Hope

Hope

 It's amazing what God has done. It's exciting to be a part of a church that's changing the world, one community at a time. I wanna say thank you to everyone who's ever prayed for a mission trip, ever given to our missions fund, ever decided to go, over 500 of you decided that, this summer. We get to be a part of bringing hope to the world.

 

So thank you for that. Even as we talk about impacting your world, I think there's many of us who looked at the title of the teaching today and maybe even seeing this video and you're also a little intimidated, maybe you feel like, I can't make a difference. I think there are so many of us who feel like, I can't impact God's world, I can't believe I'm here today in this teaching.

Hope 

And you know why you don't feel like you can make a difference? You know why you don't feel like you can change the world? Because you've been watching way too many Olympics this month. Okay, that's what happened to you, all right? We just watched way too many Olympic games, we stayed up way too late watching games, we didn't know existed, watching these peak athletes at the prime of their careers breaking records, winning gold medals and in our impression, changing the world and then we stayed up too late watching the Olympics, we went to bed, we woke up and we looked in the mirror.

 

Well, not really an Olympian, I don't think I can really make an impact, I don't think I can make a difference. But we're gonna talk about the fact that the opposite is true, everyone listening to me today at every campus, over the Internet, you can impact God's world. I'm gonna ask you to turn to your Bibles to the Book of Judges, if you don't have a Bible at every campus, you have a worship guide, I'd encourage you to turn to that and find the key text for the day, also a place you can follow along and take notes if you'd like to.

 How to Have Hope in a Hopeless Situation

As you're finding Judges, just a little bit of background, we're gonna meet a guy named Gideon today. And Gideon really felt like many of us. He didn't feel like he could change the condition of the people around him. And he had good reasons for that because his people, the Israelite's, had decided to go their own way, to disobey God.

 

And they were enduring the consequences of those choices. And God hand of Blessing was off of his people, and they had really found the Medianites coming into their territory, terrorizing them. And this is a dark time in the whole history of Israel. And a discouraging time in the life of Gideon, and in the middle of all of this God comes to Gideon in his dark days and his discouraging state, and tells Gideon he is gonna be the one to rescue the people.

 

He is gonna be the one to change their lives. Gideon is going be the one to impact God's world. And we'll pick up the story in Judges chapter six. And look at verse 11 at what Gideon is doing. Now, we find the angel coming down to talk to him. In the middle of verse 11 we pick up the story.

 

It says, Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press to hide, to hide the grain from the Medianites. Verse 12, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty hero the Lord is with you. And now let's just stop here. That's funny. Your version might even say, Hail mighty warrior, which means, you're the champion of the battle.

 

Hail mighty hero, or you can just see Gideon now, can't you? He's hiding in a wine press. And the angel says, you're a mighty hero. And he says, shh, can you keep it down? The Medianites might hear you. I'm trying to hide here. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just a normal guy.

Hopelessness 

I'm just trying to make it through the day. Gideon felt like many of us where, I'm just trying to handle my own problems and I've got plenty of them. I'm hunkered down in my own situations, I'm hiding from the needs of other people, and I don't have time to even think about, and I definitely don't feel like a hero.

 

But even in the midst of that, we're reminded of this truth in Gideon. And we need to come back to this truth as well. If you're taking notes, Gideon had to remember and so do we, that you are designed to make a difference. God actually wired you up to impact. God actually has a plan, and He wired you from the beginning, when you were in your mother's womb.

 

Deep inside of all of us, there's a desire for our lives to count. And if we're honest, even if we don't feel like heroes, we wanna be one. There's something inside of all of us that says, you know what, I want my life to count. I wanna know that when off this planet, the world is a little better place because I was here.

 

Well we all wanna, deep down inside, a mission like Gideon where, I wanna be a hero in somebody's life, I wanna know that I did something to make a difference to help someone else. I think that's why so many people walk through this life frustrated because we don't get in on God's plan of making a difference, we listen to the culture and the culture says, hey if you wanna be satisfied in life, get lots of money.

 

And there's nothing wrong with money but we go after that path and if money was really the key to satisfaction, doesn't that mean that the wealthiest people in our culture would be the happiest people? I mean because they've got all the money to gratify every whim they have. But the wealthiest people aren't the happiest people.

