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Northview Church in Kodak, TN exists to point people to the love of Jesus Christ and help people fall in love with Jesus and love others.
This morning, we're jumping back into the book of James. We've been in this is our seventh week in James and after this week, we get to take a couple of weeks break. Can I get an amen for that? Because I know James has been beating us up a lot. So we're gonna take a little pause and then we'll come back towards the end of June and finish out the remainder of the book of James.
Pastor Greg:As we were looking last week in chapter three, we talked about the tongue. Now, for me, as I told you last week, that was probably the hardest message out of this whole study so far. We talked about how gospel mouths would build and sinful mouths would burn. Talked about the importance of choosing our words wisely. It was a difficult message for me and from what I've heard from some of you, it was a difficult message for you as well.
Pastor Greg:The mouth though, it was always a symptom. It's not the disease. It's a symptom of what's going on with within us. So, this week, James is going to go even deeper. He he's pulling back the curtain one more time and he's going to ask us a question that is the most of us have never seriously thought about.
Pastor Greg:He's going to ask us this question, are you wise? Now, who's ever thought about that question before? Am I wise? Most of us maybe in passing but we don't really dwell on that question and think, am I really wise? We're not talking about book smart.
Pastor Greg:I know some of you all in here are really book smart. We're not talking about the kind who can collect all the Bible verses and quote em back. That's not the kind of wise we're talking about. We're talking about actual wise. Is your life shaped by wisdom?
Pastor Greg:Because James draws a straight line between what you call wisdom and what your life actually looks like. So, let's jump in. We're going to be in the second half of James chapter three. It'll be on the screen and there are Bibles spread around spread around under the seats if you need them as well. Beginning in verse 13, we see this, if you are wise and understand god's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
Pastor Greg:If you are wise, he says, prove it. Does your life show that you are wise? He he's not asking us to give a statement of faith here and say, this is what I believe, this is what I stand on. He he's not asking about what your church attendance record looks like whether you show up every week or just show up occasionally. He's asking about your life.
Pastor Greg:What is your life actually look like? What's growing in your life? Or what's the shape of your life? Is it the shape of a life of wisdom? Or the shape of a life that's worldly?
Pastor Greg:Now, I know some of us will hear that and immediately feel the weight of it because you know there's a gap. You know that that what is poured into you on Sunday and what you learn from scripture and what actually plays out in the rest of your life that there's a gap. And and I know some of you heard it and you thought, I'm doing pretty good. I'm actually okay in this. I'm not in that big sin category because I show up.
Pastor Greg:I love my family. I'm doing my best and here's where James is going to tell both of us. Get to both of us. Let's think about what our weeks look like. Tomorrow morning, the alarm's going to go off.
Pastor Greg:Somebody's going to need breakfast. The kids have somewhere to be. You've got work at eight or class at eight, whatever you need to get to. Then you get home and there's practice. There's homework, maybe not now, school's out but through most of the year or just sheer exhaustion from what your week looks like.
Pastor Greg:Having done more than you thought you could do that week. You squeeze in a little margin somewhere. May maybe you watch your favorite Netflix series or or something on television. Maybe you sit back and you read a book. You just kind of get to chill and relax a little bit.
Pastor Greg:That that's the point. You're living a full life. You're living a a life that's responsible, a life that we would look at and say that's the American life. That's what we strive for and most of you, you're doing fairly well at it. Even if you may feel like you're a little bit behind.
Pastor Greg:But somewhere in the middle of all that fullness, all that busyness, something happened that you didn't consciously realize or decide. Faith became one more thing to manage rather than the thing that everything else flows from. And here's a reality, when when faith becomes one more thing to manage, the field of your life goes quiet. And and I know this for a fact because I have lived this. Several years ago, I I was working full time in video production and I was a youth pastor at the same time overseeing a youth group part time.
Pastor Greg:So, I would get off work and I would rush to the church to get the things done that had to be done. Spending weekends with a bunch of students. Teaching truth on Wednesday nights. And trying to keep everything from falling apart the rest of the week. Here here's the the thing.
Pastor Greg:I wasn't failing. By all accounts, that youth ministry was very successful. I wasn't in a spiral. I didn't have any obvious sin popping into my life. From the outside, it looked like faithfulness.
Pastor Greg:I was serving the lord. I was pouring into teenagers and loving every second of it. But I remember as the years went on, I was actually sitting with my my coworker in ministry. We had a middle school pastor. I was the middle school guy.
