4/12/2026 Sunday Morning Service

4/12/2026 Sunday Morning Service 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Good morning. All right. How's everybody doing this morning? We all awake and alive today, and I don't know about you, I'm dragging. It was a rough morning. But we're here and God is good. Right? Right, so uh, we're gonna start off a little bit different this morning. We're going to uh go to the Lord in prayer. And uh I want you guys to really try to surrender yourselves this morning. Okay, there's there's a lot of uh uh things going on during the week. There's a lot of opposition, there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of drama, there's a lot of blah blah blah blah blah the noise. Right? He likes to create situations that look too big for God. Right but we're all gonna come together this morning and we're all gonna agree that the devil is a liar, God is good, Jesus is risen, Jesus is king, right? So let's all stand up. Let's go to the Lord in spirit and in truth and in honesty. Father, we thank you so much for this morning. God, we thank you for bringing us here all together on your own accord, anxiously waiting for your spirit to fill the room. Father, we just surrender ourselves. God, we thank you for your presence here. God ask that you would remember all of us today, Lord, that you would meet us where we're at. So in the name of Jesus, Son of the Most High God, we come together with the authority of this church and this body of believers, and we buy down every distraction, every spirit of fear, every spirit of pride, every spirit of witchcraft, every lying spirit. We declare victory over it by the blood of Jesus Christ. God, we thank you for your victory in this house today. We thank you for your peace and your love that has filled this room already. God, I ask that you would be with Carla today as she as she brings this message to this body of believers. God, that you would bless our shepherd and that you would give her the words to say. And help us to be fully surrendered to you on a level that maybe we don't really understand. All that we need to know is that you are God and you are good, and you are for us and not against us. Your conviction is for us, your love is for us. The identity that you died to give us is for us, Lord, and we receive everything that you have. Like Mary said, let it be done to us according to your word. So we lift your name high, and we give you all honor and glory and praise for this service. And I thank you for freedom. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. And it was a really dark time. Things weren't making sense. But I felt like there was This question that God was asking me at the time was that Am I still good to you? Am I still worthy of worship? And when you get to a place where you can worship when it doesn't make sense, that's when God kind of meets you where you're at. And he blows your mind. We get off asking like we're owed salvation. We're owed his presence. We uh We deserve the cross. It's about him and everything that he's done. Because he really is just that good. So whatever it is, like it's the bills, it's the sickness, it's the fear, it's the pride, it's the identity, it's the whatever. Yes, I will lift you high in the lowest valley Will you lift him high in the lowest valley? Will you lift him high when it doesn't make sense? When nobody around you wants it as bad as you do When the money's not there, are you still willing to break yourself in front of the Father And say, I don't care because I would give it all up, like David said, for that one thing To be in your presence How important is his presence to you this morning Are we here to check boxes or are we here to worship the Lord? And I really do feel like the Spirit of God is asking that question today Will you Will you really lift me high in the low valleys? Will you really bless my name when you lose? Just sing the hymn out in your own words right now. This ain't a concert. This is just us and him, sing God never fail, don't fail me now, you won't fail me now, no way.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Why in the world do we care? But it's gonna make sense, I promise, once I get going. And what I'm gonna talk about first is how banks train their tellers. And you think, what does that have to do with anything? What do you mean? How banks train their tellers? Well, when a bank is learning, when a tell a new bank teller is learning how to handle money, and I'm talking about real money, when they learn how to handle real money, you might think that part of their training that they go through is that they spend hours and hours and hours of time looking at counterfeits. Because, you know, they need to know what a counterfeit looks like, they need to know what it feels like in order to know if they have a counterfeit bill trying to be passed to them. But you know, actually, it's opposite that. They do not spend that much time looking at counterfeit money. What they do is they spend an enormous amount of time looking at real money. They look at the real money. What they do is they handle authentic currency, they learn how it feels in their hand, they learn what it looks like when they hold it up to the light, they learn the watermarks that are on it, and they learn what real money is like so much that when a counterfeit is handed to them, instantly they know this is not the real thing. This is not the real thing. So they don't have to stop, they don't have to analyze, it just comes naturally when they are handed a counterfeit bill. So, what does that have to do with Jesus? Because a lot of people are going at it the wrong way, they're going at it the wrong way. The world, and by the world I mean our culture or social media, uh, it could be movies that we see, it could even be some religious critics. What happens is they're telling us things like Jesus was a good teacher with some inspiring quotes. That's what we hear sometimes. Or they might say, Jesus is basically a life coach who's cheering you on to be happy and comfortable and never challenged. And we also hear that Jesus does not really care about sin, he just wants you happy. Anything that is difficult for you, he doesn't want that to happen. There's even a version of Jesus that's presented as just one of the spiritual ways to get to heaven. All right? The thing is, those are counterfeit versions of Jesus. And in order to know who the real Jesus is, don't study the counterfeits. You want to study the real thing. So that when people come to you with a version of Jesus that is not the version that we should have in the Bible, you instantly know that it's a counterfeit version of Jesus. So today, what we're gonna do is we're all gonna pretend that we just became Christians. That we are walking into this building for the first time. And we're going to start at the beginning and we're gonna build our foundation. Now, all of you know that what you build on your foundation, your foundation needs to be solid, right? Your foundation has to be solid because if your foundation is not solid, the building is all wobbly and the walls could fall in. And so we have to have a solid foundation. I'm gonna give you a solid foundation this morning that we can get our hands on that real currency, the real Jesus. I want this to become so familiar in your heart that when you face the world, you know what you believe and you know why you believe it. So many people today go around and they say, Yes, I'm a Christian, but if you were to ask them what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 26:40

