Greater Purpose
by Sam Hodum
April 22, 2026 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Leviticus 19:23-25, 1 Corinthians 3:1-15, Luke 18

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--greater-purpose-4
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Guys, pardon. Please. If I if I go into a coffin fit, just let me just let me die. Don't resuscitate. Just let me go. All right. I'm going to try not to, but that's that's part of it. Uh, >> is it allergy? >> Lord only knows. Okay. The Lord only knows. So, who knows? I'm trying. It's not It's not bad. It doesn't make me feel bad. just you know just a cough. So now I got everybody's sympathy. All right, we can start. All right. Uh Leviticus 19 and 19 uh couple weeks ago I uh couple weeks ago I ended with this thought uh because I didn't and and I was still working on this thought but I wanted to end with it too. >> >> This was back when we had a uh a missionary, so we didn't have like a full a full time in here.

And I really thought that would be easier, but I'd gotten used to teaching for like 45 to 50 minutes now. And everyone like and so like I really had a hard time cramming everything in. I was I was struggling guys. So, uh Leviticus 19 and 19, I'm sorry, and 23. Leviticus 19 and 23 it says when you come into the land and plant any kind of tree uh for food then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden three years it shall be forbidden to you it must not be eaten and in the fourth year all of its fruit shall be holy an offering of praise to the Lord but in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit to increase its yield for you I am the Lord your God uh it was a very interesting when I looked at the how the rabbis looked at this it was a very interesting take on on this tree uh or on this on the fruitbearing tree.

They would not in fact they said the custom was for them to go around and pluck out the uh the the buds so it would not bear fruit for three years. That's that was very that's a very laborious task. Could you imagine going around and doing that? I know some of y'all are gardeners and some of y'all really enjoy that, but I would be so mad if I had to take care of a tree for three years before I could take fruit of it. But then in the fourth year, the fruits of the Lord and and so I thought of it in the sense of how many how many's had kids or have kids? Yeah. How many were ready to have kids? Like when you had it, you were like, "We've got this taken care of.

We fully prepared." No, I don't know. I'm just asking. I'm just wondering. I'm asking for the for me, honestly. Who Who had it figured out? You had it figured out. You were good. >> Part of it. >> Part of it. Did you feel like I'm I'm I'm truly asking. Do you Yeah. You were like, "No, this is super easy." >> No, I I don't know. I'm asking. The reason I'm asking is like Lauren and I, we we were older, right? We we tried we were into our careers. We were established in our jobs. Um and we're like, "Okay, we're you know, we have a kid now. That's okay." And it and it was it was fine. We have a kid, but it still upended everything, right?

It still it still messes with our schedule. I mean, little Booger likes to wake up. >> Wait till number two comes. >> Yeah. wait till number two comes along. Right? And so thinking about fruit and bearing fruit, the re reality is is that sometimes things bear fruit before their due season. Some things in the church, some things in nature bear fruit before it's actually needing to bear fruit. Um, what do you do then? Dumb fruit, get away from here. you shouldn't have done that. It's like, well, okay. No, you have to prop up the branches of that tree if it bears fruit so it doesn't break. If you've got if you got a tomato plant, you know that a tomato plant has to have support because it's not made to support that.

If you if there are certain things that sometimes as the church matures, there are some things in some people and I'm I'm going to I'm going to talk about the church tonight. But in that they they bear fruit before they're able to handle that fruit. I've seen that a thousand times and it's good because God blesses it and and fruit matters. But it's up to the church to figure out how can we help them? How can we prop them up? How can we make sure? Right? Because sometimes we need to hold them back, train them, let them mature. Sometimes they just there's out of the gate before you can hold them back. You're like, "Hey, dude. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't." And you try your best.

But part of it is making sure that as the body of Christ that we're there to help support them, good or bad or ugly, I don't know. That's just that's just part of it. I wanted to end there because I I I had some questions that I wanted to to ask tonight. And at the end we'll uh time permitting I want I want some participation and I need some help answering these. So why does the church exist is question one. And then what are we to be as a church is question two. Uh who and what are we? That would be in the parenthesis there. Uh question three is what are we to do as a church or what does God want done in the world?

That would be in the same question. And then how are we to do it? Uh 1 Corinthians and and just hold on to those questions for just a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse one. And if you guys will help me, I'm going to do round robin uh for the first and we're going to go through verses 1 through 15. Uh we don't have anyone named Robin, do we? Never mind. Guess we'll just have to go around the room. Tough crowd tonight. Thank you. Thank you. >> 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse one. This is Paul writing to the church in Corinth very simply. Uh I'll start out. But I brothers could not address you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh as infants in Christ.

