A Season of Preparation - Saddleback Weekend Service

Hey, everybody, welcome to Saddleback Church. We are so glad you're here, and we're so excited that we get to worship with you. And so right now, we wanna invite you to join us. Let's sing, let's worship Jesus. Are you ready? Come on, let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, let's sing it together. Come on, let's lift our voices and sing together. And every tear I'm laid at Your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to You And if You are for me Who can be against me For Jesus, there's nothing impossible for You When all I see are neat ashes You see the new leaves When all I see is a cross God, You see the empty tomb Here we go. Welcome to Throat Church. Sing. Showing our fight I'll fight on my knees Lift my hands lifted high Oh God, the battle belongs to You And every tear I'm laid at Your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to You

Let's sing. Almighty fortress You go before us Nothing can stand against The power of our God You shine in the shadows You win every battle Can you believe it? Nothing can stand against Almighty fortress Almighty fortress You go before us Nothing can stand against The power of our God You shine in the shadows You win every battle Nothing can stand against The power of our God Almighty fortress You go before us Nothing can stand against The power of our God You shine in the shadows You win every battle Nothing can stand against The power of our God Come on. Let's sing it together. Every voice. Showing our fight

I'll fight on my knees With my head held high Oh God, the battle belongs to You And every tear I'm laid at Your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to You Showing our fight I'll fight on my knees With my head held high Oh God, the battle belongs to You And every tear I'm laid at Your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to You Oh God, oh God, the battle belongs to You Come on church, let's clap it, come on. Well if you know the battle belongs to the Lord, let's give Him praise and glory today. I know a name That can empty out a grave I know a name It's the only name that saves And it's worthy of all praise I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you name

We sing I have I have a king With dominion over death He holds the key In His holy nails caught hands He is the heal That has crushed the serpent's head A resurrected great I am I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Every time I call your name Chains break, dry bones wake Every time I call your name The gates of hell shake Every time I call your name Chains break, dry bones wake Every time I call your name The gates of hell shake Every time I call your name In the name of Jesus, Amen Dead things come alive Dead things come alive Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus Come on, you sing it out

Dead things come alive With everything we have we say Dead things come alive In the name of Jesus Dead things come alive Just speak the name of Jesus, dead things Dead things come alive In the name of Jesus Dead things come alive I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Dead things, dead things come alive Dead things come alive In the name of Jesus ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ A little bit louder ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive, dead things come alive ♪ ♪ Dead things come alive in the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you savior worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call you, you call my name, I call you, I call you savior worthy of glory forever ♪ ♪ I call you, I call you savior worthy of glory forever ♪

♪ Something comes out of the grave ♪ ♪ Every time I call your name, you call my name, I call you, I call you savior worthy of glory forever ♪ Hallelujah! Jesus is so worthy of our praise, of our worship. This is why we sing. Come on, let's sing this together. ♪ It was my cross you bore so I could live in the freedom you died for ♪ ♪ And now my life is yours and I will sing of your goodness ♪ ♪ Forever more, sing it. ♪ And worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, and worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, oh you are, so deserved ♪ ♪ Now my shame is gone, I stand amazed in your love undeniable ♪ ♪ In your love, your grace goes on and on, and I will sing of your goodness forever more ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, and worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, and worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, and worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, and worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise, Lord ♪ ♪ Worthy is your name, and worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise, Lord ♪ ♪ So be exalted now in the heavens, as your Lord fills this place ♪ ♪ You alone deserve our praise, you're the name above all names ♪ ♪ So be exalted now in the heavens, as your Lord fills this place ♪ ♪ You alone deserve our praise, you're the name above all names ♪ ♪ Be exalted now in the heavens, as your Lord fills this place ♪ ♪ You alone deserve our praise, you're the name above all names ♪ ♪ Be exalted now in the heavens, as your Lord fills this place ♪ ♪ You alone deserve our praise, you're the name above all names ♪ ♪ So worthy is your name, Jesus, you deserve praise, Lord ♪ ♪ So worthy is Your Name, so worthy is Your Name Jesus ♪

♪ You deserve the praise, so worthy is Your Name Jesus ♪ ♪ And You deserve the praise, so worthy is Your Name Jesus ♪ ♪ You deserve the praise, so worthy is Your Name Jesus ♪ ♪ And You deserve the praise, so worthy is Your Name Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, You're worthy Lord. ♪ Well, welcome to Saddleback Church. Welcome to Saddleback. Welcome to Saddleback, friends from Latin America. Welcome to Saddleback Church. Well, we are so glad that you're worshiping together with us today. And, hey, if it's your first time checking out Saddleback, we would love to know about it so we can help you to get connected. You can do that by letting us know in the link in the description, if you're watching on YouTube. Or, even better, you can download our Saddleback app, set your campus to online community, and then let us know it's your first time through the notes section. We would love to see you. But, if you couldn't tell already, we have some special guests with us today. These are some of our international campus pastors located at campuses all around the world. We're so grateful that you guys are here hosting with us today. Thank you for this. But they are here today because the past couple days, we had the Return Gathering. This was a sacred assembly in person at our Lake Forest campuses where many of our stateside campuses joined in person. Many of our extensions and our online community members even came. You'll see some of those photos on the screen. It was so awesome. We saw people coming to Christ.

