Speaker 1: What's up?
Speaker 1: Free Church, man.
Speaker 1: How good does it feel in here today, man, I'll just keep singing that song over and over again.
Speaker 1: All of them, All of them.
Speaker 1: Do that.
Speaker 1: Let's reset that and do it again.
Speaker 1: That was so much fun, what a powerful day, and I joined with Pastor Ben and our team.
Speaker 1: Just welcome you today.
Speaker 1: If you're a guest first time, or first time in a long time, so glad you're with us.
Speaker 1: You made our day special by choosing to join us.
Speaker 1: We know you can be a hundred places today and you pick this place.
Speaker 1: We like to say around here that there is no place like this place, so this must be the place.
Speaker 1: I think you picked the right place to come to today, and certainly we can tell the presence of the Lord is here in a powerful way.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's welcome our online campus.
Speaker 1: Watching today, in this region and around the world, a lot of our spring break families who are getting an early start on spring break, and then some of y'all are getting a late start.
Speaker 1: You're going to take next week and then maybe the next week.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: It seems like spring break this year.
Speaker 1: Seems like it's extended like four weeks.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: But if you're traveling, be safe and we're just going to keep having church, because that's what we do around here on our way to our best year ever.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Church, because it's what we do around here on our way to our best year ever, amen.
Speaker 1: Listen, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I do have to say our team, our staff, um, and uh, a few members of our team, uh, we were in retreat this week staff, uh, leadership retreat with our dear friends, pastor Chris and Audrey Carmona from people church, and we were with about 300 other leaders and man.
Speaker 1: The presence of the Lord was so powerful and so strong and we've come back fired up and excited and can't wait to just be continuing to speak into what God is doing in this house and through this house and through you and man.
Speaker 1: It's just a great time to be a part of the capital C church.
Speaker 1: Like, not just it's a great time to be a part of the Capital C Church, it's a great time to be a part of Free Church, but it's a great time to be a part of the Lord's Church because revival is spreading throughout the region, throughout the nation, around the world.
Speaker 1: I've grown up in church.
Speaker 1: You've heard me say I was born on a Sunday in church the next Sunday and I didn't miss a Sunday growing up.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make me any more Christian than anybody else.
Speaker 1: I still have to be a Christian today, doesn't matter what I did yesterday, right and.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you this I've been in environments where we've proclaimed revival, we've declared revival, and we were like we're in revival but I'm going to tell you this is revival in revival.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to tell you this is revival.
Speaker 1: Healing's taking place at monastery.
Speaker 1: Healing's taking place at Witness Youth.
Speaker 1: Healing's taking place during our worship time.
Speaker 1: Healing's in our small groups, the way our small groups.
Speaker 1: I wish everybody had the view that I have of small groups this season, because Pastor Matthew and then Tony and Mel are leading small groups so well that I get to see from a bigger picture and I get to read everybody's posts inside of their small groups.
Speaker 1: And, man, I'm telling you, god is moving in a powerful way in our small groups and there's still a few more weeks of this season to get involved.
Speaker 1: If you haven't been, you don't have to miss out entirely.
Speaker 1: You can plug in today and our team will help you do that.
Speaker 1: But listen, I'm ready to preach God's word.
Speaker 1: Are you ready to receive it today?
Speaker 1: Gotta read my own notes here for a second.
Speaker 1: The year was 2007 and I got a chance to travel with one of our overseers actually Pastor Nathan Keller, from Sugar Land Family Church in Sugar Land, texas, which is a southern suburb of Houston.
Speaker 1: And so we got to travel for a conference, and it was in Leeds, england.
Speaker 1: And so we went through London and got to spend a day in London hanging out, hitting all the cool spots and taking pictures with the queen and all the fun stuff that you do when you go to London, right?
Speaker 1: And so we literally landed early in the morning and we just took the whole day.
Speaker 1: But that's not what I want to tell you about in this story In 2007,.
Speaker 1: And that's not what I want to tell you about in this story In 2007,.
