0:08 And a happy New Year to you all, family. Blessed to count you as part of my life and part of my journey becoming more like Christ. I want to have you turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and look at verse 20. 0:29 I just thought I should read this as Olu was finishing. Cuz this uh thank you Ijay and Olu for for pointing us the way we can go this year and will go. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 it says 0:53 For as many as are the promises of God, I want to pause there for a moment before I go on. We have a new set of memory verses for this year. As you know, we've done the last set for about 2 years. And but go back and and reference them. 1:08 They're on our website. Uh but and if you follow us on Instagram or Twitter, you'll see Heidi posts those verses. But we have a new set and we as you know, we alternate between promises and commands. And our goal at the end of our life is that every 1:27 single promise in God's word in the new covenant is fulfilled in every single one of us. That's our goal. And every single command in the new covenant we obey. And every year must be a snapshot of that. That means I hope and I hope this 1:45 is your hope as well. This is my hope for us as a church as well. That in 2019 I will find out some more promises that weren't fulfilled in my life. Do you think there are promises in God's word that are not yet fulfilled in your 1:59 life? Um I hope your answer is yes, there are. Because if not, then you're already like Jesus. Or you don't know about the promises. So, if you're already like Jesus, you won't be alive today, I believe. So, none of us is fully conformed into 2:17 the image of Jesus, which means that there are promises still remaining in God's word that are not yet fulfilled. And I want them to be fulfilled. And whichever ones of those God wants me to experience fulfillment in 2019, I 2:34 want. I don't want to miss out on even one. And likewise the commands. Have you obeyed every single command in the new covenant? I think I have, but I think there are others I don't know of, or God will show them to me in a different way. 2:47 And I want to obey those. So, that's why we have those memory verses to help us obey them. Uh please take it seriously to memorize them, not for the sake of memorizing, not even necessarily to get up here and say it. Please do if you're uh if the Lord leads 3:03 you to, and I hope the Lord leads you to do that. But more importantly, that you read it, and your cry from your heart is, "Lord, I want to hear you shouting over me." This That's this verse this week. Th- This week's verse. 3:16 "Lord, I haven't heard you shouting over me with joy for a long time." Maybe that's where you're at. And say, "Lord, this week, that's my memory verse. I believe you allowed it to be that way. So, please let me hear you shouting over 3:29 me." Now, it won't be something you'll hear audibly, but in your spirit, you will see God rejoicing, getting up out of his throne, as it were, and lifting his arms like they do uh when they when the home team scores a touchdown. Much greater than that. 3:46 Have you seen God rejoicing over you? Not because you're perfect. Not because everything's in order. No. Because you have faith. Like Olu just said. The The problem is still there. The thing is still a mess, but you have 4:02 faith. And God gets up and shouts with joy. That's I hope you see that this week. So, in him, or as many as the promises of God, in him they are yes. He says yes. What will you say? Like Olu was saying, we could have gone 4:19 away from the Wednesday meeting. Yes, but probably not for me because I'm too messed up and I I made a mess. No. In him are yes. In him they are yes. Therefore, also through him is our amen. You know what amen means? 4:36 Open your eyes. The prayer is over. And that's exactly what it should mean for us as well. In him it's yes. I said amen. It's going to happen, God. No but, no question mark, no parenthesis, no semicolon, maybe, or anything like that. 4:53 Amen. Full stop. Period. In him they are yes. Through him in me, amen. I say amen. Say amen to God today. And let Yes. Indeed. Whether you say amen or amen, it's fine. But let it be in your heart that God You 5:12 say amen to God for that thing that you're facing today. Now, I I'd like to present to you and something that I hope even the children can relate to. This Now, these are big words, so I'll explain them. Three A's. That is my goal and our goal for us as a 5:27 church, I think. Uh for this year, 2019. The first is accepted. Let's be more established this year, family, in the fact that you are loved with the same love 5:46 that the Father had for the Son from before the foundation of the world. Think about the reality of that. Before the foundation of the world, there's no sun, moon, stars, Earth, universe, anything. It's just God. Even before the angels were created. 