When God Speaks | Pastor Brian Aulick | Engedi Church

Amen, you can grab a seat. Man, it's so good to see everybody today at church. It's so good to see all of you. And if we haven't met, my name is Brian and I'm honored, honored, honored to have y'all here today. If it's your first time with us, man, you just need to know like it is our privilege to have you hanging out at En Gedi today. And I just wanna honor, I wanna ask our whole church to honor every first time guest. Can we do that right now? Let's just honor them. We'd love that you're here. I wanna welcome our Grand Rapids campus. I wanna say good morning to En Gedi Español. And today I wanna welcome a very special group of people. And that is all of the incarcerated folks, all the inmates in jails and prisons across the entire country that are joining us through the Pando app. Can we welcome them church? Can we let them know? We are glad you are with us today. We're so honored to share church with you today. I shared this at the beginning of the calendar year that through your Kingdom Builders generosity, for those of you who are part of Kingdom Builders, we're starting to now stream En Gedi services

towards jails and prison, including the West Ottawa, excuse me, not the West Ottawa jail, it's funny, the school system. I don't know if I wanna say that. The Ottawa County Jail, different than West Ottawa schools. We're streaming services also to the Ottawa County Jail, and we're streaming services also to the Kent County Jail, and also jails and prisons across the country. Can I tell you friends, and this is through the Pando app, and can I tell you friends, we've been streaming just for two months, and already more than, our services have been viewed more than 27,000 times. Give God praise for that. We've had 12 people come to know Jesus by watching En Gedi services in prison. God is doing a thing, God is doing a thing. And so if that's you, man, we're so glad. In fact, this week, I got a letter in the mail. At first, I couldn't figure out what this was. I don't get a lot of handwritten letters anymore. I was trying to figure out what it was, and all these different handwriting, and this is all, these are all two pages, are all prayer requests from inmates in a prison in Missouri. And they sent it to our church and said,

we're tuning in, we're watching, we're being encouraged, would you pray for us? Can I tell you in Missouri, we're praying for you, all right? We're praying for you. Every one of these, I prayed for them in Jesus' name. And I was challenged by your prayer requests. Can I say that too? Because so many people, it's like, pray for my comfort, pray that I'd get a job, a job, a new job, pray that I get a promotion. And I'm telling you, prayer request after prayer request. Pray for my friend who doesn't know Jesus. Pray for my spouse on the outside that they'd come to know Christ. Pray for my kids that they discover what I discovered in jail. Pray that my kids would come to know Christ as well. I love these prayers. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We're praying for you. Now, as encouraging as it is to hear how God is using what we're doing in here, in jails and in prisons across the country, we don't want our ministry to those who are incarcerated to just stop at like streaming a service. And so listen, we've got an opportunity. This is really, really cool. Both the Kent County Jail and the Ottawa County Jail asked us in Gettysburg if we could help facilitate

some worship experiences in the jails for inmates, okay? Now, this is a big deal, this is a big deal. Ottawa County, Ottawa County has not allowed live worship, like corporate worship with prisoners since before COVID. It's been more than six years. And Getty Church is the first church they're inviting to come into the jail to help prisoners step in, step into the presence of God. All right, what a privilege, what a privilege. Here's what I need from you. Here's what I need from you. If you know how to sing, you don't have to be awesome. But if you're a singer, if you play an instrument, again, you don't have to be like the most amazing musician ever. If you like to communicate God's word and you've got some facility there, all right, then I would encourage you to stop by the table in the lobby for jail ministry at either Grand Rapids campus or in Holland, all right? We wanna talk with you about what it might look like to serve. And listen, some of you, God's gonna put that on your heart. At least go to the table and learn more. At least take a step to learn more, all right? And listen, by the time you get an opportunity to serve in jail, I wanna tell you this. Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says,

when you visit someone in prison, guess what? You are visiting Jesus himself. Some of you are gonna go into jail to make a difference in someone else's life and you're gonna end up having an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ because you chose to serve in that way. So man, if you hear God talking to you about that, you sing or you can communicate God's word. You don't have to be amazing, all right? But you got a heart for that, just step out and talk to the jail ministry table at the end of the gathering today, that's awesome. The other thing I wanted to share with you is one of the best days of the year here at Engeti Church is when we get to have baptism, celebrating people who have gone from death to life in Jesus Christ. And April 19, we got a baptism coming up. And if you have not yet been baptized as a follower of Jesus, can I tell you, this is your time. You don't have to pray about it, God is telling you to do it. Acts chapter two, it says, "'Repent and be baptized, every one of you.'" Okay? And so I wanna encourage you to take this step. You can go on our website, you can go to the seat tapping in front of you, whatever. Sign up for baptism, it's gonna be an incredible day.

