Good News Carriers || Victory Church [Good News #2]

Well, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Are y'all glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning? Come on. Are you really glad? Come on. He didn't say I was glad. He said, I want you to be glad too. Not just lukewarm. I'm going to look at this side of the room and say, are you actually glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning? Come on. If you're glad about it, you could have been in an accident on the way here to church, but you made it right here. Somebody say, I made it. And I'm glad about it. Come on. Give God praise in the house right now. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Listen, it is good to be in the house of the Lord. I want to do this. First of all, for those who I have not had the privilege of meeting, I am Pastor Mo. My wife, Kendra, and I have the distinct privilege of leading the Midtown campus down 85. Somebody say amen. And we're glad to be able to be with our Norcross family today. And I want to welcome those who are watching online from around the world. But also, I need y'all to do me a favor here in Norcross and welcome a very special group of people. We have the Midtown campus joining with us today. What's up, Midtown?

Come on. Give God praise. Love you, Midtown. Kendra and I love you, absolutely adore you, and thank God for you. Now, I want to say this right off the bat before I jump into the message. You saw that video a second ago about Atlanta Alive this upcoming weekend, starting on Friday. We want to make sure that we are all coming out there in numbers, but we're not coming by ourselves, amen? Bring someone who may not come into the physical building, but will go in an open-air arena to experience the goodness of God. And we have a special treat on that Friday night. Our very own senior pastor, Pastor Johnson Bowie, will be bringing the word. So you want to be there. Let's support him. Let's make sure he feels victory in the house, amen? And one last thing. I have to do this. I want to give honor to our founding pastors in the house. Can y'all clap it up for Pastors Dennis and Colleen Rouse? Come on, Midtown. Let me hear you all the way from down 85, amen, amen. Well, I'm excited about today, as we are actually in week two of a series we've called The Good News. And what we said last week, if you weren't here with us, is we said that in a time where our algorithms, our news feeds, even our mailboxes are feeding us bad news, we need to be reminded and not forget that there is good news. We need to be reminded that Jesus is lifted high. We need to be reminded that even in this world where there's a lot going on, we can still be settled that he's still on the throne. Somebody say amen.

Amen. And so what I want to say today is as we're talking about this good news, I'm not talking about some temporary emotional lifting type of news. I'm talking about an eternal perspective shifting type of news. I'm talking about the fact that if we can understand this, our whole lives will change. And last week, what we did is we brought everybody together and we said that the good news comes from this Greek word, euangelion, euangelion. That prefix eu, it actually comes with the word that talks about something good. That's where you get the word euphoria or eulogy. And what we talked about was the fact that back in the day, back in Bible days, when something happened, they would have a messenger that would run into the city to give good news. He would come in saying, euangelion, euangelion, saying this, that this is the announcement of victory. Somebody say, I have the victory. I have the victory. Come on, Midtown, say I have the victory. I have the victory. He said, I have the victory. And this is how I want us to grab this. This is what I want us to embody. This announcement of victory for us and for them is this, that we've won, that it's safe now, that the enemy is defeated, and that the war is over. Can you say that with me? Say, we've won, we're safe now, the enemy is defeated, and the war is over. See, don't just take that as a historic thing. Take that for your word of God right now today. And so what we see is that this word gospel means that the good news of the kingdom has already conquered. But here's the tension.

One of the greatest threats to a war that's already been won is a church and a people that don't know it. Let me say it again. One of the greatest threats to a war that's already been won is a people, is a body of people who don't realize it. Because if you don't realize it, what you'll do is you'll continue to live like you're still losing. What do I mean by that? We said last week that the word gospel is summed up in these three powerful words, our God reigns. Repeat that after me. Say, our God reigns. Come on, Midtown, one more time. Our God reigns. This is what I want us to know. This is not just some Christianese church entity. This is not just theology. This is an identity reset. That when we shift this and reset our minds, we move from living like a people who are the underdog. We move from being a people that's, oh, I'm just trying to get by, day by day. No, you live and you move a little bit differently. Let me say it like this, you start to move with a little bit more swagger. You start to live with a little bit more confidence. It's not cockiness, it's confidence in the one who is, who was, and who is to come. When you get this understanding, you start to live through what the scripture says

in 1 John 4, it says this, you, dear children, are from God and have overcome them. Because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. Let me ask a rhetorical question. This is for your neighbor, I know you already got it, but let me ask you, who's in you? God, yeah, Jesus, some of y'all don't know what to say. It's Jesus, it's God. The one who is in you is the God who reigns. And so when you know this, we have to get it because if we don't get it, hear me very clearly, what we'll do is what we talked about last week, we will settle for a small and complete gospel. What's the small and complete gospel? Yes, we are happy that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and we're going to heaven, but that's not the complete gospel. That's a part of the gospel that we need to understand that he encompasses everything around us, that his desire is for us to realize one in ourselves and share with others that he reigns over your health, he reigns over your money, he reigns over your relationships, he reigns over your mind, he reigns over your decisions, and he reigns over your destiny. Somebody say, my God reigns. My God reigns. So now that you understand this, here's the question for today.