We saw people getting baptized. Two of our online community members even got baptized. It was so special to watch that happen. But God moved in great ways during the past three days, and we'll get to hear a little more about it in the message. But I wanted to give these guys a chance to introduce themselves and their campuses. So, Mike, you want to let us know who you are and what's going on? Yes, my name is Mike Ayala, and I represent Saddleback Santa Rosa. Also, I represent two more campuses in the Philippines, one in Davao and one inside the prison. So right now, this weekend, we are truly happy because we are celebrating our 12th anniversary as a campus in the Philippines. So I'm so glad to be part of our amazing church. That's awesome. Congratulations on 12 years. We are all celebrating with you. So cool. Seba, let us know about who you are. Well, my name is Seba Ojeda. I am from Buenos Aires, Saddleback, Buenos Aires. We planted the church, that campus, 12 and a half years ago, along with my wife, Ceci. It's always great to be here. It feels like being home. It feels like being with your family. And we are truly a global family. Actually, I've been in meetings planning some mission trips this year to Buenos Aires, and I believe that's true for all our international campuses. I mean, I know where the good steaks are. That's the best thing I can promise to you. Come visit this guy to eat. And of course, some good missions experience as well. So come visit us.

I love it. I love it. So great. And Tony? Yeah. Hi, my name is Pastor Tony. I'm pastoring a church in the greatest city on earth in Berlin, Germany. So I'm also just representing Europe over here. We're the only campus in Europe, and we are excited to start celebrating. We celebrate recovery very soon in March. I have seen so many testimonies already in Berlin, and I'm happy to see more. I love it. Well, we are so grateful that you guys are here with us today. We truly are a global church. We have campuses all around the world, extensions around the world. And even you, our online community, we know you're located all throughout the states and all throughout different countries. We love getting to see just the body of Christ and the beautiful image that that is. So if you guys are near one of their campuses, they would love for you guys to visit, meet them in person, eat some good steak maybe. But we're so glad that you're here with us today, that we get to all worship together. So let's join our church family and take a sneak peek about some of the things that are going on that we can look forward to. Hey, Saddleback. These past few weeks through 21 Days of Prayer and the Return Gathering have been so special for our church family. We've worshipped, we've prayed, we've leaned in, and we've seen how faithful God is when we seek him together. And as we step into this next season, we don't want prayer to be an event we experience. We want it to continue to be shaping who we are. We truly believe God is forming our church into a house of prayer. Not a program, not a moment. but a people who depend on him in everything, in every season and across every generation. One of the ways we're continuing that

is through prayer small groups. Many of you are choosing to center your small group around prayer this semester, and we want to support you. Pastor Stacey and our prayer leaders have created simple, practical resources to help you grow as people of prayer and build your group with prayer at the center. If you'd like to start or join a prayer small group or simply focus your current group on prayer, text PRAY to 83000 or let us know in the Saddleback app and we'll send you those resources. And in addition to prayer small groups, you are invited to join us for Wednesday prayer starting this Wednesday at 7 a.m. As a church family, God has stretched us and grown us as we've brought our prayers and petitions before him together. There is real power when a community chooses to pray as one and we've already begun to see him move. So every Wednesday, we're continuing to gather to worship, open God's word and pray together. It's going to be simple, intentional and it's open to everyone. We would love to see you there. And next weekend, we have something really special for our families. We are celebrating the release of the Heyo coloring book. Every child who checks into Saddleback Kids will receive a copy. Now this book takes some of the beloved pages

of the Heyo Bible and invites our kids to interact even more deeply with the stories they already know and love. Our kids team has put so much heart into this and we're praying it becomes a tool that helps conversations about God continue long after the weekend. And Saddleback, because of your generosity, moments like these are possible. Our kids are learning scripture, our students are growing in their faith, families are being strengthened and lives are being changed and changed in ways that we might not fully see this side of heaven. Because when you give, you are investing in eternity. If you came prepared to give your tithe or offering today, you can do that through the Saddleback app or by using one of these giving envelopes near you. Thank you for trusting God with what he's entrusted to you. And if you're newer to Saddleback or maybe you've been coming for a while but you sense that there's more, more purpose, more clarity, more of what God has for your life, we'd love to invite you to activate. Activate is your next step where you can learn more about who we are,

discover how God has uniquely designed you and explore what your next step of faith could be. If you're ready to move from attending to engaging, activate is a great place to start. You can sign up for the next activate at your campus in the Saddleback app or swing by the hub on your way out today. Church, we love you and we are so grateful for you. Now let's hear this message from Pastor Andy. Well, it is so good to be together, church family. I wanna welcome all of our campuses and those of you who are joining us online. We are on the back end of an incredible week in our church. So much life changed that God did through our return gathering. We witnessed families being restored, we saw students get baptized, we saw people coming home to Jesus. It was incredible. And it was at the end of a lot of prayer for our church. And I hope if you weren't there that you've actually talked to somebody who was there just to share a bit of what God did in their hearts. And one of the things that we love to do as a church is we love just to celebrate and honor God for his faithfulness. Now one thing that happened on Friday night at the gathering we had a moment where we invited people to respond and go public with their faith in Jesus. 46 people said yes and went public with their faith

and got baptized. There were 68 total over the three days that said yes, Jesus, I wanna go in, all in, and follow you. And there's so many stories out of each of those baptisms. And I want you just to see this short video that captures what God did in two minutes and then I'm gonna share with you some specific stories of lives that were changed during the return gathering. Let's watch this together. The heart of this return gathering. It's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. And so here we are, we're at the return gathering and we're seeking God for a revival in our generation. And we're saying, God, we want more of you. And God is saying back to us, I want more of you. All the way through the story of the church through every age and every culture. The history of the church is the history of God pouring out his power and his love that we might call revival. If we believe the need in our cultural moment is desperate, how can our prayer for it sound casual? Shouldn't the expression of prayer somehow be proportionate to, in a match with our understanding of the need? The prayer of Jesus. I wanna invite you just to confess it before God. Say, God, I repent of my distraction. I repent of not praying for my kids.

