The Danger of Transactional Faith: A Critique of Membership Privileges

• Church Membership and Purpose [00:00:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses the purpose of the church, comparing it to membership privileges, and distinguishes between existing members and new joiners.
• Spiritual Gifts [00:01:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > He explains that spiritual gifts are not for personal benefit but are to be leveraged for the body of Christ.
• Holistic Worship [00:06:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines worship not just as a service activity but as a holistic response to God's identity and activity in every action, word, and touch.
• Tithing and Generosity [00:09:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > He discusses tithing as an act of obedience rather than just generosity, citing Malachi 3:10, and explains the spiritual and practical benefits of giving the 'first' to God.
• Church Building Projects [00:16:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor announces the 'Anchor Project,' a $30 million expansion, and calls for financial commitment from the congregation.
• Church Expansion and Stewardship [00:16:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor announces the $30 million Anchor Project, detailing the facilities (gymatorium, worship center, courts) and calling for financial commitment based on sacrifice rather than equal amounts.
• Honor [00:19:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines honor as honoring God, others, and oneself, using examples of workplace hierarchy and clarifying that honor does not mean complying with immoral requests.
• Inspiration and Community [00:20:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Referencing Hebrews 10:25, the pastor urges believers not to give up meeting together, defining inspiration as serving, sowing, and sharing rather than swerving, showing, or comparing.
• Prayer [00:21:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the acronym P-R-A-Y (Praise, Repentance, Ask, Yield) to structure prayer, emphasizing that prayer is man syncing with God's will, not God syncing with man's desires.
• Church Membership and Salvation [00:28:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor transitions from a humorous Bigfoot story to a serious call for membership and salvation, explaining the theological significance of adoption into God's family and providing a prayer for new believers.

• Sermon Illustration [00:14:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of joining Lifetime Fitness, noting that one cannot simply show up and work out without paying; similarly, church membership has responsibilities and privileges that require commitment.
• Sermon Illustration [00:04:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > He shares a personal anecdote about a friend who is ordained and wants to start a Fellowship Church in Cabo, highlighting the entrepreneurial spirit and the ease of joining.
• Sermon Illustration [00:09:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references a song he wrote for the church kids titled 'Share, Share, Share' in different musical styles (country, hip hop) to illustrate the concept of sharing.
• Sermon Illustration [00:24:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a humorous personal story about ordering a realistic Bigfoot costume from Amazon to scare his grandchildren. He describes wearing the costume behind trees to mimic Bigfoot sounds and movements, and later having his wife wear it while walking past a window, which initially scared the grandkids before they realized it was a prank.

• Pastoral Charge [00:10:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > Bring the full tithe (10%) to the church storehouse to test God's promise of blessing.
• Pastoral Charge [00:17:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Fill out commitment cards for the Anchor Project during Commitment Sunday.
• Pastoral Charge [00:17:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Fill out commitment cards for the Anchor Project.
• Pastoral Charge [00:17:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > Make the first and best offering on February 2nd, 2025.
• Pastoral Charge [00:28:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Fill out membership cards to join the church.
• Pastoral Charge [00:29:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Fill out membership cards during the song.

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:07] What about these drones? They seem to be everywhere. I think I had a couple follow me to church this morning, but what's their purpose? I mean, why are they here? I don't know.
[00:00:36] I think a lot of us ask the same question about the church. What's the purpose? Why is the church here? Over the last couple of weeks, we've been answering that question.
[00:00:56] we have been in a massive, you could call it, membership class.
[00:01:03] We've been saying, like American Express said in 1987, membership has its privileges.
[00:01:10] And membership in the church, we're discovering, has its privileges.
[00:01:15] Jesus invites us to be a part, to be members of his body.
[00:01:20] The church is called the body of Christ.
[00:01:24] And the exciting thing is, we all have unique gifts.
[00:01:30] I have gifts that you don't have.
[00:01:32] You have gifts that I don't have.
[00:01:35] And here's where you need to really concentrate.