The question for today is that now that we've received this, what are you doing with what you've received? What are you doing now that you've received the revelation that my God reigns? Last week, we talked about this fact that something shifts when we come into the knowledge of Christ, when we accept him in our hearts. And so I want to pick up where we left off last week and I want us to turn in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 17. If you have your physical Bible, go ahead and take that out. Midtown, you know how we do. Pull out your physical Bibles. I know we're a little digitized today. Let's pull out our Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter five if you have it. If you're already at the scripture, say amen. If you need a minute, say hold up, pastor. Some of y'all ain't heard that in 10 years. You're like, oh, I need to start bringing my Bible. 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, and the new is here. I told Midtown last week, I said, listen, I don't care what people are trying to call you and telling you certain things about your past. You need to let them know because I'm in Christ, I have a new name.

What's your new name? Your new name is New. I told them you need to start turning around and looking at people saying, my name is New New. Get used to calling me New. And so here's the thing. If we don't remember this, what we would do is we will still operate in an old identity instead of operating in the new. As we continue in the word, I need us to understand this. What if I told you that you're not just new for you? That your newness comes with a calling. Your newness comes with something that now you have a corresponding action that you are responsible to take. Let's find out what that is. Let's go on to the next verse. Verse 18 in 2 Corinthians 5, it says this. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us this ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors. Underline that word. As though God were making his appeal through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Let me say it like this. What Paul is saying right here is that God does not want you just to sit on this gospel, to sit on this good news.

He wants you to carry it. He wants you to strap up your boots. He wants you to put on your backpack. He wants you to get in the mode of understanding that I'm gonna carry this gospel and I'm not gonna be one who actually gets a benefit from it without giving it to somebody else. Here's another way to say it. What God does in you, he actually wants to do through you. Say this out loud. You know I'm gonna have you talk to me. Say what God. does in me, he wants to do through me." Hear this, you were saved by grace, but you were sent with purpose. You were not just redeemed, you were actually recommissioned. What were we recommissioned to do? We were recommissioned to carry out and share this good news. And so this is what I know, in a room this size, at midtown, whether you're in the room, whether you're in the chapel, we would say things like, oh, you know, my relationship with God is private. Let me ask this. What if Jesus said, my redemption is private? How would that hit? Those of us, I say us because you might not be able to tell, but I'm actually an introvert.

Those of us who are introverts would actually say, well, that's just for the extroverts. Y'all are all loud, you need to do these things. That's just not my personality. Sharing my faith is hard. Let me say this. I've seen your social media feeds. You share your entire lunch. Look at these ribs I'm eating, I'm at Houston's right now. You share your gym routine. You might not sweat, but you'll put a little mist on you and act like you did. You share your vacation photos. You share every angle of that one outfit, all six of them. And don't even get me started on grandparents. Especially the new ones that have little babies. You'll walk up to somebody in the store, hey, look at my grandchild, he's so cute. Here's the thing. It's not that we don't know how to share. It's that we share what we care about. Hear me. Some of us share more shade than we do scripture. Some of us post more fits, watch me, than we do faith. We do more gossiping than we actually share the gospel. And so maybe what it is, it's not that you don't know how to share. Maybe you don't care about what God cares about. Because what God cares about and what matters to God should start mattering to you.

And so we have to check ourselves and not say, oh, it's not my personality. We have to look at it and say, what am I supposed to be doing? Let me give you the answer. We should be walking and carrying out the message of reconciliation. Now, I don't want to assume that everybody knows what this means. What is reconciliation? Reconciliation simply means this. It means to bring peace or unity between two parties. Reconciliation means that we are those who have a duty to do this. And so what I want you to do is, whether you knew it or not, once you actually say yes to Jesus, it has no longer become optional now for you to actually share this good news. Because we have a world that's dying around us, and if we're not careful, we'll be happy with us for and no more. We'll be walking around, looking and saying, oh, talking about people instead of actually bringing them into the light. I told you to underline that word ambassadors. Here it is. When we talk about being an ambassador, an ambassador is the highest-ranking representative sent from another country to another.

