 I am choosing to go, I am choosing to follow Jesus. I am choosing to obey the great commission. I am choosing to love the way that he first loved us. I will not settle for anything less. I am choosing to be a disciple of Jesus. There we go. Good morning everybody. It's good to see you. Those of you who are joining us online from home or wherever you are. We welcome you in Portage. We love you guys. It's good to be with you this morning. As you just saw, a big give this year is going to be massive and it's gonna be uniquely different than it's ever been before. One of the things that we heard early on during COVID, this pandemic period was from our missionaries. Unfortunately, how many of the churches that supported global ministries around the world missionaries, actually one of the first things that churches began to cut out of their budgets was their missions giving. And that was absolutely inconceivable for us. We actually, it's one of the priorities that we have is when Jane and I planted Radiant Church years ago, the very first check we ever gave was a missions check and the commitment that we made was we are never, ever, ever gonna be so financially strapped that we can't make missions a huge priority. We believe that's what the church has called to do is the Great Commission. And so that got the wheel spinning about how we could not just help strengthen or sustain our missionaries globally, but what if in the middle of one of the most unique years, one of the most difficult years, we actually were able to make deeper inroads into global frontiers and to give our global partners and our missionaries unprecedented fuel to do things that otherwise they would be unable to do. Because let me just tell you right now, it's not just in the US, but around the world, this has changed the whole landscape. And there are actually doors that are opening for our global partners that have never been open before. They just need fuel to get it done. And so we wanna turn this whole season around and not just get through it, but to actually advance in the middle of it. And so the whole idea of this global ministry's stimulus was Pastor Joel Dorlag's idea, our mission's pastor. And so what that is is, as you just saw, we're gonna be giving, in addition to our regular support, all of our global partners and all of our local ministries that we support, like Gospel Mission, here in our own city, Urban Alliance. We just did $25,000 towards Warm Kids Program to provide 500 children with cold weather gear here in Southwest Michigan this year. That was in advance of doing this because cold weather was supposed to show up in November, but instead June showed up. But these kids are gonna have warm gear because of you. We've already taken that step. So on your way out today, if you're at either one of our campuses, we have our Big Give brochures, our magazines that talk about what those opportunities are. You can pick that up if you're joining us online. There's a PDF link on our website that you can download that and you can view that. And we're just asking everybody to be praying about that. This is our opportunity to make a big difference through the Big Give. And so we love that Radiant is a missions giving church and it's exciting every single year to see what God does. So thank you for praying and joining us in that. If you have your Bibles, open them with me today to Acts chapter two. Title of this message, which is part of our disciple series. I've entitled it The Church Revival and This Cultural Moment. The church revival and this cultural moment. The church, we understand what that is. Revival means God putting the paddles of passion, heaven's life and energy on the chest of the church and bringing us back to our original state of being in the midst of what I've called this cultural moment because so many things right now are shifting and moving around and so many questions are being asked. What does this mean? Are we living in end times? I think the answer to that is yes. What are the implications of that? How should we then live knowing what we know and seeing what we see? How do we respond to that? And what is God's purpose for the church in this hour? I think before God will ever bring an awakening across our nation where lost people are drawn to Jesus, first, God is going to revive and re-strengthen his people, the church. And it's, how many know that right now? God is in heaven and he is not thrown off by anything that is happening, even when we are thrown off. Isn't that the good news that God is bigger than we are? I go back to the theology of Veggie Tales. God is bigger than the boogeyman. He's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV and he's watching over you and me. That's just good theology to know that God is bigger. So we have to keep that in mind and then we also have to allow that to lead us to the question. Okay, God, if everything is changing around us, what are you calling us to be living in the midst of this cultural moment? So that's what I wanna talk to you about. Look with me at Acts chapter two, beginning in verse number 42. Verse number 42, we're gonna read down to verse number 47 and it says, and they, that's the church, the early church, devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. And awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to awe as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes and receiving their food with gladness and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. So this is a description of what the early church, the very beginning, the first church in Jerusalem looked like in the middle of their cultural moment. This is the beginning of the church. Jesus has been crucified just outside the city gates of Jerusalem. God has raised him from the dead. In Acts chapter one, you see that resurrected Jesus. I mean, Jesus