Communion with God

Thank you church for being a praying church and a worshshiping church. It sure makes a difference to walk into the house of God. And the warmth and the comfort of the spirit of God has just been stirred up by people that are hungry for the presence of God. Thank you singers, teachers, prayers, get greeters, production, all the all the other things that it takes. Thank you so much. And I I want to I want to thank you, church. You caught me on the spot just a moment ago. I'm not I'm not too great on the spot. I'm not as witty as pastor is. He's I mean, he he should have been a comedian, guys. Like, we know that. But I want to thank you so much for honoring my wife and I, the family. Oh, I I appreciate it. I'm honored. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. The the leadership team yesterday, pastors mentioned it already. They spent they spent dawn to dusk or it felt like it planning for 2027. It's not doing. It wasn't. It was just planning. And I thank I want to honor them. Would you give them a hand clap? Thank them for their investment in this church.

You may be seated. I uh we went through the nuts and bolts of things accomplished in this year, what we're doing, and oh man, there's even a picture of them. I didn't even know that it broke. I thought the camera broke. Thank you guys so much for taking time. I uh we we we talked about the things that uh the base needs to be muted. Uh we talked about some of the things that we uh we have accomplished in 2026. And there was some antsiness. Honestly, I felt some antsiness in there. They they denied it, but everyone was getting a little bored. They're like, "We haven't moved in a year and a half. What in the world's happening? They're like, "Oh," they're like, "So, so when are we moving?" No, no, no, no, no, no. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There. No, no. They claimed that wasn't what I I must have mistook it, you know, but everyone it it everyone is excited for what God is doing at CAC. I'm thankful for a church that is intentional and touching hearts and lives outside these four walls. I am so thankful for that. Hey, uh this is the month of greater community and and this just just so you're aware and and so that I give the disclaimer here. This is also the week that that that the air changes and so I am suffering from what most all y'all are suffering from a little stuffiness. So please please have kindness to upon me. Give me some forgiveness and if not I'll bring you the mic and then we can go from there.

Greater community. I I started out thinking of of community in in the month. And in case you guys didn't didn't get what I was preaching about and you probably forgotten, but when I mention it, you'll probably understand. Uh I I I preached a whole sermon about digging wells. Um that was probably all I talked about the whole sermon, right? I mean that was it. Like just dig some wells and what does this have to do with community? I uh I I have been approaching as as as the way my mind works. I approach something. I try to understand the base form of something and then I build into it from a conceptual standpoint. And so if you think about how community happens, you break it down, right? You just break a thought down. And over time, believe it or not, we're not the only society to ever exist. It's a wild concept. America's only 250 years old this year. We're not the only society to exist. the uh uh there's there's been so over over time communities have changed the form the size the the way people interact has changed over time. Uh it went we've went from times where everyone lived in big cities to the countryside and then back to big cities and back to the countryside. It's just been kind of a cycle of that.