Speaker 1: On the way to London, we were getting our tickets and Pastor Nate was like listen, I've got a bunch of miles and I'm going to sit in first class.
Speaker 1: Can you make that happen for you?
Speaker 1: And I was like well, let me look how many points I got.
Speaker 1: I was like can you get in first class with 25 points?
Speaker 1: Then I'm gonna have to do something about that.
Speaker 1: So I started calling around asking everybody have you got some points I could share?
Speaker 1: You wanna send me some points?
Speaker 1: And I felt like I was asking for cookies or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was just like you know.
Speaker 1: So, anyway, I masked up enough points to get myself first class to London and then I did not have enough points to come first class back, but I'll never forget this.
Speaker 1: About three days before we left, pastor Nate called me.
Speaker 1: He said listen, I just got off the phone with my brother.
Speaker 1: He's done this trip, you know, several times through the years, preaching over overseas.
Speaker 1: And so he called to let me know what we can expect.
Speaker 1: I was like all right, what can we expect, he said, in first class?
Speaker 1: He said you're going to get on the plane first and you're going to sit down and they're going to bring you a warm like a washcloth, warm towel and so you can wipe your face and your hands and just kind of take a minute and refresh.
Speaker 1: I was like all right, that sounds bougie.
Speaker 1: So I was like okay, he's like, and then they're going to hand deliver a little bag of warmed cashews.
Speaker 1: I was like whoa, this is not Southwest Airlines.
Speaker 1: He's like, and then, as they start taking off, they're gonna bring you a cup of fresh lobster bisque.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, this is gonna be good, he says.
Speaker 1: And then, once we get up in the air, they're going to ask you what kind of salad you want be a wedge salad or a fresh Caesar salad?
Speaker 1: And I said, okay.
Speaker 1: I was like, is this whole trip about eating?
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, because after that then they're going to bring a full course meal and you get to choose between like a steak and chicken.
Speaker 1: I was like course meal and you get to choose between like a steak and chicken.
Speaker 1: I was like, my God, what?
Speaker 1: What are we doing?
Speaker 1: Like I'm already full thinking about it.
Speaker 1: So they do.
Speaker 1: We get on the plane that everything happens, all the way down to a homemade ice cream and warm baked cookies.
Speaker 1: And I was like, how come I never flow first?
Speaker 1: Cat first class before.
Speaker 1: Like nobody ever told me about this.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, this is pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: Cat first class before.
Speaker 1: Like nobody ever told me about this.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, this is pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm going to tell you what.
Speaker 1: When we landed in London, it's only a six and a half hour flight, so it's not like that long to eat that much food.
Speaker 1: I was so full.
Speaker 1: I was like I don't think I can do anything else on this trip.
Speaker 1: Good thing London doesn't have good food.
Speaker 1: Good thing London doesn't have good food If you've been, you know.
Speaker 1: And fish and chips are in Scotland.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm sorry, I repent, but it was.
Speaker 1: I was like how come nobody ever told me, made this possible for me to do this before?
Speaker 1: And then we finished our trip, finished the conference we were at and we're coming home and I did not sit in first class.
Speaker 1: He did, by the way.
Speaker 1: He was like, well, I'm sorry you can't have first class on this trip home.
Speaker 1: I said well, you're not going to just come back and sit with me?
Speaker 1: He's like, oh no.
Speaker 1: And he said he said I'm gonna make sure they close that curtain too.
Speaker 1: He said, because I know you're gonna be staring at me the whole time wondering what I'm eating.
Speaker 1: I said can you not pass like half back?
Speaker 1: Like can you give me like I'll have the bisque, just pass it back to me.
Speaker 1: He's like oh no, I can't do that.
Speaker 1: And so I went on the way home, just like sitting in coach class, not even business class, just coach watching, trying to see through that little curtain what was going on.
Speaker 1: It's the year that I learned once you experience belonging in the right seat, it's hard for you to go back and you also want everybody else to experience it.
