Consecration Sunday

Put your hands together. Lord, we're grateful that Your mercies are new today. We're grateful that today is a new day that You have made. Come on, if you agree, sing this with me. And there's a light that shines with hope and grace. Fills the sky with new mercy each day. We're alive. Let Your glory pour out, Jesus. And there's a joy that overwhelms our souls. Because we know our God is in control. So overflow and let Your favor pour out, Jesus. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. We'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. We'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. And there's a joy that overwhelms our souls. Because we know our God is in control. So overflow and let Your favor pour out, Jesus. It's Jesus. This is the day that the Lord has made. So we will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. So we'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. So we'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. God, we're choosing today to look to our future ahead. Because we know that You're there. We say, behind what happened yesterday. Because today there's a new thing happening. We'll leave behind what happened yesterday.

Because today there's a good thing happening. We'll leave behind what happened yesterday. Because today there's a new thing happening. We'll leave behind what happened yesterday. Because today there's a good thing happening. We'll leave behind what happened yesterday. Because today there's a new thing happening. We'll leave behind what happened yesterday. Because today there's a good thing happening. And this is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. We'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. And this is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And this is the day that the Lord has made. So we'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. We'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. We'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. How many of you have the joy of the Lord in your heart today? Oh, we praise you, Lord. We say, this is the day you made. So I'll rejoice and be glad. Rejoice and be glad in it. This is where I believe. You are more than enough, more than enough for me. We know you are faithful to your promise. You are strong when I am weak.

When I'm standing in your presence, I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, yes, it is. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. And we praise him singing. Oh, my soul, bless his name. All that is, hear me say. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Sing Jesus. Jesus. Come what may, You are worthy of all, worthy of all my praise. You are faithful to Your promise. You are strong when I am weak. When I'm standing in Your presence, I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, yes it is. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Bless His name. All that is will be saved. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, it's a joy that carries me on. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah. Oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh, oh. So this is our prayer. Let it rise up like a river overflowing Holy Spirit. And let it pour out with no limit overflowing Holy Spirit. Oh Lord, let it rise. Let it rise up like a river. Overflowing God, overflowing Holy Spirit. Let it pour. Let it pour out with no limit. Overflowing Holy Spirit. Oh, because the joy, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, yes it is. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. So we praise and sing. Oh, my soul. Bless His name. All that is will be saved. Oh, my soul. I will bless His name. All that is will be saved. One more time, church. Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Bless His name. All that is will be saved. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, oh, oh. So much more than just being there. Oh, oh, oh.

If Jesus has given you joy, can you give Him praise today. Thank you for your joy and unspeakable and full of glory. We love you and bless you in Jesus' name. Can somebody say amen. Amen, amen. Well, God bless you. It's awesome to see you in church today. Can you take a moment to encourage somebody new. Say hello to somebody you haven't seen all week long. Maybe even meet somebody new. We'll be right back to continue the service. God bless you. We'll be right back. ♪♪ Welcome Faith Church Orlando. Good morning. How we doing? Wow, you look as good as you sound. Amen. Praise God. Thank you for coming today. Thank you for being here. Amen. Where we gather across multiple locations to worship one God. Amen. So we are so thankful and grateful that you are here with us today. We're excited. God has an amazing message and word for us today. But as we continue, we don't want to be remiss in recognizing

some special people that are here today. And those are our first... first-time guests, amen. And we wanna welcome you, so if this is your first time, just raise your hand. We're just gonna welcome you, celebrate you, amen. Thank you for coming, amen. Our ushers are gonna come by, hand you some information. If you didn't have the opportunity to connect with one of our Guest Experience volunteers in the lobby, you can tap the tag in front of your seat to get more information and to see what God is doing here at Faith Assembly and how you can be a part of that, amen. And then immediately after this service, if you have the opportunity, we would love to connect with you at our Connection Hub in the atrium where we have some amazing Guest Experience volunteers that are gonna be there to answer any questions, kinda guide you on what's next here at our church. And we would love to just have a moment to meet you, greet you, and get to know you a little better, amen. And as we always say here at Faith Church, now that you are here, you're no longer a guest, you are family, amen, amen, praise God. Well, listen, maybe you didn't know or maybe it's been a while, but do we have any middle school students here, amen? If we do, praise God. Well, listen, we have an amazing service taking place right now.

We have some amazing youth leaders over here to my right. They'll be glad to take you over to a middle school service where you can experience the presence of God in a fun, Christ-centered environment, amen. It's amazing. And parents, if you have not been to the youth center, our mainstream youth center, you gotta check it out. If I had a place like that when I was a kid, I would have given my heart to Jesus as a youngin', amen. But let me tell you, it is an amazing Christ-centered place where young people can connect with God. So I encourage you, invite your middle schoolers at 10 and 12 to come along. Our leaders are right over there, they'll guide you over. And after the service, you guys can meet up over there or they can come over here to the atrium. You won't miss a beat, you won't miss encountering Jesus at all, amen. Well, praise God. Thank you for being here. We love you. And now if we can turn our attention to the announcements. Welcome to Faith Church Orlando. Here's a look at upcoming events. Church, this Easter, we're going after the one. In Luke, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find the single one that's lost. And when he finds it, there's a celebration. That's the heart of what we're asking you to do as we approach this Easter season.

