JUN 1 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E6 | KNGDM-DYNAMT

Sea Change Church · JUN 1 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E6 - KNGDM-DYNAMT
Acts 1:6-11
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

I pray that hearts are changed, not only hearts in Africa, but our hearts as well. Deepen us by your spirit, we ask. We lift up this team in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up. And a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

This is the word of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. The words come alive. And that's what this entire series is about. It's about how following Christ makes you truly alive, and especially when we are filled with his spirit. And so you see that here. We're coming to the end of this series. We have one more week. That's Pentecost Sunday, where the Holy Spirit comes 50 days after Jesus rises from the dead.

We're on day 40 in this message, and Jesus is doing his coolest miracle ever. Did you see what it was? Did you guys catch it? He flies. That's like no one ever, like that's really undersold in my opinion, because he flies. Like they always ask you if you could do anything, like be invisible or like these super power. You want to fly, right? You know, I definitely want to read minds, I'll tell you that much.

So Jesus could do both. We see that. Two things. Just a quick announcement. If you're in college, I'm starting a college Bible study for the summer, June 18th. Mark it down. Let me know you want to come. We've got a good crew that I've been inviting, so college Bible study, you saw that. And then shout out to the worship team. That worship, especially that last song, there was an anointing of beauty over that song.

I don't know if you missed it, but it was just so beautiful, and it really just blessed me. And so Lily, you really have an anointing of beauty over your worship, and I was stoked. So we are in good hands this summer. Chris Harrell was on sabbatical this summer, much needed after 10 years. So Danny, Lily, you'll get some Kalina in there. Me on harmonica, no, I will not be doing that.

But really be encouraged. I encourage you, just lean in and keep your eye on the ball as we worship. Today, word of the day is focus. Just put that on the top if you would, or you can put foci, but focus is the word. And you see Jesus getting ready to fly into space. I wish it said that as opposed to the ascension. It should be called the flying.

And his disciples gather. He tells them he's taking off. He has a few things. He's doing four key things here. And then they just start grilling him a little bit because they said he's leaving, right? So you've got one question. You've got a few minutes. He's taking off. It's countdown, right? And what are you going to say to Jesus? Let me tell you the four things he's doing.

The first thing, it's the completion of Jesus' earthly ministry. He's actually finished something. Knowing times and seasons when things are meant to be done, when it's time to move on, that's important. The Holy Spirit will lead us into that. It's the completion of his ministry. You have a promise of the Holy Spirit. He promises the Holy Spirit for a purpose.

So that's the other. And being able to understand and to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you don't have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, as a believer, it is available to you. And it can look different ways. If you feel like you don't have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, then speak to me, one of the pastors, we want to raise you up in maturity and to discipleship to teach you how to do that.

Doesn't mean you're going to be raising everyone from the dead and, you know, like just following that, you know, your Holy Spirit, your crazy uncle around doing crazy miracles. You might. You might. You might be in Africa doing awesome stuff. But he might just tell you, hey, just keep caring for that kid in your classroom. The Holy Spirit has all different types of manifestations.

But one is the promise of the Holy Spirit. The third one is Christ's ongoing work. The work is being handed over. You're being commanded. The great commission, commission, command. He is commanding us to do something. Now, I don't want to be definitive on what is sin a lot of times. A lot of sins, yes, we know. But there's certain things that are gray areas.

We're not sure. We can argue. But not continuing the work of Jesus to make disciples, to tell other people about Jesus means you as a believer are disobedient to a command of Jesus. This is a command. He says to all disciples, go out, make more disciples, share my word, and do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. That doesn't make you feel bad. It's just telling you, get busy.

And the fourth thing is, obviously, what I just said, the ongoing work, which we're continuing to do the work of his. And then the fourth one would be the great commission. And I guess you could say there's three, and you could put together your ongoing work and great commission together. But there's a main point in today. And the point is this.

Here's your main point. It's in your notes. If you're online, you can download them. The ascension redirects our focus. There's a redirection of focus. I gave you that word a moment ago. From speculation about God's timing to spirit-empowered action on earth. That's a big change. Where you focus is generally where you will go. When I was surfing, and I would talk to people that knew what they were doing, I was never good.

They have a thing that's called a cutback. And a cutback, if you're really good, you put your surfboard on rail, and you'll be able to stay on that rail and do a beautiful carve. One piece, and then you hit back, and that's beautiful. Not me. I'm always like a three-point turn, right? I turn a little bit, lose my balance, turn a little bit. I was just not a beautiful surfer.