who can walk through walls, Jesus who has overcome death, Jesus that is radiating the life of God teaches the disciples about the kingdom of God for 40 days. They literally go through a 40 day boot camp on the kingdom of God. Can you imagine, by the way, if you were invited to a master class for 40 days and God was gonna teach that, how many would sign up for that class? I know I would. The disciples went through a boot camp for 40 days where Jesus teaches them about the kingdom of God, which was his primary message. Jesus went about declaring the kingdom of God, the rule in the reign of God in the midst of history, that God sees the broken systems of our world and he has a plan for breaking into it, redeeming it, restoring it and reclaiming it. Jesus was the first step in that. Jesus broke into history and established the kingdom the first time he came and then he left his church here, his disciples here, to continue that work knowing that there's gonna come a day when Jesus is going to return and put a capstone on it and consummate and fulfill the kingdom of God in its totality. That day is still to come. You and I as the church, just like the book of Acts, are kingdom people who live in the now of the kingdom but the not yet of the kingdom. And so we live in the midst of a cultural moment where things are broken, where there's division and there's turmoil and there's chaos. And if we're not careful, we can oftentimes convince ourselves that the times we're living in are vastly different either for the good or for the bad than any other times that other people have lived in. But let me tell you that the early church in Acts chapter two lived in a tumultuous time as well. They were living in Jerusalem that was occupied territory of the Roman Empire. They had religious fights. They had the Jewish zealots that were trying to overthrow the government. There was rampant crime. The average life expectancy of a man in first century Judea was probably 45, 47 years old. I mean, there were all the things that you and I are enduring. And there was tension, less than one generation from this moment, less than 40 years, 250,000 plus soldiers of Rome would come to the city and actually destroy it, kill thousands of Jewish people, take the rest into captivity and sell them as slaves in the Roman Empire because of their rebellions. And in the middle of the religious community of Judaism you had the Pharisees on one side arguing with the Sadducees on the other side. So he had division that way. You had division this way. And in the middle of all of that moment God plants this thing called the church. Acts chapter two, God poured his spirit out on the first disciples, 120 in an upper room. Think about this, 2,000 years later you and I are a part of something that began in a room in the Middle East during a massively tumultuous time with just 120 uneducated men and women. And now there's two billion people alive on the planet who worship Jesus and millions more already in heaven. I mean, when Jesus said he would build the church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it, he meant it. And this is where it all began, Acts chapter two. He pours out his Holy Spirit. Peter stands up, gives the first all to call. 3,000 people say, yes, I need Jesus. I want forgiveness. I want to serve God. And they joined the church. Their first baptismal service. 3,000 people got baptized. I mean, think about that, that's crazy. And the church was born. And what we just read in Acts chapter two is a description or a pattern of how the church looked right from the beginning. It's a blueprint. It's a pattern of how they lived in the middle of all the crazy. It says that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to prayer and to breaking a bread and to fellowship. And it says that even those who were in the midst of it, verse 43, ah, came upon every soul. Because they were watching what God was doing in their midst and going, can you believe that we're a part of this thing? And look at what God is doing. And out of that came supernatural generosity. They're taking care of one another. They're meeting together. And what's most interesting is how they were viewed by people from the outside. It says that they had favor with all the people. People were looking at this community of Jesus disciples who when everybody else is at war with one another, when everybody else is scared, when everybody else is trying to overthrow things or get away or just hunker down, they were banding together in unity. They were standing in awe that heaven was breaking through into the earth, through them, they were taking care of one another. And the world was looking back and going, who are these people? Who are these people? Because what they were observing was that in the middle of their crazy, God was planting an embassy that carried the culture of heaven on the earth for the whole world to see. And let me tell you, that's exactly what God wants the church to continually be. Is an expression of the culture of heaven being lived through God's people in the midst of crazy so that the world can look at the church and see that we are uniquely different. How many of you have ever traveled to another nation? You've gone overseas to another country, another continent. You ever ever traveled to any place? I'm not talking about Canada. Canada is like our backyard. I mean, if you've ever traveled to another nation, you'll go to these places and you know, oftentimes you can experience culture shock if you're there for very long because you realize our standards as Americans are vastly different. It's like when I go, Jane and I are not campers. When we go camping, our camping is like the Marriott courtyards. That's our camping. And when you go to other countries, oftentimes you'll say, oh, I'm looking for a nice hotel. Oh, that hotel's