Transcript

Sermon Transcript: Engage the Mission

8/22/2021 Jeff Schwarzentraub 50 min read

Lord Jesus, we come before you and we pray to you because we know that you're alive. We know that you hear us. We know that you respond to the prayers of your people. And Lord, as we've been praying all week, as we've watched situations unfold in the Middle East, specifically in Afghanistan, Lord, we just pray a hedge of protection around your peoples specifically. Lord, there are missionaries there who are fearing for their lives or some who have lost their lives because of this tragedy. Lord, we just pray that you would protect your people. Lord, I pray too in this situation that, Lord, what the enemy intended for evil that you would use for good. Lord, that you would raise up new believers out of the Taliban to take the word of God around the Middle East in these last days. And that, Lord, you would be glorified and set on high.

And, Lord, as we hear your word today, what we pray is that you would do a work in and through each one of us because we believe that every time that the word of God is opened, you speak to us. And if you're gathered and you have your Bible open and you desire to hear what God says, and you will believe all the things that He shows you and will by faith put into practice everything that He directs, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen.

Amen.

19 men who you have never met before and never will changed the course of the world. And the tragedy is you know who they are and you know what they did. On September 11th of 2001, 19 men between the ages of 20 and 33 years old from four different countries boarded and hijacked four different planes with the intent to cause harm to different people. And if you're old enough to remember what happened on September 11th of 2001, you'll remember right where you were, what was going through your mind and all the different emotions that took place that day because 19 men joined together with a common mission and their common mission was to do evil in the world.

Their evil that day has changed the way we travel. Every time you go into an airport now with all the security that we have, looks very different than what it looked like before September 11th, 2001. As a matter of fact, the day goes down in infamy so much that if you were alive we just refer to that day by saying this, 9/11. And when we say 9/11, it evokes all the emotions, all the events, all the circumstances and all the things that happened on that tragic day. But the reality is that everybody was intended to live for mission. And just 19 men who thought we can change the way the world thinks just by going after this, and they did, and it was a tragedy. It was a tragedy for them as they ended up in hell immediately. It was a tragedy for our world as we saw our Twin Towers go tumbling to the ground, the Pentagon being hit, another plane out in Pennsylvania, and our hearts went off and said, "What's going on here?"

But when you just have a few people with an idea that are committed, things can happen. For the good we know that Jesus when he stood on the mountainside in Galilee 2,000 years ago, commissioned his disciples. And he said words, "All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me, therefore go make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And lo I'll be with you always to the very end of the age." And a handful of men at that time took that serious. And they started to live out the gospel and took the gospel which has literally gone all around the world. And the reason that we gathered today is because there were a few that decided to live for the Lord and do good works. And because of their good works we're still reaping the benefit of that.

Amen.

The reality is whether for good or for evil, here's what you need to know in your heart, God created you for mission. Everybody is created for mission. There's something in our heart that knows we were created for something more than ourselves. It's why when we live, we know that we either want to leave a legacy or contribute something or be known for something because we know that life is bigger than just us. And so we either want to do that or be around people that are doing that because we want to know that our life counts. And I have good news for you today. God knows your life counts, and He wants to use you on a mission for Him that brings you the greatest joy and satisfaction and brings Him the greatest glory.

There's a tragedy in our world today that happens in the church. And it may be a greater tragedy than what happened on 9/11. And that is that the God of the universe who created every single person, who has saved some for His glory in the church, refuse to live on mission for Him and what God could do or would do, He doesn't do because His people are not stepping forward and living the way God wants them to live. So if in your heart you've ever felt that go off inside of you that says, "There's more to life than this, there's got to be more than that, I know I was created for more," God has a word for you today. God wants you to engage the mission that He's given to you.

And God wants you to know what that is and know how to contribute in such a way that one day when you meet Jesus you will hear these words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And not only will you hear those words, but until you hear those words, you can live with joy and satisfaction on the inside knowing that God is doing a work in and through you. Last week we began by talking about how to experience Christ. We talked a lot about identity. We talked a lot about who we are that is not what we do for God. It's what God does in and through us. Today we're going to talk about how is it that we can take what God does in and through us to engage the mission that He has for us. How can I know what it is and how can I do that?

And if that's you today, God has a word for you. I encourage you, open your Bible up to the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians, we're going to be in Ephesians 2:10. And as we take a look at verse 10, I'll read it to you a couple of times, and then we're going to unpack it. We're going to show four elements of that verse that are essential for you to engage yourself in the mission to which Christ has called you. As you're turning to this passage, you'll be familiar with where this is nestled in the scripture, because we love this scripture. It comes right after Ephesians 2:8-9, which says, "For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. And it's not your own doing, it's a gift of God so that no one should boast."

And we love that verse because we understand as Christians we didn't do anything to earn God's favor. God did everything for us. That we can't work for our salvation because there's nothing we could do that could make God pleased with us because we realize in our hearts that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we love that verse. And many times we'll quote it, especially with people whose faith says, "No, you got to work hard. You got to be a good person." We'll say, "No, it's by grace you've been saved through faith. It's not your own doing. It's a gift of God, so no one should boast." And then we falsely stop there.

And what we say is, "I know I'm saved. I know I'm going to heaven. Works don't matter. It doesn't matter what I do, it matters who I am." But that's why we're going to keep reading. Because Ephesians 2 in verse 10 says this, it says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Did you hear that? It's all about good works. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." See, when we say it's just about grace, it's not about works, we miss the entirety of the gospel. Because while you're not saved by your good works, you are definitely saved for good works. Your works are the evidence that you've been saved. And if you're truly filled up on the inside by His grace, it will result in good works.

Good works are important in the life of the believer. It's what God requires of each and every believer. And if we're going to engage His mission, we need to understand how to do that. So let's take a look at four of the elements of this passage. And the first that we need to understand if we're going to engage the mission is this, it's most important. It's bedrock. You've got to get this part and it's this, we belong to God and are significant to Him. We belong to God and are significant to him. Notice what it says, "For we are His workmanship. We are His workmanship." We belong to God and we're significant to him. If you don't get this foundational point right, what you're going to do is you're going to try to find your significance somewhere else. And let me just save you a lot of time. You will never find satisfaction apart from Jesus Christ, full satisfaction, lasting satisfaction.

Amen.