It means I follow Christ. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Well, have you ever thought about how you'd answer that question? It's hard to think about how you'd answer that question, but I want you guys to get such a knowledge of Jesus, not just who he is, but of an intimate relationship with him. Intimate relationship with him. You see, I could know all kinds of facts about the president of the United States, but that doesn't mean I have a relationship with him. A lot of people have a lot of facts about Jesus in their head, but that doesn't mean they have a relationship with him. I could read somebody's biography from the very beginning all the way through to the end and memorize it, but they don't know my name because there's not a relationship going on there. Not a relationship. So today I am going to teach you how to have a relationship. I want when you leave this place this morning, for you not just to have more head knowledge of who Jesus is, I want you to have heart knowledge of who Jesus is. A personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. Personal, intimate relationship. So the foundation. Here's your foundation. There's four words for your foundation. There is one God. Okay? There's one God. I know that's simple, but as in our last series, sometimes it's the simple truths that trip us up, right? So your foundation. Now the Jewish people, they would look at Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. And what they they called this verse the Shema. All right? The Shema. And they recited this verse every single day. And this was a confession of their faith. And it says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. One, one God. Not many, not a collection of equal spiritual people that can get you to heaven, but one. One God. And then listen to what God says about Himself in Isaiah 44:8. He says, Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No. There is no other rock. I know not one. So God Himself is telling you, I am the only God. I am the one. There is no other rock that you can stand on. There is no other rock that you can build a foundation on. Your foundation needs to be built on the fact that there is one God. One God. He's the only one that existed before time. And that's hard for us to understand. He created everything that exists, and he sustains everything that is. In 1 Timothy 2, 5, Paul wrote this. He said, For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, and that man is Christ Jesus. All right. I'm going to read that again. She just got 5A. I'm doing the whole thing. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind. And the man is Christ Jesus. There again, one God, one God. And then you say, well, if there's one God, who is Jesus? Right? Who is Jesus? Well, I'm going to tell you, he's that mediator. He's that mediator, that one mediator between you and God. And here's why that matters so much. If you're going to build a real relationship with Jesus, you need to understand the very beginning that you're not dealing with a religious figure. Jesus is not just a religious figure. He's not just a nice spiritual guide. All right. You're dealing with the one and only mediator between you and Almighty God. He is not a recommendation. He's not. He is the only bridge by which you can come to God or by which you can come back to God if you have strayed away. All right. He provided one clear way, and God made that way an actual person. Someone you can know. A person is someone you can know. One God, one truth, and his name is Jesus Christ. That's where we're going to start. So we've laid our foundation. There's one God. Now we're going to start building on that foundation. The ground beneath our feet needs to be the fact that Jesus Christ is the only way to that God. The only way to that God. So who is Jesus? Who is He really? And you can start throwing all kinds of answers back at me, but I want you to, we're going to go all the way back to the beginning. Genesis 1, 1. All right? All the way back to the beginning with Genesis 1-1. And most of you know this verse. It says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Alright, so back at the very beginning, we're going all the way back to the beginning of time as we know it as humans. In the beginning, God. Before everything else, God. Before time existed, before space existed, before a single atom came into being, God was already there. God was already there. And then he spoke everything into existence. He spoke it into existence from absolutely nothing. He took nothing and spoke it into existence. Now I want you to hold on to that thought. We're going to flip over to John chapter 1. The Gospel of John to chapter 1.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

