Come and See What God Is Doing Amongst Us

[Music] so [Music] [Applause] so all right what's up everybody welcome to part three of this series called get ready wanna take a minute to say hello to our bluffton campus our church online that are joining us all around the country today wherever you might be hello to all the correctional facilities all across the state and all the people here at olson farms out in the lobby who couldn't fit come on church let's put our hands together welcome each other today so great to have you all with us go ahead and grab something to take some notes with if you haven't already every time we study god's word we believe the holy spirit speaks to us and it's so important that you write it down we are in this series called get ready hopefully you've had a fairly relaxing summer and you've gotten a chance to take a few vacations and a little bit of a break but the fall is coming and the fall is always a season where we see god move in significant ways here at i-town we see an increase in attendance and an increase in souls saved and it's important that all of us are engaged in understanding our role because i believe god wants to move in our community and i believe god wants to move in your life and there's a promise for us in judges chapter four our theme verse for the series deborah is a judge for the nation of israel and she's speaking to barack who's the captain of the army and she's telling him this barack it's time to get ready come on read it with me everybody say it get ready come on read it again get ready one more time get ready why this is the day that the lord is going to give you victory over your enemy because the lord is marching ahead of you man i love that promise that god is already in that next season god's already in that classroom in that job opportunity in that new relationship in that new ministry that he has called you to and it's up to us to get ready and so i want you to think about it for a minute are you ready too many times we pray for god to answer prayers that we are not ready for him to answer are we ready for the harvest are we ready for the breakthrough are you ready for that new child in your life are you ready for that new relationship are you ready to meet that forever someone are you ready chances are maybe we're not and so it's up to us to get prepared week one we talked about how we have to stand and fight now is the time for us to have a spiritual backbone and to speak the truth in love the world is falling apart our light should shine bright and we have to win the spiritual battle everybody last week we talked about how we accomplished that we're supposed to go and fish jesus said come follow me and i'll make you fishers of people go and find people god's lost kids hang in the balance it's up to us to go and fish we should be a light everywhere we go with every person we meet and i'm so proud of our team and all of you who served we had over a thousand people serving this week touching over 41 000 people in our community can we give god praise for that that's significant awesome impactful today's message is come and see if you want to jot the title down come and see we want to invite people to come and see what god's doing amongst us and i want you to understand what god is doing here and why we believe he's doing it from scripture so that we can all kind of be on the same page for those of you who have been here for a long time hopefully this is a solid review a rallying call to the vision of our church and for those of you who are brand new to the church you're going to feel like you're drinking from a fire hydrant today you're going to take a lot of notes i'm going to go fast and give you a lot of information that'll help you kind of understand the why behind some of the things that you see around here this text that we're going to study is in numbers chapter 3. nation of israel is coming out of egypt they're going to the promised land and they have to set up and tear down portable church the tabernacle in the process and this is a lesson that kate and i learned from our pastor chris hodges and of course we have hijacked those principles from church of the highlands and adapted them for our own culture and we're going to study them today numbers chapter 3 we're going to pick it up verse 17. these were the names of the sons of levi so levi was given this job to be the pastor of the nation of israel and he had some jobs to do and it immediately names his sons gershon kohath and mirari so he was probably a good pastor terrible name namer for his family i would not recommend that but if any of you are falling in this category we want to welcome gershon to church today it's great to have you here even though i doubt that's true so he names his he's got his three sons because he's got jobs and incidentally this is totally off the subject of the message but i just want you to know that god calls families generationally and so when you have children god didn't call you to abandon your calling so you could chase your kids around and try and figure out what they want to do with their life they have been placed in your life to accomplish the mission god has given you and i know that there's like 12 of you that'll applaud that because most of you are like man that sounds too good to be true that's not right right can't be true but the truth is disney's the one that messed it all up for thousands of years the world has operated that there is a generational calling a generational anointing on families to do whatever god's called them to do and it doesn't mean you don't have unique passions it just means that god has kind of rallied people groups together on purpose and so we're not supposed to look at our kids and ask them what would you like to do with your life when they're so young that they can't even tell like the other day i was picking up thunder from preschool you got