Step Up | Part 4

Holy Spirit, you are welcome, you declare, come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Sing your glory, say. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. Come on, if you want more of them, if you want more of them. To be overcome by your presence, Lord. Come on, would you sing Holy Spirit? Holy Spirit, you are welcome, you declare, come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Do you need more of God? Say. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. To be overcome by your presence, Lord. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you are welcome, we welcome you here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. To be overcome. Be overcome by your presence, Lord. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you are welcome, we welcome you here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Come flood this place, fill our hearts. Your glory, God. It's what our hearts long for. To be overcome. To be overcome by your presence, Lord. Let us become more aware of your presence. Say. Let us experience. Let's sing.

Let us become more aware of your presence. We want your presence. Let us experience the glory of your presence. Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience. Let us experience the glory of your presence. Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your presence, Lord. Say. Holy Spirit, you are welcome. Shout it out. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. Do you want them today? To be overcome by your presence, Lord. Come on, sing it again. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you are welcome. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Say your glory. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. To be overcome by your presence, Lord. We want you more and more. More and more. We want you more and more. More and more. Just shout out and say we want you. More and more. Do you want them? More and more.

You need them, say, we want you. More and more. More and more. We want you more. We want you more. More and more. We want you more. We want you more. More and more. In our hearts, in our minds, Jesus. We want you more and more. More and more. In our plans, in our future. We want you more and more. More and more. What did you say? Oh, what a day. It must have been. Anticipation, expectation. Just waiting on Him. His arrival. Long for a tour. His promised spirit was revealed. Feeling young and old. Here comes the wind. ♪ It's rushing in ♪ He wants to do it again. ♪ From heaven down to earth do you hear the sound ♪ Holy Spirit. ♪ Just like the upper room we want you more and more ♪

More and more. ♪ More and more, we want you more and more ♪ More and more. ♪ What a life I get to live, I get to live ♪ You just say I walk. ♪ I walk in power, the same power that raised you from the dead ♪ ♪ Until I breathe my last breath, my last breath ♪ I know your plans are good for me. ♪ And you're not finished with me yet ♪ Here comes the wind. It's rushing in. He filled that room. Won't you do it again? From heaven down to here. He wants you to do it today. Holy Spirit now come out to. Would you shout. ♪ We want you more and more, more and more, hey ♪ ♪ We want you more and more, more and more, more and more ♪ We want you more. We want you more. We want you more and more. Someone need to clear this. ♪ Fire fall, fire fall down, Spirit move ♪ ♪ Fire fall, fire fall down, Lord I know you say ♪ ♪ Fire fall, fire fall, in this room, in this room ♪ ♪ In this room, fire fall, fire fall, in this room, fire fall ♪ Won't you do it again? Fill this trash with your Spirit. Hey, fire fall.

Oh, Spirit of God move. Fill us up, fill us up. Full of your presence, full of your presence. Fire fall. In this room. In this room. Sing fire fall. Let's sing it again. Fire fall, fire fall, fire fall. Oh, Spirit of God. Fire fall, fire fall, we wanna know you, we wanna know you. Fire fall, fire fall, in this room, in this room, fire fall. Fire fall. Here comes the wind, it's rushing in. He wants to do it again. Hey, would you do it once again? Oh, do you hear? Do you hear the sound? Hey, Holy Spirit. Do you hear it? Just like it. We want you more and more. We want you more and more. We want you more and more. We want you more. Come on, would you cry out for more of his presence? Jesus, we need you. Jesus, we need you. Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, come. Lord, would you fill us fresh?

Lord, fill us fresh today. We want your presence. We need your presence, Father. Lord, we don't wanna do anything without you. We don't wanna move without you. We don't wanna breathe without you. Lord, we don't wanna do life without you. So here's what we do. Corporately, but Lord, we do it individually. God, we say that every part of us, Lord, we invite you into. Every single part, we just bring you into. Would you go in and do that? Just surrender your life in that way today. Say, Holy Spirit, would you? just come the very deepest part i mean ask him would you even invade the deepest part of my life spirit of god we need a fresh move lord we need something not for yesterday but for today lord what do you want to do and whatever it is god we want to do it so come come jesus he'll is fresh today hallelujah i just want to speak the name of jesus over every heart and every mind because i know there is peace within your presence i speak jesus i just want to speak the name of jesus till every dark addiction starts to break there is hope and there is freedom say i oh somebody shout this today would you say go ahead shine through name of jesus i speak jesus would you say

