Transcript for:
Discipleship at Gold Street Garden Church

hey welcome everybody Welcome to Gold Street Garden Church come on in hey everybody come on in what an atmosphere that we get to walk into right so privileged to be able to walk into this kind of atmosphere the presence of God right amen we bring the presence in here hallelujah hallelujah come on in yes we're very privileged and um I love it because we're Kingdom Minded people right that's what we are here we're all Kingdom Minded people yes I love it too that we come here tonight and we put our faith the word and worship all in one and we see things take place we truly see things take place and what I love is that it says in um Joshua um or no it's in it's in Matthew that if two agree two agree or more I love this that we if we if two agree or more anything we pray the father will make it happen and it shall be done so we got two or more in here and I love that if you put one can put a thousand to flight two can put 10,000 to flight so tonight I want us to release our faith this is what we need to do we need to release our faith as one and we need to be believing we need to be believing for the nation tonight when we come up here and worship we need to be believing for prodigals we need to be believing for relationships we need to be believing for our children our finances our health we're going to release our faith tonight and we're going to see God move because he he clearly promises that it will be done so praise the Lord and let's come up and worship something to say you know I was telling brother Dave a couple weeks ago that we need to get some speakers on the outside you know so so people in the park working L and hey it's time to come in you know we're only going to get one chance to do this 7624 once in a lifetime this is it are you ready Psalm 66 shout joyful praises to God all the Earth sing about the glory of his name tell the world how glorious he is say to God how awesome are your Deeds your enemies cringe before your Mighty power everything on Earth will worship you they will sing your Praises shouting your name in glorious songs how many's got something to shout about the Lord is good he's merciful he's loud he's quick thunder and lightning I tell you what you know oh gosh you know in Revelation it talks about the voice of the Lord is above many waters you know the loudest decimal sound natural in this earth is Rushing Water Niagara Falls is the loudest decimal [Music] sound and yet the voice of the Lord is above that so as we come up here you know he he shouts to some of us he needs a shout to me sometimes but he's also got that quiet that quiet voice that you need to listen to and how is that brother Tom you might say cuz the Bible says so I've been in times up here in worship where he's just shouting and I'm not hearing what's going on but I'm just I'm praising the Lord CU I hear his voice so come come up and [Music] worship Jesus nameus Jesus Jesus Jesus we love you in this place Jesus Jesus Jesus we love you in this place Jesus the name above every name the name that brings healing the name that brings fire the name that brings restoration it's all in your name Jesus come on just lift up his name Jesus it's the only name you need just lift up his name Jesus oh Jesus you change everything you change everything come on he wants to make some things new tonight the name of Jesus he wants to give you beauty for ashes he wants to redeem he wants to restore oh Jesus Jesus your name your name is all that we need we love you Jesus we magnify you Jesus we glorify you Jesus be exalted be exalted be exalted We join with Heaven Tonight We join with Heaven tonight to worship the King of Kings and the Lord of lords oh let us be so and sing tonight with what heaven is doing with what heaven is singing with what heaven is saying oh we love you Lord we love you Jesus I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind yeah cuz I know there is peace inside your presence I speak Jesus I just want to speak the name of Jesus till every dark addiction starts to break declaring there is open and there is freedom there is I speak Jesus your name is power your name is power your name is healing your name is life bring every stronghold bring every shine through the shadow say your name is power your name is power your name is healing your name is break every strong sh through the shadow like burn burnnnn bur let is all speak the name of Jesus over every fear and anxiety yeah every s captive by De pra I speak Jesus your name your name is power your name is healing your name is th yeah break every stronghold shine through the shadow burn like your fire your name your name is power your name is your name is l and break every stronghold shine through the shadow of burn light Jesus you have your way in our hearts have your way in this country we speak Jesus over tonight this is all about you sir it's all about you I speak Jesus from the mountain Jesus in the street and Jesus in the darkness so over every eny Jesus for my family I speak the Holy Name of Jesus no no speak Jesus on the mountain hey Jesus in the street Jesus in the darkness over every eny Jesus on my family I speak the holy name of Jes let's declare it together let's declare it again I speak Jesus from the mountains Jesus in the street oh Jesus in the darkness over every en ofy Jesus for my family I speak the holy woo we speak life we speak life sing him one more time I see Jesus from the mountain oh Jesus in the street oh Jesus in the over every eny Jesus for my family I speak the Holy Name of Jesus your name your name your name your name is power your name is healing your name is break every shine through the shadow like a fire your name is power your name is f your name is life bring every strong shine through the Shanel bur like your fire to love oh let my heart burn for you oh Lover of My Soul may my heart per you beautyful restes joyful morning praise forever All For Your Glory beautyful Rous praise for heav Joy for Morning All For Your Glory to give beautiful R praise for riness Joy for morning oh Your Glory Bey fores praise for every joyful Morning All For Your Glory beatiful ranes praise for riness Joy for morning oh For Your Glory oh Jesus on the mountain Jesus in the street Jesus in the darkness over every of Me Jesus on my family I speak The Only Name of Jesus hey Jesus from the mountain Jesus in the street Jesus in in the darkness over every enemy Jesus on my family I speak the Holy Name of [Applause] Jesus you we speak the Holy Name of [Music] Jesus your name is B your name is healing your name is night break every song shine through the shadow burn like a fire burn the cha up name is power your name is healing your name is light bring every stronghold shine through the [Music] sh Jesus is precious [Music] he is so preious Jesus you're precious to me you are my savior my Lord and my master Jesus Jesus you're precious to [Music] me we honor you oh we honor you in this place Jesus your sons and your daughters we come to your table hey we open the door walk into your house tonight oh to commune with you Jesus speak Jesus Oh you came that we might have life and have it more abundantly you came and set the captive free you came and healed every manner of disease oh you rele your power on the earth your blood covers all of our as far as he East is from the [Music] West you are glorious and worthy of our praise and song tonight I worship you my king you are worthy of our praise and song tonight you alone are worthy oh we serve you oh our mighty king your name is power your name is healing your name is the life [Music] [Applause] [Music] woo we serve a living God who walks among his [Music] people oh we speak the anointing of Heaven over this place right now let your anointing flow breaking every bondage breaking every addiction Hallelujah breaking every strong hold break break break in the name of Jesus Break in the name of Jesus you cannot hold the children of the king captive any longer we release the anointing oh pour your oil out pour your oil on us God yeah pour your oil on us pour your oyal Hors pour your Royal on us pour your Royal on [Music] us for youy on us you're the Good Shepherd you're the Good Shepherd you anoint your sheep woo oh pour your oil on us pour your oil on us pour over this country Lord pour it over this country God pour it over this country and let us come back to the good shepherd prayer work Hallelujah for your Royal on us for your Royal on us pour your Royal on Jesus pour your Royal on us pour your Royal on us holy pour your Royal on us Good Shepherd Good Shepherd pour your Royal on us woo oh your Royal on us [Music] God you are alive and well you are worthy you are worthy You Are Holy [Music] you arey Jesus you are You Are Holy You Are Holy You Are Holy You Are Holy You Are Holy You Are Holy You Are Holy You Are Holy Jesus You Are Holy nothing compare to you you are oh [Applause] the holy You Are Holy Lord of All You You Are Holy you're oh so holy You Are Holy Lord of H sing it again you are oh your own soul oh holy You Are Holy Lord of all I saw the Lord Seated on his throne he was clothed in glory [Music] exalted [Applause] high in the train of his Ro fil the temple and the angels circle around him [Music] and [Music] Make You Are Holy you're [Applause] Al Jesus you are holy Lord of [Music] all oh You Are Holy Al holy You Are Holy Lord you're you're alome holy ho Lord I saw the Lord Seated on his throne he was clothed in glory exalted and the TR his Ro fill the temple the Angels cirle around him and they [Music] cry you are holy you're Al holy You Are Holy Lord of all oh yeah you holy you're aome holy you are Lord of [Music] all I know that your eyes are like flames of fire know that your hair is white as W I know that your voice voice sounds like Jesus you're beautiful I know that your eyes are like flames of fire I know that your hair is white as wool I know that your voice sounds like the wat Jesus You're Beautiful can you see them I know that your eyes are like flames of fire I know that your hair is white as wool I know that your voice sounds like the waters Jesus You're Beautiful Jesus say You're Beautiful Jesus say You're Beautiful Jesus You're Beautiful Jesus You're Beautiful Jesus You're Beautiful Jesus You're Beautiful Jesus You're Beautiful Jesus are beautiful never seen another more beautiful you've captured my heart oh how you've captured us Lord Jesus Jesus you're so beautiful you're so wonderful you're so kind and good God what a beautiful beautiful savior we have so we pour out our love so we pour out our love [Music] so we pour out our love pour it out on him we pour out our love give him your best tonight oh we pour out our love yes oh we pour out our love he deserves it all oh oh we pour out our love we give you our best God oh we pour out our love you deserve nothing less so we pour out our love pour it out pour it out pour it out till we pour out love oh we pour out our oh we pour out my love we pour out our we pour out it's so good and so kind to let us become more by your PR let us experience the glory of the goodness let us speak of your pres let us the glory the glory you glory become more aware of your PR let us experience the glory of your goodness let I speak from more aware of your presence let us experience the glory of your good lift it up you are LIF it up you are high and lift it up you are high and lift it [Applause] up you are high LIF you [Applause] are be exalt be exalted be exalted higher and higher exed exed be exalted higher and higher oh be exalted be exalted be exalted higher and higher exed be exalted be exalted I oh I just feel tonight Jesus wants us to exalt him over every circumstance over every situation over every diagnosis over every sickness he wants us to exalt him because he is higher he is greater and he has conquered it all let's exalt him in this place tonight One More Time come on let's lift him high let's lift him higher than we've ever listen and let's shout louder than we've ever shouted oh we want to exalt you in this place tonight God because you are greater you are higher you are more powerful your name is above every other name so we exalt you in this place we exalt you in this place we exalt you in this place be exalted oh be exalted higher in lier oh be exalted be exalted be exalted higher and high oh be [Applause] exalted be exalted be exalted higher and higher oh be exalted be exalted exalted higher and higher Jesus glor we Jes oh Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus the name on the thr you Reign Victorious you Reign Victorious he Reign Victorious you re Victorious you re Victorious you re Victorious you re Victorious King You Victorious every of the kingdom is under your kingdom every other Throne is on the Earth th every other power every other power is under your power you are it up you are high LIF it up your name is power your name is healing your name make every strong shine through the shadow [Music] like right now if everyone could lift their hands in this room if we could sing high and lifted up again the the course I want to right before we move any forward just get your hands [Music] up and the reason we're doing this right now it is so important I don't know if there's anybody in this room that that the name of Jesus means more than a bumper sticker the name of Jesus means more than just an attachment to a political party the name of Jesus Hallelujah the name of Jesus has gotten me through some storms I don't know about you the name of Jesus has gotten me through some of the worst moments of time and the name of Jesus has carried Patriarchs and matriarchs through the darkest times in history that have far surpassed the moment that we're even currently in but when we are in this place when we sing you are high and lifted up this is a name name that has been lifted up from generation to generation this is a name that people have died for this is a name that is transcendent to every language to every culture that this is a name that we Herald that we Proclaim from the depths of our being as the psalmist even before he fully knew who he was worshiping he said Deep Cries Out to deep and I don't know about you but I don't want to cry out from a surface place tonight I need the deepest part of my heart to cry out to the deepest part of his to have a true impact in this moment in time I need I need to experience the depths of God tonight I don't know about you but I can only get up here and begin to call you into something deeper so