Speaker 1: Once you lean over to your neighbor and just say this, say hey, no, not yet, not yet had to read my notes, watch, turn it over and say hey, I must be in the front row.
Speaker 1: And back to to the other Thank you, I was trying to give you a hint and lean back to the other one You've been ignoring all service and just say, hey, we're moving on up.
Speaker 1: See, you know, you know.
Speaker 1: Here we are in week two of our overflow series and I really want to start with the picture that I gave you last week as we closed the service, with Evan holding that massive container of water over that little cup, and how quickly that cup filled up to overflowing and just kept being filled up and filled up and filled up, even all the while it was overflowing and just kept being filled up and filled up and filled up, even all the while it was overflowing.
Speaker 1: And we learned last week that God provides life in abundance so that we can be overflowing in service to others.
Speaker 1: And you know, it reminded me, and I told you this, of our, our key verse for free church Galatians 5.13, that it's obvious Christ set us free, but he didn't set us free for our own selfish gain.
Speaker 1: He set us free so we could serve others in love.
Speaker 1: And I would go on to say this week that really how we started free church was by serving.
Speaker 1: We started with serving.
Speaker 1: We started with free coffee and free laundry and free parking and we bought gas down a dollar and just everything we could do to show people that God loved them, with no strings attached.
Speaker 1: And that's really the heart of our church is that we serve the people around us.
Speaker 1: And then remember, we spent time in the book of John, chapter 12, and in verse 24 it says that unless a grain of wheat would fall into the ground and die, only then, only in that moment that it falls into the ground and dies, will it produce a harvest and we talked about in our lives.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we tend to hold on to something like it's the only thing we have, but when we realize it really is just a seed and if we just keep it in our hands it will never be anything but a seed, but as soon as we sow it and we let it flow out of our life, it will actually produce a harvest that really is immeasurable.
Speaker 1: You can't even quantify what one seed does in the harvest, because the harvest quickly can become so great.
Speaker 1: In fact, the promise of end day revival is that the harvest will overtake the time of planting, that, literally, as you're sowing seeds in one spot, god's providing a harvest that's catching up beyond what you're planting.
Speaker 1: In fact, the promise of God for your life is that you're going to reap a harvest that you didn't even sow the seed for, because generations have been doing this for us in this moment, and we're going to produce and receive a harvest in these days.
Speaker 1: Man, that's better than it sounded.
Speaker 1: That's better than it sounded.
Speaker 1: That's better than it responded.
Speaker 1: So I will tell you this, then that whatever you pour out, pouring out doesn't mean running out doesn't mean running out, and whatever you pour out, you will never run out of as long as you're connected to the source.
Speaker 1: You'll continue, as you pour out, to be filled up, but don't mistake being full for being poured out, because all that's happening.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this powerful time of worship we just had and just my, my heart expression was just in gratitude for the presence of God.
Speaker 1: But as great as it feels, come on somebody.
Speaker 1: You know it feels good and it feels fine.
Speaker 1: But the reality is we're not just here because it feels good.
Speaker 1: We're here because what's being poured into us is meant to be poured out into the lives around us.
Speaker 1: So that was last week.
Speaker 1: That was week one of overflow, and this week we're going to lean back into God's abundance.
Speaker 1: And the whole idea of this series is that we sit under this abundance not for the sake of feeling good and feeling full, not because God's serving us warm cashews and lobster bisque and a beautiful fresh salad and a first class steak meal with some potatoes and then a wonderful afterwards they were just bringing a basket of bread around in first class.
Speaker 1: Do you want some more bread?
Speaker 1: I'm like, where am I at?
Speaker 1: You sit in the other seats back there and they bring you a bag of pretzels and a lot of times they're terrible but you eat them anyways because you're just like.
Speaker 1: I just want to look like first class.
Speaker 1: But so God's not doing all of this for our own gain and for our own things, and I'm going to tell you God never.
Speaker 1: He is a God of abundance.