your name is come on right there right there at home would you go ahead and declare that would you speak it over the situation speak it whatever you're walking through today say break every stronghold oh somebody shout this with me say that's it declare it today shout jesus your name is he's getting ready to break through hey break every oh let me I tell you, you will break off every chain that's in your life. Chains of addiction. Chains of depression. They break everything. Come on. Some of you need to speak it over your life. There is power in power. Speak it over the situation you're walking through. Come on, speak it today. Speak it today. Do you believe there is power? To break every chain, say. To break every chain, break every chain. There is power. There is power in the name of Jesus. There is power. There is power in the name of Jesus. There is power.

There is power in the name of Jesus. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. To break every chain. Shout Jesus. Shout Jesus from the mountains up. Jesus in the streets. Yeah, yeah. Jesus in the darkness over everything. Jesus for all. Jesus for all men. Speak His name. I'll speak His name. Shout His name. I'll speak His name. Jesus. Shout Jesus. Shout Jesus from the mountains up. Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness over everything. Over every enemy. Jesus for all men. I'll speak His name.

Jesus. We've been in a series called Step Up, and for those of you that are just joining the on-ramp of this series, this really is talking to us as a church and to you individually as a believer. This is not for hate. It's Pastor Sam or this person over there that really needs to step up, but it really is about you and I stepping up, which means we continue to mature and grow in Jesus Christ. It's co-language for believers to grow up. Sometimes it's time to just take off the pampers and put on the full armor of God, if you know what I mean. We do develop and we do grow when we start that journey. Those of you who just gave your life to Jesus Christ for the first time, we're going to help you with your first birthday gift. You're going to just start growing in the steps, and you're going to watch yourself. You're going to look back a year from now. You're going to look back a year. I tell people, give this church one year of your life. Just be faithful on Sunday. Just try that. Look back and see what God will do in your life. It's transformational what Jesus can do in you. It's not us. It's purely him, totally him. There is a place where we learn to grow up, and what does that mean to mature? It literally means to grow in Christ. It means to connect with the community called your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, to start connecting with them, and you'll discover they're not like it. Sometimes they're not like you at all. That's part of maturing, growing up, and then learning how to serve with purpose. We not only want ourselves personally and you to grow in Jesus, we as a church need

to step up to make it easier and easier for people to come to Christ to know him. That's our mission statement. Our mission statement is simply this, bringing people to Christ and equipping them to be like him. That is our mission. That's what we live for. That comes out of Ephesians chapter four. There it is right there. Come on. Let's say it together so we just get it. This is the mission of our life, and it's a mission for my life ultimately. Ready? Ready? Here we go. Ready? Bringing people to Christ and equipping them to be like him. Not like Pastor Sam, because there's some things I don't want people to have about Pastor Sam, but there are some things that is after Jesus Christ. I do want them to have, and he keeps growing me just like he wants to grow you. Where does that come from? The apostle Paul talks to the early Christians, the Christians that were starting in Ephesus, and here was the words to him. As we gather as a body of believers, if we're going to identify and the people can spout their Christian ... But it's a whole lot more than just spouting a name. It's about walking in a way, not just spouting off a name. Okay, because it doesn't mean much anymore because the definition of terms changes so rapidly in our culture. So the best place to look as the author of it, Jesus, where did it all start? How are these early believers like? And this is what he said about growing up, stepping up. Ephesians 4.15, let me show the words he said to those believers

