One Thing You Must Do

All right. Welcome, everybody. Good to see you. Hey, I just want everybody to be really quiet for a moment. Don't you just love the sound of abundant rain outside? Isn't that a great sound? It's awesome. My grass is saying, thank you. Yeah. Hey, you know, there's been a lot brewing in our church over the last couple of months that we work out in the scenes, and then eventually I get to talk to you about it. As the details get figured out today, our Garrison campus is having fresh vision cast for it to be its own church plant here in just a couple of weeks. And so they're not joining us today, but Pastor Corey is casting vision for what it's going to look like as its own church in Garrison. So we thank God for just his guiding and leading through the transition of that campus. Also want to welcome in online the North Dakota State Penitentiary, Dickinson, everybody joining us. We're grateful that you're joining us. And I want to welcome you in to a conversation that's been happening in our church for the last couple of months that you've not known about, but that is a conversation that we've been leaning into on a leadership level. I'm going to share an important leadership update with you.

Are you ready? That deep breath was for me, because I get excited and nervous. But as many of you know, we deeply value healthy leadership on our team and in our church, healthy families, helping people walk in the calling that God has for their lives in every season. That's what I'm going to share with you about a little bit today. And over the last several months, one of our executive pastors has been sensing a very clear transition from the Lord into a new season of ministry and focus. We've had an open conversation about it since about February. And after a lot of prayer and conversations and discernment and ironing things out, Pastor Alicia Weston is going to transition off of our staff team and step more into a role in counseling and leading leaders and developing leaders and ultimately creating new rhythms for her young family and her daughters. I know that's a huge passion for her life right now. And we began talking about this, I guess we really initiated it back in February, but began talking about it a little bit even before that. And I'm just grateful to Pastor Alicia because she's going to make this transition, but she's also going to stay with us until July 2nd and help our team navigate this and decide and figure out what comes next. I don't always make announcements

like this from the platform, but I'm doing it today because I feel like it's important to acknowledge the influence and the investment that Pastor Alicia has made in our church. And she's carried a high level of influence among us. We're incredibly grateful for the huge amount of involvement that she and her husband Stephen, both being on our executive team, the sacrifices that they've made for our church to be able to move forward, for her leadership, her faithfulness, for the countless ways that she has helped build what God is doing here at Evangel. It's important for you to know she's expressed full confidence in the leadership of our church and the vision of Evangel moving forward. She and Stephen want to remain a part of our church. Stephen is going to remain on our executive team. I think he made a 25-year commitment, something like that. And we're just so grateful for them. And yeah, a lifetime commitment. And we're so grateful for them. I'm thankful to Alicia for walking out this conversation just with honesty and clarity and wanting her family to win, our church to win. And I know that she has meant a lot to many of you. She's walked some of you through some really dark and difficult seasons. We honor her. We're thankful for the impact she's made on our church

and on so many people inside and outside of our church. And I actually believe that this is a really healthy example of listening to God's voice and recognizing that God moves in our lives in seasons. And He leads people through different seasons. And we want to be a church that celebrates obedience as well as longevity. And we also want to honor people well. We want to bless individuals as they step into God's calling in their lives. And so today, we honor the last decade that Pastor Alicia has invested in our church. I'm so grateful that she's still going to be a part of our church family, still be serving here, still be offering the gifts that she has to the community and our community. And we look forward with faith and expectation to what God is going to do next. And so will you take a moment? She's in the room right now, sitting in the corner. Will you honor Pastor Alicia for the years that she's given to our church family? The goal was to make her cry. How we doing? Okay, we're good, we're good. We've done it. Okay. But man, we just, we love the Westons so much. They're personal friends to me and Janae, and we're excited for everything God has put

in Pastor Alicia's heart, but we're really excited for her girls in this season that she's gonna have more flexibility for her family. So as we look ahead, we also want, I want you to know that while Pastor Alicia's departing, and that's a major change in our church, we're not gonna replace her role, at least immediately, but we are, however, continuing to build and strengthen our team for the future that God has for Evangel. And so we're really excited to welcome a new pastor to our team, who many of you already know and love, and is actually not new to Evangel. She's been a part of Evangel twice before, and even helped lead this church before I became the lead pastor. She and her husband were here a couple of weeks ago. Pastor Vicki Graham is joining our team as the Bismarck campus pastor. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! And many of you know her and love her. Pastor Doug led the church before me, and he's gonna continue to work