Philippians 3 and 20 says it like this. It says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. What he is telling us right here, Paul is saying that our citizenship is from heaven, and this earth is not our home. Can I remind some people? Come here. I'm gonna remind you that this earth is not your home. Don't get too comfortable on this earth thinking that you're gonna be here forever. Here's something that I need us to keep at the forefront of our minds. We were not put here to fit in. Y'all waiting on something else. That's it. But if I had to say a follow-up statement, I need to let you know, you're here to represent. You're here to represent the kingdom on earth. You're here to represent heaven. That means wherever you go, the kingdom needs to show up. You're not just here to represent, you're here to re-present the gospel of Jesus Christ in the lives of those you touch. And so this shifts how you live and how you manage your dash. That time between when you were born and when you die, it totally changes everything. Meaning, what we need to understand is that

if our goal and God's goal was just to get us to heaven, God would have raptured all of us the second we got saved. And a whole lot of. would have been bivocational. They would have been pastors and funeral home directors. Get them saved and bury them. But that's not the way we're supposed to walk. God left you here. He left you here wherever here is for you so that you can bring heaven here on earth. Hear this, I love this scripture that we read so much but sometimes it goes over our head. Pastors Dennis and Colleen have said this for years. This church is founded on this passage of scripture in Acts 1-8, Jesus said, you will be my witnesses. Now we shout about that and we clap about that but let me slow it down just for a second. Jesus said, you will be my witnesses. Notice he didn't say, you might be. Notice he didn't say, you could be. He said, you will be my witnesses. In Norcross, in Midtown, in Lawrenceville, in Decatur, that's Decatur. He said, wherever you've been dispatched, you are to be my witnesses. But here's a hard truth that I need us to get today as we talk about in here that Jesus says, you will be my witnesses. What I have found in my life is that we have taken too many commands from Jesus

and we've actually treated them like suggestions. Did y'all hear what I just said? You're acting like, we're acting like not you but the person that slept in this morning. They're acting like Jesus is suggesting that you be my witnesses. He said, this is an affirmative command that you will be my witnesses and if you are not, I have to question if you're my child. Yikes. That's good. Here it is. Norcross, you know what's up. Midtown, you already know what's up. Lean in for me. Lean in. Those online, I know I haven't seen you much but lean in. If you're driving, just lean forward. Keep your hands on the wheel. Come on, some of y'all up in the rafters. I don't know, I don't know you yet but I see you, lean in, come on. Here it is, here it is. As we talk about the responsibility for sharing this good news, if you have been saved but never shared, it's not necessary that you're being shy. I would venture to say you're actually choosing to defy. See, take this off of the personality.

Take this off, oh, I'm just built like this. No, you're choosing to defy a command that was not a suggestion. This is urgent if you can't tell from the weight in my voice. It's urgent because the clock is ticking on the lives of people you say you love. My question is, do you really love them? Because if you really love them, you would not hold back the best thing that ever happened to you. Too many of us are living comfortably on our way to heaven while a whole lot of people we say we love are going to hell. Y'all can lean back. I'm Moe, and I'm your friend. So here it is, this should burden us. And if it does not burden us, again, I wanna check your salvation. Because too many of us have gotten saved and sat down. Instead of starting to live with the burden, understanding that we have been called to be sent out to tell people about the good news. Somebody say, I'm a carrier of the good news. Here it is. I know I'm a little intense. And it's because this is so serious. But I wanna kinda pull it back just for a second because I realize that these stakes are high and what I would realize is that in this room at least, in Midtown or online, those who are with us right now,

I would venture to say that many of us are not trying to just be rebellious. That there's a reason why many of us don't share. According to Lifeway Research, it says this. It says that many people would actually share the gospel. It says 80% of Christians believe they should share their faith, but 61% haven't shared in the last six months. Why? Because I believe that we generally fall into two main buckets. This is not an absolute, but probably two main buckets. Here it is. The first bucket is we're selfish. Just like the people, we want what we get and we don't wanna share that with anybody else. We're saved so we've stopped caring about who isn't. But this is where I feel like a lot of us, I'm gonna give you that pass, a lot of us actually fall in the second bucket. We're scared. Now we may not use those words. We might not say we're scared, but what we would say is that I don't really know how to share my faith or I'm afraid of what might happen if and when I share my faith. And so for some, For some reason, too many people have made peace with our own salvation and gone silent

