Spaces and Places - Our Altar of Worship

Good evening, Dream Team. Tonight, before anything else, I just want to say thank you.

Thank you for serving.

Thank you for showing up week after week, for sweating the details, for carrying the weight, for loving people you may never even meet.

Tonight isn’t about the tasks you did — it’s about the lives you touched.

Thank you…

· For serving children who are not your own.

For wiping tears, tying shoes, praying over kids who will grow up remembering that church was a safe place.

· For praying through burdens that were never yours to carry.

For standing in the gap for broken marriages, prodigal sons, anxious teenagers, and weary souls who may never know your name but felt your prayers.

· For inviting strangers into your precious home.

For opening your table and your heart so that house became holy ground.

· For waking up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday — your day off —

so that a mom and dad you’ve never met could hear the gospel together, so that a teenager could feel welcome enough to come back, so that heaven could invade this place.

Thank you for every late-night

cleanup, every last chair stacked, every hallway walked one more time just to make sure it was right.

Thank you for all the things nobody saw — because God saw.

Because you served, marriages were restored.

Because you served, children experienced Jesus on their level.

Because you served, guests walked into this house and walked out with eternal hope.

You made this happen.

At Living Faith Church, we do one thing across many spaces- and we do this one thing well.

We create irresistible environments for people to meet with God.

When I look at Scripture, God has always worked through places.

The Upper Room was a place where the Spirit fell.

Solomon’s Portico was a place where miracles happened.

The early church grew house to house—places that became sanctuaries.

Jesus in Luke 10 told His disciples: find a house with a man of peace.

Elijah raised the widow’s son—in an upper room.

Elisha prophesied to the Shunammite woman—in an upper room.

And in the very beginning, Genesis 1 tells us, God created…a place. A place for us to live, to flourish, to walk with Him.

God has always worked within the confines of spaces and places, locations and environments, addresses and atmospheres.

But here’s the challenge:

You can have a place, but no space.

You can have a location, but a bad environment.

We all have an address, but the question is—what’s your atmosphere?

We are a church creating irresistible environments.

A place with space for the move of God.

A location with an environment of healing, presence, and revival.

An address—1611 Diagonal Blvd—that carries an atmosphere of Heaven.

See, places are built, spaces are curated.

Locations are developed; environments are crafted.

Addresses may be purchased, but atmospheres are cultivated through prayer, fasting, and worship.

So let me ask you tonight, Dream Team:

What are you curating?

What are you crafting?

What are you cultivating?

An irresistible environment is always a partnership between heaven and earth.

It’s cleanliness and holiness.

It’s organization and a well-ordered spirit.

It’s washing the windows and worshiping with your spirit.

It’s baking the pie and praying in tongues.

It’s vacuuming the floor while crying out: Heaven, invade this place!

But hear me—let us not be environmental and forget the irresistible Spirit.

The Mount of Transfiguration is remembered not for the mountain, but the transfigured Christ.

The Upper Room is remembered not for the address, but the Spirit poured out.

Elisha’s Upper Room is remembered not for the furniture, but the prophecy that changed a woman’s future.

The location is critical—but the environment is what makes it memorable.

Thank you for every handshake that felt like hope,

for every smile that disarmed someone’s fear.

Thank you for every song sung with more than just a melody,

for every lyric that carried a soul one step closer to Jesus.

Thank you for every cord run through dusty corners,

for every mic checked and every light aimed just right so distractions disappeared.

Thank you for every chair straightened so someone felt seen,

for every floor vacuumed so nothing would stand in the way of someone kneeling before God.

every cup of coffee poured, every lyric slide advanced at just the right moment.

Thank you for every child’s tear you wiped

every prayer whispered in the hallway while no one was watching,

every late-night reset when you were tired but determined to make God’s house ready for the next person to encounter Him.

Thank you for every early morning when the alarm went off before sunrise,

for every weekend you chose to serve when the world chose to sleep in,

for every time you said, “I’m here. I’m available. Use me, Lord.”

You have done more than serve — you have curated an atmosphere of welcome, crafted moments of grace, cultivated a house where heaven feels near.

Because of you, a nervous first-time guest dared to believe they belonged.

Because of you, a teenager fighting despair felt safe enough to lift their hands.

Because of you, an overwhelmed mom sat in worship and finally breathed again.

Because of you, this address became an altar where God meets His people.

Thank You for making a difference one life at a time!