Ready for Mission

What we see throughout scripture is there is one answer you can give for your faith that no one can take away from you and it is your story. And the one thing that you know if you know Christ is that you are destined for a life of eternal torment from him. But because you know the savior of the world because this book has told us about him. You can proclaim that to the world around you. Today we are continuing on in our series, Rooted and Ready. And we're in week four of a fiveweek series where we've talked about how do we be rooted in all that God has for us in God's word and knowing who he is and being ready to do his work. As we've gone through this journey, we started in week one saying we must be rooted in worship. and we unpacked what it looks like for a cross church service here that every Sunday as we gather together the importance of gathering together is we get to gather as believers and as not yet believers and we get to pray through to praise through to preach through and to practice God's word in our everyday lives. Two weeks ago we talked about we need to be rooted in community. The reason we do Bible groups, the reason we meet during the week and and from Sundays through Thursdays is we get to study God's word, but we also get to do life together. We get to make relationships in the church. And maybe today you're sitting here and be like, "I don't know anybody at this church." Cuz you're trying to hide in the shadows and be like, "Don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact." We want to see you and we want you in a Bible group where you get to do life and do community. You can sign up for one right after service in our table outside. And last week we talked about being rooted in disciplehip. And Pastor Jackie did a great job walking through our path of how do we be rooted and literally going through a 10-week disciplehip journey that we're going to be rolling more and more out to our church in the coming months of how do we grow deeper in our faith. But as we root and we root and we dig and we dig and we get deeper and deeper, what does it lead to? And today we shift the focus from being rooted in these things to being ready for what God has. And today as we talk about being ready for mission, we come to Colossians chapter 4. And if you have a Bible, you can open that up and turn there with me. But in Colossians chapter 4, we're going to be starting in verse two. And as Paul moves us along and last week used this phrase of you're being rooted and built up in Christ, we ask built up for what? You see, if there's any gardeners in the room and you're like maybe can you garden in Phoenix? You can. When it's 110 out, you just need lots of shade, lots of water, and lots of prayer. I have none of those three things for my plants in my backyard cuz they're all dead. But any gardener knows that the purpose of trees and shrubs and bushes of any kind is you don't pick them out for their roots. You don't be like, "Man, that tree, it's got baller roots, right? I can't wait to plant those in the ground." You plant it for what comes above ground, for the leaves and the fruit and for what it offers as it grows bigger and bigger. You you pick a tree for the fruit that it produces, for the shade that it gives, for something that your kids or your grandkids can climb up in. Do kids climb trees anymore? Right. I they I don't think they do. You said yes. I'm glad. I remember falling out of trees, testing the strength of my bones, and it was great. Um I've never broken a bone. I thought I was Superman for a while there, but my brother still hurt me a lot, so I don't think I was. But it's like we we like we build these trees and we plant them for what we see and can do. But here's the thing. When you look at a plant, the roots are not the point. The roots are simply the power supply for what that turns into. Last night, uh, we had we celebrated my oldest daughter's 10-year-old birthday, and she wanted to have a sleepover with her friends, and I'm like, "No. 10 10-year-old girls in my house. I'm like, "No, that's not going to happen." And my wife's like, "Hey, I got this idea. What if we do a sleep under?" I'm like, "You used a word. I don't think that means anything." And and the genius she is, she unpacked it for me. She's like, "Okay, how about we have them over for a party. They wear their pajamas. They watch a movie. They do everything you do as a sleepover, but it's 400 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The parents pick them up, and then they go sleep at their own house." And I'm like, "St. Let's do it. And she's, "Okay, now you got to take the three younger kids and you got to be gone from 4 to 8." And I'm like, "Wait, what? Where do I take these kids?" So, I got home at 8:00 last night and it was like karaoke with kids bop and oh my goodness, everything was pink and it was crazy. But I got home and and we like sent all these kids out. I'm like, "It's 8:05. Leave my house." And then as we get them all out, we get the kids in bed and I'm like, "Oh, it's going to be a great night. I'm going to sleep. Can't wait to preach tomorrow. It's going to be a fantastic Sunday. And about 11:00, I heard some storms rolling in. Maybe some storms hit your house, depending on where you're at, cuz if you were like two blocks over, it didn't hit your house, apparently. But some storms hit the house. And all of a sudden, it rained really hard. And at about 11:40, my lights went out. But then about 30 seconds later, they came back on. I'm like, "Oo, false alarm. That was good." And then about 11:45, my lights went