Good & Bad Days Together

Can we just welcome anyone and everyone that is joining us maybe today? I made the announcement that Lori on her way to the hospital with our daughter-in-law I'm sure that there was nothing going on as Kendall was just uncomfortable and Lori having many kidney stones and probably should be a kidney doctor by now had a feeling it was probably kidney related and even kidney stones and so on their way to the hospital this morning going down Ronald Reagan they were hit as a car pulled out in front of them and totaled the car they were both taken by ambulance and they're both still at the hospital but everything is checking out they're just being over precautious thank God and Jackson our son is in South Africa right now and going to Mozambique with Pastor Jacob and some others and so there's just those concerns and anxiousness and all of the things that we all deal with when things like this come to us and Jesus said in this world you will have these kinds of events things happen things take place but how many are thankful that our house and our faith is built on the rock though the world shifts and those things come out of nowhere we are on a rock this morning and so we felt comfortable that I would just continue to bring the message and to speak this morning and frankly display what the church is all about Father thank you for your word thank you Lord that your word brings us life and it brings us Lord encouragement it brings us wisdom brings us peace we thank you that you are the word Jesus name and everybody said amen for those that are new to our church we've been in a series that we've called together and interestingly when the team wrote and just kind of mapped out the series kind of behind the scenes I give the team beginning with Daniel I give them the frame or I give them the room to make the frame I do the painting on the inside of the frame and they will frame it out they'll frame out the series big ideas big thoughts but I just say give me enough room to paint and the actual title of this morning's message interestingly in light of what's happened to us is when there are good days and bad days you need to be together so I'm gonna rebuke Daniel for that title I'm gonna blame him for that prophetic utterance as they are in New York City Daniel and Celeste taking their daughter back to college today but for those that are new to our church I do pray maybe you're here for the first time or maybe you're here in a church for a first time and a long time I pray that more than anything else you will see out of even today's message and all things not just in today's moment but the way God has orchestrated all of us to live our lives

and that is in community last week we talked about the power of small group around Paul the Apostle and how he found himself being dragged out of a city being left for dead having been stoned not Denver Colorado stone but having been literally stoned with stones and the disciples it says a group of disciples encircled him it just says they gathered around him and he got up you need to be in a small group you need to know and people need to know that people want to be involved and when people get involved it's amazing how you begin to experience the life of God I was going to talk about Dolly Parton this morning and not in a sad way I was just going to start singing her top five songs to you this morning and I but I won't I won't and of course we were all touched whether you like country music or not you heard the news about Dolly Parton and what's interesting even in the light of her passing and the light of anyone passing of notoriety is the need for people to gather together if you've watched the news immediately people began to line up at her house dropping off flowers at the gate of her home or they were lining up in a line at the country music hall of fame to sign the condolence book or people began to go to Dollywood or or some bar somewhere starting to sing like I saw some of y'all on some videos singing you know here you come again and the reality is is that God has wired us He's wired us to be together in good days and in bad days we don't just want to get together with people when it's We also want to get together with people when we're glad. That when your team, and I'm not talking about university detection, but when your team wins, or when they make some kind of championship run, it's amazing how people begin to rally around, whether it's the stadium or the university, or they go somewhere together and just begin to jump up in front of each other, who they've never met before, but they have a common bond.

People gather around their brands. They gather around their labels. People gather around all sorts of things, but there is, I believe from God, this need to gather in good days and in bad days. When I consider, and I think all of us would agree, we're concerned about what we see in society, what we see in our world today. I'm not just talking about economically, but just the fractions and the divisions. I do believe that the hope for the world, I do believe that the answer to a fractioned and broken world first has to start in the church. I really do believe that we in our country, in our country has been given, and has been blessed with a foundation of God's word, but I do believe that as this country has been blessed, we also have not been faithful, not just to keep maybe certain laws that are scripturally true and foundationally true, but we have not kept the church together. And I say, we, I'm talking about if you're a believer, we have to understand that we have to keep responsibility that if this country's ever gonna become, or have a move of God is gonna have to start with the church. It's gonna have to start with us. And God has put this, I believe, in all of our hearts to gather, to be together. I think about the scripture that I have used in this series, beginning in Psalm 50, the Bible says,