Bring everyone you can, your neighbor, your coworker, a family member who's been on your mind, but prayerfully choose one person to intentionally commit to. Ask them which service time works best and plan to attend service with them. Make it personal. Offer to grab coffee with them before or after service. Get lunch after service. Help them feel not just welcome, but wanted. And when the day's over, text them, what did you think about service? I'm so glad you were there today. Hope to see you again soon. That one text might be the thing they remember most. Then on Monday morning, go one step further. Invite them to Wednesday night service. Tell them you'd love to sit with them again and let them know what's happening for youth, for kids ministry, and other opportunities to connect throughout the week, like bro classes or connect groups. Someone brought you, now it's your turn. Imagine the impact we can make if we all just invited one. Exciting things are happening at Faith. Here's a look ahead. We encourage you to connect, grow, serve, and reach here at Faith. So stay connected through the Faith app or our website. Have a blessed week. Amen.

Praise God. How many are excited for Easter? Come on, it's gonna be an amazing service across all of our campuses. Amen. And here's the thing. Not only are we asking you to invite someone, we're gonna give you the opportunity to participate. Amen. So if you're interested in serving at any of our service or even at the Easter egg hunt, you can go to faithassembly.org slash Easter, and you also have the opportunity to serve at any of the services or at our Easter egg outreach on that Saturday. We would love for you to be a part of that, as well as inviting people to join you to serve and to attend service. Amen. Amen. But speaking about Easter, amen, it's springtime, and we got our springtime collection. Amen. Amen. Come on. Amen. And listen, we love sharing our faith both verbally and in every aspect possible so that people can ask us about our church, but more importantly, to ask us about Jesus.

Amen. So if you have the opportunity in the lobby, we have some more faith merchandise out there for you to check out, and we encourage you, buy a gift for someone. Amen. It's that time so they can add to their springtime collection. Amen. So we would appreciate that as well. But as I mentioned before how we can be a part of Easter and a part about what God is doing At this time, we're going to continue to celebrate God with an opportunity to participate with God To reach others for the kingdom. Amen And that's when we as a church celebrate bringing God's tithes and God's kingdom-building offerings. Amen And as our ushers prepare to serve, I just want to share this with you that We are invited by God to To do what he wants to accomplish in the kingdom and there are a couple of ways that you can do that You can give digitally Through our faith app or through you can also tap the badge in front of the seat in front of you And also give that way electronically or you can also give conventionally or traditionally with an envelope Our ushers will come by and serve you at the time But keeping in mind that as our participation you're not giving to the church You're giving through the church so that we can do the ministry that God has called the church to do and that's to help people encounter Jesus And that's how we're gonna partner by being obedient the tithing supports the ministry of the church and the kingdom builder offering above and beyond the tithe is the Opportunity for us to spread the gospel around the world. So not only are we trying to reach people here in Orlando we're trying to reach people in the furthest parts of the region of the world with partnering with missionaries and Organizations so that they can encounter God and know his grace and mercy and maybe one day sit in a place like this To worship his name to lift up their hands in freedom and with joy

Proclaiming the name of Jesus wouldn't that be awesome and we get to be a part of that. Amen So God bless you as you give today. Let us pray father. We thank you for the opportunity that we get to partner with you Not only in worshiping you and praising you Lord God, but also in being able to give out of generosity Out of what you've already given us and Lord We are only returning to you so that we can sow This seed into your kingdom and that you would give it growth and that it would go throughout all the world It's starting from this city starting in our neighborhoods starting with our families Lord as we believe that you will use this for your glory and honor so that people will encounter your son Jesus We thank you God bless this offering and kingdom bill is offering as we give in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you as you give Saludos a todos Nos encontramos en un momento tan emocionante en la historia de nuestra iglesia Ya que estamos justo a lanzar nuestro primer servicio llamado Faith Español Este servicio va a ser a las 2 de la tarde aquí en el campus of Kerry Ford y va a comenzar el 5 de abril Así que apunten su calendario Nos encantaría que invitaran a amistades, a familias, a vecinos Los agentes que ustedes conocen que saben que necesitan un encuentro con Jesús Invítelos para que sean parte de este servicio ¿Cómo va a ser este servicio? Pues mira muy sencillo es el mismo ADN de Faith Esa misma pasión en la adoración, ese mismo compromiso en la palabra, todo eso lo único que en Español Ahora piensen en las personas que están trabajando con ustedes Compañeros, vecinos, gente que ustedes saben necesitan al Señor y comiencen a invitarlos Abril 5, dígales, tiene que estar allí a las 2 de la tarde Así que muy pronto se acerca Faith en Español Amen, well, we're gonna head into another time of worship. So go ahead and stand right where you're at And if you can lift your hands as an act of worship today Oh, thank you, Jesus Worthy, worthy And I am an instrument of exaltation And I was born to live your name above all names

You hear the melody of all creation But there's a song of praise that only I can bring So who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one more worthy There is no one Only you Jesus Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one There is no one There is no one Only you Jesus You are the infinite God of the ages And yet you chose to make my heart your dwelling place You healed my brokenness ♪ Give me your glory ♪ ♪ So I have songs of thanks, not even angels sing ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, oh who else is worthy, Lord ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, oh who else is worthy, Lord ♪ ♪ There is no one, there is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, oh who else is worthy, Lord ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh who else is worthy, oh who else is worthy, Lord ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, yes God ♪ ♪ There is no one more worthy, there is no one more holy ♪ Come on, lift up worship in the room. He is worthy of your praise. He's worthy of your words. He's worthy of your worship.

