 When pressure came, what came out of radiant with all the things that for over 20 plus years Jane and I and our staff have tried to integrate and emphasize as significant and important parts of who we are. We are a people, a community, we are a family, we are a praying and worshiping church. Well, good to see everybody. Hello to those of you who are online and our Portage Campus and everywhere else that you are joining us this weekend. If you live in Michigan, we got a little bit of snow this week. Doesn't it actually feel like winter finally? I just want to know who prayed for this. That's all I want to know because I hold you personally responsible for this. I was in South Carolina last weekend and it was, it was, you know, 60 degrees. It wasn't too bad. It was a little rainy and we flew back in and there was snow. So I hold whoever prayed for this personally responsible and I'm calling a 40-day fast for the snow to go away. So everybody joined in. It's good to be with you. If you have your Bibles, would you take them out and open them with me to Isaiah chapter 60? Isaiah chapter 60. We're beginning a six-part series this weekend entitled Be Radiant, where over the next six weeks, beginning tonight and the next five weeks after, weekends after, we're going to be looking at what it means to really be radiant. This is a vision series. This is recalibrating all of who we are. Those of you who maybe have joined us over the last several months, you're kind of new to the radiant community and many of us have been here for a very, very long time. It doesn't matter how, when you came on, it's important that we know who we are, what God has called us to do and what our unique assignment is. And so that's what this series is all about. And in honor of that, this weekend, I busted out a old Bible that this is the Bible that I actually preached out of when we started Radiant Church 25 years ago. So this was my Bible for about five years and I've kept it on my bookcase and I broke it out just for this series. And so it's extra anointed. It's New King James. It's black leather. It's thicker than a Grand Rapids phone book, but it's anointed. And so look with me here at Isaiah chapter 60. We're going to read the first seven verses. It says a rise shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you for behold the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people. But the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see that they all gather together and they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar. Your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant and your heart shall swell with joy because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land. The dromedaries of Midian and Aepha, all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you. The rams of Nabeoth shall minister to you. They shall ascend with acceptance on my altar and I will glorify the house of the Lord, the house of my glory. This scripture is significant to us because it is the prophetic framework for who God has called us to be. It was about 25 years ago that Jane and I moved from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo to plant radiant church. I've told this story many different times. When we planted radiant, we came with no experience, no people, no money, no building, and really no knowledge of how to plant a church. But what we did have was we had a word from God and a prophetic framework that he gave to us, this particular scripture. Isaiah chapter 60 was the prophetic mandate that God was breathing on and given to us really to build the community and the church that over the last 25 years has emerged. We didn't know all of what that meant, but what we did know was that it was significant that we continue to come back to this scripture because locked on the inside of it was a key at every stage of development for us to know what our next step was. In September of 2019, we gathered together some of our key leaders in downtown Kalamazoo, what now is the Radiant City Center, and we began to share the vision of what we believed was the next thing that God was calling us into. The next phase of radiant church, both of expansion and of ministry. And we were sharing that with just probably 100, 150 of our key leaders. And part of what we shared with them, we came back to Isaiah chapter 60. This was our starting point, is that we sensed and what we knew to be true was that as darkness increased on the earth, God was calling us not to stand back or to take a step back, but to actually step up and to lean into what he was calling us to do. One of the aspects of that particular vision, which became known as the Radiant City vision, was accentuating and building into all of the things that we did, our online platform. So this was September of 2019, and we talked about developing and expanding our online digital ability to reach people. And we're so glad that we did because this time last year in 2020, when we began to communicate the Radiant City vision to the whole congregation of Radiant Church, both of our campuses and those of us online, we had no idea that we would get two weeks in to our spiritual journey called building a Radiant City and then the whole world would change. And what we had done from September until that point is we had leaned in really, really strongly into developing our online presence. And we're glad that we did because then when the pandemic kind of hit and there were shutdowns, we were able to immediately jump over there. We didn't have to think about it. We didn't have to start from scratch. We were 80 to 85% done and we were able to move forward. But