Working Together to Impact Our Neighborhoods and Cities

Oh, wow. How did we get going with ESL? Well, I got going when really involved when the church was doing it at the Community Outreach Center up on Mustang Drive. So I got involved because I saw an opportunity to do something that Gail was doing, and so she was doing ESL. They needed administrators. Our goal as a setup team is to make it so that the teachers can come in. They don't have to do all the administrative stuff. We give them their attendance rosters. They have their books, the classroom set up, and they can just go. So we try and take some of the painful stuff of setup out of the equation for them. My background is a service health industry service background as an occupational therapist, and so I have kind of the ability to know how to break things down, to be able to teach to other people new ideas, new thoughts, new skills. Gail has gotten really involved with people's lives that she's met in ESL. She's taught, I can't even count the number of people she's taught to drive, and she's taught their kids to swim. We've gotten kids from Egypt who didn't know how to navigate the American system. She helped them figure out how to get into high school, and later on, how many kids have you helped get into college and go on college visits? I don't know, several. All that started with relationships that were built in ESL. Now, that's what makes her tick is helping people in that way. So what ESL means to me, I think it's a serving opportunity that gives me an opportunity to use some skills that I have in administration to help people learn English and learn about our culture. Not only the opportunity like Rick just mentioned, but also opportunity for other people to learn and be able to better function in this country. Yeah, so we see ESL as an opportunity to serve our community. I love that 121 sits between an affluent community and a lower-income community that allows us to bring those communities together and serve as a body of Christ. And we don't look at it as we're serving that neighborhood, we're serving with that neighborhood. I hope the mission moments continue to be helpful for you if you're newer to 121. We started in January through a series called Scent. It's moving us through the year. We've been thinking about things globally, church planting, people we dislike. Now we're thinking about our neighborhoods and cities. And each week, we've tried to show someone that we're partnering with at 121 that you might want to be involved with, perhaps, if God stirs

your heart to be a part of it, and different ministries that are moving throughout our city and through our neighborhood. ESL is a fantastic opportunity for those who might have an interest that direction. And Rick and Gail would be great ones to talk to. We'd be glad to introduce you to them if you would have an interest in that regard. For many of you, you've had a college student that is headed off for the first time, or most are probably already gone by now. I don't think everybody's quite started, but we're well on our way. And then school has started for everyone, whoever has school-aged children or grandchildren, and you know what's happening. We think about school beginning. But Nick West is one of our leaders of a group of boys that he's been leading in a life group for a season of time now. And three other high school seniors who are now college freshmen have been working with Nick and the other men who are leading these boys. And they've led them, I believe, for the last three years. And interestingly, think about our high school and middle school students who so often are volunteering to serve on Sunday mornings. I was with a friend that pastors a church in Flower Mound a few weeks ago, and he made the statement, he said, 45% of our leaders for our children and kids are middle and high schoolers. I don't know what we would do if our middle and high school students were not stepping in and serving and leading our children. And I don't know what the percentage is of our students, but I know it's a high percentage who serve in our preschool creation lane and our 121 kids. But Nick asked those seniors as they were about to take off, a question he said, if you could say something to your seventh grade self, what would you say? And there were a number of responses that they gave. I want to highlight one of those this morning. And one of those students said, do hard things and fight decisions based on fear of failure. Do hard things and fight decisions based on fear of failure. I love that that's what he said. And it reminded me of a conversation I had this week. with another guy who was talking about Marcus Freeman, the coach of Notre Dame, their football team. And his whole mantra at Notre Dame is do hard things. If there's anything that you can do the hard way, do it the hard way, don't take the easy way. Develop a hard things kind of mentality.