Just tell God what it is. Confess it, repent it. He forgives, He is good. We're asking God to rend the heavens. And He's saying, would you rend your heart? I came to church. I have really bad religious trauma and anxiety. And I barely thought I could step into a room. Like, I've been coming and I've just been praying that, like, He would show me a sign. Two prayers was all it took, and I dropped to my knees and sighed. I just felt the Holy Spirit hovering over us. Just gave my whole heart to Him. So many generations just praying over each other. And the Lord just said, that's not the sound of hammerings. That's the sound of restoration. If you don't move, God, I cannot do this. I am desperate for you to move. The last words of the book of Ezekiel are simply this, Yahweh, Shammah, the Lord is there. One of the best parts of the whole gathering was seeing Jesus change lives. And I wanna just share a couple stories with you. If you will help me, welcome Tim, Addie, and Miranda to the stage as they come to share their story. Now, many of you guys will remember this is Miranda, and I'm gonna get a hug from everybody.

And Addie and Tim. Now, Miranda shared her story a couple of weeks ago in service. But for those who weren't here, will you share a little bit of what God did in your heart at the last return gathering? So at the last return gathering, I gave my life to Jesus after questioning his love for years. And I got baptized that same night and surrendered my life to him. And throughout the course of this last year, God has been really using you. And he put a burden on your heart for somebody in your life. And share a little bit about that. So my best friend, she struggles with religious trauma and anxiety. And it always saddened me to see her not close with Jesus. And I've been praying for over a year that she would encounter Jesus. And at the return gathering, she surrendered her life to Jesus and felt his love. And I was able to baptize her. Come on, how awesome is that? And Miranda, I just wanna encourage you. Your response to God and praying for her every day, God used you to impact Addie's story. So for all eternity, Addie's life will be in the hands of Jesus.

And God used you to make that happen. Awesome, I wanna ask you to share a little bit of your story and kind of what God was doing in your heart. So I've been a Christian for basically my whole life, and I had just never gotten baptized. But at the return gathering, I felt like it might be the night, like maybe I should get baptized. And during the worship, I was seeing people through the aisles with their signs saying, get baptized tonight. And I was like, God, if I'm supposed to get baptized tonight, just let my dad bring it up to me. Now, okay, so watch this. Watch what God was doing at the same time. Now, this is not the same Addie that is this Addie, two Addies. So now Tim, share a little bit of your story. Yeah, it's been a joy to be her parent, having seen her put her faith in Jesus at such a young age, but for actually to her to make the decision to be baptized was something that my wife and I've been praying for for years, that it would be her personal decision to do that. And we didn't want it to be about us pushing it on her, like, hey, you gotta do this, but just wanted it to be something that she would decide.

So there we are at the return gathering, we're praying, we're praying, and I'm just begging God, like, God, make her go, make her go, make her go. And just hoping that she'll make that decision. And I'm looking at her and her eyes are closed, she's just worshiping, and I love seeing that. But then all of a sudden, I feel the spirit kind of come on me and a little tap on the shoulder. And it's like he gave me permission to give her a nudge and just say like, ask her, ask her to go. So I turned over and I said, Addie, you should go. And she was like, wait, down with the students? We had a couple back and forths, and then I was like, no, for baptism. And then sure enough, she's like, okay, let's go. And so then we did. Wow. So at the very moment, God is prompting Addie, God's prompting Tim. And just, I wanna like just encourage you, Tim, just your heart, you and your wife, your passion for Jesus, your prayers. God fulfilled those prayers and answered many prayers in this moment. I'd love for you just to share, what was it like as a dad to baptize your daughter? Definitely a highlight of my life, seeing her come.

faith, but then even being able to be in the pool with her and baptize her the other night, or last night, was just such a joy. And one thing I do wanna add that I was thinking about between services is how easy that moment would have been to miss. Because it would have been easy to think, no, because I do want it to be about her, so no, I'm not gonna say anything. And then maybe we wouldn't be here tonight sharing this story and encouraging you that maybe there's a prompting, maybe you need to have that conversation or whatever. So just to be able to grow from that and experience this and hear and see her, and I'm so proud of her making that step. So that's what it's been like for me this last day. That's awesome, that's awesome. Thank you guys for sharing your story. And both of you as students, the courage to, one, to share your story, but just your heart, both of you, for Jesus. You represent a generation that our church deeply loves and cares about. And we want you to know how much we love you, how thankful we are for students, how much we believe in your generation, that God has great things in store for you. Can I put you on the spot, Eddie? Would you be willing to pray for all this,

