Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Robert: Praise the Lord. I was like, “Uh-oh, Pastor Brian is about to start preaching my message again.” When things like that happen, I can hear Pastor AJ's voice. He always says, "Well, there is only one Holy Spirit." It's many of us, but one spirit. Amen. And we better be in tune to that one spirit. Amen. Good morning. It's a blessing to be here again. The world says partner in crime, but I don't have a partner in crime. I have a partner in the Lord. It's good to be with my beautiful wife again, doing the work of the Lord. We've had a tremendous time leading up to this message. I have plenty of opportunity to practice what I preach.
I don't know if I asked for that, but my wife says something interesting today. She said, "You must have had this message in your heart for a long time." Usually, I believe as the Lord speaks to me, there are things that churn in my spirit for a while. And then it seems like the confirmation of things seem to transpire and unfold before me. And then I say, "Oh, okay, I get it." I believe myself to be a man that's sensitive in the spirit, but sensitive to things that's going on and sensitive to the heartbeat of God and what he has for the church. So that's where the inspiration of our messages come from. As we, me and my wife communicate with each other, we love to have conversation about the things of the Lord and the scriptures. She challenges me because she's the one that asks thousands of thousands of questions. I can't get away with just the shallow answer. They say deep calls unto deep, so she causes me to go deep. God bless her for that.
Truth, integrity, honesty, transparency, respect, responsibility, being kind to others, all of these things are not foreign to those of us who follow Christ, but these are the very things in which this world culture is tremendously lacking. But these are the very things that should be the trademark of the followers of Christ. I don't expect the world, or I don't expect those who are not born again to have these traits. I don't expect unsaved people, unregenerated people to act kind or responsible or respectful. So this is a message this morning to the church, to those that follow Christ. I would describe this message as a reminder, but also, I have a strong sense of warning to the church. Hopefully, in this message today, you'll see, you'll be reminded of who we are and whose we are, But also, you'll be strongly warned in this message.
All the things we mentioned before just now are traits. They are the fruits of character that have been developed over time. We don't give ourselves to the Lord and then automatically things start happening. We are discipled and discipled in Christ, and these are the fruits that should be evident as we are discipled in Christ. I was with a group last week and we were talking about the subject of salvation, and that the salvation process or message is not complete without discipleship. We can't just have groups and gatherings of meetings and preach a message and lead people into a prayer of salvation and then just drop it there. There has to be a lifelong commitment to follow Christ. But for so many reasons, we've got caught up in the numbers game and it seems to all be about bragging rights that we can say that we've had all these people come to the Lord, but there is no discipleship. How do we measure if they are truly following the Lord?
Unfortunately, some in the church have gotten away from discipleship, and on the other hand, the process has been perverted as well. And so we've gotten a bad taste when the name discipleship comes up because we haven't seen it modeled correctly. It's quite simple. We have the example of the model. His name is Jesus. If we would just stick to Jesus with everything that we do, we will be better off. And because of this lack of discipleship or perversion of discipleship, people have stopped growing in Christ. I'm just setting things up. I'll get to the message eventually, but I'm setting the table.
Because of the lack of discipleship in Christ, the masses of people have been left to be influenced by the charismatic person or personality. Somehow, because of that, our discernment has flown out the window. We can talk about discerning of spirits and that's part of it, but I'm just talking about good old plain natural sense, natural discernment. Come on, spiritual people that we are natural beings too, and there are natural discernments that we have that don't necessarily have anything to do with the spirit, but naturally discerning things to__ just because we have the spirit doesn't mean that we have to throw away common sense. I believe that as spiritual folks, we still can use our brain. One plus one still equals two.
TaQuaris: You can't be so heavenly minded where you are no earthly good.
