Sunday Morning Worship Service
by Anthony McCool
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Acts 9:3-6

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/anthony-mccool--sunday-morning-worship-service-70
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
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If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Acts. And we'll read uh from starting at chapter nine and read verses 3 through 6. Uh still feasting on the tremendous sermon we heard Sunday morning from Pastor Whitley and the continuation uh Wednesday night. And we'll inspired by this talk a little bit more about that as well. And uh thank you for stirring our souls and keeping us grounded. Acts 9 verse three. And as he journeyed, talking about the Apostle Paul, he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. That would get your attention. and he fell to the earth, and he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, he asked the question, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest? It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Verse six. And he Paul trembling and astonished said, "Lord, what wilt thou have to do?" And the Lord said unto him, "Arise, go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." This is one of the most significant pieces of dialogue in the Bible, in the New Testament, when Jesus revealing himself to the apostle. And I give us this title on this Sunday morning, wakeup call, a divine discomfort. Wakeup call, a divine discomfort. We've prayed previously, so we'll we'll go right into the sermon this morning. But if I asked all of us across the house, how many of you could remember the jarring, almost rude sound of an oldfashioned alarm clock? Oh man, I've seen Okay, I've seen those reals and the and everything. I think everybody at one point or your your grandparents, if you're from the '9s, if you're past born in the 2000s, this might not be applicable to you. You can go to kids church, but if you were from the '9s or before, I think everybody had that type of I think it was a GE alarm clock. And you would set the alarm for it, but sometimes you would forget and it would go off on all times of the day. And if the power ever went out, it would flash and it worked most of the time. But that shrill sound just brings back some oh so positive nostalgic memories, I'm sure. Or maybe you recall with a mix of fondness and annoyance the sound of your parents voice early in the morning coaxing you out of a warm bed into the day. My sweet, sweet parents, my blessed father would come in and sing that lovely hymn of good morning neighbor. Ain't it a pretty day? I'm not sure what it was good about it at the morning or he would sing rise and shine and give God the glory, glory. Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory. And then in kids church, we would always sing the end of it, children of the corn, and then get in trouble for that. But those I'm not sure what type of mixed emotions when I hear those songs cuz my mom was very gentle and she'd come in like I would prefer and just kind of whisper and softly wake me up. But my father being the caffeinated, Is he in here? Good. Okay, good. uh would come in light on and you've got about 10 seconds to get out of there. But the concept these are in the essence, you know, some wakeup calls that we might be familiar with. The concept of the wakeup call has been around for a long time before smartphones and digital alarm clocks. Can anyone remember checking into a hotel and you would call down to the front desk and request a wakeup call? I mean, you were high rolling if you Yeah, I'm going to need to schedule a wakeup call. I have a extremely important appointment with the Continental Breakfast before it closes in the morning. But and you would pre-arrange that. But before that, in the early days of industrialization, this was derived. There were individuals who would go through the city streets and had these long poles and they would knock on the windows of the factory workers in the morning to ensure they were awake in order to be on time for work, which is the derivation of the wakeup call. These examples serve as simple reminders that throughout history, whether it was somebody banging on the side of a window or uh a hotel clerk calling my room or a digital alarm clock that we've always your parents coming in and singing some blessed hymns. There's my dad now. Uh we've needed external voice. Please don't sing that for altar. We've needed external forces to jolt us into action. And let's be honest, wakeup calls aren't usually pleasant. Now we have cell phones. Oh, does that create any anxiety in anyone right now? Oh, it triggers me. And then there's you folks that use the submarine alarm that like there's a a submarine going down or a special kind of. But then my ultimate favorite that I use and I send out to everybody on a trip >> is the bishop TD Jake >> telling us to wake up. [Applause] I'll just let that >> in the name of Jesus. [Applause] >> So that'll that that I like that the best. But they often whether it be a shrill alarm and there is you folks that use that submarine sound, there is something wrong with you. Whether it's a shrill alarm or a parental nudge, they interrupt our peace and comfort. We might grumble, to put it lightly, resist, hopefully not use any words that we regret or even resent the intrusion. The very nature of a wakeup call is to disrupt our current state. And this disruption is rarely comfortable. But what if these disruptions we could refer to as divine discomforts