Pastor Greg:We had a high school guy and we're just sitting there talking about how overwhelming it's becoming. It's just hard to keep up. There's so much going on. We we were also serving our churches as deacons at the time. It it was a lot going on.
Pastor Greg:A question came up. What is actually growing in your personal life outside of church work? That question sat with me and my honest answer was not much. It's all about church. There was no fruit outside of those church walls.
Pastor Greg:My personal life was running on fumes. My my marriage was doing great because she was so involved in the youth ministry. She was there all the time too. We spent all the time together. But it was exhausting.
Pastor Greg:And I built this whole theology about why that was okay. That's just the way it is. You're serving students. You're working in ministry. You're getting things done.
Pastor Greg:Kids are getting saved. Their lives are changing. This is what ministry should look like. It was a lie that I told myself and you probably have some version of that too. I I know most of you, you're not working in ministry especially full time.
Pastor Greg:You're doing it for your family. It's just the season we're in. It's just busy. There's so much going on. This is what a a good father or a good mother does.
Pastor Greg:We sacrifice and nobody argues with that because it sounds noble, sounds responsible, it sounds right. But James is asking us, what is growing in you? Is wisdom growing in you? You know, nobody in this room woke up this morning wanting to keep God at arm's length. That's not our desire.
Pastor Greg:You wouldn't be here if that's what you were hoping to do. Our desire is to be closer to god and the desire is good. You want to be happy. Who wants to be happy? You want your family to be okay, to know that everything's fine.
Pastor Greg:Who wants that for your family? You want enough margin in your bank account so that you don't have to white knuckle through every month, but you know the bills can be paid and you want some comfort, don't you? I know I do. Just to be able to relax and chill out and just enjoy life, some room to breathe. We want to experience some sort of success that makes the grind feel like it's worth it.
Pastor Greg:You see, that's what James calls earthly wisdom and earthly wisdom promises peace. It just doesn't deliver it. So, we keep trying and we keep trying and we keep trying and we never get there. Here's what I want you to notice about those things. Every single one of those is a search for peace.
Pastor Greg:Not just a feeling of it, it's the reality. You want to stop lying awake at 02:00 in the morning wondering, is the electric bill going to be paid this month? Do I have enough in the bank for the car payment or the house payment? Or you want to stop feeling like all the bills are paid but the next problem is just around the corner. You want to be able to get somewhere and actually be able to exhale.
Pastor Greg:It's what I'm striving for. That's what I want life to look like. So, somewhere along the way, without anyone making a conscious decision about this, Jesus became the person we call when things get too difficult, too difficult, or out of control. He's not absent from your life. He's just in the background.
Pastor Greg:He's on standby. And you lean on him when the wheels come off, and you know that you just can't grit your teeth to get through the rest of it. It's not a condemning description. That's just the way most of us are. It's just being honest with it.
Pastor Greg:And James, he has a name for that. He tells us, what does this produce in us? You look at verse 16. He says this, for wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil in every of every kind. Now, we don't look at it as being jealous or selfish ambition but when we start to dissect it and really dig deeper, that's what it is.
Pastor Greg:Not in the lives of people who walked away from God. That's not who he's talking to. James wrote this letter to Christians, to Jewish believers. It's the lives of people who keep Jesus near but never quite central, never quite the most important thing. It's the managed life, the responsible life, the life that we grid out Monday through Saturday and then we show up for Jesus on Sunday.
Pastor Greg:That's who he's talking about. And what James is describing here, it's not always chaos. Sometimes, it looks right. It looks good. Sometimes, it it just looks like a like a life where nothing is growing.
Pastor Greg:You're just busy. You're managing maintaining, getting through but what James wants us to know is that you weren't that's not the right slide. You weren't made to survive. You were made to sow. You weren't made to just get through this life.
Pastor Greg:You were made to sow the gospel into this world. That's what James is telling us our life should look like. As we look at the idea that he's talking about here, James doesn't just tell us earthly wisdom is unhelpful. He tells us it has a nature. He gives it three words.
Pastor Greg:He calls it earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. He's saying that managed life, that that life that we're just getting through, there's a source there and it's earthly, it's unspiritual, and it's demonic. And these those words expose something in us that most of us have never really thought about. The early church, they had a framework that looked at this same idea. They called it the world, the flesh, the devil.
Pastor Greg:It's the same thing, earthly, and spiritual, and demonic. And James, he's using all of this at once to describe something that we would never call demonic. He he's describing the responsible, head down, take care of the business, and take care of your family kind of life and he's saying it's connected to a system that is breaking you down. Says it's earthly. The world Earthly wisdom, it only sees what's in front of it.