like he speaks to us today. Right here what he said. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing, watch this, that's that stepping up in every way, in every area of our life, every issue of our life, more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body. So there's a body, you can't ignore the body. You can't just be a big toe and say, I'm going to walk away from the rest of you. He says, you're a part of the body, the church, the ecclesia, you're part of a group, a family. He said, he makes the whole body, this whole place fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, you have a special work. There's a call in your life. It helps the other parts grow. So it's not about you. Well, what about me? What do I get out of this? They didn't sing my music. They didn't do my song. They didn't smile at me. It's not about you. It's about you growing, but it feeds others in this place to mature in Jesus. Isn't that cool? So that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Can somebody say amen to that? That ends up fulfilling that mission. It's simply bringing people to Christ and equipping them to be like him. So in this series, some of you didn't get to hear it all, go back and listen to it. But we talked, first of all, we want more people to be able to come through that, to know Jesus. Are we making it easier from the street to the seat and from the seat to the street? How are we engaging people? And it all starts with your welcome. If we don't welcome people into this process of knowing Jesus, of all Jesus, we got to make it easier to welcome them. And how do you welcome them? Then we talked about your work. How do you start influencing? Even if you just gave your life to Jesus Christ today, how do I start being an influence for Jesus Christ to people around me? And we talked about simple things, starting with your family, to your friends. It's really simple. And we talked about your work down that Jesus, you have a special work, what you do. And now we've been talking about the way. What is the way for me to grow and others around me to grow? What is the way? And the reason why I call it the way or the path is in the book of Acts, you'll see that the people that looked at the believers, the followers of Jesus Christ from the outside, the world, they would always call the believers then, the people, the followers of the way. That's what they called them. Oh, they're the followers of the way. Well, who was the way? Jesus Christ. He's the way, the truth, and the life. So the way he lives is the way they live. The way he deals with issues, the way he deals with issues is the way. So now we've been talking about that way. So there's a way, there's a path. So how many know Jesus' way

ought to be my way? It ought to be your way. So we start finding, how do we help people to start learning how to mature and grow in Jesus Christ? So we have a simple growth track that gets people started when they start coming to this church. When they start saying yes to Jesus, those of you who just said yes to Jesus, there's going to be clear and simple path. One of them is called, it's a growth track and we call it a discovery 101. And this is where people, they come to church and say, well, what do I do next? I'm here in this church. We're going to have this discovery 101. It's going to be once a month. It's going to opportunity to meet the pastors. And then you get to know more about Grand Rapids first. How did it all start? How long has it been around? What do they believe in? What are their guiding principles from the word of God? I need to know. That's very important for you to know. What are our guiding principles? And then it's also an opportunity, not just to meet pastors and get connected with people, but it's an opportunity to become a member of this church that you're no longer just a part of the crowd. You're a part of the core that's actually starting to grow and helping other people to grow, serve around you. And we're having that first one in February 8th and it got so filled up. There was so much demand for it. We had to start another one for the next week. And then I announced one for March last Sunday, but it packed up too. And I know there are more of you that want to get involved. And so if you want to learn that, that discovery one-on-one to start walking, start signing up. There's a QR code behind me for April 12, April 12 will be the next one. And every month you're going to see that it's going to teach us how to grow and then to find your special work, how to serve in the church. Then we'll bimonthly, we'll have what's called Serve 201. We'll help you find your gift and learn how to serve others to grow. where it's my part to give to the body of Christ so that I'm growing as I'm helping other people grow and to serve with purpose. And that's gonna be bi-monthly, and I'll tell you more about that in just a second. Then we'll have what's called Values 301, where it's a deeper dive into what we call our core values, which are based on the word of God. We call it, it's based on the acronym GROW.

And that's where we started last Sunday, was we took the word GROW, and I gave you the trailer for the rest of the movie of things you'll learn in the deeper dive. 301 is where you start connecting in a smaller group, and you learn more and dive deeper into the GROW, and how do I follow, how do I mature in Jesus Christ? It's a great path to keep growing. How many thank God that we have a path just like the church had a path, and Jesus had a path and a way? We're gonna show people the way, amen? And so it's really simple, but you gotta give yourself to it. You gotta give yourself to it. So we dealt with last week was the acronym GROW. We took the G, and we took the R, and it's based on the word of God and the practices of the New Testament followers of Jesus then that we bring in, and it helps you to remember. So our first G in GROW was growing in Christ. The rest of them don't work if you don't say, I wanna follow Jesus, serve Jesus, and that's your vertical connection with Jesus Christ. And when it comes to following and growing in Jesus Christ, you need to clearly understand this, that spiritual growth is not a destination. It is a direction you pursue until you stand before Jesus face-to-face. It is not a destination.

