All right. Well, during worship, Eric kinda let the cat out of the bag, and this illustration we're going to use today is a little bit obvious about some of what we're going to talk about today. I wanted to tell you, we're going to have some of the cookies on the top shelf. We're going to have to work a little bit and stay engaged to talk about something that has more mystery than any of us will ever understand. We're also going to put the cookies on the lower shelf so that there is incredibly practical application to what we're going to talk about today.
I will tell you this: as a guy who gets to hang out with you at Plano, this is the most transformational concept in my life. If I think about all of the sermons I've ever heard (all of the teachings, readings, books, all that kind of stuff I've ever read), understanding what we are going to talk about today is the one that has transformed my life more than anything else. I hope as we talk about the Trinity…how they work together and how that applies to us…that will also be transformational in your life. Let me pray, ask the Lord to do that, and then we are going to jump in.
Father, thanks for the privilege to open up your Scripture and look at a concept that is incredibly mysterious yet incredibly functional. It just matters what we believe about this. So I pray, by the power of your Holy Spirit…Lord, as I deliver it, Father, as people hear it…would you just transform all of us in the room because of what your Word says about this concept?
Father, we give you the next 30 or 45 minutes, or so, and ask that you would do great things that give you glory and also transform us and the world around us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Here's what I want to ask you to start. I want you to think about the greatest invitation you have ever gotten. Really, just take a minute and think about… Was it an invitation to a party? Was it maybe you performed well and somebody came up and said, "Oh man. I want you to be a part of our team or our college…" or whatever? Now just think about it. Maybe for some of the gals in the room, the greatest invitation was your marriage proposal. I want you to think about the greatest invitation.
While you're doing that, I'm going to tell you mine. When I was growing up… Some of you all know this about me. I grew up in a family where at the age of 15 my dad left the family, and I never saw him again. He died three days later, and that relationship was never reconciled. We were poor. So for me, what looked like college was going to be (and there's nothing wrong with these places) was Brookhaven, which was 200 yards from my house, or someplace like that.
We didn't know what was going to happen. All my buddies were going to college at big schools. That's kind of the place I was in. I played baseball in high school. For those of y'all who don't know, back in those days there were pro camps like the Phillies and the Reds, and different baseball teams would put camps on at Paris Junior College. We'd drive over to these little towns in Texas and Oklahoma and try to get seen (or spotted) by a college coach or, even better, signed by a pro team at that point.
I did okay in baseball, so toward the end of my senior year we went to a camp up in Oklahoma. Believe me; this is total God's sovereignty here. I went out on the mound. I was going to face six batters. There were coaches (scouts) around there. I had gone with a couple of buddies. I faced six batters, struck out the first five, and then my best friend who had gone with me hit a ball 400 feet over the fence. I'm like, Dang it!
I walked off of the field, and there was a coach there who I had kind of known a little bit about. They had a great pitching coach, which was what I really wanted. He walked up to me. He handed me five pieces of paper and said, "Hey, Kyle. We want you to come to Oral Roberts University, and we're going to pay for four years of your school." Unbelievable.
Crazy: God's sovereignty again. The next week (because I didn't know what I was doing) now that I have this, I wanted to go to A&M where my girlfriend was going. That's stupid, by the way, in case anybody wants to know that now. I'm looking at that; that was dumb. So I go down there. I face six hitters again, and I get ripped. Every guy up there: double, home run, single. I watched the A&M coach just kind of walk away and not even acknowledge I was even there.
But the greatest invitation I think I've ever gotten was that invitation. All this pressure (Am I going to get to go to school at a big school? All that…) just kinda went away because it was kinda done. And we did that. How about you? What's yours? What's the greatest invitation you've ever been given? We're going to talk today about…I promise you…an invitation to you that is better than any other invitation you have ever gotten.
This invitation starts in John 17, verses 20 through 23. We're going to read that together. We'll come back to it a couple of times. It says this, verse 20: "I do not ask on behalf of these alone…" Let me give you a little context before I read it. This is Jesus' High Priestly Prayer. It's the night before he goes to the cross. He spends the first part of John, chapter 17, talking about, "I have fulfilled…" He's talking to the Father. "…what you told me to do." The second part of that he's praying for his disciples, that they will continue to fulfill what Jesus has done originally.
