1 Corinthians - Don't Become a Stumbling Block (6/14/26)

Man, look at all y'all showing up in the summertime to the nine o'clock trying to beat the heat. We're honored that you are here, grateful for all God's doing in our church family. If you got a Bible, I want to encourage you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. We're continuing our journey through the book of 1 Corinthians, the letter really written to the church in Corinth. As you do that, I want to make note of two things that's happening. Coming tonight, there's an opportunity, man, we're actually hosting Tommy and our orchestra has led an effort and there's several orchestras from churches across the community that's coming together and having a night to really recognize, man, the great liberties we have as a nation. And so they'll be playing a lot of great music and stuff together and manifest something that you would love to be a part of. We would love for you to come tonight, 6 p.m. in this room as a moment in our community. And then this Wednesday night, we have Loft Night at the park in Pearl. And man, we got so many of our great family members that live in Pearl and we love the city of Pearl. And so we wanted to take our Loft Night we do once a summer to really go and pate in Pearl at the awesome park. Lots of great things happening in the city of Pearl. So join us, be a part of that. It'll be an awesome, awesome moment. And man, I am so grateful for what God's been saying to us this summer. How great has the journey through 1 Corinthians been, right? Come on. Makes us talk about stuff. It's good. I know. It's been so uncomfortable lately, let's be honest, right? And what I love about God's word is it makes us walk through the things that we need to hear that we not always want to hear.

And what God's word does, it always works and it gives us contextual clarity in light of relationships, in light of sin struggles. And what I love this about our God is that he doesn't just sort of skirt around the hard things. But because of his great love for us, he speaks directly into them. So we're changing the conversation, which I'm grateful for this morning, but we are speaking to things that are still current in our church here and in our nation now. So you pick up 1 Corinthians chapter 8, I'll give you context in a second, it says, now regarding your question, you got to remember the church in Corinth are writing these questions back to Paul and asking for clarity in light of how to best glorify Christ and be an active witness in the Corinthian culture. Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols, yes, we know that we all have knowledge, in quotations, I'll clarify that in a moment, about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it's love that strengthens the church. For context sake, let me help you understand what was happening. In Corinth, it was a city that was filled with idols and regular idol worship. Many that called for animal sacrifices. So there's these idols, these pagan little G gods that many would worship, and one ways that they would worship was through animal sacrifice. And also simultaneously, in the city of Corinth, there was only a few ways that you could find meat to eat. There was only a few ways that you could go and purchase food to eat, animals specifically. And one of those was in the regular marketplace that you could go, the market square, and you could find places. And guess what they did in that market square? They gouged people with their prices. Can I get a witness, right? Inflation's been real for a long, long time, all right? So that was one way that many people could purchase meat to eat. The other is that they could go to the temple.

And those animals that were sacrificed, after the sacrificial service had happened, those meats were cleaned, and then they were sold by those temples. So you have, in this moment, a collision of culture and following Jesus Christ and practices that matter. And some believers realized that the meats couldn't necessarily be contaminated by the idols, and so they were purchasing those meats that were being sold by the temple, and they're eating it. And then simultaneously, you had other believers, specifically those, imagine contextually, those that had been saved from once worshiping those very idols that couldn't imagine purchasing that food for their family. And you have this conversation that's happening from followers of Christ, some that didn't see it as an issue, and others that saw it as a great issue, and then you had the super spiritual people that were standing forth and saying, listen, well, this is quotation, this is Paul, barring a phrase from the culture, well, we have knowledge. And I'm going to tell you something, one of the things that hinders the work of God more than anything is arrogance. And in this moment, you have some super Christians that are saying, well, listen, you just don't quite understand. If you'll let us help you, we can help you understand why we can eat these meats and it's not a big deal. And their approach to it was a huge problem. And while they might have had an understanding around how idols work, and they might have had an understanding of how an idol can't necessarily contaminate a meat, what they didn't have was concern for their family. They didn't have concern for the family of God. And in many ways, this is the same conversation that still happens in our day around things called Christian liberty, Christian freedom.