"Well, I'm going to get the right job and someday when I have just the right job, I'll have full satisfaction," I promise you, you won't. "One day when I'm dating the right person and I get married to the right person I'll have full satisfaction 100% of the time," no you won't. "One day when I make just enough money and I have all the money I need and all my needs are filled, then I'll feel total satisfaction," no, you won't. No matter what you put your faith and trust into other than Jesus Christ, if you don't realize that you belong and are significant to Him, you will try to latch on to someone or something or some group of people that you can belong to and find your significance there and it just won't work.

I mean, we can talk about a lot of examples of this. We can talk about why gangs are formed or why people dress up an orange every fall and travel about 11 miles north of here to cheer and scream wildly because they want to find a place to belong. "I want to be part of that team. I want to be part of this culture. I'm looking for this group of people to welcome me." So let me just say it again, you are significant and belong to God.

Amen.

And since only 17 of you understand what I'm talking about, I'm going to say it again because there's no... I mean, the God of the universe is saying this, "You matter to me, you belong to me and are significant to me." Amen. I mean, there's no greater word that I could tell you. It's not just that God's in heaven looking down and saying, "Okay, yeah, you're a good person. I like you some." I mean, you belong to Him and you are significant to Him. And why is that important? Because if we understand our true identity, we'll live differently. And I think the story of the prodigal son, and we're all familiar with the story of the prodigal son, you've been in church for a while. When the younger son goes out and squanders all of his dad's money and lives his wild life style and comes back to his dad, Jesus tells us, "This is what the father's like."

Well, what's he like when he gets back? When the son comes back to the dad, the dad doesn't wait for the son, the dad sprints to the son, which was undignified for a father to do in the first century. And then instead of waiting for his son to talk about how bad he was and for the father to stand there and look over him or shame him or give words, what does the dad do? He embraces him, he hugs him, he kisses him. This son that's just squandered everything the dad ever had, who's been living in a pig pen, he welcomes him home. And as the son is going through his rehearsed speech saying, "Dad, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Just make me like one of your hired slaves," what does the dad do? He's not even listening.

He's calling all his servants saying, "Quick, come bring the best robe and put it on because my son needs to know in my house, he always has a place of honor because he belongs to me. Put a ring on his finger so that everybody sees that he's got a signet ring that he belongs to our family. Put sandals on his feet because he's not a slave, he's my son. And then let's kill a fattened calf and celebrate for this son of mine was lost and he's found, he was dead, mow he's alive." So they began to have this party. What was he saying? He was saying, "Son, you have significance. Son, you belong to me. It doesn't matter what you did, it matters who I am. And I love you and nothing will ever change that." That's our God. Isn't that awesome?

Yeah.

If we're going to live our mission, we have to start there. If we live our mission, we have to start from the inside out. I mean, even if you study the scriptures, if you want to know what Jesus cared about or who Jesus cared about, just study the person Jesus and what does He talk about more than anything else. His dad. Who does He want to be with more than anybody else? His dad. Early in His ministry we find him sneaking off to solitary places where there He prays. After He feeds the 5,000, sends the disciples on the water, He goes up on a mountain to pray. I mean, [inaudible 00:11:47] Gethsemane, what's he doing? He's praying. He's spending time with His dad all the time. He wants to be around His dad because He knows how significant He is to His dad and how He belongs to his dad. Remember at Jesus' baptism when he comes up out of the water, the Father's voice booms, says, "This is my son whom I love, in Him I am well-

Pleased.

... pleased. This is my son. He belongs to me. I love Him. I'm well pleased in Him. He's got significance because you should listen to Him." That's what He says. "Listen to Him." We see the same words at the transfiguration of Jesus when Peter, James and John are up on that mountain side and the Father speaks those words. And when the Father speaks those words, this is my paraphrase, it's as if Jesus is saying, "Oh, those words are for you, not me. I already know that. I already know who I am to my dad, but I wanted you to know who I am to my dad." When you walk around with your identity set right you will live differently. Many people in the body of Christ who have truly been saved walk around as if they're no good nobodies, will never make anything happen, aren't really those good kind of Christians, can't do anything, aren't that gifted or still sin.

And what happens is, is when we become believers, nobody has a perfect trajectory of sinlessness post coming to Christ. So what the enemy does is he lies to us and says, "Remember that, remember this. God may still like you, but He doesn't love you. And He's not proud of you. And He can't use you anymore because of what you did." Friends, let me just tell you that's a lie from the pit of hell. God can redeem and use anybody, even Christians who have fallen into sin who he can redeem and still continue to use. God designed you for mission. You belong to Him. Notice what it says, "For we are His workmanship."

I'm going to show you something in the text. It's invisible to your eyes and most people's eyes in North America. They were invisible to my eyes for a long time when I read this text. But when you read Ephesians 2:8-9, it says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not your own doing. It's a gift of God so that no one should boast." Every time almost in the New Testament where the word you is used, it's plural. "It's for by grace you all have been saved through faith. It's not you all's doing, it's a gift of God so that none of you all should boast." He's talking plural about what God does in salvation for every single person. And then notice what the second word of verse 10 is, for what? For we are His workmanship. We are His. He doesn't say, "You're his workmanship."

We tend to read this individually and think that the gospel is about us. "God saved me for me to do good works for God." No, we collectively. Why? Because God gets more done in community than He ever does through any individual. We are His workmanship. We are His. We are His. Say that with me. We [crosstalk 00:14:35] are His. Say it again so you believe it. We [crosstalk 00:14:37] are His. God's talking to us. Well, who's us? Paul's writing to the church. Why is he writing to the church? Because the church is the one vehicle where we're called to participate in no matter where we are. To be a Christian and not be serving in a local church is not even understood in the New Testament. There's no such thing. If you're a Christian, we are His what?

Workmanship.

Workmanship. Now, those of you who don't know me, I can't put anything together. I was saying in the first service and I still think this is true. I don't know if I have a screwdriver at my house or not. I really don't. I usually call my father-in-law who lives down the street and ask him for different kinds. My toolbox would fit in the palm of my hand. I can't fix anything. So when I see, we are his workmanship, I mean, that doesn't sound that exciting to me, like, "Okay, I'm part of God's toolbox or something," until you understand what the word workmanship is. Workmanship is the word [foreign language 00:15:29] which means masterpiece. Masterpiece. When God created you, that's how he sees you. His masterpiece. We studied Genesis last year and we walked through the creation story. And at the end of every day, what does God say? "That's good."

