THE WORLD IS WAITING

Great Commission Series
THE WORLD IS WAITING

Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Intro: Let’s start with a question: Are you living for anything that requires God’s power? Most of us can get through a week on our own talent, our own paycheck, our own resources. But Jesus didn’t save us just to coast through life on cruise control. He gave us His Spirit for a bigger mission than ourselves. And Acts 1:8 spells it out with crystal clarity. The disciples thought Jesus was about to set up a political kingdom, but Jesus flipped the script: “You shall receive power… you shall be witnesses… to the ends of the earth.”

This is our calling. Let’s break it down in three ways:

 

1. Power from the Spirit

 

“…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…”

 

Jesus didn’t say, “Go get more money, more education, more connections.” He said, “Wait for power.”

 

Power (in the Bible) is the supernatural ability to make wrong things right.

 

Prayer is the avenue by which we access that power.

 

"A problem with the modern church is that we are no longer power-hungry." 

 

Examples of what power can do:

1. turn a cold heart on fire for God - Saul in Acts 9, see Acts 9:22
2. free from substance addiction and moral perversion - 1 Cor 6
3. free from illness/deformity - Matthew 15
4. free from the control of darkness - demoniac in Mark 5

 

Does God’s power require special individual talent? Does it take financial riches to have it? What about political influence?

 

Peter and John were fishermen, not scholars or senators—yet the Sanhedrin said of them in Acts 4…

 

Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

 

The Holy Spirit gives ordinary people extraordinary boldness.

 

Zechariah 4:6 “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”

 

Charles Spurgeon – “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind, branches without sap, and coals without fire.”

 

2. Power to Witness

 

“…and you shall be witnesses to Me…”

 

We’re already witnesses—we just don’t call it that. Think about the things we naturally talk about:

• Our kids – “My daughter passed the bar exam!”
• Our spouse/significant other – “My husband brought me flowers at work.”
• Our work – “I finally closed that big deal today.”
• Our favorite teams/athletes – “Did you see that game-winning shot last night?”
• Our entertainment – “That new movie is a must-see!”
• Our hobbies/personal wins – “I shaved 5 minutes off my 5K time.” Or “I added 45 pounds to my bench press.”

 

 

 

Notice, the Spirit’s power is not given just for personal thrills, but for public testimony.

 

If you don’t share the gospel’s impact in your own life, you are not walking in the Spirit’s power.

 

To witness simply means to speak of what you’ve seen and heard. You don’t need a seminary degree—you need a story. If Jesus changed you, you’ve got something to say.

 

The Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar didn’t know much Scripture, but she did meet Jesus, and that was enough to testify about Him.

 

John 4:28-29 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

 

3. Power to Win Your World

 

“…in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

Jesus gave the disciples a map, and it’s still our map:

 

• Jerusalem – our own city matters to God. Evangelism starts on our own street. If we won’t love our neighbors, why talk about nations? Your family, your street, your school, your gym, your car-rider line. Where you live, work, shop, eat.

 

• Judea – our region requires many churches working together, not competing. No one congregation can do it all. We’re on the same team. Philippians 1:27 says, “striving together for the faith of the gospel.”

 

• Samaria – the places that offend our preferences, culture, and sensibilities. Samaritans were despised, but Jesus said they’re not God-forsaken. Who are the “Samaritans” in your world? The people you’d rather avoid may be the very ones Jesus wants you to reach. Jesus says, “Don’t just go to the easy places. Go to the difficult ones too.”

 

• Ends of the earth – global impact requires giving, sending, and going. Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” Start where you are but don’t stop there. Some of us will go. All of us can give. Every one of us should pray.

 

illus: William Carey was a poor English cobbler who loved to study maps of the world while working in his shop. He taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and theology from borrowed books. When Carey first suggested that churches should send missionaries, one elder famously said, “Young man, sit down! If God wants to save the heathen, He’ll do it without your help or mine.” Carey refused to accept that. He kept praying, kept stirring up others, and finally sailed to India in 1793. He spent 41 years there without ever going home. He translated the Bible into more than 20 languages and started schools, churches, and social reforms. His motto? “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

 

Conclusion – “So What Will You Do With the Power?”