I wish I was. There are some beautiful surfers in our congregation. And they would tell me, wherever your head goes is where your body's going to follow. I tend to come off the bottom, and I try to hit the lip, and I tend to want to just watch how amazing it is when I hit the lip of a wave. The problem is my body goes this way, and I had a tendency to fall over and over again.

I just wasn't a great surfer. I apologize. Solid, but not good enough to probably be the pastor of a church in La Jolla. Nonetheless, where you focus is where you're going. If you were in worship today, and I do this, and this happens a lot to me. If you're in worship today, you're here, singing's happening, and you're like, how am I going to pay that bill?

Hey, what time's the Padre game today? We have great, no problem with those focuses. But where you focus is where you're going. Are you focused on your stomach and your carnal desires? Are you focused on caring for other people? Are you focused on the kingdom? It's not hard to know what you're focused on. It's what you think about a lot. So the majority, just follow your thoughts.

It'll tell you what you're focused on, and you can redirect that. The ascension, when Jesus ascends, he redirects our focus, or at least the disciples' focus, from speculation about God's timing to spirit-empowered action on earth. That's where you want to be. Spirit-empowered action. God, what do you have for me in this moment? What do you want me to do?

How do you want me to care for that person? Sometimes you'll be driving by somebody pulled over, and you'll just get that inkling, is what C.S. Lewis called it, that urge, hey, pull over and help that person. I'm trying to get to the gym, Lord. You know what I mean? The smoothie bar closes at four, and I need my smoothie. I'm going to get my work out.

But the spirit's like, hey, pull over. You know what that's like. When we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as you'll see in a moment, he equips us. If you want to walk in power, follow the plan of Jesus by making disciples, by following the spirit. Where he leads, where the Holy Spirit leads, he succeeds. He will succeed with you. It might always look like a success, a win right away, but he knows what he's doing.

The ascension, once again, here's our main point, redirects our focus from speculation about God's timing to spirit-empowered action on earth. Are you living a spirit-empowered, active life for God? If you're not, I believe it is easy, well, excuse me, let me not use that word, it is available to you to pivot, to begin to live that type of life.

Because when you begin to follow him, he's going to start dealing. He's going to start dealing. It's like my daughter comes up to me, I got to go to Mr. Frosty's, but I got no money. And I said, you want to go to Mr. Frosty's? I want to empower that, because I like Mr. Frosty's, and they have good ice cream. So much that I bought our own ice cream machine.

So I give her $20 to go to Mr. Frosty's. I empower where she wants to go, because I was interested in her going whatever it is. It's the same way with the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense? Two points today. Faith doesn't need to know to go. Oh, just tell me, Lord, where I'm going. If I only knew, if I knew my purpose, then I could get, oh, we could get about really following God.

It's like these families, if we only had a house, if we had a house with a yard, we could really have the family we've always dreamed of. It's not true either. You can have the family you dreamed of by spending time together and getting your priorities right. And it's the same thing here. Faith doesn't need to know to go. And what do I mean by go?

Well, he's going to tell you where to go real quick. And then the second point is, God's power has a purpose. God focuses his power. He has a purpose. He's like a laser. He knows exactly what he's doing. Let's go to part one. Faith doesn't need to know to go. Verse six and seven. So when they had come together, that's the disciples, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Take it from the Romans. He said to them, it's not for you to know the times or the season that the Father has fixed by his own authority. You get one question for Jesus. He's flying up to the sky, right? He's taking off. I'm going to go away. I'm going to send my spirit. Spirit, I'm sure we would all ask existential questions of theological import.

I mean, if you were one of the disciples, right, because we all would ask better questions than them. It's easy to like put shade on them. You know, Peter, he's always making mistakes. Like you could pull off what Peter did, right? They have one question. And they want to talk about politics. That's what they're talking about. Real quick, before you go sit at the right hand of the Father and everything, just real quick.

I just got to get this sorted. Because if we get this sorted, then we can probably do what you want. If Israel can just be restored like it was when King David was here, just is now the time you're going to do that? And Jesus is like, you know, in his Jewish self, oy vey. You know, like guys, really. Imagine Jesus came to America, right? And it's not, you know, he's not Jewish.