If you can take the stairs instead of the elevator, take the stairs. Just whatever it is, do the harder thing. And that develops a mental toughness in doing the hard kind of thing. And then don't be afraid of failure. I love that that's what this student said. And I thought this so epitomized Nehemiah. And if we think about Nehemiah, this is a man willing to do the hard thing and not a man afraid of failing as he launched into what he believed God opened the door for him. So if you're turning your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter three, and as you do that, I wanna read a scripture that's not on the screen that I listened to this week on my YouVersion of the Bible app. And I had not lingered on this one before. And I was thinking about these students that Nick talked about. And in 1 John 2.14, this is what John said. He said, I've written to you young men, because you're strong and the word of God abides in you. And you've overcome the evil one. I'm so grateful that at 121, we continue through creation land, 121 kids, our students, launching out students into the school systems and wherever they are, and when they head off to college, that we can say about our young men

that we have so many young men that we just say to them, you're strong, you're abiding in God's word, and you've overcome the evil one. And will you continue to pray that God will raise up generations of students that flow out of here and out of the church as a whole, that will be young men that when they read 1 John 2.14, that they would know that's being said about them, that they're strong in the word, they're abiding in the word, and they're overcoming the evil one. That's a beautiful thing when we see God doing that kind of work in our young men. When Nehemiah, we've been thinking about the first couple of chapters, in the first chapter we see Nehemiah becoming aware of what's going on in Jerusalem, the wall is ruined, the people are not safe, God burns his heart for it, he starts to pray, and he asks God for favor with the king so that he might have the opportunity to go and be a help to rebuilding the wall. In chapter two, God gives him favor, he opens the door for him. Nehemiah did not try to kick the door down, he did not try to force the door open, he walked through the open door that God gave him, and he went through it immediately. We see him in chapter two, launching off to Jerusalem,

inspecting what he'd been told, and now we find ourselves in chapter three. Chapter three is interesting, because it actually shows the completion of the building of the wall. So think about those movies, or that crime show that you watch, where they show you the completion and what happens up front, and then they tell the story. But you already know how it's going to end. Chapter three is the rebuilding of the wall, we know it happens. And then we see some of the details of what happened while they were rebuilding the wall in the ensuing chapters. That's where we find ourselves in chapter three. I wanna read from Romans 15 to encourage us as to one of the reasons among many why we would hang out in these Old Testament stories. In Romans chapter 15, verse four, it says, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. So we lean into books of the Bible like Nehemiah to be encouraged, and that we might have hope, that we might see leaders today like Nehemiah, energetic, leaning in to God,

and saying, send me, I'm ready to go. And that we might have hope when we find ourselves in hard spots, and that we might have encouragement to walk through those and do the things, the hard things that God might call us to or invite us to be a part of. Now one of the things that Jesus said for all of us as we think about Nehemiah and we move toward and through the New Testament as it points to Christ and then launch into 2026, what is it that Jesus said to us? He said, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. It's teaching that we might observe. So what do we see there? We call that the Great Commission. That's for every follower of Jesus. When we think about being sent, we are sent to make disciples. What is a disciple? It's someone that says yes to Jesus. It's the little boy and the man that just was baptized that we just watched. They became disciples. They trusted Jesus. They're followers of Jesus.

Now they've followed in obedience to Jesus and they're baptized. And now we're teaching. They've been taught, they'll continue to be taught. And not taught just so that we can gain information. Taught to observe. Taught to do it. So we take what we know and we do it. And we do it with the presence of Christ in us through his Holy Spirit. When we think about being sent, that's the message that we take when we're sent. We're thinking this fall about our neighborhoods and our cities. Our neighborhoods where we live, where we work, where we play. All of us live in a city. Our neighborhood is in a city. Each of us probably has multiple neighborhoods. And we're asking God, how do you want to send us into the neighborhoods where you've placed us? How do you want us to move through those neighborhoods? Now oftentimes, we might end up in a neighborhood that we didn't bargain for. It's not the one we were interested in. So I mentioned last week that Joe Sanchez, our executive pastor, for years now, he's over our worship. That he was admitted to the hospital, placed in ICU. And he continues to be in ICU this week. Had a good turn on Friday,