Robert: Yeah, you used to hear that all the time. And it's like, sometimes I want to shake us up. It's like, hello! Where's our discernment? But I've seen the masses so influenced by the charismatic leader and people no longer search or even seek out integrity as long as they receive their emotional and entertainment fix. There was a meme on social media that I came across this past week. I asked them to put it on the screen, on the overhead. I thought it was very appropriate for what we are talking about today. We see this big line. We have all these workshops and seminars on the gifts of the spirit training, and we can barely have enough seats in the, in the auditorium. But oh, look down there, character development seems to have gone to the wayside, that we've traded character integrity for so-called giftings.
If we look at the world for a second, the charismatic leader is seen as having a, a flamboyant personality. They may be loud and very vocally articulate and they sound well and they well, and people are attracted to that. I want to take it a little further because remember I said I'm speaking to the church today. I'm not speaking to the world. The world, we'll have to deal with later. Even though we've seen some very destructive things with charismatic worldly leaders throughout history, but when we look at the church, you may have someone with those same characteristics of worldly leaders, but remember it is the church. So there needs to be a spiritual component. I don't think people are so blinded that they are not going to have something spiritual attached. In the church, what it looks like is these people are attracted to those who are highly expressive in the so-called spiritual gifts.
I went through a period what I'd call in a church. We had all these, what I call word chasers. You know what that is? Everybody has to chase the latest prophet who has the word for you or for the church. I looked at from the, the plight of pastors. Pastors can barely fill up the chairs and the pews on Sunday morning, but you have the latest prophet coming to town and you don't have enough seats. Now you see, I use the term charisma very specifically because in the Greek word charisma is derived from charis, c h a r i s, which means grace. It is a term that is translated as gift and in its plural form charismata, which means spiritual gifts. And this is as it's used and translated in a couple of passages in Romans. The first one is in Romans 1:11.
TaQuaris: For I long to visit you, so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.
Robert: And the other one comes from Romans 12 versus 6 through 8.
TaQuaris: In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
Robert: We've read the scriptures, so please hear where I'm trying to go. I'm, I'm not against spiritual gifts. I think God for Hope Community Church, his leadership and his pastors that I've been able to operate and freely express in the gifts that God has bestowed upon me in this atmosphere. It has been very good for us as the church, and it's been good for me personally in my spiritual growth. So I'm not against spiritual giftings. I'm not against charisma as it is termed in the scriptures, possessing the gifts that God has bestowed upon us in the way that he has desired to. The Bible is very clear on the validity of spiritual gifts, so we are not debating that at all. We are not debating the purpose of the gifts in the church. But let's make something very clear here. If you are living in the Spirit and by the Spirit and operating in the Spirit, then your life shall bear the fruit of the spirit. Amen. They go hand in hand. Galatians 5:22 speaks to this.
TaQuaris: But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: Joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness.
Robert: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness: the fruit of the spirit. So if we are operating in the gifts of the spirit, those who are in Christ and led by the spirit will be used to edify the church. Gifts are spiritual endowments. They are given by God. And I'm sorry saints, I know we've been taught certain things, but these gifts cannot be copied; they cannot be learnt and they are not inherited from anyone. They are given by God for a specific purpose, his purpose, and that's to edify the church. I've seen too much error, too much abuse and too much deception concerning spiritual gifts. It has harmed the church and individual people have been deeply scarred and wounded by so-called charismatic people who so-called operate in the Spirit.
That's what dropped in my spirit one day when I was driving and that little teaser Pastor Brian said, "Charisma without godly character is destructive." I want to bring two points because in our walk in Christ, we haven't all arrived. I hear that voice, Pastor AJ's voice again says, "We all have flesh." We all have flesh, and we are all exhorted to crucify that flesh daily. But there are sometimes that we miss out on doing that and there are consequences for it.