are precisely what we need? Because the whole point of a wakeup call is not the importance of waking up and the disturbance itself. It's so you are on time to your appointment. What if the things that make us uncomfortable are actually designed to redirect us to awaken us for a greater purpose? We all have moments in our life where we have this sense of unease, a nagging feeling potentially that something just isn't quite right. Maybe it's a persistent challenge, a a difficult relationship, or a deep longing, a wrestling that there's just something more in store for myself, in store for my marriage, in store for my career, in store for my family. These can be wakeup calls in disguise and they are alarms signaling that we might be drifting off course or lulled into a sense of complacency or settling for less than what we are capable of. And just as the hotel wakeup call was designed to get you to that important meeting, these life wakeup calls are designed to get you on your mission and to fulfill the purpose God has for you. A divine tap on the shoulder, if you will, or a loving but firm nudge towards your true calling. However, sometimes these wakeup calls can be much less appealing or less than just a simple inconvenience or a moment of discomfort. Sometimes these wakeup calls can come in the form of challenges or trials or we might not understand why we're facing a current difficulty. But perhaps it's meant to shake us out of the comfort that we live in and to create a sense of urgency that something has to change. >> And it's got to change right now on this day. >> Urgency to change and urgency to grow and urgency to seek God's guidance. So I ask you and invite you to look over your life. Maybe you have a testimony of a wakeup call that you experienced that you could share with somebody else. Or maybe you're under the sound of my voice right now and you're in the midst of a trial and you don't understand why you're having to face it. But it's important not to leave everything up to ambiguity, but pinpoint and put it in your crosshairs. What are the things exactly that are causing your discomfort? What are the things that weigh heavy on your mind? What are the areas that you feel a sense of unease or longing? And I ask you, don't dismiss them as mere annoyances instead to look at them and view them as potential opportunities for growth and transformation. to embrace the divine discomfort and allow it to awaken you for what God has truly called you to do. >> We've all experienced wakeup calls in our life. And sometimes they're gentle, like the soft glow of a sunrise. That's how I like to be awakened. But other times they're jarring, like a sudden clap of thunder. It could be in the it could it it could be in a doctor's report. It could be in a conflict that's taken place with your family. It could be some type of disruption that's taken place in your life. But whether it be subtle or dramatic, these moments of awakening are pivotal, marking a turning point in our journey, and it makes you get to a crossroads immediately. And you've only got two ways that you can go. As we look at our key text, keeping the backdrop of a wakeup call in mind, I can't think of another story, another instance in the word of God that more accurately depicts what it is to get a wakeup call more so than the Apostle Paul. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus. And suddenly there shined a light, bright, a bright light from heaven. And it caused him to fall to the earth. And we see this dialogue back and forth, this conversation between the apost, the soontobe apostle, and Jesus. And he's asking him why is he going around persecuting the people that believe in me? And the Lord said,"Arise, wake up, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." He didn't have all the answers in the moment. He didn't exactly know what was going to take place when he arose, but we see him getting knocked off his high horse. this man that was to a certain extent the equivalent of of opposition to what he would eventually be uh successful for in terms of if you look through the lids of your Bible in the New Testament you could uh around onethird of it is contributed to the apostle Paul but before this he was also the main contributor to the persecution of the gospel and the persecution of the Christians and was in the very presence of the first Christian martyr, Steven. But now we see him knocked off of his horse, knocked off of what he was supposed to be doing, and a light from heaven. brighter than the midday sun, this zealous Pharisee who was on a mission to persecute more Christians. Convinced he was doing God's work, stamping out as what he saw as a heretical sect, he was driven, focused, and utterly convinced in his own righteousness. And then all of the sudden knocked him off of his feet. A a voice echoed through the air. Saul, Saul, why do thou persecutest me? Imagine the shock, the confusion, the sheer terror that must have gripped his heart. We We know the final story. We know the conclusion of the apostles's life. But in this moment, that had yet to be determined. And we must remember when we meet this soon to be apostle, he was the chief persecutor. The sheer terror that must have gripped his heart. This wasn't just a disruption. It was a complete dismantling of everything that he thought he knew. This encounter on the road to Damascus is perhaps the most dramatic wakeup call in the entire Bible. Saul, a man so sure of his past, was suddenly confronted with the reality that he was doing something completely wrong. He was fighting