 

Let’s land the plane.

• Power from the Spirit – You don’t need talent or status; you need the third person of the Trinity.
• Power to Witness – If you have believed and been changed, you have a testimony.
• Power to Win Your World – From your city to the nations, God wants to use you.

 

So here’s the question: Will you let the Spirit use you to be a witness?

 

Let’s not wait for a perfect moment. Let’s be faithful in the one we have.

Let’s not waste the power God has given us.

 

Jerusalem is waiting. Judea is waiting. Samaria is waiting. The ends of the earth are waiting.

 

Pastor’s Call: Let’s respond today. Pray, “Holy Spirit, fill me again. Give me boldness. Use me to reach my Jerusalem and beyond.”

 

 

 

All right, Acts chapter one, verse eight. Acts Chapter one, verse eight is our key text today as we start a new series. It's going to be like six weeks long today. I'm going to, it's going to be an overview and at the end there's a flyer in your seat. I'm going to talk about this division of our church, what God's done this year and, and what we see him doing into the next year.

My name's Trevor Davis. I'm GCC's pastor and I'm going to kind of give an overview with this one verse, Acts, Chapter one, verse eight of this new series called the Great Commission Series. And after this one verse sermon that'll have other scripture in it. Next week we'll have like three. We'll do three of Jesus parables in a row that point to the gospel.

And then the last two messages is a two parter covering the time that Jesus went to church. It wasn't called church, it was called synagogue. And he went there in his hometown and they loved his sermon so much that they tried to throw him off a cliff. It's going to be awesome. And so we're going to talk about Jesus Kingdom at the last two.

This is going to be very powerful and momentum building series for our congregation. If you're new, you're sitting in a room with a bunch of people that love God, love each other, and are hopeful that God's going to do something in their own hearts and in yours today. And so we're so glad that you came. I want to talk, I want to. I call this message.

The world is waiting. Here is Acts, chapter one, verse eight. I'm going to read it. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

That's our text today. And I'm going to give you three ideas behind it. But let's start with a question. Are you currently living for anything that requires God's power?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say most of us can get through a week on our own talent, with our own paycheck and in our own resources so we don't have to trust God for much. We've been kind of overly blessed. But let me ask you this question. Did the Lord Jesus save us from our sins and from judgment and put us in this new covenant and promise us a home in the next life? Did he do all of that?

So that we could just coast through life on cruise control. Yes or no? No. He gave us his spirit for a bigger mission than ourselves. And Acts chapter 1, verse 8 spells out that mission with crystal clarity.

The disciples thought in the verses leading up to Acts 1:8, they thought that Jesus was getting ready to start a political kingdom and they were going to be in his government and they were going to have power and they were going to take over the world. But Jesus flips the script in verse eight and he says, you'll receive power. You'll be witnesses, and you'll do it to the ends of the earth. And friends, this is our calling, too. So let's break it down in three ways.

If you're ready, say yes. If you're ready, say power. We're going to talk about power today. And the first thing Jesus says is, you're going to have power from the Spirit.

You shall receive power. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Notice that our Lord didn't say, go and get more money because that's what you need. Go and get more education, because without it, you're no use to me. Go and make more connections in the circles that you run in, because if you don't have those, you can't be effective.

He didn't say any of that. He said, wait for power. And I gotta tell you, my brothers and sisters, I'm done with powerless Christianity in my own life. I'm done with powerless Christianity in the church that I lead. I'm done with powerless Christian faith in my daily devotions.

I want the power of God because Jesus promised him and Jesus keeps his promises.

So let me tell you what that means. The church and its mission is supposed to work. It's supposed to be successful. Churches are supposed to grow with new believers because the gospel is true. And it's empowered by the third person of the Godhead, the Spirit of God, power from the Spirit.