even God says these words, gather my godly ones to me. Now even that whole psalm of Asaph, we don't know why he wrote it, we don't know the exact time or the exact conditions in Israel, but he did give this, I think, prophetic. And of course, this view from God and it's God's heart. I want those who call me God. If you call yourself godly or a God follower or a believer in God, he says, my godly ones gather. My godly ones don't isolate. Those who say they have a relationship to God, they don't differ from people. They stay with people. Not that we don't have our differences, but we don't isolate, we don't drift away. And then he says, and then the gathering in that first five of Psalm 50 is to him. Gather my godly ones to me. Notice we're not gathering under the banner of a denomination. People ask us all the time our denomination, what's our affiliation? And yes, we have the order of God. Yes, we do what we believe is biblical, but we also find, and many of you come from various backgrounds, where there was more of a gathering around the brand of the denomination or the movement. Paul, the apostle, had to deal with this in Corinthians. He says, you gather around Paul or Apollos or Kephas or Peter.

He says, you each have your own brand or maybe it's Baptist or Presbyterian or Lutheran or non-denominant, but the truth is, is that if we're not careful, instead of gathering to Christ, we're just gathering to a system, to an organization. And God goes, what about me? We have to maintain what Jesus said from the very beginning, and of course, what he declares here in Psalm 50, that our gathering is because of what he goes on to say. Those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. How many know that we're gathered, first of all, under Christ, because Christ is the one who paid the price for us. Our gathering is based on what he did at the cross for us, which means I can't because I don't like the way you look or the way you dress or the way, however that style may be. I have to relate to you on the basis of, do you know him who died on that cross? Have you confessed him as Lord and Savior? Do you know that he is the Lamb of God who's taken away our sins? We gather together to him because of this covenant that was made by him by his great sacrifice. So he does bring clarification to who his godly ones are. I am not against this. I'm not against what you often, and some of you have been probably even And I'm not against this, I want to, for the record, but I do have a little difference of opinion when people say I go or I was a part or we're planting a kind of church

and maybe it could be a cowboy church, right? Which is great. Or you heard of biker church, you ever heard of biker church? And I'm not against you. I want to start the golfer's church. That would be my, and then just plug in, and I want to just clarify. I'm not saying that's not good. I'm not saying God didn't use it. I'm just saying, but what if you're not a cowboy? What if you're a skateboarder in skinny jeans from San Diego and you go to a cowboy church? My question is, my question is, are we, somebody's like, well, they can't go anywhere. And so, - Away with you. - Point being, we don't gather based on a style or a look. We don't gather based on our preferences and our own personal desires. Say how many know this is why church is getting into trouble? This is when churches go sideways. This is when the church is not the church. This is when it's becoming something altogether different when we are gathered around a particular thing rather than the person. And Jesus said, "Whosoever will let him come." Whosoever, male, female, great, Jew. We are all one in Christ, those who name the name of the Lord, that we cannot be a church divided. And this is what God wants to be displayed in the earth.

He wants it to be declared to the world. This was His last prayer. His final prayer, if you will, to some degree. And those last moments before He'd go to the cross in the Garden of Gethseman, He was what? Father, make them one. Make them one. Make them one that the world will know that they will know that I have come to the earth and they are a representation. They are not just a representation, they're the body, they're the body of Christ. And it's a big thing, it's a big responsibility. This is why He was saying, godly people gather and they gather to God because of His sacrifice. And look, I wanna just finish this Psalm 50 and then get down into what we were gonna go today. Verse six, and then it says, "And the heavens will declare His righteousness." The corresponding result, God comes from heaven where there's unity and where there's an understanding that He is Lord. The righteous God reveals Himself from heaven because Christ was the righteousness of God displayed for us. God is the right way, the only way. He, coming as the Lamb of God to take away our sin, He satisfied all the judgment of God. And notice for God Himself is judge. Say law, that word say law just means think about that for a moment.