And I wanna give you just a little challenge if I could. Sometimes people are like, well, I don't know if I wanna get baptized. Friends, I think about this often. If Jesus can't trust you to obey to get baptized, what makes you think you're gonna obey him in anything else? All right? Take the step. If you've given your life to Christ, declare it to your church family through baptism, amen? Amen, it's gonna be a great day. Now, today we're gonna continue in a teaching series we've been in called In Sync. And we are looking at how an encounter with Jesus affects our relationship or our connection with the church, which Jesus calls his body. Did you realize that? Jesus said, my body is the local church. My body is when the people of God gather. And I was thinking about this because today I wanna specifically look at what God says we are supposed to be doing when we gather here just like this, when we gather in Grand Rapids, just like they are. What are we supposed to be doing? And I thought about, it'd be interesting if I just grabbed a microphone, a handheld, and I just walked around and I just said, hey, why are you here?

Tell me what you think we're supposed to be doing. And I think I'd go up to somebody over here and they'd say, man, I'm here. And the reason why we're here is we need some encouragement. We got a hard week coming. I came here for some encouragement for a big week on the way. And then I walk over here with my open mic. I'd say, hey, why are you here? And somebody say, man, I came to get spiritually fed, man. I need to get fed here. I want some Bible teaching. That's a good answer, by the way. I'm not making fun of it, okay? And then I walk over here to somebody else. I say, hey, why are you here today? Why'd you come? And you say, man, I am just going through it right now and I don't know if I can go another day. And so I came because I just got, man, I'm just hoping that I can meet somebody that will encourage me. Like I just wanna meet some other Christians who are like, yeah, keep going, keep going. We get all kinds of answers, I think, but here's what I get afraid of. I get afraid of that in all those times I go all over this room with an open mic and I fear that we're gonna miss one of the most important things

that God says is supposed to be happening every single time we gather. And that's what we're gonna look at today, this important thing that's often forgotten, 1 Corinthians 14. If you got a Bible, turn there. Now, I wanna give you some context. Last week, Pastor Jordan did such a great job, 1 Corinthians 13, looking at that famous love chapter that we like to read at weddings all the time. Love is patience, love is kind, love is, you know, all these things, right? It's great, beautiful. I'm gonna sum up Pastor Jordan's message in one sentence. Y'all ready for it? One sentence. You don't even have to go back and watch the video at this point, all right? Listen, you can have all the riches, all the success, all the accomplishments and all the accolades in life, but if you don't love people well, your life don't mount to nothing. There you go. Sermon right in a minute, right there. You're done, okay? That's last week. What the Apostle Paul, who's writing this letter to the Corinthians, what he's gonna do is pick up on that very theme of what it means to love well in chapter 14.

And he says this, follow the way of love and eagerly desire. Somebody say eagerly desire. It's not just casual. It's not just if you're in the mood, you kind of feel like it, whatever. Eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. I wanna pause right there. Listen to what he's saying. A few weeks ago, we talked about spiritual gifts, 1 Corinthians chapter 12. If you missed that sermon, go back and listen. It says this, that every person who gives their life to Jesus Christ is given from God, given by God, a spiritual gift or more than one gift that is supernaturally empowered so you can make a difference in the life of God's people, the church. He gives us each spiritual gifts. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And listen, some of you are still like, I don't know what my gifts are. I don't know how to use them. We have got a workshop coming up. This is so good. We got a workshop coming up on this very subject. And so listen to this. On March 28th, we've got a two-week workshop. Two hour spiritual gifts workshop

here at our Holland location. We've already got 85 people signed up for this thing. It's gonna be so good. If you don't know what your gifts are, you wanna step into them in greater ways, invest in this workshop. Paul says, follow the way of love. If you love people, you're gonna eagerly desire, God, give me gifts from the Spirit. And then he goes on and he really talks about two specific spiritual gifts. Verse two, for anyone, he says, who speaks in a tongue or a language, does not speak to people, but speaks to God. Indeed, no one understands them. They utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies, speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging, and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue, edifies themselves. But the one who prophesies, edifies who? The church. We pause right there, let's pray. And so God, right now, we just wanna ask that you would speak to us. We're not here to play church. We're not here to go through religious motions. We're not here just to sit in a chair so we can say we did church today. We're here to hear from the living God. I pray for those who don't know you yet.

Today would be the day they would come home to you and give their lives to you. I pray for those of us who do that we would not grow weary of doing good, that even today you would increase our faith and expectation that you would speak to us. We come ready, Holy Spirit, and we pray it in Jesus' name and all God's people said. Amen. And so Paul starts out 1 Corinthians 14 and he really starts out by comparing two different spiritual gifts. He wants to compare the gift of prophecy to the gift of speaking in tongues or speaking in other languages. And I wanna talk for just a moment if I could about each one of those gifts. The gift of tongues, the gift of speaking in tongues is when God gives you the ability to communicate with him in a language that you do not personally understand. The gift of tongues, Paul says he is very excited about. In fact, verse 18, the apostle Paul says, I speak in tongues, I pray in tongues more than any of y'all in Corinth. All right, Paul's all about the gift of tongues. Why, why? Because he says the gift of tongues builds us up in our relationship with God.