It happens to just be people from Chicago or the disciples. And he could have come at any time he wanted. And he's getting ready to ascend back, you know, and he says, you know, meet me at this, you know, great deli. We're going to, we're going to, I'm going to ascend. What do you guys got for me? What do you got? Tell, ask me, ask me how we're going to win the world for me.

How are we going to glorify my Father? How are we going to live in the power that I've shown you? And, you know, do all the things we've done together. What do you got for me, boys? Guys, hey, is this the time you're going to restore America back to where it's supposed to be? Who's our next president? If we could just get the next president sorted out, Jesus, I got to tell you, we could win the world for you.

What? Are you serious? This is their question. Because their focus is in the wrong place. Their focus is on if we can get nationalism back together, or we can get King David-like guy back on the throne, or let's just make it your own life. If I could get this business opportunity, if I write my book, dance my dance, sing my song, if I can just get these pieces together, God, then I can just, you just let me know where we're going.

If you just let me know, if I just have a clear idea of where we're going, I can finally live for Jesus. Faith doesn't have to know to go. Faith also doesn't pencil out. One plus one does not equal two when it comes to faith. You can look at the numbers on the page. You can look at the trip that you're going to do. Christians have done this for years, for decades, for millennium.

God feels like they're being called somewhere, and in faith, they step out, but it doesn't pencil out. The safety to their bodies doesn't pencil out. I had a friend who got in a taxi cab in Iraq after the war, and he got in a taxi cab, this was 10 years ago or so, and he wanted to go to a church, and they had different militants there, and he was going through a checkpoint, and he got, and he had to hide in the trunk behind, under some blankets so he could get to the church to help start a church.

That doesn't really pencil out when you're working it out, right? Faith doesn't have to know to go. Have you put requirements on following God? Have you put requirements on, hey, if this, if I just knew this, if I just, and this is so Western, if I just knew my purpose, God, if I, if you only told me what I was going to do, that I was going to be a doctor, or, yeah, I know my purpose is such a modern concept.

Ask somebody 500 years ago working in a field with a family like the Stat Millers, it means milling grain, you know, that's what we do, what their purpose is. You know what they're going to say? Well, I'm going to mill some grain. Well, what about your children? What's their purpose? They're going to mill some grain. Why? Because we're just trying to survive.

It's just a modern concept. Our purpose, according to Jesus, is to live in the Holy Spirit's power, to glorify God, to make disciples, and to make Jesus known in the world. That's it. But you do that, you live obedient in the moment, and that thing that we call purpose will come lay at your feet. You will stumble over it. You will bump over it. You will not be able to run away from it, because what Jesus is doing in the world is more important than kingdoms that are going to pass away.

The disciples were focused on the wrong kingdom. Where's your focus? Is it, you're a political Christian? Nothing wrong with political Christian. Thank God for William Wilberforce that helped end slavery in the UK long, you know, before it was ended here. Thank God for people that are called into that. If God calls you into that, and we're called to pray for nations, we're called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

I'm not saying don't be a part of that, but it's not your main focus. It's a side dish on the buffet of Christ's kingdom. And there's so many people for years, and you just go back through history and Christians who just believed if this just happened, if this can just happen, and this kingdom can change, or make it your own kingdom. Where's your kingdom?

Do you have a thing that you're looking for? If I only get this, if this only happens, then I can really follow God and go about my purpose. Jesus makes it clear that you don't need to know everything. Faith does not need to know to go. What has he told you to do today? To live in that moment? Did you glorify Christ today so far? If not, where are you going to glorify him?

When are you going to glorify him? When are you going to make him known? Let me just give you a few instances where he keeps people from recognizing what he's doing. We saw it two weeks ago on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24. The disciples were kept from recognizing him. Why? Because he was doing other stuff. In the tomb story in John 20, Mary Magdalene, Jesus shows up.

She thinks he's a gardener, right? Doesn't recognize him. But yet the story is accomplished and Christ is made known to her. The disciples in the boat in John 21, Jesus walked either on the shore or the time that he walked on the water to them. Both times, they didn't recognize him. In Revelation 10, John is in heaven. He's seeing some rad stuff, right?

And he's getting ready to write it down and the angel says to him, don't write that down. I'm like, why show it to me if I can't write it down? He says, because none of their business. You know, there's a lot of stuff that's just none of your business, none of my business. But we live in this constant quest where we would rather know what our future is and about the things we want and about the future of the world more than we want to know Jesus.

