The Chariot | You Don’t Have to Create the Moment | Josh Leake

let me introduce myself. My name is Josh. I'm the lead pastor here. We're getting into our next week of divine partnership today. And this message is a really important one for the church. I believe that God really wants to highlight this message 'cause I think it's important for what he's doing here. And you might think, isn't every message important for the church. This one in particular, I really think is something that God has been preparing. And one of the reasons I say that is because this message was not easy to prep at all. Some of them just come super easy. It feels like they just get downloaded and it's there. This is one that throughout the past couple of days was challenging for some different reasons. And I'll talk about that. But one of the reasons that I think it's difficult is because the topic for today's message is one that brings up a range of different feelings. The primary one being discomfort. I remember when I was younger, probably around high school, I said to one of my friends, I wrote this down. I don't know why I still have this quote written down, but I remember saying it, my whole life feels like a chess match where I'm constantly trying to avoid being awkward. That was just like how I lived.

I wanted to avoid awkward situations and living all the time. And that phrase being awkward, I guess that word was like in the 2000s, that was like the word of the 2000s. Like no one wanted to be called the awkward kid, but you just like spam that word all the time. And if somebody called you awkward, it was like pack up, move cities, change your name, 'cause it's like a death sentence for that age group. Being awkward, now the word is cringe. That's like the new word, but it means the same thing, which is like discomfort feeling uncomfortable about something. And the topic we're talking about today is one that every disciple of Jesus Christ would agree is important, but I think most would admit to feeling very uncomfortable. And I know at this point, you're like, just tell us what the topic is. Stop teasing it. The topic is personal evangelism, personal evangelism. So it's the idea that such a big part of divine partnership is God using your faith in Jesus Christ in your story to make a difference in an individual's life. And if we're honest, many of us feel pretty uncomfortable with the idea of being in a conversation with somebody who's not a Christian about our faith or about our belief in Jesus. I know it, that's not necessarily everybody in the room, but the general feeling that I have found even in my conversations with people,

asking out about how they feel about this topic, leading up to this weekend, I sort of got the same thing from pretty much everybody, which is like hunched shoulders like, yeah, okay. That feels really awkward. So Christians usually end up in one of two places with this topic. And one is that first one, feeling awkward, uncomfortable, icky. The second one would be God has gifted a few people to do this, but I'm probably not one of them, so I'm excused from it. We usually land in one or both of those places. And then to make it more complicated, people often have used shame or guilt as a motivator or as the motivator for this topic. So maybe you've heard this either online or somewhere growing up. I know I heard it several times where somebody would say, people around you every day don't know Jesus and they're going to hell because they don't know Jesus. And you're doing nothing about it because you don't care. And if you cared, you'd be out there every person. You'd be preaching, but you don't care because you're a coward. Have you heard that kind of thing before? I remember hearing those kinds of things growing up and that just adds intensity to it. So then we end up falling either to the open to it, but uncomfortable camp or mentally checked out

and distant from it camp. But I think God wants to use this message to realign us and to correct us into what this is actually supposed to be away from the distancing or away from the discomfort to what does God intend here. And this message I really believe is important for what God wants to do for the future of Alison Park Church and for every disciple of Jesus in the room. So we're gonna study Acts chapter eight, but can we just pray together before we get there? Lord, we love you so much. We are surrendered to you, committed to you. And we wanna live the way that you're asking us to. We don't wanna live on our terms, inventing our own ways to do it. We want to be your disciples and to be obedient to you. And we know we can trust you. So we pray, Lord, lead us forward every disciple in this room and lead us this church forward in Jesus name. Everybody said amen. Okay, Acts chapter eight, we're gonna study the end of that chapter. This is the next part in Philip's story. So we started studying Philip last week, the ordinary guy who became a leader in the food ministry of the early days. God uses him to preach, perform miracles, cast out demons, shaking a whole city. But then we see another moment from Philip right after. So we get the next zoomed in part of Philip's life. Acts chapter 8 verse 26 says, "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go south to the road, the desert

