Winter Haven Worship Center LIVE

uh [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] welcome to whwc my name is brooke and i serve on the worship team we are so glad that you decided to join us today you can expect about an hour and 15-minute service with worship a message and a time to respond our praise team is making their way out to the platform now to lead us in worship as we lift up the name of jesus so stand up on your feet clap your hands because the best part of your weekend starts now [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] y'all ready to worship this morning come on [Music] come on [Music] [Music] [Music] let it rise [Music] let it rise [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] let faith be the song that calms the storm inside of me [Music] [Music] oh this is where freedom feels like this is what heaven sounds like we praise you we come on you [Music] [Applause] of heaven fill the sick [Music] this is what heaven sounds like this is what freedom feels like this is [Music] crazy [Music] a giant on our side [Music] hey [Music] [Music] [Music] come on make some noise this morning yeah we're in church let's have some church y'all come up come on we ain't finished yet are we [Music] come on sing it with me [Music] i can't hold back [Music] [Music] come on this is what freedom feels like this is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] see the light breaking through all the lies with the truth hear the sound of the wind let the roar of heaven begin can't stay silent can't stay still when you show up in power glory revealed no i can't stay silent i can't stay still when i feel the fire feel the ground shake heaven [Music] is anything [Music] [Music] all the shame show [Music] feel the fire feel the ground shake heavenly is me [Music] my heart starts to race i can't contain the feeling of joy me and in your presence i can't help but dance can't help but sing and i don't really care what anyone thinks my heart [Music] [Music] oh [Music] in this place is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so let's start right now why would we wait [Music] i just wanna be with you [Music] i just wanna be with you [Music] i just want to be [Music] [Music] so let's start right now why would we wait we can place [Music] [Music] i just want to be [Music] [Music] i just is to [Music] i'll be in your presence till you come again [Music] [Music] until you come again [Music] until you come again [Music] [Music] i just wanna be [Music] [Music] i just want to be [Music] fill this place [Music] [Music] just [Music] i just want with you i just wanna be [Music] in your presence we find a joy oh we just want you god i ask that you not only fill the room with your presence father but god that you fill our hearts today with your presence god it's in your presence that depression and anxiety leaves it's in your presence that cancer flees father it's in your presence that things are restored [Music] come on can you tell them this morning [Music] amen [Music] lift one [Music] we'd hear christ be mad [Music] [Music] his name was [Music] we'd hear christ be led [Music] let's magnify the lord [Music] of my life [Music] i love this [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] christmas [Music] i [Music] is [Music] with all [Music] my [Music] is is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i love this verse over in psalms it says oh magnify the lord with me let us exalt his name together you know that's church that's what church is when we come together and lift up the lord say well why would you do that i mean i've been in some churches and maybe you've never been to a church and you're saying this is kind of weird we've learned something there's a simple verse in the bible that says if you'll draw nigh to me are you listening to me if you'll draw nigh to me then i'll draw nigh to you and so we've learned that that's what worship does that's what praise does it cause us to draw nigh to god and when that happens can i just tell you that what happens he gets involved in your mess he gets involved in whatever is going on in your life his presence comes his peace comes his joy comes that's why you feel all this range of emotions this morning some of you want to shout some of you want to cry it's because the spirit of god touches you as you begin to lift him up and worship him amen that's when help with hope and healing comes hey we're thrilled you're here today welcome to back to church sunday yeah we're glad you're here hey for all of our online guests we're so thrilled that you are watching today if i've not met you yet i'm pastor tim i'm the campus pastor here at whwc my honor to welcome you and how about all of our first-time guests that are here today let's give them a hand all across the auditorium we couldn't be happier that you're here today and i know you're trying to you got some real questions about like really important things like where's the bathrooms on my left and on your right would be the women's bathrooms on my right and your left would be the men's bathrooms those are important things when you come into an environment like this right i encourage you if you need to go to the bathroom go now before you come back to just a few moments pastor jeff's going to be bringing an incredible word but if you are one of our guests today i want you to do me a favor take out your cell phone real quick you can click on the um qr code that's on the back of your seat or on the way out there's actually one there in the lobby or in just a few moments we're gonna have a church live video you're gonna see what's going on around whwc you can click on it there fill out the connection card follow the link there as you click on it fill out the connection card and on your way out today we want to bless you how many like free stuff we have a free gift for you just for being here today on your way out today the connect center they're on your left stop there they're