There's a very cool there's a very cool cycle that you could that history kind of preserves. Um and and this is this is almost ancient history. It's 1,200 BC era or so. It's it was the Bronze Age. Uh and there was a collapse of the Bronze Age. If you're a history nerd, this means everything ended. If you're not an history nerd, it also means everything ended. Thank you, Jaden, for being a history nerd. But in in that error, there's some, you know, there's some debate on the time frame. I'm not I'm not going to get into the timeline too much, but think of where Greece is now, where Egypt is now, where Iran is now. These were centers of culture. They big centers of culture. Okay? Like they had their own writing. They had their own languages. They had their own uh buildings. I mean, at this point in time, the the the pyramids at at Giza in Egypt, well, they were like over a thousand years old at this time. It's crazy to think about how old those things are. That's to the best of our knowledge. They were really old. This was like 3,000 years ago. All right. So, this this was old. They these these were these was what what you would call a known society. They were interconnected. All right? They they transverse. They talked. They were developed. They were welldeveloped. Uh I mean trade, commerce, all that. And then something happened. Historians are not really sure because, well, they lost all of it. It all collapsed. It just collapsed. What they knew disappeared. It's so interesting. Now, my personal opinion here is it was probably the the Keystone event was probably the fall of Troy. If you've ever if you've ever listened to that, that's that's personal opinion. I have nothing to back that up with. If you're a history nerd, prove me wrong. If you're not, you don't care. It is what it is. And so what happened was something happened. Everything fell apart. And they went through almost a thousand years of societies not operating at that level. It was it took almost a thousand years for society to build back to a complex level. You're like, what does this mean? Well, we we've went through this cycle several times in history. The Greeks did it. The Romans did it. there there when the Romans collapsed, there was a period called the dark ages to where to what we think of as as modern history almost. The dark ages were just that it doesn't mean people didn't exist. It just means they they didn't write things down well. It was just kind of disorganized. It was just kind of there. That's where we think of villages and and and small gatherings and things and cities weren't really large because they'd lost some of the complexity and the technology to do it. And then as time built, they built back, built back, built back. And now we have megalopouloolis centers. There are in the in the United States, there's nine there's nine or 10 areas that are considered megalopous centers. One of them in the northeast, it's like 50 million people within a very small area on the on the eastern seabboard, like from like DC to New York. It's like 50 million people right there. And it's a really small area guys. It's it's in that the reason I mentioned those numbers in that way, okay, is that's a lot. If I were to ask you to write down 100 names first and last, you'd be like, "Oh, I got that." The people you know, I got that. I got y'all. Some of y'all are like, "Nothing." I'm like, "All right, 250." You're like, "Oh, yeah, easy." "All right, 500." And you're like, "Wait, what? Can I use Facebook?" "Sure, use Facebook." But then if you if you run into problem, girls I grew up with, they got married, changed their name. I don't even know who they are. I was like, "Who is who is Carly Shamarah? I don't know." My wife's like, "Who's that?" I I honestly couldn't tell you. like I don't remember who that is. At some point in time, I knew them, but apparently not anymore. Now, now that's that's our form.

What that happens then is is we start we build connections. We we we that shows a history. Humanity is very intentional about building connections. And now it looks like Facebook or social some sort of social media. A lot of modern society has been defined by our digital connections. Uh there's a there's a lady I I used to live over in in Redbank. Uh and I lived in a I had a had a condo over there in a nice like retirement community essentially. It was great. It was quiet. Loved it. Uh I don't know how I wound up with a condo in a retirement community, but I did fit right in. So there was a lady there. She was she was 50 plus or so. She was one of my neighbors. And she told me one day she had a she she had a friend that lived God knows where. But every day for the last 30 years, they had talked on the phone. I was like, "Wow, that's cool. That's that's a connection." Isaac Horton at his wedding his his one of his groomsmen or two of them I don't know how many they had met online gaming and had made a friendship out of that what a nerd made a friendship they met they were just friends because that was their common interest or Emmy Emily Emmy where's Emmy and Millie at where y'all at? Yeah, stand up. Where's Millie at? Yeah, we had to separate them. They play together and FaceTime. They don't live near one another, per se. So, they FaceTime one another and then they go playing their games, their dolls, and all that. Sounds funny, but they don't know any different. That's the world they are growing up in. They make connections and we make connections in just odd ways. That's just it's just what it is. Do you know that we have online church family that may have never stepped into the doors? They worship with us each week. They they they go through the word with us each week, but guess what? They're connected somehow. How cool is that? That we live in such an error that that we can be connected all over, you know? But but connection does not always mean community. That's true.