It builds up our intimacy with him. Now, I know some of you come from backgrounds where you're like, oh, gift of tongues, that's amazing. And everybody's like, that is the weirdest thing I've ever heard, all right. Let me just say this. Number one, it's biblical. Number two, if you desire this gift, I pray and hope you desire this gifts. I mean, the verse one, eagerly desire the gifts of the spirit. I pray you'll desire it. Here's my encouragement to you. If you do desire it, ask God for that gift. Say, God, I would like more of you. I'd like to experience this gift. Number two, spend some extended time in worship sometime. You're just sitting there alone, just saturated in the presence of God. And when you're just overwhelmed with the goodness of God, just start speaking out whatever sounds, syllables, or words come to your mind or heart in that moment, friends. And I believe that for many of us, God will give us the ability to praise him and to talk with him in a language we don't understand. And Paul says, I know some of you are looking at me like, what in the world are you talking about? It's gonna take some faith to step into this. It's gonna take a spiritual risk. And for many of us, no matter what your spiritual gifting,

at first, it's like when you're trying to learn a foreign language for the first time. And you're like, I don't know, did I say Ola, right? Or is it Ola? Or is it Hola? I don't know, right? But you just try by the Holy Spirit and watch as God gives you greater intimacy with him. Are you all with me so far? All right, this is the gift of tongues. And Paul says it builds us up. Now, there's another gift he talks about in this chapter, and he talks about it extensively, which is the gift of prophecy. Prophecy is when led by the Holy Spirit, you speak words that God gives you to a specific person for a specific situation. That's prophecy. Prophecy can happen in a one-on-one kind of environment. Many of you have experienced this. You wouldn't even know to call it prophecy, but you ever had it where you feel like something's on your heart. I just gotta say that to this person. You ever had that? I just feel an impression. I just feel a burden. I just gotta tell them this thing, right? That's prophecy. God's given you a message uniquely for that person.

It can happen in a corporate setting when someone like me right now is speaking under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And you can prophesy in a large corporate setting. So it can be individual or it can be a corporate kind of thing through preaching. But watch this, friends, it's so important. Prophecy builds up the, or excuse me, tongues builds up the individual, but watch this. Prophecy builds up the church. Everybody say the church. Now, I want you to really understand this, all right? Prophecy is not on the same level as the word of God. It's really important we understand that. Prophecy is not on the same level as the scriptures themselves, and this is why the Bible says we need to test prophecy. We need to ask, man, you want a great example of people that are trying to prophesy in the Holy Spirit, but they're kind of getting it wrong? Read Acts 21 sometime. And then they're like, man, by the Holy Spirit, we say this, and the apostle Paul's like, eh, I don't know about that, all right? So that happens, we gotta test prophecy. And listen, if you feel like God's giving you a message, come with a heart of humility because we can get it wrong. Come with, I feel like God might be saying this, all right? And can I just tell you,

when you're testing prophecy, friends, the way you test prophecy is you gotta know your Bible. Read your Bible for yourselves. Don't just take my word for it, read your Bible and see if what that person is saying squares with your word of God. But watch this, the key difference between, again, tongues and prophecy is tongues, generally speaking, builds up your own relationship with God, where the gift of prophecy builds up the church. Verse three says the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening. Everybody say strengthening. Strengthening. For their encouraging, say encouraging. Encouraging. And finally, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their comfort. Somebody say comfort. Comfort. That's what prophecy, it builds up the body. Now, if you've been on the receiving side of being encouraged and built up, by prophecy, you know how valuable this is. I remember there was a season where we were, Christine and I were going through a really tough time in our leadership journey. All right, man, it just felt like super overwhelming, super heavy, super difficult. I know it's hard to believe a pastor

could ever have a hard time leading you guys in the church. All right, I know that's hard to believe, but there are days, trust me. And so we're going through this difficult season. I went out to California to preach at a church in California. And after church, this guy comes up to us, and he said, hey, I feel like God has given me a word to share with you. And this man starts to speak, and I kid you not, it's as if he didn't know any of our story. He didn't know where we were at. He didn't know what we were dealing with back in West Michigan. He didn't know any of that stuff. And I'm telling you, the word he spoke was tailor-made for the situation we were going through. He knew the difficulties, and he spoke God's word, God's hope, God's encouragement, God's strength, and God's promise over us. And can I tell you that prophetic word is everything God used to get us through the following months. God showed up through this man. I wrote down every word he said, and I would come back to it over and over again. God, I remember you said it, friends. Sometimes you feel like somebody's reading your mail. I get people after church, they're like, Pastor, it was like you were in our conversation