 

Do you guys watch reality TV? Okay, they're not the happiest people, they are a train wreck. There's something else out there, there's something that brings satisfaction. If it's not money, what is it? Gideon is about to learn and be reminded like all of us that the true satisfaction and fulfillment in life is found when you connect with what you were wired to do, help other people.

 

Because what is a hero anyway? The true community heroes that we have all around us are people that just decided, I'm gonna help somebody else, I'm gonna sacrifice some things in my life for the benefit of other people around me. Gideon was called to that but so are we as New Testament Christians.

Hope Quotes from the Bible 

Those of us who've decided to follow Christ, I love how the living Bible translates Ephesians 2:10. We're designed to make a difference. Here's what it says, it is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus. Long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.

 

Now, this is really a life changing concept right here. Here's what God wants you to do, He wants me to do. He wants to take your unique personality, how He's wired you and you to actually make a difference in somebody's else's life and if you don't hear anything else I say today, don't miss this.

 

God has uniquely wired you to reach somebody and listen, you can reach them better than anybody else on the planet because you're uniquely designed to do so, to help somebody else. You're wired up uniquely, your personality, what you've been through, all the hurts in your life, your experiences to reach somebody else and make a difference in their lives, and by the way what's the biggest difference you can make in somebody's life? Telling them about Jesus, showing them Christ, being the hands and feet in the heart of Christ and verbally sharing with them that Christ has made a difference in you and helping them find the same difference in their lives.

 

It's not hard to illustrate this, to convince you that we are wired to make a difference, let me just get you to think about this. Think about, is there somebody in your life that God used to help you take steps toward Him? Here is another way to ask it, if you are a Christ follower, can you identify one person in your memory that God used to help you come to know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? If you can think about that one person at all the campuses, over the Internet, would you just raise your hands right now? You can think of a person that helped you toward Christ.

 

Yes, a 100% participation. Let's close in prayer. We can all think of a hero, that person is a hero to you they helped you find Jesus. But you are still pushing back and think okay yeah, well they a hero to me but I cant be a hero to somebody else. I can't help \n somebody else find Christ.

 

You are pushing back just like Gideon did. Because in Judges 6 what happens is Gideon he hears this call to be a hero to rescue the people in his life, but he doesn't answer the call right away, he does what many of us do. He pushes back. He kinda deflects the call, he starts to be negative, as a matter of fact he complains and after his rant, after his pity party, after he gives God all the reasons why he shouldn't be the hero, God comes back to the call.

 

So let's just pick up the story in Judges chapter 6 go down to verse 14, and verse 14, notice what it says. It says, then the Lord turned to him and said, go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Medianites, I am sending you, you cannot get any clearer than this call.

How to Have Hope 

But notice what he does verse 15, but Lord, Gideon replied, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, I am the least in my entire family. The Lord said to him, I will be with you. You see if you're gonna impact God's world, you're gonna have to realize you were wired to make a difference but you're also gonna have to do this, you're gonna have to get rid of all the excuses and the doubts.

 

Now listen, it's very normal to doubt, Jesus had doubters among His closest friends, His followers, the disciples, even Thomas was known as the doubter. So doubting doesn't disqualify you or it may, thank goodness, but we ought to get rid of that doubt, get rid of those excuses, and it's normal, it's normal to think, I'm not an Olympic Christian, I'm just a normal person.

 

Impacting God's world, that's for the Olympic Christians, that's not for me, and it's very normal to give excuses. What excuses have you given? You've got good ones, don't you? God you can't use me because I'm just not good enough person, God you can't use me because I'm not smart enough, I don't know enough about the Bible Bible, I'm not cool enough.

 

I haven't been a Christian long enough, I don't know what your excuses are, maybe your excuses are like Gideon's. You notice what Gideon does? He throws his whole family under the bus, did you catch this? He says, I don't know if you know this, but my family is messed up, okay? I've got a messed up family background, I don't know if you noticed this before but my family is messed up but I'm the most messed up of all the messed up people in my family, I'm the least of all of them.

 

I mean, God, surely somebody can do a better job than me Lord. He had to get rid off all these excuses and Gideon finally has to realize that he's got a choice to make and I hope you realize this today as well. Listen, God is not waiting for Gideon To get capable, He's waiting for Gideon to get available.