So I started looking into what is community, right? Because I grew up in small town USA. And community was the people you grew up with, you knew them, you knew their grandparents, you knew their great-grandparents. And and if if their great-grandparents that did did your great-grandparents wrong, then you didn't talk. It's like, well, that's not community, is it? No, that that really happens. the Hatfields and McCoy was not a madeup story. A and so we start looking we we see this. Okay, well that's probably not the best way to live. Uh our our connections we well I know them. I'm connected with them and Lauren Lauren she she she's funny with this. If if I see someone out from where I grew up there there is an obligation in the community you have to go talk to them. Like you can be in Florida, but if you recognize them, you have to go talk to them because there's only like a thousand of us. And so like you have to go out, you know, like you have to go, "Hey, man." Yeah. Oh, yeah. We went to school together. And then you go and be like, "Ah, why' I do that?" No. But that's that's part of those connections. But then we we try to take those and build those into community. What I've found though is is is in this moving society, in this trajectory that we're on, in in the complex society we live in of where there can be 50 million people in a space from Chattanooga to Knoxville, there's no way for us to know 50 million people. 500 is a max. I mean, if you're talented, you got 500 names. if you're like me. Like, what was what was her name? She's like, "Dude, that's your wife." Like, come on. I was like, "Yeah, I just call her wife." I say, "Hey, woman." Oh, I got y'all. Everybody's paying attention now. I'm glad you're in here today. I've been way way too much trouble. Everybody be going and tattling that. What what that then that that what that does is we can see that parallel again uh in teenagers. How many how many when you were a teenager especially a teenage girl like 13 14 15 16 has like a thousand friends. Oh, yeah. They're my friend. They're my bff. I got a cousin that just talks like that. I don't even know what she's saying. He's talking too fast for me. Yeah. They're like, uh, but as you mature, you realize those are connections, not friends, right? You're like, oh, and it goes down, goes down, goes down. Then you can watch the turn. You know what? I need a spouse. They're going to be my everything. You're my everything. How unfair. Got y'all. I got them cracked up over here now. That's my entire goal. We can dismiss now. Uh the the the the whole like just like they're my everything. My best friend and your spouse may be your best friend. I'm not I'm not here to like go into family teaching today. I'm I'm not picking at this. Okay.

But the reality is is what we're looking for is not is is little more than just communion. It's fulfillment. So, we've stepped from connection to community to now we're looking for fulfillment. It's like, oh, that's what And the reality is we're looking at it and well, asking one person to fulfill all of our needs is a bit mean. It's a bit mean. I ain't going to lie. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's like I uh can you do my taxes? If I asked Lauren that, she's like, "What are taxes?" The reality is we we start we're searching and so we find it. Okay. Well, then guess what? All right. My kids are my everything. How unfair to your kids. I mean, my kids are born. My kid is born. One of them is. He's born. He's in the house. And you're like, I'm just like, when does he move out? Apparently too soon right now. Apparently it's not right now. So I'm just kidding, guys. I love my little booger. Okay. And so he he I can't if my if my kids are my fulfillment or maybe I turn to my career. That's what I find fulfillment in. Right. That's that's it's more than community. It's what I find fulfillment in. And you guys that you guys may know where I'm going to, but going with this today, but I want you to know that as we go through those progressions, those are very natural. There's nothing to be ashamed of those progressions in life. They're very normal for us to go through. But the reality is our our mind, body, and soul is looking for something to commune with, to be in community with that is bigger and greater than any circumstance that we can live in. because we found relationships change over time. Who we're connected with changes over time. What what happened is but so what we need is someone to supersede all of those connections to supersede all of that. That's when God calls us into communion with him. You're like, "Well, you could have just started with that. I didn't want to. I need you and you need me. This doesn't negate that. But the reality is God calls us to a higher order of community. And the reason we cannot complete each other. We cannot be each other's full source of fulfillment. But there we have to find that a connection with God pres is it it transcends all of that.

Psalm 16 says it like this. Preserve me, oh God, for in thee do I put my trust. Oh my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied, thou that hastened after another god. Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names unto my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yay, I have goodly her a goodly heritage. Says I will bless the Lord. This is verse 7. Who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night season. Psalm 17 and three says it like this playing off that. It says, "Thou hast proved mine heart. Thou hast visited me in the night hours. Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. He says God knows who I am. You know the very being of who I am, God. I am going. You've tested me. You've tried me. I am not going to sin against you. He says it the writer of Psalms says it in another place. Your word hath I hid in my heart that I may not sin against you. God is calling us as a people. He has designed us to search for a deeper communion with him.