nice. And if you go to another country, sometimes their hotel is not, their idea of a nice hotel is not our idea of a nice hotel. And their standards for living are not necessarily our standards for living. How many of you know we are incredibly blessed? We have so much to be thankful for. And church, I just wanna remind us, let's be thankful to God no matter what, that we live in a incredible, incredible blessed nation. Because when you go to other places, you realize not everybody has, when you go to India, people literally live in cardboard boxes. And that's culture shock. Or if you go to another nation, how about this? When you go there, oftentimes you feel really out of place because people are speaking the language that you can't understand. Or they have customs that are not your customs. It's like, that's really weird. It stands out to you. There's just certain things that people do. Like when Jane and I were in India, Brother Abraham took us to this one town. And we were dedicating one of the orphanages that we built through the Big Give. And at the end of it, it was blazing hot. So when you go to India, Abraham expects you to wear a suit. Guys, the only time I wear a suit is for funerals, weddings, and when I preach in India, that's it. So it's 115 degrees. I'm in a black suit. I'm laying the cornerstone for this school, this orphanage, I'm down in a hole. And it's like 25 degrees hotter in the hole. I'm surrounded with people. It's like a microwave. And I get out of it and I am just so hot. And I'm thirsty. And we walked to this tent where they had like a little reception. And he hands me this tin cup and I look inside and it's buttermilk. It's like this buttermilk with curry. I was like, what is this? I took one sip of it and I'm like, can I have a Coke? Because how many know? Nothing says America more than a Coca-Cola. And you can go anywhere on the world and you just say Coke, they know what you're talking about. Why? It's American culture. Buttermilk, they were all like, mm, drink it now. I'm like, because culture, cultures are different. But also when you travel to other nations, you will oftentimes see on one of the major streets in the capital, something called an embassy. And an embassy is the sovereign property in soil of whatever nation owns that embassy. So like, again, when we were in India, they have embassy mile. So you drive down and here in this gated community in the middle of Delhi, the 23 million population city in India, you'll see this building that says embassy of the United States and it's gated. And even though it's in India, it's actually soil and property of America. When you go through those gates, it's the same thing as being back in the United States. The laws of America apply in that land, the language applies, the food applies, the rights, the protection of being a citizen. India can't break through those gates and have any authority or do anything to violate you in the midst of that embassy. Why? Because it is technically American territory. And the same is true in the United States. We have Chinese embassy and the Russian embassies, but that's Chinese soil. And the culture is expressed in the constitution of those nations applies within that embassy because that embassy represents a carrier of that country. Now, here's what I want you to get this picture of because Acts chapter two is speaking about the church early on looking vastly different than the world around us. So much so that the world was looking in at these Christians in the church and in this community of faith that erupts out of this crazy tumultuous times and they're curious. And it says that actually the Christians had favor because of how radically different they were living from the outside world. And I want you to get this image because the church from Jesus' perspective is the embassy on the earth of the kingdom of heaven. The church were meant to be the embassy of the kingdom of God on the earth. The constitution of heaven is God's word. The rights and the promises of God are yes and amen in him, in the church. Our language is the language of love. It's the language of truth. It's the language of the spirit. We come from multiple different nations and people groups and backgrounds, but yet we're saved by one savior and that unifies us. This is the image that we need to have of the church and it's God's way of expressing the culture of heaven in a way that the world couldn't look in at us as disciples of Jesus and observe what heaven is like. Because if you talk about heaven to the average person, they've got all kinds of ideas about God. They've got all kinds of ideas about what heaven is like. Angels are like, but we are the ones who are supposed to be expressing that. Carriers of the culture of heaven. And so the way that we treat one another, the way that we respond to God, the way that we live our lives is supposed to establish a pattern and live in such a way that we are recognized first and foremost before anything else as citizens of heaven. Colossians 3.20, if they'll put that scripture up on the screen, Colossians 3.20 says that our citizenship isn't heaven. Apparently they don't have that verse. Colossians 3.20 says that our citizenship is in heaven. If you're a Christian today, raise your hand. If you're a Christian, you believe in Jesus, raise your hand. Okay, can I just tell you, even more than you being a citizen of this nation, you are eternally a citizen of heaven. That's your true citizenship. Your eternal passport is stamped child of God, kingdom of God. Now you might have a temporary passport. It'll last you 50, 60, 70 years while you're here on this planet. But as soon as you die, you cease to be a citizen. But you will never not be a citizen of the kingdom of God. Do you know that the Bible actually says that you and I in 2 Corinthians 5.20, it says we are