Your Significance and Purpose Within the Body of Christ

0:00 Identity is everything. And when God defines you and me as members of one another, there's a significance there that can only be discovered through sacrifice. I cannot fully discover who I am as a member of the body of Christ until my fellowship costs me something. If I only do what's convenient, then I am in charge. And it's not the lordship of Jesus. It's the lordship of my religious opinions. Well, good afternoon. So good to see you. We had a, I don't know what your week was like, but man, it was a full, full week. There are full weeks and then there are full weeks that are pregnant weeks. There are four. And it was a wonderful, wonderful week. We got to spend time online with about, goodness, several thousand underground pastors from a place that doesn't allow that. and it was a great privilege to minister to them and it's amazing what you can do online and what they do to conceal their identity.

1:09 That's also amazing, but it's a great privilege just to love the people of God all over the world and glad that we get to be together today. Glad you're here and enjoy the worship so much. I have something very important to read to you and you will be edified and strengthened as a result. Several days ago, I left a meeting at a hotel. I desperately gave myself a personal TSA pat down. I was looking for my keys. They were not in my pockets. A quick search in the meeting room revealed nothing. Suddenly, I realized I must have left them in the car. Frantically, I headed for the parking lot. My husband has scolded me many times for leaving the keys in the ignition. My theory is the ignition is the best place not to lose them. His theory is that the car will be stolen.

2:05 As I burst through the door, I came to a terrifying conclusion. His theory was right. The parking lot was empty. I immediately called the police. I gave them my location, confessed that I had left my keys in the car and that it had been stolen. Then I made the most difficult call of all. Honey, I stammered. I always call him honey in times like these. I left my keys in the car and it's been stolen. There was a period of silence. I thought the call had been dropped, but then I heard his voice. Are you kidding me? He barked. I dropped you off. Now is my time to be silent. Embarrassed, I said, well, will you come and get me? He responded, I will.

2:59 As soon as I can convince this cop I didn't steal your car. Yes, I liked it. Open your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. we have two possibly three portions of scripture that we'll read today and I have certain themes that have been running in my heart for the last several months. As most of you know, I took four months off, and during that time, in my own just reading and devotional time, certain things would stand out to me that just seemed to be really important, and so I've been looking forward to having the chance to be with you and to talk to you about these things, and I'm going to do the first time in quite a while, I'm going to do a series and it'll be a minimum of two weeks could be as many as four but I want to talk to you about those things and the first one we'll do today and it has to do with the purpose the meaning, the significance of a corporate gathering I don't know I think everybody in the room I think you're like me I love just being together the fact that we walk into the room it's successful before we do anything. I'm just happy that we get to do life together. We get to spend time together. And for me, it's a real highlight of my week. I look forward to sitting right there and joining with you in worship and celebrating the goodness of God. And I crave it when I don't have it. And so I'm thankful for that. So I know we have value, but I feel like there's, if I can use the term, prophetic significance of the corporate gathering that is easy to miss. You can do all the right things, celebrate all the right things, and not really know what's happening or why and what the Lord is doing. So I'm going to talk to you about that today. That's my desire. Everything that happens in our life, the Lord is targeting several things, but one specifically is that the lordship of Jesus in our life is absolutely

5:09 central to everything we are and everything we do. Lordship of Jesus. We know that he is the king of kings and the lord of lords. So let's talk first about the kingdom. Let's make a quick definition because I want to make sure that we're clear on the mandate that Jesus gives us. Number one, the Kingdom, kingdom, king's domain, the realm of his dominion. So when you pray for somebody that's tormented by demons and that evil spirit leaves, it's because the kingdom came. Why? There's no demons in heaven. Why are there no demons in heaven? Probably a ton of reasons. But one is there's no one up there that agrees with the devil. Agreement is what gives him place.

