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Alright. Good morning, friends. It's great to see all you folks on this side, all you folks on this side. Hey, we're gonna go ahead and get started here. Ray is not here.
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We'll talk about where he's at at announcements. But let's go ahead and get started with some singing. Bring our friends there in the foyer in, and we'll get going with Come Thou Fount, hymn number 11. Let's stand together and sing. Excellent singing.
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Now this is usually where Scott might do something. Do you have an impression of Scott? You could be Scott, I'll be Ray.
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Bent your feet like this ice skating through that one. There you go. Perfect. Does that sound about right?
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Nice job. Yeah. Perfect.
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Yeah. Very good.
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You do sound great though, and it's good to hear your voices because these two, not so much. Second string. You've got
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the b team up here. Alright. So 'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, hymn number five eighty one.
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Just so sweet to trust in Jesus just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him more and more. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more. How sweet to trust in Jesus just to trust his cleansing love, just in simple faith to plunge me meeth the healing cleansing blood. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him more and more.
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Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for praise to trust him more. So glad I learned to trust him. Precious Jesus, savior friend, and I know that he is with me, will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I have proved him over and over. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for gracious, do trust him more.
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Alright. You may be seated. And we will go through some announcements here. So Ray, where's Ray at? Ray is actually in Guatemala right now.
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He is there on a missions trip with the team. The the team is Ray, Pascal, Tanya, Mike Demetrius, JJ. I don't know if you guys know, but those two just got married recently. So, like, a missions honeymoon or something. That's exciting stuff.
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Yes. And then a new face, Madison Casey is with them as well. So a team of six heading down there to do to love on some kids, do some orphanages, do some building projects, and really show up at this and care for these people in in any way really that they're able to do. So I'm gonna ask Carl. Let's just take a minute and pray for them right now as a Let's do that.
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God, we do thank you for this willing group of people to go to Guatemala, to share your love, to be your hands and feet, and I pray that they would be just that, and that they would, be light to those people, that they could be helpful, that you'd use their unique gifts and their, talents to, to make you known. And, so that those those people that they are serving would truly, feel your, feel your love and experience in a new way. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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Amen. Thanks, Carl. So keep them in prayer for the next two weeks or so until they receive until we receive them back safe and sound. Children's church between or during the first service is today was the last day, so that won't continue on into the summer. Connect hour between services.
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If you get here a little early, please feel free to join the folks from the first service. We'd like to connect down in the fellowship hall. And June twenty third and twenty fourth, we have the hero since Hero Central, Discover Your Strength in God, VBS. So if you've got kids, grandkids, or people, neighbor kids who you might think could benefit from that, it's a little bit different format this year. It's two days, and it is going to be a great time for those kids to learn about God.
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And speaking of that, Vacation Bible School is looking for volunteers as is the nursery always looking for volunteers. So if you would like to volunteer for VBS, you can see Christa Clemmer. Is that right, Carl? She'll take any volunteers. Or
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Liz Owens who is now our new children's grad.
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Or Liz Owens who is, yes, taking over children's the children's ministry, which is a great exciting change as well. Monday nights is still happening in the Fellowship Hall. We'll do meal music and a message there at 6PM. And Awana, last meeting was last Monday, but today is kind of the grand finale. And today at noon, right after this service, we have the Awana Grand Prix where these kids who have built their little derby cars are gonna race them.
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And I believe there's an awards ceremony and lunch. So if you'd like to stay and enjoy that, watch these kids raise their Grand Prix cards, that is a wonderful time as well. The Revelations, this is a gospel trio group from Georgia.
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Warm Springs.
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Warm Springs, Georgia. That's terrible. I have a terrible accent. I'm sorry. But these guys, Ray has a connection with them.
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They said, hey, we've got this gospel trio group. We'd like to come minister at your church. And Ray said, come on down. We'll we'll do it on a Sunday night. So May 28, it is in the books.
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It's gonna be right here. And these fine folks are gonna be putting on their program. So if you've got nothing else to do or you wanna make this the thing you're going to do that night, come join us here May 28 at 7PM and enjoy that show. Now, the Turning Point is the Turning Point. Turning Point is hosting a fundraiser.
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The Bar J is actually hosting it and and they are doing their show as a fundraiser for Turning Point. That is Tuesday, May 30. If you wanna get tickets for that, you can see anybody over at Turning Point, but also Diane will have them here in the office. So I believe there's a it's first come, first served. There's a limited number of seats.
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So if you want those, get those quick before they go. Normally, I think that that is a show that sells out. So and if you don't get a ticket, you can still give to Turning Point. Don't worry. We will always take your donations for Turning Point.
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But for all other announcements, check your bulletin, and we'll bring you back with a song. Go ahead and greet one another. Alright. Glory to his name. Hymn number four ninety three.
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Right after this intro, we'll get into it.
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Let's warm up to the Lord here.
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You know the chorus.
