The Way of Making Him Known | "The Way" Week 12

- This weekend, we are streaming from the Grey Vine campus. Grey Vine campus kind of makes some noise at all the campuses. We're so honored to be joining you from across the Red River. And our feelings aren't hurt that Oklahoma beat Texas. Come on, everybody here's like, aww. All right. So excited to be with you today. If you're a first time guest, we're just excited that you're joining us today. Before I jump into the word today, I want to make sure everyone knows that every single campus, it is prophetic weekend. Okay, so at every single campus, at the end of our gathering, we will have instruction at each campus on how to go about that. If you're new to Victory Church, we are a church, one of our core values is we believe in the power and the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And we believe that the gift that we read about in the New Testament of prophecy is alive and well today. And so we have teams at our campuses that have better have a special gift and anointing for prophetic ministry. They've been trained, they've been vetted, and they're ready for you.

And so at every campus today, it's prophetic weekend. We'll remind you of that at the end, all right? If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Mark chapter one, Mark chapter one. And then you can also, if you're real gifted and talented, you can flip over to second Corinthians chapter two, okay? Second Corinthians chapter two. We're gonna go there in just a minute. While you're turning there, be reminded coming up is our heart for the house season, every single year in November, we do something called heart for the house. And this is a time where every campus, we present things that we're needing at the campuses and projects and building campaigns this year for the great vine campus, for the Edmund campus. And so that's coming in November. So you'll be hearing more about that, but just wanted to kind of put that on your radar. That's coming very soon. And we will take up that offering the weekend before Thanksgiving, okay? So the weekend before Thanksgiving is when that'll happen. Okay, so we're all the way over in Mark chapter one, Mark chapter one, I'm gonna start in verse 16. Says this, it says on the day, one day as Jesus was walking along the shore

of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water before they fished for a living. And Jesus called out to them, come, follow me. And I will show you how to fish for people. And they left their nets at once and followed him. And so far in this season called the way, we've been looking at all the different ways in which we do that, in all of the different ways in which we live a life. If we say we're followers of the way, what does that look like? And we're gonna keep talking about this. We've extended the season actually, we're gonna go all the way into November, we were gonna stop, but we're gonna keep going. But today I wanna talk about this idea that less about us per se, and if we really are followers of the way, one of the things Jesus says, he says, his instruction to them was follow me, so be a follower of the way. And then he pivots very quickly, he says, "I'm going to teach you how to fish for people." Now what a bizarre thing, imagine you're with your buddies fishing, and this man comes along and says, "I'm gonna teach you how to fish for people." What a bizarre thing to say, but this is something that we need to be in tune with,

and something that we need to know, that it isn't just enough for us to live our lives, the way that Jesus instructs us to live our lives, that he goes another way. And from the very beginning, Jesus meant helping other people find Jesus, following Jesus, meant helping other people find Jesus. When I was growing up, I thought that witnessing or sharing Jesus with other people was kind of reserved for the fearless extrovert or the Polish speaker, or the one who just knew every perfect comeback. It's like you're at Texas Roadhouse, and someone says, "Could you bring us some more bread?" You're like, "Well, I could tell you they're true bread." It's like the perfect comeback in the perfect moment of every single scenario. And I suppose the boy sure is hot outside, well, you know where it's really hot. Do you know, like these perfect moments, you know, where you had to have the perfect comeback, and I felt so incapable of doing that. It's like, I sure hope our flight gets to where it's going today, where there's one departure that you wanna be ready for, Jesus is coming back and the twinkling of an eye. And I always thought that it was like this magic thing that I had to be, I had to know my Bible backwards and forward, I had to be right, Johnny on the spot, I had to be bold,