That's good.

Because when God creates, God doesn't create anything that's junk. God only creates what's good. When God created you, He said, "That's good. You're my masterpiece." I mean, every one that God creates. I mean, there's never been a time God's created a human being who by the way He created in His image, where God has created and gone, "Oops." Never happened. And yet that's what the enemy wants you to think about you. And He'll get you to ask questions like, "Why do I look like this? And why is my body shaped like that? And why don't I have hair on my head like them and how come I don't have the gifts they have? And what's wrong with me that... And how come I'm not good at this? And how come I'm not good?" You're His masterpiece.

Amen.

You're His masterpiece. That's why He created you in His image. That's why when we talk in church about abortion being sin, it's not just, "Hey, you that had an abortion, you're a sinner. You're a murderer." That's not what it is. It's this, that the life that God created on the inside is a life that He's destined for purpose. Don't stop the masterpiece of God because every single life matters. Amen. But I'll pause here and say this because I know this is true in a congregation of our size. Listen to me, if you've had an abortion, maybe out of naivety, maybe out of stress, maybe for some other, let me just tell you something about you. You still matter to God and you're still significant and He forgives you and He can redeem you and still you should.

We don't carry the weight of our sin. Jesus Christ did that for us. We are loved. When I stand at the end of the service and say, "You are loved," it's not because it's a clever thing for a pastor to say, it's not just a clever thing to put on the wall of a church. It's God's heart for His people. Everybody God creates, He loves. His desire is that all would come to know Him. So even if you're as far away from God as you could ever possibly be, sinning what you consider the most grievous sins, I have good news for you, God loved you so much that He sent His only begotten son to die on a cross for all of your sin. He loves you.

And for those of you who have repented and trusted in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sin and His resurrection from the dead, He has a special love for you, which means this, no matter what you ever do, God can't love you any more than He loves you right now. And no matter what you do, God can never love you any less than He loves you right now. He just has infinite love for you. And ensured sometimes, I guess, "I understand that theologically, I've read Romans 8, I know." Have you ever got it from your head into your heart where you begin to walk around and say, "I know who my daddy is, and I know how He feels about me"? Because when you start living like that, you live differently.

The baseline starts with intimacy with God. And I would say this, your identity and intimacy always need to precede activity. Your intimacy with God and your identity and who you are always precedes activity. Oftentimes in church we'll talk about needs we have in the church and we'll say, "You got to serve. We need help with kids. We need help with youth. We need help with the mans. We need help with women. We need help, help, help." We're always going to need help. That's not why you serve. Because if you begin to do a bunch of outside activity but your heart isn't rightly related to God, you will burn out or wear out. Your heart has to be right. God desires intimacy.

God wants you to walk around saying, "Did you not know how special you are to me that you're my masterpiece, that we together are God's masterpiece. And He's doing incredible things in and through us." That's the perspective that God wants us to have. And this is so important because for me what I used to do prior to being a pastor is I was an evangelist. So what I often did was very similar to what we did at Bandimere Speedway this past Easter, where we would preach the gospel and people would stream forward and get saved.

And my wife and I, we traveled the world. And sometimes there were five people that would get saved. And sometimes there were 40 people that would get saved. And sometimes there were thousands of people that would get saved. And by the way, it never gets old to do that just so you know. It doesn't get old to see people at BRAVE Church give their lives to Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen.

But what began to pain my heart is I would see all these people coming forward and in my heart it's like, "God, they are significant to you. And they matter to you and they're special to you and they're gifted by you. And they have a purpose. What are we doing with these people?" And I started [inaudible 00:20:01] on my hand, like, "Where would I send them? What churches are actually going to build them up? Where's worship taking place? Where's the word being preached? Where's prayer essential? Where's evangelism happening? Who's going to turn these people loose?" And I couldn't find many places and it pained my heart so much.

As I was praying to the Lord, [inaudible 00:20:19] the Lord, like, "Are you going to do something about it or are you just going to complain?" And that was part of my process of ending up as a pastor, because my desire for each and every person here who knows the Lord is to grow to the fullness that Jesus Christ has for you. And wherever you are in your walk, let me just say something, there's more. There's more intimacy. There's more identity. There's more victory. There's more faith that you can have. And God wants you to know. And if this is the only thing you take away from this message and apply to your life, if you live your life knowing that you belong to God and you're significant to God, you will live different, for we are His workmanship.

Secondly, we see this. Not only do we belong to God and are significant to Him, but we were created by God for His good purpose. We were created by God for His good purpose. Notice what he says, "We were created in Christ Jesus for good works." We talked about last week. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, behold the newest come." What's the mystery of the gospel? Christ in you. The hope of glory. What is the gospel? That when you trust Christ, Jesus comes to live on the inside.

Now let me tell you something, when the God of the universe comes to live on the inside of you as I've often said, He doesn't come in to be resident. He comes in to be president. He doesn't come in just so He can sit there so that you can be a Christian couch potato, and look around and figure out what's going on. He came in your life to take it over so that He can live the fullness of Him through you. That's what God wants. You were created for good works. And the works that God wants you to do are the ones He's going to live in and through you. And the more intimate that you grow with Jesus, the more that God wants to do in your life.

Now think about God's creation for a minute. I mean, when God created the earth, He created it unique. Isaiah 45:18 said, "He created it in such a way that it could be populated by the crown of His creation, human beings." No other planet on the earth can do that. Regardless of what discovery channel you ever read, there is no one greater than the creation of human beings in the image of God that He came and died for. No one. He created the earth unique that's why it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. It doesn't say God created the heavens and the planets or the heavens and Mars. The earth is unique. It's why when he created human beings, we were created in the image of God. We are image bearers of the king.

Every life that is formed has significance and meaning and purpose. Every single human being you see, even people that are living apart from God that are evil were designed for good, were designed by God for His purpose even if they're not living it out. And so when God created you, He created you as people who are unique for good works. Now you think about anything that was created. I mean, a car, created for you to get behind the wheel and get from point A to point B and to drive somewhere. I mean, if you have a car but you never use it to get from point A to point B and it's just a show piece in a showroom, it doesn't accomplish what a car was designed to do.