And let me tell you what power is in the Bible. This is my friend's definition. He's the best. I think power in the Bible is the supernatural ability of God to make wrong things right. This is why when we heard about our brother Tim, and he's got this shoulder pain and it never goes away.

And he comes and believes God can do something and the saints pray for him and the shoulder pain goes away. You know what that is? And that's the power of the Spirit.

It makes wrong things right. And prayer is the avenue by which we access this power that makes the wrong things right. Let me give you some examples. Of what power can do from the Bible. Number one, it can turn a cold heart on fire for God.

Do you know the story of Saul of Tarsus in Acts, chapter nine? He was public enemy number one of the newfound Christian church. He had set his life on a course to destroy it and stop it. And yet Jesus meets him on the road to Damascus and changes everything by his power. And so we read about that in Acts, chapter nine.

I got lots of ribbons in my Bible. Let me find. Here it is. Nailed it on the first one. That's the power of God.

Look at that. Acts, chapter 9, verse 22. But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. That's near the end of the chapter that Saul of Tarsus at the beginning was going around imprisoning, seeking to kill Christians. And by the end of it, with the power of God, the wrong had become a right.

And Saul became Paul. 13 of your 27 New Testament books written by this man under the inspiration of the Spirit. This is what power can do. Did you know that the power of God can free you from substance addiction and moral perversion?

Bible says so. And I don't know about you, but I believe my Bible. First Corinthians 6, 9, 11. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.

Listen to this list. Neither fornicators, those are people that have sex all the time outside of marriage. Nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. That's bad news, isn't it? You want to hear some good news?

Good news is the next verse. And such were some of you. Let me tell you. The power of God can take you out of the strongholds of sin that have dominated you. And they can be a thing of your past.

Such were some of you. Here's verse 11. Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

There's power to get you out of this mess. It's the Spirit's power. This is what power can do. It can free you from illness and deformity. Do y' all believe that God still heals?

Do you believe that he heals more than shoulder pains and fevers and backaches? Although those are very important? And Jesus heals two fevers in the Bible. So don't mock healing around me because I'm going to quote scripture back at you. Amen.

But listen to me. God's power from the Spirit can do more for you physically than that. This is what Jesus did in Matthew 15, in Matthew 15:30 and 31. Then great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed or crippled, and many others. And they laid them down at Jesus feet, and he healed them.

What's to prove, Pastor? The rest of them saw it, verse 31. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking and the maimed made whole, and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel. Let me tell you, if your body's broken down, that's a wrong. And God's Spirit has the power to make it right.

Power from the Spirit. Now, I'm not going to give you this example. I'm not going to read any of these verses. But the power of the Spirit can free you from the control of darkness, like Jesus did the Gadarene demoniac in Mark, Chapter 5. Power from the Spirit.

Now, let me ask you this question. Does God's power require special individual talent? No. Does it take financial riches to have it? No.

What about political influence? Does that get you the power of God? No. Peter and John, two of the apostles, were not scholars. They weren't senators, they were fishermen.

And yet the governing spiritual and political body in Israel at the time called the Sanhedrin, noted this about Peter and John in Acts, chapter 4, verse 13. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that. That they had been with Jesus. It's being with Jesus that brings you into connection with the power of God to be with Him. And you're with him when you have a daily devotional time.

And you're with him when you gather with the church on Sundays. And you're with him when you get in your small group and homes during the week and you say, lord, we're carving this out for you. I want to be with you, and I can't live without your power. You will receive power. Power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

The Holy Spirit gives ordinary people extraordinary boldness.

Do you Remember what Zechariah 4. 6 says? Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts. I love what brother Spurgeon says about this idea. Without the spirit of God, we can do nothing.

We are ships without wind, branches without SAP, and coals without fire. Let me tell you something. God has promised the church power from the Spirit so we'll be effective. So all of this will work. Not so that the church will struggle and plateau and eventually begin to shrink and die, but just the opposite.