5:57 Believing a lie empowers the liar. so Jesus ministered the kingdom of God it was his message it was his practice John the Baptist announced the coming kingdom Jesus preached it he trained his disciples to do the same Matthew 10 says when you go into a city tell them the kingdom is at hand the kingdom is near then do the things of the kingdom heal raise it etc so the message of the kingdom actually has to do with manifesting God's dominion here as it is in heaven. So because there are no evil spirits there, when you run into one here, you have an assignment to what? Seek first the kingdom, which is what? To seek first the dominion of God that exists there for it to be manifest here in the same way. As clear as mud, are you with me? All right. So that's the mandate of the of the message of the kingdom. So Jesus preached it. He told his disciples to preach it. We see his final words in Acts chapter 1 were about the kingdom. The Apostle Paul's final words in Acts 28 were about the kingdom. It's the central theme. It's not peripheral. It's not an addition.

7:12 It's not a, oh, it would be nice if you did this too. It is central to the gospel is the message of God's dominion being realized here. Another term we can use is the lordship of Jesus. When the kingdom of God comes over a person's mind, their thinking is sorted out, becomes clear, and represents Christ. Would you agree with me on that? That was a slow pitch. Come on. Everybody can hit that one. All right. But when the lordship of Jesus comes over somebody's mind, it's the same thing. It's the same concept, just different terminology. Does that make sense? So here's the deal. Any part of my life that is not under the lordship of Jesus is outside the kingdom. any part of my life that is not under the lordship of jesus now the lordship is measurable it's not a theory it's measurable any part of my life that is outside the lordship of jesus is outside the kingdom and the problem is is we have areas that are outside the kingdom so to speak, and we continuously seek for God to bless that which is outside the kingdom.

8:29 Blessings come naturally to everything he is Lord over. They come naturally. to ask him to bless things that are outside the kingdom is to ask him to reaffirm our independence from him. to approve and endorse independence. When all that he does is to lead us into the place of abiding presence and continuous surrender.

9:04 One of the most important things and one of the most important things that I think is seriously neglected in this hour is the corporate gathering. The room's full. I'm not trying to, But, you know, I'm thankful. But I need you to hear me. Here's the problem. Is in the Christian life, much of what we do is in the Christian buffet. It's choices. It's not mandates. it's the Christian buffet well I can take this this week so and so speaking and there's this sorting that happens in the Christian life where we adjust our values week by week according to how we feel at the moment it's the buffet do I want meat today do I want dessert do I want potatoes we have all these decisions that are made that are not based on values they're not based on covenant values that we have made before the Lord They're actually based on how we feel at the moment.

10:07 Jesus then doesn't become Lord. My emotions become Lord. My appetite becomes Lord. My will becomes Lord. And there are certain things that have to be established in our life and in our routine in order for us to properly disciple and create a momentum for the next generation. All right, that went over pretty well. Let's just move on. Acts chapter two, did you turn there? Did I tell you where to go? No, I didn't tell you? How many of you heard me say? How many of you didn't? What were you doing?

10:50 I'm teasing. Acts chapter two, well, this is the chapter, obviously of the great and mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that had such an incredible impact and the momentum of chapter two carried on for many, many, many years. In fact, I've heard it said that what we're going to read, we're going to start with verse 42, was actually describing like the previous five years. So I don't know the exact length of time, but it's a period of time. It's not the Holy Spirit outpoured on Friday, and this is the report they wrote on Sunday. This is years later of practice. And catch this. This is years later of what they did that enabled them to succeed in God's assignment. All right. Verse 42. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. They continually devoted themselves, I think is one of the translations. In other words, they constantly re-upped the covenant.