I want to speak to two different areas of people and interaction concerning this nature of charisma and spiritual giftings. On the one hand, you can make it seem like you have these spiritual giftings, but the reality is you really don't. That's very destructive and we'll get to that. Well, on the other hand, you can actually, people genuinely operate in spiritual gifts, but they are lacking in their character development. Equally destructive. Both are destructive forces in people's lives. Many people who don't really have the spiritual gifts, they have talents that they can use to manipulate people who just take it at face value that they are being spiritual. Because people who operate in this way, they act in this, what I call spiritual arrogance; they are very confident in in how they have this display. They act in a way that it seems genuine, but really, all it is, is that they've traded the anointing for spiritual manipulation. I've seen it be very destructive in people's lives and it breaks my heart.
Something has to be said about the person of integrity. Something has to be said in this day and age to the kind person, to the meek person, to the person who cares for people, to the person who is loving towards other people. We can't trade that in so that our lack of relationship with God is filled up in a place of falseness. We can't trade character Christ-like character for what excites us or what seems fascinating. I know when I get excited, I can get loud at the men's breakfast, I met Mark Jarris yesterday and he said, "Man, you can get loud up there." But don't let loud fool you into thinking that loud means more anointing. All of us have different delivery methods. But anointing does not increase with volume.
The loud or more intense sounding of message does not take away whether the message is true or not. It does not indicate that the message is truthful or that more of God's presence is there or that I'm speaking an accurate word. It doesn't matter how loud you are. We were looking at something earlier and it was this preacher that was making all these loud noises and sounds and gestures and people are shouting, and he's preaching. What did he say?
TaQuaris: Just a couple of things. I used to attend a church and um, every January we were consecrated fast, which nothing wrong with that. It was kind of like we was giving 10% of the year to the Lord. During that time, our pastor, he wouldn't preach at all, but we'll have like different prophets come to the church and prophesy. I was young and I was excited about that. A couple of years went by, I didn't get a word, and I'm having a conversation with God, like, "Okay God, this year I'm going to get this word. They are not going to skip over me." Because we were all super excited. So i go to church January, nothing. And then I left church and I just went and cried before to God like, what are you going to say to me? And God chastised me. You know what he said? He said, "You can hear my voice. Why are you going to chase after a word? I talk to you daily. What is better? Being able to hear me or and commune with me or being able to go through a man?" And I was like, "Okay Lord." I was young and I just saw this where everyone was doing.
But also, Robert, what you just said reminded me of another, a particular situation. This same church I was going to go into and we had like different churches come and couple of churches and ministries from on that was on tv, really main preachers and things like that. e had this on a Saturday and Thursday prior to that, Lord had me come there and just walk to isle and just pray by myself and just really intercede. At that moment I didn't know what I was interceding for, but lo and behold, this Saturday came and we had this particular woman that is well known and she came and she was just singing beautifully/ Everyone hands was raised and in awe, but my stomach started hurting and the Holy Spirit said that that's a lustful spirit that she was singing. Everyone thought it was the anointing of God, but the spirit of God told me it was a seducing spirit.
At that time I didn't even know, I'm like, "Okay Lord, you got to confirm this because I can't tell nobody this." I mean it was packed out. I'm like, Okay, well my pastors are raising their hands and everybody is into it. I'm like, what is going on? That was on a Saturday and that Sunday when I came to church and my pastor called the intercessor up on the stage and he was like, "I need you guys to go to the corners of this building. The Holy Spirit said it was witchcraft up in here." For me, it was just a blessing that I was able to hear God and discern what was going on in spite of everybody else can't even see it. It was a packed out house. It was great confirmation, but it was just the beginning of something that I've seen and what my husband has talked about. We get so caught up in that. And a lot of it is emotionalism too. You have to be able to discern. It doesn't matter how big that person is, it doesn't matter how much they know. We have to know if that's the spirit of God.