Amazingly, in the third part of this chapter, Jesus says, "And I pray for all those who are going to come to believe in Christ through the ministry of the disciples." Jesus prays for you and me. He's praying for all of us. So let's look at what it says. "I do not ask on behalf of these alone but for those also who believe in me through their word [through the disciples' word] ; that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me."
Verse 22: "The glory which you have given me…" This is Jesus speaking. "…I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one; I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you have loved me."
We're going to take about 10 minutes here… This is where the cookies get on the top shelf, and I'm going to need you to stay with me. We're going to run through, we're going to rip through, a ton of Scripture. I promise I eliminated a ton I would have loved to have talked about today, but just we don't have time.
Saint Augustine, one of the great Christian thinkers of antiquity, basically said, "Talking about the Trinity is like trying to take one bucket at a time, putting the ocean down into a hole." Our minds just cannot get around some of the mystery of God. Let me tell you, that is a really good thing. I don't want to worship a God I can put in a box. I'm great with the fact that there is some mystery and some stuff I don't get.
What we are going to spend some time on is looking at the Scripture, and we are going to see how the functionality of the nature of God works together. We get this question a lot on staff: "Hey, can you explain the Trinity to me?" I'm like, Ahhh. "Okay. Let's try." There are all kinds of illustrations that fall astray, so let me give you… We're going to throw a slide up, and it would be great if you took a picture of this or wrote this down because this terminology is really helpful.
If you are a Christian, if you are a Christ-follower, if you are an orthodox Christian (orthodoxy just means straight-thinking) this is what you believe. You may not even know that, but this is what you believe. Let me tell you first, if somebody asks me, "Hey, Kyle, explain the Trinity." I start with this. I just say, first of all…
God is one in essence. God is one. The Scripture talks about it all over the place.
He's three in person: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Each has a distinct role and function.
They are equal in authority.
There are a couple of great places you could go: www.gotquestions.org and www.desiringgod.org are two great places to go. Type in the Trinity, and you can get an apologetic for the Trinity. That's not my heart today. It's not what I want to do. I want to talk about how they function together and how that affects each and every single one of us and then affects our church.
What we're going to do is spend a little bit of time looking at the Scripture for each one of the persons of the Godhead, of the nature of God. What I want you to understand is that the Holy Spirit has a distinct role as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are together.
Let's look at John 14:26. This is Jesus talking, and he says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." The role of the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and a reminder of all the things Jesus taught to the disciples.
John 16:13-14 (this is Jesus again): "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes [that's the Holy Spirit] , he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak; and he will disclose to you what is to come." Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit says, "He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you."
1._ The Holy Spirit._ The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father at the request of the Son. He's the Helper, Comforter, Counselor. That's his role, to teach us what is right and true, and he is to glorify and testify about Jesus. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all working together in this divine dance of mutual perfection and deference. They defer to each other.
One of the things we need to know is there are a lot of ministries (I came from one; ORU was one of these) that put a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit, too much emphasis on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to be in the background. The role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus and then glorify the Father. That is his role. Anytime ministries get where they highlight and elevate the Holy Spirit, you need to be cautious about that.
Let me read to you the sacrifice. If they are doing this divine dance of perfection, as we go on and we think out through history about the sacrifice the Holy Spirit made… "I will be poured out on earth, in mostly silent invisible ways, to lead and guide, never exalting myself, always pointing to the Son, and to a large extent, I will be ignored, grieved, and quenched." That's all biblical. It talks about what we do to the Holy Spirit; we grieve and quench. The Holy Spirit played his role but suffered those things. Let's move to the role of the Son.
2._ The Son._ We're going to brain-bust through some more Scripture here. In John 5:19, "Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, unless it is something he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.'" Jesus is imitating, doing exactly what the Father is doing.