totally off this subject here but i was picking up thunder from preschool he's two and i get out of the car and while i'm getting out of the car i see this two-year-old walking out with his father and his dad's like johnny would you like to step down and get in the car i thought that's kind of weird so i've never asked under that i just put him in the car you know what i'm saying like so i went inside checked him out brought him outside put him in the car seat strapped him in and that dude was still sitting on the sidewalk going johnny how about it you think we ought to get down off the curb and we we probably need to go son it's time to get in the car and i thought this is what's wrong with america what is happening here i watched johnny walk out here i don't think johnny knows where he is right now why would he be qualified to make a decision for the next step of this 40 year old man's life some of y'all held hostage by the wrong thing listen your kids don't know you have to decide for them for a long time okay so levi didn't ask his son gershon what would you like to do he was like boy we got some work to do i'm handing out jobs levi is anointed to be the pastor and so he takes his sons and he breaks up these three jobs and they kind of represent the modern day church and some spiritual principles i'm going to share with you today so first we take murari who became the murarites appointed to take care of the frames they get the frames of the tabernacle across bars posts bases all the equipment that goes with it everything related to their use the posts surrounding the courtyard all the bases tent pegs ropes basically what this represents for the temple jot it down is structure so we would say at i town we have structure it's important to have structure in life because you've got to have a firm foundation as i mentioned before oftentimes we pray for god to move but we're not prepared for the answer if you don't have a solid foundation you won't be able to support the things god actually wants to do in your life and so you have to have some structure it's what makes things work if you will the house of god is a lot like your own personal house i know at our home we have eight people who live there and so it's very important that we have a place for everything and we put everything in its place can again it amen in god's house right like you gotta have some systems you gotta have some structure you gotta have some order in order to make things function and it's easy to fake it sometimes you can have some guests over and you kind of throw things in different places but you know if somebody opens that closet we're gonna have to call an ambulance it's gonna be bad and you can kind of fake it for a little while but the reality is eventually it's gonna catch up with you eventually your kids have to attend kids church with no shoes because you just lost them one of those times you're throwing them under the bed somewhere trying to just get by you can't cut corners like that and long term have god's blessing in your life and so we have to have structure the bible says it this way first corinthians god is not a god of disorder but a peace so everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way god is a god of peace so god desires order jot it down if you're taking notes order creates peace order creates peace which is why you've never had a peaceful shopping experience at old navy god bless old navy i'm not against it but when you go there you're not going for a peaceful shopping experience you're going to war if you fight well enough you might buy a pair of blue jeans for 35 cents but it is going to cost you all right you have to be digging through piles of different washes and cuts and you don't know what you're looking at it's going to be tough but you might be victorious you never leave there going wow that was a wonderful uplifting experience and so we have to understand that order creates peace and so in the body of christ we have to have order we believe in the holy spirit moving but the holy spirit moves just as much in monday morning planning as he does in sunday morning chaos so we allow the holy spirit to move but he moves as we prepare for things because we want there to be order because peace creates comfort and comfort creates an open heart and an open heart is where god moves and so we have simplified everything at itown down to one statement that we exist to help you move from where you are to where god wants you to be now if you're new i introduced this to you last weekend and you'll hopefully hear it a lot around here because it's why we exist and everything is measured back to it we ask our staff all the time how is this helping people move we don't want to do circles we don't want to do an event we don't want to have a conference we don't want to have a meeting if it doesn't help people take a step how is the weekend helping people take a step how is that conference helping people take a step and what would that step looks like are they making a decision for christ they're getting water baptized are they building a new relationship are they discovering their gifts are they empowered to serve how are we helping them move because the whole vision is that everybody here would be moving in this journey of faith from where you are to where god has called you to be you need clarity in your own life as well if you're going to be successful as a follower of christ successful as a family you have to have a clear and simple vision why because as vision increases options decrease the problem with america is that we say yes to the magnets because people tell us nice things about us while you have talent you could be this and while that's great you could do that and while you'll be accepted if you'll join this and it makes us feel good inside we want to be talented we want our kids to excel we want to succeed and so we get over