I had to have my perfect elevator pitched down. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those things. Well, maybe the whole, We're trying to win people, not run them off. But I just, today I want to talk about sharing Jesus with people. And it's something we don't hear a lot of sermons about anymore, but I want to talk about, today we're talking about the way of making him known. The way of making him known. Look, how many of you have tried the dried mangoes at Costco? Raise your hand. Oh, come on somebody, I'm telling you. These are the greatest thing on planet earth. You got to get the organic ones, okay? The other ones are full of sugar, they're terrible, they're not good for you. The dried ones at Costco, okay? Just hang with me, I'm going somewhere, I promise. But they are the greatest sweet tooth covering on planet earth, all right? You know what I just did? I made dried mangoes known to you. And the next time you're at Costco, you're going to be scooting along in your cart and you're going to see them, all right? And you'll be like, those are those mangoes that Pastor John had talked about. We got to try them, right? So this is as simple as it gets about

just sharing the gospel, sharing. We don't have a problem sharing things we love with other people, whether it's a show, whether it's a new purse you just purchased, whether it's a restaurant you just discovered or a vacation you just went on. We're all unpaid sales representatives about what's on aisle 12 at the grocery store. But yet for some reason, when we talk about sharing Jesus, we just kind of get nervous, we don't know what to say, and we don't know how to bring it up, and we don't want to be that guy, come on, you know what I'm talking about, you don't want to be that guy at the office. We're worried somebody will ask us a question that we can't answer, and so we say nothing. So we say nothing, we go about our life. And somewhere along the way, American Christianity got really good at consuming Jesus, like we're really good at consuming Jesus, but we've shied away from sharing Jesus. And I want to just spend some time talking about this. We're good at talking, we know the podcast, we know our favorite podcast, we know the parts of the Bible we like, and we know the scriptures that are our favorites. We know the worship songs that are our favorites, the preachers that are our favorites. But Jesus didn't say, "Follow me, and I will make you happy."

He didn't say, "Follow me, and I will make you comfortable." He said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people." So there's something, there's this correlation that Jesus wants us to know, and he wants us to understand that if we truly are followers of Jesus, he uses this analogy that we should be casting bait out there and trying to get people to nibble, to bite, so that they could come to know Jesus. And it's a part of our faith that we can't ignore, we can't preach an entire series and season on the way and not talk about sharing our faith with other people. So somehow along the way, we've turned one of the very first things Jesus tells his disciples has become one of the last things we think about doing. It's interesting in that regard. And to be honest with you, I've had this sermon on the list for this entire season. And I keep pushing it back and pushing it back and pushing it back 'cause it's not that fun to preach. You know? Nobody wants to hear a sermon on this. Nobody wants to hear a sermon on this. Very few people are get excited about this. They wanna know a sermon that can help them and encourage them and propel them in their own walk. I get it, I get it. And I've heard sermons on witnessing, you know? There's the sales quota sermon. How many people have you led to the Lord lately?

It's like this pyramid scheme marketing thing, you know? Like it's weird. There's the guilt trip sermon where you just walk out feeling guilty. Like if you really love Jesus, you would tell more people about Jesus. I don't wanna preach that sermon. I don't wanna preach the fearless extrovert sermon. Like everybody needs to be more extroverted and you just need to go up to total strangers and elevators. I don't really wanna preach that sermon. But I do wanna show you something that the Lord showed me that really brought this to a light that I am actually excited about preaching. All right, so if you flip over, I told you to flip there a moment ago in 2 Corinthians. All right, 2 Corinthians chapter two. Paul brings this richness that I don't think I've ever noticed before. I've read through the Bible several times and I don't know that I've ever really seen this or paid attention to it. a light and with such an analogy that it just comes to the surface in a richer way. So in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14, all right, I'm going to read several verses here. It says, "But thank God, He has made us His captives and continues to lead us along in Christ's triumphal procession." Now He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere. Like, watch this, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those

who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this? You see, we are not like the many Huxters. I didn't know Paul was a country bumpkin. We are not like the many Huxters who preach for personal profit. We preach the Word of God with sincerity and with Christ's authority, knowing that God is watching us. I love this imagery that He brings in, of this scent, this smell, this fragrance that we are this sweet perfume. And we're going to get there, we're going to talk about that a little bit, but I want to back up first to a text through how He opened the text in verse 14. I'll read it again, it says, "He has made us His captives and continues to lead us along in Christ's triumphal procession." I always pictured it as we were the victorious ones, like we were the ones that were set free. And we are, I'm not preaching against that by any means, but Paul uses this really odd language. He says, "We are captives. We are. We have been taken captive." And I was talking to Dr. Davis this week, as I always do, with my sermons and just unpacking more. And we started talking about this idea and this concept of the triumphal procession. And it just really made this sermon come to light in such a richer way for me. When we begin to talk about this idea of a triumphal procession, and he referenced, he said, "I've never seen the movie Gladiator." I'm like, "I'm a man." Of course, I've seen Gladiator.