6:03 God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And the reason Jesus came down from heaven to this Earth, he says very clearly in John chapter 6, was to show us the Father. And part of showing us the Father is showing us what love the Father has. 6:22 And the men who spent time with Jesus, like John the Apostle, write towards the end of their lives, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon you." See how great the Father's love is for you. And Jesus came to show that essentially. 6:38 What love? The love first of all that he had they had within the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There was a love. And I think we can a little bit imagine that that must have been a perfect wonderful 6:54 love. It was untainted. It was pure. It was just immense. It was I don't know. We don't have enough words to describe the love of God. This love that they had within the Godhead. Now, you and I come into the picture and 7:09 that's where I want you to turn to John chapter 17. John 17. I want to read verse 24 first. John 17 verse 24. "Father, I desire that they 7:28 also whom you have given me." That's you and I. And I can say it this way. "Father, I desire that RLCF be with me where I am." for what purpose? So that they may see my glory which you 7:47 have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. This is Jesus in human flesh saying Father, you loved me before the foundation of the world. This is what I want them to see. Okay, that's great for you, Jesus. The 8:03 Father has such love for you because you never sinned, you're perfect. Uh everything is great for you, Lord Jesus. In In you are all things like we saw the Jesus is exalted. What about me? I'm so full of wretchedness. I'm the worst among you when it comes to 8:21 whom Jesus saved and all these things that verse in 1 Timothy 1 that Alister read. Well, let's go back to verse 23. Then he says, now the reason Jesus who experienced this tremendous tremendous love from the Father, that within the 8:36 Godhead they had this great love, the reason he came down to this earth and now wants to live within us not just to forgive my sins, not just so I can go to heaven. No, so that I experience this same quality of love now here. That's what he says in 8:52 verse 23. I in them and you in me. See, there's this Father in Jesus. Whatever that looks like, we can't really describe it. We haven't seen it with our eyes. The Father and Jesus one in such such great love and now that 9:08 love has a home in my heart. All the heavens cannot contain this love and yet the Father says, I want to put it in you, filthy sinful being that you were when I picked you up. I in them, you in me that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may 9:24 know that you sent me and loved them, loved RLCF, loved me even as you loved me before the foundations of the world and for all eternity. May we find tremendous rest and security in this alone. 9:43 As great the Father's love was for Jesus before the foundations of the world, before sin entered into the conversation at all, imagine how great and pure that love must have been. That's the love with which the Father loves you. 9:55 Even though sin even though sin, the Father loves you. And this is your birthright. As many as received him, that's John 1:12, he gave them the right a privilege. I mean, if you were the son of your father and you felt like your father was 10:14 not giving you your rightful due. He never talked to you or never looked at you or never even acknowledged you. You you could go to him and say, "Dad, you know I'm your son, right?" And that's how it should be with us. Now, the Father never neglects us. 10:29 It's just we have this unbelief. And so, speak to your soul. Say, "Soul, you are loved." Speak to yourself in the third person as it were and say, "You're loved." And I put that picture of his palm there because, you know, he's written your 10:44 your name on the palm of his hand. And right next to that nail print, perhaps, where Jesus the nail print right next to it, my name. Your name is written on the palm of his hand. He'll never forget you. So, know that you are accepted. If you 11:04 really are knowing it now, not just here. Yeah, I know, Lord, you've accepted me. I accepted you, so you've accepted me. Much deeper than that. You know, we speak in the world of when we evangelize to people, you ask them, 11:15 "Have you accepted Jesus?" You know, it's really not that. I've come to see it's really have you come to realize that God has accepted you. That's when you've accepted Jesus. God has accepted you. Receive it. You accept him, too. You accept his 11:32 acceptance of you. That's what it is. And it's not that I did some great work when I said, "Yes, Lord Jesus, come into your heart." It's just I said, "Lord, I want to be loved by you." And I'm experiencing God's love. So, that's the 11:45 foundation. The second A I want to tell you is to be authentic. It's a big word. Children, the word authentic, and even for adults if you're not sure, it just means that you're real. You know, I believe that