going to give you all the information you need about our church and you can exchange what you've done for your connect card like i filled that card out they're going to give you a free gift that you are going to be absolutely thrilled that you got today amen once again welcome we're so thrilled that you are here today it's going to be an incredible day and we are glad that you are a part of it hey just a moment we're gonna watch church live but before we do that can you like say hi to four or five people around you be friendly this morning can you do that let's just be friendly welcome somebody tell them you're so glad that they are here today [Music] good morning whwc family my name is james and i serve on our production team a special shout out goes to all that are joining us online today thanks for spending your sunday with us if it's your first time in person or online we would love to connect with you all you have to do is open up your camera and point it towards a qr code on the seat in front of you or you can go to whwc.org and click on connect then fill out our connect form for prayer or to find your next steps on how to get involved we'd also love to meet you in person and give you a gift so come say hi at the connect center located in the main lobby registration for our next steps classes are always open these classes are designed to give you an opportunity to understand our history and our vision this is also your gateway to get involved and serve just go to whwc.org steps to find a time and a date that works for you [Music] hey what's up everyone listen i have something so exciting i want to tell you about this friday night at seven o'clock our worship team haven worship will be hosting a night of worship and you're invited now if you've been to one of our nights of worship before then you know it's going to be fire we're also super excited because aside from just haven worship we're also going to be joined by some of our favorite worship leaders like charles anderson and our good friend avery damaged doors open at 6 30 this friday we cannot wait to worship with you we believe that god created us to thrive together that's why we are a church of connect groups just last week we launched our fall semester with over 70 different groups to choose from in these groups you will find meaningful community and authentic relationships it's not too late to join just go to whwc.org connect groups a huge thank you goes to our dream teamers who put together 1800 care bags for our healthcare workers at winterhaven hospital you faithfully give not just of your time but of your ties as well this has given us countless opportunities to bless our community if you want to give take a look at the screen right now and you can see all the different ways you can give your ties and offerings you can also give cash or check by placing it in the black boxes by the exit doors after service now get ready for an amazing message and make sure to grab tony's italian ice on us before you go today welcome second service come on give yourselves a hand good to see you guys [Applause] before we get started this morning i want to welcome all of the first-time guests my name is jeff connor and i get the awesome privilege of serving as the lead pastor here at winter haven worship center my wife kim is sitting on the front row right there and we count it a privilege to be here in winterhaven florida and get to minister to so many different people so we welcome you today and as pastor tim shared make sure you stop off at the connect center and get a free gift that is available to you today hey we've got tons of folks that watch us online through youtube instagram through facebook roku tv apple tv a bunch of platforms let's give them a warm welcome as they join us today welcome to our service so excited that you're with us we actually had someone in the last service they were watching online they have not been to the church yet are you ready for this they they watched us online they're giving their heart to christ they already signed up to be water baptized they live in this area so we're just so excited about what god is doing in this place and we're excited so i know it's a little different sometimes to come to a church like this maybe you're here thinking i didn't know church had changed so much i didn't realize it was so lively and the music and all of that i'm going to talk a little bit about that today but i encourage you just to feel comfortable as you can hey i want to start off with a joke this is really funny but there was this grandmother who had a five-year-old grandson and so they were going to church and so she gave him a 10 bill and she said listen i'm going to give you this 10 bills and this is your assignment i want you to keep your grandfather awake during the service so you do whatever it takes pinching nudging whatever i don't want him falling asleep especially during the sermon she had to go perform duties on dream team and different things like that well after the service she came up to him and said you didn't listen to my instructions he has slept the entire time he turned her and said well he gave me 20 and told him not to wake him up so anyways i don't fall asleep all right unless somebody's that said they'd give you 50 i don't know whatever but anyways it's just a great privilege to be with you guys today and i've got something on my heart that i want to share with you that i think will be a great blessing and if you'd like to follow along with the notes today we're going to put most of it up on the screen as we go but we have a church app it's completely free just go to the the we call that the app store and to download the app whwc winter haven worship center and there's a place there called fill it and you can follow the notes and then email that to yourself so that every time you're here you're able to look back and see what we had ministered on what we had taught and be able to help you to grow so it's