He Jesus said it like this to the disciples. He said in John 14, "Whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my m my commandments. Verse 16 says, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Verse 18 says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. God has designed our very being, our progression in life, not to we search for it and look for it in the things of this world. We look for it in the relationships of this world. We look for it in the people and the accomplishes accomplishments of this world. But God says, I'm I know you're searching for that, but I'm not going to leave you with that. Because if I leave you with just the things of this world, YOU WILL BE LOST AND SEARCHING and trying to find fulfillment and things that will never fill you up. John 14 and 26 says, "But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I've said unto you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. He is telling the disciples, I'm leaving but I'm not leaving. I'm leaving but I ain't leaving. That' probably been a better title, wouldn't it? I'm leaving but I'm not gone. I'm coming back someday.

to bring this into into the context of greater community. He's talking I'm going to take us back. If you remember, I talked about the lady at the well in John 4. He talks to her and he says he says to her, Jesus answered in John 4:10, he said unto her, "If thou kneest the gift of God, and who and who it is that thou saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." The woman said unto him, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, from whence has thou this living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us this well? Drink thereof himself and his children his cattle?" Jesus answered and said unto her, "Whoever drinkketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinkkeeth of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing into everlasting life. The lady said unto him, "Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." She said, "I'm tired of drawing up water." Jesus said unto her, "Go call thy husband and come hither." And the woman said, "I have no husband." Jesus said unto her, "Thou hast said, well said, I have no husband, for thou have five husbands, and whoever thou hast is not thy husband. And that says thou truly. What he's saying is you sought fulfillment in everything in this world. You thought what you needed was here. You thought what you were searching for was just a promotion. You thought what you were searching for was just another relationship. You thought what you needed could be achieved here. But can I tell you none of those things are bad. Can I tell you that God is saying to us, find your fulfillment in me. Drink from the waters of the well and you'll never thirst again. When we walk into Can I Can I just I'm gonna I'm gonna go into this just a little bit longer.

He said to the He said to the disciples, he says, "I send the promise of my father." This is Luke 24 upon you. But ye tar in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. Acts 1 and4 it said being assembled together with them commanded that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father which saith he ye have heard of me. Verse 8 says but ye shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me in both in Jerusalem and all Judea and all Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. God is calling us into a deeper communion with him. The communion of God transcends the Holy Ghost transcends every situation, every circumstance that we find ourselves in. What that does then is it fulfills, it finds those needs that we are needing to be fulfilled. When we allow God to permeate every part of our lives and step into every part of our being, we saturate ourselves with the spirit of God. What he does is he FINDS THAT PART. SOME of us need power in our lives because we feel powerless. Some of us need trust in our lives because we can't we've been hurt and we can't trust anyone. Some of us need Some of us need love in our lives because we've NEVER FELT LOVED. SOME of us NEED F NEED PASSION IN our lives because no one's ever loved us. Can I look at you and can I tell you drink from the waters in the well? WHEN YOU FIND COMMUNION with God, WHEN YOU FIND A PLACE THAT YOU SAY, "This is me and you, God. This is where I drink from the waters." You will be fulfilled in the things of this life. You will not be able, he's

