If you look at the bottom from the front page of our program, we'll give you the fourfold vision. Our vision of bringing community to church is to glorify God by establishing a church that engages in God-centered worship and not man-centered, two, a church that equips every believer with God's inerrant word, three, a church that builds a community through love and accountability, and four, a church that reaches out to its community with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your patience, your endurance, your love that pursues us, Lord God, while we struggle, Lord, to maintain focus. We thank you, Father God, for your grace, and by your grace alone, Lord, that we're able to come here and worship you, to call you our Abba Father.

Help us, Lord, to never take these things for granted, but in view of your mercy, that we would give our bodies as a living sacrifice, that we may live lives truly worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray for your blessing and the power of your Holy Spirit to lead us this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. >> Some of you guys may have read or been following the news about the six foreigners in Indonesia that got executed this week. Some of you guys may have heard of it, some of you may have read it. Basically what happened about six years ago, this bunch of foreigners got caught smuggling drugs in and out of Indonesia, and their punishment a couple years ago was that they were going to be executed.

And so it was big international news, so Australia, from different places from different countries were trying to get them to stop that, and Indonesia went ahead and did it, and they spared one lady, and everyone else got executed by the firing squad. Well, you may have heard the news, but one of the men who got executed this week, his name was Andrew Chan, and he's from Australia.

And the reason why he was somebody that I took notice of was because he was a confessing Christian who was actually evangelizing to the others who were sentenced to death. And he ended up bringing the Gospel to the people in jail, and there was a big talk about him and his fervency for the Lord, and obviously many people were praying for him to be released.

An Australian pastor, one of the pastors for Hillsong in Australia, reached out to him, was meeting with him on a regular basis, and he basically gave his testimony before he passed, before he was executed, about his conversion. And at the latter part of it, obviously a lot of people were praying for him, and he spoke specifically about a day when he had to go into court, knowing that the possible sentence would be execution.

And so obviously he's been praying for that. But let me read you an excerpt from what he says. And this is from Andrew Chan. Just before my court date, where he would receive the death penalty, I remember reading Mark 11, 23-24, where it says that, "If you have enough faith, you can say to this mountain, 'Be removed,' and God will do it." So I said, "God, if you're real, and if this is true, I want you to free me.

And if you do, I'll serve you every day for the rest of my life." I went to my court hearing, and they convicted me and gave me the death penalty. When I got back to my cell, I said, "God, I asked you to set me free, not kill me." God spoke to me and said, "Andrew, I have set you free from the inside out.

I have given you life." From that moment on, I haven't stopped worshiping him. I had never sung before, never led worship, until Jesus set me free. What a powerful testimony of a man who was sentenced to death and was actually executed this week. But his testimony in prison was he recognized that it wasn't his physical freedom that was really what he was seeking after.

God set him free spiritually. And now that he's free, now he's able to worship God. And again, I was reading this, and again, it's the power of the gospel, of why you and I are here together this morning. If we weren't affected by the gospel, we wouldn't be here.

I would assume we wouldn't be here. You and I are gathered here because something miraculous happened to each Christian, that we were set free. It wasn't because God answered our prayer and we got the right job, or we were sick and we became healthy. There was a spiritual sickness in every single one of us, and God set us free from the bondage of living in this fallen world.

And so, every single person in this room, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, we are obligated to tell this story to everyone else in this world. There's a tendency for us to think that the gospel ministry is for pastors, or for missionaries, or a few select people, but that's not your gift, that's not your desire.

You have different goals, you're a businessman. And so therefore, that is not for me. That is completely unbiblical. Every single person who has been affected by the cross has been called to the gospel ministry. It doesn't mean that everyone's called to the pulpit, not everyone has been called overseas, but there's not a single person who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, who's been affected by the cross, who has not been called to the gospel ministry.

Paul says in Romans 1, 14-15, "I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." Paul was not talking about some specific calling because he's an apostle.

He's talking about his obligation because he is a recipient of that grace. If you and I profess to be the recipients of this grace, and to say, "You know what? I believe that Jesus Christ is the answer for man's problem, that there is death and judgment waiting without Christ," and to claim that we believe that, and then not feel any obligation to share this with as many people as possible, there's something wrong with that confession in and of itself.