Pastor Greg:The season you're in, the paycheck that needs to get in the bank so that you can pay the bills, the problem you're facing, the illness, the disease. It has no eternal horizon. So, every decision gets made in this tyranny of urgency. It's just bearing down on us. You're not planning for any kind of harvest.
Pastor Greg:You're just trying to make it to Friday. Most of us have been there. Maybe you're there today. Maybe that's how your life's going right now and James would say that's earthly. That's the world.
Pastor Greg:He he also says, unspiritual or the wisdom of the flesh. This is the one we probably need to camp out on the longest. Because I I think most of us feel like we're pretty good in our faith. We're okay. And maybe you are, but that unspiritual category, that that's exactly where that respectable self centered life lives.
Pastor Greg:Unspiritual literally means of the flesh. It means the engine running your life is you, is human. It means everything you're producing, whatever good in your life, when you show up, when you're responsible, that it's coming out of what you can generate yourself. Your grit, your determination, your willpower. James is saying, the source of that is you and it's unspiritual.
Pastor Greg:You lean on Jesus when it breaks down, but the rest of that life it runs on you. You fuel it. And here's the quiet question that comes with that. What is growing in your life? What is truly growing?
Pastor Greg:Not what are you doing? Not how often do you show up? What is growing? Is there anything growing in your life that can only be explained by the spirit of God within you? Or is everything growing in you stuff that you can do whether Jesus is part of your life or not?
Pastor Greg:Because I'm going to be honest, here's what I see when I look at us as a church. I see people in this room who genuinely love the Lord. I believe in most of you in this room, you really do love Jesus. But I also see people who can go a full week and the gospel never comes up in a natural conversation. Did the gospel ever come up for you this week in a conversation?
Pastor Greg:Did the thought even enter into your mind? Have you actually prayed for someone who you know is not a believer or far away from Jesus? It's not because you're avoiding it. It's not because we're ashamed of it. It just didn't come up.
Pastor Greg:We're too busy. Life's too full, too overwhelming. Every decision was getting made in this urgency and somewhere in the middle of work and kids and practice and just trying to get to Friday, God moved from being your source for everything through your week to where he's just now the conclusion of a week and you celebrate it on Sunday. By Sunday, he's in first place. But Monday through Saturday, the list look more like work, family, whatever's left, then if there's any leftover, God.
Pastor Greg:And a life running in that order will produce a life that looks just like that order. A life that's all about work, maybe about family, maybe about leisure time, and eventually a little bit about God. And the truth is it's indistinguishable from the neighbor that doesn't know Jesus at all. It's who James is talking to here. It's not that we're living badly.
Pastor Greg:It's that nobody can look at our lives from the outside and have this question about who you are than only the gospel can answer. They see us and they say, they're just like us. And they're right. He says that's unspiritual. Then he he says there's also the demonic.
Pastor Greg:We gotta you gotta stay with me through this. James is not calling us or you demonic. He he's telling you that this system of wisdom has a source and the source is the enemy and the lie in the center of all of it, the one that that keeps this managed life just just surviving. It's crafted. It's intentional.
Pastor Greg:It's from the enemy. Just keep your head down. Take care of your family. Stay away from the big sins and you're doing fine. That's the kind of life he's talking about.
Pastor Greg:It's a design deception. It's the enemy keeping you just religious enough to feel okay and just busy enough that you produce nothing. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder of an evil of every kind, he says. The disorder in your life, it doesn't necessarily look like chaos. It may look like everything's great.
Pastor Greg:But it's a tree with empty branches. There's no fruit. And a tree that produces no fruit, it's not resting, it's dying. You've been trying to survive but that's not the life god called you to. He's calling you to produce fruit.
Pastor Greg:You go back to chapter one, James open this whole letter with something that maybe you read right past. In verse chapter one verse five, if you need wisdom, ask our generous god and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking but when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in god alone. Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. He says, if you need wisdom, you don't have to earn it, you don't have to learn it, you don't have to achieve it.
Pastor Greg:He says, ask. The field isn't quiet because you haven't worked hard enough. The field isn't bare because you're running in on the wrong fuel. It's bare because you're running on your own fuel. You're filling up at the wrong source and James says, the true source of wisdom is available to you and me.