12:26 What you need to know, because I don't want to teach on this, but I need to make a reference here. What you need to know about this chapter is that they would sell their properties, their homes, whatever, to help the people around them to take care of crisis and problems and needs. This was not a mandate given to them. This is what they did out of the explosion of compassion that they had because they connected with each other. It was not a rule of, it was not Christian communism. It was not a rule of redistributing wealth, so to speak. It was, this is what compassion looks like when you're joined at the hip to people that you really care for, and you know they walk the walk, and you want to make sure that they, along with you, live in a victorious manner. Amen. Verse 46. So continuing daily with one accord, in the temple, please notice, and in breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God, having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

13:34 We're going to read a couple of these verses over again, but look for just a quick moment at verse 47, praising God, having favor with all the people. My goodness, what an extraordinary season. the church, this newly formed body of people that were being transformed by surrender to Christ these people had favor with the entire community the entire city. And as a result people were being added daily If you go through the first ten chapters of Acts you'll see that they had periods of incredible favor and then it was met with incredible opposition there was intense persecution and what's really cool is the church responded equally to the favor and to the persecution. They were faithful. They just remained faithful. Because of that, somewhere around chapter 10, 11, 12, somewhere now, I forget where, they came into a place where no longer were souls added daily.

14:29 It was now they were multiplied. addition is good multiplication is better it was it was things increased exponentially that they had not known before and it was the breakthrough perseverance of perhaps 10 maybe 15 years of perseverance in the things of the spirit that they celebrated faithfully when they were approved they celebrated faithfully when they were opposed and because of that God entrusted to them the multiplication. They continued with one accord in the temple and in house to house. the corporate gathering is significant. The small gathering is significant.

15:23 There are things that can happen in the corporate that won't happen in the small, and there are things that happen in the small that won't happen in the big. They each have a place of shaping and defining who we are and how we're going to do life. it has been thought that the reason we gather together is for teaching. And I don't want to do anything to diminish the value and the fact that we love to hear and read Scripture and study together and be taught the Word of God. It's a significant part of our life. I never want to do anything to diminish that. But the problem is that's not the standard that Jesus set. let me read to you what Jesus said. He said in Luke chapter 17, I'll just read it to you. He said, which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he's coming from the field, come at once and sit down and eat. But will he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me until I have eaten and drunk. And afterwards you may eat and drink. What did Jesus just do there? Oftentimes the church gathers together on a Sunday, we bring out our spiritual knives and forks and we say, Jesus, feed us. And we're the servants that have been working in the field all week and sometimes think we actually deserve the prime spot in the meeting.

16:53 And he says, no. He says, you serve him first. This is not a hard taskmaster. This is the loving Father who doesn't look for worship. He looks for worshipers. The difference is, because he loves me, he knows that I will become like whatever I worship. And so he wants me to be a worshiper, because then I become like him. It's the best choice he can make for me. And so he looks for me to come to that place of tenderness where I actually minister to him. So our corporate gathering has a very significant purpose. You can do this individually. You can do it in a small gathering. But there is something so profound and so significant about the corporate gathering in this area. The expression, the sense of presence, what happens in those moments are just extraordinary. On top of that, the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, he says, whenever you come together, have a song, have a teaching, a testimony, have something, bring something together so that when you come together as a people, you have something to contribute to someone else.

18:01 if you read 1 Corinthians 12 13 the love chapter 14 12 and 14 are in the gifts there's an overwhelming theme to the expression of the gifts of the spirit and that is the edification edification and strengthening of the body of Christ the target of the Lord is that every one of us would have a part in bringing strength to somebody else so let me put it this way when we come together if you have not through design and effort worked to encourage, strengthen, help to bring strength of identification to people in the gathering, then you've missed the reason for why you're here.

18:48 Yes, we're here to worship. But the life of my human body works because each member contributes to the next. and when you cut off the contribution you create a separation and that separation is death I'm not trying to do guilt trip I'm trying to define purpose I'm trying to define what you are skilled at you may or may not know it but you actually can be the person that has the song I jokingly told the story about Chris this morning when he I said we're to have a song so he began to sing over Leslie in first service and I was reminded when he went to visit my dad who was dying and he told my dad, he says, I feel like I'm supposed to sing over you. And my dad said, okay. Chris says, is there anything you want me to sing?

