Prepare the Way

Have you ever noticed how much work goes into making a moment feel magical? From the carefully designed world of Disney to the warm smile of a greeter at your church door, someone always prepared the way before you arrived.

In this week's message, we explore one of the most clarifying ideas in all of Scripture — that our deepest purpose isn't just to find Jesus ourselves, but to clear the path so others can find and follow Him too.

Drawing from Luke 3, we look at the life of John the Baptist — a man who wasn't famous, wasn't a headliner, but whose singular mission was to remove every obstacle standing between people and Jesus. Filled-in valleys. Leveled mountains. Straightened roads. All so that all people could see the salvation of God.

That's still the heart of the church today.

Whether you're serving behind a soundboard, leading a small group, welcoming a nervous first-time guest, or investing in the next generation through Kids' Ministry — you are preparing the way. And it matters more than you know.

In this episode, you'll be encouraged to:

• Discover the powerful purpose behind every role in the church
• Identify the barriers — personal and communal — that make Jesus harder to find
• Take a practical next step toward living on mission right where you are

Following Jesus isn't always easy. But finding Him should be. Let's do the work together.

Visit us at Generations Cowboy Church for more info about our church or find ways you can support what God is doing at GCC!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

All right. Listen, hey, we are in our last week of this series where we are talking about a purpose-filled life. We're looking at what it is like to live a life full of purpose. And so today we're going to look at this that we are called to prepare the way. Anybody ever been to Disney World before? I mean, we did not take our kids when they were little. By the time we took our kids, they were, oh gosh, uh 21 and 18. They loved it. They wanted to go to the Star Wars. Any Star Wars nerds in here? Yeah, our kids loved it. I mean, they had so much fun with that part of it. And let me tell you what I loved about Disney was this. Like you can tell they are prepared for everything that happens there. Like they have put thoughts into everything. There is not a detail that is missed anywhere. Characters that are in costume ready to be able to do whatever they can to make that moment magical. You look around at all the sets that they've built, and there's nothing out there that seems out of place. Anything that needs hidden is all hidden. You can tell somebody put in some work to be prepared for that moment so everybody could enjoy it. And the reality is to me, this is the heart of not just what Disney does, but it should be the heart of what we do as a church. Why do we exist? We are here to prepare the way so people can experience Jesus. Our goal as a church is not to check a box on a Sunday so you can feel good about your relationship with Jesus. Our goal as a church is to make Jesus easy to find and follow. And so if we're trying to make Jesus easy to find and follow, then we have to prepare the way. That there's things that we get in our life as parents. Your responsibility, once you have kids, is to understand it's my job as a parent to prepare the way for my kid to find and follow Jesus. This might be a news flash for some of you, but it is not my responsibility to help your kids find Jesus. It is your responsibility as mom and dad to make sure your kids find and follow Jesus. It is my job as your pastor to give you all the tools you need so that you can help your kids find and follow Jesus. And so many times we want to punt that on me, but I'm going to punt it back to you, okay? I'm giving the ball back. Okay. We're here to do that. And so some of us, like, we're great at preparing our teenage kids to be awesome at sports. How about we prepare our 38-year-old kids to be prepared to follow Jesus and raise up another generation to follow him too? That's what we should be shooting for in our preparation, preparing the way for these things to happen. You want your kids to have a marriage that is as good or better than yours, then it's your job as parents to have a marriage lived out in such a way that you prepare your kids to go get married and have a marriage as good or better than yours. And if we want to have kids that are raised in Jesus, it's our job to begin to do that. If we want to have a financial house that God can use and do things, it's our job to prepare the way for God to be able to do those things. That there's something that He's called us to do. And there's a story that I want us to look at. If you got your Bibles, you can open, click them, flip them. We're going to go to Luke chapter three in just a moment. But we're going to take a look at the life of John the Baptist, okay? And one of the things about John that we're going to see is the thing that Jesus called John to do is the same thing he's invited us to do as a church. Is to make sure everything that we're doing is preparing the way for people to find and follow Jesus. You want to know why we have these core values on this. And one of those there towards the bottom says, invest in followers, because our core value here, one of the things that we are all about, is to one, help people find Jesus and get saved and be baptized and learn what it's like to take those steps. But then the next step is learn how to follow Jesus. That the goal is not just to get saved and wait to get to heaven. The goal is to allow Jesus to transform our life in such a way that the way I live is now following Jesus until I get to heaven with him. He's not a destination one day, he's a person to follow right now. So that when we get to eternity, it's not a new experience. It's just a fuller experience of what we've already gotten here on earth because we're following him. And so we want to do all we can to live this life like John the Baptist. Luke chapter 3, starting in the second half of verse 2, it says this in the New Living Translation. It says, At this time, a message from God came to John, son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness. And then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. If you need another reason to sign up for baptism, generations cowboy.church, go over there and sign, right? To prove, John said to be baptized, to show you had