for students in our region that they would come to know Jesus and that he would use our student ministry to reach many students for him? Dear God, I just wanna pray over all the students in this church and all the churches around us. I just pray that you would use us to reach others who don't know you yet and that you would impact the lives of everyone. Amen. Amen, amen. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Love you guys. Thank you, Tim. So encouraging to hear stories of individual lives impacted by Jesus. And I could sit around and share stories all day long, talk about stories. That's why we do what we do as a church. And part of the question that we wrestle through is what's next? Where do we go from here? And we've had a phenomenal few days. And I understand that as a church, only about 20% of our church was actually at the return gathering. So many of you are like, okay, well, what is this thing? And what does this mean? But I wanna just propose a question for you today

that really I believe is a question that God is asking us as we reflect on what he did this week in our midst and we see what he's been doing throughout the course of this year. What if all of what we've experienced just this week and what we witnessed through our 21 days of prayer, what if all of this was just preparation for the work that God has in front of us? What if God was trying to prepare us, is trying to prepare us for more? That all of this time where we came before him and we acknowledged our need and we acknowledged sin and we saw people's lives changed, that God is just preparing to pour out his grace and his spirit upon our church in a mighty and powerful way. So my message today is titled, A Season of Preparation. And I believe this to be true of you. You are in a season of preparation. You right now are preparing for something that's ahead of you. Now, that's not really a very profound statement. It's like, well, I'm always preparing for something, but I just can say it like it's profound. You are in a season of preparation. In addition to that, we are in a season of preparation as a church family. We are together in a season of what God has in front of us. We're preparing for a move of God into the future. And every season of your life,

you start and you're young and maybe you're in middle school and you're preparing for high school and then you're in high school and you're preparing for college and you're in college and you're preparing to get a job hopefully and you get a job and you're preparing to get married and then you're preparing to have kids and then you're preparing to have an empty nest and then you're preparing for retirement and then you're preparing to die and all of that. You just kind of go through this season of life and right now you are in a season, we're in a season, and it's important to recognize you can, when you're in a season in life, you can either ignore it, you can reject it, or you can embrace it. You can ignore it, you can reject it, or you can embrace it. And so many times in our life when God is moving and preparing us for the next season, we just kind of have our heads down and we miss that God is trying to get us ready for what's ahead. And the truth is that when the next season of life comes, you are either ready for it or you're not. I know that's not a very profound statement either, but it's good to recognize that there is a moment where you step into a window of opportunity. Maybe it's that you're going in for a job interview and you're either prepared or you're not. You get married and you're either ready or you're not.

And this is an important point. My preparation is my job. So I can't delegate my preparation to anybody else. Now, Stacey, right before. She turned 40, she said, hey Andy, I wanna run a ultra marathon on my 40th birthday, 40 miles. I'm like, why in the world would any sane person wanna do that? So she decided to train and she put together this little training calendar and had the days marked off. And I said, hey, I'll run with you, I'll train with you, I'll get to 26 miles and then you just, you kinda do your thing the next few weeks and train for the 40, but I'll do a marathon with you. And so we trained together kind of. She had her chart and I thought my chart was a suggestion. So like, you know, there'd be one day it'd tell me what to do and I was like, you know, I don't really feel like running four miles today so I'll just wait another day. And she would hit all of her marks. Well, would you know that when it was time to run 26 miles, she was prepared. I complained the whole time, she was prepared. You're either prepared or you're not and your preparation is your job. You cannot delegate that to anyone else. And depending on what you're preparing for determines how you prepare. So if we're inviting a group of people

to come over our house, we prepare for a meal. If we're getting ready for a wedding, you prepare a certain way. And the truth is when it comes to Jesus and the work of Jesus, there was a kind of preparation that was happening in the moment where Jesus would come from heaven to earth and begin his ministry here on planet earth. And there was one guy who God used powerfully to prepare for Jesus and his name is John the Baptist. Now, I wanna look for a few moments at the story of John the Baptist and how God uses him to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. And today we're gonna look at Mark chapter one, verses one through eight. Now, I love this book of the Bible. This is one of my favorite gospels. And the reason why is because it moves so fast. It is like Jesus meets Jason Bourne. It is like Jesus did this, he healed all the people and then suddenly he went to the next town and the word suddenly happens over and over and over again. So it reads like a fast moving action movie. And Jesus in chapter one, we're gonna see him show up. He's gonna be baptized by John the Baptist and the father is going to commission him into his new ministry. But before that, John the Baptist is making the way. Now, good news.

Next week, we're gonna launch into a message series on the book of Mark called Jesus on the Move. And in three chunks throughout the course of this year, we're gonna just dive into the Bible and we're gonna learn how to read the Bible together and go deeper and get truth out of it that we can live and apply to our lives. But I wanted to start this week in preparation for the new message series that starts next week called Jesus on the Move through the gospel of Mark. So today we're gonna look at Mark chapter one, verses one through eight. And I wonder, are you guys awake and ready to read aloud with me? Okay, last service was not awake. So glad you are. All right, here we go. This says, the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the son of God, it is written in Isaiah the prophet, I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him confessing their sins.