Well, I can be a follower of Christ and yet do this. I can be a follower of Christ, and we have many liberties in Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen, right? That through the finished work of Christ, man, we have the freedom that's been purchased on our behalf to actually live free. But many times the conversation around what I can do and what I can't do turns to arrogance. And that conversation, which we're not gonna have a conversation today about the application of can we eat meats that have been sacrificed to idols or not, but every generation has the same conversation in a different context. The same spirit can be found, listen to me, arrogance always rises to the surface. For us, we might not be wrestling through what meats we might can eat or not, but that conversation may look more like, hey, I can be a cross follower and still watch these kinds of shows. I can be a cross follower and still do these kinds of things. I can be a cross follower and still speak in this kind of manner. I can be a cross follower and still partake of these kind of things. And as you continue in that conversation, your confidence gets bigger and bigger.

And before you know it, you can tell people why you can do what you feel like you can do. And in one generation, that might have been playing cards and betting on those things. In another context and generation, it might be online betting. And one day it might be smoking and another day it might be vaping. And one conversation it might have been these words and this day is these words. It wasn't back then, but it sure is now, can be social media and what social media I can have and what kinds of things I can say, what kind of online persona I can have. And if you don't watch it as a follower of Christ, the spirit starts to rise in the heart of that cross follower. I have a right to do this act, to think this way, to speak. And I wanna say this, regardless of what we can or can't do as a follower of Christ, the moments arrogance arrives, we've already lost. The moment the pride starts to bubble to the surface and we start, and listen to me, and we stop thinking about other people, we got a bigger issue.

I have the right to do this as a follower of Christ kind of spirit. Often it already declares I'm already wrong. So I'm gonna go ahead and do something that you should never do as a pastor. I'm gonna go ahead and give you the principles across the whole text of scripture because I want you to catch it, okay? Here's a question that we need to ask and be able to answer. What is a good way to approach decisions that may impact somebody else's personal convictions? What's a good way to approach decisions in our everyday life, in every season of our life, that might impact others' personal convictions? Again, around things that you might watch or wear, or I'm not gonna give you illustrations, places that you might can go or not, or things you might could be a part of or not, what things you might could post or not, or substance that you might partake in or not. What's a good way to answer this question in light of our everyday life? Well, here's three things I'm gonna give you and I'm gonna show you in the scripture. One, humble yourself. Humble yourself. If you arrive at these conversations with arrogance, you're in trouble. One, humble yourself.

Second thing, you ready? Consider others first. Humble yourself. Consider others first. And third, in light of those first two things, choose what best glorifies Jesus Christ. Now, can you imagine now, listen, regardless, I'm gonna show you this in the text of scripture. If each and every one of us engaged in our everyday lives with this kind of mindset, one, I'm coming in humility before God that is all-knowing, that actually cares about everyone. And then I'm not gonna consider myself first, I'm gonna consider others first. How this might impact somebody else. And then in light of those first two things, I'm gonna choose what best glorifies Jesus Christ. Do you not think that's a godly grid, right? In our everyday decision-making. Now, let's lean into the text. Verse two, anyone who claims to know all the answers, this is why I'm reading from the New Living, I love this. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much. Come on now, somebody got an amen in the house? Anybody ever known a topper? That's, in my family, that's what we used to say, toppers, that's the person that always knew. They always taught you, right? They always had an answer to it.

That's funny, you can borrow that, okay? What Paul is saying, anyone that arrives at any. And any question who already presumes they have an answer is arrogant. But then he gives this comparative in the next part of the verse, verse three. But the person who loves God is the one who God recognizes. In these first couple of passages of Scripture, God already makes a clarifying statement. Listen to me, it's love that strengthens the church. A love for people. It's love for God that helps you make decisions about everyday things. It's going back to the great commandment, love God, love people. And if you'll get that right, everything else lays out in life. The question that we have to answer personally is do we wanna be known as the one that always knows? Or do we wanna be known as the one that is always following? Do we wanna be known as the one that always has the answer? Or do we wanna be known as the one that's in passionate pursuit of the one that knows all things? Humility is one of the most attractive things to God. Come on, right? There's something about humility in the heart of a human being