We're going to start in verse 1. John 1, verse 1. Hoku and I are a little out of.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Okay, there we go. John verse 1. It says, in the beginning, now notice we went all the way back. We're talking about the beginning again. Was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. So I just told you in Genesis 1, right? That in the beginning there was God. Now I took you over to John and it said, but in the beginning, the word was also with God. And the word is Jesus Christ. So Jesus is not a created being. Jesus has always been just like God has always been. And why? Because Jesus is God. Jesus is God. Okay? So that is something you need to remember. Jesus Himself is God. Everything that exists was made through him, and nothing that exists was made without him. All right? Now we go on to verse 14. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and what? Truth. Full of grace and of truth. Jesus was not created. He always existed. He was there with God in the beginning. When God said in Genesis 1:1, let there be light, Jesus was there with him. When the foundations of the earth were laid, Jesus was there as well. He's not created, he is eternal, he has no beginning, and he has no end. So he exists in eternity. No time. Always there, always will be. No time. However, Jesus chose to step into creation. Jesus made the choice to step into creation. And you say, why would Jesus want to step into creation when he is a perfect, eternal being that wasn't created? Why? It tells us the word became flesh. Why did he choose to do that? Now the word dwelling in verse 14 in the original Greek literally means to pinch a tip. He pitched his tent. All right? Literally means pitch a tent. So he decided he's going to move on into our neighborhood. All right. Why would he do that? He did not observe humanity from a safe distance through a telescope from heaven. That's not what he did. He came down and walked right into the middle of humanity. He walked on the same kind of roads that we walked on. He got tired at the end of a long day. He got hungry like we do. He felt grief so much that he wept. He felt joy so fully that it showed on his face. He sat at tables with ordinary people and he laughed just like we laugh at things. He loved. He lived among people. Why did he do that? Because he loved you so much that he wanted to be able to experience every feeling that you have. So that when you take your prayers to him and you take your concerns to him, there's not one time he can say, I'm sorry, but I don't know what you were feeling. Because he has felt everything that you have felt. He has felt being lonely. He has felt anxiety. He was human and felt everything that we have felt. He knows you personally and intimately because he's been there. He's been there. He stepped into human flesh and he came full of grace and of truth. Of grace and of truth. What does full of grace mean? It means that there is no condemnation waiting for you when you come to him. When you come to Jesus, he doesn't say, you've been too bad. He doesn't say, Well, you stepped over the line and I can't forgive that. He doesn't say, Well, now you come to me after you've done messed up here and here and here and here. Why should I listen to you? He doesn't do that because he's full of grace, and that means no condemnation. There is nothing that you can do that Jesus Christ does not forgive. He loves you that much. So what does full of truth mean? It means that he loves you too much to leave you where you are. He loves you too much to leave you where you are. But the thing is, you have to join truth with him. You can't pretend you're someone you're not. You can't pretend that you didn't do that sin that he's calling you out on. You can't pretend with God, with Jesus Christ. He knows everything about you and he works in truth. He works in truth. This is the real Jesus, the eternal word of God, who chose to become one of us because he wanted to know you. But not only that, because he wants you to know him. He wants you to know him. So some of you might be sitting there thinking, okay, Pastor Carla, this is a lot for me. This is a lot to take in. Well, I understand. And sometimes it is. What we're talking about is one of the most remarkable truths in all of human history. Because Jesus, when he came, he didn't give up his God.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

