philippians four, verses six through seven.

It says, don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

I got to ask you today, how's your prayer life?

And I want you to truly evaluate that.

Not your wife, not your husband, not your kids, not your mama, daddy, and grandmama.

How's your prayer life?

Are you communing with God?

Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done, it says.

And then you will experience God's peace.

Which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you what?

Live in Christ Jesus.

So here's what we're doing as a church, as a community of believers, as Valorous Church.

Starting Tuesday morning, we're entering into 30 days of prayer.

Prayer and fasting if you choose to fast.

But we as a church are going to pray and commune with God together.

And we're also going to be doing it as individuals. 30 days of prayer. 30 consecutive days of prayer.

Together as a church family.

Beginning Tuesday morning.

You can sign up for it.

You can hit those QR buttons in front of you.

It'll take you to the packets and describe to you exactly what all is going to go on.

They'll possibly have some handouts for you on the way out if you want to grab those.

It's all digital through the QR codes.

They'll give you cards how to participate.

But we're inviting our church to participate in 30 days of prayer.

Our prayer room, our upper room is going to be open whenever the church is open.

And we're going to open it up for special hours for 30 days starting Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. every night.

And maybe you want to go and pray along somewhere.

Maybe you can't get here.

But if you get here, you want to go into our upper room together with other people.

It's going to be open strictly for that every night from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. throughout this 30 days of prayer.

And we're going to watch God do the miraculous.

And God's going to speak if you participate and begin to see God do miraculous things in your life.

God wants to commune with each and every one of us.

And so do you really know who you are in Christ Jesus?

Have you surrendered your life to Christ?

And are you really communing with the Most High God?

But He also wants to do something else.

And I wrote it down this way.

He wants us all to keep the sword sharp.

What is the sword?

The Bible defines the sword of the Spirit as the Word of God.

So how does the Spirit of God work in your spirit?

The Bible says He does it through His Word, the sword.

Look what it says in Ephesians 6, verse 17.

Paul reminds us to put on the full armor of God because our battle isn't against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities in the heavenly places.

But as he finishes up this in Ephesians 6, verse 17, he says, put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

How sharp is your sword?

How often do you go into His Word?

Do you really know who you are in Christ Jesus?

Have you surrendered your life to Christ?

Do you commune with God and do you pull out your Bible, the sword of the Spirit, and begin to let it cut through your spirit and define who you are?

Don't misread what the sword of the Spirit is.

The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and what the sword of the Spirit does is cut through your spirit to define who you are.

So some other spirit don't begin to talk to you and tell you who you are.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood.

It's against the powers and principalities in the world around us, and some of us think the Word of God is for us to sling at somebody else when the Word of God is really sharper than a two-edged sword, and it's to cut through our own spirit to define who we are.

Listen to what Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says, for the Word of God is alive and powerful.

It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between the soul and spirit.

Between joint and marrow, it exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

My friends, I'm inviting you to know who you are in Christ Jesus, but you can't know it apart from the Word of God.

You have to be in the Word.

And I do believe in this day and age, God is calling, you know what, a people who is trying to listen to every video clip and every whatever else out there to define who they are and somebody else read it.

I'm inviting you to get in the Word and let the Spirit of the living God cut through your spirit and change your life.

Have some personal time along with God in His Word.

Come on church.

If you're confused about who you are, I'm laying out for you how to discover who you are in Christ Jesus and have peace beyond all understanding in your life.

It's not for somebody else to define who I am.

It's for God to define who I am and it's up for me to begin to walk in it.

The next thing I wrote down is participate on the job training.

Again, just five short principles and this is the fourth one.

Participate.

Get involved.

Work with God's people.

Again, volunteer and I promise you through that volunteerism, if you're really joining in for what God has created you to do, God will speak to you through your participation.

He'll begin to speak to you about who you are in Christ Jesus.

Some of us are trying to be home alone Christians, I call it.

And again, there's nothing wrong with attending on the internet and doing those kinds of things.

If you can't get here, we invite you to do that and maybe you live way off or whatever else, but I need you to understand that God's glory is too heavy for one.

And if you are sitting on a couch by yourself because you don't want to be a part of what God's doing in the world, I'm inviting you to get to church and get in church because God's glory is too heavy for one.

And it's not only going to shine through you, it's going to shine through us.

So you've got to get involved and begin to participate.

Come on church.

Some of us are sitting alone and Jesus had his time alone, but Jesus was all about participation.

And listen to what the Bible says, Ephesians chapter five, verse 21, it says, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

It's speaking here of husband and wife relationships, but I'm inviting you today to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ and participate.

And let's see what God can do in your life.

Some of us like, you know, we think, well, you know, I shouldn't participate.

Well, no, you didn't miss it because God never intended for his glory to be carried in this earth by one man or one woman.

Remember, he created the first man and the first woman in the garden to display his image to the world around them.

And he put them together to be fruitful and multiply.

God's story has always been the same.

Listen to this.

And it's to share his glory in the earth and his glory is way too heavy to do by yourself.

Get involved and see what God can do.