on the way to church. That's the Holy Spirit working through the prophesied word. That ain't me, friends, that's the Holy Spirit speaking to you, and that's what I experienced that day. This is the power of when God's people use God's gifts to minister to God's people. Do you see it? God's gifts change lives, church. And by the way, any time you're withholding your gifts, you're withholding impacting somebody else's life for Jesus. This is the power of God's gifts. They impact real lives, and this is why Paul would begin this passage in verse one by saying, if you love people, you will say, God, give me every spiritual gift you can give me and strengthen the ones I already have. That's how he starts. Now, the big question that Paul is wrestling with in this text is not actually what is the difference between the gift of speaking in tongues and the gift of prophecy. The big question he's wrestling with in the text is what is the place of those respective gifts when we gather for church like we're doing right now? And so that's what he really starts to tackle, verse 22. He says in verse 22, tongues then are assigned not for believers but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers.

And so if the whole church comes together and everyone's speaking in tongues and inquires or unbelievers come in, will they not say, you are out of your mind? I don't know if Paul meant it like that, but that's how I think of him saying it. You are out of your mind. But if an unbeliever or inquirer comes in, again, church right here he's talking about, while everyone is prophesying, speaking words of God, they are convicted of sin and brought under judgment by all as the secret of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, God is really among you. Now, I wanna talk about these verses. Verse 22 is a little confusing. Verse 22 seems like it is saying exactly the opposite of what all the verses that follow it say. And scholars have different ways of helping us understand verse 22, but suffice it to say, the bottom line, any time you are interpreting the Bible is that context is king. Everybody say context is king. And so in the context here, what is actually quite clear is the Apostle Paul is saying most of the time, the gift of tongues is a private gift. It's a personal gift, whereas he says the gift of prophecy is a corporate gift

and it is for public use. Why does he make this distinction? It's very simple. Paul's argument is this. If you walk, if an unbeliever walks into church today and everybody is up in here speaking in tongues, they're gonna be like, what in the world did I just walk into? That's the argument in the text. Now, this might sound theoretical to some of you. I've had this experience. When I was not yet a believer, I was invited to go to a church and I met everybody speaking in tongues in this church. All right? I'd not heard of that gift. I had not given my life to Jesus Christ yet. I walk in and people are speaking in things they don't even understand. And I am like, what kind of crazy did I just step into? I literally, I'm like, this sounds like some kind of spiritual cult that just is like tripping on LSD at the same time. I don't even know. I'm out of here. All right? That was my reaction. This is what Paul's bringing up. He's saying like, man, if everybody is speaking in tongues,

unbeliever are gonna come in. They're gonna like, this is crazy stuff. But he says, watch this. He said, when people prophesy, it's different. When there's truth from God being spoken. Now watch this. Unbelievers, some of you today, this is you. Unbelievers can hear what God is saying and they can have a response and encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. And so Paul is so passionate about prophecy. He's passionate about it because it builds up believers and he's passionate about it because when people speak truths from God, unbelievers can hear from him. Now I wanna step back here and I wanna ask the question that I started with. What are we supposed to be doing when we gather for church like this? When you come in here for church, what's a biblical expectation that you ought to have? And I think sometimes we miss the one thing that God is very clear about in this text. I wanna make three observations from chapter 14. Number one is this. Unbelievers are absolutely expected to be present every time the church gathers that they might be able to experience the word of God and even God himself. Did you hear that church?

Every time we gather, this is not a holy huddle in here, bunch of Christians just hanging out with each other. Every time we gather, we fully expect and welcome those of you who are skeptics, cynics, backsliders, question askers. I think the whole thing is made up and it's just an imaginary fantasy. Whatever you are, we welcome you here. I just wanna say, can I just say something? On behalf of all of Vengeti Church and every Christian in this place, we wanna honor every unbeliever who's here today. We wanna say, you've got a seat at the table. You can be part of this house before you believe in Jesus. We love that you're here, all right? That's what we're seeing in the text. And I know, listen, I know some of us, this is not how we grew up when it came to church. Like when you grew up coming to church, it was the holy huddle to the extreme. Everybody else speaking in Christianese, sanctification, justification, glorification, ramifications, I don't know what you're saying, all right? They're all talking like it's inside. I was, years back, years back, listen. There was this really popular, massive worship gathering that would happen in West Michigan on Sunday nights. And what would happen is Christians from all over the place would come in to be part of this thing. And it was cool, I'm not gonna lie, all right?