19:41 He says, yeah. He says, on a hill far away. And Chris said, you want me to sing the song on a hill far away? He says, no, I want you to sing on a hill far away. So my dad's dying, literally. And his sense of humor never did die. So it was still there. But we come together with that that can contribute to somebody else. And it may not be a heavy revelation. It doesn't have to be. It's just supposed to be that word of encouragement. It's the fact that you woke up with that song. And the words to that song, maybe it's for somebody in the room. and you go, hey, John, when I woke up this morning, this song was going through my mind and you share that and oftentimes the very thing that you've experienced brings a refreshing word to that person in need. What is it doing?

20:35 It's strengthening the connection of the members of the body. It's who we are by design. None of us discover who we are fully by ourselves. We're not designed that way. we're designed to discover identity purpose placement all of that by our connection with the family he brought us together with that's the privilege of life i realize we have so many in fact i i was i was in vacaville this excuse me yesterday for a one-day conference down there at the mission and uh lady came up and just was expressing her thankfulness for for bethel tv because she's able to connect with us. She's not health-wise. She's not able to be here. And so I understand there are so many that their only way they can keep a connection is through online, through YouTube or whatever service is out there.

21:28 I get that and I celebrate that. But for you and me, there's a challenge. And here's what happened for us. We were built. We focused a lot on giving ourselves to missions to touch nations of the world. We figured not even the devil knew where we were so we could ambush him at every turn in the road. And so we did. So we just talked about our responsibility to the nations, literally. And it took a few years for that to catch on, but it finally did. And I think the final year I was there, we had sent something like, I think it was close to 150 people to some part of the world to minister the gospel in these various places around the world. They were there from a week up to an entire year. But that was a real heavy focus of ours. during those years before the iron curtain fell we sent multiple trips to the iron curtain and they would uh they would specifically go into romania and they would serve there we had contacts there uh believers and uh and our people would uh get a custom made car with secret compartments and they would have bibles and medical supplies all kinds of stuff and kind of doing the james Bond kind of thing, you know, as they get into the country. But it was such a, they were, our teams were so deeply impacted by the passion and the hunger and the willingness to take a bullet for the gospel by these people that they served. And it really was an absolute testimony that marked our people. They would come home with these stories and we were just, you know, we were just stunned by the reports of our brothers and sisters in that part of the world. I remember I was in Reading at what used to be the Hilton Hotel. Some of you, if you've been around long enough to know it's a different name now, but we had a men's retreat and it was the night the Iron Curtain fell. I remember turning the TV on in my room before going to a meeting and I saw people walking through the wall, that wall in Berlin, and they were singing, this is the day, this is the day

23:37 that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made. Extraordinary. I found out later the location where that part of the wall fell, where the people came through from East Berlin into West Berlin, that part of the wall, there was a very powerful and significant prayer meeting the night before at that exact location. And there was this incredibly, incredibly breakthrough.

23:59 So we had teams that went in there, and they brought supplies to our brothers and sisters in Romania and celebrated with them the privilege to worship together. When they would go to the churches, they were packed to the rafters, packed to every place you could put a body standing, there would be somebody standing because of the desperation and the hunger. And it was an extraordinary thing to have them bring back these reports to us.

24:24 But after the Iron Curtain fell, we sent more teams. And the churches weren't full anymore because people had options. It's amazing what luxury does. Luxury gives you options. And with those options, you can either fortify the right choices that you've learned to make, or you can add to them and weaken your own stance. Luxury is not evil in itself. it can help to fortify, increase, establish the decisions, the values that we have made as a people but it can also weaken and draw us away and what we saw there, at least in this example may not be across the board but with our relations with the teams we minister to what we saw was half empty churches no longer standing room only because now they can drive to the coast for the weekend. I don't want to say that any of those things are wrong, but something has been weakened when we have many options. If you have options that pull you away from the absolute values of your life, then you're discovering a weak point in your thinking, a weak point in your planning. How many of you have traditions for Christmas?

25:38 You have certain traditions on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I like traditions. I like knowing, well, this is what we're going to eat. And it's because it's God's will that we eat this. My family's Norwegian and Sweden, and we love the lefsa, so it's a flatbread made out of potato. And so we just have lefsa every Thanksgiving, or we'll die.