kind of a paperless environment that we're trying to create but we love that you know how many of you know that god wants to change your life he really does he definitely wants to change your life when i think about christianity and i think about serving god it's really all about change but the change doesn't come all at once if the change came all at once it would definitely overwhelm us wouldn't you agree with that so you don't go from here to there you have what we call next steps or steps that you have to take in your life the problem is we don't always know what those steps are and so we take a step or a second step and then we stop there never really experiencing all of the change that god wants to bring in our lives now you got to understand something that god's a good god and so if he wants to bring change in your life it's because he loves you now i do believe this with all my heart god loves you in the condition that you're in it doesn't matter where you've been what you've done what is going on in your life right now there is unconditional love that is available to you i want you to know that but at the same time remember this he loves you so much that he doesn't want you to stay in that condition he wants to see change take place in your life and the biggest change that takes place is when a person really surrenders their life to the lord jesus christ and the bible tells us over in ii corinthians that once you give your life to jesus notice this this means that everyone then who belongs to christ is a new person think about that for a second he goes on to say this the old life is gone and a new life has begun so that tells us it's a process it's a process of steps that you have to take every single person in here this morning has a next step to taking their life something that god wants to do to help you become the person that he desires for you to do to be the problem is as we take a next step in christ as we begin to get introduced to the lord there are things that we call predictable resistance that comes against you and i want to talk a little bit about the predictable resistance it's found in john chapter 10 verse 10 where the bible says it is the thief that comes to steal to kill and to destroy before we read any further let me just say this to you there is an enemy out there and the enemy doesn't want change to take place in your life because it makes us more like christ and the more we become like christ the more we will do what christ told us to do and we changed the world so you have this predictable resistance where he comes to steal to kill and to destroy but jesus said i've come that you might have what life and have it to the full well how do we have life to the full what do you mean when you say life to the full where you have hope where you have joy where you have peace you say well will i ever have a bad day but yeah you will but you'll know what to do with the bad day you'll know how to cast all of your care upon him because god cares for you you'll know how quickly what to do in your next steps to say you know what i'm not going to let the enemy stop what god's desiring to do through my life to bless others today and here in the scripture it reveals the three predictable you understand resistance that you and i face number one is that the thief is going to try to steal our identity through shame now think about that scripture teaches that when you're a new creature in christ you receive a new identity all through the bible the old testament and even in the new testament when god would do something significant in changing a person a lot of times their name changed abraham is a good one because his name didn't start off being abraham it started off being abram abram meant one thing abraham meant something else serie i meant one thing sarah meant something else which is princess but the name prior to that was not a very good name see when god moves in your life you receive a new identity the problem is because of our past stuff we've been through stuff that we didn't do but others did to us create a lot of shame in our lives a lot of times when there's shame we try to hide that shame we don't want people to know that this happened to me or that i've been through this or that i'm dealing with this thing in my life and so we hide it in hoping that somehow we can manage it throughout our lives are you with me that's a form of pride by the way and it's a distraction and the enemy will constantly bring up shame it'll constantly bombard your mind to keep you from the real identity that christ has i'm telling you that happened in my life even as a pastor because see i went right into the ministry very very young i mean right at 19 years of age i mean right out of high school right right out of high school went to southeastern then from southeastern they used to have this little black book the dean would keep this little black book and in that little black book there were ministry opportunities you go see if maybe this would apply to you and every summer you could go to a church and you could get a job make some money and be in the ministry and i did that right away i found that there was this guy who was looking for a youth pastor in south carolina matter of fact it was myrtle beach i thought woohoo this is where i'm supposed to go myrtle beach south carolina oh my goodness that's the worst place you need to go is myrtle beach south carolina and a lot of times because you're in ministry and you grow up in church and you're of a good family and all these different kinds of things you learn to hide things that need to come out and let god touch and change and you're oh come on somebody i'm just being honest and transparent with you because it's the only way i know how to get to your heart today all right so i'm going to do that but the enemy a lot of times will get you to look at sin when god really wants you to look at his son and realize there is grace that is available to you and