Verse two. >> I have you will not neither are you. Are you not call Verse verse seven. >> Man, what a what a northern accent he's got, man. We are together. She's been working on tecap this week. Y'all forgive her. >> Verse 12. verse 14. >> You're okay. this this this teaching here by Paul, he he is definitely talking in in my opinion about the end times, about the testing, the trials of God. some I mean we could take this as as a literal physical fire. We could take it as a spiritual testing. We could take it as the testing of time. Uh the reality is uh the church is the largest organization to exist. It is it survived longer than literally any other man-made organization out there.

It because it's not man-made. Now, one church, this church hasn't, the denominations haven't, but believers in Christ have survived longer than any other man-made organization out there. Um, empires will rise and fall. Someone's going to believe in the word of God. I It's just It stood the test of time. it that that makes me stop to think and and makes me wonder what are we doing? What are we building? Why are we here? Because the reality is is in a hundred years this building actually might still be here. I don't know. I mean, it's solid. Just don't believe me. Take a swing at one of these walls. All right? like with a hammer. It's solid. Uh it might still be here, but the reality is none of us in this room.

So, maybe a little bit back there might be here. That's reality. Uh I don't I don't know. I didn't meet the my relatives that were alive 100 years ago, right? I I don't know who they I don't know who they were. Do you? I mean, I know EP Hodum, that was my great grandpa, right? That's that's about it. That's in a hundred years. What are we building? I don't I don't know who I might know. The preacher that preached to the preacher that preached to my grandpa, you know, like I might I think it was I think maybe A.G. early I think. But you see what I'm saying? That was a hundred years ago maybe. What are we building? Why are we here? What are we taking our time and trading it for?

That's I mean that's real questions that we all have to answer in different ways. Uh it because it has a we have each of us have a different okay why am I here? Because if if I'm here for my kids, time's going to be that they're here and I'm not. If I'm here for my spouse, same thing. If I'm here for one another, well, you know, I mean, God bless the precious saints that that I grew up that were the elders, but they're passing on. They were there for one another, but I'm not living for God for them. my purpose and the purpose of the church it has to go we have to find what our reason is we have to understand why uh not to make us all depressed I know I I just watched across the room everyone just started getting a little sadder a little sadder oh but that's reality it's not bad that's just reality and sometimes we have to confront our own humanity and understand that wait a minute I'm not here in a hundred years.

I'm not here. What is what am I doing? Will what I'm doing matter? And the reality is the only that that's that's that we can we can look at the test of fire from that. It will be verse 13 says each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. Now that can be we could say well that waits till the end of time or we can say let the time let time test that. Okay. And and while while I believe, you know, he's he's probably talking about that, we can also let the spiritual fire test it because the reality is God will come in and he will test and the what is it?

He'll test our heart. He knows what the word will divide us under the thoughts and the intents of the heart. If we allow the spirit to cleanse us, we allow the spirit, okay, I was walking this way for what seemed like a good thing, but my purpose and it was actually it was a good thing, but my motive was wrong. My intent was wrong. O, all right. How do I realign that, God? Because now I realize I I may have been doing a good thing, but for all the wrong reasons. I was looking for love, but Ah, thank y'all. Thank y'all. Got us back now. All right. I just lost my notes that so as a church, as a body and and I and I'm and when I when I'm teaching this class, I'm speaking to the church body.

I I don't know if you know this or not, but you're here on a Wednesday night on a midweek university in in class. That makes you the church. I just want you to know that. Like, believe it or not, you don't get much more church than that. Okay? Maybe at the all night prayer meeting. All right? Lord bless the person that has to get up and go to go to work the next day after that. Churches, they they find their purpose in different things. Some churches are driven by tradition, right? We've always done it this way. Uh the goal of the traditional church is uh to perpetuate the past. Um change is always seen as negative. Stagnation is interpreted as stability. And I get it.

There is there is a can I can I see there is a certain level of comfort that comes with with that. There is there is a certain level of comfort because it is nice um to to go to the same place and see the same people and be really comfortable. It is nice especially can I say especially in a in a city like this where nothing is ever the same. Y'all may y'all may have grew up somewhere different, but in my town and there was like a restaurant, that was a big deal. And if that restaurant closed, it was even a bigger deal. And if we even heard a rumor that there was a new restaurant coming, massive deal. All right, I mean it. And that was it.