Speaker 1: God never intends I know it sounds Christian to say it that oh I just.
Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
Speaker 1: Well, I just have just enough.
Speaker 1: That's not the arena God wants you to live in.
Speaker 1: How does God get the glory of you just barely surviving?
Speaker 1: God wants to pour out his blessings in your life.
Speaker 1: He wants to pour out in ways that people step back and go.
Speaker 1: What is happening in their life?
Speaker 1: I've got to get close to that Is happening in their life.
Speaker 1: I've got to get close to that.
Speaker 1: So, so God doesn't just barely.
Speaker 1: In fact, one of his names, one of his namesakes, is El Shaddai, the God of more than enough.
Speaker 1: You can't serve the God of more than enough and just have a crumb.
Speaker 1: I'm so proper and so refined and I'm so Christian that I just have learned to live with a crumb.
Speaker 1: When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he's done for me, my soul cries out hallelujah, because he's done it again and again and again.
Speaker 1: More than enough, more than I need, more than I expected.
Speaker 1: Isn't that what the scripture says?
Speaker 1: Beyond what we could ever ask for or imagine, I don't ever want to get in the trap of only imagining a little, a little of God's mercy, a little of God's grace, a little of God's forgiveness.
Speaker 1: No, little of God's grace.
Speaker 1: A little of God's forgiveness, no, god, pour it out in my life so that it overflows and I can be merciful and I can be gracious and I can be generous and I can live my life to make a difference in this world.
Speaker 1: Think about this when God blesses you, it's not that he blesses you to just have it.
Speaker 1: Stop with you.
Speaker 1: The Bible says he blesses you to the thousandth generation.
Speaker 1: That is a God of abundance.
Speaker 1: That one single blessing on your life can be generational.
Speaker 1: It's why in scripture we read about the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker 1: And listen, I'm going to tell you my dad was blessed and I've been blessed.
Speaker 1: But I want to see the blessings in my boys' lives.
Speaker 1: I want to see the blessings in my grandchildren's life.
Speaker 1: I want to live to see the blessings in my great-grandchildren's life.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because the blessing on my life will go for generations and it will go in your generations as well.
Speaker 1: It's not like God only blesses a few.
Speaker 1: He wants to bless the entirety.
Speaker 1: He says, and it's where we get our vision he I'll bring.
Speaker 1: This is not in my notes.
Speaker 1: I'll bring you out of egypt.
Speaker 1: I'll get egypt out of you, I'll redeem your purpose with the outstretched arms and mighty acts of judgment.
Speaker 1: And then he says this and I will make you a great nation.
Speaker 1: When you read through scripture, you find what started out as a small number became an insurmountable, uncountable nation.
Speaker 1: But you know why I tell you it's not countable Because they really they counted the men.
Speaker 1: They didn't count the women and the kids.
Speaker 1: You go downstairs, we count the men.
Speaker 1: They didn't count the women and the kids.
Speaker 1: You go downstairs, we count up here Like wow, good service, good flow, good time Feels good, atmosphere's great.
Speaker 1: Go downstairs, there's a lot of kids down there.
Speaker 1: In fact, we're adding, we're splitting one class because there's so many kids in one age group, we've got to add another group.
Speaker 1: So if you're not serving yet, hey, we need you to serve on our kids team because we're growing in that area and it's going to help us extend the atmosphere in this house until we go to two services permanently.
Speaker 1: But this is what I wanted.
Speaker 1: This is what I wanted to say.
Speaker 1: You know how, like one kid, one kid you can control.
Speaker 1: But how come more than one kid, they seem to multiply and it's more like you put two kids, it feels like 10.
Speaker 1: You put 10 kids, it sounds like 100.
Speaker 1: So imagine that's what happened.
Speaker 1: They started small in number, but God blessed them to become a great nation, because God is a God of overflow.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem.
Speaker 1: You had to know there would be some kind of tension in the blessing, and this is first the one problem.