many, many situations in life 12:01 would would be resolved or any and problems would never have happened if people would be authentic. Who they really on the inside is what they show on the outside. In my marriage, I know I can tell you of times in my life where 12:16 the reason I had problems in my marriage was because I wasn't authentic. I wasn't real. I covered it up with something. In this church, I believe that the reason there have been problems in the past as I look back at situations and conflicts came 12:35 essentially from this. A lack of authenticity, a lack of reality, being real with each other. And I want to tell you, my dear brother, dear sister, as you are more deeply integrated in this church and you want to become more connected with God and 12:53 with Jesus' body here on this earth, it can only come through being real. That means Let me make it practical first before we look at these verses. Let's say you have some issue. Maybe there's something that bothers you 13:07 with how things are done in this church or or or something like that or some brother or some sister. There's some something that's a little seed of a frustration or an irritation. Deal with it then. It's much easier to deal with an oak tree when it's just a 13:25 little nut. But once it's grown in your yard and become an oak tree, oh, you got to call the you know, the tree service to come and get rid of it. And you got to deal with and deal with it carefully and you got to uproot and all these all these 13:38 things. But if you deal with the problem when it's a seed, when that little frustration, that little irritation, that little and and apply it wherever in your workplace, in your marriage, in your relationship with God, in your 13:52 relationship in this church, deal with it when it's that little problem, when it's a little seed, long before it becomes a root of bitterness that Hebrews 12 talks about. That and then after that it springs up and defiles many. 14:09 So before the defilement happens, before it even becomes a root, when it's still a seed, deal with it. Now, apply this in your marriage first of all. Let's say something with your wife bothers you. In a delicate way, in an honest way, 14:23 open up to your wife. Open up to your husband. Open up to your spouse and say, "I want to be real." And the more you do that, the deeper you will find your relationship strengthened. I think you guys are probably already 14:36 doing that in your marriages. I certainly hope so. But let's do that in the church. In the church it's a little bit a little bit more difficult, I think. And that's why I think the church is an even greater test of our willingness to fall into the 14:50 ground and die. Our willingness to be real. Because there is a sense in which you might be willing to be real with your spouse, but you're not going to do that with somebody else whom God has placed you in the local church with. 15:02 That's why we believe so much in this truth about the local expression of the body of Christ, loving my brother whom I see, who irritates me or bugs me or has quirks about him that I just couldn't get along with. Now, my wife, I'm stuck 15:16 with her. My husband, I'm stuck with him. But this brother, am I really stuck with him? Can I just say, you know what, I've had enough. I'm going to go leave and join some other church or start another church. Can I do that? 15:28 If I've really been integrated in love, I can't. Because I've fallen to the ground and died. I choose I refuse to allow these little irritations to become roots of bitterness that grow up and defile others. So, deal with it. Be authentic. Be real. 15:47 Um 1 John Well, you know these verses 1 John 3:18 Let do Let's not just love in word. You know, I I think we have been a church in which we've said for years, "We want to love. We love each other." And we do want to love each other. 16:02 But let it not just be in word. Let it be in deed. That's what 1 John 3:18 does says. Romans 12:9 says, "Let love be without hypocrisy." That's another level lower. Okay, maybe I'm not just saying I love you. I'm actually showing that love to 16:17 you, but there's a hypocrisy behind it. You see the three levels? Word love, superficial. Action love can still be superficial. That's what Romans 12 says. Verse 9, "Let love be without hypocrisy." That means when you do that good deed, let 16:35 not there be an ulterior motive. Let it be authentic love that comes from deep within. I'm doing this because I genuinely love you. And you know where you can test whether your love is without hypocrisy. It's in how you think about 16:53 that person. How you talk about that person behind their back. How you react, what your attitude towards that person is when they rub you the wrong way, or when you come in contact with their little quirks, or something doesn't sit right with you 17:09 in how they treat you or your relationship with them, then is the test of whether your love is without hypocrisy. I mean, you can say you love them