A Pro-Vision of Provision

We are so happy to be here today. Would you join us in worship? Come on. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ I saw Satan fall like lightning ♪ ♪ I saw darkness run for cover ♪ ♪ But the miracle that I just can't get over ♪ ♪ My name is registered in heaven ♪ ♪ I believe in signs and wonders ♪ ♪ I have resurrection power ♪ ♪ Still the miracle that I just can't get over ♪ ♪ My name is registered in heaven ♪ ♪ All my praise belongs to You forever ♪ ♪ This is my testimony from death to life ♪ ♪ Cause grace rewrote my story, I'll testify ♪ ♪ By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, this is my testimony, yeah ♪ ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ ♪ Come together sons and daughters ♪ ♪ Bowed with blood and washed in water ♪ ♪ Seek the praises of the spirit Son and Father ♪ ♪ Our God will finish where He started ♪ ♪ Yes, our God will finish where He started ♪ ♪ This is my testimony from death to life ♪ ♪ His grace rewrote my story, I'll testify ♪ ♪ By Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, this is my testimony, yeah, oh yeah ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, this is my testimony, yeah, oh yeah ♪ ♪ If I'm not dead, then you're not dead ♪ ♪ And greater things are still to come, oh, I believe ♪

♪ If I'm not dead, then you're not dead ♪ ♪ And greater things are still to come, oh, I believe ♪ ♪ If I'm not dead, then you're not dead ♪ ♪ And greater things are still to come, oh, I believe ♪ ♪ If I'm not dead, then you're not dead ♪ ♪ And greater things are still to come, oh, I believe ♪ ♪ We believe, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ When I'm sure of my story, I testify ♪ ♪ For Jesus Christ the righteous, I'm justified ♪ ♪ This is my testimony, this is my testimony, yeah, oh ♪ We've got your God's word. Oh, the praise of Jesus. Yeah. Come on, we're here to praise Him for the life that He's given us. Come on, let's declare His testimony that He is good, that He is a faithful God. Oh yes, we declare it together. Sing, I searched the world. ♪ I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me ♪ ♪ And man's empty praise and treasures that fade ♪ ♪ Are never enough, and you came along, and you came along ♪ ♪ And you put me back together, yes ♪ ♪ And every desire is now satisfied here in your love ♪ Come on, let's testify in this place. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Oh, yes, I know it's true.

Yeah. I'm not afraid. Come on. I'm not afraid to show you my weakness, my failures and flaws. Lord, you've seen them all, and you still call me friend. Come on. Sing it to him. He's the God. He's the God of the mountain. He's the God. He's the God of the valley. There's no place. Come on. There's not a place. Your mercy and grace won't find me again. Come on, if you're grateful, sing it. Oh, yeah. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Oh, we respond to your goodness today. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Lord, there's nothing. Come on. Nothing is better than you. Nothing is better. Oh, we're here to declare it, to declare your goodness.

Come on, sing it out. You turn mourning. You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. Yes, you do. Come on. You turn shame into glory. You're the only. You're the only one who can. Come on. You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. Yes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only. You're the only one who can. You turn grace. Come on. You turn grace into guidance. Hey. You turn bones into armor. You turn seas, yeah. You turn seas into highways. You're the, you're the only one who can. You're the only. You're the only one who can. Oh, yeah. There's nothing. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you.

Oh, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Come on, sing that to him today. Let him hear you sing it out. There's nothing. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing. Oh, there's nothing better. We believe. Oh, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Come on, he's still moving. Sing it out. You turn it crazy. You turn grace into guidance. You turn bones into armor. You turn seas, yeah. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. You turn it crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You turn grace into guidance. Yeah. You turn bones into armor. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. Sing it again. You're the only. You're the only one. One more time.

You're the only. You're the only one who can. Oh, yes. You're the only one who can. Come on, yeah, we give you praise, Jesus. You're so worthy of it all. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll sing it one more time. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you, Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Respond to His goodness today, sing. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing, nothing is better than you. Remind your soul, oh, remind your soul this morning that He is greater. He's greater than the trial. He's greater than the pain. He's greater than the disease. He's greater than the shortfall. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're greater. There's nothing better than you, Jesus. Just respond in gratitude this morning as we worship a King that is in the room. That He has justified us this morning. That He sees us as whole. He sees us as loved. He sees us as accepted, as paid for. Just give Him your love and your adoration today.