out and stayed out for five hours. I was one of lucky 2,000 homes at 5 hours. It took APS to fix my power. I was literally going looking out my window to see my neighbors. I'm like, are they are they with me? Am I got to flip some breakers or like, nope, it's dark. It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. And as I'm looking like in this moonlit horror movie, somehow I can see the outline of the homes, there's not a single light on my street, no power in those houses. And as those houses were not powered, it literally looked like I'm like, I hope someone like doesn't break in my house. I might have to like stab someone anyway. Uh but I was like, it was like out of a horror movie because those homes without power were completely useless. Fun fact, you know what doesn't work in your house in Phoenix when you have no power? >> Your AC. We found that out real quick. Five hours with no AC. With five kids somehow ending up in my room or four, three kids, five people in my room, it was not fun. But here's the thing, church. When we talk about the power, we have the power of God's word who supplies us, the roots we are rooted in. But the question becomes, what does it make us ready for? When the lights are on, when the power is flowing through us, how does it move us? How does it push us? What does it move us to? And here's the question over this passage today in Colossians chapter 4 that we need to ask and we need to spend some time letting Paul answer is how are we ready for Christ's mission? How are we ready for his mission when he's rooted us, when he's supplied us, when he's powered us? How are we ready for what he has? And Paul today is going to answer this with four words. Every one of them starts with where you would not expect a mission strategy to start. And the very first thing we see is we must pray for opportunities. Pray for opportunities. Check out verse two of Colossians chapter 4. He says this, "Devote yourselves to prayer, to prayer. Stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door for us uh to us for the word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains." take some time in breaking down these two verses that are just filled with power as we see how we start this mission is it starts with Paul says we need to pray for the opportunities and and here's when we say this you start in verse two he says devote yourselves now this is not a quick little blessing over dinner maybe you're like me and we ask our kids we're like who wants to pray and and sometimes they raise their hand sometimes we got to call on someone my 5-year-old Arlo loves to pray for meals right now and and we can't understand a word he's saying. He's like whispering like you're like, "What are these? What is it?" He's like, "Amen." Well, we're done. Don't know what we prayed for, but we're done. But Paul here is not describing like, "Hey, I pray for my food that I don't get sick when I eat something that should make me sick, like make it good." Like, he's not saying that. Instead, he uses a word that's a word for holding the rope and refusing to let it go. And then he's saying, "Keep at it." But then he he goes he's like stay at your post and stay alert in it. He says your eyes should be open. Paul is describing a prayer that watches the world. It's it's a prayer that is looking for something. It's a prayer like the motorcycle cop that hides on the corner where he wants to pull over every single person he can because he is just not happy and wants to give out tickets. I don't know what that is. I might have got one in a minivan about a year ago and I'm still bitter about it. But Paul here is describing this prayer that's alert, that's devoted, that's with movement. And don't miss the last phrase of verse two. He says it's with thanksgiving. This is the fuel that goes into our prayer. As we pray for the lost, those who don't know Jesus yet, the same way others have prayed for us. Here's the deal. If you're a believer in the room, the only reason you know Jesus is because of the grace of God. And I guarantee because there are some faithful saints and other Christians who prayed for you. And Paul is saying now you pray for those who don't know Jesus yet with the same ferocity that other people prayed for you with thanksgiving. But then this prayer, what is this prayer looking for? And he tells us in verse three, he says it's a door. Now, now catch the scene for a second because this is one of the most remarkable prayer requests in the Bible is Paul is writing this letter from prison. And as Paul is writing this letter from prison and and he is literally in chains, he does not ask them to pray for his release. I'll be honest, I was praying last night all night long for my AC to turn back on. And I have no service at my house. Only Wi-Fi. You know what also doesn't work without power? Wi-Fi. All right. You know, the only texts I got was two texts from APS. First saying 3:15 it would be back on. I'm like, well, and then it was 4:15 and then it went away and they're like, not even telling you after that. Um, and and I was praying for it to come back on, praying that God would give. But Paul's like, hey, don't pray that I'm released from prison. He's like, don't pray that I have a better cell or or a faster trial or or a better outcome to my situation. Instead, he says, "Pray for a door." And not a door out of prison, but a door into a conversation, a door for the word, a door for an opening to speak the mystery of Christ. See this ch this this this this scene right now. There is a man in Paul who is praying in chains, in physical chains. He is