against God and not for him. The light that shone around Saul wasn't just a physical phenomenon. It was a divine revelation piercing through the darkness of misunderstanding and revealing truth. The voice he heard wasn't just any voice. It was the voice of Jesus Christ, the very person he was persecuting. It wasn't just a physical tumble. It was a symbolic surrender and a humbling acknowledgment of his own physical and spiritual blindness in the moment. It's easy to look at this experience and think, "Well, that's just a very extreme example. How is that applicable to my own life? I've never had a blinding light from heaven." But the truth is, God speaks to us in a myriad of different ways. Sometimes it's a quiet whisper. Sometimes it's a gentle nudge. Other times it's a more forceful intrusion. It's a situation that shakes us out of our complacency. >> The key is to recognize these wakeup calls when they come. To be open to the possibility that God might be trying to get our attention. To be willing to examine our own lives. to be willing to accept and examine our own beliefs, to be willing to to examine our own actions in light of his word. Are the decisions I'm making in the best interest of me, or is it what God's calling me to do? or the decisions that I'm making for my family, are they about and centered around me? Or are they about God's will for my family? Maybe you're facing a difficult challenge right now. A job loss, a health scare, a a broken relationship, some some type of intrusion into your everyday life. And it might feel like and it might as well be and truly is a catastrophe. And it might feel like your world is falling apart, but what if there's still breath in your lungs? What if it's an opportunity and a call for yourself, a call for your family to get closer to God than you've ever gotten before? Yes, it's a catastrophe. Yes, there's turmoil all around. But what if it's something I could use just to get me unify us a little more and let me further realize and be thankful for the things that I do have in my life and be considered a wakeup call for all involved including myself. What if God is using the situation >> to get your attention? What if God is using the situation? I'm I'm not one of those people that that somebody tells you something and uh that I say God's using this to do thus. You can pray that out for yourself and seek. But what if God is using a situation to draw you closer to him? There's biblical precedent for it. >> Yes, there is. >> I don't have to confirm it in you. You can examine it and pray for yourself as Pastor Whitley uh talked about Wednesday night. You pray about it. What if what if God is calling you to get closer to him? And as I study through his word, no matter what happens in my life, whether it be a mountaintop or a valley, I can give you a safe prophetic word this morning that's probably 100% accurate. Whatever situation in your life, it could be used to draw you closer to the Lord than I think that's a good prophecy over your life. I wonder if somebody would accept that this morning. >> Amen. You could live by that. >> It's like the lady that testified one time. She said, "I believe right now in this moment that we're closer to the coming of Jesus than we've ever been." Amen. She's That's a good pro. That's That's a That's a 100. She's a prophet. Maybe you've received a report that some things in your life need to change or they're going to get worse. I wouldn't be fearful. I I would use this as a moment to say, "Let's get some things back on course. Let's make some new goals for myself. Let's set some new standards for my family." When I first started college at Tennessee, I took an economics class. There were like 200 people in there. And the syllabus they handed out, it was a Tuesday and Thursday class. It said you could miss up to seven days. And the syllabus was like eight pages long. and it had all the books and all the assigned readings and all of the the different bibliographies and all. But the the thing that man that missing up to seven days, you you might as well have put that in bold, italicized it, put it in red font. That's the only thing I remember from that class is I can miss up to seven days, but you have to be here for the test. I was like, so you know what I did? I missed I think the first seven days of class. I I I ran through that uh pretty quickly, but after that semester, I got a letter in the mail and my mom beat me to the mailbox. Yeah. Metaphorically, literally. Uh that'll sink in in a second. And it was a letter from the University of Tennessee. Surely they're just praising my accomplishments for thanking me for being there. And I when she opened it up, it said academic probation. I wish I would have found that letter first. And my mom goes in a tirade. Would that be the proper terminology? I went to school while I worked full-time and I had two kids just so I could get my degree to give you a better up and I just I mean I got it the left and the right and the stomach and not physically but that my I would have rather had I mean I got and I'm like are you going to tell dad I don't even you don't even need to worry about dad. Okay. So, I I read there if you retook the class in the summer or the next semester, you could get that grade replaced. And I went on in the summer and I made a A in it. Thank God. And since then, I finished up. I got two masters and a a PhD. And I'm still just running. Okay. No, that's not something to cheer about. That's I'm still running for my life. That's the only reason. That's the only reason I have that. So, I'm