It is a direction you must intentionally, consistently pursue and stay connected to the source, Jesus Christ himself. Because you're gonna get distracted by a lot of things in your walk with Jesus Christ. You gotta cling to Jesus and his way. Can somebody say amen to that? So it's not a destination. Because I think there's some people that say, well, my daddy was in the church, and my daddy, daddy, daddy was in the church, and we come from the great line of the Presbyterians and the assembly of God, and we're from the great line of the Bahu. Oh, that was from a movie, wasn't it? Babe, the Pig, that's right. And then they stop. They stop, and they don't mature. In fact, what begins to happen, sometimes you can get to that place where you stop and you actually start driving people away from Jesus instead of, because you stop growing and connecting to him. And that has to happen. The rest doesn't count if you don't stay connected to Jesus, the vertical connection, and you must be intentional about it and consistently connecting with Jesus all the time. That's why Jesus said this bold statement. This is what he said, John 15, five.

Jesus made this. He said, I'm gonna tell you who I am. He says, yes, I'm the vine, you're the branch. Those who remain in me, that's code language for talking to me, communicating with me, singing with me, listening to me, following me. Those who remain in me and I in them, watch this, will produce much fruit. So the more I stay connected, and the more I produce for the kingdom of God, the more fruits stay connected to him. For apart from me, he says, Sam, you're nothing. You can preach all you want, you all can win awards, but you are nothing if you disconnect from me. Because every bit of life that you have needs to come from the vine. Because everything that is in the vine, Jesus, guess what? Gets to flow through the branch that remains connected to him. And the moment we start disconnecting in issues of our life, then the vine, Jesus, can't flow into the issue of your marriage, can't flow into the issue of your sex life, can't flow into the issue of your money, can't flow into the issues of your attitude, it will not flow there. But if I stay connected to the vine, what flows out of him will flow out of me.

What flows out of him will flow out of you. And watch the power of that, the power of that to stay connected to him. And then how many know when vines grow and branches grow, how many know you gotta prune those babies? You can actually stunt the growth because there's what they call sucker shoots that get on there. So as a branch following Jesus Christ, the vine, sucker shoots will get on you. It doesn't take long, just read a couple of Facebook posts and sucker shoots will take the joy right out of your life. Start making you point fingers and accuse each other and it'll take it, bitterness will take you, things will just take you. You watch enough things on TV, it'll take you, it'll start distracting you. Things at work will distract you, they're sucker shoots and they suck the nutrients out of the vine so it doesn't stop producing fruit. So there's a lot of people that are connected to the vine and their branch, but the sucker shoots are just sucking the life of Jesus right out of you. He said you got to prune that branch and take the sucker shoots off so that you can keep getting the nutrients of the vine Jesus Christ himself. Oh, that's good preaching brother Sam So I can't keep on that so that's G growing in Christ So go back and listen that and we go in the deeper dive in these other things

Then the next thing in the R was to grow with Jesus Christ You got to start relating to others in the community of Jesus Christ followers. So let me just let you in a little revelation Somebody in this church is going to tick you off Some point as wonderful as I am I will offend you Your chances of getting your feelings hurt in the body of Christ is 100% Aren't you glad you got a real honest pastor here with you today? Somebody in here will be a jerk and tick you off And if you think a run from us just stay on social media, they'll get to you somehow. I promise you and this is where Jesus starts teaching us the horizontal connection and As much as the body of Christ may bug you Connection with God's brothers and sisters is not optional for you. If you're gonna bear the name of Christian It is not an option It is essential to you maturing and growing in Jesus Christ and loving people in spite of Their own growth process in Jesus Christ that falls a little short Sometimes a lot of short How am I doing everybody? Okay, cuz I'm not sure But I believe you so you my point is is you can't embrace Jesus and exclude his body No more than you can chop your hand off and say I don't like this hand, I don't like the rest his body I'm gonna separate the life is gone That part of that growing is in Jesus Christ and that's where we learn to grow mature in Jesus Christ. This is this is This is the tough part for believers, but that's where growth really happens. It's when you start connecting with others so that means you're gonna find out your flaws and you're gonna find out ours and And what happens is don't let what we do to mess you up But it's not a license to do things wrong, but don't let it be a sucker shoot from you not pursuing Jesus Christ with all your heart I'm here all day everybody. Amen So what's another way I can do that it's it's it's it's small groups on Wednesday night, that's a good place to start