We're passionate about the next thing, the next place. We just want, but do we want to know him? If you could sacrifice knowing your future. If God said, hey, from this point on, I'm not going to give you any hints about your future. You're going to have to live completely in the moment. You're going to have to be one of those people that lives on the terra firma of the moment.

You are going to be in the present. You're that. I'm never going to show you where you're supposed to go. You're going to, when the door opens, you'll know to walk through it. I'm not going to ever show you, but you're going to know me deeply. You're going to understand my beauty. You're going to understand my grace. You're going to understand my knowledge.

I'm just going to let you dive into the eternity of my love like diving into a multicolored ocean of my glory where you will swim and drown in his love. I will give you that. I just have a feeling a lot of people wouldn't make that deal. I have a hard time too because I want to know. Because when I know, I get my peace. But faith doesn't pencil out.

And faith doesn't need to know to go. Where are you going to? Well, then you would say, well, then I have to know the future. No. Today. If you can just live in the moment, following as best you can, we're going to make mistakes. Living in the moment. Being obedient. Some people, you know, they dream of life. Who am I going to get married to? I'm going to, you know, when will I get married?

Lord, if you only show me who my spouse is. And then they get married. And then all of a sudden the marriage becomes like a third, fourth priority in their life as they go about all the other things in their life. Just continuing to care for something in the moment. Stewarding the moment. Living in peace. Living in the moment. You don't need to know to go.

I put at the end of this, final part of this point, Christians are famous for focusing on forecasting over faithfulness. We are famous for focusing on forecasting over faithfulness. This is why Revelation is one of the most preached books in the Bible. If you want to sell a book, put the word Revelation, Revelation in the title. People want to know.

God put that desire to know in us deeply. He just wants it to be focused on him. You see this continue to happen. Go to verse 9 and 11. They don't get it right. They still don't get it right. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up. And a cloud that resembles the cloud that came over Mount Sinai, took him up out of their sight.

I want to stop right there. There is a connection between that cloud. People believe it was the Mount of Olives. There's a lot of different mounts. Whenever you go to Israel, they'll tell you this. This for sure is maybe the place where Jesus might have done this, but it might be over there. There's like four places in all of Israel. Like, nope, guaranteed, this is where it happened.

The rest is like, this might be, 100%, this is where it might be, 100%. We're thinking maybe it's the Mount of Olives. A cloud comes over, Mount Sinai. The Valley of Gethsemane is, the Garden of Gethsemane is right below this. He'd be taking victory over the valley. He's up on the heights. So there's a lot of metaphor happening here. Verse 10, And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, I love this, Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into heaven?

Because Jesus just flew away into heaven? Why wouldn't I stand here looking at heaven? First of all, they're focused on the policies and the politics, right? And now they're just gazing, speculating, looking, when Jesus has commanded them to go and to do something. I think there's a lot of really well-meaning Christians that spend a lot of time so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good.

When's the next prophetic word? When's the next Rema word coming? That's that next new word. When's the next new wineskins? It's always when I was a pastor at the vineyard, we had a hotline. And if you felt, and this is cool, there's nothing wrong with this. But if you felt that there was a revival, all the pastors would get a phone call. They'd get on planes and they'd head to Brownsville, Florida.

And hey, God's doing something. There's nothing wrong. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with any of that. But when it's constantly like stargazing, when you have your next door neighbor or somebody you can, God's just saying go care for that person. I'm just saying there's got to be a balance there. And I think it's interesting.

This is a little bit of a harsh word, right? The first thing Jesus is like, it's none of your business. Get about what I told you to do. And then angels come to like, dude, guys, what are you looking at? Get back to what I told you to do. If you're not focused, you'll know it. What does it mean to be focused? It means to be really intent, to set your priorities in line, to set the time, your time.

You'll know your priorities. Two things, you've heard this many times, it's not new. By your calendar and your checkbook, which doesn't exist anymore unless you're old as me or older. By your Venmo. You will know your priorities by where you spend your time and where you spend your money. 100% that'll show you what's important in your life or what has been important in your life.

And there's a way to change both of those parts of the algorithm. Because if you change what you do with your money, where you give it, who you spend it with and on, how you spend it, and you change your time of who you spend your time with and where you go, the algorithm will reboot. Any of you have Instagram? Right now my entire Instagram is dog training, right?