Mike drop, it's almost like God just went pause. Then he says, verse seven here, oh my people, if you will hear this, I will speak. If you wanna listen, if you wanna turn your ear towards me, if you'll give yourself to what I have to say, I will speak, oh Israel. And I will testify against you. What that means is I will speak things that you don't like. I and your gathering together, yes, I'm gonna encourage you. Yes, I'm going to give you that what you need, peace. But I'm also gonna give you that what you also need. It may be reproof, it may be a rebuke. How many know you need people in your life that will tell you the truth? You need people, we all need people. And this is what God was saying. When I come, I will bring that which you need. I will maybe cut some things off that need to be cut off. I will prune you, I will shake you, I will develop you. I will speak hard things to you. But if you will listen, if you won't get mad, if you'll get offended, if you don't walk out, it's amazing how the heavens will open over your life. But we in our consumeristic idea of church, because we are so given to having a consumer mindset about everything, we just kind of go, well, I'll just go try the next one. I'll just pack my things up and I'll just move on down the road. I'll just go and find people who believe like me.

And what you will end up with is a closed heaven over your life because of it's not according to him. How many want it to be according to him? According to his word. And of course it's all backed up in scripture. Oh, Israel, listen, I will speak to you. Yes, I will say things that you may not like. In fact, you may think I'm against you. I'm not against you. I'm for you. But then he goes, I am God. And the last words there, you're God. I am God. And I am your God. And he says, I will never leave you. And I will not what? Forstake you. So God is really giving us what is ultimate in our lives. And that is that we don't just, of course, rely upon him and need him. But he calls us to connect because we need people. And we need understanding of what it means to be a part of the congregation, the assembly, the clisia of God, the called out ones. The church has always been a type and a picture of home away from home. How many would agree with me that this world is not your home? Who's glad this world is not your home? And then as some of the great songs would have,

this world is not my home. I'm just passing through. It's a temporary experience. But church is that place where we can find a home while we're on this planet to fulfill the will of God. You've got to understand even theologically that all of it was disrupted. Men was not supposed to die. When he made Adam and he made Eve and he placed them in the garden and gave them this Eid and this incredible life in the glory of God, unadulterated, unperverted, without staying, without blemish, without death. And as a result of man's disobedience, death entered into the world. It all changed from that moment on. And instead of it being permanent, this world became temporary. And this is why God comes. This is why he gave us his word, his commandments. But we like sheep go astray. This is why he gave up people called Israel. So it'd be a type and a picture of people who call upon God together. God even allowed for the foreigner, the stranger, the gentile to assimilate into the congregation. He built cities of refuge for people that accidentally had chopped the heads off of people with their acts. Do you know that's in the Bible?

That literally if you happened accidentally to be chopping wood and off of the handle came an ax head and the iron hit your friend or your neighbor or your whoever was standing next to you, you could run and escape and find refuge. This accidentally hurt somebody. This morning, maybe it wasn't an ax head. But I think all of us have said things and have done things that have taken people's breath away. Or life away. And God goes, I can provide protection. And we're gonna see in this morning how this message is even related to the New Testament in just a moment. But one of the great stories in the scriptures just as it relates to a personal biography of a great hero in the Bible is a man by the name of Elisha. And Elisha of course was mentioned old and New Testament, spoken about in amazing and unbelievable ways with characteristics, that's their past, no one. But the Bible tells us after seeing the power of God fall and the fire of God fall and he takes out 400 of the prophets of Baal, he literally takes out all the bad guys and he begins to declare the kingdom of God has come and then on the heels of this amazing move of God. Jezebel, this beautiful lady Jezebel and her wonderful husband, Ahab. It says that when Jezebel heard

about what had happened through Elijah, and I said Elisha, Elijah, she says, tell this man Elijah that what he did to the prophets and what he did to my men, I'm gonna do the same to him. Notice what it says, by this time tomorrow your life will be as one of them. And he went from watching the fire of God fall to now being filled with fear. And the Bible says he was afraid and he arose and he ran for his life and this is what we all do. He goes to beer, Sheba. Gotta watch the beers that you go to. And as somebody's clapping back there in the back, he owns a bar. And so, as he is afraid and as life went from a high to now alone, I'm gonna show you something while you need the church. Because church is gonna help you be normal. Church is not supposed to make you weird. There are churches that will make you weird. Church is supposed to make things real. He goes from a high to now he, tomorrow being afraid, he runs, he takes off and notice these verses and these words at the end of verse three, and he left his servant there. In other words, Elijah is now separating from being together with other people. And this servant probably knows some things about Elijah that Elijah probably doesn't want somebody to see. This is what happens to all of us. We throw ourselves into deeper darkness when we disconnect from God's people. And as he begins to move even away from