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Amen. You sound good. Love to
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tell the
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with such enthusiasm too. Doesn't that help? I love to tell the story
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hymn number four four four.
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Amen. Y'all can be seated. And what it what how true is that song, really? Does the gospel message ever get old? And, honestly, the answer is no.
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It really ought to sound sweeter every time we we hear it because grace is sweet, because forgiveness is sweet, because God's love is sweet. And that is that's why we're here, church. We're here. And, we are here to now participate in the worship through giving. And so if you all bow in in prayer, let's let's give thanks to God.
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God, we do thank you for every good and perfect gift that comes from you. And I thank you, God, that we can give in this way because when we give, we aren't storing up treasure here. We're we're storing up treasure in heaven. We're storing up things that last. And, God, that really is what that's really what makes a difference, an eternal difference.
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And I pray that, that could be our story, that we would make a difference for eternity, not just for the here and now, but for eternity. And we'd be able to hear those stories someday in glory. So thank you, God, for everything that you've given. We give back with a joyful, grateful heart. In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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We're gonna sing we're gonna sing Amazing Grace. It's a beautiful song. I play by ear. As you know, I can practice three days. When I'm here, I will still play exactly as it comes.
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Amen. Amen.
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Thank you very much. Bob and Florian,
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you wanna say a little something? Yeah.
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Just wanna say that I'm not listening to the announcement. Listening to the song Elizabeth is always his answer is always, yes. Let's do that. And I wanna say that you're a blessing for me. So, yeah, thank you.
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God bless you.
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Amen. Speaking of grace and the story of grace, I wanna invite up my friend Mark Hall, and as Ray will be gone the next two weeks, we get to it's a treat really to hear from some of the others, and it's a hard thing to stand up here and and pour our hearts out. And so can we welcome our friend Mark here?
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You hear this? Oh, there it is. Pastor asked me if I would speak today. So since I'm an elder, felt it was my responsibility. But when he first talked to me, I felt not me, I can't do this.
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I'm not a public speaker, and I am terrified with a group of people. But so if I stop, I got to collect my mind because I'm very scared. Thank you. And I'd like to introduce or tell you about my family. My my wife Brenda, and I have two daughters, Amy and Ashley.
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And Ashley's getting married in in July. She works at police department, and Amy's going to school in Bozeman. Like I said, pastor Ray, when he asked me, instantly felt fear because, this is not my thing. But I thought I need for to do my duty, I need to face my fear. So today I'm going to talk about facing my fear.
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Story I wanted to tell was about, when I was hunting in Montana. My wife and I just had moved to, from Missouri to Montana. I wanted to I wanted to experience the mountain life and the hunting in the mountains. And, so I devoted a lot of time towards it. And, one day one day when I was hunting, it was in October, it was raining a little bit, and it was snowing, And I was working my way up a ridge and then dropping down through some thick timber.
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On the other side was some springs and some wallows, so I was gonna set up there in the afternoon till evening. And, as I as I worked my way through this thick timber, I heard a sound behind me. And it sounded far off, and it was kind of a moan sound. So I turned around and I looked at the tree line between the trees, you know, daylight line, and out of the corner of my eye, I caught some movement. And I looked down to see what what it was and crouched on a log with his ears laid back and his tail switching and growling about 20 yards was a mountain lion.
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And it was behind me. So it'd been following me. So I first thing I thought of was, oh, God, oh, God, help me. And I said that out loud. And I looked at it and it was you know, it didn't move much.
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It was just growling. So I I thought I'll just take some steps back, and it'll just stay there and I'll get out of here. So I stepped back about three or four steps, and about the fourth step, it topped off the log and started coming at me. And I stopped and it kept running. It started to run at me hard.
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So the only thing I thought of was running it hard and yell, hey, hey, hey. And it got from like from here to this front row before it turned and ran. And in the first service, people didn't know that there was a mountain lion, but there is a mountain lion in this photo. And on the property that I care take on, I I have several game cameras, and you'd be surprised how many mountain lions live in this valley. What was that?
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Sorry. But this scary story reminds me of another time in my life where I had to face my fear, and it was back when I was nine. My family and I, my family, went to it ever since I was born, went to the same church. And this is the church. Can remember playing tag between the sidewalk and a propane tank, playing hide and seek in the cemetery.
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And every summer we had a revival. It lasted about a week long. And in church, usually, you know, grew up in the church. So I was, we usually, as boys, we goof off. At young age, you know, when you're real little, you play with your mom dad's keys.
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And then when you get older, you color. And then when you get older than that, just pinch and poke. So my my mom and dad was really just up, boy, girl, boy, girl, dad, boy, mom, boy. So so we wouldn't fight. But when I was nine and had this revival, something changed.
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I actually listened. I wasn't distracted. Maybe it was because it was a new, you know, was an evangelist to preacher. It was exciting. So but I was I listened.