Just constant dog training videos. When Lucy was in basketball, it just knows. It was all, you know, basketball, watching, shooting, the whole thing. It changes the algorithm. It gives me what I want. I was so proud of my algorithm for a while. Because my wife, I would say, I don't like your algorithm. Your algorithm is no fun. I said, look at my algorithm.

So I always give my wife, let's check my algorithm. It's like funny, there's surfing, adventure. I was so proud of my algorithm. Then sometimes you ever ruin your algorithm? You just start looking at, you know, like stupid. Like, oh, I'm just looking at, you know, following this comedian. Next thing, it's all comedians. I'm like, ah! I want to watch comedians.

If you're not on your phone a lot, you won't know what I'm talking about, okay? So I apologize. This is how you change the algorithm. This is how you change the algorithm. If you change what you spend your money on, where you invest your money, where you invest your time, your algorithm is going to change. 100%. God's going to go, bam! He's going to change that algorithm.

You know how quick they change the algorithm? It takes like, what, nine scrolls? Sometimes you ever have something come up on your algorithm, you're like, no, no, no, quick because you don't want it to become part of your feed. I want those things to become part of my feed. The disciples' focus was misdirected. They were looking at heaven, and Jesus had just told them to get busy on earth.

They were looking at heaven, and I like looking at heaven. Spend some time, plan it in. But he'd also said, get busy on earth. A. W. Tozer, one of my favorites, just a giant, says, it is not the ability to see what lies dimly in the distance that brings victory, but faithfulness to do what clearly lies at hand. Faithfulness. It is not the ability to see what lies dimly in the distance that will bring the victory, but the faithfulness to do what clearly lies at hand.

Faithfulness. Faithfulness. Would I rather, if you had, would I rather have power, God's power on me, or faithfulness? Give me faithfulness every single time, because I'm saved by faith. Every single time. The power's good. I was part of a Pentecostal church. I was part of, and you know, I'm still a charismatic light, right? Go to Africa, I see God's power, I see it here.

I like all of that. But it took a long time to wean myself off a lot of things as I first got saved so I could become faithful. Are you faithful? Faithfulness is what matters. The verse, we're coming in for a landing, verse 8, second point, God's power has a purpose. Verse 8. But, there's a conjunction, circle it whenever you see that, but and if.

But, basically meaning forget what you were just thinking about. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. That's the vision. That's the plan. Care about, obviously home, and it's an expanding kingdom. He's sending you out. And he who is faithful, her who is faithful with little will be given more.

And if you begin to be faithful with your time and your finance to care for your neighbors, to care for the people that surround you, God will begin to expand your territory. He will begin to give you influence. You will know if you're a person of influence when people start reaching out for you when they're in trouble. You will know you will become a person of influence when people start reaching out to you when they're in trouble.

No one ever reaches out to you. You're probably not a person of influence. You might be a great person, but you're not somebody that say, hey, when the chips are down, I need a word from this person. I need some wisdom from that person. I need to hear from you. I know that they will be there for me. I want to be that person. Three quick Greek words.

Dunamin is power. He says, but you will receive, but, so after you get, stop thinking about your politics. You will receive, you will receive power. Dunamin is the word for which we get the English word dynamite. You've heard that, dunamis. Dunamin is the context here. And it connotes ability. It connotes not only power, but you will have the ability to do what I have called you to do.

You've heard this, not mine, where God guides, God provides. Oh, I can't do that, Lord. Oh, I'm just, I'm an introvert. I couldn't ever do that. I couldn't, I can't, I don't know. Where he calls, where he guides, he will provide. The word dunamis, you will receive power. It just doesn't mean that you're going to feel like, you know. What you're going to be given is ability, power to do new things.

Power to be gifted. Have you seen the Holy Spirit says, ask for spiritual gifts. I mean, you don't have to just have one. You can ask for more. Have you ever been given a new spiritual gift? There's part of your personality is that if you begin to ask for spiritual gifts, ask the Holy Spirit that he might give it to you. Maybe you're not an administrator.

Say, God, would you grant me the spirit of administration? Just start asking for gifts. He is a gift giver, and as James says, he gives freely to those that ask. Power, ability, he will give you the power. Next word, it says the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Now, I'm going to try to pronounce this, and I wish I was a better pastor where I, like, got the words right.