with the missions organization, One Hope, that he represents. He's gonna do that remote from Bismarck, and Vicki's gonna join our team, and we're so excited for their seasoned leadership, their mentorship, a spiritual mom and dad in the room, to many of our staff team. They're gonna strengthen what's happening, what God is doing in Bismarck in this next season, and we're excited about the wisdom, and the stability, and the leadership that Pastor Vicki is gonna bring. And so let's pray for them as they make this transition for their family, that they can sell their home, and that everything just comes together. Some of you are in shock. It's okay, I was in shock at first too. And just saying, how's this gonna work? What's this gonna look like? And it has just been beautiful with God saying, hey, one season's coming to an end, but I have a plan for the next season, and that's the grace and the goodness of the Lord, isn't it? That we never know, we never know. And I believe it speaks to something important, and I think this is important for all of us to understand, that God continues to faithfully guide his church, that he always knows what's in front of us more than we even understand, and sometimes seasons change, and people change,

and new leaders step in, but through it all, Jesus is the head of his church, and he takes care of her, and he provides everything that we need. And I, as the spiritual leader of this house, am so thankful that even when doors close through the nudge of the Holy Spirit, God continues to lead us and guide us, and show that he's the one who's able to provide everything that we need. Let that be an encouragement to you even in your own life, whether you're a leader, or you're navigating something in your life, that we serve Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides, and that he's able to meet every need you have according to his riches and glory, amen? Amen, come on, clap your hands, give God praise one more time. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's kind of like Vision Sunday from January, this is like part two, we announced this vision to be the church and build the church this year, and I wanna talk to you about your part in being the church and building the church. If you have a Bible today, we're gonna be in a chapter of the Bible that I've just noticed over the last two months. Everybody keeps coming back to, whoever we've asked to speak, it's like they keep bringing this chapter up. I never ask them to, it just feels like what God is leading our church in. It's been where I've been spending my own devotional time with the Lord, just reading this chapter over and over and over again. It's Romans 12. So if you have a Bible, you can open up to Romans 12, and we're gonna read out of a few verses from there today. This is in the, I think it's the new English translation. This is not short for the internet translation, but what the NET version is, is it's probably the best breakdown of each word that was originally written in Greek

and translated word for word into the English. So it gives us a really accurate translation, word for word of what the Apostle Paul was trying to say when he wrote this book to the Romans. He says this, for by the grace, everybody say grace. Grace. Given to me, God gives a grace to you. He says, I say to every one of you, everybody, not just the leader, to every one of us, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. So there's a grace and there's a faith that God has given to you. It says, for just as in one body, we have many members. And not all the members serve the same function. You need to underline that word function in your heart and your mind. I'm gonna come back to it in a moment. So we who are many are one body in Christ and individually we are members who belong to one another. And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. If it is service, he must serve. If it is teaching, he must teach. If it is exhortation or encouragement, he must exhort. If it is contributing or generosity,

he must do so with sincerity. If it is leadership, he must do so with diligence. If it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness. The Apostle Paul is essentially saying four things. He's saying the body has many members. He's saying not all the members have the same function. He's saying the many belong to one another. And he's saying God has given each member different gifts. In fact, he summarizes it in 1 Corinthians 12, 27. It says, you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. And as a part of the body of Christ, you're a member. You have a function. You belong to one another. God has given you a gift that you can use in that body. It's kind of like, I think of this word must. Have you ever had something that you must do and you forget to do it? Like you get the text at the end of the workday and she says, honey, can you grab shredded lettuce from the grocery store? We need it for the tacos when you get home. And you get home and she goes, where's the shredded lettuce? And you go, I must turn around and go back to town because I forgot or you missed an important step in a process that costs you later. There's certain things that you must do. And I wanna give you today the one thing that you must do. I remember a mentor sitting down with me. I was at the end of college trying to decide

what to do with my life. And if you've not noticed the call on my life is full-time vocational ministry. That's not the call on every one of your lives, but that was the call of God on my life. And whenever there's a call, I just believe this, this is side note, but I believe that your calling as a competitor, that what Christ Jesus has started in you, there's an enemy and he wants to distract you from it, have you use it for your own glory. He wants to get you sidetracked from it. And there's some good things in your life that aren't God things, but you wanna do the good thing, but the good thing is actually distraction from the God thing because your calling as a competitor. And sometimes you have to say no to the competition to say yes to the Lord Jesus. And some of us are sidetracked because we found out, oh, my calling can also make me money or my calling can also give me influence or my calling can also bring me glory on the earth. And we have to say no to the competition and say yes to the calling that is in Christ Jesus. See the church is not an organization that people attend. You're not at an event today. You're at a gathering of a body that belongs to one another. If anybody is in Christ in this room, you belong to the people sitting around you. They are dependent on you and you are dependent on them. Many times we think the church is just dependent