that invites the presence of God, right? There's something that when God looks and he finds those that are seeking him for answers in every occasion of their life, every decision that God grants wisdom, discernment, helps come to decisions. But there's also something about arrogance that runs God from our mere presence. And when Christians stand claiming to have a handle around what really any issue, when Christians stand and going like, I know, around their own personal convictions and how that might impact others, it wreaks of pride. The I can do this and follow cross attitude, listen to me, is at best broken, listen to me, at worst demonic. At best, it's broken. At worst, it's invited entanglement, destruction. Interesting how Paul puts these two things together. Following, he says, but the person who loves God. Go back to verse two. He says, anyone who claims to have all the answers and doesn't really know very much, but the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. The person that thinks they have all the answers and the person that loves God are two distinct different people. The person that thinks they have full understanding on their own and the one that's in passionate pursuit

are different people. What he's saying is the person that loves God sees all things in life as secondary to a passionate pursuit of him. The person that is more concerned, listen to me, more concerned about this than they are what they get to do here. I'm more concerned with being rightly aligned than what I get to do in life. I wanna be in passionate pursuit of him and in light of that, make decisions about my everyday life. The side-by-side comparison of these two passages is this, listen to me, do you wanna be known as a lover of self or a lover of God? 2 Timothy shows us this in another passage, 2 Timothy 3, one through three, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty, why? For people will be lovers of self. Lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good. Now nobody wakes up in a season going like, there's my goal, right? You never read that passage and thought, you know what, that's what I'm aiming for. But let me tell you what arrogance and pride does, or listen to me, even around our own personal liberty,

what it does, listen to me, is to live a self-promoting life, that I want it all and I want it now. Or satisfaction can be found in anything other fully to the utmost other than him. So on we go, it goes, Paul is making this declaration, you got a decision, will you, here's the principle again, humble yourself, humble yourself. Hey, would you this morning, let God turn on that divine flashlight? I'm gonna tell you, I've shared this recently even, I'm in one of those seasons with the Lord, one, the Lord is allowing a few little help things to help humble me. Come on, right? Listen, just keep living, you'll get yours too, all right? Hmm. Let me tell you what humility does, listen to me, while it might hurt in the moment, it helps in the long run. And I'm in one of those seasons, just personally, I mean this, look, where I'm loving the light. I mean, God, is there any motive, is there any agenda, is there any hindrance? You've taken care of a lot of big things on the peripheral of my life, on the surface, easy to distinguish things, but how about the inner world? How about the mind, how about the heart, how about what motivates what we do?

I told you, Andy Heiss, the disciple of me, country is cornbread, right? If you've met him, you know what I'm talking about. Remember one of the statements he said that I have to continually remember, he said, Kyle, you go get in the presence of God tomorrow morning and you ask God to turn on his divine flashlight and show you stuff in you that's you. And I thought, you're the weirdest human being I've ever met in my life. Until I walked into the presence of the Lord the next morning and I said, Lord, turn on the flashlight, let me see what you see. I'm gonna tell you something, I've been walking with God 26, 27 years now, I'm 45 years old, God has always answered that prayer. Turn on that flashlight, show me what you see, show me what's motivating these things, show me what makes me arrogant or desirous of things that are temporal instead of those things which are eternal. Listen to me, humility might sound like loss, but it only promises gain. It promises his presence, it welcomes God's activity. Listen to me, it welcomes, listen to me, God's blessing, humility welcomes God's clarity. It welcomes God's help, it welcomes God's work. Humility not only helps you, it helps others. It helps establish your family,

it helps establish your own personal convictions and convictions that bring clarity for others. And listen to me, I love our nation, we have much to celebrate, but listen to me, there is a easy line to trend toward pride, that we're owed something. And I'm gonna let you in on a secret, the kingdom of God trumps this little kingdom. And in Christ, listen to me, everything we've received is from him. And standing before him saying, I have a right to this is wrong. But standing in front of him saying, in light of what I received, what do you say? In light of what I've gained through the gospel, how would you call me now to live? Verse four, it goes, he clarifies, so what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a God, I love that, right? Paul's going like, hey, let's clarify, that little idol is not God. And I'm gonna just say something to you, and here's the beauty of scripture, every little idol we ever create in the human heart is an idol-making factory, it is. We can make an idol out of family, man, we can make an idol out of recreation, we can make an idol out of wealth, we can make an idol out of home,