his own servant and the man who loved him despite what he saw, he went a day's journey into the wilderness. Notice what happens when you begin to separate from godly people and from people. The Bible says he goes into a wilderness, or in other words, things get more wild and then he came down to this juniper tree and he sat under this juniper tree and then he asked the Lord to die. And he said, "I'm done. It is enough. Take my life." And then he goes into this law of comparison and I could not even fulfill what my father had prayed over my life to be. I'm not better than my father. This is the progress or the path of when you and I not just stop going to church. I'm talking about when we're not participating with the body of Christ. It's life. Godly people gather together. Godly people don't isolate. They don't run away. When you will want to run away. It's not if you're going to want to withdraw. It's not if you're going to want to separate. It's not if there's going to be something that says, "I'm not going back there ever again." You do that for a particular water burger every week around this place. I'm not going back to that one. I saved there for 30 minutes. And we move around until we can find the fast food service that gives us what we want. And we wonder why we never come into the fulfillment of God. The Bible says in this moment, in this kind of darkness, he goes into a dark space. And I want to pause right there. What kind of space are you in right now? What kind of place are you in? It's not if we're going to be tempted to go into a kind of dark space, a dark season. It's not if we will have the temptation. But what place do you go to when you need a place to hide? A place to be normal. See, he had just come out of this incredible miraculous event seeing the fire of God fall. And I don't know if he shared it

with anybody. It's not if we're just going to have highs, but we're also going to have our lows. And now he is saying, "I'm by myself. I am all alone." Well, he put himself there twice. He told God, "I am all by myself." And twice God sent angelic manifestations. In fact, he sent him a raven. And he fed him. Sounds like a monkey, but I'm not part of mutual overall wild kingdom. Where are my old people at? How many members? Sunday night, mutual of Omaha, on my son's city. He goes, "It's enough. I've gone far enough. I've done enough." He'd lost his future. He'd lost his hope. He'd lost his passion. We say it like this. He'd lost his edge. He'd lost the very fire that he'd just saw fall. And this is why the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24, 25, "Let us stop and consider." Let us pause for a moment when you want to go away, when you want to drift, when you want to isolate, when you don't want to manifest yourself in the presence of people. When you just want to go into a dark place or a dark corner or a dark cave, the Bible says you need to consider because we need to be around others so that we will be, that word there to stimulate. It just means to be given an edge again. To be sharpened again. Iron sharpens what? Iron. And he says to these Hebrews who were considering leaving the church. These are Jews. The book of Hebrews is writing to who had come out, if you will, not of all Judaism, but they had now embraced Christ as Messiah. And now they are so discouraged that they're thinking about leaving and going back to Judaism. You can't just drift because you'll end up in a place where you're gonna, instead of being filled with love,

you're gonna be filled with hate. He goes, you need to be around people so that they can sharpen you to love and to do a deeds. Don't forsake the assembly of ourselves together as has become the habit of some people. Don't do life with people in an intimate level who have drifted themselves out of church. Don't fall into the habit of some of even our friends and family that have no longer. In fact, they might have had once a walk with God in the house of God. They were once a part of the godly that gathered and now they're no longer doing what they call the church thing. How is it going for them? And I'm not saying everything that's called church is healthy church. Read the book of Revelation. Read the seven churches that God writes to. He is bringing correction to them. Basically, he's saying just because you call it a church doesn't mean it's healthy. And just because you call it a church, does it actually mean that it's a church? God is very clear about this. But we often find this habit that is developed really quickly in our world today and he goes on to say, don't allow this habit to develop but encourage one another and notice the context. And as you see the day of the Lord or as you notice,

you are in the last days. He goes and all the more as you see the day of the Lord drawing near. What he is saying there is the church is going to become more and more important as the day gets darker. That the church is not going to become less relevant, it's actually going to become more relevant to his godly people. This is why we do church the way we did. This is why we attack dysfunction. We just don't do dysfunction. We don't do politics. We don't do agendas. We don't do personal preferences and personal, if you will, reasons as to the church. Paul the Apostle had to constantly deal with this issue especially in Corinthians when he goes, I notice that some of you gather around me, Paul. Some of you gather around Keith as Peter. Some of you gather around Paulos and you align yourself according to your personal favorite preacher or your own personal favorite or the ones that you like the most. And he goes, only one died for you. Only Christ gave his life for you. Did any of these men die for you? I'm often asked as it relates to theological conversations about Calvinism and theologically, they want to know where I am with Calvin. Did Calvin die for you?