still That was a wakeup call. Okay. Either do this or six feet under. So that's Yeah, that's not something to cheer about. All right. Perhaps something has knocked you off your metaphorically high horse. >> And you might think because of this event, God doesn't have his hand on you. God doesn't have his hand on my family. But it's the complete opposite. He's shaking you this morning as to say, "Get up. Arise. Wake up. I've got something greater for you and your family." This isn't You're not going to be defined by this moment that knocked you off your horse. You're You're not going to be defined by this moment while I redirected your path. That's not what your identity is going to be tied up in. Your identity is going to be in the next step that I command you to go. You're not going to know all the answers. I'll tell you when you get there. That's not the final conclusion of the book. That's not the last chapter of the novel. That's to get you where God wants you and your family >> to go. So, I tell you this morning, don't be discouraged. Don't think because you've stumbled or some kind of impactful catastrophic event has taken place in your family. And I I know that's easy to get up here and say. I know that's easy to preach about. But when it strikes yourself or your own family, you you that it doesn't always feel like that in the moment. But could you take this time to grab the the hands of your family members or your friends or your church family and say, "We're going to get through this together. And we're going to use this as an opportunity to get more unified, to get closer to you and be on more on fire for God than we've ever been before." Give the Lord a hand clap of praise. Don't think because you've stumbled that this is the end. This this is only this is only the middle of the story. This is this is only the turning point in the story. He he Paul didn't stay on the ground. He got up. And likewise, you've got to get up. And he went to Damascus as he was destructed. And there he received further guidance and was filled with the Holy Ghost. If you're here this morning and you feel like you've been knocked off your horse and you don't know what to do, let it be. Let it be. Hey, this is a wakeup call. I'm getting my life together through Jesus Christ. I'm going to pray more. I'm going to get more involved. This isn't the end. >> So, how do we apply it to our own lives? How how do we respond? First off, you've got to examine your heart. Oh, it's human nature when something happens. Paul maybe just initially he's like, "Who in my group knocked me off this horse? It couldn't have been my fault. I'm a I'm a tremendous rider." Going all the way back to Adam and Eve when when when we're questioned, when the light is shone on us, well, it's got to be somebody else's fault there. This couldn't be anything that I have done. The first thing we've got to do is examine on our own heart and say, "I am the chief of sinners. I made a mistake. I It's my fault and I'm going to get things turned around." We have to have accountability for ourselves in our lives. Yeah, somebody else may have played a role, but they're not going to live your life for you. You've got to take accountability for yourself. You've got to take accountability in the word of God to the extent if if nobody else sees it, even if there's skeptics and doubters, even if somebody else is at fault. I I've only got one life to live and I'm going to turn it around right now. >> Number two, you got to seek his guidance. Pray for discernment. Ask God to show you what he wants you to do and be open to hearing his voice. Number three, you've got to embrace the discomfort. You've got to embrace the discomfort. We live in a time and I guess all throughout human history, you watch commercials, you open up a magazine, everything that we are surrounded with that we spend our money on in a lot of different ways are meant to make us more comfortable, to make pain go away. Yeah. >> Whether it be the pillow that I that I buy to sleep with at night, whether it be uh some type of uh something I that I take or uh and obviously don't don't get me wrong. I when when you're ill, you need to go to the doctor if you you need prescription. That's not what I'm talking about. But at the same time, you can be on too much stuff at the at the same time. But I I don't have to to give all of those qualifiers. You know what I'm talking about. Everything in our our life, whether whether it's be uh the lumbar on our on our on our vehicle while we're driving or the the the pillow that I buy or the the things that I place in my body or the the temperature of the thermostat of all of these things. How can I make myself more comfortable in this moment? And discomfort makes us uncomfortable. That's another man. I've given three prophecies for you today. Discomfort makes you uncomfortable. You can put that on next. Yeah. When you start to make changes in your life, maybe it's in the food you eat. What did Uncle Bob say? He's on this diet. If it tastes good, he spits it out. And he he said that uh what did he say? He was on this diet for two weeks. If it tastes good, it spits it out. So, he got to fill him pretty good. So, he went to buy him a new suit. And uh he said, "It's all in the positive self-talk." So, he went to the the tailor at the suit shop and he goes, "I I want a a suit and an athletic cut." And the guy kind of looked at him. He said, "Well, do you have uh a suit for a a short fat athlete?" So, he he said, "It's all in the terminologies." But whatever the case is, when you go to make changes