Speaker 1: The one problem is so many of us, while we're seeking the blessing, we're right here in the front.
Speaker 1: Life is tough, can't pay my bills, car's breaking down, kids are a problem, marriage is in trouble.
Speaker 1: I'm on the front row and the problem is when the blessing comes, you enjoy it and you're not in the front row anymore.
Speaker 1: You forgot to buy the round-trip ticket.
Speaker 1: You bought the one-way ticket in first class and then you got the blessings, but you forgot to crew up the points to get back in first class.
Speaker 1: And subsequently the cup starts to dry out.
Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of people living in an environment of overflow with an empty cup, thirsty to belong, craving connection beyond the curtain, beyond the curtain, hungry for just a little bit of what's happening on the inside, but feeling stuck on the wrong side, and that that is.
Speaker 1: That is why today's thought is this God overflows.
Speaker 1: Well, let's just do pull it up, evan.
Speaker 1: It's the next one.
Speaker 1: I've been so off my notes you don't even know where I'm at, so the cue I see is last week's.
Speaker 1: Pull up the next one.
Speaker 1: Hello, it should be the third slide.
Speaker 1: That's the second slide, that's the one.
Speaker 1: God provides belonging in abundance so we can be overflowing with invitation for others.
Speaker 1: God provides belonging in abundance so we can be overflowing with invitation for others, because the blessing is not to stop with me.
Speaker 1: And then I live with that blessing.
Speaker 1: Here's the trap Living with the blessing until it's gone, consuming the blessing until it's gone.
Speaker 1: The difference is, when I pour it out, I continue to be filled, but as soon as I just become a consumer, it's gone.
Speaker 1: If I plant the seed, it produces a harvest.
Speaker 1: If I eat the seed, that's all I get.
Speaker 1: So I want to just paint this picture for you, because it's important for us to understand the lie that's being told to the people around us, and some of you are hearing this lie again and again and again from people around you and from the enemy against our life is that you don't belong in the room, that you don't belong on the other side of the curtain, that your past is going to keep you from getting closer and that the things that you've done, they stop you from measuring up To the first class ticket.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to tell you that's not God's design at all.
Speaker 1: In fact, as long as humanity Stops allowing people in Jesus and look at this as long as humanity Stopped allowing people in, what did God do?
Speaker 1: God sent his son to invite everybody in.
Speaker 1: If I can't allow, if I can't count on the people to do it, I'll just send my son, because in the kingdom of God, there is always room for one more, always room for one more, room for one more, always room for one more.
Speaker 1: So God provides belonging and abundance so we can overflow with invitation to others.
Speaker 1: You know what I noticed too?
Speaker 1: That when God invites you in, you don't just get a ticket, you get another guest list that you get to create.
Speaker 1: You get another guest list that you get to create.
Speaker 1: We moved here in 2012.
Speaker 1: We really, my brother and his family.
Speaker 1: They lived in South Elgin, so I'll just be real, that seemed like they lived in Wisconsin and we would drive out there to visit with them and I'd be like I can't believe they drive in.
Speaker 1: They're going to drive in every Sunday to church Now they're watching online, I hope.
Speaker 1: But so we would drive out and hang out with them.
Speaker 1: And then in Oak Park, we knew nobody else.
Speaker 1: We didn't know one person.
Speaker 1: We met Pastor Chris and Audrey, who were planting the church inside the city a few months in front of us.
Speaker 1: So we would hang out with them and we would celebrate together that first year.
Speaker 1: In fact, they spent Christmas Eve with us.
Speaker 1: They came and stayed at our house.
Speaker 1: We had the greatest time and we've become dear friends.
Speaker 1: We sit as overseers in their ministry and we were with them and preach to their team.
Speaker 1: It was a powerful week together.
Speaker 1: I told you about that, but I was turning whatever year birthday I was having that year.
Speaker 1: I guess it was 2012.