Come on. And he referenced the scene where they're coming back from battle and they're having this procession. And it's a very, very known, in that day and age, it would have been a very, very known Roman custom that when they go off to war, when they win the war, they come back and they have what's called a triumphal procession. And everybody lines the streets and they offer sacrifices to their gods and they burn incense in the streets. And so there's an aroma and Paul would have known this and he starts tying this together with this idea of aroma and perfume and fragrance with this triumphal procession. And the general of the army would lead the procession and he would be out on his chariot out of the front of the procession and they would be throwing flowers and they would be lining the streets. And following behind the general were the captives in chains, following because they had been defeated, they had been conquered. They were now captives to that new person. Even the king that had been conquered would have been following in chains and they were actually being led to their death. They were being led and to just what a few minutes from them would become their end. It would become the end of them. And here's Paul and I'm thinking, man, we are victorious and because of Jesus and because of the victory, we are victorious and all of those things are true. But Paul paints this picture that we are following King Jesus in chains. We are captive. We have been captive. We have been captivated. Now, what have we been captivated from? We have been captivated from the life of sin and death. And because Jesus defeated death hell in the grave, we are now his captives. And Paul starts using this beautiful picture of us now.

We are following King Jesus and we are free, but we're now captive to Jesus. And because of that, we share the aroma of Christ. because we have been captivated in this way. And so I can just picture Paul and thinking about this concept and this idea that I could picture Paul saying, "I wasn't converted on the Damascus road. "I was captivated. "I was captured on the Damascus road." And that's what I want us to understand today. And I want to try to shed light in maybe a different way than maybe you've ever heard before when it comes to sharing the gospel and sharing Jesus and sharing your faith. That it's not this thing that we stand on street corners and scream to people with megaphones and shake Bibles at them and hold picket signs and say, "You're going to hell." We have the fragrance of Christ and the beauty that's in this text that I will probably fall short of conveying the way that it's worthy of, that the captives weren't in the procession, the captives following behind, they weren't in the procession to make themselves known. Their purpose was to point out the greatness of the general who had conquered them, the greatness of the one who had captivated them and captured them. And in our circumstance had saved us from sin and death

and Jesus came and defeated Satan. He defeated the enemy, the one that we were slaves to, we were slaves to sin and Jesus captured us. So I want to unpack this a little bit if you'll let me, let's go back to verse 14, it says, but thank God, but thank God, He has made us His captives and He continues to lead us along Christ's triumphal procession now. Now it's such an important word in this text, now it's a transitional word. Now He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ like fragrance rising up to God. So Paul, in only the true fashion that Paul can, the brilliance of Paul, he ties these two unbecoming things together. He ties two things together with the word now. He ties together this kind of graphic scene of a triumphal procession with a sweet perfume. How in the world does Paul tie these two things together? This conquering of battles and we are captives following our King into the sweet perfume. He shifts this with this word now. And so I want to, I got three things that we're going to cover today real quickly. Number one, we are captured by the King and we're marked by his fragrance, okay? We're marked by his fragrance.

The first thing we have to kind of settle in our soul, the shock of this text is we have to settle in our soul is that we're not ashamed to be captive. Paul says repeatedly, I'm in chains. Paul says, I'm a bond servant to Christ. He says, I am a slave to Christ. He uses these things all through his things. And I think maybe another way if I probably shouldn't soften it, but if I needed to, I'll soften it this way. And what I would tell you is I would say, my heart has been captivated by Michelle. I am completely captive to her. So when there's love, when there's something like that, you really do become captivated. And this is the language that Paul is trying to get through to us. And because we've been captured by him, we have the fragrance of him. And Paul would have known these triumphal entries when they would walk the streets. Some of the commentary say that the reason they would burn incense is because they didn't want to smell the stench of the sewage in the streets, regardless of the why, they would burn incense on these triumphal processions. And so those that were captivated, those that were captive, they took on the scent. They would take on the aroma of the place in which they have now been brought to. So they are captivated by this place. And the aroma is surrounding them in all those ways. So what a strange analogy to use.

