AUG 14 2016 | Acts 14

Sea Change Church · "Acts 14" · Adam Stadtmiller · August 14, 2016
Acts 14
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

This morning, we are in Acts 14, beginning with verses 8 and following. Paul, Barnabas, and friends are in Lystra, in Derbe, and they're adventuring with the Lord. Let's hear the word. In Lystra there sat a man crippled at his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed.

And called out, stand up on your feet. And at that, the man jumped up and began to walk. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycanian language, the gods have come down to us in human form. Barnabas, they called Zeus. Paul, they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bowls and wreaths to the city gates, because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, only human like you. We're bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.

In the past, he let all nations go their own way, but he has not left himself without testimony. He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven, crops in their seasons, provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. And even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. And then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over.

They stoned Paul, dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up, went back into the city. And the next day, he and Barnabas left for Derbe. This is the word of the Lord. What a day in the life of Paul and Barnabas. Pastor Adam, bless us. It's a good lesson on what to do when you get stoned.

Just get up and go back to work the next day. Way to go, Paul. Well done. Love it. Can't even get out of bed, you know, with a cup of coffee waiting for me. That guy's awesome. Hey, we are continuing on in the book of Acts this entire year. We'll have a couple series that I'm going to be doing through the fall. I'm still not absolutely decided on a couple three-week series I'll be doing.

But through the rest of this year, we're going to follow Paul from what we saw was the birth of a church that he oppressed to becoming the main spokesman for that church and going out through his missionary journeys. We're on the first missionary journey. And as you can see, we have a new map that you can actually read now. So we've taken that to our media department.

And there it is. There it is. All right. Let's give it up for the media team. And now, Dave also gave me a pointer, which is so cool. I got a pointer. So you can see that we started here in Syriac, Antioch. And there's two places called Antioch. See, I can't keep my hands straight. I'm coming on a brain surgeon. We have two Antiochs. One is in Syria.

One's in Turkey. Both of those places are important today. And so as you think through it, they were having issues then. And they are having issues today as well. We have followed Paul from Antioch to Cyprus up to Perga and then Pisidia and then to Antioch, Iconium. And now we're in Lystra and Derbe. And we see him going back and forth because the place that he got stoned, he's actually left there.

And then he comes back to it here pretty soon. So he ends up going back to that place. One of the things we're going to find out as we read through this is Paul has dedicated his life to proclaiming the gospel. And we want to be like Paul. Not that you're going to be taking massive trips, but every day, almost every day, you go somewhere. You go to the dry cleaner.

You see your neighbor. You coach soccer. You have lunch. And you go to these different places. We went to Sugar and Scribe yesterday. Anybody been there? First time there. Woo, I'll be back. That place is solid. Really good. I thought, hey, we've got a new place. We're going to be sharing the gospel with people and making a difference. All of us have a spiritual geography.

And how are you winning your spiritual geography for Christ? How are you winning the places that you go on a regular basis? I say we have seven to ten places that we pretty much circulate on a regular basis. And how are we following, like Paul, to share and proclaim? Now, here's the thing. Paul was super strategic, but he was also very good at dealing with what happens in the moment.

I'm reading right now Sun Tzu, The Art of War, if you've read that. 2,500-year-old books. Fantastic. It's all bullet points. I love it. It's like little tweets on how to win a war. But there's a lot of life knowledge in there. One of the things that he said is he says, basically, good generals or good armies are like water. Water has no form but is able to adapt to whatever its circumstances but will always win the battle of either eroding that or moving down into a stream or carving.

As you know, you look at the Grand Canyon. My mom just got back from the Grand Canyon. Just a few drops of water and they found their way and they are winning against the soil. Paul was like that. Paul had a strategy, but he had no form. Meaning, whatever happened, if he got stoned, he was going to figure out what to do next. His regular prayer in the morning was probably, what's next, Lord?

We know that the reason he ended up in Antioch, which is now modern-day Syria, is that he heard that the church was advancing. Remember, a group of Gentiles had gone to that city because people were only proclaiming the gospel to Gentiles. There was a group of people that they considered lost and we won't preach to those people. Are there people today that the Christian church would look at and say, they're too lost, they're the enemy, we hate them and we will not speak the word of God to them.

There were some Christians who were Gentiles themselves that said, that is not what we believe and they went here. Paul heard what was happening. Barnabas came down and got him and Paul went up there and stayed for a year. Now, he was just cruising around down in Jerusalem or Damascus, I think it was. He was having his day and as soon as he heard that something exciting was happening in Antioch, he was like water and said, Lord, what next?