praying though for someone's spiritual chains to be released. He's praying that God would open a door. Paul, the greatest missionary who ever lived, did not believe he could force a door open. Doors are opened by God and God alone. Our job is to ask, to watch, and to be faithful when they do. In church, this is where the mission starts. A mission for God does not start on our feet. A mission for God starts on our knees in prayer. Which means the first mission field you ever walk to is a prayer list. A prayer list of the neighbor on your street that drives you crazy. A prayer list of the parent in your kids' school. Well, you know they're crazy. And that's why you need they need Jesus, right? You're praying they either find Jesus or find a new school. But praying for them on the list either way is praying for the family members who have walked away from God is we have to be stubborn enough to keep asking God for the door to open. In November 1844, a man in England named George Mueller wrote five names in his prayer journal. Five friends who did not know Jesus yet. And he began to pray for them every single day. sick or healthy, home or traveling, every day, he prayed for them. 18 months later, the first one came to Christ. Five more years after that, the second, and just think about that first 18 months, he's like, "Man, this is a good trend. It's going to get quicker." And then he waits 5 years for the next one. And then 6 years for the third. And the last two, Mueller prayed for them every day for over 50 years. He died in 1898 at 92 still praying and both of those men hear this they came to faith in Christ after his funeral. Somebody asked him near the end how he could keep praying with such confidence and his answer was essentially they are not saved yet but they will be. He says, 'How can it be otherwise, I am praying for it? That's why often times here at Cross Church when we when we talk about the Bible and scripture, we say, "If you don't know Jesus yet, cuz I'm confidence that the word of God does not return void." That as we proclaim it, as we live it, as we preach it, as we share it, it does not return void. And in our personal lives when we are telling people about Christ, we are praying about it. It is not they might not know him but is they don't know him yet but we pray expectantly for God to move. Now when God opens those doors, what is the second thing that we see in this passage is we not just pray for the openings but we also prioritize the gospel. Check out verse four as he continues on. He's like why are we praying? He says, "So that I might make it known as I should." So that I may make it known as I should. If you are a notetaker or if you underline in your Bible or circle or write notes on key words inside a passage, uh this one to mark is the word it. Because Paul is very clear about what goes through the open door. when the door opens that God opens. It's not his opinions. It's not his politics. It's not his complaints about the food in a Roman prison, which I can't imagine was good. But he's saying the it that goes through the door is the mystery of Christ, the gospel itself. And Paul says he wants to make it known as he should, which when he says as he should, means that it's made known clearly and plainly without burying it under a pile of other things. And notice something humbling in this verse. Paul, who I would argue Paul is the second wisest man to ever walk the earth next to Jesus. I would argue Paul is probably the greatest theologian that has ever been on this earth next to Jesus cuz he wrote most of the New Testament inspired by the Holy Spirit. Paul, who is the greatest church planning strategist that we've ever seen, he is asking other Christians in this church at Colasse, that you pray for me that when the opportunity comes, I say the right words. Paul's like, "Let me not say something dumb. Let me just say the right thing. Let me point them to Jesus." And church, this is huge because this is where we lose people. When the door finally opens with our neighbors, when the coworker finally asks why you have a hope, when that conversation that all of a sudden comes forth, that conversation does not all of a sudden need your take on everything that is wrong with the world cuz we could give it. That conversation doesn't need your politics of saying why everything is doomed. That conversation doesn't need your conspiracy theories, which may be true, but it doesn't need them in that conversation. That conversation needs Jesus and Jesus alone. Here's the deal is we can talk about God for 20 minutes and never get to the cross. We can defend Christianity all afternoon and never introduce anyone to Christ. Paul sat in chains and told another church plainly. These chains have actually advanced the gospel. The prison did not shrink his message. It sharpened it. It made it clear when everything else was taken from him, the one thing he had left to say was the mysteries of Christ above all else. And what Paul is telling us to do here is to keep the main thing, the headline. And guys, here is the headline when we tell people about Jesus is Jesus is God. That's where we start and that's where we finish. that Jesus is God in the fact that he has saved you. Jesus is God in the fact that he has created everything. Jesus is God in the fact that he can he loves other people. Jesus is God and that he walked among us. Jesus is God and that he died for our sins. Jesus is God. We start there. We continue there and we finish there. We tell people why we believe he is God. What it means that he is God and how he changes everything. You