Paul could have picked any of the senses. Sight, hearing, touch. He picked scent, he picked smell, he picked aroma. And I don't fully know why that is. I think part of it is why he was attaching to the triumphal entry. But I do know that you are capable of looking away. stench is so bad that you can't not smell it and like how many of you have ever had like your when you were a little little child and you'd go see grandma and grandma would just grab you pull you in and give you a big big big hug and then the rest of the day you smelled like grandma you just smell like grandma for the rest of the day and Paul is using this this illustration and this idea and in the text he says Christ uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ the knowledge of Christ this is a really important word in English we just think of knowledge like yeah I know yeah I know like it's a head thing it's a it's a thinking thing we know something in the Greek it's a completely different word it's the Greek word ganosco it means to know to understand to perceive to have knowledge of in the Old Testament a similar Hebrew word that would tie to it is actually the Hebrew word that was used for intimacy you know those Old Testament verses and he knew her and they had a baby like the int like it is a word that is used with such intimacy and Paul used this word and a lot of us writings in Philippians 3 10 Paul said this he said I want to know Christ ganosco I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead and I want to suffer with him sharing in his death that is truly being marked that is being marked by Christ is to ganosco Christ to to know him to know him to pursue him both in his both in his resurrection and in his death let me show you another passage here and John this is a familiar verse in chapter 12 chapter 12 verse 1 says six days before the Passover celebration began Jesus arrived in Bethany the home of Lazarus the man he had raised from the dead a dinner was prepared in Jesus's honor Martha served and Lazarus was among

those who ate with him then Mary took a 12 ounce jar of expensive perfume from made from the essence of nard and she anointed Jesus's feet with it wiping his feet with her hair listen to this and the house was filled with the fragrance the house was filled with the fragrance she poured it out on Jesus and anybody else who was in the room experienced it there was a fragrance to it and when we give our lives to Jesus not just a ten church once a month or a ten church every couple of months or just refer to him as the man upstairs when we ganosco when we know Jesus and we pour out our lives for him people will notice Mary wasn't running an outreach program she her devotion had an effect that that that affected everybody in the room one more acts for verse 13 it says the members of the house the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John for they could know for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the scriptures watch this they also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus there was something about them they didn't have to say anything they didn't have to do anything there was something about them it was it they had taken on the fragrance of Christ let me let me read I'm gonna do something I don't know that I've ever done but I'm gonna do it because it fits all right we're gonna bring our ties and offerings into the storehouse right now all right and here's why Philippians chapter 4 Philippians chapter 4 verse 8 verse 18 at the moment this is Paul at the moment I have I have all that I need and more I am generously supplied with the gifts that you sent me with Epaphroditus listen to this they are a sweet smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God and this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory which which have been given to us in Christ Jesus when we're generous when we give guess what you are spreading the aroma Christ you take on the fragrance of Christ in your generosity and Paul says that it is a sweet smelling aroma to God when we're generous so Paul uses this all through scripture It's just so easy to forget. There's actually an actual phenomenon called,

I had to look this up, I had never heard of this before. I know what it is, but I've never heard this word. It's called olfactory adaption. And it's also known as nose blindness. It basically means if you've ever been to somebody's house and you walk in and you're like, you guys don't smell this, your house smells like dog urine. You don't realize it, you don't even know it because you're used to it. Let's dumb it down a little. All right, one in the littlest press. You spray perfume or cologne on yourself in the morning and by two in the afternoon, you don't smell it anymore. It's nose blindness. And then someone comes in, they give you a big hug and they're like, oh my gosh, you smell amazing. And you're like, oh, I didn't even, I don't smell it. This is actually called nose blindness or olfactory adaption. And I think in some ways, it does for me. I'll put it that way. This describes us with the gospel. It's us that over time we become so accustomed to the good news that we forgot, we forget how good it really is. I mean, let's stop and just recap for a second, all right? Without Christ, we are dead in our transgressions. We are sinners, a price needs to be paid that we cannot pay but Christ died for us so that we could be saved