He didn't give up being eternal.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

He took on being human while he was God. And while he was eternal. And you say, how can that happen? I don't understand that. Well, you know what? There's a lot of things we're not going to understand this side of heaven. We're going to understand it one day, but he is clearly fully man and fully God at the same time. Now understand this clearly. This is not just interesting theology. This has everything to do with the kind of relationship he wants you to have with him. Look at Luke 1, 35. Luke 1, 35. The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come on you. Now she's talking to Mary, okay, Jesus' mother. The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. How was he man and how was he God at the same time? And this might sound a little mythical or whatever, but here's the thing: he was fully man because he was birthed by woman. He was fully man because Mary got pregnant, Mary went through her pregnancy, and Mary had this man child. But his father, as you see right here, the Holy Spirit is his father. So he's fully God and fully man at the same time. He is both of these things at the very same time. Mary provided the humanity, the flesh, the physical form. The Holy Spirit provided his divine nature. And he was both completely and simultaneously. Hebrews 1 3. Hebrews 1 3. It says the Sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. All right? When you look at Jesus, when you read about him in the gospels, when you encounter him in prayer, you are looking at God. You're looking at God, not an approximation of God, not a reflection that's somewhat similar, the exact representation. And it just told us that that the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God. Everything God is, Jesus is everything. But he's also everything that you are. Jesus is everything you are except sin. Jesus is everything all humans are except for the sin. He knows what it means to be exhausted at the end of the day. He knows how it feels when someone you trusted with your whole heart betrays you. He knows grief. The Gospel of John chapter 11, verse 35, it's the shortest verse in the Bible, and it simply says, Jesus wept. Jesus wept, so he knows grief. Standing at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, knowing full and well that he was getting ready to bring him back from the dead, he still wept. Why did he do that? Because he entered into the grief of the people that were around him. Because he has compassion and he has feeling. And when he saw their grief, he couldn't help but become overwhelmed with it. And he cried with them. That's how much compassion that he has. He knows loneliness, he knows physical suffering. He knows what it's like to feel misunderstood, rejected, and abandoned by people who once stood by you. There is never going to be anything that you can bring to Jesus that he says, I have no idea what you're talking about. Because he understands it all. There's something I want you to see in Genesis 26 and 27. Genesis chapter 1, 26 and 27.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Then God said, Let who? Let us. Who's he talking about?

SPEAKER_00 46:38

Jesus and the Holy Spirit and Himself. Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, the livestock, the wild animals. What I want you to get out of that though is that let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. 1 Thessalonians 523.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

1 Thessalonians 523. You're good.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice we have God, and we have Jesus, and we have the Holy Spirit that makes up the Godhead, the Trinity, right? We're created so much in their likeness that what do we have?