all you want, do even acts of love towards them, but it's tested when in our attitude and our motive and 17:24 our thoughts about that person. In Ephesians chapter 5, will you turn with me to this, please? Ephesians chapter 5. How shall we love? How shall we grow in love? I'm talking about authentic love. 17:43 And testing, and the reason this is dear to me is because I think the Lord has tested us in this last year, in the last 6 months, in this area of love. In a sense, God was saying, "Okay, you you said you love, and you've kind of 17:57 shown acts of love, but let me peel back the covers and take a look inside in your attitudes and your motives towards each other, and how your how you treat the other person when you're not around them. I see how you treat others when you're 18:11 around them. I see how your Sunday mornings are, and you sit together and have lunch and all that. But when you're away from them, I see that it's a little bit different. So, let me deal with that hypocrisy that's there." 18:21 And how do we deal with that? It's by becoming like God. That's what we see here in Ephesians chapter 5, that unless my nature is conformed into the image of God, all my attempts to love will just be superficial, unauthentic. 18:38 The only way to be authentic in any area of life, the only way to be authentic in love, since we're talking about love, is to become like Christ. If And the only way to become like Christ is to fall into the ground and die, to take up my cross. 18:52 Let me put these two verses together. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ." So, it starts with me saying, "I'm going to die. I refuse my preferences, how you treat me, or my wants, my desire. I have been crucified. 19:07 It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Because Santosh died, he got out of the way. Santosh's preferences, Santosh's wants, desires, ambitions, goals got out of the way when he died. Now, Christ could live in this 19:20 body. And because Christ lives in me now, that nature of love exists within me. Now, I can actually love you as Christ would love you, as God loves you. So, that's why he says Ephesians 5:1, "Therefore, be imitators of God." 19:39 Now, this word imitator, I wish there was a better translation for it. Because it's not copying somebody. It's not saying, "Okay. Oh, everybody in this church does this, so I should do that, too." "Oh, I see that people invite each other 19:53 to each other's home, so I guess I should do that, too." "Oh, they stick around and have lunch afterwards, so I guess I should do that, too." That's imitating the outward. But when you become an imitator of God, there's no outward to imitate. It's his 20:05 nature. You have his nature within you. And out of that nature, you love, and you speak love, and you say I love you, and you do acts of love. And he goes on to say, "Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and 20:21 walk in love." This word walk came alive to me this week. When I say I walk in love, it means that it's a part of my nature. Now, if I paraded, you know, if you go to some dog shows, you can see dogs walking on two legs. 20:37 It's It's pretty fascinating to see. But you're not fooled by it, right? You don't look at that and think, "Huh, that must be a human being dressed up as a dog." You don't fall for it. You say, "Give it time." Give it about an hour. Eventually, that 20:51 dog's going to be like, "Can I Can I get back to my normal nature now? Because my normal nature is four legs." But But if it's a human being, you don't expect me to You're not watching me expecting me to all of a sudden go back 21:05 on four legs and crawl around like a dog, because you see that I'm a human nature. I have the human nature. And that's what he's saying, when you walk in love, it's just natural for you. As natural for you as it is for you to walk on two 21:20 legs. But if you don't have the nature of God within you, you're like a dog trying to walk on two legs. It looks funny. Now, you can train a dog to walk. You know, I saw a little video of a robot. Now, you talk about a robot. I saw this 21:35 a video of a robot and how they're they're talking about how these robots have been so well designed that the characteristics of human walking can be replicated. And there is this robot walking, you know, how in the old days you see in the 21:49 movies perhaps, the robots look kind of stiff and you're like you can tell it's a robot. But now they're making robots more and more realistic that when you walk, you're like it looks almost like a human being walking. And I think that the danger for us, 22:03 church family, is that we can start to become better and better robots in how we love. We think this is a church that is talking about love, talking about Christ-likeness, becoming like Christ. Let me see if I can work on my robot a 22:17 little bit. Because I refuse to die. And I have to resort to robot techniques if I haven't died. I haven't taken up my cross and died truly. And