on the pastor and the pastor is dependent on the people, but it's truly that we are dependent on one another. That as every one of you brings the gifts that you have, the church becomes a supernatural organism that is united to Christ itself. Come on, don't miss that. Because if you view it just as an organization, you'll miss the part that was so important in that scripture that there's a grace that's at work among us. And the grace is at work among us when we realize that we belong to one another and we have a function as we gather together. In fact, the body of Christ doesn't just need attenders, it needs encouragers, it needs organizers, it needs servants, it needs generous people, it needs compassionate people, it needs people with the gift of mercy who weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. See, the body of Christ is not weakened by outside opposition. The proof of the text over and over end of history is that the body of Christ is actually strengthened by outward opposition. But the body of Christ does suffer from internal disengagement. It's when the members of the body don't function as a body but leave and operate as individuals that the body of Christ is actually weakened.

And when you disconnect from the body of Christ, it's not merely that you stop serving or that you stop volunteering. Hearing, when you disconnect from the body of Christ, which is God's plan A on the earth, the church with Christ Jesus as the head, when we disconnect, we're actually not just disconnecting from a role, we're disconnecting from the primary way that Christ intends to reveal himself to the world. Through a body that is united, through a body that is diverse, through a body that is uniquely gifted from individual to individual. And there's many reasons why people either disengage or stay disengaged. One of those reasons is because we live in such a consumeristic culture that allows us to show up and to receive, but not to give. It's people that attend, but never contribute. They never pick up their role in the body. They love to watch the body or be around the body, but they don't demonstrate the commitment and the vulnerability that it takes to actually be a part of one another, to actually operate in life together. Sometimes we stay disengaged because we have a consumeristic mentality. Sometimes we disengage because we have

a comparison mentality. And we think, well, my gift isn't as great as that person's gift. I can't sing like Dustin and I can't preach like Josh, so I probably don't, my gift probably isn't quite as important. People compare gifts, but you're never called to compare your gifts. You are called to be faithful with the gift you have. You will not be judged about whether your gift is better than somebody else's. You will be held accountable for what you did with what you have. That's the definition of faithfulness. How did you steward what God put in your hands? Sometimes we stay disengaged out of insecurity. We disqualify ourselves from the work that Christ Jesus qualified us for. And in our own minds, we think I'm not worthy. I'm too messed up. I have too much junk in my story. And Jesus said, well, I saved you. I redeemed you. I called you holy. I justified you and I equipped you. And yet still in our minds, we go, surely I'm not qualified. Isn't that the story of scripture, Gideon and Moses and others that fight with the Lord and say, I'm not worthy. And God says, but I called you worthy, but I'm not worthy.

But I called you worthy. Trust me, step out. Why? Because you don't give yourself a role in the body. Grace has assigned you a role in the body. Grace has proportioned you a role in the body. See the gifts that God gives are not personality traits. They are manifestations of the grace of God for the good of others. And God manifests his grace in your life through the gifts for other people, not for yourself, not because you're worthy, but because his grace is sufficient for you. And because his grace is at work in us. See, sometimes we're the opposite. We actually overestimate ourselves and what we're able to do. And we underestimate our responsibility, but you need to see yourself accurately before God today. And seeing yourself accurately before God means that if you are in Christ, you're not the whole body. You don't need to make it happen for everybody. Seeing yourself accurately before God means that you are not unnecessary to the body. It means that you are not superior to the body. And it means that you are not insignificant in the body of Christ. It means that there is a grace that is on your life that maybe you know, but it's not enough to know. You also have to operate in it.

Jesus has given a grace for you through his death and resurrection that offers you forgiveness of sins, that offers you a new life in Christ. And it's not enough to just know it. You have to operate in it. You have to take every thought captive. You have to repent. You have to turn from your wicked ways. You have to ask Christ Jesus to transform you. We can know it, but we also need to walk in it. See in Romans, the book of Romans that I read from, the apostle Paul for 11 chapters goes on and on and on. And if you've read it, on and on again about what Christ Jesus has done for you. 11 chapters of the gospel. In fact, I read it one time and I thought, you know what, today I'm going to read Romans and there's a lot in it that is confusing and I don't really understand. And I'm going to understand every verse before I move on to the next one. Took a long time. It's a hard book. 11 chapters of theology, 11 chapters of how God qualifies us through Christ Jesus. And then he turns a corner in Romans chapter 12. It's why it's one of my favorite books to read because it's like, now here's what this means for you. Here's what you can actually do with it.