and yesterday had a bad turn last night. And so what I would ask you, please, is to bear down and continue to pray for him and for his family. However God would prompt you to do that. We are leaning desperately into God to turn this for good. And so if you'd join me in that, that would be fantastic. And I know many of you have. But I also want to tell you something about Joe. Joe's in a neighborhood he didn't plan on being in for the last two weeks. And he's intubated, he can't talk, but he can write. And he's sitting there with his eyes half closed, and he's writing on a notepad and communicating with everybody that comes through. And one of the things that he's doing is inviting the nurses to the 4 p.m. That's not the neighborhood Joe wants to be in, it's not the neighborhood we want him in. But while he's in the neighborhood, he's still sent. We can be about Matthew 28, no matter what neighborhood we find ourselves in, no matter how dire it is, or no matter how good it is. We can all be about making disciples, baptizing, teaching in the power of Christ today. Now, one thing I do that could be a mistake is I share stories with you. I'm just living my faith out in real time with you. And those are the kinds of things I share.

And my memory's not that great, so I mostly tell stories from the week before, because I don't remember anything beyond that. But I just want you, our faith is living and real and active and we're all in a movement every day living out our faith. And I try to share things to be an encouragement, but I'm afraid sometimes the way I share stories might be more of a discouragement, because I often tell about sharing the gospel with person X, that person that's on the airplane, that person that's in the hot tub, that person that I have never met. The reality is all of us have this huge sphere of influence. Family, friends, people we work with. If you were to take the time to write them down, you have hundreds of people in your sphere of influence. I've been following Jesus for 40 plus years. And God has given me the opportunity to share the gospel with my family, my relatives, my friends. I'm kind of beyond those immediate spheres. And then when my boys graduated high school, I lost all these opportunities. I had them for a season. I'm pretty fired up about the whole grandkid thing because it's about to open up new opportunities. But God's given me new neighborhoods since then. But oftentimes my neighborhood is the person X. That may not be yours. And it might feel like you have to do this by yourself

if you just hear the way I tell a story. figured out how to have people with me in one-on-one conversation people want to meet. I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm trying to figure out for years because I think being with someone is the very best way to catch it. But what I can do today is say there are so many among you that are doing this and I would rather tell your stories. I want you to share stories with me. I'd rather tell your stories of what God is doing and where I want us to land in Nehemiah 3 is I want you to see today this is not a one-person effort. This is about groups working together. So when we talk about sharing the gospel, when we talk about serving, we talk about doing these things, we can do them as groups. We don't have to do it as one person but I'm afraid I always tell things it sounds like it's just one person doing it. And I will tell things about my wife but she hates the attention so I try not to tell too many of those. But we can do this together in groups. What is your neighborhood group? Where do you live? Where is your common interest kind of groups? And where is those places that you might play and work and think about common interests? And that's what I want to think about today is how do we work together in impacting our neighborhoods and cities? We'll draw from chapter 3. If you do through the Bible plans, you might get to chapter 3 of Nehemiah and say, oh this is going to go quick today because it's a bunch of names and we tend to blow through the names. And yet there's significance in history and family and insight when we look at the names. And I just like to skip around in chapter 3 this morning and look at different ways that we can be encouraged to work together to impact our neighborhoods and our cities. They're impacting the city of Jerusalem. How can we do it? And the first idea is to team up with common interest groups. Team up with common interest groups. Chapter 3 verse 1. Then Elisha the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the sheep gate. They consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the tower of the hundred and the tower of Hananel. Now if you read verse 1, that's the vibe of the next 31 verses after it. It will be names and there will be a little bit of something said. Most of it will sound the same. However, we can go mining for nuggets throughout this and we find some really rich things happening. Now Eliashib is the high priest at the time. He's actually the grandson of the priest when Zerubbabel, who brought the first wave of exiles into Jerusalem after the exile, he's the grandson of that high priest. There is a richness. Courtney Chandler, who leads our