we can make an idol out of anything, and all of them lack deity. Any idol lacks transcendence, it lacks sovereignty, it lacks power, it lacks authority. And Paul just puts it out there going like, guys, get this, that idol will never be God. So let me clarify that. There may be so-called gods, both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords, but for us, there is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created and for whom we live, and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we live. Paul says, let me just clarify this conversation around this we all know that that's not God, that it doesn't carry authority and power sovereignly or supremely, it doesn't have transcendence, there's only one, I love, just here's an additional principle, idols are incapable of being God. Yet, if we're honest, many of us, in many different times in life, we'll find ourself bowing to serve one, will we not? We'll bow to try to find life from one, and I just wanna say this, and let God show you this. Whatever idol you may be serving, and while it might, for a moment, make life seem better, it might even let life get bigger, it'll never be able to promote real life. On the inside of every idol is hollowness,

and every idol, hear me now, will one day burn, come on. It will be one day cast down before him, what God? One of the greatest things that could happen now is to learn how to see that idol crushed, killed, put to death. Man, listen to me, Katie and I are continually wrestling through what those idols could easily be in our life. What those idols could easily become in our everyday experiences. There's a fine line, hear me now, it's a big statement. There's a fine line between things we enjoy and idols we worship. That's a big statement. There's a fine line between things we enjoy and idols we worship. And every season of your life calls for you to take inventory. To take inventory over those things because the human heart gravitates. Paul clarifies and then he gets back into the conversation around idols and meat and all those kind of things. Verse seven, it says, however, not all believers know this. Not everybody understands this fully, how the spiritual war and spiritual world work. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real. Some, when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods and their weak consciences are violating.

It's true that we can't win God's approval by what we eat and we don't lose anything if we don't eat it and we don't gain anything if we do. Here's Paul clarifying what is spiritually true while moving their minds towards those in the church family that they should care about. Meaning, he's saying, hey, listen, you might be right in a theological sense around the idol, but you're wrong in the sense of how you're caring for people. You might have the right theology, listen to me, you just don't have the right love for people. And sure, listen, he goes, you can't win or you can't lose God's approval if you eat meat or if you don't eat meat that's sacrificed to an idol. You're not gonna win with God based off your actions or reactions in this moment. But look at me, but you might win or lose a brother. But you might win or lose a family member. But you might win or lose the influence and the integrity in the eyes of the next generation. What Paul is saying, listen to me, it's not even about can you or can't you, it's about what you might lose if you do. You might lose fellowship, man, you might lose influence. And I'm gonna tell you something, in light of our manner of life, in light of what we do in life, in light of what we say, in light of what we partake,

a good question is this, is it worth it? Is it worth what we might lose? Do we want anything in our life that might be a hindrance to our witness? Verse nine, he says, but you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. For if others see you with your superior knowledge, that's in quotations, he's borrowing a phrase from culture. Because in the Corinthian society, everybody was after wisdom, everybody was intellectual aspirations, everybody was after knowledge. For if others see you with your superior knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, won't they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? So because of your superior knowledge, a weaker believer from whom Christ died will be destroyed. He's saying, do you want to listen to me through an action that might not even be inherently sinful, might cause a problem, might not even be inherently sinful, might cause a brother or sister to stumble and find themselves again in bondage? Is it worth it? To come to the place, look at me, people of God, to come to a place in our life saying, I don't want anything in my life that might make someone else stumble.

The ways that I talk, the manner in which I respond, the things in which I do, the things that I live for, the decisions that I make, is there any way that someone on the peripheral of my life might struggle with this response? And let me tell you what Paul's not calling for. Hear me now, rigidity. He sure ain't preaching legalism. What he's trying to help is frame perspective. What things are gonna matter a million years from now is that I have no freedom that gives me the right to violate the conscience of another. That's a huge statement. So let's have some truth time, you ready? Come on, I love this about the Word because the Word turns the light on. No shame, don't run and hide, don't be afraid of what God might show us. Truth time, what areas of our life could be a genuine stumbling block for another? What manner, what message, man, what way in which we respond, what things that we do, what things that we partake, what things in our life could be a stumbling block for somebody else that, listen to me, that might have, at one point, worshiped at that idol. And then the conversation comes around, they'll say, man, listen, I can tweet that, do that, post that, I do it all. And I'm not, listen to me,

