Welcome Home | David Brown | Priorities

[Music] feet there's some sounds [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] thank you [Music] [Music] the freedom of living [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] this [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] but it couldn't fill me men's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough when you came [Music] and every desire is now satisfied right here [Music] better than you there's nothing better than you [Music] i'm not afraid [Music] to show you my weakness come on my fears [Music] not available your mercy and grace [Music] there's [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] you're the only one [Music] [Music] [Music] seasons [Music] [Music] there's nothing that's better than [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you're the only one [Music] i'm returning to the secret place [Music] love is found here in our sacred space i hear your voice i see your face you're still my first love you're still my [Music] you're still my only know [Music] [Music] there's a table [Music] just for you and me [Music] perfect union [Music] my [Music] to the end of time [Music] i feel my heart out of my [Music] i chairs burn [Music] [Music] to stay forever [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] holy [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] you're still [Music] [Music] worthy of every song we could ever see worthy of all the praise we could ever pray for he's worthy of every breath we could ever breathe [Music] jesus jesus every other name jesus the only one who could ever say for he's worthy of every breath he could ever breathe [Music] there is nothing besides [Music] show me who you are [Music] sing that again worthy of every song worthy of every song we could ever say worthy of all the praises [Music] jesus [Music] for foreign [Music] who you are [Music] [Music] jesus we trust you we trust you jesus we trust you lord thank you jesus [Music] and i will live [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] help me me [Music] [Music] media me is [Music] there is [Music] show me who you are and fill me with your heart [Music] there's nothing that compares to you jesus there's no anxiety no depression no hurt no brokenness god that compares to you it's like the candle to the sun you are greater we worship you because you are greater we love you to your name we pray amen also worship time family go ahead and have a seat [Music] good morning avenue how are we doing yeah yeah good who's going to the lake tonight or tomorrow nobody really really holiday weekend you're gonna stay here no it's good my name is tim i'm one of the pastors here and we have something very exciting to roll out today all right you're not gonna hear this very often in church but go ahead and pull your phone out come on now pull your phone out you can do it you can you've been on your phone already this morning come on you can do it there it is yes lord i receive okay we're going to do something together all together we got a qr code coming up here on the screen also right next to you on one of the seats every other seat there is a little card that has a qr code on it first person to get all the way through this process is gonna get a free shirt okay we're gonna walk it through together okay grab this code here on the screen if you got it or on the card okay show me your phone if you got that code got the code took you to the right screen took it to the internet all right that's good okay when you after you scan that code it's going to take you to a screen that looks like this there it is church center church center is the platform that we've chosen to partner with us but we are rolling out today our brand new app we've had an app for a little for a little while but we've worked very hard the last six months um to update it so this is that go ahead and hit one of those buttons whichever one is applicable to you for the device you have and after you click that button it looks like this all right there's some churches here in the area that are using it we love our fellow churches here in ellis county but there is uh one on the top left that's us the avenue church there it is go ahead and click that and after you hit it it might give you a prompt to put your phone number in and give you a little code and then it takes you to the home screen all right who got it who got it first okay i see one there i think he went up first i'm sorry okay we're gonna do this you ready okay last service i threw it and i did not get to the person and it was i got roasted all right here we go yeah come on now that's good if that's not your size take it to the hub they'll help you out um yeah so this is our new app this is our way to connect uh you with the process of the church and kind of go through all kinds of things there's a few really awesome features in the app which i'm gonna pull in mine i have it going here um you can you can actually sign up for a life group right there you see down towards the bottom of that there's a button that says interested in a life group you can you can find a new life group if you are already not part of one um you can also chat with your life group in the app if you have life group and you are a part of one already you can you can chat with them in there and get your resources and so on uh if you scroll down a little bit further in the app there's a button that says request prayer that'll get you on our prayer list here with some of our staff and the people here that are lifting up our whole church in prayer you can request prayer there and have a chat in that you can sign up for classes and events anytime there's a new uh for baptism or for any other event that we do you can sign up for it right there in the app and you can even watch live and chat with us live in the app there's a button towards the bottom that takes you there so again if you're having trouble with that go ahead and find somebody back in the hub or maybe a guest services volunteer on their lanyard on the back of it there's a qr code that'll get you set up there if this is your first time here thank you for being here thank you for joining us online if it is we'd love to connect with you even further either either through this app there's a button that says connect with us or the avenue church backslash connect also if it is your first time you are under no obligation to join us on this journey of generosity but we here at the avenue do believe that part of the discipleship journey uh one