committed but when you have clarity of vision it's easy for you to say you know what i appreciate you saying that about our kid but we're going to say no to that sport we're going to say no to that season we're going to say no to that additional commitment because for us that's not a value for us that's not who we are and so for every family you have to decide what that looks like for you but it's very easy to learn this powerful word no no some of you need to learn how to say that no because i have something that i'm chasing we've got a vision for life and if you don't come up with a vision for yourself the whole world will determine it for you and they'll ruin your life they'll get you far off track so at itown it's easy for us to say hey this is the vision we're moving people so now it's easy to say no we really appreciate the christian concert that comes to town and wants to attract christians to our building by using it no that's not for us praise the lord there's a lot of great churches in town somebody else will open their building that doesn't help our people take a spiritual journey no that's not something we do it's not that we're against it it's just we have clarity clarity of vision and you need the same for your life ephesians 5 tells us this act like people with some sense and not like fools i know you love the bible this is one of my favorite verses these evil times these are evil times we're living in so make every minute count every minute verse 17 says don't be stupid come on read that with me don't be stupid read it again don't be stupid tell your neighbor don't be stupid stop being stupid what what are stupid people it says if you're not going to be stupid find out what the lord wants you to do so a stupid person is a christian that is not putting any effort to understanding their eternal purpose in this life and pursuing it a stupid person is a christian who says they follow god but then pursues their own desires pursues what the world tells them to pursue that's the definition of stupidity according to this verse so listen church don't be stupid figure out what god wants you to do and then give your life to it clarify the vision that god has for you and pursue it with everything that you have we have a simple vision helping people move from where you are to where god has called you to be and all of our structures are built around that simplicity we have simple church government we'll teach you about that in step one we have simple financial policies where we actually spend less than you give how many are talking about a mind-blowing concept unbelievable right it's called budgeting it's an amazing thing and because of your generosity and god's grace we save hundreds of thousands of dollars every month at this church and with which we're able to build a youth barn for a million dollars and never have to ask you for it because you already gave and we managed it well and we've got it in the bank and then you get to enjoy it we don't have to beat you up over it we can give seven thousand pounds of food away this week we're like oh yeah by the way you paid for that great job everybody thank you and we don't have to bend your arm and oh if you really love jesus would you just let's pass the bucket again come on one more time find out what god wants you to do clarify it pursue it with everything on the inside structure then when god brings the outflow and god brings the anointing when god brings the increase we've had budgetary uh uh uh a margin for the whole life of the church this isn't a new thing it's not because we're you know growing or anything or we got somebody that's all of a sudden given more money you know we've embraced these disciplines our whole spiritual journey so that we would be ready you got to have some structure in your life so that when god moves to bless you you're ready to receive it all right then we go back verse 25 so to attend a meeting now we've got gershon the gersonites are responsible for the care of the tabernacle the tent and the coverings and then there was a curtain at the entrance of the tent of meetings so basically these guys now have the things that people could see the curtains the the outside structure that's wrapped around the inside structure what we would call that is systems so jot it down if you take notes we have structure but we use systems systems are the part of the church that you're most familiar with very few of you know maybe how we're structured or what our budgetary constraints are or some of the policies and the procedures that give the church the structure but you know the systems and and it's very very important because a vision that doesn't have systems is just a fantasy there's a lot of christians fantasizing about making a difference there's a lot of ministries that are fantasizing about reaching their world for jesus but they're not because they don't have effective systems that deliver the vision and at i town our systems are the great commission when jesus left he gave some pretty clear instructions and then those instructions were repeated throughout the new testament as you might imagine and so in colossians chapter 1 paul writes this in verse 28 we continue to preach christ to each person we're using wisdom to warn and to teach everyone so that we can bring each one into god's presence as a mature person in christ this is the systems of our church here we find the four words that are written on the wall in the lobby at every campus reach connect grow and go these are the four things that we do because we say hey we have a vision to move people from where you are to where god wants you to be great but how does that happen how do people move what are the steps they can take well there are the four things reach connect grow and go so the first one is that we have to preach christ that's reaching people and we believe that's the most important thing that