Some of us are Christian show pieces, like, "I know I'm saved, brother. I've been saved since I was 18 and God's doing something." All you're doing is sitting around like a Christian couch potato. That's not why God saved you. God saved you because He wanted to do something in and through you that He could only accomplish in and through you with your unique personality and giftedness within the community of Christ so that God would be glorified.

Amen.

He created you for good works. He didn't save you by good works, but he definitely saved you for good works. That's when I'm reading the Bible about obedience to God in John 14, this is a verse, John 14:23-24 Jesus said this, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him. And we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me, does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father who sent me." How do you know if somebody loves Jesus? They're obedient to His word. That's simple. "Well, I don't need to be obedient to that. I got saved by grace." Now, if you've been saved by grace and you're filled up on the inside, you're going to want to keep the word of God.

Nobody will mandate it for you, tell you, you better, you have to, you ought. It's this person on the inside, the God man of the universe through His Holy Spirit's like, "You need to pay attention to this." This is for you. He's talking about you. You need to let Christ out of you. You need to grow in Christ, right? In James 2:17, we read this, "Faith if not accompanied by works is-

Dead.

... dead or faith without works is dead." A lot of us [inaudible 00:24:59] we don't like that verse. "Ah, it doesn't apply to me. I'm saved by grace through faith." Yeah. And if your faith is not accompanied with good works, it's a worthless faith. What good is it? What good is it for you to say you're a Christian if there's nothing coming through your life that demonstrates you are one? God wants you to know this, God saved you for being this, just hear me, for you to be an example. Be an example so that when people see you, whether you're a man, a woman, a boy or a girl, no matter what your vocation is or your avocations or wherever you're at, when people see you living your life they'll say, "Now that's somebody that talks about Jesus, that lives out the principles I see in the Bible." That's an example. That's what God wants for all of us.

Amen.

God wants all of us to be an example. We were created by Him for His good purpose. His good purpose was for us to be an example for Him. Now think about this for a second, how can you be an example? "What does it look like? Where do I even get started?" I'm so glad you asked. Jesus talked about greatness with his disciples. He talks about greatness with us. And for those of us that want to be great, He tells us how to do it. He says that the Gentiles, the secular rulers of the day, they would lord their leadership over people. Very similar to how we do it today.

A non-spirit filled man or woman will always lord their leadership over people. Husbands will lord it over their wives. Wives will lord it over their husband. Parents will lord it over their kids. Kids will try to lord it over their parents. People that work in the marketplace, bosses will lord it over their employees. Employees will try to lord it over other people. In the church when you have a non-spirit filled pastor, non-spirit filled church, they'll try to lord it over the people. And you'll start looking at people as if they're put on earth to help you and it's their job to make your vision correct. And it's their job to do all this stuff. And it's my husband's job to do this. My wife's job to be that. That's what lording it over people looks like. We've all experienced that.

We've all led that way at times when we haven't led in a way that the spirit of God leads us and we've all been on the receiving end of that. And it's not very fun. Nobody wants to be lorded over. So Jesus says in Matthew 20:26, "It's not to be this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great..." You want to become great? Anybody know how to become great? "Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant." We call it leadership in the west. You know what Jesus calls it? Servant hood. You want to be great, find somebody to serve.

You say, "Well, I don't know if I have the pedigree for that." The only pedigree you need is humility. You don't need the right education. You don't need the right socioeconomic background. You don't need the right gender. You don't need the right skin color. All you need to do is say, "I totally want to be great." And Jesus said, "Great, find a place to serve, find a need and fill it. Serve." Now here's the problem, for many of us as Christians we think service is an option. "I'll decide if I want to serve. I'll see what times they're serving. I'll see how they're serving. I'll see if I like the service and then I'll get involved in serving." That's epidemic in our church culture in the west.

Service is not an option. Now, if you don't have the heart of a servant, here's how you're going to know you don't have the heart of a servant. Because anytime you enter into Christian community you falsely think that Christian community is supposed to be about you. So you come into church and you're like, "I don't know if I like the pastor or not. I don't know if I like the version he preaches from. I don't know if I like what he said. Those worship songs today, they went too long, they went too short. I didn't like that tune that they'd sang. I didn't like the key that they sang it in." You become critical of community because you yourself are not serving it.

When you're engaged in the service of it, you won't be critical of it. You might have a critical mind for how it can be better, but you won't have a critical spirit of it because you've engaged your life into it. You say, "Well, how do I serve?" Any way you want. Give your best time to it. Give your best resources to it. Give your best gifts to it. Serve. If you want to be great, you're going to be a servant. And Jesus doesn't stop there. And He says, "Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave." What's the difference between a servant and slave? Servant chooses where they're going to serve. What do slaves do? "Whatever you say master, that's where I'm going."

Slaves listen to their master and they just do what they're told. You want to be really great? Be a slave. Can you imagine what church would be like if every single person that was called by the name of God, that attended a church, had the attitude of, "Jesus, I'm just your slave. I don't care what happens to me. Use me however you want, wherever you want, whenever you want, so long as you get glory from me. Even if I'm anonymous and nobody knows me, I just want to serve the body so we can advance the kingdom." What in the world would happen? I'll tell you what would happen. Things beyond anything you could ask or imagine according to his glorious power that's at work within us.

Jesus said, "Hey, you want to be great, be a servant. You want be the greatest, be a slave just as the son of man." You're like, "Well, where am I going to get an example of that? Whoever lives like that? I don't see anybody living like that." Well, you did once. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. "Hey, Jesus, how am I going to do that?" "Just do what I did. Just give up your rights to yourself. Be totally anonymous. Just find a place to serve. Serve me, serve me alone. Don't worry about the results. Just be all in with me." What would happen? And Jesus is not mincing words. He's not saying it's optional.

For some of us we've grown weary in our Christian faith, or we've become sick and tired of church because instead of serve being, we think we're here to be served. You're not here to be served. Now, let me be careful on this. I want to back up just a minute. There are seasons in our life where we go through really difficult times. I'm not talking about, "I had a bad day." I'm talking about, "I never expected this to happen. I feel like I've been kicked in the gut. There's a tragedy. I've lost a loved one. I lost my job. I mean, I came out of a church where I was just abused. I mean, abused. And men, there's just a lot going on in my life right now."