so, it's still me living in me like a dog dressed up as a human being now trying 22:36 to walk. And I tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, let's fall into the ground and die. And Christ becomes his life within us. Now, all of a sudden, I can love my spouse the way Jesus would. Such love that he will die on the cross 22:50 for that unlovable spouse of yours. And that's exactly what he says. If you become an imitator of God this way where the life of God is within you because you have died and gotten out of the way. You can walk in love just as Christ also 23:06 walked in love. See, for Christ it was natural to love. He didn't have to try hard to love me, you know that? I mean, I am the most unlovable person. When he saved the uh he saved the worst among you when he saved the rest like me. We sing about 23:21 that. And as unlovable and filthy and unloving as I was, it wasn't hard for Christ to love me. He didn't have to try hard. I'm Santoshi really gets on my nerves, man. I got to try to love him. Okay, Father, I guess I'll go down and die for him. It 23:38 wasn't like that with Jesus, right? You know that. It came out of his nature. This is the divine nature. It just loves. And if you find that there's a a wrestle and a struggle to love somebody. No, they haven't changed. They're Maybe 23:53 they're not becoming more Christ-like. But you are. Let us become more Christ-like this year. And the world can remain as unchanged as it has always been. That problem can stay the same as it was, but Christ is living in you now. 24:12 And you find that you can actually love that person. You can actually walk on two legs. You've become a human being. You've partaken of his divine nature. You can love. Love is as natural for God as walking is for us human beings. Now, maybe it takes 24:29 a little while to grow into it. My son Xander, he's kind of teetering and tottering on the brink of walking. And maybe you're teetering and tottering on the brink of love. But keep trying. And every time you fall down, get back up and say, "Father, it 24:43 is in my nature to love because you live in me. Now, fill up my nature with that in that area where I still don't know how to love. I want to be authentic. Such love can never be broken. Such love can never split apart. 25:00 Such love can never end in divorce. Um And this is that verse I have there. John 8:32, if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. What does it set you free from? Yes, from sin. Jesus said that. But do you know what is the ultimate test of sin? 25:19 The ultimate test of this freedom is the hypocrisy is gone. You know that you heard the truth when the truth is setting you free to be yourself. And yourself is love. Let me say that again. You know that the truth is setting you free when 25:35 increasingly you're free to be yourself. Now, a lot of people say, "Oh, yeah, I can be myself and I'm still the same uh coarse-mouthed uh self- self-centered jealous person." No, that's not the truth. The truth sets you free from sin inside 25:50 and then you can let everybody into your life and say, "Come and see. I don't have to pretend to be somebody around you. I have freedom now in Christ to be myself and that self is a more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind self. Not perfectly, but 26:07 getting there. And you if you're really being changed, my dear friend, my dear brother, dear sister, you will be willing to peel back the covers and you won't be afraid of the part that's unchanged because you know it is going to be changed. And if a 26:21 brother comes in and says, "Hey man, I still see some un-Christ-likeness in you." You're like, "Yep, I see it, too. But it's not going to be there." You know that in a year that's going to be gone. You can tell that brother. And 26:31 my hope in 2019, my brother, my sister, because I'm opening my heart to you, I'm making myself vulnerable to you, is that whatever you see now that's still un-Christ-likeness will be less by the end of this year. December 31st, 2019, my dear friends, my 26:47 dear brother and sister, you will see less un-Christ-likeness in my life. Then you're not afraid to be vulnerable, to peel back the covers, and say this is who I am. This is who I am now, but I'm not the same person I used to be. 27:02 And I'm not going to be the same person I am today. So, come and look. Because let's celebrate together when that is changed more into the image of Jesus. If you really lay a hold of this, you don't you can be yourself. Mess and 27:16 all. The last thing I want to say, be available. Remember you're accepted. Be authentic. Be available. Uh Jesus looked at Jerusalem and he wept over it because he was he saw not because they didn't have enough preaching or 27:35 didn't have enough miracles or anything like that. They had plenty of miracles in Jesus' time. Plenty of demons set free, people raised from the dead, water turned into wine, and sickness healed, and all these things. But that 27:48 Jesus still wept. Imagine if you had a church where there's all kinds of miracles going on, wonderful things happening, and uh there's great preaching going on, but Jesus says, "I weep over this church." Why? Because there's no shepherds. 