Here's why. The 11 chapters before it have prepared you for what God wants to do next. He moves from theology to spiritual practice. And here's what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12, 1. Therefore, we've said this before, but if you read a therefore in scripture, it's there for a reason. And it's saying, therefore, because of what the first 11 chapters said, here's what you should do. Because of that, I exhort you, I encourage you, I beseech you, brothers and sisters, by the mercy of God, by the grace of God, present your body as a sacrifice. If Christ Jesus has done all this for you, here's the good work that you can do. Present your body as a sacrifice, alive, holy, and pleasing to God. This is your reasonable service. Because of everything that Christ Jesus has done for you, this is your reasonable service in return. What is he saying? 11 chapters of how we get saved, how Christ Jesus saves us from our sin. And then a chapter on, here's how you can serve. Saved people serve people. This is the transition the Apostle Paul is making. Saved people will serve people. This is why we say, be the church, build the church.

Because if you know Jesus, then you will serve other people. And so my encouragement to you today is to be humble about what you can do, but be confident in what God can do. Be humble about what you can do on your own, but be confident in what Christ Jesus can do in you and what Christ Jesus can do through you. Again, Romans 12, three, for by the grace given to me, when you understand that it's by grace, it creates humility. I say to every one of you, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. You don't have to think poorly of yourself, but understand that it's a grace that is at work in you, not by your strength so that no man can boast. It's a work of God that is in you. Think with sober discernment as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. He's saying, be humble in what you can do on your own, but be confident about what God can do through you. Romans 12 teaches that humility leads to service and service strengthens Christ's body, all of us together. And every believer has a God-given responsibility to contribute. You don't earn your place in the body. Grace assigns you a place in Christ's body. Romans 12 is clear that it's deeply anti-performance. It's not out of your own strength and your own confidence in yourself that you bring something to the church,

that you bring something to the body of Christ. It's totally different. It's confident, not in what you can do, but confident in what Christ can do, that the grace of God in me allows me to do what he's called me to do. In fact, even that phrase, reasonable service, the best translation and understanding of that is a priest who goes into the temple and offers a sacrifice to the Lord. Like he can do the work of it, but it's God who accepts the sacrifice and allows the grace to be sufficient for the people. When you offer your body as a living sacrifice, it's like you're preparing yourself and offering it to the Lord, but it's only God by his grace who can bring anything good from that. It's reasonable service is like the equivalent of worship. Like you offer God your worship, does it really depend on you? No, it's that you exalt the almighty God and his blessing and his grace begins to abound in your heart and in your life. It is not a natural exchange. It's a supernatural exchange. It's laying hold of the grace that God has given you. It's not, do I have something to offer? What it is, is I'm gonna steward what God has given me. He gave it and he allows it to come to pass.

And so I'm gonna be confident that he who began a good work in me will carry it through to completion. And I'm gonna be confident that he's gonna do it more than me doing it in my own strength. The Bible's clear, you've been given a grace that has been dispensed from the father. You've been given a measure of faith to walk in that grace. You've been given a function in Christ's body. And because of that function, you have a contribution to bring. Nobody excluded. There is a grace on your life that you operate in, in a measure of faith. And the Bible says a mustard seed of faith is enough. Because of that, you have a function in this body. And out of that function is a contribution that you bring to the rest of the body of Christ. And for some it's full-time vocational ministry, but for most it's not. It's the gift that God has put inside of you that maybe for a long time you thought, well, that's just because I'm a compassionate person, or that's just because I'm an encouraging person, or that's just because I'm a natural born leader. No, there is a grace that has been dispensed to you. And that takes it from you getting all the glory to God getting all the glory. The only reason we honor people is because they agree to operate in the grace that's been given to them.

It's God that allows it to bear fruit. So Paul is not giving spiritual gift suggestions. He is describing spirit-enabled responsibilities in our lives. In Romans 12, those responsibilities are the gift of prophecy, the gift of serving, the gift of teaching, the gift of encouragement, the gift of giving or generosity, the gift of leadership. It's the gift of mercy. In 1 Corinthians 12, the gifts are a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophesying, tongues, discernment, interpretation of tongues. How do you find out what your gifts are? They're spiritual gifts assessments you can take. You can read these in the Bible and say, which one resonates with me? You can ask the people around you, what grace is on my life? What have you noticed? And other people will go, well, you're the most merciful person I've ever met. And they'll begin to call it out in you. You have to, the Bible says, eagerly desire the spiritual gifts. Like eagerly, earnestly desire to know what grace has God apportioned to me. And then walk in it.