about everybody else's. And so I wanna just really quickly give us some common lies about sharing our faith that actually have a ultimate end that we can have the truth of it. They have this chart that I wanna put on the screen real quick. Watch this. When we think about why we don't share our faith, it comes down to these things. Number one, a lot of people say, well, you know, it's not loving, this is this lie of the world today, it's not loving to impose my beliefs on somebody else. You know, everybody should be able to do what they do. They do you, boo-boo. But the lie, the truth is real love doesn't withhold truth. Meaning that if you really believe it, you share it to anybody that will listen, and even if they won't listen. The lie is that I'm too messed up to share. We say, I don't wanna be a hypocrite, but let me say this, the truth is that the power's in the message, not the messenger. The lie that we actually believe is that it's not my gift to be able to share. Hear this, it's not a gift, it's a command from God. Here's another lie. It could cost me something, let me tell you, it will. Because the Bible says that when you actually stand for God,

you will actually experience persecution. But the truth is, it's called obedience. And here's another lie. Oh, these people, they're too far gone. Let me say this, if they have a heartbeat, there's hope for them. Come on, what if somebody said you were too far gone when you actually came to know Christ? And so with all these things, again, 78% of people would share their faith, but they don't know how, or they're not comfortable doing it, and so I don't want us to believe the lies, I just wanna give us a few things today that make it easier and that make it actually palatable and practical to carry the good news. One more time, say I am a carrier of the good news. Let me tell you a few ways we do that. The first way that we're able to help carry this good news is that we have to speak. Somebody say speak. Speak. What does that mean? We have to share our story. As carriers of the good news, we have to start to employ something that a lot of us don't like to do, and it's being vulnerable. We have to open ourselves up to be vulnerable enough to share how God has moved in our lives. Christian vernacular would call this a testimony. Many of us that have been walking with the Lord

for a little while, we know this scripture. Let's turn to Revelation 12, 11. I'm gonna read it from the Amplified version. It says this, and they overcame and conquered him because of the blood of the lamb. Him is the devil, Satan. They overcame and conquered the devil, Satan, because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony. What does this mean? It means that it wasn't just the cross. It was the cross plus the confirmation of those who have been changed. It's that the blood paid for the victory, but the testimony proved that it was very possible. Y'all following me? Let me say it like this. Your testimony is your spiritual fitness before and after. You know what it's like. New Year's is coming. A lot of people are gonna be making New Year's resolutions. You take the little picture so you can post it on IG and social and say, look at me now. This is my before. Why do we always look so depressed in our before? We're like. But you want people to be able to see that after you've gone through the process, after you've worked out or after you've taken the medicine, whatever you need to do, you actually now,

I ain't judging, you now have a different reality, amen? And so here's what I want us to know. Hear me, y'all. Many people, if they never meet you in their mess and see you in your mess, they will never actually believe that he can do something that he did for you in your before. Some people stay stuck in their mess because you only showed them the miracle version of yourself not the mess you came out of. David Jeremiah said it like this. He says, when we share Christ, the truth behind our transformation, we are offering people the opportunity to be transformed. He's saying, when you actually are vulnerable and you show people that if he can do it for me, he can do it for you. Now that opens the door for people to receive you and to receive the love of God and the transforming power of God. Yeah. Hear this, again, Acts 1.8 says you will be my witnesses. Midtown has heard me say this many times and I think I've said this even here at Norcross. I talk about my testimony about how when I was in my early 20s, I experienced a divorce that I did not want. I walked through a season and a marriage that I fought tooth and nail for,

that I tried to do everything that I could do until it actually started to threaten my life and we had to actually move on. And when I'm talking to people, the number one thing that I hear when I start to share that testimony is they look at me and say, with tears in their eyes. eyes. Thank you for sharing that. You mean God can still use me? I'm getting a little emotional right now because there are too many people who have counted themselves out because you might be on the other side of trauma. There are too many people that count themselves out because maybe you had a misstep, but God is saying, if you will understand that I can still redeem, I can still use you, that your testimony now becomes the keys to somebody else. He said I can use it. Here's what I want to say. Your testimony is your receipt that God is real. Come on, walk with me. Your testimony is your receipt that God is real. Let me tell you something. I don't smell like the smoke that I've been through. I've been through a couple but you don't know my story. You don't know that I had to wake up every morning and put caffeine pills. You don't know that I had to take stuff to go to sleep at night. God is a redeemer, and I don't look like what I've been through. Let me say it like this for some of my old school saints in the room. This is why the old deacons back in the day would hold their ear and they would say, I know he's all right. See, I know some of us new Christians, we don't know anything about that, so let me bring it down your street for a minute. You might be going through some things and people are hating on you, gossiping about you, but you need to know that the God Jehovah needs to see is the one who actually fights your battles and gives you the victory. Let me say it like this for some of y'all that that didn't hit real quick. Let me tell you, about a month and a half ago, I couldn't move my back around. I couldn't pick my son up, but I know the God who is Jehovah Rapha. He is the one who heals. He is the one who started to give me an opportunity to move and to dance and to walk a little better when I didn't think I could do it anymore. See, I know that might not be good for you, but let me say this. I know the government is shut down, but can I tell you that our God, Jehovah Jireh, never shuts down? I know that SNAP benefits have gone down, but can I tell

