Carried to Christ - Mark 2:1-5 - Mercy Hill

All right, hey guys, can we just praise God for what he's doing, not just here, but all over the place.

And guys, it's just such a good reminder. Mercy Hill Church is a tiny drop in the bucket of what God is doing through his kingdom advance throughout our community and globally. And so man, we are just praising God that we get to have a small hand in other churches growing and what they're doing.

So I know you guys are excited about that. If you have a copy of scripture, you can take it out and turn with me to Mark chapter two. Now listen, we've got one week before probably the greatest opportunity we have this year to invite others in to what God is doing in our church and in our lives.

If we want to see God do something awesome in their life, this is one of the greatest opportunities that we have, whether you're in college, whether you're in high school, middle school, your coworkers in your neighborhood, family, friends, this is it, y'all, all right? In a lot of ways, people talk about Easter in churches like ours, like it's the Super Bowl. You know why they talk about it like that?

Because here's the deal. What happens on Super Bowl weekend? There are millions of people that don't watch a football game all year until that one day, right? And that's the same thing that happens on Easter weekend in our culture. It may not be like this forever, but as it is like this now, it's incumbent upon us to seize that opportunity. Man, the culture is thinking about these things right now.

And so let us get out there, get highways and byways, sort of beat the streets. This message is all about us remembering our purpose to go out, give God glory by seeing people come in and hear his message of the gospel and redemption. Listen, I will tell you, I know this happens in my life, so I guarantee it happens in your life. Somewhere sometime between soccer and baseball and there's relational strife at a school, or maybe you're thinking about a financial thing, or maybe somebody's coming to you with a promotion, or maybe there's something bad, a death in the family, or maybe there's something really good.

There's a new birth in the family. All right, there could be a lot of things that are going on. My point is, I know in my life sometimes I can take my eye off the ball of what the mission is. And I'm the one who works here.

You know what I'm saying? Like I have a vocation that ties me back to what we're all trying to do every single day. Now, if I can get my mind off the mission at times, then I'm sure that some of you guys have struggled with that at different times in your life. And it's not volitional.

It's just, man, life is happening and all of a sudden you're thinking about other things. Okay? Let me read a passage to you guys. 2 Peter 3.1, that's not what we're going to be. We're going to be in Mark chapter 2.

All right? But 2 Peter 3.1 says this, I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder. I love that verse.

Because many times maturity is not learning something new, it's remembering something that's very old. It's remembering something way back here that you pull to the front. So that's what I want to do this weekend. I want to stir up by way of remembrance. I want to try to get us to see something that we already know, and that is that our lives are to count for His mission and we have a great opportunity right in front of us.

Here's the big idea this weekend. Our faith compels us to bring others to Christ. Our faith compels that, but at times it's easy to forget it if we're not feeding that fire of desire in our life for the lost, for our friends, for people that we love, for people whose lives need to get changed. Guys, I want to be honest with you all. If you all have seen a pep in my step over the last couple of months, okay, if you have found a joy in my voice, it is because I'm finally rid of the crushing shame of being a man who lives with a fake fire in my house, okay? I know, I know. So some of you guys, you know what I'm talking about. You turn on the gas logs, it's a fake fire.

If you turn it on, it's fake, okay? And I lived with that for a long time, all right? And I still have that, and I see it on your faces, okay?

I know some of you guys, I see the shame. I've been there. I mean, every time you turn it on, a little piece of your soul dies, okay? I get that.

But now, this is me no longer. I want to introduce you to my little miniature fireplace. Check this out on our back porch, okay?

Rainy day, cold day, awesome time. Check this out. Miniature fireplace, okay? It's awesome. Is that not awesome? Is that not like the coolest thing you've ever seen? You know, I've got to cut wood up into little blocks about that big. But it heats our whole back porch, and it's been really fun.

We've loved it. Here's the thing that I want to say, all right? And listen, I understand that a gas fireplace can run out because the gas can run out. I get that. But just go with the analogy. The difference in a fake fire and a real fire is that if you don't feed the real fire and stir it up, what happens? Right? It just dies out.

It just completely dies out. And for many of us, it's not a volitional thing. We're not thinking about the loss. We're not thinking about our neighbors.

