Foundation of Grace Point

Well, my name is Joel. I'm one of the pastors here, and we are going to be in Colossians chapter one this morning, Colossians chapter one. As you make your way over there, we're doing something for the month of September here. We're going to be focusing in on just one extra aspect here that I'll be getting into in just a moment.

But I also want to mention, hey, if you are 18 to 25 and a young adult next week after the 1045 service, my wife and I are going to be hosting a lunch just for you guys. We're going to try to do a better job just helping you guys get connected into the church and connected with each other.

So if you are 18 to 25 or you are a parent of an 18 and 25 year old, that might not be paying attention at the moment, tell them to go ahead and get signed up at GPC, dot life and get plugged in there. But a last before I moved here, I used to live in a town that was known as the Sinkhole Capital of the world, the sinkhole capital of the world.

Now, if you don't know what sinkholes are, they're just like holes in the ground. And but they come up and times that you would not necessarily expect it. But but where we are living in Florida, just a way that the ground was the, the ground structure and the water and the ground, it just was very prone to have sinkholes, which was a very stressful thing.

Whenever you start buying homes, because almost every other house, it seemed like had some level of sinkhole damage and, and and to make matters worse, whenever I moved to Florida about a week after we moved to Florida, there was a national news story. This was all a dozen years or so that there was a guy who was living about 30 minutes away from us.

He was sleeping in his bed at night, and then all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, the ground opens up underneath his bedroom. His bedroom just falls into the ground, and they never see this guy again, which was a terrifying thing when I was like, listen, I there's like levels of acts of God, but I'm pretty sure that's an Old Testament act of God at that moment.

And it's like, it's just a reminder. It's like when it's your time to go, like it is your time to go. And and that was like a terrifying thing. And so whenever we started to buy a home in Florida, like we would walk around and I was just so paranoid because every time, like the, you know, he's like to see cracks, you start to see little things in the house and you're starting to wonder, like, oh, no, I'm going to fall into the ground and die.

But but really though, when you start to study that you, you understand that typically that doesn't happen very often, that there's just a large hole in the ground that falls into the ground. But usually what happens is this is that whenever you start to neglect your house for a little bit, then you will start to see some cracks show up.

Well, you'll start to notice that the doors don't close all the way, that the windows aren't really shutting all the way, and you start to realize, man, there might be some foundation issues in this house. And so what you would do if you had a foundation issue is there was actually companies that would come out and they would drill rods through your house with some, like special foam drill through your house all the way down into the bedrock and really solidify that house all the way down into the bedrock, which would sometimes be 30, 40ft down.

But once that happens and you had a good company that would come out and do that, that house ended up being probably the most secure house in that whole entire area. Why? Because it was now connected all the way down to the most solid bedrock of a foundation. No matter how much that world, how much the ground underneath you started to shift, it didn't really matter because your house was built up on the bedrock.

And and why I bring this up is because our church, Grace Point Church, if you didn't know, is turning 25 years old this year. And and that's a wonderful, wonderful thing. But inevitably, what needs to happen is just like, if you are a homeowner and you know that there's some things in your house that need to continue to be, you just need to make sure and hopefully you're going to catch it before there's even an issue or even even a problem for us here at Grace point as well.

We want to always make sure, are we actually connected back to the foundation? Have we put our roots so down deep down that no matter what comes our way, no matter how the world shakes us, we're not moving because we are so deeply rooted to the foundation of God. And that's what we're going to be talking about over this next month of September.

Before we get into the book of Ephesians that I've been talking about, before we get there, we're going to talk just a few weeks, because if you haven't noticed, there's a few new things around here at Grace point, including one of these, it might look a little bit different. We have some new colors and some new logos and things like that, which we'll be talking a little bit more about.

But but really, what where this is all coming from is we just want to make sure that everything that we are doing, the most important things that we are doing is all connected into God's Word, connected into God Himself, that he is the foundation. And that's going to be true for us here at church that wants that needs to be true for you in your lives as well.

And so one of the things that we're introducing here that really I wanted to make sure that we go ahead and communicate out to you, starting right now. Here is our new vision statement here at Grace Point Church. And this new vision statement that we have at Grace point is this. It's to see God glorified in Northwest Arkansas and among the nations, as people are restored to relationship with him through Jesus.

