Cribz Week 2

and I wanna welcome you to Free Life Chapel, where we help you discover and live the free life impressed. I'm so glad that you decided to tune in with us online today. But hey, whenever you get a chance, come visit us in person. We're located in Central Florida and waiting on you and your family. I'm so glad that you tuned in. Check this message out. - How many y'all remember MTV Cribs? Y'all remember that? Y'all remember MTV Cribs? It's where they used to take the cameras inside of these celebrity homes and pro athletes and you see these 15 squillion square feet in a house and the elevators in their closet and the 15 car garage like this palatial place and we'd all sit there and go, dang. That's what Cribs was. Well, we're hitting this series because we found out God's got a Crib also and his Cribs called The Church. And we need to understand what God's opinion is and his perspective of his Crib. You know, if it's his Crib, he gets to decide how it runs. That was kind of weak. That was all right for a 12, 30, certain, but, but how many of you know, if God's got a Crib, he gets to decide how it runs.

Like, you got, okay, there you go, okay, very good. Let's go here and I wanna give you a snapshot, a picture. A picture as to what his house is supposed to look like. The book of Revelation. Dang, he's going to the end of the book. Y'all just watch, watch, watch. Revelation chapter nine, it's chapter seven verse nine. Here's what it says. "After this, I saw a vast crowd, "too great to count from every," nope, nope, nope, y'all gonna make me come out there right now, aren't y'all? Y'all gonna make me a lewd mama? Read that part, read that part, ready? From every nation and tribe and people and laying, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb, they were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. Pretty cool, pretty cool verse and where this verse is coming from? It's a guy named John was caught up into this vision and God gave him a picture as to what heaven was going to look like and that's the book of Revelation. John is riding out of this vision that he had but this vision of from every nation, tribe, people and language as a snapshot of the people groups that were in heaven. In other words, it's gonna be a diverse population that is going to spend eternity together and if heaven looks like that,

I kinda believe God's church on earth ought to look like that. That's right, a massive, uncountable, diverse, unified, crowd coming together, that's worshiping Jesus. Like it should embody if that's what heaven looks like then we ought to have some heaven on earth is what I'm trying to tell you. That is the blueprint, that is the picture, that is the goal and we are to be living that out right here, right now. In fact, just look around you right now, just look around where you're sitting. What's happening in this room every single week is nothing short of a miracle because quite honestly it looks like what we just read in Revelation. There's different people, there's different colors, there's different backgrounds, there's different nationalities, different ethnicities, that's the way it's supposed to be. In the month of October, as a church, we wanted to find out who was attending free life. Who is it that's here? If we believe that it all looked like that, look that way then let's get some numbers and let's just find out because numbers don't lie. And here's what our statistics at free life going the entire month. Here's what the numbers came back on. Who is at free life? Free life chapel is 35% Hispanic. Where are the Latinos and La Casa?

(audience cheers) There you go. (speaking in foreign language) That's right. We got some Hispanics in the room, 35% of y'all. Said don't be surprised if you hear somebody talking Spanish behind you. We got 33% black in the room. Where are my black folk at in the room? My people have got, these are big categories. Yeah, yeah. Good to have you. Glad you're here. Represent. Where's my white people? 26% in the room. (audience cheers) Glad y'all here. Just so you know, I had to fill this survey out three times 'cause I wasn't your father's black, white, or Latino. So I just kind of filled one out for all of them. Then there's another, we have a 6% of our church that it's in general category as other. But listen, no disrespect. Native American, Asian, Pacific Islanders, So 35% Hispanic, 33% black, 26% white, and 6% other. That's a pretty cool ratio, that's a pretty cool margin. But here's what I wanna point out to you. As we begin to look at this and begin to look at the sociological studies around our world to decide,