that he wants to change you another area is that he'll kill your potential with guilt everybody has potential now how many of you remember it's not been out lately but the geico commercial with pinocchio remember that commercial and hill he's in a conference you know you have potential and you have potential and his nose starts growing and the guy's like i want to get out of here you know and sometimes we'll hear someone like me say that that you have potential or a mentor in your life will say you have great potential i'm going to tell you something every single person in here has a calling and a purpose that god has put in your life i love this verse of scripture in ephesians 2 10 i'll read it to you it says for we are god's masterpiece what that tells me is that god's crazy about me and i want you to know that god is crazy about you because you are his masterpiece and listen this you and i were created anew in christ jesus so that we can do the good things that he planned for us long ago before your first heartbeat god put a purpose in your life to be here on the earth but that potential sometimes is never realized because we don't know how to take first steps we don't know how to truly surrender and give things to god and let him touch our life and it's killed in our lives because of guilt what we've done now i've got some things in my life that i'm not very proud of and i i don't know if i'm by myself today or maybe i'm in in good companies anybody have some things in the past that you're not very proud i appreciate that because we all do we really do but i thank god it's under the blood of the lord jesus christ come on now but guilt is sort of that lie that the enemy uses to come against you as you start to start to take a step forward some of you walked in today and thought my goodness i don't know if i should be here today because being here means that the roof's going to pop open and lightning bolts are going to come down and strike you know because i remember a man telling me that i was trying to get him into church i was trying to get him to come to church and he said you just don't know the things that i've done if i go in there lightning bolts are going to go striking but michael is here today and i'm so glad no i'm just i'm just playing i'm just playing but someone did tell me that one time because that's what they believe the wrong perspective the guilt in their life kept them from the potential to be used by god and not only that he tries to come and destroy our think about this our hope with fear there's a lot of fear right now a lot of people have fear in their lives fear about surrendering to christ fear about worshiping god i i know it can be intimidating going to a church like this and i have to be aware of that because see i grew up in churches like this i really don't know when people tell stories about being in a very religious setting and people were not worshiping or singing or it was dead or it was dry and all that i really don't know what they're talking about because i never grew up in something like that i grew up where people were doing too much on the other end you know what i'm talking about they were anyways we won't go there but i'm just saying that's how i grew up sometimes it can be intimidated i want to talk a little bit about this today because listen everything that we are and the design of this church is for the purpose of restoring your hope and getting rid of the fear that is in your life see i love what the apostle paul said to timothy god has not given us the spirit of fear but power love and a sound mind yes there's a storm out there yes there are things going on in our lives in our relationships and our finances and and in our spiritual life but just because there's a storm out there doesn't mean there has to be a storm on the inside there's always hope in christ jesus i find that a lot of times the fear stems from having to please other people and sometimes that's what happens to us we live in a culture or a time where it just seems like that if we don't do certain things we think we're missing out because we see that this person did this on instagram and we see that this person did this on tick tock and we wonder well i got to do the same thing because i need to have the same experiences in my life but that's not true we don't have to please people we just simply need to please god and god not only offers hope when we get to heaven but he wants us to have hope which is joy and peace and satisfaction while we live here on earth that wherever we are whether it's the soccer field at dance class come on now in the lunchroom think about this at work we're having lunch with somebody and maybe they even tell a dirty joke and all these different things we can still bring hope into that situation we don't have to shun from it we don't even have to receive the negative that others give because we're the church of the lord jesus christ are you with me it's about taking next steps how do we take next steps well first of all i just want you to know this god cares about everything in your life the bible says he even knows the hairs that are numbered on your head and every year that goes by it makes it easier for him to count my head you know what i'm talking about but he knows i did have really dark black wavy thick i had the polar bear hair you know what i'm talking about i just was like no stomach nothing i don't know what happened i don't know why i'd say that let's talk about taking next steps ephesians chapter four notice this i'm going to make every point with the word of god today here the apostle paul said you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off the old self how many of you would agree we have to put off the old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires our flesh always wants to do its own thing to be made new in the attitudes of your mind and to put on the new self created to be like god notice this in true righteousness and