Speaker 1: So I was turning 42 and Urshana was like, hey, we're gonna go have dinner and you know I have to be careful how I tell this story, but you know how, like when you have if I could make my list of who I wanna celebrate my birthday with and then when the list gets added to that you didn't know.
Speaker 1: So Chris and I, we get to dinner and there's other people there that we didn't expect and we weren't close enough as friends to like really dive into it very much, until we met the next time for like coffee or whatever, and he was like man.
Speaker 1: What happened with that birthday party?
Speaker 1: I was like I know Where'd all those people come from.
Speaker 1: But it's just the idea, like typically, if you're having the party, you're hosting the party and you invite somebody, you don't want them just to invite whoever else they want, because they might not bring the people you want at the party.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me I'm the only person that ever experienced that Every one of you need to repent at the end of the service.
Speaker 1: Lying and judging, you're judging me.
Speaker 1: It's not your place.
Speaker 1: But when God invites you in, he gives you the invitation list and says who else, who else?
Speaker 1: And listen, if you had, you can take this book and read just about any book and you will find God's heart, god's heart for invitation.
Speaker 1: Like I don't have time to go through them all, but Ruth was a Moabite, which means she was not an Israelite, and the promise of God was that.
Speaker 1: To David, god said I will make sure somebody from your family sits on the throne forever.
Speaker 1: Ruth is not anywhere near Israelite lineage until her husband passes away and she comes back with her mother-in-law, back in to the nation of Israel, and she meets what the Bible calls the kinsmen redeemer, which is law for bringing people who are outside back in, and then she becomes in the lineage of Jesus Christ, but she's a Moabite.
Speaker 1: But she's in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because God has a heart for inviting people into the story.
Speaker 1: The Samaritan woman.
Speaker 1: Just the title of the story tells us.
Speaker 1: Man, this might be a stretch for a lot of people to think about, because in fact, before Jesus met the Samaritan woman, he's like this is what he said.
Speaker 1: If you read it in the King James and New King James, he says I must needs to go through Samaria.
Speaker 1: That's some crazy English to say he had an assignment to go to a place that Samaritans and Jewish people did not get along.
Speaker 1: And Jewish people did not get along.
Speaker 1: And remember I told you they were God's people, but the cup was drying up Because they were not allowing anybody else in and that's why God sent his son To die on a cross so that we could all be grafted into the family.
Speaker 1: And he goes and meets the Samaritan woman and what does he tell her?
Speaker 1: He said listen, if you'll drink from this, well, you'll never thirst again, you'll always belong as long as you drink from this.
Speaker 1: Well, cornelius, there were two groups of people.
Speaker 1: It was the Jewish people, god's people, and then everybody else was lumped into one group of Gentiles, and that's really us Gentiles, god's people and not God's people.
Speaker 1: But Cornelius, even though he wasn't God's people, he prayed and was generous in his prayer and his generosity went up before the Lord as an offering, and God sent Simon Peter to go preach a message to Cornelius and his entire household was saved.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because God wants to invite even those that we don't think belong inside, and he doesn't just invite them in for part of it, he makes them part of the family.
Speaker 1: The upper room 120 are baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: I get it, it's the disciples and a crew of people 120.
Speaker 1: But it poured out out of the upper room and 3,000 more were baptized and added to the church that day.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because when God starts pouring out, it's in overflow fashion and it's not for one group, it's for all groups.
Speaker 1: In fact, simon Peter said for you, for your children and for as many as will call on the name of the Lord, they will be saved.
Speaker 1: First class ticket.
Speaker 1: We used to sing a song, got my ticket, got my ticket To heaven is basically what we were singing, but I got kicked out of that choir so I don't remember how the rest of it went.
Speaker 1: So but the thing is, belonging is not just about you.
Speaker 1: We don't get to come in and get in our seat and close the curtain and not let anybody else in.
Speaker 1: The belonging is not just about you.
Speaker 1: Belonging it's not just about your blessing, it's not just about the generations for your family and nobody else.
Speaker 1: No, it is.
Speaker 1: The belonging is all about Jesus.