This is the most important thing. I challenge you guys to go ahead and try to try to memorize this. If you are part of Grace Point Church, this is something that you ought to know that this is the whole reason why we exist here at Grace point, is to see God glorified northwest Arkansas, and among the nations of people are restored to him through Jesus.

And you might say, that's way too long, Joel. There is no possible way that I'm ever going to memorize this. Well, I memorize the first few words at least. What's the most important part of this? Is to see God, to see God glorified. That is why we exist here as a church. That's why you exist as individuals. And over the next few weeks, here's what we're going to do.

We're going to be sharing about how we're going to do that or why, how you can be a part of that as well. And we have certain pillars that we talk about. They're going to be belonging in biblical community, becoming more like Jesus and living sent to the neighbors and the nations. Hopefully you look at that and be like, well, we kind of already talked about all those things.

Well, good. They shouldn't be brand new information. It should be something that that just sounds familiar to all of us as well. And we're going to be talking more and more about that over the next few weeks. But today, what I want to talk about is how as a church, how as an individual, we can live for God's glory because that is the foundation of everything else, is to see God glorified, right?

If you have your Bibles turned over to Colossians chapter one, would you please stand with me in honor of reading of God's Word? We're going to be in Colossians chapter one, starting in verse 15 here today, Colossians 115.

And it says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. And you who once were alienated and hostile mind doing evil deeds.

He is now reconciled in his body of the flesh by his death, in the order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, they're not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which has been proclaimed, and to all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Hey, we're going to be back in verse 15 there, and let's go ahead and start through that. It says that he that's Jesus. If you haven't caught that, Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Now, I don't know about you, but have you ever asked yourself, hey, what does God look like?

What is God like? We don't have to ask ourselves that because we know exactly what he looks like. He looks like Jesus. Like Jesus is the the the visible image of the invisible God. The Hebrews says that he is the exact substance of God. And so we don't have to wonder. It's very a lot of us, whenever we think of of God, we think of that old picture of Jesus and our grandma's house of blond hair, blue eyes.

Like like, don't, don't think of that. Think of what you know of the scriptures, what you know of the Gospels. That is who God is. Everything that Jesus is in the New Testament, by the way, is what God the Father was in the Old Testament. They're not the same person, but they're part of the same God. And so because of that, there's no discrepancy between all of that.

We know exactly what God looks like because we know what Jesus looks like as revealed through Scripture. He is a that image. He's the firstborn of all creation. Now, that verse is going to be a little bit problematic for some of us because, for instance, our neighbors across the parking lot there, they love this verse because to them it feels like it's saying that Jesus was a created being, the first born and sometimes firstborn does mean that you were created the oldest.

Right? And and but that's not really what it's talking about here, because firstborn can mean that you were the first one on the scene, but then it also can mean that you are just the most important person. Which, I'll admit, I'm the baby of the family and I don't like that. All right? Because I know as a baby and the year 2026, we all know that the baby is the most important part of the family.

And I can say that with full confidence, being the youngest of four. And but nevertheless, we also know that firstborn comes with a certain amount of privileges, right? Like, for instance, because I was the youngest of four, I wore hand-me-downs for most of my life. Right? And until I put my foot down. So I'm like, mom, not I'm not wearing me down underwear anymore.

I'm 17. Mom. No, I'm just kidding. It's like there's some there's some perks of being the firstborn. What he's saying here is not that Jesus was the first one that was created, but rather he is reigning over everything else. And we know that it's not just saying that he was a created being, because in the very next verse it says, For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And so if he has created everything that was created, he couldn't have been created himself. Right. Did did you track with me there? If Jesus Christ created all things that were created, then he would have had to create himself if he was created. So instead, what this is saying is that he actually is God Himself. He reigns over everything else, everything in this world, all the rulers and authorities and all the dominions and all the leaders that think that they make the world go around.

They don't make the world go around because Jesus is the one who made them. And so for everything now in this world, he created everything through him and for him, which is just a reminder for us that you weren't made for Jesus. You weren't just made by Jesus, you were also made for Jesus. You weren't made just by Jesus.

You were made for Jesus. And that's a little bit different than how we understand things, because for us, like, I understand like my parents made me my wife and I, like mostly my wife, made our children, like physically made them, but they weren't made for us. They might have been made by us in a physical way, but they weren't made for us.

