The Healthy Church [LIVE] - 04/19/2026

Grace Way is so good to see y'all. Whether you're viewing online or in person for the first time, welcome to Grace Way. John's going to lead us. Come on, clap your hands this morning. Every voice, let's sing it out. He shames every idol He reigns without rival He goes by the name of Jehovah, Jehovah He speaks into nothing And darkness goes running He goes by the name of Jehovah, Jehovah Come on, let's sing it out. Call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah All our praise, all our praise, all our praise Come on, clap your hands His throne will be silent He's fighting for Zion There's no other god like Jehovah, Jehovah His arms never tired His eyes are like fire There's no other god like Jehovah, Jehovah Call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah All our praise, all our praise, all our praise Belong to you

Call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah All our praise, all our praise, all our praise Belongs to you Jehovah needs to fight your battle Jehovah needs to fight your battle Jehovah needs to fight your battle Jehovah needs to fight your battle That's who he is Jehovah needs to fight your battle Jehovah, Jah, Rabbi, Jehovah Jehovah, Rabbi, heal your body Jehovah, Shalom, B.O.B. Jehovah needs to fight your battle Jehovah, Jah, Rabbi, Jehovah Jehovah, Rabbi, heal your body Jehovah, Shalom, B.O.B. Jehovah needs to fight your battle Jehovah, Jah, Rabbi, Jehovah Jehovah, Rabbi, heal your body Jehovah, Shalom, B.O.B. Call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah All our praise, all our praise, all our praise Belongs to you Say, call the name, call the name, call the name Jehovah, Jehovah Say, all our praise, all our praise, all our praise Jehovah needs to fight your battle Jehovah, Jah, Rabbi, Jehovah

Yeah, Jehovah right by you, your body, Jehovah stand up in your feet, Jehovah receive at your battle, Jehovah right by you, your body, Jehovah stand up in your feet, Come on, clap your hands. Come on, give God a shout of praise this morning, come on. How y'all doing this morning? It's so good to see y'all. The Spirit and the pride, together testify, all things shall be made right, Amen. The loss shall be restored, the grave shall be no more, and all the church will roar, Amen. Prepare the way, the King is coming, Enthroned on praise, the King is coming. The last, the first, the living word in glory shall return, He prepares the way. With hearts like lamps that burn, as light upon the earth, we wait for His return, Amen. No fear of what's to come, our hope's set in the One who said that it is done, Amen. Prepare the way, the King is coming, Enthroned on praise, the King is coming. The last, the first, the living word in glory shall return, we prepare the way. Jesus, we prepare the way. The trumpet soon shall sound, He'll ride upon the clouds, and every knee will bow, Amen. The honor and the fame, the glory, power, and praise, be unto Jesus' name, Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. Prepare the way, the King is coming. Will you be ready? Prepare on praise, the King is coming. The last, the first, the living word in glory shall return. The great I Am, the Son of Man, the Lion and the Lamb. The cornerstone who stands alone, and I will lead us home. We prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way

Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way Jesus, we prepare the way I'm going to invite our ushers to make their way down. And as they do, I want to just keep putting things in front of you, vision that what we're doing and remind you about the community center that's being worked on just up the hill. It's going to have a new gym floor, some new basketball goals. It's going to be beautiful. But as we think about giving, if you'd like an opportunity to give to that above your regular tithes, you can grab an envelope in the seat back and just write building project on that's a way for you to get connected to continuing to support what God is doing here at Graceway. Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we get ready to give. God, we thank you, Lord, that you are coming. We thank you, God, that you have the perfect timing in place, that you know exactly when it's going to be. But Lord, that the end of the story is that you return. That the end of the story is that everything that we are worshiping, Lord, you for happens. And so, God, thank you for that. We declare today that we're excited that the king is coming. And, Lord, thank you for letting us be a part of your kingdom and your mission. God, would you lead us to people who need to hear the gospel? Would you help us to carry that in our schools, our workplaces, in our neighborhoods, in our families, Lord? We thank you today for the opportunity to watch people get baptized, to take their next step of faith, Lord. And we pray, Lord, just that you would continue to speak through those testimonies, God. Well, that at some point I was dead in my sins and trespasses, but, God, you brought me to new life.

So, Lord, thank you that we get to see that picture again and again today, Lord, and we rejoice with them. And then, God, as we prepare to give, we thank you for the means to do it. We thank you for the blessing it is to give. Lord, I pray that you would continue to take our offering, and, Lord, make it a blessing in our community here in our church and in the world. Bring your future kingdom right into the present, God. So, Lord, thank you for this time of worship that we are having. God, I pray that you would move in our hearts, and, Holy Spirit, that you would speak to us today. We ask you all these things in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen. Let's keep singing. I know a name that can silence roaring waves. I know a name that can empty out a grave. I know a name It's the only name that saves and it's worthy of all praise I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer Risen and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call your name I know a name I know a name I know a name I know a name I call you Jesus I call you, I call you savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave

Every time I call your name I have a king With dominion over death Behold the king of kings I know a name I know a name I know a name I know a name I know a name I know a name With dominion over death Behold the king In his holy nail scarred hand He is the heal That has crushed the serpent Our resurrected great I am I call you Jesus I call you, I call you healer Prison and reigning in power Something comes out of the grave Every time I call you Jesus I call you, I call you savior Worthy of glory forever Something comes out of the grave Every time I call your name Chains break, dry bones wake Every time I call your name The gates of hell shake Every time I call Come on declare it

Chains break, dry bones wake Every time I call your name The gates of hell shake Every time I call your name Hey y'all this is one of my favorite Sundays at Graceway We get to witness our brothers and sisters getting baptized Come on let's witness Let's go! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ All right, family, let's pray together. We come to you, our Father. And we hallow your name today. We say, Lord, that there is no one like you, Father. That your name, your character, your power is set apart in our hearts and our minds and in this house today. We pray today that your kingdom would come and your will would be done in our marriages and in our homes, in this church. on earth as it is in heaven. We thank you today, Father, that you know what we need. Not tomorrow, not yesterday, today. So we ask you to give us our daily bread, to be our provider and our protector, to be our strong tower, to be our banner of victory. We ask you, Lord, to forgive us of the sins of our hearts and our minds, sins of our affection, things we have done that we shouldn't have, things we have not done that we should have,

sins that we know and sins that we don't. Prone to wander, Lord, we feel it. Prone to leave the God that we love. And we thank you that in Jesus, forgiveness is both available and possessed. We want to be careful, God, to not accept but not extend. And so as we are forgiven, we ask that you would help us to forgive those who have hurt us, betrayed us, slandered us. In this quiet moment now, Lord, we lay down offense and bitterness. We entrust wounds, difficult relationships to you, Lord. We ask you to bless our enemies, give us a heart to love them as you've loved us. God, we pray today that you would not lead us into temptation, that you would deliver us from the evil one. We thank you, Lord, that Jesus has victory over our enemy, that he is under our feet, that he does not get to talk, he does not get to move, and Lord, we do not give him permission. So he is to be silenced, he is defeated in the name of Jesus. We lay claim to that authority today, that only the Holy Spirit is welcome here today. God, we still ourselves before you and we pray these things in your power and for your glory and for your honor, both now and forever. Let these things be true. Accomplish them, Lord. We love you and we thank you. In the name of Jesus, all God's people said, amen and amen. Hey, welcome to church. It's good to see you. Why don't you take a few minutes, pass some peace to one another, and then grab your seat. All right, y'all. Do me a favor, if you would, squeeze in. We got some folks in the back looking for seats. We got some seats over here, if you're looking. How you doing today? Good? It's good to see you. Good to see you. If I haven't had the chance to meet you, my name's Tim. I'm the lead pastor here. We're honored to have you. Come on, church. Show some love to our first-time guest. We appreciate y'all. Thanks for being here. You're watching us online. We appreciate it. We love you. We're praying for you. And church, why don't you say hello to the men at Crossroads and at Ozarks. And I may or may not, may or may not have some news for you in the next couple months around some prison churches. All right? So be praying for that. May or may not. I'm not saying I do. I'm not saying I don't. Hey, if you have a Bible, get over to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9, while you get there, let me talk to you about a couple of things. May 2nd, it's a Saturday. May 2nd from 1 to 3 p.m. is an event that we're calling Go 2026. It's a missions event. So many times when I'm talking to even really dialed-in members of Graceway, I tell them places we're going

and things God's doing, and they say this to me, I didn't know we were doing that. Right? So I don't want you to not know what God is doing in and through this church. And to be honest with you, man, God's doing some incredible things, not only in Raytown, but on the other side of the globe in some very complicated places. So I want you to come to this event, give you the opportunity to meet our global network. director, his name's Ricardo Rodriguez, our leadership team. We got some global partners who are going to be in for that. It's a free event, but I need you to sign up because we're gonna give you a coffee and dessert and we need to know how much to buy. If you don't know how to sign up, just stop at the Next Steps desk. But when God says to us, hey, I want you to make disciples and I want you to start here, there, and everywhere, this is the everywhere part. And this church has really taken this seriously for a long time. There are places that you're seeing on the news right now that God's already at work and that we're getting to be a part. And I want you to hear about those so that you can pray, so you can give, so you can go. And some of you right now, you're just coming to church, but God has a call on your life for you to move to another place and take the gospel with you. You got this thing that you're like, I just love other culture and I love other people. I don't know what that is. Let me tell you what that is.