of the hallmarks on there is generosity and being generous generous with what god has given you and so we'd love to see you join with us that way you can give several ways here in the room on the way out or by going to the avenuechurch.com backslash give today we are in week five of our malachi series called welcome home and we have none other than our lead pastor david brown with us would you help me welcome him to the stage [Music] i'm glad to be here today excited to be able to talk to you love this tech stuff i think tech is great online those of you online love the fact that you can join us online and you can hit a button on your app love all of that in fact all summer while i was going on sabbatical i did church online and while i love the fact that we can reach people all over i just want to tell you there's nothing like being in the room with other people worshiping god that is so important so if you live anywhere close to this area some of you aren't feeling safe yet to come back to church but that's why we're doing the welcome back series we want to encourage you to come back into the buildings and in us and here in waxahachie because there's something about watching us worship together i have a wonderful view back here i hide in the shadows and i watch you worship while i worship and i just love it's a whole different experience when you're in the room am i right so those of you in the room we want to encourage people to continue to come back while we love all of the technology let's not forget the gathering together does something for us that's true community and so we want to encourage you to do that during the series we've had some exciting times a couple weeks ago we preached and talked about following god and obedience and 66 people came forward and followed god in baptism what an exciting exciting day uh lots of stories but one story that i really love we were here in the waxache campus we were done everybody was leaving everybody was walking out we were talking about how great a day it was and all of a sudden a young man stood up fully dressed cowboy boots hat walked forward and said i got to get baptized and before we could say anything he jumped in cowboy boots pants shirt everything and was just baptized right there at that moment and i thought that that is just so exciting to see people so burdened with being obedient now for those of you new to our church salvation is not found in baptism we don't believe that we believe it's the first step in obedience to god and it's so exciting to see people take that first step then last week pastor alan rogers was able to come and share story we all know pastor allen is the most loved pastor we have in the church we get that no problem we love what he does with recovery and you heard an incredible story today we're going to continue in the book of malachi we're going to continue that story and i just wanted to kind of thank you for letting me be gone again last week some of you like didn't you just get back from a sabbatical why in the world were you gone again i don't know how many of you remember this but 2020 was quite a mess anybody anybody remember 2020 wasn't it a mess so what happened in the original sabbatical 2019 we paid for all of these trips and then 2020 happened and so all of those trips had to be done before the end of the year and so it's just been a mad house and so i went to hawaii but it wasn't just vacation i went to hawaii because i was going to meet a biological aunt for those of you new at the avenue about three years ago i found out that i'm actually by blood a kuliani not a brown surprise uh my whole life people said are you italian i'm like of course not i'm not italian i'm you know from south louisiana that's where my dad's from and so when i found out i had a sister who reached out to me through uh the ancestry dna and so he reached out and she said listen we're related so i thought uh oh my dad had a child out of wedlock my dad had a child nobody knows about he had a secret child well come to find out my mom had a child not the way she was supposed to with my dad so all that to say don't spit in the tube unless you want to know do not spit in that tube so all of a sudden i have this new family and so i wanted to know about that family as much as i could for a lot of reasons i've been getting unneeded colon scopes for quite a while because of family history thank you dr powell for all of those i appreciate that so much and so i needed to know some things about my family history so i went to visit an aunt who's 86 years old she is actually the sister of my biological father and quite a visit it was i i can't share all of it but i'll just share a little bit of it i don't know how much is genetics but this woman is me unfiltered 100 percent she said things and i didn't i just i was in shock it was so fun i mean she was so real so authentic and so she's talking and we're explaining how my mom died and my mom died because she smoked cigarettes every day from the time she was 17 years old she had lung cancer and she died and the aunt looked and goes oh i've never smoked cigarettes i only smoked marijuana i thought yeah back when you were young oh she goes no did you not see the plants that we were growing so i'm going to be real careful if my aunt ever sends me cookies i'm just going to say that up front just very interesting to see the personality and to see some of the qualities and characteristics that apparently just are handed down by your dna and so that was an incredible time an incredible visit but i'm ready to get back into malachi i want you to jump in with me there are some things to catch you up on and remember malachi is the last book written the last letter written to god's people before jesus comes back there's going to be a 400 year gap and malachi is writing to the people of god who are disillusioned with him they're disillusioned with god they're upset their economy is horrible they're financially unstable the other nations around them are coming against them and have them under their thumb there is heartache and hurt and the people of god are doing the things that they think they're supposed to do they're going through the motions of religion and so here they are they show up every sabbath they've built the temple when it comes time to make a sacrifice or an offering they give the offering and then they're looking going god where are you in this how come you're not taking care of us why are we still financially unable to take care of ourselves why are we under this oppression