That was that was all the movement. And that was over the decade. Okay, that was all the movement. here. It's like like every other week there's a restaurant closes and opens back up every other week and they're like good locations, good restaurants. I'm like, man, why did that one close? Guess I'm not eating there anymore. And you know what I found myself doing? Not paying attention to the new restaurants or the old ones and just going. I was like, it was such a it was such a stark contrast in my mind from the way I grew up because the reality is we had two changes in 10 years versus two changes in a year here or 10 changes in a year or however many it is.

And that's just within a stone throw of here. You can go in the same restaurant every day. Uh, I like to go I like to go eat breakfast on Sundays sometimes at the Waffle House on East Brainard over here. Really like it. It's clean, friendly. E, it's the only place that I've consistently went that have the same workers in the whole town. Okay. Everything else it's like there's never the same workers every anywhere. I'm like, how is this even like and you don't see the same people? That's a lot of change to deal with. And so there can be a natural reaction for us to say, you know what, the church is the place where my people are. And I get it, but that can't be the primary motive, right?

It's it's easy for us to to think of this in uh well, you know, that's just the way it's always been and just use that as in us to know, well, you know, that's just not the way to be until we find ourselves saying it and then we're like, oh, we've all done it. It's it's life. It happens because that is that's part of humanity. Another part is church is driven by personality. uh a lot and and I'll say this, I'm not going to a lot of and I'm I'm going to pick on internet churches so that way it's a little bit like impersonal and I'm not actually picking on someone in a personal way, but like a lot of your celebrity preachers, they are driven that's a personality driven audience, right?

And now for some of y'all, Jimmy Swagger, he might as well been right next to the Pope and Jesus probably. All right. Sorry, Sister Stacey. I didn't mean to call out your your favorite preacher there. May he rest in peace. And then Wait, no, he wasn't. I'm just I'm just picking. I'm just I was just trying to offend everyone with one stroke. That way I'm picking on everyone equally. Okay. Uh uh Jimmy uh I don't know. I don't I don't know who else. Uh who's uh who's the guy at elevation? >> Joel. Well, there's Joel Ostein. >> Steve, good old Steve. I mean, and that's, you know, that's part of human nature is to understand that's a commonality of we understand, okay, they produce good music, they've got a they've got a consistent voice that matters to us.

Um, honestly, a lot of churches I've seen when the pastor's out, it's like everyone else is too. Well, that's that's a personality driven church. It's like That's not a healthy atmosphere. Now, thank you guys so much for being here tonight knowing that pastor wasn't teaching. All right, so thank y'all. But like that's just that's part of of it is understanding getting past the person is getting to we can see that. Uh it's and I'm not I'm not hating on on any there's just certain tendencies that churches kind of coales around. Some some churches are driven by finances. uh everything's, you know, oh, how much will it cost? And not in a not in a fidiciary way even, but in a controlling way. Uh the bottom line's more important than who who was baptized, more than important than guest, more important than anything.

And you're like, "Oh, okay." in any of these, and I I'm talking about these in the extremes. We all probably have been around long enough to have been around a church that has at least touched on these extremes. We've probably all seen it in one way or the other. Doesn't make them bad people. This is we're we're learning I'm trying to I'm trying to go through and learn these things so that hopefully we can learn from that, right? Uh some churches are program driven. uh the Sunday school, the the the women's, the choir, the youth, uh they're driven, I don't know, they're often driving forces. All the energy is focused or maintained sustaining the programs. And often these things shift, but the programs still stay and they just kind of hang on like dead weight instead of being okay to say, "All right, it's time to shut that down because that happens.

Nothing bad, not personal. That's reality. It's time to move on to something else that becomes the sacred cow. Sorry, didn't mean to offend you on the sacred cow. He's from India, y'all. I just been really wanting away. I've been wanting to make a sacred cow joke for a while. Thank you. Yes. All right. All right. Yeah. Good. I've been trying to get you out of here. So, oh me. All right, everybody. I was It was a good joke, right? Yeah. The reality is that happens. The reality is those things, they become the sacred cows. They become the um they become the this is the end all beall. Other churches are driven by the buildings. Right now, I kind of feel like we are. We're just trying to get a Oh my gosh.