we can possibly do because while we're passionate about the entire spiritual journey the reality is jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost the world is hurting and lost and headed to a christless eternity and it's our job like we said last week to go everywhere and tell everyone the good news of the gospel so we can rescue as many as possible paul said i became all things to all men so that i might be able to reach some i'm going to do everything i can anything short of sin to when god's lost kids we talked a lot about that last weekend we need to reach people and we do that predominantly in our weekend services weekends are great for the believer god comes his presence is here but we use these services to reach hurting and lost people along with all of our outreach efforts as well outside these four walls but i just want you to know that it's working as we partner together to invite guests and bring them to church which i'm encouraging you to do especially as we hit the fall we are providing an opportunity for god to minister to them and for their life to be changed and i just want you to know when they lift their hand and accept christ we're going to count them and i get sick of people going why a church they're just all about the numbers i just can't understand why it's just numbers numbers numbers all about the numbers there's no logic to that yes of course we are all about the numbers unashamedly i don't have somewhere between two and eight kids i have six and that number matters both to me and to them you know why because they're humans they're people every number is a life every life matters to god and it matters that we count them it matters that we know because by god's grace in 10 years we have seen 40 384 people make decisions for christ in our church to god be the glory that number's amazing but guess what there's almost 2 million people that live in indianapolis we are failing that's not success that's failure we've got to win a whole lot we need to at least at least win a million people while i'm alive we got to get this thing going we got to win more people for jesus heaven and hell hangs in the balance this ain't a club for christians this is a spiritual hospital for broken people and there's a lot of people out there that we have yet to reach now some of you religious folks are like well that's a forty thousand i mean that can't be but a few thousand to go to church here i must not be real converts let's not be all that successful and i would say look we're not trying to win people to i town we're winning people to jesus i'm trying to get them to heaven we're here to help them take their fur we'll help you take all those steps after that but not everybody's called to stay and that's fine but the reality is we have to stay committed to winning those people because every one of those numbers is a life like this girl that came down to me and kate at the end of the first wednesday service with tears in her eyes and she said this church has saved my life which a lot of people say that and they mean like i was in a bad place and i didn't really have a lot of great relationships and i was headed down the wrong road no she said no it literally saved my life she said back during coven when all the churches were closed i was in a really dark place very depressed i'm a single mom i took my daughter to my mom's house and i dropped her off and i was driving on my way to go commit suicide and i drove past your church and the banner said we're open come in and i pulled in the parking lot i sensed the power of god i gave my life to jesus and i'm physically alive today because the church was open we can never lose sight of that church and that's why i want to publicly apologize for the five weeks that we closed thinking we were doing something good and just let you know that we will never ever ever under any circumstance close this church ever again i don't care what the science says i don't care what the government says i don't care what the community says i don't care what the christians say we will never close this church because it is the hope of the world people are hurting and lost and we can't forget that purpose we've got to reach people and if all of us are in jail one of you can preach we'll figure it out so we got to reach people right then it says we're supposed to use wisdom to warn people that's relationships that's that word connect because i can't warn you until you know that i care about you people don't care much you know until they know how much you care christians need to embrace the balance of truth spoken in love we're great at speaking truth but we're really bad and loving really great at making a point really bad at making a difference we need to get better at wading into the trenches of humanity like jesus did and building relationships with people and we got to build relationships with each other we got to connect and that's where we can find accountability the fall circle semester starts in september we'll tell you a lot about it before it comes but if you've never been in one you're going to love it rallying around individual unique passions and developing relationships it's a blast you get to pick your own friends because you're not four years old and it's going to be a great time all right then once we get you connected then we have to help you grow we're supposed to teach everyone we're supposed to start the process of discipleship discipleship is this journey of growth but too oftentimes we filter that through our greek learning culture greek learning is classrooms and you take notes kind of what we're doing today or what you do in school but that's not jesus's style jesus was hebrew learning and hebrew discipleship was side by side let's go do it together come disciples and let's win the world together let's go set people free together let's open blind eyes together he engaged the