so that we could be redeemed. Your name, if you haven't known this, your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life and you will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus because you have been forgiven, you have been redeemed, you have been restored. That is way more exciting than dried mangoes on aisle 12. Right? It's so easy to become familiar with this gospel and how the gospel can help me and serve my life and help my needs and that it stops becoming amazing that we wanna share it with everybody. So, one really practical thing, okay? This week, practice being recaptured, practice being recapitivated by Christ. Let him recapture your heart and realize that we take on this aroma and renew your sense of smell, like renew your sense of smell for the goodness of the gospel that over time we have may have gotten used to. Verse 15 says, our lives are a Christ-like fragrance. I love this. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. So point number two, what do we gotta do? We gotta carry the fragrance and what I would add is be yourself, be yourself. Because I'm captivated by Christ, I must now carry His fragrance, okay? I carry His fragrance, but what's beautiful is

I get to carry it in this vessel, in this vessel. Michelle and I, this summer, on our trip to France, we went to Grasse, not Grasse, Grasse, come on. And we went to one of these perfumaries where you go in and you, I didn't do it. I sat in the lobby and took a nap. I'm not kidding, I literally, I probably snored. I was napping. She went back and made her own perfume. It's the sweetest thing. You literally mix it, make it your own custom perfume that you make. And although we carry Christ perfume, what I love about this is Paul says, he says, our lives, our lives are a Christ-like fragrance. This word, our lives. And let me ask you a question. Is your life like mine? Is your story like mine? Do you look like me? Do you talk like me? Do you act like me? No, you have your own life. And God lets us carry this sweet aroma, but our bottles have many shapes and sizes. And I love that. I love that we get the uniqueness. We carry his fragrance, but in our own unique way. First Corinthians 12 says, there are different kinds of spiritual gifts,

but the same spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it's the same God who works, who does the work in all of us. So look at your neighbor real quick and just say, you look different. There you go. So Jesus says, listen to this, Jesus says, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of people." So he's talking to fishermen and he comes to them and uses fishermen language. He doesn't say, "Come to me and I'll teach you how to mow grass." He uses the same thing. He's saying, "I'm gonna teach you how to create other disciples and other followers, but you're gonna do it in your own unique way." And so God didn't make you different, on accident. He made you different on purpose. And so if you're a rugged, rough, you know, bearded man, I don't know how else to say that, that was kind of awkward. Then you have been uniquely wired to reach other manly men. If you're an introvert, God does not expect you to, all of a sudden, become this crazy extrovert. No, he has uniquely wired you as an introvert to reach those some sort of, if you're an analytical thinker, then you can listen carefully to hard questions and you're not threatened by that.

So God uniquely wires this in these ways. So let's practice, there's a practice for this too. So another thing you should do this week to practice the way. Have you ever really sat down and asked yourself how God wired you? How are you wired? Have you ever really written that down and took and thought how is God uniquely wired me? And how could he use that vessel, the one he designed by the way, in you, to make him more known to people around you? All right, there may be a hobby, it may be an interest, it may be your personality, it could be a number of different things. Okay, let's go to the last one. Verse 14, we'll read it again. It says, "Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ "everywhere, like a sweet perfume, "our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God, "but this fragrance is perceived differently "by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. "To those who are perishing, "we are a dreadful smell of death and doom, "but to those who are being saved, "we are a life-giving perfume." Point number three, we must release his fragrance and release the results, okay, release the results. I don't know about you, but for me, a lot of times what paralyzes me on sharing the gospel is I'm too wrapped up and concerned

about how this is gonna play out. What are the results? Am I gonna end up looking foolish? Am I gonna end up being embarrassed? What if they say no? What if they reject me? And you might say, well, John, I'm just gonna live my life and let my life be a living testimony, but that's great and we should do that. But I also wanna encourage you, we have to also open our mouths. We have to open our mouths and share the gospel with those around us. Romans 10, 14. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the scriptures say how beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news. But not everyone who welcomes the good news for Isaiah. Not everyone welcomes the good news for their Isaiah, the prophet said, "Lord, who has believed our message?" So faith comes by hearing, that is, hearing the good news about Christ. Somebody at some point has to open our mouth and share the good news.