SPEAKER_01 47:53

Body, spirit, and soul. We're three too. We're three also.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

Body, spirit, and soul. He honored the full humanity of God created by stepping fully into every part of being body, spirit, and soul. You know what that means? When you're getting ready to come to church on Sunday mornings, he doesn't just care about you spiritually, he cares about you physically. What are you going through physically? He cares about that. He cares about your whole person, your emotional well-being. He cares about that too. He's not just there to care about you spiritually, he's there to care about you emotionally and physically as well. He's got all of you covered, he's got all of you covered. He came for all of you, he wants to know all of you. But more importantly than that, he wants you to know all of him. He wants you to know all of him. What does fully God mean? He has all the power and authority that you will ever need him to have. But what does fully man mean? He understands everything you've ever gone through. This is the Jesus that we're talking about today. The Jesus that I'm inviting you, every one of you, into a relationship with. Now I'm going to pause here, and I want to make this very personal today. Very personal. Everything that we've talked about so far is foundational truth. And it matters deeply with what we're doing today. But I need something to now land in your heart this morning. All right. I don't want it to settle in your mind. I want it to make it from your mind, and I want it to settle down here in your heart. Jesus came for you, not just for the world as a whole concept, not just for the faceless crowd of humanity somewhere where you are. He came specifically for you. He came specifically for you. He came specifically for you. If you were the only person alive, he would have still came for you. He would have came for you because he's that personal that he wants to be that close to you. He doesn't look out there and say, I died for this world. He says, I died for Carson. He says, I died for John. He says, I died for Micah. That's how he sees it. He sees you personally. He knows your name. He knows your name. Most of us have heard what 316 and John says. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. We say that so much that it's almost become a cliche. It's almost become a cliche. That now we don't even think about the words and what the words are really saying. He says that whosoever, right? Who is whosoever? That's right. And I want all of you to say it. Who is whosoever? It's exactly right. As a matter of fact, when you read this verse, I think you should say, for God so loved Carla that he gave his one and only son that because she believes in him, she will not perish. She will have eternal life. You need to read that verse and make it personal. For God so loved and fill in your name. For God so loved and fill in your name. Now, let's look at John 14 and 6. John 14 and 6, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He's telling us there. He's just reaffirming what God said in the scripture that I read earlier about God is one, that there's one God, and there's a mediator between. Jesus is confirming that here. He's saying, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and no one is going to come to the Father unless they come through me. That's the only way. The way, the only way. And that means if you've been searching and you've tried to fill the emptiness in your life with success or with certain relationships, with substances, with achievements, with being busy enough so that you don't have to deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

If none of that has worked for you, what you're looking for has a name.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

And that name's Jesus. That name is Jesus. But I want you to look at one more passage because this one might be the most personally powerful of all. This is Colossians chapter 1, verses 21 and 22. And Paul writes here once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. So what does that look like? What does that mean? That means Emily, and I pick on these kids a lot because they're up here where I can see them. That means Emily, before Emily came to know Christ, when God would look at her, he would see what she did. But once Emily accepted Jesus Christ into her heart, when God looks at Emily, he sees Jesus' blood.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

And he says, That's my child. That's my child.

SPEAKER_00 54:44

That's what this verse is saying. That you were separated once because of your evil behavior, but because of Christ's physical death on the cross, the blood that he shed, it covers you once you use Jesus as your mediator to become a Christian, to become saved, to become born again. Then when God looks at you, what he sees is the blood of his son. And he says, That's my child. That's my child. Once you were alienated. And maybe some of you know what it's like to be alienated. You have a hollow, disconnected feeling when you feel alienated. The sense that God is somewhere out there, but he's too far away and you don't know how to reach him. Maybe you feel like you've done too much and he don't want you to reach him. Shame then starts whispering in your quiet moments that you're not good enough, that your past is too much, that you've been away too long, he's not going to recognize you when you come back, that you've been in sin for too many years, and when you decide to turn, and by the way, I want to bring this up because this is interesting. How many hours did Jesus?