Come on now. How many rooms are there? It feels like that sometimes right now. We've been We've been in here a year and it feels like we've been remodeling for a decade. I don't know how my back feels it. It's part of it. Uh sometimes though that that that can that I will say this the church that that sold this to us. Okay, they made this statement and and in a very they were trying to do their best and this is not to condemn them. This was their statement. This was their realization. They had realized that they had stopped doing ministry and were simply focused on maintaining the building, nothing else. and that it had consumed them because they had gotten so small and they were elderly and all that.

And so they realized they had to divest themselves and their goal was to just focus on ministry after that to rent a space and do ministry because now that that was a course correction for them, right? And I applaud them for realizing that because guess what? They have peers that are hanging on to buildings that are consuming them. Never should that be. Never should that be right. Churches can be driven by events. Sometimes we might get in this case. I don't know this. I'm I'm getting this I'm getting a lot of this material right out of the purpose driven church just in case y'all want to read this. our leadership's going to be looking at it and we've got a leadership meeting coming up that that's some these are some of the questions that we're going to be walking through and trying to make sure the guard rails that we're looking at and seeing okay what are we what do we need to look out for and where do we need to go next because the reality is if you guys guys we have a church calendar we have a very full church calendar on purpose one person is not supposed to be at every event it's supposed to serve a different a different purpose, a different need, a different demographic, all those different events.

Okay, it's supposed to serve those needs. The reality is is sometimes we have to step back and we have to realign and say, okay, are these actually serving the need that they should be serving or are we divesting our energy too much, dissipating our energy? I don't know. This is I am not trying to send a prognosis. I'm just using examples of of things in reality here. Uh churches can be seeker churches dri driven by seekers. And that means uh and while we should and that's part of all of these things are good things, but there's also a part of maturing, right? There's there's the milk. We heard about the milk, but later he'll say, I have to give you meat. And so there has to be the seeker friendly part.

There has to be the there has to be the shallow end of the pond of the of the of the pool. If we don't have a shallow end of the pool, then there's no opportunity for a new person to learn about Jesus. But if the whole pool shadow, we're just in a kitty pool splashing around having fun. And then it's just dumb, I guess. I don't know. She's like, "What are you doing?" Right? It's got to it's got to have both parts to it. We're not just a kiddie pool and we're not just the ocean. We gota we got to have that transition time because the reality is the closer you get to God, the more you're consumed by God. But if you just start off walking with God daily as Enoch, you'll be will not because God it'll overwhelm you.

You like, how do I process this? That's I mean that's reality. And so as a church we have to be very evangelistic but we also have to be very driven to disciple. I I think that we have made strides and strides and strides for this. Uh I think we have we've at least tried. Okay. And all of those things part of this those questions I asked you guys is why does the church exist and what are we to be at as a church? So, can I ask you, and this is where I need your help at, is why does the church exist? This is this is what my whole board right here is for. All right? I need I need answers. This is this is group effort.

I do not have answers written for this. So, if you don't participate, this is over 30 minutes before we're supposed to be out of class. All right. So, why why does a church exist? Can I ask what's an what what need does a church serve for you? Maybe there's different ways. >> Okay. >> All right. Can I can I call that evangelism? All right. >> No, this is not going to be legible. >> To equip people. Okay. What are we equipping them for? Okay. >> Okay. Equip. Yes, sir. >> I thought you I thought you were raising your hand. I'm sorry. >> Fellowship. All right. One for another. All right. And this can be fellow. We can do more than one word answers. I don't care.

I've got a whole whiteboard here. All right. Yes, sir. >> Spiritual refuge. Uh oh, made a mistake. There we go. All right, I can't spell refuge. Listen, we didn't have a I really wanted just a dry erase board tonight and we didn't have one. So Ethan and I tried to move this 5,000 lb screen off the stage and about lost it. It was close. So spiritual refuge. [panting] What else? >> Educate. >> Educate. All right. Can we put that with a quip? >> All right. Oh no. educate. >> All right. >> All right. What else? >> You're going to make me write propagate, huh? All right. Let's just not say propitiate. Okay. Propagate. I I'm with you. I'm with you. They don't We don't have to.