holiness how do we do this how do we achieve this well i'm not assuming that everyone is born again today i will say this to you that the first thing you need to do the first step is if you've never received jesus christ as your lord and savior you need to do that because that's key jesus said i'm the way the truth and the life and the no one comes to the father through me but the vast majority of us have done that i would say okay or maybe we need to rededicate our lives i get that as well but i have found and this is elementary but i have found that the first step in our life is really what we call declaring god's salvation see there are no secret believers in god's kingdom we can't just say well i'm just going to be quiet about that now i want to qualify that because we had a man who is a pastor in pakistan who was with us in the first service he and his wife and their son wise isn't that a cool name wise name your son wise i like that but uh they were telling me about how they just rescued 490 afghans come on now from afghanistan over to pakistan and have set them up in people's homes he said there's like 35 people living in one home amazing how people reach out and christians reach out to each other in that sense of the word and i was getting ready oh yeah this was gonna say i lost my thought i'm a human being too you know you get up here by yourself and you just kind of go your own way you know but we're talking about declaring uh your salvation in that setting sometimes they have to be careful in that if the taliban found out they would hunt down their family who are still in afghanistan and he said you know what they said they do he said when they find out that you're a christian and you possibly are sending back scriptures through email or different uh ways they actually will cut the relatives tongues out we don't realize how easy we have it and yet we find it so hard to serve god in the united states but here's the point declaring your salvation is really done through water baptism peter put it this way in baptism we show that we have been saved from death and doomed by the resurrection of christ in other words water baptism doesn't save you but it's a declaration that you have given your heart to christ family members need to know that the world needs to know that you know we baptized almost 30 last what was two weeks ago and guess what we have almost 30 that are signed up again matter of fact we do have 30 because two signed up this morning online and have never visited the church i told you that earlier so i'm so excited about what god's doing it goes on to say here which is uh over in first peter chapter 3 it says not because of our bodies are washed clean by the water but because in being baptized we're turning to god and asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin he said well why should i be baptized in water because jesus said to do it you just need to do what he told you to do matthew 28 he tells us that it's important but it's a declaration that i've surrendered my heart to christ see the more we have people that give their hearts to christ the more the family members pay attention then the community pay attention and that's a revival that is taking place right here we've often thought revival was something where people just scream real loud and run all over the church but let me tell you something souls coming into the kingdom people surrendering to christ things that are happening here that is a revival a reviving even of people who once were on fire and passionate about the things of god and i'm believing for that to take place right here in winter haven i'm not responsible for lakeland or other communities but right here we're believing for god to do something in your life and in your family's life so maybe that needs to be a next step for you and i only bring that out not because i'm trying to get a big number of people being baptized i'm trying to show you that there are steps and even the steps that i'm going to reveal to you especially the second one that i'm about to bring out there are levels in these steps you may start off kind of in an elementary on a an elementary foot point here but then you're going to go into something that's even deeper that's in your life because the second step for all of us is to do this cultivate god's presence that's how change comes you see how do i cultivate the presence of god well that word cultivate is an agricultural term and i'm not a farmer by any means and have never been a farmer but one day i just had this hair brain idea that on the back lanai by the pool that especially where we have a little nook area where we have a table for breakfast and stuff i thought i want to find a shelf like a baker shelf that's for outdoors that i could put plants on i love plants and so i'm driving down i forget what road it was on it's where mr donut is and across the way is this antique shop and i'm drawn in there and i go in there and i see the perfect thing that i need so i just begin to haggle with the guy and i bought it for a certain amount of money and i brought it home my wife's like okay it's i said it's perfect you just wait till it's set up it's good it's going to be perfect it's it's got patina it's it's just everything you know so i set it up and it looked great there and so i went to lowe's to buy flowers i thought i'll buy pots and make it look really pretty and uniform because i like everything in order you know and so while i'm there at lowe's i see these tomato plants and pepper plants and cucumber plants and i'm thinking hmm i could do this i could grow some tomatoes wouldn't that be cool to have your own salad that those i grew those tomatoes so i bought the plants so then i bought these nice little pots they all look the same and i came home put them in the pots put them out there the kids came over said oh dad that looks absolutely incredible everything that i wanted it to look like the problem is it only had the