And we create a false hierarchy around the gifts. We look at gifts like leadership and prophecy, and maybe the ones that get elevated more. And we think that they're better than others, but the person with the gift of mercy or the quiet gift that maybe people only see behind the scenes is equal to the gift from the platform. There's no hierarchy there. It's each of us being faithful with what God has given us. Paul treats them as equal. I gotta tell you the story of a young girl in our church who, well, let me just tell it to you. In September, there was a girl named Liv that had decided she was ready to be water baptized, and she was excited to take that step. But before it could happen, about a month later, her life was flipped upside down. She had come home early from school with a migraine. She had wrestled with migraines before, and usually a little bit of sleep and quiet and some medicine would be the fix. But before heading out the door that day, her dad checked on her real quickly and found her seizing on the floor. And he called 911, he gave her CPR, and he waited for the ambulance in what is just a terrifying experience for a parent. They arrived at the ER, a breathing tube was put in. She continued to seize. They were doing CT scans to figure out what was going on

and found that a cluster of weak vessels in her brain or on the outside of her brain had burst, causing bleeding in her brain. It made her mind shift, and it began these seizures that she was struggling with. She was flown to Fargo for immediate surgery to fix the bleeding and await a further prognosis of what things were gonna look like. It took days and multiple CT scans until they were able to finally begin to wean her off the breathing tube, and they kind of waited to see if her brain function was still what it should be and if any parts of her life that she had been able to use before weren't available anymore, if there'd be deficits upon waking up. A few days later, after waiting, she woke up and some of the first words out of her mouth were, I need a Carmel roll. From there on, her family knew that God had done a miracle. The brain is tricky and it's unstable, and with the amount of bleeding and the shift and the seizure activity, they truly had no idea what the outcome would be, but God knew. She worked with therapy and she still does, but with very little to no deficit or setback to her prior abilities, praise the Lord. Shortly after the Carmel roll comment, Liv turned to her mom and said,

now I really wanna be baptized. From the beginning of her recovery, she had expressed the desire to not only be baptized, but she's also recognized the miracle of her life being spared that day. Even before she knew the full story of what had happened, she would say, God saved me for a reason. Come on, does anybody know God saved you for a reason? He brought you out of the pit you were in for a reason. He brought you out of the pit you were in for a reason. He spared your life on the day you were born for a reason. He saved you from that accident for a reason. He prevented bad things from happening that you don't even know about for a reason because there's a grace that's been apportioned to you. Because there's a plan that he has for you. She said, God saved me for a reason. I have to tell people about this story. Due to the surgeries, incisions, and recovery, it took six months, but six months later, two weeks ago, she was baptized. Her family and friends and herself all testifying to what God had done in her life. Friends, we are invited in like Liv into the God story that he's doing. It's not us inviting God into our story, it's God inviting us into his story. And Liv understands this. I love that line, God saved me for a reason. I have to tell people.

I believe each one of us can look at our stories and have confidence about what God is doing through us. Things we couldn't have done on our own or apart from his grace. But that story is not just meant for you to reflect on God's goodness, it's meant for the people around you. The body needs you and you need the body of Christ. We need one another, Romans 12, four through five. Again, just as in one body, we have many members and not all the members serve the same function. So we who are many are one body in Christ and individually we are members who belong to one another. It goes on and says that we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. Just reflect on that verse. I'm gonna close in a moment, but think about this. You have a gift according to the grace that's been given to you. No matter what your career is, that's not the most important discovery of your life. Even to the graduating seniors this month, the most important discovery of your life is not your career, it's what did God make you for? Knowing the one who made you and knowing why he made you. No matter what your career is, there is a grace and a gift that God has put on your life. And biblical Christianity has no place for isolated discipleship. Salvation is very personal following Jesus,

but it's never individualistic. Because when you're in Christ, 1 Corinthians 12 says you are baptized, you are immersed, not in individualism, but you are immersed into a body that you now belong to. The grace is not just for you, it's for the people around you. And it's the beauty of that body and that God baptizes us into it that makes us a diverse people, but also a united people because it's Christ that is our commonality. And in that body, contribution is not an option, it is expected because we all have different gifts according to the grace given to us, even though we don't have the same function. The word function in the Greek means there's a work or an activity or an assigned operation that you've been given. Paul is not emphasizing positional leadership in the church, he's emphasizing the function of every believer. The Greek word function carries imperative force, it is not a suggestion. It's the grace of God has been given to you, you must apply it to your life. Many other translations soften it, but the word for word translation says, the one gifted to teach is expected to teach, the one gifted to lead is expected to lead, the one gifted to serve is expected to serve.