you we serve a God who can snap in an instant, in a twinkling of an eye, that he still never leaves a provision, that he still never…absent of provision, that he never leaves you, never leaves you alone? Somebody give God praise if you believe. Come on. Somebody say, I got receipts. I'm not trying to hype you. I'm telling you what I know. I have a testimony. Come on. People may not be ready to hear this written word of God from you. They can argue with you about theology, but they can't argue with your testimony. That's for somebody right up there, somebody in the chapel at Midtown. You need to know that people can argue all day, but they can't argue with what God did for you. You weren't with me in the late-in-the-midnight hour. You weren't with me when God saved me and he brought me out. Just take one moment and lift your hands real quick. Come on. Somebody needs to be remembered and be reminded about who God is and what he did. At Midtown, you need to be reminded that he is a keeper. Be reminded that he can do anything but fail. Be reminded that he is the one who owns everything. I know it might be tight right now, but be reminded that he never left you and never left you alone. Just receive it right now. Father, we thank you that we have a because of what you have done for us, and we will never forget it. In Jesus' name, put those hands together right now. Come on. Acts 4.20 says, as for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. Your testimony isn't just a moment in your past. It's the proof of your present. It's the power of Jesus, and it's the proof that his power works in you, someone that other people can see. This is not somebody that they see online or someone that they see on TV. This is someone that they walk with, that you become a door for somebody else. And so as we look at this, here's number two. We have to be people who carry the good news, and we have to show. Say show. What this means is that we need to live with kindness. Let me tell you, this is a very deep right here. I'm going to say something very revolutionary. It's so deep. I don't want you to miss it. When we talk about showing, here's what I want you to know. Stop being mean. That's a revelation right there. Stop being mean. We have too many Christians masking a critical spirit, trying to call it accountability. But what they're really doing is they just want to find a reason to be mean.

Romans 2 says this, are you actually unaware or ignorant of the fact that God's kindness leads you to repentance? He didn't say you pointing everything out about a person leads them to repentance. He didn't say you being mean leads them to repentance. And as witnesses of the one who we have seen and heard, we ought to follow suit. Now, I know we have, again, a lot of different people in the room. Some people are like, okay, well, brother Pastor Mo, I hear you, but I'm a one on the Enneagram. I'm an INTJ on the Myers-Briggs. I'm not mean. I'm just focused and strategic. My strategic mind does not bend towards kindness. Here we go again. What if God's mind did not bend towards kindness? What if he treated you the way you treat other people? Hear me. Kindness is not a personality trait. It's a kingdom principle. A critical spirit is not a fruit of the spirit. Kindness, watch this, it's not something that we have to try to get up and do. It's a heart issue, actually. There's a scripture that's over the doors as you walk into the sanctuary of Victory Midtown. I know it's around this sanctuary as well. John 13, 35, it says, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Let me tell you, people think that witnessing and carrying the gospel is so hard. What I will say, even as a preacher of the gospel by vocation, that one of my most effective ways of being able to get an opportunity to share with other people is just being kind. If you've ever run into me in the streets, I'm going to talk to you. At home, if you're in an elevator, they don't want to talk to me, but I'm going to talk to you. Hey, how you doing? Hope you're doing well. What I found is over and over again, it has opened the door for me to be able to share the love of God that's first coming through me. D.L. Moody said it like this. He said, out of a hundred men, one will read the Bible. The other 99 will read the Bible. Here's my question. What do people see when they read you? If your life is the only Bible that someone ever reads, will that reading actually push them closer to Jesus or closer to Satan? We make this difficult. This is very practical. Christians should be the best tippers. We should be the most generous. I should have got a bigger amen for people in the service industry. Christians should be the best tippers, the most generous, and the kindest. What I also know is that many people, even some sitting in here in this room and in Midtown, you may have only encountered mean Christians before. I'm even thankful and surprised that you might even be