That the spirit of God inside a group, a congregation of believers who are trusting in him gives us spiritual momentum. And I'll give you some examples on this sheet in just a minute of that momentum. Power from the Spirit. That's number one. Number two, Jesus promises us power to witness.

You shall be witnesses to me. Everybody say to me, that's what's important. Not that you're just going to testify about any old thing, but that you testify to Jesus. You'll be witnesses to me. I want to tell you something.

Whether you're a Christian or not, we're already witnesses. We just don't call it that. But think about the things that we naturally talk about. We witness to our kids. Hey, did you know that my daughter just passed the bar exam last week?

Well, that's a notable achievement. It's not wrong for you to tell somebody about your daughter that she did that. You just testified to her. Does that make sense? We testify about our spouse or our significant other.

Hey, did you know that my husband brought me flowers at work last week? Now, is it good for husbands to bring flowers at work? Yes. It's also good to know about it. You testified to your husband.

We testify about our jobs. Hey, I finally closed the big deal last Tuesday. Well, look, your small group wants to know that we want to cheer you. Hey, we prayed that God would make your work rock and roll. Tell us you testified to what you did at work.

That's not wrong. But you're a witness. You do it all the time. You witness to your favorite teams and athletes. You guys know that college football really kicks off next week when the SEC starts playing Amen, right?

The testimonies in the hallway and in the lobby with your fantasy football team. The idea. Hey, did you see that guy for the Grizzlies? He hit game winning shot last night. Well, that's something worthy to talk about.

You testify to the athlete.

We testify about our entertainment. Hey, that new movie's a must see. We testify about our hobbies and our personal wins. I shaved 5 minutes off my 5k run. I added 45 pounds to my bench press.

We do it all the time. Notice that the spirit is given not just for personal thrills. Though. But for public testimony to Jesus Christ. I want to say this to you and I hope there's an edge to it.

If you don't share the Gospel's impact in your own life, you are not walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

To witness simply means to speak about what you've seen and heard. You don't need a seminary degree to do that. You just need a story.

Everybody, look at me. If Jesus saved your soul and changed your heart, you have something to say.

The Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar didn't know much scripture, did she? She's confused about religious stuff and even asked Jesus about it and then didn't even let him clarify much.

She didn't know all that. But she did meet Jesus in John chapter four. And I don't know if you know this. He tells her I'm the Messiah. The first person that our Lord Jesus ever told his identity that he was the deliverer that the Old Testament prophesied about was this half breed woman that Jews weren't even supposed to talk to.

Amazing that was enough to testify about him. Why are you telling me this, Pastor? Because of what John 4:28 29 says. The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ that's testifying to Jesus?

She didn't share a single Bible verse, although that became a Bible verse. Right. I don't know much, but I know this guy I just met. He read my mail. He told me everything I ever did.

He told me he was the Christ. You need to come see him. And at the end of John chapter four, all in the community believed in the Lord Jesus because of her testimony.

Power to witness. And number three, Jesus promises in Acts chapter one eight, power to win your world. And he gives us a map to do it with. In Jerusalem and in all Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Jesus gave his disciples a map for their mission.

And look at me. It's still our map. I want to walk through those areas and tell you what they mean. First. Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was the city where the disciples lived. Our own city matters to God. Yes or no? Does olive branch matter to God? You live in South Haven.

Does it matter to God? Does Bihalia matter to God? Does Lewisburg matter to God? Does Warsaw and Watson, tell me where you live. Right.

Anywhere around here, does it still matter? Listen, Jerusalem's still there. And I want to say to you, if our Jerusalem matters to God, evangelism starts on our own streets. If we won't love our neighbors, why talk about the nations? Your family, your avenue, your school, the gym where you work out, your car rider line that you're waiting in.

Where you live, where you work, where you shop, that's your Jerusalem. It's where you start. It's where you testify to Jesus first. Come see. A man changed my life.

I may not be able to tell you all things about him. I may not be able to quote his book to you, but I'm telling you that when I met him, everything changed. You can do that Jerusalem. You know what Judea is, man? God worked me overtime on Judea.