here's what we did do last year. Jane and I just got back from vacation. We were two weeks into communicating the vision of what we believe God has spoken to us over for the next five to 10 years of Radiant Church. And we wanted to bring the whole church along into this series. And then in two weeks and the second week of a six week journey, all of a sudden we came to a screeching halt and we put pause on that. And I'll tell you, I thought, well, we're going to pause it for a month. And then we'll come back to it, you know, because we'll all be back right at Easter. And then we thought, well, let's just pause it until fall. And then we got to fall and we realized, well, we're still not we're still not back to normal. And then it was late fall, October, November, that the Lord spoke to me very clearly. I was praying about it. And I was just like, Lord, what do you want us to do with it? Do you just want us to lay it aside? Do you want us to stop it? Or do you want us to start it? And if so, when? When are we going to get back to normal? And the Lord said, stop looking for normal. Stop looking for normal and look for the new thing that I am doing. Look for the new thing. I'm not giving you a new vision, but there's a new landscape that you need to take into consideration. The vision is the same. How you communicate it will be different. And so oftentimes what happens with me is when I'm, I'm praying and I'm asking God for direction as the shepherd, the visionary, the leader of radiant, I'm not interested in my own ideas. If we move on my ideas, then we have to be sustained by my strength. Over 25 years, John 519 has been my prayer as the leader. The son of man can do nothing on his own and neither can his son Lee. And so it's Lord, what do you want to do? And the Lord dropped an idea into my heart and he said, what has everyone been doing during their lockdowns while they're at home? And I'm like, well, they've been watching and binging a lot of different digital resources. He says, yeah, what's the number one most on demand across all platforms? It's docu-series. And the Lord says, why don't you do a docu-series about what God has done in radiant and the stories and the testimonies and the miracles? And why don't you do a three part docu-series that highlights the past, that talks about the present reality that we're all in? And then cast a vision for what I've shared with you about the future in part three and roll that out to the whole church. In fact, open it up to anybody who wants to see it. So that's what we did. We did something we have never done before. And this docu-series is not just like a video. We've put a lot of creativity. There are testimonies and stories that maybe you have never heard before, both past and during this last season. That I watched just a little raw portion of what the cinematographer who helped us put this together did. And when we watched it, I just cried. I just cried because it is so powerful in the way that it communicates. And part of this journey, the next six weeks that we're all going to go on together in this Be Radiant series, as we come back around now, I've had several people say, what happened to the Radiant City vision? Is it done? No, it's not done. And we're just looking towards the new thing that God is doing. And part of how we're going to communicate it is this series. It's the spiritual journey that we're calling watch and pray, because literally we want you to watch and pray as we roll out the three-part docu-series at the end of this six-week journey coming up at the end of February and March. And I'll tell you what, I believe that the combination of these things, God's going to use to unite our hearts around what He's calling us to do next. But it would be inappropriate for us to even talk about vision if we did not come back to Isaiah chapter 60. Because Isaiah chapter 60, I believe, is more prophetic today than it has ever been. Arise and shine for your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people. How many can relate to the darkness that is covering the earth and the deep darkness that has covered the people, the population of the world that we're living in right now? I mean, it's just a reality. But in the midst of that, God is calling the church to arise and shine. You see, God has not surrendered the world to darkness. God has actually apprehended the darkness to use as a backdrop to reveal His church with His glory upon them. He has, you know, when you go shopping for a diamond, which I haven't done in a very long time because I've been married 28 years, but I think 30s coming up and so I have a feeling I'll be heading towards the jewelry shop soon. But when you go there and you want to look at diamonds, diamonds are translucent, they're beautiful, light refracts through them, and they have different qualities of them. A wise jeweler when he wants to show off the beauty of a multifaceted, perfect, flawless diamond doesn't put it on a wood paneling and he doesn't just hold it in his hand. He lays it on black velvet because the darker and the more matted the backdrop, the more beautiful the diamond is. And God is a wise jeweler. And he is crafting a beautiful church without spot and without wrinkle, purveyors of hope, carriers of his glory. And he has a perfect bride that he is preparing, but he also needs a perfect backdrop to display the fullness of its beauty. Darkness is the perfect backdrop to display the glory and the light of his church. And I believe that that is the era that we are in today. Darkness is not a force. I don't know if you know this, but when we talk about darkness and this is talking about spiritual