We're not thinking about our co-workers. Maybe we're not thinking about our kids' friends, which is an incredible mission field for many of us in that life stage, right? It's just that we got so many other things that are going on. Today is the day for us to stir up a sincere understanding by way of reminder, all right? So let's remember together what God has called us to, and let's dive in. Why do we do the stuff that we do? We plant churches, do mission trips, foster kids, move eggstravaganza around the weather.

I mean, whatever we got to do, what is it all about? Bringing God glory by seeing sinners repent and turn to Him. Man, God has done something marvelous in our life, in my life, that I didn't deserve. And I want to bring that to others, right?

And I hope that you feel the same way. Let's talk about a story that many of us might know if you've been around church. And if not, you're going to love this story because, man, it just shows so much about the heart of God. Here's what it says in Mark 2, and when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, and this is why this story gets on the felt boards and every kid's heard it in Sunday school, right?

Here's why. They removed the roof above him. These friends were roof removers. The king is in the house, tear off the roof. Because the king is in the house and there is healing in his hands. And when they made an opening, they let down on the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now, there's a few things that I want us to see here, but really, y'all, it's all about this kind of idea of carrying those who can't walk themselves, carrying them to Christ, bringing them to Christ, right?

So what's going on in this passage? People are crowding around Jesus because he is preaching. And as he is preaching, people want to hear and they're coming in and they're hanging out the windows and they're standing on top of each other and they're all packed in.

There is a crowd. This happens many times in Jesus' ministry where he is going and he's preaching and next thing you know, there is a crowd of people. Guys, one of the things I want you to know about this Breaking Barriers ministry that has come out of, it's one of those, like Pastor Bobby said, who looked like an incredible DJ, by the way, on that video. But as Pastor Bobby said, right, it's this concept of helping other churches that's come out of that third bucket of the deeper initiative. New ministry is, it's incredible to see the reach of what God is doing here going out. But here's the thing. One of the things that we talk about a lot with other churches in Breaking Barriers ministry is it's okay to say out loud, y'all in the New Testament, 99% of the people that got saved did so when there was an anointed preacher and a crowd.

That's okay. Some kind of way in our society, we've kind of elevated the one-on-one evangelistic encounter, which is awesome, okay? It's just not any more awesome than somebody who gets saved in a gathering, right?

I love the one-on-one thing. We see it in the New Testament, the Philippian jailer, the woman at the well. We see some of those things, right? But at the end of the day, what we see is most of the people that came to Christ, there are these moments where crowds of thousands of people came in.

Now, here's what I want to say. If that's what we see in the New Testament, why would we expect anything different now? Why is an invitation to have someone come to a church service where the gospel is going to be proclaimed so powerful because it steps right in line with one of the predominant ways, not the only way, but certainly the majority of the time way that people end up having their life changed by Christ where you have an anointed man stand and proclaim and call and challenge and God does something in the room and he moves and his spirit goes out and we see this happen time and time again. It's happened for many of you in here today.

We're praying it's going to happen on Easter. I think a lot of times in the Bible, and this does happen in the Bible, that the crowd is somewhat demonized, okay, because of their unbelief and I understand that. But there's another sense in which, you know, many people are going to be part of the crowd before they're ever part of the family. Now, we never want somebody to stay in the crowd, right?

Like what do we say about the weekender, our weekender process, okay? Everything from connected to the crowd to committed to the family. We don't want people to stay in the crowd, but there's a lot of people that aren't even in the crowd and maybe they need to come into the crowd before they come into the family. It's just the strategy that we see many times in the book of Acts. People didn't know there's a crowd, there's a preacher and boom, God does something in their life. You know, a lot of people go to a concert before they join a band, you know?

A lot of people go to a football game at North Carolina A&T before they decide to attend there, right? And my point is, like, you kind of want to go and maybe kind of, there's a lot of people that might want to come in and see what this whole thing is all about and that's a good thing. Let's invite them in to have that opportunity. So, the crowd is not a bad thing.

Man, the crowd is an opportunity for us to bring people in so that they can hear, but there's a special group that is in this crowd. They've got to get their friend to Jesus. They're the roof removers. They're willing to tear it down. They're going to get creative. They're going to get courageous. They're going to take a chance. They're going to ask for forgiveness, not permission.

They're not going to kind of tiptoe around. The king is in the house, there's healing in his hands and we've got to get our friend to him and that's what happens. Look what it says in verse 3, and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. When they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. Four friends carry their paralyzed friend to Christ. Why? Because he couldn't get there on his own.