But apothonos, is that what it is? You can look it up. It's not hard. You can look it up later on Google or however you look things up. But the word come upon in the Greek there, it's an intensive form, and it means to rush upon or to overtake. That the spirit, when it comes upon you, will rush upon you. You will know when the Holy Spirit has shown up.

You probably won't experience much if you don't step off the boat every so often and follow his promptings. But if you make it a habit to begin to follow the Holy Spirit, you will start to notice when he shows up, and sometimes he rushes upon you. I've had multiple situations. I was in Manchester, England, and we were walking. We were on a revival crusade, and we were there.

And as I was walking, the wind was blowing really hard at my back, and it was going this direction, and I see a 20-pound note, British pound, come the opposite direction. Now, this is strange because the wind's going this direction. Maybe there was an eddy. I don't know what was happening. But this note blows back the other direction. Really windy.

Grab it because I was quicker back then, right? It was good. My knee's bent, actually, back then. So I grabbed it. You know what I'm talking about. I got to close up. I turn around, walk back. There's these two guys, homeless. They're arguing. Oh, mate, you took my money, mate. No, I didn't take your money. You took my money. It's pretty weird. And so they're getting ready to brawl.

You took my 20-pound note, mate. And I walk up, and I said, is this yours? He goes, where'd you find that? I said it was blowing that direction. I found it. So I walked it back, and I saw you. I heard you say 20-pound note. And he eyes tear up. You'd give it back to me? I'm like, yeah. I give it back to you. Here it is. There you go. The guy says, I see.

I didn't take it. He walks away. Guy starts crying. And I said, he goes, what are you here for? And I said, well, there's a crusade tonight. We're going to be at the Manchester Arena. We're going to be down there. You're invited. He goes, I'm going to go get my daughter. We're going to dress up in my best suit, and we're going to come tonight to the revival.

Walked away. That happened that whole trip. That whole trip, it was like I can just go story after story after story after. It was like one of those times where God was like, bam, bam, bam. I knew the Holy Spirit showed up. I don't know why bills fly that direction when the wind's blowing that direction. I don't know. Holy Spirit came. Guy starts crying.

He says he's going to go get his daughter. He said, I haven't talked to her for a while. He's going to come tonight to the revival. You know when he shows up, he rushes on like power. I asked somebody, I said, they said, I was talking to somebody this week, and they said, the only way I can explain it, because it's hard to explain to people that have never experienced it.

He said, the only way I can explain the Spirit's power is like when you have a dream. A dream can bring all those emotions, right? You can cry. You can yell. You know, there's just, a dream feels so alive, so real. I was being chased by gorillas this week in a dream. It was crazy. They were trying to get me, and I got away. I'm terrified of gorillas.

It's not lying. It's chased by gorillas. I woke up. It feels real, but it's not there anymore, right? You can't really put your finger on a dream, but you felt it. And I thought, that is such a great experience. I think that's the best experience, the way I've ever heard the Holy Spirit, you know, spoken about, because it's this thing where you feel, you know it happened.

It can be visceral, but the way it happens is when we oftentimes step out and God shows up. The final word is be my witnesses. The Greek word for be my witnesses, actually witness, it actually means martyr. The word for witness, the original word for witness in the Greek is martyr. It means those that are willing to die for their testimony. I started telling my children when they were six, seven years old, one sitting here, they're both over here.

They can tell, they can say I'm lying if I tell it. I began to ask them, would you be willing? I said, don't make a decision to follow Jesus, because people that follow Jesus are willing to die for Jesus. So don't make a decision until we get, you know, let's just be aware that's what Christians do. And I would read them stories. And from the very beginning, I wanted them to own their own faith, not rent my faith, and begin to walk after Christ.

And I would just, I wouldn't say I talked them out of it, but I definitely wasn't like, you know, bait and switch. I wanted them to own it. And God answered that prayer. So here's the final thing. Here's your practical takeaway. Be intentional about building God's kingdom. This is where the power is. Be intentional about building God's kingdom. Where are the eight places you go?

We all have eight places we go. You go to the same Trader Joe's. You go to the same gym. You walk your dog in the same place. Whatever. You have pretty much eight places, and you circumnavigate those eight places, those little docks. Over and over and over again. Every time you go, not every time, but often when you go to those places, the atmosphere should change because you arrived.

The atmosphere. Now, look, we're not on it every day. We're not asking for perfection. But if you've been going someplace for six months, eight months, you shop at the same place, and it's just static. Like, it just, they don't know anything about you. You're just static. There's no caring for them. There's no reaching out. You've never invited anybody to church.