It's where you learn to grow and you and it's where you get accountability. It's where you learn friendship It's where you learn to let's learn how to Walk with each other when you don't see eye to eye you still learn how to walk hand-in-hand even when you don't see eye to eye it's that place that you learn to grow and follow Jesus Christ and That's I want you to go to one of these small groups It's a good place to get connected and we'll show you other ways to get connected as we take the journey But start there on Wednesday night. It's incredible. There's all kinds of stuff there for you to get connected Then it's another way you do that to relate to others is serving one another and that's what we're gonna have our next serve 201 It's coming up in let's see. When is that? March 8 is you say I want to find my place. What's my special work here pastor. How do I find my place? We're gonna help you with that. It's served 201. It's gonna be on that Sunday, March 8 So get signed up for it. There'll be a lunch free lunch I I Think I think we keep losing Dutch people out of this church something. I don't know what's happening here I used to get that but it's a free lunch web We have child care service for you during that time But we want to make it a place where you can get plugged in and start serving one another So that's the G is growing in Christ ours relating to others now I'm what's gonna end this with the bookends of two things is the O and the W and these are very important to us It's outreach to our world Not just beyond the borders of the United States But the world in which you meet people every single day and we dealt with that a little bit in your work But this is our outward expression of Jesus Christ This is so critical to us bringing people to Christ. Why is that critical to you pastor? First of all, it's critical to Jesus It's critical to the Word of God But the reason why it's so critical is because your soul and the souls of others live for eternity When this shell when this stuff is gone you live for eternity You live for eternity and one day the body will be resurrected

That's a whole nother teaching but you live for eternity and you're gonna spend eternity one or two places There's an eternity of being with Jesus Christ in eternity where real life begins the joy of The Lord greater things for your life You'll really start living in and then Jesus talked about very many times Jesus spoke about hell a lot That there's a judgment for those who reject the Lordship of Jesus Christ what nothing to do with Jesus Christ Don't believe that he is the Savior Lord There is a real place that is prepared Heaven's prepared for people who say yes to Jesus and there's a place also prepared that was meant for Satan and Those that rebelled against God There's a place and Jesus said I want to make a way of Escape for eternal life to make a choice to accept me or reject me and people are gonna go to one or two places Folks it is the reality of eternity you live forever and that's why outreach is actively pursuing and drawing people to know Jesus Christ and Experience the eternal life not just now but for eternity and that's why Jesus talked about it so much He spoke about that and that's why Jesus tells us as believers in Mark 16 15 He says then he told them as you go Into the entire world proclaim the gospel so that literally is reads go and as you were going you heard me So that means in the routine of the day You're gonna encounter people who you can influence for Jesus Christ right now some of you could just got saved today You can start influencing people for Jesus Christ Just tell them this is where I was and look what Jesus did This is the reason why it's so important to this church when you saw gr1 global This is the reason why we take a large amount of our resources And we not only use it to minister to this body here and touch this city But we reach around the world and other ministries both globally and even locally and in the state and in the United States That's reason last year two point one million dollars. We said we're gonna empower others to bring compassion ministry We're gonna bring power others to reach people with Jesus two point one million dollars And just said this is what we're gonna do to empower others How many believe that is a good and important thing to do because it was important to Jesus It's important to the Word of God. Amen. I