as we sing you are high and lifted up can we begin to push past the clouds tonight can we begin to push past all the noise can we sing you are high and you are lifted up in our mid you are [Applause] yesare you are high anded up you are high lift it up you are yes up keep declaring you are LIF it you are high and lift it up Jesus you are high Raise It Up Lift It Up Jesus you are high LIF it up you are high lift it up you are high you are high and lift up be exalted be exalted oh be exalted offer sacrifice of praise yes higher and higher be exalted be exalted be exalted higher and higher exed be exalted be exalted higher high Li say people yeah oh let every knee bow and tongue confess Jesus is the Lord and prayer still works in this nation Jesus still Moves In This Nation Jesus still Reigns in this nation be exalted over every politician be exalted over every Wicked blad of the enemy be exalted over every circumstance Jesus be exed higher and higher be exalt be exalted be exalted higher and high be exalted be exalted be exalted higher and higher right right now as we're declaring just when we were saying Deep Cries Out to deep I just I just want to take a moment right now I I you know and this is going to seem the setup's going to seem a little different when we when we offer a sacrifice of [Music] praise there there's something there it's like a a requirement that every fiber of our being cries out to God that every every part of our body there there's there's a time to be still and then there's a time to offer a sacrifice of praise and I just believe that sometimes we can really suppress with cute langu language Christian language what's really going on on the inside that there's certain things that we just we have to release but we release it as a costly offering that I don't know about you but there's been times that I just did not know what else to pray or another way to convey to God how much I need him and how much I love him but what I would like to do for the next 60 seconds is I want you to find mind that groan on the inside I want I want to release a sacrifice of praise as a body together and I don't I don't want you to force it this is this is this is not any Force here and this is not theatrics this is deep crying unto deep I want to take a moment I want to offer a sacrifice of praise as a body I want you to cry out from every fiber in your being I want you to awake your flesh I want you to awake your soul as David said Soul you will praise the Lord so you will make your boast in the Lord so on the count of three I want this body to release a sacrifice of praise in the midst of the storm in the midst of a polarizing climate we are going to release a sacrifice of praise one 2 3 praise the [Applause] Lord yes yes yes yes [Applause] [Applause] you you are lifted oh you are lift it up you are lift it up you are Hallelujah I just want to read a [Music] Psalm so we have some gospel business to take care of tonight Psalm 13 I can't imagine a man that was more vulnerable and real with God than David in Psalm 13 can I read you a prayer from David did you know the Psalms are prayers these are songs these are the if you don't know what to say to God you can say the song Psalms to him you can speak them to him we said it recently that the Psalms give us permission to be human he says how long oh Lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me how long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily how long will my enemy be exalted over me consider and hear me oh Lord my God enlighten my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death lest my enemies say I've prevailed against him let those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved but I have trusted in your mercy my heart shall rejoice in your salvation I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me you see how that song ends it starts with a man being real with God and it ends with a man reminding himself of how faithful God is hallelujah you know that's why we come to this house this is God's house and this is a place we come to be real but we don't leave in sorrow and pity we leave reminding one another that he is faithful and that no matter what it looks like outside these four walls we know what it looks like inside these four walls yeah come on we have a hope yes that gives us a joy unspeakable we pray to a god that gives us peace that surpasses understanding we serve a God that Shepherds us with agape love if you're in this place tonight and you need to be reminded that God is faithful look around the room and see the glory of Christ on the faces of those rejoicing in his presence even in the midst of a desensitized [Music] culture we're going to do it this moment there's a few things and we're going to jump back into worship at altar time but what I would like to do at this moment is if you could peaceably find your seat if you're able to and all the children if you could come forth we're going to pray for the the children and they've been having VBS this week which is awesome look at all these amazing kids could everyone do a fa do me a favor can we stretch our hands towards the children and pray over them Father we all ready yall ready father we thank you for these precious hearts Lord we thank you that they would be set Ablaze with a passion for you God Lord I Thank you that the holy spirit that they would know the tender voice of the spirit that they would receive dreams visions that they would learn obedience they would learn to have ears that are quick to listen mouths that are slow to speak that they would always have an appetite for the word of God and a fervent desire for prayer Lord I Thank you that they would never see you is less than [Music] father we pray for the the teachers tonight Mrs Jessica and the team as they pour into all these young hearts and Lord we thank you that we in this room would even hearken to what you're saying to the Young Generation and that we would hear the wisdom that is coming out of the mouth of babes in Jesus precious name everyone said amen we love you [Applause] all uh what we're gonna do [Music] is our worship was fire I'm so I know it being summertime we're missing some of our family in the house tonight but it is such a joy to have you with us tonight it's going to be special a little different and really every time we get together should be a little different because we've never experienced this unique moment ever before no matter how familiar trivial the environment may seem sometimes we have to keep our heart engaged that God is doing something every time Christ walks into the room he makes all things new did you know that wherever he goes he makes all things new that's amazing the new creation doesn't have an expiration date hallelujah thank you Jesus psalm 119 how many people are excited to give to sew into all God is doing this is this is beautiful I just want to read one passage to you Psalm 119 verse 33 this is the longest Psalm teaching us the importance and the imperative nature of the word of God starting in verse 33 says teach me oh Lord the way of your statutes and I shall keep it to the end give me understanding and I shall keep your law indeed I shall observe it with my whole heart make me walk in the path of your Commandments for I Delight in it incline my heart to your testimonies and not to covetousness that verse 36 it means make my heart desire your testimonies and not to covetousness which means Desiring what others have that you don't currently have material things position turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things you think that's something we could pray on a regular basis turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way establish your word to your servant who is devoted to fearing you turn away my reproach which I dread for your judgments are good behold I long for your precepts revive me in your your righteousness I just want to encourage you that uh in ushers at this time if if you desire to so just raise your hand and our ushers will get you an offering envelope we have ways to give up on the screen but I just want to emphasize that when we incline our heart to the testimonies and not to covetousness I I just think it's so important that we realize that giving and generosity is a part of the nature the heart posture of a Believer and ask God to train us and to grow Us in this in every every sphere is awesome and to take opportunity to do so is just a beautiful privilege so we have text GSG to 727 351 6160 Veno Gold Street Garden or cash app Gold Street Garden we're going to have the announcements in a moment the only announcement that's not in there is we are actively rescheduling a few things that we had to postpone that we will keep everybody up to date with a few conferences that'll come up at the end of the year which we're really excited about also what's not on the announcements is my dear friend Isaac Tiz will be with us the second week in August so it's going to come up fast and we're really excited every time Isaac comes with us it's Fuego um so it's G to be I'm so excited to have my Latino friend in the house it's going to be awesome and and we just have a lot of really beautiful things underway but just I just really want to encourage you I'm going to give a an address tonight before we get into our main things with addressing what's going on in the country and on the world stage I I just want to make one statement before we go is that I really I have it so in my heart that I want to always make sure that we are a body that doesn't put our heads in the sand and there's a way to engage with what's going on in the world without falling victim to the ways of the world and the the tactics of the world and I I feel very commissioned maybe like a a fatherly just gene or heart that the Lord is ever growing in me that I just when I see things happen on the world stage my heart immediately thinks of my family and you all and I think of what father what should I say what what what needs to be said to stabilize hearts in a in a completely unstable time and so I want to take a moment to do that but that wasn't our agenda tonight we have a beautiful setup tonight but I do want to just give a quick address and I'll even make it available I I I typed out some thoughts I'm just going to read it to you so I don't get all off and then if anybody desires it we'll make it available but just just some heart water and heart words that I just want to share with you that we can be commissioned by but I want to pray over the offering and then we'll we'll get underway father I just thank you for all that you're doing in this house I thank you for all that you're doing in this region Lord I Thank you that The Best Is Yet To Come In Spite of what every lie is screaming Lord we thank you that you are mobilizing your church you are strengthening your church you are equipping your church and Lord the thing that we desire more than ever is that we would become astute in hearing your voice let us be a people that hear your voice let us be a people that are daily training our hearts to be attuned to the voice of God we thank you that this sheep hear your voice in Jesus precious name all God's people yelled amen you can bring your offerings forward to the left and to the right and um if we could is uh Bri in the house I know I asked you to do this last minute thank you so much can we welcome Bria she brings a few announcements to us and also if uh Austin andani if you could make your way forward as well hello family all all right so we are still looking for volunteers for preschool classrooms so that is the lead in assistant position so if you're interested you can see Jesse or lace for that and then the next one we have is the prayer room so that is every Thursday 7 to 9: and then Pastor's going to give a charge for that in a moment and then we have College and Career that is July 20th July 20th this Saturday and then we've got Loving Hands presentation the next Tuesday the 23rd and then Pastor Chuck Ammons will be with us on July 30th and then we've got home groups home groups are amazing so there's a sign up uh sheet in the back and then you can also scan the QR code for the church Center app to become a part of Home groups you can be added to the list and we will uh be opening new home soon and then now we have Joe for [Applause] outreach what up so we have a QR code this is for the um Church Center app actually not WhatsApp we're moving to the church Center app so if you scan that one you'll get added to the new group I'm also going to put that in I'm going to put a link in the in the WhatsApp for those who are in the WhatsApp we are are going to be making a transition we'll still have the WhatsApp open obviously for some people that don't make the transition right away that way you can still get the detail so I'll be posting in both of those with the details of what's coming up so here's what's coming up this Friday we're hitting the streets woohoo yeah you guys should get excited about that this Friday we're going to hit the streets all right awesome yeah so we're going to meet here at 6:30 we're going to pray and river is actually going to be leading that so river is my guy he's awesome we have a little script we'll show you how we go through it a little bit and then we're just going to go hit the streets one-onone love on people and present the gospel amen amen we're not backing down we're going to keep running we're taking over our city for Jesus amen and in doing so we're also going to be doing something really awesome I mentioned it last week the 27th I wouldn't say the 27th we are going to be going to an orphanage we need volunteers so what we need right now is we need 20 to 25 people who want to commit to coming now here's the thing I want you to pray about it because what's going to happen is I've been talking with the river about it he's been volunteering there so he knows some of the needs and some of the things that kids are going through it is something that's going to be kind of heavy because you're dealing with people who kids who don't have parents they have a a hard life at this point and so you're going to be walking into spiritual warfare just just to prepare you for it but here's the thing you have the spirit on the inside of you and the Bible says that greater is he that is in you than he that's in this world right and that's why we need to go we have have to it's a commission in fact in the scripture James says that the only true definition of the word religion