They were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locust and wild honey. And this was his message. After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. God, I ask that you would illuminate our minds to your word. I ask that you would open our eyes to what is here and that we would be challenged by the ministry of John the Baptist in preparing the way for you, Jesus. In Jesus' name I pray, amen, amen. I love how John the Baptist comes on the scene. He definitely had some very unique character traits that Mark would describe. He would eat locust and wild honey. He lived in the wilderness. He wore camel's hair outfits. And so I just asked, I just like basically copied and pasted these verses and put them in chat GPT. And I said, draw me an image of what John the Baptist might've looked like. And this is what came up right here. So this guy definitely. Lee would not get invited to preach on stage at Saddleback.

He'd at least have to take a shower first and maybe get a new outfit. But this guy, he was very different than a lot of the religious leaders of his day. And the Bible says that he lived out in the wilderness. He kind of was a free roaming guy that didn't fit into the custom mold of the institution. And yet he was the one, Jesus actually said he was the greatest one who ever lived. And what I want you to notice in this first verse of Mark chapter one, his job was to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. And it says, this is the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the son of God. And if you have your notes, you can pull them out and you'll see in your notes, there's not any notes. There's just a passage of scripture. That's because I prepared this message between the return gathering and now. And I knew what passage I would preach on. And so if you're shaking and you need your fill in the blanks, great news. It's all in the app. So just go straight to the app. You can open it up and there's blanks for you. It's gonna just calm you down. It's like a cup of chamomile tea that just gets you like relaxed, okay? So here you see this verse about Jesus. And it says, this is the gospel about Jesus Christ.

This is the good news about the coming of the Messiah. And what I want you to notice is the word that is used, gospel, literally means good news. And all of the Bible is pointing to this moment. All of the Old Testament prophecies, all of what happened through the moments of the Israelites being brought out of Egypt, God is using all of this to prepare a people for the coming of the Messiah. And John's job is that last leg right before Jesus comes, the months and years before Jesus shows up to do his public ministry. And I want you to notice just a few things about what John the Baptist does to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. And the first thing I want us to see is the anticipation that he builds for what's ahead in the coming of the Messiah. Now there's something about preparing for the next season by anticipating what's in front of us. As I mentioned earlier, you show up into the future and you're either prepared or you're not. And what anticipation says is actually there will be a moment. Like Stacey and I, we are a little bit like a decade away from empty nest, which is just a wild thought, thinking how like short period of a time ago it seems like we were parenting young kids,

like little babies. And that season goes so fast. And if we don't think about it now, we're gonna get to later and wake up one day and be like, who are you and who are you? And the truth is in this moment, there's a preparation through anticipation. And so when John the Baptist speaks, he says, I'm not the one that you should be looking to. I'm actually here to point direction or point the way to Jesus. In fact, if you go to the last few verses of this passage, it says, after me will come one way more powerful than me, the thongs of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie. I baptize you with water, but he'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit. His whole emphasis was to bring more attention to Jesus. Now Jesus right now in our culture, his name, his work is being lifted up. And we're starting to see in our land and actually all over the world, the coming of an awakening that is happening statistically across generations and across continents. And I read this research from Barna this week, and it shows us how over the last 15 years, there's been a decline or a diminishing of people that would call themselves Christians or go to church. And just within the last two years, you start to see this uptick.

I want you to notice, just look at this for a moment. So if you go all the way back to 2022, so four years, I should say, you see the growth and the emergence of a movement that God is bringing about after a steady decline from 2008 to 2022. Friends, we gotta pay attention to this and to realize that there's something that God is doing in our day. There's a generation that is growing up and they're done with it. They're anxious, they're worried about the future, and they're looking to the church, they're looking to God for the answers of the deepest needs of their souls, and they're being saved by Jesus. Now it's happening not just in our culture, but it's happening in Great Britain. And there's what is known as the Quiet Revival. And we talked a little bit about this at the return gathering. And you see in places like London with Al Gordon who spoke at the return and their church, Saint Church, and many others, the culture is shifting. And there is this movement of God. Look at this graph right here that shows us. Since 2018, if you look at the bar on the left, what you see is that was the number of people that would say that they went to church,

they're a Christian, they go to church at least once a month. And notice among young people, the massive difference over the last six years of the number of people that are being reached by the good news of Jesus. And it's this movement that is building. You're seeing even now on college campuses, like the Asbury Awakening, an outpouring of God's spirit. A couple weeks ago, there was an outpouring of the spirit and worship just went on at a school called Southeastern University in Florida for over a week on end. And just students crying out to God for their generation. And there's a question of are we ready for what it is that God wants to do? Because God will open a window and the church is either ready or not. And I don't wanna be the church. I don't wanna be a follower of Jesus that misses the movement of God in our day. So the question is, is our eyes on what's ahead? And are we looking into the future to see and to believe what is possible with God? Now is a time for the church to fully lean in. David Thomas said that now is a time for the church to swing for the fences, to believe that God wants to bring an awakening in our day. And John the Baptist, he's used by Jesus to shift the focus. I believe God is wanting us to lift our eyes,

to look what is ahead and to really wrestle through. Could it just be that all of this is just preparation, that God is getting ready to pour out his grace on our church, pour out his grace on your life? And that leads me to the second component of John the Baptist. There's an anticipation, there's a looking to the future, but there's also a prioritization. So what he's saying is, hey, when he comes, when Jesus shows up on the scene, there's gonna need to be a realignment of values and importance given to things that are not currently important. And there are some things that need to diminish in value. And the question is, what deserves my attention right now? This is true in every season of life, that there are some things that you focus on now that you won't be able to focus on later. I think about this with my kids. There was like, I always kind of jokingly say this to parents with kids like 11 and younger. And I say, enjoy the fact that they like you right now. And I just remember that season of life, but it went by so fast. Now, my oldest is getting into a season where he likes me again, he's 19. At least I think he does, that's by faith. And there's that in-between season where everything the parent thinks is wrong, and it's just a big challenging part of parenting.