Mean, it's the simple things. We just empower like the Pando app We work with God behind bars just this past year using just an app ministering to men and women that are incarcerated in places of correction and they're searching for Jesus Christ this past year just through the Pando app and All the material that Grand Rapids first has on there. They have access to 438 men and women Gave their life to Jesus Christ and they're finding freedom in a way. Most people never ever know They correspond with us we hear their stories and their testimony go serve Go serve all the churches that we're empowering and even our own church through gr1 serve the go serve the products that we get from all these big-box Retailers just this past year. We saw 582 people give their life to Jesus Christ through churches through the go-serve This is why it's so important that we reach out and then last year this church. Just think about it. We saw 3,747 people say yes to Jesus Christ to follow him for the very first time in their lives and folks We give all glory and honor to God, but this is a driving force Behind what Jesus wouldn't do to save those who are lost But I'm telling you we can applaud but there's more to be won and there's more to be done everybody and Every one of us have got to be involved in this There's some way that God's going to use you in a simple conversation at work at school To reach somebody for Jesus Christ if we would just all make a decision Everyone win one How many know we could transform the world? There's 8.2 billion souls in America in the world. You know that 8.2 billion souls approximately 2.6 billion of them claim to be followers of Jesus Christ Christians have given their life to you 2.6 2.6 billion. That means there's 5.5 billion non-christians Who've not accepted Jesus Christ? 5.5 if there are 2.6 billion Christians and Each Christian who says they're a Christian says I'm going to influence someone to follow Jesus Christ every single day Do you know that we would have the world one to Jesus Christ in two days? That if every Christian who says they really are Christian would do something to influence somebody and started Monday By Wednesday the entire world would know the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ

This is not this is not an issue of capacity folks. This is not it This is a lack of engagement to know that there's something in me and it's Jesus Christ And I want to share him with somebody else we could transform the world Boy if we Christians could just think like the world thinks about their products We'd have the world one if we would treat who Jesus is in us like they treat their How many love coca-cola? How many have ever had a coca-cola? Okay, how many were even breathing? Raise your hand, please. Okay. How many had a taste? How many ever tasted coca-cola ever in your life? Really, that shocks me because we preach against Coca-Cola, no, no, no. It's the word Coke. That's the problem. It's that Coke word right in there. But you know, Coca-Cola company is the world's largest beverage company and leading producer of syrups and concentrates. Think about this in the world, distributed partners around the world. Did you know when it started? Coca-Cola company started in May, 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. Do you know what their average sales were their first year of Coca-Cola? It was nine Coca-Colas a day. That's all they sold, nine drinks a day. It amounted to about 25 gallons of syrup by the end of that year. Today, think about this, their global expansion is so huge that even you have tasted and the world has tasted. And you know what it was driven by? There was a guy, a visionary by the name of Robert Woodruff, and this is what he said about his product. He said, in my generation, he said, I want every person in the world to have a taste of Coca-Cola. Do you know what their motto was, how they drove it?

Their motto was think global, act local. In other words, that means you need to study the culture of how you bring it to that culture and you got to study their language and their markets. And he says, and then you take your product and reach it through that culture in that language in that market. Think about that. That's how they think. Now think about this today, starting with nine drinks a day today, Coca-Cola products are consumed over 1 billion times per day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world from nine drinks to over 1 billion times per day. Are you getting that? That's their product. If you took all the Coca-Cola products that were ever produced, put it in six half ounce bottles, think about this. There would be trillions of bottles and there would be enough. Think of that to wrap around our planet earth thousands and thousands of times. That's how much Coca-Cola products have been consumed. If you put it in 12 ounce cans, you ready for this? And stack them vertically. The number of those columns needed to reach the height of Mount Everest is in the millions for all the Coca-Cola. How many of you have been to Niagara Falls? How many know what Niagara Falls is? If you look at Niagara Falls and you shut off the water and say, let Coca-Cola pour over that for all that's been consumed, it would flow for almost 24 hours, an entire day of nothing but solid Coca-Cola for all the Coca-Cola that's ever been consumed around the world. And do you know how it was driven? It was driven by one corporate man that says, all I want is for people to get a little taste of Coca-Cola in my lifetime that every generation would taste it.