That's God preparing you for calling and for ministry that maybe you don't even have a framework now. So May 2nd, give 2026, free event, but register, coffee, dessert, it's gonna be awesome. Today, after third service, we have mentor training, discipleship mentor training. This is vitally, vitally, vitally important. I am gonna be leading this. If you have been discipled, but not yet trained as a mentor, if you are a mentor, were a mentor, but if you have any relationship whatsoever to discipleship mentorship here at Graceway, I need you to stick around after third service. You say, but Pastor Tim, this is second service. That means I gotta stick around. Hey, I gotta stick around. You can stick around too, all right? Please make sure that you come to this. We have all, we've got a little over 600 people who are connected to this. And on Easter, we had 339 people sign up for D1. And so we're gonna be talking today. Yeah, we can give God some praise for that. And so we're gonna be talking today about just the heart of discipleship, why it's set up the way that it is, and I'm gonna be casting some vision for D2, which is gonna be launching in the fall. So if you are a mentor, need to be trained, have been connected to that in any way, shape, or form,

stick around, we got a light lunch for you. And if you don't have anything to do, you can just go serve in one of our areas, all right? In the third service, and that'd be great. Let me pray for us as we get into this. Are you happy to be at church today? Me too, me too. So today I'm gonna teach you. I'm gonna teach most of this. Once you take good notes, it gets preached to you a little bit at the end, but let me pray and we'll get to it. Lord, we love you. Thank you, Lord, for baptisms. Thank you, Lord, for the picture of the gospel that is being taught to us. We thank you, Lord, for giving us this mouth to sing and to pray. And Lord, now we ask that you would prepare our ears for what you want to teach us, prepare our heart, Lord, that it would be soft and tender to the truth of God's word. And we come to this time both expectant and obedient, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. I wanna start with introducing you to a person. It's gonna feel a little random. Hopefully it's gonna make sense as we get into this. How many have heard of a guy named Archimedes?

Raise your hand if you've heard of Archimedes. All right, public school system, there it is, okay? Not many of us. Archimedes was a third century mathematician, third century BC. He was an engineer. He lived in the Greek city of Syracuse, which is modern day Sicily, and he worked on things that we now know as geometry, physics, astronomy, and engineering. He had a couple principles. The first is Archimedes' principle, and it was the mathematical reason that certain things float. When David Letterman started throwing things into tubes, into buckets and saying, will it float? He was picking up what Archimedes was putting down. You get what I'm saying? He might not have known, but he was. Archimedes came up with what's called the method of exhaustion, which was an early form of calculus, which makes sense to me because I think that calculus is exhausting. Absolutely, Archimedes was right. He was correct. He just called it what it was. He invented something called the Archimedean screw, a device that we still use to move water, but what he's really famous for is the law of the lever.

And he used this statement. That's a pretty famous statement. Maybe you didn't know who it was, but you probably heard it. He says this, give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. So if we were to put that in simple terms, Archimedes says mathematically, what I want to say spiritually, give me a place to stand and something that seems small, a lever point, and there will be massive impact from it. Massive impact from it. So. Three weeks ago we saw the conversion of Saul, this this Judaic assassin who's who's going place to place and killing Christians and putting them in prison. He has a Christophany and God literally knocks him off his horse, saves him, redirects his life. We pick the story back up in Acts chapter 9 verse 31. If you have a Bible, follow along. If not, it'll be on the screen behind me. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace. It was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. And there he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, and he was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Rise and make your bed. Come on, the parents said. Amen, right? Before you get up, make your bed.

It's biblical. And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord. That's the point of a healing, not to point people to the healer, but to point people to Jesus. Some of these healing ministries and some of these healers, you leave thinking about the healer, you got it wrong and they got it wrong. Whenever a healing occurs by the power of God, it's to point people to the gospel, not point people to what happened on a stage. Come on, somebody. And so Peter heals this man and people start to get saved. Hey, if Jesus is that kind of God, we want to serve him. Now there was at Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas, and she was full of good works and acts of charity. And in those days she became ill and died. And when they had washed her, they laid her in the upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, please come to us without delay. So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, he took them to the upper room and the widows that stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was still with him. But Peter put them all outside and he knelt down and he prayed and he turned to the body and he said, Tabitha, arise. She opened her eyes and when she saw Peter, she sat up and he gave her his hand and he raised her up. Then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And again, it became known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many days with Simon, who was a tanner. This is what happens in the wake of Saul's conversion.

Peter, now an itinerant preacher, is going to the places that God is at work and he's healing people in a miraculous way. And really, what's happening in the book of Acts is what began in the book of Acts. In Acts 1 and verse 8, Jesus, before he ascends, stands in front of the apostles and says, hey, you're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you'll be my witnesses. And he gives a circumference of influence. First, be witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. Start here, then go there, then go everywhere. This is the programmatic verse for the book of Acts. And so, in Acts chapter 1, Jesus, who is resurrected, ascends to the Father for his coronation. Not to hang out in heaven, not to say it's good to be back, no. To receive a throne and a crown. He is exalted, alive, seated at the right hand of the Father. Come on somebody, say amen to that. And before he goes, he commissions the apostles in Acts 1 and verse 8. In Acts 2, the church is born as the Holy Spirit comes to the apostles in Jerusalem. The church doesn't get born in Acts 13 when the church does what the church is supposed to do. There is no church without the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing as a not Spirit-filled church. If the Spirit ain't in a church, it's a lot of things. It's a country club, it's a hangout, it's a VFW, but it ain't a church. So in Acts 2, the church is born. Acts 3 through 7, geographically, happens in Jerusalem. Just as Jesus commanded, and it is punctuated in Acts 7 with the martyrdom of Stephen at the hands of the religious leaders. And Luke frames it to mirror the rejection of Jesus. This isn't one rejection, this is multiple rejections culminating with Stephen.