[00:01:39] The gifts that you have are not primarily for you.
[00:01:46] The gifts that I have, they're not primarily for me.
[00:01:54] They're for one another.
[00:01:55] they're for the church let's say God has given you the ability in the business world to make money that's a gift that everyone doesn't have you're to enjoy the fruits of your labor but leverage that to push the ball downfield in the church let's say for example you
[00:02:25] have the gift of communication. You can use that within your family, with your spouse, and I'm sure you do, and your friends, but it's really given to you to be leveraged and used within the
[00:02:42] body of Christ. And I think about so many teachers and communicators we have at Fellowship Church that makes us go and grow. Someone said this, a theologian said, if you turn your back on the
[00:02:56] church, on the body of Christ, you're literally spitting in the face of Jesus. That's a potent phrase, isn't it? We've been focusing on 10, right? F-E-L-L-O-W-S-H-I-P, 10 principles that make a difference. I made an acrostic out of the word, the name fellowship. Fellowship is not just what
[00:03:25] we do. It's who we are. Acts chapter 2 verse 42 talks about the church being a fellowship. That's why we named fellowship, fellowship. Here's the church. There's the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people. It takes 10 to do that. And 10 things make a difference in the church. So
[00:03:49] there are two groups of people here that I want to address. The group that I'm looking at now, group A would be those like me. You've been a member of Fellowship Church for a while,
[00:04:00] maybe a year, maybe 34 years like me. You remember, this can be a time to recalibrate and renew your vision for the church. Why we do what we do and the purpose. I mean, why are we flying around
[00:04:18] here? What are we doing? The second group, group B, would be those who are not a member of Fellowship Church. Today, you can join Fellowship Church, and I'll tell you how. We've given you a Fellowship
[00:04:31] Church membership card. How handy is that? How easy is that? Last week, we had 507 new members at our downtown Fort Worth campus, at our Dallas campus, our Frisco campus, our Hawkins campus.
[00:04:52] A friend of mine told me before the first service, he has a place in Cabo. He said, what do you think about starting a fellowship church in Cabo he goes I'll I'll be the pastor
[00:05:04] because this guy is ordained I said go for it so who knows what'll happen this guy's pretty entrepreneurial so but I wouldn't mind volunteering to go down there here's how you join the church though in a couple of moments I'll give you an opportunity fellowship church name address city
[00:05:25] state, zip, phone, email, DOB, that's date of birth, occupation. And then you just go down the list. I joined Lifetime Fitness, as I told you last week. I had to give my credit card information. They like draft, right? We don't do that here. Don't worry. But it's really scarier
[00:05:52] because it's between you and God.
[00:05:57] Anyway, let's talk about fellowship, F-E-L-L-O-W-S-H-I-P.
[00:06:04] You see the five I talked about last time.
[00:06:07] If you want to know more about it, don't you love that QR code there?
[00:06:12] That is a QR code, correct?
[00:06:14] Thank you.
[00:06:15] F, we're focused biblically.
[00:06:17] That's fellowship church.
[00:06:18] We engage creatively.
[00:06:21] we love radically, we learn enthusiastically, and we're organized simply. The first five letters. Now today, I have 18 minutes and 33 seconds to finish this message, which I can easily do. We're going to talk about the last five. We're going to talk about, it'd
[00:06:46] Be W-ship, right?
[00:06:48] It's pretty funny, W-ship.
[00:06:50] W, give me a W.
[00:06:52] That stands for worship.
[00:06:54] Worship holistically.
[00:06:56] What is worship?
[00:06:58] Well, we all worship.
[00:07:00] It's expressing love to something.
[00:07:03] It's being enthusiastic about something.
[00:07:07] So we worship holistically.
[00:07:08] I like to say, as believers, we don't come to Fellowship Church to worship.
[00:07:15] we come worshiping. Everything we do should be an act of worship. Worship is our response to God's identity. Who is God? He's omnipresent. He's omniscient. God's holy. He's just. He's loving.