SPEAKER_01 56:04

How many hours was he on the cross? Well, when he died. Three. Okay. How many minutes is in an hour? 60. 60 times three. 180. 180. When you repent for your sins, I'm walking this way, and what do I do? I do a 180. I do a 180.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

Right? I do a 180. Christ had it planned all the way down to that detail. All the way down to that detail. That's how God is. Everything has meaning to him. When things happen in your life and say, you say that was just a coincidence. No, it wasn't. God plans it that way. He plans it that way. And he is that personal to you. That personal to you. Christ's real physical body, his actual death on that cross reconciled you. It bridged the gap. It brought you back. And the result is now you are presented before God as holy, without blemish, and free from any accusation. Not because you earned it, because we can't earn it. Not because you cleaned yourself up first, because you can't clean yourself up. But because Jesus did it for you. He came for you while you were still so far away, while you're a miss. While you're a miss. And he rose again for you so that everything that separated from you from God could be permanently erased. Alright? So I want to compare this to another relationship. We're going to go to the book of Acts now. I've been telling you what a real relationship with Jesus looks like in principle. But now I'm going to show you an example. We're going to look at Stephen. We're going to look at Stephen. Alright. It's one of the most powerful pictures in the entire New Testament of what happens when a person truly and deeply connects and has a personal relationship with Jesus. So Acts chapter 6, beginning in verse 8. Acts 6, beginning in verse 8. It says, now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. So Stephen was full of God's grace and power. And I want you to notice that description carefully. The Bible doesn't say that Stephen was a man full of good intentions. All right? That doesn't say that he was full of church attendance, right? That doesn't say that he was full of all kinds of religious knowledge. It says he was full of God's grace and power. God's grace and power. Something was living inside of Stephen, and it was actively overflowing to every single thing that was around him. And he was doing signs and wonders, the kind of presence that people just couldn't ignore. Well, what happened? Everybody wasn't real happy about it. They weren't real happy about Stephen's power. All right. So they began to argue with Stephen. And in verse 10, it says, but they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. They couldn't out-debate him, guys. They couldn't out-debate him. Not because he had some big, special, uh, powerful and impressive education, and not because he was naturally just one of the cleverest people of the time, but because the Spirit of God was giving him the words. The Spirit of God gave him the words. His relationship with Jesus made him worthy of respect. Stephen didn't have talent. Stephen had connections. Stephen had connections. All right. You can have all the talent in the world. Ben can get up here and sing from today until he turns blue in the face. But what makes him a worship leader is not his talent, it's his connection. It's his connection. You could get up here and not sing a uh not you can carry a tune in a bucket, but if you have the connection, that's what it takes. The connection. It's who you know. It's who you know. So this mob, they got all worked up with Stephen because Stephen was just giving it to him. And they couldn't out, they couldn't out debate him. So what did they do? They set him up and accused him falsely, just like they did with Jesus. They accused him falsely. But what did he do?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Acts 6.15. 615. I'm running hoku everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

Acts 6.15. All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Now, where did that come from? He's facing a mob of people that have already picked up stones. And when you were stoned to death back in that time, I'm not talking they picked up pebbles out of the garden. I'm talking they picked up rocks. Okay? And then they'd put you down in a hole and they'd just start pounding you with those stones until you died. That's the death that Stephen endured. But knowing he was getting ready to die like that, they noticed that his face looked like an angel.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

Why is that? The connection.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:38

He knew where he was going. And it wasn't just head knowledge. He had put it right here. It was heart knowledge. Not just head knowledge. He had heart knowledge. He knew what he knew and he knew who he knew. And he knew that the one that lived in his heart was greater than anything any man could do to him. Anything. Now go to chapter 7, verse 54 through 60, Hoku. And I say go through all of that. I don't know that I might read it all. Verse 54 tells us that they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. Now, what does it mean to gnash your teeth? This one kind of cracked me up. Have you ever been around a dog that gets angry? That's it, Heather. Have you ever seen it? I knew. Right? When a dog gets angry and he gnashes his teeth, that's they were so mad with Stephen. That's what they were doing to him. They were gnashing their teeth. They were gnashing their teeth. And here's what Stephen does in that moment. Verse 55 goes on to say, but Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God. And Jesus, what was he doing? Standing at the right hand of the Father. Now, guys, if you study Scripture and look off through Scripture, what's Jesus usually doing? Sitting at the right hand of the Father. He's usually sitting. Why did Jesus stand up for Stephen? Okay, that's a good about to welcome him. You know what? I think because he is so intimately involved with you and knows what you're feeling so much that he was staying, he was standing up saying, You go, Stephen, I am right here and I am rooting you on. I am standing in solidarity with you. Jesus was exercising that intimate relationship that he and Stephen had built. And when Stephen looked up, in his darkest moment, stones about to fly, furious crowds screaming for his death, he looked up and he didn't see an empty sky.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:06