Listen, if that's you, there's a season for healing. There's just this. There's a season to just sit in a church and soak and hear the word of God and worship. And I've had seasons like that where I can't even mouth words because I've cried for weeks at a time. And there's a season for that. And if that's you in this season, by all means, welcome and serve the Lord in your time, but just be filled up again. Grow in your intimacy and identity. There's a season for that. But that season is not a 25-year season. I mean, we're an army of the Lord where we're called to heal and grow so that we can get back on the kingdom field and serve the Lord. And there's a time for that too. And the Lord knows when that timing is right for you.

So you should never feel arm twisted by a pastor or anybody else. And you better, you better, you better... You know when it's right, because deep down in your heart you know that you want to, and there's a time for it. But I would also say this to those that are hurting, sometimes when you go through seasons like that, a lot of the ministry that God's going to use to heal you is you using your hurts to minister to others who are hurting too. And it's oftentimes what I find in the kingdom, it's my broken dreams, it's my broken heart, it's my brokenness in my own life, it's my sin I can't seem to get a handle on, that people can identify more with than, "Hey, I'm living the life and it's great."

Sometimes we refuse to get into community because we're afraid. We got to wait until our life just looks just perfect. If you wait until your life looks just perfect, you will see Jesus Christ before you get into community and never happen. God wants you to serve. He wants you to serve. It's not optional. It's your part of the body of Christ to serve the church. You say, "Jeff, why are you talking about the church all the time? There's way more needs in the world than just the church." Yes, there are, but I will tell you this, if you're a member of the body of Christ, the church is His bride and it's the one vehicle He chose to bless. And He says this, "Upon this rock I will build my church." You need to be part of a church. "Well, I don't like the church?" Well, then you don't like Jesus because it's who He died for.

"Well, churches are..." Yeah, I know because they're full of broken people just like you. If you're looking for the perfect church... There's nothing wrong with church hopping for a season. I get it. You move to a new area, you got to find the right thing. "Is this a fit? Do they do this? Is this where I'm going to go?" But if you spend your whole life church hopping for the perfect church, let me just save you time, there's no such thing as a perfect church. And if you ever find it and you join it, you just blew it for everybody else that was already there. I mean, just get involved, serve, serve because see, when you're a servant and you're a slave and you're giving yourself to it, you'll care about the result, but you won't care about yourself. You'll care about what happens and that's what God wants.

He wants our heart to be about Him. And the whole Bible can be summed up in loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, loving your neighbor as yourself. You grow in intimacy and identity, "This is who I am. And because I'm that, I can humble myself and do anything that the Lord would have me do." When we read about Jesus, He tells us, "Consider others more important than yourselves." It's like, "I humbled myself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. I was willing to be publicly hung on a cross and shamed for you. I allowed people to put their spikes into my hands and my feet and I hung for you. I got to a place I couldn't even breathe anymore for you. I shed my blood for you." I mean, I know what it looks like to serve. Jesus would say, "No matter what you're doing, you're not serving like I served."

And let me just say this, when it comes to the church, when it comes to the kingdom, the church exists to build the body of Christ to advance the kingdom. And on the kingdom, there is no sideline. Everybody's on the field. Now I played sports growing up and I can tell you, I played on a number of teams where I was essential to that team, where I was one of the key contributor to that team. If I didn't show up, it would have hurt the team. I've also played on teams where if I didn't show up, people will be like, "I didn't know he wasn't there. I mean, where was he? I didn't know you weren't there." I can tell you this, I didn't like playing on teams like that. I like playing on teams where I was essential. Here's what you need to know, you are Christ ambassador as though God is making His appeal through us. And you are valuable to the advancement of Christ's kingdom no matter who you are.

And if you spend your life running after all these different things that you think are so important, they're going to bring you joy, you're going to miss out on what you were created for, which is to serve the body of Christ. It doesn't mean we can't serve people outside the body of Christ. I mean, if you're an evangelist and your heart just beats for the lost, I'm like great, let it beat for the lost and go out and share the gospel with as many lost people as you can. But also why don't you pour into people in the body of Christ and show them how to do it too, so they can join you. Because the problem is when we're not servants, then we're critical. And we expect that when we show up in a church that chairs are supposed to just be there and kids ministry is supposed to be hopping and youth ministry is supposed to be great. And men's ministry is flourishing and women's ministry has multiple opportunities and small groups are awesome.

It works that way when you have servants. I've been in a lot of small groups in my life. I've been in small groups where when the small group ends, I think to myself, "I can't believe I have to wait a whole another week until I can do that again." And I've been in other small groups where the small group ends and I'm like, "I can't believe in a week I have to go back to this thing again." You know what I'm talking about? It usually comes because when you get a group of people that serve and are on mission together, community naturally happens. Some of us think that community makes mission, but it doesn't. Mission forms community. I mean, you think about the military, we join the military, for those of you that have served and we celebrate you and praise God for you, when you join the military and you go to bootcamp, it's not about community and potlucks and picnics and being besties because one day you're going to serve together.

No, you get on mission right away and realize your life is no longer your own, right? And we're going to be about that mission. Then when you get with people that are on the same mission, friendships form. When you get on a mission about Jesus Christ, "That my job is to encourage others to grow in Christ, into knowing Christ and I'm around another group of people and that's their mission too and we come together," you can have people that don't look, think, or act like you in several ways, but you can get really close to them really fast. Before I was a Christian, I had my circle I hung out with just like all of us before we were Christians. After becoming a Christian I started hanging out with people I would have never hung out with before. Why? Because we're on the same mission for Jesus. And I had a depth of relationship with them, I never had with my non-Christian friends in the circle I hung out with.

If your small group's not good, perhaps it's because you think it's about you. Instead of saying, "I'm there every week and I'm serving, even though I'm not leading." If kid's ministry, you say, "That's not good," ask yourself how much have you contributed to it? Because what I find is when I'm involved in something, I'm far less critical of it. I still know it can be better, but I'm less critical of it. I don't like it when people are critical of BRAVE Church. I don't like it when people are critical of other pastors. I don't like it when people are critical of other churches, because I've given my whole life to it. I give my money to it. I give my time to it. I give my best energy to it. And it drives me crazy when people speak bad about pastors and churches because I'm in it.