okay, what do those numbers mean to us? Here's what the report came out. Approximately 20% of churches in America meet the baseline for diversity. What does that mean? It means that the largest ethnic group in a church should be under 80%. So if I was going to explain that to you, that means that the Hispanics that are attending, because they're the largest of our ratio, as long as there are less than 80% of the congregation is Hispanic, then our church is considered diverse in our nation, and approximately 20% of churches in America are that way. Here's the issue. Free life chapel is shocking the system. Because we're not just under 80%, the largest ethnicity in our church is under 40%. Okay, that staggers the ratio. And here, I'm just, I'm giving you the numbers. I didn't decide this. Sociologists have placed free life chapel in the top 1% of churches for the healthiest, most balanced ratio of diversity among the three major U.S. ethnicities. That's pretty cool. In other words, you're sitting in a miracle right now. You're sitting in a miracle. Like the person beside you, their pigment, or like they're of, like whatever it is

that they brought with them. Like it matters, and it's connected, and it's apart, and it's beautiful, and we need it. Can you imagine how upset you would be if you bought a box of crayons, 64 crayons, and you open it up, and they were all the same color? I would be a little jacked up with that situation right there. Can you imagine if you busted up in a bag of Skittles, and all there was, was green? Where's the red ones? I want some diversity in my Skittles. I want some diversity in my crayons, and I want some diversity in my church. This is what heaven gonna look like right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These numbers are strong, but let me help you with something. We don't worship our diversity here. I think it's great, we don't worship it, but here's what I want you to understand. We can't be blind to the miracle, because we attended so much, we can begin to take it for granted. But I'm just telling you right now, travel a little bit. Get out and see some other places, all of a sudden you realize, man, it's so good to be able to worship like this. It doesn't make us inherently better, inherently smarter than any other churches, but I promise you, this free life chapel is intentional

about pursuing this right here. This is not an accident. We pray over it, but this is very much our heart. Our goal in wide diversity is one of the core values of this church. But here's what it does do. Just your attendance, when we meet on Sunday mornings, it makes free life chapel a silent sermon that is preaching all the time. It's always out there, because the message of Jesus Christ, don't forget is this. Jesus breaks down barriers, he heals division, and he establishes new family members where everybody can belong. And it's important that message is not just preached, but it's also lived out and seen, if I can use it this way, in living color. The world needs this message, and you in this room are proof that Jesus is real because we're embodying this is what heaven's gonna look like. Only Jesus can do this right here. It's diversity is crucial. It's not cutest, not to be pushed aside as crucial, because disunity and exclusion and racism are actually signs of the end times. Like, you understand, Jesus was leaving the temple one day. He was walking out of the temple, and as he was leaving the temple, the disciples ran up to him and said, Jesus, tell us something.

How are we gonna know when the end of time is here? Like when everything is just shutting down, like man, we're about to hit a whole new season shifting gears, like this world as we know it is coming to an end. How do we know that? Jesus spits back out real quickly in Matthew chapter 24, several things. But here's what he said in verse seven. And he said this, read it with me. Nation will go to war against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Nation in that verse in the Greek is literally, watch this, ethnos where we get our word ethnicity. There will be racism, rampant. There's going to be conflict. There's going to be struggle. There's going to be opposition. There's going to be infighting. These are Jesus' words. That ethnicity will rise against ethnicity. This is what you will see. Ladies and gentlemen, just scroll through social media real quick. Open your eyes and listen. Just listen to the news. Just walk through culture today. We've got a nation today that it's like it's a powder keg just waiting for more things just to break open and erupt. While we've got politicians that are promising to bring everyone together, the way that they're doing that is by canceling other people and trying to raise up one group other than that,