kids, she said to my wife the other day, she was just at a conference, she said, do you know who the most influential people are in a kid's life? Hopefully we all know the answer to that question. It's the parents. Do you know who the second most influential people are in a child's life? Grandparents. I'm guessing Eliashib was influential in his grandson, who now is the high priest. There's a spiritual legacy that he left for his grandson. So when we think about these common interest groups, we're gonna think about family in a moment. Just wanted to tuck that away in that part of verse one. But here we have the high priest with his brothers, the priests. So the common interest group is the priests and they are at the sheep gate. Now this is one of the things Nehemiah does. If you're a business person, you could really do a fantastic study through Nehemiah and lead people in your business through Nehemiah. There are ideas and principles here. There are beautiful principles to work through. It's in regular everyday business today. But one of the things that Nehemiah did is brilliant is he put the different groups at the section of the wall that would matter to them the most. He didn't simply place them in different spots and he said, well, this doesn't have any interest to them. He put them primarily in places would be interesting to them and would be of interest. The sheep gate is where the sheep were brought in to market. They would be sold and then they would be used as sacrificial lambs. This was near the temple. This is where the priests worked. This would be a meaningful spot for them to build a section of the wall. There are 40 sections to the wall that are built by different groups of people. So it's this teamwork. It's this interweaving of different groups that are coming together for one big project. In verse four, next to them, Merrimoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Haccoth made repairs. Place that verse in here just to get us to that word repairs. It's a very common word through chapter three, and it means to make firm or strong. So when we know what a repair is, sometimes they're rebuilding a part of the wall because it was so destroyed. Other times they're repairing it, making it firm or strong.

In verse eight, next to him, Uziel, the son of Horiah, the goldsmiths, made repairs. So now we have the goldsmiths that are working together. And next to him, Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs. So it's the goldsmiths and the perfumers. In verse 17, it's the Levites who carried out repairs. In verse 22, it's the priests again. And then in verse 26, it's the temple servants that are living in Ophel. And then in verse 32, between the upper room of the corner and the sheep gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants carried out repairs. So the common interest groups in this particular chapter are business trades or religious responsibilities. And they each have a part of the wall. And there at the end, the goldsmiths and the merchants, they're all carrying out their repairs. The sheep gate is where it begins in the descriptor. The sheep gate is where it concludes in the scripture. He worked counterclockwise around the wall. What would our groups be? What about where you work? Are there any other believers, any other Christians where you work that might have an interest in seeing lost people at work hear the message of Jesus and know Jesus? Could you get a group of people that are interested in lost, I'm not talking about gathering up

just for another Bible study, that has its purpose. Everything has its purposes. I'm talking about are there any people that have a heart to see people know Jesus and are willing to express it and are willing to pray to that end? So could you get a few people, maybe it's you and another, maybe it's just you to start. And could you with the other people who have the common interest of the job that you're in team up together to pray, be like Nehemiah, be aware of needs, and be willing to be sent and to serve? From a common interest side, are there any other parents on the team that your child is on right now that has an interest in seeing other parents on the team and their kids come to know Christ? Could you with one or two of those parents start praying together with them for the rest of the parents and players on the team and see if God opens the door? Remember, we're not trying to force the door open or kick the door down. We're just asking God to open the door. And what if together, where two or three are gathered, what if together we prayed to that end? I've been wanting to do this for a while I've been wanting to do this for a while at the gym and this prompted me to get it done this week. So I've put together a thread, a text thread

of people at the gym I go to that I know have a heartbeat to reach the lost. And we've just put names down that we're praying for at the gym. And so we're just praying for each other. It could be that simple. How would you group up with where God has placed you to have the best opportunity to bring the message of Christ to those in the neighborhood where God has placed you, the city where he has placed you? And I think one of the most natural places is in your life group. I don't know what happens in your group. I have no idea. What I believe happens is that you are teaching and leading Bible study, that you're praying together, that you're doing life together, whatever that looks like for any given group. The question I would ask, are you in your group? Because you've come together with a common interest in your group. At a minimum, Christ is your common interest. But what if every week, together, y'all were talking about, these are the lost people, these are the people who don't know Jesus in my current neighborhoods? And what if we spent time every week in our life groups praying For those lost people and praying that God would give opportunity open doors For you to be sent to say something to them But what if we did that in our groups?