In Luke 22:42, "Saying, 'Father, if you are willing…'" This is before he goes to the cross. "'…remove this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.'" Jesus is just taking what he wants to do and making it submissive to what the Father wants from him. John 17:1: "Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.'" That's Jesus' role, to glorify the Father.
Jesus, as he submitted to the Holy Spirit in Mark 1:12 (you're familiar with this story), says, "Immediately the Spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness." Again, there's this dance of perfection that's taking place, this perfect communion of the Trinity. Can you imagine if the Holy Spirit or Jesus just said, "Hey, I think I'm the greatest." You think there are arguments here? No. It is awesome what's taking place in here.
The sacrifice of the Son, here it is: "I will leave oneness, take on their brokenness and sin, be forsaken, and die on a cross." He was sent by the Father, led by the Spirit, so the Father could be glorified. We all know what the sacrifice… If the Spirit made the sacrifice of being quenched and grieved, Jesus made the sacrifice of going to the cross in order to die for all of humanity. Again, there is this incredible, perfect dance that is taking place between these three persons. Let's look at the Father.
3._ The Father._ Colossians 1:16. Let's look about what the Scripture says about the Father. "For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him." He is in charge of it all. He runs the universe. Yet he cares about each one of us.
A couple of other places where God actually speaks about his Son give us insight into God's heart for his Son. Mark 1:11: "And a voice came out of the heavens: 'You are my beloved Son, in you I am well-pleased.'" Mark 9:7 (it's at the Mount of Transfiguration): "Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, 'This is my beloved Son, listen to Him!'"
The Father is saying, "Hey, pay attention to my Son because of the role I have given him." It says in other places in the Scripture that the Father has turned over everything to the Son. So the sacrifice the Father made: "I will watch my Son Jesus pour out his life for all mankind, suffer, experience rejection, and then die on a cross." All of us who are parents, we get that. There is no pain greater than the pain of our children going through something incredibly difficult.
What I want you to see as we went through that Scripture…thanks for staying with me…is there is this incredible communion, community, between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now I want to tell you about the greatest invitation you've ever received. Let's go back to John 17:20-21 and look what it says.
Remember, Jesus is praying for us through the disciples. "I do not ask on behalf of these alone [again, the disciples] , but for those also who believe in me through their word [or through the ministry of the disciples] ; that they may all be one [all of us are one] ; even as you, Father [Jesus saying, 'As you and I are one.'] , are in me and I in you…" Here it is. "…that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me."
Folks, here's what's happening. This divine perfect dance of deference to each other… The Trinity, as much as it can, takes an incredible risk and lets a broken, depraved Kyle Kaigler into this community. God is asking me, inviting me and inviting you, to be a part of this community. God's purpose in all of human history, once the fall happened, was to redeem all of mankind.
I had so much fun this week looking at all the Scripture that talks about how all of this works. Does anybody know what God's favorite word is? One. All throughout the Scripture (we're going to look at some here in minute), it's just that we are all one. The Trinity basically said, "Hey, we've got this perfect thing going right here, but we are going to let broken, sinful humanity into this oneness that we desire for all of mankind."
Don't miss this. You are invited. Every single person. God has initiated, the Son has initiated with us, to invite us in to this. If you're here and you're not a believer, I hope today is a great day for you. As you understand a little bit about the functionality and the nature of God and how they operate, and then realize they invite you in to that, to be a part of one church, all the believers in the world, one body together… I get overwhelmed when I think about the risk that the nature of God took for that. It's unbelievable.
If you're here and you haven't said yes to the gospel, to the good news of Jesus Christ, you haven't realized you're a sinner, that you're separated from God, and put your faith and trust in the work of Christ on the cross, I hope today is your day because this is the greatest invitation you're ever going to get. You get invited to be a part of that. He did it because he loves you. That's why he did it. Every single person in here…regardless of what happened last night, last week, last month…he loves you deeply.