Oh, we trust and believe. You're faithful to the end. You're faithful to my heart. Oh, thank you, Jesus. So we trust you right now. Oh, yes, I'm gonna wait on you. I've tasted your goodness. I trust in your promise. I'm gonna wait on you. I'm gonna wait, gonna wait on your call. I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait on your provision. I'm gonna wait, gonna wait on your healing today. You're good for it. You're good for it. You're faithful to the end, Jesus. You're faithful to the end, Jesus. So I'm gonna wait on you. Sing that one more time, oh, there's nothing. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing, nothing is better than you. Oh, there's nothing better, one more time. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing, nothing is better than you. Oh, yes, oh, yes. Oh, yes, oh, yes. There's nothing better than your love. Love goes deeper. Love is stronger.

Come on, let's sing. And I felt your love cover my shame. I've heard you say you love me anyway. As I will draw near you through all of the pain. As I know you're here. And I've seen you move, how only you do. As God, you are faithful, your promises are true. Lord, we are here. We're ready for you. So come move like you do. In your presence. In your presence, there is freedom. You have broken every chain. In your presence. There is healing. You call bones to life again. Jesus. We call on your name. Jesus. Your name is higher than my one desire. So I will lift my voice and sing. Come on, sing his name. Jesus. Lord, there's no one better. There's no other name like yours. I've seen you move. I've seen you move. How only you do. God, you are faithful. Your promises are true. Lord, we are here. We're ready for you. So come move like you do. In your presence. Come on. In your presence, there is freedom. You have broken every chain. We believe for it. In your presence, there is healing. You call bones to life again. Yes, you do. Jesus. Jesus. Your name is higher. Your name is higher. My one desire. So I will lift my voice and sing.

Jesus. Oh, yeah. We believe in that name. Oh, yes, we sing in that name. The name is greater. The name is stronger than our situation, than our circumstance. So we press forward. We press on. Let's declare this. Come on, together. I will never stop chasing after you. Come on. Sing, I will never stop. I will never stop. Chasing your glory. Telling your story. I will never stop. I will never stop. Chasing your glory. Telling your story. Come on, lift your voice. I will never stop. No, I will never stop. Chasing your glory. Come on, faith, fill the room. Oh, yes, I will never. I will never stop. No, I will never stop chasing. Chasing your glory. Telling the story of Jesus. Oh, yeah. Telling the story of Jesus. Your name is higher. Your name is higher than my one desire. So I will lift my voice and sing. The only name is Jesus. Oh, yes, Jesus. Sing that name. Jesus. Sing that name over your situation this morning. Oh, yes, Jesus. Oh, yes, your name is powerful. Jesus. We worship your name, Jesus. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. ♪ Worthy of all, so worthy of all our praise today ♪ ♪ Oh, it's me, it's me, it's me, it's me, it's me, it's me ♪ Jesus, thank you so much that we can come to the Father in your name. The name above every other name in heaven and on earth. There's authority in your name, Jesus.

There's power, and you've given us your name in our hearts so that we can carry hope to the ends of this world. Lord, today I pray that in Jesus' name you would strengthen us, you would teach us, you would meet us here, that we wouldn't be left the same so that we could go out. Carry your name and what it represents, the hope and the healing and the life and the peace that the name of Jesus represents, God, that we would go beyond these walls to share your love, to share your good news to those who are in darkness, who are hurting, who need hope in their life. Right now, Father, some of us, we need more and more of your presence and your spirit to be who you want us to be. And so, God, I pray that as we surrender to you in your presence right now that you would replace everything we give to you, all of our burdens, all of our struggles, all of our desires, God, your name is higher than all of that, and so we surrender it to you that you may have your will in our lives and in this place, that we may be the people that you created us to be, that we would be filled with hope and peace and power in the name of Jesus. Thank you so much, God. This time is yours. We're excited for what's gonna happen, for how you're gonna meet us here, and we lift up all these prayers in your name