Pastor Greg:Every single one of us right now but he says, you have to ask. It doesn't just happen. You have to seek the lord. Truly ask. The kind of asking that aligns our heart with the lord's.
Pastor Greg:It requires stopping, getting quiet, acknowledging that you've been generating this all on your own and it has a ceiling. And that's what your prayer life should look like. Daily, Lord, give me wisdom today. Just grant me the strength to get through this day. Help me to see when you put someone in front of me that needs the gospel.
Pastor Greg:Help me recognize it. It's when you say I can't run this on grit. I need what only the spirit can produce. Here's what you're actually asking for when you ask for wisdom. You flip over to first Corinthians chapter one, Paul writes this in verse 30, God has united you with Christ Jesus for our benefit.
Pastor Greg:God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with god. He made us pure and holy and he freed us from sin. You see, wisdom, it's not what you can download. It's it's a person.
Pastor Greg:And that person went to a cross Here's what the cross does in the life that we're trying to manage our self. It exposes it completely. Every decision made in that urgency, every week where god ended up fourth on the list, he was supposed to be the source of all of it. Every quiet field where nothing was growing, the cross says that was wasn't just inefficiency, it was sin. The old nature running the show and Jesus, what did he do on the cross?
Pastor Greg:He absorbed every single bit of that. The obvious sin and the respectable sin. That prodigal who ran away and the the elder brother who stayed home and kept his head down. He paid for all of it. Then he got up and walked out of a tomb which means the source, it's not just a memory and it's not just theology, it's not just a scripture burst, it is a living person who is right now available to anyone who will stop.
Pastor Greg:And just ask. You see, that's the change in the life that Jesus puts before us. It's no longer having to run on you. It's not try harder. It is a different source entirely.
Pastor Greg:He says in in verse 17, but the wisdom from above is first of all, pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism. It's always sincere.
Pastor Greg:Don't read that as a checklist of the things you've got to accomplish. It's a portrait. Of a person He says, pure. That's Jesus. The the only one who ever lived who was able to live a pure life, nothing hidden, no self protection underneath the service, just pure.
Pastor Greg:He says, peaceable. That's Jesus, the one who who slept on a cushion in the storm, whose life wasn't dictated by his circumstances, the prince of peace who walked into every room and changed the atmosphere. He says, gentle, that's Jesus getting down on the dirt next to a woman caught in adultery and saying, daughter. Open to reason, willing to yield. That's Jesus.
Pastor Greg:Jesus never had to be defensive. He never had to threaten. He never had to win the argument to be secure. He just spoke the truth full of mercy. That's Jesus.
Pastor Greg:We need to stay on that one for a moment because this letter for the last seven weeks from James has been beating a lot of us up. It is exposing us so many things. He's been holding up this mirror and many of us have seen a reflection we didn't really want to see. A faith that talks but doesn't walk. A tongue that burns more than it builds.
Pastor Greg:A life that's been surviving when it's meant to produce. And if we're not careful when we walk out of here, we feel like the goal is perfection. But it's nowhere close. Let me be clear. Perfection is not the goal.
Pastor Greg:Perfection is the example and his name is Jesus Christ. You are called to live in his image, to strive to be more like him but he is the only one who ever has and ever will achieve it. Every quality that James list on there, it's him. He embodied that completely and you and I, we are called to spend the rest of our lives growing toward that. But there will be days when you fall short and if you're like me, it's going be most days.
Pastor Greg:You don't fall into condemnation. We fall into mercy. He took it to the cross for you. He doesn't look at your quiet field. He doesn't look at the the lack of fruit.
Pastor Greg:He doesn't shake his head at that. He looks at it and he says, here's some seed. Go sow it. That's the gospel. The same Jesus who set the standard is the one absorbing the gap between where you are and where you're meant to be.
Pastor Greg:It was all Jesus. It's always been Jesus. It always will be Jesus. He says, impartial. That's Jesus.
Pastor Greg:He went to tax collectors and fishermen. He went to Pharisees and prostitutes. He went to the respectable and the broken. He said, welcome. The kingdom of god is at hand.
Pastor Greg:Sincere, that's Jesus. What you saw is who he was. All the way. This is not a list of things to become. This is a description of the person the spirit is producing in you.
Pastor Greg:That's who we are growing towards, not perfection. And the staggering thing about all of it, when you ask for wisdom, when you align your heart with the Lord in prayer, when you stop running on your fuel and you draw from him as the source, that is what starts growing in you. That fruit, not because you earned it, but because the spirit produces it in you. You weren't made to survive. You were made to sow.