It was cool. I went to it multiple times. And the moment you walked in the door, the moment you walked in the door, they would start the song, the first song, and I'm telling you what, everybody's hand in the room was raised up. And they just went all in for worship. They were ready to be in the presence of Jesus. They were ready to lift him up for all he is worth. Man, it was powerful. And so about that time, a dude from my church came up to me. He's like, pastor, pastor, pastor, you've been to this Sunday night worship gathering. I was like, yeah. So all these people, they usually almost always went to church in the morning at their own church and they came out to this thing Sunday night. He's like, yeah, you've been there. I said, yeah. It's awesome, isn't it? I was like, yeah. He's like, did you notice? From the moment they start singing, the people in the background are just like, whatever. People in the background, let's go. I was like, yeah. He goes, pastor, I pray our church would be exactly like that. You know what I said?

I don't. Dude's like, what? I was like, yeah, I don't pray for that. In fact, I'd ask you not to pray for that. Bro looked at me with such confusion in that moment. It was a combination of I don't understand you slash you should probably get fired. Okay, that was about what came at me in that moment. And I said, let me explain myself. On the other side of this life in eternity, that worship gathering is gonna be what heaven looks like. Every person who's there knows Jesus, loves Jesus, and is so clear about the glory of Jesus that they will have no option but to fall on their faces before the risen savior and say, God, you are worthy of my worship. But I said on this side of heaven, my Bible says we are supposed to have people who don't believe in Jesus in the church. My Bible says it's supposed to be a hospitable atmosphere for people of any background, even the ones who most doubt the whole thing that they're gonna be. And can I tell you, church, that's the church in Getty inspires to be. We wanna be a place that says, come one, come all. You might not believe in anything about Jesus, but we want you to have a seat at the table. And I love that, I love that picture. Now, listen, for that to be the case,

for me to be able to look out right now and to know this room is filled with people who haven't yet given their life to Jesus, it presumes one very important thing about you if you're a Christian. It presumes that the gospel has done a deep enough work on you that the stakes of heaven and hell are weighty enough for you, that you are moved to invite spiritually lost people to this church. Can I just tell somebody today, spiritually lost people don't just randomly show up at church. They show up when those of us who know Jesus and who know that he died on a cross for our sins and is in the process of transferring our lives are so moved by grace that we are not willing to contain grace, but rather we are compelled to invite other people in to what we experienced. That's how people show up at church. Let me just say, this is a word of challenge to some of you. If you look at your life and you never talk about your faith and you never invite anybody into church, you need to ask if you actually know what it means to follow Jesus at all if you're a Christian. Because my Bible says that when people experience, truly experience the life-changing transformation, grace of God, forgiveness of Christ, they cannot help but to have it overflow

to somebody else who doesn't know it. We can't even keep a good restaurant to ourselves. How are you gonna keep the grace of Jesus to yourself, church? A couple weeks ago, I got done preaching and I'm on Instagram, sitting on my sofa at home, just like chilling. And I saw I'm going through the messages and this dude messages me. And he's like, hey, thanks so much for En Gedi Church. I was like, ah, that's a good message to get on a Sunday, right? I said, oh man, it's awesome. Yeah, thanks for sending that message. Yeah, I said, what makes you say that? And he's like, I'm so grateful for En Gedi because I'm not a church person. I've not been a church background person. That's not my story. It's not my history. But he said, I've been coming to En Gedi Church. And he said, in the process of coming to En Gedi Church, I've heard about God and I've encountered the life transforming power of Jesus. And I just wanna tell you, Brian, I don't know how I would get through what I'm going through right now if I didn't have En Gedi Church and if I didn't have Jesus Christ, all right? That's his message to me.

How many of you know you just got done preaching? That's a nice message to hear. I'm like, that's encouraging. Thank you for sharing that. And so after a few more texts, you know, I'd step back for a minute. I thought to myself, I wonder how this guy showed up at En Gedi in the first place. So I'm like, I get back on and so I'm like, yo, one more question. How do we even show up at En Gedi? That's how I put it. And he said, here's what he said. He said, check this out. He's like, I work out at the yard gym. And he said, ever since I've been working out at the yard gym, and this is a quote from him directly. So many people from En Gedi who go to that gym have said, you've gotta come with me to church so that you can have an encounter with the presence of God. He said, so many people have had a heart for me as someone who is far from God, that they said, come on and sit with me. Come on and join me at church and can I tell you, it's those invitations that change this man's life. And I'll tell you what, like I text back to him and he said that and I was like, I was all real chilly, you know, like, like, you know, you wanna be like, oh, that's cool, man, you know, something like that. In my heart, I'm like, let's go, let's go, everybody.