repented of your sins and turn to God to be forgiven. There's something when we take those steps that models to the world what Jesus has done in our life. It's important in those moments. Isaiah verse 4 had spoken to John when he said, He is a voice shouting in the wilderness. Catch these words now. Prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him. The valleys will be filled, the mountains and hills made level, the curves will be straightened and the rough places made smooth. And then all people will see the salvation sent from God. John's life was not to be a mega church pastor. He wasn't like an early Stephen Furtick that was like an influencer on social media for Jesus. John's entire life, the purpose God had given him to do is you're basically going to be the opening act for Jesus, and then you're going to move on and he's going to step out into the light. And I wonder sometimes if we would be okay with simply being that opening act for Jesus to open the door so he can do the work and then let him take over from there. That the whole point of what John did, if you look at the words that he used, I think these are really important words to get because he said that John's life was to prepare the way for people to see and experience Jesus. And so what did it say that he would do? He would clear the road for him. You know what our job is to do as the church? Hear me out. If you're going to call this your church, this is what I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing, pastoring this church. We are going to clear the road out for people to experience Jesus. We are not going to create obstacles that make it hard. We're going to try to clear out the path as much as we can so people can find and experience him. What does that mean? Well, that means there's some valleys that some people walk through and we're going to do our best to fill them in so they can have a smooth vote. There's going to be some mountaintop moments that seem like they're kind of a hard and a challenge. We're going to do our best to level those mountaintops so people can have a clear path to find and follow Jesus. Instead of leading them all around to figure out where he's at, we're going to try to take every curve out we can and create the straightest path possible to Jesus so they can experience him. Because our purpose isn't any different than John's purpose. I'm not here to build a big name for myself. I could care less about being a social media influencer. In fact, if it wasn't for the church, I would not be on social media. Anyone else out there with me, like I could just be done with it and be okay. But our goal is to prepare the way for people to find and follow Jesus. And if I can just be honest, maybe some of you have had a church experience. Sometimes the church has done a really try to choose my words, a really bad job pointing people to Jesus. We've done better at creating obstacles than clearing the path. Maybe you're like me, but I grew up in a space where I was made to feel like if I didn't dress the right way, I couldn't be a part of this church circle. If I wore a hat to church and now I'm preaching in one, we don't do that in the house of God. We created obstacles and barriers instead of clearing the path for people to experience Jesus. Sometimes we make people feel like you got to clean your life up first. Do you know who that is? Yeah, I do. I'm glad they're here. And instead of creating barriers, we should be clearing the path that, hey, why don't we just let them experience Jesus and he'll clean them up? It's our job to catch the fish, it's his job to clean them. I'll say it one more time. It's our job to clean the fish, it's his job to clean them. There we go. All right. So if you ever come to me and say, Man, can you believe that person is here in church? I'm gonna say, Yes. Aren't you so excited? Yes. I know, but do you know what they do? I don't care, they're here. We're not gonna be a church that creates obstacles, we're gonna be a church that clears the path for people to experience him. But the reality is, if we can be honest, sometimes we create some of those obstacles. And our mission, our purpose, GCC, is going to exist to remove as many obstacles as possible so people can find Jesus and follow him. That's our heart, that's our goal. That means there's things we're not going to do so that we can make sure there's a clear path to find Jesus. But that also means that in a measure of preaching the truth of God, I'm gonna have to say some uncomfortably real things because some barriers aren't created by me, some barriers are created by you. And so sometimes we have to have this conversation from both sides of this angle because for some of us, the reality is this like we are too busy and don't have time for Jesus. I know nobody in here would ever say that, but one of the greatest barriers I see in people's life is I just I don't have time for church. I don't have time to sign up for a group, I don't have time to read the Bible, I don't have well then maybe you're too busy. Or maybe it's not a big enough priority in our life. I've said this before, I'll preach this to the day I die. Jesus is not a or Satan is not afraid of Jesus being a priority in your life. Satan is scared when Jesus becomes the priority in your life. When we let Jesus get to the top and we let everything else sort out, that's when the enemy gets scared. Why? Because that's somebody Jesus can finally use. That's somebody that Jesus begins to transform. Because Jesus didn't come to follow you, he came and invited you and me to follow him. That means he's got to be top priority in our life. That there are these spaces, there are these places that we have to. For some of us, you want to know why we struggle? Because I know I'm gonna, I'm not trying to upset anybody, but just hear me out. We're too offended. I'm gonna offer you a really good piece of advice. Learn to live an unoffended life. Because if you're looking for an opportunity to be offended, you will find it here. You'll find it anywhere if you're looking for it. I might offend you because I say your four-year-old can't go into big church with the big kids. I can't believe you tell me that. Well, maybe instead of feeling entitled, you should just recognize we've created a space that's fun for your four-year-old. Instead of putting them in there with a bunch of fifth graders where they might get ran over and get hurt, and