26:08 We just love those traditions, and we have them as you do. The Christian life should be filled with traditions not the when Jesus warned against tradition it was the man-made traditions that warred against what God said it was not a rebuke for tradition it's in Mark 7, you read it he was rebuking them because they created traditions that undermined the actual commandments of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord are always invitations into greater freedom that's what a commandment is, they are not restrictive in the sense that I'm going to keep you from that which brings you delight and pleasure and identity, I'm going to keep you from the very things that rob identity. It may give you short-term pleasure, but it ends in death. And so the Lord gives us commandments that restricts us so that we can be all present for the breakthroughs in the life that God has designed us for. So when He gives us commands, He invites us into greater liberty. And one of the traditions that I want to see established in the body of Christ at this hour, we've got to get the next generation ready to uphold biblical standards. And part of that is I'm willing to be inconvenienced to make sure I show up.

27:31 I show up. I don't know whether there's any other way to say it. I'm not going to miss, if it's at all possible. I'm going to design my life around what is most important. What happens in the corporate gathering? I want you to go to Hebrews chapter 10, and we'll read one more passage here.

27:52 You guys all right? Let's, just because of time, let's just jump right down. We have incredible statements being made in verse 19 to 22 about the blood of Jesus and this high priest that made it possible for us to be confident before God. But then let's get to verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another in so much the more as you see the day approaching. What day is that? Jesus is coming back. He really is. He said he would, so he will. It's impossible for him to lie. He will be coming back. When?

28:44 Nobody knows. But if the writer of Hebrews who wrote this several weeks ago, if the writer of Hebrews could send out the warning that man we need to make sure to pay attention to this because the day is near, then how much more can we say in this hour? This is a priority. Why? Do you remember the parable where Jesus talked about the ten virgins that needed to keep their lamps full of oil? I've got a sense that this not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together is the habit of some. I have a sense that that is a part of, well, formula is the wrong word, but I'll use it. It's that design of God to keep us continuously ongoing, full of what the Spirit of God is saying and doing. So what does it mean when it says that they continually devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine?

29:40 I love that phrase, but we don't have a list of the doctrines. We don't have the outline of this is what you teach in your Sunday school class or the Sunday morning service. I think, it's just my opinion, but I think when he says the Apostles' Doctrine, he's addressing, there's a phrase in Scripture, it's called this present truth.

30:03 There are times where the Lord is emphasizing this truth in our life. All these things are true, but this is what he's focusing on. Does that make sense to you? He says to the disciples, I no longer call you servants, I call you friends. Was he saying servitude is not valuable? No, he's saying the emphasis in this season is friendship. I'm going to be work, we're going to be working on this intimacy area, this communication, this friendship area. This is the emphasis. The Apostles' doctrine, I do believe, is that those themes that God is emphasizing in a particular season. have you noticed that we can have a half a dozen speakers up here in a period of three months and there's going to be a similarity to what says not because there was a plan it's because there is an inspiration a father who thinks and he helps his children to discover those thoughts and communicate that we can bring we can bring a speaker in from south africa they will come and they will say something very similar why because we're connected to the same father It's, can I say, it's the apostles' doctrine.

31:07 It's the theme for that season. And what they did is they continually devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrines. What does that mean? You have to be present to hear the themes that God is orchestrating, designing, declaring over people for a particular season. Why? Because in part, our identity is formed in hearing those words. It's true.

31:39 Identity is everything. whenever I talked to you last I think it was a couple weeks ago I talked to you about the 10 spies that brought a bad report was that last week? two weeks ago I talked to you about the 10 spies if you weren't here please listen to it I talked to you about the 10 spies the 10 spies are still alive the 10 spies that brought a bad report they persuaded let's say 2 million people to turn away from the promise of God. They thought they were hearing words of wisdom and they were thankful that those words of wisdom spared them from imminent disaster.