look because about three weeks later i noticed my tomato plants were drying up now i had watered them i'd done everything i looked it up online or i didn't look it up online forgive me i i that little card that comes with it i read the card about what kind of sunlight how much sunlight and all the different things that are there you know it looks really good like you do right now but the problem was it was only potted and a potted plant can move from here to there there over here over there over there over here you got to get planted so i thought you know what this is not going to work so i'm going to have to take them off the shelf and i'm going to have to put them in the ground so i had a little area by the cage the pool cage there and so i thought this looks really good the soil's dark yeah just right and i'll play i'll play i'll plant them in there space them out correct i bought these little wired things you know that i thought i'm buying this in faith because they're little but evidently the the tomato plant will grow big and the tomatoes are going to hang out over my wire about three weeks later you know what my tomato plants looked a different color a real rich green look a couple weeks later i went out and all of a sudden there was a green pepper growing and there was buds on the tomato and everything began to change why because i had changed the environment i cultivated something see we've got to learn to cultivate god's presence if we desire the change that causes us to have real hope real joy real peace and satisfaction in life are you with me okay see james puts it this way in james 4 8 it says come near to god and what will he do he'll come near to you we can sometimes have the idea well god knows where i am and if he needs me he'll come visit me but see every promise has a condition even salvation the condition is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth but every promise in the word of god you have to do something first you have to draw near to god cultivating the presence of god is you doing something i love what acts says it says you've made known you have made known to me the paths of life and you fill me with joy in your presence so how do i get into the presence of god and let me just say this to you if you're not changing right now you may not really know god and how we get to know god number one is through his word god's word we all probably have a bible somewhere in the house and if you don't have a bible we have bibles just ask us and we'll get one to you free of charge but i think most americans do have a bible somewhere a matter of fact all you have to do is go you version listen craig rochelle has done an incredible job as at making the word of god available to us all we have to do is download the app and every day there's actually bible reading programs that you can put with the type of translation that you would best like to read it in so there's no excuse here's what i have learned grace attracts but truth unravels you see a lot of a lot of us our lives are sort of like in knots have you ever no i've never did this but my grandmother did she would uh what do you call that crochet you know what i mean she would make sweaters not you didn't want to wear them but anyway she my grandmother made it for me to what hangs out no i'm just kidding but sometimes the yarn would get in knots and she would ask me to to get the knot out and i would just sit by her feet and i would just work to try to get that knot out or if you're like me i've got these tie downs in my truck you can put your motorcycle up on there your dirt bike you know and so you use the tie down so you can go to a place and you can ride but i'll throw my tie downs in a in a five gallon bucket and every now and then they just develop knots they get tossed and turn and you gotta sit and take time our lives need to be unraveled it's only god's word that can unravel our lives because here is a truth that i think is important grace will invite you to be free but it's only the truth that will set you free i don't know who said that to give them the credit for that but i read that the other day and i wrote it down i said i'm going to use that because that is very very powerful the second thing is what cultivates god's presence is worship worship is really worth ship in other words giving worth to who god is real worship is in everything that you do where it indicates that god is the first priority of your life so if you get up early in the morning you go to the word you worship and you pray you're saying you are more important than anything else that i'm going to be engaged in today and that's worship it's not just a slow song that we sing in church we've got to learn to worship god and people run from worship worship is one of the most intimate things that you will ever do as a christian we know what it means to be intimate with our spouse but to be intimate with god where you open up your heart and you worship god but it's what brings the presence to bring change in a person's life it amazes me especially in polk county i'm a polk county boy and so if you're a polk gowning boy you've got to like country music you might need to go to another county you know what i'm talking about but sometimes we as men will come to church and we don't really engage in worship but man you see some of these guys they're out in their truck and that best country song comes on you know remember when garth brooks came out you know uh we was talking about the live like you were dying you know and man i'd hear young guys just singing as loud as they could to the top of their lungs but see we've got to learn that worship creates an atmosphere we are a worship church haven worship church think about that where we worship god and it creates an atmosphere and then of course the last thing there is prayer you cultivate the presence through the word through worship but also your prayer life you see well i don't know what to pray about just