[00:07:36] When I consider his identity, that should cause me to worship. Also, worship is our response to God's activity. Think about God's activity in the world. He spoke the creation into existence.
[00:07:48] He saw our sin situation and commissioned Christ to do what he did on the cross for your sins and mine.
[00:07:58] Worship, here's the phrase that pays, it's in white.
[00:08:01] See that, the big white box?
[00:08:03] Worship is our response to God in everything we do, say, touch, and feel.
[00:08:07] The way I talk to Lisa, it should be an act of worship.
[00:08:11] The way I deal with my kids and grandkids, it should be an act of worship.
[00:08:16] My hobbies, I should worship while I'm doing these recreational pursuits.
[00:08:23] Everything we do should be an act of worship.
[00:08:26] Today, I go out to lunch, you go out to lunch.
[00:08:28] The way you treat your server, the manager of the restaurant, should be an act of worship.
[00:08:33] If you're a golfer and you're part of some high-end country club, how do you treat the caddy?
[00:08:40] Should be an act of worship.
[00:08:42] Everything we do, say, touch and feel, should be an act of worship.
[00:08:45] So that's what fellowship is.
[00:08:46] We worship.
[00:08:49] Does that make sense, everybody?
[00:08:51] Okay.
[00:08:53] And I like the fact that we worship in so many different ways.
[00:08:57] Give me an S.
[00:08:59] We share generously.
[00:09:04] We have a bunch of people who understand what sharing is about.
[00:09:11] I love the song I wrote years ago for our kids.
[00:09:14] Share, share, share.
[00:09:16] Everyone likes to share.
[00:09:17] Share, share, share.
[00:09:25] There's a country version.
[00:09:27] Share, share, share.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:09:33] Everyone likes to share.
[00:09:38] Share, share, share.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:09:40] You gotta have that kind of nasal thing, you know, going.
[00:09:44] And then there's the hip hop version.
[00:09:45] I know, you were wondering about that.

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:09:47] Share, share, share, share, share, share, share, share.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:10:02] Malachi chapter three, verse 10 says, uh-oh, now this is gonna be, don't, please don't get mad at me for reading this.
[00:10:08] I'm just reading you the word of God, okay?
[00:10:10] But it's just here.
[00:10:12] I don't always like everything the Bible says.
[00:10:16] I hope you know that, because it's convicting, okay?
[00:10:21] Let's just talk about this, okay?
[00:10:24] Like they say when you go to the doctor, Mr. Young, this is gonna be a little bit uncomfortable.
[00:10:32] That means it's gonna hurt.
[00:10:36] This is not going to hurt. Malachi chapter three, verse 10, bring the whole tithe. What's a tithe?
[00:10:41] 10, 10% of everything we make. Uh-oh, it gets quiet. Bring the whole tithe. Bring it. Don't give it. I'm not giving. Lisa and I have been tithing for 34 years. We're not giving. We're bringing. And tithing is not being generous. Technically, it's just being obedient. So bring
[00:11:04] the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Okay. Test me in this.
[00:11:09] It's the only time God says, test me, and see, God's talking now, if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room for it. I want
[00:11:24] to be in that position. I don't know about you, but that's where I want to be. So when I tithe, when I bring the first to God's house, and the Bible is a book of the first,
[00:11:42] It talks about the first fruit.
[00:11:44] It talks about the first day of the week.
[00:11:48] There's power in the first, the firstborn.
[00:11:52] When we dedicate the first to God, he blesses the rest.
[00:11:55] He redeems the rest.
[00:11:56] When we don't, he's not going to do it.
[00:11:59] So if we don't tithe, we're bringing a curse on our finances.
[00:12:06] And here's what I'm going to say too.
[00:12:07] I enjoy money more than most of you.
[00:12:13] I really do.
[00:12:14] Because most of you don't tithe and I do.
[00:12:17] And because I tithe and give more than the tithe, I enjoy money.
[00:12:23] I'll understand and get money.
[00:12:26] Most of you don't.
[00:12:27] I don't care if you have a billion dollars.