and all the people that God said. Amen and amen. Come on, let's continue to celebrate it as we have a seat this morning. I love that the truth of God's word is that his promises remain and they'll never come back to him, his word will never come back to him void. And so what that means for us is even if we don't feel it, we should still take time to celebrate his goodness because he's gonna be good regardless of how we feel. And so if we would just change our perspective and celebrate him in advance, it really helps us in this journey called life. Well, welcome. Welcome to the perfect place for imperfect people. I'm Eric, I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm wearing pink, and I'm wearing these very bright pink sneakers in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I know that we have some survivors here, and I know that we, six years, Debbie, we're celebrating with you. And I know that we're praying for some people here in our church family who are going through this difficulty right now. So this is why I'm wearing pink, but also I like to wear my feelings. Anyone else like that? Like if I'm sad, I'm slow, and I'm sluggish, and how's that going?

If I'm angry, I get tense, my face gets really ugly, and it's hard for me to move. But when I'm happy, oh man, I got a little pep in my step, I'm singing, I'm dancing, I'm like in the West Side Story, like I can't keep it to myself when there's something good happening in my life. When I hear good news, I just live it out with all of who I am, and I don't wanna keep it to myself. And I know there's a lot of us here like that. And this is why we're in this series called Good News. Listen to what Proverbs says in chapter 15, verse 30. It says, the light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones. You continue on in Proverbs 25, 25, like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news. Now we know this here in South Florida, because it is hot. I'm so grateful it's October. I'm so grateful that it's actually fall weather, and I don't have to sweat in the jackets I wear every single week. We'll only get a few days of this weather, so enjoy it while it's here. But we know this in South Florida that if we don't stay hydrated, we will become parched, and we will become dehydrated, and it'll just mess up our day.

And so what the word of God is saying, just like we need water. In order to strengthen our bodies, we need good news to strengthen our souls. So we're in this series called Good News, and we wanna celebrate good news, and I wanna do that right now. Let's celebrate some good news. Daniela DeVecchio, we're celebrating with you that you just finished your certification to be a nurse assistant this week. Can we celebrate that? Lot of hard work. Congratulations to you, Daniela. Evan Williams, one of my friends, he's been praying for a new opportunity, praying for a new job, and last week he actually started it. We're congratulating, we're celebrating with Evan. Let's do that right now. Janet Faye, she wanted to celebrate that her daughter Jacqueline, she just started a connect group this week with some college girls. She's getting connected. We're celebrating that with you as well. We know how difficult college can be and the fact that you have a community. Josiah Traya, he's typically up here leading us in worship. He turned 18 this week.

Josiah, you are a man now. No, you've always been a man. And James, James in the back, we're celebrating your daughter, Sianna, who's just a little evangelist. She goes out and she invites people to church and she invited people a few weeks ago and they've been coming to church. We're celebrating with you guys. It's awesome. Good news is contagious. It just makes you feel good. It's good for our bones. So we wanna hear your good news. Every week we've been talking about, so we just put a good news booth out in the breezeway. Go there, record some good news, share with us of what God is doing. Last week we got some great stories. We can't wait to share that with you. You can also go to thelocalchurch.com slash goodnews and on there you'll see all the sermons, all the good news gifts that we've been able to bless, some resource for you to invest in, invite into other people. But we also want to hear your good news. And next week we're gonna celebrate a whole bunch of good news. I can't wait to share a lot of these stories with you. In this series we also wanted to create some good news.

And if you've been here the past two weeks, you know we've given away like $25,000 already to meet some needs right here in our church familia. And so we're gonna do that again today, but at the end of service. Because before we get to that, I wanna share some personal good news with you. I got a message this week from someone who reached out to me and who wants to share millions of dollars with me. It's awesome. They sent me an email. He was a Nigerian prince and he said, he said he just got all this inheritance. It's hard to spend it. And so he wanted to share that with me. And all I had to do is real simple. I just had to send him $1,000 through PayPal to his email richprince87ataol.com. It's legit, right? He has an AOL email. He's working it through PayPal. I had to do friends and family. I couldn't do it with a fee or anything. But listen, we know that that's a scam, right? Like if I was foolish enough to send him my money, I would have not gotten anything in return. And there's a lot of hopes in this world that fail to meet our expectations. And so many of us, we chase after them.