Well, in that younger season where there is a window, when your kids think you're the hero and that you can't do anything wrong, there's a window to step in and love and invest in them, that when they hit 11 or 12, it will be gone, they'd be gone. And the truth is, right now there are things that God is doing that he wants our church to give our attention to. And notice how John the Baptist speaks. He's speaking about Jesus' ministry and how all these followers of his were leaving him and going to Jesus. And he's asked the question, well, what do you think about that? Like, does that make you jealous? Does that make you upset, John the Baptist, that your followers are following Jesus now? And listen to his words. He says, the bride belongs to the bridegroom, and the friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. And that joy is mine, he's talking about Jesus. And he's saying, Jesus is the bridegroom, and his church, his people are the bride. And I'm not the one to marry the bride. I'm the one to be a part of the bride and the bridegroom coming together. And then I step back, and my joy is watching the bridegroom as he comes and meets his bride.

And notice his statement. He says, that joy is mine and now complete. He must become greater, and I must become less. He must increase, and I must decrease. So there are some things in our lives that need to decrease, and there are some things in our lives that God wants to increase. This is true personally, and this is true for us as a church. And we believe that there are some things that God has been putting his finger on for us as a church that he's saying, I want you to lift this up. I want you to give more attention to this. One is more focused on praying to Jesus for breakthrough. We're not just praying as a church to go through the motions. We didn't just do 21 days of prayer because we need another thing to do as a church. We're praying because we believe that God hears our prayers and responds to them. Every great movement of God throughout church history is preceded by a church that prays and intercedes for breakthrough. And so God calls us right now. He's inviting us, and this is why all of our campuses, we're starting prayer this next week on Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. I wanna invite you to come and to say, God, I wanna be a part

of being used by you to intercede, to pray for my generation, to pray for our world, to pray for the communities around our campuses. And with that, we're gonna be launching hundreds of new prayer small groups. Now, I wanna invite you, if you're not currently in a small group, to take the step to get into a prayer small group. These groups will be focused on equipping and training and helping you grow in that prayer muscle for people that are new to faith or have been following Jesus for a long time. And some of you, God might stir in your heart to actually start a prayer small group, to lead one. So what you can do is if you text PRAY to 83000, that'll send you a link to your phone, and you can say, hey, I wanna be a part of a prayer small group. I wanna be in a community and get together with other people and learn how to pray. And some of you, God is stirring, saying, I want you to be one of the leaders, and you can take that step. Now, don't wait too long, because these groups are gonna be launching in the next week. So we wanna help you get ready and get into community. And some of you might say, I'll change my small group to be focused on prayer. We can equip you for that. Jesus is inviting us to be focused on prayer.

The other thing he's inviting us into, we believe, is to reach those, the people that Jesus loves and cares about. And to say, God, we want our hearts to break over the lostness and the brokenness of our world. You know, sometimes what happens to Christians, if you're new to faith, you probably have seen this before, that the longer people follow Jesus, the more insular and isolated they become. And sometimes what can happen when there's a moment where a church or a person encounters the presence of God, they can start to think, well, that moment is for me. Like, this is to make my life better and more comfortable and easier. And if that's how we think, we miss what God is wanting to do through prayer and transforming our lives. God never intended for our lives to be a holy huddle. And sometimes when our life is being changed by Jesus, we need a reminder that our eyes should be faced outward. It's kind of like this little drawing here of these people that have been saved from the water. And they get up on this little pier and they put themselves facing together with their holy huddle. And here are all these other people outside the water drowning. And somebody looks and said, well, if that guy's hand is an oar, why doesn't he just swim to the pier? Truth be that so often we can become insular

and lose touch with people who don't know the heart of God. There's somebody in your life that God wants to use you to reach. There's a friend, there's a family member, there's somebody in your life that apart from the grace of Jesus is heading towards a Christless eternity. And there's an incredible opportunity for us right now as we are preparing less than 40 days from Easter to invest and to say, God, I wanna be used by you to bring somebody home to your heart. Imagine if that person was seated next to you in our Easter service and they said yes to Jesus and their life was changed for all eternity. I wanna ask you to think about who's that person? Who's that person that God's tugging at your heart saying I wanna use you to reach and impact that person? I don't wanna be a part of a church that loses its vision for people who are disconnected from God. And we in the midst of a movement of God, the goal and the prayer is to say, God, use us to reach a lost and broken world with the hope that you have that you've given to our lives. In addition to that is us giving our whole heart to Jesus. And that's what we've been doing. We've just been saying, God, we want you to have our whole heart. This season of preparation, God, we wanna give you everything.