Paul again says in 1 Corinthians 9-16, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel." He's not just talking about himself as an apostle. He's not saying this because he's a missionary. He's saying this because he himself was a recipient of this grace. If you study through the Old Testament and the New Testament, the biggest struggle that the Israelites had was they thought that they were specifically chosen and blessed by God, and so they had this superiority complex with everybody else.

We had the law. We had, "Whose God is greater than ours?" That all of these things were true, but they completely forgot that God called them to be holy priests. They were to be ambassadors to the rest of the world. The very beginning, when God called them in Genesis chapter 12, He says, "Through you, I will bless all the other nations." See, but they completely forgot about the latter part of that, that God's going to bless me.

But then he realized that God blessed them so that the world may be blessed. And the whole story of Jonah is... Okay. Dang it, where am I? Oh, okay. Alright, so. If I came back and gave you the update on what's going on, I didn't mention anything about the gospel ministry, you would ask me like, "What are they doing?" Oh my gosh.

Ah. Okay. If I told you they went out there and they got caught up and entangled, it's like, "Oh yeah, they forgot about the gospel ministry." And you say, "Well, what was the purpose?" We assume, assume, that if they were commissioned, that that would be what every, everything that they're doing would be centered around this.

That they got a place where it's going to be the most strategic in reaching the gospel, right? They got a job that's going to help them to share the gospel. They're going to make friends, spend time, leisure, whatever they're doing, it's going to be connected to the gospel ministry.

See, Jesus left us with this commission, every single one of us. I think the problem that we run into is like we expect that from those people who've been commissioned. And if the people who've been commissioned don't live that way, we have a higher standard for it. They don't do that, it's like, "Oh, they disqualify." But why do we think that only the people who've been anointed up on a pulpit and up on a stage have been commissioned?

The Great Commission is a commission for everybody. Everybody who claims that Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior has been commissioned to the gospel ministry. Why do we not practice the same level of expectation for every Christian? Why is it only a few people that are set apart? Again, that's an unbiblical way of thinking.

We have all been commissioned. In fact, there's four things that we're going to be talking about why this is so important in the church. Because we talked about how worship is central to the church. Everything that we do comes from and overflows because of right worship before God. But if we forget the mission of the church, the church becomes just another place to meet friends and raise good children, learn good morals.

And it doesn't matter whether you are a follower of Jesus or you're Buddhist, or you go to one church or another, it doesn't matter because in the end, the end goal is raising good children, having good friends. It's just somebody does it in the name of Jesus, somebody does it in the name of Buddha, some atheists are getting together and now they're developing their own church.

But what is unique about the gospel is that we we are, the message of the cross is not about a better life here. Just like that man, Andrew Chan, what he shared that he realized that his real freedom was not about getting out of jail. See, the Great Commission, first and foremost, number one, there's four things I want to share about why this is so important.

One, you cannot be a follower of Jesus Christ without being committed to the Great Commission. Let me say that again. One, you cannot be a follower of Jesus Christ without being committed to the Great Commission. Coming to church does not make you a Christian. I think you know that.

Right? Attending church doesn't make you a Christian. Owning a Bible doesn't make you a Christian. Even praying doesn't make you a Christian. Didn't you hear, you know, Meriwether yesterday, as soon as he won, he said "Thank you, Lord." He must be a Christian because he said "God." Coming to church doesn't make you a Christian.

When we say we follow Jesus, what do we say basically? We're following. We're going where He's going. Right? Jesus said, "If you want to follow me, you have to pick up your cross because I'm going to the cross. So if you're going to come after me, that's where I'm headed." You can't be a follower of Jesus Christ and be disengaged in the Great Commission.

Jesus himself said in Luke 19.10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." That's His primary mission. To seek and save the lost. Matthew 4.19, when He called His disciples, He said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. I'm going to teach you how to reach out to men." In fact, in Matthew 28.19.20, we talk about the Great Commission.