But he did have a strategy. So within his ability to morph to every conversation, to every situation, to everything that happens, he had a strategy. And the strategy had some common points. And one of his strategy was proclaiming the word of Christ verbally, not only in words, but in power. And we see, as we heard in the testimony today from Greece, that oftentimes if we put ourselves into the chasm of faith, God will show up and back it with power.

Second thing we see in his strategy is he wanted to do what Jesus did. And so this miracle is a replication of what Jesus does with a man who had been crippled for 38 years since birth. And he had his mat and Jesus said to him, do you remember, pick up your mat and what? Walk. Walk. If you look through the journeys of Paul, you will see that oftentimes the things that happened to Jesus, the things that Jesus did, Paul stepped into it.

Now, I'm not saying that you're going to say to somebody, stand up and walk. But you're regularly looking, how did Jesus live his life? What would Jesus do? And I knew that that was a popular wristband at some point. But the question is, we have to intimately know how Jesus lived his life, the values in which he lived his life. So in this situation, we can think, what should I do and how should I do it?

Now, most of us would consider ourselves evangelicals. And I don't like being put into, no one likes being put into boxes, right? A little box. But I would say I'm evangelical. I will say, though, that I would say that a church that is considered evangelical today is missing one key component of being evangelical. What do you often see that that key component is?

Evangelism. Yay! Good one. You win, Bev. Like, you can tell them their views on political matters. You can tell, evangelicals believe this. If you were to go to the news and say, what are evangelicals about? They will give you a list of political and thoughts and things that they like and, you know, whatever. But one of the things you will not often see is this.

Is that they proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, that you might be saved from your sins. That is the core of being a believer. One, being saved ourself. Believing in faith that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The second step, and it's pretty simple, is to share the message of Jesus and make disciples. To go and speak. And I've got to say that that is a major characteristic.

Everything else, for the most part, with Paul and what he was going to do on a daily basis, was up to whatever happened, whatever God brought before him. But in the midst of that, you could be assured of two things. He was going to do what he thought Jesus would do. He was going to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. And he was going to proclaim verbally the word of the gospel.

We want, if we're going to be an evangelistic church or an evangelical church, there's a whole bunch of definitions for that. But I want us to have a primary definition as this church. That we tell people that Jesus Christ died for their sins. And that we make it a point that we are regularly speaking the gospel and speaking to ripe fruit. We're going to talk about that.

There is this sense that no one out there wants to hear the gospel. I've got to say that this world is desperate to hear the gospel. There are people that didn't sleep last night because of panic and disorder, or broken families, or marriages, or health problems. Tribulation in their life offers fertile ground. John McClure, my pastor, when I was a youth pastor, said to me, look for tribulation in life, in people's lives.

When people have tribulation, it is a ripe area to share the gospel. And until tribulation comes, keep friendship, keep blessing, do small talk. But when tribulation comes, be there. And in the right moment, share the gospel. We want to be evangelicals. We're going to look at three things today. Understanding the spiritual art of evangelism. Now, I said I'm reading The Art of War.

And I was thinking, wouldn't it be interesting if somebody put together a book based on the art of war, but made it all about evangelism. And so I just started it myself with this sermon. And it's three things on the spiritual art of evangelism. Because I believe that evangelism is a spiritual act, but it's also an art form. Knowing that you will share the gospel with some person, and if it was a different person, you would share it a different way.

Knowing how and what to do in any given situation. This is the key to Sun Tzu's book. Knowing what to do in the moment. How to act in a certain moment. So the first thing is this. We've got to get better at recognizing ripe fruit. Where is the ripe fruit in your life? Number two. Positioning yourself to receive power. Putting yourself in the chasm of faith.

Just a half inch underneath the water's surface. Where you can't breathe unless a miracle comes. God is not asking for 10,000 miles of faith from you. All he needs is more than you have. One degree more than you have is enough faith for God. Because you are still living beyond your ability. And so putting ourselves, whether it be in generosity, whether it be in service, whether it be in prayer, whatever it is, taking yourself to that next level.

Positioning yourself to receive power. Paul did that on a regular basis. He put himself in situations where if God didn't show up, he would be lost. We're very good at keeping ourselves from any situation where we might need God. Let me say that again. We're very good at putting ourselves in any situation that might need God. I want to say, thank you, Walt.