ambassadors for Christ. What's an ambassador? An ambassador is somebody who lives in an embassy and represents the matters of diplomacy from the kingdom or the nation, the country that they come from. So we have ambassadors in all of our embassies that relate to the people of the culture that the embassy is in. You are not just a citizen of heaven from heaven's perspective, but you are also an ambassador to the world, pleading with the world, pleading with people that are far from Christ to be reconciled to God. That's diplomacy on behalf of our King Jesus. So we gotta get a different mentality about who we are. You're actually royalty in the kingdom of God. You're an ambassador, you've been sent on a mission. If I were to take any one of us at either one of our campuses or anybody even online that's joining us, that's a follower of Jesus. And I were to say, hey, here's what we're gonna do. For the next two years, I'm going to send you to, let's say, Papua New Guinea and you're gonna be a missionary there for the next two years. We're gonna support you, we're gonna send you. I want you to go and I want you to be a missionary. Immediately you would have a missionary mentality. Well, first of all, you'd have to say yes or we'd just tranquilize you and put you on a plane when you arrive in Papua New Guinea and there you go. But if you went as a missionary, your mindset would immediately change overnight from how you think right now to how you would think then. Here's what you would do. You'd begin to think, okay, if I'm gonna be a missionary, I need to learn the language, I need to know the history, I need to know the culture and the context, why? So that when I get there, I know how to present Jesus. Your prayer life would go to another level. You would be studying the scripture so that you knew what you believed and how to communicate it in a way that they culturally could understand it. You would be very cautious when you arrived there about where you went. You would purposely build relationships for the purpose of leading them to Christ. You would spend time with other people strategizing about how to reach new people. Why? So that you could be most effective in that context. That's how you would do it. You wouldn't just go hunker down and watch American television and drink Coke and wait your two years out. That's a failed missionary. If we had a missionary like that, we would fire them. Now that's what you would do if I sent you to another nation. What we need in the American church today is for every Christian to realize I am a missionary sent from heaven as an ambassador to the North American 21st century context. Your citizenship is in heaven. God sent you to earth as a missionary and the mission field that he planted you on is called Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's called West Michigan. It's called the United States of America. Wherever you live, you are a missionary and let that sink in because that will change the way that we plan. It will change the way that we love our lives. It will change the way that we prioritize things and it will change, listen, the pattern of how we live out our lives and look more like the culture of heaven. When we look at this passage in Acts chapter two, we see that they did several things that were how they developed and how they lived out and express the culture of the kingdom of God. You guys okay? You guys are really quiet. You're soaking it all in. I'm about ready to send all of you to Papua New Guinea. So let's get fired up. Okay, number one, look at what they did. It says, number one, they devoted themselves instead of neglecting. This is where the difference comes in. They devoted themselves. The new King James says they continued in and what did they do in the four things? The apostles teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. This is what they did. They were part of what Jesus is building on earth, the culture of the kingdom and it's like, if we're going to be the people of God, we need to devote ourselves to these things. Number one, we need to devote ourselves to the apostles doctrine. What is that? We need to know scripture. Why? Because that's the constitution of the kingdom. We need to know the constitution of the kingdom of God. Well, what is that? It's the apostles teaching, IE translation, Bible. We gotta know it. Well, it's hard. That's why you devote yourself to it. You devote yourself to it. It's like, I need to grow in this. I need to get this one because the kingdom of God is breaking into the earth through the church. We are his embassy. I'm an ambassador. I need to know this and I'm going to devote myself to it. If we don't see ourselves like that, we won't devote ourselves. What we'll do is neglect it. And part of the problem that we have in the American churches, not that we have lack of Bibles, it's that we have lack of devotion to understanding it. So we have biblical illiteracy, why? Because we don't see ourselves as part of the culture of the kingdom. We see this place as our home and whatever place you identify as your home, you will devote yourself to learning its culture. When I was a young man in youth, well, let's see, in the youth group, I was in high school, in the 80s, this will date me. There was a Christian group that was really popular, a Christian contemporary music group called Petra. Anybody remember Petra? About five people, because we're the old ones. A group called Petra. If I would have asked that question 20 years ago, every hand would have went up. But today it's like, well, maybe. So, but Petra had this song and I remember it when it came out in the 80s, how it helped re-calibrate my perspective. And it was a song called Not of This World. And it was based on scripture and it said we are strangers, we are aliens, we are not of this world. And the whole song was this