He begins it by saying, "All authority has been given to me." And then He concludes it by telling them that, "I will be with you to the end of the age." If you take that last part and say, "I will be with you to the end of the age," and you misapply what Jesus meant, you can use it as a source of comfort.

You know, when you're struggling, the Lord is with you. You know, when you didn't get the job that you wanted, it's like, "Ah, the Lord's so near to me." You know, you didn't get into the school that you wanted. You didn't get the raise. You're having marriage problems, but the Lord is near.

We're not saying that that's not true, but the primary context in which He says that is in the context of making disciples. Because He's sending disciples out to a hostile world. And so they said, "They're not going to welcome you. They're going to persecute you." And so He's encouraging, "Don't worry.

All authority has been given to me. You're afraid of their authority, but don't worry. That authority is under my authority." And you go out and make disciples in that context while you are going out, don't forget, I am with you to the end of the age. His comfort to be with us is in the context of the Great Commission.

We can't just take that passage and just apply it any way we want. You cannot be a follower of Jesus Christ if you are disengaged with the Great Commission. If I told you, "Hey, I'm going out over here. How many of you are going to follow me?" All of you raise your hand, and I walk out the door.

Only about five of you came with me. I'm going to run back and say, "I thought you guys wanted to follow me." He said, "Yeah, I want to be a follower because I wanted to be named a follower, but I'm not sure if I'm going to actually go where you went." Right?

That's not what I meant when I said I wanted to follow you. When I said I wanted to follow you, it means, like, I like you. Right? I like you, and I want to be your friend. But when I said I want to be your follower, I didn't mean to actually follow you.

What do you think Jesus meant? He said, "When you come after me." Anybody who comes after me, anybody who follows me, has to pick up his cross. What did He mean by that? To go where He went. To do what He does. To say what He says. That's what He means by, "Be a follower of Jesus Christ." He didn't say, "Come follow me to attend church." You can't be a follower of Jesus Christ because this is at the core of His heart.

He came to seek and save the lost. In fact, the whole reason why He gave the Holy Spirit was for the purpose of the Great Commission. Remember the disciples? Jesus tells the disciples, "Where I go, you cannot come." The disciples are freaking out. Because they knew that the Pharisees and the Sadducees hated Jesus.

But as long as they were with Jesus, they can go out and preach and heal demons, and they were okay. But Jesus says, "I'm not going to leave you as an orphan. I'm going to send my Helper to you." And this is what He says. This is how He describes why He's sending the Holy Spirit.

John 14, 26. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all the things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." First of all, what is He a Helper of? Helper of what? Live a hard life.

I mean, it's a hard life here, right? I mean, the grind of going to work 9-5. I mean, is the Holy Spirit sent to help you to live a life that the rest of the world is living, but to make your life easier? The Holy Spirit helping you because it's hard for you to find jobs, so the Holy Spirit is going to help you?

Or maybe you're in some sort of athletic competition, and the Holy Spirit is going to empower you to help you? What does He mean by Helper? What is He helping us to do? He said He's going to come, He's going to teach you, and He's going to cause you to remember all that I have said to you.

For what purpose? Why is the Helper helping us to remember what Jesus said? So that you can say, "Oh, okay, I remember that." Right? You have a very good memory because you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Right? He said, "No, I'm going to cause you to remember it." For what purpose?

So that you can say what I said. You can tell them what I told you. That you can repeat what I've said to you, what I've said to these people, so that you can also proclaim it. That's what the Holy Spirit's going to come to do. Again, in John 15, 26, "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me." So what is the power of the Holy Spirit?

It's for the purpose of the Great Commission. Acts chapter 118, you guys know that. Right? The Holy Spirit came because without the Holy Spirit they were powerless. It's like the disciples before Jesus went to the cross, they had every intention, they had every desire to remain faithful, but they did not.

They failed utterly. After the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, "You're going to be my witnesses, but only when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth." So why is the Holy Spirit coming? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in your life?

To empower us. If you study pneumatology, if you study about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is always equated with power. That's why I always say, if you speak, and the Holy Spirit is there, there's power in it. It's not in how well we articulate something. It's not about our talent or money, experience.