Very good. Amen on that. Very good. I'm not saying that we're foolish and we jump off cliffs. But are we putting ourselves a little further? One inch further than you have margin for? Still living in rest. Still following God. Because following the Spirit will never burn you out. Only living in the flesh. The Spirit doesn't burn out. The flesh does. Let's look at the first point.

Paul had the ability to recognize and harvest right fruit. Verse 9. Very powerful verse. This man was listening to Paul. He realized that the guy was interested. Sometimes I'm intentionally sharing things. I went to the house. We rent our house out in Carlsbad. The one we still own. When we moved down to La Jolla. And I went and I was talking to the woman who lives in it right now.

And she goes, this house has a really good energy to it. And I said, you know what? That's the Spirit of God that's on this house. And it's had it since we just prayed and we feel that the Spirit of God's on this house. She's like, really? Well, I had my neighbors, my family come and they felt like it had some good juju. And I'm like, fair enough.

And I said, well, it's just the Spirit of God. And I said, we've prayed over our home. And I feel like the home that we live in now didn't have that when we got there. But it does now. And I just spoke. Now, there was no more conversation besides that. But I want to tell you what I did. I inserted it into the conversation. And I was just waiting. Oh, what do you mean?

Could you pray over our house? Maybe could you come pray for... I didn't know what was going to happen. Nothing actually happened. But I said it. And it wasn't like taking a baseball bat and hitting her over the head with it. It was just telling her the truth of what's happening in our lives. And that we have prayed that God would bless our home and it would be a spiritual sanctuary.

That's another topic, a spiritual sanctuary. He was listening. And so verse 9, he listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul looked directly at him and saw that what? Saw something. He saw he had what? The faith to believe. How do you recognize that in a person? Think about that. How do you see something in a person? Now, if you're a salesperson, you know how to see somebody when they are ready to buy something.

Yesterday, I went to the PB Cass Street garden place. And my wife bought me plants for the back of the yard. I'm getting back into gardening. So I'm going to be... I love it. I love it. I got some butterfly garden. The whole deal. Got some bone meal. The whole deal. And I'm there. And the lady... I was... I mean, it was so cheap. You know, it was like $3.95 for a...

You know, and I had a bigger budget. I had like a $200 budget, you know. And I could get a lot of plants for $200 as long as I don't buy the big ones, you know. And so I'm there. And she's like, you want this? I'm like, yeah, get it. Get it. And she's like, what about something? Yeah. And I just knew she was that salesperson that gets really excited because I'm walking around like a big shot.

Like, I'm like Michael Jackson in Vegas. You know what I mean? Walking around in that place. I'm buying a golden elephant the whole day. Well, you ever see that when he went and bought a gold elephant? I'm just like, yeah. She's like, you want bone meal? Make it happen. You want some fertilizer? Oh, yeah. I'm not afraid. I just... Take it all. She recognized something in me that I wanted my bone meal, okay?

I wanted the fertilizer. I want my yard to look nice. She saw it. I got to say, evangelism is no different. When you're talking... I got to say, first of all, we have to put ourselves in a position where the conversation can come up. Second of all, how do you do that? How do you weave that in in a way? Or if somebody says, hey, I have a back pain. You know what?

I believe in prayer. I'm going to pray for you in my prayer time. And then check in with them. Or say, hey, can I pray for you now? You know, maybe not in the middle of the line so everyone has to wait by you at Trader Joe's because then you're a nuisance, okay? There's a fine line between nuisance and grace, you know? Like being able to bless people.

Finding the art. Finding. He saw and he said there was ripe fruit. It's like Carmen said, this woman, desperate. I'll read the Bible in two days. Like the enemy wants you to believe that there is no ripe fruit left on the earth. Let me say that again. The enemy wants you to believe that the media's perception or people's perception or whatever of what Christianity is, is the only perception out in the world that no one wants to hear it.

No one is looking for a savior. No one is looking to be healed. No one is looking for hope that comes through Jesus. They only want hope that comes through a bottle or hope that comes through a trip. And as long as you stay on that topic, they will be filled with their hope. No. This world probably has the lowest hanging fruit it has ever had. People are desperate.

And I got to say that they're looking at politics, they're looking at all the things, there's nothing that's going to save them. Do you get, we're running out of saviors. We are running out of saviors. And as the world looks around, they know it. And if you talk to people, I regularly hear them say, there's something wrong going on in the world.