then you're gonna be offended at me that I put them in a room with fifth graders and they got hurt. I know. Some of us need to let go of the things that we're offended by because they're actually creating barriers and making it hard to find Jesus. And if that's the case, then who created those barriers? News flash, it wasn't Jesus. It's the enemy. And so for us, we got to be willing to recognize hey, some barriers are there, some we're called to move past. Some of us, like the barrier might be church hurt. Like I get some Christians have done a terrible job representing Jesus. I'm not denying that they may have legitimately hurt you and you carry church hurt, but being hurt in church and staying hurt are two different things. You can be hurt and not stay hurt. The responsibility to begin heal and move past it is up to you. And that might be the barrier that's keeping you from experiencing Jesus. If you always got a reference back to something five years or 10 years or 20 years ago when you were in church, let me tell you, if I had, I got those stories in my life too. If I let those church hurt stories stop me, I wouldn't be standing on stage today preaching you. Because guess what? Church people have hurt me. But you know what church people aren't? They're not Jesus. He's never hurt me. I've just recognized some people are struggling to figure out how to follow him and news flash, so am I. And so we have to be willing to remove some of the barriers. We have to recognize as a church, we're gonna get rid of them, but we also have to recognize as a church, we may have created some barriers that we got to get rid of too. Some of those are my job as a pastor, some of those are your job as being a part of this church. And I love for John, like the whole point of all of this was to find a way to make it simple to follow Jesus. And so I love John's message. Plain, simple message. John said, repent and follow Jesus in his ways. I mean, you can't get any simpler than that. Repent of your sin, just acknowledge where sin exists in your life, and turn away from it and turn to Jesus and follow him. That should be the model for everything that we do here. Acknowledge where I've got sin in my life, turn from it, follow Jesus. And when we fall down because of sin, guess what we do? We get back up and we follow Jesus over and over again. This is the model that we're going to give to because this is the purpose that Jesus created us for. I've said this from the get-go, is that I am here to empower us to live out our purpose together. I am not here to do the work of ministry. There's actually a scripture in Ephesians 4, man, I'm going way off here, but this is just on my heart. If you don't understand the goal, the heart of a pastor, the whole purpose, Ephesians 4, 11 and 12. This role of pastor exists to do nothing more than to equip the saints to do the work of ministry. Period. You want to know why we got people up here leading ministries in worship? They're not getting a dime. Nobody's getting paid for it. Why? Because they're being equipped to be a part of the work of ministry. Hunter coming up to lead in communion. Why? Because we're being equipped to do the work of ministry. I know so many times we think I give the pastor a paycheck. And so it's your job to do the work of ministry. No, my job is to equip you to come do the work of ministry. Period. And so if you're paying me to do your job, it's not gonna happen. But I will walk alongside you. I tell people all the time, hey, do you do counseling? I don't do counseling, I do coaching, I don't have a degree in counseling. I'm a coach. I can help you, I can encourage you, I can put some tools in your pocket, I can light a fire underneath you if I need to, and help you get moving in the right direction. Why? Because my job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Ephesians 4, 11 and 12, if you don't believe me, it's right there. You can write it down, go read it later on. And so what everything we do is about equipping people. Right now, you're having a church service because there are people that have been equipped to do the work of ministry. And the ministry is not always standing on stage doing what I do, man. It has looked very different. And so we're going to serve others so that they can find and follow Jesus. Period. This is what we're going to do. Everywhere we go, everything we do, we are going to serve others so they can find and follow Jesus. So right now, you're sitting in this room, you're seeing these amazing slides pop up there. Although I'm throwing them some curveballs because I'm not following my order very good today, but they're nailing it. And the audio is working for the most part flawlessly. And worship happened because we got somebody back there running the audio and the video portion of service so that you can come in and enjoy this moment. You want to know how they're helping people find and follow Jesus? Because for every new person that comes in that may not be familiar with the songs we sing or may not have a big understanding of scripture, we're helping them see those words on the screen and we're helping them follow along. And suddenly they don't have to feel like I'm the outsider or the new person. I feel like I can suddenly feel valued and follow along, even though it's my first year. That this sermon is getting recorded to be put out on a podcast so that people after this week, maybe somebody that wasn't here this Sunday can hear this message and be encouraged by it. Or maybe if some of you are like me, sometimes I need to listen to it two or three times to digest it all. And I can go back and listen to it again. They're helping people find and follow Jesus through what they do. And I'm thankful for people that help make those moments happen, especially for Julie as one of those that helps us. We got a little video here to share her part of how she helps people find and follow Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Julie, thank you so much for coming to take a moment to share with everybody how God gives us a purpose and how we can serve in the church to find that purpose. So would you just take a moment and introduce yourself and tell everybody where you serve at?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Sure. I'm Julie Schisler and I serve back at the computer doing the visuals um once a month on Sundays.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