 

He's not looking down and saying, are you ready yet? Have you gone to seminary yet? He's looking down and says, are you ready? Cuz I've wired you for greatness, I've wired you to make a difference, you were literally designed by me to help somebody else, are you ready to go all in? Are you ready to give yourself completely to this rescue mission? I love how the New Testament puts it in Romans 6:13, again, the Living Bible puts it this way, give yourselves completely to God, every part of you, notice this, you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes.

 

This is beautiful, think about this, God wants you to surrender to Him in such a way that you say, God, if you've designed me for a purpose, I'm ready to get in on it. Some of you are frustrated not because God didn't design you for greatness, you're just out of position on the team.

 

You see, you don't want to use a hammer to staple papers, are you with me? You wanna put your life into the hands of the one that created you for an incredible, specific purpose and let Him use you to reach out to others. But you have to completely surrender to Him. Gideon had to get out of the hole and thankfully he did, he finally got rid of all the excuses and said, I'm going all in, he got out of his hole and being hankered down in his situation and he said, God I'm gonna look around.

 

Who needs you? Where's the rescue mission I'm gonna get in on that, he had to give up his comfort, he had to give up his plans, he had to give up what his dreams were, he had to give up even people's opinion of him because if you read the story, which I hope you read the rest of the story this week, it really seems like he is not being successful, he goes from thousands of people in the army to only a few hundreds.

 

In the eyes of the world his rescue mission surely isn't gonna be that great, he's not gonna be a great influence, he didn't have a lot of people around him. But Gideon leans in and says God whatever you're gonna do, and however it is you're gonna do it I'm completely surrendering to you.

 

Have you come to that place? Listen as Christ followers, as New Testament Christians how easy should it be for us to lean all in to what God has for us? I love how C.S. Lewis puts this, very Paleolithic thinker and writer for the Christian faith but I had this quote this week I wanna put it on the screen, it just impacted me and it really goes with what we're talking about here.

 

C.S.Lewis said, I quote, the only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important. You see Gideon had to come to that place, this isn't a moderately important rescue mission. We as New Testament Christians have to come to a place where we can't just go through life and think that just going to church for an hour is checking the box and then we can do whatever we wanna do.

 

I mean just think about it friends, listen, if this isn't true, if Jesus really didn't come from heaven or earth, if He really wasn't who He said he was, if He really didn't die on the cross, if He really didn't come back to life and offer us eternity in heaven, if He really didn't bless our lives and allow us to receive Him as our Lord and Savior then listen, why don't we just close up shop and go watch Netflix? What are we doing here today? But if it is true, if He did come from heaven to Earth, if He really is who He said He is.

 

If He really did die on the cross for our sins, if He really did comeback to life on the third day, if He really is coming again and if He really is gonna take us to a place called Heaven, then surely we have to stand up today and say I'm gonna completely give my life to that.

 

My God, I owe you my ultimate allegiance Jesus for paying the ultimate sacrifice for me. I'm going all in, no excuses, no doubt because you've wired me to impact your world. When I was growing Up I thought about missions and our church talked about missions just like we do here. And we used to stay in three words, pray give and go.

 

But when I was growing up and a new Christian I thought that was multiple choice. Well let's see, I'll pray. I'll do that. I'm not gonna give, I'm definitely not gonna go. Next question. Where's the next Step? Even though Gideon realizes, hey Gideon you have to pray for your people, you're gonna have to give everything that you've got and you're gonna have to go out, you're gonna have to do this.

 

I think sometimes we're hesitant to get on mission with God, everywhere because we're scared. Listen, some of us if we are honest, we're scared to completely surrender to God because we just are so convinced that he will send us to Africa. If I go all in with God he's gonna send me to another country, I know it's gonna be China, I don't even like Chinese food, he's gonna send me there and its gonna be Cuba I just know it.

 

I wanna encourage you today statistically it is very low on the scale that God is gonna send you to another country for the rest of your life, just statistically speaking. He's probably not gonna, He'll send you on a mission trip maybe but He's probably not gonna send you to Africa, but it will be scarier than that.

 

He's probably gonna send you across the street. >> [ LAUGH] >>In your own neighborhood, to them. He's probably gonna send you across your office to that person that works right down a few desks from you, He's probably gonna send you right down the hallway of your classes that you go to at school, He's probably gonna send you to your Facebook friends and realize that you can leverage your influence even on social media for impacting His word.