Every time we have some kind of attack or, you know, even Jim said to me this week, he saw the flag at half staff. I saw it again. I didn't remember what it was for. Have no, I can't remember anymore. They're seeing that and people are desperate. Do you see ripe fruit? Do you set the ground for ripe fruit? Are you even concerned about people coming to know Jesus?

Or is it too often? I got mine. If they get theirs, they get theirs. On mission, on point, regularly sharing the gospel. At this church, if you want to come here, we are going to continue to push to be an evangelical church that actually evangelizes. And I want to see multiple services from people not coming from other churches, which is great.

If you found a home here, fine. That's amazing. We're glad you're here. But I want people that have never known Christ to come here and say, we met Christ because we met you. We met Christ because we met you. And I want to see La Jolla change. I want to see the strongholds brought down in the schools. UTC, South Mission, La Jolla, the entire city.

And wherever you go, because Jesus, the hope of Jesus in you is the reach of our church. And wherever you go is the reach that we have. So if you go to Washington, D.C., if you go to Boston, if you go to Europe, you bring what we have and you tell people about it. And you come back here and we reach the world together. Evangelical, changing the world with a message of hope.

That's the only power we have. That is it. The message of Jesus Christ's gospel. That he died on the cross. That his blood was shed. And that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are going to be reunited with a Father who loves you. The world needs a Father. Paul had this message. He stayed on point. And he cared about it. I want to say the world is full of hobbled individuals yearning to walk.

It says that right there in the notes. The world is full of hobbled individuals yearning to walk. A nurse knows how to see someone when their legs broke. They understand a doctor. We have doctors here. Many of them coming from UCSD, Kaiser. When you see a sick person, they notice, hey, there's something wrong with you. Somebody has meningitis. They have a neck pain.

All of a sudden, they recognize that there's an illness. They recognize that there's a sickness. Doctors can do it. Athletes can recognize somebody. You throw a ball out in front of it with five kids. And I'll tell you what, in 15 seconds, 20 seconds, I'll tell you who the athlete is. That quick. I recognize it. We recognize everything except people that are willing to receive the gospel.

Why is that? And we maybe need to get away and ask ourselves, why don't I recognize that? Why do I have no clue of anybody around me who might want to be saved? I want to say we want to get better and better at knowing that. Point two. Paul's gospel came in words and it was followed by power. Came in words and it was followed by power. Once again, back to Carmen's story.

She began to step out to share a Bible. Here, I'll take my time to read the Bible with you. And then God came in power and brought the resources and the needs. Let's look at verse 10. And Paul called out to him. He took the action. Oftentimes, power is followed by action. Paul took the action to say, stand up on your feet. At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

There was a spiritual power transaction there. You might never see that. But let me say something more powerful is somebody saying, I want to follow Jesus because you give them life for eternity. And so asking a person on occasion, would you like to follow Jesus? This is a great, by the way, if you're going to share Christ, and you don't have to be an evangelist.

I'm climbing the pulpit again. If you're going to be an evangelist, you need to have one question in your arsenal. Would you like to pray with me to follow Christ? You can say it however. You can paraphrase it in your own way. But would you like to follow Christ? Let me pray with you to make that decision. Here's the next question. When can you be baptized?

Baptized? These are questions modern-day Western Christians do not know how to ask. Someone, you come to me and say, this is Mike. I ask him to pray with me. We prayed to know Christ, and he wants to be baptized. When's the next baptism? Well, we can get in the car right now and go to Mission Bay if you want. You bring somebody. I'll drive to Mission Bay, okay?

I will drive with you to Mission Bay. Matter of fact, I'll walk with you to the wind and see you. That's a lot closer. Why go to Mission Bay? He positioned himself. He did an action. 1 Thessalonians 1.5. Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with what? Read that word. Say it together. Power. With the Holy Spirit in what? Deep conviction.

Who convicts? When you speak, when you speak the gospel, do you know that you release the Holy Spirit in power to go inside, alongside, whatever you want to say it, to influence that person with all the ammunition of heaven? That is what happens. The gospel in Romans says that there's power. When you share it, it is the power to transform lives.

It says it's a double-edged sword. It cuts through bone and marrow, it says, dividing the very soul. As you share, do you know you're going to get backup? You cannot share the gospel without God's heavenly ammunition and power showing up. And they will either reject it. They will either wait on it and let it ruminate like Nicodemus did in John chapter 3.

Some people are in process. Or they will receive it immediately with gladness. Those are the three options. They will reject it. They will sit on it and think about it. Or they will receive it with gladness. That is it. And it says that God came with power. Power often follows action. And action before power is called faith. Listen to that again. Power often follows action.