It's the Holy Spirit. Right? But the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit is to give us power to be a witness of Jesus Christ. So we can say, "Oh, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit." It's not simply to comfort you because life is hard. The power of the Holy Spirit is not so that we can get along with each other.

The power of the Holy Spirit is so that we can take the light into the darkness. So if we are not engaged in the Great Commission, what power do you need? Why do you need power? What do you need power for? The whole world knows how to get jobs.

If you want to be excellent in athletic competition, first you have to be athletic, and second, you have to train, just like everybody else. You don't sit there and say, "Holy Spirit, I need your power so I can win this basketball game. Holy Spirit, I need this power so that I can get this good job.

Holy Spirit, I need this power so I can have a good marriage." Right? The whole world is doing it without. What do you need the power of the Holy Spirit for? Right? We are all just weak people that what the world is doing fine without. Holy Spirit was given to us because it is a spiritual battle.

And it must be one spiritual. That's why we are given the Holy Spirit. So the whole role of the Holy Spirit is irrelevant to an individual who is not engaged in the Great Commission. Even their content of prayer. Why is prayer so ineffective? Why is prayer so inefficient or impotent in the Western Church?

Because the very core of prayer is for the purpose of the Great Commission. I mean, we engage with God. We fellowship with Him. But every time you see Paul praying, Paul is praying that the Gospel may spread. In Colossians 4, 2-4. "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the Word. Declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak." I'm not going to go through all the passages where Paul speaks about asking for prayer, but almost every instance he asks for prayer.

He's praying for the power of the Gospel to go forth. Even our prayers are ineffective when we are not abiding. He says, "If you abide in my Word," right? "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." You can't skip through the middle part and say, "Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." He has a condition for prayer.

He has a condition for effective prayer. It's not just, "Life is hard, Lord, I need your help." Not to say that God doesn't care. God cares. But the reason why we need His power, we need, why we need the Holy Spirit is because we are abiding in Him. And we're following Him.

And we can't do it by our own strength. In Matthew 9, Jesus saw the multitude. He has compassion on them. And what did He say? He turned around and told His disciples. He said, "Hey, get better trained." Is that what He said? "Get better organized." "Hey, we need some more funding.

We need to send these people to the right school." What did He say? He said, "Get on your knees and pray. Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send out more workers." You know, I think the greatest lesson that I learned about prayer was through a lady that I met named Amy.

The first time I went to China in '93. She was a prayer warrior. You know, every morning we would get together and we would have breakfast and she would be gone more than half the time. So the first week, I didn't know her. So first thing I thought, "Wow, she's not waking up." You know, she'd rather sleep than to eat.

And after about a week and a half, I was there for about 31 days, and after about a week and a half, I realized that she was not coming out because she was fasting. And she was praying. So once I realized what she was doing, I was like, "Wow, this lady is a prayer warrior." And I would say more than half of the meals while we were there.

And I think at that period of time in China, China was not open to receive missionaries and you still had soldiers walking out on the streets. So it was a pretty intense place to be a missionary. She was actually praying to come into that country within the next couple years.

And so she was praying over the country. And so obviously, I was really encouraged by her. And I remember we were on a plane ride, and I was asking her about, like, you know, about prayer. "How do you pray? What's the most effective way to pray?" And she said, "Typically, when a lot of people pray, the biggest problem that we have in our prayer, why our prayers are so weak, is because our prayers are always defensive.

And our prayers oftentimes reveal our theology and our lack of faith." She said, "We're always praying for better health, praying for better jobs, praying for protection. Even when we go on to missions, we pray for protection, that we don't get sick." And she says, "I'm not saying that's wrong, but the main content of our prayer should be offensive.

That God would open doors, or the gospel may be preached, that the light may shine in darkness, and the people who are in darkness would come into the light and know Jesus." And she said, "Our prayer should be, 'God, give me strength to run into enemy territory and save them.' That should be the content of our prayer." And I remember her saying, "Wow, that was so powerful, because it's so true.