He's the one who's seated on the throne. Yes, you're worthy, Lord. ♪ You're the Lamb of God, anointed one ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ You're seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ Holy, you're holy, righteous one who shed His blood ♪ ♪ You prove to us the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ be lifted up, holy, holy ♪ ♪ You're the Lamb of God, anointed one ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ You're seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, righteous one who shed His blood ♪ ♪ You prove to us the Father's love ♪ ♪ So Jesus Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, oh, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, oh, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus ♪ Come on, there's none worthy like Him. There is none worthy like Him. Church, can I just remind you of the privilege it is that we get to give praise to the God of the universe and that He receives it, that we were created for this. We were created for His glory. So I just wonder, come on, across every location, could we just assume that position of praise and worship and thank God that we have the privilege of calling on the name of Jesus.

Come on, would you lift your hands across every location and maybe lift your voice and just, Jesus, I thank you for the privilege of your presence. Jesus, I thank you that I can stand and bring you glory. God, that I was created to bring you glory. Oh God, I thank you that you are here. I thank you, God, that you are moving in our midst when we gather. Lord, I thank you for this holy space. And I ask you, God, that you would have your way and we exalt you and we lift you up. Come on, can we take 20 more seconds and exalt Him? Just lift Him up, lift Him up with your voice, with your hands, with your bodies. We love you, God, we worship you and we give you praise. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, thank you, God, that you're here. Amen, amen, God bless you. Today, you can be seated across every single location and man, I am so glad that you're here today. Let me mention our locations real quick that are joining this service at this time. We have our Red Bug Lake campus joining this service. We have our Michigan Street campus. joining this service today. We have our Narcoossee Road Campus joining this service, and then today's service also streamed at the Central Florida Reception Center. Now it can all across all those locations. Can we just give God praise for what he's doing

at every single spot. And this is also the spot where sometimes I would say, and if you're joining on the screen somewhere else, we're glad that you are, but no one is. Because today is a special day, and it is an in-person only experience today. And we'll go back to streaming next week, Lord willing. But just for what God wants to do, we feel in our heart real strong today. We just felt strong to do it this way. You know, I mean, I try to operate in this thing where we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and just trying to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit on everything. And let me speak to this about the leading of the Holy Spirit is at the end of this service, we will end different than we normally do. And we're carving out some time at the end of this service for all of us. Everybody say all. All. For all of us to respond to this word. And I'm gonna call this whole body at every single location. I'm gonna call you to move from your seat to a place of encounter with Jesus today at the end of this service. What we're talking about is individual, but it's also corporate. And I just wanna tell you now, I'm asking you as your pastor to please be a part of it

and stay with us all the way through and respond with us together. We're just doing this as a body today. It's nothing weird, but we're gonna kind of respond by moving from where we are to a place of encounter and meeting with Jesus. And so you're with me with that? Say amen if you're with me, amen. So yeah, everybody, we want you all for every spot and every room, we want you to be a part of that. And I say thank you for that. If you got a copy of God's word, you can go to Joshua chapter three. Also, I'll be reading a passage from Romans chapter 12. We will start with Joshua chapter three, one verse out of the third chapter of Joshua. And then we'll read some verses out of the 12th chapter of the book of Romans. And we're gonna pray in just a moment, but I wanna mention that this Saturday is a memorial service for a dear saint of God that was a pillar of our church for so, so many years, Sister Francesca, and she was a prayer warrior. She was a soul winner. I mean, most Sundays, every time I'd see her on a Sunday, she'd tell me how she'd been praying for me and she'd tell me about who she led to Jesus that week. And she's with Jesus now, receiving her reward. And, but her memorial service is this Saturday at 10 a.m. And so we just wanna make you aware of that.

We're praying for her family in this loss. So we'll pray for them in a moment as well. But let me read the fifth verse of Joshua chapter three. Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. It's one verse, let me read it again. And I speak it over our church. Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. I'm gonna share today from my heart a message just entitled A Culture of Consecration, A Culture of Consecration. Let's pray, Lord, we expose our hearts and our lives to you. I just pray, God, at a new level today. And we just pray, God, that your hand would be upon us, that your word would come to life within us. And Lord, if there's anything that would stand in the way of our relationship with you, anything that makes our relationship with you fractured or difficult, Lord, we hold to that loosely today. God, anything we can do to be devoted to you in a different way, we just already say yes to you. So speak to us, we pray. Would you just whisper that to God right now? Say, God, just speak to me, speak to me today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen. A Culture of Consecration. So what is consecration? We got a big Bible word here,

so we're gonna break down what that means, what it meant in the Old Testament, what it means for us as New Testament believers. Consecration, in the Old Testament, there's a Hebrew word called kadesh. Kadesh, and that's the word that gets translated here in Joshua 3. to the English word consecrate. In the Old Testament, it meant to be set apart or hallowed. Set apart or hallowed. So when the Bible speaks of consecration, most often it's speaking to this concept of preparing oneself physically. Hear me, church, preparing oneself spiritually for a holy encounter with God. Consecration most often would represent a separation from something and a separation to something. Consecration, a separation from something that I need to separate from, but not just that, a separation to, as well, something I need to be devoted more passionately to. Whenever, I would say, this was probably now like almost 20 years ago or something, but me and my family, every single Sunday, we would go to lunch at the same restaurant. We would go to Fazoli's. Any Fazoli's fans in the house? And go get some breadsticks today. And there's a new location now that wasn't around then. This was a location that's no longer there.