And this wave of persecution pushes the church outside of Jerusalem. And so the Christians are losing everything. They're losing their jobs, they're losing their homes, they're losing their livelihood, they're losing their stability. But as they go, they're taking the gospel with them, and the church is growing, not in spite of persecution, because of persecution. The church is beginning to spread out in Acts chapter 8, Philip goes where? Where? To Samaria. Remember Acts 1-8? And then he goes a little further into the dirty south, come on somebody, and he converts the Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts 9, we're introduced to Saul, who is converted through a Christophany, mentored into the membership of the church, mentors. We got a meeting today after third service, did I say that? This is why Saul is mentored by Ananias and Barnabas and commissioned to go to, not the Jews, to the Gentiles, to you and I. In Acts 9 and verse 15, go for he, that being Saul, is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles. Acts 9 verse 32, Peter is responding to what God has done and he is in a compassionate, miraculous way, healing normal folks. Ananias lived in Lydda. We don't know that he's a Christian, we know nothing about him, this is just a dude. And Peter comes to his house, because he is paralyzed and bedridden, and he says to him, Ananias, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up. And before you get up, come on somebody, make your bed. Make your bed. And people are responding to this miraculous work and they're coming to faith because they're seeing this is the God of what we now know as the Bible.

The next is Tabitha, her name in Aramaic is Tabitha, in Greek is Dorcas. And we know a little bit about Tabitha. She lives in Joppa, Lydda, kind of nowhereville. Joppa is a major port city. She's called a disciple and she's known for good works, for acts of charity. She's working with people in vulnerable positions, especially widows. She gets sick and she dies. And we know that Peter is just not far away, so they send some texts over to him and say, Pete, we heard you did it with Ananias, we didn't know anything about Ananias. But our girl Tabitha died and if you did it to him, who we don't know, could you do it to her, who we do know and we love and we miss her and we want God to do something miraculous in our midst. So Peter says, I'm getting an Uber and I'll be right there. He shows up and it's hard as you read Acts chapter 9 to not remember Mark chapter 5 where Jesus raises Jairus' daughter. Jesus walks in, he kicks everybody out and he says, baby, it's time to get up. And she stands up and he walks her out alive and well. Here's what I want you to see. Peter is not doing anything other than what he had seen Jesus do. Remember the book of Acts is a continuation of what Jesus began to do and teach. And we look at these apostles and we say, I could never do that. They said the same thing. Some of you, God has done something in your life and he wants to now use your life and you say, I could never do that. What should I do? Just do what God did for you. Just do it how somebody showed you. Can you see Peter walking in the room and like, okay, uh, so I, well, I saw Jesus kick everyone out. Everyone get out.

And then I saw Jesus walk up and say, hey babe, it's time to get up. Hey, hey babe, it's time to get up. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. That's, I can't believe that worked. That's crazy. Right. Okay. Well, and he's a gentleman, so he helps her up. Come on men, be gentlemen. He helps her up and they walk out and he's like, hey, okay. People come to faith and church grows and God is glorified. And then it says to us that he, that being Peter stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon who we don't know anything about other than his vocation. Simon's a tanner. You go, why, Holy Spirit, did you let us know that Simon was a tanner? Well, because a tanner was somebody who works with dead animals, which means to a Jew, Simon was unclean. And so Peter stays for many days with Simon, comma, a tanner, why? Because Peter is beginning to step into spaces he would have previously avoided. Why? Because Acts 1.8, go here and there and everywhere. Peter is just following God simply, beautifully, powerfully into the next space, even though Peter probably thinks God ain't going to do anything with this guy. And lo and behold, God has plans that are bigger than yours and mine. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? So it's interesting. Saul is converted and then we see Peter operating in power and compassion and right in the middle

is a lever point. Here it is, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And it was walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it multiplied. We're living in a moment in 2026 that we instinctively measure a church by what we can see. We say, oh, there was a lot of people in the room, oh, the energy was great, oh, it looks like there's a lot of momentum and scale, oh, have you seen how many followers they have on Instagram? And when those things are present we assume that church is alive. But Acts is going to give us a very different diagnosis. Right after persecution, right after chaos, right after uncertainty, Luke gives us a snapshot, not of the church as its loudest and not of the church at its largest. The church at its healthiest. Archimedes says, give me a place to stand. What's the place? The church. Give me a small force, something that seems small and inconsequential, and if I get it into the right spot, there will be a massive impact. So what's the place? The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria. If you want to be a part of what God is doing in 2026, where should I go? The church. But there's a couple things that need to be true about the church. And they aren't the things that we tend to think. They aren't the things that we tend to pursue. They aren't the things that we tend to value. But we see in the book of Acts that they are the very things that makes that church the kind of church where the miraculous is normative. And what I want to put in front of you today, if you want to keep getting what the Western church is getting, keep doing what the Western church is doing.