see, an open door and a clear message still need one more thing as we go along with being on this mission that we are ready for and that God pushes us to is we actually need to show up. Man, that continue down this path. And the third thing we see is you need to protect your time. Check out verse five. As Paul is continuing down in this passage, he tells us to pray. He tells us to make sure that we are very clearly prioritizing the gospel. But then he tells us protect our time. He says, "Act wisely towards outsiders, making the most of the time." Two things happening in this sentence. First, Paul mentions this word outsiders. Now, here's what I love is Paul is assuming that you know people who do not know Jesus yet. Paul is assuming that when he's writing to the church at Colasse and he's writing to cross church 2,000 years later that you know people who are not just followers of Jesus and then we're in a big old holy huddle and the only people we know are other people who love Jesus and we're like whoville and we just hold hands and sing songs and everything's kumbaya. He's like, "You know the jerk that cut you off on the freeway? They're probably in your Bible group." No, I'm just kidding. Uh that you know, lighten up a little bit. It's all right. We're good here, right? You guys are tense. Uh we're just still going. HE'S LIKE, "YOU should know people in your workplace that that do not know Christ. You should know people at your kids' school and your kids should know people." There's this assumption. He says outsiders, people outside the church. You realize in the next 3 years in surprise we have 60,000 people moving to our city. I bet a whole bunch of them don't know Jesus yet. And Paul assumes there are people that we are in conjunction in circulation in relationships with that we need to talk to. But then the second thing he says in this verse is making the most of the time. In the original language, that phrase is a market word. It means to buy back. You would buy back something. And Paul is using it is you would buy back the time. And many of us know, I don't have to convince you, like time is slipping away on a shelf. You blink and time moves. I'm blinking and my kids are getting bigger as I can't even imagine it. Right? I'm a 10-year-old this week. Like, what happened? You guys think I'm 15, so you don't even know how that math works. But you blink and time moves quick and so fast. And Paul says, "You need to make the most of the time you have. I want to do a little math with you cuz I I've got great feedback. Every time I do math in a sermon, I just get these comment cards. Do more math." Right? Uh you guys love it so much. Do a little math. Okay. Researchers say, and I think this is crazy low. I don't think this is accurate, but we're going to go with it. Researchers say that the average American now spends about seven hours a day looking at a screen. That's phone, TV, tablet, seven hours. Honestly, it's probably low. Okay. And but we'll we'll go with it. You run the math on that 7 hours and you run it across a year. You know how many days that equals? Any math wizes out there? Yep. I knew it. Uh that equals around 106 full days a year. Out of 365, 106 of them are staring at a screen. I guarantee that's more than you spend staring at your spouse or your kids. And here's why we say that. I'm I'm not saying that to make you feel guilty or bad because because you might work on your screen. You might rest on your screen. And those are good things. But the next time the words come out of your mouth, I'm just too busy. I don't have time. And man, I hear that all the time. Everyone's busy. I would say everyone in their mom is busy. That's accurate, right? Um, everyone's busy. And they always say, "I'm so busy. I'm so busy. I'm so busy." Busy is a relative term. Busy is a tradeoff. We choose how we spend our time. And Paul is saying to make the most of it, church, we have a time problem. Literally, and preparing for this sermon, um I used to get on my phone these like screen reports weekly and they would convict me on an iPhone. Like you spent this average per day. Um I actually and I haven't got those for like a year and I'm like what's up with this? So I found it in my settings. I turned it back on. They don't send you that report anymore. And then every week it erases. So I'm like trying to check it on Sunday. How bad did I do last week? I I tried to get my numbers real high in the preparation so I could kind of work myself down. Uh some of you will get that. But they don't even do it anymore. And why? Cuz I think Apple's like, "We're not going to show the stats cuz they're too depressing. We just want you to keep staring at the screen. Forget these numbers ever exist. They'll erase day by day and we won't worry about it." But here's the problem is we have a time problem. And Paul is convicting us. He's saying, "Use it wisely. Pray for the door to open. Prioritize the gospel. Make it clear when it does. And then make sure your time is spent doing the right things." But then here comes the question. When that happens and all of a sudden we've prayed to share with someone and all of a sudden God's put us in front of this conversation, what in the world do we say? And that's where Paul gives us our last point. we see in this passage is you must persuade your community with a gospel. Persuade your community with the gospel. Check out verse six. That's just an amazing verse. I love this small little passage here. He says, "Let your speech always, not sometimes, always, be gracious and seasoned with salt so that you may know how you should answer