 

He's probably gonna tell you of a few names that you can write down to say, God I'm gonna start praying for them and I'm gonna give them a verbal witness and I'm gonna go to them and invite them and God I'm gonna be all in to this mission, no more excuses and no more doubt. You see one of the things I'm gonna ask you to do today is to give an impact card, I'll tell you how to get one in a minute, but we're gonna allow you to have one of these if you don't have one already.

 

And write down the names of people, that you're gonna start praying for. You're gonna give them a verbal witness when God gives you the opportunity. You're gonna go to them and impact because listen, God may send you on a mission trip but He's probably just gonna open your eyes to realize the needs all around you.

 

Gideon, when he finally go out of his hole, God didn't send them to Egypt, He sent them to the people he already knew, He said Gideon the people in your life, your people, your family needs me and you're gonna be a part of this rescue mission. You see it's been God's plan since the beginning even the very first disciples picked up on this, I'll show you in John chapter 1 how the impact card works.

 

In John chapter 1, it's a beautiful chapter but we see that really impacting God's world is just reaching one person at a time and helping one person find the life and love of Jesus. So here we go, John chapter 1 here's verse 42, I'll put it on the screen for you. Says then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus, now this is beautiful, you see Andrew decided he's gonna follow Jesus and Andrew got an impact card, okay follow up, and he wrote down Simon's name.

 

Now, he wrote down Simon's name. You'll find out later in the gospel that Simon is actually Andrew's brother. Now some of you have family members and you're like oh yeah my family members need Jesus, I'm gonna write down their name, they need to be on my impact card, and Andrew says well, Simon is my brother, my biological brother, I want him to find Christ.

 

And then brings him to Jesus. Look at what happens in the next verse. Jesus looking intently at Simon, Jesus said your name is Simon son of John but you will be called Cephas which means Peter. Yeah now we know who this guy is right? Peter was one of the disciples, not just one of the disciples, Peter was the number one disciple, every list of the disciples is what? Peter then James then John, Andrew? Oh yeah, he's down there somewhere.

 

Maybe some of you, you did feel that way today, I'm just Andrew, I'm not Peter, I'm not James, I'm not John I'm just Andrew hidden on the list somewhere. Listen here's my question, what if Andrew hadn't have invited Peter? You knew of Peter, you know him. He stood up and in one day, in one sermon in Jerusalem 3,000 people got saved.

 

But what if Andrew had said, you know what I'm not going to put Simon on my impact card. You see, Andrew can actually say, I actually reached 3,000 people in one day because it reminds us the exponential nature of making an impact in one person's life. And never ever think that just because you've only reached one person this year that that's not a big deal because that one person just might be the Peter of this generation.

 

You see, if you write somebody's name down a scroll all of a sudden it starts making a difference. So Simon is reached because of Andrew. Now watch this, verse 43. Then the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found Philip. Philip was on Jesus impact card. Watch this. He said to him, come and follow me.

 

In verse 44, Philip was from Bethesda, Andrew and Peter's home town. So you can see kind of the nature of how everybody knows each other from this one particular town. And Philip immediately follows Jesus. It's interesting, all he needed was an invitation. I wonder how many people are in your world right now that are just waiting for an invitation? But you've already decided for them that they wouldn't come.

 

Oh, they were gonna be in. I'm sure they would ever wanna come to church. I'm sure they would never want me to ever say anything about God to them. Did you know that 80% of people who are invited by a personal friend actually end up coming to church at least once because of that invitation? And so by just saying I'd love for you to come just might be that impact that God wired you uniquely to make.

 

And notice what Phillip does in verse 45, he gets an impact card, he writes Nathaniel's name on it, check this out, Phillip went to look for Nathaniel and told him hey, we found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about, his name is Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth men.

 

Phillip is so excited, look at this, Nazareth? Exclaimed Nathaniel, can anything good come from Nazareth? Oh wow, we just hit a bump in the road didn't we? I mean, Philip's so excited, Nathaniel is on his impact card he is excited This is gonna be great. Nathaniel is gonna accept this message and by the way did you notice that Phillip talks more than anybody else in this chapter? He's given him the whole rundown, this is who he is, is what he does as guide against, and what does Nathaniel do, he's negative in his response.

 

I think some of us are tentative to write anybody's name down on an impact card or invite them to church because they are gonna be negative, somebody is gonna be negative. And let me just see if I can search your mind at ease. You are gonna have a negative response, somebody is gonna be negative, not as many as you think, but somebody is gonna push back and it's not about you.

