Women's Bible Study - October 18th, 2023 First B Jackson 2023-10-18 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- We're gonna sing it together today rooted in your love. Just think about these words. I'm telling you we love you. Oh, I am the branch you grafted into, sacrifice you went to, the cross for all my sin. And your grace is watering my soul. I'm giving you control. Have your way in me. Because I am rooted in your love. I am rooted in your love. I am rooted in your love Jesus you are making all things new all my life is found in you I am rooted in your love Jesus we invite you here today come speak to us oh Jesus oh Jesus plan me your presence your love for me is you. Love I have for you I am rooted in your love I am rooted your love Jesus you are making all things new all my life is found in you I am rooted in your love Jesus roots grow deep, my roots grow deep, grow deep in you, your promise says I'll chew my roots grow deep, grow deep, deep in you, may my roots grow deep go deep in your promise says I'll chew my roots grow deep go deep deep in you sing that again may my roots grow deep go deep in you your promise as I chew my roots grow deep go deep deep in you you are making all things new all my life is found in you I am rooted in your love Jesus Sing that one more time. I am rooted I in your I am rooted in your love. Jesus. You are making all things new my life is found in you I am rooted in your love Jesus Lord, we just come before you today. We tell you that we're here to worship you. Worship you in your greatness and your kindness, your faithfulness, your mercy. We just remind ourselves right now who it is that we're singing to. The light of the world, king of kings, the Lord of lords. And we actually just stop and think, lord, don't let us just sing another song, but let this be worshiped to you. And if we truly grasp that you inhabit the praises of your people and that you're here right now, How different would the posture of our heart be right now? So fix our eyes on you. We're here to worship you. That's why we're here. We fix our gaze on you today as we sing light of the world. Together wonderful to me let's sing that bridge again together I'll never know Just with your eyes closed for just a minute, just with your own words, just loud enough for you to hear, just tell him, Jesus, I love you. I'm here to worship you today. I lay aside all the burdens and all the worries. It says a 117 different times in God's word to lift a new song to him. That's the song that comes from our spirit. A love song to him. Let's just take a minute and just right where you are, with your eyes closed, just take a minute and just talk to him. Without us directing you, without their words on the screen, just talk to him for a moment. Lord, we thank you for the freedom to come before you like we are today. Thank you that that this word Hosanna, just like when Jesus you rode in into the city and the people cried out, hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. That they were they were crying out, that they recognized that you were their savior, that that you had saving power. The word hosanna means save us. Save us, Lord, as we sing that. We thank you for our salvation. We thank you for our salvation and security in you. And we cry out to you, Lord, that you are the savior. Jesus, we just tell you we love you today. We ask that as Deborah comes and shares a word with us today that it would change us, that we would be changed by your word today. Open our hearts to what you have for us today through Deborah's teaching today. We thank you for it. We honor your word today, and everybody said, amen. Have a seat, fill your coffee up, and we'll get started. Do you wanna do it first? Yeah. Should I do it first? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Morning, ladies. Before Deborah gets started, I have a couple of announcements. I'll wait for the ladies at the back table. I know. I have to pray to get them to be quiet. Oh, yeah. What is it? 123. Eyes on me? Yeah. That's what my one friend does. 123. Eyes on me. All right. I have a couple of announcements before Deborah gets started. So next week will be our last week of getting together. And I want to invite you all to come one more week to our potluck. It's the most flavorful day. It's flavorful. On that note, have a pencil ready because I'm gonna tell you what your group is bringing. And small group leaders, if you wouldn't mind making sure that those that aren't here today know about this as well, maybe just shoot out a quick email. For Nancy and Heidi's group, we'd love you to bring savory egg dishes, kind of the the solid foods because you're solid. You can bring solid food. Fall fall style. So egg dish is kind of the wholesome stuff. And I put Susie's group and Kathy Ward, she's much sweeter than me, on pastries. And the colorful, really healthy salads and fruit come from the vibrant Sammy and Casey's group because they're vibrant. And then Natalie and Lissa's groups are always quenching our thirst. So you're gonna bring drinks. And we will get started at the same time. You'll come in and you'll put your food on the back. Semi's gonna set up some nice tables back there, and then we'll have a lovely message from Deborah and a quick potluck. Maybe not so quick. And then I also would like you to make a note that Deborah has secured the date and location