god where are your blessings that you promised and so god being a good father begins to write and say let me explain some things quickly first of all i want you to know above everything else i love you first thing the father wants to say to the people of god is i love you but now let's sit down and have a family meeting your disillusion with me have you ever been in a situation where you thought you were completely right and then all of a sudden somebody showed you something and you weren't right at all anybody been in that situation if you haven't been in that situation you might want to do a little life check because i guarantee you you've been in that before well the children of god as god came down and said i love you i'm a good father you think that you are disillusioned with me you think i haven't kept my part in this deal let's have a family meeting and let's look at this a little closer so he gathers his family together and he says listen i want you to hear this i love you but we need to get some things straight your priorities are out of whack your priorities are not what they need to be you with your mouth are saying that yes you are obedient and yes you are following but your life is showing me something very different and so it pulls them together and in malachi 2 he begins with do we not all have one father did not one god create us why do you profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another judah has been unfaithful a testable thing has been committed in israel in jerusalem judah has desecrated the temple the lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god as for the man who does this whoever it may be may the lord remove him from the tents of jacob even though he brings an offering to the lord now this is what he's saying he gathers them together and he says listen there's a covenant between you and i now we don't understand covenant as much as we understand contract but a contract and a covenant are two very different things most of us are familiar with contracts you sign a contract when you get your iphone you sign a contract when you get on facebook you sign a contract when you buy a car buy a house you sign contracts all the time some of you in business deals have signed contracts in a contract there's one thing you want the very best deal am i right you will negotiate the very best deal for yourself and when someone breaks a contract it's off it's gone there's repercussions there's legal problems you can't break a contract now covenant god says i'm not in this you see they were treating god like there's this contract god says no no this is a covenant this is different a covenant is relationship a covenant is you are in one relationship with god god is so incredible and i love this book because it shows the realness of god it shows the authenticity of god last week i left the verse that i didn't have to cover with alan that verse said you have dung on your face i love that we use the word dung that's not the hebrew word that was used it was something quite different which i'll just leave it to your imagination but god is real and god is real with us and this covenant he says i want to be real with us but you got to be real with me this is a two-way street in this covenant when you break this covenant there is grace when you break this covenant there's forgiveness but this covenant exists and if you will do these things then i will bless you in this covenant but you're not keeping it you're not following it he goes on and he begins to help us understand this is what the covenant is you have made a covenant with me that i am first you shall have no other gods before me i'm to be first in your life god says the most important relationship in your life is to be one with god now everyone who's ever heard even one sermon in their whole life knows that right what is your first priority everybody says god our second priority god begins to outline he did this in this passage our second priority is our spouse god believes in marriage god believes in that covenant he says you have a covenant between each other and that spouse is to be the second most important thing in your life he says third third children your children are going to be the third most important thing in your life and then he says fourth your job your work this will be fourth that's way down here now we get it all mixed up don't we in fact a lot of us in this room a lot of us listening a lot of us in this work is number one in our life work is number one and i want you to see what satan does work is number one in our life our children are number two in our life our spouse is number three in our life and god may be four maybe satan turns it right upside down now your order may be different but this is the only order that works and every one of you in this room would say yes i agree with that god first amen praise god god first other second myself last we all have a bumper sticker we have some magnet on our tv or our refrigerator we have it and we say it all the time and these people that god is writing to they said the same thing if you ask him is god first of course god's first we've built the temple of course god's first we have a wall around jerusalem of course god's first we show up on the sabbath of course god's first we make sacrifices and offerings you see god the good father is sitting in the family meeting going let's examine that let's be real in my first in your life in my first in your life you're saying i am but what are your true priorities and then he hits them really hard and i'm going to let this passage hit you really hard because everyone says yes god is first he goes on in verse 7. ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees you've not kept them return to me and i will return to you says the lord lord almighty but you ask how can we return then he says will a mere mortal robbed god yet you rob me but you ask how are we robbing you in tithes and offerings you're under a curse the whole nation because you're robbing me bring that first tenth into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and so he hits them right where they are and let's be honest he hits you right where you are god is first in my life do you bring the whole tithe to the storehouse is god first in your life let's check your banking account you sure first in your life in amazon is your first in your life in hobbies you sure first in your life is not a house or a car you can't afford god hits it right there and i just want to leave that there for you to understand because it's more than this and i'm going to get into the other things it's more than this some of you give but god's still not first in your life and we'll address that but he starts with this if you're not giving the first tenth don't pretend like i'm your priority i am not who so the children of israel listened to this and went what but then the good father continues and he says now listen to me please test me in this i understand how much faith you put in your finances and your wealth but test me in this if you will do this i will throw open the floodgates of heaven i'll pour out so much blessing there's not room to store it i will prevent pests from devouring your crops and vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before that's right says the lord almighty then all the nations will call you blessed and yours will be a delightful land he says i get this but if i'm going to be first in your life show me first with your wealth second he continues now because some of you you give you're faithful it's on automatic draft you don't even see it but that doesn't mean he's first he goes on and he asks am i first in serving are you serving are you looking for places to give yourself to are you serving in this church in the church you're in are you serving other people or do you just show up see because people malachi was writing to just showed up on the weekend they didn't serve each other they didn't care for each other they didn't love on each other they just showed up and god said that's not putting me first if you want to put me first you need to be serving he goes on and says if you want to put me first you need to be worshipping you need to truly be worshipping me are you worshiping when you come into this room are you watching it says if i'm first you're worshiping me and not just on the weekend you're worshiping me all week long what are you doing in your life to show that i'm worthy of your worship are you giving me the first of your day are you praying for some of you the only time you pray is when you almost get in a car wreck on 35 or with your kids are you praying is he the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning are you speaking with him listen this is a this is a reality check folks god is being real authentic with you he's saying listen you can say all day that i'm first in your life but if you're not doing these things if you're not giving if you're not serving if you're not worshiping if you're not praying if you're not caring for others i'm not first so don't be surprised when i'm not blessing you don't be surprised when things are hard don't be surprised when you feel like your prayers are going to the ceiling and coming back don't be surprised about these things if i'm not first in your life he continues he goes on he starts talking about that second relationship he starts talking about our spouses our families our marriage god believes in marriage he believes in marriage and we'll see in a minute the reason he believes in marriage so much is says as a good father he wants you to produce grandchildren which become his children he says i desire godly children and the best way for me to have godly children is to have godly parents raise godly children so that second priority is to be our spouse now malachi just wrote to the men now he wrote to the men because in this day and time women had absolutely no rights whatsoever a woman couldn't divorce her husband for any reason and if she was caught cheating on her husband they put her to death so the problem wasn't the women in this now today equal rights equal blame but in this day it was only the men and so malachi is writing the men and he's saying listen you need to hear this judah has desecrated the sanctuary of the lord by marrying women who worship a foreign god now in the united states of america we are completely inclusive of everyone and everyone's a child of god and it really doesn't matter but that's not the kingdom of god the kingdom of god is very exclusive people don't like that but the kingdom of god says there's one way to the father and that's through jesus christ the son all roads do not lead to eternity only one road leads and it's very narrow and he says if you're on that path i want you to walk that path with someone who believes like you believe now i know you're going to win them over when i was a youth minister i had girls all the time they did what i called missionary dating i'm going to win them to jesus but you know they were never trying to win the nerdy guy they were always trying to win the captain of the football team that was really good looking so i kind of had some ideas about their motivation but he says listen i don't want you unequally yoked because i want you to raise these godly kids and how can you raise godly kids if you're pulling them in opposite directions you need to be equally low yoked you need to be believers together in this and so if you're dating someone right now and they're not a follower of christ you should not be dating them you should not be with them because god wants you walking now i'm not talking about baptist and methodist and catholic come on people like oh well there listen if you married a baptist i'm sorry because they can't dance and they can't drink enough to be able to dance and so you're just out of luck but that's not what god's talking about here he's talking about people who have a different faith a different belief they don't follow the god that you follow and so the first thing he says is marry inside your faith and then it gets a little more personal he says men you're cheating on your wives you're cheating on your wives now listen to this if you're cheating on your wife it says another thing you do you are flooding the lord's altar with tears you weep and well because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings and accepts them with pleasure from your hands you ask why it's because the lord is a witness between you and the wife of your youth you've been unfaithful to her though she is your partner the wife of your marriage covenant again covenant has not the one god made you you belong to him in body and spirit and what does the one god seek godly offspring so be on your guard and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth well but my wife hasn't fulfilled her contract but my wife hasn't done the things that she needs to do my wife is not there for me my wife has not provided for me my wife is not intimate with me and so she broke the contract so i it's a covenant not a contract in a covenant is