[00:12:28] You don't really, unless you're tithing, you don't really enjoy it.
[00:12:34] So why don't we tithe?
[00:12:36] It's an act of obedience.
[00:12:39] Why don't we tithe?
[00:12:40] I'm agreeing with God because God commands it.
[00:12:43] Why don't I tithe?
[00:12:44] Showing that God's first.
[00:12:47] And let me tell you something.
[00:12:48] 34 years ago, it was easier to tithe than it is now because I make a lot more money now than I did 34 years ago.
[00:12:55] And many of you are in the same boat.
[00:12:57] I get it.
[00:12:58] I choke on the zeros.
[00:13:02] It's okay to laugh.
[00:13:05] Talk about sex and money, people freak out.
[00:13:09] But what's so funny is that's all most of us think about.
[00:13:13] Okay, building what he's built.
[00:13:17] Building what he's built.
[00:13:18] So I'm building the church, the local church.
[00:13:20] That's what I'm doing when I'm tithing.
[00:13:22] So I'm doing a lot, and then I'm becoming blessable.
[00:13:26] I am in the sweet spot, say that with me, sweet spot of God's success.
[00:13:33] Here's what I've discovered, though, because I'm blessable, but the blessings I receive are not necessarily the ones that I want.
[00:13:44] That's the key.
[00:13:48] They're blessings on another level.
[00:13:50] They're much bigger and broader, sometimes more mysterious, much more profound than I can come up with.
[00:14:00] Does that resonate with you?
[00:14:03] Okay, and again, we don't force anyone to do this.
[00:14:06] It's up to you.
[00:14:08] And we have about 20% of the people that give 80% of the money.
[00:14:12] So a lot of you are freeloaders.
[00:14:15] You're UFOs, Unidentified Freeloading Observers.
[00:14:20] And that's okay, but some of us are tired of paying for your meal every time.
[00:14:26] I just wanted to get that off my chest, okay?
[00:14:30] So we don't get to get, we get to give.
[00:14:35] I joined Lifetime Fitness, I told you that.
[00:14:38] I already told you that, and you know, when I joined, I had to fill out, as I said, the credit card, and they, you know, draft my card.
[00:14:47] Well, the other day I said, you know what?
[00:14:50] I'm not gonna pay Lifetime anymore.
[00:14:54] All they want's my money.
[00:14:59] I'm just gonna show up and work out.
[00:15:06] No, they won't let me in.
[00:15:12] Because membership has its privileges.
[00:15:15] It's responsibilities.
[00:15:18] Now we wouldn't do that to anyone here, but we'd have a small group here if we did that.
[00:15:25] So how do you think everything got here?
[00:15:34] I mean, did the drones fly in and just build this and you show up?
[00:15:41] No, no, I paid for it.
[00:15:44] So did many, many of you.
[00:15:47] And who's gonna be the next group to do what we need to do next?
[00:15:51] And saying that, did you get this cool brochure This thing is awesome, about this Anchor Center, the Anchor Project, did you see that?
[00:16:00] Get that out right quick.
[00:16:02] Let me give you a brief commercial on this.
[00:16:06] The Anchor Project, and you'll see what it looks like behind me, is a $30 million project that we're embarking upon, specifically in January.
[00:16:20] And the great news is, we have 30 million.
[00:16:24] But the challenging news is it's in your account and mine.
[00:16:31] It's really funny.
[00:16:34] What's this thing gonna entail?
[00:16:35] 60,000 square feet for our students, children, families, 1,200 seat worship center for funerals and weddings, cafe, pickleball courts, basketball courts.
[00:16:48] You realize right now we have a squillion students that meet here, in here, Wednesday nights, and we have to turn this into a gymatorium.
[00:16:57] They take our lobby and put tape on it.
[00:16:59] We have to do this, friends.
[00:17:01] And we've not done this for a long, long time.
[00:17:03] And all of us can play a part in it.
[00:17:08] It could be a four-figure gift for you, five-figure, eight-figure.
[00:17:14] I don't know.