for our Christmas luncheon. This is the biggest event in Jackson in December. So don't miss it. So all the cool people will be there on December 6, and that will be at Snow King from twelve to two. And, again, small group leaders, please shoot out an email with these two items so that no one's caught off guard next week or on December 6. Okay. Take it away, Deborah. Thank you, Julia. Whoo. Alright. Yes. So, yeah, you don't wanna miss next week. It's so fun with our potluck and Melissa doesn't know this yet, but we're hoping to have an extended time of praise and worship. And actually, I just have to tell you guys what happened. I I just felt the Lord telling me to send last week's message to a lot of non believer friends that we have. And one of the guys said to me, my husband and I have been planning sees with this guy forever, and he's like, I watched the entire thing, and I just wanna know, do you bring in a professional band? And I was like, well, you should just come to our Bible study because we get blessed with these ladies every single week. Yay. We love them. Yeah. I love it. So and Natalie laughs at me because when she taught, she used a new word to me, and I love words, and it was bonking. And when you run this I mean, there are just some great words out there, like, how amazing is the word hootenanny? It just makes me laugh. That has nothing to do with the lesson, but after last week because, oh my goodness, I don't think I've ever put as many hours into last week's message. I was seriously mentally bonking on this week. And I was like, Lord, now is the time not to bonk because we have to end on a strong note, and today we're ending on revival. And I just can't even tell you how I I was sharing with someone, you know, I finished writing this study, I think in May, at the very beginning of June, and the Lord knew for a time such as this. Right? Because the question that I get from even nonbelievers constantly is, is this the end? I got a text when Israel was bombed and a nonbelieving friend and she said, okay, is it the end? Like, do I need do I need to accept your Jesus right now? Like, I was like, the answer is yes, you do. Yes, you absolutely do. Whether it's the end or not, your end will come. So, yes, you do. And one of my husband's favorite verses is first chronicles twelve thirty two. The people of Issachar understood the times they were living in, and they knew what to do. And I think for us as Christians, we need to understand the times we're living in, and we need to know how to react to those times. So I wanna just do a super quick review with you and some of the signs of the end times. Okay. This is from Matthew 24. Matthew tells us there will be wars and rumors of wars, and we know from the Ezekiel 30 eight invasion that the big daddy war to look for is war will come up on Israel. And that chapter in Ezekiel tells us, so you just I'm telling you this just to be tuned in that the countries that will form an alliance and have an all out assault on Israel are do you know what they are? Turkey. It's called Tubal in the old testament, present day Turkey, Persia, present day Iran, and then boy, are they a bad player. And then if you go straight north of Israel, there's a land mentioned in the old testament that surrounds present day Russia and the Stan countries. So they will form an alliance with Muslim countries and have an all out attack on Israel. And it's very interesting if you're tuned into the news today, what alliances are coming together. And we don't know if this is the war or if this is just a warming up to it. But I think we should be aware of that. One of the other things Matthew 24 says is that we will have an increase both in intensity and frequency of earthquakes and natural disasters. I mean, you consider what has just happened in our lifetime, I remember the first major hurricane, Hurricane Katrina, we'd never seen anything like that. And now, how many hurricanes and huge cat hurricanes and tornadoes have hit our country, just our country alone? And the earthquakes are intensifying. Now, the enemy of lies will tell you that the climate is changing because of us humans. Right? I have a word for them. Climate change is not a matter of us humans neglecting our environment. It's a matter of us humans neglecting our soul. Okay? Because the Lord says, when you get away from me, toward the end, many will leave him and I'm gonna try to wake you up and there's no better way to wake us up than through catastrophe. It kinda gets our attention. So he's like, that's going to increase in the end times, false teaching will increase in the end times. I was so grieved to read last week that Andy Stanley, pastor of a mega church, son of the amazing and solid Charles Stanley has decided that he can rewrite God's word, that you can live whatever lifestyle you want and it's okay with God. That is so grievous to see pastors one after another turning away from the solid word of God. There will also be an increase from Daniel 12. This is very interesting. There will be an increase in knowledge. Okay. You guys, what what happened in our lifetime? In order for knowledge to increase, we have to have access to knowledge. Right? So what are the two big things that happen just in our lifetime? Internet. The Internet. AI. AI and the little thing that we can't live without, our phones. We have instant access to