Christ died for you. Is Christ divided? Does Christ break us in pieces? No, he prayed that we'd be one. And what we find in our own personal lives is that we are not whole when we separate from one another. First Timothy, Paul writes these words. Chapter three verse 15, if I don't make it to you soon, I'm writing, in fact I'm giving you this email so that you will know about behavior and conduct concerning the house of God. Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of truth. What Paul is writing to was obviously the question about, first of all, where are you Paul? How come you haven't appeared, huh? How are we supposed to live? And he goes, that's the church's job. It is the pillar, the ground of truth. It's where we find the understanding of how to walk through this world with wisdom and discernment and ultimately how do we please God? How do we know if we're pleasing God or not? That's the house of God, the house of the living God, the pillar and the support, it's the ground of truth. And therefore we have to address and we have to deal and we have to tackle with anything, that's not true. That's not real. And so when you and I, as followers of God,

we don't have time in a world that may try to take you out on the way to work or on the way to the hospital. In a moment, you don't have time to deal with Jommie. You've got enough drama on your own. We need to have a place where we can say, God, I find healing together. So when it comes to now, how do I bring it to a close and as it relates to ultimately what we find as a picture, a beautiful picture of the church? The book of Acts, chapter four. And in this story, we find and in this portion of the life of the church, it's the Acts, A-C-T-S. Every time I boy the voice memo and I mention the word, But the work of acts is the action of the Holy Spirit in the church. God bless you. The Bible says that they had just seen a dramatic miracle. And now there's great discussion. The city's being turned upside down concerning this miracle, this transformation. People don't have a problem with the church. Your friends won't have a problem with the church until they see change in you, until they see transformation, until they see that you don't live the way you used to live. When I got saved, when I gave my life completely to Christ, at a beautiful theological college called LSU, and we're so holy in all that we do, especially for those that are football fans, we don't do anything that you're not supposed to do. We don't bring NFL players to play for college football teams, we're just clean, we're clean people. Maybe this is why I was a part of Dysfunction for so long that this is why I'm passionate about keeping things healthy, but I hope Lane wins. The Bible says that they're upset, and they take the apostles, they take the disciples, they begin to persevere, and they beat them, and they said, "You're not preaching anymore.

You're not staying in this city." So they released them, and having been released, watch this, having been released from jail on a bad day, but it wasn't a bad day for these men. They took that as a good day. They went to their companions and began to give the report of all the things that had been said to them and the things that they had performed against them, and when they lifted as they heard this, the Bible says, "All of their friends, they're together now." This is the church. They began to lift their voices to God with one accord saying, "Lord, it is you who has made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them." Notice how they began to turn everything back to God. They weren't upset. They weren't mad. They weren't against, of course, I would don't think it's wrong to do this. They weren't consulting nor calling their Congress people because they weren't looking for a political power. They're looking for heaven's power. And who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our Father David, your servant said, "Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples devise these things? The kings of the earth are taking their stand, the rulers are gathered against the Lord and against His Christ." For truly in this city that was gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, and even Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, you had a purpose. You had a plan. There was a predestination plan. You had already ordered. And now, O Lord, would you just take note, would you put a stick of note over their heads and over their threats? And grant that your bondservants may speak the Word with confidence.

And as we speak the Word, while you extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant, verse 31, and when they had prayed, the place where they were was all of a sudden shaken, where they were gathered together. Notice the place where they were gathered together, the place, the place. The place is not a building. The place is when people who are living with the living God gather. That's the place. And that place could be anywhere, but He says where two are more gathered. That's the church. In other words, He says it's not an individual, it's a corporate expression. And in that place where they were gathered to the living God, God showed Himself alive. And the place was shaken, having prayed, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit began to speak the Word of God with boldness. And the congregation, there it is, the assembly of those who believed were of one heart and soul and not one of them was about themselves, but all things were common property to them. This was not socialism and communism as some people like to insert commentary because when you hear politicians saying, "We just are taking scripture," and this is what they did in the church, they didn't do it by force. They didn't do it because they had to. God loves what kind of giver, "A, cheer for giver." You better vote. You better vote. That's all I'm going to tell you. You better vote and you better vote according to scripture, lest you wake up and people are taking your property and telling you, "You make too much. You have too much," and somebody makes that decision. And the people that make that decision, it's amazing having been to Russia some 25 times who has the power, who has the gold, who has the silver, the people that make those laws. You shouldn't have that. You don't need that.