which is thrown around all the time now oh you're a religious person yes I am actually because the word religion is actually defined as taking care of the widows and the orphans and keeping yourself clean from the world so by definition we should all be religious amen I'm going to we're going to redefine the word religion that's out there we're taking that word it's ours it's in Scripture and with that we're going to go on the 27th and actually go into the orphanage we're going to feed the kids we're going to spend from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with them so it's going to be a nice fun day we're going to do activities but then we're going to hit them with the gospel we're going to show them the love of God and we're going to minister to these kids the thing is this is not a one-time thing we're going to be doing it every single month once a month we are committing to going in loving on these kids and building those relationships with these children so I want you to pray about committing to it but I want to give you the charge pray and ask the Holy Spirit how you can be a part of it there's three ways you can volunteer to show up on the day you can pray for us and you can also sew into it because we are going to be feeding 57 kids every month so you can partner with the gold Street as we do this you can be a part of that just by sewing your time your finances and your prayer amen how many are excited that we have an opportunity to live on the The Lost broken the kids who need this I'm excited and I want to just challenge you guys to pray about this really pray we need we want to split it up we want to have at least three strong female leads and at least three male leads that can hold down a group and then we want to have enough volunteers to just spread it out they do have people there I think they have 10 to 15 people that are on staff that are going to be their help as well but we're going to have a lot of fun it's going to be awesome and we also get to just pour the gospel into some kids amen all right God bless you guys all right so tonight is your first time you are a first time visitor raise your hand High keep it up the ushers have a VIP card for you to fill out welcome welcome make sure to bring that to the back to the merch table and we have a small gift for you thank you for coming next oh and youth we have youth next Thursday uh in the Forge building so be sure to be there and join us thank you so much Bri Austin arani if you come over we got we got a whole bunch of missionaries in the house so we're we're so thankful Kendall and Rebecca are in El Salvador right now and going to the Philippines Greenland this time you already went to the Philip so I'm going to let Austin share real quick the prayer points but they're headed out tomorrow so we want to make sure we lay hands on them isn't it amazing that we have people in our body that feel commissioned to get on planes to go and we get to just lay hands on them pray for them and they have their marching orders their instructions they're going with teams that are that are well equipped to do and we're able to just pray for them sew into them this is a amazing thing this is the book of Acts we have a home base and we have people that are able to go out and be the hands and feet and stretch Beyond but if you would just share the prayer points and then we want to lay hands on them all right yeah the team sent us this so it's uh the heart of Greenland we're supposed to pray for the people to be sensitive to the Lord because the gospel is still being shared pray against depression and the spirit of suicide because that's heavy there and pray for the local church body and for God to bring laborers to the uh to the island so those are the main [Music] three so what we're going to do is if we could get the the some of the leads to come forward we're going to hands if everybody would stretch their hands right now we want to pray father we thank you for this precious couple we thank you that the the work you are doing in and through them Lord that you are calling them across the waters Lord we are so thankful that we can send them out as a body that you have placed the convictions in their heart that Lord the resources have been made available for them to go by your pro provision Lord we thank you that the gospel would go forth we thank you for signs wonders and miracles we thank you for the gifts of the Spirit to be in full operation we thank you for Creative Miracles we thank you that your signature would be seen throughout this entire trip we thank you that you're going to reveal your glory to aen arani in a way that they have never seen before as they put their feet on the soil Lord I Thank you that everywhere that they step that you would give them that territory with that the gospel of peace would sha their feet and it would be with them everywhere they go that they would be clothed with the full armor of God and that that you would protect them from every fiery Dart of the evil one with the shield of faith God Lord we thank you for protection all around them we thank you that whatever attacks that the enemy has tried to put against this trip and has tried to cause strife and division Lord we thank you for your perfect peace we thank you for your hand that is upon them Lord we thank you for the anointing wisdom and discernment we thank you in Jesus precious name amen than you yes so exciting well Evan thank you so much my brother I want to read this to you and then I'm going to invite some friends up on the stage with me tonight mainly because I've been lonely and I think it's really important that we we are a house with multiple voices and as we can see we our body we're very big on we have Joe without Outreach we have will and leet in the prayer room we have multiple people running different departments within the body and then we also have Home Group leads we have people that are leading our home groups throughout the regions and we're going to talk about discipleship with them tonight and I want to segue into it the right way because I I can't think of a better way to talk about the imperative need for discipleship real raw discipleship biblical discipleship than what we witnessed this past weekend I just want to read this but right before I do I just I just really want to make it clear that I was I was at a barber shop today and as I was at the barber shop you know there's just a lot of small talk in the barber shop gets real therapeutic real quick and as I'm in the barber shop you know these kind of conversations are going to come up it's a great place to to preach the gospel because and this is one of the reasons I'm going to share this right before we get into the conversation tonight because the enemy really desires that when things like we saw July 13th with the attempted assassination when these types of things happen all of the sudden it's very easy for Christians to fall victim to the rhetoric and they don't use it as platform to preach the gospel because they're actually Christians are being exposed for how little of the word they actually know and they they just think that because Christianity is a part of a political party that it's the same language as the Bible or the gospel and we have to be very watchful for that and I say that because this is a great time this is a great time to talk about the gospel to lost people because the stage is set and I'm telling you at the beginning of this year I said when people are asking me you know there's always people like what's the word for this year and everybody's looking for a word the only word I heard was sober stay sober stay awake stay alert and I want you to know it's only going to get more more it's turbulent vehement what took place over this weekend the fact that my wife and I went we were coming back from a trip and we're at the mall and the place is packed out at International mall like completely packed out the day after what took place on July 13th 40 50 years ago if something like that took place everybody would be at home every but we live in such a busy Society where we're able to quickly just just turn the channel and get back to self-absorbed living you cannot ignore the spiritual implication of what is happening on the world stage right now whether I I I I would believe in this room there we would we would probably all very much lean towards a certain direction but I I I do want to Be watchful in people understanding that we have to make public L informed decisions and I'm just going to read something to you as an address and then we're going to have a conversation on discipleship but I want you to know if you want to talk to me or if you want to talk to leaders at this church about what is going on in the world you are not going to get sugarcoated dumb Christian slogan answers but we will actually engage and talk about what is going on and I I I am a little ashamed at how the church at large sometimes uh and I Want to Be watchful but when I even try to hear what a few pastors ministered on Sunday it's almost like pin drops like nobody knows what to say and I'm not saying I have all the answers but I'm not afraid to talk about it I'm not afraid to examine the scriptures and find where our help comes from God did not God has not brought us to this moment to abandon us or to leave us without answer so I just want to make it very clear to you all that uh the only thing that is not in this speech that I do want to bring up is the the gentleman that died at that event a Corey I I forgot how to pronounce his last name it was compor I believe and he was a fireman and his family all testified that he feared the Lord and that that man that died I I believe and I and I'm not trying to read I'm not trying to be hypers spiritual but this happen on the world stage so for us to be ignorant of it would be just as I would just as delusional as being hyper um spiritual uh so we have to find the balance what do we see we see a man a father and a husband jumping on his family taking a bullet for them you want to say that that's not prophecy that that's not that that's not where men need to be in this hour is being willing to lay their lives down and not just for a a president not just for a can for their family for people for for the gospel because that man was a God-fearing man and he was doing what was intrinsic and innate in his heart and mind it was him taking a stand for his family when the bullets started flying and I want this we we talk about martyrdom at this house we're not afraid to talk about what the what the gospel calls us into and I I want you to know that things are beginning to might begin to look bright but I I I don't want you to be deceived because there's a lot of space between now and whatever your conclusion of peace is there's only one that brings us peace peace and resolve to our heart we need to contend to bring the kingdom of God to this planet and to this earth and I know I'm already taking too long so let me read this to you dear fearfully and wonderfully made people we are not to be intimidated by Darkness we are to be ignited by light the scorching political climate is reaching unprecedented Peaks seemingly on the verge of catastrophic eruption we must stabilize our hearts in The Refuge that is the gospel like never before the temptation to weaponize political talking points in the Name of Christ is going to escalate as an enraged Society boils in opposition Christ is not a political sidekick he is The Sovereign King Christ is not a political sponsor he is the savior of the world Christ is not a topping on a political Pizza he is the bread of life the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for our souls and he is the only hope to this presently divided nation we as a church will not suppress and ignore the screeching outcry of society with polished Christian slogans devoid of substance we cannot be silent and idle during such a crucible moment of time our unwillingness to engage exposes our weakness in confronting the polarizing issues in the world the gospel is not ill-prepared or without empathy and power to provide real solutions this is not a time to put our heads in the sand it's a time to put our feet upon the rock we cannot afford to indulge in the media falling victim to the US first them intoxication or becoming obsessed with the sound of our favorite Echo Chambers what we will do is stay temperately informed we will stay sober minded we will stay scripturally sound and we will stay in the Flames of First Love through Relentless prayer the enemy wants us to adopt divisive political language to our message this cunning strategy is an attempt to dilute the power of the Gospel through us we must cry out for wisdom and discernment like a parent crying out for a miracle as they hold their severely wounded child our engagement with God is where we find the calm strength and the peace saturated immovability to engage with a culture on edge the Temptation will be to react before you renew your mind and refresh your soul in time with the Lord in order to bring Heaven to Earth we must engage with the maker of heaven and Earth reactionary living towards the world will only produce stimulation for the wrong appetites whereas relational living living towards God will produce life and peace God so loved the world he gave his son he gave the world an incarnate version of his Mercy compassion and Grace what the world needs is the glory of Christ embodied through our lives and families our war is not with flesh and blood I repeat our war is not with flesh and blood for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against Powers against rulers of Darkness of this age against spiritual host of wickedness in the Heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand on July 13th we saw an attempted assassination on the world stage though political language is trying to desensitize and DB the world to the spiritual implications of this event we must not be naive the bullet barely missed former president Donald Trump and what would have been a fatal shot to the Head the bullet grazed through his ear as he turned his head seconds before the shot was fired this was no aberration of luck this was something Beyond Flesh and Blood his response after he fell to the ground from being shot was to stand up and tell the people to fight not with bullets but with their voices let's not minimize this to politics let's see this as the enemy is vehemently trying to create more war and division the church