take five minutes every day we call it the first 15 of your day before you do anything maybe you could get coffee first that might be a good thing i do do that and you sit down you say okay lord i'm going to get into your word i'm going to have a bible reading program i do that every morning my wife does it every morning we almost do it about the same time we sometimes get up a little bit differently there but but we're doing at the same time in different places in our home and then we put on worship and we worship the lord and then we pray now understand there are levels of that some people say oh you need to be doing that longer than that no no if you've never done it you can't do it anymore in 15 minutes but if you'll do it every morning for 30 days it will develop a habit what will it do it'll cultivate the change that you need in your life it'll cause god's presence to begin to invade and unravel the things that need to be unraveled to make them right and straight am i speaking to anybody here today see i want god to change your life i've been accused of this lately because our church is growing where people say you're just about growing the church and i just make this statement it's not about growing the church it's about growing you it's all about you and see where people are growing then naturally it's going to grow numerically because if you're excited about coming here you're going to tell some people about it so i was listening to a guy the other day i'm actually i ran into this guy and i've known him for years you know and and they've started to come to church and they may be watching online and because they told us they'd be in another state today but he said to me he said i was sitting on the back porch just having some beers and somebody grabbed their phone said you got to look at this church and he said you are the funniest thing i've ever i've ever heard in my life and you know what they started coming to church see david said i was glad when they said let us go into the house of the lord church ought to be the best thing that happens to you during your week this starts your week today starts your week to where you're saying i get to be around people that have smiles on their faces they're excited it doesn't mean they're polished and per listen i'm not polished that's probably why i live here in winter no i'm just kidding i'm not polished i'm not if you're looking for that i do i don't think you're going to find that i'm not polished i'm just a person that loves people and i want to see your life change i want to see your life grow i'm 57 years old i know you thought i was 37 but i'm 57 years old and i've done this for 30 years and sometimes i would say man why didn't this grow faster why didn't it get bigger why'd it and you know what i probably couldn't have handled it it would have ended up in disaster or maybe i would have ended up on the junky i don't know but i feel so strong that right now the lord has positioned us and he's positioned you to be here because he wants change to take place so you may need to take a next step into getting saved water baptism cultivating the presence of god or third let me tell you what will change your life by connecting to god's people that's why we push small groups and we want you to be small group leaders and we want you to be a part you ready for this we are just shy of 800 people involved in our small groups this semester that's good because we've just started doing this this is new to our church so we don't want to be a church that has small groups we want to be a small group church why because as you grow bigger you have to grow smaller why because freedom takes place in the context of relationships but the enemy will fight you having godly relationships why because we hold each other to standards partly why you see so many ministers fall is that they don't have relationships where they can be real where they can open their heart and share their struggles and share the things that are going on in our lives so if it's true for them it's true for all of us that we're to confess our faults one to another that we may be healed jesus you confess to him at your sins but sometimes we got to share with others that hey i need you to pray for me here i need you to help me in this area and hold me to something that i'm struggling with come on church let's be real come on open up that's why ephesians puts it this way you are members of god's very own family and you belong in god's household with other christians we belong to each other we need each other i need you you need me there's times people will say things to me and i'll go away i said man he's right she's right i i didn't even think about that we need each other sometimes we can go to places where we have great community it's a wonderful group of people in that sense but [Music] it's just all about doing anything that you want when god says be careful with some things to pursue after righteousness and holiness you got to be connected the church is the hope of the world church how many of you believe that the local church 30 some odd scriptures that talk about the church in the new testament and it's so important that's why in hebrews it says let us consider how we can spur one another on toward love and good deeds listen because our church has grown we can do more in our community did you remember church life and those people in the red shirts that's the dream team they put together 1800 packets that you bought for all 1800 employees on all the shifts at the winter haven hospital [Music] so when you become a part of something that's bigger than yourself more can be done in spreading kindness come on now god's kindness and goodness and truth you see where i'm coming from when i said you've got to connect with god's people that's why we want you to go through next steps i went over there while you were praising the praise service singing and our next steps was completely full and then across the