disciples immediately in on-the-job training so discipleship for us is hey just come jump in and let's serve together you have to have it all figured out your life is never going to be perfect enough for you to qualify for ministry if perfection was the qualification pastor couldn't speak to you today i'd be disqualified all of us would be unable to do ministry so as long as we're moving in the right direction come on let's do this together because discipleship isn't learning about god it's living for god it's getting out there and making a difference it's discovering your gifts it's moving alongside of each other and i want you to embrace that now we have what we call the grow plan that we announce to you every weekend that's that two-step process that is designed to be a kickstart for you to help you discover your gifts that's that initial part of growing but then the lifetime journey is happening on teams it's happening as you serve it's happening in small groups in our circles it's happening as you step out to lead those circles it's happening as we just do life together that's discipleship all because we're trying to get you to this fourth place reach connect grow go you've got to come full circle where we're now sending you out to make a difference in the lives of others to reach people that's this place the bible calls maturity a mature person in christ paul says the goal is maturity now i have immature kids in my home and i have mature kids in my home and i just want those of you that are in the trenches with toddlers to know there will come a day that you can say go take a bath and it happens without you being involved they don't always get that clean but at least they come back wet it's like magic it's amazing and then there's this next phase that you'll get into where they can actually i don't know if you know this but your kids can empty a dishwasher they can press buttons on the washing machine and clean their own clothes and they can pick up their own stuff and they can make their own bed and they take this magical journey from pooping on the floor to contributing to the family it is fantastic [Applause] maturity means you're able to do some stuff on your own maturity means you're contributing to the vision you're helping move the family forward that's maturity and that's the goal for believers as well so don't be condemned by those people who think they know it all and are like well we left i towns we just weren't getting fed we need something deeper that's code for we're so spiritually immature that we rely on the pastor to feed us 100 spiritually because we don't know how to eat ourselves i'm not trying to bash people i don't have any single person in mind but people in general who say that you just need to know they're starving to death spiritually because if my kids depended on me to make every meal they would starve to death my 15 year old can get in the refrigerator and make herself a sandwich go heat something up there are pizza bites in the fridge outside you don't need me same thing for you i want you to get to the place that you get in the word and the holy spirit's giving you revelation and you're hearing from god and you're making a difference in the world around you and you're fired up with passion to share with your world what god is speaking to you because guess what you don't need me you can reach a place of spiritual maturity that you're hearing from god yourself and you're feeding yourself and that is the dream that we would raise up an army of people that don't need their pastor i'm here to cheer you on and fire you up on sunday but if this is all you get you're spiritually starving it's not healthy for you reach connect grow go taking people one step at a time on a journey from where you are to where god has called you to be now there's one more group that hadn't gotten a job yet it's co-hath we go back to verse 31 he got the responsibility the ark of the covenant the presence of god the table the lamp stand and the altars he was responsible for the articles of the sanctuary used in ministering the curtain and everything that was related to its use so listen everybody we have this structure that supports everything we use systems to help take you on a journey from where you are to where god has called you to be by helping each step of the way but at the end of the day we can never forget the fact that at our core we are spiritual i'm not saying we're spiritual like look at how great we are i'm saying we're spiritual like we can't believe that god actually uses us in fact somebody asked me just the other day what's what's the best thing about i town and i laughed to myself and i i this is my honest answer i said for some reason god keeps showing up the best thing about i town is that we know that this is in spite of us not because of us and without god's presence and god's power there's no way that we would continue to reach people in fact we've been laughing as a staff for the last couple of weeks how in the world is this working look at us we are not that smart and god is so gracious and so kind to continue to use us you know in scripture the bible tells us about angels i really think there are millions of angels we don't know how many until we get to eternity but i believe even this room is full of angels lord knows i've got about a thousand of them keeping me alive but in scripture there's only three angels that are named we call them archangels they're only three angels that we have names for they're all types of angels the bible talks about but only three that have actual names and it's lucifer michael and gabriel and every one of them represents an aspect we believe of the presence and the power of god i believe god designed it intentionally now most of you know lucifer of course messed up his job because he wanted to receive the worship that he was supposed to be leading for the lord and now we