That's why. Bring people to Jesus who can't get there on their own. Now, theologically, nobody can get there on their own. I understand that, but go with me here.

You understand what I'm getting at? They're willing to do what is necessary to bring people into the proximity of Christ. Now, this man is paralyzed.

He literally can't walk. But can't you go with me here for a minute and understand that sometimes there could be physical problems, but many times there are spiritual problems and spiritual darkness that wrap people up and keep them away from Christ and the church and understanding God's love and His forgiveness for them. I grew up around, one of my family members was paralyzed in a tragic accident, one of my extended family members that we were close to.

I got to see firsthand what it was like to overcome a lot of things and to fight through that and all that. In his case, I also got to see the fact that there is a lot of things that come with physical paralysis that are not physical. There are spiritual issues. There are mental and emotional issues if you have friends or family members that have ever dealt with something like this. And I want you to get that in your mind, and here's why.

Because many of our friends, our co-workers, our classmates, the people on our school ball teams or whatever, the people that we need to invite, it may not be a physical problem. It may be a spiritual problem. It might be that somebody has put words into their life when they were young that have just wrapped them all the way up. It might be that their mind is fixed on the idolatry of the world, which Augustine said pretty much is summed up by money, sex, power. They're following that stuff, and there's something there they're trying to get. Maybe they feel trapped in a situation financially or physically or in an abusive relationship, and they don't see any way out, and maybe they're starting to think about a terrible way to step out, at least in their mind. I think about broken families.

Maybe they're in a broken family situation or divorce is happening, or maybe they're so prideful they can't see their need for a Savior. I don't know what it is. I don't know who's coming to your mind. I would bet you that, and we're going to talk about this later, I bet the Spirit will put His finger on somebody in your heart and soul and mind as I'm talking about these things. That might be a good prompt of who you need to be thinking about getting courageous and creative when it comes to inviting this very week.

My point is this. They may not all have broken legs, but they cannot walk or paralyzed legs, but they cannot walk to Christ. They need a friend to carry them. They need a friend to say, I'll get courageous. I'll get creative. I'll stop at nothing. I'll tear the roof off if I have to, to bring you to Christ.

This is pretty courageous for these guys. One of the things that's funny about this passage is like people say, well, you know, the Bible said, you heard me read it, that Jesus was at home, but a lot of people read that to mean hits his hometown or it's his home base or something like that. A lot of people say, well, it's not Jesus' home. It was Simon Peter's home or it was Andrew's home, but there are people who think this literally was Jesus Christ's house. Some people are like, well, he didn't have a house. He said, so the man has nowhere to lay his head. Well, they did tear his roof off.

So maybe he didn't have a place to lay his head. But I'm just saying, if this was Jesus Christ's house and they have torn the roof off, here's my point. Look at the links they're willing to go to bring their friend a physical healing. What links are we willing to go to bring someone a spiritual resurrection to see God do something in their life in that way?

And look what it says. And then here's the thing, they were willing to tear the roof off for so much less than what Jesus was actually going to do for their friend. Because look what it says, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to them, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven.

Now, people have debated this, okay? Whose faith is he talking about? Well, the guy got his sin forgiven. So I think he probably was exhibiting some faith. But certainly the first act of faith in the book of Mark is exactly that. It's an act of faith.

It's their belief in Jesus, but it's walking around in the world looking like we're tearing the roof off and getting our friend to you. It's an act of faith. He's looking at their friend's faith. He's looking at this guy's faith.

And what does he say? Son, your sins are forgiven. As is often the case so many times, this might be the case with somebody here, physical brokenness might be the means by which God brings spiritual healing. There might be physical brokenness in your life. And I just want to step aside and ask you, you might be here today and you're like, man, I'm not into this, inviting somebody else.

I'm not even sure what I think about it. I understand that, but you know what? God might be doing something just like this in your life today. Is the physical pain that comes with losing a bunch of money, is it actually waking you up to spiritual poverty? Maybe something like that's happened in your life. Maybe somebody wronged you, cheated you. Maybe you lost out. Maybe you bent wrong on some kind of stock deal.

I don't know. That actually is God doing something in that and he's awakening you. It's your physical brokenness, but it's a spiritual reality that he's waking you up to. Maybe you're breaking up in a relationship, but that's because God is showing you that you need a relationship with Christ first and foremost.