in your life, whether it's spiritual, whether it's physical, whatever it is, there is going to be discomfort. And the more radical the change, the more radical the discomfort. Number four, you've got to take action. The apostle didn't know what the outcome was going to be. All he knew is you got to go to the city and then I will give your next instruction. And I hope as we examine ourselves today and we talk about accountability, every single one of us in the house has not retired from serving the Lord. And we've not done so much that hey, hey, I'm all good now. No, we all have a next step that we could take. We all have burdens that we can pick up. We all have family and friends that we can call their name out in prayer. Take action. Take action. Oh, what does that look like? Take take the next step. Maybe it's praying more. Maybe it's reaching out to somebody. Maybe it's going to a counseling session. Maybe it's getting some advice on how to turn your life around in whatever capacity. Whatever the case, >> take action. And number five, remember that God's got you and he's got his hand on you. God hasn't left you. He's telling you to wake up before there's because there's more for you to do. He He needs you. That discomfort that you're feeling is God's trying to say, "Hey, I need you. There's people depending on you. You got a family dad. You got a family mom that's relying on you to step up and be what I've called you to be. Maybe you're being called to step out in faith and pursue a dream you've always had. Maybe you're being challenged to forgive someone who has hurt you. Oh, don't go there. I I want to talk about goals and jobs. You You mean stepping out and forgiving somebody that hasn't even apologized to me? Whatever it is, don't ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Don't resist the divine discomfort. Just as the persecutor Paul became the apostle, your wakeup call can lead to a transformation that's beyond your wildest dreams. And I ask each and every one of you this morning as you evaluate your life, as you evaluate your family dynamic, what can you do to take the next step? What can you do to wake up in this in your family unit to get closer to God? These moments of divine intervention jolt us into action and redirect us towards our purpose. Let me reiterate this point. The whole point of a wakeup call is not the wakeup call in and of itself. It's to get you to your appointment. It's to get to get you to your assignment. The wakeup call is not the conclusion. It's to get you to your next step. >> But what happens if you ignore these wakeup calls? What if you hit the snooze button too many times? The Bible gives us a very sobering example of the 10 virgins and the five whose oil had run out and they went to buy more and by the time they came back the bridegroom was already gone. They were too late. They had a period of time to prepare to take a next step to evaluate what they had to be ready but they neglected it in their own comfort and their own that would be an inconvenience or they thought they had too much time. So many decisions we make and everything that we talk about this is an hourglass but we're going to treat it like a 10-minute glass if you will. So I don't I don't want to concern you, but every thing that we talk about is centered around the time that we have in our lives. And we certainly are in an allout war and competition for time. And it might be the deceitful trick of the enemy in this day. For we're bombarded with things that aren't inherently sinful, but they weigh us down so much with things that don't really matter. And those things can keep us from doing what God has called us to do. Don't let complacency or procrastination or comfort cause you to miss your moment. A couple of statistics I found in terms of time that you have with your family, notably your children, states approximately 75% of the total time you'll ever spend with your children happens before they reach the age of 12. This percentage jumps to roughly 90% of the total time by the time the child turns 18. Now certainly you can be sitting there and this can be a oversimplification of the time that you have with your kids and the way home prices are now. They might be with you till they're 30 so you get more time. But the point being, life is but a vapor. There's only so many summer vacations. There's only so many Sunday dinners. There's only so many birthdays that you celebrate. There's only so much time that you have. And I ask you this morning, what's it worth to know that you did everything you did for your family or you did everything you did for that lost loved one or the ministerial field that you're called to to labor in. And musicians and singers can come. Billy Graham, when asked, "If you had your ministry to do over, would you do anything different?" He said, "I wish I had prayed more." I think all of us could agree that a good next step in our life to to to get us a jolt would be to pray more. Bishop throughout his ministry was impacted by a a particular testimony that he saw come into fruition that he often shares and I share it this morning of when he was preaching a revival in Little Rock, Arkansas. And if you've attended the church for some time, you've probably heard this story, this testimony more than once. But if you haven't, I tell it to you again. He was preaching a revival in Little Rock, Arkansas at Bishop Dale Holmes Church. And there was a woman when they would have spoken prayer requests that would pray every time for her son. He was off in the war and stationed in Germany. And her