Pastor Greg:And the seed, it's not anything you can manufacture. It's the character of Christ growing in you till it starts producing fruit in everyone around you. You see, the fruit was never meant to stay on the tree. He's growing it in you to share it with the world. Let's see what he says.
Pastor Greg:Verse 18, and those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. Plant seeds and reap a harvest is what he says of those who are peacemakers. That's not a metaphor. That's a picture of a life that changes everyone around it because the fruit was never meant to stay on the tree. Heavenly wisdom, it's missional.
Pastor Greg:It's meant to go out into the world because that's the calling god put on our life. Think about what a life running on that source actually looks like. Not perfect, not a life that doesn't have pressure in it, not a life that doesn't have hard weeks, not a life that doesn't have those moments of urgency that that crowds everything else but it's a life where Christ is the source. Where the prayer is real, where alignment is happening, and you are growing into that image where the spirit is producing in you what the grit of life never could, what your own fuel never can. That life is pure.
Pastor Greg:And people notice when there's nothing hidden underneath the service surface. When you what you actually see is what's there. In a world like we're in today, it's running so much on image. A person who has nothing to hide, it's kind of disarming to people. It's genuine.
Pastor Greg:People are drawn to that. Is that you? That life is peaceable. When you walk into the room, do you bring peace with you? Not because you have everything together but because your peace isn't dependent on your circumstances.
Pastor Greg:It's all about the one that you know is the source of it and it doesn't make sense to anybody. That's the kind of peace he brings us. And you know what happens? Eventually, they ask about it. Why are you different?
Pastor Greg:Where's that coming from? That's a life that's full of mercy. We live in a world of cancel culture and it keeps score of every single failure, every mistake, every bad decision. In that world, mercy is the most disruptive thing you can offer to another human being. It's a life that's sincere.
Pastor Greg:We have a culture that's drowning in this curated, shut up and smile version of itself. In that world, a person who is genuinely real is impossible to ignore. It's a life that is sowing. It doesn't announce itself. It just grows things and eventually, people start asking you questions that only the gospel can answer.
Pastor Greg:It opens up doors for Jesus to do the work through you that he's called you to do. The harvest that James is talking about here, it's not a program, it's your life. So, here's where we land today. We've been for seven weeks letting James diagnose what's going on with us. For some of us, it's hurt pretty bad.
Pastor Greg:We've seen what's wrong. He's held a mirror up to us and we've we've been able to name it. We felt it. And today, James is shifting over to what is meant to grow in you, A harvest of righteousness sown in peace by people who make peace. And that only peace is through Jesus Christ.
Pastor Greg:You don't have to overhaul your entire life this week. You don't have to add seventeen, twenty things to an already full schedule. Here's what I want to ask you to do as a church. We bring this up so often but it is so true. All of us have at least one person who we know needs the gospel.
Pastor Greg:Who is the one? Who is the name you wrote down at Sacred Assembly a few months ago? Have you reached out to them at all? Who is the one, the person who's already on your heart that's your field this week? One person, one name, that's where you start.
Pastor Greg:One conversation, one prayer, that's where you start. One intentional moment where the gospel is presented naturally because you're living a life that's connected to the source. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do today. We talk so often about a prayer team that prays for you all through the week. A team that's going to to battle for youth, whatever you're dealing with.
Pastor Greg:This week, I haven't asked them. I'm just telling them it's what we're doing, Tina. It's what we're doing this week. We're going to battle with you for your one. So, I want everyone to pull out a prayer card.
Pastor Greg:They're in the seat pockets in front of you there. There's a purple cards. If you don't have one, raise your hand. Someone will get you a prayer card. They should be in the seats because Braxton was supposed to put them there and I have a feeling he forgot but there should be one in each each seat pocket there.
Pastor Greg:Raise it up when you get it so we can see who has a prayer card. Is there anybody that needs one? Front row needs one. Except for Timmy. He stole one from somewhere.
Pastor Greg:I want you to take that prayer card. Don't write anything on it yet. I want you praying for the person you're going put on that. Here's what I want you to do. Write your name so we know who the person is, the contact for, And then just write the first name of your one.
Pastor Greg:Whoever it is. That's all you got to write. This is me, Mason Reed. My one is the first name. That's all you need.
Pastor Greg:As the lord leads you, go ahead and do that. And here's what I want you to know. By putting on that putting it on that card, you are not sowing the seed alone. We're going to battle with you this week. We're going to pray that God will blow the doors open so that you can share the truth with someone who's in desperate need of it.