We look for hope in this life and we search after things that will satisfy. We look for new life and new love and health in this world. But we seek after these things, these substances, these things that will never satisfy. But the good news is that while we seek after these things, God himself has been seeking after us. And he seeks after us because he loves us. And he wants to be in relationship with us. He wants us to experience all of his goodness forever. This is the good news that we get to experience. And all of it has already been done. There's nothing that we can do to add to this. We can't add anything to what Jesus has already done. When he hung up on that cross, he shouted these final words. He says, it is finished. Everything necessary for us to be set free, for us to be healed, for us to have hope, for us to have a home forever in heaven, Jesus took care of. And so we can't add to it. It's not Jesus plus baptism. It's not Jesus plus good works. It's not Jesus plus giving. It's not Jesus plus anything, because Jesus plus anything, it ruins everything. He's done the work already. We just surrender to him. We just receive that for ourselves. Because it's all about Jesus.

It's always. and all about Jesus. Jesus alone saves. But what I wanna talk about today is now that we have received this good news, there is a part that you and I get to play. So I want you to write this down. The good news was paid by Jesus, but we still have a part to play in it. The good news was paid in full, nothing we can do to earn it, to add to it, been paid in full by Jesus, but we still have a part to play in it. And I can't stress it enough. It is a free gift that has been given to us. All we can do is respond and receive it. And that's what it means to have faith in Jesus, to place our faith in Jesus when we surrender and we receive what he's already done. But the reason why faith works is because faith works. Do you understand that? Faith does something. I've titled today's teaching a Pro-Vision, a positive outlook, a Pro-Vision on provision. And I wanna challenge us today to see giving away as something good. I wanna challenge all of us in here to see what a faith looks like that is put into practice that actually works.

See, one of our values here is that faith happens here, meaning giving God all of who I am is the greatest gift that I could offer him. A lot of you, you're familiar with that phrase because we talked about it several weeks ago in the context of self-control and spending. And what we talked about about a month ago was that when it comes to self-control and spending, a lot of us, instead of having self-control, we are selfish. We hoard what we have to ourselves. And when it comes to faith, when it comes to this good news, I find it eerily similar, that when it comes to this good news, instead of giving it away, most of us, we keep it to ourselves. The good news is a good that must be given away. The second big idea I want you to get. The good news is a good that must be given away. James 2.14, here's what James says. He says, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but he does not have works? Can that faith save him? And that's a good question. Can that faith save this person? Christians, we talk a lot about being saved, but I think many of us, we don't really know what we're being saved from. In fact, the good news for a lot of people

who come to church is really just good advice. We wanna hear good advice of how I can live a better life, of how I can be more honest, of how I can be a better Christian, of how I can be a better spouse, of how I can be a better parent or child. And there's nothing wrong with good advice. All of us, we need good advice at some point in our lives, but good advice is not the same thing as good news. See, news is this. News is an announcement that something significant has happened. And when we get good news, good news is supposed to be shared. Good news is supposed to be given away. It's not supposed to be kept to ourselves. And so this good news is that we are saved from sin, from Satan, from hell, from death. We are saved from all of this, and we have an eternal home in heaven where there's peace and hope and no more tears and no more sickness forever. We get all of that when we give our lives to him, when we have faith in Jesus. And so James, he asked, can this type of faith save us? Somebody like this type. Well, what do you mean this type? Are there several types of faith or is there only one? There's only one type of faith. But just like love, a lot of us,

we have different definitions of what faith is. And so he gives us this example, James 2.15. He says, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed, be filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? Turn to someone next to you and ask them, what good is that? What good is that? And you know what that is? That's religion. See, religion says a whole lot, but it doesn't do a whole lot. Religion likes to pander and gives these nice package phrases, like when God closes a door, he still opens up a window. Religion likes to throw out prayers. Hey, I'm praying for you. I see the need that you have. I'm going to be praying for that situation for you. Can I just challenge us to stop praying prayers and to start answering them? Don't just pray for somebody. Be the answer to their prayer. They're cold. They need a coat. I'll be praying that you get one. You already have one. It's in your closet. You haven't worn in three seasons. Give it to them. You see someone who's hungry. Oh, I'm praying that God gives you some food. Go to your cupboard and give it to them. Be the answer to the thing that you're praying for. He says, what good is that if we see a need and we give these religious responses, but we do nothing with it? God wants us to have a provision of provision of what it means to provide for other people. So James 2.17 continues. So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, it is dead. Do you know what dead people do? Exactly. Not your question. Dead people do nothing.