Robert: Someone with a lot of charisma usually requires attention and recognition. When charisma is present, but there is a lack of character, the charismatic person must feed off the praise of others to feel important. I remember a minister I would be around quite frequently. They would always look for me for an amen or look for me to cheer them on. It happened so frequently that it really irritated me to the point that I said preach to me something that I can give you an amen about. My amen is reserved for something that's witnessing to my spirit. I'm not just one that's going to cheer you on because you are getting loud and flamboyant and you are jumping across the stage, or you know, you are in people's face and you are making jokes and all that. No, teach me the word. Bring Christ forward, edify the church, uplift Christ, then you are going to get a loud amen for me. I'm not into entertainment.
It's a privilege to me as a preacher to be able to sit from time to time to hear the word. And that's what I want to do. I want to hear the word. I don't want to be entertained.
There are movies for that. I don't want to be entertained. Just as I give it, I want to receive it. I want be stirred up. I want to be challenged. I want to be in my seat and like, ooh, I need to go check myself on that. I look forward to that. I don't want to be the same. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, that is more important to me now that I'm pleasing the father more than ever because I don't want to be the same Robert that I was today or yesterday. I want to be transformed by his presence. I want the love of Christ to go forward for me so that I can help others know him. But I'm not going to do that by being entertained and not challenged from where I'm at. I'm not where I want to be.
I may seem confident in the things that I speak about. That's because I'm a student of the word. I follow the word, but I'm not satisfied with who I am. I want to be more and more like Jesus. That's what I've been meditating on lately. Lord, search me and what parts of me are not like you. Charisma is not going to challenge me in that. When I see someone expressing the love of Christ on a level that I haven't yet, that challenges me, like, man, I thought I was doing good, but I've got a long way to go. And that's fine/ That's fine as we continue to follow him.
You see, why am I talking__ We are talking about character. Like I said, I'm not against charisma. Notice what the teaser said charisma without godly character is destructive. Character is the substance of the person. Charisma is just the magnetic appeal or the draw of the message. The world has gotten in a whole bunch of trouble from the draw of the charismatic personality. Do you know Adolph Hitler was one of the most charismatic people in history? So much that in his destructive path, he even had so-called church folks following and supporting his cause. Things can sound good to us, things can look good to us, but if we are truly graced by God with certain gifts and spiritual gifts, then we are definitely not exempt from being fruitful in our character. We don't have to compromise on that in the church.
If we like certain qualities and so on in a leader, then we need to hold them accountable in their character. We can't just like what they say: we have to love what they do. Don't be fooled again by the so-called spiritual person that lacks the fruit of the spirit. I've seen so much harm to people because we've been taught that__ I love this old phrase: touch not God's anointed and do his prophets no harm. I'm just going to let this person devour everybody they come in contact with because they are anointed.
That's a bunch of baloney, church. And I mean that as serious as I can be. There are some other words I like to use, but I respect this platform. Meet me at Caribou and maybe I'll get more colorful with you. Hopefully, you can discern where my heart is. I've been in ministry for 21 years, pales in comparison to Pastor Brian and others, but for me, for 21 years, I've seen a lot in ministry and my heart has bled a lot in the abuses that I've seen God's people go through for a word. I've seen the church in the last three to four years be torn apart because of charismatic leaders who lack integrity and have split churches even in political arenas. Listen, politics is politics. Your politics is your politics. But don't trade in a political party, a political platform for good old decency.
I'll be very transparent here. I hate the fact in this country that we don't have enough guts to go beyond the status quo. And what do I mean by that? We can do better than just be a two-party system. I believe that that's very limiting for the people of God who share our same values because what we've been forced to do is choose and sometimes the lesser of two evils, God forbid, I hate being in that spot. I remember one voting year, someone asked me, who I voted for. I said, I voted for the bishop who liked to discipline his children Just because he's the most person that represented how I truly believed in any other platform. I wish that we could have__ Because I know out there is people in a political arena that truly love God and from the bottom our heart, I wish they could occupy every office in leadership. But I also believe, contrary to popular opinion, I believe that the church can have more influence than it does and I think it should. So that's my little rabbit trail on that.
The Bible is replete with passages that speaks to our character and how it needs to line up expressly, especially in our expression. Like Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians in first Corinthians chapter three verses one through three.