What does all of this cookies-on-the-top-shelf stuff mean for us practically? It's great to know this and have that information. If somebody says to you, "Explain the Trinity." "Well, here's what I can tell you. I can't explain all of it, but I can tell you they're one in essence, three in person, distinct in role and function, and equal in authority." You can say that. You can begin to grow in what you know about those things, but let me tell you how that plays out functionally, why it matters. So principle number one for today, point number one is…
1._ God exists in community; therefore, community for us is not optional._ The Scripture says we're made in his image, so living in community with other people is not an option. Let's look at Ephesians, chapter 4:1-6. This is where God reveals his favorite word to us.
"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all."
His favorite word: oneness. Let me tell you how this plays out in your life. I'm going to tell you one of my favorite stories of God intervening in my life. One of my idols in my life is sports. It's one of the things we're talking about in re:generation as we're going through, that I can idolize sports too much, especially my kids' sports.
My daughter is a senior in high school and has three more volleyball games. I'm not sure who is going to be the bigger puddle the last night, her dad or her, as we think through this thing. I've been paying attention to it. My wife's a great help: "Hey, are you idolizing this?" I've made progress, but it's coming… Now you're finding out, "Is the rubber going to hit the road?" Right? Is that an idol or not in your life?
Back when my kids were playing sports, I was super engaged in what they were doing. I was coaching, and we were in the playoffs. They were probably second or third grade. They were playing, and it was the quarterfinals. It was 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, then 3-3. A tie. Well, it's quarterfinals; you can't end in a tie. In soccer, what do you do? It's the craziest thing ever: you go to penalty kicks.
These kids are in second and third grade, and all this pressure is happening. So the coach (me), never practiced penalty kicks in my entire life, says, "Hey, Kaylee (my daughter), you're in the goal." She jumps in there and… Make, make, save, save, make, make, save, save. We're all tied up. Then on the last shot, Kaylee makes this incredible save to win the quarterfinal game and move us to the semifinal.
We're going crazy in this deal. We're going crazy. We're walking off the field, and this overwhelming sense hits me: I miss my dad. I'm like, He would have absolutely loved this. He would have had Kaylee on his shoulders. He'd have been high-fiving. He'd have been patting me on the back that we're going to the semifinals. It was overwhelming. I'm like, Oh, man. I've got some work to do here. Little did I know God was setting me up to understand community, what we're talking about today.
The very next week, semifinal. We're in the game, and it's 1-1, 2-2, 3-3… Yep, ends in a tie. Brilliant coach that I am: "Kaylee, back in the goal." Same thing happens. Make, make, miss, miss, make, make, miss, miss. All tied up. Kaylee makes another not-as-incredible save, but still a good save, to move us into the finals. Everybody is going crazy, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
I have the three guys who I have asked to be in my community, who just recently we stopped living life together in community when I moved up to Plano, but have been with me for 12 years that we've lived life together… They were there. They put Kaylee on their shoulders. They were throwing her up and down. They were patting me on the back, giving high fives, and the Lord spoke to me so clearly.
He said, "Hey. I have given you what your dad could not. He was not a believer. He wasn't going to encourage… There's no telling what influence he would have had on you as you went through your teenage years. I have replaced what sin and selfishness took away with men who love you and love your family." Do I have a father wound still? Absolutely. Still working on it. Another thing we're working on in re:generation. But that filled a gap for me because I had guys who loved me who know all my junk.
I want to tell you the nature of God is community. We do not have a choice as to whether we are in that or not. Let me just address something we deal with all the time at Watermark. We do Group Links. We do all kinds of things to help you get in community. Can I tell you? Getting in this community is your responsibility as a believer.
We want to help you. We'll do everything we can. We'll look for families by zip code and life stage and all that kind of stuff. We want to help you do that, but if you're a Christ-follower, if you're an orthodox Christian, you have to get this. If you don't have it… Everybody, I'm sure, is saying, "Okay, well, this would be great. If the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were my community, that would be awesome." But…
2._ To tolerate disunity in the body of Christ or do anything that leads to disunity is completely contrary to the nature of God._ Do you want to know why we are fanatical here about being in community? It's because of the Trinity. It is why we talk about it all the time, because of what it's done in my life, what it can do in yours if you are living in community. I want to challenge all of us.