But this is different for Jesus because he says, no, I created you so therefore you are my creation, but I created you for my self as well. So that means that everything in my life is all for him. So we need to stop asking, where does Jesus fit in my life and start asking, where does my life fit into his glory?

See, a lot of us, how we think of our life is oftentimes like a little puzzle piece where we have a little piece for for our work and a piece for our family, and a piece for our money and a piece for Jesus. And we're like, man, if I just if I just fit all of these pieces together perfectly, then it will eventually make a picture of a happy life.

That's not how it works. There are pieces of your life. There are work, there are family. There are money there, all of that. But but here's the deal. Whenever you put all of that together, it should be a picture of Jesus. That's what our life should look like. That's what our life should be for that everything. It's like when we're asking, should I leave this job and go to a new job?

We should be asking is that's what's going to bring God the most glory in my life? Am I asking if we should have more kids? If I'm asking if we should go out and move to another place, if I'm asking, every little small detail in my life should all be asking this question is, where does my life fit into God's glory?

Because he has put me in a story and I need to play a part in that. Verse 17, it says he is before all things, which is literally means that he is more important than it all. And in him all things hold together. So he now is holding everything else together in this world. The reason why the sun came up this morning is because of Jesus.

The reason why that you woke up this morning into your heart was still beating is because of Jesus. He holds literally everything together. As I was going through this week, I was reminded I'm a little bit of a sermon junkie. I watched a lot of sermons, and I was reminded one that I watched probably 20 years ago, that maybe some of you watch as well a sermon by a man named Louie Giglio, who talked a little bit about this idea of this thing called laminin.

Now, if you don't know what laminin is, you either didn't watch that sermon or you're not in biology. But laminin is this idea here, or it's this cell adhesion molecule. It's the thing inside of our body that actually connects all of our body together. It's the thing that holds the rest of our systems all together. It's a protein molecule.

So it's like tiny minuscule small small small thing. But when you zoom in and you keep zooming in and you keep zooming in, you know what? The thing that holds our bodies together looks like. You know what laminin looks like? It looks like this.

Does that look like anything else to you? It's a picture of a cross and a and it's just a reminder. Just a reminder that the cross of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is the one who holds it all together, which is a good reminder for us. Because when I feel like my world is falling apart, when I feel like my family might be falling apart, when I feel like everything else is going.

The cross holds it all together. Jesus holds it all together. And that's true for this. That's true for your life. It's true for my life. It's true for this church as well. By the way, the more that I looked at it, the more that I thought I saw something in there. Right. You know that that new logo that we have, by the way, doesn't represent that, but it does represent sent just the idea that the intersection of where our life meets the grace of God, that's grace point where people now, wherever life takes them, they have an opportunity to come in contact with the grace of God.

They come in contact with the grace of his people, and they now have an interaction with Jesus. That is why we do what we do. And it's just a reminder that Jesus is the one that's holding it all together. In verse 18, it goes on to say.

And he, Jesus still is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminence. There's big lofty words. Sometimes they actually say that this might have been one of the very first hymns and sung in the New Testament time period, that Paul might have actually just taken one of the hymns that they were singing at that time and made it into Scripture as well.

But it's accurate because it says now that Jesus Christ is the head of the body. And let me ask you, if the body gets disconnected from the head. How long does the body live? Not very long, right? At the same time, if your whole entire body is drowning but your head is above water, you're going to be okay.

And how awesome is it that no matter what happens in this life, in this world, no matter what the world throws at us, as long as the head is above water, as long as Jesus Christ is still our head, we're going to be okay. Now. We are all part of the body. It says this is an important part of, of Scripture that that Paul actually continually references, that we are just continually a part of a body.

Now, some of us are different body parts, like some of us might be the hands, because they're very useful. Some of us might be the feet. Some of you are an appendix, and nobody knows what you do around here. But like when things go wrong, like we feel it, you know?

But all of us, no matter what part of the body you are, you have a part to play every part. I don't care what. Even if I don't know what it is like. If the doctor says it needs to be removed, I'm not going to like that. Right? Because there's some things, a reason why every part of the body is there, every part of the body plays a part in this.