We have to. I like that it says he uses us. He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ. It doesn't say he uses someone else. It says he uses us. If we're truly captivated, okay? Every single week we've talked about being a father of the way. And every single week I'm like, "If we're really followers of the way, then we kind of have to do this." He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere. Not some places, not sometimes, everywhere, everywhere. And he says that he doesn't, and he tells us how to do it. It says to do it like a sweet perfume, like a sweet perfume. So here's a really good first action step, all right? Yes, go share the gospel, share the good news of the gospel. Invise somebody to church. Do you know what you experience, maybe you've never thought about it this way before, but when you come into an auditorium or a sanctuary to participate in church, you are coming into a temple of sorts, or sanctuary of sorts, and they're in here in the Edmonton campus, at the OKC campus. When you come in, what you are experiencing is a sweet aroma of Christ.

The good news, the body of Christ coming together. And all through Scripture, there's this thing that's said over and over again of just come and see, come see. And if we really wanted to just simplify sharing the gospel in the most simplistic of terms of just looking at somebody and say, just come and see for yourself. Just come and experience the sweet aroma, experience the triumphal procession of those who are captivated. And we know, and Paul tells us, he'll say, look, hey, there's gonna be some people that when they smell it, it's gonna be a stench of death to them. And others are gonna be like, yes, I wanna be a part of that. But the key is that we can't let that keep us from sharing the gospel. I now, in my closet, I have five different clones, five clones, because I can't find one that Michelle fully loves yet. And I want her to think I smell good, right? So for everyone that I get, there's one that she's gonna love, and there's some that she's not gonna like. And that's okay, that's okay. I can't be threatened by that. I can't be hurt by that. It's the same with sharing our faith. Listen, there are gonna be people that you share your faith with,

and they're just not gonna accept it. And that's okay, that's okay. Our job is to make him known, not to make people know him. We make him known, and then we leave it up for the Lord. And onlookers, some of the captives in this triumphal procession are gonna see and smell, and they're gonna love this scent, and they're gonna wanna come and be captives too. They're gonna wanna be captivated by the same Jesus that you and I have been captivated by. But I can't let the fear of rejection keep me from making Christ known. So three action steps, and then we're done, all right? Action step one, we already covered these, I'm gonna cover them again. Become a captive. Become a captive. Yes, you're victorious, but you're only victorious because he defeated, and now we are captives. We are captives of Christ. And maybe you need to let Jesus recapitivate your heart, and so we could ask ourselves questions like what area of my life have I not let Christ fully conquer? Number two, let's carry his fragrance. How has God uniquely wired me? I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not, I can be myself.

I have the aroma of Christ. I have the fruits of the Spirit in my life, but I can do it in my unique frame and my unique bottle. How has God uniquely wired me? And do some thinking about what that could look like on sharing the gospel with your unique wiring. God built you like that for a reason. And then number three, my urge to myself and all of us is we must release this fragrance. We must release it. The sweetness of Jesus is not just for us. It's for everyone around us. And a fragrance is not a fragrance that you put on just so you smell it yourself. You put on a fragrance so that every room that you walk into, everyone is experiencing the fragrance. And so we must release this fragrance. And maybe there's just one person that you need to share the gospel with, or maybe you need to invite them to church. It's a co-worker, it's a neighbor, it's a friend, or a family member. And the invitation is just come see, just come see. Let's pray, Lord. We truly want to be followers of the way. Forgive us if we have failed to share the way with others. So Father, I think my number one prayer for all of us is that you would recapitivate us. Capture us, Lord.

Capture our minds, capture our hearts. to be captivated at another level, at another layer, even for those of us who've been living for Jesus for 70 years, recaptivate our heart, Lord, a new passion, a new depth. Bring us to a new depth of your love, this week, Lord, that brings us to tears, just some radical encounter. And may that radical encounter become a fragrance that is impossible for others not to recognize, impossible for others not to experience. And God give us boldness to open our mouths and to share the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. We're so grateful that you joined us today. At Victory, we pray big prayers to a big God, and we expect big results. If you would like to receive prayer, you can submit a prayer request by visiting victory.church/pray. If this message or any of our messages have impacted your life and you would like to partner with us through giving, you can do so at victory.church/give. Thank you again for joining us. At Victory Church, we live life to the full. You