One of the great things about coming on staff for Watermark for me… I was in another ministry for 15 years and loved it. It was great, but we did not deal with conflict and a lack of unity very well in that ministry. I came over here, and because of the wisdom of the leaders and the elders, they began to teach me what was going on.
A practical example is if I heard of a marriage kind of messing up before I came on Watermark, I was kind of like, "Hey, that's their problem. They'll get it fixed. Somebody else can help them." Or I would walk away, "Hey, that conversation didn't go so good, so I'm just going to let that go." And walking away I'd be bitter and frustrated. What I've learned here, by the Scripture and by good leadership, is what I want to challenge you to do. It's a huge deal.
When you see people who are believers, Christ-followers, say, "I want to live like a Christ-follower. I want to have community," and then live contrary to the Bible or what they say they want to be… I want to give you a phrase. Lock it in. Move toward the chaos. Move into it. Don't run away from it. Don't shy away from it. Move into it. Chances are you're not going to make it any worse than it already is, so move into it and begin to watch God go to work in people's lives.
Some of the ones you move into, from a human perspective, it's not going to make any difference, but some of them you're going to watch God absolutely transform marriages and addictions. I want you to be part of that. Just commit in your brain and in your heart that instead of being a people pleaser or passive, "That's not my responsibility," as a body at Plano, let's start moving towards the chaos that comes from not-perfect community, because we don't have it here. It's not perfect.
I would tell you, one of the things I think distinguishes Watermark… There are a lot of churches that have great Bible teaching where life transformation is not happening. Do you know why? Because it's just great Bible teaching. There is not shepherding of the flock the Scripture talks about in Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2. It's not shepherding the body.
One of the things I love about this place is there is a commitment from our leadership to move toward the chaos and shepherd the body because in 2 Timothy chapter 2 it says we want to be pure vessels equipped for every good work. It's one of the reasons Todd chose to do 2 Peter. Remember, 1 Peter is conflict and persecution from without; 2 Peter is bad theology and conflict from within. It's why we're doing 2 Peter, because we want to deal with the stuff that's in here.
I want to let you know from a staff perspective, we have to remind each other all the time. About five times a year I'm in the middle of something that is going so far south it can't be rescued. I walk into Todd's office, and I say, "Look me in the eye and remind me that conflict is discipleship." He looks at me, and he says, "I have more than you do, and conflict is discipleship." We're making disciples when we do conflict. We're responsible to help people grow in what they've said they want to do.
If we catch wind there is a marriage not doing well or somebody is addicted, our staff is going to say, "Okay. Who is the Small Group leader? Who is the Small Group coach? Let's move towards that," not because we're trying to throw somebody out but because we want to help people look like Christ. To tolerate disunity in the body of Christ or doing anything that leads to disunity is completely contrary to the nature of God. Let's look at principle number three.
3._ Community in a fallen world is really messy._ You are with people, probably, who don't look like you, act like you, or sometimes even like you, but God is at work. I will tell you the craziest story. On our staff (this was about seven or eight years ago), I hired a couple of guys, great guys walking with Jesus. One grew up in Vegas. Mom dealt cards for a living. The other guy was an African-American guy who grew up in West Ghana. Really, really slums. Tough place.
We're in a meeting. We start talking, and those guys are on different pages. Which, that's fine. We're on different pages all the time. We keep fighting, working it out, and all that kind of stuff. But this one went real south, real fast. Vegas came out. West Ghana came out. Literally, and I quote, "You want to take this outside?" My staff! Mature, right? Bible believing guys.
I don't do this very often; I don't lose my cool very often. It's funny. The door was open to the corner conference room, and there were 15 or 20 folks out in our cubes out here that we have. I said, "You guys sit down and shut the hell up. Work this out. And do you need me to help you?" I mean, they freaked out. Sat down. It was like, "Ahhh. Yeah. We can do it."
I looked out in the cubes, and all these heads were turned. "What in the world just happened?" It's a mess! God is at work. They sat down. They worked through it. They reminded themselves of biblical principles. We're all great friends today. Thank the Lord it didn't go outside.