And the last thing I wrote down, if you really want to discover who you are in Christ Jesus is stay full of God's spirit.

Stay full of God's spirit.

You know what that simply means?

Is be obedient to what God's word says to your life.

You want to stay full of the spirit, then begin to be obedient to what the spirit tells you and as you're obedient to that and you take your next right step, the spirit will continue to fill you up.

But if you're a rebellious human being and you're not being obedient to the word of God and what it's saying in your life, you know what?

You're not being filled with the spirit.

You're being filled with some other spirit and God is inviting us out of that.

It's not that we don't stumble and we don't sometimes fall, But God is inviting you, if that is you, to get back up and let him fill you up with his holy set-apart Spirit and speak to your spirit, and you begin to walk in it all the days of your life.

The Bible says, you know what?

The fruit of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the spirit will inherit the kingdom of God.

And the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

Come underneath the Holy Spirit and be filled with the Spirit and walk in the fullness of it and you will see the amazing, miraculous God show up in our life and through our life.

I'm gonna read this last passage of scripture about being filled with the Spirit.

And after that, I'm gonna pray.

The worship team is gonna come out and I invite you just in the next few moments to worship with us as we worship through song, but also begin to listen to God.

And if he's saying, hey, you know what?

You need to even get out of your seat and come up to this altar, come up to the front of this stage.

There's prayer benches, there's crosses, there'll be prayer partners.

And you know what?

Maybe you just need to come up here and kneel.

Maybe you need to get with a prayer partner.

Maybe you need to come over to the crosses and say, you know what, I need to surrender my life to Jesus Christ today.

There'll be people there to help you do that today at those lighted crosses.

Maybe your journey hadn't even began and you're stuck in darkness.

I need you to know that Jesus calls you out of darkness, saves you for all of your sin so you can walk in the wonderful light.

Maybe you need to surrender your life to Christ.

Maybe you need to do business with God in this song.

Maybe you need to come and kneel and pray.

Maybe you need to be courageous once.

And stop worrying about what everybody else around you is doing.

You start listening to the Spirit and you do what the Spirit says for you today.

This is gonna be a Holy Spirit moment as they begin to sing.

But today, I'm inviting you, before you leave this place today, sign up for the 30 days of prayer.

Well, this is what it says about being full of the Spirit in Ephesians chapter five, verses 15 through 20.

It says, be careful how you live.

Look at your neighbor and say, be careful.

You look at your other neighbor and act like you mean it and say it again.

Come on.

Bible goes on to say, don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Look what it says, don't be drunk with wine.

Look at your neighbor and say, lay off the wine tonight.

Now look at your other neighbor and say, fill up with the Holy Spirit.

There's a lot of wisdom in that.

Sometimes we wanna get drunk on wine to suppress all the feelings in life.

But God says, no, you know what?

That's not the way.

The way to do it is to fill up on me and I'll change your life.

Look what, yeah.

Look what it says.

He says, instead be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves and making music to the Lord in your hearts.

And give thanks for everything to God, the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you really wanna be who God made you to be?

My friends, it's about focusing on the future, not the past.

It's about walking in the fullness of who God says you are, but you have to do your faith and exercise your faith and begin to engage in those principles I just told you.

God will show up in a miraculous way.

And from this day forward, it may not be easy, but you can walk.

Come on.

You can walk in the goodness of the Lord.

And we as a church can shine the light of Christ, the glory of the Lord in our community like never before.

Let's give the Lord a hand clap, come on.

I'm gonna pray.

I'm gonna pray, they're gonna sing.

Let's worship God and move as he moves in our own hearts today.

God, I thank you for every man, woman, boy, and girl here today.

Thank you for all of those on the internet.

God, we thank you that you designed us for so much more.

God, if there's a person here today that is beginning to let their past define them, their experiences define them, other things define them, God, I pray today that they will surrender their life to Christ Jesus.

They will commune with you through prayer.

They will begin to let the Holy Spirit speak to their life.

They'll get in the word.

God, they'll participate and begin to watch you do the amazing.

God, you simply ask us to put our faith in you and begin the journey.

God, you've given us all the tools we need.

We live in the greatest time, God, ever before the return of Christ.

And God, I pray today that your spirit would go to work.

Your Holy Spirit begin to speak to men and women alike, boys and girls, men and women.

I pray your Holy Spirit begin to pierce hearts and speak to people's spirit.

And God, they would just come in all of you and your presence.

And God, they would get up and leave this place today and begin to understand you have made them for something incredible.

You have created them to shine the light of Christ in this world, the glory of the very Lord himself.

And God, every part would do their part and we would do it together and watch your majesty fall in this place, in this space, in this world, in our community and to the nations of the world.

Holy Spirit, speak.

Set apart spirit, speak to our spirits today as we lay ourselves before you and begin to understand you're wanting to move us forward and not leave us in the past.

Jesus, we thank you for the gift of salvation through the cross.

We thank you for the resurrection.

We thank you for pouring out your spirit on us today.

And we pray that we would worship you, singing psalms and hymns today.

And you would do the miraculous in the hearts of people.

We pray it all in Jesus' name.

Amen.