 

It's one of the challenges of the Christian life, it's not about you specifically, it's something about Christ or probably they met somebody in their past that said they were Christian but didn't display the life of Christ and all of a sudden now they've got baggage and they are responding to that and that's what Nathaniel is doing.

 

He is responding to that not really Philip but I want you to notice what Philip does, because if you are worried about a negative response we are just gonna practice together since you will probably would get one if you start doing this. And I want you to use this response millions of time in your life from this point on, okay? When you invite someone and they are negative like why would I do that whatever? All I want you to do is say I'm gonna underline this phrase here on the screen and we are all gonna read it together.

 

So we can practice. Okay, this will great okay. Five words let's just say it together here we go,come and see for yourself, period. Drop the mic. >> [LAUGH] >> That's it. Phillip doesn't argue with Nathaniel, oh yeah? Nazareth let me show you this in the Old Testament right now. He doesn't get all nervous, oh he's negative.

 

What do I do now? They didn't tell me about this on the impact card. I guess I should have never invited him. No he doesn't argue with him, he doesn't say oh yeah well listen, I've been to seminary. I'm gonna show you from Genesis to Revelation. It's on now. I'm gonna prove to you now.

 

No, no, I want you just come and see.How many people in our lives are just waiting for this response? It's disarming. I'm not gonna argue with you, just come and see. Find the hope I've found, experience the love that I know and just see for yourself. just come and with all your questions and come to a place that's safe to have those questions come and see for yourself because what you wanna know is when you do that it just breaks down those barriers.

 

But if you're taking notes, write this down. Impact is gonna require sacrifice from you. If it's gonna be some sacrifices, you are gonna have to make, some of those are just, this person doesn't have a good opinion of you cause you just said you're a Christian. Well, he just invited him to church, you feel that push back.

 

But Gideon gets out of his hole and says you know what, I'm gonna sacrifice everything. I'm gonna go all in. I'm gonna be who God wired me to be and I'm not gonna miss the rescue mission, He's calling me to be in on. He's sending me and I'm gonna go. You see anything you do in life is gonna require sacrifice, anything.

 

If you wanna be the best in your business or expertise, you gotta go all in. If you wanna be the best in the NFL, the best in major league baseball, the best Olympian, the best musician, you gotta sacrifice a lot to do that. But heroes are people who don't just sacrifice, they sacrifice to help other people.

 

You see, watching the Olympics I stayed up too late, I admit it as well and watched games I never knew existed but I'm not even a fan of swimming and I don't know about it. I know there's a lot of swimming families here on the Rockwell Campus, but Michael Phelps whether you're a swimmer or not was just inspiring to watch.

 

I mean the guy walked away from Rio with a total of all his Olympic career wins, with 28 medals. I mean, just to put that into perspective, I mean number two is nine medals, the most medals ever won, but it's interesting most people look at that and they even see interviews where Michael Phelps said, 'I'm at the best place I've ever been in my life,' after the Olympics and people say of course he is.

 

I mean, he won all the those gold medals, he stood in front of the Wheaties box of course he's in the best place of his life. But most people don't know the rest of that story because two years ago, literally two years ago, Michael Phelps was in a rehab addiction center feeling like his life was worthless.

 

As a matter of fact, he literally said in interviews, you can Google this where he said, I really felt like I should just end my life because the world would be a better place without me. So, how can he get there? Gideon was there, he just felt like I really can't make a difference, I'm not really here for any purpose.

 

Well, while he was in that rehab center, his good friend, a good Christian friend and also an NFL athlete Ray Lewis came to see him and gave him the Purpose Driven Life and that book is just packed full of scripture and the very first page, Michael Phelps opened it up and the very first line in the book said, it's not about you.

 

And he kept on reading and he found out that God created him for a purpose and that he was wired to make a difference and there was a reason why he was on the earth, and he decided I'm gonna go for one more Olympics but in this time I'm gonna go win all this gold. Although he is a really intense competitor, the people around Rio at the time talked about how he'd walk in and he'd talk to athletes who were, just like their first time there, he talked to athletes who probably weren't even gonna qualify to actually try to win a gold medal, he was nice to everyone, it's the reason why he was voted by all the athletes of America to carry the flag for the entire country.