Let's go, Yard Gym people, let's go. Your life has been transformed by Jesus enough that you're not willing to keep the gospel to yourself, you're compelled to go to your gym and while you're bench pressing, you're like, come with me to church because there's someone stronger than these muscles and it is Jesus, I love it. Way to go, inviters, way to go, inviters, way to go, inviters. That's what we're supposed to be about. This is a crazy stat, you know, research has been done on unchurched people. Did you know that unchurched people, that 80, there's so much research here. 86% of unchurched people say they'd be willing to go to church if someone just invited them. 86, you realize the implications for that, right? It means most of the people that you're working with, most of the people that you live next door to, most of the people that you're sitting in a classroom with, most of them would say yes to coming with you to church if you would just ask them. Now, I recognize sometimes it takes multiple asks because it's a lot easier to put, yes, I'll go to church on a survey than it is actually you show up on the door. But can I just tell you, friends, most of the people out in our community, they're just waiting for someone to say,

hey, you ought to come with me. Now, what day is a good day to invite somebody? What Sunday is a good day to invite somebody to church? Every Sunday is. But we've got one particular Sunday coming up that's an especially good opportunity. Anybody know what it is? Yeah, Easter, can you say it a little bit louder, please? All right, Easter. Now, this is one of the best days of the year to hear about the life-transforming message of Jesus. And we gave you these cards, these little invitations. These are at your seat. You got these, you got these, right? If you didn't get one, they're more at the info table. Can I just give you a little tip here? This is like a pro tip. Invitations to Easter are not for you. We're not like, oh, we better print some cards so Christians forget about, don't forget about Easter. Okay, we really, hopefully you know. These are for you to invite people. Some of you are like, yeah, but you don't understand, Pastor, I'm gonna be on spring break and somewhere, blah, blah, blah, over Easter. So what? Invite somebody to church anyway. We don't care if you're here, all right? Invite them, invite them, and they can hear about Jesus, all right?

That's not an excuse. Now, we're going ahead of you a little bit on this one this year, doing something we've never done before. Listen to this. This week, these coming next days, we are sending out mailers to more than 119,000 households all the way in greater Grand Rapids, all of Hudsonville, Zealand, and Holland. They're all gonna get invitations to Engedi Church, but how many of you know, you'll still need to be that face-to-face invitation, right, church? Can we do that, everybody? Can we fill the house this Easter with people who are far from God? Let's fill the house and let's see what God does with it. First thing we learned from 1 Corinthians 14, man, we just expect people who don't believe in Jesus are gonna be hanging out with us on Sundays, all right? That's number one. Now, let me tell you something else that this text tells us. It tells us that spoken words, watch this, spoken words from God are an absolutely crucial way that God changes people's lives. Listen to the text. I love this, verse 24. When unbelievers hear prophecy, they hear the spoken words of God, they're convicted of sin.

They're brought under judgment by all as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. That's powerful. I've preached thousands of messages since I've been a pastor. I've preached on every topic you can possibly, I've preached on goal setting, I've preached on marriage, I've preached on time management, I've preached on purpose in life, I've preached on sex, I've preached on just about everything you can imagine. There's one theme, one through line through every message I've ever preached here at Getty. You know what it is? It's the message that you and I are hopelessly, desperately broken sinners who are badly in need of a perfect savior and his name is Jesus. That's the message that comes through every single sermon. Sometimes you're like, man, it seems like no matter what Sunday it is, she talks about Jesus. Yeah. That's what we do here at Getty. And it shocks me that no matter how long I've been doing this and no matter what. The topic is, can I tell you when you talk about Jesus, Jesus changes lives. I've had messages where I'm walking in

and it's like a stewardship, like a money stewardship message. Friends, when I preach about money, sometimes I'm like, I can't even get the Christians to like what Jesus says about money, much less the unbelievers. And I'm like, they're gonna wanna walk out, they're gonna be like, oh my gosh, first time I visit church and they're talking about money again. And so I talk about money, I talk about tithing, I talk about putting God first, all that stuff. And I'm thinking people are gonna be disconnected. And then I give an invitation at the end. Last time I did this, 25 people gave their lives to Jesus when I was preaching about money. What in the world? Why does that happen? Because Isaiah chapter 55, God says, the word of God does not return void. The word of God, when it goes out, will accomplish its purpose. Whether that's being spoken on a microphone or spoken in a one-on-one conversation with words God gives you, when he has something to say and we say it, guess what, God does something with it. Amen, church? That's the power of the word of God. Man, some of us, we gotta have more faith and confidence

that God's word will actually do what he says it will. Some of you, God spoke something to encourage somebody. In your heart, he gave you something to strengthen somebody. And you're sitting on it. Well, no, I'm just waiting for the right time, pastor, the perfect time. Wait for the golden hour, sun to just hit right. Just got a promotion that week. Just finished a steak at Crazy Horse. And I'm just gonna soft-serve that sucker right to him, that word, all right? But I'm waiting for the perfect, listen, when you're making sure that everything's just right for the word you've got, you're placing more confidence in your ability and how you deliver that word than the word itself. The word's power, the power is not in your delivery, the power is in the fact that the word came from God. So just quit holding on to it. Let's believe that God's given us a word that has power. We do the same thing with church invitation, you realize that, don't you? People are always like, oh yeah, I got a friend at work, man, and she is like, I know she needs Jesus so much. I'm just waiting for the right Sunday, pastor, to invite her. Wait for that one time you say, this week's message is going out to people in their 30s who are left-handed,