road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.'" Now pause there. It's debated, does this mean an angel showed up to him? Does this mean the Holy Spirit spoke to him? We don't fully know exactly what it means, but regardless, we know somehow God communicated with him to say, you're going to go to this road, not even to Gaza, to the road in between them. So verse 27, he started out, and on his way, he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all of the treasury of the Kentucky, which means queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot, reading the book of Isaiah, the prophet. Okay, pause again. This man is the reason that the Holy Spirit led Philip out to this desert road. So this guy is a court official for the queen of Ethiopia, and he's a eunuch. And a eunuch was one of the male officials in the court that had their reproductive organs removed so that they didn't pose a threat to the queen. I know for all the guys in the room, that's a real pleasant thought. But this man was not Jewish by birth. So he had probably come into contact with the God of Israel, the God of the Jews, through Jews who were living in the Egypt area. And he became what was called a God-fearr, but he couldn't become a full convert, because in order to become a full convert, if you were a guy, you had to undergo circumcision, ouch. That was how you became a full convert into this community, the Jewish community. But he obviously, physically, was not able to convert. So now he's gone to Jerusalem to worship, likely he can't fully enter to the temple because he's an outsider because he can't fully convert. And on his way back, he's reading the prophet Isaiah, the 23rd book of the Old Testament. Here's what we see the spirit lead Philip to do. The spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Then Philip ran up to the chariot, heard the man reading the prophet, or reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you're reading?" Philip asked. "How can I?" he said, "Unless somebody explains it to me." So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And then they read from Isaiah chapter 53. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. And his humiliation, he was deprived of justice, who can speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth. So the prophet Isaiah is prophesying about Jesus, who would one day come. Then verse 34, the eunuch asks Philip, "Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about himself, or someone else?" Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. So Philip now preaches about how Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet,

was foretelling about how Jesus had come, and that he was the Messiah. He tells this guy about Jesus the Messiah, this guy puts his faith in Jesus, and he even gets baptized. So this passage is actually a really important one for our church, because it exemplifies the mission of Alison Park, our mission statement. Many of you know it, changing the world, what is it? One life at a time. We have that, they're out on the banner, you can see it in the concourse, one life at a time. Changing the world one life at a time is exemplified in this story, and it's such an important part of who we are and who we've been for our history as a church. But I think sometimes we forget what it means, because changing the world one life at a time can just sound like an inspiring marketing phrase. Changing the world one life at a time, like it just sounds like a slogan. But again, buried under there, under these words, and what we see in the story is a really important part of who we are that we need to understand. So the first part changing the world, usually we think of the beginning of Acts chapter, which is what we studied last week, preaching, healing, miracles, shaking the city, that's changing the world. But instead what we see this week is God leads Philip from a city into a desert for one guy. Why does he do this? Because the miracles and the crowds were never the destination. The destination was and is always people meeting Jesus. God cares about what we call the one. So Philip was a part of God's process to change the world by reaching this one guy. And I know for all of us who are disciples of Jesus here in the room, if we just do a little thought exercise together, if we think about what Jesus has done for us, if you really know Jesus and you've really been changed by Jesus, you can think, man, Jesus has done so much for me. Many of you heard my story last year. If you were here for the message I shared in the summer about how my dreams for my life and who I thought I was gonna be and my music business and the finances of it fell apart and I was grappling with despair.

And God met me in that season. I experienced God's love and his purpose and a power in a way that I never had before during that time. And I know so many of you have those same kinds of stories. I've talked to you when I've heard about how God has met you in dark and painful places. So continue the thought exercise of think about who you were before you knew Jesus. Or think about what God has brought you through in your life. Think about the hope that you have. That one day when you breathe your last breath, you can have confidence that you'll be in heaven with Jesus. Think about what your life would look like without Jesus. Because when you've experienced what Jesus can do in your life, you start longing to see him do it in others. This is the starting place. It moves us away from complacency of when you've really experienced the transformative power of Jesus. And not just the idea, not just the religion, but the person of Jesus Christ. You long to see that happen in other people. Moves you away from complacency. But what I love about Philip's story is Philip showed us we don't carry the responsibility alone. So it helps us with the feelings of, I'll never be able to do this. What if I make things awkward? What if they ask me questions?

I don't know how to answer. I can't make somebody believe in Jesus. And that is true, by the way. We can't make somebody believe in Jesus. But there's an unhelpful mindset that I think so many Christians have gotten into that we need to break out of. And that mindset is that sometimes we feel like we're sales people trying to close a deal. Do you know what I mean? It feels like when we're talking about personal evangelism, like God is the manager in the back room who's just like tapping his finger, and he's gonna come out to check our sales record. How many people did you lead to Jesus? I think this is a mindset that I have seen, and I have felt a lot of people feel, but we're not sales people trying to close a deal where disciples following the spirit's lead. And Philip wasn't crafting the perfect moment to try to persuade this guy to follow Jesus. Philip wasn't some super charming guy who always knew exactly what to say, and then he convinced this Ethiopian to put his faith in Jesus. All Philip was doing was responding to the spirit's invitation to a moment that God had already set up. Here's what Philip heard. Go south to the desert road.