 

It is why after he won even all the medals he won this year in Rio, he said after that, I'm in the best place of my life because he said I'm done with swimming. Swimming wasn't his identity, it was just something God used for a purpose and now he's gonna get in for the rest of his life on the very thing that Gideon got on the very thing we are called to do, and that is make a difference.

 

But it's gonna require sacrifice, what people opinions are about but you wanna go all in. And when I talk about this impact card, when I talk about that you can make a difference, maybe you think today I'm supposed to say that. Well, of course you are a pastor, you want me to do this, but I want you to hear from somebody who really wants you to do this.

 

There is someone whose name was on an impact card two years ago, was written down two years ago. And because of someone praying and giving verbal witness and inviting this person to come, they see the impact that's made on them and now they wanna make an impact as well. Watch this.

 

>> Hi my name is Michael. I have no idea what an impact card is and if someone told me that they were praying for a week ago, a month ago or whatever, it would have really freaked me out. I got married to my wife and we were together searching for something. We're meeting people and going out and seeing these bands, and going to bars and thinking we're having a really great time and as those great times were happening, we were growing further and further apart from each other.

 

Fast forward four years later, she moves out, I'm home all by myself, just kind of waiting for the time to go to bed and wake up and just kind of do it all over again. And I really didn't know how many more days I could really get through doing that. Throughout all this time where I'm struggling in life, I'm cutting this guy's hair and he's talking to me about God, and you should come to my church.

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And suddenly it was just like well, it will make my mom happy so I guess I'll just kind of check it out. So, one Sunday I honestly talked myself into going and I almost didn't go. I felt like I was the only person in the room that day. God was talking to me through the guy on stage and he was basically just describing my life, and how lonely I have been.

 

God walked into my heart that day and He flipped on the switch and it was just like everything is different now. Every single second of my life since that moment has been different. And if you're listening to this right now and you're praying for someone, if it's your hair stylist, person at the gas station, random person you met on the street, and you feel like it's not going anywhere, just do not give up because I had dozens and dozens of people that did not give up praying for me and if they did, I'd be lost forever.

 

So keep praying and don't give up.  Keep praying and don't give up. I'm gonna ask you to take an impact card, write some names on it, I'm gonna ask you to realize that the whole strategy of this church is to fill the seats that you may see that are empty in this space, it's for you to reach the people you're uniquely wired and already connected to reach and so please when you get this impact card, please write the names of people that you know, don't write the names of famous people that you'll never meet but would be really cool to pray for okay? Please don't say okay Lord, Taylor Swift, Eminem and LeBron James, let's do this all right? You'll never see them.

 

You can write down the names of people you already know their names, you already know who God's put in your life and when you get those names on there, I'm gonna ask you to put this card, not in your wallet, not in your purse, you won't see it again till Christmas. Put it somewhere where you'll see it.

 

Put it on your refrigerator, you go there a lot, unless the person is on this card comes over to your house, okay? Then it's weird then they go why is my name on your refrigerator? Oh my bad make an impact on my fridge sorry. Okay so maybe you need to put it somewhere that's more private but you'll see it everyday.

 

And just to be real there's a place that most of us go everyday and we seat down for a second, all right. Just look over, I'm supposed to make a difference in somebody's life, all right? What I'm saying is do whatever you've gotta do to remind yourself that you are wired to make a difference and you can impact God's world.

 

It's been the plan since the beginning. We close with this verse. The last words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven, Mathew 28. Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given and be sure of these, somebody came just for this phrase today.

 

I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let's pray about that together. Heavenly Father as we bow before you we're humbled that you want us to be a part of the rescue mission, and we also realize God it's not up to us to save anybody but just to share, just to pray, just to give all that we are and just to go to them as you lead us and just to say come and see, and right now we know that names are coming to our minds and I pray God, those names would make it through a piece of paper.

 

And it would be names that we can lift up before you and pray according to your will that none will perish, but all would come to repentance. And Father help us not to hide or hunker down in our situation, but just like Gideon, open our eyes to the mission around us. We're on a rescue mission.

 Hope

And Father thank you that you've wired us to change the world by reaching one person. In light of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, Father what else can we do but sacrifice in many ways to reach others as well. And so Jesus we thank you, for your forgiveness and the hope that you offer us, and help us have the courage to share that forgiveness and that love and that hope, with the people around us.