I love it. Oh I gave you a couple questions, but I'm gonna give you one surprise question that I didn't get. So you and your husband both serve together. He runs audio, you do the visual. So I just want to know who does a better job, you or Bill.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Oh boy. Um, probably me. You just have to move buttons up and down. I have to make sure I'm focused.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

I love it. I love it. I didn't know what I would get. So that's that's a perfect answer. So uh so when you're running everything behind the scenes and you're getting to do those video and visuals, what are the moments where you're like, man, this is this is it, and this is what I love doing.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

So um I really love the fact that I can kind of be behind the scenes. I like that part. Um, I like being able to just kind of help out where really wherever needed. Um, but being able to run the computer and know what's happening and making sure you guys look great up in front is awesome. Yeah. And it's a nice feeling. Um, and I feel like God has really called me with my um ability to use technology. I do it all in my job and um just love that part. And so I feel like it's um, you know, making sure every single moment goes the way it's supposed to go, yeah. Um, and nothing gets messed up always makes for a great service. It does. It does.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah. I love that. So then when you're back there and you get a chance to help with the technology, the video side of things, how does that shape the way somebody experiences a church service?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Um, so it definitely makes things run smoothly. Yeah. Um, it makes the service um enjoyable because they can see what's on the screen, they know what words to sing, they know what announcements are, um, and they don't have to wonder and think. Yeah. Um, and really timing sometimes is everything because if you're not with them in the slides, then they aren't singing the words that the worship team is. And so just, you know, it makes it enjoyable for everyone if it all goes smoothly. And there are some Sundays I've had in previous churches that it does it, and you just kind of roll with it. But on most Sundays when it goes well, and you know, they know what's going on, and I feel like they don't, they're not overwhelmed and anxious.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

I love that. I love that. So if somebody's watching right now saying, I would love to serve, but they're just kind of afraid to. What's one encouraging thing you would say to them or or challenge them with to maybe take that step and give it a shot?

SPEAKER_00 21:05

I would say try it out, just come back. You can sit with me. I would be more than happy to teach you, show you. It's really not that scary. Yeah. Um, and really honestly, if you take the step, I feel like God does the rest. Because you don't, He does it all. It's not really me. Yeah. Um making things go smoothly. And so I just say try it out and see if you enjoy it and if you don't, at least you've tried it. Like here, try the coming four Sundays. Give us four Sundays. Try it. See if you like it. And if not, then it's not for you. But I mean, I think if you try it, you will like it.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

I agree. I agree. So the the word of encouragement would be just try it. Just try it. Just give it a shot. If you're sitting out there thinking, take that step, give it a try. If you don't like it, we'll find something else. But man, Julie, thank you so much for giving everybody. Little sneak peek of what it's like. I love when God takes something we do that we're good at and leverages it for his purpose, for his church. And so thank you for serving me what you do.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 22:16