we've got a mess going on in our culture today. We're living this out right here. This very reality that you and I live with day in and day out, this puts free life chapel in direct opposition to a number one hell's game plan to destroy us, to destroy this nation, but number two, it puts us in opposition to the spirit of this culture. If you and I are living by God's word properly and living this out, there's going to be something about you loving others that's going to rub some other folks wrong. You're going to have a compassion. You're going to have a patience. You're going to have an ability to work together instead of excluding and stepping around somebody to get to your body. You've got more in you than that. You're not triggered by every little thing that you see. You can absorb it and keep moving. Why? Because one greater than I is living in me and I'm not living down to the spirit of this culture. I'm living up to the spirit of Christ. This makes pursuing unity quite honestly. Pursuing unity makes it a holy war. I'm not saying we're going to war against anybody like that, but here's what I want you to know. When you and I push back against political division and cultural divides with the love of Jesus, that's holy and that's war because do not get it twisted. There are two kingdoms that are fighting each other right now and we are a part of the kingdom of Christ and we are not here just to become a mat that this culture can wipe its feet on. We are here to stand up strong with the love of Jesus Christ, with the truth that He gives us in His Word and we're here to help bring that healing that Jesus desires for this nation. In fact, this fight calls Jesus His life literally.

When God brought the Hebrew people out of Egypt, they had been in bondage for 400 years. Someone say that's a long time. I agree. So long. They're in bondage and inside of Egypt there's paganism, meaning they worship all of the gods. They have all of the kind of idols. They're not worshiping the God. They're worshiping a bunch of little G's, not big G, little G. They got all these idols and when God brings them out, He broke the back of Pharaoh, brought them out. God said, "I need to establish something new inside of you so you understand who you are." He brings them out Sinai, He gives them the Ten Commandments, gives them His Word, begins to make promises to them. He said, "I will now make you a kingdom of priests. I'll make you a holy nation." And that holy nation, man, I'm going to separate you from all other nations. I don't want you intermingling. I don't want you intermarrying. I don't want you to do any of that stuff. This is a part of the beginning of your Bible. And you might become, man, that sounds like God's like a little discriminatory. Why is He doing that here? Let me help you. He wasn't pushing back on ethnicities. He was pushing back on sin. Those other nations were a part of paganism. They didn't care about the one true and living God. But Israel did and God said, "I don't want you intermixing with those who can lead you astray.

I need you to stay locked and loaded and focus on me and I need you to get the right voices, the right people around so that we can set you up. You've been in bondage 400 years. I need to set you up for what's good." It's like a young man, a young lady going into the military. Whenever they sign up, everyone's going, "Oh!" And they put them in this thing called boot camp. Y'all know what boot camp does? Boot camp, just don't just put a boot in their camp, like it just kind of gets their stuff straightened out. What boot camp does is there's no contact with that young man or young lady while they're in boot camp from home. They don't need to hear mama going, "I'm so sorry for what you're going to know." No, no, no. Get mama out your head right now. You can love mama in a minute. We're going to hold you. We got to reframe your mind. We've got to reset you. You are no longer a civilian. You are a part of the military. You are a soldier. And they've got to set up, put a mindset in you. It's not that family's wrong, but we've got to own you for a minute to get your heads place that I need you to insulate and I can pour myself into you, set your mind. And then it was this mindset though that continued on. This mindset continued on because what happened was as you get then out of the Old Testament moving into the New Testament, there's this temple that is built in Jerusalem. And this mindset continued that we Jews have to be completely separate from everybody else, especially the religious elite called the Sadducees who were over all the temple. We can't let anybody who's not a Jew inside where God's presence is. So they literally built a wall inside of