Judea was the region that. That Jerusalem was in like a 10 county area. Maybe it's too big for one congregation to win and for us. And it says, by the way, all Judea, Jesus was saying, look, there's a region that you're going to testify to me to, and you are not enough. One church can't do it.

You know what that means? Means we gotta work together. It means, how did I say it in my notes? No one congregation can do it all. We are on the same team.

And so how God's softening me, how he's sanctifying Trevor is this. I can lock arms with local churches as long as they believe in the essentials. Because we can't reach Judea without the help of our other brothers and our sisters. So as long as you don't add anything to the gospel, as long as what you're preaching is in Christ alone, by faith alone, through grace alone, to the glory of God alone, the five solas, then we don't have to agree on all the secondary and tertiary things. Does that make sense?

But you add one thing to salvation, add one work to it, and I'm out. But if you don't, if it's, hey, look, how does a sinner get saved? They believe in Jesus and repentance, and then they're baptized and they're put in local churches. Yes, that's how we reach all Judea. Let me tell you what that means.

We need all the evangelical churches in this tri county area to thrive and be awesome. We need to pray for it. We need to celebrate it. We're not in competition. Our competition is the devil.

And so if we're going to be a church that's great, commission worthy, we look at Judea and go, hey, we got to come and walk side by side with you, cheer you on Philippians 1:27 says, Striving together for the faith of the Gospel. All right. Samaria, the one you wish I would skip, let me say it with boldness. Samaria is the places that offend our preferences. Samaria are the places that go against our culture.

Samaria represents the places that are different cultures than us and offend our sensibilities. Samaria is the groups that you don't really care for because the Samaritans weren't loved by the Jews who were the first apostles in the first church.

It's ironic that we call Jesus parable, the parable of the good Samaritan, because Jews didn't think Samaritans could be good.

Samaritans were despised. But Jesus said, they're not God forsaken. Amen. Look, I don't want to go to Orange Mound, but it's not God forsaken. It just became my Samaria.

Does that make sense? I don't want to go into the poor urban areas. I don't want to go into maybe the poor rural areas. I don't want to go into the disgusting, prideful, elite area. There are places I don't want to go.

And God says, yeah, that's Samaria. It's on my map. It's now on your map. Because every day of your life, every person you meet, is an opportunity for you to live to love with Jesus. Doesn't matter who it is.

Samaria, who are the Samaritans in your world? The people you'd rather avoid may be the very ones Jesus wants you to reach. Jesus says, don't just go to the easy places. Go to the difficult ones, too. Samaria0amens and then finally, the hard one.

The ends of the earth. Don't you want to be a local church that impacts the globe? Yes or no? We kind of already are. Not kind of, we are already doing that.

And it requires giving, sending and going. Giving, sending and going. Matthew 28:19. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. And that word nations means all the people groups.

Start where you are, but don't stop there. Jesus says, listen, some of us will go. All of us can give.

And every one of us should pray that the Gospel would go to the nations.

I want to tell you a story about William Carey. There's a university dedicated to William Carey in the state of Mississippi, down in Hattiesburg area. William Carey was a poor English cobbler. He worked on shoes. He loved to study maps of the world while he was working in his cobbler shop.

William Carey as a young man taught himself Latin, American, Greek, Hebrew and theology, all from books that he borrowed while he was working in his cobbler shop. There was a time when 15 and 16 and 17 year old boys did more than play video games.

Video games aren't bad, but they are if you never read and learn. Amen. And so when William Carey was a young man, he was learning things that would cause him to change the world. And when he first suggested that churches should send missionaries all around planet Earth, and this was way before airlines, of course, and airplanes, one elder in his church famously said, young man, sit down. If God wants to save the heathen, he'll do it without your help or mine.

That was not godly counsel. William Carey refused to accept that. And I'm glad. He kept praying, he kept stirring up others and finally he sailed for India in 1793. He spent 41 years in India and he never went home.