And he's saying that you are part of the body. But but really, if you think about it like what is one of the the functions of the body is to protect the head. If you're old enough, then you remember, like certain type of bomb drills inside of schools, like what would you do? You would actually go down and you would always protect your head.

If you fall down, what are you going to do? You're going to try to protect your head. Why? Because that's the most important part. And so we must not we must not confuse ourselves to think that if we're the foot, that we're the most important part. No, the head is the most important part. But as long as the head is okay, it says that he might be preeminent.

That's not just prominent. It's not just saying that Jesus Christ would get the best parking spot. No, Jesus Christ owns the parking. Like everything is for him. And it's just a reminder. And I don't care if this feels redundant to you, but it just continually needs to be said. That grace point exists for Jesus. That's why we exist.

There's no other reason for that. Sometimes as churches, we have to ask ourselves, all right, who what type of church are we going to be for? Are we going to be for young people? Are we going to be for old people? Are we going to be for Christians? Are we going to be for the unchurched? What, like what type of church?

Who are we for? We're for Jesus. And so that means as long as he's happy with us, then we're doing an okay job. I don't care what the rest of the world thinks. As long as Jesus is happy, then we're doing good. And so we are not asking Jesus to bless our mission, but we are joining Jesus in His always love.

The old Abraham Lincoln story. Whenever a general came up and asked him, they ran Lincoln the president, do you think that God is on our side? To which he respond, I'm more concerned to make sure that I'm on God's side, and let's make sure it's a church. Let's make sure it's fathers as mothers, as families, as coworkers, whatever God calls you to, let's make sure that we are joining God and His mission first and foremost, because it's so easy just to say, God, please bless me in all my endeavors.

God, please bless me with this new job. God, please God's like no. What if I had a different plan? What if I had something better for you? What if that very promotion that you have been fighting for so hard and that that that nice pay raise that you're going to get is going to be the very thing that draws you away from your family and ruins your life.

Are you willing to walk away from that, to follow me still? So we want to follow Jesus. We want to follow God and His mission no matter what he calls us to. In verse 19 it says, For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. So God Himself is in Jesus Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.

So he now is reconciling or bringing everything back to himself, no matter how far away we were. And eventually those pieces that were so far away, those broken pieces are going to be brought so close together that that what used to be a giant chasm, a Grand Canyon, you can barely even see the division anymore because God has brought us so close.

That probably doesn't describe the world as we know it, though, does it? That word peace in the New Testament secrete word of rain in the Old Testament, which is what I like. I'm thinking that Paul probably would have been thinking of this whenever he thought of the word peace. It's the word shalom, peace. That word shalom literally started out as a word to describe a block that had no broken pieces to it.

He's saying that there's no brokenness anymore. It's like holding up a perfect block. There's no broken pieces. That's what the cross of Jesus Christ can do for you. That's what the cross of Jesus Christ can do for your marriage, can do for this church, can do for every single one of us. Because he reconciles, he brings us all the broken pieces back together and makes us whole.

You probably have seen a picture like this in premarital counseling. Maybe I use it all the time, but it's a good one for marriage. It's a good one for every single one of us. But the idea is simply, this is as Jesus is reconciling or calling us back to him. The closer that you get to Jesus, and the closer that the other people get to Jesus, notice the closer that they get to each other as well.

And this is the beauty of it. We don't have to contrive things. We don't have to manipulate anything. All we have to do is try to continue to get close to Jesus. So we keep going on verse 21 and it says, in you who were once alienated in hospital in mind, that means separated and not just separated like you like to be out there doing evil deeds.

So they're hostile and mind, they have evil thoughts in there doing evil deeds. He has now reconciled you in his body of the flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. So this is the story of the gospel, that for every one of us that we were alienated and hostile like that means that we were separated from God.

And we liked being there, that we didn't want anything with God. And yet God looked down on us. No matter how far we ran. God looked down on us and said, I want that one still reconciled, brought us back, literally made us from an enemy to a friend, brought us back in order to present us holy and blameless.

That's not my testimony. It doesn't feel like it probably doesn't feel like your testimony that you feel holy and blameless. But God loves you that much that he said as sinful as you were, I'm going to bring you back. See, Jesus was treated like you on the cross so that you could be treated like Jesus, that one day you get to stand before God, holy and blameless before him.