needs to fight the way we are instructed to in scripture gge your waste with truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having Shaw your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of Faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints in Ephesians Saints we must recommit to the word in prayer turning our tuning Our Hearts to the frequency of the spirit must be our unrivaled priority we must continue to March forward with Gospel Mission the imperative and biblically irrefutable need for real discipleship in this hour of time must be pursued Full Throttle for every awake believer stand strong you are definitely more than critics you're more than conquerors so I want to remind you all that if Trump would have been assassinated to just know where we would be today the amount of violence and uproar that would come regardless of where it's just we we don't we we really have to take a moment sometimes and consider what's going on and I I need you to be alert and aware and not falling victim to rhetoric and bigotry and just all the fascist voices that are happening right now it is time to get in the secret place and it's time to engage with one another and find the ways that we can be most effective in our sphere amen so uh what we're going to do now if I could get uh the Home Group leads the ones that are leading the homes right now which uh if they would come up they know who they are if they find their way up here and pton if you're able to are you able to grab the pull pit or is Nick got it I just need my stuff I'll probably sit on the end not everybody has a mic so you just got to be conscious to share with one another I'll pass it awesome well we had some festivities so we're getting started just a moment late with this but I want to give everybody the time we're going to talk about discipleship and the reason I'm inviting these voices up here is they are overseeing our home groups right now which we're about to expand even more we have a waiting list right now and we're getting new homes going and even after I just read I just have such a big conviction for we as a body have a huge conviction for Acts chapter 2 acts 4 seeing people grow together in community and in accountability there's a huge difference between people attending church and then people that are following Christ there there is a huge difference and there's a lot of people that are attending church but they have no engagement or relationship with people to actually be held accountable there are I I can't even begin to tell you the amount of people the amount of families that I've sit down with that they just have not had real relationship with people I'm so thankful I came from a when my parents got born again my dad on the front row here and my mom she's not here at the moment but when they got born again I was so thankful my mom would sit down with me uh when I was a rebellious teenager and she would she would do everything in her power to have eye contact with me uh and I encourage parents don't be so caught up that invest in your children and we as a body what we do is we read the scriptures we burn over the scriptures but then we have real conversation with one another and at the end of tonight if you're not in one of our home groups and you're teetering or maybe and I'll just call it like it is maybe you're even going to a church where you feel that you're you're you're not noticed it's small and not from a judgmental standpoint but you just don't have accountability you you just you're not growing you don't have family in that regard I really want you to consider and pray because this year we have to be prepared for what is coming and if you're not with a group of people that love the Lord that are on fire that are holding you accountable for where you're at in life and living to the standard of Christ in love I just beckon you um to make sure that you are and maybe the church you're going to if you do visit us on Tuesday maybe they offer home groups at a church you go to and you're not going to them I would encourage you to do so because it's it's a huge it's it's just such a beautiful part of the walk and it's been a blessing to me but I'm going to bring some of our dear friends I could give these guys the most lengthy introduction I've known some of these people for almost 20 years and then I've known some of them for just a few and it feels like I've known them my whole life I consider everybody up here family speaking of taking a bullet or if I've ever been in a a dark moment I know that people in this stage that they will immediately contend with prayer and there's so many others in this room that are like this and the context for this is they're overseeing the home groups right now and they're in real time shepher and unders sheering and I wanted to bring them into the conversation so you would all hear but there's there was five topics that we wanted to at least begin to hit because when we hit discipleship this is a huge topic I I in fact want to take a month coming up soon to just talk about prayer as far as discipleship Goes The rhythms of prayer there's a lot of different things and in fact right before um Nick's going to start us out there's a book that I've been reading in a few people in our spere that have really recommended it's called practicing the way I don't know if anybody's heard of John Mark colmer practicing the way I highly encourage you to grab this book highly encourage you to to read this and it might even be something that is integrated a little bit more in some of the home groups I just love the language to it and I love the hard posture but whenever I get a chance to recommend something I've read this I've listened to it on the AUD Audible and I love it so much so just a quick plug for that so the first thing I want to talk about discipleship is commitment and I wanted Nick to speak into this because Nick has been such a loyal friend to me over the years somebody that is deeply committed and just his walk with the Lord in all that has come I just wanted him to share so I just want to set him up with this question that when it comes to discipleship commitment is everything could you speak into the imperative nature of commitment and what that looks like pertaining to relationship with God and others yeah um well for those I'm sure most know me but for those who don't my name is Nick um I I don't stand up here alone my wife Jesse just walked into the room she's been in the back helping with kids ministry and everything and uh I we represent we come as one and uh you know when we join together in Covenant in in um made a commitment to one another you know our relationship together with the Lord is what I want to highlight it's not just a me thing standing up here but she is sitting down there she's she's always asked to go different places but um our home wouldn't be a home without her part a leading part of it so I just want to acknowledge that and um but when it comes to when it comes to Commitment um you know it obviously it's it's such a it's such a deep topic um I'll just kind of go back even just with personal experience when I when I think about commitment you know I wouldn't be who I am any good part about me that you see is all by the grace and glory of God what anything good in me you see because of God and because of um but you also see it because of people that have had a profound impact on my life um and and you know often times when we think about commitment um one of the things that I feel like in our culture that we is a big challenge in this day and age is uh is you brought up the term loyalty um and in the term and in and in the concept of discipleship man um how many of you know that if if you don't show up how can how can you learn like that's got to be that's got to be like the first thing is that you got to come you got to come to the table you got to show up you got to be there you have to be present and you know often times I think and I reflect on the people that have had a profound impact in my life and it wasn't necessarily that I was like intentionally seeking to be discipled but and and I don't know what in me really just kind of just produced a certain loyalty it was some it's something that the Lord has imparted in me that's all I can say I don't know it's not necessarily something I can say I particularly grew up with but when I became a Believer um I my eyes were illuminated to a little bit more and so when I think about commitment you know over the years uh I I'm a steady decision maker um I take a while to make a decision and sometimes that is a struggle sometimes that's to my detriment but most of the time it has saved me most of the time it has kept me safe from making a poor emotionally LED decision and so being committed to um being loyal or being consistent with my yes um you know God is a God is big on Covenant and God is God is a god of his word and he's exalted his word above his very name that's amazing to me that God in his sovereignty has exalted the words that he said above his name which means that he is faithful and if there's anybody that's been more committed than anyone us any one of us ever could be it was Christ on the cross for the joy set before him was us and so I think about you know the the just being consistent in and being loyal in certain situations and being committed um often times I didn't realize that I was actually being discipled you know years would go by um I can remember my first my first boss you know I worked for Chick-fil-A for many years but um you know I just I had an attitude that I wasn't going to quit you know no matter how hard it went how hard things were and over time I found myself learning growing um I I came to Christ and I started to hear you know car good character traits that's why I say anything good in me is all credit to and glory to God and those who have imparted those things in my life but like I said a lot of that wasn't intentionally like hey I need to learn I need to be discipled no I just let my yes be yes with commitment and over time all of a sudden I'm being shaped and molded into who God has called me and desired me to be I'm I'm nowhere near where I've I've you know I think I've arrived but you know um it's it's just that consistency over time it produces fruit and you know I'm just speaking from personal experience um but you know the Bible even says in James 1: 4-8 that um talks about patience and about patience having her perfect having its perfect work in you so that you could be complete and lacking nothing in any area and so often times you know we live in a microwave Society you know everything comes at this generation and you know we're all this generation by the way we're all alive um so it's affecting us all but but this instantaneous need to have things right away now and you know if you know if this church doesn't work out I'm going to go over here and I don't like the way that smells or I don't like the way you know the lights are I don't like the way the worship like we literally can have whatever we want whenever we want we can make a decision we can make a yes one day and change it tomorrow and it's and it's socially acceptable but I'll tell you what it's not acceptable in God's eyes God wants you to let your yes be yes and your no be no and so that's something that I feel like we really need to grab a hold of as um as Believers in this that's what's countercultural not not quitting at the first sign of adversity you know um yeah I I I think of even family you know I don't want to take too long I know this is um you know but just you know if you if you if you messed up and uh you know let's say you you you messed up right well is your brother still your brother is your mother still your mother like okay things might not be perfect in the relationship I understand and it may be some serious things to walk through but does that change who they are in relationship to you no and so it's just um commitment is is so huge and I I just think about how many opportunities are missed when we look for instant gratification when we look for things we go the easy route you know if if uh if Jesus is the Fourth Man In The Fire And they chose to avoid you know Shadrach Meshach and abedo chose to bend the knee right well could you ask would they have met Jesus would they have met the Fourth Man In The Fire would they have had that intimate encounter with the Lord you know some of our most intimate encounters with the Lord are in times of adversity because all of us can testify to people that are are there with friends that are there with us in the good times but man those friends that are that have been with you when times were tough that's where that's where relationship is the closest and so and I'm talking about even tough times between one another you know if I if my if Jesse Jesse and I had you know we've had disagreements in different areas and we' had Seasons you know we we're going on 11 years married and you know you you experience many different seasons in marriage you know we experienced being single I say single whenever when I think we don't have kids I feel like we're single you know um and then sometimes when I think about oh you know look at them they have one kid that's like you know but then there's there's some of us on stage with three and some comeing with four but you know I think about every season and I think about how I totally lost my train of thought but you know that happens but I don't want to carry on you know we we just that's that's about it that's so beautiful nck and I the the thing yeah you know as Nick Sharon I'm gonna I'm going to segue into John here but the the one thing that is so important is that Christ said that I will I'm with you till the end of the age like I I am with you and we find in Hebrews that God says I will never and we find that even in the Greek it says I will never never never it's a three time it double it triples down that I will never forsake you and you know the the it's so amazing that I find in my own life that the people that I sometimes the people that are most faithful in my life are the ones that I'm most prone to actually uh take for granted because I can always count on them that they're they're always fulfilling a role the people that cause me the most problems are the ones that are not committed cuz I always have to find I always have to fill in the blank I always got to do but that's why it's so important that we recognize as Nick is is sharing that that commitment level is