Speaker 1: So let's close, gina.
Speaker 1: You better come.
Speaker 1: We'll get out of here.
Speaker 1: So look at what God does.
Speaker 1: He makes a way for us through Jesus In Ephesians, chapter two.
Speaker 1: We were once far away, but Jesus brought us near Back to my story in London.
Speaker 1: When we were there that day we spent in London riding the subway.
Speaker 1: Everywhere.
Speaker 1: There are signs everywhere, all around the subway called, and the sign is this Mind the Gap and they're telling you to be careful between the step, between the platform and the train.
Speaker 1: So around our subways and our train systems it says watch your step, but in London it's mind the gap.
Speaker 1: Mind the gap.
Speaker 1: And that's what I would say is what Jesus came to do.
Speaker 1: Mind the gap, the gap between us being far away and us being close.
Speaker 1: He spread his arms wide to overflowing blood out of his body so we could be saved.
Speaker 1: Mind the gap.
Speaker 1: Romans 8, 15,.
Speaker 1: We are adopted as children.
Speaker 1: It's fun to be born into the family but I'm sorry, parents, you didn't get to choose who was born into your family.
Speaker 1: But if you adopt somebody, you get to choose, and God chose you.
Speaker 1: You didn't start out in this family, but he got you as soon as he could.
Speaker 1: When we moved to Texas, we lived in Dallas for seven years.
Speaker 1: Then we moved to Houston and Houston was another whole culture for us and our pastors used to tell us like listen this phrase we weren't born in Texas, but we got here as soon as we could, and so we would say that.
Speaker 1: And then I thought it'd be funny to say that in this area I was like well, I wasn't born in Oak Park, but I got here just as quick as I could.
Speaker 1: And they were like for what?
Speaker 1: Because I want to be proud where I live.
Speaker 1: I want you to know.
Speaker 1: I like where I live.
Speaker 1: They're like no World Park, birkenstock.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: Cut that, strike that.
Speaker 1: Look at this passage of scripture in Revelation, revelation 7, 9.
Speaker 1: Revelation 7, 9.
Speaker 1: After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude, overflow, overflow, great multitude Another word overflow that no one could count.
Speaker 1: There we go, overflow, from every nation, every tribe, every people and every language, standing before the throne and before the lamb which is Jesus.
Speaker 1: And they were wearing white robes and they were holding palm branches in their hands.
Speaker 1: And you know what they were worshiping?
Speaker 1: They were worshiping With the choir of angels.
Speaker 1: They're singing holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the one who is the one, who was the one who is to come, just worshiping, worshiping, worshiping, creating an atmosphere of worship.
Speaker 1: And as I read that passage of scripture, it hit me that heaven is going to be an overflow of worship of people from every tribe, in every nation, every color, every background, every lifestyle, every generation, every genre, from young to old, in the same room, worshiping the same way.
Speaker 1: Stand before Jesus in awe, in honor, and worshiping forever.
Speaker 1: Forever, us in awe and honor, and worshiping forever, forever.
Speaker 1: No accusation, no rejection, no curtain, no divide, nothing stopping you tear, no pain, no distraction worship.
Speaker 1: And it got me thinking.
Speaker 1: Number one everything we do on this earth is in practice in preparation for what we'll do in that throne room Everything.
Speaker 1: And so we got to be comfortable worshiping with people that don't look like us, holding hands of people from different backgrounds and life experiences, not judging them based on where they're at now, but believing in them, where God is going to bring them.
Speaker 1: To that everybody gets a chance to come.
Speaker 1: And when we approach the throne of God, when we approach the cross of Jesus Christ, there is level ground.
Speaker 1: There is no tier system, there's no first class and coach class.
Speaker 1: It is we all.
Speaker 1: As many as call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Speaker 1: So listen, if he could put Ruth into the family, he can bring you into the family.
Speaker 1: If he can take the Samaritan woman and, by the way, when Jesus gave her the drink of water, she immediately went into her village and the Bible says the entire village came to hear the message and they were all saved, they all believed.