Here in town, though, we'd go to lunch, we had a little card, a little pastor's card. It was like, we got some free food every single week. So if free food was in the mix, especially back then, I was there. I mean, quality is second, free is first, amen. Now, although the quality was great. Okay, I'm not even, I'm not here to trash Fazoli's. All right. That's straight from the motherland of Italy. That is some true Italian food. Okay, sorry. No, we'd go there, and there was one Sunday that I remember specifically, my youngest son was, I mean, he was maybe a little over two at the time or something like that. And when, you know, as kids, when they eat spaghetti, man, they get it all over the place. And I mean, so this was one of those days where he had more on him than he got in him that day. And we took a picture early on in the process. So this was at the beginning of the meal. He's already looking like this, and then it got worse from there. And I mean, spaghetti sauce everywhere. And I remember that day specifically, even though it was just a random family lunch after church, but I remember it specifically because during that lunch, he reached out and he went to grab me. And I kind of barked at him and I said,

no, don't touch me. And as I said it, I'll be honest, as a dad, my heart kind of broke for a second because my love language is physical touch. And so to hear me barking in order to my son to not touch me, it kind of broke my heart. But I think you get it. The reason why I had to do it is because of the mess that he was in. I had a white long sleeve shirt on. I had to go somewhere after that lunch to still keep that outfit on. And I couldn't go where I was going with spaghetti sauce all over me. So we get why I did it, but yet it still broke my heart that I had to break contact and not allow contact with him because of the mess he was in. Here's the thing, I didn't leave him in that mess though. Because my heart was broke, I carefully picked him up and I held him a great distance from me and I carried him into the bathroom. And I gave him a little restaurant bathroom bath right there. Man, we're washing spaghetti sauce and it looked like a crime scene when we got done in that bathroom. The spaghetti sauce got cleaned off of him and now he's clean. And I come back and I don't put him in his chair anymore.

Now I can put him in my lap. And now he can reach and touch me and grab me and we can wrestle like it's fine now. It was just the condition he was in couldn't breed intimacy with me. That's what consecration is, is that when we're at a state of contamination, a holy God, there is a level of intimacy that a holy God has to say no. But a holy God that loves you won't leave you in that place of contamination, won't leave you in that place of being a mess. Consecration says no. God says I'm gonna separate you from that so that you can be separated unto me. We are at a place in our church where this is what's burning in our hearts. As a staff, we've been talking about this and praying through this and the Spirit of God speaking. As your pastor, I'm telling you, this is what's burning in my heart that we are in need of, not of just a moment of consecration, church, but that we are in need of a culture of consecration. We're not even talking about a one-time thing, but that this would mark this church, that we would live in this kind of culture. So we read what the Old Testament said about consecration.

What about the New Testament? Well, I wanna go to Romans chapter 12, and though the word consecration does not appear in this passage, you'll see that the concept of it is all over the place. We're gonna read 11 verses from Romans 12. Therefore, I urge you, Paul says, Brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Holy would be a separation from. Pleasing to God, the separation to. And Paul says, this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, his pleasing, his perfect will. For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourselves more highly than you are, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment. In accordance with the faith that God has distributed to each of you, remember that line today, there is a faith that God has distributed to each of you. We'll get back to that at the end of this service. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, he's talking about us, the church, we though many, we form one body, and each member belongs to the others.

We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith. If it's serving, then serve. If it's teaching, then teach. If it's to encourage, then give encouragement. If it's giving, then give generously. If it's to lead, then do it diligently. If it's to show mercy, then do it cheerfully. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good. There it is, separated from, separated to. Verse 10, be devoted to one another in love, honor one another above yourselves, and never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. A lot of reference, a lot of truth about consecration in that passage, and one of the things that jumps out to me in that passage as well is that this is a wholehearted concept, half-hearted, partial consecration. It does not bring the result that from God, that a wholehearted, total surrender, all-in consecration brings, that's what we're called to in this word. Let's break those two parts down of what consecration is. First, we said consecration is the separation from. I mean, at its core, that's where consecration starts, is a separation. In the Old Testament, they would separate things

from common use to only be used in the temple. You talk about every, down to every little thing, because I know somebody who's sitting in this church thinking, Pastor, I'm not that important around here. I just show up from time to time. I'm not bringing a ton to this thing, and so I'm probably not that important. Let me tell you, you are that important to God. You are, and I mean, we're talking down to every little spoon. It was separated and set apart for God's use. It was consecrated. It was not gonna be used for any other common thing. So that kind of consecration begins with repentance. Repentance, where we go, God, I have contaminated any area of my life that I have contaminated, God. I give it to you, and God, I repent, and I turn from decisions that I'm making, and I turn from habits that have formed in my life. It starts with a repentance that would lead to overcoming compromise in your life. See, we live in an age of compromise, and so we're talking about consecration in an age of compromise. Those two things are not going to coexist well, and so for us to defeat compromise in our life, we've got to realize that we're not common. Matter of fact, in the Old Testament, it really applies throughout the entire Bible, but the opposite of holy is not evil.