Maybe an injury is showing you there's a deeper problem in your heart. You could fix that leg or you could fix that physical problem, but is it going to heal what God is wanting to do in here? See, they came for physical healing, but Jesus had something bigger in mind. He wanted to forgive this guy. Forgive him of his sin. Now, Jesus is the only one that can do that.

Why? Well, actually it's because of what he was going to do after this story. We look back on. But you know what I want to tell you today? Forgiveness is God's greatest gift because it meets our greatest need. The greatest problem in the world is not poverty.

It is not a lack of education. The biggest problem in the world is lostness. That people do not know and have not connected with their creator and therefore cannot find the very purpose for which they were created. And without that purpose, you can never find joy. Not your joy.

This is the greatest problem. That we are alienated from our God because of the sin in our life. And Jesus Christ can forgive this sin because of what he would do on the cross.

Jesus Christ, and we're going to celebrate this over Easter, right? He would go to the cross and he would die a death that we deserve. The Bible tells us our sin deserves death. That's why Jesus died. He never sinned.

He didn't deserve to die. He went to the cross for you. He went to the cross for me. And three days later, praise God, he walked out of that grave. And that's what we're going to celebrate. And that's why we're going to put our hands in the air and sing that Jesus died for us.

Think about this story. Y'all, Jesus wasn't carried to a healer because he was paralyzed. He was carried to a tomb because he was dead. And he did that for you. And for me, he took the death that we deserve in our place, a substitute, so that in his resurrection, we might have the newness of life. Now, if you're a Christian and you know this story, you're thinking to yourself, these men tore the roof off to get the friend of physical healing.

My question for you is, wait, Jesus had something bigger in mind. If they're willing to do that, what are we willing to do for our friends, our coworkers, our neighbors, our kids' friends? Man, are we willing to risk a little bit of embarrassment by inviting? Are we willing to be the family that puts all the goody bags together again for all the kids in the class? Are we really going to take a chance and put it on that team snap out with the kids' baseball team or whatever?

Are we going to be the one that has no fear in asking someone that we play basketball with? Or even if we have fear, we're going to push through that and step through that? They tore the roof off out of love for their friend and respect for what Jesus Christ could do. So I've got to ask the question, man, what will we do, especially in light of what He has done for us? If we think in our mind, Jesus wasn't carried to a healer because of paralysis, but He was carried to a tomb because He was dead, and He died for me. And I've been brought back into the family. How could I but speak about the things that He has done in my life?

Man, what has He done in your life? In the gospel, He has restored you. He has given you a future. He has given you a purpose.

Do you know there's not one day in your life or nothing you face in this life where you are alone? You are led by the Spirit of God if you are a Christian. He is closer than a brother.

He is closer than a friend. And He has done this because of the work of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. We have been given so much. How could we hoard it like a pond when He has called us to share it more like a river, right? The gospel came to us on its way to somebody else.

So here's what I want to call you to do today. Bring people to Christ this Easter. Bring them to hear of His message. These four friends could not control what happened between Jesus and their friend, and neither can you.

You can't control that. Jesus was going to do what He was going to do, and they couldn't control it. But you know what?

They prepared the jars, didn't they? Man, I'm going to get ready for what God could do. And so I'm going to do what I can do, and I'm going to invite and I'm going to bring. Here's what I want to ask you today. Just get in your mind and think about this. Man, who brought you to Christ? Who picked you up when you couldn't walk? Who carried you to the Savior?

Who was the person that tore the roof off because there was a king inside with healing in his hands? Has your life ever been the same? What is your life about? What are the things that you're chasing?

How are you raising your kids? How do you think about purpose and destiny? How are you no longer totally ruled by your passions and desires that want to destroy you? You didn't go from paralyzed to walking. You went from death to life. That's what Jesus Christ has done for you.

Someone brought you to Him. Don't you see the point today? Listen, the point today is not a guilt trip to have us go out and invite a bunch of people to come. It's not a guilt trip. It's a gratitude trip.

It's like, man, I'm so grateful. We think about ourselves first and foremost as like, well, we're the people that are carrying the others to Christ. We were the paralyzed person first. We were the one that spiritually was worse off than that. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. Someone opened our eyes. Someone brought us to Christ so that we would hear the message of the gospel. Now, let me talk to a couple of groups of people here, all right?

Then we're going to be done. Here's the deal. I want to talk to that group of people at our campuses today and right here at Regional that are like, well, you know, I'm not really inviting anybody, but I was invited and I'm here hearing a sermon about inviting other people.