I'm gonna ask Lorraine and the life group staff to hold our leaders accountable I didn't tell anybody this and so I'm just bringing it out That's the way I kind of roll with them and say here go for it but but with 20 groups be willing to do that and And I can tell you your life group dynamic will change it will change It will energize the group it will take people out of a comfort zone It will embolden people and we're doing it together together I'm always reminded when I think about things like this of the first church where I served and was on staff and the pastor's wife and some other ladies were planning a retreat and for the ladies and They always usually planned something that was around their feelings or emotions or something to fix and my pastor's wife Just said let's don't do that this time Let's quit looking inward for a change and let's focus outward. Let's serve I'm telling you life will change if you look outward at how you can serve and bring the Gospel and get in that mix. I'm not saying we don't deal with the other stuff I'm saying somehow we need to get beyond ourselves and look out as well and Philippians 2 do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others for others So we get outside of ourselves and interesting things start to happen a man who it was addicted For years to different drugs after the 8 a.m. This morning. He texted me and he said the way I worked my way out of addiction I did all these things they say to do but it was by serving others that helped keep me free. He's been free for 20 years Together But together and so what are those common interest groups for you that God might use so that we can go at this together a Second observation that I made in chapter 3 is to come from outside the city to help other cities So it's not just about our common interest. It's also about going to other cities in verse 2 of chapter 3 Next to him the men of Jericho built and next to them Zachar the son of Emory built So the men of Jericho Jericho is about 12 to 15 miles from Jerusalem. It was tough terrain It would take a few hours to make that journey to come to Jerusalem to be a help But he came from another came from another city the men from Jericho in verse 5

Moreover next to him the Tekoa it's made repairs, but their nobles did not support the work of their masters Now this right now, I'm going to come back to what that high school student said who's now starting his freshman year in college Do hard things and don't be afraid of failure And then another one of his peers said to not give in to people-pleasing People In your own tribe in your own neighborhood. They may not like the project you're on And they may not support it and not everybody you'll be in on it But the two co-ads went anyway It didn't matter that everybody wasn't going They were gonna do it and look what happens in verse 27 It's those who can overcome adversity and those who are saying notice something that end up being some of the strongest verse 27 After them the two co-ads repaired another section in front of the great projecting tower and as far as the wall of Ophel They finished their section and took another section It's the people that overcome adversity and Overcome when people are saying no don't do that or you can't do that and they do it Because you know this what God has called us in to do and they did two sections of the wall verse 13 Hainan and the inhabitants of Zenoa again 12 to 15 miles or so out so we think about our cities We don't just think about our own city, but we think about other people's cities Hornado Soto you've heard him preach a few times if you've been here a bit He leads our Spanish Part of 121 and last week. I was in the Spanish service. It is amazing to be in that service with them And I was looking at his slides, and we always share We're preaching the same thing every week, and and I text him I said hey you're holding out on me I need you to share those slides that you're showing he's got great stuff going on there, so I got this He shared this week, so we're The wall we have that wall picture, thank you That at least gives us an idea a Taste of what was happening there in different sections of the wall, and they're rebuilding the wall And that's the project

And that will be a way to have safety and defense against their enemies. Now, how do we apply this to our cities today? Well, you've heard us talk about Texans on Mission. And Texans on Mission goes to cities where there has been disasters. They bring disaster relief. Many of you now have been a part of those opportunities. One of the more recent ones has been in Kerr County. And that's just a few hours drive, just like it was a few hours walk from Jericho to Jerusalem. And they make the effort to go from one city to another city. So that's a way that we can partner and be a part of helping another neighborhood and another city by leaving ours to go to another. Then on October 18th, we will have our annual serve day. Again, if you're new or once a year, we take one Sunday out of the year and our worship is out in the community serving. We won't gather in here to worship. We'll go serve together in multiple places. And one of our primary partners this time will be Six Stones and it's their CPR weekend. And on that weekend, they do this massive house blitz to repair and help and upgrade homes. And I asked for a story of what goes on with Six Stones just to help us know what happens and who's being helped. And this is one of our primary partners over the years