That's what we think it is. We're like, well, this person's holy, and boy, that person's evil. Look at them. You can just tell by looking in their face. They got an evil face, and they're just doing evil things and evil thoughts, and that's the opposite of being holy. Actually, biblically, evil is not the opposite of holy. You know what the opposite of holy is biblically? Common, just common. Like the bigger problem for Israel, when you read through the Old Testament, was not that they would be holy one minute and then massively evil the next. No, the bigger problem was is they would be holy one moment and then treat the things of God as if it was just common, and so we do that. We create these compartments in our lives where we go, well, I have a sacred side of my life, and I have a secular side of my life. Pastor, like when I'm at church, man, it's sacred, and when I'm at church, I'm. Careful, like we don't even, my kids sometimes will say something in church and I'll say, don't say that in church. Well, what are we saying with that? Wait till we get home to talk like that. What are we doing? We're compartmentalizing. Even though Paul said,

present your body as a living sacrifice. You know what that means? It's the all of us. He's saying, I mean, give your all. Well, he's referencing this Old Testament sacrificial system where they would take an animal without blemish and they would put this animal on an altar and they would shed this animal's blood and take this animal's life. It was, I mean, this animal was all in to cover their sins. And this is what Paul's referencing. He's saying, and now it's not the animal. Now you are the living sacrifice, but it's all in, your whole life is that. And one theologian said, that's the problem with the living sacrifice is they know how to crawl off an altar. And that's what we do with our compartmentalizing. We get on the altar on a Sunday, we get off the altar on a Monday. We go, pastor, yeah, but I mean, are you saying that my job is some holy thing? I'm not saying that God is, okay? But I agree with him, yes, it is. Yeah, everything about what you are, that there's no sacred and secular. That's one of the most fascinating things about Jesus's life is you see that lived out that there was no sacred and secular. Like when he was on his way to somewhere

and he would get interrupted, it was a sacred, holy moment. And life would be changed. He may have been sitting down for a meal, but that meal was gonna turn miraculous because it was not like, well, no, I'm just off right now. No, he was sacred all the time. And that's what the New Testament believer is called to. Not this compartmentalized, not this sacred and secular thing. There is a constant pressure from culture. There's this constant compression that's coming from culture to try to get you to conform to the patterns of this world, right? It's what Paul just said. He said, don't conform to the patterns of this world. So that means that there is a resistance that needs to come from us because there's this constant cultural pressure trying to mold you into what they are as the world. And I think that the enemy knows he may not get all of you. So then he'll just settle for parts of you. Like very few of us are gonna go, I'm just living for the world. No, but the enemy will just try to say, well, then give me this one lane of your life. You just, this compartment. You can still do the church stuff,

but give me that dating life. And so we date like everybody else. Pastor, are you saying my dating life is supposed to be holy and sacred? Yes, I am. And somebody's sitting here thinking, Pastor, it's hard enough for me to get a date without trying to add holiness into this. Like, what are you talking about? Pastor, I don't wanna be a wet blanket when we go out with our friends and they're all doing stuff and they're doing this and we just kinda join in because we don't wanna make them feel bad and we don't wanna be a wet blanket. Well, compartmentalize, sacred, secular, or we can live our whole life as sacred. When I'm, what do I, my downtime, when I'm just bored. Pastor, it's just that, I'm just bored. And so I just start to kind of look through these accounts and it's just, I'm just bored. I'm just trying to kill time. I'm just trying to kill time. Are you saying that's sacred? Yes, I am. I'm saying your life, we're being called of by God that our life is sacred before him. There is a quote by J.C. Ryle in his book, Holiness. And he says, there is a common worldly kind of Christianity

in this day which many have and think they have enough. He says, it's a cheap Christianity which offers, which offends nobody, requires no sacrifice, costs nothing, and is worth nothing. I'm just asking us as a church to consider what area of moral decline, moral decay have I just been covering up and just pretending like it's all fine? And what if I allowed God to speak to me? What if I didn't come into church with a compromised attitude? Can I tell you what a compromised attitude does in gatherings like this? A compromised attitude comes in with its defenses up and says, what do I need to do to get through this service without having to change my life? What do I, how do I need to squirm? How do I need to reason out so that I don't have to give up my habits, so that I don't have to disrupt my passions and my pleasures? What do I? And so some of us, when we think about it, it's just happening in our spirit, but we come in with defenses up because we have a compromised attitude and we're thinking about how can we get out of this room and not be affected by the truth? Do you know what a consecrated attitude does? A consecrated attitude comes into.

and says, God, whatever you need to push out of me, whatever you need to bring conviction, whatever area of my life needs to change so that I can be more separated unto you, so that I could know you more, whatever needs to be cleaned up, whatever you need to take me to the bathroom, and whatever you need to cleanse off of my hands, and cleanse off of my heart, and cleanse off of my mind, God, I allow you to do it. That's a consecrated attitude. It's a separation from, and at the end of this service, again, it's not just about a holy moment, it's about a culture of consecration, but we are going to have a moment where we say, God, whatever it is in my life, whatever I need to delete from my life, let's get real, delete from my phone, whatever streaming services I need to cancel, whatever accounts I need to unfollow and block on social media, consecration starts with that kind of repentance. Author Jordan Sang said, for heaven to gain space in us, the world must lose its hold in us. Secondly, would be the consecration, not just a separation from, but consecration is also a separation to. Can I talk for a moment about what it looks like

for us to separate ourselves unto God? It's being set apart from the ordinary, and fully given to God. It's living as someone who belongs to him, for his purpose, I love this, for his divine service. I mean, how often on a Friday afternoon are you thinking about that you are living for his service, for his divine purpose and for his glory? It's not just coming to the altar, it's becoming the offering. Can I say that one more time? It's not just coming to an altar. No, we're good at sometimes just coming to an altar, what we're not so good at is becoming the offering. That's what this consecration, this separation unto, if that's what consecration is, is being devoted, like I'm there for his divine purpose, then broken consecration is the act of taking something that should be claimed as God's, and treating it as though it was just common or disposable. Right, we said the opposite of holy is common. So if something is meant to be God's, and we treat it as just common, that's broken consecration. The Israelites, if you read the Old Testament, desacralization, they would take sacred things and just make them common and normal and unsacred.