the temple. It was literally, they had a court of Jews and they had the court of the Gentiles. You'll see this wall. This wall was literally about four feet high. And if you were not a Jew, you were not allowed to cross that line. You had to stay on the outside. So all these people who were there, these were non-Jews who were worshiping God, loved God, had given their heart to God, but the men were uncircumcised. They weren't keeping all 613 commands of the law that had been decided and therefore they were not permitted. In fact, there's actually signage. They have uncovered this in archeological digs, signs that actually said that if a Gentile crossed that line, he was worthy of death, putting his life into the penalty of death. Acts chapter 21, Paul, the quarterback of Christianity, he is wrongfully accused of taking a non-Jew across that line. And they were getting ready to kill him because of this very accusation itself. This is a wall that was built and understood that if you were a Jew, you could get closer to God's presence. If you were not a Jew, then you had to just, you could get close, but you had to stay back. It was with this idea in mind of this wall that you just looked at that Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14, check this out. It says, Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when in his own body on the cross, read this, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. Paul was saying that wall in the temple, Jesus tore it down. It doesn't belong. Everybody should have access to Jesus. Everybody should have access to God. Everybody is welcome. I don't care where you've been, what's your background is. If you love God, you want to know him, you're welcome. There's no, there's no degrees of elitism. No, it's everybody in. You're welcome. You can be a part of this. That's what Paul was saying Jesus did. The word peace here, where it says Jesus was that peace, peace literally means nothing missing, nothing broken. Let me give you a clue about this. Peace, that means with that definition, nothing missing, nothing broken, that means peace isn't a political or a legislative issue. You can't legislate people's hearts. You can't, you can't demand that politically. They can stand on plodiums and they can promise all day, if you'll vote for me, I will and we need to all shout back collectively, kiss our grits. You can't do it. Let me tell you why, because only Jesus can heal the heart of this nation and it's going to take Jesus to turn hearts of people to bring them to a place of repentance and humility so that there's a full embrace. Jesus's cross destroyed this wall, this barrier that was separating people group because he wants one family, not a segregated family,

and when he did this, the Bible says he united all ethnicities to God and when he did this, he united all ethnicities to each other. It's this way and it's this way. In other words, Jesus died to unify his diverse church. Here's what I need you to understand. We as Christ followers, we need to keep from rebuilding the wall that Jesus gave his life to tear down. Now nobody in this place would go, Scott, I would never want to rebuild that wall. Well, let me tell you how is it that that wall gets rebuilt? I'll give you a couple of examples by excluding certain people in your life. Oh, let's just go ahead and have church right now. By isolation, we think we and them dismissing people because they don't act like, look like, dress like you, arrogance, pride in the heart that we have layers and levels of who deserves and who doesn't. This stuff gets all up in our heart. You see, it's not anything publicly, but it's stuff privately. It's a heart issue. One day Jesus was in a town called Capernaum, and while he's there, he gets there to teach and you have to understand culturally in those days, he was teaching outdoors. So, what Jesus had to say or any teaching rabbi for that matter. That what does he have to say? And so when the families got together, like they all piled up as mom, dad, all the kids everywhere. Like they didn't have childcare. Anybody glad somebody's watching your kid right now? Yeah, we didn't just turn them loose in the field until they go find them after church. You know, they're being watched, they're all good. They didn't have anything like this. So they're watching, they're listening to Jesus, they're listening to Jesus teach, and in the middle of Jesus teaching, one of the disciples goes, "Hey, Jesus, "what's among us talking about the disciples "is going to be the greatest in your kingdom?"

How do you think that's probably not a good question to ask Jesus? Like this pride on display, are you serious you going to go there? Here's how Jesus responded in Matthew 18. He said, "Truly I tell you, "unless you change and become like little children, "you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. "And whoever welcomes one such child "in my name welcomes me. "If anyone causes one of these little ones, "those who believe in me to stumble, "it would be better for them to have a large millstone "hung around their neck and to be drowned "in the depths of the sea." Now y'all, Jesus went full blown boss on them right there. I'm seeing this in my mind, Jesus is teaching. One of his disciples steps out, "Yo, yo, who's going to be the greatest?" And Jesus is like, "You all my nerves up in here, "up in here." And so he says, "Yo, come here, come here." And he calls one of the kids. I think he called the rowdiest kid out. "Come here, come here." Can you imagine the parents going, "Oh no, this is going to be horrible." (congregation laughing) The kid comes walking over, and Jesus pulls him up on his lap,

and he starts this story. And he says, "Unless you take care of this one, "if you calls one like this to stumble, to trip, "in his love and relationship with me, "better to have that millstone." What is a millstone? A millstone was a stone about 1,600 pounds that they used to grind grain with. Better to have that tied around your neck and thrown right there. Jesus was standing on the sea of Galilee and thrown into that sea right there than to mess with any of these. In other words, what was Jesus saying? You see, children in this day, they had no status. Jesus literally called a no status person to him. Now, they were loved, yes, but they were a minor. They were overlooked. They were dismissed. They more got in the way in these times than they were highlighted. But Jesus took the one that was dismissed and overlooked, and he pulled them close, and he raised that one up. And here's what Jesus was saying to you and I. Do not cause the little ones. Who are the little ones? The ones that look unimportant to you. The ones that are rejected in culture. The minority, the dismissed, the immature.