That's not God's order. Order was never to take private. Come on, somebody, are you with me? And then the Bible says, "With great power, the apostles were giving preaching testimony to the resurrection of the Lord. Abundant grace, great grace was upon them all. And there was not a needy person or a feeble person in the congregation. For those who had land or owners of houses, they had no problem meeting the needs of people and bringing it even to the house of God that it would be distributed to each as there was a need. Let me just give you what the church should look like as it relates to ultimately the place that you call your church. Number one, the church is the place where we experience God's great power. It's a place of power. You come in here and maybe you've been beaten up all week, and maybe like these disciples who were beaten. But when they gathered with their friends, they left with more power than when they came in. It's not if you need more power, you need more power. It's not if you're going to have to face tomorrow. You got to face tomorrow? But how many know that God has a power for us? The power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says they became more bold. And there was a boldness. There was a courage. There was a strength. This is that Joshua's scripture. Be strong enough what? Good courage. And it's not if you're going to need more power this week. It's not if you're going to need power in your future. Power to stand. And when you've done all that you can to stand, you stand. And this is what the first point, the first value, the first if you kill characteristic of the church was that they experienced a great power in the presence of God together. This is why we come to the house of God. Number two, the church is the place where we pray great prayers. Thank you for praying for Laurie and Kendall and for the baby. How many know that it's great prayers? It's the Bible verse that tells us when Peter was in prison, Acts chapter 12, Peter was kept in prison. Peter was about to be killed. But prayer for him, for Peter, was being made fervently. Great prayers by the church were being made fervently. They were being made passionately. Too God by the church for Peter. And the Bible says Peter was delivered and brought to freedom. You don't need a prayerless church. You need a praying church. This is why we do what we do, pursuit. This is why we have our days of prayer and our fast. We're unapologetically going to pray big prayers over your life, bold prayers. Big prayers, I'm just going to tell you, begins to experience what they experienced. And that is a big God began to show up in their lives. The church is the place where we pray. Great.

Who needs prayer this one? Let me see your hand. Who has a need in their life? I don't know, I'm sure others in this room had a car accident, or someone in your family had a car accident. Vodka bottles are spilling all over this place. There was a wreck right over there. The reality is that things happen. Things take place. We need a move of God. Number three, the church is the place where we see even the next four, the place where we have great fellowship. The Bible says they were of one heart and one spirit. They were one team, one heart and spirit. They were not about themselves. The heart and the spirit, it's dealing with two different things. One has to do in relationship to the personal, their hearts for one another, their love for one another, their compassion for one another. But it also had to do with their spirit, the spirit of God. What's the mind of God concerning my brother, my sister? I'm not just concerned with your natural concerns and your natural issues. I'm also concerned with your spiritual issues and your spiritual concerns. How does this affect you eternally? How does this affect you in more ways than just natural? Yet I'm concerned with your natural. This is why the church brings us back to normal. This is why you and I need the church because of great fellowship. The Bible says it. They were not about themselves. Every team that begins to decline and give you a great story has a personal motivation in it. You may think he's the goat. I do. Tom Brady. And he had already won several Super Bowls. As you know, he would play almost 20 years in fact, 20 years in the NFL. But he had already been at the Patriots now And there was a new player that had just been brought to the team. And it was a quarterback that had been brought to the team and this quarterback for the very first day walks into the quarterback office, the quarterback room. Now mind you, Brady's been there for 15 years. This quarterback's been there for 15 minutes. He walks into the quarterback's room and he's cold. And he doesn't like the temperature. So he turns the thermostat up, and when Brady walks in, the first thing he says, who turned the temperature up?