prayer request would go along the lines of, "Please remember my son, for he is lost, and if he would die tonight, I don't want to see my son and know that my son would be tossing and turning on the hot coals in hell for the rest of his life." And this was her prayer request. And that sounds pretty graphic for us today. But this was her prayer request every single Sunday. Her name was Cooji Looper and she prayed this prayer over and over. Well, Sunday came and my grandfather went up to preach and he said, "Right in the midst of service, this young soldier entered into the back doors, walked up the side where Sister Looper didn't even see him when he came in." And bishop said as he gave the altar call that young soldier passed her. And of course this was the greatest thrill for her. And he says that he came to the altar and prayed and prayed and turned his life back over to God being filled once again with the Holy Ghost. But the Cooji Looper's testimony was she said that every night and he preached many revivals there. So she would tell this testimony and he would come back and they she would make this same prayer request. So this happened over the span of a few years. But Cooji Looper's testimony is that every night knowing that her son was stationed in Germany or off in war that she went out behind her house and got a field stone and she put it at the foot of her bed down on the floor. And every night this would be her pillow. her husband would go to sleep in the bed and she would lay down with that rock being her pillow. And this was to be a reminder to her that while she slept at night, that she didn't want to get too comfortable or too used to the thought that her son could die and be lost for all eternity. And she said she would wake up in the middle of the night multiple times and every time she would, she would begin to pray, "God, don't let my son be lost. Don't let my son be lost." Now, am I telling you this morning that there's some supernatural power in that rock or that stone? No. Am I telling you that you yourself need to go follow this act to uh for for God to do something in your life? No, but I'm not going to discount her sincerity either and her desperation for her family to not get comfortable with them being lost. To to not get comfortable with them not fulfilling what God has called them to do. Lord, could I could I get restless in my soul in a in a time and in a society that everything around me is about easing my pain or making me more comfortable or making it more easy for me today? Or every day is Friday in my life? Could could I could I could I get some conviction in my life and something that will continually jolt me to say that I might need to to go back to prayer over this situation or I'm not giving up on this family member. I'm not giving up on this need. I'm not going to get too comfortable with the thought that my kids or my friends could be lost. Would you stand with me? >> Hallelujah. Hallelujah. She had multiple wakeup calls a night if you will. But Bishop would tell this story throughout his ministry. But like I said, the jolting and the wakeup call is not the conclusion. It's not the last chapter. for you told this story, Bishop, for over 50 years in your sermons, and it's a tremendous testimony. They would go to that pastor's funeral a few years ago, and they invited all the ministers to come eat in the fellowship hall after it. And my grandma to the lady behind the in the their fellowship hall serving the food, she said, "Hey, I got a quick question for you. My husband throughout his ministry tells a great testimony of a faithful woman in your church. She heard her name never lined the headlines of a camp meeting or a conference. She said, "Do you would you happen to know a woman by the name of Cooji Looper?" And when she asked this question, excitement began to spread through those and hands being raised. I I'm I'm Cooji Looper's great granddaughter. I'm Cooji. She was my great aunt. And she said, well, as she began to tell the story, he goes, that young soldier is on up in age now, and over there he sits. What's the point? Because somebody refused to get comfortable. because somebody refused to get used to the idea because somebody was willing to take on a jolting for their family. Not just the young soldier at the time's life, but now as you look down through the generations, a whole family unit is saved all because of a praying mother, a praying grandmother, a praying great grandmother that said, "Yeah, I'm going to get some skepticism, and I'm going to get some people that don't understand why I'm doing the things they do, but I believe at the very least, if I don't know what next step to take in my career, here. And if I at the very least if I don't know what next step today to take for s perceived success in this world, I know one thing I can do. I can be determined to pray more. I can make a next step to praise more. I can make a next step to lift my hands and worship more and say, I refuse to get comfortable with the thought of those that I love dearest. being lost. I want to open this altar this morning to anybody that might be going through a jolting right now and to let you know that the clock's ticking. The grains of sand are trickling through the vial. There's only so much time. It's time to wake up. It's time to go. It's time to pray like you've never prayed before. It's time to reach out like you've never reached before. It's time to get going and saying, "I'm making a change. I'm taking a next step. I'm getting my life together. I'm getting my family together. I'm