And we can do more than one. Why are you here? >> Yeah. Okay. To keep out of hell. All right. >> Support. >> Support. All right. support. >> Spiritual support. All right. So, we got spiritual refuge fellowship. Let me do this. Let me put those together like that. You didn't know that was a connecting arrow, did you? >> Okay. All right. To keep out of hell. All right. What else? What else does the church do? >> Accountability. Are we accountable? I'm not doing your taxes. Finance. That's not how you spell it. I just did this so y'all would have, you know what else? Okay. Reaching. All right. Reaching others. >> It's evangelism. That's right. All right. Um, what about worship? I want to bring God into this somewhere, I guess.

I don't know. >> Okay. God. >> God. Thank you, Matt, for such eloquent with words there. Uh, what place for the broken? Well, that's fair. That's Luke 18. He where Jesus got up and said, what was that? Was it Luke 18? It was like Luke. He said, "I came to set the captive free, the broken, to heal those." Oh, man. All right. Need to go read that one again, huh? All right. Heal the broken. All right. Does that compass all the reasons the church exists? There's probably a bunch more. I I agree. Can Can I tell you I'm just going to give y'all just a Do y'all realize that nothing in this world I I've been thinking about this for some months now. Nothing in this world cares about the health of your family.

Literally nothing else cares about that. Think I I'm serious. Like Can I and I'm gonna I'm gonna tries to help the health of your family? Nothing. Government doesn't. Real estate agents for sure don't. Builders don't. Your job doesn't really care. uh your family may or may not based on because the reality is is they have to pick sides at some point if it gets bad enough. Literally the only entity in this world that cares about your family is the church. Like when I really started I have really been thinking on that for some months now and I have been racking my brain. If you think of something else that actually cares about it, that actually works, please let me know because I don't want to be making like a false equivalent.

But I really do I really do think I I'm going to put that here. Okay? I'm going to put family here because I do think that matters. God instituted the family and that's part of those things. That's part of the equipping. That's part of all the other pieces to it. But there there are certain things the church does that nothing else does. What are what? So so in that can I can I ask then does anyone does anything else evangelize? Ethan Ethan does. He's a marketer. He's a salesman. He evangelizes technically. I mean, social media does. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Uh, does anything else equip or educate schools? That's fair. It depends. It's fair. Uh, are there anything else that you can fellowship and hang out at?

Yeah. I mean, outside the church, per se. There's community. Yeah. I got a buddy who plays uh pool or billards all the time. I was like, "Dude, he's like, yeah, we have tournaments and it's ranked all across the city." I was like, "Who has time for that?" But okay. Uh, is there a place that you can have spiritual refuge? >> Okay. Okay. At home. All right. That's fair. Home that can do that. Um, is there anywhere else that propagates the gospel? And this is this is a thought. I haven't worked through this. I This is literally like I am trying to work through this with you guys tonight. So, if you have like a hairbrain idea, shoot that out there. >> Okay. But there's still bit there still I mean you can't the gospel without the Bible.

So, they're still Bible based, right? I mean, yeah, you're better. Stop. No more jokes. All right. I was supposed to offend literally anyone else left. I was going to say, unless you're Mormon, but Oh, wait. I said it out loud, didn't I? Guys, pick on everyone equally and no one can be offended, right? Thank y'all. Thank y'all for agreeing with me on that. At least I got somebody's back. I think I did the live stream a long time ago. Um, does anything else with that, but that was actually a pretty good one. Thank you for that. >> Is it uplifting. Encouraging. That's fair. Encouragement. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. All right, I'll leave that up there then. Okay. Uh, is there anywhere else to keep you accountable?

>> Yes. Is jail. >> Our jobs. Yeah. They want to keep us accountable. They're like, "Hey, where you at?" I get it. Um, is there any anything else that helps reach others? And I'm asking this like we could be the Salvation Army. They started Well, I was like, I got it. He was ringing the bell. It took me a minute. Uh, they started like they have a humanitarian effort, but then somewhere along the line they lost the gospel effort, right? The iation side. Um, is there anywhere else you can worship? I guess we get specific with it. Can't really Yeah. Is there is there something else that like pushes worship is what I should ask? And I would I would ask worship to God or worship to other things.

Maybe. Not really. >> Okay. It depends. It's fair. That's true. >> Yeah, that's fair. So, there's a lot of things we can worship, but the only place to worship I say the only the only place that encourages worship God is the church. Is that is that fair? Or a church involved entity. Is that a close? Doesn't mean you have to only worship God at church. should phrase this. What does why does the church exist? So to encourage worship. Um where else teaches about God? Um where else tries to heal the broken? Is anywhere else? Medical. Yeah. Okay. and family. Is anywhere else trying to help the family? I don't I'm asking like I really need this like I need this one help. I need to crowdsource this idea because I've been working on it for a while.