Okay, let me talk to you for just a moment, all right? Because I know that's not a little bit weird. It's not weird. You know why? Because you may not believe a lick of this and you're coming because a friend of yours invited you, but here's the deal. They must really love you to take a chance like that, right?

I think you would know that because maybe you never believe. Maybe you never come to the knowledge of Christ in the way that they want you to, but man, they've invited you to come because God has done something. They believe in their life that they want to share with you. They want it for you. They don't want it for them. They want it for you because God has moved in their life, right?

They can't but speak of what they have seen and heard. Me and my kids are on the eighth season of Duck Dynasty, okay? It's on one of the streaming things or whatever. There's actually a movie out now called The Blind. I don't know if you guys have seen that.

It's like a PG movie, but it's very intense because it kind of goes into the patriarch of the family in Duck Dynasty, the guy Phil with the long beard and long hair. That's really narrowing it down, right? They all have that. But the older guy, right? It goes into his background where he was a pretty rough dude all the way to the point of drunkenness and domestic violence and cheating on his wife. Now, if you watch the show, you almost would never know that because of how they seem like just trying to lead their family in godliness and all that. We had a big change in his life.

He got saved, right? Well, here's the thing about the show. This is funny and this is what I mean. Some people, they just can't help but speak about what God has done in their life.

That might be your friend that invited you here today. It's funny on that show because they make fun of Phil, the dad, because they're like every time something comes up, he immediately goes into a testimony. They think it's like a funny... For example, the little granddaughter that's like eight years old is walking with him through the woods and she's like, you know, granddaddy Phil or whatever, are we lost? He's like, oh, I was lost.

I was lost in debauchery and drunkenness and consorting with prostitutes. That's what he says to the little eight year old, you know? It's like, whoa, you know, the boys are like, dad, you know, they got a little smoker outside and they're smoking and they're like, man, this thing's really smoking. He's like, oh, I've smoked. I've smoked everything you can smoke. I've been high as a kite until Jesus, you know?

It's a really funny part of the show sometimes to see kind of... My point is this. Man, some of us, those who have been saved from much love much. And the reality is you may be here today with somebody who has invited you.

You may be at one of our campuses. Man, I don't feel weird. You may never want to do this again. You've honored them by honoring their invitation. They love you. You may not believe what they believe. They love you and they want something for you, all right? And I want something for you.

Maybe today you've heard something that does intrigue you. We pray that you come back. But more than that, we pray you give your life to Christ. You know, He died for you. He loves you.

And He wants a relationship with you. But let me do this now. Let me turn to the believer, all right? Those of us that call Mercy Hill home, we have a huge weekend coming up next weekend. Man, the 750 people serving, that needs to happen.

You can sign up online on our Easter page, All Things Easter, and we need you to jump into that. But here's what I want to call you to two specific action things. A lot of sermons are belief oriented.

Some are very action oriented. This is a very action oriented sermon, all right? Let's ground ourselves in, I was carried to Christ, overwhelmed by gratitude. Now, what am I going to do as a response to what Jesus has done for me? The first thing that I want to call you to do is fast this week for those you want to bring. Say, man, that's a big step.

It is a big step. Man, the Bible calls us to fast and pray. You know, in Mark chapter two, Jesus Christ tells us, hey, they asked him, why don't your disciples fast?

And he's like, because I'm with them. But one day I won't be here and they'll long for me and my kingdom so bad that they won't eat. Instead, they'll pray. They won't just forgo meals. They'll feast in prayer. They'll feast in the word. They'll feast on God. That's what I want to call you to do. I want you to think about fasting today.

You know, what am I talking about? I'm literally talking about forgoing an earthly meal so that you can feast upon prayer, the word, God, what he wants to do in our church. Are there people in your life that you love enough to skip a meal for and beg God to move in their life? Now, I don't know, listen, I can't be a doctor.

I don't know your medical, all that kind of, just generally speaking, okay? You know, for a healthy person, man, thinking about jumping into a fast with the church, man, you're going to stay hydrated, but you're not going to eat. But it doesn't mean you're going to do nothing in those times that you're not going to eat, whether it be a full meal, whether it be a full day, whether it be multiple days. When it comes mealtime, you're going to lock yourself away somewhere so that you can pray, you can read the word, you can ask God to do things and move in our church. We don't have a lot of traditions at Mercy Hill, okay? There's really only a handful, but when we have one, I always try to speak about it.