[00:17:16] It's not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice.
[00:17:19] So you might have a small pile of stuff and you give to this project.
[00:17:26] You might have a big honking pile of stuff.
[00:17:30] You give percentage-wise to this project.
[00:17:33] That's how we do it.
[00:17:34] So some big dates I want you to remember, you'll see right here, is the Commitment Sunday.
[00:17:45] We're gonna give everyone cards at the beginning of the year and you fill out what you believe God can do and wants to do through you over the next two years for this project.
[00:17:54] Then Sunday, February the 2nd, 2025 is the first and best offering.
[00:18:01] Lisa and I are giving the biggest gift we've ever given in the history of our lives to this endeavor.
[00:18:06] I mean, it will give my accountant palpitations.
[00:18:09] They're like, what, what?
[00:18:10] But that's just where we are.
[00:18:12] What are you going to do?
[00:18:14] That's the question.
[00:18:15] What are you gonna do?
[00:18:17] So we have an opportunity, don't we, to sow and to share in this endeavor.
[00:18:24] you'll be hearing more and more about it.
[00:18:27] It's going to be incredible.
[00:18:31] God loves a cheerful giver.
[00:18:33] And those who are givers, you're like smiling going, yeah.
[00:18:37] But those who are misers are like, you always have one or two to get up and leave when you talk about sex or money.
[00:18:46] It's interesting.
[00:18:49] All my friends around the country are pastors.
[00:18:51] We laugh and joke about it.
[00:18:54] Anyway, let's go to another one.
[00:19:04] Give me a W.
[00:19:06] Give me an S.
[00:19:08] Are you fired up?
[00:19:09] I am.
[00:19:10] Give me an H.
[00:19:13] Honor joyfully.
[00:19:15] What does honor mean?
[00:19:17] Honor is what God's about.
[00:19:22] God's honored you and me.
[00:19:24] We should honor others.
[00:19:25] So honor God, honor others, and honor yourself.
[00:19:28] Those are the blanks.
[00:19:30] So if you want to go up, get under.
[00:19:35] As I alluded to a second ago, I go out to lunch, I'm under the authority of the server and the manager.
[00:19:44] I honor them.
[00:19:45] I go to work. I honor others. I honor my manager. I honor my CEO. I honor my teacher. I honor my coach. Here's what people say every time I talk about honor. Well, what if they ask you to do
[00:20:01] something that's immoral? Okay. 99% of the time you should honor. Yeah. 1% of the time, If someone asks you to do something wrong, that's another subject.
[00:20:15] But I'm just talking about the overall honor that we are to give God, others, and because God has honored us, we've never met someone that we shouldn't honor.
[00:20:30] Everyone matters to God.
[00:20:33] Give me an I.
[00:20:36] That stands for inspire.
[00:20:37] Inspire strategically.
[00:20:42] Hebrews 10.25, let us not give up.
[00:20:45] meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. I guess Paul was talking about Christers even then, Christmas and Easter only. Let us not give up meeting together. He's talking about UFOs, as I said, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. And all the more
[00:21:11] as you see the day approaching. Inspire strategically. So I inspire by doing what?
[00:21:21] Serving, not swerving.
[00:21:26] Sowing, not showing.
[00:21:31] Sharing, not comparing.
[00:21:36] In the phrase that pays, God's impartation always leads to inspiration.
[00:21:44] Give me a P stands for prayer.
[00:21:50] The church is to be a lot, but it's to be a house of prayer.
[00:21:56] We should pray powerfully.
[00:21:58] James 5.16, the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
[00:22:07] Our prayer should be organized when we're having the time with God.
[00:22:12] P-R-A-Y is a great way to remember how to pray.
[00:22:16] P is praise.
[00:22:18] God, you're awesome.
[00:22:19] You're majestic.
[00:22:20] You're holy.
[00:22:20] You can sing to God.
[00:22:22] That's P.
[00:22:23] R is repentance.
[00:22:26] You're making the about face when it comes to your sin and my sin.
[00:22:34] A stands for ask.