He translated the Bible into more than 20 languages. He started schools in India, he started churches and social reforms. And I want to show you his motto. William Carey wrote, expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God.

Did you know that Jesus said in Mark chapter 8 verses, verse 35? And again he said it in Matthew, whoever loses his life for my sake. And listen, don't miss the other part. Whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospels, we'll save it. Jesus says, be as committed to my gospel as you are to me, because you cannot divorce the gospel from me.

So we've got to be a gospel preaching, evangelizing church that tells sinners to believe in Jesus the way we did and sees souls saved. So here's the question. Will you let the Spirit use you to be a witness?

Friends, let's not wait for the perfect moment that never comes. Let's be faithful in the moment that we have. And let's not waste the power that God has given us. Jerusalem is waiting. All Judea is waiting.

Samaria's been waiting. And the ends of the earth are waiting in your seat. This is the one sheeter, two pages, one sheet. Going to kind of tell you in just a couple minutes here what the Lord's done this year and what we think he's going to do in the future.

On the front it says vision highlights. Going after the one.

So far this year, 187 first time guests have filled out a card. Now we've had way more than 180 people visit our church for the first time, but 187 of them said, I'LL fill a card out and let you know I was here. And the best number is 50. Nine of them came back, filled out another card because they used to say, your church is so friendly. You know what they say now?

And we didn't even tell them to say it, and we prayed that this would happen. They say your church is so welcoming. I expected you to be friendly to all the people in your congregation that you knew. But when I showed up as a perfect stranger, you welcomed me and it wasn't weird and it wasn't awkward, and I appreciated that. See, we pray this year, God make us a welcoming church.

Friendly is easy. Welcoming's hard. So far, 25 new people have gone through our membership process and joined our church. And usually when you join our church, it's kind of like the roach motel. You can always enter, but you can never leave, right?

But folks come and they stay. But even more so, we've had 13 baptisms so far this year. I wish that number was bigger, but the salvation is of the Lord. But let me tell you something. We got five people in the queue to baptize.

We're going to baptize two of them in the next service. Husband and a wife. A couple weeks from now. We're going to baptize their best friends. Another husband and a wife got a teenage girl that's been walking with the Lord.

Her parents have been evangelizing her. We're going to baptize her and there will be more. That number 13 is going to grow. You know what baptism means? Everybody look at me.

Baptism means that Jesus is still giving people new life through the ministry of our church. That is worth celebrating through Life Choices of Memphis that we support. 725 babies have been protected this year. Their mothers have heard the gospel every morning when the sun rises in The Eastern Hemisphere, 1740 children from ages birth to high school are supported and fed each day in Africa and Kenya. And we give truckloads of money to that every month to make sure that keeps happening.

And we go, our leaders in Kenya go to the town garbage heap and they get little brand new babies that were birthed the night before. They were just left to die. And they pick them up and they take them to our children's homes and they feed them and they clothe them and they raise them in the Lord and they give them the best Christian education that Kenya has. And now after 20 years of doing so, our first children that we picked up off the town garbage heap are graduating college and going to the workforce in Kenya, because you give.

22 pastors are supported in Kenya as church planters every month by our resources. We planted a church in bahalia. We sent 25 people or so out last year, actually a year and a half ago or so when they first formed. And now they have 80 people. And God gave us a building and property and cash this time last year to house them in.

It's amazing. God did it and he did it through you and your gifts and your service here. Is this boring or not? So far we averaged 391 on Sundays in attendance. Your church is usually about twice your average attendance because people come one Sunday a month, two Sundays a month, three or four.

And so we can never get everybody here at the same time. But we have record small group attendance right now in our small group ministry. It's amazing. Turn over the other side of the sheet just in interest of time. The best is yet to come.

Hey. We're believing that God is going to make our congregation even more financially generous at the end of this series when we reinstate our Win youn World Missions Fund. And because of that and because of the end of the year gifts we're going to receive, we are believing that God is going to allow us to take this room and the other medium sized room across the hall called the theater and the children's rooms up north of the building and refresh those. And kind of, they're 14 years old. They need some attention just like we did in the lobby, in the hallways.