This is one, really. A lot of people for years have been doing this around Easter time, right at Easter, okay? And I'm going to call you to do it now. You know, I used to always fast during the sermons of Easter. I wanted God to move. Well, that was easy when it was one day, right? And then it turned into Saturday and Sunday, no problem. Then it turned into Thursday through Sunday, okay?

So now I'm like, okay, I'm going to fast between my first sermon and my last sermon. Well, then the college team comes along and a couple years ago, they start their services on Wednesday now. So Easter services start on Wednesday. Now they're starting on Tuesday, okay?

So now we've got Tuesday through Sunday. I don't know if you want to do all of that, some of that, but if you call Mercy Hill home, I would really invite you to just think about that and engage with us on how you can jump into prayer for that. We're going to post on our blog next week. We'll probably do it on Monday so that we get a little bit of time. If you're interested in that, just a quick how-to, here's what we're praying for, that kind of stuff, and I hope that you will jump into that, all right? So jump in with us this week. Man, fast. You know, one guy said it like this a long time ago, when the church doesn't fast, it's not because they're hungry, it's because they're not hungry enough. And I just want to call us, man, let us manifest our hunger for God to move through fasting next week. The second thing is, of course, okay, invite as many people as you can. Guys, the paralytic, you know, I want to tell you this as best I can, okay?

The paralytic was a first-time guest. And we're going to have hundreds of them if we will get out and beat their streets and highways and byways, and they're not numbers. Every number is a person, a story, they matter to the Lord. The college student that keeps floating from philosophy to philosophy and needs to find Jesus. That one more single mom that doesn't feel like she can make it alone. That young family that is realizing their kids are really getting wrapped up with the materialism of their new lifestyle because they didn't grow up the way their kids are growing up. The one more dude that's realizing that he's not leaving his family.

These are the people that we're inviting in to hear the gospel. And my question for you is, okay, what can we do in the next week that shows our courage and our creativity? And I already mentioned, man, what are we doing on Team Snap? What are we doing on, you know, if you're a parent of T-ball age type kids, you probably know what that is, right?

But it's the little app for all their games and all that stuff. What are we doing with our kids' friends at school? What are we thinking about for coworkers? How are we going to involve and engage our neighbors? There's a million different things that we can do. And I pray that we'll get after it and jump in, all right? You know, I think some of us sometimes, y'all, this can even happen with pastors. Sometimes we can sit back and let the momentum of what God is doing corporately in the church kind of substitute for what he's calling us to do individually. Well, yeah, we're doing this, we're doing that. What are you doing?

Right? What are you doing as a response to what God has done? Man, God is in every break of the game. There is a purpose for why you're even here today. It's because we have an opportunity the next week to bring our friends to the king who is in the house. Y'all, I want to read this little song to you and I'll be done. Maybe we'll go into a prayer time here for just a minute. But this little song that came out a few years ago, it says this, the king is in the house, tear off the roof.

Here's what it says. There is a power, a life-changing, grave-shaking, dead-raising power in the room. Heart healing, hell stealing, no ceiling power, so tear off the roof, tear off the roof.

Man, who are we willing to tear the roof off for? We can't control what happens between them and Christ, but can we bring them in next week? Here's what I call you to do.

Would you just bow your head and close your eyes for just a minute? Man, let's just give the spirit a couple of minutes here to move and convict of righteousness and sin and just bring some things up in our heart today. Hey, who is God putting on your heart that we need to think about getting here so they can hear the gospel? Man, can we give God the fears that are coming up about inviting them?

What are some air war ways that we can get creative if he would just take the time to do it? Man, with our kids' school, with their teams, what can we do at work? Man, can we do some stuff in the neighborhood this week that we weren't planning on? Who is God bringing up in your mind?

How can you be involved? It's not a guilt trip. It's a gratitude trip. Man, let's be motivated by what Christ has done. Father, we come before you and we pray that you will just move and shake the very foundations of our church all throughout the week coming up. And Lord, I ask that we, every single one of us, under the sound of my voice here at Regional, at all of our campuses today, God, I pray that we would take the responsibility for engaging in the mission. God, we know that evangelism is more than inviting somebody to church, but it's never less. And Father, I pray that you would move through our invitations. God, I pray we would give out tens of thousands of cards or shares online or people that we've talked to or text messages that we send out. God, let that web go all the way out throughout our city in the triad. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.