just it's so vital that when you continue to show up I love how you brought that up Nick that you just continue to show up and you grow and you get molded sometimes people are like I you know I love how you put it I want to be discipled just show up and like show up to what we're what's going on and get it's a beautiful you grow experienced different promotion in my life when it comes to like work not because I feel like I was necessarily outstanding at anything I just was consistent and I didn't quit like I I'm I'm I just you know that's I just I kept the same job for a really long time and I got promoted over time and I never asked for a raise but I would get them just just for the record none of the disciples that Jesus picked were unemployed they were they were all committed uh uh and by a long time I mean longer than three months yeah but just just committed it's just being factious but we're just uh just saying but uh John what we're going to talk about uh these and just for the record we put a whole list together and these were the few topics that they wanted to speak into the most and it was so funny we had a huge list and John picked like he's like I want to do half of them but that's just because John is how many people are thankful for John I just so thankful for John as we were saying and Lily Bell Nick and Jesse as we're going down the line here but um the way we want to break this down is John's going to speak into heart inventory when it comes to discipleship but how would you break down the significance of heart inventory as relates to discipleship how has this daily practice affected your walk with Christ so when I think about discipleship um immediately the word comes to mind you have to be disciplined to read your word but what I find is a lot of times we don't really understand a lot of the nuances of what's going on in scripture and some of those things need to be pulled on there's threads there that you need to check out um one in particular and I think is very relevant for what's going on today is the story of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and I would ask people like oh what's what's a sadducee what's a Pharisee and you get the generic response like oh well Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection Pharisees do and it's like okay that's right but there's a lot more to the story you know back when Hellenism started becoming prominent Alexander the Great was taking over the entire world and he wasn't doing it with an army he was doing it with three things I will give you education I will give you theater I will give you health care and you'll want to be Hellenism you'll want to become helenistic and they took over the modern world doing that at that time until the Jews refused and so the solids were a group that had the largest army and they came in and they took over Jerusalem they sacrificed a pig and and the altar of God and Jews just were enraged there was a man named Judah makabe and he led a band of Misfits to take on the strongest army in the known world and they won that's literally the story of Hanukkah and so after doing so they decided to bring it back and think back to when they were doing well the dynasty of David David always wanted to put a a ruling Priestly class that was the that's what what they decided like that this is the way you know God always wanted us to be a nation of priests we should have priests leading so they went to the Levis and they went down the family tree and they got down to two families and the one that they chose was zadic and you can find zadic in in the Bible and the zadic you know the gentleman zadic had children and those children were known as the zakim and then in English you'd say the Sadducees so whenever you see sadducee in the Bible you're looking at the Priestly ruling class of Israel and that's what they are but what you don't see is that within a generation they gave themselves to Hellenism within 40 years they decided that we want to worship essentially ourselves because that's really what Hellenism was it was taking the emphasis of God being at the center and putting man there instead and that's a lot if anyone notices a lot of what I said today is how America thinks but we're actually have a foundation that's counter to that so with the Pharisees and this goes in the hard inventory because they couldn't stand that the Priestly ruling class had gone and given themselves to the very thing that they were fighting against and so they went to the Galilee and they started Capernaum Betha they had all these different because in their mind they were going to be obedient to God it was during the Honan Dynasty the hedum were the ones who went to the Galilee in two sect the zealots and the Pharisees and the zealots were determined to bring God's justice so they they put their faith in The Sword and the Pharisees put their faith in obedience and you see in scripture Jesus spent three years in Galilee he spent most of the time with the Pharisees and they were people that wanted to do the right thing so much that they created all these extra laws to make sure that no law was broken and they were so devoted to obedience that it corrupted them internally and that's the part that Jesus was just so frustrated with because he could see that they wanted to do all the right things but they did it with the right right the wrong heart all of a sudden a sinner became the reason why Rome is still here because what the Pharisees knew is every time the Jews had been disobedient God brought judgment but when they turned to obedience God came and he retrieved and reinstated them so in their mind we are going to bring God by being obedient but now in doing so they lost compassion and so they go out and they look at a sinner and they don't think that this person needs help they actually look at them as the reason why we're in this mess in the first place and I've notice that that's kind of like what's going on today in the political realm is we look at the other side and it's their fault that we're like this and we still lose that compassion you can be right about everything and if you do it with the right the wrong heart you do it without love what does Paul say you're a clinging symbol your wisdom amounts to nothing and so it's very important to check your heart your heart's motive when doing things because the heart is highly deceptive it can lie to you you can do the right things but there's a hidden agenda and that brings me to sanctification which is we've already been justified in Christ God has already judged us righteous but yet I fall why what is sanctification sanctification is the process in which we walk out justification and the simplest way to put that is Abraham Abraham's life first of all we have the same faith that Abraham had he's the father of Faith Abraham believed God before his name was Abraham it was Abram and even before he did all the right things because he trusted God he was credited as righteous and so what that means is you're not going to do everything perfect but God already looks at you as righteous because you put your trust in what's highest you put your trust in him so when you walk out the process even if you fall like John says I write this so that you do not sin but even if you sin there is someone who's greater than your sin and if you turn to him and bring forth what is in darkness into the light you will live in the light and so everything that we do is contingent on us understanding why we do the things that we do my wife is the most amazing person to me because she challenges me on things that I just don't think about and I really have to dig deep that's why marriage is is not a hedonistic pleasure it's not all pleasure but it's so rich it's so so important I'm I'm growing in ways that it's it's it's a struggle but it's beautiful to see that like I would never have thought of this if you didn't ask me impress me on this and so she constantly keeps me aware of what's going on in my heart and I how what decisions I'm making and so to just tie it all up before Abraham had a single child God called him Abraham because he's the father of many nations and just before we ever walked perfect on this Earth God called us [Applause] Justified so good well there's a lot that we could say to that we got a a full history lesson there is so good yeah and and and everything that John saying the the only thing that I would add is not in just the prayer of Psalm 139 that we went through search me search search my heart oh God and reveal anything within within me and that's Psalm 139 23- 24 but just having that as your heart language in that process of sanctification is so important but John thank you so much it's so beautiful and uh next up is uh David and we're so thankful for David and Karen their family such a blessing when we had this conversation about what we were going to do this this in particular night I remember we were all throwing around all the words that are so topical for discipleship the things that we would and I I remember Dave just bringing up the the scripture from 1 Corinthians 11 one which is Paul saying imitate me as I imitate Christ and as soon as Dave said that it just it was just like lightning in a bottle you just you just it encompassed the the real sentiment of even why we're doing tonight everything we're bringing to the table is is so precious for these conversations but I really wanted Dave to take a moment on this and when Paul shared that with the church of Corinth I want ask Dave directly when you hear this charge what does it stir in your heart for personal application and what does it stir in your heart connected to living your life before others as it pertains to imitate me as I imitate Christ yeah um hi everybody I'm not sure how I I I uh got selected to go after John but um but we're going to do it um I um well first of all I want to say you know when I think of discipleship I think of transformation and um there's there's two places where I where I we find the word transformed in the Bible in the first place is in Romans 12:2 where it says um don't be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind which is really the essence of discipleship right and then the other one which is the one that I really want to focus on is 2 Corinthians 3:18 and I really want you to hear this if if if you would um because I feel like this um really speaks to Romans 12 and it says and we we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit I'm reading this book right now by uh Samuel Whitfield called discipleship be uh discipleship begins with beholding and um it's really wrecking me actually and I highly recommend it um I also really I want to reiterate the book that that Dominic's talking about I'm actually on my second second round through that book right now the um the subtitle for practicing the way is um be with Jesus be like him and do as he did and I think that's the essence of you know in um in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that whole thing about beholding the glory of the Lord um I think that's in everything that we do you know when we um you know when we have our private times with the Lord uh reading the Bible I feel like so many people read the Bible kind of like a textbook like like they're reading their Bible by themselves maybe they're alone but there there's not the recognition that the holy spirit's there with them you know like like the Lord's looking for communion and as we read the Bible we're praying the Bible back to the Lord and and and we're having conversations with the Lord like Lord is that really what you're like you know um Lord help me understand give me Revelation on this thing I don't get it you know just we praying the Psalms back to the Lord you know like what we were talking about earlier and um or like when it comes to prayer you know like so many people will give God a list and hope that God will you know take care of that list for him but he's looking for that relationship that that's what I feel like that's what abiding with the Lord is you know John 15 he says abide in me in my my word in you um I I I want to tell a story Rebecca's an El Salvador so I can talk about her um so my daughter Rebecca is my daughter um some of you have actually heard this story before but I'm going to say it anyway so when my when we're backa was born um I I had two I GRE up with two brothers okay and I I when we were we were we didn't know whether we were going to have a boy or a girl until the day she was born and uh so I it was completely girls were so foreign to me I have to be honest I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be a father of a little girl and um and so when she was born the nurse pulled pulled her out she the nurse says it's a girl and then she she and she took her head turned turned her face towards me and she opened her eyes for the first time and we made eye contact and I'll never forget that moment my heart did something that I didn't know was possible the way that my heart fell in love with this little girl um I can start crying about right now um and so much of the way um my relationship with my kids Rebecca and Nathan i' I've learned about how God feels about us you know God is looking for us to make eye contact with him you know you know what I'm saying like he's waiting for us with this hopeful smile like will will he look at me will she look at me and um so in everything in everything that we're doing you know there's this book um called practicing the presence of God by Brother Lawrence it's a really little book and it's just a like a um a collection of little love letters that he did over the years back in the 17th century monk he was a monk and he was um he he worked in the kitchen and he would he came out of poverty worked in the kitchen and he just learned when he was peeling potatoes or whatever it was he was doing in the kitchen he learned just in this mundane life he learned how to how to um practice the presence of God communing with God in in the mundane of life um so I guess for me when I think of follow me as I follow Christ I think what that means is pointing people to Jesus pointing people to intimacy with the Lord would you look at him see how beautiful he is he's waiting for us to make our contact with him um so I guess two questions I you know having to do with that you know does my life show that I'm beholding the beauty of Jesus and I can tell you I've come I I just recently came out of a pretty um kind of difficult season of just feeling