And I'm told you folks like that. Amen, right? It's time to do the bigger rooms. And so we're believing God for that and the resources coming up soon. And that's what those first two pictures are under Building Refresh.

Our goal at our church, our motto is more and better Disciples. And Pastor Jacob told me, you know, the other day, hey, you know, we need more and better chairs. And so that third picture, we're believing God is going to give us the resources. We're just going to change these chairs out, make them just a little smaller so we can get more people in the room and that'd still be cool. That fourth picture is phase one of our master plan and our building.

And we're just showing you that because it includes a big giant lobby. Because I don't know if you know about our lobby. Lots of ministry happens in our lobby and it's not big enough. We need to expand that sucker. And so if you're just wondering what we're believing God and praying for, those are some of the things there, the mission outreach underneath there.

The picture on the left is our ministry in Kenya. The second picture is the building that was given to us where a refuge church by Helya meets. The third picture is just of another random old church building. We decided that if God can give us an old church building that the congregation was dying in, and they just hand it to us and say, do something with it, and we can, then we just think God can do that again. And so what we said to the Lord is, lord, if you want us to have five old churches, old church buildings, and the folks are, the church is dying and you want us to breathe life into it, bring it on.

Amen. And so we're praying for that. And the fourth picture of those two ladies is the Warrior center thrift store. It's in the old Western Auto building in Olive Branch. And they also have a residency.

And we have made contact with the Warrior Center. It's a great ministry. It's women that are down on their luck or they're victims of abuse. It's just gone through the worst things in life. And the Warrior center wins them to Jesus and disciples them and helps them get past their addictions and past their abuse.

And it's a Christian ministry, so we've locked arms with them so that we can minister to people in need in our community. And so we just wanted you to know that the Warrior center has opened their doors to us. We're doing prayer ministry nights there. We're doing chapels, we're doing small groups. We're planning a banquet for them here.

And look, it is like water in a desert when you get around these ladies and see that they were at the end of their rope, had suffered through some things that are just unspeakable and how Jesus turns it around. And so we're getting involved, ministering to them. You can scan that QR code later and read the whole story about what God did in Adam Loyd's life. I encourage you to do it. It's incredible.

We wanted you to see the one pager today. Just so you'll know, God is at work in our congregation and we should be grateful. We should be expecting. And look, you have a role in it. You have a part to play.

And your part may be to receive the best of the grace of God that our ministry gives. You might be like one of those ladies I just talked about, and nothing's going right for you right now. We believe that God wants to turn it around for you, and that's how you can contribute to our ministry by just saying, would you pray for me and see what God might do in my life? I'm telling you, we want to do that.

You just need to know that you're in a church that God visits all the time. He does. And so if you want to know God, this is not the only place, but it is a place that you can meet Him. Do you receive that word today? All right, let's stand to our feet.

Prayer team, if you'll come to the front. I didn't forget you this time. I'm sorry for ever forgetting you. Now, if you're new, we want you to know that we pray for people after our services and we pray for anyone and everyone. And who knows what the Lord might do for you.

As the prayer team comes to the front on that ministry card, there's lots of ways you can make a decision or take a next step. If you'll mark that on your card, we'll get with you. Some of you need to join our church. It's time. Some of you have been thinking about becoming a Christian and walking with the Lord with us.

You need to indicate that on that ministry card. And let us talk to you about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Some of you need to find your way back to God, and we know how to help you do that. Some of you are ready to be baptized. You want to put on the jersey of team Jesus, Let everybody know you've joined the team.

Put that on that card too, and we'll get with you. And we're going to celebrate the work of God in your life. Bow for prayer. Thank you, Lord, for the mandate from heaven to be witnesses to you. We confess and commit to it today in Jesus name.

Everybody said, amen. See you at your small group on Wednesday and see you next Sunday.