Do you know what faith that's dead does? I want you to write this down. Faith that's dead does nothing to show the good news to people. Does nothing. Faith that's dead is lip service and not lifestyle. You don't see in the way someone is living. There are a lot of Christians who have faith that's dead. You don't serve. You don't give. You don't participate. You don't care at all. All you do is talk. And here's the thing. People far from God who need the hope of Jesus, they don't actually care what you know until they can see that you actually care about them. Too many of us, myself included, for such a long time, we've had faith that's dead. All we've done is talk about it. And if all we do is talk, but we don't follow it up with showing, we don't follow it up with doing something, like James asked, what good is that? And he continues on in verse 18. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, James says, and I will show you my faith by my works. Someone will say, you have faith and I have works. It was this conversation going on about 2,000 years ago that's still continuing in the church today. We have these two segments of people. We have these faith not works people, and on the other side we have these works not faith people.

And the works not faith people, they will say that you can actually work for your salvation. That you can do good things to earn it. That if you give, and if you serve, and you pray your rosary, and you go to Mecca, and you pray off your karmic debt, you can actually work your way into goodness and earn this free gift of God. And again, that's religion. It's constantly working, working, working, hoping you can do enough to be accepted. But being religious and being in a relationship with Jesus are two complete things. See, in every and all religion, they give you a job description. They give you a list of things to do. Depending on the religion, it's different. But they say, if you just follow this, you will be good. But the reality is, none of us can do enough good to be perfect, which is God's standard. So Jesus has come and has already done the work for us. He's done what we cannot do. He's helped those who cannot help themselves. And so we just trust in Him. We place our faith in Him, not our works. But then we have some people who take that to extreme, and they're the faith-not-works people. And maybe you've met some of these people. There's a lot of these people in the church who say, listen, we don't have to do all of that stuff. If all we do is preach the good news, that's enough. If all we do is tell people about God, we'll be good. Listen to what James says. Verse 19. He says, you believe that God is one?

You do well. Even the demons... believe and shudder and what James is basically saying to these people who say all you need to do is just preach the good news that's all that we need to do he's saying they're like a demon it's faith that's demonic you believe that there is one god well good for you every good jewish person growing up knew in deuteronomy was the shema and what it said was here oh israel the lord our god is one i i believe that you believe that good so do the demons a lot of people believe that god exists you can go around and say do you believe in god yeah i believe there's a god do you believe in jesus yeah i i know that jesus was here well good so do the demons in fact the spiritual world the demonic they probably believe with far more fear and respect and honor than we do and religious people religious people don't actually know jesus the demons do mark 134 he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him luke 433 there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon he cried out the loud voice i know who you are the holy one of god luke 441 demons also came out of many saying you are the son of god but he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the christ there are a lot of christians who could pass the the jesus test the god test jesus is the son of congratulations you aced it along with the demons we could take that test and we could pass it with flying colors because of all the information that we have but it's not about the information it's about what the information has done in our lives that would lead to a transformation so we can't say i know jesus and nothing's changed in our lives you can't say that i love jesus and you don't want to do something with it so he continues on james 220 do you want to be shown you fool this person turn your neighbor tell him are you foolish remember i told you to ask them not say that they're foolish do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is what useless james says you're a foolish person and i want you to be wise and so he gives us these two examples abraham and um abraham and and rahab and he continues on in verse 21 was not abraham our father justified by when he offered up his son isaac on the altar and a lot of us we know this story we know that god called abraham and god promised to give abraham a son of promise and when abraham got that son in his later years he was so gracious he was so grateful so celebratory then god says i want