I mean, this plagued them all throughout the history that we read in the Old Testament, this desacralization of just treating God's doing things and God's moving, and yet we're treating it like it's just common. What does this look like for us today? Let me say it this way. Every venue right now that this service is happening in, I would say that probably that building has been prayed over and consecrated unto God. God used this building. I'd say probably those seats that everybody's sitting in at every location, probably somebody has laid a hand on those seats and consecrated those seats, said God, use this for your glory. However, it could be argued that it's just brick and mortar. It could be argued that the chair is not sacred, it's just a chair, and that maybe when you sit in it, it becomes sacred. It could be argued that the building is just a building, and it's not sacred, and we're just using this to do something in here. It could be argued that the chair is not sacred, but what cannot be argued is that the building is just a building, and it's not sacred, and what cannot be argued is that our gatherings are not sacred. Can I tell you, when we assemble together, when we assemble together, it is a holy, sacred assembly.

When we gather like this, it means something. We're contending for something when we gather. This is not a common moment, and so I want you to be careful, church, as your pastor, can I just preach it the way I'm feeling it? I want you to be careful with how you treat even this when we gather. What does it look like if we start to treat this common? Well, then we'll come in here with selfishness. We'll come into these gatherings with selfishness and start to complain because it's not the way I like it or criticize because it's not to my taste. I'm just telling you, I'd be careful with that. Why, because this is a holy gathering. This is a sacred assembly. I'd be careful not to allow big times of disconnection. I mean, sometimes in worship, I might be tempted just to go, ah, I'm not crazy about this song, or I'm kind of tired, I'll just kind of sit here and disconnect, and I just wouldn't do it. Why, because this is, I don't want to treat the sacredness, the move of God as something that just. It's common, I'll just do it next week. I feel Mike Morton's like doing it next week. I wanna be careful about distraction. And some of you might just need to put your phone away all the, during church because it's a temptation to be distracted from a holy moment. Can I, hey man, can I, can I keep going

and do you still love me, say amen. Amen. Cause sometimes I, my heart, just being honest, sometimes my heart breaks even at the end, towards the end of a service, when somebody wants to beat the traffic in the parking lot and still they'll get up and begin to move through the building and leave. When it's, we're moving towards a moment of like surrender. We're moving towards a moment where people are going to make a decision for Christ and yet the movement, man, I wouldn't, I just wouldn't do it cause I would be afraid that that distraction would cause somebody to be distracted from this holy consecrated moment. And can I, amen. Amen. Woo. And can I tell you this church, I pray all week that anybody that leaves early to beat the parking lot here gets nothing but red lights the whole week. So I'm telling you, it's coming either way for you. But know in every location, let's guard the holy assembly. Let's, we're moving towards these moments. Let's not allow division or disagreements to bring a wedge in the body. Paul talks so much about this body of Christ that we're doing this together.

In verse five and six of Romans 12, the chapter we're in, he says in Christ, though we're many, we form one body. He's speaking not of independence. Well some of us are great independent Christians. Like I can just do this on my own and do we really need the church? Paul is not speaking of independence. He's speaking of interdependence. He's saying, no, you do need one another. You do bring something to the table. He says, though we're many, we form one body. Each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If we believe that this setting is sacred and these gatherings are sacred, then that means we'll also be committed to convocation. I'm sorry for all the big church words, but convocation. That is the gathering of the people together for a moment. The gathering of people together. That's what convocation is. I did a quick search this week and I looked at the top grossing musical tour from 2025. And the top grossing tour last year, according to Billboard, was Coldplay. Coldplay grossed around $465 million on that tour. $465 million. Tonight I'll be resigning as pastor and I'm gonna go be a rock star. Now they made $465 million.

That made that on 59 shows, played shows to 3.5 million people. All right, I saw that. The very next thing I did is I went to YouTube and I searched Coldplay in concert. First video that popped up was Coldplay live 4K concert. Front row, live tour from Las Vegas. If I wanted to, I could click on that and I could enjoy the whole show for zero dollars. Why did 3.5 million people pay an average of $400 a ticket to go to a show when it was available on YouTube? Do these people not know about YouTube? YouTube needs to get the word out that it's there. Why are they doing this? Could all those people know something that I say all the time? That maybe it's better in person, that maybe the experience changes. When you're in the room, there's something else about the environment. That's why I wanted to say this today, that we would be committed to coming together. And I wanted to say it on a day that we're not streaming because I knew that what would happen is that somebody had happened to miss today and they're watching from home and then I get on this rant about how important it is that we're actually in the room live and in person and then somebody's gonna think you saw me not in church and then you started ranting and raving

about not being in church. I wanted to cover this on a day that we weren't streaming out there to say the value of us coming together and what you bring into this environment. I gotta tell you, you're not in a church that just believes in a band singing a couple songs, somebody coming out and giving a little self-help talk and then we all go home. That's just not the church that you attend, okay? We're always contending for this moment of encounter with Jesus. We're always moving towards this moment of spillover where the spirit of the resurrected Christ spills out on everybody, especially on those that don't know Christ, that don't yet. have experienced Christ, but those that have and still need a refreshing in the spirit of God. So we're always contending for that moment. We're always praying for that moment when God just spills out on everybody. We're praying for the kind of moment that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 25, Paul says, and as they listen, and he's talking about like, he's talking about people that are in church that maybe don't even understand everything. Maybe they aren't even living for God yet.