But I mean like there's counseling. Does it count if you you have to volunteer like go does it count? Yeah, counseling helps. Okay, there's counseling. All right. So, I need to work on my statement then. All right. An encouragement. Yeah. Cam. It's not encouraged, but I'm just kidding. I hear you. Okay. The reason I asked this is why does the church exist? We ain't We're not going to get to the other questions, but I do want you to at least reminisce on them and think on them if you can. Why? What are we to be as a church? What are we to do as a church? And how are we to do? Because the reality is there's a lot of offerings for a lot of things that we have needs of.

There are very few of these things right here that the church specifically answers. Now, we have the challenge. Paul said, "I became all things to all men that I might by all means save some." But the reality is the church cannot be so focused on the salvation army that it loses the propitiation of the gospel. The church cannot be so focused on the gospel that people go hungry. Has to we have to find and I'm speaking to the church tonight. What's our balance? Can't be so focused on tradition. Can't be so focused on and and I'm using the negatives here. All right? Because that's that's the way my mind works. I think of what doesn't work and then I say, "Okay, why not this?" All right.

That's just Yes, ma'am. We're power and unity. Yes, ma'am. That's right. And so, as tonight, I'm I'm going to I'm going to try and land this real quick. But the reason the church exists is is the church exists for Christ first. First and foremost, we are his bride. first and foremost before anything and after anything. Now, he gave a whole lot of instructions on why on on on what the church is to do. I got a whole list of scriptures here starting in Matthew chapter 5 and going all the way through verse 28 or chapter 28. a whole bunch starting in Mark, a whole bunch in Luke, a whole bunch in Acts, a whole bunch in Romans and Corinthians and Ephesians. A whole list of things that Jesus gave very explicit instructions on us to do.

What time will allow us to go into all those tonight, but the reality is is that it serves a need that only God can serve. You're here because you found an answer that only God could answer. And that I mean I'm here because God I I can only find my answer in God. The reality is is the better that we can communicate that and the better that we can do that and be his hands and feet the better this world will be. That's that's part of our respons. That's not our full responsibility, but it's part of our responsibility as as a body. It is to as a church. We want a good place. We want aospitable place. We want we want to have familiar faces and and maybe even our own traditions.

That's fine. Uh we want we want to to be open to new people, but we also want to be a a hospital to mend and grow those that are here. We also all of those things we have to very very consciously very intently we could go through this list and we could keep going and going we have to be very intentional about the order right a baby doesn't and I'm I'm borrowing this but first thing a baby has to learn is what how to breathe as simple as it is that baby doesn't breathe Right? It doesn't learn anything else. Then it's got to learn how to cry. Then it's got to learn how to sleep. And then it's got to learn how to eat. And then later it can learn how to walk.

And then later it can learn how to talk. And then the church is to help those that are hurt and broken, lost, busted, ashamed, and help them find step by step their walk with God. Amen. Would you stand with me? Question number four was, how are we to do it? So, it's playing off question number three. Jesus, we love you. We thank you for your kindness, your goodness, and your mercy. God, I thank you so much for the opportunity to be in your house with your people. God, I thank you so much for the opportunity to be to to to study your word, to feel your presence, to to call on your name. God, I pray Lord that you would allow the spirit to be upon us.

God, as a church, our purpose is not merely to just gather together. Our purpose is not just to be friendly, but our purpose is to help the hurt and the broken, the busted, the disgusting. Our purpose is to worship you. Our purpose is to grow close to you, God. Our purpose is to be your bride, God, however you would have us to be, God. To serve the needs of those around us, God, in the most godly, the most kind, the most spiritual fashion that we possibly can, God, to pray, to intercede, to help, to to build up, to encourage, to to love, to be family, to guide, to direct. God, help us, God, as a body. God, help us as a church. God to fall in love with you more than anything else in this world.

And God, help us, Lord, to walk in the purpose that you have established for Chattanooga. God, help us discover your to discover your will for Chattanooga, your divine direction. God, help us, God, to walk in it day in and day out. God, we we we have our desires. We have our plans, but all the plans of man are meant will fail. But God, we proclaim that we want your plans to be made true. Your your plans to be made plain, God. and help us to to know them and to follow them. God, I thank you. God, I praise you. In Jesus name we say. And the church said, >> "Amen." Thank you guys so much.