28:02 There's no I don't find many who have that care for God's people. So, I say this, my dear, the shepherding is not just up to us elders. The shepherding heart is for all of us. Even the children. You have somebody that God is 28:19 given you giving you. That's what it means to be a member of this church. You want to know what it means to be a member of this church? It means that you have a heart of care towards others in this church. Not just you and yourself, your wife, 28:30 your husband, your children. No, others. And become a shepherd to become a shepherd for God means that you're one who carries his burden. Next week when you come back here and you meet in this place, I hope that the Lord will prepare in 28:46 your heart as he does in mine every week. I want to tell you honestly, a heart of care. And you come here saying, "Lord, you want me to be a shepherd towards somebody here." Don't come here with just a sheep mentality. Okay, somebody's going to 29:00 feed me something, and I'm going to walk around like a sheep. No, become a shepherd. Come here with a heart of care towards somebody. Say, "Lord, who is it that you want me to sit down next to at lunch and be a shepherd for them? Put my arms 29:12 around them. Maybe they're hurting. Maybe they're they're suffering in some way. I just want to carry them as you would here if you were here. This is when you've understood what it means to be a part of this church, the 29:23 body of Christ. Cuz what would Christ do if he came into this church? He would put you on his shoulders. He'd love you. He'd care for you. Spiritually, he'd allow you to lean on his shoulder and say, "Brother, I had a hard week. Can 29:36 you hear me out?" And you're not eager to tell them about the hard week you had. Because you know, us shepherds, all of us I'm just start talking about us elders, all of us have hard weeks. That's the reason we don't have anybody 29:47 in this church that that just is a paid pastor. Every one of us is in the workplace working for a living, experiencing the reality of life just like every one of us is. And we all have problems, but we come with a shepherding mentality. 30:03 And I come and sit with you, or you sit with me, and we stop get out of our own heads. And we stop thinking of ourselves and our own problems and say, "Lord, give me a heart for others." And I stop thinking about who's going to 30:16 sit with me. I think about who I'm going to sit with. Who can I invest in? You know that all grumbling and complaining disappears the moment you have the heart of a shepherd? Cuz a shepherd is thinking of the others. Sheep complain. Bah. 30:35 That's what it sounds like. Do you ever hear the shepherd going, "Bah"? You'd be like, "Ah, that's a sheep masquerading as a shepherd. He thinks he's a shepherd, but his heart is wrong. So, having the heart of a shepherd. 30:48 In 2 Timothy 4, I want to share this in closing. Paul had the heart of a shepherd, and towards the end of his life, he says, "I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure has come." I I this phrase, "being poured out as a 31:07 drink offering" has been been me going through my mind recently. What does it mean to be poured out like a drink offering? If you read in Numbers 28, you can go back and look at it sometime, the drink offering was poured 31:18 over the sacrifice, and it says that it was a soothing aroma to God. What you know, the sacrifice was pleasing to God, but then it started to smell good to God when the drink offering was poured out over the sacrifice. And I found that in my own life, I 31:37 believe the Lord's calling me and calling us as a church to become drink offerings. A few weeks ago, a few months ago actually, I was sitting up here getting ready to share with you. And as we were praying, the Lord gave me a clear 31:49 picture. There were fewer of much much fewer of us that Sunday than are here. And the Lord gave me a picture of of a a table full of cups. And once upon a time and cups being these these chairs in this building. And and how 32:06 uh at one time though the table was full of cups, and at some point God removed some of those cups. And I found in my heart a little bit of a a sad and sick uh just a saddening feeling over the fact that there were fewer cups. 32:22 And the Lord clearly, when I was up here, when I was praying to him in the in the in that secret thoughts of my heart, he said, "You're looking at the wrong thing." He said, "Look at your hand. I've given you a pitcher full of water. It's just 32:37 as full as it's always been. And I want you doesn't matter don't don't look at the cups. Don't look at the fact that maybe there were fewer cups on that particular Sunday than than that you was used to seeing you guys and God said don't look at the 32:49 