in the room right now. Let me make one thing abundantly clear right now. God loves you. I know you have some stuff going on, but it's his kindness that wants to draw you to repentance. God didn't send his son Jesus just to nitpick at everything you're doing. Yes, he wants you to come out of sin, but he wants to have his love call you out of it. He came to pull you out of it, but by his Spirit and by his heart. Just for a moment, I don't know why I need to do this right now, but just one more time, lift your hands in the room. Come on. I want to speak this over some people who may have just stumbled in here on a Sunday morning and let you know, if you've never heard it before, God loves you. God loves you. I know you don't think you have it all together yet, but God loves you. Even for some of us who have been in church for a long time, even doing the work of the ministry, serving until our bones are dry. No, it's not just serving that gets his approval. He loves you anyway. Father, we thank you right now for this holy moment of just receiving your love. clarity, we won't fight that love. We will receive it now. In Christ's name, amen. Amen, amen, amen. All right, here it is. As we talk about this, we need to make sure we understand the care of the good news. Here's number three, we need to seek, seek. Pray for people, pray for people. One of the lowest barriers to being able to share your faith is to simply offering to pray. I know this is simple, but this is something that we grab. A lot of people want the deep things of God, but you're not swimming in the shallow. We need to pray for people. Here it is, most people may not be ready to hear a message from you, but even the hardest person will actually receive prayer.

I've experienced it. I've walked up to some people that look like a thug. Hard. You know, my bro, man, I just feel like I'm supposed to come pray for you. You know, what's going on with you? Can I pray for you? Yeah, man, you know, mama's sick. You know, everything's going down. I'm walking through it. Man, I appreciate you, bro. And in that moment, now the door is open for you to be able to pray and share the gospel. Watch this. Here's the best part. Even if people don't want to receive your prayers and don't want to receive your message, they can't stop your prayers. Whether they reject it or respond and receive it, your prayer still reaches heaven. See, we have to stop being so much in a Christian box, and some of us need to learn how to do a prayer walk-by. People that are a little hard-hearted need to walk by and say, in the blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus, blood of Jesus. I've prayed and interceded for more people just by giving them a doubt that they don't even know it. I'm walking up to you.

And I'm about shit quarter out of my mind. You don't even know. People get off the elevator at our home, and you know, they might've been a little hard-hearted when they got on. I say, angel, go with them in the name of Jesus. I'm serious that we have to be a people who understand the very power that we have. Because if we really understood the power that we have, we would actually utilize it more. First Timothy says this in chapter two, verse one. It says, I urge you then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for how many people? All. Some people? All. Just the nice people? All. All people. We need to be able to pray for all people. Listen, I'm talking about even the people that get on your last nerve. Somebody just came to your mind right there. Pray for them too. Because here's the thing. We say we understand the scriptures that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness and high places.

But what we do when we actually reach someone who's actually mean or they're resistant, we complain about them more than we pray for them. When is the last time, instead of talking about this person as a problem, that you started to pray towards that problem? And so as we look at this, it opens the door for miracles. I was having a conversation with Lecrae the other day, Mr. 116, reach record. I was having a conversation with him. He actually gave me permission to share this. And he said to me, he said, listen, I've just realized in this most recent time that I've kind of been operating a lot of times as just a head knowledge Christian. That I've been leaving a lot of the power of God on the table. I sing about it. I rap about it. I talk about it. But have I really stepped into the miracles of God? And he talked about this situation he had. Just the other day, he was at a restaurant. He saw this young lady and he said, okay, I'm gonna start employing what I say I believe. And he said that this young lady just started to bother him in his spirit. He felt like she was troubled and he needed to go say something. So he said, I'm gonna go over. He went over to the young lady and he said,

hey, how you doing? I hope you're doing well. I'm a Christian. I believe that the Lord asked me to come over here and pray for you. Immediately, she started crying. He said, I feel like the Lord has told me that you're troubled. Are you troubled? She broke down in tears. And in that moment, he said, because he took a step of faith to understand that he can pray for somebody, even if he didn't have time to give them a message, she now received the gospel. He was able to give her tools. He was able to walk with her. What he said is that he walked away saying, God, you mean I can operate in miracles even of people coming from darkness to light just by me praying for them? Let me ask this. How many miracles have you left on the table by not praying for people that you're surrounded with? We have an open door to operating in the supernatural, but we don't take the entry-level opportunity of praying for people. And so what we have to do is continue to do that and walk through it because the vehicle of the good news travels on the road of prayer.