you to sacrifice this son for me do you trust me and he goes up and he's getting ready to sacrifice the son and god stops him and god provides a lamb of sacrifice for him and this is the greatest provision of provision we've seen so far in the bible all this is just a shadow of what god would do of the promise god would bring of the lamb of god named jesus that would come in our place to take away the sins of the earth but but what james is talking about what james brings up is abraham didn't just simply say i believe god's but i'm not going to do anything about it he did something with the faith that he had james 222 you see that faith was active along with his works and his faith was completed by his works he had faith first we're not saved to works by works we're saved by faith to live out works so his his faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled that says it then goes back to abraham's faith in genesis abraham believed god there's faith and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of god so you see that a person is justified made right by works and not by faith alone in the same way second example was not also rahab the prostitute and i want to stop right there i want to remind you if you've ever done anything that you felt It's just unworthy of God's love. Welcome to the perfect place for imperfect people. Bible talks so often about him redeeming and restoring and loving and using and transforming imperfect people. One of these being Rahab the prostitute. Was Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. He says, you guys remember Rahab? She was a sinner and everyone knew it. And the people of God came to her town and she surrendered her life to God. She trusted, she placed her faith in this one true God.

But now the people of God in her city, they were in a dangerous situation. And so Rahab placed herself willingly in a dangerous situation to help set these people free. She did something with this newfound faith. She didn't just simply say, thank you for helping me be saved. Now, good luck on your way out. No, she says, because you have loved me and because God has loved me, I wanna love you. Because God has made a way for me out of this mess, I wanna help get you out of this mess. Because God has saved me, let me help save you. She did something with her faith. Abraham and Rahab both did something with the faith that God had given to them. So write down this third big idea. Faith that does something is what God uses to bring good news to people. Good news should be given away. And faith that does something is what God uses to bring good news to people. Listen, if you're a guest online today, if you're a guest in this place today, this entire year we've been focusing on this one idea. And that big idea that has just been woven through every teaching, every single Sunday is this idea of stewardship. Meaning that we're gonna take what God has given us and we're gonna do something with it.

And what we have is not nothing. In fact, it's more than something. What God has given to us is the good news. It's the gospel. It's the power of salvation for anyone who believes. What are we doing with it? For those of us who have been transformed by this good news and have a new life, have a new perspective on living, who have hope in our hearts, who have been healed forever by Jesus, what are we doing with it? Here's what a provision, a provision is. Write this down. God has provided for me what I need. And I can't keep it to myself. What does it mean to have a provision, a positive outlook on provision? God has provided for me and I can't keep it to myself. Worship team, I'm gonna invite you guys to come back up right now as I ask this question. Again, I'm wearing pink in support of breast cancer awareness because I think all of us, we are some degree of separation of someone who has struggled, maybe even lost the fight to it. If you had the cure for cancer, if you had the cure, something that would completely heal someone with no negative side effects, what would you do? If you had the answer that can help get someone out of their darkness called depression,

what would you do with it? If you knew the way that someone could be in relationship with God forever, what would you do with it? Would you keep it to yourself or would you give it away? This morning, God's talking to some people very specifically. For some of you here and online, you've been working and working and just trying your best to be loved by God, and you need to know that it's not your work that saves you. Jesus saves. He's done all the work already, and he's just saying, will you surrender to me? Will you receive my free gift of salvation for you? Just believe it and receive it for yourself, and he's speaking to some of you, and it's as simple as just simply surrendering and saying, I receive, Jesus. I receive right now the work that you have done, the death that you've died, the resurrection you gave. You've done it all, and I just receive it so I can become a child of God. He's working in the hearts of some people, and for some of you today, you need to surrender to that. He's also speaking to some really religious people here, who you're so comfortable in your faith that you've decided you don't need to do anything anymore. You sit, and you criticize, and you complain. The church should have done this, and I can't believe the church did that when you are the church.

You've been bought at a price. You've been called to a purpose. If you see a need, meet the need, and see what God does through your life as you work out your faith in love. But today, I pray that God speaks to all of us when it comes to this good news, that we wouldn't just simply be grateful for it, but we would be urgent with it, that we would be generous with it, See, this whole series has not been about us, the local church, the name, the brand, the logo, doing a good work in our community. It's always been about the church, the people, living out, working out their faith in love by sharing the good news. And so my prayer is that this week, all of us would be a part of doing something good with this good news, that you would experience what we've gotten to experience these past two weeks of what it means to be a blessing to people. And so today, we're doing something that we don't have the resources to do, but we know that it's worth doing it so that we can meet people's greatest need. Their need of a savior. Now, all of us get to be a part of it. And so today, the good news gift that we're giving is throughout our three services,