I'm not throwing a legalistic shade, saying we gotta just go live in a little bubble somewhere and not talk to anybody, we're not creating our own form of the S-things like they did where they moved themselves out of culture and had to live quiet, I'm not saying we gotta start making our own clothes and churning our own butter, all right? That's funny right there, I don't care what you say. But what I am saying is that we should rightly consider how our decisions might impact another generation. And I ask for a second, hear me, I remember Steve Gaines that was Katie and I's pastor when I first came into the kingdom, I'll never forget when he said this. One, because I actually understood the implications of this, he said, you know what? What one generation does in moderation, the next will likely do in excess. What doors are we opening? That might hurt the future of the faith. So some truth time, what areas of growth do you have? What things is the spirit of God doing? What things might hinder somebody's understanding of the gospel or harm their view of the gospel? What things is the spirit of God doing that might hinder somebody's understanding of the gospel? Or harm their view of you or hinder their walk with God? I've never met a follower of Jesus, a sincere follower of Jesus Christ

that their spiritual goal was to become a stumbling block. I've never seen somebody go, man, I love Jesus so much, I hope I really help people stumble in their faith. Right, come on. All I've ever known is sincere followers of Christ, you wanna be a springboard, right? You want people to be able to see what God's doing in you and be a springboard to future faithfulness and fruitfulness for the kingdom of God. In light of that, what decisions might we make today? What's the right spirit around that? Well, Paul, again, in Philippians 2, echoes the same thing again, verses three and four. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility. Count others more significant than yourself. It's the same spirit that Jesus had, by the way. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but the interest of others. Meaning in my manner of life, in my decision-making life, in my demeanor in life, in decisions I'm making, the way I'm living, I wanna think about you. Am I paving a path to the person of Jesus? Am I paving a path in my manner of life that will make you think about the kingdom of God? Or are the things that I'm living for now make you think about here now? Or him in there? In what ways can I make adjustments in light of this? So listen, the first thing's humble yourself. The second thing is consider others first.

Consider others first. True humility is not self-deprecation. It's not beating yourself up. True humility is not saying, I stink, I stink, I stink, I stink. Oh man, that's an insult to the God that made you. True humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. Meaning I'm not the point, I'm not the end goal. It's saying about me, how does this bring about good for others? How are or could my actions, decisions impact others in light of that? What adjustments do I need to make? What things am I willing? And this is what I love. This is from Paul. I can't wait to meet him one day because he's like an all-in guy. I love where he goes with this. Verse 12, he says, and when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you're ultimately sinning against Christ. Meaning it's not just here, it goes beyond them to him. So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live for I do not want to cause another believer to stumble. Let me tell you what Paul did not just do. He didn't go vegan.

But this is his heart though. Man, if this is gonna hurt you connecting to him, if this is gonna hurt our fellowship, I'll never eat barbecue again. Right, ooh, that hurt. And what Paul didn't do, okay, in that moment is go vegan. What Paul did say is, though, that's gotta be the spirit that you carry. You gotta get to that place of resolve going like, there's nothing in my life that God has granted and blessed me with that I won't willingly lay down for the good of others. There's nothing in my life that I won't willingly surrender for the sake of your flourishing in Christ and for the kingdom. That I'm not trying to fill my hands, I'm not trying to fill my head, I'm not trying to fill my heart with the things of this world. I want love for God and love for you to be predominant, supreme. And if that means surrendering some things, here they die. Today. Today. Because I realize to sin against a brother is ultimately to sin against God. And when I hurt, listen to me, here's the thing, we gotta catch this. There should be such a beauty in the family of God,

a genuine concern for one another that the watching world goes, I want in that family. Because if I hurt you, I grieve him. If I hurt you, I grieve him. And I don't want to hurt you because I sure don't want to grieve him. And I'm willing to choose, listen to me, here's the last statement, Ms. Lawrence is gonna come and play. I'm willing to choose what best glorifies Christ. I'm gonna humble myself, humble myself, in light of my personal holiness and in light of decisions to be made about what things can, can't, all those things, I'm gonna humble myself, I'm gonna choose others first, I'm gonna think, I'm gonna consider others first, and then in light of those things, I'm gonna choose what best glorifies Christ. Instead of, listen to me, let me tell you what I think, and if you wanted to go online and get lost, and don't, by the way, in the mind-numbing conversations that followers of Christ have around what they can and can't do anymore, and how we, listen to me, and how we destroy one another. It's crazy. Instead of going, here's a question,