Did y'all hear what I just said? The vehicle of the good news, it travels on the road of prayer, but we have to be people who pray and believe that when we pray about something, it can shift. So what am I saying? Praying mamas, don't stop praying. Praying grandmamas? Don't stop praying. Why we always leave the daddies out? Praying daddies? Can I get some daddies in the house? Praying daddies? Don't stop praying. Keep praying for your neighbors. Keep praying for your boss. Keep praying for those who you're surrounded with, and we will see God move. Here's number four. Here's number four. We have to send, send, send. Say send. Send. Let's turn real quickly to Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22 verse 9. It says this. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. This is Jesus talking. It's in red in my Bible right here. What Jesus is saying is that I want you to go out and I want you to understand that God wants his house full. He wants his house full. He wants as many people that can possibly fit in his house to come into his house and to come to his table. Mark Cahill said this. We cannot guarantee salvation, but we can extend an invitation. Stats say that 56% of people say they would attend church if someone just invited them. And the reality is that we must accept that when it comes to spreading the good news, hear me y'all, there is no plan B. We have to start living like we're the only option. Yes, some plant, some water, and God gives an increase, but we have to be active in understanding that there's not another person coming. You have to see people that you love like that. If I don't tell them about this good news, they will never get it. Let me say this. Again, I'm not saying that coming to church is the end all be all or bringing somebody to church. You should be witnessing to them in their neighborhoods, but you can bring them to church as a low-hanging fruit opportunity to be able to come in. One of the most gratifying things in life that you can do is to invite somebody to come to church with you. Stop coming

by yourself. We need the parking spaces, especially you at Midtown. To bring somebody with you, let them sit next to you, hear a message on the gospel, and when it's time for the salvation call and they say, lift your hands, you peek at them when everybody's supposed to have their eyes closed. You see them raise their hand, and they give their lives to God, and then you watch them keep coming and keep coming, and you see their lives transform. That is so gratifying. But watch this. Some of us have never experienced it because we don't invite anybody with us. So here on this Mission Sunday, as we talk about here locally, we talk about going out. For some of us, this Mission Sunday is a line of demarcation that we're going to say, I'm going to go out and I'm going to actually spark my evangelism muscles because we're supposed to be missionaries. What's a missionary? It's simply this. A missionary is simply someone who is sent by God to reach others with the good news of Jesus. And so this is what I want to do. I want us to take a moment and watch and hear from one of our brothers in Christ who is being a carrier of the good news on the mission field. Watch this. My name is Caleb Bonzi, originally from Ghana. I moved to the U.S. when I was 12, and then I moved to Atlanta after college in 2019. A brother of mine in a small prep for a trip to Ecuador. I had a couple of other brothers who went on a couple of other trips. In small groups, they would share about their experiences. So it's always something that I've been thinking about in the back of my head. It's like my next step, right? We talk about what's your one step at victory a lot. That was around September, October of 2024. I remember it was like a big mission campaign or drive at Victory. There was a call to action for mission trips, right? And as I was reading through those trips, there was only one that really grabbed me, and that was this trip to Brazil. It was focused on ministering and serving children who are suffering from childhood exploitation, poverty. I have a huge heart for children and youth ministry. I experienced one of the most traumatic changes in my life when I was 12, having to pick up my life and across the world. That trip really just grabbed me in a way that I couldn't let go of. And so I decided to sign up for that trip then. I remember praying and just kind of talking to the Lord and asking Him for a name of someone. Specifically, He wanted me to meet. And so I kept hearing the name Raphael, Raphael, Raphael. We had that event where we ministered and served 200 kids on a certain day. I met. A lot of young men asked them their names. None of them were named Raphael, right?

The next day, we did house-to-house ministry in a very remote part of Guaserio. And the first house that we go to, out comes this young man walking towards the door, and I ask him his name, and then he goes, Raphael. Said a prayer for him, just kind of spoke some words of encouragement and love to him. For the rest of the day and for the rest of the evening, he didn't leave my side. And that's how kind of powerful that connection was. It felt very much like Book of Acts and the early church, and like, this is how we were called to live. So I would encourage everyone to just take that step and do it now. The best time to go on a mission trip was yesterday. The next best time is today. Amen, amen. Listen, as we heard our brother, we have the opportunity to do that as well. And many of us, we need a spark. Many of us, we need our lives to be changed for all we have seen is what's around us. And so I wanna encourage you before you leave today, here and at Midtown, to stop by the missions table. Make sure that you actually sign up for a missions trip. Parents, this will change your children's lives forever, because now they will get a new appreciation for what God is doing all over the world, amen? Here's what I wanna say as we get ready to close. In Matthew 9, Jesus, with his heart moved with compassion,