we're distributing $20,000 to every single person in this room to go out and to make some good news in people's lives. So our service guides right now, they're gonna be coming down every aisle and they're gonna be handing you an envelope. And some of those envelopes is a $100 bill. And more of those envelopes is a $50 bill. And the rest of them is a $20 bill. And as you get that envelope, I want you to hold onto it, don't open it. We're gonna take some time to pray over those. But as you get those, I want this thought to go in your head, these two questions that we continue to ask ourselves. God, what are you teaching me? What are you doing to grow my faith? Second question, what do you want me to do about it? How do you want me to live it out? How do you want me to work it out in someone else's life? In just a few moments, we're gonna pray. And we're gonna pray that God would give us a spiritually significant supernatural moment this week, that he would put on our heart what we should do with this money that we have been gifted for free. And what God puts on your heart, we want you to do it. We just want you to respond in obedience. Some of you, it may just simply be, you take that money and that invitation

in every single envelope, and you pay it forward. In the drive-thru line, you say, hey, let me pay for the person behind me. Would you give them this invite card and let them know that they matter to God, they matter. And you just drive off on your way. Some of you, maybe you're gonna take it a little step further. Maybe you're just gonna tip someone 100 bucks for a cup of water or something like that. But what I'm praying for, and what we've been praying for as a team, that we wouldn't take this as an insignificant opportunity, but we would really get. on our knees and we would pray and a spirit of boldness would come upon us that would lead some of us most of us all of us in Jesus name just to go up to someone and say God told me to give this to you you matter to God you matter to me he's met my greatest need he set me free and today I want to help meet whatever need you might have and I'm just believing that the joy that that we've got to experience as a leadership team here just blessing people and meeting needs and giving out scholarships that all of us would get to experience that this week but I want to say this as well you matter to God and you matter to us and who you are is far more important than what you do so if you need that money it's yours if you need that to meet a need to pay a bill to put some food on your table use that for yourself that's why you have it I believe a lot of us we're gonna give this away and then I believe that God is moving even some people right now to do far above beyond that you're gonna take what was given you can say no I can match it I can double that I can multiply that because I want to be part of sharing this good news this week but whatever you decide to do however you listen and obey to the Spirit of God as

you pray can I just ask one favor that you share that with us next week we're gonna have an incredible celebration you don't want to miss next week and we'd love to share some of these significant God stories maybe for you it's the that God gave to you and we're gonna celebrate that maybe maybe and I believe that God will put you in the right place at the right time with the right people and you'll see just how supernatural loving he is that he uses us to care for others would you stand your feet right now I want us to take time to pray over these just hold on to them and and agree with me as we pray father thank you for saving us thank you for setting us free thank you Lord that you supply all of our needs according to your riches and glory in Jesus and we're not standing here today because we're part of a good church we like our religion we can stand here today free because of what you've done how you've met our every need and how we can have a relationship with you as imperfect people we're so grateful God but today you have calling us to take a step of faith to take what you have placed in our hands and to give it away so Lord I just pray that we would not take this lightly that right now Holy Spirit as we surrender to you that you would lead us that you would just place a burden on our heart to talk to a specific person that we would hear you're still small voice as we are at work or in lines at the grocery market this week or or doing whatever we're living our everyday daily lives that your spirit would speak and lead us to what we need to do and that's what we're responsible for God and we're so grateful that you will grow that that you will water that whether someone says this is exactly what I need or someone blows this off it doesn't matter we're gonna be faithful believing that you are love that you are good that you are our God and our Father and our friend forever and so freely we have received Father freely we will give and we get to be a part of this we get to be a part of the hope that you are building we get to be a part of the bridge that that you are building between those who are imperfect and far from you and us the people of God who are imperfect but been set free do the miraculous this week use

us bring transformation and hope and life and healing in Jesus name we pray amen and amen come on let's declare let's celebrate that he's working singing out you turn in graves you turn graves into gardens you turn bones into armies you turn the seas come on you turn seas into high you're the only one okay it's turning crazy you turn graves into garden turning bones into all you turn Come on, let's lift our voice, sing it out, there's nothing. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing, Jesus, come on. Better than you, Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. We believe it, we declare it, there's nothing better. Oh, there's nothing, yeah. Better than you, oh, there's nothing. Better than you, Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Come on, let's give a praise if we believe that today. There's nothing better than you, Lord.