Paul said it like this. He said, "Be ye followers of me as I am also of Christ." You see what he was doing was he was building community. How so? How was he doing it? Because what what Paul had done was he found a place in God to where the needs of this life, not not the not the the job, he still worked a job. not the the security he's he's he wasn't secure, but the the needs of his innermost being he found in Christ. And what that did was that gave him power to be the well that others drink from. He said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." He didn't say, "Follow me because I'm charismatic and smart and and wellspoken and I can do all these things and you and I need you to feel better about me." He said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." When we come into communion with God, God gives us the power to step into any situation. That's right. In any circumstance, he gives us the power to step into, if I may, walk into a room that is chaotic, depressed, beat up, and broken and be a well of living water in it. He is not calling us to just say, "Oh, I've got God, and I'm just going I'm just going I'm just going I'm going to hang on to him and do nothing with it." HE'S GIVEN US A well of living water so that when we are walking When we're moving, when we're we're we're what what's happening is we're grabbing a hold of Dennis and saying, "Dennis, no. Dennis, come on. What? Dennis, come on. Where we going? What we doing, Dennis?" No. No. Okay. I like to pick on Dennis here. Dennis, come on. No. Well, we're just walking. We're just walking now. I got L. Oh, hey, you're prettier than Dennis. All right, let's get rid of him. Thank you, buddy. It says, "Follow me as I follow Christ." They're not following me. They're following Christ. You see, there is it's it's transcendent. It's past it's past the the the point of us understanding. Okay, I'm just getting some water. It's past the point of us coming to God and saying, "God, I need you to to heal me today." It's past the point of us just saying, "God, I need you to give me some birthday money." I've seen Samuel's wallet. I'm I'm talking to him today. Give me some birthday money. It's past just It's past just McCabe praying, "God, God, oh, I wish I had a pretty girlfriend. God, what happened?" Oh, it's past it's past Evelyn over here just going, "You know what? I'm the fastest person." Oh, I make Forest Gump look slow. She's fast. Y'all should see her videos. She runs track. It's past It's past saying, "You know what? I've got one asleep over here. God, Lord, wake him up." No, no, no, no. It's it's past asking for the things that we need and it's saying, "Hey, how can I help you today, sir? How can I pray for you today? How can I How can I How can I bring peace into your life today? How can I How can I touch your family today? How can I bless your home today?" It's past the points of of us being concerned per se with the things of our lives and it's to the point to where we're a well of living water that says you know what I know you're hurting right now and thus I have prayed for you. When Jesus looked at Peter and said, "You know what, P Pet Peter, you know, Satan, Satan wants to sift you like wheat." He didn't say, "Good luck, Peter." He said, "I prayed for you, Peter." And when he looked at the at the 5000, he didn't just say, "Man, I wished I could help them." He said, "You know what? They're hungry. Bring me something. All we got is steal this food from this little boy that's got five loaves and two fishes. All we got is that." He said, "You know what? I've got compassion on them. Let's give them what we have and see what happens." He blessed it and it multiplied. WHEN WE TAP INTO THE WELL OF LIVING WATER, when we get in communion WITH ALMIGHTY GOD, WHEN we say, "YOU KNOW WHAT, GOD? I JUST I JUST GOT TO I JUST I GOT IT BUBBLING UP IN ME. I'VE GOT A BUBBLING ALL OUT. I GOT TO GET IT OUT. I GOT TO I GOT TO I GOT TO HELP SOMEBODY TODAY. I GOT TO I GOT TO PRAY FOR SOMEBODY TODAY, GOD. I'VE GOT TO MOVE SOMEBODY TODAY. I'VE GOT TO SHAPE SOMEBODY'S LIFE TODAY. I CAN'T JUST GO THROUGH LIFE AND SEE IN MY OWN LITTLE world and see all the needs and not BE MOVED WITH COMPASSION. I'VE GOT A WELL OF LIVING WATER. I'VE GOT POWER IN ME. I'VE GOT peace in me. I'VE GOT LOVE IN ME. I'VE GOT TO SHOW SOMEBODY THIS LOVE.

when we do communion as a physical act and he said do this as and al as often as you do it do it in remembrance of me not oh he was a good guy no do it in remembrance of the lady at the well do it and say you know what this lady had a well of living water she found a well of living waters where she would never thirst again she didn't have to chase the things of this world and the fulfillment of this world ever again. She didn't have to go searching to be fulfilled. She found the one that could give her the fulfillment in life so she could live a good life. Have you ever I don't I don't know about you, but at at my work there's a man I I don't know him personally. I his position in the organization that I work in. I work in a company that's 10,000 11,000 people. Okay. Hierarchy is everywhere. Everyone's a VP or something, you know, like not really, but there's a lot of them. This guy, I don't I don't think he's one of those. I worked with him for several years. He's older. He walks around with an executive presence. You ever just seen somebody like that? They just h you know they'll do that. You're like, "How do you know they'll do it?" He's like, "They will." Okay, I believe you now. You ever seen that? You ever walked in and you know he he's not sitting at the heads of the table, but all the heads turn to him. And it's not it's not malicious. It's not out of control. in and in bitterment and empowerment. Not that I've noticed, but what I have noticed is that God has called us to be like that when we walk in communion with him. We don't have to shout it from the rooftops. God's called us to be the salt and the light in this world. You know what salt does? It preserves. That means in that room that you're sitting in, on that floor you're working on, in the house that you live in, you're the preservation for the souls in that house. And as much as we like to shout and scream, it's not because we grabbed the bull by the horns and yelled at it and shook it and broke it and all those things. Sometimes it's because we said a prayer. Sometimes it's because we said, "You know what? I am communing with God. I I have power. I have peace. I have a sound mind. I am the light in this world because all because because I have been with God. I have talked with God. I have I have something that I cannot explain. I don't have to fight you for it. I don't get it from you, but I give it to you.