But if you want something different, if you want to be a part of a church that is not about attendance, it's about power. It's not about scale and social media. It's about life change and the miraculous, and it's happening so often that it's normal. It's not a special service. It's just a church being the church. It's just the church simply obeying and doing what they saw Jesus do and heard Jesus teach. And I'll just tell you, I'm a bit disenfranchised with the Western church. I think there's a different way to do it, and I don't think it's a new way. I think it's an old way. I think it's an old way. Three things that we see are true about this church. Number one, it says that the church is being built up. It's being built, and the assumption is that it's not being built by the people who are running it. Matthew 16, Jesus says, hey, I will build my church. I don't need Tim, I don't need pastor such and such, I don't need bishop such and such, I don't need apostle such and such, or any such a thing as apostle such and such in 2026. I don't need any of them. I'm going to do it, and as I do it, nothing's going to stop it. Nothing is going to stop it, but this is where we get off track, friends. Because we assume that if we plan well enough, if we structure it well enough, if we market it well enough, if we execute it well enough, we can produce growth in the church. But Jesus says, I'm going to build what honors me. I'm going to build the church, and the gates of hell ain't going to do a doggone thing about it. Ain't going to do a doggone thing about it. In fact, Psalm 127 says this, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. And I'll be honest with you, this verse scares me.

This verse sobers me, because I have given my life. I give a lot of time. A lot of staff members have given their life. They've given a lot of time. A lot of you Dream Teamers give a lot of time. We're very busy at the church, but Jesus is not here inviting us to help him build the church. He's inviting us to watch him build the church. He's saying, I'm going to do it, and you can come along, but don't get this twisted. I don't need you. And I'm afraid sometimes. That in all of the busyness of church, we begin to presume, and I do mean presume because it's not us-ume, we begin to presume that God needs us. And Jesus says, some of y'all are so busy, but I'm not building that there. Some of y'all think that because there's a lot of people in the room, I must be building. Some of y'all think that because there's a lot of followers on YouTube and Instagram, that I must be doing something there, but God only aims to build what honors Him. So what's the difference, what's the difference between a growing church and a church that is being built? Are you with me? It's an important question, isn't it? Well a growing church has growing numbers and growing busyness and growing activities and growing models and programs. A lot of those kind of churches. But a church that's being built is a church that is experiencing and seeing what only God can do. And you know, I have this presumption that a church won't stay small for too long if God is doing what only God can do in it. But it doesn't really have anything to do with numbers. I've said to you many times, I want Graceway to get massively large because I think that

our city is broken and heaven and hell are real. And it's better for you to come here and hear the gospel than trying to do it on your own outside of the church. And so if you're going to go to church, hey, come to Graceway, right? That's why we have multiple services. That's why we talk about campuses and plants. That's why we're doing the community center. That's why we're doing Go 2026. That's why I need you mentors to come because as people are coming and signing up for Easter, I don't want to say we don't have, we're not ready for what we ask God to do. However, there are certain things that are telltale signs that God is really building a church. What are they? Things are happening that only God can do. Can I tell you, I can't save anybody. I can convince you intellectually, but I can't bring you back to life spiritually. Can I tell you, we can make baptismal waters available. We can't force anybody to go public with their faith. That's why that's a big deal. They chose to do that. We didn't get them in a headlock and pull them up there, right? No, they want you to know God made me alive. We can't force somebody to say, you know, I should get discipled. You know, I should go on a mission trip. You know, I should, we can't force you to come and pray. We can create the environment. We can't force you to. We can't force you to pray for God to heal your loved one. And then we certainly, doesn't matter how we beep or bop or what the music is or the lights look like.

Doesn't matter how many hands I put on you or how much anointing and oil I pour over you. I cannot heal you. And so when we see people week after week after week after week saying I was dead and I want to be alive. Yeah, that that's not grace way. That's something that God is building. When we see people getting baptized and LaShia says it's another baptism Sunday here. It's another miracle. It doesn't make sense outside of God. When we hear of people surrendering their lives, repenting of sin, having bondage broken, stepping into ministry, discovering their purpose, make a difference. All of these things are things that only God can do. Can I tell you this? I don't want to be crass or crude or arrogant about this. I don't have any problem filling a room. Right. Music's pretty good, right? That just ain't the point, y'all. And don't get this twisted. Just because the room is full doesn't mean God is building it. But God is only going to build in a space where the people say, God, if you don't build, this ain't going to happen. And we don't want to do church as normal. We want to do church where miracles are normal. We want to do church where life changes normal. We want to do church where it's another baptism Sunday. Another person gave their lives to Jesus. Another person said, I want to give my life to ministry. Another person said, I used to be in bondage to this, but now I'm free.