Do not cause them to trip, to fall away, to think or question that my word is for them as well, because of how you treat them. Do not let your arrogance, your pride, or self-importance run around people. Don't see somebody walk around them to get somebody you want to get to. I've died for the one you're skipping. And Jesus said, I need you to put this back in order real quick. Jesus takes it serious. He takes it serious when we exclude, when we neglect, or when we ignore those that he has welcomed himself. He said, don't cause him to trip. Don't let somebody walk in this place who's needing healing, and love, and embrace, and belonging, and let them come in without somebody shaking their hand, welcoming them, love them, let them feel a part of the family. They can be long before they even believe. We just want you to know Jesus loves you, and we do too. This is what his message was. You see, here's what I need you to know. Our diversity that we enjoy here, it's not just with ethnicities. I'm glad you got red, yellow, black, and white. Everybody pressure is in his sight. I love all that.

But let me know, it's more than that. This also includes, the diversity also includes people who are hurting, people who are confused, people that are questioning, people who are in trouble, they got a messy background, they got a nasty reputation, failures, they're marginalized, rejected, socially unaware, insignificant to so many other people, that that's who we have to be watching for. Jesus said, it's like the little children don't cause them to trip, welcome them. In fact, done well, if we're going to just keep it honest, if free life chapel is doing this well, when you come to church some Sundays, you ought to smell some weed in the place wherever you're sitting. from last night like dang, they had a party last night, didn't they? Somebody ought to still kind of be lit from the night before because they're just getting it, they were invited and they knew they could come just as they are. They came in with that going on. You might hear some cussing, not from the pastor, not from the platform, but you should hear so. They should be dressing different. They don't always dress to make you feel good. It might make you uncomfortable. They get up at the wrong times. They walk across the front of the auditorium when they shouldn't do it. They don't know church, my kind of people right there. From different lifestyles, they don't vote like you do. They don't live in the neighborhood that you live in. They have emotional challenges.

They're people from your past. They're people that you did time with and they're people that you should have done time with. That might be your baby's mama up inside of here, attending on one side while you're on the other side. People that you did some crime with, people who stole from you, people who undermined and lied on you, all of that in the house. Don't trip when you see them. Jesus said, "You better take care of them. You better love them. I'm highlighting them. They're not the minority. They're not to be shunned away. They're not less than. I'm bringing them higher. In fact, the way that you handle them is the way I will handle you. Do not make me tie a millstone around your neck and drop you in the sea. Love them right where they are." That's Jesus' message. So if Jesus accepted us, then Jesus can love them, too, and we have to let him. Last year, Cindy and I went on a, we both preached in Switzerland, and while we were on the other side of the pond, we decided, let's spend some of Caleb's inheritance and go on a really good vacation. How do you think that's a really good idea? Just spend it. Just spend his inheritance. It's all good. Sorry, Caleb. We'll send you pictures. It was really good.