knowledge. Now notice Daniel 12 doesn't see an increase in wisdom, but an increase in information and knowledge. We will also see, I think this is very interesting if you're tuned in, this push for globalization for one world government. We will see an increase in sexual immorality. The morals will just go right out the window. And finally, in Matthew 24, and I share this with you so that you can gird yourself up. It says, this is the beginning of the birth pains with more to come and then you and I will be discriminated, cancelled, and persecuted. So in the end, there will be this worldwide turn against the Jewish people and the Christians. Okay? Do we see that right now? I mean, see a coach who wanted to do a thirty second prayer, just minding his own business, fired and taken to court. What? That's crazy. So we're gonna see more of this. Therefore, that leads us right into our lesson today. Do you think there is any better time for revival? I think this is the time for revival. And so what is revival? I gave you some definitions in your study guide, but revival is just a spiritual reawakening either individually, in a church, even a country. A reawakening from our sleepwalking blue pill, remember the blue pill state of living numb and unresponsive to the Holy Spirit. So a revival means that I'm going to unleash the Holy Spirit within me. It's an unleashing of the Holy Spirit with believers who have the spirit, and it's a moving of the Holy Spirit with those who do not have the Holy Spirit within them. So revival can be with believers and non believers. In Matthew nine, Jesus was with his disciples, and he had been teaching them and he turned to them and he said, do you see do you see all these crowds here? They are confused and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, the harvest is so great but the workers are few. And revival gets us going and doing our job that we were called to do. Now, Natalie shared this story with me a while ago that I I wanna share with you today because I think it's so relevant to today. It's a story about Pastor John Piper. Do you all know John Piper? He is an amazing pastor, an amazing theologian, and in 2000 he was asked to be the keynote speaker at a passion conference with more than 40,000 students. And I'm gonna share some of the expert excerpts from what he said. He said to the students, you don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference, a real impact in this world. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be good looking. You don't have to be wealthy. You don't have to be from the right family. But you know what you have to have? You have to have a few basic glorious unchanging eternal things in here and in here and be so gripped by them that you are willing to live your life for them, even willing to lay your life down for them. And then he shared that at his church, they received news that Ruby, Ellison, and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon, Africa. Ruby was over 80 years old, single all her life, and a nurse, and she poured out her life for the one thing. Do you remember Martha and Mary? What is the one thing? Sharing Jesus, getting to know Jesus, and sharing Jesus. And Ruby poured her life out sharing Jesus. Laura was a doctor, and in her retirement, she partnered with Ruby. She too was pushing 80. And her and Ruby went from village to village in far unreached places sharing Jesus. And he shared with his church that they had just received news that the brakes and the vehicle they were driving went out, they went over a cliff and died instantly. And he asked the students, he said, is this a tragedy? He pulled out an article from Reader's Digest and he began to read. Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast. Five years ago, Bob was 59 and Penny was 51. Now they live in Florida, and they cruise on their 30 foot boat and they collect seashells. Reader's Digest said, they are living the dream collecting their seashells. He said that's a tragedy. That is a real tragedy. And there are people in this country who are pushing, marketing billions of dollars to marketing telling you that the American dream is to retire and collect seashells. Well, here's the truth. The Bible says, we are all going to die and after dying comes judgment. So when we stand before the creator and he says, Deborah, what did you do with that life I gave you? I am not gonna pull out my seashell collection and say, wasn't this amazing, Lord? No. And the point of Piper's story is not that you have to go to Africa to live a meaningful life. The point of his story is you were called for the time you were called, and the place you were called to make a difference with the people that are in your life right now. That we were all called to make a difference with exactly where we are. Isaiah was a prophet in his country of Judah, and it was very much in the same place that America is at today. They had turned from God, The the priest in the temple were not teaching about the Lord anymore. Idolatry was rampant. Immorality was rampant. Crime was rampant. And the Lord called Isaiah to make a difference with his people. I wanna read from Isaiah six because this passage is just so amazing. In the year, king Uzziah died. This is Isaiah talking. I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne and the train of his robe filled the temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, mighty seraphim are mighty angels. In fact, they're so mighty, they don't have two wings, they have six wings. And they were singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is filled with his glory. Their voices literally shook the temple to its foundation and the entire building was filled with smoke. When I, Isaiah, saw the Lord in all his glory and beauty, and this was a man who followed the Lord, who loved the Lord so much that tradition has it, he was sawed in half at the end of his life because he would not deny Yahweh. He said, but when I saw how beautiful and holy the Lord was, I said it's over for me. I'm doomed. For I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among people with filthy lips. And I have seen the Lord. Then one of the Seraphim flew to him with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips and said, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed and your sins are forgiven. And then the Lord said to me, whom should I send as a messenger to these people? Who will go for us? Who is us? God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit. He said, who will go? Isaiah said, here I am, Lord. Send me. Send me. That passage is so important to me because I've shared before how I was raised in a Christian home, but it was just all up here, had not dropped down to here. So all through my twenties, I wasn't following the Lord at all, and I wasn't searching for him. And when I had my kids, I could feel the Lord drawing me back to him. And when I found myself in BSF Bible study, this passage was shared and I was just overcome with emotions. I think I cried for a week because I was like, Lord, I have missed you so much. That I believed that stupid American dream and my husband and I worked our butts off to start our business, and I remember driving down the four zero five because in Orange County, we call our freeways the. And I was driving down the 405, and I could not stop crying because I was like, it's not making me happy. It's not fulfilling this inner need that I have. Our business is successful and I'm so empty. It didn't work. And that was my journey back to the Lord. And I would sing the song. I I wouldn't listen to sing it today, but it's an oldie from Maranatha 17. She's like, yeah, I'm not feeling that song. But it yeah. The words are great, but basically, whole song just says, here I am. Send me. Send me. And I would just play that song over and over, and I was like, Lord, you send me. I wanna be in your purpose now because I've been outside your purpose, and I don't like it. And I wanna be with you. So I wanna share with you what I learned in my journey about revival because you know what revival really is? It's having that fire in your soul, passion for Jesus. And I told the Lord when I came back to him, I will never leave you, and I will always be on fire for you. And so people ask me after twenty eight years, how are you still so passionate about Jesus? Well, first of all, on your handout, revival begins with repentance. Revival begins with repentance. Acts three nineteen says, repent then, turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out that times of refreshing. Anybody need refreshed? Times of refreshing may come from the Lord. So I looked up that word refreshing. Guess what it means? Revival. Yes, it does. And it means that there is new breath in you. Holy Spirit infused breath. Because here's the thing, sin quenches the Holy Spirit in our life from working. It's like sin puts a lid on him. He's in us, but sin puts a lid on him. I think I put this verse in your handout from the amplified. First Corinthians five, do not quench, subdue, or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of the Holy Spirit. And remember in chapter one when we talked about sin is just anything that's less than God's best for us. Sin is missing the mark. Well, back in the day when an archer would pull back his bow and shoot his arrow at the target, the distance that he missed like if he was up here, that distance was measured and it was called the sin, like the distance that you missed. And so the same is true with us. The bull's eye is being in the perfect will of God. Just being in fellowship with God where I can hear him and feel him moving. But you know what? We're just we're fallen humans. So we miss the mark a lot, don't we? I mean, I know I do. I miss the mark all the time and God says, don't worry about it. Because Romans three twenty three, you all fall short of the glory of God. You all sin. We all do. We all miss the mark. At first John one nineteen, if you would just confess, just be self aware and say, yeah, Lord, that thought was definitely not from you. So I'm gonna lay that down. I I repent of that. Just be self aware. Confess and he will forgive you of everything and you're back in the center of his will. You're back with him. And what's very interesting, was thinking about this when I was writing it and I put this in your study guide that missing the mark more than anything to me is just missing out an intimacy with my Lord. Because I'm bounced out of the circle when I sin and I can't hear Him. And you know, you guys know this. We've all done this. When we stay out here for a long time, we hear Him less and less, don't we? Like we we don't at first, when we're right here, the nudging that we send, the conviction