And then when he got there, go stand next to that chariot. Then Philip gets to the chariot and says, do you understand what you're reading? That's it. That's the whole way this started. So here's a truth that we need to move into as we realign and move away from the confusion, the discomfort, or the distance from it. God wants to invite us into moments that he's already preparing. Philip, the ordinary food bank leader, now he was shaking the city, but he goes into the desert and he changes one guy's life through simple obedience. So this is the relief, I think, for so many of us in the room, and the encouragement is that Philip, this is not a story of his incredible preaching and evangelism skills. This is a window into what God wants to do through every disciple of Jesus Christ in this church. So here's the main point. And I think this is such a helpful main point for so many people, actually even just for this series in framing this. Here's the point we see through Philip's life. You don't have to create moments for God. You just have to respond when he invites you into one. God is the one setting them up and we are responding,

which means the pressure and the anxiety or the discomfort we feel is misplaced because we think we have to make it happen. But we see with Philip, he was just practicing simple obedience to respond to what God was already preparing. You know what I love about this moment too, is that Philip got the most vague instruction. you're going to see a chariot. There's going to be an Ethiopian eunuch reading the scroll of Isaiah, and you're going to say this. He didn't get that. All that Philip, what God was, go south. And then he did that. Go to the chariot. It was one simple step at a time. And then what happens next is the guy after he says he wants to put his faith in Jesus, he says to Philip, stop the chariot. Let's, you baptize me right now, right here and now. They find a body of water and Philip baptizes him and watch what happens. Look at this. This is crazy. Acts chapter eight, verse 39, when they came up out of the water, look, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away and the eunuch did not see him again but went on his way rejoicing. This is one of the only moments that I know of in the Bible where God teleports somebody. You see teleportation in the Bible. And then verse 40, Philip, however, appeared at Azotus, traveled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. So Philip traveled on foot to this desert road and obeyed in small steps. And then as soon as Philip's done, this guy goes under the water, he comes up and Philip is gone teleported. By the way, this is at the top of my list of preferred superpowers. This is, that would be so great. Just, I finished the message. Hey guys, thank you so much for being here. Have a great weekend on the beach. Like that would just, that's great. But think about this moment too. I don't know if you've ever thought about this if you've heard this story before. God could have just teleported Philip to the man in the first place. Like he teleports him as soon as the moment is over. But at the beginning, he could have just said, here you are. Here's the guy. Or vice versa. He could have taken this guy and just here. Here you go. Here, here's Philip. There's a guy right in front of you now. But instead, Philip's obedience was part of God's equation to bring this Ethiopian man to Jesus Christ. So this is partnership with the Holy Spirit.

There's no major healings. There's no demons being cast out. There is teleportation. But Philip followed the spirit's lead one step at a time to change one man's life. In this moment, fulfilled the same purpose as the healings and the casting out demons and the miracles, which is helping one person come to know the saving faith in Jesus Christ. And that's what we want to see as a church. Lord, help us to be obedient to the moments that you're already setting up. I really believe, I've been praying that over this weekend, that this series and especially this message is going to be a launching moment for a new season of stepping into this as a church. Not to crafting these moments on our own and pressure to come up with them, but to notice what God's already preparing and to stepping into those. So let's talk about now a couple of principles that we see in Philip's life that teaches us how to step into what God's preparing. So the first one is start looking for God's activity. This is what Philip was doing. We have to start to throw out our old broken mindsets about this because the old mindset that so many Christians have and I have sometimes carried is that God expects me to make these things happen and create these powerful moments. And then he sits back, tapping his finger, judging how good I'm doing. That's the old mindset. The new mindset is what Philip shows us, which is I don't need to force anything. I just need to pay attention to what God is already doing. Stop worrying, stop being anxious about it and just say, God, if you're moving, show me. Help me to not miss what you're doing because we have no idea how long God was working on this Ethiopian guy. The Holy Spirit could have been preparing this guy's heart for years. We don't know. And I love to think about the fact that maybe he was reading a little bit further ahead to Isaiah 56. We don't know for sure, but three chapters later as Isaiah 56. Listen to what this says. This is awesome. Isaiah 56, it says to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths. So instantly it's addressing this guy. To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant, to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. So this guy, we don't know for sure, but maybe he was reading chapter 56 and saw himself there in what God was saying to say, there is a place for you. You might feel like an outsider, but there's a place for you. But what we know for sure is the Holy Spirit had been working on this man's heart so that when Philip showed up he was already ready. So the first thing we have to do if we're not going to craft our own moments, but step into the ones that God is preparing is we just have to start