We're running around through Venice was absolutely gorgeous, and we ended up in Milan, Italy. Now Milan is everything that you think it is. It's the fashion capital of the world. It's all that stuff going on. Cindy gets off the plane and goes, "I'm supposed to live here." It was just, it was that. One of the things we did while we were in Milan is we went to the Milan Cathedral. Now y'all, we free life, we got the place blacked out, we got LED walls, and we got some smoke here and there and some cool lights, and we go and do all that. We do things different with our music, not the Milan Cathedral, y'all. Milan Cathedral is, "Oh." Like it's got these towering ceilings, like when you walk in, I don't care what your style is, urban gospel, like I don't care what it is, immediately you feel like I need to get my stuff straight in here right now. I get talks to you, it's gorgeous. While we were there, we began to look at what was amazing to us. The light in the cathedral was solely from the light shining through the windows, and the light shining through the windows were these stained glass windows. Now here's what I need you to understand. These windows were towering, and based on which window you were looking at, they were all telling a story. This is the Old Testament story from start to finish. Every pain was moving like another scene through the Bible. Oh, this one over here is the life of Jesus from the time he was born, and you see every pain moving through telling the story of Jesus. It was like, dang, like that's, are you serious? And here's what's wild. Every one of those pieces of glass that were put into that pain, the coloring that was used on that glass was made in a recipe style that they can't mimic today. They don't know what they did to get those colors.

Regular colors can fade today, or they can put plaques together, but to make actual glass look like that is crazy, and it boggles their mind. The colors are brilliant, gorgeous, and when all of it comes together, you've got this kaleidoscope, this mosaic of light shining on you that is absolutely divine. I want you to understand something. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is like the framework around the window. It unites all of the individual pieces together as one picture. then these colors tell the story of Jesus as we're united together. You see, my peace alone doesn't tell the story, but when we put several of us together, we can altogether link arms and represent Jesus to this culture when Jesus is shining through our lives. Alone, not very impressive. Together, you stand back and take pictures and pictures and pictures. It's amazing. I want you to understand today, the goal of Freelive Chapel is not to be the top 1% diversity in America. I love that it's there, but that's not our goal. Our goal is to keep access to Jesus wide open to everybody. Everybody, we're here to help others discover and live the free life in Christ. It's what we do. There's no preconditions at the door. Come in with all your stuff. Come in with your reputation. Come in with your mess. You see, when you're dealing with people that have been through some things in life, you don't expect a place to be clean. If they're cooking a really good mill at your favorite restaurant, the last place you want to go is in the kitchen, because the kitchen is a mess while they're making something that you're going to love on the table. A place that's putting people back together called a hospital and emergency room. Oh, we're in the waiting room because we can't handle how messy the operating room is,

but it's healing. In other words, the church, there's going to be a messy part to church that we've got to work through. We haven't handled every diversity issue perfectly, but we're working on it and we're praying about it. And because we're working and praying together, and everyone in this place is you, not in the saying, but we're going to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. And I'm not living so hypersensitive. I want to know him and I want to be a part of God's ultimate plan that we can show Jesus to this world through this kaleidoscope of what it means to have Jesus shine through us and let Jesus be on display. That's why we do what we do. So how do we do that? Really quickly. Number one, look for the overlooked. No, like for real. Remember that day that you were the first day working that brand new job? You had to walk in, you knew nothing. You didn't know where the break room was. You didn't know where you should be standing, who you should spend time with, who you shouldn't spend time with. You didn't know nothing. You were just there. Somebody's going to start work at your job and they know nothing and they need somebody who's watching for them. Walk up and say, I got you. Have lunch with me today. I'll show you the ropes. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, you are now looking for the overlooked. Reach out if somebody's hurting. You see somebody who's moved. They're going through something.

Do not let them suffer alone. Make them reject you. But reach out and say, can I do anything? How can I help? Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to live with our mindset realizing that we're here to identify and connect with people who are standing alone. If you are walking through that lobby and you see somebody standing by themselves over to the side, I pray that you're just in a, all right, don't sprint. But get in front of them. Get to where they are and how are you? My name is. I'm so glad you're here today. Everybody is welcome to this place, but we've got to put it on display. Look for the overlooked number two. Practice radical hospitality. Radical hospitality. Invite someone to coffee. Well, I don't really want to know. Stop it. Go to Starbucks. It's a public place. You'll be fine. Invite somebody. Put yourself out. Do something inconvenient. Do something a little bit risky and just say, hey, I'm just here. Just want to get to know you. How can we connect? Do something that's going to bless somebody else. Serve in the ministries here on Sunday.