And action before power is called faith. When you step out to share, when you step out of your comfort zone, I'm not comfortable here telling you I'm going to pray for you. I'm not comfortable here. I've never had anybody ever say you can't pray for me. Even in the moment. Now I told Harry that. And Harry asked the guy if he could pray for him. The guy said no to him.

The very first time he tried. Harry stepped out. Our youth pastor who won gold yesterday in his taekwondo. Or excuse me, jujitsu. The thing that he does. So that was awesome. We have a really awesome fighter. Harry is rad. He stepped out because I said, Hey, I've never asked somebody if I could pray for him in the moment. And they've always said yes.

Maybe because I'm 6'4 and huge. But he's like a grappling fighter. So they should be afraid of him too. He asked a guy, Hey, can I pray for you? The guy says no. And he said, First time he tried. So he was rejected. But he stepped out. He put himself on the tracks of God's power and glory. Like if this is a train track and you see God's powers running through it on a regular basis, you just put yourself on the middle of the tracks and wait.

But the only way to do that is to step out. Maybe it's in generosity to give to your neighbor, to give to the poor. Maybe it is in evangelism. Maybe it's taking time to prayer. But whatever it is, putting yourself out for God to show up. If you want to experience power, step out in faith. I'm not asking for 10,000 miles of faith. I'm asking for one step.

Because you give God an inch, he'll take what? An eternity. You give God an inch, he'll take an eternity. Give him an inch more than you have. Just an inch. Just one little step more than you have. Point three, as we see. Point three is this. Power is always accompanied by temptation. This is true. You will never have power without being accompanied by temptation.

Last week, yes, this week, and I'll just be honest with you, I'm driving and I'm looking at what's happening at the church. Pretty cool, right? Middle of summer, no one comes during summer. It's your lowest time of the year. We're growing. And I thought to my, and I got this thought. Whether I thought it, I'm driving up the freeway, and I thought to myself, we can be the best church in La Jolla.

And I was like, I think I ruminated on that for like 30 seconds. And then I realized if I go down that path, that's how I kill myself. Trying to keep up with that, that whole deal. And I thought, Lord, we just want to be who we are and bless every church and other churches in La Jolla. Like, that thought, and I realized that there was a pivot there for me.

There was a, and it was just an honest thought. It came out of excitement. I had been, I had been five minutes before that thinking, hey, we could do this. We could work on our, we could get our podcast out. And I was just excited about discipleship and all the things we're doing. And I was just excited. Like excited about what's happening. I'm seeing lives change, people being healed.

We're seeing great stuff here. It's so exciting. And then came the thought, just a simple little thought. We can be the best church in La Jolla. And I realized 30 seconds into that, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not what it's about, being the best church in La Jolla. I just want us to be who God's called us to be. And I realized that if I follow that path six months down the road, we're at, we're in the flesh.

What does it mean in my opinion? What does the best church look like? I just say the best church in La Jolla looks a lot different in God's opinion than it probably does in mine. Where are those temptations and where are those moments? Power is always accompanied by temptation. When the crowd saw in verse 11 that Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycanian language, the gods have come down to us in human form.

Wow. What would you do if all of a sudden they came and wanted to make you a God? And he had to stop them from sacrificing to him. This is the apex of all temptation, by the way. The greatest temptation of all is to not be God's child. It's to be God. The original temptation, Adam and Eve, you can be, if you eat this fruit, like who? God. Anytime you become like God or you want to become like God, you say, I don't want to be God's child.

You can't be God's child and also be God. So you self-bastardize yourself. Whenever you step out, it's called spiritual bastardization. When you say, I want to take charge. I don't want a father. I don't want you to be my father. I want to be in charge. Make me a God. And I want to say, oftentimes before the enemy tempts, before the enemy attacks, he tempts.

He doesn't want to fight open warfare. He doesn't want to be in the light. He knows he's not equipped to do it. He knows he doesn't have the resources. He's not eternal in the sense that God is eternal, although he will burn forever. He does not have all power. He is not all knowing. He cannot be in many places at one time. The devil can only be in one place at one time.

He does not give himself as much credit as we give him credit for. We need to stop making the devil like God. The devil is not like God. He is limited. He makes mistakes. You can outwit him. You can outwit his schemes. You can think of ways to beat him at his own tricks. You know, different things. You can sneak up on him. You can trick the devil. The other day, I went, I said, I'm going to go to the park.