each person. I love this verse because Paul tells us two things. He tells us the flavor and the aim of our conversations when we are sharing Christ. First, he gives us the flavor. And the flavor, he says, to be gracious, to be seasoned with salt. Now, think about what salt does. And um I don't want to throw my mom under the bus, but she's probably not going to watch this, so it's not a big deal. She goes to a different church. She's pretty locked in there. It's great. Uh she watches me twice a year on Easter and Christmas Eve, so this will fly under the radar. But growing up, my my mom did not season things as they should have been seasoned. And here's the deal. If you add salt and pepper on your food that are not chips or French fries, all right, then you did not cook that food good to begin with and there was not enough seasoning in the recipe that you made to start. My wife will like call me when she's making dinner or something. She's like, "How much like seasoning do I put in? How much salt? How much pepper? How much this?" And I'm like, "Just use your heart." She's like, "I can't do that." I'm like, "Well, that's because like you don't have the art of cooking, like where you just feel it like this needs more. Just throw it in there." And you see, the purpose of salt is to bring out flavor, to make the food taste better, to make it not bland, to be better. And our speech is the same. We need to have more grace, something that people taste, but also something that makes them thirsty. And when our speech is seasoned with salt, we not only see, they're like, "Oh, I hear about that God. That's interesting. But also, I want to know more about him." Now, some of you, when you hear this voice, this verse, you've been applying it all wrong cuz you're you're not seasoned with salt, but instead your speech is just straight up salty. And that's not what Paul is saying here because we've known some Christians who have some salty speech and people walk away and and they feel like, "Oh man, that was a rough conversation. Like I don't even know what I think they just told me I'm going to hell." Like what just happened? Like Paul is not saying have salty speech. Paul is not saying when cut someone out, use some salty fingers on the on the road. Instead, Paul is saying that it's seasoned with grace and love. that it's giving people who Christ is in wanting them to have more. But then he also gives us the aim. And the aim of this is not that it be gracious, seasoned, as it should, but so that you may know how you should answer each person. Again, if you're a notetaker, uh, underline, circle, whatever you do, each person. Now, here's what's important about this is this is not a script. This is not a memorized pitch to fire at someone every time someone asks you about Jesus. Paul expects you to know the difference in how you talk to different people. For example, the 20-year-old asking you if God is even real and the widow who is asking you where God was when her husband passed away and the coworker who thinks church is just after their money. Those all those all need very different responses. One of those needs evidence that God is real. One of them needs comfort that God loves you. And one of them might need to watch your life and see that you're not a hypocrite over the long term. You see, the same gospel, but a different door into it. And knowing the difference is a skill. That's why I'm super excited is last week, Pastor Jackie as we've been unpacking this rooted and ready ready, he's gave us kind of the pathway and the road map that we're rolling out to our church. I say like, how do we move from just attending church? And maybe some of you watching online, maybe you need to start attending church. All right, but how do we move from just being in the chair to moving across a path that is getting closer to Christ and closer to what he has for us? And we talked about we need to be rooted. Last week we talked about root and disciplehip and we're going to be starting taking people through these 10-week courses and this rooted material and you'll hear more information in the coming months for that. But one thing where our our staff is working on and putting the final touches on to create is this class that we'll be rolling out in the winter called ready to share is to be like how do you share your faith? Not how do you say like a few things and like read it off a Q card that Jesus is God, Jesus died for your sins, and those are all great things, but how do you share your faith with your gracious tongue and your words that can impact the world around you? And man, I'm so excited in that next season as we're going to see as people go through this how we can better be on mission for loving and sharing with the world around us. But Paul in this passage, he takes these four things that's all asking and answering the question of how are we ready to be on mission for Jesus Christ? And you put these four together that we pray for opportunities. That we prioritize the gospel that you protect your time when it comes. And then you persuade your community with the words that come from this book. And here is the truth that is standing over all of this is that you will never be ready for mission the mission of Christ that he has given us until you are ready to share your story. You see Paul in this he tells us that our job is to talk is to share is to tell other people about what Christ has done. Now, some of you tensed up when you heard mission and sharing and sharing your story because you're like, "Ooh, I thought that was your job." Like you're on stage. Like, I I feel