who's already in motion around us. That's the first one, here's the second one. Start acting on the little nudges. For Philip, God gave him small little nudges. Go south to this road. Then when he got there, go stand by this chariot. Partnering with the spirit to minister to somebody else is not about doing it in your own strength. It's about following the Holy Spirit's lead. It's the whole point of the series. So let me give you a helpful principle too. If you're gonna start acting on the little nudges with the Holy Spirit and partnering with him, obedience stacks. With Philip, we see that he had to do the first thing. God didn't teleport him into the desert. When he said, "Go south to the desert road." Philip had to actually go there. And then he received the next set of instructions. Go stand by this chariot. So if you wanna see bigger moves of God, you have to start to act on the little nudges that are easy to dismiss. Let me give you a story for my own life that I just experienced with this. So me and my wife and my three kids, we went to Jacksonville, Florida a few weeks ago to see my brother Dave's church plant launch. You just saw him in the video. Salt church just launched.

We were there for that. And then we paired it with like a family vacation. So we took a few days, spend it on Jacksonville beach. When we were there, we noticed that there were some people sleeping under and probably living under one of the piers on the beach. And God just weighed that really heavy on my wife's heart throughout the week. She just kept bringing it up like man, I just feel so heavy about this. So she was just kind of praying in her heart and in her mind throughout the week and we were talking about it. And then on the last day, we were ordering dinner as a family. We were in our hotel room and we were ordering pizza. And she said, I feel like the Holy Spirit is maybe asking us to order one extra pizza and to take it down there and give it to the people that are under that pier there. And maybe we could pray for them. I was like, okay, sure, yeah, sure. If you wanna do that, we can order one extra pizza. We'll all go down there together. And she said, well, actually, I don't really feel super safe doing that. I think you're supposed to do it. And I was like, oh, great. That's great. You heard from God for me. He could have told me, but he told you.

And now I have to be the one to go to do that. So I was like, man, it's been a long day. The kids have been crazy. That's a little bit intimidating. Give me a few hours to pray about it. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow. So she leaves. We don't order an extra pizza. And it's probably six minutes away. She drives down the road. I'm with the kids in the hotel room. And instantly I start feeling guilty. I'm like, man, was this one of those moments that God was asking me to do this? And I didn't act on the nudge and I'm being selfish. And so I prayed. I was like, God, if I missed this and you wanted me to do this, first of all, please forgive me. But second of all, if you still want me to do it, just make it obvious. I kid you not within 60 seconds. Alison calls me. And she was like, you'll never guess what happened. The guy at pizza was like, hey, we have an extra pizza. I'm just going to give it to you. So she comes home with an extra cheese pizza. And I was like, great, yay, this is great. I'm so glad. But God called me on it really quickly. So I took this pizza down to the pier

and there were a few people there. And I was like, hey, there was an extra pizza. Do you guys want this? And I was like, hey, Jesus has changed my life. He's the most important thing to me. Can I pray for you guys about anything? So I spent a few minutes praying with them. There was no crazy miracle moment. I didn't baptize anybody in the ocean. But it was me learning to obey the little nudges that the Holy Spirit gives. And when you pray to God, Lord, help me not to miss it. He will call you on it. He called me on it very quickly. God wants you to learn this. He's not making it mystical or hard. If you say, Lord, start to show me your activity and then help me to act on the little nudges. He wants you to learn that. Okay, here's the third one. Learning to respond to God's invitation. Number three, start asking small questions. One question from Philip unlocked this whole moment. He said, do you understand what you are reading? That's one question and it unlocked their whole conversation and interaction. Sometimes we get in our head that there's a perfect way this has to go. I have to say just the right thing. I have to be charming.