hall was our live free class it was completely full they told me that the next six weeks is already completely full people signed up for it we have everything you need to take a step you just have to give god permission to change your life if we hold back he never has an opportunity to do what he ultimately wants to do and ultimately what we want you to do is to join a local church commit yourself to a small group and then the last thing is we want to help you discover your purpose why if you don't know why you're here there's no joy sometimes you can just go from job to job from town to town from place to place looking for that right thing and never feel purpose i believe you can be in a dead-end job but fulfilling god's purpose wherever you are maybe it's temporary you know what god's purpose is and that is to spread something joyful and you do that he'll ultimately give you what you want i do believe that if you delight yourself in the lord he'll give you the desires of your heart that is a scripture i believe that but you and i need to learn to serve and you can be a part of our dream team we give you those red shirts we do things at people's houses places of business pear ministries we do a lot of stuff here we try to put it on the platform through video or the pictures on the screens to let you see but there's so much more that we could do but why i share this is that psychologists will tell you that when a person feels like they're fulfilling their purpose that's the greatest satisfaction you will ever have in life some people think satisfaction comes through relationships sex or it comes through medicating yourself with something all that does is just hide but real satisfaction comes because you know you've connected yourself to something bigger than yourself and it's making a difference in people's lives for some of you without even knowing it we just revealed to you this morning the vision of our church and that is no god live free find purpose make a difference and that's god's vision for your life for you to know him and to go deep in knowing him to live free because if you don't resolve your past you can't step into your future and define your purpose which is key because 80 percent of you here today you ready for this statistics tell us barnard says that 80 percent of a congregation don't know why they're here on earth so 20 percent do all the work 20 are satisfied 80 percent are dissatisfied and i believe god wants to change that are you with me and then of course you make a difference by being a part of a group serving in our community peter put it this way i love this he said because jesus was raised from the dead we've been given a brand new life and have everything to live for including a future in heaven and that future starts now [Music] some of you it could start right now to take a first step the key to spiritual growth is to take your next step and take it right now don't wait any longer every head bowed every eye closed [Music] so proud that you came to church today so honored that you're here and i want to give you an opportunity to know the god i'm talking about to know jesus [Music] what i'm going to ask of you is not to embarrass you i'm not going to call you forward i'm not going to do anything like that but it's a simple question have you made jesus the lord of your life are you in total surrender to him because sometimes you can ask christ him but you don't take those next steps and so you kind of veer away and maybe you need to come home today [Music] you know heaven wants to see your response again i won't make you come forward won't make you say anything but if you are ready this morning to take the most incredible step you've ever taken in your life to receive jesus as lord i want you to lift your hand up if you're ready to rededicate your life back to god i want you to lift your hand up i'm looking all over this congregation right now yes yes yes oh my goodness is there anybody i just lift it up you put it right back down yes thank you so much yes thank you so much yes yes yes oh my goodness that is so wonderful look at me for a moment here's what we're going to do maybe you didn't lift your hand you didn't want to do that that's fine we're going to pray a prayer and all of us are going to pray or at least i'm asking you to and we're going to invite jesus into our heart and we're going to take care of some things today and we're going to walk out of here knowing we've taken the first most crucial step in receiving christ you ready to do this this morning everybody out loud say heavenly father i believe in my heart that jesus is your son so now i confess him as my lord and my savior heavenly father i ask you to forgive me of all of my sins cleanse me from all unrighteousness i come home to you today in jesus name i pray amen let's just thank god for those who prayed that prayer so proud of you welcome to the family of god i want you to do me a favor did you take your phone out and if you open up the camera to your phone i'd like for you to point it at the qr code that's up on the screen or the one that's on the back of your seat it's going to take you to a place and i'm going to ask you to take the time to fill that out and we want to send you a free book we want to rejoice with you we want to pray over you take some time to do that today we love you guys we thank you for coming today stand to your feet i was going to pray a prayer over you to bless you but guess what i'm going to bless you by giving you free tony's italian ice how's that and mango flavor is back that's a good one so you guys mixed mingle talk with each other god bless you thank you for being here today and we will see you next sunday join us for our night of worship on friday at seven o'clock [Music] over time

Channel: Winter Haven Worship Center

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Id: Vdw7QJGOpKY

Length: 78min 33sec (4713 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021