he saw people, sheep without a shepherd. And he saw them, and he made this statement in Matthew 9, verse 37. He said, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into this harvest field. I want you to take a moment here and at Midtown and just look around this room. Look around, look around, look around. Come on, some of y'all still looking at me. Look around, look around, look around, look around. We are those workers. We are those laborers. And so lastly, as we talk about being good carriers of the good news, how do we carry the good news? We have to take a step. We talk about being a culture of one step. We have to start somewhere. This particular passage of scripture that I wanna read as we get ready to close really burdens me. And it says this in Romans 10, verse 14. It says, how then can we call on the one they have not believed? And how can they believe in the one that they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. Here at North Cross at Midtown, how can we stand on our feet all over the place?

Those who can, please stand on your feet, stand on your feet. I want you to do this as you're standing on your feet. Just start to wave your hand at me. Just start to wave your hand, everybody. Just start to wave your hand, wave your hand, wave your hand. I'm simply doing this so that you have this burned in your mind to understand that you are that preacher. Gone are the days of mega church pastors that everybody is just coming to to hear from them and the people are not carrying the good news. Gone are the days of celebrity preachers where people just are saying, oh, if you said it, that's the Bible. No, if it's not the Bible, I don't believe it, but I wanna carry the good news. And so the reason why the church, the body of Christ is so weak in this day and time is because the muscles of the people of God have been atrophied. And I wanna say right now, you, we are those workers. To be carriers of the good news, the Bible says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first the Jew and to the Gentile, meaning everybody. So in a moment, I wanna pray for the burden of God to be upon us again, that we stop being so comfortable being saved in our own little bubble,

that we're okay walking past people that are on their way to hell. But before we do that, I understand there's people in the rooms right now that may have found themselves in here that you're receiving this good news and you need to first make this step to accept it before you carry it out. And so here's this, I'm not gonna ask you to bow your heads because we're not to be ashamed of the gospel. If you're in here right now and you wanna accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you know that you're not confident that if you were to die today, that you're not going to heaven, if you know that you have no peace in your heart and you want the Prince of Peace to be evident in you and you wanna accept him as your Lord and Savior and turn your life over to him, I just want you to shoot your hand up at me right now with every head rising, come on, all over. I see you, Midtown, raise your hands all over. I see you, come on. I see you all over the room, in the rafters, in the chapel, I see you, I see you. I see you, I see you, I see you, hallelujah. We thank God for you. Let's do this all over the room. Let's practice being carriers of the good news. Let's say this prayer, and I don't wanna just say this as, oh, you repeat after me. Repeat this with fervor, say this with strength,

because accepting Jesus is a simple step, but walking with him is not easy. We oversimplify this gospel. It's hard to turn, but it's so worth it. So let's pray this prayer. Say Jesus, I believe you are the son of God, and you gave your life for me. And right now, I accept your gift of salvation. Today, I repent, which means I make a conscious decision to turn from a life of sin, to turn from my way of living, to turn from my way of thinking, and to turn towards your way of living. Holy Spirit, I need you. I need your help to change. But right now, I accept this gift of salvation, and I call myself confidently a child of God, and from this day on, I can say that I am saved. In Jesus' name. Come on, put your hands together right there. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you. Here it is, lift your hands, lift your hands, lift your hands, we're getting ready to leave. I wanna pray a spirit of boldness over us. Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray right now that we are shifting from a place of being comfortable to a place of being committed. God, we ask right now, give us our Raphael. Give us the person that we are burdened with. Allow us, God, to understand

that we are all called with a garden. Father, I declare that each and every one of us will understand that there are at least 10 people assigned to us that we can snatch out of darkness and bring into the marvelous light. Father, we declare this together, say this after me. Say, I'm not just saved, I'm sent. I'm not silent, I'm a witness. Say, I will speak, show, sin, and step, and I will carry the good news. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, and amen. I love you, Victory, God bless you. Thanks for being a part of Victory Church on the Pando app. We hope this content was a blessing to you, but we want you to know that you're not done yet because we want to hear from you. So send us a letter and tell us things like what God is doing in your life, how we can pray for you, or even content that you would like to see us create in the future. We just want you to know that we see you, you're important to us, and we'd love to continue to create some things in the future that will bless you. So send us a letter, and we hope to hear from you soon.