call him the devil he got kicked out of heaven and cast out of his job and messed the whole thing up but the principle is still there the three components of what they represent really give a full expression of the presence and the power of god and it's how we structure our lives our gatherings our weekends and i want you to see it the first one is a focus jonathan if you're taking notes of focus on worship lucifer was in charge of worship until he lost his job worship is something that we begin the service with because the bible says we enter his gates with thanksgiving we come into his courts with praise the fastest way to be transported from the cares of this life into the presence of our god is through worship and so we sing three songs i don't know if all of you know that there are three of them like really i thought there was just a couple it's not a fast song to find your parking spot and a medium song to check your kids in and a slow song to grab your coffee and find your seat they're intentionally playing i'm not beating you up for being late i'm just saying you get more out of this if you came a little earlier it'd help you [Applause] because most of us come fairly beat up by the the weak and we need an infusion of the gathering of the saints the manifest presence of god as he comes in a way that we can't access on our own because there is something special and powerful to the gathering i'm going to bring you a series about it here in a few weeks there's something about it there's a reason why the devil's trying to destroy it and worship is a big part of it because it shifts that perspective that we've talked about this weekend it makes our god big and our problems small and we begin to be ushered into god's presence and a miracle begins to take place in your heart and all the chains that have been on you and all the gunk on your life and all the filter on the lens that you see god through all of a sudden starts to wash away as we worship it changes things and then of course we have michael in scripture every time you see michael he represents warfare for thus that's prayer michael was always engaged in warfare and i want you to know the bible says that you have weapons in this battle that you and i are engaged in we're not supposed to be passive bystanders we're supposed to be active participants in the battle against the devil we are not battling against flesh and blood but we are battling against principalities and forces of darkness in heavenly realms there's a battle raging for our country there's a battle raging for our school system there's a battle raging for your children and we have to be intentional about fighting that battle and we fight it on our knees in prayer not informing god of our needs but declaring our dependency upon god to meet our needs and recognizing that we are nothing without him that's prayer and that's why we close out worship with a moment of hey i don't know what you're facing today but let's take it before the lord and can i tell you we don't make a huge deal about it but we have miraculous healings take place during those moments people healed of back pain and problems and issues broken bones healed disorders cured lifetime diseases set free from one person was here with a massive migraine just set free by the power of god never to return again people addiction broken off of their life why because there's power and prayer there's power in the presence of god we are battling a spiritual battle and we have the victory because jesus secured it for us at the cross of calvary [Applause] we're gonna have a focused time of 21 days of prayer august 7th through the 27th i want to invite you to join us it's an incredible time from 12 to 1 monday to friday you're going to love it it's going to be amazing the last one is that we always have gabriel delivering a word every time you find gabriel he delivers a message all throughout scripture that represents for us the word of god so as people come they encounter the presence of god they encounter the life of god and all of a sudden there's this moment that something's broken off of them in prayer because we are doing warfare and then it opens our hearts and prepares the soil of our hearts for the seed of god's word the bible says it does not return void it will produce the harvest 30 60 and 100 fold god's word will change your life if you meditate on his law you'll be careful to do all that is written in it and then you will be prosperous and successful it's god's word that changes your life it's alive the book is alive i pray that you fall in love with it because the holy spirit will use it to bring revelation in your life that will change your world view it will set you free it will correct your attitudes it will help you in your marriage it'll help you in your finances it helps you with your kids it will change your life which is why everything that we teach comes back to god's word if i can't back it with scripture i'm not going to preach it why because it's the unchanging truth in a world that's full of culture shifting and morality is failing and people are changing their perspectives god's word is the same yesterday today and forever what was sin a thousand years ago is still sin today and the world needs to know that because otherwise they won't know to turn they won't know to change it corrects us it helps us grow helping people move on this great spiritual journey we all have a role to play as we clarify the simple vision of hey let's take steps together we've got the vision of systems that help deliver the vision of we're going to reach them we're going to connect them we're going to help them grow then we're going to send them out into their world alongside of us they can go and make a difference in the lives of others as they come into god's house they're going to worship god and sense his presence they're going to be set free in moments of