Why? Because he came down and he took that cross for us. So last verse now if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard. So as if you if you stay steadfast. Now we can look at this and we could say, is this teaching that you, you're going to lose your salvation?

Like if you if you start to shift then then you're going to lose. No, I don't believe that it's saying that. But rather what it's saying is that if you have been reconciled, if you have been brought close, if you now understand what it means to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter how much this world starts to shake you, it doesn't matter how much the ground beneath you starts to shift.

You aren't going to leave because why would you leave? I'm telling you, like if if you know how good Jesus is, why would you want to walk away? And he's saying, now, for those that have been reconciled, for those of us that have been brought close, then no matter what comes our way, we will stay steadfast. See, life that is grounded in the gospel may be shaken, but it doesn't have to shift.

And at Grace point, we aren't going to shift from this gospel of Jesus Christ, the hope of glory, because it's the true thing. The most two thing and everything that we need to do is to see God glorified in Northwest Arkansas and among the nations. As people are restored to relationship through him.

You know, as those preparing this message, my mind kept going over to one of my favorite stories and and all of the Bible favorite of you chapters, although not not as many people know about it as probably what should. And it's the first few chapters of the book of Hosea. It's a beautiful, beautiful story. But story it's let me just finish off with this story real quick and then we'll be done.

There's a story in Hosea, this this tiny little minor prophet at the end of the Old Testament here. And it's a story of a man of God, this man of God named Hosea. And he gets a word from the Lord. You're the prophet. So the heart of his job was to speak on behalf of the Lord. And sometimes they actually even had to live out these prophecies, the things that the God told them to do.

And so he gets actually word from the Lord. And it was a very unusual word from the Lord, because it literally says in Hosea, hey, go out and find a prostitute and marry her.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I got a word from the Lord like that, I would say, Lord, speak again. You know, Lord, I, I don't think I, I don't think I heard you right, because in all reality, if you actually read it in Hosea, it's much more graphic than that. And yet that was the person that he told this righteous man of God.

And so for me, if I was like a pastor, like like he was in that time period, and then I got a word from the Lord God and married an active prostitute, I'm like, Lord, what about my reputation? What about like, what are you going to like? This would ruin everything for me. And Lord says to do it.

So Hosea, being a righteous man of God, gets up and he walks out and probably walks to an area of town which he would not have wanted to frequent. Very often he goes around and walks on all those streets so we would know not to walk down. He goes around and he starts looking for somebody and he finds a woman named Gomer.

Not a very beautiful name. I don't know how beautiful of a woman she was or not, but yet he finds this woman named Gomer. We don't know much about Gomer other than what her occupation was. We also know her father's name and the father's name. Actually, if you were to translate that over to English, it means and this is going to blow your mind double portion of fig cakes.

I know, I know, I bring you the good stuff until you realize that fig cakes were also a sign of delicacy, which means that if that was his father's name, is probably a man given over to excess. And I can't imagine a man that was given over to excess. And now his daughter is in prostitution, and I wonder what type of life she would have lived.

I wonder the things that she probably had to see and live through. And I don't care if it's now or 3000 years ago. That's probably not the profession that she wanted to be whenever she was a small girl. But yet that was the only thing that she knew.

And so Hosea goes and he finds Gomer. He goes and he finds her and he brings her back home with him. And for the first time in probably her whole entire life, she was loved. She was loved by a good man. She was loved by a man who actually cared about her. Not just try to abuse her and take advantage of, but actually cared about her.

And seemingly they built a good life because it says that at a certain point they actually got married and they they had a baby, and that baby was like a firstborn son. And so, like, everything seems like it's going well there. And that would have been a year or two for the big get married and have a baby.

But then after that they have a second baby. So now we're talking about 3 or 4 years of of hopefully a good marriage. But after a second child, we start to see that there might still be cracks in that marriage because that second child was named a daughter named no mercy or no pity.

And we say that doesn't sound like a good name for a daughter who would name their daughter that well, then a year or two later, they have another child. By this time, their third child, they would have been married probably at least five years. Like they have a family together. They have a foundation, this this righteous man of God that was trying to honor God and do what God told him.

This woman with a past. But yet they've come together. They now have three kids. But the third child as a son, and he named his son not my son.