who like asparagus, and they're struggling with their mental health. Man, I'm gonna bring her that day, pastor, that's the right day, all right? Come on, friends. Every day has the power and privilege and potential to change someone's life because every single Sunday at Engeti, the word of God is preached and the word of God will not return void. It always fulfills the purposes that God has for it. You say, which Sunday is a good Sunday to invite him? I say every Sunday is a good Sunday to invite him. Let's have some faith and confidence that God's word is still doing its work, amen? Amen. Can you guys handle one more point? I mean, that's my question right now. Can you handle one more point? So first, what's supposed to happen in church? We're supposed to see people who aren't believers here every single Sunday. Number two, when we gather for church like this, words from God need to be spoken to people. Words that reach lost people and build up the found. And then the third thing I wanna say to you today, the clearest sign that the word of God is doing its work is when the people respond in worship. You wanna know, is the word of God landing in your life? Is the word of God landing in your friend

who's an unbeliever's life? The clearest sign of knowing if the word of God is penetrating, it's more than just some stuff we heard or thought about, it's hit the heart. The reason why you know or the way you know that it is finally is when you are compelled to worship Jesus after you've heard the word. First Corinthians 14, verse 24. If an unbeliever or inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and they are brought under judgment by all as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. And then listen to this next sentence. So they will fall down and they will worship God. And they will exclaim, God is really among you. Somebody shout out, God is here. Again, God is here. That's the response when the word is going out. People hear that word and they're. convicted, and here's what happens, that they're convicted of their sin, and they realize there's no way I can earn my way to God. There's no way I can stack up enough good deeds that somehow it gets bigger than my bad deeds, and then God says, welcome in. There's no way I can be nice enough for God. There's no way I can be West Michigan enough for God,

all right? It's all gonna fall short. I am condemned to hell apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, and not only do they hear about the warnings of God, but they hear about the promises of the gospel. They hear about a God who loves them. They hear about a Jesus who died for them. They hear about a Jesus who rose three days later, and after they hear all those things, and they give their lives to Jesus, they fall down in worship because they can't believe a God would be so good as to rescue a sinner like them. That's why the clearest sign of a receipt of the word is worship, amen, church? Amen. Amen. Man, the reason why we gotta be, sometimes people are like, yeah, but that's talking about an unbeliever, not a believer. If an unbeliever who just came to know Christ has that much reason to fall down in worship, how much more for all of us who experienced the grace of Christ for two, three, 10, 20 years? We've gone from death to life. We've gone from darkness to light. We've gone from an eternity apart from God to an eternity where we're living for God, for his kingdom, and for his glory, and can I say, if you got the breath of God in your lungs, and if you've been rescued by Jesus Christ,

you've got every reason to give God praise. You've got every reason to say, thank you, God, for the Holy Spirit. Thank you, God, for being patient with me. Thank you for forgiving my sins. Thank you for giving me spiritual gifts. Thank you for giving me a mission. Thank you for reconciling my relationships. Thanks for setting me free from sin. Thanks for healing me, God. Anybody got a reason to praise God today? Anybody got a reason? Thank you, God, I couldn't do it on my own. Thank you, God. That's how you know the word is getting through. It's not, oh, that was interesting, let's go eat. It's, I'm compelled to worship my Jesus after it. That's why it grieves me when I see people walking out at the end, early, because they're like, oh, let's beat traffic and leave early. Nobody in here ever do that, though, honestly, no. Oh, let's scoot out early so we can get to lunch faster. It makes me sad. Because it tells me the word hasn't done its work fully. Because you got time for barbecue, you just don't have time to worship Jesus. But can I tell you, that's not gonna stop us in here today, uh-uh. We left some time in this service

because I wanted to spend some extra time in worship today. I don't want to just end with, we end every service with what we call response time. The reason why we do this is not so, oh, let's have a nice musical bookend to the end of the service. We do this because after we've heard the word of God preached, after we've heard the grace of God declared, we know we need to let the people respond in worship of Jesus. But today, I don't want just a little short, I want us to go all in for the presence of Jesus, all right? And I want us to give God the glory he's due. So that's what we're gonna do in just a moment. But before we do that, I'm gonna pray for you. So let's bow our heads, let's seek the face of God. God, thank you today. I know you're speaking right now. I know the Holy Spirit is doing his work. You're speaking to believers, you're speaking to unbelievers. Maybe you're here today and you haven't given your life to Jesus yet. You're in that unbeliever category, but you sense something's going on in your heart. Maybe even that you thought you were a Christian, but all you were actually was churchy. That's two different things. You've never really put your trust in Jesus