darkness, spiritual darkness is not a force. It's actually a void. Darkness is not a substance. Darkness is actually the absence of light. Darkness can only exist where light has not penetrated. You want to know how fast light moves? Scientists say light moves at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. That means darkness recedes at the exact same speed that light encroaches. Do you want to know how fast spiritual light moves at the speed of obedience? You want to know how quick and how fast darkness recedes? It recedes at the exact same speed that the light of righteousness exerts itself. Darkness has to flee when the church is functioning in its full anointing and glory and obedience to Jesus. There is no battle to be had. Darkness can only occupy territory that the church has refused to step into. And when we see darkness in the world, when we see corners of darkness, a lot of times we want to get intimidated and say, well, we can't go under there because look at how dark it is. Look at how deep the darkness is. That darkness is only taking up residency. It's actually squatting in territory that God has already declared belongs to him. He told us in Joshua chapter one that wherever the soul of your foot treads, that shall be yours to take. But it's only the territory out of obedience that we step into that darkness actually recedes. I believe that darkness is a reality. You look around the world and we can see spiritual darkness. It's real. It's demonic. Spiritual darkness is everywhere. And actually, when you read this and you see darkness and it talks about deep darkness, the word for darkness there means heaviness. It means deep, gross heaviness, discouragement, depression. It's emotional. It's spiritual. It's the kind of weightiness that here's what it does. It's when we're walking through life and we've had our head up looking forward to where we're going. Darkness, spiritual darkness, heaviness comes and it actually lowers our head because it's so heavy. And it causes us to look only at the immediate moment in which we are living in. It causes us to look at our circumstances that are current right now. It causes us to be weighed down with a burden and to not look up and to not look forward. It steals our hope. It steals our dreams. It steals our connection with God. And when you lose hope, you lose life. I think that darkness, what has increased as deep darkness, what it has done to so many people, it's just weighed them down and it's like they've tried to hold their heads up, tried to keep their eyes on the horizon, tried to believe that things are going to get better, tried to believe that there's a future and a hope for them. But what has happened is darkness has covered the land and deep darkness the people on the heads have dropped. People have lost hope. But in the middle of that darkness, he speaks to the church. He speaks to his people and he says, not you. Arise and shine. In other words, lift up your heads. Who is the lifter of our heads? It's the Lord. He says, it's not time for you church to put your head down. It's not time to go into survival mode. It's not time to be isolated. It's not time to be self-focused. It's time for us to lift up our eyes and to put our eyes on the eternal and to look forward in time. It's actually time that God wants to download vision. God wants to put his glory on the church. Actually, if we will see it through the lens of what God is doing in the earth, this isn't God taking his hands off. This is God saying, I've rolled up my sleeves. Now watch what I'm about to do. And if you'll lift up your eyes, you're going to see that I'm at work. I believe it with all of my heart. God's calling us to live from a higher heavenly perspective. Look at what it says. The Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you. And in verse number four, lift up your eyes. Everybody say it with me. Say lift up your eyes. Lift up your eyes and see. See. What does He want us to see? He says that they all gather. What's the day? It's talking about sons and daughters. People that have been foreigners and strangers. People that have been under darkness. People that have been weighed down. Nations that have lost hope. People that have been isolated and alienated. It says, lift up your eyes, church, and see that when I put my glory on you, it's going to be in such a way that the nations are going to be attracted to you. People that have been isolated are going to say, I want to belong to that. People that have lost hope says, look at them. They have something I don't have. There's something attractive about the people of God that have been filled with the presence of God. You see, it's the presence of God that transforms. And what we have always desired to be from the very beginning when we started Radiant. You know, for those of you who've come along recently on the journey of Radiant, Radiant's not always been a big church. Radiant's not always had big buildings. Radiant's not always had multiple buildings. Radiant's not always had buildings. We started off in a cafeteria. Not quite a cafeteria and not quite an auditorium. I mean, we didn't have much. It was never ever our goal. Jane and I, when we moved down here to Plant Radiant Church to start it, it was never with the intentions we want to build a big church. What we wanted to build was big people who made a big difference. And when we build big people that make a big difference, the church gets big. Why? It's because lift up your eyes. They gather to you. People are attracted to hope. People are attracted to the presence of God. And if we just create environments where people can encounter