[00:22:36] We ask God for things, for knowledge, for words, for discernment, for wisdom.
[00:22:47] And then Y, it's yield.
[00:22:49] We yield to God because God, your will, not mine.
[00:22:57] That's what Jesus prayed right in the garden.
[00:23:01] Jesus said, God, Father, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:23:08] So prayer is really man syncing up with God, not God syncing up with man.
[00:23:17] It's not saying, God, okay, here's how I want you to bless me.
[00:23:22] A, B, C.
[00:23:24] Great.
[00:23:24] That's not it.
[00:23:26] It's trusting God and saying, God, you're God.
[00:23:29] I trust you with my all.
[00:23:34] Yeah, here's what I am praying for.
[00:23:38] Here's what I'm praying about, all of those things.
[00:23:40] But at the end of the day, when you say amen, that's where God's blessings begin.
[00:23:50] God's blessings.
[00:23:53] So, I mean, I look back in my life.
[00:23:56] If I had to come up with my own blessings, they would have fallen way, way short of the blessings that I have and that our family has in the Lord.
[00:24:11] And I'm not talking about finances.
[00:24:13] I'm not talking about material things.
[00:24:15] I'm talking about things that finances and material things can't even touch.
[00:24:20] It's truly living in that blessed place.
[00:24:24] So that's it.
[00:24:28] You've gone through the new members class.
[00:24:30] Isn't that exciting?
[00:24:33] All right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:24:37] Membership has its privileges.
[00:24:41] That was, again, a brilliant campaign, brilliant campaign.
[00:24:44] Have you guys ever seen Bigfoot before, anyone?
[00:24:49] Sasquatch?
[00:24:51] I believe in it.
[00:24:55] Don't laugh.
[00:24:58] I tell our grandkids stories about Bigfoot all the time.
[00:25:01] Scares the fool out of them.
[00:25:06] We watch videos of Bigfoot.
[00:25:09] You know, the images of Bigfoot are never clear.
[00:25:12] Have you noticed that?
[00:25:13] Interesting, but I'll scare them.
[00:25:18] And I've learned to imitate the sounds they make.
[00:25:22] Sasquatch has a unique sound, and those who hunt Sasquatch know some of these sounds.
[00:25:33] Now, I combine the roar with the clicks.
[00:25:38] If you study Bigfootology, when they click, that's the number of Sasquatches around them.
[00:25:46] See if it's like, like that, just one.
[00:25:49] But if it's, see, one, two, three.
[00:26:00] Amazon's been coming to our house a lot lately.
[00:26:06] And Lisa ordered a Bigfoot costume last week.
[00:26:10] Full on, full on, full on.
[00:26:12] This thing is so realistic, it even scared me.
[00:26:18] So we have this ingenious plan for Christmas to scare all of the kids.
[00:26:23] I cannot wait to tell you.
[00:26:24] We are planning it.
[00:26:26] But already, we've kind of whetted their appetite a little bit because our yard, we have a pool, and it's kind of a built-up thing, and then there's a yard there, so pool, yard, and we had wind chimes. So one day it was windy, and I put on, right when we got this
[00:26:46] costume, the full costume, I said, Lisa, film me behind, you know, some of the trees in the back and right by her fence. She goes, okay. So I started walking. I mean, this thing, don't worry,
[00:27:00] I'll bring it on stage one day. I started walking and doing that famous Bigfoot walk where he kind of looks over his shoulder, you know? And all you could hear were the wind chimes. It's really
[00:27:12] spooky. I'll show it to you one day. I'll show it to you. We sent this to the grandkids. Yesterday, I was FaceTiming with the grandkids and I had Lisa put the whole outfit on and you could see just kind of,
[00:27:33] you know, the window, part of the window.
[00:27:34] And I said, Lisa, just walk past the window with the Sasquatch outfit.
[00:27:45] One of our older grandkids, when he first saw the video, he was like, oh, oh, that's fake.
[00:27:51] No, no, no, it's real.
[00:27:53] It's real.