context, that I'm a pilgrim passing through this world, but my real home is in heaven. Whatever you consider to be your homeland, you will dedicate your devotion to learning the culture of it. If I'm from heaven, I wanna know about heaven. I wanna know the constitution. So they devote themselves to the apostles' teaching. Number two, fellowship, which means brotherhood and love and relationships. If you're my family, because we're all the body of Christ and we're part of the household of God, then I wanna, I need to be together, we need this fellowship thing. The word fellowship is more than just hanging out, it's actually spending time to one another. Brotherly love, we need, Koinonia is the Greek word, we need that fellowship. Why? Because if you're in another country and you go out into that culture outside of the embassy, you have to think premeditatively how to operate in that world, but you can relax when you're around people of the same culture. When I come back in, it's like, whew. All right, sit down and we can talk about things. Why? Because we have the same context, same perspective, same moral vision of life and this world, and so we can come together. Those are your true friends. Then you go outside and you engage in the world, but the reality is the people that really know you are the people that have the same allegiances that you have. That's what fellowship is, and then it says breaking a bread. How many know Christians can eat better than anybody? I grew up when I was in church, potlucks. You had church and then you had potlucks afterwards. Anybody grew up in a church like that in the church basement? Come on, somebody brought that taco salad with the saggy Doritos, the jello mold with the pineapple ring in it. Come on, you know what I'm talking about. The buns with the ham and the cheese, it's like every funeral and every potluck had those in them. And you've got the baked beans and the crock pod and the coffee percolator brewing and tables all set up, and you sat down because Christia, there's something spiritual about sharing meals together. I mean, prayer is awesome. They devoted themselves to prayer because prayer is the actual legislation of the will of our King onto the earth. That's what Jesus taught us to pray. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. What is that? That's prayer. That's saying my king is making a decree and he has put me on the earth as an ambassador. And I'm saying yes and amen to his will. Prayer is the language. It's the dialogue between heaven and earth and they devoted themselves to it. Notice what they didn't do. They didn't neglect these things. What else did they do? They emphasized togetherness. This is the pattern of the kingdom. Instead of dividing apart, they drew together. I want you to listen to me, church. There is at work in our world, a demonic spirit of division that wants to divide for the purpose of isolating and ultimately destroying. The devil knows the way you destroy an individual is you isolate them. And the way that you isolate them is through fear and deception. The devil knows that the church united is far too powerful for hell to withstand. And so what he does is he divides. He gets us isolated. Do you know that during the pandemic of the last seven months early on, one of the most, I think, one of the most disastrous aspects of things like a lockdown that nobody talks about is that from March until June of this year, one out of every four young adults from ages 18 to 27 contemplated suicide. Nobody talks about that. Why did that happen? It's because the way that God wired us is we need togetherness. We need togetherness. We need to be together. It's not just Christians, it's our human wiring and even more so in the church. It's our strengthening. And I think more so now and on into the future. The enemy's gonna use every means he can to divide the church, divide us over theological things. I'm not talking about major issues. I'm talking about distinctions. If he can use politics to divide us and make us hate one another, he will use it. If he can use fear tactics to divide us and keep us away from one another, he will use it. Notice what it says here. It says in verse number 46, in day by day, attending the temple and in their homes, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with gladness. And it says that their togetherness was expressed in generosity. God was doing something so powerful that instead of people looking out for their own self-interest, because that's what fear does. Fear says, I gotta take care of me and we isolate ourselves from one another. Fear says, I don't like you and I don't agree with you. You're not right. I'm right. And so therefore I've gotta be divided from you. And what happens is we get divided and we become survival mode instead of when the spirit of God is poured out and we recognize we need one another. We're connected to one another. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10, it says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of some, but actually even more so as we see the day of the Lord approaching. It's no accident that we're living in the end times and the devil's working overtime to actually shut churches down and to isolate us. Why? It's because in the end times the church actually has an assignment in the earth and we're to be filled with the spirit of faith, not the spirit of fear. And if you think that this was just a one off, there's all kinds of things that demonically the enemy is going to release in the earth to get believers offended at one another, to get them afraid of one another, to deceive us, to isolate us, to get us into self-sufficiency instead of, hey, what are the needs that you have? How can I help you? Because these guys in the early church were not looking at self-preservation and survival. In the middle of they're