the presence of the Lord, it changes, it transforms their lives. But what do we have to do? What do we have to do? I've entitled this message, Arise, Shine, and Be Radiant. Over the next five weeks, we're going to take our five values. We have five values. Number one is word-centered. We're a word-centered church. Number two is spirit-empowered. Number three is family-oriented. Number four is kingdom-focused. And number five is mission-motivated. We're going to take these core five values. And I believe that these five values describe what it means to be radiant. This is what it says that God's desire for us is in verse number five. He says, then you will see and what? You'll become radiant. You'll become radiant. God wants every believer to be radiant because what radiant means is that the glory of God is on our life. It's so transformed us. It's so changed us that we see differently. God wants us to see differently. You know, it doesn't take much to see the world the way the world wants you to see it. All you have to do is to allow the media to disciple you. And they will teach you how they want you to see the world. They will tell you who your enemies are. They will tell you how you're supposed to respond to people. They will tell you who you are. They will tell you what you can expect out of life. They will tell you how you should feel, how you should live, where you should spend your money, where your kids should... I mean, they will tell you everything that you need to know if you will allow them. They will show you how to see. The masses of people on the earth right now are seeing the world through all kinds of different lenses. They're seeing it through darkness. But what God wants us is to lift up our heads, to arise. In other words, lift up your countenance and get a heavenly perspective. And when we see the way that God wants us to see, we actually become radiant. When we look through a lens that is different than the world's lens, when we begin to look through the lens of the kingdom of God, it changes everything radically. Have you ever known somebody that they just seem to see the world differently and you're convicted by it? I was around a person like that a couple of weeks ago. It's like, I don't know about you, but one of the challenges for me in this last season has been complaining. God's convicted me about complaining. And he has to do it on a pretty regular basis because I'm good at complaining. Anybody else good at complaining? I can complain almost better than anybody and convince myself that I'm right. I was with somebody. Actually, I was talking to them on the phone and I had just been complaining about something. I won't even go into what it was. And this person is actually in another country that is much poorer than our country, has way more limitations than we have. And when I was talking with them, they said, oh, how are you doing? And I went, oh, you know, and blah, blah, blah, my complaints. And I said, how are you doing? And I said, you know what, we are just so grateful. God has been so good to us. He has provided for us in miraculous ways. We've been witnessing to our neighbor and they've gotten saved. And we've just been so fruitful in this season. We're just incredible. I felt both convicted and mad. I almost wanted to start complaining about them. I almost wanted to start complaining about them. But when I got off of that call, what I realized is they choose to see the world differently. And my cry was, Holy Spirit, I need your help to do that because I want to see what you see. You see, what does it mean to lift up our eyes? What does it mean to arise? Well, number one, God's calling us in this day to live from a higher heavenly perspective. Think about what Jesus said to the disciples in John chapter four, verse 35. He said, do you not say that there are still four months and then comes the harvest? He said, behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they're already white for harvest. Notice what Jesus was saying. I know how you see the world. You say, oh, we've got four months. But I'm telling you now's the time. You say, oh, still four months. The process is at work. It's not the time. You have your own calendar. You have your own schedule. You have your own way of saying the world. And Jesus said, but I'm telling you, heaven has a much different perspective. I'm saying it's not four months. It's right now. And by the way, it was in context. Jesus was saying this in context of preaching to people in Samaria who the disciples wanted to have nothing to do with. They just wanted to get out of Samaria. And Jesus said, instead of trying to get out of this place because you consider this darkness, instead, why don't you lift up your eyes and look around and see things the way I see it? Where you see problems, I see prodigals. Where you see untouchables, I see must touchables. Where you see unsavable, I see salvation probable. Where you see places that I don't want to, where you don't want to go, I say that that's where I must go. Don't say four months. Don't say later on church. And it would be really easy for all of us right now to say, well, things are too crazy right now. We can't do anything. Let's just stay safe and let's just hunker down and let's wait for things to normalize. Jesus said, don't say four months. Don't say four years. Now is the time. Lift up your eyes and see the opportunity that's before you. There's greater opportunities right now on planet Earth to reach people that are far away from Christ than there ever has been. Why? Because darkness has covered the Earth, but the glory of God's on us. The glory of God, the glory of