going to pray more than I ever have. I'm not going to get used to the fact of this not coming into fruition because you serve a supernatural God who's able to do supernatural things. And I believe in the power of prayer. [Music] Yes. What a God. What a God. What a God. What a God. [Music] And if the highest place I reach is at your feet, then I've done it all. If the best thing that I've seen is your glory, that I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life forever. Satisfied. God, you are my highest place. In my highest praise, high reaches and your love it all. And the best thing that I've seen is your glory. I see it all. Your love has changed my life. God, you are my word is the word is the only. Maybe there's a dad that would step up right now >> and get their family together. >> If they ask for me in my house, >> maybe there's a mother right now who would gather a flock and say, "You're under my wing. We're going to do some things differently." Maybe there's a young person here today >> who has to set their own alarm clock >> and their mother and they're out of the care of their mother or their father to say right here God you speak I'm going to do some things differently I'm going to take some next step you Oh, you are [Music] [Music] [Applause] God. [Applause] [Music] Maybe in prayer, maybe maybe there was a time in your life where you made some very public and bold proclamations about your faith and you were in different roles in ministry or had different aspirations, but a cold season came in. Maybe a little turmoil here and some confusion there and some things that you're saying, "Hey, I I take accountability for, but also I was I was done wrong in this situation." Maybe it was even by friends or maybe it was even by family and you find yourself of I I know what was right, but I I felt like things just kind of gotten cold and were a little off and I and because of that cold season, I I feel like I can no longer fulfill what God has truly called me to do. I want you to know that that's an absolute lie from the enemy. I want you to know that that's just a a jolting in your life, a on the road to Damascus moment. that that's in no way the conclusion or the the final chapter that the enemy would like to whisper in your ear and say, "Hey, because you did thus and so or because this happened in your life, then you're never going to fulfill what I've called you to do." That's a lie from the enemy. The the take that moment to say that you know what? The God I serve says he has all time and authority in his hands. the the God I serve that says all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. And let that moment in your life, that season of your life, Pastor Will has got an amazing sermon on restoration and the restoring of time that I would love for him to preach sometime. And I'm requesting that right now that God's going to restore all of these things back to you. And he's saying in that moment, just take the next step. Just pray more. Get your family in the ark. make set some goals. Let's rearrange some things. Let's not go back to how things were. Let's be better than we've ever been before. And I believe our family dynamics, our relationships between each other, the interpersonal relationships, and our identity of a church can grow even stronger when we recognize these things together. So I invite you for a moment if you would reach over to the person next to you and as one unified body right now as one unified body right now. Let's lift up the name of Jesus and proclaim that water of God. Almighty God, as we lift our voices and our hands together, we come before your throne, bowing down at your feet. Lord, we know we are elevated by our knees touching the ground. Lord, if there be somebody who has to knock you to the ground today, Lord, together, we're going to help him up. We're telling him to get up because God's got more for you to do. God, we're acknowledging that we're going to take a next step this morning. We're going to pray more. We're going to praise more. We're going to reach out more. We're going to call more. We're going to do better. We're going to take a step forward because there's generations. My family's dependent on me. My community is dependent on me. And we're going to do it in the name of Jesus. Yes, Jesus. With the highest praise, the highest praise. I reach your best. I've seen it all. Your love has changed my life. Forever sisfied. You are my [Music] only your heart and never see your head. I still have it all. I love you are my [Music] God. You are my God. Heat. Heat. [Music] My God. My God. You highest place I reach out. And I've done it all. The best thing that I see is your glory. Then I see it all. Your love has changed my life forever. Forever. Sisfy. God. You are my word. is the only thing you see only your heart [Music] is ever you are my you are I God you are my [Music] hallelujah. Glory. Glory. Glory. Hallelujah. [Music] If you're in this house today and you have not yet been baptized in the name of Jesus, I issue this call. Wake up. Today is the day to take on the name of Jesus and water baptism. Today is the day to get remission for your sins and take his name on. If there's one, let us know. We have clothes for men, women, boys, or girls. We have a man of God that will baptize you in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm glad to be awake today. I'm thankful for a wakeup call today. How about you? I want to go from this place fully aware, not groggy, not sleepy, not tired, but fully awake with my wakeup call to do what God has called us to do.