crazy. You know what they were doing? You have a need and they'll go sell my boat so that I can help you with your need. Oh, you don't have groceries? Well, guess what? I'm gonna go get groceries and I'm gonna deliver them to you. Some of the most beautiful testimonies that we have at Radiant Church over the last several months have been the expression of generosity that I've seen. In the middle of a time when a lot of people are just motivated by fear, scared, listen, I'm not saying that there wasn't things to be concerned about and aren't. I think we need to be cautious and I think we need to walk wisely in this world but there's a difference between that and being motivated by fear. But I saw people literally calling one another, taking care of one another, taking care of financial needs that people have delivering groceries, taking care of kids. I'll tell you, this is what they were doing because it was togetherness. They loved one another. And church, this is the pattern moving forward. This is the pattern. I think at some point we're just gonna have to, we're just gonna have to draw closer together more than we ever had before because we need it. Jesus did not create you and I to experience the fullness of the kingdom and the purpose of our life just by ourselves. This is not Lone Ranger, we need one another. We need one another. I don't care if it's at a watch party in your home and you're just like, well, we don't wanna come into the building but we're gonna have three or four other families and we're gonna get together and worship. That's great, that's togetherness but we're gonna come in or pastor, we're ready to come back and we're coming back to church like those who are in both of our campuses on every weekend. And by the way, if you're at home and you're afraid to come back, it's safe. It's okay, you can do that but if you still feel led, let's not turn church into couch church where it's just me in a television and my comforts and my conveniences and I don't need anybody else. We need one another. We need fellowship. We need to be in a position where I can serve others and I can be cared for where somebody can give a word of encouragement and I can receive it. Where I actually worship and hear my voice blended with other people's voices. The devil says, don't sing. Jesus says, sing my praise. The world says, don't get together. The Lord says, draw near even more than you've ever drawn near before. We need one another because none of us are the body of Christ. All of us are members of the body and we need one another. This is the pattern of heaven. And the last thing that I'll just focus on here as we're closing is that they elevated their perspective. What was their perspective? Look at what it says. It says that they were verse 47, praising God, having favor with all the people. Praising God, what is that? Elevating our perspective. Instead of being people of criticism of man, what if we were to elevate our perspective and be people that are known for being praisers of God? In other words, our praise, our thanksgiving, our gratitude, our perspective is higher. Paul said to the Colossians, think on heavenly things from a heavenly perspective. That's where we gotta be. What would happen if out of our mouth, the way that we lived our lives, we were known by our praise of God. Praise God. Worship became a deeper part of our lives. Gratitude became a greater part of our lives. Listen, you don't have to practice to be critical. How many have experienced that? It just comes natural to us. I'll be the first one to tell you. My nature is to be critical and judgmental. You know what the antidote to that is? Praise. Thanksgiving. When I do that, what happens is my perspective lifts up. And when the world sees the church in our togetherness, in our devotion to the things of the kingdom and our perspective being lifted, I'll tell you the world will have favor with the world because the world's gonna say like, I wanna be a part of that. Tell me more about Jesus. What is it about you guys? How you love one another? You take care of one another. You're constantly praising God no matter what's going on in your life. You're following this Jesus. It's like, you guys are like from another world. Yeah, we are. We believe in aliens. On Q and A on Tuesday on Instagram, I get all these questions. The number one question I get asked every single time that we do red hot, that I do Q and A on Facebook, and that I do Q and A on Instagram is, do you believe in aliens from another world? I'm gonna answer it once and for all. Yes, it's you. If you're a Jesus follower and a disciple, you are an alien and a stranger, you are from another world. And the vehicle that you got here through, the UFO, is the church. So welcome to the mothership. You've been beamed up and filled with the Holy Spirit. Come on, let's stand up together. I want us to finish this morning by praising him and devoting ourselves to following Jesus. I've asked the worship team to actually take and sing this song and it's both praise and it is a commitment of our devotion. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back. The world behind me crossed before me. There's ever been a time that we need to calibrate our hearts to this reality. It's right now church. So I want you to just close your eyes and bow your heads with me. I'm just gonna pray a prayer and then we're gonna just finish this morning singing this song. Lord Jesus, today we stand as your people. Lord, help us to devote ourselves to the things that really matter. We wanna demonstrate. We wanna demonstrate to the world, your kingdom in word and in power. Holy Spirit, come and flood and fill us with the reality and the perspective of the kingdom of God and the king of all kings. We've decided to follow you, Jesus. Solidify this statement in our hearts. And Jesus did.