Help take care of kids. Work the parking lot backstage. Do something to elevate this atmosphere. So when people come in, everything is taken care of and we serve them. Jesus is what we do. How else can we make sure people are meeting Jesus? Here's another one. Lead with humility. Humility. You know what humility means? I don't get it my way all the time, but I'm a big boy and I'm going to make it. And today might have been to serve you. But since I show up with it to help bless minister, pray for, how can I be apart? That's what we live for. We're not just consumers in here. We're producers. Your handshake is strong. You're welcome. You're compliment. You're time. You're care. It makes impact. Ladies and gentlemen, we got to open our mouth and open our heart not just in this room, but out there in culture at Walmart at work on vacation, find somebody to pick their day up. [applause] I was walking through a store last night. I saw a guy. We almost ran into each other. He goes, "I said, "Oh, no, no, no, you're doing great."

Well, okay, I said, "No, no, no. "If you don't know how you're doing, "let me tell you how you're doing, you're doing great." He said, "Why, I appreciate that." He thought I was kookoo for cocoa puffs, but that's okay, it's okay. Lead with a servant's heart. Finally here, join the community. Join the community of free life. Add your presence to this place. Jump into a life group. Be a part of helping to elevate this atmosphere that everybody is welcome. Who so ever will your welcome in this place? We don't care where you've been, what you've done, what you got called for, what you never got called for, what they said about you. We don't give a rip, you're welcome in this place. Would you please stand to your feet? Here's what I want to close with. I want to remind you this. We can't just go to church, we got to be the church. We can't just do this on Sundays. We can't just rally in here and sing our songs and then we go out and we never share this with anybody. Now the church of Jesus Christ, that's you. We take it to them. So our world is divided right now. But you and I need to work to keep the wall of separation down and you're gonna have to work to take those bricks down.

Do not let somebody build those bricks. And we need to invite people to cross that line and come closer to his presence. They don't know that they're available. They don't know that they're able. We got to take them there. And we got to keep building this stained glass story, adding more pieces to the picture so that it takes on more brilliance and more color. So it really puts Jesus on greater display and then we've got to live and serve Jesus like we're actually 1%ers. We can't take that for granted. It gives us a job. We need each other, but we got to be the heart of Jesus. Reaching people right where they are, this is the mission. I know you got challenges that you're going through, me too. I know there's prayers you need answered, me too. But here's what I've learned. If I obsess over everything that's wrong with me, I will ball up into a fetal position and I will cry myself to sleep every night and do a corner. But the moment I start getting my mind on others and how I can meet their needs and how I can help somebody else, my life starts to elevate and God rushes to facilitate and resource my life because I become his hands and his heart reaching others. We can do this, but we got to do it together. Father, today, as we stand in your church,

I declare that this place is yours and we've got to do it your way. Thank you for the diversity that we get to enjoy in this room. It does look like heaven. We're grateful for that, but we don't take it for granted. We don't just want to look like it on the outside. We want to have the heart, the spirit, the attitude, the activity of heaven alive in here. God help us to reach people that would be typically unreachable. Help us to step outside of our comfort zone to actually reach into those that you're wanting to impact with your love, your hope, your healing. Help us to open arms and welcome people that even if I walk through a time where I was rejected and pushed aside, God help us to overcome that by welcoming others that I won't just return what I got, but Lord, I will overcome it and I will be that man. I'll be that woman who represents you and your kingdom, God help us to live our faith and our love out loud for you in this culture. Help free life chapel to continue to build bridges where we connect heart to heart, spirit to spirit, and we watch the healing that only Jesus can bring because of what He did on the cross. Let that come alive, I pray. We love you and we honor you and we ask you to use free life chapel in a way that honors and glorifies you and to you be all the glory for it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen.

If you receive that, put those hands together today. (audience applauding) - We hope this message encouraged you. For more encouraging messages, visit our website, freelifechapel.org. Until then, have an awesome day. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)