Even as I read, if the gift is serving, he must serve. If the gift is teaching, he must teach. If the gift is mercy, you must show mercy. I was driving to my men's group last week and there's a guy in our group who's been leading with me and we make waffles for our group every week. And I get there at about 6.20 and he gets there like 6.05 or 6.10. And I was always feeling guilty, like he's been there making waffles and I didn't even get out of bed, I'm the leader, I should be there at the same time as him, what's the matter with me? He's probably frustrated. And the Holy Spirit whispered to me, and this guy has like one of the truest, most beautiful gifts of serving. And the Holy Spirit said, Josh, it's okay, he must serve. He must serve and you must allow him to serve because it's the grace that's on his life. And he actually finds, I am not apologetic for asking you to serve, for asking you to show mercy, for asking you to take up your gift in the body of Christ because the Bible says you must do it, you must do it. And listen, I know I'm over time, but you gotta hear this. Your calling and your giftings and the hope that you carry in your life are connected. This is so important, please see it. Because some of you are struggling and it's actually for this reason. The prayer in Ephesians, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope,

everybody say hope, to which he has called you. So the hope that we have is connected to, we know the calling that he has and when we're disconnected from our calling we become disconnected from hope. And there are people wandering and floundering and it's not that that God doesn't love you or that you're insufficient, it's that you're living separate from your calling and so you're missing hope. In fact, I've seen people get into trouble when they know their calling and they choose to live outside of it. They lose direction, life becomes really ambiguous, they begin to lose hope. See, the challenge of staying on the path of God's hope and calling is far better than the road of ambiguity and wandering that we travel down when we go our own way. Serving in the gift that God has given you is a must. You've received a gift, you must use it and it must serve others because a body part disconnected from purpose is dysfunctional. But God has given you a function. To be functional in his body and to ignore this because of consumerism or because of comparison or because of insecurity is the equivalent of calling God a liar. Because you say, no, I disqualify myself. Well, God says he's graced you and you must do it and when you say, well, I'm not as gifted as that other person, you say, God, you're a liar, I don't have what it takes. That's essentially what we're saying is that his word isn't true. But the miracle of the church is not that gifted people exist. The miracle of the church is that Jesus takes broken, ordinary, insufficient people, he fills them with his grace, he unites them in one body and then he reveals his glory to the world around them through them. So if we want God's glory to be revealed in our community, everyone must operate in the grace that God has given you. Every one of us has to say, God, how have you graced me and what do you want to do through my life? I want to close through this or with this. If you're hearing, you're like, man, I need to take the next step. You heard the announcement for Heart and Soul sign up starts June 4th. It's a huge step you can take. But if you're here today and you're not a part of the body of Christ, then the Bible is clear that when you believe the gospel, when you believe the message of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 12 says you will be baptized, you will be immersed in the body of Christ. That you'll be immersed in his body. How? By his spirit. It's not a natural thing. It's a supernatural thing. To be immersed in the body of Christ, it's more than a prayer. It's a transforming work of God's spirit. Amen. So I want to pray for you. If you'll join me today, if you're today outside the body of Christ or you're saying, God, what's the grace on my life? Then let's pray together this way. Father, we thank you that there's a grace that you've given that allows us to leave our old life

and to be found in you. And we don't want to just know that grace. We want to walk in it today. So we receive your forgiveness. We repent of going our own way. We confess Jesus as Lord. We turn from our wicked ways and we want to follow your path. And God, I pray for people in this room right now who are saying there's a grace, a portion of my life, but I don't know what it is. As they open your word, as they go to heart and soul, as they inquire of godly counsel and friends, help them discover what you've equipped them to do. And God, as each individual discovers that, let our whole body be matured. Let our whole body be grown. Let our whole body be a more beautiful picture of Christ's glory on the earth. Thank you, God, that your grace is sufficient for our forgiveness and your grace is sufficient for our giftedness. We thank you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Church said, amen. I'm a little over time, so I'm just going to invite our prayer teams to come if you would. If you're here today and you'd like to receive prayer, our prayer teams are available. If not, we love you. Go outside and get wet, covered in rain. Thank you, Jesus. This service is over, but church is not, so go be the church. God bless you.