Another marriage got reconciled. Another rebellious kid got home. And can I tell you, can I tell you, the church that gets bored with that is the church that will start depending on themselves to do that. And so it feels like a small thing to say, who's doing this? God is building this house. Period. And if he ever stops, you are wasting your time. And I am wasting my life. So, we need to be a place that we say, God, would you see fit? We know you don't have to do it here. We know there's a lot of places you could do it, but God, we want to do everything we can to be dependent on you to build this house. And whatever you want to do, the answer is yes, and however you want to do it, the answer is yes. And some of us have preferences and traditions, and some of us hold to those pretty tightly, but God, whatever you want, the answer is yes, because we want you to build something in Raytown, Missouri. We ain't even talking about Kansas City, we're talking about Raytown, Missouri. Come on, somebody. We need you to build this, God. Secondly, the church walks in the fear of the Lord. Now, this sounds odd, doesn't it? I thought God was loving. What do you mean, fear of the Lord? This gets misunderstood. So, let's say two things that it's not. This isn't like horror movie terror, okay? It's not what we're talking about. No, that's not the fear of the Lord.

At the same time, this isn't soften to something like respect. Oh, I respect the Lord. That's great. That's still not the fear of the Lord. Okay, so to fear God, and this is as simply as I can say it, is to take Him fully seriously. I remember when I was 18 years old, 18 or 19, my mom took my sister and I to Niagara Falls. Any of y'all ever been to Niagara Falls? So, you go to Niagara Falls, and you kind of walk out of the parking lot, and you can see this body of water, but you kind of go up to this railing, and literally the falls are like right there. And it's crazy that you're kind of like, I looked down the railing, and nobody was like real jovial, but oh, look at that. We were all just sort of like, wow, that's a lot. That's a lot of power. That's a lot of, that's a different thing than me. I wasn't thinking about jumping over and like testing it. I was just like, wow, that's, it was almost like I was, like I was afraid of it. Yeah, like that. You ever stood at the base of a mountain, and looked up and went, that's a lot, yeah. I mean, it's beautiful, and it's kind of scary, and like, I don't, yeah. That's the fear of the Lord. To come into the presence of God, and go, you are something altogether different. You're something unlike anything that I've ever seen. And there's a bit of a seriousness, and there's a bit of an awe, and it's not, it's not scary necessarily, but that doesn't mean it's safe. You with me? Yeah. Yeah. It means that it produces kind of a reverence, like, oh, okay, give me a second, yeah.

It produces something that you're, you're something altogether different, and I'm clear that you're up here, and that I'm like, I don't even think I'm on the scale. And that if you tell me to do something, yeah, I should probably do, I should probably do that. Yeah. Right? It's to, it's to be morally serious about what God tells you, and the Bible doesn't say this is for advanced Christians. The Bible says this is, like, fundamental. Listen to Proverbs 1 and verse 17, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It's interesting, in a culture that knows so much, and fears nothing, that God says, if you don't fear me, you can't know anything. Solomon in Ecclesiastes 6, after all of the intellectual ideology, says, fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man. And here, the church is walking in the fear of the Lord. So if you're taking notes, think of it this way. The fear of the Lord has four dimensions. First is just awe. Woo! Just, being in the, like, God is so holy, and other. There's a weight to the glory of God. It's not casual. You with me? It's overwhelming to have God speak to you. It's overwhelming to be in the presence of God. It's overwhelming to be in the presence in a room where you feel like God is. So the first is just awe. Woo! Okay.

The second is, you're something else. all together different, and I should put you in, listen, God is not intending to advise your life. He is intending to define your life. I'm gonna say it to you again. God's not intending to advise your life. God's not a CPA. He's intending to be the defining thing in your life, the defining person in your life, the thing that everything else gravitates around. I'm submitted to him. Why? Have you seen him? Have you been near him? Have you heard from him? Have you, like, you don't run up to the railing, you're like, oh, okay, yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, you got it, you got it. Next is awareness, it's the awareness that that kind of God both sees and judges, that nothing is hidden from God, that what I do matters and that I'm accountable and that one day I will stand before this mountain and I will give an answer for every thought and for every word. You say, oh, yeah, that, that's the fear of God. Every word, every word. Every thought, every, I'm gonna stand before that God and I'm gonna have to give an, yep. Oh, I don't, I know, I know, yep.

And then fourth is affection. This isn't cold fear, this is relational knowledge that God is both powerful and good and so when we pray, we hallow your name, what are we saying? There's no one like you, there's no one as powerful as you. Whoa, and there's no one as good as you. There's no one as good as you and when all four are present, when all submission, awareness and affection are present, you get alignment with the spirit of God. The Bible says that the fear of God produces wisdom, the fear of God produces holiness, the fear of God produces stability, the fear of God produces fullness of life but the opposite is also true. Not fearing God produces foolishness, not fearing God produces carnality, not fearing God produces instability, not fearing God produces destructive choices and destructive lifestyle. If you look back into your past and go, I shouldn't have done that, why didn't I do that? Here's why, you didn't fear God. It wasn't that you didn't have the right information, it wasn't, it just came over me, I don't, no, no, no, no. You didn't picture yourself standing in front of that mountain. You thought he was there to advise you, to suggest. Because if you had feared God, you would have been wise.