like I need a seminary degree. I feel like if I was in fries and people start asking me questions, I would fail the theological exam. And you'd be like, I don't know if I have all the answers. That's what chat GPT, and Claude are for, once you feed it the right information and make sure it's not heresy, right? But Paul instead here he he's showing us the one and what we see throughout scripture is there is one answer you can give for your faith that no one can take away from you and it is your story. Throughout the gospel Jesus came into contact with a lot of different people. And in John chapter nine is one of my favorite stories where a guy who was blind his entire life. He had never seen anything. He had lived this way as a beggar, as a blind beggar. He had to be helped his entire life and he comes and he meets Jesus and Jesus opens his eyes and all of a sudden he can see. And after the guy gets pulled in by all these Pharisees and religious leaders and they're grilling him. They're asking him like, "How did your eyes open?" Like, "Did you see an angel? Do you see this?" And they're like given all these theological questions and he's like, and he's like, he doesn't know any of the answers. But then in John chapter 9, he gives this great little line. I love this. He's like, "I don't know any of the answers to your questions." But he says this, "But one thing I do know. I was blind and now I can see." Church, there is one thing you know, if you know Jesus Christ, that you are a sinner and that he has saved you. That one thing that you have known is your life in your sin was a wreck. But there is this God man Jesus Christ who came down here to earth to walk in human skin to know what it looks what it feels like to be in a broken place. He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross for our sins. The place we deserve because of our failures. He rose from the grave as only he could. And the one thing that you know if you know Christ is that you are destined for a life of eternal torment from him. But because you know the savior of the world that he takes all your sin away and he is your savior because this book has told us about him and you can proclaim that to the world around you. You see, this is what we know that we are to tell our story of how Christ has changed our life. And I know that's scary. And I know you see that and be like, I don't know if I'm equipped to do that. But you are more equipped than you think you are. And it starts with continuing to show up, continuing to be in community, continuing to learning more about Jesus. But it also starts with recognizing how hurt our world is. Let me bring you back into my morning at 12:00 a.m., which I think is considered today, right? I poked outside my window and the houses were still all dark. So, I tried to go back to bed. At 1:00 a.m. I came back. I'm like, "Please APS, just say you're lying." And I and I looked out. All the houses are still dark. It was so depressing. 2:00 a.m. Woke up again, went to check and I woke up was actually stood up was more of the accurate. And checked again, still dark. 4:00 a.m. still dark. And I could just see out in my neighborhood. Usually I don't even see people because they just run into their house and don't try to talk to anyone. But it was a special kind of depression with all the power out, all the life of the houses just looking so grim and dead that something was wrong. Finally, my APS bills at work. Got the power up at 4:45. And at 6:30 when I was driving to church this morning, all of a sudden, all the houses had lights on the outside and the inside on. And it was like the neighborhood came alive, not with people, just the buildings. They started talking to each other. No, I was getting different turn. But all of a sudden, you could see the life in it. And when the power was not there, it just looks so dead and destitute. And here's the deal. We live in a comfortable country where if we're honest, we don't have to deal with the power being out in our lives very often. We have the comforts. We have the AC. We have the cushy lives. But are we recognizing that for so many in our communities, the mental and the emotional and the spiritual power is out. And guys, our world doesn't have the answer. Our world tries to light those for a second and it dims real quick. Our world says, "Pursue this money. Pursue this lifestyle. pursue these relationships and you'll be fine. And they're as empty and powerless and depressed and anxious as ever before. Do you see the world around you who need the spiritual power in their lives that only Jesus Christ can provide? And are you going to be the people who pray for the opportunities to bring that light into their lives? So, here's how I want to end today. In front of you, there's a prayer card, and I want to ask you guys to grab that prayer card. All of you, grab it. Even if you're not going to turn it in, just at least act like you're going to participate in this. All right? But grab that prayer card and I want you to write a name of who you need to pray for who does not know Jesus yet. Could be a family member, a coworker, someone at your kids' school, could be a neighbor. Whose name do you need to write down? Will you pray for them not just today but continuously to see how God can open a door? Maybe that door will open next week. Maybe it will take years like George's story to open that door. But will you pray for it? And will you be faithful to walk through it and to share the light of this world with a world that knows nothing like him and who desperately needs the power and the salvation of Jesus.