Speaker 1: If he can do it for Cornelius and his household, if he can do it for everybody in the upper room and the overflow of those 3,000 that day.
Speaker 1: And we know by the math, through the course of the church growing, it grew exponentially, reaching over a hundred thousand people in just a few years.
Speaker 1: If he can do all that for them, he can do it for you and he can do it for the people around you.
Speaker 1: And listen, you once were far away from God but Jesus brought you near.
Speaker 1: Now there are people around you, close to you, far from God, that Jesus can pull in.
Speaker 1: But it's our responsibility to overflow with invitation bull in.
Speaker 1: But it's our responsibility to overflow with invitation.
Speaker 1: Jesus never wanted you to go to heaven by yourself or he would have got you saved, killed you and thrown everybody else into the lake of fire.
Speaker 1: So if Jesus doesn't want you to go to heaven by yourself, why are you refusing to bring the people around you with you?
Speaker 1: It's the very heart of God and you know what you you can say.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what I just I don't want to be offensive to people.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get invade their space for their faith or their belief.
Speaker 1: Guess what?
Speaker 1: That's not what we're called.
Speaker 1: We're not called to judge that.
Speaker 1: We're called to invite.
Speaker 1: We're called to extend the hands and feet of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Like, listen, listen.
Speaker 1: You, you might not like it if I invite you into an environment, but listen, if I am inviting you into the environment it's because I believe the environment can change your life and I believe that because I have a witness to my own life change that happened.
Speaker 1: So overflow, overflow, overflow.
Speaker 1: Listen, in the first wave of Easter invite cards, I've ordered 2,000.
Speaker 1: I felt the devil like, kick me.
Speaker 1: He's like man, don't order 2,000 because no one's going to give those cards out.
Speaker 1: I was like devil, you are such a liar, you get behind me.
Speaker 1: Satan, because this is a different day, we're going to overflow an invitation.
Speaker 1: You have a card by you.
Speaker 1: We put a card in almost every armrest this morning.
Speaker 1: But listen, one is not overflow, it's not One's a seed.
Speaker 1: But I want to really encourage you to grab a stack of cards on your way out today and then pray over those cards and start inviting people now to Easter.
Speaker 1: The Bible, not the Bible, it's like the Bible.
Speaker 1: It's the research institute from George Barnard, but it says that eight out of 10 people invited to Easter Sunday will say yes.
Speaker 1: So if you only take one, you got a good chance of going 0 for 1.
Speaker 1: But by the numbers, if you'll get to 10, you got a good chance for eight people saying yes.
Speaker 1: So I wanna encourage you.
Speaker 1: We're doing two services Easter Sunday, sunday, 9 am 10 am.
Speaker 1: We're doing a good Friday service.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, 9 am and 11.
Speaker 1: Do do not come at 10 o'clock because you'll you'll only hear the last choir song and then you'll have an hour to the next service and you'll be like I guess I just I heard it Solve a final credit line no 9 and 11.
Speaker 1: Sorry, thank you for correcting me 9 and 11.
Speaker 1: But I want you, I want you to seriously invite as many people as you can this year.
Speaker 1: And let's just listen.
Speaker 1: It's not because we want to have a lot of people.
Speaker 1: If you think the reason why we want you to invite everybody in your world to come to free church on Easter Sunday is so we can somehow put an Instagram post up of our largest Easter ever.
Speaker 1: You're not close enough to hear our heart.
Speaker 1: It's because people need Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's because we can't drive through the streets of our city without seeing people in pain.
Speaker 1: It's because we can't walk out in our neighborhoods without hearing our neighbors fighting one another and we can't drive through spaces without people pointing their finger in accusation at one another and because, seemingly, this world can't get around and get along with anything.
Speaker 1: But you know what?
Speaker 1: Jesus is the answer for the world today.
Speaker 1: That's why we want to fill this house no-transcript.