I mean, we all think that there's moments where I, if I don't preach or I'm not leading worship, like how can I really be a part of people experiencing Jesus? But running a computer, running sound all complements the environment so that people can experience Jesus. And I love seeing people take what I have a gift at, or maybe I'm not even great, but I'm willing to learn. And if you'll put me in, coach, I'm ready to play, right? I love Cody and Katie helping to lead our worship team together and everybody that jumps in to be a part of worship with us. Why? So that people who can sing and people who can play can be a part of leading other people to worship Jesus. And so, man, what way to create an atmosphere where people can find and follow Jesus when we have these moments and opportunities of people using what they're naturally good at. I the fact that you're sitting in chairs today and everything is put together and you had a space down each hallway where your kids could go back to kids' church and happen. Why? Is because Brandon has an amazing setup and teardown team that come in at 6:45 in the morning. Some of you that are a little slower, 7 o'clock in the morning. I won't point names, but I'm just saying that's okay. They get here, they set all this stuff up, they move stuff out, they set pieces up, they get everything ready so that you can just walk through the doors and enjoy this moment and experience Jesus. And our setup and teardown team are a part of the process of making it easier for people to find and follow Jesus. We got a connect team back there. Man, so many friendly faces as they walk through the door. People at that first time guest booth I can swing by and ask a question. The best job in the house, I get to serve donuts to people as part of that team. Like these are moments where I think sometimes people don't realize how important the connect team is. Because to me, uh it's just a matter of fact that people make a decision in the first 10 minutes they come to church if they're ever coming back. So that means if they get here at 9:50 before worship ever starts, before I ever preach, because of what people have encountered in those first 10 minutes, they've already made a decision if I'm coming back or I'm not. And so, man, how vital is that connect team to create such a welcoming, warm space so that everybody who walks through the door can experience Jesus. Man, we got a kids team back there right now, loving on our kids, creating a fun, safe environment where they can experience Jesus. They're getting to do worship, they're getting to hear a message and scriptures, and they're getting a chance to play and do these things. Why do these moments happen? Because people are willing to jump in and serve and create a safe space. That's why we do check-ins so your kids can be safe when they go back there. It's why we have age groups broke out so that we can try to cater the learning to each age experience and make sure we don't stick big kids with little kids where somebody can get hurt and make it fun and safe where kids can experience Jesus. And so I'm thankful for another person. He's gonna come up here and share just a little bit of the ways that he has been involved in kids' church. Hunter is this guy I love. He's like, uh man, if you like, he's the utility player. Any of you guys like utility players out there, like those are my favorite. Like Hunter's just like, what do you need me to do? I'll do it. All right. He would never brag on himself, but like he shows up to help set up, he runs sound back there, and then you get to be a part of teaching the kids in kids' church. Um, and so just let's take a couple moments, some of those similar questions to help people. Like, maybe I want to use something I'm good at. Let's just take one thing out of the way if we could. If you don't like kids, kids' ministry is not for you. Like, don't sign up to serve. Can we acknowledge that? Is that fair? Okay, yeah, yeah. All right. So that's gonna be the first one. All right. The first thing I really have to like kids, probably the second thing is can you smile? And after that, right? Then then we can go from there, right? And so, so what are moments that are most impactful for you when you get to serve back in kids' ministry?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Um, just getting to to know the kids, like this morning. If you were standing out there, um, Danielle Dodd makes my morning every morning. Yeah, um, and so just being a part of the kids back there, um, and seeing them run around in circles and getting to know their names, getting to know about their their day-to-day. Um it's truly it's the best. And and then also with me having kids in there, it's really cool to just think about how this is an accountability, accountability, words are hard team um for for my family. And so just seeing them all grow together in Christ has been so much fun to watch.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Yeah, and kudos to your family because like Hunter shows up with their three little kids in Shelby, and they're part of setting up and being here early and making those moments happen. And so I'm I'm so thankful. So, so we know what impact it has, but how has serving in kids impacted you? Like, personally, what do you feel like it's done for you to be back there?