And he says, but as they listen, the secrets, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and they'll worship God, declaring, God is truly among you. That's the moment we're always striving for. That's the moment we're always trying to get to. That's why we gather. And Paul describes this in 1 Corinthians 14, that this moment comes when the body brings and operates in the gifts that God has put in them. Like, you think those moments happen because if I preach good enough, those moments happen. That's not what Paul is describing. Let me show it to you this way. We are always praying and believing God for that moment of spillover. And if this represents the presence of God around here, the move of God around here, the possible tipping point of God's power revealed in our midst, then this will represent me. This will represent mine. Because I prayed today, man. I prayed and fasted for this week. I've been studying the word. I came with something today. I came with the word from God, and so, boom, here it is. I added something to the environment here today.

Now, watch. Just that, I mean, if I move this thing around enough and spill it around enough, maybe some people will get wet. But what I wonder is do we have to just rely on what I brought to the table today, what I brought into the house today, or can we also rely, I wonder if there's anybody else that brought some faith today. Anybody bring some faith to the house of God today? Did you bring some faith? Why don't you add your faith to my prayers and to my fasting, and let's see what happens here. Add that. Okay, that's better. I wonder if there's anybody else that maybe just didn't just come to church, but they brought some expectation. They came expecting God to do something. You expect God to do something today, radical? Come on, let's do this. Add this. Add your expectation. I feel like we're closer. I wonder if there's anybody here that brought any passion with them to church. You bring some passion today? Why don't you add your passion to their faith, to their expectation, to my prayers?

Man, we're getting somewhere now. I wonder if there's anybody here that brought any kindness. Anybody brought some mercy? There might be somebody that needs some mercy in their life. Anybody bring some mercy? Let's do this. And so somebody's life might be impacted in a different way now because somebody brought some, I wonder if anybody brought any leadership with them today, like when they worship, it's gonna do so with some leadership and some influence, and so when you worship, it's gonna affect somebody else's worship because there's leadership. And look what happens when, keep going, keep going, keep going, when that leadership adds to everything else that's been going on, we hit the point of spillover. We hit the point of God touching lives. I wonder if anybody brought any joy. Did you bring some joy to the house? Let's just keep going. Let's see what happens, because now even more people, yeah, go ahead, we're all good. It's just, amen. Can we thank God that somebody brought some stuff to the house today?

And here's the thing. As long as you make church about consuming, then your attendance will vary based on how much it is, you feel like it's needed in your life in the moment. So like if I'm having a particularly okay week, I'm like, ah, I'm doing fine. If I'm making about what I get, I don't need anything right now, so I'll just, I'll not be around. But when you make this thing about what not, you're just getting, when you make this thing about what you are contributing to the body, the gifts that God has put in you, the generosity God's put in you, the leadership God has put in you, the serving that God has put in you, when you make it about that, and you're bringing that into the environment, you are helping us hit that critical mass moment of lives being changed. And if that's true, and you don't bring your gift, if your gift is sitting at home, maybe we don't hit. with the same power that we would have hit if you'd been here. That's the body of Christ that Paul is describing. That's what consecration looks like. Church, we are in a place right now where, yes, this needs to happen individually.

And I'm telling you, I'm leading the way in this, man. Like I am living a consecrated life. We're talking about this in our staff, about what it looks like for us to be consecrated to God, separated from the hindrance and separated unto God for his usefulness at a different level. God wants to do it in your life as an individual because God wants to do it in our church corporately. Not a moment of consecration. We're gonna have a moment, but we only have this moment to lead us to a culture of consecration, that when we gather, this is what we expect. I said a moment ago that we were gonna end this service uniquely. And I invited you and asked you, I beg you to be a part of it. So if you would, would you stand to your feet? We've carved out time in this service. We're way before we'd normally dismiss right now so that we could do this together. But can I ask you to come and move from your seat, everybody in the whole room, move from your seat. And would you move towards this front, maybe move into aisles. Maybe in the risers, you could move down to just that first landing. Maybe that's a good spot. There's just something about moving from your seat.

You could argue in your mind and go, Pastor, I'll just stay here, it'll be fine. Yes, but there's something about just stepping out to find a place to meet with God. There's something about moving to have a moment of consecration. There's something about being a part of a corporate moment that we're not even just doing this alone. Yes, God needs to heal some individuals, some hearts, some lives. God needs to purify it. I'm telling you all day long, there has been a cleansing stream that has been flowing through this room. Today is gonna be no exception. So thank you and just move as far as you can. And if you get to a spot and it gets crowded, that's fine. Thank you for this. And let's begin with this, what we need to separate from. Can we begin with this? Can we just begin by offering God a moment of repentance and saying, God, I'm sorry. So I want you to close your eyes right there where you are, maybe put your hand over your heart. Say, God, I pray that you would just bring cleansing. I pray, God, that you would forgive, God, that we repent, God, of our ways. We right now, God, we are sorry for selfishness. We're sorry, God, for pride that has entered into our heart and our life.