And when I got there, I thought, I'm not going to tell anybody because the devil can't read your mind. The Bible, there's nowhere in the Bible it says the devil can read your mind. It says he can influence your mind, but you can't read it. I said, I went there and I turned on worship. And I thought he had no idea I was going to worship. But I knew.

I didn't tell nobody. And I just went and started worshiping. And all of a sudden, can you imagine him going, whoa, whoa, whoa, we got some worship happening on the grid. Let's do this. We got to react to this. I want the enemy to react to me. I'm tired of living a life where I'm reacting to him. But oftentimes, he wants you to self-inflict a wound on yourself so he doesn't have to battle you because he knows he is ill-equipped to fight.

And the victory has already been won, the scripture says. Satan often tempts before he attacks. And so let me tell you what a temptation looks like. Be the best church in La Jolla. Be the best soccer mom. Have the whatever. Whatever your deal is, you have to be aware of it. Whatever that thing is, that we will not be outsmarted. And James 1, 5, 1, as we come in for a landing.

James 1, 13 through 15. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desires and enticed. Then after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to what? Death. Death.

The enemy would rather have you inflict your own wound so he doesn't have to fight because he's a coward. He is full of fear. He is the father of fear. He is the father of lies. He's an absolute coward. He fights from the shadows. He does not want to be in the light. He doesn't want you to tell anything. He wants you to keep everything in secret and join him with secret.

He doesn't want you to share your sins with a trusted brother or sister. He wants you to be there and he wants you to keep self-inflicting wounds so that you will never win a battle and he never has to fight you. That is the art of spiritual war that the enemy fights. And prayer takes the offensive and says, no, not this time. I'm drawing a line in the sand for my marriage.

I'm drawing a line in the sand for my ministry, for whatever it is. And we begin to go on the offense and we begin to live strategically saying Jesus Christ is Lord and making that known to others. Amen? Amen. Let's stand up. We'll have the worship team come forward. We'll close in a song. Lord, we just bless you, God, for this day. As we close in this song, God, you put people the ripe fruit on our minds, the ripe fruit on our hearts, God.

We give you praise and glory today and we sing this song and we bless you. And when we're done with this song, I'll come up and I will bless you and we will go out. It's Donut Sunday, which is awesome. So Donut's in Courtyard and then I think we're back for pizza next week. Let's sing. You're looking into my heart. I'm coming back. I'm coming back to the heart of worship.

And it's all about you. All about you, Jesus. I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've needed. But it's all about you. All about you, Jesus. It's time to start making it all about Jesus again. A friend of mine wrote this song. And he said that they had gotten to a place that had all this huge success in ministry. And then one day they just realized when they were singing, there just wasn't any power left.

There wasn't any feeling. And he went back and they were brokenhearted as a team. And they began to just weep and cry out to the Lord and say, God, what happened? We had too much success for our own good. And Matt sat down and he penned these words. And he said, God, it's just all about you. I've got to get back to the heart of worship. Heart of worship.

Start with the corner of our own heart this week. And then go to the corner that you live on. And the other corners will take care of themselves. We just bless you. Just put your hands down. Let me bless you. Lord God, I bless the beloved. I bless them with your belovedness, Lord God. That they are children of the living God. That you make them ripe fruit, Lord God.

That they begin to harvest, Lord Jesus. God, that you begin to set up your hedge around their lives, God. To focus on the goodness and the joy of God. We quiet the enemy. We quell his forces. We speak against him. Push them back. God, bless us now. Bless us as a congregation. We want to be effective in La Jolla. We want to be effective in San Diego.

We want to be effective around the world. And we need most of all, God, to know that you love us. You poured it out on the cross. And we will sing that song, God, until they take our life. We will preach that story, God, until they march us off to the gallows, Lord God. That Jesus Christ is Lord. And we will not be silenced. Jesus Christ is Lord.

He is the hope of the world. We put it back on our hearts. And he's the hope for our life. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Well, bless you. I love you all. Hey, if you want to worship, the music's going to continue. You can come forward. Otherwise, get some donuts. Cup of coffee. And go enjoy your life today. In the name of Jesus.

Amen. I'll bring you more than a song. A song in itself. It's not what you have required. You search much deeper within. Through the way things appear. You're looking into my heart. I'm coming back to the heart of worship. And it's all about you. All about you, Jesus. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord.

I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry, Lord. To the heart of worship And it's all about you All about you, Jesus I'm sorry, Lord, for the need I've made it And it's all about you All about you, Jesus All about you, Jesus