SUMMARY
Over the next four weeks, there will be a focus on family restoration and spiritual growth, with both experiential and teaching aspects. Attendees are encouraged to fully commit to the journey, which will involve a two-week delay in the previously planned Shamal Journey. The goal is to become a strong and compassionate community, ready to support those in need.
God is preparing the church for a time of radical worship and community, leading to a gospel session where people can experience the transformative power of Christ. This shift in worship life will create a separation, drawing a line between those who are seeking God and those who are not, ultimately leading to the liberation of the lost. The next four weeks will be a crossroads moment, where individuals must decide whether to embrace the victory found in Christ or continue down a different path.
Unfailing love is precious, and we remember Jesus’ life and resurrection.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Shema Journey is delayed by 2 weeks - now starting on February 3, 2025.
- Remembrance Communion begins at 9 am for the next few Sundays!
- Participation in Remembrance Communion indicates you have decided to join the Shema journey.
- Let’s resolve to be a FAMILY OF WORSHIP as our New Year’s resolution!
TRANSCRIPTION
The work of the Spirit of bonding families back together is the first work He wants to do.
It’s not just 1 family - it’s ALL families and THE FAMILY.
God has been preparing us for such a time as this. As I was singing and we were all worshiping, God began to show me something. He’s like, “You're rushing out too fast, and I'm trying to do something in the families!”
Over the next 4 weeks, as we bring the message, we’re not rushing any portion of what God's going to do. There will be an experience(like what you saw today) where God waters the heart and begins to mold it. Then He begins to say, “Okay, now. Now you're softened again. So I can actually talk to you.”
At this church, we're all hard-headed. We’re just banging our heads against these walls, sometimes.
I prophesy that there will be experience for many in the next four-ish weeks - some have already started this experience.
You have to be patient in those times and eagerly pray for that experience for you and your family. You’ve gotta start asking for it.
Stop asking for God to fix your bills! Just deal with your money. That's natural stuff. Who cares? Start asking for the spirit of God to come and invade every part of your life.
Be careful, what you ask for because He WILL grant that! That is the one prayer He WILL answer. He answers every prayer, just not the way you want Him to most of the time. He’s not your Cosmic Butler in the Sky.
There will be experience, but there will also be teaching and understanding. He will require both. We must not get bored with any of this, and we must not be in a hurry.
If you have no plans and intentions of getting both aspects of that for the next four weeks, I encourage you to take a pause and come back in February. I don’t know exactly how long this will take.
We cannot put a time limit on this experience. We will not rush it. What God wants to do is a two-part impartation into our lives over the next 4-ISH weeks. Where the experience of worship, prayer, and teaching, will give us an understanding. We can apply those things to walk out this life with that understanding.
We will be delaying the Shema Digital Discipleship journey for about 2 weeks. It will be delayed because we are doing an impromptu discipleship journey in this as Ardent, as a body, in this house right here. By showing up next Sunday, you are entering this journey with us. We will start at 9 am.
If you show up at 9 AM, that is your agreement that you are going on this journey for the next 4-ISH weeks. An experience and an understanding beyond a typical Sunday morning. Everybody likes resolutions. Let's resolve to be a family of WORSHIP. (Joshua 24:15) Let that be your resolution!
I have always been called a crazy person, and almost everyone here has also been rebellious and crazy to some degree. I’ve heard your stories. Let’s use that craziness for Christ! As stupid as you were before, let's be that stupid and crazy about Christ! As absolutely ridiculous as you were in the past, let's now be that way for Christ! (1 Corinthians 4:10)
God’s presence and spirit will come with a force as mighty as an earthquake. He is going to shake the trees and dead leaves will be cast off and dead branches will be cut off.(John 15:2-6)
It’s time for us to get off our hospital beds because He wants to usher in people with hurting and broken lives and broken families. Let's see if you can bring His spirit to them, so he can heal and restore them, too.
It is time.
It is time that we become lean, mean, fighting machines!
It is time.
So for the next 4 weeks, that is why we're going to train. Because that's what the church is supposed to do. What God is shifting to is a time of church worship at 9 AM where we receive communion, then move us into the Gospel Session at 10 am. At that time, we expect this place to be full of people that you’ve interacted with daily. Those hurting people will see you and your life, with its struggles.
They will ask you, for example, “How did you endure years of surgeries and pain and not go back to your life of addiction? What caused you to deal with this for years, and not give in to drugs? Everyone else would have! What was your strength? You had pain pills!”
At that point, you will say “CHRIST ALONE! The Spirit of God is the answer!”
Because of your radical worship life, there will be a shift in your family and in your personal life that will be VISIBLE! At 9 am, we will REMEMBER that with our communion. Then, when the people come, we won’t need advertising, because WE ARE the advertisement!
When the hurting people cry out and ask where they can learn more about this gospel, we can be ready to talk about it because they see the fruits of it in our lives. It’s our job to BE the gospel, so they want to learn about the gospel!
God is trying to draw a line in the sand and separate us from the hurting and broken people. Not so that we can stay separate, but so we see who needs help and GO GET THEM! Then, we can go to them and say, “I am fighting this fight WITH you!”
I’m not much of a sports guy, but I know that every team has a uniform. The uniform indicates which team the players are on.
That doesn’t mean that the other team is your enemy. NO PERSON on this planet is your enemy.(Ephesians 6:12) They are just part of another kingdom.
The enemies are the thought processes and deadly chaos that have grasped those hurting and broken people in that kingdom. We are going to invade that kingdom. “The gates of hell will not prevail!”(Matthew 16:17)
What does that verse mean? It’s THE CHURCH! You, the church will prevail against the church!
And so God is drawing the line. He is guiding us into these Remembrance sessions to say, “I’m putting on the jersey! Now I am ready to go liberate. Christ has liberated me, so I will be His hands and feet(Matthew 25:34-40) and go liberate others!” Because it is joy, unspeakable, and full of glory! It is a victory that we have found in Christ alone.
That is also a bit of direction for what’s coming this next year. Everything that has been happening in your life, good, bad, and ugly? All of it has been building you up for such a time as this(Esther 4:14) This is the crossroads moment in time where we see a line has been drawn.
I promise you that God has never failed.(Joshua 21:45)
God has never failed you, even though you think He has. It’s because you’ve never given him a chance. He’s always held on to you, and He’s saying, “Let's go. Let go and LET’S GO!”
We're going to pray, and we're going to receive communion in a different light.. If you don't understand what this is, just ask someone.
And we pray:
Father, we thank you for this morning.
God, I thank you that your presence always surprises us. When we thought we could come in and just go through the motions, God, you became the motion that moved us and shifted through us.
Father, I pray that anything that was said and done this morning, God, that the only your words were spoken. That your words and actions would renovate our hearts from the deepest part of who we are. That it carries us out of this place, ready to follow you. God I pray that the work and the healing and the softening you have done in many hearts continues. Not just from this morning, but in prior Sundays, on Wednesdays and Tuesdays and other days of week, over phone calls. I pray that those works of healing and mending and experience are softening us, God.
We pray that they continue on. And that we don't leave them here on the floor, but that we take them and hold them as precious.
Your unfailing love is precious to us.
As we have received this communion, we receive it in the manner and the understanding of taking part in remembering the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
We pray that joy fills our hearts. We’re all in this together. In your name, and we say, “Amen.”