If you had feared God, you would have been holy, if you had feared God, you would have been stable and so any foolishness, carnality, deceit, instability, destructive realities in your life fundamentally are, oh, you might fear God now but you didn't then, you didn't then. Then lastly, the church walks in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So do you see the kind of the teeter-totter that's happening, the fear of God with wham, the weight and then you have the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Acts 9 comes after persecution, after scattering of believers, after Saul's violence, after cultural and theological tension and Acts 9 and verse 31 says, but the church had peace. That's a lot going on to have peace, can you imagine? That's like having peace that like passes. Oh, you know that verse. That didn't make any sense for you to have peace but I also want you to notice that Luke doesn't say they relaxed. Luke says they walked in, they moved in the fear of God and the comfort of the Spirit. So watch, the presence of the Holy Spirit is not God making your life easier. It's God making you stronger. The Spirit doesn't remove pressure, He strengthens you under pressure. This is why, if I'm honest with you, I hate the prosperity gospel

because it tells you a lie that cannot come true. To tell you if you do the right thing, God is required to give you something. Many of you know, you did the right thing and God threw you into a fiery furnace. God led you into the wilderness. God dropped you. into the bottom of the ocean. Why? Why God, I did the right thing. Oh, you thought God's presence was to make it easier. No, no, no. It's to make you dependent on something stronger. If you didn't find yourself in free fall, you wouldn't go, God, help me. If you thought you could fly, you wouldn't go, God, help me. Too many Christians that I know, by the way. Trying to go grow wings instead of hit their knees. That hard season you're in, you're not alone. You're not abandoned. You're not forsaken. Strength is available to you as long as you stop trying to be strong. And the church, the church, listen, this comforting, it doesn't lead to passivity, it leads to movement. You know, we're in this time of such fragmentation in the church. I was talking to one of our pastors this week. I've been kind of writing about this.

And, you know, early in our country's origin, we had something called the gold rush, right? We were racing to get to our spot of land. And, you know, we still do that. We're rushing to get to our spot of right. And we plant our flag and say, nobody can come in here. It happens in the church. It's called denominations. I really, I think all the networks and denominations and all of the splintering of the church. Jesus prayed that we would be one church. I think it breaks the heart of God. That's why when somebody says to you, what kind of church is grace? Well, you go. I don't know, you should just come. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's what it is. But we live in this time of fragmentation. I'll tell you something that I feel burdened about is the unity of the church, not the fragmentation of the church. That's why I am regularly calling you to not make decisions toward comfort, but toward Jesus. That's why we don't have 1,000 affinity-based ministries. Some of y'all, some of y'all are having a hard time finding a church because they don't have what you need. Do they have Jesus? Do they have the Holy Spirit?

Do they have the Word of God? Yeah, but I'm really looking for a program. Yeah, that happens all the time, doesn't it? We have a lot of platform-centered ministries. Like everything, everything is centered around the platform, not around the congregation and the mission. And so Acts shows us something different. Acts shows us not a preferential church, but a church that God is present in, the active, strengthening presence of God that sustains us, that encourages us, that directs us to walk in obedience under pressure. Feels like a small thing. We're a Spirit-filled church. Oh, that's cool. No, no, you don't understand. That's that small thing that moves the world. We fear God. Oh, that's awesome. Well, I don't really know what that means. I know, but we're trying to figure out, it's like a lever that moves everything. But here's how we get it wrong. Let me pass to you for a minute, and then I'll be in my seat. We get it wrong in one of two ways. We remove fear, and we get casual, shallow, intermittent, come to church 1.2 times a month and read your Bible even less kind of faith.

We begin, if you remove the fear of God, to view the commands of God around things like holiness and purity and generosity and service and how we should treat people and how we should talk, we begin to view them as suggestions. We begin to take our politics and take the Word of God and apply it to it instead of the other way. We begin to operate in affinity and in preference, and we begin to order our lives in such a way that is without concern to the consequences that will be required of us when we stand before a holy God. Remember? Let me, let me not be subtle. Let me first start by saying, you know, in 2026, whenever somebody confronts or holds accountable, your first knee jerk, and I don't mean you, I mean the person sitting next to you, is, oh, I feel judged and I feel condemned, so let me just help. and I'm especially talking to you guys, okay? The only person I talk about feeling judged and condemned when they're confronted with something that is true are people that are trying to not be convicted of their sin. Let's just call it what it is. And you know, we got people who come to this church and you aren't here because of the hope you have in Jesus. You're here to see who you can hook up with.

You aren't here to bend the knee, you're here to build a network for your business. Come on, listen, I'm not trying to be provocative to you, but I do need you to understand, we ain't the one. A lot of churches, a lot of churches, a lot of churches aren't gonna care what you did yesterday or fuss about what you're gonna do tomorrow. We ain't the one. Why? Because the fear of the Lord is foundational to the presence of God. And I'm not trying to sacrifice my unrepentant sin for the presence of God. That's not a good trade. And so I just wanna be fair with you, that if we're going to be a church that walks in the fear of the Lord, the expectation, the requirement that is accountable, not just on Sunday morning in your Sunday best, is hey, this church has gotta be holy. What you do matters. Where you go matters. Who you slide into their DMs matters. What state of undress you find yourself in with people who aren't your spouse matters. What are we doing, church? Here's what we're doing. You don't fear God. You're not afraid that God will kill you. And I love you, so I need you to understand,

