This is Pastor Daniel Stevenson.
I'm director of the SolidSide Life Station
and pastor of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church
of East Toledo.
And you're receiving this message
because you opted in to be encouraged.
I'm thinking today of Ezra 3.1.
And Ezra and those who've gone home
to rebuild the temple after the exile
in the land around Jerusalem,
and they're thinking about getting started,
and they look out and they see
that they're surrounded by enemy.
There's all kinds of people who wanna cause a problem
for God's people as they're trying to do the things
they're supposed to do.
And so they've gotta make a plan,
take a course of action, take some steps.
What am I gonna do?
You know what they do?
They turn, they build the area of worship in particular,
the altar, and begin sacrifices to God.
They begin holy worship to God, the best they know how.
That's a lesson for us.
When things look tough, when things look down,
when there's enemies all around, what's our priority?
What are we gonna do?
We're gonna get our crawl up, defend ourselves,
attack our enemies, train ourselves,
build better defenses.
No, that's not it.
What we're going to do is turn toward the Lord
and do the things of the Lord.
Do the thing that the Lord sent us to do,
which is to worship him.
God is looking for worshipers in spirit and in truth.
John 4, he's looking for people who will put their lives
on the line for him, who will focus on him,
sing his songs, do his work, serve him, study,
be the church.
And if you put God first, he'll take care of all the rest.
When you see your enemies encroaching,
remember to put God at the center.
Be encouraged today.
If you need growth, look for plenty of opportunities
coming from the Life Station very soon and from New Heights.
And then at the same time, I would encourage you,
download our app.
That is gonna be a great way in the future
that you're gonna be able to keep track
of what's going on through these ministries.
If you don't have a smartphone, don't worry,
we're gonna try not to leave you out.
Make sure that you're in our texting group for updates.
What's that?
You don't text?
Don't worry, we'll try not to leave you out.
Give us a call, let us know you wanna be kept abreast
of everything that's going on to the Life Station
and through New Heights, and we'll do our best
to keep you in the loop.
And we'll see you soon.