how do we follow Jesus with all that we have? How do we together advance the purposes of his kingdom? How does our manner of life line up to the reality eternity is coming? How do we live as a family and fellowship now in light of being family forever? How do I choose, listen to me, your interest over my own? How do I willingly die that we might live more fully together? In light of that, surrender anything. Lay down any self-perceived rot that we might rightly glorify God. Good question is asked, Lord, in light of doing, thinking, living, speaking, doing this, does it bring life? If it doesn't, let it die. Hallelujah. Let me tell you what I love. The Lord loves us too much to leave darkness that might become bondage. The Lord loves us too much to leave darkness that might become bondage. The Lord loves us to me, and I'm telling you, Jesus is not a legalist, hallelujah. He's a life giver. And what God's not saying, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, God's saying this way, this way, this way, because in me is life and life more abundant. Just bow your head for a moment. And God's word gets us where we need to be

and the places we need to use or places of confession repentance is our things that should be willingly laid down and willingly lay down. Like God, I just, it's just not worth it. It's not even fully about, is it right or wrong, it's just not wise. It just don't make sense in light of eternity. It doesn't make sense in light of my witness. It doesn't make sense in light of the greater good of the family of God and the kingdom of God. And because of that, Lord, I gladly relinquish my rights. Some of our prayer leaders gonna be down here, man, if you just need help, I know this, I've had so many seasons in my life, I needed somebody to pray for me. As I was breaking ties with something in my life Freedom moments. I'm gonna tell you this. I don't know a follower of Christ that doesn't need a moment of deliverance All of us need seasons of discipleship, but I've never met a believer that didn't need a moment of deliverance for something's broke So don't just hear these words this morning how about respond to the Lord and you can come let somebody pray for you this Morning, we pray for people every week about a myriad of things and I promise you this ain't nobody's wondering why you've come to the front It's probably helping others realize man. You know what? I need to get prayed for too So if you need to be prayed for for something you can go ahead and come Now with every head bowed every eye closed I'd ask this this morning. Is there anybody in the room that needs Jesus to make you alive for the first time? I mean you need the gospel of Jesus Christ To come and change you make you a new creation The old is gone. The new has come that you need to be saved by faith in Christ

That's you this morning when nobody else looking around I'm not gonna embarrass you if in the course of this service you realized I Need God's life in me for the first time I need Jesus to make me a part of his family if you need Jesus to save you bold moment real quick I want you to look at me right now and just raise your hand say Kyle. I need that. I need that Awesome. Hallelujah, bro Others, let me see Got it The best the best the best I Love that Jesus is pursuing people. He's pursuing you those that looked and those that didn't here's the simplicity of the gospel again Jesus lived the life. You couldn't live died the death you deserve defeated death in his resurrection That he might extend to you the gift of salvation You turn from your sin put trust in his work on your behalf So that's you this morning. I know it was some of you If you looked or not and you meant it once you say this Lord, here I am Your heart you're talking to him right now, Lord. Here I am I'm turning from my sin I'm putting trust In your saving work on my behalf Save me I want to follow you If that was you this morning and I know it was some of you welcome to the family of God Hey to those that did just pray that minute once you look at me again for a second those that just did prayed it a Minute we got this for you I'm I ask you make a bold move you got to make it though To solidify this decision when you walk out of this room, you have to walk past the next step center We got some of our staff some of our leaders volunteers. They're all you got to do All you got to do those that did this is just walk by that next step center and say hey, I need a box If you'll say that we'll take it from there Just want a few minutes of you with you to celebrate this day and help you take next steps Hear me do it Do it

God will honor that step of obedience. I'm gonna pray for us We're gonna stand and worship if you'd allow us to pray with you about anything if you want to do business with God This is the time to do it Don't miss this moment father. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for your work and activity in our lives Thank you for your truth. I pray now you give us the courage to respond to you in Jesus name Amen, let's stand let's worship if you need to be prayed for help healing hope restored We're here honored to you as we worship It came to the world you create