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And what I remembered the most, I mean, I can't preach like he did. He he was very exciting. But what I remember from that, because it was I was nine then, I remember him preaching on repentance and sin and the cost of sin. Now I was nine, I didn't really understand what repentance was. But when he got to judgment, that got my attention.
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And you know what all goes along with judgment, judgment of your sins. And, I remember these verses. And I saw the dead small and great standing before God and the books were opened and another book was opened, which was the book of life and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in those books. Now as a nine year old, when I heard that God kept a record of everything he said and did, that scared me. I knew based on what he said and what was had already been said about repentance, that I was going to hell.
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And so I then he then he talked about the book of life. And and how anybody in Revelations twenty fifteen, anyone not found written in the book of life was cast in the Lake Of Fire. Now, I didn't want to go to Lake Of Fire. I want my name in that book. So I listened to the rest of this revival very closely.
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And the preacher preached on faith in Jesus Christ from the book of John. And a lot of this is very familiar to me because you hear it every Sunday. But like I said, we've been going there my whole life. It's just church stuff. You know, had John three sixteen memorized, but I didn't really understood what it meant until he put it all together for me.
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You know, as as you understood it all, sin, what the cost of sin is, and what how you how you gain salvation, you put all this for my nine year old mind. I understood it. What made what made me really because of judgment and what it said in Revelations. In John three eighteen, it says, there is no judgment against anyone who believes in him, but anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only son. That right then is when I said I definitely believe.
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I knew I believed before, but I was My mom and dad had taken me to church my whole life. My mom played the piano. My dad was a deacon. My mom taught Sunday school. So I was kinda hiding behind them.
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I thought I was saved because of them, that I hadn't done anything myself. So now I need to make a a step, a personal step, to make this connection. So, at the end of the revival, when he did an altar call, I went forward. And when I went forward, the pastor put his arm on my shoulder and he said, how can I help you, son? And I just said the first thing that I was thinking, and it was I don't want to go to hell.
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And he says, what can we do about that? And I just said one more word, believe. And so he knelt down with me and we prayed, and when he stood up and he stopped my mom from playing the piano, and he told everybody that he just got his name written in the book of life. And I've been I've been changed ever since then. That was a huge relief off my life, off my So facing my fear of of going to hell, and facing publicly going up front and being in front of people that I don't like to do led me to salvation and led me to freedom freedom from sin.
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But but I that was a long time ago. That was '93 or '93, '73. A lot of time has passed, and I have not been perfect since then. Let me read this first. In Matthew, five fifteen sixteen.
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No one lets the lamp lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly father. Now, I was not living in my twenties and so I got pretty worldly. I wasn't living with my light shining very bright.
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And in James it says, so you see faith is in itself is not enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead. And then I again, my I realized I was dead. Before that, I was living like my faith was just mine. I mean, it was becoming a believer was just for me.
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I didn't that was all I needed. That's all I needed to do to get into heaven. So but when we had kids, I realized that this was not true. That there's other that I didn't realize it. I knew it anyway.
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I was hiding from it. Or but with with with the kids sorry, blanked out again. We realized, my wife and I realized that we were not living a godly life. And for our kid for for salvation of our kids or for our kids to understand the joy that we have in in salvation, we need to live that out instead of just living life. So we rededicated our lives right when our kids were real little, And we started going to church and got more involved and we grew and we grew and we grew through our children.
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So, and finishing up here, in Proverbs fifteen thirty three, the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom and humility goes before honor. So I feel that my fear or I feel feel fear is not a weakness. We are called we are called God's fearing people for a reason. Fearing God is a good thing. He wants us to obey and worship him.
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With the mountain lion, I feared physical death. When I was nine, back at that little church, I feared my spiritual or my my I feared hell. And then my my eternal life death. And when my kids were born, I feared their eternal life. So God it made me wanna be a good Christian example.
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So in closing here, so you may be struggling with taking the first step of faith, asking God to forgive you for your sins and accept that through Jesus, you can say, you can be saved from judgment like I fear judgment. Or maybe your faith has grown cold and you need woke up. And I just want to say, don't let your fear stop you from experiencing God's love and grace. And don't let your fear stop you from sharing God's love and grace with others. I know it's short, but that's all I have.
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Thank you.
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Thanks, Mark. I I really appreciate, testimony because it's the power of God unto salvation. You know? It is, God truly transforming a person's heart, and you could hear it in Mark's testimony, and I really appreciate it. So thank you for having the courage to to share that.
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How about we stand up when we sing one more song together? Rock of ages cleverly that let me hide myself in thee that when what we're doing when we say, Jesus, I have commend myself to you is we really are we are now in Christ. So when God sees us, he doesn't see the condemned person. He sees the person forgiven by Christ. Does that make sense?
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And what a beautiful, beautiful thing. So let's sing of it together. This is our benediction here. I wanna I wanna leave you with this. How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you?
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That's that healthy reverential fear that we wanna walk toward, that you bestow in the sight of all on those who take refuge in you. Amen. Go in peace.