is pretty strong, but the longer we see out here, we just start feeling okay with it. God says, you wanna be on fire? You wanna you want to tap into what life is about? It begins with repentance. Just be self aware and name it. And I can tell you that it continues with repentance and it will end with repentance because none of us are Jesus. We're all gonna mess up. So just say you're sorry and move on. Okay? Number two, revival means reinvigorating our spiritual life. Revival means reinvigorating our spiritual life. You've heard this many times throughout the study. Our Christian faith is not a religion of boxes to check off. It's a relationship. And Jesus says, spend time with me. Invest in me. How do we how do we say that anybody is our good friend or that we love anybody? Well, we've learned some things about them. Right? I can't say a stranger is my best friend. I don't know anything about that stranger, but I know something about the people in my life that I love. My one friend left the valley in September there part time and she said to me, Deborah, I do not want you to text me for the next several months. I want you to call me. I wanna connect with you. So call me because I'm really bad about calling. And she's like, call me. And you know what Jesus says in Jeremiah thirty three three? He says, you call me and I will answer every time. We're not gonna get his voicemail. He says, you call me, I will answer. And here's the really amazing thing. I will tell you things you don't know. He will tell us things about him that we don't know, things about our self that we don't know, and things about this world. He says, give me a call. Give me a call. Invest in me. Second Timothy three sixteen tells us that all scripture, this is why the Bible is so important. It is divinely inspired. Yes. Written by forty different men. That's true. But God put on their hearts what to write in those books. Divinely despired, inspired. And God says, why? Why did I give you my Bible? He tells us in second Corinthians three sixteen and seventeen. He said, gave it to you because it's really useful to teach you, to train, to rebuke you, and to correct you so when you get out of his lane, that little nudge that's rebuking and correcting and to train you in the right way of living. So I just had my two year old grandson that I'm totally obsessed with. Oh my gosh. Just just little chunk of burning love. But he is too. So do you think he needs a little training and rebuking? I'm in the kitchen and I turned around and our parcels are like this height and he's standing on it and he goes, hi Nana. And I was like, oh my gosh, Griffin how did you get up there? And then he popped down and he showed me how he climbed up. I said Griffin, no, no, no. If you do that, you're gonna get an owie. And he looked at me and he goes, owie? And I said, yes, you do not want an owie. That's a no, no. We don't want you up on the barstool. And that's what Jesus is saying to us. I wanna rebuke you and correct you because I don't want you having owies in this life and we're gonna have a lot when we get out of his lane. So revival means reinvigorating our spiritual life. I love Henry Nouwen. Are you all familiar with Henry Nouwen? He has some really deep things to say. He said, I'm beginning now to see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of God as hiding out and making it as difficult as possible for me to find him. He just says, call me. I'll tell you. Open my word. I'll teach you. I'll train you. He doesn't make it difficult for us to find him. He is the one who is looking for me while I'm doing hiding. Isn't that the truth? Like he he's there every day. We're just not showing up. So when we're ignorant of God's word, the problem is we're not very discerning. We don't have a spirit of discernment. Being in His word gives us that spirit of discernment to know what's right or wrong, to know the narrative that we're listening to whether it's truth or lies. In second Thessalonians two fifteen, Paul wrote, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teachings we passed on to you. Because if we don't keep a strong grip on the truth that's passed on, we get really wonky and we end up way out here because we don't even know that what we're doing is wrong. In Revelation, the Lord writes to the church in Sardis and he calls it the spiritually dead church, a church that desperately needed revival. And he wrote, I know all the things you do, that you have a reputation for being alive, but you're dead, so wake up. Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. And I find that your actions do not meet my requirements. I thought, wow, that is that is a very powerful verse because he's sending that letter to a church. And what he's basically telling them is, I don't really care about your busy busy religious activity. I don't really care because you're spiritually dead. I'm not even invited into the activity. You're just doing it for yourself to check off your list. God wants our hearts. He wants our hearts, and that's why we talked about the spiritual disciplines because they ignite a desire in my heart to be with him. So number three, revival realigns our priorities. We have to realign our priorities if we're going to have revival. If we're gonna have passion, if we are gonna have a fire in our spirit for the Lord, we have to change some things in our