dull and um and that's really I feel like that's really the key is to is just to reconnect re position your heart and your face towards towards Jesus and um I feel like sometimes Jesus he Fe he feels a little bit distant in order to draw us back to himself um and then the other thing I would say is do the leaders that you're following are they beholding the Lord and I can tell you Dominic gets up here Pastor Dominic gets up here every week and he's overflowing and I can tell you it's not from just reading the Bible and not just checking off the list of praying that week he's beholding the Lord in his private times he's he is connecting with the Lord in a relational way so that's really what I want to encourage you with is don't just check the box but but learn how to commune with the Lord break past go get past the the boredom or whatever it is in that quiet time and learn to recognize that he's with you maybe you're just sitting there quietly um but get past the boredom and learn to commune with the Lord so good um when we were having when we were having this conversation there was a there was a phrase that whenever whenever you see God as less than father you see yourself as less than a son or a daughter and and just to to really help it because what Dave just brought up about beholding and really understanding I mean this is when you get into the psalmist heart of understanding beholding the beauty of the Lord and just for the record if there's anybody in this room that you know for some people to hear that God is Father not everybody in this room had a good Earthly father um and sometimes even the language father can be a hurdle for certain people in the room to get over but God's not intimidated by your definitions in fact he really wants to massage the truth of who he is into your heart so you can truly be U liberated by that but I just I just love that that was so so good um Ralph and Sarah uh you know what ever since Ralph and Sarah have been in the body they're they're just torches and and just have accelerated in such a way that Jackie and I were so thankful and I know everybody in the body loves you all dearly one thing about Ralph is he's a schedule man he he he is a schedule Phenom he's like he's got it down and I appreciate it because uh Jackie really does because Jackie is very scheduled too I am I have it up here somewhere but uh I'm thankful for people in my life like this and I actually that's why I wanted to actually get Ralph and S to speak into something because seeing their growth over the past couple years you can't look at their grow growth in the Lord and just think that it it's whimsical or by chance there's been some practices that they've really put into place and that they've grown and I wanted them to speak into this so uh we're going to talk about spiritual RIS uh rhythms and disciplines so discipline and this goes back to even how Nick was talking about commitment earlier that discipline is the essence of discipleship hence the name discipleship disciplined one could you speak into the vital role of building a healthy schedule around spiritual discipline and rhythms share how it has impacted you and others in your sphere well uh thank you for those words and it's actually my wife that keeps me on fire uh keep on yeah so we work out balance no but uh those are great questions and I think if it starts with what does mean what are the uh disciplines and then also what does it mean to be healthy and you can look up and see tons of spiritual disciplines right but we like to go to the word and we like to see what did Jesus model and from there we can say okay let's take some core disciplines and some of the ones that I look at and I practice and Implement daily consist of prayer worship the word journaling fasting meditation silence and I'm not going to get into description of what those are they kind of hit on some of them uh for time purposes but as Paul says in Colossians 3:10 put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him so these spiritual disciplines they help us in our growth our spiritual maturity as well as beholding and becoming like Jesus and so it only works though if you actually do them right but I want you to hear me though it's not about legalism it's not about religion it's not about I have to do these things but when you do them out of love that's completely different and in 1 John 4:19 it says we love because he loved he first loved us and so once we have this Revelation and we understand and know his love it's now a priority that we want to do these things it's that we get to do these spiritual disciplines and when you have that that Revelation now it's important to you and you make take the time for it so I like to tell people it's not a Time problem it's a love problem and sorry a little harsh sometimes but it's all right uh but no and and and this might not be popular once again right but we look towards the scripture look towards what Jesus do and in Mark 1:35 it says before Daybreak the next morning Jesus got up early went I got isolated in a place to go pray so I always hear I'm not a morning person I'm I can't do it but you need a morning routine and you need the secret place okay once again it's his love his love that's going to draw you out of bed and it's his grace that's going to get you there and my wife's actually going to share a powerful prayer uh in her Section that can help you with this and so and to tell you the truth when people ask me about a morning routine and the disciplines it actually starts at night okay so yeah so you got a cutting TV out going to bed early besides Tuesday nights this is the only night you can stay up um but no it's really going and in fact in Hebrew the day begins at sundown right so your day is going to start the night before and so for example for me my schedule is in the morning I'm up at 4:30 that's Operation seek Jesus that's what I call it and then six I'm going to I'm working out s's family time 9 to 5 6 is financial advising family time I'm in we're in bed by 9 9:30 that's how we do it right but it's sacrifices that you make because of love and when you love something you'll make the sacrifices and so also another important thing to to remember is in these moments in the secret place not every day is the same right not every days about being leg legalistic and saying I got to do this this this it's letting the spirit move you some days is straight worship other days it's just reading the word some days it's just thanking the lord for an hour plus of all the things that he's done in my life and just straight and all St he's going to do so um and and it's not all fireworks all the time my wife different story uh for me though it's not not tons of encounters not tons of Visions but it's okay as Dave said you're showing up to the Lord and I would say you know one of the things big on that too is having accountability um I have a couple Brothers here uh that wanted to get better in these spiritual disciplines and so I said all right 5:00 a.m. I was shoot them text operation seek Jesus let's go and uh 45 minutes later I get a text back from some of them oh I couldn't get back to you I was in middle of my time with the Lord or oh I were about for 20 minutes been going after it um and and I can tell you that they grew some of the their most in this season and they their spiritual maturity just took off by taking that time to do that and so that also means in the morning no scrolling no social media going to him first seeking him grounding yourself in him so when the swirl of the day starts you know where you stand you know who's you are and what your strength is going to come from and so when you start your day with the Lord you're able to step in to the calling he's called you to do whether that's a be be a better spouse a better parent better sibling a better son or daughter employee employer entrepreneur whatever it is and so those are the things that we we've taken to heart and really have seen their spiritual growth take off part two part two yes so um like Ralph was saying obviously the the morning secret time secret place is huge for us and um and you know it's all about beholding the Lord I loved Dave what you talked about because it's some of the things that I'm going to hit on too but just beholding him it's about getting to know him and in the process we become more like him and the beautiful thing about seeking the Lord um especially early I don't know for me I mean I have it gets loud in my house during the day so it's just that quiet time when the world is still asleep mostly and it's dark and the Lord speaks and he speaks to all of us differently but the more that we show up to that time with him he speaks to us and so um for some of us it might be he speaks to us through the word and gives us Revelation for some he might speak to us through Visions or encounters or some of you might get dreams um some of you might get prophetic words or encounters from the Lord um you know everybody's graced differently he speaks everyone differently but it's so important to become a good Steward of these and to test these um and so a pro a practice that's been really huge for me has been um well journaling um but that's how I Steward the things that I'm hearing from the Lord and test them as well which I'll get to that next but um you know stewarding these things is so important because as we begin to write these things down we're learning his voice we're learning his character um we can come back and revisit these things later and we can start to see you know are things coming to pass is the Lord writing a prophetic story line through our lives or maybe he's giving you Revelation from the word and and and it's and it's expanding your your knowledge of the word of God um or he's connecting dots for you and you know you're able to um I I believe that the Lord for me you know he usually gives me like a nugget and it's to go on this treasure hunt with him and really it's because he desires intimacy with us so it's an opportunity for us to pray into these to seek Him for more understanding to seek Him for um more application like what is this actually what are you showing me Lord um so it's beautiful the other thing that's super important to do is testing everything that's actually the a word the Lord has been saying to me test everything um spiritually and from people test everything you hear from you know if you listen to sermons or whatever I know pastor always says that like test it in the word um so in 1 John 4 it talks about testing the spirits um I'm just going to read a portion of it you should read all of it but beloved do not be beloved do not believe every Spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone out into the world and um it's important when you get let's say you I know some of you do because some of you have told me you know you might get a vision from the Lord a Dream from the Lord a prophetic encounter from the Lord um and that's beautiful but not every spiritual encounter is from God right and we know that Satan him well maybe you don't know but in 2 Corinthians 11:12 for even Satan himself masquerades as an angel of Light um and so it's important to seek the Lord for scripture ask him he is so faithful to give you his word to back up what you're experiencing hearing seeing whatever um and if it's contrary to his nature or it's contrary to his uh to the word of God contrary to his character nature contrary to the word of God it's okay to toss it you know uh because not everything is from him and deception is huge um Proverbs 14:15 actually says the simple believe anything but the prudent give thought to their steps um and this goes for prophetic words too you know the Lord might give you uh like a destiny word for your life or maybe someone else does write it down and and know that often if we can see from the Bible there's a process and he's going to walk you through a process to make you into the person that can do the thing that maybe he's showing you a glimpse of um it'll probably look different than what he yeah but that's why it's important to write it down too to come back to and to Revis is it um and to test so deception like I said is huge right now in the body of Christ that is a burden that I feel very strongly because I have been deceived in my past um and you know Jesus even said in Matthew 24 when asked what are the signs of your coming and what are going to be the signs of the end of the age and the very first thing he says is take heed that no one deceives you for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many um and so again there's been as we all know entire religious cults and different strange doctrines created from a spiritual Revelation so test everything um and continue to seek him for that now moving on from our time in the secret place like we were talking more like morning time um I want to transition that into our entire day and it's important to realize you know yes Jesus said when you pray go to your closet close the door Get Alone um but he never meant for us to just be with him there you know he died for us to have this abiding relationship like you were talking about um and to continually take him into every part of our day um and it's about living from this reality in this revelation of our Union with him right and to live from that place from the secret place and let it overflow into everything that we do so um I'm not saying I'm there but one of my personal prayers uh is Lord help me to live as a Mary on the inside always well while I'm in busy seasons and while I'm serving as a Martha on the outside you know a lot of people always pin Mary versus Martha I want to be a Mary always while I'm also being a Martha in Seasons that I you know that we have to do things like we have responsibilities we have kids we have jobs but we can learn to live from that another thing I'll say is Lord help me to become a walking secret place not there but that's like he's helping though but I want to live from that place and what it is is it's I call it the lifestyle the lifestyle of Union with Christ and we cultivate this um again this is kind of echoing some of what was already said but for me like this is as simple as um maybe it's using your car time to worship and pray um taking small moments in your day just to turn your affection inwardly turn your inward gaze and affection on the Lord um I mean I used to work as a nurse practitioner and I was just in you know this was like early early on when I first met