32:24 But in reality, the words pulled them from potential and promise. Oftentimes, words of caution appear to be words of wisdom and they're actually words of fear. And the enemy used that. Well, what was a part of that storyline? is that Israel didn't go into the promised land because they saw themselves as grasshoppers. We are grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we are with them. And then you read the story where Rahab in Jericho says, we have been afraid of you for 40 years. We heard when the Red Sea was opened. We've been terrified of you. Our people have been faint-hearted all this time because of you. They saw themselves according to how they saw the size of their enemy. not according to what God said when he gave them a promise. Identity is everything. And when God defines you and me as members of one another, there's a significance there that can only be discovered through sacrifice.

33:25 Let me rephrase it to make it more appealing. Through obedience. See, there's something about fellowship in Hebrews 13. Fellowship is actually called a sacrifice, which tells me that I cannot fully discover who I am as a member of the body of Christ until my fellowship costs me something. If I only do what's convenient, then I am in charge. And it's not the lordship of Jesus. It's the lordship of my religious opinions. One of my favorite things that we do several years ago was Eric and Nate from The Stirring and I think a couple other churches Brian Blank from Little Country. These are all such great people and great churches.

34:29 And we have such meaningful relationships with. But they thought we should start meeting together on Good Friday. And so some of you remember many years ago, they started meeting. And it was like two or three years in, there's like 80 to 100, 110 churches in Reading that started getting involved and just wanting to be a part of that Good Friday service. It was just such an incredible thing to be a part of. And I remember when I first had the chance to mention it here, I mentioned it to all the parents of young children. I know that when we're gathering like that, the last thing we want is to be holding the baby that cries in a given session. And when we're trying to all worship together as a community. But my encouragement was this, and I want you to hear the reason behind it. I encourage all of our people, bring your kids anyway, even if they make a mess, even if they fuss, even if they cry.

35:29 I want them to be trained in values. I want them to be trained in what's important. Our children know when we make decisions that cost us. They can tell when we make decisions, and we make those repeated decisions faithfully, and they can see that it costs us. It's not convenient. That is some of the greatest teaching you'll do with your children, is you teach them what's important. We have a generation coming up that needs to know there's something unique and special about the continuous gathering in the house of God from temple to the house to house. Here it says, let us consider one another, verse 21, in order to stir up love and good works. That really is the description of the corporate gathering, is that you want to be a strength.

36:24 I realize sometimes we are the ones that get shot at and we come together because we're hoping somebody will notice we're in pain. I get that, and I think that's an important thing. But sometimes the most important thing you can do is even in your pain, come with a word of promise. I've had times where the Lord's given me a very specific word, and I have felt I need to give this word away. I'm going to keep it for myself, but it's such a good word. I need to give it to somebody else. and as I've done this through the years I can see where certain individuals their lives literally have been marked by a word that was given in a specific season that was first given to me some of you have had friends call you they've prayed for you, they've done various things to encourage you, strengthen you in your faith, they've given you promises when you've been in crisis you've been in great financial needs, they've quoted scripture to you, you've been in a health crisis, they've told you by the stripes of Jesus, you were healed, they prayed for you. They have equipped you with words of encouragement for you to give to others.

37:27 And there's something profound that takes place in the life of a church family that learns to live that way. So Paul says, when you come together, I'm going to put it in my terms, come with the intention to speak into somebody's life in a way that will strengthen and encourage them. I think that there's something about even the release of the gifts of the Spirit. Anybody else want to grow in the function of the gifts of the Spirit to be able to prophesy more clearly, to release healing, to all the words of wisdom, all that stuff? There's something about that element that is only released to a people who are trustworthy, who are in covenant, they are in community. Because they will use the gifts for strengthening the people of God.