And at that point, we really start to understand that this woman that was brought out of prostitution, brought out of all this horrible atrocities, might not be faithful to the man that called her.

By the time we read through Hosea one, two and three, we find out in Hosea chapter three that Gomer has now left. Hosea left the only man that would have actually loved her left the only one that would have called her by his own name, that would have cared for, that provided a house in a home for and with a love for her.

They started to build a family together and she left him. And then Hosea chapter three, he gets another word from the Lord, and this time the word of the Lord says, Hosea, go find your wife again, because he doesn't know where she's at at this point. And if I'm Hosea, I'm thinking, Lord, no, she left me. Lord, I'm not going back to you want me to do what?

You want me to go and buy my own wife back? No, Lord. She left me. Hozier. Go and get your wife. And he then has to walk back down to the same streets that he would have found her several years ago. Go and look around for her, wondering where she is and what back room or what street corner that she might be at, and till he finds her.

Now she's probably chained up and slaved up to another man. And it says in Hosea that that he had to buy his wife back for 15 shekels of silver and some barley. He had a by his own wife he had to buy what was already his to begin with.

And it's at that point do we start to realize that, yes, this was a real story of Hosea and a woman named Gomer, but it's also a very real story of Jesus and somebody like me. See, because our story, every single one of our stories, this is a gospel message. This is the thing that we are anchored on, is that God has called us by name and we were living in the sinfulness.

We were living in debauchery. We were living alienated and hostile in mind. We didn't even want Jesus if he came and sought us. And yet he came down and found us anyway. And even after that part of my story and part of your story is this, that God has called us by name, that God has given us an inheritance, that God has made a beautiful life for us.

And yet still we say, but I kind of liked what I had before. I kind of like living in that darkness. And that's when Jesus Christ came down on the cross, and he bought the very thing that was his to begin with. He was the one who made you. He was the one who owns you. And yet he was the one on the cross that day, 2000 years ago, that came down and said, I will buy them back.

And the price wasn't just silver or barley, the price was the blood on the cross, because that was the price to set you and I free. And this is the gospel. And here's the beautiful story that when we start to understand that according to Corinthians, we are now invited into the story that we get to now be the ones to go out on the street corners and to go out on the byways and to go out and say, there's a man who loves you.

You ain't got to be here anymore. You can leave all of that behind. There's somebody who loves you. There's a home waiting for you. There's a family who will accept you right now.

And so before we even get into the next few weeks and talking about some of our core values, I want to make sure that you know that there's a man who loves you that died on the cross for you, that bought you back when you were alienated and hostile in mine, and he hasn't stopped pursuing you. And every head bowed, every eye closed.

If you're here first of all, and you don't know if you're saved or not, you don't know if you have a relationship with Jesus. You don't know that if you were to die today, whether you'd go to heaven or not.

Listen, you have a man who loves you, who died for you.

Who does not want you living in limbo like that. So if you're here today and you say, Joel, I, I, I don't know, but I want to be sure I'm not going to bear you. I'm not going to call you out. I'm not going to have other people look at you. But I just want to be praying for you right now.

So if you're here today and you say, I don't know if if I'm actually Christian, I don't know where I'd go if I die. But, Joel, please pray for me. Would you just slip up your hands?

Amen. Thank you sister. Amen.

Amen.

Father, I lift up the people in this room right now that are still not sure what the relationship might be with you, but they want that relationship to the Lord.

I pray that you would speak to him even right now. I know my words aren't going to be the thing, but your spirit will be so. Lord, I pray that if they are in the sound of my voice, wherever they might be and they don't know you, I pray that they would cry out to you in the quietness of this moment, Lord, that they would believe in you.

Believe that you died on the cross for their sin, that you bought them back. You redeem them to set them free, and that they can have a relationship with you. Lord.

Lord, I pray that you'd also just give them the strength to come talk to another Christian.

So they don't have to walk this life alone.

Lord, I also just lift up.

This church that we would continue to be a church that is anchored in your word, that's anchored in the hope of the gospel. Let's anchored in the fact that we had nothing good. But you are a good God who came to save us. Lord, I pray that everything that I do and everything that every single one of us is.

Is asking that question.

Does this glorify God today?

A church, us? Just take a moment and ask ourselves, how can we glorify God in this season of life together?