SPEAKER_01 27:13

It's changed my outlook, I think, on children's church as a whole.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Um, like we're you've you mentioned it earlier, like we're not just having daycare back there or childcare back there and kid giving your kids sugar and and just watching over them and going crazy. We do do those things, um, but we're actually we're we're uh You said doo-doo, like I'm just gonna acknowledge, like I heard it too.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

All right, I'll just I'll acknowledge it because I wanted to giggle as well. All right, okay, we can keep going. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

I'm glad you I'm glad you called me out on that. Um but anyway, so we do those things, and um, but we're building generations, like that's what it's all about, right? We're building generations to lead worship and to serve. Uh, I'm thinking about like uh when we do worship back there, like the worship time, there's three girls, Mira, Gracie Backins, and then Kinley, all lead the worship. And then on top of that, like some of the younger kids, mostly the girls, are like, I want to do it next. Um, so now we know once those kids are old enough to come in here, yeah, we've got more people taking that over. Um so that's it's had a huge impact. And then also like Shelby was already doing children's church. Um, we can get into that to the next question, but yeah. So I love it. So then what would you say to somebody who's sitting on the fence?

SPEAKER_03 28:27

Like, I'm I'm thinking about serving, I'm not sure. Like, what would you say to that person to just give them that gentle nudge or kick in the pants, whatever they need?

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Just do it, like that. Just do it like the Nike. Just do it. Um, I keep going back, I keep thinking on the you know, Jesus came to serve, not to be served. Um, and so I think that's what we're called to, that is what we're called to do. Um, and I think children's church, in my opinion, not to downgrade any other position here, but children's church is by far the best place to go. Um, and I say that because Shelby was already like helping out with children's church before I was. I was like, I don't know if that's what I want to do because I didn't want to miss out on any sermons, if I'm being honest. That was my selfish thought was I don't want to miss out on sermons. Um I was like, but I know they need help, so I'll go help. And now it's my favorite. Uh I get to wake up with joy to go in there and play with the kids and just be silly and be wild. And so I would tell you if you're thinking about it, one, you should definitely do it. It's it's true of the best. It's so much fun. It'll bring life to you because again, we're called just to serve in general. So when you do the things God's called you to do, it's it's fulfilling. Um, and then come back like Ruby joined Shelby and I one time just to be a part of it and see how things are done. And and like Julie said, come like four different times and see if this is something you want to do. And if not, that's cool. Uh, we can find a spot for you. But I think you're gonna you'll love children's church. So yeah. Team children's church. Team Children's Church. There you go, man.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