So much of our prayer is about, 'Lord, maintaining what we've achieved, right, and we're afraid we're going to lose it, whether it's our reputation, our house, our job, our safety, our comfort, or security in the future. And so much of our prayer is holding on with dear life to the things that we've earned, or we think we've earned, and how much of it is His heart, His mission, His will.

How much of our prayer actually abides in Christ and His Word?" And I think one of the main reasons why our prayers are so difficult is because we're fighting against His will. You know, we're trying to bend His will so that my will will be His will. See, even our very prayer is directly connected to the Great Commission.

Thirdly, the Church, the very essence of the Church was about the Great Commission. In Matthew 16, 18, you know that passage well, where we talked about it last week, where Jesus says, "I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." If you look at that text, for years, I thought that was a defensive text.

The gates of Hades, we're in this gate, and Hades cannot come in. If you look at that text closely, you'll find that it is not a defensive, it is an offensive. He says the gates of Hades. See, who's in the gate? Hades. And who's the one trying to break through?

The Church. He says the Church is going to be established, and the gates of Hades will not be able to stand in its way. That's what He means by that. The Church was never meant to be a fortress, and ask, "Lord, protect us from the evil. Protect us from the world.

Protect us when we get hurt. Protect us from sickness." He says, "No." God called us to be soldiers, to run into enemy's territory. In fact, the very reason why we don't experience persecution is because we're disengaged sometimes with the Great Commission. Many of you read my post on Facebook, because I got an email from one of our contacts out in India that five Christians, and these were not specifically pastors, they were lay people who had been trained to go share the Gospel and make disciples.

They were targeted by a group called RSS. And they were basically the Hindu militant group. So this was not some random stoning, or random beating. They went to a village and people didn't like it, and so they got beat up. It was a organized, concerted effort to weed out Christianity in that particular area of India, Karnataka.

And some of you guys who went to India with us know that Karnataka is where Bellary is. That's the city that we were in. And we didn't go to the extreme areas, but that's basically where this took place. Now these Christians could have easily avoided any of that. If they just stayed home, got together, and had fellowship, and you know, and had birthday parties, and sang worship songs, and did Bible study.

Persecution didn't come their way because they were in a house reading the Bible together. Persecution comes because they're taking the Gospel to places that don't want it. Persecution doesn't come to people who are sitting in comfort and just paying bills, and doing nice things, and feeding the homeless. You don't get persecuted.

You'll be praised for that. The world will give you rewards for that. That you're a great humanitarian. In fact, remember I told you, I asked one of the pastors, "How come the Muslims are not being targeted?" And they said, "They don't target them because they don't proselytize. They're not actively out there trying to convert Hindus to the Islamic faith." He said, "Christians are the ones going into the villages and sharing the Gospel.

That's why they're being targeted." He said, "When it says 2 Timothy 3.12, 'Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.'" Now when he says godly life, is he talking about people who are just reading the Bible? Is he talking about people who are gathered together for a little prayer meeting because they want to support each other?

Who are participating in small group, accountability group? Is he talking about that? No, when he says godly life, he's talking about people who are engaged in godly work. Who are participating in the Great Commission. He says, "You will be persecuted because you're taking a light into the darkness that does not want it." You're going to flip the switch where people have become comfortable living in the darkness and you're going to turn the light on and saying, "This is the only way." So only the people who see the need for the light are going to thank you and everybody else is going to hate you.

The whole church, the reason why God brought us together was for the purpose of being a light. Just like the nation of Israel. He said, "I'm going to bless you so that through you all the other nations may be blessed." If we ask the Lord to bless us with no intention of doing anything else other than to live a comfortable life, how is that different than the nation of Israel?

If all we're asking in our prayers, "Keep us safe and healthy for the purpose of being safe and healthy," how is that different than the nation of Israel? It is not that God wants us to be uncomfortable. It is not that God wants us to be persecuted. But in the context of the Great Commission, He says He wants us to pray.

In fact, Paul, he evaluated success and failure based upon the preaching of the Gospel. In fact, Philippians chapter 1, 12-14, as he is sitting in prison, typically if we're healthy, we've got a good job, we have a nice house, and our kids are well behaved, we have a good church, we have good friends, we are blessed.