life. I was reading about Jonathan Edwards because in the seventeen hundreds, America experienced this great revival. And Jonathan Edwards was this young pastor who went to Northampton to help his grandfather and his grandfather's church, and his grandfather passed away. So Jonathan Edwards took over the church and he was praying, praying, praying for revival because revival always begins with with prayer. And he's praying for revival and it started to happen. And he wrote, he wrote a journal for us that we can read, and in his journal, he wrote that I had so many conversations with people in my church, and I asked them, where is your heart? And remember when we talked about we can say we're something, but I only really know who you are. I only really know who I am by what I love. Because what I love to talk about, what I love to do, where I love to spend my money, that's who I really am. And so he asked them, what do you love? Where do you spend your time? What do you want out of this life? And he his strategy was to point them to what he termed as negative signs for revival and positive signs for revival. He said the negative signs were strong emotions that were out of control either physically or spiritually because they weren't controlled by the Holy Spirit, and they were not self aware. When we're controlled by the Holy Spirit, he's constantly saying, Deborah, no. No. That you're getting out of line here with me. Strong emotions, irregular worship service. Do you know that since COVID, church attendance has dropped 30%? Irregular church worship service, a lack of desire to give in the form of serving hospitality and money. I was like, wow, that is so interesting because in your study guide I wrote, never has a generation been blessed with so much and given so little. One of the signs of revival is generosity and not just with money. Are you generous with your attitude of gratitude? I mean, do you see all the blessings we have? Are you generous with your encouragement with others? Are you generous with your praise? And of course, it does come down to money because that is that is a red flag for our hearts. That is a litmus test for where my spirit is. And I I was looking up all the definitions for generosity, like why is it so important to be generous? It's important because no, no one was more generous than Jesus. He would give you everything he had and he did, and he wants us to model him. So here's the definition I came up with generous and why it's so attractive and why it lights a fire in us. Generous means you have a spirit of kindness that is willing to see the goodness and potential in others and then you take action to help them. Generosity means you have a spirit of kindness, a fruit of the spirit, that is willing to see the goodness and potential in others, and then you take action to help them. You want to participate in rebuilding their lives. Can I tell you this summer, I got to see this spirit of generosity play out in real time? We had my husband and I were helping a choir from Uganda called the Amani Maleli choir, and these kids are orphans, and these kids have literally nothing. I mean, they have a little backpack with their clothes. Literally nothing. In Uganda today, the average pay with wage is about a dollar 77. It's a very poor country. And these kids came into our valley, into our home, and I've never seen a more generous spirit. They were so generous with their love, their hugs, they would hug you every time they walked past you. With their joy, with their gratitude, they kept asking me, can we clean up your kitchen? Can we do this? Can we do that? Unbelievable generosity. But more than that, the generous many of you in this room spirit that you had with those kids. It increased my faith. It was it was like watching the Bible play out in real time because so many of you had a spirit of kindness and you stepped in to help those kids. And some of you gave so much, and I will tell you that today, I am so thrilled to share that they will have their school because of you, because of so many of you. And that I it just I kept telling my husband, it's just it's just shifted my heart to in the weirdest way, love Jesus more. Because I it's like I could see him working through people. It was really one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had, and I've had a lot of experiences like that. But the reaction to these kids and the kids' reaction was so generous and beautiful. Well, Edwards also said other positive signs of revival are an actual interest in Jesus. Do you know what is so grievous? How many women have said to me in Bible study, I'm just not that interested in him. Like, I don't know why. I mean, could it be that maybe we need to repent of some sin, maybe pride? I don't know. I mean or could it be that we need to repent of doubt that we just don't believe he is who he says he is? That he loves you with an eternal love, and he wants to be in relationship with you. If you can't honestly say you're really interested in him, just ask him. Ask him to just flame just to build a flame of fire with that little flicker that's in you. Ask him, he will. Ask him to see him at work. Ask him to see him through other people, through circumstances. It's hard to wake up in this valley and not believe there's this amazing, beautiful creator. Right? Another mark that Jonathan Edwards said of revival is