We wanna go all in with you, Jesus. We don't want there to be any area of our life that is held back from you. And John the Baptist was doing this. He was like running into this religious system where people had all of these verses from the Old Testament. In fact, he comes into this group of people called the Pharisees and they entirely miss the ministry of John the Baptist and the ministry of Jesus because their eyes are focused down on the wrong things. Their priorities are off. And in light of that, they miss where God is at work. And that is connected to this third part, which is a refinement. So John the Baptist in his reprioritizing. with helping them to change their attention would call them to what the Bible says is repentance. And the word repentance literally means to change your mind. It means to turn away from something. And the call that he gives, I want you to just see, come back to this passage for just a moment, up at the top. It says that he came baptizing in the desert, preaching a baptism of repentance, repentance for the forgiveness of sin. And the whole Judean countryside, and all the people of Jerusalem went to him, confessing their sins,

and then they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. Now that's what we did this week. We had some very powerful moments of confession and repentance. And Stacey led the session where we said, God, we're gonna turn it all over to you. She preached one of the best messages I've ever heard on repentance. And if you weren't here, we put it on the app so that you can go and listen to it. It was phenomenal. And what I love about it is Stacey presented the good news of repentance. And the good news is this. It's that Jesus already died on a cross for our sin. He already made a way that when we bring our sin, when we bring our brokenness into the light, there is forgiveness. And the things that we uncover by the grace of God, he covers them with the blood of Jesus so that we stand holy and righteous. And a lot of people live their lives kind of turning away from God and still holding on to the sin that entangles them instead of turning wholeheartedly back to God. So we witnessed in the room at Lake Forest, we witnessed dads coming forward and saying, you know, I've not led my family spiritually. And so I'm gonna repent and I'm just gonna say, God, I'm sorry for not leading my wife,

not leading my children. And this room at Lake Forest was just filled with men saying, I'm turning from that. I'm turning to be a leader to love and serve my family. We watched parents just flood the altar and face on the floor saying, God, we're sorry as parents that for a generation that's growing up, we put phones in their hands way too early and we let them be exposed to things they never should have. And we say, God, we're sorry. We repent of our sin. And there's something that happens when a group of people becomes broken over the reality of sin in their heart, to realize that we need the grace of God. Every mighty move of God throughout human history has been connected to people being willing to turn from sin and turn to God. And I wonder for you today if there's some things that God has just been putting his finger on. And maybe if you're at the return gathering, he did. And you're like, you know, I think actually that word was for my buddy that's sitting next to me and just kind of got close and I heard it, but I need to tell my buddy it's not for me. And maybe there's some of you that God's been just saying, I wanna deal with some stuff. There's some sin that's entangling you. The good news is God has made a way.

This is the good news about Jesus, that he's made a way that that sin can be forgiven, that you can stand holy and righteous. And if you're a follower of Jesus, he actually has already paid that price. And you don't have to live entangled with it anymore. And I want you to see in Hebrews chapter 12, as we talk about this refinement of God saying, there's some things I want you to turn from. I want you to notice what Hebrew says. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. I wonder if any of you have ever been out for a run and you kind of put on some pants and they were like way too tight, or maybe they were like really uncomfortable and you're like trying to move or you got yourself tangled up and you're trying to move forward. And there's something that's holding you back. Kind of reminds me, have you guys ever seen these people train with parachutes on their back? It's the dumbest thing ever. I don't know why anybody would do that.

It's already hard enough to run, let alone a parachute on your back. And I think that that's the way a lot of people run their race. It's like there are all these things that entangle us and we're trying to move forward. And God is saying, cut it off. There's some things in your life that I want to cut out so that you're free. And if you're holding on to the things of the past, and if you're holding on to sin in your heart, your hands, your life is not free for what God has for you now and in the next season. So I just got to ask you, what's the thing entangling you? What's the thing that God is saying, I want that. Gone, there's freedom, I want bitterness gone. I want you to get out of that jealousy so that your heart is free. All the good things God wants to do in the next season for you and for us is connected to our willingness to release in this season the sin that so easily entangles us. See, God's eyes are roaming planet Earth and he is looking for people and churches that he can pour out his grace on. He's looking for people whose hearts are fully committed to him, all in, for his purpose here on planet Earth and I wanna be a part of it.

I don't want God to sweep planet Earth with his grace and my life or our church miss what he wants to do. And I think about these couple of verses and we're gonna conclude on this, 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 20 through 22. The apostle Paul is writing and he kinda casts this vision for Timothy about a life that is positioned, that is prepared to be used by God. And I want you just to hear these words Timothy uses. He says, in a large house, there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. And some are for special purposes and some are for common use and those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the master. And can we say that next phrase, prepared to do any good work. He says that this is the way that you can live your life. You can cleanse yourself and he describes, flee the evil desires of your youth, pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Couple of weeks ago, I was in my kitchen and I have a dishwasher, thank God. Only works about half the time, but thank God for the dishwasher. And you know, the dishwasher can often be like the big bottleneck in terms of cleaning up. And there'll be often, there'll be a full dishwasher of clean dishes and nobody unloads it