i will do everything i can for you whether you do for me or not in a covenant i'm looking out for your best interest in a covenant you hurt me i forgive now this goes for men and women remember equal rights equal blame so you ladies are part of this now and you wonder why god is not blessing you you wonder why god's not answering your prayers you wonder why things are so hard you're not living the life that god has called you to live your spouse is not the most important relationship next to him he says until that works your priorities are not right it says they're bringing offerings but i'm not answering because you've been unfaithful and then he goes on to a verse you all have probably heard and heard it wrong so i want to kind of explain it he says first of all you're marrying outside your face second of all you're being unfaithful third of all you're divorcing your wife and i hate that god says i hate divorce said the man who divorces his wife does violence to the one he should protect be on guard and do not be unfaithful now i want to slow down right here because i don't want you to mishear me god hates divorce but not the divorcee can you hear that the church for a long time got that wrong the church for a long time made people who had gone through a divorce feel like they were second class believe that they could never serve that's not what god says god doesn't hate the divorcee god hates divorce why does he hate divorce he knows what it does to you but more importantly he knows what it does to your kids that's why he hates it he allows it because of our hearts and because this covenant and the broken trust he allows it and there's all kinds of circumstances and he forgives it and he moves on but he hates it because it does damage to you and your children am i right in that have you lived that i haven't met many people who after a year after being divorced didn't regret it so if you're on that verge today and you're thinking about divorce listen marriage is so important that's why at the avenue church we focus on merge before you get married we take you through eight weeks of training we have re-engaged to help you re-engage in this covenant and learn what this covenant is because marriages are so important not just for you but for those beautiful children god knows that he says first god second your spouse then your kids now let me point out to mainly the ladies third not second definitely not first now i know the mothers in here the mothers listening the mothers and in us especially you check mothers oh my gosh you love your kids you want to get a mother mad you say something about their kid am i right and they put those kids but listen if you put your kids above your spouse god can't bless you or he won't bless you but you don't know my spouse yeah i do he's the you married he didn't get dumber but you married him he's to be second he's to be above your children you're to meet his needs before your children's needs and free some of you ladies in this room that is equal that is the hardest thing you can imagine what do you mean i have to meet his needs do you know why more baby boomers are divorcing than any other age group because baby boomers moms knew how much they loved their kids and they put their kids above their spouse then often their kids move out and they look at each other and they're strangers so put your kids third date your spouse go out with your spouse do vacations with your spouse there's some of you here that are listening that have not been alone with their spouse since they had children and god is not going to bless that priorities god spouse children and then for many of you and especially men your job your job most men first question after the name is what what do you do for a living what do you do our identity is based on what what we do what we do what we do and the problem in our world is if you work overtime if you stay in the office till it's dark if you get up before everyone else if you work on the holiday weekend they are applauding you with everything you are truly a man that knows how to work you are providing for your family you are successful you are climbing that ladder you are doing all this and you get congratulated and applauded but if you're failing at home you don't it doesn't matter what you do at work see there's so many men that go to work and they succeed but they're failing in the house and we need men who will succeed in the house then god will bless the work so listen to me if you have to cheat work or family keep the job cheat the job the job is not going to be at your funeral they could care less they'll find another person put in your place but in your family you're the only father you're the only husband you're the only grandparent father you've got to understand why god put this all in priority for each and every one of us he wants to make it very clear in this family meeting he says you're disillusioned with me you're upset with me know that i love you but we need to get this straight your priorities are not in the right order and until you get those priorities in the right order i'm not going to bless you because i'm not going to bless you doing this wrong i'm not going to bless this covenant if you're doing it wrong i'm going to forgive you i'm going to love you and i'm going to continue to love you but you've got to put it in the right order and remember i told you in the beginning this is the last word written to god's people before jesus comes back there's a very important reason for that for 2 000 years god has had this covenant for two thousand years the people of god have failed him in this covenant for two thousand years they haven't kept their priorities for two thousand years they haven't kept the covenant they keep failing over and over and over and over and over and so in malachi chapter 3 he begins to explain why you keep falling you keep falling over and over and over maybe i'm talking about you today in your life you keep failing over and over and over and you have the same sin that keeps coming up day and day in and day out and you make promises that you're never going to do this again and you find yourself in the same situation everything you do seems to crumble everything you do falls to the ground and you work so hard like these people you can't live the christian life without a savior and god is beginning to show him he says listen you can't do this i understand i have gone through this to show you that you need something outside yourself you need something more than yourself he says in chapter