Who changed the temperature of this room? sheepishly, the new quarterback been there for 15 minutes. He said, I did. He says, I've been here 15 years. I've never thought about myself. And I've never thought how this room is going to affect me. I've only thought about how is it gonna affect the whole team and how does it affect the whole room? You walk in here and perform the greatest act of selfishness I've ever seen. He walks up and adjusts the temperature. You see what Tom said to him was what we all need to hear. It's not about you. And what makes you think we now have to live to your temperature? What do you think that we have to live to your likings or to your personal preferences? See, that's what the church does. The church is supposed to help us get normal and get real again. And if it manifests in your own little way of wanting to adjust the thermostat, you need somebody to go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And you wonder why Tom Brady's the goat. Everyone says, because he's the best teammate. He's the best teammate. And I know that there are people in this room who hate Tom Brady. Just bear with me on my illustration right there. Or I'll sing. ♪ And I will always ♪ I'll go to Dolly on you. (audience laughs)

Quickly, the church is the place where we hear great news. That's where the Bible says. And the apostles, the teaching, those that were responsible to bring the word were testifying powerfully concerning the resurrection of Jesus. That's the gospel. They were bringing to the church, to the companions, to the fellowship, to the assembly, to the congregation, to the house of God, the word of God. How many know the word of God is what you need? And faith cometh by hearing the word, and they were hearing the words of Jesus, and the words that bring us life and truth brings us into his ways. And with great preaching and great words, they were hearing great news. Number five, the church is the place where we give and experience great grace. The reason why they had great grace, the reason why everyone and anyone in that gathering had their needs met is that everyone was doing what God had put in their heart to do. Meeting every single need. As Lori, as I said this morning, as the phone pops up at 5.25, Lori's had a crash as the phone does all it does. And then I know in her voice, this is not good. As the wreck had just happened, but the first person that shows up on the scene is somebody that attends our church.

It's not a coincidence. When you are where you're supposed to be, doing what God has called you to be, you bring grace to people's fear. You bring grace to people that they need mercy, they need covering, they need protection. I don't care how you've come into this room today. I don't care what you've done. What matters today is that you have a place where you get in your time of need, the grace of God, that says you don't have to die, and you don't have to finish what God has started in your life. Because if God hadn't said you're done, you're not done. And maybe you're under a gender perpetuity, maybe you're under some kind of spell or a place of darkness, and you've thought, you know what, my life is over. Maybe you've thought at 21 years old, it's over. It's done, I got news for you, at 21, your life is not over. Your life is not over. I don't care if you're a hundred and one, it's not over. If God says you're alive, you are alive for a reason. And so with every head bad and every eye close today, you made the best choice coming to this place where two or more are gathered. And in that gathering, the Bible says where there was prayer and where there was the word and where there was the presence of God. into the image that you have for us. How many would be willing to pray this dangerous prayer with me?

But it's the best prayer you'll ever pray. Lord, shake whatever needs to be shaken in my life. Let me see your hand all over this place, shake me so I can be shaped. If you're not being shaken. But when you allow God to have His place, Heaven will fill your place. And you will never walk in darkness, for He is the light. Lord, for every hurting heart, for every broken heart, for every fearful heart, for every anxious heart, for every sinful heart, for any and everyone that might be in a space whether it's an individual or even in their own marriage, I pray the grace of God upon them today. That leaving today not one will be feeble, not one will be weak, not one will be overcome. But Lord, you will move into their hearts and their lives by saying Jesus. I give you room. Would you just tell the Lord that even right now? Would you give God room right now? Give him room. Let him have his way. Maybe you've never said Jesus, "Be my Lord, today's the day." Maybe you've never given it all to him. And that's the only way that you can give anything to him as he gives. In fact, he wants all of it. Give him all. You're past. You're present. You're future. Give him all the hurts. All the pain. All the bitterness. Because he wants to do something great in your life. But more importantly, he wants relationship to you.

Can you say this out loud, Lord Jesus? Cleanse me. Forgive me. As I come to you this day, I know you're the God of mercy. You're the God of grace. You're the God of new beginnings. My life is yours. I trust you. Even when I'm shaken. Even when the world is being shaken. My life is safe with you. Jesus. Everybody said, "Before Patrick comes, I got something to say to you." I woke up this morning about four o'clock. And I would get up and I felt like the Lord said in the most unusual place in my house, I just felt like the Lord said, "Get on your knees and cry out to me." In fact, I'll tell you, it was right by the bathtub. And it wasn't on a comfortable tile or a comfortable wooden or even carpet floor. It was just hard. And I just bent over my bathtub. And I just said, "God, whatever happens today, I trust you. You need to learn to live in the Spirit in good days and in bad days because God prepares for all of us, that which we need in our times of desperation." Can we just thank God for His kindness and His goodness for that? . (upbeat music)