as the true savior of your sins and the absolute leader of your life. And can I just tell you, if that's you, God brought you here because it's time to give your life to Christ. It's time to step into the love of God the Father. And so in just a moment, I'm gonna count to three. And when I say three, I'm gonna ask you to put your hand up high in the air if you wanna give your life to Christ today. When I say three, I'm gonna ask you to put your hand up in the air as a way of declaring today is the day, and in this moment, Jesus, I'm giving my life to you. And I'm not gonna embarrass you. It's a chance for you to declare in that fashion with raised hand, today is the day. I'm trusting in Jesus as the savior and the leader of my life that I could spend eternity with him. One, God loves you so much, Jesus, died on a cross for your sins. Two, the same Jesus who died on a cross was raised to life three days later so that he could defeat death, and he could defeat the devil, and he could defeat sin. And three, if you are here today and you wanna give your life to Jesus, put your hand in the air right now.

Declare it with raised hand. I see hands going up. All over this room, anybody else who's saying, today is my day, today is my day, I wanna give my life to Jesus Christ. I see hands all over, good job. All over this room, I'm sure they're in GR, maybe even in jail right now. Put your hand up in jail cell right now and praise Jesus, give Him trust right now. Give Him your trust. You can put your hands down. God, thank you, thank you, thank you for all those who just gave their lives to you. They are now children of God through the work of the Lord Jesus. Thank you, Father. Staying in this place of prayer, I wanna pray for you Christians. I wanna pray for me. Some of us need to do some confessing on a message like this. Some of us need to confess that we have not loved people well enough that we have eagerly desired spiritual gifts from God. Some of us need to confess we know what our spiritual gifts are, but we haven't put them into any kind of use in the church. We're just Christian consumers, we're not contributors. And others of us have to confess

that our compassion and love for those who don't yet know Jesus has grown cold and we haven't invited people to church in maybe a long time. And so, Father, we just wanna say right now, for every place we've held our gifts from the body of Christ, maybe we haven't even desired to have more gifts, we just wanna say we're sorry, God, in this moment, I wanna pray that you would distribute your gifts to your people. I pray that those who already have gifts would be strengthened in those gifts. And I pray, Father, that you would give us even more and new spiritual gifts, not for our sake, but for yours, not for our sake, but that we might build up the people of God, that they would be strengthened, that they would be encouraged, and they would be comforted. In Jesus' name, we pray. I pray for those of us who have grown cold to lost people. And it's been a long time since we've invited anyone to church. We're just gonna say, God, we're sorry. We know your heart is to leave the 91 just to reach the one. And God, I pray that even in this moment, you would put names and faces of the people that you are calling us to invite to church this Easter.

Right now, Lord, would you speak to people, give us a burden, give us a compassion, give us a love for those people that we would have the boldness, conviction, and courage to say, would you jump into church on Easter Sunday? And we pray as a church at every location, we pray that these houses of worship would be absolutely filled on Easter Sunday with people who do not know you, who on that very day will have an encounter with Jesus, will move from death to life, and will follow you for the rest of our days. We pray for miracles of salvation on Easter, and we ask it in faith, in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, amen and amen. Can we celebrate new life? All kinds of people taking a step today. All kinds of people taking a step. Now, listen, if you just took a step to Jesus and you had your hand raised, if you'd like a Bible, and if you'd like a book that helps you get started in your journey with Christ, then that's what these folks in the blue shirts have, all right, so they're gonna walk by, just wave to them if you would, wave to them. I wanna encourage you, get that Bible, get the book, and also fill out the card and turn it in before you leave. I personally wanna text you this week, and I just wanna encourage you and say good job, all right?

So stand to your feet, everybody, stand to your feet. Wave to those guys in the blue shirts if you need a Bible, all right? Wave to them, get their attention. They'll send one down to you, all right? Wave to them if you need it. Now, listen, I said this whole time, the way that we know that the word has been received is when we worship Jesus afterwards, and so this isn't gonna be a short little worship, all right? This is a chance for you to say, God, I'm giving you my very best, and how many of you know that's all he's worthy of is your very best? And so some of you, like, it's all constraining in those chairs, and if you want, you can move around, all right? If you want, you can come up front. If you want, you can kneel down. I like being in the front row. I can kneel down whenever I want, and I'm not getting in anybody's way, and I just got freedom to move around. So I wanna just encourage, while we worship, you wanna move, you wanna be in the aisles, you wanna just, here's what matters most, that you heard the word of God, and now we're gonna lift up the name of Jesus. Amen, church?

Let's worship Jesus today.