Thank you so much for jumping up. Give it up for hundreds. It changed his perspective because we're not just doing childcare. I'm thankful for that for my wife who helps lead the kids' church team. I'm thankful for all the team members that are a part of that team that she has empowered. I'm thankful for Michael Juray giving up Sunday nights for the last entire school year to be a part of a group for our students so that we can invest in the next generation. And so maybe some of you are like, man, that would be kind of fun to be a part of students. Like, we would love to talk to you if you would like to be a part of helping out with our student Bible study that happens on Sunday nights. Like, there are ways to invest. We've got other group leaders that are leading groups right now that have gone through semesters where they're opening up their homes, they're taking time to build lessons to help disciple people and encourage people so that we can find and follow Jesus. And sometimes I have people ask me, like, when is the church gonna do some of these other things? Well, if it helps us find and follow Jesus, those are things we're gonna do. And if it doesn't, we're probably not gonna do them right now. And if you have a passion for something that you feel like would do that, and you have the idea about it, then maybe God is calling you to help lead it. You need to come talk to me and say, I want to be a part of that. Why? Because our whole point is to find our purpose and equip people to find and follow Jesus. It's not the most talented speaker, it's not the most talented preacher or singer or the best person with kids. It's everybody finding my spot. I think about a few men here just a few weeks ago that built a back porch on somebody's house just so that they could have a little bit easier access to their backyard and go enjoy it. And a few men in the church got together, whipped that out on a Saturday, and and what did they do? They served other people and made it easier for them to experience Jesus over and over again. There are ways that we're gonna give our heart and give our life to helping people find and follow Jesus. And if you're like, man, that excites me, man, we would love to have you come around. If you're like, ugh, like I don't know if I'm there, cool, then just keep hanging out with us. Like, it's okay, but I'm always gonna be pushing because I believe every per person in the room has a purpose. Everybody. There's not one person in this room that does not have a purpose from God. Every person here, God has gifted you with something, some kind of ability, some kind of moment, some kind of way that you can serve other people, that you can help other people, that you can be a part of the things that are happening. And we want to invite you to jump in and be a part of those moments. And so if you want to say, how can I help serve and jump in, man, party with the pastor is the place that I would love to invite you or encourage you to jump in. There's another one coming up in just a few weeks, and we would love for you to sign up. It's an opportunity where we invite you on a Monday night to our house. We share the story of why we planted this church, give you an opportunity to get to know my wife and I. We have some desserts, but we share the spaces and places. If you want to begin to serve and get involved, we share those ways you can do that to jump in and be a part. There's always room for more people. You will never hear me say, Ah, we have enough people, we don't need you right now. There's always room to make the circle bigger, there's always room to give more people an opportunity to live up to those purposes. There's moments where maybe some of those jobs we need to be worked out of because somebody else can do them, and then we can jump in other areas. And so we want to help you find that space, find that place to grow spiritually and serve other people to do the same. So if you want to sign up for party with the pastor, you can jump on over to the website anytime you want to, generationscowboy.church. You'll find it right there, party with the pastor. Click that tab, fill out that form. We just want to make sure we have enough desserts for everybody. Praise God. We don't want to run out of desserts. Amen. Come on. Why? Because you have a purpose. If you can't tell, I'm passionate about this. You have a gift to offer back to God. He loves you, he died for you, he sacrificed everything for you. One, because he wants to save you. I think that's important that we understand that. If you haven't ever accepted his gift of salvation, it's important to understand he did that for you. But I think that's a twofold piece. And the other reason why he did that is because he wanted to invite you into his purpose with him to reach other people so they could find and follow him too. He didn't just save you, he said, Hey, I want to save you, and