I have to be not weird. And if I get the code right, then maybe somebody will respond the way that I'm thinking they will. Because I think we get in our heads about it. But it was one question. Philip obeyed the nudges and then took interest in what the other person was doing. What are you reading? Or how long have you been working here? Is there anything that I can pray for you about? taking interest in what somebody else is doing, that God can use to unlock what He wants to do in their life. That's the third principle from Philip's life. Here's the last one. Start preparing your words for Jesus. Remember, we're not creating our own moments, we're stepping into the ones that God's preparing for us. We start to open our spiritual eyes to see what He's doing. We act on the nudges, we take interest and we ask one question. And then the last one, we start preparing our words for Jesus. This is something that I really want every disciple in the room to think about, I think God's really been preparing this moment to think about this point, which is if somebody asked you, why do you believe in Jesus or what does Jesus mean to you, do you know what you'd say? I think a lot of us genuinely love Jesus, but we haven't necessarily thought about

how we would explain Him or what He means to us, to somebody who's not a Christian. We know what we believe, but we're not necessarily prepared to put it into words. 1 Peter 3.15 says always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. So you don't have to become a preacher, you don't have to become an evangelist, but each one of us should be prepared to talk about the one who has changed everything for us. Let me tell you one more story. This is just another moment that I really felt like God was marking the importance of this message for our church. So again, I told you that this message was a little bit more challenging to prepare for it, that just kept hitting some different roadblocks. So yesterday I was thinking and praying through the message and there was a youth event. There was a football tournament at Eden Christian Academy called the Pumpkin Bowl and me and my wife and kids. Went there to watch and we're just hanging out. And there's a guy who comes here, his name is Andy Monahan. Andy, I met him and his wife, his family, when they first started coming a few years ago. They stopped by the Welcome Center. And now Andy is leading a men's life group, and he's just killing it. It's awesome to see.

But he came up to me yesterday and he said, "Hey, can I tell you a story?" As he said that I was like, "I think God's setting something up here." So he told me a couple stories. One of the ones he told me, he was like, "There's a guy that came up to me at work, one of my coworkers." And he said, "Hey, you're that Christian guy, right?" And he was like, "Everybody kind of knows me at work as the Christian guy." But he came up to him and he was like, "Hey, you're that Christian guy, right?" Andy said, "Yeah, that's me." And then he said, "I've been thinking and I really just feel like I'm not good enough for God's grace." Andy responded and he said, "Well, nobody is." That's kind of the point. And the guy responded back and was like, "What do you mean?" So Andy used that opportunity to explain to him, the whole reason Jesus came is that none of us can earn it, that we can be never good enough for God's forgiveness. But that's why Jesus lived a perfect life and then died on a cross, came back to life so that those of us who aren't good enough, which is all of us can be forgiven and can come to Jesus. And so he led that guy to put his faith in Jesus right there on the spot.

Give it up for that. That's a beautiful story. So let me tell you, God set up that moment for Andy. But also, unprompted, without Andy knowing what my message was, he told me this. I wrote down what he said. He said, "I think if you just know who Jesus is, you can answer all the important questions." I actually, as soon as he finished, I like freaked out. I was like, "Andy, you have no idea how crazy it is that we're talking about this, because this is what I'm preaching on. Like this is just perfect." Of God just highlighting, this is a really important thing for what this church has always been about, but about recapturing this and stepping into the future. So if we're going to prepare our words for Jesus to be ready for the moments that he sets up, there's two things we need to be able to communicate. The first one is, who is Jesus and what did he do? That Jesus was not just a good teacher or a religious figure, he was and is the Son of God. He's one person in the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. There's no way to ever be good enough to receive forgiveness. It's only through Jesus' death and resurrection that we can be saved and forgiven. That's the gospel, it's the good news.

That's one thing we need to be able to communicate. The other thing is, what does Jesus mean to you? What's your story? Why are you following Jesus? How has knowing him changed your life? And you don't need to have some dramatic or persuasive story, you just need to be able to tell the truth about what Jesus has done in your life. And I want to encourage every disciple of Jesus, door you're ready to respond. You don't have to constantly worry about the pressure of creating the moments because remember that's the whole point of this message. God's not putting pressure on you to craft and create the moments. God is setting them up and it's our job to respond to the invitation to keep our eyes open to see his activity, to respond to the small nudges, to take interest in what other people are doing, to ask a question, and then to already have our words for Jesus prepared so that when he opens the door we're ready. So again, my prayer is that God uses this to launch us forward, to start to look and act on the small nudges this week. You know a great opportunity for this is we have Candy Kingdom coming up. It's designed to be an easy invite for somebody who's maybe interested in coming to church. They don't have a church they're going to, they're interested in Jesus. This is such an easy way for families, for kids especially, to come and check out the church. So I believe God's going to set up some moments just for you to invite somebody you know to check out church at Candy Kingdom. But then something else I want to do is real practical. If we're going to learn to partner with Jesus, the first step is saying God I want to respond to what you're doing and open my eyes. So I'm going to invite the team out they're going to leave us in worship. You can stay seated. What I want us to do for just a minute here is to think about five people that the Holy Spirit is asking you to pray for that don't know Jesus. Not to approach