TaQuaris: If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. If I had to give a prophecy and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possess all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrifice my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would've gained nothing.
Robert: I think this quote by the Christian author kind of speaks to the heart of Paul in this passage. This author says that spirit given abilities are necessary, but spirit-produced fruit is more significant and we've kind of flip flopped it. We followed the way of the world. That's what the world does. The world says, "I want to be entertained. I want my fulfilled, I want my senses to be pleasured." Because that's what I want, I don't care about the character or the fruit of the people as long as those things are being met.
The very talented singer can molest children and rape women and do all these things, but hey, they are a great singer, so I'm going to still uphold them and lift them up because of their talents. These athletes, all these multimillion-dollar athletes, they can beat their wives, but hey, we can't take away their money because my favorite team may lose. That preacher can really preach, he can really prophesy, but I know he's not so nice to his wife, but you know, he's anointed. No, I may be saying all the truthful things, but if I'm saying all the truthful things and I go home and I'm abusive to my wife, what have I done? What have I displayed? The Bible says, the Bible says not Pastor Roberts says, I've gained nothing. I've gained nothing.
Yeah, I can get a little charismatic, but see, I want to be the person of character who is content to live behind the scenes and be effective without being recognized by others in the body of Christ. Both charisma and character are significant and must be developed in humility so that a person is not puffed up. Because I've seen people who abuse this way get puffed up and get so arrogant and they've gotten so far beyond humility that they excuse their fleshly actions to do whatever they want. What kind of witness is that that brought a lot of confusion to the body of Christ? Because internally people are looking like, well, I see or hear this, but__ we've got to be careful when we add those buts. No, call it for what it is. It's not righteous, it's not godly. If we are led by the spirit__ you know, the spirit looks a certain way, you know that it sounds a certain way. It feels a certain way. God's spirit does not want to harm you.
Has anybody been corrected by the Lord as you've been with him? I'd rather be corrected by the Lord any day than most people because I know that his motivation in correcting me is out of love for me to change, to be more like him and to draw me closer to him, not to condemn me, not to alienate me not to shame me. You were going to say something?
TaQuaris: Well, you know, I was just thinking, you can have all the different spiritual gifts, but if you are not mature in your character, then it can be very destructive. Because I've seen where these leaders, um, try to steal God's glory. And that's where the puffed up part comes from when you were saying they want all the attention. But when you really called and, and operating through those gifts, it comes with humility because it comes with a price. You know, the Bible says too much is given, much is required. And so when you are really operating through the spirit and operating through the fruits of the spirit, you have a different perspective when God has called you to do something to that magnitude. You are not so quick to boast about and be so "look at me, look at me" because at the end of the day, it comes with a price and you have the Father looking down on you.
In this day, an hour that we are living in right now, we have so many people, they are being pulled away from the faith. Even the Bible talks about familiar spirits and different things that just tickle their fancy, but really there is no growth. In this time that we are living in, it's very important, you know, that we are grounded in the word and we are using our discernment with, you know, leaders. I was thinking, you know, we tend to put pastors and leaders on the pedestal like they are God and like they can't do no wrong, like they don't have flesh and like they are not human. And then we don't hold them accountable.
I've seen this in many different churches where "as long the pastor said it or that prophet said it," and just because they said it, you don't go back and look at the word and see if it's actually true. When they are abusing other people, you just turn a blind eye because whatever they say is right. No, if it doesn't add up to the word of God, it's not right no matter what.
Robert: It actually speaks to the point we are going to get to next, that instead of having our ears tickled and our emotions stirred up, we need to bring back what I call the spirit of the Bereans. We can read Acts chapter 17 verse 11.
TaQuaris: And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica. And they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.