[00:27:56] I'm not scared.
[00:27:58] Well, I'm scared in the morning and at night when I would see it, Oh, yeah. I want to have Bigfoot blessings in my life. And I know that you do as well.
[00:28:13] And what I'm talking about today is big. It's the body of Christ. It's the only thing that will last forever and ever. It's big. And as you identify yourself as a member, as you're active
[00:28:27] in your membership between you and God, I'm telling you, you will have Bigfoot blessings because Bigfoot is big.
[00:28:38] Here's how you join the church.
[00:28:42] I have another card.
[00:28:43] Just fill out your name, address.
[00:28:45] Name, Sasquatch.
[00:28:47] Single, address, 1414 Antarctica Way.
[00:28:53] Anyway, you can do that, okay?
[00:28:58] I desire to join Fellowship Church as a Christian from another church.
[00:29:01] Awesome.
[00:29:02] I knew the music would finally get here.
[00:29:07] I told our musical people, I said, when I bring the card out and start doing this song, and they've been late every single service, that's okay.
[00:29:18] I know I'm talking about Bigfoot, but I'm just messing with those guys.
[00:29:29] So I commit my life to Christ today, commit to baptism, commit to church.
[00:29:34] You guys ready?
[00:29:36] 507 joined last week.
[00:29:39] Maybe we can do another 500.
[00:29:41] What do you think, Brad, today?
[00:29:43] So fill out this.
[00:29:44] We'll give you some time when we sing with the Pointer Sisters.
[00:29:58] So you've got to be a little tight when you do it.
[00:30:00] And we are family, aren't we?
[00:30:11] we're a member of God's family. We're adopted into God's family when we're born again.
[00:30:19] We're kids of the King. All right, maybe, let me keep this music going. Maybe you have never, never been adopted into the family of God. You can make that decision by just simply saying, Lord, I understand that I'm a sinner
[00:30:48] That I was not born into your family I was born into another But you have provided this family And you, by what you did By your death, burial, and resurrection You, Lord Jesus, have given me an opportunity
[00:31:09] To be born again, to be adopted Into the family of God Maybe you've never made that decision You make it simply by saying Jesus, I give my life to you. I admit to you I'm a sinner. I turn from my sins. I turn to you.
[00:31:25] I ask you for forgiveness, for love, for cleansing. And the moment you say that, you're adopted into the family of God. And the cool thing is, back in biblical times, a biological child could be disowned, but an adopted one couldn't. Isn't that powerful?
[00:31:44] All right.
[00:31:45] If you said that prayer, awesome.
[00:31:48] And I'll give you an opportunity in a couple of moments to say that prayer.
[00:31:52] After this prayer, we're going to do two things.
[00:31:54] The service continues.
[00:31:55] It's very accessorized, this service.
[00:31:58] Our incredible ushers will come forward.
[00:32:03] They'll have these buckets.
[00:32:05] And you drop your new member card in the bucket.
[00:32:10] Also, they're going to give each and every one of you a Post-it note.
[00:32:16] Whoever invented those Absolute creative genius And I'm going to pray And follow the prayer We'll put the new members cards in And I'll tell you what to do with the post-it notes Father, thank you for this great time
[00:32:34] Thank you for our great church I pray Lord If there's someone here And they've never ever become a part of your family That you would just simply say Jesus, I give my life to you
[00:32:48] I give my all and my everything to you Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.
[00:32:55] For rising again, I turn from my sins and turn to you, Jesus.
[00:32:59] If you said that, it's the greatest decision you'll ever make.
[00:33:05] Others here, Lord, need to join officially this local church, this body of believers.
[00:33:12] We're not a perfect church, but we serve a perfect God.
[00:33:17] And it's time for some who've been on the sidelines to get in the game.
[00:33:26] Lord, as we're praying, I pray for so many people in my life.
[00:33:33] And I know that so many are praying for other people in their lives as well right now.
[00:33:40] We look forward to seeing what you're going to do over this next season.
[00:33:45] In Christ's name we pray.