But Paul saw blessing completely differently. Philippians 1, 12-14. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel. He's sitting in prison. So that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear. He measured success as to how much the Word of God was going, how much the Gospel was being preached. Now, I'm going to wrap up here pretty soon.

But I know that this message is not a comfortable message. Because to embrace the Cross and to embrace the Commission, automatically means it's going to put you in situations where you're uncomfortable. Whether it's your co-workers, whether it's your neighbors, you're going to end up saying things that you know that people don't want to hear.

You're going to end up going places that are uncomfortable. You know, oftentimes I hear people like, "Man, I can go anywhere but India. You know, it's so foreign, it's so weird. I mean, so maybe Bahamas then? You know? Maybe Hawaii? You know, I can see myself going there with the Gospel." No, if you're committed to the Great Commission, you don't go because it's comfortable.

You don't go because they have good food and air conditioning. You go because there's a need for the Gospel, period. No matter how uncomfortable it may be. So when we talk about the Great Commission, automatically it'll force us to be uncomfortable. But if every decision we made in life, even why I choose a certain church, is where do I feel the most comfortable?

And then all of a sudden we're talking about the Great Commission, taking the light into the darkness. To go into darkness automatically means to get out of your comfort zone. So there's this tension. How do I embrace the Great Commission when every thought that I have for my child, for myself, is safety and comfort?

There should be tension. It should make us feel uncomfortable. It should force us to take a step back and ask ourselves, "Am I following Christ or is it enough that I threw my name into the list?" You know, yesterday, I know a lot of you guys watched Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather fight.

And we were looking for it. I was looking for it. I mean, I haven't watched a boxing match in years. This is probably the first time being excited about boxing probably since Tyson boxed. Which was a couple years ago. Right? So, yeah, I know a lot of you guys got together in your homes and various places.

And especially because you know, remember when Jeremy Lin, when the Jeremy Lin thing was blowing up? And I got so excited because he was an Asian American Christian. And he was very public about his faith. So I was like, "Man, every time they give him an opportunity he is sharing about Christ." And so I remember that summer when we went to China, it was so easy to share the Gospel because you know once you said Jeremy Lin, it's like, "Oh, yeah, they were so interested." I was like, "He lives in California.

We live in California." What? It was so easy to share the Gospel because he was so public about his faith. And China tried so hard to block his testimony, but almost every news channel was covering him. So that summer it was just so easy to share the Gospel. And that's why I wanted to see him do well.

Well, Pacquiao, if you've been watching him, hearing him, every opportunity he's got he is mentioning God. In fact in his weigh-in he actually gave a brief testimony. You know he said, "Hi, I was a womanizer and did this, but God saved me." And then he actually turned to Manny Merriweather and he said, "It would be great after the fight is over that we have an opportunity I can tell you about God and how we can impact the world." And obviously it was dead silence.

You know? And I know some of you guys are saying, "Is he just a professing?" Because even Merriweather said, "Oh, thank God after, is he one of those guys?" But if you hear his testimony he's a genuine Christian. He really wants to share the Gospel. So I really wanted him to win because in my mind I was thinking if he wins, I mean you saw the stage yesterday.

Like everybody who, somebody who had some money came into town. You're talking about all the movie stars, all the actors, all the whatever, right? Top of the world. And they were showing a picture of the airport and all the private jets. Right? And I remember Barclay was talking about how people were calling him, other celebrities were calling him, begging him to help him get tickets.

Celebrities couldn't get into this. Right? And I was thinking this is probably the biggest stage. This is bigger stage than the President of the United States is going to get. And they have all the money. They're all good looking. They're all, these are all top of their fields in every field.

Anybody who had access was there. And here's a Christian who's talking about his faith. And in my mind I was thinking if he wins, if he wins, think about the platform he's going to have. And I could see it already. You know in my mind if he wins, they're going to ask me, "Pakio, what's going on?" I want to thank my Lord Jesus Christ.

And he's going to mean it. And he's going to say, and they're going to go back his history and how he became a Christian. And everything that happened during Jamerlin's, you know, this hysteria, but at a bigger level. Obviously it didn't happen. And it was disappointing. You know, and I remember the last time I felt this disappointed was I think about five or six years ago.