38:17 This that I'm talking about is the atmosphere where the gifts multiply. we could have the greatest preacher on the planet come here and speak to all of us, we'd be encouraged. We have some of the greatest worship leaders I've seen anywhere in the country. They come week after week. Ministry teams down here, miracles take place week after week after week. We can have all of that and fail in why we're together as a people. If it doesn't happen here, the connection to another person the eye to eye moment of extending a hand value encouragement coming with the intention to bring strength to somebody else if that's not there we have failed in spite of all the good things we've done we are members of each other what we've been hearing from the Lord our teams we spend time together talking and praying and stuff what we've been hearing we have friends around the world around the country that have been calling and visiting us Ben Fitz was here a couple weeks ago such a rich time with him he ministered to me to my wife Linda our teams were so encouraged we've had others call us I've been places I was in Brazil Linda and I with Randy Clark and Leif Hetland and others.

39:43 And the words of encouragement about our future are really, really significant. They're so wonderful. I'm so thankful. And I'm both thankful and soberly approaching this next season with a realization.

40:06 There's a couple things. I want to make sure we strengthen as we enter this next phase. Is that making any sense to you? I'm not trying to make anybody paranoid. I just, as one who's at least attempting to hear from the Lord on what he's saying and doing, I can tell this corporate gathering is significant. I'm going to take the next week or two following this to deal with a few other things that I feel like the Lord wants us to give attention to. and I believe, I don't think it's a coincidence we're getting close to a new year, believe it or not. Merry Christmas, by the way. It's almost here.

40:48 Some of you probably are already ready and you make me sick. No, that's not true. That's not true. I couldn't believe I was in the store like a month ago and they already had Christmas stuff up. What's up with that? Hobby Lobby had it in July? Well, I love Hobby Lobby because I love the people who own it. So I bless them. Sell the Christmas stuff. Amen. Amen. All right. All right. They're really, they're amazing, amazing people. Really, I know David Green and so thankful for him.

41:23 So my cry is this, is that the Lord would help us together to have singleness of mind, singleness of focus, so that we can fully enter with confidence this next season and see the kinds of breakthroughs that we were born for. So why don't you stand? Stand. Thank you, Jesus. thanks for being here today honestly and thanks for being so responsive because I don't do well at describing the hopes and burdens of my heart but I can feel it it's tangible today in what I sense and believe that God is doing in us and through us and I'm expecting some unusual breakthrough.

42:24 So if you wouldn't mind, grab the sweaty palm of the person next to you. Those of you that are watching at home, I don't know, maybe grab your own hand or if there's somebody else in the room. And let's just, we're just going to take just a quick moment to pray together. Father my cry my request is that you would help us discover the richness of being a body the richness the richness the privilege beyond imagination that you made possible because you caused us to be born again and you joined us together I ask you to do it for all of our guests that everyone would find that same refreshing element of belonging because of the church body they're a part of and that you'd help us to discover the word in a fresh way worship in a fresh way miracles in a fresh way but also friendships just common simple connection with friends and help us as we do this to impact an entire city. And I do ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let me ask a quick question.

43:43 Jesus made this statement. He said, what is it worth if you gain the entire world? Think about that. Every dollar, every house, every beach, you gain the entire world, but you lose your own soul. you've gained nothing. And Jesus makes it possible for everybody in this room to have peace with God and a relationship with him. Everyone who's watching online, the same thing. And if there's anybody in this room that would say, Bill, I don't want to leave this building until I know what it is to be born again, what it is to be, to place my trust in Christ for my salvation, have my life changed. Then I want you right where you are just to put a hand up and say, Bill, that's me. I don't want to leave the building until I know what it is to have peace with God.

44:35 I'm going to give you just a moment to do that. But put your hand up high because I don't want to miss you. If there's anyone, right back over here is wonderful. There's another one. Two over here. Amen. Amen. Anyone else? Anyone else? Okay. Here's what I want to ask. Let's get the banner up over here. We're going to have a ministry team down here in just a moment. Anyone who wants to talk to somebody about walking with Christ will have a team over here that we know and trust. It's not about belonging to Bethel. It's literally about coming into a relationship with Jesus. There are at least two over here that I saw. I want to encourage you. Be courageous enough to make your way right over here. we'll have friends that will come and talk and pray with you. I would like the ministry team to come to the front. Everyone else, if you'd hold your place.