that your love for God and others will grow. A life well lived is others focused. Can God meet all the needs in this world? Yes. He absolutely can. But the amazing thing about God is he chooses to part parcel out to every one of us these opportunities to partner with him and to be an answer to someone's prayer. And I can tell you, there is no thing in this world that compares to that. There is nothing in this world that will bring meaning to your life than helping others. It is the greatest blessing. Another shift in priorities, other than just being generous with your time and your words, is being intentional with your day. We've shared with you that the Lectio three sixty five devotional is just a beautiful meditation and I love how it ends every morning. This is how it ends and it focuses my day in the right place. It says, Father, help me to live this day to the full, being true to you in every way. Jesus, help me to give myself away to others, being kind to everyone I meet. And Holy Spirit, give me a heart for the lost, proclaiming Christ in all I do and say. You want a life with meaning? Just meditate on that for a while. First Peter three fifteen says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that you have. A life that is not wasted is a life that is willing to take risk. Remember last week we talked about this is a risky faith, this Christianity, and God's gonna ask you to step out of your comfort zone and oh my gosh, actually say the name Jesus, and maybe share him with others. It is so important that we step out of our comfort zone, but I see so many Christians who who risk their calling because they want to be so comfortable, and that is not a life guys. That that is a sleepwalking blue pilled life. In Isaiah forty three nineteen, the Lord says, and I think this is for us today. He says, I'm about to do something new. I have already begun. Do you not see it? Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. You know, with our anxiety rates, our suicide rates, our depression rates, there are so many people that are just dry. They're dry. And Jesus said to the woman at the well, she said to him, would you he said to her, would you give me a drink? And she said, why are you asking me for a drink? And he said, that's true. Because if you knew who I was, I'm Messiah, you would ask me for living water. Because I I know you and I know you have tried to find fulfillment in all these men and it hasn't worked for you. And whatever way we try to find our fulfillment in this world, Jesus says, I'm the only one who's gonna quench that thirst for you. I'm the only one. There's nothing out there that's gonna do it. I mean, it can distract you. It can distract you for a long time, but at the end of the day, it doesn't quench your thirst. And there's something about sharing Jesus with others that increases your faith. I can't explain how it works, but it just makes you feel closer to him, and it keeps that fire burning in you. And as I stated in the study guide, Jesus is not for sale. This isn't some cheesy sales pitch I'm talking about. I'm talking about just planting seeds. Like the other day after church, I ran in the market and the person was like, how's your day going? I said, actually, really great. I got to go to church today, sing amazing songs, be with amazing people. If you ever wanna go, I'm telling you right now where I sit, so come join me. Planting a seed. What they do, that's between them and the Lord. It's not our job to convert anyone, that pressure's off, but it is our job to share our faith whenever we possibly can. We, Greg and I pray for opportunities to do this and we have many non believers in our life. We have this couple that we've been planting seeds, planting seeds and every time we go to dinner with them, I get in the car and I say, that's the last time we're gonna see them because they they they just look at us like we have three heads or something. So this is amazing. She calls me and she says, okay, I know you do that prayer thing and our grandson is really, really sick. Like, this is serious, really sick. I'm like, okay. Greg and I are on it. We prayed. We prayed. We reached out. We we reached out. They had to go out of state to be with them for a while. They just got back to town. They called us and said we need to go to dinner. So we go to dinner, and she goes, Deborah, he's okay, and I want you to know, because I always tell her, please don't say you prayed to the universe. That just like means nothing, and it's so impersonal, like it makes me cringe, and she laughs at me. She goes, I didn't pray to the universe. I prayed to God almighty, and my grandson is healed, like he's okay. The man says to my husband, we need to go to lunch. I have a lot of questions for you. You don't know, guys. You don't know. Isaiah fifty five eleven says, because we all have people in our life that we're like, I'm just giving up on them. You know what? It's been so long. You know what Isaiah fifty five eleven says? My word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty. It will accomplish the desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. It is doing a work. Even if people cancel you, it's okay. Even if people don't talk to you again, you put the alive word of God in their heart. I have two brothers. One hardcore Christian follows the Lord with all of his heart and so does his