Are there perfect pastors? No, there's not any. Are there perfect churches? No, there's not any. Have pastors made some really dumb decisions before? Yes, I have. Doesn't mean that you get to hate church and leave and never come back. Have there been bad decisions, especially for those of you that would say, "I was hurt by the church, let me just correct your theology, you were never hurt by a church. You may have been hurt by people within the church that did something un-Christian that hurt you. But that doesn't mean that the whole church hurt you. And God wants you to be part of the church. And God wants you to contribute to the church. I've been hurt by people in church. I mean, heck I've been in it for 30 years now.

I've been hurt, but it's not going to stop me from serving people in the church, even people that have hurt me because I realized there's healing that comes from that. Friends, God wants you to be on mission. God wants you to serve him. And too often we think it's about us. And when it's about us, things get really stale. When I was a youth pastor at the age of 24, I was single. I lived in this little teeny parsonage. The average age in our church, they did a survey, the average age was 63, I was 24. We had four youth that were younger than me and then was me and that was about it. And I remember we do these potlucks and have spaghetti suppers and do all this. And some of the older ladies in the church would say, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, we know you can't cook. Here's some stuff." And they would put spaghetti in what? Tupperware dishes.

And then they give me bread and they'd wrap it in aluminum foil. And they'd give it to me, which is such a blessing because I didn't want to cook and I didn't want to spend money, so it was awesome. What a blessing. But I remember one time I put it in my refrigerator and I went on vacation for a couple of weeks and forgot to take it out before I left. And I came back and I remember looking at my refrigerator and that spaghetti didn't look like spaghetti anymore. It was green and purple and had mold on it and everything else. And the only thing it was good for was to take it over to the garbage and dump it out as quickly as I could and wash the dish. Some of us are like Tupperware dishes when it comes to our faith. We're running to the next conference and the next conference and the next speaker and the next worship and the next prophetic word and the next this. "We've got to get it all. We got to store it all."

And some of you are like Tupperware dish. You have so much in you, it's just rotting. So God didn't create you to be a Tupperware dish. God created you to be a serving tray. At a buffet, what do they do when you run out of food on a buffet? They just bring you more fresh stuff. Some of us are afraid to serve because if I give that's all I got, that's all I know how to give, how's God going to give me anything else? Because I'm a serving tray. Do you know when I preached my first sermon at a church, I have it, I listen to it. It's 20 minutes long. I talked even faster then than I do now. I mean, I was repeating stuff. I mean, to get 20 minutes long of a sermon took me forever. [inaudible 00:40:41] every story I know, very little Bible because I didn't know a whole lot about the Bible. And I remember thinking, "How would you ever preach for over 30 minutes?" Now It's no problem. Right?

Now I got to cut things out and I got to do... Because you keep doing it. You keep serving and God keeps pouring more in and that's what God wants to do in your life. You say, "I don't have much to give," you give your 2 cents and God will fill it back up. See, God wants you to live the abundant life not so that you can collect. God wants you to live the abundant life so that you can give. And when you start with intimacy and identity, and then you recognize you were created for a purpose, God gives us a third element that we need to be aware of. You need to be aware of this, that we've been given a plan that God has already designed. We've already been given a plan that God's already designed. Now, most of us ask this question, what's God's plan for my life rather than what's God's plan?

God's made His plan in scripture so clear that about 95% of everything that God wants us to do and wants you to do is all the same. Notice what he says in Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works," what? Which God prepared beforehand. Everything God wants you to do He's already designed it. He already wants you to do it. I mean, as the book of Ephesians continues, He tells you how to live with your mouth, to not say certain jokes and to use your tongue to build others up. He tells us how to take off our old self and put on our new self. He tells us in the Bible what our hands should go after and what our feet should go after and how we should use our ears and what we should listen to and how our eyes should see certain things and how we should pursue Him. And what it looks like to serve in the church.

95% of everything God would ever want you to do is explicitly spelled out in the scripture. And yet we go through the 5% like, "Yeah, that's all good and stuff, but just tell me what's in it for me and then I'll do it." And we're telling that to the God of the universe who laid down His life, shed His blood, died on a cross for you and rose from the grave so you could have life. And then we dictate to Him what we should get out of the deal. You got heaven. You got a personal relationship with Jesus. Hell is taken away from you. All your sins are forgiven. What more do you want? The Holy Spirit lives inside of you. God goes with you everywhere you go. He gives you to serve. He does all the work and He's given us the great commission as we talked about earlier, that our job for Matthew 28 is to go make disciples of all nations.

I mean, I find it hard pressed to go through the New Testament and find somebody that was in the church that wasn't about that. I mean, even when you see Lydia, she's a maker of purple cloths, what was she doing? She's opening up her home so the apostles can come in and teach. Everybody was about the mission. Everybody was doing something. Nobody was doing everything. Jesus Christ is the only one who's fully God and fully man. You've only been given so many gifts and you've been given a lot of weaknesses too, which means that we need each other in the body of Christ to accomplish what God wants. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand.

Do you realize the fact that you're living in 2021? The fact that you're in this service right now is God has ordained the time and space for you to be here. He wants you to hear these very words, wherever you live, that's where God has you to serve Him in whatever capacity He has you to serve. I mean, God's word is complete when it talks about what it looks like to honor God as a single person, what it looks like to honor God as a married person, what it looks like to honor God if you're a child, what it looks like to honor God with your life, your mouth, your ears, your eyes, your tongue, all of that's in there. Be an example.

And you say, "Well, what about the specific thing?" Here's what I would say, Proverbs 16:9 says this, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." The Lord will lead you if you get involved in community. It's what God wants you to understand. And because calling always comes from community, community is really, really important. In other words, if somebody says, "I'm called to preach," I would say, "Who have you preached to other than your wife and kids that would say that?" Who would affirm that gift? "I've been called to lead worship." Who have you led worship with where the body of Christ says that was anointed. "I have to get to [inaudible 00:44:47]." Who in the body of Christ told you that? "I'm really good with kids." Who in the body of Christ told you that?