Would you stand with me? The altar is an interesting place as a church family. Service after service, we come to the altar and and we find ourselves crying and blubbering like we would nowhere else. It's so funny. I've watched this a thousand times. I'm sure you have, too. Crying and blubbering. Amen. Okay. How are you today? I'm good. Yeah. It's like, dude, we were just interceding for you for like 45 minutes. Obviously. No. No. No. You're good. I ain't picking at that. The reality is is we're more This is our place of vulnerability. Come on. You ever You ever seen him do open heart surgery? All right. That'd be a horrible sermon illustration. I'd be crying, too, wouldn't you? God, it's me. I'm here to commune with you. And God says, you know what God does? He says, I'm here to commune with you. The point of vulnerability in the altar. Sometimes I can imagine from a from an outsider standpoint of view, why in the world would I ever go to the altar? I've seen first-time guests come to the altar, be filled with the Holy Ghost, and be scared out of their mind because guess what? They've never encountered that level of vulnerability because this world's not a safe place to do that in. It's not. But when we're in communion with God, it's so easy for us, God. I need you. And then when we understand what he has given us and we become like him, it becomes more than here. It becomes more than the altar because then we go to our coworker.

Here's my heart for you today. Don't Why would you do that? It's okay. I've got a little a well of living water. I'm going to be okay here. It's going to be okay for me to bear your burdens for a moment. It's going to be okay for me to pray for you for a moment, church. The you may not have found this to be true, but I found this to be true. The things that are buried deepest here on the back side of the heart that I really just don't I really don't appreciate or want to talk about. You know what I found? that God has them there and he opens the door for me to share that with someone and speak into their life because of what he's kept me through. There's a reason the Bible says they're overcomers by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. The word of my testimony is not shout it from the rooftops. And it may be for you, but for me it's not that. The word of my testimony is communion with God. You know what God kept me through? that water that I drew from that I had nothing else to draw from. Every other well had run dry. Can I give you some of that? Can I tell you what God told me then? Can I tell can I share with you what what door God opened for me? Can I pray for you the way someone prayed for me? Greater community. Greater community is only found when we when we when we're in communion with God and we allow that to flow through us into someone else. It's not found because I'm I'm I'm so heavenly minded. I'm no earthly good. It's not found because I'm so spiritual that I'm so spiritual and oh, God's just going to come down and take me away right now. That's not it. But it comes when I am so in tune with God that I have the heartbeat of God and I have the eyes of God. When I see what he sees and I can heal what he heals in the same love and compassion then then only then does a greater community start to grow. You'll walk down the street in Zimbabwe and you'll hear a voice say, "Hey, do you know Jesus?" You'll walk down the street in the middle of Europe on vacation and you'll you'll be like, "They they look like they know Jesus. They look like they need to know Jesus." You'll walk to downtown Chattanooga and you'll be like, "Man, I wonder if they know Jesus."

I want to encourage you today. Whether it's your millionth time or your first time in a church bill building, I wonder if you would find a place around this altar that you could come into communion with him. That you could find a deeper hulk with him than you've ever found. that you would allow the spirit to move into your life into places that you've never allowed it to. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Didn't just give us the Holy Ghost so we could speak in tongues and feel goosebumps. He gave it so that we would be in communion with him. And if you've never received the gift of the Holy Ghost, today Jesus is here for you the most kind, most gentle way. You've been searching for fulfillment. You've been searching for meaning. You've been searching for something that make that will make this life make sense. And I'm going to tell you, you found it today. Surrender. I you may not even know how and that's okay. But surrender to what God what you feel. Allow God to move on you. Open up your heart. Be vulnerable to God for just a moment. Talk to him like you would your best friend and and be vulnerable to him. God, I need you today. God, I I I don't know how to pray, but God, I need you today. God, I don't want to hold anything back today. And I ask you, God, to start to heal me. God, I can't trust because of what's happened to me. But God, I can trust you. God, I can't. I can't. But God, I can with you. Wish someone would find a place to pray. Find a prayer closet. Allow God to move on you for just a moment. Allow him to have free reign of your heart to test you, to know where you are, to know what's in it, and give it up to him.