God, the goodness and the power of God. Colossians 3-2 says, set your mind on things above, not on the things of the Earth. So what's he calling us to? He's calling us to a higher perspective. Second Chronicles or second Corinthians chapter four, I love this particular scripture, verse 18 says, while we do not look at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen, because the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Think about that for a second. Paul's saying, look, we walk by faith and not by sight, because if we judge only what we see in the natural, those things are temporal. Amplify Bible says they are temporal and subject to change. Subject to change, which means you're letting things that are shifting and changing and evolving determine what you're going to do with this one moment in time that you have that you can never get back. And Paul says, no, we can't appraise the world like that. We have to look at the things that are not seen. You have natural eyes and you have spiritual eyes. And Paul said, I pray daily for you that the eyes of your heart would be open, that you might see what is the inheritance that you have in the saints and what is the hope of your call that you have on the inside of you. Paul's saying you got to look with a different set of eyes. Lift up your eyes. In church, we need a new perspective. We didn't know perspective that no matter what we see in the natural, God is on the move. We need a different perspective that says when we see darkness, we don't see the end, we see the beginning. I mean, how many of you have ever read Genesis chapter one? Raise your hand. Almost everybody has, because we all try to read the Bible. At least we start on page one. We may not get to page three, but we get to page one. The first verse in the Bible says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And it says in darkness covered the earth and the earth was void and formless. And out of the darkness God said, let there be, and then when he created the days, it says, and there was evening and there was morning, and it was the first day. Most of the time when we see darkness, we think it's the end. When God sees darkness, he says it's just the beginning. God created everything that exists out of darkness and created it, called it light. Let there be light. When we begin to see darkness, our natural tendency is to wind down. When God sees darkness, he's just ramping up. That's why it calls us to arise church. I believe that we are living in an hour right now where he's saying to the church, this is going to be your final hour. I've got to do some dealings with your heart. I've got to get a new perspective on the inside of you. I've got to get you to see things from a kingdom perspective. If we see the world exactly like the world, we're no different from the world. We got to see the world through the lens of the unseen eternal realm, through the eyes of faith. We've got to begin to see the world through what is the Father doing. I only do those things that I see the Father doing. This is what Jesus said. What's the Father doing right now? I'll tell you what he's doing. He's positioning the earth for an outpouring of his Holy Spirit that is unprecedented. He is positioning the earth right now. He's shaking everything that can be shaken so that what is left is unshakable. He's shaking everything. And can I just tell you, he's shaking the church. He's shaking the church out of our comfort zone, off of our dependency to our idols. He's shaking us out of our lethargy and our apathy. And he's shaking our indifference. And he's saying it's not acceptable for you to be indifferent. The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. It's to say, I just don't care. God wants to shake us so that he can actually put his glory on us. And the whole world's gonna see that. And in the process of doing that, we actually become radiant. Church, that's who we're called to be. To arise and number two, to shine. This is what Jesus has called us to. He said in Matthew 5 verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city is set on a hill, cannot be hidden. Nor did they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. I love this language of a lamp stand. Jesus said you don't light a lamp and then put it under a bushel. Do you guys remember that song? Hide it under a... Thank you. I'm gonna let it shine. See, you... I would have you sing the whole thing, except we're not. You don't light a lamp and then put it under a bushel. No, what do you do with it? You put it on a lamp stand. Why? Because then it gives light to the whole room. Do you know why God puts his glory on a church? Not so that he can hide it under a roof. He puts his glory on a church because in a city, whether we know it or not, there are spiritual lamp stands in every city. Jesus spoke to seven churches in Revelation chapter three and four, and he said, return to your first love or I will remove your lamp stand. That's what he said to the church of Ephesus. There are spiritual lamp stands, which are positions of authority that he puts his people to be a light to the city, to give light to the whole room. A city set on a hill so that people that are in darkness at night know where they're traveling to. This is what he's called the church to, rise and to shine. Not to put the dimmer on so that we blend in. Not to just tone it down so that we don't stand out. Not to put a basket over it so that, you know, nobody can see it. That is just for us. Now he's called us to be a light because there are so many people that desperately need to see hope. They need a relationship with God. They need the