See, when we're in community, there's affirmations of people in community that affirm us and affirm the things that are deep down that we would say, "Not very good at that." I've told you my story. I mean, the first time I spoke publicly in front of a large crowd was at an FCA banquet in Tampa, Florida when we played Clemson in a bowl game years ago, and I thought they were going to be about 30 people there, and there were over 500 sitting at tables. And so my heart was beating really fast and to make matters worse, I was the last guy to go. And I remember getting up there and I told a joke and out of about 500 people, I heard one person in the back go, "Huh," and that was about it.

And so I started talking faster, just told my testimony, what Jesus had done and sat down. And as I sat down, these words came into my heart and my head, "That is the last time I will ever speak publicly in front of a group of people for Jesus because I'm no good at it." I spoke too fast. I didn't even know where I was going. I don't even remember what I said. And I watched all these other guys that went, they were so good. They were funny. Everybody's engaged with them. I remember getting on the bus, going back to our hotel and I couldn't wait to get off the bus and just change clothes and go to practice.

And one of the guys that was one of the starters, he was a senior, he came to sit down next to me. He's like, "Hey, bro." He goes, "You just need to know this, everybody else that spoke, they were good speakers and stuff. But bro, when you spoke, there's a presence of God that came over the room that's so different than any of the guys. You need to do that more often." And I was like, "What?" I mean, I didn't know. And then I would go out, so I'd do it again. I'll do littler crowds and churches and then I would share the gospel and then people would get saved. And my campus crusade for Christ leader would say, "Hey, Jeff, do you realize every time you go out and share the gospel, people get saved?" And I was like, "That's cool."

And he said, "That's not cool." He goes, "That's not normal. Not everybody has that gift." And then we were doing this Bible study one time where if you knew for a fact the Lord was coming back in three days, what would you do? Which would be a great Bible study right now, by the way, just so you know. And I said, "I would go right in front of all the bars where I used to be and I would preach the gospel. I know exactly what I'd say and exactly who I'd say it to." And I remember looking around and none of the guys had that answer. Nobody else said they were going to preach. Some were going to go home and spend time with their families. Some were going to spend time in prayer. And I'm like, "What's wrong with you guys? How come you don't want to preach?"

Here's why, because that wasn't in their heart. And over time in community, even times where I'm like, "I'm not a very good teacher, I'm not a very good teacher," people have affirmed that over and over to a point like that's what I do now. And I believe it because God's shown me that, but I also believe because the body of Christ has affirmed that. If you're not in community, your true gifts will never get highlighted. If you come serve a community, people will know what your gift is. You're in a small group and the only reason food is there is because you bring it every week. And I was like, "Dude, it's so awesome. You have the gift of hospitality and administration. It's awesome. We'd never have food here."

Some of you have the gift of hospitality. You love opening up your house. People can go to your house, they can eat your food. They can drink your drinks in your refrigerator and it makes you super happy. And other people feign a gift of hospitality that when they're in your house and they're eating your food and drinking your drinks, like, "Man, I hope they're paying for that. You know what I mean, right?" Because it's not your gift. Not everybody has every gift but you have some, and they're so innately you and who you are, that as you grow in them, you can work at them, you can stretch them, but it's just who God made you. And you need to be encouraged in that. And we as a body of Christ need to do that.

That's why when it comes to our church, I want to encourage you to get involved in serving because it's a mandate of our Lord. I'm not twisting your arm. I'm not going to chase you down at your house and say, "How come you're not serving? How come you're not serving?" That's for the Lord to do in your heart. This is for the group of people here that would say, "I'm here in the Lord. And I know I need to serve, how do I get started?" I'm glad you asked. Because do you realize if you just open your eyes there's needs all over this place? Maybe we could start with the youngest of kids and go to the oldest. There's marriages, there's singles. There's men, there's youth, there's all sorts of stuff that's going on.

There's certain things we do as a church that we do collectively. If you have a heart, man, "I really want to serve and seeing people come to Christ," be part of alpha. They're looking for people. I mean, one of the things that we're doing this fall is we're starting a Virtues Campus because we believe that the church needs to take ground and regain a biblical worldview for college students because too many college students go off and spend four years learning things that are anti-biblical and anti-American and everything else. And then they end up serving in our world. They leave the faith and they don't do... We say, "Why doesn't the church help people?" Because for many people going off to college, they don't even know why they're going. "I'm supposed to go, I'm 18." If you don't know why you're going to college, stop. I mean, go do something else, right?

Yes.

If you're interested in learning more about the Virtues Campus, you can find it out in our lobby here in Inglewood. Thursday night here in Inglewood, we're having a meeting. The guy that's running this for the entire world is going to be here. If you have younger kids and you want to learn what this is going to look like and how we're going to advance that, come be a part of that because we want to change culture. We want to change the world and it starts with the Lord Jesus Christ and being intimate with Him. But it all comes from service. It all comes from service. Every single one of us should be praying the prayer, "Lord, I don't care how I'm used. Just use me any way you want. And I just want to do it your way." If everybody did that, it'd be amazing. It'd be amazing. It'd be amazing. God wants that from you.

You say, "Well, how do I discover God's specific plan for my life?" I'll give you four ways you can do that here. Number one, seek his face. Prayer's primary to everything. You have to become acquainted with the voice of the Lord, which comes mainly through the word. But God has subjective ways of speaking to us as well through people, through individual circumstances. Seek his face, know the Lord. Number two, obey his word. When you come to a church like BRAVE or any other church that would preach the word, God's going to speak to you from time to time and be very specific about what you need to do, when you hear that, don't stop.

I mean, just stop right where you are and just start putting into practice. "I want to get the fourth point." Don't worry about point number four. God's speaking to you through a spirit, just do that. That's what He wants from you. Put it into practice, seek His face, obey His word. Here's the third one. This is not original. I'm borrowing it from a book. Find out where God is working and join Him. Where do you see the spirit of God at work? The spirit of God's at work all over BRAVE Church, just so you know. It's why you're here. Join Him. Find out where He's at work and ask the Lord, "Lord, how can I serve with that? I don't really do anything other than pray. I wake up sometimes at 3:00 in the morning and I find myself praying for two hours." Guess what? You have an intercessory gift. Use it.