Jesus and I was just I still am but just in love with him right and so I would just go into a room by myself and I would just tell Jesus I loved him and I just would talk to him for a little bit so like just taking moments in your day um meditating on his word maybe there's something he gave you that morning just meditating on that you can do that throughout your entire day um fasting can be a lifestyle if you pray in the spirit praying in tongues throughout your day you can do that anywhere and if you're in healthcare and you wear a mask bonus because no one can tell what you're doing so it's great I've been there um for example like Ralph I know like he works in an in his in office setting and he'll actually bring his Bible which we all have Bibles on our phones but how often is it to get caught up in the scroll so having your physical Bible at work if you you know that's great um and again just taking these small moments in your day to just turn inward and just focus on the Lord and I'll tell you like I mean I used to worry about so many things and of course there's things to like you know we have to be grounded but he does say to keep your mind on things above and it has just really eliminate eliminated a lot of stress and worry and and in my life um because I'm not thinking about myself as much which is great um and so so needed so this ties into another thing I want to hit on real quick which is um it's an awesome spiritual discipline to have a day you know a lot of us a lot of us do the Sabbath rest I think it's awesome to have a physical day it shows our trust in the Lord It's a day to cease from our working um to spend time with him to spend time with family and to enjoy his creation and everything that all the blessings he gives us but ultimately I actually believe that um Jesus died to allow us to live from a lifestyle of Sabbath rest internally it's a heart posture um I believe it's a way of life and I don't just believe this um this is how like if I read Hebrews 4 it talks about the promised rest for God's people so I would encourage I'm not going to read the whole passage for time sake but go and read Hebrews 4 because there's a promised rest for us that we can live from the finished work of the Cross and from this place of resting in him and as we are cultivating this these this lifestyle of abiding this lifestyle of Union we're able to to do that more and that especially in what's happening right now and what's going to happen continually that is witnessing to so many people when you're grounded in that when your heart is stabilized um and of course we all have moments right but it's just it gets it's a discipline um just a couple more things I want to say before I close is just with spiritual disciplines like Ralph said it's not about legalism there's no condemnation like some days get away from us some days are not our best days but um it's also not self-righteousness and you know I've fallen into that trap in the past too and the Lord really schooled me on it and so if I see a brother or sister who might be is struggling in these areas and if you do um don't think of yourself more highly than you ought if you're like crushing it in in these things but pray for them to have the grace because it's by grace that we actually can do this it's his grace that we can even love him um he is faithful to wake us up early when we ask him to help us with that he's faithful to give us a hunger and a a hunger for his word and a hunger for his presence and to help us to keep our minds set on him um and so pray for it and and be so thankful and you know we need to Humble ourselves and thank him every day for that Grace versus becoming self-righteous in any of this um because we can't love him without him and just like Ralph said um you know as we as we fall in love with the Lord more we're actually going to desire to cut things out of our lives that aren't bringing us closer to him um and so it those things will just no longer be as um appetizing to us like our appetites will change our mind will change our heart will change so if you're finding that time is an issue pray for a deeper revelation of his love for you pray for a deeper revelation of um or pray for the ability to receive his love that's actually a prayer that I pray all the time help me receive your love because I used to struggle with that big time and for an the anointing to love Jesus like that's the best thing ever um and so again it's only by him that we can love him but as we do we're then living this life more in Union with him bringing him into every day and that makes everything more meaningful more beautiful and especially the trials and the struggles and all the things so he Delights in US asking for help and uh he is so faithful to help us that's all I got and there's one one thing that we want to mention is remember in the beginning you know discipline might be hard but discipline turns to desire and desire turns to Delight in the Lord so have that so good wow well that's so much practical that is that is right there that can help with your day and I think we we all need to really understand that you know when we look at even the fruits of the spirit you don't just produce Joy what what happens is you produce what you are so Joy is not just something that is God wants to literally make you Joy he wants to make you peace and these there are rhythms as we're following Christ that become part of our lifestyle so what we're going to do is uh we're going to go to Will and Lett are going to close us out here and then we're going to shout I speak Jesus one more time as we just Crown this evening with a discipleship invitation but I really I know that tonight was different but this is really important that we really understand that we all need to grow in these things together and these there's voices in this house that really love you and really desire to grow together and I know that the people that go to the home groups that they experience This Love This accountability so when it comes to our final uh thought here we're going to speak on correction and rebuke will said that this is what he wanted to share on and uh so correction and rebuke often times are not advertised as desirable Commodities however we find in the word of God how essential they are and in the context of receiving God's love how would you describe the treasure and gift that Godly correction has been in your life and how would you compel others to embrace it well hi it was such a beautiful just to hear how you can just hear the hearts of where the Lord definitely in invested in us um and just be able to he hear each other and just see the the the goodness and the glory of God through through these words that are being brought forth um so I am time conscious because I want to honor the time but I do want to share have my wife share first she has beautiful points I want to honor my wife I do I do I want to honor you see one of the things about correction and rebuke actually the Lord through our marriage um we've learned it trying not to cry so it's real it's real we need it in the body we need it in the family I mean and I'll just I'll go ahead and I'll keep going then so I actually just felt the Holy Spirit I just felt the Holy Spirit just really brought me into how much we need this if you think about Paul Paul how he confronted Peter in Galatians that he was fearful of man because he wanted he was with Gentiles and then he was with the Jews and he was hiding from that and in Galatians 24 Paul addressed it he says when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel I said to to Peter before them all if you being a Jew live in the manner of the Gentiles and not as the Jews why do you comp tell Gentiles to live as Jews one of the things that really stands out in this in this scripture say you will not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel see how much do we need correction and be in truth of the Gospel youve know in in this in our society the gospel has been so perverted diluted corrupted by the Prosperity Gospel by all these different things that have have shun away of of the suffering of Christ and what he did for us amen and why is so tender in my heart with um correction and rebuke and I'm just going to try to throw these out here just because of time I'm just going to read it okay so as it says I said honestly I'm only able to embrace Godly correction because I had an encounter of the Father's Love and I see myself as a son with the help of the Holy Spirit I grew up not having a father figure in my life and that caused me to live in darkness and confusion growing up and I've learned the valley and The Treasure of the father's correction because of my past it is so beautiful that one of the main reason why Jesus came to the Earth is to reveal heavenly father and ultimately die so that he can give the Holy Spirit to us the only way to experience the Father's Love in your life is by having an encounter with him in the spirit Galatians 4 4-7 but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons and because you are Sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying ABA father therefore you're no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ John 3:6 Jesus said this to Nicodemus that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is Spirit the importance of this encounter that I had personally of the Father's Love It Wasn't intellectual it was a spiritual top moment that I had with him and it changed my life completely I without a shadow of a doubt I know I'm a son and I don't fear man because I fear my heavenly father and that's the thing what Peter dealt with his weakness was he was fearing man and God was really dealing with that and so that's why when you are able how can you can really um tell when someone is dealing with um they haven't really fully received the Father's Love um or revelation of it is that they're dealing with a lot of insecurities a lot of um instability and they they they're very an orphan Spirit an orphan Spirit right they're very competitive they're jealousy they're always striving they're always trying to prove God but but in reality Jesus revealed to us the father in his in in his walk and on the earth amen so um okay thank you Jesus is everyone getting this I'm just really just wanting to um and I'll say this one thing and I have I'm pass it to my wife cuz I have so much here but I'm shaking over here because I I just this is this is treasur to me okay um I believe why correction be is so essential our relationship with God is because it actually keeps looking at the cross and what he went through for us and he and it strengthens us Hebrews 123:7 just consider and meditate on him who endured from Sinners such bitter hostility against himself consider it all in comparison with your trials so that you will not grow weary and lose heart you have not yet struggled to the point of shedding in your in your shedding in your striving against sin you have forgotten the Divine word of encouragement which is addressed to you as Sons my son do not make light of discipline of the Lord do not lose heart and give up when you are corrected by him for the Lord discipline and correct those he loves and he punishes every son whom he receives and welcome to his heart you must submit to the correction for the purpose of discipline finally when I allow Godly correction and rebuke in my life it helps me to know him in the fellowship of his suffering Philippians 3:10 that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellow ship of his suffering being conformed to his death yes I [Applause] have hi hello um oh man so as my husband opened up and talked about how in correction and rebuke we've definitely gone through it in different ways in our marriage um and honestly I joke now but one of the scriptures that is like embedded in my mind is open rebuke is better than secret love and that is a scripture that he has said to me so many times from the moment we got married um and it's I look at it now and I'm actually incredibly thankful and this is just me being vulnerable I have a lot of things that the Lord has shared with me about this but I wanted to share this one point very specific um in terms of our marriage uh that Godly correction and rebuke from my husband actually spilled into my own personal walk with the Lord and again I'm very thankful for it um because over the years it has shown me areas of my life and my heart that Tru weren't what was desirable to the Lord I really thought certain things weren't a big deal because those habits or a perception of a situation came from even cultural background that I was raised in and now I know that although culture is in different ways is beautiful beautiful and and different I now belong to a Heavenly Kingdom and that Kingdom that is Kingdom cultured God sets the standard and gives the gives us new habits and perceptions that align with him and his word you know and um and he openly rebukes us and he loves us and in turn even recently I look at Godly correction and rebuke um I embrace it I embrace it by seeing him in the light as my good shepherd and myself as you know his sheep and we have heard this so many times and just even you know going over Psalm 23 recently that Pastor was going over and um it's just so beautiful because it jumps out so deeply to me and I'm I'm learning and he's revealing things his role as a shepherd and it's so vital um because it truly I really believe it truly invites us into this mindset of the Lord is is rebuking and correcting me because he truly loves me he really does he truly is Desiring to guide me in the right path he doesn't want me to fail he doesn't want me to get lost he doesn't want me to be ins snared by death which is what the enemy is trying to do right the enemy will strike but it is the shepherd's job to be alert and staying in his presence is key because when we swear we Veer off the path we literally are putting ourselves in danger but yet he's so merciful and he's gracious and his word says he leaves the 99 to go after the one and I believe it's not even it's yes in Salvation but also Even in our own walk with him and even when we allow him in and we we ask him Lord truly lead me what is where am I going that's that's wrong that's not desirable to you what am I doing what you know look at my heart and it's the shepherd's job to take care of us to protect us and to guide us in um just allowing him to correct you just allowing him to correct you whether it's it's him or he's using