He saw the glory of God. He saw Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:11

And Jesus was standing. Stephen called out in verse 59, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And then in his very last breath in verse 60, he said, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Who's that remind you of? Stephen had gotten so close to Jesus, so intimately close to Jesus, that he was able to pray the exact same prayer and had the exact same feelings. Is that the Jesus that you want to get close to today? Or do you want just head knowledge?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:49

So, how do I get close to Jesus? What do I do? I'm gonna do something different.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:57

In this moment now. Y'all hear me talk all the time about getting out of your comfort zone. All right. To be a Christian that's growing, you've got to get out of your comfort zone. And I'm about to do that to every one of you this morning. All right? We're going to get out of our comfort zone. Kristen says, oh man. All right. We're going to get out of our comfort zone. We've been spending time in God's word together, and that's important. I showed you several scriptures this morning. But I don't want you to just walk away today with that information. I want you to actually encounter Jesus this morning. I want you to step out of your head and get in your heart. So one way that we can do that is to close our eyes. So the first thing I want you to do is I want every single one of you to close your eyes. No looking around. We're going to do this. Now I want you to pretend like you are the only one in this room right now except Jesus. There's no religion, there's no set of rules. It's just power. To face whatever it is that you're facing, to love the people that normally you couldn't love on your own and to have peace that makes no sense with the circumstances that you're going through. I want you to stop being an observer in this church. Observers, we have enough observers. I want you to stop being observers in this church. I want to invite you to participate in this relationship with Jesus this morning. Begin to shift from your head to your heart. Open yourself to the presence of Jesus right where you're sitting. Whatever you brought through your doors, those back doors today, I want the weight of it, the worry of it, the shame of it, the grief of it, the confusion of it. I want you to begin to set that down. Just set it down right where you are. Set everything that you came in this room with down. You don't need to fix it right now. You don't need the right words, and you don't need to do anything except bring yourself honestly and simply to Jesus. Now I want that to be your prayer right now. Jesus, I want to know you. Jesus, I want to know you. Not just know about you, I want to know you. And if you've never ever opened your heart to the Holy Spirit before, if you've never experienced the power in the presence of God in a way that you can feel it, I want you to simply pray in your own words, Holy Spirit, come. I'm making for room for you this morning. That's what I want you to do. Just start in your own words, telling him, Holy Spirit, please come. I have made room for you this morning. I've made room for you this morning. I've made room for you this morning. In Matthew 18, 20, he says, where two or three gather in my name, there I am with you. So he's in this room. It's just a matter of whether or not you have opened your heart to him. He has been here waiting for this moment with you. Because he's a gentleman. He doesn't force himself on anybody. You have to invite him in. You have to invite him to come into your life, to come into your heart. This isn't a performance that you can watch. I want everyone participating. It requires time and attention. It requires showing up consistently. You may not feel it at first, but you keep practicing letting him into your heart, and you're going to start knowing him so personally that you will have the look of an angel on your face just like Stephen. Now, what I'm going to ask you to do is I want you right now, whether it's where you are, whether it's to come to the altar, whether it's to step and just move to another seat where you're not around somebody, make it personal. I want you to raise your hand, and Ben's gonna start singing, and he's gonna lead us through a worship session. The third song that we missed earlier is gonna happen right now. And I want you guys to learn how to worship. Because you can come to church every Sunday and sit and listen to me and let me put some head knowledge into you. But until you learn to worship, it's never gonna be personal for you. And I'm gonna treat it like no one knows how to worship. I'm starting everybody at the beginning. So raise your hands. I know that's uncomfortable for some. Raise your hands and let's worship. Spend some personal time with him this morning.