then I want to give you a purpose that is worth your entire life. It will be more fulfilling than anything else you will ever do in this life. You can get every promotion at the job and get to the top. And I promise you, if you do, there's still gonna be a hole in your life because it's gonna feel like something's missing. You can get pay raise after pay raise after pay raise and think, man, if I just hit this amount of income, then finally I'll have made it and I'll feel satisfied in life just to realize that I keep hitting those marks and there's something still missing in my life. You can keep coming to church to check the box to try to make yourself feel good about your relationship with Jesus, and it's still gonna feel somewhere down the road like I'm missing something in my life, and you are because you are created for a purpose. You weren't created to simply sit here until Jesus comes. I'm too old, no, you're not. If you're still breathing, you got a purpose. Well, I'm too young. Cool, we'll find a way for you to help too. There's a purpose that God has for everybody in the room that He wants to do, that He died, He gave His life so that we could experience Him. And here's what I can tell you. You want to know how I ended up in this space doing ministry that I do right now? It was a long series of yeses. You want to know what those series of yeses started like? Nobody called a 17-year-old kid to say, Hey, you want to come preach for me? You know what my yes was? It was like, man, I'll be part of our student ministry and we're gonna go serve the community and go to some of the nursing homes and help people that can't get out feel like somebody loves them. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but those old people probably thought I was like one of the Gaither brothers. I don't know. It was great. I felt so good at 17. You know how it started for me? I drove a van to pick up kids so they could come to kids' church. Sometimes like it tested every bit of Jesus I have when they got a little rowdy on the van, but we got them to church so they could hear about Jesus. I used to teach a Sunday school class, used to teach middle school students. I used to sit on a board. I'd rather taught middle school students than sit on a board. One yes after another after another just kept leading me down a path of God's purpose for me. And I'm telling you, if if you're looking for purpose in life, it just starts with one yes to Jesus. That's it, it's not overcomplicated. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, maybe you're here today, maybe you have never given your life to Jesus before. Your purpose starts with understanding that he died to save you. You can never discover his purpose for you without first accepting his gift of salvation. Maybe you're here and there's just something inside of you that's stirred up. That's the Spirit of God saying, I love you, and and I'm trying to draw you in. And so if you're here today, maybe you have never surrendered your life to Jesus before. And you're like, today I feel like is the day I just I need to surrender everything to Him and let Him be the savior of my life. If that's you, would you just slip your hand up real quick so I can pray with you? I see your hand. Anybody else? Can we just take a moment and all pray together? I love these moments. I think these are important moments. We're just gonna pray this prayer out loud. Join with me. Say, dear Jesus, I need you to come into my life, to forgive me of my sins, and make me brand new. I'll put you in charge of my life. Help me to love you and to live for you the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, amen. Is it really that simple? It really is. It's called grace. Don't overcomplicate it. What do you do next? Keep following Jesus. We're gonna get ready to go to a moment of worship. I want to invite everybody to stand, and I got some friends that are gonna come down to pray. And here's what I want to encourage you. Maybe you're here today and you're like, man, I I want God to use me, but man, I just I'm not sure He can use somebody like me. Would you come down and let one of my friends pray with you? Maybe in life right now, you're just going through some stuff. You're like, I'm struggling to figure out how to serve somebody else. Like, I'm just going through something hard right now. And I need somebody to pray with me. I got a sick family member or I'm sick or I'm struggling, but take your pick, whatever it is. Here's my encouragement, here is my challenge. Don't leave here carrying the same weight you came in here with. If you need prayer today, anything in any way, as we sing this song of worship, I invite you to come down. Let one of my friends pray with you, do life together with us, and begin to find the purpose he has for you. As we worship, if you need prayer, come down. Let somebody pray with you as we worship together.