You've never cared, maybe decided to pray for them. If it's just static, we're not living the Great Commission. Or if you go someplace and you just hate being there, and, like, the atmosphere changes, but it's like, wah, wah, wah, look who's here again, right? Christians change the environment of where they go. I'm not saying you're on your game.

You know, I walk my dog to the dog. I've told you this. I'm walking my dog to the dog park. I get there. I don't want to really talk at eight in the morning, but I'm working on it, right? Drink my coffee. Hey, good to see you. Yeah, you let your dog jump all over me. That's fine. I mean, that's, don't put a leash on him. It's fine. You know, he's 140 pounds, but it's all good.

I want to change environments. Redecorate the environments of your life. When you walk in, there should be a difference. If you can't do that, then sit in the parking lot for five minutes and get your head on straight before you go into the gym, because it's not about your swall. It's not about your waistline. Those are healthy things. It's about caring for the person you know at the front gate, taking a minute and saying, hey, how you doing?

How's your mom? I heard about your mom. Oh, but I only have 15 minutes to work out or 30 minutes to work out today. Well, now you're going to have 20, because you spent 10 talking to somebody and changing the environment. That's what Jesus is telling them to do. Get your head out of the clouds. Get your mind off things that don't matter, and let's be a church that makes a difference.

Amen? Let's stand if you would. Joe, come forward. Lead us in communion. Awesome word. Amazing to be with you. We're already standing. Just some administration. What you're going to do, this side, when I ask you, is going to come up, and you're going to take the cup, and then you're going to take the bread, and then you'll go back, sit down, and do work with the Lord in silence.

Confess your sins. Confess your sins. Examine yourself. And if you put your faith in the Lord Jesus, his death and his resurrection, this meal is for you. If you haven't put your personal trust and faith in the Lord Jesus, there's a prayer team at the end. And I was thinking about Pastor Adam's sermon about focus. Focus. Focus. Jesus was the great Passover lamb that died, and all the people of Israel, to be led out of slavery, had to take that perfect lamb's blood and put it over their door so the angel of death would pass over and not pass into them.

And this meal is to remember, if you put your faith in Jesus, his wrath, God's wrath has passed over you, and you've been adopted into his family. And it's also a focus on renewal. He loves you. He was slain before the foundation of the world, Revelations 13.8. Some of you are struggling with God's love. He knows every sin you'd ever commit, and he still chose to die for you because for God so loved the world, he gave his only son.

And if you believe in him, this is your meal. The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, took bread, and after giving thanks to God, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat. This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me. Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes. If you believe this, come up and receive. you I I I I I Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's so easy as once you put your faith in Jesus. I'm seasoned now, you know. I think I've been trying to walk with the Lord for like 29 years.

And it's really easy. We do this every month. Jesus says do it whenever you gather together. And we do it every month. That's awesome. Is to start putting your identity in what you have done and what you haven't done. But we focus on what Jesus has done. And he gives us to his disciples and his followers for all time. And he says, take and eat. Let's eat together.

In the same way, he took the cup. And it says, whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me. Let us drink together. O gracious God, may we who have received this sacrament live in the unity of your Holy Spirit. That we may show forth your gifts to all the world. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said. Let us stand together and recite the Lord's prayer as a corporate one.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Thank you, Joe. Before you guys leave, I was backstage. And the Lord just felt like he gave me a word. And the word was threshold. And I just want to challenge you. Everywhere you go, there's a threshold. Whether you walk across the sidewalk to go to the park. Whether you go into your house, there's a threshold. And before you cross thresholds, get your heart straight.

Like, just every threshold is an opportunity to walk into that and change the environment. And I was just thinking about the power of what would happen if all of us went out with that mindset today. Asking for the power of the Holy Spirit, following him and directing him. If you extend your hands, I want to bless you. Lord Jesus, we want to bless you today.

We want to thank you, God, for your people, Lord. As the prayer team is going to come forward right now, for those that need prayer afterwards, I bless your people, God. Wherever they go, let them let go of this ideas that bind us up. The golden handcuffs of our personal purpose and all these things. Let us find you. And I pray that if they seek you, they will know you, Lord God.

So we just bless you. We send you out. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you need prayer today, come forward. Our prayer team would love to pray for you. Love you. See you next week.