unknown 1:13:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:55

This is your church family. Learn to worship with him. At first it might feel a little uncomfortable. This is your family. Worship. Look at each other.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:20

Hallelujah. Tell them together. How great. Same with me. Oh sea how great.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:14

Now break all your hands together up to the floor.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:56

You are worthy of praise. My heart will see how great is a call.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:22

So now there's some things that I want to tell you this morning. You can have a seat. There's some things that I want you to know moving forward. I want to get practical with you. Knowing Jesus is not just a feeling. All right? That comes on Sunday mornings and fades by Tuesday afternoons. Knowing Jesus is something that should last in your life all week long, just as strong as it does on Sunday mornings. The first thing that I want you to do is to learn to anchor your heart in Hebrews 13, 8, which says Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and forever. I want you to learn that. I want you to learn that. Write it on a piece of paper, put it on your computer screen, put it in your refrigerator, right? So that you see it every time you open the door. Why is this verse important? Because the same Jesus that you encountered right here is the same Jesus that rose from the dead some 2,000 years ago. He has not changed. The world has. The world has. And we've made it so we're trying to put him in a mold that fits everybody's opinion of him. I want you to learn this morning, your opinion doesn't matter. Truth is what matters. Spirit and truth is what matters. And it's time we as a church get back to Jesus. I've showed you this morning who Jesus is, how to have a personal relationship with him, and the foundation of worship. Now that's about as far as I can take you. As far as I can take you. What you do with it is up to you. Spend time every day. It's understand. Spouses understand. Best friends understand. Brothers and sisters understand. We need to spend time alone with Jesus every day. Do not mock them for it. Do not interrupt them when they're doing it. Get in your closets and spend time with your God every day. And nurture that worship relationship. When we come in here on Sunday mornings and the praise team stands up, that is not your invitation to watch a show. That is your invitation to worship Jesus. And it'll get better and better every week if you worship him every day. I want you to know him and just not just know about him.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:08

Amen. Amen. All right. Announcements. Tonight, six o'clock is youth.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:24

Alright? Tonight, six o'clock is youth. Um Tuesday night is our outreach group. All right. I challenge anyone in this church to come and try to keep up with Heather Bogenshees. Okay? You can't do it. I'm telling you now. But I want you to come and try. I want you to come and try. All right? That's when we reach out to our community, and that's important because Jesus doesn't stay in these four walls. We're most comfortable when we're with each other in these walls. It's out there that the real work starts. Okay? Tuesday nights. Wednesday nights, we have a group for everybody: men's, women's, youth, and kids. All right? And they're having a blast. Y'all come out and support these people. They are working hard every week to provide a lesson for you on Wednesday nights. And I'm just gonna be honest, it's discouraging when one person shows up. They are your leaders. Respect them and come out and let them teach you. Um Saturday is Operation Lifeline. Guys, we're gonna be short this week. Mark has to work. John's gonna be working or gone or something. John's not gonna be here. And Alani's not okay. The Chamneses are not gonna be here except for Makma and Hoku. Heather's gonna be here. We need people to help us. Guys, this is hard work. I know Jazzy said she was gonna be here. Jenny, alright? All right. We need muscle, is what we need because we have to move all that food outside and give it to the people. Ben, they're pointing at you for Saturday. He's bringing it, guys. He's bringing it. All right? Saturday. All right. Um Friday night, celebrate recovery. We have John back in the building this morning. Celebrate recovery on Friday nights. Tell all your friends. And those of you that missed Big E Bell up here, that you truly miss something. And one thing that I like, a lot of people think about celebrate recovery and think it's for drugs and alcohol. Guys, it's for everything. For grief, for depression, for pride. It's for anything that you might have that's a hurt habit or hang up to you, okay? All right. John, will you just miss us this morning?