Godly counsel you know it carries you to deeper levels of trust in him and intimacy and dependency and really reveals that scripture in psalm 103:14 for he knows how weak we are he remembers we are only dust I really love that scripture that's actually a scripture that we we we say we we used to say quite often but I remember it all the time because Keeps Us humble keeps us very low and um so I just want to encourage you guys to embrace it Embrace Godly correction and rebuke you know whether you're married and it's from your husband whether it's from pastor whether it's from leadership in this house that truly love the Lord because for me over the years has been very difficult from things from my past but God is just so he's so amazing to truly show us things that are keeping us trapped or keeping us from going glory to glory with him and he wants to reveal and he wants to care for us and I was actually it's it's beautiful because there was um the book ER Gore um's it called ois feet called to be lambs and there was um he was talking about how he he was talking to a shepherd and they they were just you know if some of you probably have heard some things about being a shepherd and and all the things that entails of sheep but if you haven't when a Shepherd uh Falls they just literally oh sorry a sheep Falls thank you that's why I need you um sheep Falls correction correction right yeah and it's good um when the Sheep Falls it literally just gives up like it says okay I'm on my back I'm going to die now like that's it but the shepherd goes and finds the sheep and Embraces the Sheep until all the blood flow goes back to the legs because the Sheep can't just run off as soon as it goes back like you literally H he has to embrace so you have toow the Lord to embrace you even in these moments of Correction even when he's looking for you when he when he when he seeks you out when he calls you out he literally wants to hold you back to life like he he wants to embrace you and so just staying in the Lord's Embrace staying in his presence you know sheep don't they don't care about anything but grazing right feasting being in the presence of their Shepherd that's their safety sa net they know that they're safe around their Shepherd and so I just that it's just something it's just been really really Lord's been dealing with me quite a quite a lot that's so good wow mat if you want to come up there was one other part we were going to do but we're going to we are going to we're going to wrap it up and the reason is is because I I want to I want to create a little space are you good Matt do you need you good uh I want to create a little bit of space that I said at the beginning we went through a couple of topics tonight and just hearing there there's something about when when we one of the things we were about to talk about was just the hom group element and when we talk about family when we talk about growing together it it's something that when I think of the disciples uh Christ Inner Circle we would say the 12 disciples could you imagine that after Christ descended all the stories that they had of encountering the glory of God together encountering Christ together that there there's something about this Fellowship that John tells us in his his letter the first epistle that he wrote of first first John it says that I share with you that I I I touched him I I I was actually I beheld him I'm letting you know that I saw him firsthand and I tell you this so you can share in the same Fellowship you know when we're in this room together like when we were worshiping earlier we were beholding the glory of God as a family and that is awesome but then we have to find ways that we can go even further in our relationships with one another not every body in this room can know everybody the same way but we can begin to make relationships that actually last because and I'm not saying this uh I I I I I want everybody to I hope this doesn't sound wrong but a night like this it's very easy for people to be like man I really like when somebody gets up there and just kind of shouts a message or really says and it actually goes to show that we can actually become disengaged by just having Fellowship together that it has to be fireworks it has to be a really good it has to be worth my time well are people worth your time are God's people worth your time to sit in a room and it doesn't matter how what climatic spiritual moment you have but it's actually just being in love with one another it's about experiencing the love of God with one another and that is why people they're so stimulated because of our culture it's got to be more entertainment more this more this how do we do this instead of like there was a time when you stopped at a red light and you just had to wait you couldn't check your phone there was a time you would go to the bathroom and you would have to just go to the bathroom not take an extra 20 minutes looking at your phone there was a time that you would go to bed and you wouldn't be running your mom with all these different things and because of that it's it's it's it's removed real relationship from us and that's what we're contending here at Gold Street and if you like to visit sometimes that's great we love having you we really do but we're jealous for relationship we're jealous for family and whatever's causing you to be too busy for family is I love what Ro what uh Ralph said he said it's not a Time problem it's a love problem that was beautiful that was so good and I just I just want to beckon those in this room that I want to take time before you leave tonight we're going to sing I speak Jesus because we really need the Simplicity of this to come Jesus Jesus could have came to the world and he could have just said all right everybody bow down we're starting over he he came and he desired relationship and he did it with a small quadrant of people and it exploded and it and it grew and soon as the soon as Pentecost came and the the Holy Spirit fell what is the first thing they all want to do let's get into houses and break bread let's go through the writings let's rad to EMAs let's talk about Jesus's Glory from Genesis to Malachi because that's what they had at the time and they burned over the scriptures you know I've been in the home groups with the people in this room that I could look around the room and seeing the growth in certain people that show up to the home groups and we weep together we we the Bible says in Romans 12 Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep and you can't do that if you don't have relationship with people when somebody tells you a break they had you're like oh that's awesome praise God but when you have been with them through the Journey you actually Rejoice with them when they weep you actually know what they're going through and it pulls on your heartstrings this is why Christ came as a man this is why God's great mystery was to be the Incarnation so that way when he came he weeped do you know the the shortest verse in the Bible in John 11 Jesus wept do you know how much theology is packed in those two words Jesus wept the god of the universe came to this world to cry over a tomb to show that what this world has caused that death he's Weeping at what this Fallen World is dealing with and he came to bring us life and I want to I want to share that life with more people and that's why I invited some friends up here that are under shepherding the homes and we're we're building more homes and we really desire that that having these homes these these places of God's intimate presence dwelling amongst people sharing lives and hearts with one another I really believe that when we get to heaven we're not going to look back at the conferences we're going to look back at the tables that we sat across from the people we loved and we dreamed together and we hear stories of family members and co-workers coming to Jesus through US continuing to pray and hearing about that lost brother that lost spouse somebody that you can contend with and come into so there's no pressure here only opportunity if you're in this place and you want to make the most out of this night I I encourage you I I want you to I want you to come to the altar as a place of recommitting to discipleship recommitting to the the the idea that discipleship is way more than just Christian language it's way more than just attending a church but it's it's a as Nick brought up earlier it's commitment to a family it's it's showing up even when you don't feel like it showing up even when you really want to isolate and being a part so we're going to pray for those that come to the altar we just want to lay hands on you we just uh want to believe for the gifts of the Spirit to flow those that might be believing for a specific word believing for God to speak to them just just come but uh if we could actually put the home group do we have the home group slide I just want to throw it back up there that if you're in this place tonight we're going to be opening up some more home groups and if you're not currently in one of them and you just want more information you want to grow with us or just please scan the code if you're you're feeling that tug in your heart we want to grow as a family and we really want commitment to help accelerate bring you into the place and I when I look at everybody on this stage I've been in small all settings with these all with all of them and that's what my heart burns for more than anything my heart doesn't burn for the big moments even though they're glorious and amazing my heart burns for naked Fellowship like the undressing of the soul but between others and allowing Christ to be crowned in the midst of that so I know we've gone a little late tonight but I believe it was well worth it to communicate these things so could we take a moment as we sing tonight I want to I want to encourage anybody that's in this room that says you know what I I am struggling with being a little distracted I am struggling with even being real invulnerable with people because my heart's been broken so much there are some people that just don't trust they won't admit it but they've been hurt by past relationships family members and things and they they don't want to engage in real relationship because they've been hurt they don't want to put themselves out there they don't want but I'm telling you that the only way to heal from broken relationship is actually through relationship and I know that's not what we want to hear we actually what we would like to hear is that the only way to heal from broken relationship is actually to isolate from all relationship that does not sound like the gospel God wants you to confront exactly wherever you're at so those in this room we want to just we just want want to pray over you all we want to speak Jesus over you all so let's make this time if you're in this room and you say you know what I need to recommit the discipleship what you were speaking about tonight commitment spiritual rhythms I'm I I I need to dive in just we don't have to play spiritual seven up and close your eyes if you're in this place just come to the altar just come to the altar come and receive rest right now I know there's people in this room and some of you might just be like you know what it was a good talk no come up for prayer this is what it's all about so before you leave we're going to declare we're going to sing if you want to prostrate somewhere ask the Lord for wisdom but come forward we want to pray with you we want to love on you next week we're going to continue our journey through the uh the gospel of Mark really excited to talk about the sarap phenician woman it's going to be amazing the other thing too as I forgot to say this coming Thursday everybody say this Thursday we're we're coming together and we're going to pray for our nation uh we're pivoting from where we were at but we're going to specifically pray for the church to have wisdom in how we can truly be the light of the world in this crucial crucial moment of time so I'm I'm beckoning you all I'm I'm I'm I'm praying and I'm just saying come to the prayer room this Thursday and let's burn over what we need to as a family maybe some of you haven't been to the prayer room in a while if if you if you can just see what's happening in our nation and just say you know what I just don't have time for that I really want to encourage you we don't make commissions this often we want to come together and pray for for our nation and we want to make sure we're responding with Biblical rhythms to what Christ would have us do so once again come forward for prayer we love you all we're going to sing as we close out tonight I just want to pray a general prayer over everyone father we thank you for the work that You Did In Hearts tonight we thank you for discipleship we thank you for real family for real relationship Lord I Thank you that you would just help us renew help our minds to be renewed to what the church is actually supposed to look like not what we've just adopted in western civilization but let us burn over the reality of what the church truly is the church is the family of God is the Ecclesia it is we come together and we exalt Christ where you are wherever two or more are gathered there you are in the midst of them God you celebrate Community God you yourself the Triune God you are a community all by yourself you are a family all by yourself and you've invited us into this Divine matrimony that as Dave was talking earlier about that beholding the glor Glory of Christ and being transformed tonight God we actually have the greatest privilege the greatest experience on this side of Eternity is prayer that when we we have the privilege to press pause on a busy world and to talk to the maker of the universe forgive us for taking that for granted forgive us for being so desensitized at times Lord relight the flame of our first Love Tonight I call those in this room I call their Spirits out God those that have a fear of even making themselves vulnerable right now and saying you know what I need prayer I my rhythms are off spiritually Lord I just I just thank you right now that you would call them forth to realize that there's no condemnation but that you say come to me and I will give you rest come to the one that's dealt bountifully with your soul we thank you for what you're doing in this room in Jesus precious name amen we love you all come forward for prayer we're going to pray for those here and let's sing this en closing