Pastor Greg:Because you weren't made to survive, you were made to sow. And what you were meant to sow is peace, and truth, and the good news of the gospel. That's what you were created for. It's not a slogan. It's your identity.
Pastor Greg:That's what heavenly wisdom produces in a life that stops running on your own fuel and starts being fueled by Jesus Christ. Who's your one? As you think about that, I know there are some in this room you don't know Jesus. You hear all this but you've never really claimed Jesus as your savior. And maybe you've said a name, maybe you've raised a hand, maybe you've prayed a prayer but you've never really given your life to Jesus as your savior.
Pastor Greg:For you, was just a response out of pressure or out of fear or a ticket out of hell. But it was never about a relationship with the king. You can have one this morning. He's calling you to this peaceable life. This life that sows.
Pastor Greg:This life that has purpose and meaning. He's calling you to something greater than yourself and it's only found in the person of Jesus Christ. Listen, everything you've been pursuing in this life, it's only found in Jesus. Everything in this world is going to leave you disappointed. Maybe not in the moment but eventually, that's all going to fade away and you're going to have to chase something else.
Pastor Greg:The only thing that lasts is Jesus and and scripture tells us that if you give your life to Jesus and it's not just saying I believe. Scripture says that if you confess him as lord and that means he's in charge and he gets a say in your life. That means you will strive to line up your life with what scripture teaches. Scripture says, if you confess him as lord and believe, truly believe that he is who he says he is, that god raised him from the dead. It says, you will be saved.
Pastor Greg:That's mercy. You didn't earn any of it. It's just saying yes to the king. Have you ever really done that? As the band makes their way back up, I'm going to ask everyone where you're at, if you would bow your heads and get along with the lord.
Pastor Greg:Who's the name you put on your card? Who's the one? Pray over that name. Ask God to open doors for you. Our team will be praying over those this week that god will open doors for you and maybe it won't happen this week.
Pastor Greg:It might be a couple of weeks. It might be a few months but god will begin to soften that ground for you to sow the seed. But if you're in this room and you've never never really given your life to Jesus, this is your shot. If you say a prayer, it's not a magical prayer. It doesn't have to be these words but something along the the lines of, I know I'm a sinner.
Pastor Greg:I know I need a savior and I know Jesus is who he says he is. I believe it. Will you be my lord? You can have my life. And if you really mean it, you will be saved.
Pastor Greg:If that's you this morning with nobody else looking around, if god is drawing you to himself, nobody looking but me. Would you raise your hand? Yes, I want to give my life to Jesus and I never have. If that's you this morning as they sing, I'm going to ask you, would you come up? I'll be on the drums, but come get me.
Pastor Greg:I'll get I'll I'll I'll get out of them. They can they don't need a drummer. You can grab Craig. He's up here on the front. As they sing this last song, I want you to take those cards too that you put the name on.
Pastor Greg:And we're kind of crowded up here, but we're going do it anyways. I want you to come and just lay them on the altar. This is my one. Maybe it's the same one you put down back at sacred assembly, but we need to keep reminding ourselves. We are called to sow.
Pastor Greg:This is your commitment. I'm going to be a person who sows the truth. You're not meant to survive. You were called to sow. So I'm gonna pray and after I pray you can begin making your way up, laying your your cards on the altar.
Pastor Greg:Pray over em if you want. You can gather down here. You can pray. Maybe you need to repent of something, do so. And if god is calling you into a relationship with himself today to confess Jesus Christ as lord, this is your moment.
Pastor Greg:Father in heaven, as we close this morning and we sing a song of praise, a song of worship, a song of surrender. I pray father that you would work on us, that you would help us to confess any sin in our life that's been unconfessed, that you would draw anyone in this room who who doesn't know you as lord and savior, that you would save their souls right now. That they would confess Jesus as lord and that they would follow through and tell somebody about it. I pray for every name that's been written on a card. That we don't just write it down flippantly.
Pastor Greg:That we write down that name. That that is the person who you have laid on our hearts to reach out to. Whether it's today or whether it's in six months that we will be praying for this person. And God we ask you to open a door. Maybe it's someone who doesn't know you or maybe it's someone who's just strayed far away from you.
Pastor Greg:Help us to sow the seeds of peace. So I pray, Lord, that as we lay these cards down, we're not just doing it as an act, we are doing it as a commitment. And, Father, that as a church, we will be a church that sows. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.