cups. Look at your pitcher. Is there water in it? Pour it into every cup that will allow you to. I mean since the time we moved here Megan and I we we made it our ambition in life to to commit ourselves to serving the saints to pouring ourselves 33:08 out and we'll continue to do that. And not just us but you all as well. You're doing that. Let's continue to do that. Let's make ourselves available. Don't look at the cups. Don't look at who's willing to allow you to pour into their 33:20 lives. Look at your pitcher. And if your pitcher is empty then go to God and he'll fill it up. He'll fill it up according to the need according to the the ask. And if your pitcher is full it does not matter. And then here we are 33:36 so many more cups. God has already and back then right then the Lord said listen the cups that are that are not on this table anymore I'm going to replace them. I'm going to put into this place more cups and fill this place up again. 33:49 I believe that. God's going to do that. But in the meantime what shall we do while we're waiting for the harvest? Keep our pitchers full. Look for every opportunity you can to bless somebody. Whether if if you can bless one person 34:04 you'll be able to bless a hundred. If you can bless ten people you'll be able to bless a thousand. But if you sit here waiting for the thousand to come and you miss out on the needs of the ten around you then God says I see that you're not 34:17 faithful in little. The one who is faithful in little will be faithful in much. The time is coming my dear brothers dear sisters when God is he's already doing it but he's going to do even greater things through this church. I believe it with all my heart. 34:30 Not trying to sell you anything. But I'll tell you this, the ones who will be used of God in that time are the ones who have learned to bless when it was a few. Learn to be to be available and to serve into whomever God places in their life. 34:46 Now, if your circle is small, start with your home. Start with your husband. Start with your wife and your children. Pour into their lives. Be an encourager to your wife, husbands. Be an encourager to your children. Know 34:59 God's word so that you can more than just say, you know, be a shoulder for them to cry on, that you have a word of comfort, a word of encouragement, a prophetic word to speak into their heart. And if you're doing that every day with 35:12 your family, your your wife and your husband and and your children at home, when you come here, that word will be burning. You'll be an expert. If you do something every day for 6 days, guess what you'll do on the 7th day? That. 35:24 And if you struggle with knowing how to bless this church with a prophetic word, practice it at home for 6 days. Which means what? Go to God and say, "Lord, I want a word of prophecy with which I can encourage my wife, with which I can 35:37 encourage my husband. It's my responsibility." And God gives you that word. Maybe it's one sentence. Maybe it's just, you know, you don't know where else to look, so you go on Bible Gateway and do the verse for the day. 35:50 And God speaks to you from that, and then you share it with your wife, and share it with your husband, and that gift of prophecy is being built up in you. And you do that the next day, and the next day, and the next day. 36:02 What are you going to do when you come here on Sunday? You're going to have a word burning on your heart saying, "Lord, it was such a blessing to my wife. I got to share it with somebody else." This is how the church is built. 36:13 So, don't look at the number of cups, but look at how much water is left in your pitcher, and let it be filled to the overflowing. And you might feel like all you have is water, but you pour that in, God will do the miracle and turn 36:24 that water into wine in those cups. Don't look at the number of cups. I've said this before. I don't want to die old. I want to die empty. And if I die tomorrow, I have one more day to empty this pitcher. That's how I look at it. 36:42 See, I don't know if I'm going to live till I'm 90. I hope so, or 100. A few days ago we were we were talking to my dad and and I uh we were we were saying how he's 6 79. I said I said, "Dad, I hope you'll you live till you're 99." He says, "Why 36:56 99? I'm going for 120 or something like that." he said. So, I'm like that, too. I'm like, "Lord, give me a full life, but that's not my destination." Because I don't know if I will live to even 50. I might only die I might die tomorrow. 37:12 God's not going to ask you how old when you were when you died. He's going to ask you how much was left in your pitcher. Was the last drop poured out? "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of the master." 37:25 Let's live this way 2019. I will See, this God's giving you a Look at 2019 as a pitcher full of love. Hip unhypocritical love in the heart. And let him pour it out day by day. Oh, what a year you'll have. What a year 37:44 we'll have as a church. Amen.