So Jesus told you go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation and all of those who believe they will be saved. All I'm telling you is that you have a river of life. It says inside of you and it's flowing out of you. And what I want is I want your neighbors. I want your classmates. I want the people you work with in the workplace to have a taste and see that God is good by what he has done in your life and he can do it for them as well. Come on church. If that can happen in the world, it can happen in the church. We just need to start thinking higher and more powerful than the word thinks about their products. Amen. We're going to reach the world and you can do it right where you are as you're going. And the last one is W worshiping God. That is not just your outward expression of Jesus. It's not just the vertical connection, the horizontal connection, but now it's your upward devotion. Why do I do what I do? Because everything I do is worshiping God. So some of you go, what is worship? So it was, it was playing the music and singing and the power of the presence of God in it. But it's far beyond that. You don't worship really is worship is really attributing supreme value, supreme value to a thing. And worship is attributing supreme value to God. So that means it goes beyond you singing lyrics, whether you liked them or not. It involves your lips. It involves your labor. It involves every part of your lifestyle is an act of worship to Jesus Christ.

Even in our labor, you say, you mean my labor? Absolutely. Even in our labor. In our labor, this is the reason why when it comes to money when it comes to money issues money is a test Finances are a test of where your heart is. You may say it's not but let me take your wallet Let me take your let me take your Apple phone with all your Apple pay and snag her from you and I'll make you a nervous wreck all day It really is a part of where your heart is That's why Jesus said in Luke chapter 12. He said watch out for all kinds of greed. It's not just money It's greed over your body. It's greed over your money. It's a greed over your position He says watch out for all kinds of greed because as it gets you and you usually don't know it That's why he tells you to look out for all kinds of greed. So I'm just trying to tell you money is tainted Money is tainted Taint yours and taint mine That's why it's so important That's the reason why pastor Brendan I The first thing we do is when we receive the first thing we do is we looked at and we said Lord We want to honor you with the principle and the teaching out of the Word of God that the first tenth goes to you of Our earnings every bit of it. No questions asked God why pastor Sam? Because it proves who owns it and that Sam rifle is not God over this He is the one that gave it and he's the one that will show we will show Lordship over even the things that are so easy to get greedy over and you know how it starts is When I say this you go, that's exactly what I knew would happen in church. All they're after is my money and If that's already captured you I can tell you it's ruling your life more than you think Because you never challenge Taco Bell when you go through the drive-thru and they ask for your payment You never challenge them Because it proves ownership and lordship Hmm King David you remember when they built the temple it wasn't about a building is not the presence of God God put it in his heart to build a place where God could dwell in the Old Testament

And he gave his offering. Do you remember how big his offering was? He reached into his savings account He took out a hundred and twelve tons of gold then went and grabbed 266 tons 62 tons of silver and he said this is my offering Then the people saw him as he was worshiping God So that the presence of God can minister to people and the people end up giving 187 tons of gold and then they gave 375 tons of silver go read the Bible go read it. It's in first Chronicles 29 You know how much the value of their offering would have been today Their offering then would have been 20 to 23 billion dollars today That's a huge offering In one day and the people are given it and do you know how David responded After he just gave they gave 20 to 23 billion dollars away It wasn't do I get a receipt for the IRS? How about a plaque do I get a plaque? Somebody recognized we didn't even do that. Here's what he said first Chronicles 29 14 But who am I and who are my people that we could give anything to you? everything we have has come from you and We only give you what you first gave us God the point of it is It's about who's the Lord and who owns it all And that's why it was easy for him to say God. We wouldn't even have this if it wasn't for you Because worship is not just about what we have. It's our life everybody It's our whole life. That's why Paul says in Colossians 3 17 He says and whatever you do or say do it as a representative of Lord Jesus Giving thanks through him to God the Father Everything you do is worship everybody. It's not just singing up here with Pastor Drew and the worship team. It's everything you do It's how you treat your wife. It's how you treat your husband. It's how you treat the poor It's how you treat your boss. It's how you treat your employees. It's how you treat the people around you your neighbors It's how you treat them everything you say it's how you act in the dating relationship. It's how you are in your private time It's it's everything is an act of worship before God God. It's worship

You are the supreme one and I give this as worship to you Every bit of it is worship to you That's why Paul turns to everybody in the Christians and the believers like you and me in Romans chapter 12 and He says this words. He says therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice Holy and pleasing to God Look at these words, this is your true and proper worship. Don't, do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and his perfect will for you. As I realize everything I am is worshiped to God. I attribute supreme value to him. So everything I do in every issue of my life, God doesn't please you and worship you. He says, I'll reveal to you the perfect will of God for your life.