family. Other brother, youngest brother, mercy me. Anything he can do to be out here, he did in his life. We've been praying for him, planting seeds for him. He lives a very different lifestyle. He knows sister loves him. I'm bigger sister. I've always protected him. He knows that. But not been interested in Jesus. He called me just last week. He said, I have to tell you something that happened to me. So he has advanced Parkinson's, he's younger, and he he goes through a lot of trials physically, and I'm like, somebody is knocking on your door. And he just laughs at me. So he calls me and he goes, Deb. So I was working in the yard and I got bit by a bunch of bees. My brothers and I, all three of us are deathly allergic to bees. He said I was bit by bees, and I didn't have time to get to my EpiPen, and I passed out. This lady drove by, saw me, called 911. The ambulance came and he said I had to be resuscitated. And he goes, but I have to tell you, I almost didn't want to be resuscitated. I could feel them working on me, but I was in the most beautiful, glorious garden, and I felt no pain. It was amazing. And I said, Carrie Dean, do you think you are in heaven? And he goes, oh, I know I was in heaven. And I said, wait a second. Do you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior? And he said, yes, I do. And I said, a second. You have to say that with me because I I think I'm hearing what I wanna hear. Do you confess with your mouth? Say it with me. And he said, yes, Deborah, that's why I'm calling you. Jesus Christ is my Lord and my savior. So don't ever give up. I mean, my brother's 56. Don't ever give up on a single soul. The book of John, Jesus tells us that he came to give us real life and eternal life, more and better life than we ever ever dreamed of. So revival starts with repentance, Revival starts with reinvigorating my soul by spending time with the Lord and realigning my priorities. What else in this earth is more important than knowing Jesus and sharing Jesus? That phone call meant more than anything in this world could ever give me. Miss Lisa, take us home, girl. Yeah. Just take us home to be with Jesus. What a great reminder not to give up on man, I'm convicted, you know, like you you minister to or you share and you share and you just think, ugh. Like, Lord, can you do can you do something? Like, what that's such a good reminder. Just close your eyes with me. Just close your eyes and maybe with what Deborah said, maybe there's something in there that maybe you just need to spend a minute with the Lord. Maybe there's repentance that needs to happen in your heart. Maybe you've given up on praying for a certain person that the Lord's put on your heart because you just thought, oh, it's just not gonna happen. If it hasn't happened already, it's just not gonna happen. Lord, we repent because it it's almost like it has something to do with us, and it's all about your spirit, the power of your spirit. And we ask that you would just blow your spirit over us, that our hearts and our spirits would be revived, Lord, to share you. Refinerless fire, strengthen what remains. As we, your church, you bear your light. Lamp of flame, city bright, Lord, we acknowledge that it's by your spirit. It's all by your spirit that hearts are turned to you. That true revival happens. And it does, it starts with repentance. So as we, your church, repent of our sin, Lord, start with us. Start with us and just breathe a fresh new wind. Break our hearts for what breaks yours. That's our prayer. Let us have eyes to see the hurting people right around us. Even today, Lord, as we leave here. I'm just reminded of, you know when you're looking and shopping around for a new car and that's where your focus is you're looking around you're looking around when we were looking for a car for our son and we were looking at rav fours those toyota And all of a sudden because that's where my heart was focused, I saw them everywhere. Everywhere, everywhere. I was like, my gosh, there's a thousand RAV fours in this town. I'd never noticed one before, but I just feel like by the spirit right now that if our eyes are fixed on the people, we ask the Lord that that morning when we wake up. Lord, show me someone who's lost and hurting and that I can share my faith with today just like looking for that car. He's gonna highlight those people to you. All of a sudden, they're just gonna be all around you. But if we don't ask, if we're not intentional, if that's not where our focus is, we'll just we'll never see it. We'll never notice unless we're intentional. So Lord, that's our prayer today. Let us be intentional of what you have for us each day. Let us not get so busy we forget to ask Lord. Bring me someone today that needs the good news, the life saving eternal good news that I hope, that I know, that I live in. So that's our prayer today that revival would start with us. And then just out of that overflow of intimacy with you, Lord, and asking you and being intentional, you would just bring those people to us. We tell you we love you, Jesus. Be in our small group time as we discuss. Pray we would be real. That you'd come and meet us in a mighty way in these conversations. In Jesus' name, amen. Were there any other announcements today? That's it. Does, is everyone small group meeting in the same spot today or is anyone moving? Same spots. Okay. Ready, set, break.