Robert: They liked what Paul said and what Paul and Silas said, but they are like, yeah, we like you Paul and Silas, but let's go and search to see if this is truly God. And there is nothing wrong with that. We were talking too that the nature of Paul was quite different from the false teachers that he had to constantly go against. He would always have this description of saying that how he didn't come to the people he was ministering to. I didn't come with you with flattering words. I didn't come with you with these great flamboyant expressions. I didn't come to you this way. And so even Paul then would, would offer the same wordings to you. Like I said, nothing is wrong with charisma and giftings, but don't stop there without discerning the spirit behind. That's what the warning is to all of us.
We put a heavy emphasis on leaders, but it's not just leaders that abuse this. I've seen people, members of churches and congregation who have been taught this way, who operate in this same manner and have brought harm to the body as well. So I don't want us to just say, okay, it's just a problem in leadership because it's not. It has been symptomatic of the entire church for however long it's been.
Here is what I'm saying to bring this all together: I'm not saying choose one of the other, I'm not saying choose charisma or choose gifting, but what I'm saying is it's necessary to develop your spiritual gifts by building a godly character that pleases God and edifies your heroes, edifies those that you are ministering, to speaking to have relationship with. We can't think we've gotten so spiritual and gifted that we don't have to work on us from the inside side. We have to constantly have heart surgery. We have to constantly check where we are and we need to bring back or increase the importance of how we interact with one another.
The Bible exhorts us to be especially loving and kind to the household of faith. Out of all the things we measure in our successful leading in life and pleasing God, I think the very thing that has been downplayed the most is on the very top list of God, and that's how we treat one another. To some people that sounds so kindergarten and so plain, but I think if we understand anything about the Lord, he takes the things that we despised most and turns it into the most important things as how he looks at man. We've heard it in different ways in scripture that man is fascinated by the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart because the outward appearance can fit all of our visual categories of what good is. But there is no substance of character on the inside.
TaQuaris: This reminds me, and I'm paraphrasing of a scripture and the Bible. I can't quite recall where it came from, but I believe these men came to Christ, saying that they healed in his name, they delivered in his name. They did all these wonderful miraculous works. And he said, "Depart for me, you work as of iniquity. I know you not." And that really stood out to me when I read that because it just told me, you can do all these magnificent things, if your character's not developed and if you are not operating in the spirit of love and operating through the fruits of the spirit, you still don't know Christ. He said, "Depart from me, you workers of inequity." But they were healing and delivering and doing all these things. That just speaks to everything that Robert had been saying. Like, you gotta definitely make sure that you are operating through the right spirit, the Holy Spirit, because you can be really deceived by others if you are not discerning what spirit they are operating in.
I want to close this message by first bringing some edification to this community of faith, Hope Community Church that's led by our lead pastor, Pastor Brian, his wife Jacque who invited us to be a part of this community, to partner with him in ministry. And I discerned very early in our conversations that this was a true man of God who had a shepherd's heart who has a shepherd's heart. I love the word that he preaches. I love the example that he models because quite frankly, if I saw any indication otherwise, I would not be here today.
I thank God for the leadership of this church and being on the pastoral team that I am very confident in that exemplifies Jesus. I wouldn't be here today because just like many of you, my heart has been broken, my name has been slandered, my spirit has been crushed by people that did not represent Christlike character. this message, by no means, is an indictment of the leadership in the church that I'm at today. So if anybody says that, I will rebuke you because that is not the case. And so my heart has gone through a tremendous amount of healing. My spirit is a lot freer than it has been in years, and we all benefit from that.
And that's the thing; there are many people who are hurting that the church can greatly benefit from if these people got freed up. My wife and I both spend week after week after week after week trying to help these people get freed up. It's a daunting task because the wounds are deep, because the so-called anointed didn't have enough of the spirit of Christ to operate out of his love. This is a warning to the church. Let that spirit not invade our community because there are more people coming that are very, very skeptical about church in general.