except for Stacy and me. And I usually only do it when Stacy asks me. So it just, it sits there. And one day I'm in there making breakfast and I go over and I pull out, it's supposed to be clean dishes. It was a clean dishwasher and I pull out one dish and I look at it and it's like, still dirty. I'm like, well, what do I do with this? I take it, put it back in the dishwasher and grab a clean one. And I put my breakfast on the plate and I move on about my day. Never think again about how that little dish felt when I put it back in the dishwasher. And you know, the truth is, that's what Paul is saying here. He's saying that God is looking through planet Earth and the people that have prepared themselves, the people that have cleansed themselves, the people that have said, I'm moving away from an old way of life and turning my heart to you completely are the people, the churches that God chooses to use. So our repentance, our turning to God is making the way in our homes and making the way in our church and making the way in our community, in our region for God to move. And I wanna be a part of a church

where God moves and impacts a generation where what God does in us doesn't just stay with us, that it goes to the ends of the earth. And we gotta ask the question, just wanna encourage you to really wrestle through, is there anything in me, God, that's in your way? Is there anything on the inside of my heart that is in your way? God, I want my life to be positioned, to be used by you. That's our prayer. And I wonder today, if you might be willing just to bring something to Jesus in your life that he's putting his finger on, just say, I'm ready to turn. I'm ready to turn with my whole heart to you. You know, this whole thing about following Jesus, you probably like sometimes look at this, think of me, I'm like, I'm crazy. I got so much energy about this thing. You know, the truth is, I don't know how to do stuff half-heartedly. Like Stacey and I, both of us, we are like all in. You see our kids in services, maybe it's genetic, but I think if you're gonna follow Jesus, you might as well just go all in with it. You might as well just give him everything that you are and surrender back to him. It's worthless to do it half-heartedly. It's kind of pointless. So the son of God died on a cross for your sin,

conquered the grave, ruling and reigning as the high king of heaven. And he is worthy of your whole heart, your whole life. And today he's inviting you just to say, I'm giving what's in my heart, the things. that are in the way to you to make way for the movement of Jesus in and through your life. So I wanna invite you, if you will, all of our campuses, just to stand with me. And we're gonna respond right now. We're gonna sing a song of just recognition. You might even position your hands in front of you, open just as an act of surrender. And just say, God, search me. Just ask Him, we say that together, search me. Search me, oh God. We just invite you, Holy Spirit. Have your way in us. As He's searching you, let Him reveal things to you that you need to confess. Might be something you just need to say, I'm sorry, to Him. I repent, repent, repent of jealousy. Repent of my pride. Repent, Lord, of unforgiveness, just tell Him. Just invite you, Holy Spirit, to have your way in us. Lord, I pray for our church family. But we don't wanna be a church that has our eyes on ourselves. Don't want there to be anything in the way, Lord, of what you wanna do.

Some of you, as you're just searching your heart, one of the things that you recognize is you don't know Jesus yet. Have an open your heart to Him. Right now, it can be that moment. Pray a very simple prayer, just say, dear Jesus, open my heart to you right now in this moment. I surrender myself to you the best I know how. I ask you to forgive me of my sin. I give you my future. I'm choosing to follow you the best I know how. If that's you, if you're just putting your trust in Him, you're making the most important decision of your life. Lord, we thank you for every person right now that's just putting their trust in you, every person that's confessing to you, but we just acknowledge our deep need for you, our deep need for you. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen, amen. If you just prayed today to put your trust in Jesus, if you'll text DECISION to 83000, and we're gonna sing one last song. I wanna invite you just to seal this moment with a recognition of your need for God, our need for God in our lives. Let's just worship together, and then we'll be dismissed after the song. Worship Him, just say, Lord, I come, I confess, I need you, God. Let's sing together.

♪ Lord, I come, I confess ♪ ♪ I am here, I find my rest ♪ ♪ Without you, I fall apart ♪ ♪ You're the one that guides my heart ♪ ♪ Lord, I need you, oh, I need you ♪ ♪ Every hour I need you ♪ ♪ My one defense, my righteousness ♪ ♪ Oh God, how I need you ♪ ♪ And Lord, I need you, oh, I need you ♪ ♪ Every hour I need you ♪ ♪ My one defense, my righteousness ♪ ♪ Oh God, how I need you, oh, I need you ♪ ♪ I need you, oh, I need you ♪ ♪ Every hour I need you, my one defense ♪ ♪ My righteousness, oh God, how I need you ♪ ♪ Lord, I need you, oh, I need you ♪ ♪ Every hour I need you, my one defense ♪ ♪ My righteousness, oh God, how I need you ♪ ♪ My one defense, my righteousness ♪ ♪ Oh God, how I need you, oh, I need you, oh, I need you ♪ Well, God is moving in and through our church, as you can tell through the stories of the return gathering, and Pastor Andy's message was also so awesome. And I just want to encourage you to spend some time this week to pray and to maybe think about what is in me that is in God's way. What is in me that I might need to lay down or repent from or turn from so that God can use me with open hands for His glory and for His kingdom. And so I don't want you to rush out of this message without really taking a moment to pray and to reflect on it. And I also just want to say that I am praying that as you do that, you will be met with God's grace and His great love for you as well.

Well, next week, we are stepping into a brand new series called Jesus on the Move, which is all about looking at the book of Mark. We're taking a deep dive in it. So we want to invite you to join us back for it as well. And if there's a next step that you want to take, if there's something that you might need prayer for as well, we would love to know about it. You can click on the link in the description or open the Saddleback app and let us know that way as well. Well, we're so glad you joined us for Church Day and we'll see you again next weekend.