It is a mess. You have to figure out, "Hey, is this the right group? Is it not?" We'll help you, but I promise you, if you're expecting people who are just like you… Everybody is normal until you get to know them. Right? Let's move towards the chaos, live in community together. Don't have high expectations that this is going to be perfect. God is at work. Next principle. This is a great one too. You know I love this now.
4._ Evangelism happens naturally when authentic biblical community exists._ So let's go back to that passage in John 17:21-23. I don't know if we have it highlighted, but at the end of 21… Let me read 21. "That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me and I in you that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me." It goes down in verse 23, "I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me."
Get it? Whenever this community thing starts to happen, it is so incredibly attractive that unbelievers from around look and say, "I want some of that." You want to be a good evangelist? Practice great community. Be in community. Work through conflict. Shepherd each other. It's how God is going to make our church great, because we take the Scriptures seriously, we apply them practically, and we help our folks grow. "…so that the world may know that you sent me." Be a great evangelist; practice great community. Last one…
5._ Jesus moved into the neighborhood, so should you initiate relationships with those far from God._ John 1:14 says, "And the Word…" Which in John, chapter 1 is the Son. "…became flesh, and dwelt among us." In The Message translation, or paraphrase, I should say, it says, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." Jesus left the community of the Trinity and moved right out there to that red chair right there so he could give us the greatest invitation we've ever had, and it's a model for us.
Folks we have to be good at this. I'm not telling you to be weird. I'm saying we have to start inviting people here, turning conversations towards spiritual things. JP's line that's so helpful is, "Hey, do you have a faith?" It's so easy. We live in community. It's attractive. Then we have a conversation that says, "Hey, do you have a faith? Why don't you come join us at Watermark this Sunday?" Do you know why we do it? Because Jesus modeled it for us.
I spent 15 years working in Young Life. The very principle of Young Life is you go where high school and junior high kids are. I left a good job making good money so I could put on shorts and a tee shirt and play basketball. I would be at the school almost every day: principals, teachers, kids, all that kind of stuff, hanging out. Can I tell you how many times I got the phrase, "Do you have any friends your own age?" because I was 36 and I was hanging out at a high school.
Why did I do that? Because of this community of the Trinity right here. Jesus moved into the neighborhood. We need to move into the neighborhood. We need to initiate relationships with those who don't know God. Some of those conversations may go a little hostile, but not near as many as you think. A lot of people want to have a conversation, and you'll be surprised at how many will say, "Sure. I'll come."
What I want to end with this morning is that this community of the Trinity affects everything. It affects our marriage. I tell people when I marry them, "Y'all are about to have more fun than you have ever had in your life: connection, intimacy, all that. You're also about to be more angry than you have ever been in your life." Amen? Yes! Marriage is the two become one, according to the Scripture, and the Trinity is the three become one, and it works, folks, if we will commit to working through difficult things, working together to become one.
This community of the Trinity really matters. It affects your marriage, your family, community, ministry. It's back to what I prayed at the end of our worship set. I said, "What we believe about the nature of God affects everything." It's the most important thing about you. Orthodox Christianity is straight-thinking about God. The principles we talked about today…
You need to take what I've said today, and you need to go look in Scripture and figure out, "Is that dude crazy or what?" I think it's biblical. The applications are applications for us to line up with what God wants us to do and transform our own lives and the community we live in. This affects everything. Let's pray.
Father, we do just ask, "Would you help us?" Father, I want to know you more. I want to understand more of how this works. Father, I ask that you would help us. Help us to live in community, to pursue it. Father, I pray that you would help us be evangelists by living in great community, by moving into the neighborhood. Lord, we need you to do that. We have no shot to do that on our own power today, tomorrow, next week, next month, because we are chicken, we're people-pleasers, and it is a work of the Spirit and our yielding to it.
Father, as I pray so often, I want our church to be great, not because of the name of Watermark, not because of numbers, not because of budgets, not because of buildings. I want to be great for the sake of the glory of Jesus and for the advancement of your kingdom. Father, would you do, would your Holy Spirit do, what we talked about today? Would you convict? Father, would you encourage? Would you guide into truth? Would you transform our lives? In Jesus' name, amen.