and will continue to be. The lady's name is Karen. She lives in Ulis. She's on Social Security. The Social Security is not sufficient for her to be able to live. So she's also working in the busing department of the HEB School District. She heard about the back-to-school backpack opportunity and she purchased eight backpacks so that students would be able to have backpacks when they go back to school to be distributed. She serves at Six Stones, helping with food distribution to those who have need food. Her HVAC went out. Her HVAC went out back in February. And for several months, she was without heating and air conditioning. This summer, she would put towels in the refrigerator, freezer, and then lay those down when she would take them out so that she could be cool enough to sleep during the night. Six Stones became familiar with her story and wanted the business partners for Six Stones donated a four-ton HVAC unit so that now she has heating and air. And then she will be one of the houses that is upgraded, repaired, whatever the things are, that they can be a help on that weekend in October. And isn't it cool that people from Westlake

will go to Ulis to be a part of those things? We go city to city. We can go far away to a city, we can go to another city. That people from Southlake will go to Bedford. That people from Hearst will go to North Richland Hills. People from North Richland Hills will go to Grapevine. We just all mix it up, helping each other. It's a mutual effort. Gives dignity and value to everyone when all of us help each other serve across our cities. In Nehemiah's day, they were willing to go from city to city. The third thing that I noted here as we think about working together is to serve with family. So it's not just the two previous things, but it's serving with our family. Verse 12 of chapter three, next to him Shalom, the son of Halahesh, the official of half the district of Jerusalem made repairs, he and his daughters. So we have examples of then of a family with their daughters working together. And then verse 18, after him, their brothers carried out repairs. So brothers were working together to carry out repairs. And then in verse 20, this would be the mentality that I think would be awesome if we had in thinking about how we serve our neighborhoods and our cities.

After him, Baruch, the son of Zeba, zealously repaired another section. Nehemiah was an energetic, zealous leader. When leaders are energetic, contagious, they're out there shoulder to shoulder doing the work. They're not just supervising the work. Everybody in this effort is going shoulder to shoulder with each other. Didn't matter the occupation, didn't matter the section of the wall, they're going shoulder to shoulder. Zealously, that word zealous means to glow or to burn. That there's an igniting about that person about what is happening. And there must have been. And something about Nehemiah that enabled him to rally the troops, to get everybody and all their differences, all their socioeconomic differences, all their skill sets, all the variety, to get together and let's get unified around this effort of building back this wall. Most of our serving is going to be as we go. And we're with our families, so we serve as we go. But then there's times where God says, here, I have a project for you. Or here's a particular ministry, it's outside of your city and it's different,

but with your family, you can serve. We design so much of what we do for your families to be able to serve together. It was the smallest of children on serve day and other times, but it's as we go that we serve. What if at 8 a.m., nobody knew this, our elders told me about it the other night. I'm clearly not saying it correctly because I'm sure you know. But apparently there's some new tool out there. I think it's called Sky Something, Skylight, Sky whatever. Is that it? Y'all are nodding, thank you, Sky Something. Okay, we'll go with Sky Something. And you open it up and it's a shared digital calendar and it sounds like it's one of the coolest ways that you can kind of keep up with each other's pace and you have it all there. And I can imagine there's practices on there and there's games on there. How cool would it be if you walked into somebody's house and with their family, you saw their Sky Something up there and you saw, oh, here's the night that we all go serve as a family on purpose. And that's in our practice schedule. That's on Tuesdays or once a month, whatever it is. But what if we built into our family rhythm? I know when I hear homeschooling families talk, that's often what they do in their rhythm, they just build in serving.