prayer and then guess what the word of god is going to speak to them and convict them and change them and they're going to be on this journey with us what i'm inviting you to is to help me carry the responsibility as we close in numbers chapter 7 moses takes an offering after they finish the tabernacle and the nation of israel responds by giving them this offering of six different carts basically they gave the church trailers to be portable and so moses takes him and he gives two of them to the gersonites they had the curtains they had the systems and then he takes four of them gives them to the murarites they had the big posts and the heavy stuff so they got four but that's all six cards so he didn't give any to the coethites because they were supposed to put the spiritual things the the most holy things the responsibility for worship that went on their own shoulders they had to carry that themselves because that's what they were responsible for what i'm inviting you to is to take personal responsibility for your own spiritual journey don't be a spiritual victim don't be a person that relies 100 on your small group leader or on your pastor let's be the kind of people that get in god's word for ourselves let's grow ourselves let's discover our gifts let's take control of our own spiritual journey let's all get on our knees and let's ask god to move in our family and to move in our communities to move in our neighborhoods to move in our lives to move in our businesses because if all of us cry out to god together we will hear from heaven and he will respond to that prayer but every one of us have to take responsibility for it there's a world outside these walls church that is headed to a crisis eternity we have to create the kind of environment that's full of the presence and the power of god we have to be prayed up we have to be full of god's word then we can invite them would you come and see the goodness of our god i promise you it'll change their life with every head bowed and every eye closed i want to pray that god would encourage you and strengthen you especially for those of you that have maybe never discovered your gifts or you've been sitting on the sidelines for a long time calling yourself a christian but never identifying that purpose that god has for you man i want to pray that god would stir something on the inside of you now is the time to get in the game but first there are those of you here here in the room out in the lobby in bluffton watching online maybe at one of the correctional facilities and you're far from god today i want you to know jesus loves you more than you could possibly imagine and he proved it by giving his life on the cross he's not mad at you for the mistakes that you've made in fact all he wants is to forgive you and set you free today is not an accident this isn't a coincidence that you're here in this moment and you know in your heart the holy spirit is telling you now is the time this is your moment surrender control of your life because if we're all honest we're lousy at being our own god we need god you need him if you'll surrender to him the bible says he erases your past he gives you a brand new start a brand new life you can reach your full potential be the person he created you to be it's never too late if you're ready to take that step i want you to know in a moment i'm going to pray with you i'm not going to have you stand afterwards am i going to make you come down front not trying to take you to a back room somewhere embarrass you i just want to connect you with jesus right where you're at if that's you i'm going to ask you for one bold moment with no one looking around would you lift your hand up high and say dave that's me come on right now just put your hand up high say count me in i'm ready to take this journey of faith i'm ready to surrender to jesus yeah yeah yeah that's amazing all over the room i'm so proud of you on all of our campuses i'm so proud of you put your hands down here's what we'll do i'm going to lead you in a prayer that's very simple you can pray it quietly in your heart because it's between you and the lord you just have to make it your own just say lord jesus forgive me today for all of my sin i repent i surrender to you make me brand new and help me to live this life for you in jesus name i pray father i thank you for this amazing church thank you for the journey that you have us on as we continue to take steps following you we thank you that you'll become who you've called us to be god i pray that you would empower your people today help them to discover their gifts and to get off the sidelines of life to clarify the vision that you have for them and for their family empower them by the holy spirit to step out and to lead and to serve father we thank you that as we take on the spiritual way of our community as we get on our knees and cry out to god that you'll move in a supernatural way and we thank you in advance for the tens of thousands hundreds of thousands even millions of souls that we'll be able to touch collectively as we carry this responsibility together help this be a place god that people can always come and see the goodness of our god we love you today in jesus name we pray and all god's people said amen amen come on church would you celebrate with those who prayed that prayer today [Applause] [Music] thank you so much for joining i town church online today we would love to have the chance to meet you and your family in person at one of our campuses or of course you can join us streaming live online this weekend now for more details about times and locations and even some of our streaming options you can go to itownchurch.com i sure hope to see you soon and god [Music] bless

Channel: ITOWN Church

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Id: rDWnq_hlem0

Length: 41min 4sec (2464 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021