three i will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me then suddenly the lord you are seeking will come to his temple the lord you're seeking will come to your temple he will bring offering and righteousness so 400 years later john the baptist enters the scene as the messenger and then jesus enters why did jesus come because we all fall short of the glory of god why did jesus come because we can't live this life the way god intends it without a savior we need a savior listen to me we can't try harder we can't work more we can't get our priorities in place some of you are trying to live a better life without the author of life in your heart and no you're not worthy and no you're not righteous that's why he says he brings the offerings of righteousness in second corinthians 5 21 he says god made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of god some of you are searching and you're looking and you want more to life and you've heard this and you know god's supposed to be first but you don't feel it worship is boring to you reading the bible is dull praying is non-existent that's because you're trying to do it without a savior you're trying to do it without jesus christ in your heart in the middle of your life now some of you in the room you just got your priorities wrong jesus is in your life yes but there's many of you many of you who just grew up in church you just stumbled in but jesus has never become a savior in your life you can't do it without him everything i try to do on my own is worthless all of my righteousness it says it's like a filthy rag but jesus christ takes my sin and makes it as white as snow and that's what he wants to do for you today not because you're worthy because you can't do it without him the christian life is not just living a better life it's living a better life through jesus so i want to invite you to step across that line of faith to say yes my priorities are not right because the savior is not in my heart and today that world can change and then giving and worshiping and serving and praying and caring for others comes from a different place a place that is like a spring inside of us that never runs dry will you let me pray with that in mind father god there are people right now that hear my voice that need you god they're tired of going through the same things god they're tired of failing over and over and over god they're tired of trying to live in a relationship with a spouse and neither one of them are followers god they're tired of trying to raise children in a crazy world without the author of life speaking into them god they're trying to live a christian life without the savior in their hearts and we pray right now god that you'll begin to reveal to them that it's not because they failed god it's not because they haven't tried hard enough god it's not because they're not good enough it's because none of us are good enough god that we are all sinners saved by an incredible grace and that grace comes by believing that you are the son of god and that god has raised you from the dead and you are alive today to walk with us in this messed up world if that is your prayer today simply follow this word father god forgive me for my sin forgive me for my failings forgive me for i've messed things up forgive me for how i've hurt people come into my heart right this minute father god save me help me belong to you make your righteousness mine in jesus precious name amen you stand we're gonna sing please stay in the room [Music] foundation [Music] [Music] me is [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] show [Music] me [Music] for the last year and a half we haven't been able to offer prayer and while we understand covet is still raging and there's a lot of sick people we really felt the need to be able to pray for you today for those of you that are comfortable we have elders and staff on the side they'd love to pray for you individually whatever god has laid on your heart whether that's salvation your next step or you're just struggling and you need someone to say a prayer over you for others i'm going to invite you to come out right here to the front and i'm going to pray over you that won't be as intimate or as meaningful but it's just as powerful because we have a god that knows our needs before we ask and so in this next few minutes just come forward if you'd like prayer if you've asked jesus in your heart you need to make that public go to one of the sides right now go back to the hub let them know that you made that decision today so we can follow up others that just need prayer invite you forward now you come [Music] give you a few more seconds if you need that prayer you just come down a few more seconds [Music] [Music] father god we thank you that you're a god that is a father that loves us but god you love us too much to leave us where we are god you want us to look into your face and to see your holiness you want us to be covered by your love you want us to be covered by the blood of your son god you want us to find that salvation and to walk in that freedom god i pray for those that have come down to the front of this altar there's nothing magical but god the power of prayer is incredible and god we know that you're going to answer prayers whatever is going on in the lives right here whether one of them has come and received jesus or whether one of them is so frustrated and tired god one of them unemployed god if someone is here with some chronic illness some pain god we pray for them right at this moment that you'll begin to heal them that they'll feel your power they'll feel your presence god they'll feel your love in their heart in such a way that they'll have a peace that passes understanding god you're an incredible god begin to speak even in these moments to those that have gathered in the front for that person who wanted to come out but got scared and didn't come out god we pray your power over them to help them rise above the things of this world and set their hopes on the things above father thank you for your graciousness thank you for your wonder thank you for your love thank you for your patience but most of all thank you for salvation in jesus name amen thank you so much as we've got a hand what a great day to be in the house of lord come back next week last week on malachi we'll see you then [Music] you

Channel: The Avenue Church

Views: 256

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: FnP41RgzJG8

Length: 65min 20sec (3920 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021