But all of us can do that. We can build that into a rhythm. We serve with family. And then we help each other in our own neighborhoods. So let's think about our neighborhoods, verse 23. After them, Benjamin and Hashem carried out repairs in front of their house. And then in verse 29, after them, Zadok, the son of Emmer, carried out repairs in front of his house. So some by occupation, that common interest, some by just what's in front of their house. So what is in front of your house? What's in front of your apartment? What's in front of your condo? What's in front of your mobile home? What is in front of you? And Nehemiah had them working on the part that was just in front of them. What about you? And what is that unified project for us always? Is that the hearts of people would know Jesus. But why did God put you in your neighborhood? He resourced you so you could be in that neighborhood. He has you there already. He has you there on purpose. And the opportunity to bring the gospel. If you like to read, Rosario Butterfield wrote a book called The Gospel Comes With a House Key. Her personal story is a fascinating story. But she just talks about practicing

radically ordinary hospitality. In her neighborhood, that is what she does. And if you just want ideas to be spurred on, I would get them spurred on by her if that's one way to do it. But she just talks about from Scripture, we're to be a hospitable people. They budget for it. They vacation less because of it. They're ready all the time. Their neighborhood is hopping. And theirs is a place to go. There's always a big batch of something for people to come. But just radical hospitality for your own neighborhood. What if we connected up, I'm hoping today because we have all kinds of people in the neighborhood I live in. There are 121ers that somebody will take up this mantle. But what if we gathered up everybody in our neighborhood that's interested in lost people in our neighborhood where God has placed us? What if we work together just like that group text thread I sent, whatever ideas you have, and we start praying together about our neighbors? And see if God opens up doors another street down. ever expected and all of a sudden I know about this need and I know about this person. I'm praying for them when we walk by their house. But what are ways that we can work together in our neighbor? Just what is right in front of us that God has given?

The message we wanna bring. It's the message of Jesus. I've mentioned our young adults. I'm so excited about what God is doing in our young adults and their neighborhoods and the way God's equipping them to share the gospel. So often we're not confident in sharing our faith. The reality is if you know Jesus, you have a story to tell. And you just kinda start with what your own story is. You probably know a whole lot more than you might think you know. And the best way to figure out what you know is to do it. Then you figure out what you know and what you don't know. Then you go back to your life group and say, whoops. What do I do here? And we help each other. But John 5.24 is a good summary of the message we wanna bring. And our young adults, by the way, next Sunday at 12.30, they'll be doing an evangelism training. So I don't know if you're in that young adult world. If you're not aware of it, we'd love for you to be able to come. Kevin Brooks will be leading that training. But this is the essence of what he'll teach. Verse 24, truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

Has eternal life. Does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life. Did you know that every person that knows Jesus will not die? Eternal life is already now. It doesn't start when we die. You're either living today in eternal death or you're living today in eternal life. And your heart does not need a repair today and it doesn't need a rebuild today. Our hearts are dead, the scripture says. It needs to be brought to life and made new. Jesus Christ crucified, Jesus Christ risen is the path to that new heart and that new life. That's our hope, that we would so delight in it that we couldn't help but share it to those around us. Some of you, some of you like written things. So we have a catalog that our mission team has put together, it's fantastic. You can pick it up at the mission kiosk on your way out, but it has all of our local partners, all of our global partners, all of our church plants, all in one spot. Some people like it digital on the web, some would prefer something like this. This would be a great spot to pray through and see what are ways that God might have you to be a part with your neighborhood, your family, common interests, whatever it might look like. So Father, thank you for our time today.

We're so grateful always that we can gather up. Love our church, I love that so many are getting after it the way we've described today, that they are actively living out faith, serving, praying in their neighborhoods, leading people to Jesus at their schools and in their businesses and the places where they play, their sports teams. You've given us so much opportunity around here. I pray God that we would not only enjoy what you've given, but in that enjoyment that we would enjoy being a bright light for you in the midst of it, and that we might be able to bring a hope, a zeal, an energy in the faith to those who are around us. And God, that they would desire it and know that they can have it. And so Father, we thank you. And as long as we have breath to breathe, that there's still a chance. And so God, I pray today that we would work together to impact the cities and the neighborhoods where you've placed us. And I pray that in Jesus' name. If we could, let's be quiet before the Lord. I love to have this space just to have a brief moment to let the things settle in perhaps that God might specifically be saying to you. Amen.