Lakers went to the championship and lost the seventh game. I forgot when that was, but I was depressed for a few days. Genuinely depressed, like something was missing. You know? Well this, yesterday it was over. You know, we were all in a giddy mood before the fight that during the fight I was like, "Oh my gosh.

What's going on?" And at the end of the fight, it's kind of silent. Nobody's funny. Nobody has any jokes to crack. And I just kind of slipped away and went home. You know? I'm just being honest with you. I was hoping so much for Pacquiao to win. I went home, you know, I was like, I was looking through news to see what's going on.

And everything was Pacquiao, Manny, Pacquiao. I didn't want to read it. I turned it off because I didn't want to get depressed. I woke up this morning and looked at it and again, oh, you know, Pacquiao. I was like, "I don't want to read it." Right? And I was just thinking like, in my mind, I was wrestling with, what I, like to me, I was thinking, "Man, it would have been a great opportunity to shine Christ on that stage with everybody watching." And then, you know, the thought I had this morning as I was taking a shower, as I was getting ready to come to church, the thought I had this morning was, "I'll bet you the Jews were thinking the same thing when Jesus came into Jerusalem.

I'll bet you they were thinking the same thing. That on this stage, with all the Romans, with everybody here, if Jesus would just conquer, you know, if He would just conquer, on this stage, with all these people waiting for Him, if He would just reveal His power now, then He could have the power, then He could restore us, then He could bring glory to God.

I'll bet you that's what they were thinking. But Jesus didn't go there. He didn't go to the stage. He didn't go to the spotlight. He went to the cross. So you can think about the disappointment that people were feeling. I mean, they were there. I mean, they were physically there watching Him.

You know, it reminded me again of Ephesians 6. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. That is not the stage in which our Jesus conquered. It is in our brokenness. It is in our sorrows. It is in our sins. Pachael did not glorify Christ on that stage. Where Christ was glorified in Pachael's life is when he repented.

It's when he was deep in his sin and he recognized his sin and he came before a holy God. That's when our Jesus is glorified. See, that stage, that was not Jesus' stage. That's the world. That's what the world works for. That's what the world thinks the end of life is.

But there's emptiness on that stage. Every single one of us knows the attraction of Christ. What makes this church beautiful is Jesus and what he has done. And what makes your life worthwhile is to proclaim this Jesus in the brokenness of the world. In the lostness of our neighbors, our family and friends.

We don't need that stage because the Holy Spirit is omnipresent and he's everywhere. My hope and prayer is that this gospel that we proclaim to be so precious will be more than just words. That it will not just be our security blanket to help us through the day, but that we will be firmly convicted that it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

And that our life would reflect that. Would you take a few minutes to pray with me as I ask the praise team to come back up? Especially for those of you who've been praying for a few people in your lives and you've kind of given up. Because it didn't happen right away.

And so you're kind of like, is it useful? Is it for what purpose? And maybe you've kind of gotten tired. I want to encourage you to continue to pray. You know, the prayers that mean the most when it's answered are the ones that we persevere the most. So pray.

If you've given up on praying for the lost, especially the people that you care about, take some time to pray for them. Pray for your own heart. You've been kind of so focused on your life and how to improve your life and how to make it safe for your children and you've maybe lost a big picture of the Great Commission to come before the Lord and pray, "Lord, I believe.

Help my unbelief." And that God will stir us up again for the Great Commission. Maybe some of you guys may remember that time you went out to missions and how excited you were to share the Gospel. And maybe you've drifted away from that. Remember the height from which you had fallen.

Take some time to pray, "Lord, restore that passion for the Great Commission." And then maybe there's some people, maybe you've never prayed for them. Maybe there's some people around you, family, friends, co-workers. Pray for them specifically. Pray that God would open the door that you can share the Gospel.

So if every decision that you've been making has nothing to do with the Great Commission, that you would take a step back and ask the Lord, "Lord, give me strength that my prayers and my life would be in accordance to you and your life." Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.