We are not perfect, but if we intentionally commit ourselves to allow God to show us where we still have a tainted heart or where we, out of tradition, have residue of those wrong ways, motives, thinking, whatever, the way we can do our part is to allow the Holy Spirit to challenge us to truly change. Because I believe in the vision of this church to have people who are hurting and wounded to come. My plea to you is not push them out the door. We don't have to hide our gifts, but let's make sure we sprinkled it with a lot of humility. No more this us versus them. I think Pastor Brian and I had a conversation about this one time, no more spiritual elitism. Let's use the gifts that God has endowed us with to truly edify and build up the church, not tear it down and not turn people away. Giftings are good; I think we should ask God to endow those gifts to us. But more than that, let's ask for the character of Christ to be our trademark and so that we can please God in what he has beautifully blessed us with. In Jesus name. Amen.
Brian: Thank you, Pastor Robert and TaQuaris. Thank you so much. I just want to say how thankful I am that God has also brought two wonderful pastors, Pastor Jeff and Pastor Robert and their families, their wives, into this church to partner with me because it can feel at times like you are charting a course that the popular consensus in Christiandom or in the church realm really doesn't want to go. I said last week, wisdom is good to have, but love is better. The gifts are good to have, but love is better. Paul says it best that if we have not love, we really do have nothing. I see everyday opportunities for us to chart a course that many have not wanted to take a course that doesn't condemn someone for failures in their lives, but offers really an answer to them in the person of Jesus Christ.
I do believe very sincerely that God has brought us, 25 years ago to this community for such a time as this. We are right on the precipice of many things happening, both expansion wise within our city, more people moving into our city, and every day that goes by, we are closer and closer and closer to being even more of a community church because more and more people are moving our direction. I'm just grateful for the staff we have and for the people who are part all of you and those of you who are our online community. I was reading some of the teachings of Jesus and what I guess I would call the apocalyptic teachings of Christ and what he talks about before, before Christ's returned. If you look at it from a purely apocalyptic perspective, it can be quite frightening. But if you look at it from all the things that he is going to do during that season, it's something incredible that we can be a part of.
Jesus is at work, He's at work today. He's at work around the world. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a universal gospel. It's not an American gospel. It's a universal gospel. He is working in all the places of the world that one person inhabits. And so we can be a part of that today. Sometimes Jacque and I look at all the things, the needs that are in our world. We walk through stores and we see just how hurting people are. We can see it on their counts, and it can be overwhelming at times because in our hearts we want to make a difference. There is so much to do in a sense. At the end of the day, it gets down to this, we can all still just love one person at a time. We can love one person at a time. And that's what God empowers us to do. In doing that, we are fulfilling what he's asking us to do. Hallelujah.
Father, thank you for this word today. I just pray that Lord, we will be, uh, attracted mostly to your character and your goodness more so than even your power and your greatness. I pray that, Lord, when we prayed to be like you, what is really at the deepest part of our prayer is to become like the character that Jesus manifested. I believe, Lord, that your power will be manifested in your sovereign timing and your sovereign ways, but your character wants to be manifested at all times. And so I pray that, Lord, our eyes would not get on the glitz and the power and the glitter, but our eyes would get focused on the genuine love and mercy and compassion of our Lord. And that is what we would try to emulate.
I do believe you want to endow us with gifts because you love people. You want to bring deliverance, you want to heal where brokenness is in existence. You want to bring wholeness where fragmentation is. You want to bring peace where trouble exists. You want to bring reconciliation where there is relational discord. You want to bring all of that Lord, and your gifts are so important to help with that. But people's hearts today will only become open to your love and your grace if we will represent you in that way with your love and your grace. Help us to do that every moment of every day. We pray this in your name. Now let's lift our hands together, shall we?
And now, may the Lord bless you, May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine up on you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you walk in the love and mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This, we pray, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you for being here today. For those of you who want to receive communion, Jacque, we'll be serving communion today over at the Communion table. We'll also have people here to pray for you if you have any prayer needs. God bless you. Thanks for being here today. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 10-16-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.