yet. Just five people that God is going to lay on your heart that don't know Jesus, that have not put their faith in Him, that you're just going to write down as the team leads us in worship, write it in your phone, write it in a notebook wherever. But think of five names and just take a minute and pray as they lead us in worship. Reflect on that just to say Lord the first step is just to open my eyes. It's actually what I love about the moment with my wife Alison is she just had those people on her heart she was just praying for them. So as the team gets ready to lead us let's just do that. Would you just close your eyes with me all across this room and before they lead us let's just pray Holy Spirit. We really want to partner with you. We really want to know you more. We really want to be the people you're calling us to be and not to craft things with our own wisdom or strength. Lord we want to step into what you're doing so we pray Lord open our ears and hearts as we worship to what you're doing in Jesus name. Everybody said amen amen. Awesome. So you can stay seated take two minutes here and just pray. Ask the Holy Spirit. Lord lay five people on my heart that I can be praying for and then I'll be out to close us in just a minute. Oh we pour out a praise to you only it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out a praise. Pour out a praise it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out a praise to you only it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out a praise. Pour out a praise it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out a praise to you only it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out a praise. Pour out a praise it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out a praise to you only it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out a praise. Pour out a praise it's your breath in our lungs. So we pour out. Well can we stand as we sing all the earth and all the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry. These walls will sing great for your Lord. And all the earth will shout your ♪ Your brain, our hearts will cry ♪ All every voice will join with all of heaven. See all the earth will shout your faith. Our hearts will cry. These bonds will sing great.

Who will sing all the earth? And all the earth will shout your faith. Our hearts will cry. These things will sing great, are you Lord? To get your breath, it's your brain. In our lungs, so we pour out our praise. It's your breath, in our lungs, so we pour out our praise. Come on, lift your voice with me. Surrender to him now. It's your prayer, in our lungs, so we pour out our praise. Pour out our praise, it's your breath. In all the earth will sing, we all we pour out our praise. One more time, just the voice to sing a lot. It's your breath, lift your voice to him. We surrender, we pour out our praise. It's your breath, in our lungs, so we pour out our praise. Now just join me, put your hands out in front of you, as we get ready to close this moment together and close this service out. This is just a way of us offering ourselves, everything we are. We're remembering, as we get ready to close this service, that everything we are belongs to God. We wouldn't even have breath in our lungs if it wasn't for him, but he cares for us. He knows us. He wants to walk alongside us, and as we get ready to dismiss you, I just want to kind of commission you. As I talked about, this is sort of like a commissioning moment into a re-centering on the mission God's given us. So I just want to pray over you as you have your hands out in front of you. Let me just pray over you now. I pray, first of all, Lord, we just remember that you are the one who gives us strength

and wisdom and vision and clarity. We don't do anything on our own. We don't have enough wisdom, enough skill to make anything happen. It's only through your power that we can accomplish what you're asking of us. So I pray over every person in this room, every surrender disciple of Jesus Christ, I pray that the Holy Spirit would fall on you, and that you would begin to experience a new sense of boldness and courage, just like Peter experienced, just like Philip experienced, that this would mark you as a launching moment into what he's calling the disciples of APC to step into, to begin to see what the Lord is setting up around you in your workplace, in your family, at the store all around you, that you begin to see the work of the Holy Spirit and begin to act with courage and confidence in Jesus' name. Now just stretch forth your hand. Let me pray a prayer of blessing over you. I pray that this week the Lord would bless you in everything you do. I pray as you continue to surrender to him and trust him that his peace will flood your life, his joy will flood your life. I pray that the Lord would bless you, he would make his face to shine upon you, and that you would sense his closeness in Jesus' name. Everybody said amen, amen, awesome. Guys, thank you for being here. Give somebody a hug, handshake, high five. Have a great week. [MUSIC PLAYING]