I'm afraid that you're not afraid. But I am not going to stand by and watch you do it and say nothing. I am not gonna watch you loitering in the lobby to hook up with him or her. I'm not going to do it. Walking in the fear of the Lord is not a belief system. I don't care about what you believe. I don't care. It's an action. I fear the Lord. No, you don't. No, you don't. You believe in the fear of the Lord. But you're fixing to hop over the railing into Niagara Falls when it comes to your purity, your holiness, your generosity, the way that you treat people around you, the mission that you are or you aren't on, because you aren't afraid, but you should be. You should be. And so we take out fear or we take out presence. And then all we have is rigid, lifeless obedience. Here's the two pendulums. One is no fear. The other is no presence. And this is why I harp on this all the time. There's no such thing as a not spirit-filled church. If the spirit isn't present, and I mean in a palpable, tangible way,

then all you have is moral people trying to be good. Anybody got time for that? That's not attractive. That's not beautiful. That's not transformative. That's not majestic. That doesn't produce awe for a bunch of people who look the same, talk the same, vote the same, to try to act the same. No, no, no, no. We need the fear of God and the presence of God. The scripture never separates them. The church does. The church weaponizes the fear of God to try to produce obedience. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying if you've ever been in the presence of God, you know, whoa, yeah, take that into Friday night. Don't just have that feeling on Sunday morning. The church is healthiest when God is both near, here, and weighty. Glory is heavy. It's not light. So what does Archimedes say? Give me a place to stand and give me a lever. And I'll move the world. I think it's a biblical idea. Give me a place to stand. It's called the church. Church that is being built.

A church that walks in fear. A church that walks in the comfort of the spirit. And I'll bet you it can change a community. I'll bet you it can change a family. I'll bet you it can change a church. What would it look like for you to take God seriously today? I'm not talking about in your beliefs. I'm talking about authoritatively. For you to stop convincing yourself that this is normal. For you to be worried that you aren't bothered. For you to be bebopping through life as though you are not bought and paid for by the blood of a holy God. For you to keep doing it, keep saying it, keep going there, keep clicking on it, keep over and over and over and over and over again and rationalizing it instead of saying, God, don't kill me. What if you invited the person of the Holy Spirit, not to your thing. Holy Spirit, will you help me at work? No, no. Holy Spirit, I'm following you. Strengthen me today. Help me to respond to you today. And here's what the Holy Spirit's gonna do. He's gonna get you looking at other people differently. That's why Aeneas and Tabitha are so instructive.

They're nobody. And Peter is going to and bringing the gospel and bringing the power of God. Can I tell you, if you're walking the fear of God in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, you're gonna see your office differently. You're gonna see your neighborhood differently. If the Holy Spirit, if you're submitted to him instead of asking him to submit to you, you're gonna be others oriented. And if you'll do this, you can be one thing. You can be expectant. You can be expectant that God's gonna show up in your week. I'm talking like Tuesday afternoon. What happens on Tuesday afternoon? Well, nothing. If you're ordering your life, but if on Tuesday you say, God, I'm following you. God, I'm taking whatever you say to me for real serious. God, if you will point me in a direction, I will go. It doesn't have to make sense to me. Don't have to agree. Don't even have to understand. I'm just going wherever you want me to go. God will take you to places. God will do things in you. You can be expectant. This week, this week in your worship, God, you can see the Grace Way app is actually an actionable model for you

in the next seven days to begin to practice. I just believe what we're talking about. I'm very serious about this, y'all. I'm grateful for what God's doing here. It has to be fought for and it has to be protected. How? By God's people taking holiness seriously. By God's people taking the presence of God, being desperate for it. By God's people saying, God, whatever you wanna change about me, wherever you wanna move me, whatever you wanna take me. God, you're the King. We just celebrate Easter. You're the King. I just wanna do what you want me to do. I just wanna do what you want me to do. That's the kind of church that God is gonna continue to build. That's the kind of church that I wanna be a part of. So go to the worship, God. Pick that up. Let's do it together. Let's seek God together. Amen? Amen. Why don't you stand up? Prayer team, why don't you come on down? Growth track, step two, happening in the next service, third service.

Mentor training happening after third service. If you came prepared to give and you didn't when the book is passing, you can do it at the back. Once you raise a hand, let me pray for you and we'll get out of here. Lord, we love you. And Lord, I thank you that there is nobody like you. And Lord, I ask you to forgive us for the ways that we do not take you seriously. In our marriages, in our homes, with our finances, at work, in our thoughts. Forgive us, Lord. Help us, Lord, to experience you with awe and fear. There's nobody as powerful or as good as you. I thank you, Lord, for the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we need his presence in this house and in our homes. So we thank you that we have him, Lord. Forgive us that we're using him instead of following him. Help us, Lord, to see our city differently, see our workspace and our home. poems differently, see our relationships differently, and to take you seriously. Lord, please continue to be here. Please continue to work. Please continue to speak. Lord, we need you. So we trust you, we love you, and we follow you.

We do it together, and we do it in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, amen and amen. All right, y'all. I love you. Have the best week. See you next Sunday.