presence of God to transform their lives. They need the word of God. They need the things that we're gonna talk about. Five values. These are not just like some corporate business, Harvard Business School values that if you do these things, you'll create a really cool culture. Church, these are life. They're a life. If we get them, we begin to shine. And as we shine, there are people just like Isaiah 60 says that they'll see it upon us and it says that they will come. I love what it says here. It says, verse number six, We better build a parking lot that will accommodate camels. Because if we do this thing right, we're gonna have camels and dromedaries like coming on. Can you imagine showing up to church? Parking lot guys out there instead of like, you know, parking. Let's all look. They're coming in on camels. Let's say, where are you guys from? Oh, we're from, you know, we're from Saudi Arabia. Where do you park the camels? They're coming. And it's because we heard what God is doing. And all of a sudden, now we've got the prophetic promise. Is that taking it too literally? I don't know. But I believe God wants to, God, I don't care if it's motorcycles, bikes, unicycles, plug them in. V8 vehicle. I don't care what, I believe that God is going to put his glory on a church. And it's not just our church. It's the church. So much so, it's not just our church. It's the church. It's the church. It's the church. It's the church. So much so that if we can get out of the way and let God have the floor, what's going to happen is the nations are going to flood into the house of God. Why? It's because worthy is the lamb to receive the rewards of his suffering. We are proclaimers of his glory. You know what, over the last 25 years, I've seen a lot of things come to pass. I've seen the word of God go forth and strength and hope in our community and region. And now I've seen the word of God go forth to the nations of the earth and to reach people that we never would have imagined that we could reach. Church, during the pandemic period of time, as we've been praying every morning in both our services and prayer services, we've had people from over 50 nations join us. In the 25 years of Radiant Church, we've seen the presence of God transform people's lives. In supernatural, miraculous ways. We've seen marriages restored. We've seen people called. We've seen businesses birthed. We've seen bondages broken. We've seen healing take place in bodies. We've seen the unfathomable, all from the presence of God being in our midst. We've seen worship and spirit and truth ascend from first a cornfield in the middle of Richland, then to a northeast and northwest regional influence in Kalamazoo County and now from downtown morning, noon and night. Unceasing praise and prayer before the Lord. In the last 25 years, we've seen the prayers of the saints lifted up by faith, by five. And then by 10 on Saturday mornings in our little ministry center building. And then by 20 in the upper room. And then by hundreds. And then by God's grace, even thousands who are filling up the bowls of incense in the courtrooms of heaven. In the last 25 years, we've seen churches planted in over 10 states in two nations. Hundreds go to the nations and follow the command to go in the proclamation that our God reigns. Joining together in the intercessory prayers that Jesus deserves to be worshiped by people from every tribe, tongue, kindred in nation. Last 25 years, we've seen these altars filled with tens of thousands of people who have discovered a relationship with God. Who were far away, had no hope. Find salvation in the one name and the only name in whom there is salvation. Last 25 years has been a foundation. And this is not a time for us to hold back. This is not a time for us to step back. This is not a time for us to stand down or to retreat to comfort. This is a time for us, for you, for me together. And those of you who are online, you're not just a spectator, you're part of this family. It's a time for all of us, wherever we are, however we're connected, to arise and shine. Because it's not just about us, it's time for us to reach the next generation with more than stories about what God did for us. It's time for us to set the stage for the next generation to encounter the Lord themselves by the hundreds and by the thousands and to see the nations flooded with the glory of God. Church, it's time for us to arise and to shine and to be radiant. I want you to stand with me, if you would. In eternity, I was thinking about this afternoon. We talk about having an eternal perspective. This idea that I'm going to share with you just for a second rocks me. Because when I think about the things that are temporal, that are subject to change, those things seem so real to us, don't they? But yet the eternal never changes. So imagine with me this. There's going to be a moment a million years from now where the things that we're giving 80% of our life to right now, we won't even remember. They will be, if somebody were to remind us of those things, they would be like a faint memory. Much like right now, you can't remember your homework from 7th grade on September 19th of whatever year you were in 7th grade. In the moment it seems so important to you, but time has shifted it and changed its level of importance to you. In the same way, 80% of what we are right now giving our life, giving our resources, giving our emotions to, won't even matter to us a million years from now. But the things that will matter are the things that right now we are doing that have eternal value. You see every time we pray, you may not know it that that has eternal value because it's shaping you. It's customizing you for eternity. Every time you step out of your comfort zone and you testify to somebody about Jesus Christ being the savior of the world, you may do it a hundred times and maybe have one person pray with you, but you have no idea the seeds that you've sown in somebody's heart. Eternity will testify to those seeds and they will last for eternity. Every song that you sing of praise to God that praise never evaporates from the universe, it will echo throughout eternity in the halls of heaven. And in this age, let me tell you, the hounds of hell can howl as loud as they want to, but those howlings and those accusations and those slanders will dissipate with the dawning of a brand new day. But the praises of the saints and the labor of the church will last long on into eternity. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we'll have no less days to sing his praise than when we first begun. Amazing grace. This is what it means for us to have an eternal perspective, only those things in this life that we do that impact others, occupy heaven, and evaporate accusations of the enemy, only those things last. That's what it means for us to arise and to shine. It's to seize that reality and say, I'm gonna flip it, 80% of my life is gonna be dedicated to things that are of eternal value. I wanna pray for us. Would you just bow your heads with me wherever you're at? Heavenly Father, today, would you open the eyes of our heart that we today would have the gift of revelation, wisdom, understanding of the times that we live in? Lord, I'm thinking about the sons of Issachar. It says that they understood the times that they were living in and they knew what Israel needed to do. Lord, today, we need the spirit and the anointing of the sons of Issachar that you would speak to us. And Lord, my prayer is that, over the next several weeks, that more than just information, more than just teaching, Lord, there would be a download of unity, a download of your Holy Spirit that sinks us together, not just by what we're saying, we're called to do, but Lord, what you're doing. We wanna partner with you. We wanna partner with heaven. We wanna invest in things that are gonna last for eternity and only you can speak to us. Only you can do that. Lord, I'm praying that today, in this moment, maybe there are those who are listening to me right now who are living for a bunch of temporal things. Maybe they're dwelling in darkness and feel weighed down, burdened with no hope and no life. Today, if that's you, I want you to know that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. And if you turn to him, turn to him with your heart, he'll forgive you for your sins and he'll fill you with life and he will give you hope and purpose. You have to let go of the world. You have to let go of control over your own life and surrender the steering wheel to Jesus. The Bible says if we believe in our heart and the Lord Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead, then we'll be saved. And today, before we close, I wanna give you an opportunity. If you are someone you say, you know what, Pastor Lee, I'm not right with God. Or maybe you're someone that says, you know, I used to walk with God, used to have a relationship with Jesus, went to church, served him, read my Bible, but I've gotten so far away from that. I'm living for the things of this world, but all of those things are being shaken and I wanna come back to my first love. I wanna say, Jesus, I want you to be real to me. I want you to forgive me. I want a brand new start of serving you. But that's you in just a moment. I'm gonna ask you to respond to what you're sensing. Maybe you're here today and you said, you know, I've never, ever stepped over the line of faith and said, not only do I believe in the existence of God, but I believe in Jesus, that he is the Son of God. I believe he really did die for me so that I could have eternal life. And I'm a sinner, I deserve judgment, but I'm asking God to save me, give me eternal life. He will, if you'll reach out and accept the gift. All over the room, those online, wherever you are, right now, if you know you need to get your life right with God, I wanna lead you in a prayer, but I want you to take the first step. If that's you, wherever you're at, if you're in the room, raise your hand right now. Just say that's me, pray for me. I need to get my life right with God. Please, pray for me. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. I'm looking all over the room. If you've not raised it, raise it right now. You're not alone, I promise you. Thank you. You're not alone. Online, you're not alone. You can indicate right there in the chat. Just say, that's me, pray for me. Young man in the back, I see your hand. You can put your hands down. Here's what the Bible says. If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart, we will be saved. So I'm just gonna lead every one of us in this prayer. And God's about to smile upon your life. He's about to save you, come running in and rescuing you right now. Say this with me, say, everyone say it out loud. Say, Heavenly Father, I come in Jesus' name and I'm giving my whole life to you. You can have it all. The mess, the mistakes, control, it all belongs to you. Jesus, forgive me for my sins. Come into my heart, be my Lord and Savior and teach me how to follow you. God, thank you for loving me, saving me and giving me hope once again. From this day forward, I belong to Jesus. I am a child of God. I have a destiny. I was not made for the darkness. I was made for the light. And I will arise and I will shine for Jesus. Amen and amen.