There are people in our church that need prayer every single week. And maybe you can be on the prayer team. The things that God's called you to do, chances are in your heart you're either doing them or you're upset that they're not being done as well as you could do them. "Oh, I just wish that the kids' ministry they'd have more men teach and that..." Then teach, right? Which by the way, men, kids' ministry and student ministry is not a women's subcontracted job. Okay? I mean, you think about this just for a second. I don't care what you do for a living. Okay? If you've got the opportunity to share the gospel with a five-year-old, seven-year-old, 12-year-old, that can change their life for all eternity, you tell me what your job does that's more important than that and why you wouldn't be down there serving in kids?

"Well, it's just they're kids. I'm not very good." You don't know. Sometimes it's just kids being loved by an adult. I never saw a guy in the church until I was in high school. I didn't think guys went to church because I never saw guys engage with me when I was a kid. Great women were the dudes. Serve, we need that. Parents, would you want to see your kids being taught by godly men as well as godly women? Would that be okay with you? I mean, there's all sorts of options for you to serve and you have an opportunity to get great return on your investment. Whatever you're doing in the business world will not be remembered once you're dead and gone. Even if you cure cancer or COVID, for instance, it's not going to matter once you're dead and gone. Here's what will matter, how you use your life for the Lord Jesus Christ, and won other people to Him and grew them up in the faith, that matters. That has lasting impact.

The fourth is this, as you seek His face and obey His word and you find out where God's working and join Him, then do this, listen to God and to the affirmations of others in the body of Christ. Just listen to Him. God will affirm things in you, right? I mean, if you're preaching and everybody's like [inaudible 00:53:12] instead of just the five of you that are doing that today, then maybe that's not your gift. If you're worshiping and people are like, "Wow, that's really tough to engage," maybe that's not your gift. I mean, there's somewhere for you to serve where as you do it, it will be so natural as breathing and people will be blessed by the way you serve.

And for somebody that has the gift of helps, you'll say this, "I don't know what to do, all I do is... I can set up chairs." Great, you have the gift of helps. We need you too. We need all the parts of the body functioning together for the way Christ wants. And then do this fourth one. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. Why? So that we would walk in them. Final point is this, we must keep taking steps of faith to enjoy God's best. We must keep taking steps of faith to enjoy God's best. I mean, there's a responsibility that comes with continuing to walk. I love that God says, "You don't stumble into these. You don't sprint with these." What do you do? You walk. You walk with these.

And notice how the first word of every point today is the word we, we, we, we. God's doing something through us. God wants you to enjoy community at BRAVE if this is your home church. He wants you to serve here and He wants you to walk in it. If you have a certain gift, stretch your gift, don't sideline your gift. Don't say, "Well, I used to do this, but I don't do any more because I wasn't appreciated." Okay? Find a place where you'll be appreciated and use your gift. The more you stretch your gift, the more that the Lord will help you grow that gift.

If you have a gift of intercessory prayer, there's ways that you can grow in prayer that you don't even know about yet. If you have gifts of preaching, there's ways you can grow in your preaching you don't even know about yet. If you have gifts of encouragement, there's ways you can encourage people you don't even know about yet. If you have gifts of evangelism, there's all sorts of ways that you can grow in that gift and become more effective at sharing the gospel. Whatever it is, you just walk in it. Now I love this because we understand as human beings when kids are learning to walk and they fall, we're cool with that. Now they fall down and what do we do? We pick them back up. We tell them how great they are. We hold them. We look them in the eye. We tell them to try again, but not in the Christian community.

We fall once and you're like, "I stink at this. I'm never doing that again. And these people told me I was terrible. I'm done. I'll sit in church..." No, no, no, you get back up and then you take another step. Maybe it goes into a different direction. And the more you walk with the Lord, the Bible says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." The Lord will guide you where you need to go. The Lord will help you where you need to get. For some of you, it's ministry full-time. For most of you, it's not. But wherever you collect your paycheck, or if you're not collecting a paycheck because you're doing significant work in the lives of other people where you should get paid, but you're not getting paid to do it, that's your ministry. And how you do that for the Lord is what it's all about.

And so as we're talking about this today, service in the body of Christ is a must, it's a call of God, but it's nothing that can happen from a human vantage point. I've been in churches before like, "This weekend serve, weekend serve. We had 400 signups." Great. And about four weeks later out of those 400 signups, 30 people are still serving because they just did it because of the outside. I'm not asking you to do something for the sake of doing activity. I'm asking for you to seek the Lord, grow in your intimacy and identity with Him. And as He leads you, even if you're nervous, even if you're scared, would you please for the love of God and for the sake of the Lord, Jesus Christ, just take a step. It can be a baby step, "This is what I can do right now. This is what I'm able to do." And that's a really important.

I'm just going to encourage you today, find a place to serve in this season. Find a place to serve in this season. If this is not your season, and you would say, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, I heard you today and this is my season to sit and be ministered to," then I would ask you to do this, ask the Lord, "Hey, Lord, tell me when that season's over, because I want to get back in the game." But for the rest of us, where? God wants 100% of us that are called by His name to serve Him in some capacity. What's that look like for you? We have a lot of people in the lobby here in Broomfield. You can do this with a QR code online. There's all sorts of different ways you can be involved.

And for some of you, as we desire to empower you, you have a ministry idea we're not even doing yet that you want to do. And we want to hear from you. We want to learn how we can come alongside of you and empower that because our goal is to reach as many people for Jesus and to grow as many people up in the faith so that we can have influence in this world for the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. And that's what he wants to do through you. God wants to use your life for greatness. And when you're part of a team, friends, I'm telling you, BRAVE Church is a special place. The goal of BRAVE Church...

As a pastor, I pray that we're all together someday with Jesus and He taps us on the shoulder and He says, "BRAVE Church, great job. BRAVE Church, look what you did. Brave Church, look at all the people that you brought into the kingdom from all around the world. Look at the churches you planted. Look what I did through you because you were able to do that." And I want to see millions upon millions of people that are in the kingdom because of what God did through us in this season. Not Pastor Jeff, not our staff, us, we. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Amen. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we pray? Lord, we give you praise, glory, and honor for who you are. And Lord, as you're prompting us today, even as we leave this building or engage online, Lord, you're doing a work in our heart. Lord, lead us where you want us to serve. Let us be your servants. Let us be your slaves. Lord, for the joy set before you, you endured the cross, scorning in shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Lord, you're calling us to serve you by loving you and serving others. Do a work in our heart. We pray in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Can we give God praise this morning?