Lord, we come against, we ask God that we just turn away from lies. Lord, there's some that we've been lying to our spouse, lying to our family, lying to our parents. Lord, we pray, God, forgive us for a spirit of lying on our life. God, we ask you to forgive us for sexual sin. Some of us have been acting as though we're married with somebody when we're not. And so God, I just pray that we would just walk away from that right now, God. We want to be consecrated from these things, separated from these things. There's some men and you have a habit, a secret lust habit, an addiction in your life. And today's the day you need to break that off of your life and repent in Jesus' name. Oh God, that you would bring purity to our life. Lord, some have been maybe stealing something, and I haven't said that in other services, but you've been stealing maybe from your job or something like that. And today's the day just to repent. We can't just go on and living, covering it up and pretending like everything's fine. No, this is a holy moment of purity in our life. So purify. Will you pray that? Will you just say, God, purify me. Wash me, God.

Wash me, God. Why don't we sing this as a prayer together? This song that just says, God, give me clean hands. Lord, give me a pure heart. I want us to sing this together. Maybe lift up a hand to heaven and let's sing this together. Say, God, give me clean hands. Give me a pure heart. ♪ Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts ♪ Yes, God. Come on, this is you and Jesus right now. ♪ Show us that's where miracles start ♪ It's not about what I want, God. Forgive me of my pride. ♪ Beyond what I want, beyond what I seek ♪ ♪ Lord, change for my world, begin it in me ♪ Let's sing that again. Let's, Pastor John, let's say, give us clean hands. Would you hold up your hands to heaven and say, God, purify me. Give me a pure heart, God. Oh, God, holiness, purity, in Jesus' name. God, unforgiveness and bitterness, God, root it out of our life right now, Jesus. It's not about what I want. Paul said, present your bodies as living sacrifice. Let's do that. Let's say, we're wholly surrendered to you. Everything is yours. Then you'll be able to test and prove what God's will is.

Come on, go deeper right now. Say, I'm wholly surrendered to you, God. Make me your vessel, God. Consecrate me, God. Before we sing the next part of that song, the next part of that song says, you can have it all. This is going to be our consecration unto God moment. And before we do, I want you to think about what that looks like for you, because it's different. It's different for different ones of us of what it looks like if I were to be separated unto God's usefulness and purpose in a new level. For some of you, that might mean a devotional life, like marking out, like, no, I'm going to pray. I'm going to get to know him. I'm going to get in the Word of God. Maybe that's what that separation unto God looks like for you. For some of you, it may have something to do with church attendance, or maybe it's coming to a midweek prayer service on a Wednesday night. Whatever it means for you to give more of yourself unto God. Maybe for some of us, it has to do with our finances and our resources. Maybe for some of us, it has to do with serving and giving of ourselves. Maybe some of us, it's, okay, God, I'm going to serve you at work. I'm going to walk into that place called of God to be there. Maybe that's what it looks like for you to be wholly surrendered to him and say, God, you can have it all. So whatever it means for you to be separated unto God at a new level, divine purpose at a new level, divine service to God at a new level. Let's sing this together. Say, God, you can have it all. You can have it all, God.

You can have it all. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. What does that look like for you? You can have it all. Oh, God. You can have it all. You can have it all. You can have it all. You can have it all. It's yours. My life is yours, God. My interests are yours. My passions are yours. My relationships are yours. My job is yours. My days are yours. My nights are yours. You can have it all, God. Oh, that we would be a consecrated people. Let this church be marked as people that are surrendered to you. Oh, God, you can have it all. Come on, one more time. We lift it up to heaven. You can have it all. You can have it all, God. It's all yours. You can have it all. My life is yours. You can have it all, God.

You can have it all. You can have it all, God. You can have it all. You can have it all. I'm going to read this passage over your life prophetically. It's in 2 Timothy chapter 2. I want you to receive this. Pastor Alex will come and close out the service in a moment. I want you to know that if you need prayer specifically about anything, you can stay and remain in these altars and our prayer team will be there. But before we go, let me read this passage over your life prophetically. In a wealthy home, some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. Here we go. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. Come on, a consecrated life, not a consecration moment. Not a consecration altar call, but a consecrated offering that our lives would be used. Church, it's where we are as a church, and I thank you for going on the journey with us of what it looks like to live consecrated, separated from. The sin, the hindrance, the compromise, and separate it in a new way unto God. Pastor August is gonna come and pray. God bless you, we love you so much. Praise the Lord, amen. Let's bow our heads right where we are, and let us just thank God for this sacred moment.

Lord, we come before you and thank you, because Lord, you have allowed this time and space for us to rededicate ourselves, Lord God, our lives, our homes, our families, our business, everything that we are, to be rededicated to you, Lord. Lord, we separate it all, and starting with us. Lord, Father God, though, although we may be leaving this moment, Lord, we take this encounter with you forever, Lord. Lord God, today we have decided to separate ourselves to you. Father God, that the world will no longer have a hold on us so that your heavenly presence will reign in our lives. Lord, I pray that you would bless your people. I pray, Father God, as we gather here, and as we go forth today, Father God, and throughout this week, that we would live and continue in this moment, Father God, knowing, God, that being consecrated has drawn us into constant and committed intimacy with you in anything and everything we do in our God. We give you the praise. We give you the honor and the glory. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. And the people of God say, amen. Praise God. Well, if you gave your life to the Lord, we want to encourage you to connect with one of our prayer teams or scan the QR code that's on the screen. We want to continue this journey with you. But let me say this to you, Faith Church Orlando,

you are now sent. Go and help others encounter Jesus. God bless you, and enjoy the rest of your day. Amen.